* * *
“The dungeon core? I mean, we do have to find it, but…….”
The team members turned back to look at him with bewildered expressions.
“What’s the rush? We just got here,” Ji Myunghoon shot back.
But Seo Jaewon felt like every second spent answering was a waste.
“Joo Youngha!”
“Mhmm.”
“You can take me up there, right?”
It was phrased as a question, but Seo Jaewon was already reaching out to Joo Youngha.
Back when he was an Esper, he would have used his own power to go up without a problem.
But now, he needed Joo Youngha’s strength.
“Are you seriously asking me that?” Joo Youngha replied as if amused.
Seo Jaewon furrowed his brow. “This isn’t the time for jokes.”
“You’re so cold…….”
Even as he said that, Joo Youngha obediently reached out his arm.
‘Wait, he’s going to get me up there safely, right……?’
At that moment, Joo Youngha suddenly closed the distance, and an arm slid firmly around Jaewon’s waist.
“Hey, Joo Young—haaaaaaack!”
Before he could realize what was happening, his body floated into the air and his vision tilted violently.
Startled, Seo Jaewon threw his arms around Joo Youngha’s neck.
When he regained his senses, he realized he was being carried in Joo Youngha’s arms in a rather embarrassing pose.
“It’s dangerous if you squirm like that.”
‘Do you even know what ‘danger’ is?!’
“Let go! Put me down!” Seo Jaewon pulled on Joo Youngha’s hair.
“Ouch, ouch.”
Joo Youngha looked completely unfazed.
His eyes were even smiling.
‘You’re so annoying, Joo Youngha!’
“Do you really want me to let go?”
“You know I don’t! Just go up!”
Almost as soon as he spoke, Joo Youngha shot straight up into the air without warning.
Seo Jaewon almost bit his tongue.
The wind lashed against his cheeks so fiercely he couldn’t even keep his head steady.
He clung to Joo Youngha desperately.
He could feel Joo Youngha’s throat vibrating as he laughed.
‘He’s laughing……?!’
“Is this high enough?”
When he opened his eyes, they were hovering in the air right beneath the ceiling.
If he reached out, he felt like he could touch the white ceiling and the steel structure supporting it.
He had to find and destroy the dungeon core hidden somewhere.
‘If we don’t find it in time, it’s definitely going to be a Dungeon Break.’
Right in the middle of Apgujeong, of all places.
Just thinking about it gave him the chills.
Seo Jaewon focused his eyes, desperately searching for something.
A sign, a presence, anything that stood out.
A boss monster, a riddle, a puzzle……
A dungeon core only appears once certain conditions are met.
Below them, the layered jungle stretched out, hiding everything.
Dark ripples surged at the very bottom.
At least one thing was certain now.
This dungeon was ‘quite far along.’
Dungeon creatures with wings like cellophane paper flitted between the leaves, and a long cry, like a bird’s song, echoed from somewhere.
Even without wind, something shook the tree branches, and the jungle throbbed and expanded without rest.
The dungeon was filled with a sickening amount of vitality.
At this point, it was practically at its saturation point.
Even as he watched, he felt like the growth was accelerating.
“Joo Youngha, do you see anything?”
“Jaewon’s face?”
‘Forget I asked.’
Seo Jaewon waved his hand, signaling to go down a bit lower.
Joo Youngha followed his lead obediently.
Through the dense thicket, something ivory-colored flickered in and out of view.
“……!”
A low drumming sound began to echo.
Seo Jaewon gripped Joo Youngha’s arm tightly.
“Ow.”
“Shh, over there.”
Joo Youngha lowered their altitude on his own without needing detailed instructions.
Realizing this gave Seo Jaewon a strange feeling.
Despite everything that had happened, Joo Youngha was still the comrade who had stood by his back for the longest time.
As their perspective shifted, a wide, flat rocky area appeared beneath the trees on the top floor—looking almost like the bones of the jungle had been exposed.
The whitish rock was clearly distinct from the ordinary rocks covered in moss and mud.
There were winding patterns carved into it that looked like decorations; it looked like a place made by someone’s hand.
‘……An altar? No, more than that.’
The altar was surrounded by mermen, easily numbering over a hundred.
They swayed their bodies and raised their arms in perfect unison to the beat of the drums, looking grotesque.
‘There are so many……!’
If the monsters were this densely packed, it might already be the brink of a Dungeon Break.
Could the team members really handle this?
