“What is that?”
At the sudden situation, the three people who hadn’t been paying attention to Chirpy simultaneously turned their gaze to one spot.
Sensing that something was amiss, Cha Rui hurriedly hid me behind his back.
Over his shoulder, I stretched out my arm and pointed to a spot.
“Isn’t that the entrance?”
Where I pointed, a portal, red like blood, was calmly flickering.
A gate that intensely red was usually only seen when a Dungeon Break occurred, so the three people’s expressions solidified seriously.
Given the grade, it seemed they were wary that S-rank monsters might pour out.
However, the gate’s color here was the opposite of the norm.
The 1st floor was the deepest red, and the color would gradually lighten as we ascended the floors, with the final 71st floor gate taking on a completely blue hue.
It was quite ironic considering the SS-rank Final Boss slumbering inside.
That calamity-level entity should have been warned about with a jet-black gate.
Although the 71st floor was still a long way off, I felt a chill run down the back of my neck already.
“Chirpy, come here.”
In any case, thanks to Chirpy’s brilliant work, what could have taken an hour was solved in just five minutes.
I worried if they might have sensed something strange, but fortunately, no one paid attention, as they were focused on the portal.
They didn’t seem to question Chirpy’s action.
“Hyung, get behind me.”
“Are we going to go up?”
When no monsters showed any sign of appearing even after some time passed, we cautiously started climbing the stairs.
The feeling of being overly cautious was undeniable, but I didn’t fail to understand.
Well, it was probably because of me.
This time, too, my spot was the third, following Do Soohyuk and Woo Jaehyun.
Cha Rui followed at the end, perhaps feeling uneasy about sending me to the very back.
While climbing the stairs step by step, Do Soohyuk suddenly stopped and looked back.
He abruptly stretched out his arm, blocking me right in front of the portal.
He seemed to be preemptively checking, worried that I might rush out again.
“I will go in first.”
“…”
I was so mortified by his words that I nodded timidly.
It seemed I was properly branded as a nuisance character…
Since I had already broken two conditions, there was no room for excuses.
I scratched the back of my neck, backed away for a moment, and only after Woo Jaehyun also entered did I step into the gate.
Because Cha Rui was right behind me, I felt as if I had become one body with him.
“Wow.”
And a moment later, an exclamation burst out of me at the scene that unfolded.
‘If heaven exists, it might be a place like this.’
The thought crossed my mind, as a wide expanse of green meadow stretched out before us.
The tall grass, reaching my thighs, swayed in the cool breeze, and a large Zelkova tree stood proudly on a gentle hill.
Everywhere I looked, a spectacle of blue sky contrasted with vibrant green unfolded.
‘So beautiful.’
I had the luxury of looking around because I knew the reality of this place, but the three people did not.
Every one of them had a sharp edge, their eyes intense as they tried to grasp the situation.
“Hyung, look there.”
At that moment, Woo Jaehyun, who was the first to notice something odd, raised his hand.
When I turned my head in the direction he pointed, the number [0/500] was mysteriously floating in the sky in white letters.
To state it now, that number was one of the essential elements needed to clear the dungeon going forward.
We could only proceed to the next floor after achieving the required value for that floor.
So, how was it filled?
There was naturally only one thing in a dungeon that could fill such a number.
“Seo Inho.”
It was the moment I unconsciously tried to take a step forward to get a closer look at the number.
As an unidentified object suddenly popped out from the grass, Cha Rui pulled me by the waist.
His movement was so quick that I didn’t even have time to notice it.
I was startled, hanging in the air, and looked down with a flustered expression.
Something about the size of a dog was constantly wriggling beneath my feet.
It was a green, grotesque creature that rippled like a transparent jelly.
It was a ‘Slime,’ a lower-level F-rank monster.
Since it barely radiated any energy, it seemed the three people hadn’t noticed it beforehand.
But…
It would have been better if it was openly hideous, but with its bright, innocent eyes and small, cute mouth, it felt even more unsettling.
I thought it had a cuter image in the movie.
