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The guild members who confirmed the dungeon occurrence notification fell silent for a moment. The number of domestic dungeon occurrences was about 10 times per year. It could be considered rare if you thought of it as rare, or frequent if you thought of it as frequent.
“This is the first time I’ve seen a dungeon notification window.”
Do Hyeonwoo, who had rushed out in surprise while smoking in the pension’s smoking room, muttered. While everyone was murmuring about the sudden situation, Samin, who had woken up from the loud noise, ran out to the garden with disheveled hair.
“…Is everyone okay?”
Samin looked clearly flustered. And for good reason, since places where dungeons are created become devastated. If the core maintaining the strange dimensional space isn’t destroyed, magical beasts pour out after the time limit.
Not only did they cause disgust among citizens with their hideous and bizarre appearances, but human casualties and property damage were a bonus. Who wouldn’t be surprised by a notification that such a dungeon had occurred nearby?
When people get caught up in dungeon occurrence sites, it’s hard to even find corpses or they get seriously injured, so Samin turned even paler.
“Hey, what are you doing coming out barefoot?”
Doun, who had been looking at Samin who ran to him first, widened his eyes. It seemed like he had rushed out just as he was sleeping.
Unlike Doun who was worried about his bare feet, Samin couldn’t easily feel relieved. He examined Doun’s face this way and that, carefully checking if there were any torn places in his clothes or if he looked startled.
“…I’m not hurt.”
When Doun muttered a bit embarrassedly, relief finally crossed Samin’s face.
“Yes. I was really surprised. Phew.”
Samin let out a long breath and quickly checked the number of people gathered in the garden. Excluding himself and Doun, there were eight in total. Seeing them all looking at him pathetically in perfect condition with no torn clothes or bloodstains, everyone seemed to be safe.
“I’ll just quickly put on shoes and come back.”
Only now feeling uncomfortable about his bare feet, Samin went inside the pension to put on shoes and came out. His hair was still sticking out in all directions.
“Wow. I was startled while sleeping. Why did a dungeon burst nearby?”
“Doesn’t the dungeon sound really creepy, like gas exploding?”
“Isn’t that light pillar near the walking trail? If I hadn’t been focused on preparing tonight’s barbecue, I might have gotten caught up in it.”
“Friend, what kind of terrible thing to say.”
The guild members who had calmed their surprised hearts huddled together and chattered. Samin, looking at the bright blue light pillar rising between the dense trees, murmured.
“Could this be a welcome greeting because we came?”
“This kind of welcome greeting is a bit too troublesome…”
Doun answered Samin’s silly remark and handed him a drink. He was worried about him since he must have been startled while sleeping.
“I’ll drink it well.”
Samin preciously held the small plastic bottle Doun handed him and fell into thought.
‘Should I just go see what grade it is since it’s close?’
Dungeon occurrence notification windows were known to appear only to hunters within a 500m radius. The dungeon’s light pillar, emitting a brilliant presence in the middle of the forest and luring hunters, stimulated his curiosity.
“Hmm. If we don’t clear that, our pension will be in danger too, right?”
The time limit for the dungeon that occurred near the pension was five hours. Since time limits are usually measured in proportion to grade, it meant it wasn’t a very high-grade dangerous dungeon.
“Then should we just go take a quick look at the grade? I’m curious too.”
As if agreeing with Kim Chansol’s words, Doun also nodded silently.
“What if it suddenly shows S-rank?”
“Then we’d have to wait for support to come or run away.”
“Five hours isn’t that dangerous, is it? The last S-rank dungeon had a 3-day time limit.”
“I’ve only seen what dungeon entrances look like in videos. I’m so excited.”
“It should be okay to take pictures of the entrance, right?”
He thought at least one person would say they didn’t like it. But everyone was moving to go see the dungeon entrance.
Doun just nodded while listening to the conversation in a dazed state. When Samin brought up the team building event, he never imagined something like this would happen. But now that he was here, he was experiencing only surprising things and his mind was completely scattered.
A birthday celebration after a very long time, an unexpected birthday gift, and even an unexpected dungeon occurrence.
“For now, let’s clear it if the grade isn’t much, or think about it again then.”
Samin roughly decided on a policy and smoothed down his sticking-up hair with his fingers. As the group was about to move toward the rising light pillar, text messages arrived on their phones at intervals of a few seconds.
[[Disaster Safety Countermeasures Headquarters] Around 17:03, unconfirmed grade dungeon occurred near Pyeongun Mountain, Nam-gu, Sewon City / Nearby residents are advised to evacuate to safe places.]
“Why did the text come so fast for once?”
“Right. Those guys who used to call dungeons earthquakes.”
Unlike other countries that were active in hunter support and put their heart and soul into development, Korea only had minimal intervention. Although a Hunter Management Office was established, since top rankers weren’t affiliated with it, there was no capacity to be dispatched to solve things even when dungeons occurred.
At best, they would send evacuation texts and request cooperation from guilds mainly active near dungeons. Even so, as long as the creation location wasn’t too remote, dungeons were usually conquered within the time limit.
Unlike towers where magic stone collection was everything, dungeons had separate rewards after conquest. Since you could aim for rare artifacts rarely put up for auction or dungeon conquest reward skills, they were popular enough among hunters to be called lottery spots.
As they got closer to the soaring blue light pillar, the group continued their conversation with voices mixed with anticipation and slight anxiety.
