Chapter 19

Chapter 19

When I checked the card, it turned out to be the Spirit Sword I had looted from the dead Wrecker.

[Bolt Cutter]

Equipment Card

★★

A cutting tool that can cut through anything.

It is the Spirit Sword looted from a dead man.

As befitted the Spirit Sword of some bastard who had made a living as a Wrecker, it looked like the sort of thing you would only use for theft... but once you had spent enough time working as a Hunter, equipment like this often proved unexpectedly useful.

Even outside the Hunter profession, did not special forces soldiers and rescue workers carry cutters around for one reason or another?

Ssssss!

The moment I poured Ether into the card, a heavy pair of bolt cutters settled into my hands.

Snap!

The iron bars that had refused to budge were cut through as though it were a lie.

Tap, tap!

Choi Yura patted my shoulder.

It was her signal to hurry.

Which meant the monsters were only moments away from crashing into us.

Snip, snip, snip, snip.

I cut through the bars as quickly as I could.

Behind me, I could feel the noise and the shockwaves.

It seemed Choi Yura and Captain Im’s group were protecting me while grappling with the monsters.

‘Done.’

The moment I cut through the last section, the iron bars blocking the waterway leading into the drainage channel fell away.

Tap, tap.

I tapped the others on the shoulder to let them know the bars were gone.

With me in the lead, we entered the narrow waterway.

Boom, boom!

The monsters slammed into the channel and the walls.

Not a chance.

With bodies that size, there was no way they were following us through here.

‘This way.’

We swam for quite a while along the green line.

My breath was starting to run short, but I was still fine.

Even ordinary people, depending on their natural physical condition and training, could hold out underwater for more than five minutes. So what about the Awakened?

Even a 1-Star Awakened with no training whatsoever could last more than five minutes.

As for high-ranking Awakened, they could endure for as long as an hour, so there was no need to worry too much.

Gasp!

When I emerged from the water, I found myself in a dark underground drainage tunnel.

At least there were torches hanging here and there along the walls, so it was not difficult to see.

“Is everyone all right?”

“No issues.”

Captain Im checked on his subordinates.

“I seriously thought I was going to die.”

Choi Yura shuddered as though the very thought was horrifying.

“Are you all right as well, Mr. Cha?”

“I’m perfectly fine.”

“That is a relief. Ah, and thank you very much. Thanks to you, we survived.”

“It was nothing.”

“By any chance, are you a Supporter, Mr. Cha?”

“What, is there something wrong with being a Supporter?”

Damn.

My words came out sharper than intended because the irritation got the better of me.

“Ah, I did not mean it that way. I only asked because leading allies along a safe route is the sort of ability a Supporter-type Role Category would usually have.”

“I don’t know either. Whether I’m a Supporter or not. Judge for yourself.”

“If I offended you, then I truly apologize.”

“It’s fine, so don’t worry about it.”

That was what I said, but the truth was, it did bother me.

Call it an inferiority complex if you wanted. Or a victim complex.

Supporters were never treated well.

Babysitting?

That was a luxury Supporters could never even dream of.

What lunatic organization would invest in raising a Supporter?

I admitted it.

A Supporter’s market value was dirt cheap.

There were an enormous number of Supporters.

If ten people Awakened, four of them would be Supporters.

Of the remaining six, three would be Damage Dealers, two would be Tanks, and perhaps one would be a Mage.

In terms of rarity, it went Mage > Tank > Damage Dealer > Supporter.

Supporters were so plentiful you could trip over them, they were not especially useful in combat, and their growth potential was low.

Their contributions were rarely conspicuous, so they were inevitably undervalued.

Their combat power was extremely low, which meant they were always the weaker party in front of Awakened with other Role Categories.

That was the reality of Supporters.

If even I, who had reached the summit as a Supporter, felt that way, how much worse must it have been for everyone else?

‘Am I... a Supporter?’

The question arose in my mind.

What exactly was the identity of the Role Category called [Guide]?

‘Status window.’

The moment I recited the command in my mind, my current status was displayed.

Name: Cha Eunseong

Primary Role Category: Guide

Secondary Role Category: (∞)

Job: Collector of Madness

Rank: ★

I still could not tell.

What [Guide] truly was.

I would have to find out little by little, but even if it turned out to be a Supporter, I had not the slightest intention of living the way I had in my previous life.

Being used by Awakened with other Role Categories, forced to rely on them, and threatened by them.

***

The atmosphere sank slightly because of my sharp reaction, but only for a moment.

Because right now, what mattered was not whether I was a Supporter or not.

Being inside an erupted dungeon was the same as having your life threatened every passing second, so survival had no choice but to come first.

And Eruptions were not all bad.

Especially here, in [Cursed Citadel], experiencing an Eruption could actually be good fortune.

“This might actually be for the best.”

“What exactly is supposed to be good about it?”

At my muttering, Choi Yura frowned.

“Because a Rift opens.”

“A Rift?”

“Ah, right.”

Damn it.

I had forgotten that no one knew about the existence of [Rifts].

A [Rift] was a kind of hidden dungeon generated inside certain Gates.