That wasn’t the only thing making him anxious.
On top of the rock, five mermen were kneeling.
One of them was elaborately decorated with ornaments, similar to the head Joo Youngha had brought earlier.
He didn’t know if mermen had a religion, but this one seemed to be a shaman or a sorcerer.
In front of the ornate merman sat a low stone decorated with flowers.
The creature stretched out its arms, lifting a bowl filled with a dark blue liquid into the air, and muttered strange, bubbling sounds.
The rest of the mermen surrounding it also closed their eyes and whispered continuously.
It was a nasty sound that made his skin crawl, like mud boiling.
This was a ritual being carried out while ignoring the intruders in a dungeon where a battle was actively raging.
It was clearly an act with a purpose. He could feel a strange flow of energy.
That energy had pulses similar to the wind that occasionally wrapped around the dungeon.
The wind grew stronger, whipping through his hair.
‘I have to stop it, right now.’
Seo Jaewon felt it instinctively.
The formless power was stacking up precariously, as if it would pass its threshold at any second.
There wasn’t even time to go call the others.
But how?
Of course, Joo Youngha was strong.
But the numbers were too disadvantageous to act immediately.
There was only one Esper here.
With such an extreme difference in quantity, rank alone was hard to overcome.
Take the very first A-rank Esper to receive a medal in South Korea as an example.
She became a legend by holding off a hundred monsters for three days single-handedly during a B-rank Dungeon Break in Pyeongchang.
Even though she barely survived rather than wiping out the monsters, the fact that “numbers” is an important issue that can decide victory or defeat in battle was still talked about today under the title of “The Iron Fortress.”
Even if the enemies are low-rank monsters, there is no way out if you are overwhelmingly outnumbered.
How much could Joo Youngha do?
If he wasn’t careful, he might just provoke the mermen and make the situation worse.
Plus, he was currently burdened with a “dead weight” named Seo Jaewon.
“Joo Youngha.”
His voice calling the name was laced with anxiety.
But the reply he got was gentle.
“Should I kill them?”
“Let’s retreat for now…… what?”
At that moment, the head of the merman in the center swelled up.
The skull expanded and twisted bizarrely, pushing its eyeballs all the way to the back of its head.
Seo Jaewon met those eyes.
It looked puzzled, not even realizing what was happening to itself.
The trace of self-awareness felt from that distorted shape was…… unbearably unpleasant.
‘Pop—!’
Then the head exploded.
The eyeballs and the beads decorating the creature burst in all directions.
Beads and dark blue blood poured over the rock like rain.
“Ah, that was nothing.”
Joo Youngha cast a nonchalant look at the scene.
Only then did Seo Jaewon realize what had happened.
‘He just made it explode?’
At the edge of his vision, the blood-soaked mermen jumping to their feet looked slow, like slow motion.
But he couldn’t take his eyes off Joo Youngha.
A light resembling the inside of a seashell flickered between his hair and in his pupils.
“This is better.”
As soon as Joo Youngha smiled brightly, the mermen standing nearby collapsed onto the ground.
They were crushed by a massive force.
‘Thud, splat—’
Lumps of dark blue flesh burst in succession like water balloons.
More than a hundred mermen were killed in an instant, like a swarm of trampled frogs.
Blood, thinner than a human’s, flowed out and was absorbed into the soil beneath the flat rock.
The mermen disappeared without a trace, leaving only dark blue puddles.
“…….”
Seo Jaewon shuddered.
He had seen enough combat to be sick of it.
He remembered all the abilities and limits of the Espers he had met so far.
He had witnessed many brilliant victories and shocking reversals.
But this, this was different.
The difference was the way he won.
It was overwhelming power.
It was something that sent chills down even his allies’ spines, a secret sense of relief that he was on their side.
To be more precise…… it was Joo Youngha himself.
No one could fight like Joo Youngha.
Not even ten years after Joo Youngha died.
To summarize it more bluntly……
‘Is this even a person?’
The next moment, the ground, unable to withstand the continuous pressure, began to crack.
“……!”
‘Rumble—’
A deafening roar that shook the entire dungeon began to echo from everywhere.
The power that had spread out from Joo Youngha began to collapse the very floor they were on.
Joo Youngha looked down at Seo Jaewon with a smile on his lips.
Even after massacring that many monsters without lifting a finger, his face was as peaceful as if he had just squashed a gnat with a tissue.
“Isn’t this what you wanted?”
* * *
