Chapter 68

Chapter 68: The Raid (3)

A dungeon's grade was determined by how goddamn brutal its difficulty was.

SS-rank dungeon.

Describing its difficulty was a waste of breath.

Having the SS label slapped on meant the difficulty was as horrific as transplanting hell into the real world.

Most dungeons grew harder the deeper you went.

Even the dungeons used in my lectures showed increasingly complex traps as the stages progressed, with a boss monster waiting at the end.

High-difficulty dungeons followed a similar structure.

The difference was that an F-rank dungeon's stage-to-difficulty graph was a straight line, while an SS-rank dungeon's was a curve -- and an extremely steep one at that.

In other words, the difficulty became goddamn impossibly hard the further you went.

"Strike team members, please come forward."

For the Stage 1 and 2 raids, a total of 3 parties had been deployed.

By comparison, Stage 11 required a whopping 17 parties.

And these were elite members, excluding the Heroes the expedition considered deadweight.

"What a lineup."

"Looks like almost every big name got drafted."

Even among themselves, the Heroes were impressed by each other's caliber.

The bar for party selection had risen sharply to push through the SS-rank dungeon's later stages and their goddamn brutal difficulty.

"I wish you all good fortune."

The Heroes selected for the strike team wore grave expressions.

Everyone knew.

Where they were heading from here on was a place that would make everything they'd faced so far look like child's play.

"Destroyer No. 1, proceed first."

The commander leading the Stage 11 strike team was China's Hero, Lie Xiao.

Jo Seongung calling Lie Xiao the Dragon of China had been no exaggeration.

From the moment he'd led the first strike team, Lie Xiao had always delivered peak performance.

On top of that, our synergy was excellent -- he executed my requests flawlessly.

Wang Sheng, who'd been left with the main body for this strike, said,

"Lie Xiao! Proud Hero of the great nation! You can bring us a tremendous victory!"

Zhuge Soyon sneered beside him.

"Lie Xiao's out there doing amazing things and what are you doing here?"

"Sh-Shut up! What's it to you?"

"Moron, try being half as good as him."

"I could if I wanted to! That professor just won't use me!"

Zhuge Soyon's voice went cold.

Her eyes filled with thick contempt.

"You really think that? You think the Professor would make that kind of misjudgment?"

"...No."

"Hmph."

That was enough idle chatter. I called Zhuge Soyon over.

"Soyon, come here."

"Yes, sir!"

Zhuge Soyon came trotting over.

With the dungeon's difficulty increasing and the number of parties in play growing, command would only get harder.

Even for me, monitoring 17 parties' situations simultaneously and issuing orders was no easy task.

Zhuge Soyon had completed her foundational training.

Now it was time to put it to work in actual combat.

She'd be a great help.

"Overall orders will come from me and Lie Xiao. Soyon, you handle sub-orders and put out fires wherever they pop up."

"Yes, sir!"

Zhuge Soyon answered energetically.

She'd tried to hide it, but her voice trembled slightly with excitement.

She was clearly itching to show off what she'd learned.

A situation report came through the communication-magic Mana Stone.

-- First zone, entry confirmed.

The scenery on the screen was the deep sea floor.

Until now, they'd been sailing on the surface, but from the dungeon's midpoint onward, the path had been designed to lead deep underwater.

Now they were heading even deeper -- deep enough that water pressure alone could crush a destroyer.

The mages moved with defensive barriers wrapped around the destroyers.

During the voyage, they encountered an enemy.

-- Kraken Alpha spotted!

Massive sea creatures with bodies nearly a hundred meters long appeared from all directions.

Twelve legs, an octopus-like head, and it spewed ink.

The Kraken Alpha was a notoriously nasty enemy in underwater dungeons.

Through many playthroughs, I knew its strategy inside and out.

"Parties 4 through 6, engage it. C-formation -- the front line holds its legs while the dealers sever them one by one."

-- Can't we aim for the head?

"Its defense is too high there -- attacks won't connect. Without legs, it can't do anything anyway. Just cut the legs off and keep moving."

-- Roger.

The Heroes followed my orders and defeated the Kraken Alpha.

The tentacle-less creature -- impossible to tell if it was a squid or an octopus -- bobbed around harmlessly, head and all.

"Fleet 1, proceed to the second zone. All other fleets, move to the fourth zone. You have 30 minutes."

-- Yes, sir!

This stage required destroying two seals simultaneously to open the door to the next stage.

If the timing was even slightly off, the party would be expelled from the stage and forced to start over from scratch.

A bullshit condition all around -- under normal circumstances, this would've been an excruciating stage.

But we had a cheat code called communication magic.

-- Fleet 1, in position.

-- Fleets 2 through 4, in position.

"On three, destroy both at the same time."

-- Yes!

BOOM!

A crisp sound accompanied the seals shattering, and the entrance to the next stage opened.

"Good. Keep this momentum going."

-- Yes, sir!

The expedition surged forward with ferocious momentum.

They pushed through Stages 12 and 13 in succession.

-- Right side fully cleared!

-- Left side too. Moving to the center!

The expedition's all-out assault succeeded wave after wave.

Morale was soaring beyond the heavens.

United as one, they broke through Stage 14 by dawn.

Now only one thing remained -- the boss stage, where the dungeon's master awaited.

***

The SS-rank dungeon, Dragon's Roost.

When the dungeon first appeared, the Heroes had cheered.

Humanity had grown strong through years of accumulated experience.

In the past, even an A-rank Gate appearing would set off pandemonium worldwide, but now the era had come where S-rank Gates could be handled at the national level.

