The cavern we were standing in—
Its floor, it seemed, was not ordinary ground.
“Look at this structure. See how these ridges interlock like this?”
“It’s a structure meant to confine something inside.”
Hearing the combat engineers, I checked the System window before my eyes once more.
[Having dug too deep, the Dwarven provoked something that had slumbered beneath the mine.]
[A great magical civilization and a vast empire that unified a world.]
[Thus did the Dwe Morzan fall in a single day.]
According to the System’s explanation, something deep in the mine destroyed a civilization strong enough to unify a world—wiped it out as it was.
“Something inside...”
“A powerful monster or something like that?”
At the soldiers’ question, the engineers tilted their heads.
“Well... it could be a monster.”
“But you can’t be certain from structure alone. It’s literally made so not even air can leak out.”
A mine that holds something so dangerous—something sealed so that not even air could escape—
“Is right beneath our feet.”
What is this.
Is this even crackable?
But we could not give up the raid.
Right after that came the text:
[The Dwarven civilization perished miserably, but the deep and broad mine still boasts an enormous amount of mana.]
[Possibly more than what they had mined before their fall!]
Inside there was still—
An enormous quantity of mana...
Exactly what we wanted.
“Sergeant Shin...”
The engineers’ chief, Corporal Lee Gongu, spoke with worried eyes.
“Raiding this place may be difficult.”
I looked at Corporal Gongu and asked, nodding with a sober expression.
“As expected—you’re worried about the ‘something’ that will be inside?”
“Sir? Ah. No. That worries us too, but...”
“Hm?”
Naturally, the “something” inside—
Unlike the other members who were gauging whether it could be defeated—
“To be honest, monsters are something the combat branch or you, Sergeant, can handle.”
“From our standpoint, a different issue is the problem.”
The reason the engineers hesitated over the raid lay elsewhere.
“We may not be able to get in at all.”
“Huh?”
“This seal is incredibly hard. With our current tech, no matter what we do, we can’t punch through.”
The production-branch Awakened were predicting that even attempting the raid would be impossible.
[Orichalcum for Sealing]
A mineral specialized for sealing something.
Judging from the engineers’ reaction, it was a material of considerable value.
Naturally, it would not be easy to breach.
“Ah, that’s what you meant.”
“Sir?”
“You don’t need to worry about that part. You know, right?”
However—
That was only in ordinary cases.
“Kkamang.”
When I called the name, from the shadow within my clothes—
—Kkiiing?
Kkamang revealed itself.
[Heteromorph — “Vein” That Devours Steel]
[Trait — Dominion Over Minerals]
[All kinds of minerals are nothing but prey to the Vein.]
[Can consume all kinds of minerals.]
[Can reinforce all kinds of minerals.]
[Can control all kinds of minerals.]
“Ah...!”
“We have the Vein.”
Unless some special sorcery has been laid on it, all minerals are just prey to Kkamang.
Sometimes, when we had to break through by having it consume other metalwork, I would call for Kkamang.
Having eaten the metalware I cooked, it had grown picky.
Whenever I fed it tasteless metal, it would get quite peevish.
But this time, it looked a bit different from usual.
—Kkiiing, kkiing!!!
Hm.
How should I put it—
“...It looks happy.”
“Right?”
If it wasn’t a griddle I had cooked, its reaction was always lukewarm.
The fact it showed this kind of reaction meant—
“This mineral is that high-quality... something like that.”
A super-delicious fruit, that kind of thing.
Even without being cooked, it had flavor comparable to a cooked dish.
“At any rate, you don’t need to worry about the drilling itself.”
“Understood.”
From the start, my worry was not that side.
“Is going inside the right call?”
This Gate was different from [Heavenly Mountain Martial Hall], where Seohwan and Miho had stayed.
It was the same in that the ruined world drifted in space.
But here...
“The System is openly telling us dangerous factors remain.”
Still, it was too wasteful to give up.
“A mine where manastone had been mined without end.”