And at this point in time, its existence was still unknown.

Under normal circumstances, it was extraordinarily unlikely that it would ever become known at all.

Because...

‘I was the one who discovered it.’

I was the first person to discover the existence of Rifts.

And for the sake of humanity, I distributed that information across the world without asking for anything in return.

My goal had been to increase the survival rate of Hunters trapped inside erupted dungeons, as well as improve their chances of obtaining various spoils.

“I have some information. There’s a hidden dungeon called a Rift, you know?”

I said that while casually holding up the [Search] card.

“A hidden dungeon? Something like that exists?”

“How should I know? It’s what my ability is telling me.”

“Hm.”

“My gut says we absolutely have to go.”

“Why?”

“I’ve got a good feeling about it.”

“Are you out of your mind?”

Choi Yura frowned as though asking what kind of nonsense that was.

“Let’s say this so-called Rift really does exist. It could be dangerous, and you want us to crawl into it of our own accord? We’re already one step from death as it is.”

“Then I’ll go alone.”

“What?”

“You said you aren’t going, so I’ll go by myself. I might hit the jackpot. I can’t pass up an opportunity like this.”

It really was like hitting the lottery.

The Rift that appeared in [Cursed Citadel] carried little risk and enormous potential gains.

“If you keep doing this, you’ll die young.”

Choi Yura spoke as though she was genuinely worried.

“And you won’t be the only one who dies. You could drag your teammates to their deaths too. Do you understand that?”

“I do.”

“And even so, you still want to go there? Without any solid information?”

“When has anything ever been certain?”

“……?”

“Dungeons, Gates, monsters, Transference. Is there even one thing among them that can be predicted? Even Hunters are full of people who might go off in any direction at any moment.”

“Mm.”

Perhaps left speechless, Choi Yura closed her mouth.

That was simply how this field was.

There was practically nothing you could predict.

When we first entered this dungeon, who could have guessed that an Eruption would occur?

Even I had not expected an Eruption.

“Are you truly certain that this intuition of yours is reliable?”

“Yes. I’m certain.”

“Then we will follow your words, Mr. Cha.”

Captain Im’s group readily took my side.

At first, I thought it might be because they felt bad about what had happened earlier, but that did not seem to be it.

Trained soldiers and Hunters like Captain Im’s group were not the sort to take on added danger over something emotional like that. More likely, it was because they had expectations for me as a new kind of Awakened unlike anything they had seen before.

“So what will it be?”

“Hmm.”

“Trust me this once. You haven’t lost anything by listening to me so far, have you?”

“Fine. Let’s do that. Where do we have to go?”

“Seventh floor. 777, 777.”

The coordinates of the Rift were 777, 777, and they were the same in every dungeon.

In a multi-floor dungeon like [Cursed Citadel], all you had to do was go to the seventh floor.

“We will escort you.”

Captain Im’s group formed a protective formation again and escorted me forward.

***

The reason I had chosen [Cursed Citadel] was because its advantages and disadvantages were both very clear in many respects.

The monsters that appeared in [Cursed Citadel] generally yielded large amounts of Ether.

They gave overwhelmingly more Ether than the monsters found in other dungeons of the same rank, making this the ideal hunting ground for Awakened seeking rapid growth.

Another advantage was that you could obtain all sorts of spoils from the many objects scattered throughout the dungeon.

Besides the Rift, [Cursed Citadel] also contained dozens of secret chambers, and there were valuable items hidden not only in chests big and small but even inside suits of armor set up as decorations.

But the disadvantages were just as obvious.

Traps were installed everywhere, the whole place was built like a maze, and finding your way through it was extremely difficult.

There were also many tactically disadvantageous locations.

If I had not known about the underground drainage tunnel, we would have been surrounded by a horde of monsters and wiped out, would we not?

But that only applied to people who did not know [Cursed Citadel] well.

I was different.

There was no need for me to rely on the [Search] card.

“Remember this. From here on, don’t even dream of touching anything carelessly if you don’t want us all to die together.”

“All right, all right. Enough nagging.”

Most of the objects in [Cursed Citadel] were traps.

Pots, chests, furniture, ornaments, and so on.

Touch the wrong one and poison gas might burst out, arrows might come flying from somewhere, or in the worst case the entire ceiling could collapse or the floor might give way.

Or it might be a dud.

But that only happened because of insufficient information.

Wham!

Crash!

“Hey, you crazy bastard! Didn’t I tell you not to touch anything?”

When I kicked over and shattered a pot sitting in the corridor, Choi Yura shouted furiously.

“Is he actually insane?”

“I ought to just...”

Even Captain Im’s subordinates, sick of my sudden antics, muttered a word or two without thinking.

“You really want to die—”

Choi Yura, who had been stomping toward me in a rage, suddenly stopped.

Glint, glint!

She had spotted something shining among the broken shards of the pot.

“Let’s see here...”

I picked up the shining object and smiled faintly.

“Well, look at that. There was Etherium in here.”

“…….”

Everyone clamped their mouths shut, apparently at a loss for words.