Chapter 235

[Even if the wound heals, the scar remains. It was a place where a dimensional gap had once opened, so I followed its traces and made a path.]

The instance dungeons that Harmakan had created so far did not require keys, but this one was an exception.

While the instance dungeons so far were a hidden space centered around Harmakan, in this case, it was a spell that re-opened the scar left in the dimensional wall.

Tsupat!

Suho held out the golden key handed over to him by Harmakan towards Exit 3 of Hapjeong Station.

Paaaaaa!

At that moment, the air trembled around the key, the energy of mana swirled, and the wall of the dimension was forcibly split.

"G-gate?!"

At that sight, Seo Jiwoo's eyes widened as if they were torn apart.

"Oh my god! It's a real gate!"

"What? Is it really?! Is this possible?"

'I've already been surprised so many times today that my heart aches.'

A gate suddenly appeared in a space where there was nothing!

Seo Jiwoo, who had witnessed an unbelievable sight before her eyes, looked at Suho and Harmakan covering her wide-open mouth with both hands.

"Sung, Hunter Sung Suho... Are you really..."

"Well then, shall we go in?"

"Hyung."

Seo Jiwoo decided to give up thinking when she saw Suho looking at her with a carefree face after committing an unthinkable act.

Stride.

Suho took a step toward the gate first, and when his figure half disappeared in thin air.

Only then did Seo Jiwoo come to her senses and urgently screamed.

"Now, wait! I didn't know this would happen and I didn't even bring a weapon!"

[Just go in. You won't be leaving anyway.]

Tuk.

"... ... !"

At that time, Harmakan nudged Seo Jiwoo's back from behind, and Seo Jiwoo ended up following Suho into the gate.

Whoa!

"... ... !"

With just one step, a different world unfolded before Seo Jiwoo.

[You have entered the instance dungeon.]

At that moment, a message appeared in front of Suho, but Seo Jiwoo could not see it. Instead, all Seo Jiwoo could see was the gloomy scenery of Hapjeong Station, which had turned into a jungle.

Whioooooo-

"... ... ."

Vines were sprawling across the walls, and there was a musty smell from a rotting corpse. A chilling wind, like the howling of a ghost, was blowing from afar.

Seo Jiwoo suddenly looked back.

Boom, boom!

"Did a wall… form?"

She knocked on the invisible wall.

It was creepy to see that beyond the wall was a peaceful world outside, still bathed in warm sunlight. It seemed like this place and the other side were different spaces.

She tried to force her way out, but it was impossible.

Harmakan spoke to Seo Jiwoo in a dull, machine-like tone.

[Give up. To exit this dungeon, you must defeat the boss mob or use a hearthstone.]

Then he pointed at himself with his thumb and grinned meaningfully.

[For reference, the boss mob is me.]

"... ... ."

'While everything was confusing, I felt like I knew at least one thing for sure.'

Aside from its appearance, this summoned beast seemed to have a very bad personality.

No, correct me.

[Keeeeek! What a slow person you are! Are you going to make the small lord wait!]

"... ... ."

This ant summon is cute in appearance, but its personality is extremely bad.

[Kieeeek! Can't you move quickly?]

"Okay, I got it."

In the end, Seo Jiwoo couldn't resist Beru's urging and walked carefully behind Suho, who was already going down the stairs in front of her.

However, even an S-class hunter feared the unknown.

Gulp.

'The sight of the Hapjeong Station dungeon, which began in earnest the moment I came down the stairs, made me swallow my dry saliva.'

As they passed the restroom and went inside, they saw an underground shopping mall.

The stores were old and broken, reminiscent of ruins.

Looking at the abandoned stores and deserted passageways under the dim fluorescent lighting gave them a gloomy feeling.

Tiding, teading.

A few fluorescent lights flickered as if they had reached the end of their lifespan.

Seo Jiwoo, who followed Suho while stepping on the weeds that had grown thickly on the broken tiles, was busy looking around with a gloomy expression.

"...This is my first time in a dungeon like this."

Unlike regular dungeons that lead to another dimension, it seemed like the entire Hapjeong Station had become a dungeon.

