Chapter 649
Bang! Bang!
The sound of someone pounding on the door from early dawn made Zeon frown as he opened his eyes.
“Who is it?”
If it were Levin or Brielle, there would be no need for them to knock like that. They could simply open the door and come in.
Which meant the person knocking now was definitely an outsider.
Having his deep sleep interrupted, Zeon opened the door with an irritated expression.
“Who is it at this hour—”
“Zeon!”
At that moment, a blood-covered woman stumbled inside.
“Who?”
“It’s me, Giselle.”
“Giselle? From Jang Yongbeom’s raid party?”
“That’s right!”
The blood-covered figure was none other than Giselle, who had returned to Neo Seoul through the portal.
The moment she entered Neo Seoul, she had run straight to Zeon’s residence.
She had come without even washing, so dried blood and sand clung to her body, but she did not care.
“What brings you here at this hour, Lady Giselle?”
“Please save our raid party.”
“What?”
“The raid party is on the verge of annihilation. We need your help.”
“What are you talking about?”
“There’s no time to explain here. I’ll tell you on the way. Please help us.”
“I understand.”
Without asking further questions, Zeon stood up.
When he had first awakened, he had almost been eaten by a sandworm.
The ones who had saved him then were Jang Yongbeom and his party members.
They had not saved him out of pure goodwill, but regardless, they were still his lifesavers.
More importantly, he had worked with Jang Yongbeom’s raid party several times and knew most of its members.
He could not turn away knowing they were in danger.
Just as Zeon put on his robe and was about to head outside—
“Huh? Hyung!”
“Where are you going at this hour?”
Levin and Brielle had just returned home and happened to run into him.
“It seems Lord Jang Yongbeom’s raid party is in danger. I’m going to help them.”
“Really? Then I’m coming too.”
“I’m going as well.”
Levin and Brielle followed Zeon as though it were only natural.
Zeon looked at Giselle.
“It’s okay if they come too, right?”
“I appreciate it, but it’ll be dangerous.”
“Sounds like it’s pretty serious.”
“I told you. Our raid party is on the verge of being wiped out.”
At Giselle’s answer, Zeon looked at the two.
“You heard her. It’ll be very dangerous.”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m going with you, Hyung.”
“I’m fine too.”
Levin and Brielle answered as though they saw no problem at all.
The two had already followed Zeon through countless adventures.
For those who had survived battlefields so dangerous that ordinary people could never even imagine them, Giselle’s warning barely registered.
Zeon spoke to Giselle.
“Let’s just go together.”
“Alright. We don’t have time, so let’s head straight to the portal.”
Giselle hurried toward the portal.
Following behind her, Zeon asked Levin and Brielle,
“You don’t need to prepare anything separately, right?”
“Of course not. I always keep my spatial backpack fully stocked.”
Levin grinned and patted the spatial backpack on his back.
Brielle touched her pointed hat and answered,
“Pretty much everything I need is inside here, so there’s no need to prepare anything else.”
“Good.”
Zeon nodded.
He himself had also stored a large amount of supplies in his subspace.
Thanks to that, he could easily survive for two or three months without any additional preparation.
Together with Giselle, they crossed through the portal to Steel Fortress.
Without resting for a moment, Giselle immediately tried to head into the desert.
It was clear how desperate she was.
But even if they were leaving, it would be a problem for her to go out in her current condition.
“Wait.”
Brielle stopped Giselle.
“Why?”
“Just wait a moment.”
Brielle immediately summoned Lili.
When a translucent spirit appeared before her eyes, Giselle widened her eyes in surprise.
“Lili! Clean her up.”
—Okay!
Lili immediately stirred up wind and blew away all the filth clinging to Giselle’s body.
Once Giselle was clean, Brielle handed her a potion.
“Drink this too.”
“My injuries have healed somewhat.”
“At that condition, you’ll collapse before long. Just drink it.”
Giselle was not fully healed.
She had merely received emergency treatment and could collapse at any moment.
She was enduring through sheer willpower, but there was no telling when her wounds might burst open again.
“Thank you.”
Knowing that herself, Giselle drank the potion Brielle handed her.
Instantly, the scabbed wounds healed completely, and her fatigue melted away like snow.
The potion Brielle gave her possessed effects on a completely different level from the recipe released to the public.
Naturally, its effectiveness was incomparable.
Most of Giselle’s injuries healed in an instant.
Not stopping there, Brielle pulled a robe out of her subspace and tossed it to Giselle.
“Wear this. It has defensive magic on it, so it’s better than most armor.”
“Thank you. I’ll definitely repay this debt.”
Wiping away her tears, Giselle removed her ruined armor and put on the robe Brielle had given her.
Only then did her expression calm considerably.
“We have a long journey ahead. Everyone should prepare yourselves.”
“Don’t worry about us and just get moving.”
Brielle said with a smirk.
Giselle nodded and stepped into the desert.
Once they had moved a fair distance from Steel Fortress, Zeon spoke.
“Now tell us. What happened?”
“We entered the dungeon. It was unlike any dungeon we had ever cleared before.”
“What kind of dungeon was it?”
“I don’t know.”
“What?”
