Dog Hole

"…This wasn't part of my plan."

"What are you talking about? Do you know we almost fucking died because of you, Black Dick, or not?"

I glanced back. There were footsteps cautiously following us through the darkness.

The footsteps became perfectly transparent when they reached a brightly lit area, then slowly reappeared when they entered the darkness again.

Isera, the Grim Reaper and future S-rank assassin, was following us for some reason.

'Is this revenge?'

I suspected that briefly, but what filled her youthful face was curiosity rather than revenge.

Come to think of it, Isera was human too, so she was probably interested in party hunting. Compared to other parties, we were overwhelmingly stable, weren't we? Our results were outstanding too, so perhaps that was why she'd grown so interested.

'I hope I haven't already messed up the future.'

Isera was supposed to operate alone and keep growing rapidly. Watching the little girl sneaking along like a stray cat, I let out a deep sigh.

"A sigh? What have you done to sigh about? Sis, don't just stand there putting up with this. Come over and say something to him."

"Mm? I don't know…."

"It's not like you're making a turd from scratch and shitting it out, so why is it taking so long? Don't you know we almost died because of you?"

As if she'd caught me making a mistake for the first time in a while, our Witch of Crimson Flame seized me by the nape and badgered me without mercy.

It was her typical tactic.

It was called gaslighting.

Her dazzling talent for climbing atop a man and tossing him around however she pleased had been enough to drag even Chris, Rank 1 in the first round, around by the nose.

Of course, after watching it for over ten years, I found the attack utterly unimpressive.

"Seoyeon, it's lowering the tone of the conversation, so could you stop talking like that?"

"Haaah? Are you lecturing me now? And you nearly got Sis and me killed, so do you really think this is something we can just let go?"

When I contradicted her, she was actually delighted. That meant she intended to seize on it and hound me over it in earnest from now on. I answered with a grave expression.

"It's not a lecture. It just kind of kills the mood when a woman uses words like that. Every time I see you up close, I'll probably think of shit."

"……."

After I said that, Shin Seoyeon could only glare at me and huff for quite some time, apparently unable to think of a retort.

"Fine. I'll avoid that kind of wording. But you'll admit that what you did today was a mistake, right?"

"A mistake?"

"Yes, a mistake! Sis and I nearly died today because of your precious errand! I'll collect that debt from you properly…."

It was then.

Whack.

"Aagh!"

Shin Seoyeon clutched the back of her head and screamed. She whipped around, her face full of incomprehension.

"What was that? Something hit me from behind."

I couldn't understand it either.

Because Oh Haeun… no, Isera was holding a bone and had just clubbed Shin Seoyeon in the back of the head.

What the hell was wrong with her all of a sudden?

"Ah, shit. Anyway, we almost died because of you, Black Dick, so you owe us… Aagh!"

Shin Seoyeon, who had been about to berate me, grabbed the back of her head again.

"S-Seoyeon? Why are you acting so scary?"

"Sis, didn't something just fly at me from behind?"

"I-I didn't see anything like that."

"What the fuck?"

Shin Seoyeon glared daggers at me. Under that suspicious gaze, I raised both hands, insisting I was innocent.

"I had nothing to do with it."

"Don't bullshit me. It's obvious that you… Aagh!"

Each time she snapped at me, the bone came flying in to teach her a lesson. Shin Seoyeon hopped up and down on the spot, sputtering that she was going crazy as she vented her fury.

"What the hell is this?!"

"S-Seoyeon, could it be a curse?"

"A curse?"

"You know, the quest says the entire monastery is cursed."

Now that she mentioned it, there had been something like that in the description.

"Fine, a curse! But why am I the only one cursed?!"

Behind the screaming Shin Seoyeon, Isera waved a bone and snorted. For whatever reason, the would-be Grim Reaper brought the bone straight to the back of her head every time Shin Seoyeon glared fiercely at me and raised her voice.

She flinched.

Then, perhaps because she had run out of mana, Isera scampered off into the shadows to hide. I watched the whole sequence with a sour expression, then turned to Shin Seoyeon.