"I can't believe something like this is possible..."

Seo Jiwoo had met a variety of S-class hunters, but this was her first time meeting someone like Sung Suho.

The more she knew... She couldn't even see the bottom of Sung Suho.

Seo Jiwoo followed closely by Suho's side and asked with an anxious expression.

"Hunter Sung Suho, what are you trying to do here now?"

Regardless of the age difference, she began to speak respectfully.

Suho answered, searching his surroundings with calm eyes.

"Since I created a dungeon, I'm trying to find a double dungeon in it. You said you didn't conquer the double dungeon at the time, so there's a chance it's still here somewhere."

"...okay."

'That's easier said than done. In order to find the double dungeon, I created the dungeon first.'

However, there was a logic that was difficult to follow with Seo Jiwoo's common sense.

"But this is a completely different dungeon than the dungeon that my colleagues and I conquered. Still, does the double dungeon I discovered exist here?"

"I'm going to check that now."

Harmakan answered Suho's words confidently.

[There is ample possibility. Although this place is different, it is a place created along the scars of the dimension, so if there are traces of a gap in the dimension within this place, it would be a double dungeon.]

And there was one more reason why Harmakan was confident.

In this dungeon that Harmakan created himself, he senses a presence unknown to him.

Creepy!

"... ... !"

While there was silence everywhere, I suddenly felt gazes from somewhere.

Damn it!

At that moment, Seo Jiwoo's appearance of being flustered and embarrassed until now disappeared, and only the sharp eyes of an S-class hunter took its place.

"Over there!"

The moment she caught the sign. Seo Jiwoo's form stretched straight forward, with an afterimage that seemed to lengthen like a taffy stick.

Boom!

Even without a weapon in hand, the body of an S-class hunter is already a weapon of war in itself.

Qarring!

Seo Jiwoo's fist collapsed the wall, and in order to confirm the identity of the 'guy' hiding behind it, he grabbed his neck rather than killing him.

The guy struggled to escape from that hand, but it was too much for him to handle Seo Jiwoo's mighty strength.

"Kkekegggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg..." ... !"

"W-what is this?"

However, there is something strange about its appearance.

After catching it, Seo Jiwoo's eyes widened as she belatedly saw the beast's appearance.

It was then.

Wow!

The window of the clothing store behind Suho broke, and other guys jumped out of it.

"Kikkekeke!"

"Gerrrrrrrr!"

Hiss!

Blue poison glistens from the tip of the sharp thorn that attacks Suho's back at incredible speed.

[The King of Bugs, the Plague Monarch, has an appetite.]

Queresha opened her eyes.

However, she only reacted to the poison, the one that attacked was not actually a bug.

"What are these guys?"

Instead of countering the attack, Suho lightly raised his hand and grabbed the air.

The power of the ruler

"What?!"

The unidentified monsters that were attacking Suho struggled in the air as if caught in a snare.

Suho checked the appearance of the guys who were caught by an invisible hand and couldn't move and called Harmakan with an expression of interest.

"Harmakan, what are these?"

[Interesting. This is not a demon I created.]

Harmakan responded, his eyes flashing.

Beru chewed them up and ate them, then spat them out and said.

[The taste is terrible. It doesn't seem like it's a proper demonic beast to begin with.]

"It looks like it."

"Kkeekkeekkeok!"

The appearance of the magical beasts that suddenly appeared was bizarre.

Suho frowned. What should we really call this?

"A plant?"

A doll with purple vines tangled like tentacles.

No, should I call it a doll?

Some had multiple legs like an octopus, while others had forked tentacles like grassroots. In a word, a mess.

The only thing they had in common was that what appeared to be their heads were covered with skulls that looked like human skulls, like helmets.

[??]

Even the system that always told Suho the names of the demon beasts seemed to be unable to understand them, and name tags full of question marks appeared above their heads.

"Is this a plant that imitates a skeleton? Or are they sprouting from skeletons?"

What should we really call this?

In times like this, we should ask the dragon.

[The spiritual body of 'Antares' appears in the priest's body.]