“There were so many different things mixed together that I couldn’t distinguish it. Normally, a dungeon only has one type, right? Like a fiery hell, a snowfield, a city, or a rainforest.”
“Are you saying that dungeon had everything mixed together?”
“It was like some kind of giant variety gift set.”
Zeon frowned.
Her description was definitely strange.
Dungeons were spaces created when fragments of Kurayan became trapped within dimensional rifts.
Naturally, maintaining a dungeon required an enormous amount of energy, which was why most dungeons had only a single form.
Maintaining multiple environments consumed an equally enormous amount of energy.
Unless it had an exceptionally powerful boss or core, a dungeon generally possessed only one form.
“Did you identify the dungeon boss?”
“No. We never even saw it.”
“Could it have been a place without a boss?”
“No. One of the monsters we killed was an undead knight.”
“And?”
“The undead knight said we would be executed for entering the Lord’s domain.”
“The Lord?”
“That means there’s a being above it, doesn’t it? Then that person is the dungeon boss, right?”
“That would make sense.”
Zeon nodded.
“The monsters that appeared were so diverse that I can’t even list them all. Medium and large monsters were everywhere. There were undead, even elves. There were humans too.”
“Humans as well?”
“They were definitely humans.”
At Giselle’s firm answer, Zeon furrowed his brow.
She had no reason to lie or make things up, so it had to be true.
“The problem is that an apocalypse is happening inside that dungeon.”
“An apocalypse? Explain in detail.”
“Sorry. I can’t remember anything beyond that.”
“What?”
“It’s like someone cut my memories out with scissors. I can’t remember anything after that.”
“What do you mean? Then how did you escape the dungeon?”
“That too... I can’t remember. When I came to my senses, I was already outside.”
“What else?”
“That’s... I can’t remember.”
A confused expression appeared on Giselle’s face.
After watching her for a moment, Brielle whispered to Zeon,
“It seems like someone tampered with her mind, or something went wrong when she forced her way out.”
“Hmm.”
Zeon nodded.
Normally, one could only leave a dungeon by killing the boss or destroying the core.
According to everything Zeon knew, leaving midway through a dungeon was impossible.
At least, that was common sense.
The fact that Giselle had escaped alone safely contradicted that common sense.
When something like that happened, there was a high chance that some unseen force had intervened.
Levin seemed to have reached the same conclusion and looked at Giselle with a serious expression.
Giselle still appeared confused.
Zeon spoke to Brielle and Levin.
“This doesn’t seem like an ordinary dungeon, so prepare yourselves carefully. Especially stay alert against mental manipulation-type skills. If things go wrong, you could end up like her.”
“Don’t worry. As long as I’m wearing this hat, mental manipulation-type skills won’t work on me.”
Brielle laughed as she tapped her pointed hat.
After returning to the High Elf village, she had enhanced the hat’s abilities.
Its subspace had become even larger, and she had inscribed a shield magic circle into it.
The shield magic circle she created was extremely special, protecting not only against most physical attacks but also against mental manipulation-type skills.
Pointing to his ear, Levin said,
“Don’t worry about me either. I happened to get something good.”
“An earring?”
“Yeah. I got it from a dungeon. It strengthens mental power, so it should defend against mental manipulation skills to some extent.”
“You got yourself a good item.”
“I got lucky.”
“Then that’s fine.”
Zeon smiled.
In the past, he had needed to take care of everything for them.
But now both of them had grown tremendously and no longer needed his help.
Whenever he had time away from running the problem-solving office, Levin joined the Awakened of the Underground City to clear dungeons and hunt monsters.
As a result, the abilities of the Underground City Awakened had improved greatly as well.
The earring hanging from his ear was an item he had obtained after clearing a dungeon with them.
It granted fatigue recovery and enhanced mental strength.
That was why Levin was not particularly worried about mental manipulation skills.
Zeon looked at Giselle.
She was striding fearlessly across the vast desert.
Zeon asked her,
“Do you know the way to the dungeon?”
“I remember it perfectly. Just follow me.”
“You remember it surprisingly well. It’s not easy to memorize the terrain of the desert.”
“Did you forget? I’m a mage. Once I’ve seen or been somewhere, I never forget it.”
“That’s fortunate.”
Zeon nodded.
Unless one possessed abilities specialized for the desert like his own or had a special skill such as Navigator, finding one’s way through the desert was by no means easy.
There was a reason guides were hired for such high prices.
Giselle’s exceptional memory substituted for all those skills.
Though she occasionally lost her bearings and wandered briefly, she still managed to lead Zeon’s group safely to the dungeon.
“We’re here! But...”
Upon arriving at the dungeon, Giselle frowned.
“What is it?”
“The people guarding the dungeon entrance are gone.”
“They were supposed to be here?”
“I told them to stay and guard it until I returned in case anything happened.”
They looked around, but there was no sign anywhere of the Awakened who had been guarding the entrance.
“Something must have happened while they were away from their posts.”
“Damn it! They’re not the kind of people who’d abandon their positions without my orders.”
“Let’s search the area first. If we still can’t find them, we’ll enter the dungeon.”
“Okay.”
The four immediately spread out and began searching for the missing guards.
Some time later—
“Zeon!”
Brielle called out to him in a low voice.
Comments