Chapter 5
The hunting ground with the most monster encounters on the first floor.
The area known as the ‘Maw of the Labyrinth.’
You could only reach it by passing through the collapsed passage leading to the second floor.
From the entrance, it looked like the ruins of a temple from some ancient civilization.
The area was full of broken pottery and shattered pillars, as if to show that ceremonies had once been held in the plaza.
Since this was a well-mapped section of the dungeon’s surface levels, humans had placed torches along the walls. It wasn’t completely dark, but the dimness of the enclosed space lingered in every corner.
And as the word ‘hunting ground’ suggested, hunting wardens were stationed throughout the area, while solo adventurers and parties battled monsters here and there.
Fighting for their lives in darkness so thick they couldn’t see a step ahead, while trying to conquer a Labyrinth that changed by the moment, was something that happened only on the middle levels and deeper.
Besides, darkness wasn’t a problem for Seonghyeon at all.
Clerics could illuminate their surroundings with light, and more importantly, Seonghyeon’s high Mental Fortitude meant he wasn’t afraid of the dark.
“Seonghyeon... Ah.”
“What is it?”
“Why’s it so dark in here?”
“Because it’s so big.”
“I-is that so...”
“Scared?”
“Mm... I don’t know. I’m scared. This is weird. I wasn’t like this before...”
Suyeon was terrified, but she did her best to follow Seonghyeon.
The truth was, she was probably safest by his side.
Following him at all with Mental Fortitude like hers must have taken tremendous courage.
But even taking all that into account, Seonghyeon was bothered that Suyeon was still thinking in terms of her past life.
“Sigh... I shouldn’t have brought you to the dungeon.”
“Then why did you? Someone like me should’ve stayed home... I’ll do anything. Anything but those weird perverted things.”
“What if I die, then?”
“Huh?”
Suyeon’s expression turned serious when Seonghyeon confronted her with something she hadn’t expected.
He didn’t know what was going through Suyeon’s head, but he thought she needed to face the facts.
“You could die here at any moment. Imagine you were left alone up there. Wouldn’t you think it’d be better to die?”
“I... guess so.”
Remembering the terrible things she’d suffered at the hands of the slave trader, Suyeon clenched her fists.
Seonghyeon had to make her understand an even harsher reality.
“Go back to an elf village... No, saying ‘go back’ doesn’t even make sense, since you used to be human. Anyway, elves don’t accept elves who have fallen into human hands as one of their own. And they branded the back of your neck with a hot iron, didn’t they? Growing your hair out won’t hide it. Besides, I have the key to your restraints.”
“I get it... Don’t say anything else to scare me. I’m really shaking... I’m scared.”
“Your Mental Fortitude is 3. I understand why you’re scared, but you have to adjust. If I find an item that raises Mental Fortitude later, I’ll give it to you. You can’t give up already.”
“Uh... but why are you doing so much for me?”
Seonghyeon grabbed Suyeon by the arm, led her over to the wall, and stood with his back against it.
Suyeon let him pull her along without resistance.
“Se~cret~”
“Is that any way to treat a friend?”
When Seonghyeon teased her, Suyeon frowned.
But Seonghyeon couldn’t tease her any further, because a branch-shaped monster appeared right in front of them.
With a slithering sound, as if branches or roots were growing, a tree monster appeared. It had the face of an old man, with red light glowing in its eyes.
“Doesn’t that look like Sudowoodo?”
“What was that again?”
“Who knows? It just came to mind. You said there were fungi-type and plant-type monsters here, right? They’re weak to fire magic. Even a weak fire spell should take them out easily.”
Seonghyeon calmly explained, raised his mace, and advanced toward the tree monster, which stood a little over two meters tall.
The surface levels were home to first-tier monsters from the start, so this was an easy opponent for Seonghyeon, a level-eight Cleric.
The tree monster instinctively picked out the weaker target and stretched an arm-like branch toward Suyeon.
At the same time, Seonghyeon swung his mace.
Seonghyeon had 8 Strength, 7 Luck, and a Cleric bonus of +10% damage.
Even without casting any decent buffs, Seonghyeon’s mace smashed the outstretched branch in a single blow.
With the sound of a clump of wood breaking apart, the tree monster’s loud, eerie roar rang out.
“Gwoooaaar—"
“Eek!”
“Instead of squealing, why don’t you think about how to dodge?”
Suyeon had wrapped both arms around herself and covered her face in fear, but at Seonghyeon’s words, she slowly lowered her guard.