What we need—
An enormous quantity of mana—should be in there.
“Sergeant Shin...”
“What will you do?”
I could feel the soldiers’ gazes converging on me.
I racked my brain as hard as I could, but the conclusion was simple.
“If this were something we mustn’t do, Taejun would have warned us.”
Good omen, or ill omen.
When something good—or bad—was going to happen, Taejun, whose ability had grown drastically, always informed us.
That he hadn’t this time meant—
“Not fortunate, but... not bad either.”
If so, the worst-case scenario shouldn’t be on the table.
“Kkamang.”
—Kkiiing.
Feeding it something that wasn’t my cooking—
It did hurt my pride.
“If {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} it looks tasty, eat.”
“Kkiiing!”
“...Though it’ll still taste worse than my cooking!”
As soon as the one who usually feeds it—me—gave permission—
Crunch!
The mineral our unit’s engineers, who wield tremendous firepower, had declared absolutely impenetrable—
“Orichalcum for Sealing”—crumbled helplessly.
****
A different kind of seal than the one guarding the sealed cave in Heavenly Mountain Martial Hall.
If it was a wall with no sorcery laid on it, merely unimaginably hard and sturdy, it could not resist Kkamang’s [Dominion Over Minerals].
As Kkamang burrowed downward, its body grew larger and larger, and the hole grew with it.
“...Hm.”
“It looks like it’s growing enormous... is that okay?”
From kitten size.
To adult cat.
Then fox... wolf... tiger.
“This ‘seal.’”
Beyond the largest size it had shown since joining our unit—
A giant bear.
And then—
“How thick is this.”
The creature’s form transformed all the way to the giant monstrosity from when we first met.
Goooo...
From the cry of the thing drilling into the earth, I felt tremendous intimidation.
When I was a low-level Awakened, I couldn’t feel it.
As my level rose and I became sensitive to mana, I came to know for certain.
“Kkamang... is a far more dangerous monster than I thought.”
Even if it transformed to the same size as when we first met, we have sufficient manpower here, and we are stronger than back then.
We won’t lose.
But—
“If it grows bigger than that... that’s another question.”
It struck me anew.
This was precisely—
“The reason our unit still does not free-feed Kkamang.”
Where the limit of its growth lay—
Our unit still did not know.
How powerful a monster it would be if it grew to the maximum—
For now, it was beyond imagining.
“If it looks like it will grow beyond this... restrain it for the moment.”
“Yes.”
“Understood.”
I imagined that creature, grown to the maximum, turning its tremendous strength against our unit.
A bit of a chill ran down my back.
Thankfully—
—Goooo!!!
“...Oh?”
The creature, which had kept chewing through the wall as it descended, let out a cry of delight.
The voice itself brimmed with intimidation, but the feeling in it was the same as when it rejoiced at being fed a griddle I had made.
Crack!
I heard the sound of one last, enormous bite.
Then—
Thud... thud...
Kkamang climbed back up along the wall it had devoured.
—Goooo...
“...”
Among the powerful monsters we had met so far, this one’s power ranked among the top.
Even though the number of personnel inside the cavern was considerable, I felt as if we were a little overshadowed by its presence.
—Goooo.
The creature, transformed into a massive bulk, happily thrust its head forward.
To be honest, it was a little scary.
“...Yeah, you little punk! Good job!”
—Goo!
I rubbed that solid head and felt a small relief inside.
“I’ll make you lots of tasty food later!”
No matter how big it gets, this one—
Give it food and it’s happy... it might stay that same Kkamang.
That thought came to me a little.
“The thickness it drilled through... at a glance, the depth looks to be over thirty meters.”
Meanwhile, soldiers moved toward the wall Kkamang had broken.
They looked down into the hole and spoke.
“To seal it this thick...”
“What’s inside.”
That mineral said to be unbelievably hard—
They had blocked with it not thirty centimeters, but thirty meters of thickness.
“Well... it bothers me too.”