“What grade do you think it’ll be?”
“Well… I’ve only seen dungeons in videos, so I can’t gauge it.”
“If it’s a lower grade than expected, I hope we can quickly conquer it and go back to continue the barbecue party.”
Dong Jiwon, who had been walking silently, rarely sparkled his eyes. He seemed to dislike the idea of it ending anticlimactically when he had made full preparations to supplement what he felt was somewhat disappointing yesterday evening.
“How excited are you about grilling vegetables, friend?”
“I was looking forward to it more than you thought.”
“Ah. We must be almost there. Isn’t that it over there?”
At the place Choi Jiyoon pointed to, a distorted space emitting strange light was floating in the air. As they approached a bit closer to the dungeon entrance, a notification window appeared.
[The current grade of this dungeon is ‘B’, and the dungeon’s epithet is ‘Orchard of Despair’.
An orchard that bears fruit by feeding on human despair. The orchard’s guardian extremely vigilant against beings that threaten its fruit, thinking only of turning them all into fertilizer.
Current entrants: 0 people
Time remaining: 4 hours 41 minutes 37 seconds]
Whether the group was the first to arrive, no one had entered for conquest. Unlike towers where only alliance members could enter, dungeons allowed other hunters to enter through the entrance even if conquest was already in progress.
The group showed interest after checking the grade.
“I searched and it seems B-rank dungeons are only about the difficulty of floors 20-30.”
“What? That easy?”
“But dungeons don’t allow giving up midway.”
Towers allowed the alliance leader to give up conquest and move to the waiting room at any time. But dungeons were different. The only ways to get out of the dimensional space were to exit through the entrance you came from, or destroy the core that appears when you succeed in conquest.
“We should be able to handle it among ourselves, but it might be a bit annoying.”
“For example?”
“I’m worried other hunters might come in the middle and they might be weird people filming for HunTube. Even if they’re not that kind of people, it’s perfect for disputes over magic stone collection ownership. It’s not like the name of who killed what appears.”
“Ah, that’s definitely a bit problematic.”
With the development of video platforms and SNS, there were many hunters who created stimulating content out of thirst for attention.
[10,000 subscriber achievement conquest! E-rank hunter stabbing 20th floor magical beast in the eye and running!]
[Ranker Interview Season 2┃Thrill Guild Master “Lucky Day”]
[I almost died taking an unfamiliar route……..]
[Honey tips only the top 1% hunters know! You’ll lose out if you don’t watch]
[Ranker Analysis Room #17 Most requested person <Magnetic> in-depth analysis -Part 1-]
[Story of barely escaping from a small guild with 9% survival rate]
There were many HunTubers who would do anything to increase views and channel subscribers. Everyone’s expressions became serious, perhaps anticipating a similar future.
“…What do you think about us trying to clear it as quickly as possible among ourselves? Honestly, dungeons are really sweet if you clear them well.”
If the grade had been higher, they might have thought about it more, but hearing it was a B-rank dungeon, the scales subtly tipped toward conquest.
Doun thought for a moment. The conquest difficulty was at most about the 30th floor. It was a dungeon that appeared with good timing near the pension where they had come to strengthen unity with guild members, as if asking them to conquer it without burden.
“What do you think, hyung?”
Samin slightly lowered his head and whispered in a small voice that only Doun could hear. Because his breathing was too close, Doun shrank his shoulders a bit and answered hesitantly.
“…I don’t really care either way.”
The danger of dungeon conquest always existed. The inconvenience of mid-way exit, unconfirmed magical beast compatibility or behavior patterns, and even the intrusion of other hunters acting as variables. Knowing this, Doun couldn’t step forward and argue for conquest.
“I want to go in and see for now. This kind of thing becomes a memory too.”
“Then should only those who want to go raise their hands?”
Even as they hesitated, the dungeon’s time limit was decreasing. Samin, who suggested that only those who wanted to go should enter by show of hands, smiled seeing everyone raise their hands as if they had planned it.
“What? Then should we quickly go in before other people come and interfere?”
* * *
[Notification: Your alliance has entered dungeon ‘Orchard of Despair (B)’.
An orchard that bears fruit by feeding on human despair. The orchard’s guardian is extremely vigilant against beings that threaten its fruit, thinking only of turning them all into fertilizer.
Current entrants: 10 people
Time remaining: 4 hours 27 minutes 43 seconds]
After reading the guidance window that appeared before his eyes, Doun first checked the terrain. Befitting the name orchard, trees rooted at regular intervals stretched endlessly.
“Since there’s no dungeon information, don’t move alone, and just in case, remember the entrance location.”
Samin, who lightly stretched and recited precautions, checked the terrain like Doun. It looked like flat ground, but trees planted here and there interfered with movement routes.
‘What should we do about the trees?’
Breaking through with fists would seem inefficient. While Samin was briefly lost in thought, Doun subtly started talking.
“Just looking at it, it’s obviously a pattern where magical beasts will jump out if you touch the trees, right?”
As expected, our hyung really gets along well with me. Thinking this internally, Samin nodded.
Even if it was their first time entering a dungeon, they had no intention of acting foolishly. Having finished organizing his thoughts, Samin smiled as he took out a sword with a black blade that gleamed subtly from his inventory.
“Then let’s start by completely clearing out the trees first.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