Ragnar appeared above the guardian's shadow with his arms crossed solemnly.

"Ask anything."

"Antares, are these guys the buds of nightmares?"

"No, these are just nameless weeds. Not every weed has a name."

"Then is it true that they are the ones who came from the sea of the afterlife?"

"That's right. Those who ended up like this in the first place are not among the races under the monarchs."

Mixed residents.

This was a term referring to the ordinary demonic beasts that had appeared on Earth, that is, the residents of another dimension ruled by monarchs.

However, it was the first time the Dragon Emperor, who had directly ruled the realm for a long time, had seen demonic beasts that looked like this.

"These guys don't have any special names, and their appearances are arbitrary. We just call these people 'Residents of the gap.'"

"Residents of the gap?"

Suho tilted his head at the expression he was hearing for the first time.

Antares explained with a shrug.

"Actually, they are residents, as they say, but you can just think of them as dimensional trash wandering through the gaps in the dimension."

"Dimensional trash?"

"No. It would be more accurate to say "remnants" rather than "trash."These guys are not creations made by the Absolute One, but are just leftovers that the Absolute One made and discarded."

Keekkeekkeek!

Did you understand what Antares said?

At those words, the weeds that were being held by Suho trembled and screamed.

"I think they're angry at what you said."

"Angry? That's a funny thing to say. It's impossible for these things to feel emotions in the first place."

Antares snorted at Suho's words as if they were absurd.

Then he looked at the weeds wriggling around with a look of insignificance and continued speaking.

"These things have no reason, no soul. Because they became creatures, hungry ghosts that wander through the gaps with only the instinct to survive. These are residents of the gap."

Wow! Kekekeke!

The hollow cries of soulless weeds were echoed throughout the instance dungeon created by Harmakan.

Antares looked around and raised the corners of his mouth.

"Anyway, there must be a hole somewhere in this dimension through which these weeds flowed. A place humans call a double dungeon."

But it didn't seem like it would be that easy to find that place.

If these weeds had souls, it would have been enough to turn them into shadow soldiers and have them guide them, but extracting shadows was impossible for scum without souls.

But there was always a way.

"...Why are you looking at me like that?"

Seo Jiwoo suddenly felt strong.

Before she knew it, everyone's eyes were openly looking at her.

Not only the Guardian and Dragon Emperor, Harmakan and Beru...

Even the weeds that were caught.

The black eye sockets of the skulls worn by the weeds turned their heads and stared intently at Seo Jiwoo.

Seo Jiwoo was able to sense what her role was instinctively.

"Am I really… bait?"

Nod.

Dragon Emperor Antares, who happened to make eye contact with Seo Jiwoo, nodded with a solemn face.

"Nightmare Bud is the greediest of all weeds. If it's the prey they missed, it's mouth-watering bait for the residents of the gap."

And Harmakan, who was standing reliably behind the dragon emperor, was also smiling wickedly at Seo Jiwoo.

[As I told you from the beginning. You're not leaving anyway.]

"Hey... ... !"

It was then.

Tototototo!

Before we knew it, the Hapjeong Station dungeon began to be covered with numerous weeds that appeared from all directions targeting Seo Jiwoo.

At the same time, hot flames wrapped around Suho's fist.

Grumble!

Kwakwauk!

The black flame that started from the Dragon Emperor's heart flew like a whip and instantly burned the weeds in the gap.

Suho's eyes shone brightly in the flames.

"Everyone protect Hunter Seo Jiwoo! Beru, from now on we will track where these guys are coming from!"

[I will carry out your command! Kieeeeek-!]

Beru laughed, the corners of his mouth splitting, and soared up behind Suho, who was running ahead of him.

And suddenly.

"Kwaaaah?!"

Harmakan carried Seo Jiwoo.

[Don't worry. I will protect you until the end.]

"I- that's why I said I should bring a weapon!"

[Hehe, why bother.]

Harmakan, the war chief of the demon race and the master of the instance dungeon.

He spoke firmly, befitting the boss mob of this dungeon.

[Variables are not tolerated. Just think of it as being kidnapped.]

"... ... !"

He was a perfectionist.