Many Heroes saw it as the perfect chance to make their name.

The young Jo Seongung had harbored that same complacent thinking.

'Teacher, please write us a recommendation.'

'It will be difficult. Are you truly set on going?'

'If I don't go, other Heroes will struggle. The world needs me.'

'I want to go too!'

Jo Seongung and Baek Seonbeom.

The two who were regarded as the most outstanding among Ryu Jeonga's students at the time received her letter of recommendation.

Thanks to Ryu Jeonga, the two easily joined the Dragon's Roost expedition.

And so they became part of an unprecedented expedition of 500 S-rank Heroes.

"Those were the days."

From the deck, Jo Seongung watched the dawn break and recalled the nightmare from long ago.

Looking back, he'd been so naive.

"You'll wear yourself out like that."

A voice he now found familiar came from behind.

It was Cha Eunwoo.

"What's all this at your feet?"

"Heh, it's a big day. Had a lot on my mind."

"Even if Machos aren't harmful to your health, there's a limit. Smoking this many will take a toll."

At Cha Eunwoo's words, Jo Seongung looked down at his feet.

The number of spent Macho butts had long passed ten.

Even Jo Seongung himself was startled.

"My, did I really smoke that many?"

"Unless a ghost was smoking alongside you, they're all yours."

"A ghost, huh. Maybe one did latch on."

Jo Seongung chuckled and spoke of an old memory.

"There used to be a friend I'd always smoke with."

Cha Eunwoo's lips parted slightly, then closed.

Jo Seongung could easily guess what he'd been about to ask.

"Yeah. There was one. Not anymore."

"Are you alright?"

"Of course. Heh, that's how this line of work goes. Human lives mean nothing -- people drop dead left and right and nobody bats an eye."

Jo Seongung spoke as if it didn't bother him, but the bitterness seeping through his words was impossible to hide.

The Macho smoke that hung thick around them was especially pungent today.

They said the scent of Macho smoke was the scent of the smoker's mana.

It used to carry a sweeter aroma, but ever since that day, it had turned bitter.

"Shouldn't you get some sleep? Today must've been exhausting."

"I don't sleep much. I've had plenty."

"Is that so?"

Jo Seongung fell into thought for a moment.

Jo Seongung was a coward.

He'd fled because he was afraid to die.

It was unbecoming of the magnificent title of Hero.

Not everyone with great power could be a Hero.

More than strength, it was the heart -- the righteous, unwavering resolve to protect the world -- that was the true qualification of a Hero.

That was why Jo Seongung had retired.

He'd always regretted that day.

Dragon's Roost.

He'd thought about going back there, about protecting the people precious to him.

But turning back time was impossible.

Still, maybe he could at least protect the people still alive.

Jo Seongung decided to find his courage now.

"Professor Cha, I have a favor to ask."

"A favor?"

"Put me on this strike team."

Cha Eunwoo smiled.

"New Heroes are always welcome."

Jo Seongung smirked.

"I agonized over this decision, you know. Would it kill you to look a little more surprised?"

"I figured you'd want to fight, Professor Jo."

"Well now, so my thoughts are an open book to you."

"A righteous Hero with a fighting spirit wanting to enter the dungeon -- that's only natural."

"That much you've got wrong."

Jo Seongung laughed heartily.

"It's not heroism. Just self-satisfaction."

"But someone out there might be saved by the courage you've shown, Professor Jo. Isn't that enough?"

"You really never let anyone get the last word."

Jo Seongung said it gruffly, but deep down, he felt good.

His first impression of Cha Eunwoo had been intense.

The man was a genius possessed of overwhelming talent.

Moreover, he was a genius who was acutely aware of his own talent.

Jo Seongung had seen his younger self in Cha Eunwoo.

He'd been afraid the man would end up like him.

He didn't want to watch another genius realize their limits and crumble.

That was why he'd avoided Cha Eunwoo.

But now Jo Seongung realized he'd been arrogant again.

Cha Eunwoo was a far stronger Hero than he could ever be.

By what measure had he presumed to equate this man with himself?

Cha Eunwoo was different from ordinary geniuses.

"Professor Jo, since you're volunteering, I'd like to assign you a difficult role. Is that alright?"

"Sure. Anything."

Jo Seongung answered with confidence.

He was still afraid, but a bright light of hope shone before him too.

He didn't want to let that light slip away.

"Then here's your first assignment. Start with this."

"Huh? W-Wait, what? H-Hold on!"

[It's been a while, Seongung. You've got better eyes than the last time I saw you.]

What Cha Eunwoo handed him was the magic sword Jeivult.

Jo Seongung stared at him with a look that said how-could-you-do-this.

"I'm the commander staying outside the dungeon, and you're the combatant, Professor Jo. So naturally, you should be the one wielding it."

"Mmm, you're not wrong, but......"

Jo Seongung looked down at Jeivult with a complicated expression.

Inside his head, Jeivult's coy telepathy echoed.

[Ahhhn~. You missed me too, didn't you, Seongung? I know you did. After using my body, trying other swords must've felt so unsatisfying, right? Don't worry. I'll take care of everything.]

Jo Seongung let out a deep sigh and accepted the sword.

He truly hated it, but he had no choice.

"Fine. It's been a disgustingly long time. You hunk of scrap metal."

[Hoo~. Let's make today a scorching one. Excited?]

"You owe me big for dumping this on me, Professor Cha."

"No need to worry about that. Have I ever let you down?"

"Tsk, fair point."

Jo Seongung had thought the time allotted to him as a Hero had ended long ago.

But today, the clock hands he'd thought were broken had started moving again.