Chapter 19
Clack. Clack.
We descend the stairs.
The faint light glimmering behind us illuminates the stairs and casts long shadows stretching out ahead.
"It's dark."
The light gradually diminished.
Dreary darkness crept in from all sides.
It slowly, bit by bit, burrowed in until it completely swallowed the light, and at some point, even the outline of the stairs became difficult to make out.
"Should we light a torch?"
"No, Seoyeon."
When the Witch of Crimson Flame conjured a flame in her hand, the red fire that flared up with a whoosh immediately drove away the darkness and lit the stairs. In the flickering light, Shin Seoyeon grumbled under her breath.
"I made a flame for now, but wouldn't it be better to just carry a torch than do this? It's not like we're going to wander around like this forever."
She wasn't wrong, but I didn't answer and simply continued forward.
"Hey, Black Dick. Are you listening to me?"
An endless, elongated staircase.
The light coming from the surface was no longer visible.
The damp air, thick with dust, entered our noses and made breathing difficult. The suffocating, heavy feeling common to burial mounds enveloped us.
'This place is more difficult than I expected.'
"Haaah, what's going on? Breathing is so difficult."
"…The air is stale."
Difficulty breathing alone comes with several penalties. It increases stamina consumption and negatively affects you mentally.
Especially in a space this tightly enclosed on all sides, a human's mental strength is rapidly depleted.
To make matters worse, if darkness without a single ray of light continued to spread, the difficulty would shoot up several times over. Fortunately, the first trial had a set upper limit on its difficulty.
Sure enough, after descending for about ten minutes, a blue light began to appear deep below.
"Look over there. It's a light."
The light gradually grew brighter, and at some point Shin Seoyeon's flame was no longer necessary.
"Seoyeon, you can put it out now."
With a soft hiss, the red glow died down, and a gentle blue light settled over the stairs instead. Shin Seoyeon moved toward the blue light and spoke.
"Black Dick, you know… Do you happen to know something?"
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm asking whether you know something about the Selection Process. Just now, and the winter clothes you prepared for the tutorial too."
Our Seoyeon had good instincts, too.
I pretended not to know what she meant.
"So, Seoyeon, you're saying that I know everything that's going to happen and have been acting in advance?"
"Yeah, that's exactly it, but… Ah, forget it. Even I think it sounds like bullshit. What kind of delusion was I having?"
The realistic Shin Seoyeon thought within the bounds of common sense and concluded that it was all a delusion of hers.
After all, knowing the future and preparing for it would be difficult unless one had regressed.
"It looks like we've arrived."
Finally, we reached the end of the stairs and arrived at the entrance to a temple said to exist beneath a mountain.
There was nothing particularly special about the entrance.
The doorway had no door, only an arched frame made of well-polished stone, with statues standing on either side.
"So this is the source of the light."
The statue of a robed monk had both palms pressed together at its chest as if praying, and the source of the blue light was the blue flame blazing from its hands.
"Oh, this looks pretty cool. I wonder if it would be hot if I touched it? It might just be a visual effect."
"You'd better not touch it."
It was a flame made of mana. Forget being hot—touching it would make you feel a searing heat that burned all the way into your soul.
"Let's go in."
We entered through the path between the two statues. A T-shaped fork appeared immediately. Shin Seoyeon poked her head out to look left and right, then gestured that it was safe.
The inside of the entrance was no different from the outside. It looked just like the cavern we had passed through.
The only difference was that not only the floor, but also the walls and ceiling, were made of neatly polished stone, while statues stood tall at each fork to illuminate the darkness.
"Huh?"
Shin Seoyeon, who had been walking a step ahead of us, suddenly stopped in the middle of the fork. When we caught up with her, we learned why.
[A trial has been assigned.]
[Find and burn a portion of the remains of the Fallen High Priest Vardo.]
[Check the quest window for details.]
At last, the theme of this trial had finally been revealed.
"Mr. Minjun, the trial just now…"
"Yes. Open the quest window and check the details."
Simply reading the background could provide some clues about the trial area and how to survive there.
We each checked the quest details where we stood.
<Quest>
Stage : First Trial
Objective : Find and burn a portion of the remains of the Fallen High Priest Vardo.
Background Description : Evil Spirit's Lair is….
[View Details]
[Background Description: Evil Spirit's Lair is a prestigious temple where clergy once practiced and resided.
They spread the word of God and used the power bestowed upon them by God to save the world and heal the sick.
In particular, High Priest Vardo was especially loved by God, and his holy power was unmatched in his era.