She could tell from the sound alone that the branch flying at her like a missile had been smashed to pieces, but...
The monster’s roar sounded even sharper to Suyeon, with her long ears.
“Shit... This is real.”
“That’s why I said stop covering your eyes and watch what I’m doing.”
“You’re a melee character. What am I supposed to learn?”
“Aren’t ranged characters supposed to deal damage without getting shrapnel on melee characters?”
With its branch broken off, the tree monster howled in pain and began to grow violent.
In Suyeon’s eyes, there was no way a human could take on something like that.
Judging by its height and bulk, it must have weighed a ton. If one of those full-force swings hit her, she’d be sent flying and die on the spot.
“Protection!”
As Seonghyeon spoke the incantation in the human tongue, yellow light shimmered around him.
The enraged tree monster swung its branches wildly, striking Seonghyeon mercilessly as he approached.
But the blows barely felt like anything more than branches smacking his knees as he pushed through a thicket.
Seonghyeon put his weight behind his mace, using its momentum to strike the spot where the tree monster’s red eyes glowed.
The monster, which had been roaring and cowering in fear, had its face caved in with a single blow. Its body cracked apart with a snap, and its upper half fell to the ground with a thud.
After taking down the tree monster in one hit, Seonghyeon turned around and looked at Suyeon.
Suyeon looked as if she were trying to figure out what had just happened.
“Come over here.”
“Did that... die?”
“Yeah.”
The branches still twitched and flailed, but on the surface levels, not even one of those severed branches was dangerous enough to beat someone to death.
Still, watching the branches writhe like octopus tentacles would probably be pretty gross.
Suyeon stared at the twitching branches but couldn’t bring herself to approach.
“Ugh...”
“You said you were a guy, right? Come here. Did they cut your dick off? Oh, right, they did.”
“Y-you... Fuck...”
Suyeon kept looking at the branches with a horrified expression, but slowly made her way toward Seonghyeon and the tree monster’s fallen body.
Then one of the writhing branches touched her ankle, and Suyeon let out a shriek.
“Hyeeeeeek!”
“Are you scared of bugs?”
“Fuck, yeah, I’m fucking terrified. How am I supposed to step over this?”
“Just step on them and come over.”
Seonghyeon chuckled and walked over to Suyeon.
She backed away in fear, but Seonghyeon closed in with a mocking grin and caught her.
Seonghyeon grabbed Suyeon around the waist with both hands and lifted her up.
“H-hey... This is high up. Stop it.”
“You said you were tall.”
“I take it all back! Where are you throwing me?!”
“Hey, stop thrashing around. I’m seriously going to drop you!”
Suyeon grabbed Seonghyeon’s arm and thrashed as if he were dragging her off to the slaughterhouse.
Even though Suyeon only had 2 Strength and 3 Stamina, she fought so desperately that she was surprisingly hard for Seonghyeon to hold on to.
“Stop struggling. You said you’d do anything, didn’t you? You even said you’d work as a porter. Learning how to extract magic stones is basic, so you need to learn.”
“Ah... Is that what this is?”
“Exactly. If you’re scared of a branch that doesn’t even seem alive, what are you going to do when you have to kill a real fleshy monster and pull out its magic stone?”
“Ah... Can’t I just be a housekeeper? You know, a maid. A maid.”
“I don’t have enough money to support a freeloader.”
Holding Suyeon aloft, Seonghyeon brought her above the fallen tree monster and showed her its trunk.
The tentacle-like branches writhing on the nearby ground still looked alive, but the severed trunk really did look just like a tree. Suyeon’s eyes went wide.
“This is just a tree.”
“That’s right. Nothing scary about it, baby~”
“Who are you calling a baby?”
“Sigh... See that magic stone over there? Try pulling it out.”
“Nothing’s going to happen, right?”
“It’s dead.”
Still displeased with Seonghyeon, Suyeon spotted the creepy-looking red magic stone and reached through a crack in the broken wood.
But no matter how hard she pulled, the magic stone wouldn’t come out.
“Nghhh! Is this right? Why won’t it come out?”
“Can’t pull it out? Want me to put you down?”
“N-no! I’ll pull it out. This thing.”
“You’ll hurt your hand. Did you get into ○○ University? You bought a punch dagger earlier, didn’t you? Use that to cut it out.”
“Ah...?”
Only then did Suyeon remember the punch dagger strapped to her thigh. She pulled it out and sawed at the wood.
It took Suyeon about an hour and twenty-three minutes to pull the magic stone from the torn wood fibers, all while nestled in Seonghyeon’s arms.