"So, Seoyeon, what was it you wanted to say to me earlier?"

"…I don't know."

Protecting the back of her head, Shin Seoyeon cautiously answered while nervously looking around.

"Shin Seoyeon?"

"Ah, don't talk to me. Damn it."

"……."

She probably wouldn't be yapping with that mouth for a while.

"Well, it seems our conversation is over, so let's get moving again."

***

We continued deeper into the monastery ruins.

The Saintess had more or less regained her composure, so we weren't running desperately anymore.

I unfolded the map, then sharply turned a corner. Doorways appeared at intervals on either side.

Creak. Creak.

Some doors were intact, but most had collapsed and gathered dust, making it immediately obvious that this place had been abandoned for a long time.

"Hmm, skeletons are getting hard to find now. Sis, is there anything over there?"

"No. I guess we've gotten out of the dangerous section."

Shin Seoyeon and the Saintess followed behind me, peeking into the rooms. I warned them.

"Looking around is fine, but don't make it so obvious. I saw quite a few rooms with skeletons wandering around as I passed through."

"Huh, really?"

Our kind, diligent Saintess immediately abandoned her curiosity and stopped peeking into the rooms at my single warning.

Shin Seoyeon started to argue with me, then flinched and protected the back of her head.

"What are you doing?"

"…Don't ask."

They say a beating is the best medicine, and that certainly applied here.

"Black Dick, where are you going, anyway? This isn't the path down to the lower floor."

I was a little impressed.

I had only unfolded the map briefly from time to time, yet in those fleeting moments she had grasped our route while pretending not to be interested.

'Shin Seoyeon is surprisingly clever.'

She was especially sharp at reading the room and assessing situations. Well, she had to be that quick-witted to keep everyone around her under her thumb.

I answered simply.

"Somewhere to rest."

"Somewhere to rest?"

"Ah, I see! You're planning to set up a campsite like we did in the tutorial!"

I nodded.

Either way, we'd been traveling for five hours. It was already seven o'clock. It would be best to wrap up the day and prepare for sleep.

'Nighttime in a trial area buffs monsters. In some cases, there are even special creatures that only appear at night.'

That's why players don't venture out at night. They hide and rest, or if circumstances make that impossible, run through the night until dawn breaks.

'This is a dungeon, so the buffs are always active.'

That's why dungeons are more difficult than fields.

In any case, we now had to find a place to sleep, since sleep couldn't be fully replaced by [Recovery Authority].

"So where are you thinking of camping? Is there a decent place?"

"I'm looking now."

We wandered onward through the cursed monastery beneath the earth, so sealed in on every side that night and day were indistinguishable.

In truth, this was my first time here too, so I had no idea what was where.

All I had was the experience of spending ten years risking my life on the move, etched vividly into my mind and manifesting as instinct. It let me instinctively identify and skip dangerous sections.

Sometimes feeling along the walls and sometimes dealing with skeletons on patrol, we wandered for about two hours before it happened.

'Hmm?'

Patter-patter-patter.

Though no footsteps could be heard, Isera began darting ahead with nimble steps that should have made plenty of noise.

She beckoned for us to follow.

"Huh? What is it? Why are you suddenly running, Black Dick?"

Her sprint didn't last long. After racing straight ahead, Isera dove into the darkness and vanished from sight without a trace. Even [All-Seeing Eye] couldn't see her.

'Then there's only one reason.'

I also ran into the darkness, crouched down, and felt along the wall.

"What is it? Is there something there?"

"Just a moment."

…Found it.

A long corridor. The stretches between intersections were unusually long, leaving patches untouched by the blue light of the stone statues standing at each corner.

A small dog hole had been set into one wall, where the darkness lay thick.

"Ms. Hana, could you hold my backpack for a moment?"

The opening was unmistakably man-made and just wide enough for one person to barely get through. Strangely, there was no dust on the floor at the entrance.

It meant someone used it often.

'Hup.'

