Chapter 8: Ep.3 - Labyrinth of Echoes (1)
"Maeng Yun-Hee! Come here." I called him out as hunters started to gather outside the labyrinth gate. The surroundings started becoming louder as there were many guilds participating in the exploration of the labyrinth type dungeon.
"Yes sir." Maeng Yun-Hee appeared behind me and responded.
"Check if all the hunters are present according to the hunter list. Report back to me after confirming." I instructed him as I looked at the gate. It looked like a tesseract, the four dimensional hypercube which floated in the sky. At its center there was something luminous that produced glow and diffused with the tesseract created a dark aquamarine glow which was contained by the tesseract. The tesseract slowly rotated while deforming and reforming itself every few seconds.
The guild vice-leader informed me that a guild who bought the ticket for expedition from the Bureau of Hunter and Gate Control (B. H. G. C.), has been exploring it for over 3 weeks. If the dungeon would not be cleared within another week, there is a high chance that the gate will break, releasing the monsters in the world. So the B. H. G. C. revoked the ticket and gave free access to the dungeon. That's why we had the chance to send an expedition here. He requested intel about if from and intelligence guild and the results revealed the existence of double dungeon.
"I have confirmed the hunters as per the list and all 37 hunters, including us are present. We can begin our expedition on your command sir." I looked back and began counting the ones in yellow shirts and a black 'H' logo on it. It was an reinforced shirts made for the hunters of the Hyperion guild. My uniform was different from them as I was one of the squad commanders. Unlike them, whose uniform only consisted of black pants, bright yellow t-shirt and a black waist bag, mine consisted of black cargos, bright yellow t-shirt, bright yellow waist bag and a black jacket. There were exactly 35 of them. Some of them were all fastening the belts of their waist bags while those who were done fastening were testing out their weapons.
"Tell them to assemble. We will leave in 10 minutes." I said as I unfolded my arms and began checking the pockets of my cargo, jacket and waist pouch. All of them were enhanced with inventory expansion and weight reducing runes, making each them worth more than 4 million won. My whole uniform costed 12 million won.
Each hunter has to carry food, supplements, water, healing and other potions and other necessary stuff while entering a dungeon. A dungeon trip can take few hours to even weeks to complete and thus these things are necessary. If worst comes to worst, one may even have to consume the flesh of the dungeon monsters, so hunters have to carry other necessary stuff. All this can be contained in one waist pocket but as a squad commander, I am responsible for survival of my squad so I have to carry more stuff.
Almost all of my pockets were filled with resources for survival. Some were filled with rescue and stealth resources which were necessary in case of emergencies. Usually one can leave the dungeon by either using return stone or by meeting the requirements for the dungeon, but sometimes, neither is possible. So a tracker and rescue items are necessary. It also includes a dungeon breaker and exploration guide necessary for mapping out the dungeon.
All in all, I am a walking treasure house. I smirk as I check my inventory and realize the worth of items I carry. Hope no one loots me… I think sarcastically while place the tracking pad on my left hand and activate it. A radar pops up in from of a hologram at the center of which there is a large green dot representing me and numerous other dots, split in 3 groups in the north. I look in front of me to find all 36 of them sorted according to their position. At the left is Melee division led by Deung Kwang, at center is Ranged division led by Maeng Yun-Hee and to right is Mystic division led by Gil Haeun. They never let me down. I smile at them and draw my sword. It was time to start the expedition.
I turn around and look at the sun wondering how many days would it be before I see it again. I spin the sword and swap from my right hand to my left and back in my right hand. The hands felt empty as I was used to equipping both spear and sword at the same time, but the dungeon was only B-Tier, so the sword would suffice. I decided to keep it away as it would help me escape in case I find trouble in the second dungeon. I did not plan on going there with the squad so everything will go as planned with the exception of not being able to leave like the last time. I had not figured out the reason behind it yet as I could not think of any other reason than the authority being sealed. Hopefully I don't find anyone with similar authority.
I walked towards the tesseract gate with full confidence and walk straight through it. The surroundings diffuse in dark aquamarine hue and slowly reform into a circular platform with eight corridors on its side. At the center is the same tesseract with dark aquamarine glow. Slowly all the hunter start coming through starting with Deung Kwang and the Melee division, followed by Gil Haeun and the Mystic division and finally the Ranged division and Maeng Yun-Hee at last, making sure everyone is in. I count them as the come through and find the count to be 37.
I turn around and start to walk towards one of the corridors when I realize that Maeng Yun-Hee reported the count was 37 including both of us. I turn around and look at everyone, trying to find anyone who was nervous. Everyone was either B-Tier or C-Tier, so no one should be nervous as neither it was their first time in dungeon nor they should be scared as an A-Tier hunter was leading them. If anyone would be nervous, it would be the imposter who would not want his identity to be revealed.
"How many hunters were there? Excluding me?" I ask Maeng Yun-Hee as I stare at everyone, not leaving even one of them out of my sight.
"36 sir! Is there a problem?"
"There is an imposter. I counted 37. Division representatives, verify your division count and report. Now!" They immediately started verifying the division members and I started counting them. This time I counted only 36. The imposter must have escaped in the split second when I turned to lead the way.
"14 hunters in Melee division present. No one extra." Deung Kwang reported in loud and rough tone. Gil Haeun was 15th to enter so he didn't enter with Melee division
"10 hunters in Mystic division. No one extra." Gil Haeun reported.
"All 12 hunters in Ranged division are present. No one extra." Maeng Yun-Hee reported. Maeng Yun-Hee was last to enter, so I couldn't tell if the imposter entered with Mystic division or Ranged division.
I walked past them towards the tesseract and went right through it. The surroundings started to diffuse again into dark aquamarine hue and reformed again, but I was still in the circular platform. The tesseract didn't teleport me back to the entrance. This meant that it was a special dungeon with different entry and exit points. Usually in labyrinth type dungeons, the entry and exit is same making exploration easy, but that was not the case now. So many modifications in a dungeon… I wouldn't be surprised if there more! I don't think I can call it B-Tier dungeon… Thinking about all this made my head spin.
"We will go this way." I announced while pointing at the direction to the right instead of choosing the one I previously decided and the one the imposter possibly went into. Something told me that the imposter wanted us to travel on that path but I cannot be certain about that as there was no clue pointing towards it.
"Equip yourself with your weapons and prepare yourselves." I walked towards the corridor and everyone followed me. The corridor was big enough for a tank to pass through so we decided to walk in rows of 3. I lead the squad while the division representatives walk at the last, making sure no one wandered off. As I went a couple steps inside, the surroundings suddenly blackened out so we had to start using the torch right off the bat. I along with some members of mystic division lit the torch and explored. We needed to supply mana to keep the torch lit, so the members of Mystic division took turns to carry the torch while the one I carried continuously burned; and so the exploration began.
▶ Kwang in Korean means Wild.
▶ Haeun in Korean means Summer, Kindness.