The temple prospered, and its gates were crowded with visitors day after day.
However, they were human as well. They could not remain free from greed…. The black bud of greed slowly grew within the monastery, corrupting the clergy one by one.
And eventually, High Priest Vardo and his followers challenged God's throne and performed a forbidden ritual after striking a deal with a demon. As a result, the entire monastery was engulfed in a curse.
The monastery collapsed immediately, and after centuries passed, it became a ruin.
Yet evil power still dwells within, disturbing the rest of the dead. High Priest Vardo and his followers, who wished to become gods, have still not abandoned their ambitions. They lie in wait for the moment to rise again while draining the lives of those who enter the ruins.]
There was no difference from the information I had heard beforehand.
Undead monsters, an area-wide curse covering the entire monastery, and followers….
Moreover, the setting was extremely juicy for farming.
'There are no mobs richer than fallen priests.'
Even at worst, I would earn more than wandering around [Lakeside] and picking up discarded equipment from the water.
For reference, [Lakeside] was the trial area I had gone to in my first run.
"Have you finished reading the entire description?"
"Yes. It's sad that they're cursed to never be able to die."
As expected of the kind Saintess, that was her take.
"Big sis, why feel sorry for them? They're immortal! Isn't that completely awesome?"
"Hey, what's so awesome about being undead? Think before you speak."
"Hmph, you're the one who doesn't understand. Go ask the old people on Earth who only have a few days left to live. If you offered them immortality, they'd be delighted and line up begging you to do it even if it meant becoming a lich."
…She wasn't wrong, so I had nothing to say.
"But there are two directions. Which way do we go?"
In response to the Saintess's question, I immediately turned left.
"Follow me. This way."
"Black Dick, how do you know that? It could be the opposite direction."
"I looked at a map before coming."
"What? There was something like that? Why didn't I see it?"
Of course she hadn't seen it because it was a lie.
I had heard information about this place from a survivor whenever I drank with him.
He talked about this place every time he drank, so I had heard it hundreds of times and practically memorized it…. The place must have been that traumatic for him.
In any case, there was no way the drunken stories I had heard contained detailed information about this maze, and unfortunately, I didn't know which path led where either.
'The important thing is that there are no traps here.'
Though it was a maze with countless forks, there were no traps.
That was enough.
After spending ten years going through all kinds of trials and building up experience, I had wandered through countless dungeons. I was already an expert at finding my way through them.
'There's a foul smell coming from this direction. This must be the right path.'
I headed without hesitation toward the place where the stench was coming from.
A smell meant that the corpse of an undead monster or a player was nearby. In other words, it meant we could go deeper into the dungeon than we were now.
So left it was.
"You looked at a map before coming? That's amazing! Seoyeon and I were busy playing and looking around, but you even took the time to look at it!"
The Saintess looked at me with sparkling eyes.
Our Saintess was cute like this, too. I pinched her mochi-like cheeks and stretched them.
Brush, brush.
In return, our Saintess reached out and gently brushed the dust off the top of my head.
"?"
"There was some dust on your head. Doesn't your mouth feel dry? Would you like some water?"
Then she even opened her canteen and gave me water. Ah, pure healing.
She must truly be kind by nature, considering how she took care of others even when she herself must have been tired.
"Big sis, why don't you take care of me? You only take care of Black Dick."
Shin Seoyeon had witnessed our actions and grumbled in complaint.
"Huh? W-wait, Seoyeon. I'm coming now."
"Hmph, forget it. I have water too."
Shin Seoyeon pulled out her own canteen and gulped down the water. Then she stared at me for a brief moment before approaching and holding out her canteen.
"What is it?"
"Drink. You must still be thirsty."
"I'm not thirsty anymore."
"……"
Shin Seoyeon's cheek twitched. When I blinked and asked her what was wrong, she abruptly turned around and began fuming by herself.
"Anyway, Mr. Minjun is amazing. I never even imagined there would be a map, yet you took the time to look at it."
Even a single compliment from our Saintess was so sincere that it made the listener feel good.
I was about to put an arm around her waist and kiss her as thanks when someone beside me rudely interrupted.
"Amazing? Come on, sis. He's just an idiot."
"?"
"Why did you look at a map? You should have brought it with you. Are you seriously an idiot?"
…She was really going to turn my lie against me like that? I had nothing to say.
"Hey, aren't you going to argue this time? Try looking triumphant like when you won our argument earlier."
"……"
Shin Seoyeon grinned and smugly taunted me.