Seeing it jiggle on the ground and twinkle its eyes, I unconsciously raised my legs.
Without realizing it, I pulled both my knees up and wrapped my legs around Cha Rui’s waist.
For some reason, I didn’t want to be near that thing.
As expected, our opponents were monsters.
All the monsters in the dungeon. In other words, a condition was met: we could only move on to the next floor by finding and killing every last one of them.
This was by no means an easy task, as the time required varied depending on the dungeon.
“…F-rank?”
The three people seemed quite taken aback upon seeing the Slime bounce around with its trivial movements.
They didn’t even consider killing it immediately and merely backed away, maintaining a cautious stance.
They had held meetings for days to prepare for any unexpected situation, but an F-rank monster popped out, so such a reaction was understandable.
For at least the next ten days or more, they would be seeing only these kinds of monsters all day long.
Although I had known that fact for a while, I raised my eyebrows as if I had just realized it.
“It is F-rank. It’s not attacking first either.”
This was the characteristic of F-rank monsters.
Unless provoked first, most F-rank monsters would not rashly charge at people.
It was a setting of consideration for the lower ranks, perhaps.
That’s why the Slime was only staring at us.
‘Anyway, should I start now?’
I tapped Cha Rui’s arm and climbed down to the ground.
I turned around again, ignoring the three who tried to hold me back.
Between the rustling grass, various flowers as tall as me swayed gently.
At a glance, it looked like a beautiful landscape, but if you looked closely, you could sense the strangeness.
“There are flowers with teeth over there, too.”
The large flower far away had countless sharp teeth embedded in it.
Unlike the Slime, it was a rare type of F-rank monster that would attack first if you approached it.
Although it looked somewhat fierce, dealing with those was actually more convenient.
They couldn’t run away or hide.
“Hmm, could it be that we have to kill everything to fill the number?”
I subtly dropped a hint about the strategy like that and rubbed my chin, pretending to be serious.
Of course, I said it for them to hear.
Then, as if fulfilling my expectations, Woo Jaehyun kicked the Slime without any hesitation, and the Slime instantly burst with a “crackling” sound.
Because of the difference in grade, it had evaporated without a trace.
The number in the sky had changed to [1/500], as if counting.
‘Huh?’
Was it from that moment?
Things began to flow differently from my expectation.
I clearly thought the three would scatter to hunt the monsters, but Do Soohyuk suddenly swung his sword in a wide arc.
With just one gesture, the peaceful meadow was rapidly tainted with black flames.
The proud green field disappeared without a trace, and only jet-black fire raged like waves.
The speed at which the fire spread was too fast to follow with the eye.
Even though the 1st floor wasn’t that wide, it took less than five minutes for the meadow to turn ash gray.
When I came to my senses, everything except the place where we stood had turned to ashes.
It was a matter of blinking an eye.
“…”
Let me be clear, what I had expected was a scene where they would individually scatter and take down the monsters.
Even in the movie, the start was cautious, so I never thought Do Soohyuk would be this bold.
[500/500]
After a while, as the fire subsided, the number seen through the black smoke that billowed up was surprisingly filled completely.
They had eliminated all the monsters just five minutes after entering the dungeon.
Was this even possible?
“It looks like we have to fill that number.”
While I was briefly speechless, Woo Jaehyun, who was close to my shoulder, smiled brightly.
He didn’t seem to care how the surroundings had changed at all.
Even though it was a dungeon, I couldn’t bring myself to smile along with him, perhaps because they had just turned a beautiful, paradise-like landscape into hell.
Strangely, the feeling was different from when Do Soohyuk and I were lost in the dungeon and turned Seoul into a sea of fire.
Kee-eee-eeek—!
But then, a strange, agonized sound spread in all directions.
I turned my head in surprise and saw the tree on the distant hill had fallen, completely charred black.
‘Wait… I think that was the Final Boss.’
Incredibly, they seemed to have eliminated it with just the remaining heat.
Filling the required number for the dungeon and then defeating the subsequent Final Boss.
It was a surprising moment when both conditions for moving to the next floor were fulfilled.