I slipped inside. When I raised my head, I saw a faint light far away in the deep darkness.

'A door?'

A rectangular door stood aglow. Light leaked through the gap, suggesting there was some luminous object beyond it.

I approached carefully and opened the door.

Whoosh.

A painfully bright, almost icy light stung my eyes for a moment, then settled down. I looked out over a huge stone chamber bathed in a soft blue glow.

The grand chamber seemed to have once offered the monastery's residents a comfortable place to dine; tables and chairs stood forlornly all around it.

A neatly maintained waterway ran along one side, and clean water emerging from the wall flowed along it before disappearing somewhere.

Moss dripping with moisture had grown wild on the statues standing here and there, spreading a green tint.

And at the center of the enormous banquet hall, evoking a grand feast, there was a light.

The light was moonlight. It streamed in through a tiny hole at a dizzying height, softly illuminating the broad space.

The serene ruins, slowly eroded by centuries of wind and weather, blended warmly with the moonlight and gently embraced the stone chamber.

"Hey, what are you doing? Are we going in too?"

"Come in."

The others entered one by one, and Shin Seoyeon and the Saintess opened their eyes wide.

"Wow, what is this place for?"

"I guess it's a dining hall."

As I answered, I quickly moved along the wall, checking for danger. Fortunately, though there were countless rooms connected to this place, there were no back doors or side passages.

'The main entrance is… blocked.'

The main doorway was wide enough for four people to pass shoulder to shoulder, but it had collapsed as if struck by a tremendous impact, and rubble completely blocked the entrance.

'Judging by the traces, it hasn't been long.'

Seven days? Eight? It seemed about that long ago. The scorch marks scattered across the debris suggested that someone had attacked the upper part of the doorframe with a [Unique Ability] and brought it down.

'Since there's a dog hole, we can rest comfortably in here even with the main entrance blocked.'

No matter how abysmal the survival rate was here or how poor the conditions, people were fundamentally creatures that used their heads.

When making one's way through trials, one occasionally finds thoughtful preparations left by those who went ahead.

"Mr. Minjun, come over here! Someone left writing here!"

『We found the remains and are leaving this place first. The remains are in the depths, on the third underground floor… …We confirmed the water is safe to drink, and the entrance is only the dog hole you came through….』

"We'll make this our campsite."

"Are you sure it's safe here?"

"Yeah, absolutely."

Among the footprints left by skeletons on the floor, none looked recent.

If a monster was using the waterway to come and go, I couldn't say for certain, but the eyes I'd honed through ten years of hard experience found nothing unusual for now.

That was when I thought so.

'Hmm?'

Ten meters away, Isera urgently beckoned me over. Thinking I'd at least wash my hands in the water before leaving, I approached, but her gesture grew even more frantic.

'No way.'

Splash.

When I dipped my hand into the water, she began hopping in place and mouthing something or other. Unfortunately, her perfect [Stealth] meant I couldn't hear her, but by then I had figured it out.

'Ah, so that's it.'

Shing. I drew my sword, nicked my hand, and let some blood drip into the flowing water. Like ink spreading through water, a red aura slowly dispersed through it.

Roooar!

Something enormous burst out from the pitch-black opening in the waterway.

"Kyaaaah!"

"Fuck, what is that?!"

I rested my sword on my shoulder and immediately backed away as I answered.

"A Lake Worm."

"What the hell is that?!"

What else would it be?

"A fucking enormous water worm."

The long worm, easily two meters thick, raised its head and roared. Then it abruptly lowered its head and stared toward me.

'[Lakeside]'s raid boss, of all things, was coiled up here as a regular mob.'

It struck me anew.

Trial areas weren't called trial areas for nothing.

This was the sort of place where dropping your guard for even an instant meant you were finished on the spot.

And I'd come back to this goddamn place.

Roooar!

As if welcoming me back, the Lake Worm writhed its enormous body, opened its maw, and charged at me.

At our reunion after roughly ten years, I, too, gladly moved forward, sword in hand.