Honestly, I had just begun feeling good because of the Saintess, so I had intended to let it slide, but she had insisted on picking a fight.
In that case, I had no choice.
"If you keep it up, next time I won't be joking—I'll really leave you behind."
Shin Seoyeon froze in place. She opened and closed her mouth several times before shouting tearfully.
"Don't joke like that, even if you don't mean it! You bastard! Apologize! Apologize right now!"
"Nope. Nope, nope, nope."
"You bastard!"
Shin Seoyeon rushed at me and pounded me with her fists, but it didn't hurt at all. It was pathetic. Even an elementary school kid hitting me would hurt more.
"If you really don't apologize…"
Shin Seoyeon began to raise her mana.
"Wait."
"Why? Did you only just realize you're screwed and decide to apologize? Don't make me laugh. Even if you offer to eat me out for an hour, I'm not letting this go this time, so prepare yourself…."
"Ah, you're noisy, so shut up for a second."
"Huh…? S-shut up? How…? You have never said anything so harsh to me in your life."
Ignoring Shin Seoyeon as she thrust her face toward me and demanded an explanation, I quietly watched the darkness ahead.
The long stone cavern was wide enough for ten people to walk abreast, and darkness lay thick within it.
Blue lights illuminated the dungeon at each fork, but sections of the long corridors without forks were covered in dense darkness.
Whenever that happened, I activated [All-Seeing Eye] and moved on, but for a while now, there had been things disturbing my vision.
"Come out."
"Kang Minjun! Do you think you're in any position to say that after saying something so harsh to me?! Apologize right now, or—urgh…"
I pushed Shin Seoyeon's head aside and once again shouted into the darkness ahead.
"Come out while I'm asking nicely. I know you're hiding over there."
Only then did Shin Seoyeon snap to attention and immediately change her expression. The atmosphere became completely different, as if she had merely been playing around until then, and she began watching the darkness warily.
The Saintess also assumed a fighting stance, and when even our voices disappeared, an uncomfortable silence descended over the cavern where dust floated like mist.
"You're really not going to show yourselves?"
Perhaps they sensed the certainty in my voice.
The quiet darkness rippled, and four people began emerging from it.
"Those bastards… How did they know we were hiding…?"
Their appearance was utterly wretched.
Their hair was dry and brittle, while their faces and torsos were covered in dust and scabs of dried blood.
Their clothes were so worn and torn that their original forms could no longer be recognized, and wounds scratched or cut by something had spread across them, swollen and discolored.
And in their hands were bladed weapons caked with dried blood.
"You little dick, does that matter right now? We got caught and botched the ambush. Bet this idiot was scratching his ass again."
One of them smacked the back of the man beside him. The man who had been hit asked emotionlessly,
"Me? Did I do that? But I left my ass over there."
"You idiots, shut up. I can't hear what our Wilson is saying. You want meat? I want some too. Hee-hee. Hungry."
…They seemed to have been trapped here for quite some time.
As they walked out of the dreary darkness, they staggered from time to time, their pupils were excessively dilated, and they trembled while letting out meaningless little snickers.
Not one of them was normal.
Especially the way they wandered around without pants, their cocks hanging out…
"Huh? M-Mr. Minjun. Those people aren't wearing underwear…"
"Black Dick, what the hell are those bastards?"
I gripped my weapon and snorted.
'…I thought I wouldn't see people like this until at least the third trial, but this is ridiculous.'
In short, they were human hunters who hid near the starting point of a trial, ambushing and robbing newcomers when they appeared.
Their goals were robbery and rape.
In fiction, they would be thieves, but the problem was that thieves in this Selection Process were not bottom-feeding small fry.
'People who hunt humans know how to do it.'
Generally speaking, people who did this had combat power above average.
They even had good instincts, hiding themselves like this and letting opponents pass if they looked strong, while robbing them if they looked weak—the typical strategy of bullying the weak and cowering before the strong.
To mediocre players, they were no different from a bolt from the blue.
'Tsk. I didn't expect people like this to appear already.'
Normally, people like this only appeared after being tormented by the horror of the trials, having their morality whittled away and their humanity worn down.
'The people left behind toward the back are definitely lower quality. This isn't good.'
I had become a late starter because I was building up my snowball, but on average, those left behind were one of two types.
They had either been weeded out because of some defect, or fallen behind because they were enjoying themselves thanks to some defect.
"There. Heh. Hand over everything you have while I'm asking nicely. That bag, your weapons, and your bodies…."
And those men belonged to the latter category.