We were going in anyway.
If so—
No need to hesitate.
“If it bothers you that much—”
“Uh...?”
“Sergeant Shin?”
As the soldiers hesitated, I stepped between them.
“Why not check directly?”
“...!”
“Are you insane...!”
I hurled myself into the hole.
I heard the soldiers’ startled voices behind me.
Whatever.
Over thirty meters of depth.
But the physical capabilities of Awakened had surpassed human limits long ago.
Tap.
The impact from the fall of a person under a hundred kilos—
I could withstand it without issue.
“S-Sergeant Shin!”
“Are you all right!”
The soldiers shouted from far above.
After quickly checking the surroundings, I answered their voices.
“Yeah, I’m fine!”
Thankfully—
Inside, for the moment, there seemed to be nothing.
To begin with—
It wasn’t that I jumped in without thinking.
“They said they had provoked something deep below.”
If this Gate truly was an underground mine, then this was probably Basement Level 1.
“Considering the world perished due to ‘something in the depths’...”
I guessed this place would be relatively less dangerous.
“Weren’t you startled...!”
“Well, thanks to Sergeant Shin, it’s a fact there’s no immediate danger...”
“Let’s call it a relief.”
Just as I guessed, there was no sign of life around me.
“If there’s a problem, it’s that it’s so dark I can’t see anything.”
The other soldiers should have lights on their gear.
Once they came down, we should turn on lights and check the area.
“Kept you waiting.”
“Oh, you’re here.”
With that thought, I was waiting for the next soldier to come down.
“Really... next time, please leave this kind of dangerous job to us, not the Corps Comm—gaaahhh—!”
“...!?”
The soldier who came down after me let out a scream of pain.
Seeing that, a chill ran up my spine and I sprinted toward him.
“There wasn’t no danger after all!”
I hurled my body and shoved the descending soldier upward.
“Uh, uh?”
“Sergeant? Did something happen down—”
“Everyone, climb back up! Get him out too!”
The soldiers rappelling down the wall seemed not to know what had happened below.
Flustered, they started climbing back up.
“Take this.”
While sending the suffering soldier upward, I yanked the light hanging from his chest.
“Byungmin, sorry.”
“S-Sergeant Shin...? What is...”
“I judged wrong.”
As other soldiers tended the suffering soldier upward, I looked up and shouted to them.
“Once you’re up, seal this entrance for now!”
“Sir? Then you, Sergeant Shin...”
“I’ll be right behind. Don’t worry. Call a priest and a healer and get treatment. Leave the remaining judgment to the squad leaders up top.”
After relaying the orders, I turned on the light to illuminate the surroundings.
“There wasn’t no danger.”
I had rashly only checked for signs of life and decided there was no danger.
An absurd misjudgment.
“It just wasn’t visible...”
When I lit up the surroundings, the first thing I saw was—
“Corpses...”
Around me, bodies piled like mountains, rotting away.
[Ingredient Appraisal (Enhanced)]
And...
Tiny, minute particles floating in the air.
[Corpse Miasma of Those Who Could Not Properly Die]
[A toxic miasma emitted as a dead body decays.]
[For reasons unknown, those who could not properly die repeated endless decay and resentment.]
[That decay and resentment, stimulated by something, manifested as an extremely potent toxin.]
[With many beings’ resentments mixed together, its essence is hard to grasp, but it is potent enough that ordinary living creatures could lose their lives in an instant...]
[Before attempting to cook, it is etiquette to first ask the guest whether they have resistance to poison... If resistance is confirmed, then first...]
The corpses piled around me—
From those bodies emanated an enormous quantity of corpse miasma.
“So this was it.”
This was why the soldier who followed me down suddenly cried out in pain.
No—
It would be a relief if that were all.
Thud... thud...
Kieeeek...
Bizarre sounds came from deeper within.
“They did say ‘those who could not properly die,’ right?”
This underground mine was filled with the miasma of corpses—and with unknown monsters.
