This is...
how should I put it.
“A CBRN suit.”
“As expected of you, Sergeant Shin!”
“Hehe. The Corps Commander recognizes it at a glance.”
“Huh? Uh? Uh...”
I mean—
how could you not recognize this...?
‘PTSD incoming.’
Back in recruit training.
The CBRN drill at basic.
You put on a gas mask and go into the chamber and suffer every kind of hell.
‘Mine must’ve been defective; even properly fitted, gas leaked in...’
I clenched my teeth thinking everyone had it just as bad.
Turned out later it was defective.
My boot camp mates asked how I’d even endured it...
‘Ahem. Anyway.’
For someone like me with that kind of trauma—and, honestly, for most ROK soldiers ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) it’s unforgettable attire...
“Of course it isn’t the standard issue suit exactly as-is.”
—or so it seemed.
“Thanks to the Corps Commander’s skimm—”
“Ahem. Watch it.”
“...Thanks to efficient recycling! We’re swimming in materials, aren’t we?”
Combat Rations for city survivors.
When they brought us monster byproducts,
if they didn’t ask for them back, we recycled them efficiently.
“When materials pile up, the next step is obvious.”
“Ha... we tried this and that and ended up with a bunch of prototypes.”
There are three who oversee production:
blacksmith Grandpa Park, Corporal Lee Gongu of the engineers,
and Team Lead Lee Sanga, who just finished warning the troops.
They’ve always proven their value.
No way they’d sit idle just because they had some breathing room.
While the combat troops were fighting hard,
the production troops were anything but idle.
“The uniforms we issue to regular soldiers are already made with everything we’ve got. I dare say they’re all top-tier pieces, but...”
“What nagged at me is that those assume normal conditions.”
The world flipped overnight.
Any stable area could turn into a [Dungeon] at any time.
In special conditions,
you need gear fit for those conditions.
“That’s this.”
[Ingredient Appraisal (Enhanced)]
[Joint work of an Intermediate Tailor, an Intermediate Engineer, and an Intermediate Blacksmith — Legion-Issue Protective Suit Set (Prototype No. 1)]
Recognized by the System—
a bona fide item.
And its effects...
[Lowest-Grade Miasma Resistance]
[You resist miasma and reduce its intensity. You gain immunity to miasma at or below a certain threshold.]
“Good lord.”
A miasma-resistance trait—
exactly what we need most right now.
“Truth is, we only recently succeeded at making the suit.”
“Heh heh. Good timing.”
Team Lead Lee Sanga spreads the suit out and begins to explain.
“We set aside materials from monsters with specific high resistances and tried using them to make specialized gear like this.”
“Monsters that wield poison tend to possess resistance to miasma, too. Like the [Venom-Insect Cron]...”
The Venom-Insect Cron was that centipede-like monster we ran into during the breakout from the Mountain Range unit.
As the name says, it carried venom.
Same with the plant parasitizing my arm,
the [Nepenthes].
A miasma that melts whatever it touches.
Conversely, that implies they possess organs that can withstand it—
strong enough to avoid harming their host.
If I were to cook up an anti-miasma dish,
I’d have used a poison-using monster.
“As a baseline... as long as it isn’t stronger than the Venom-Insect Cron’s venom, this should handle it.”
Obviously,
its performance leaves a standard CBRN suit in the dust.
“We also made a few pouches that temporarily block miasma. If we use those... not a lot, but we could carry some of your Combat Rations inside. To get the effects, though, you’d have to open it and eat immediately before any miasma gets on it.”
“...Ha. Unreal.”
I think this every time:
the truly busted class in this world isn’t any combat class.
It’s these folks.
[Lee Sanga]
[Lv.27 — Intermediate Tailor]
[Park Daesan]
[Lv.26 — Intermediate Blacksmith]
[Lee Gongu]
[Lv.26 — Intermediate Engineer]
‘Production, baby...!’
****
“Huff...”
Low, steady breathing.
Soldiers in gas masks and protective suits
feel their way down the wall, carefully descending underground.
Thud.
The first soldier to reach the floor
draws a cautious breath.
Sss...
Then,
eyes wide, he shouts:
“S-sir, I’m fine!”
The protective suit the production crew made
blocked the miasma saturating this underground.
‘It is impressive.’
I’m wearing one too, just in case.
Stat-wise it’s a bit below my usual uniform,
but in this environment, it’s clearly far superior.
‘And not just that.’
At my waist
hangs a small pouch.
[Protective Pouch]
[A pouch made from the venom sac of a beast with potent toxicity. Blocks external miasma.]
One pouch to keep miasma out.
And inside it is an anti-miasma dish I cooked.
‘The moment you open it, miasma will invade, so we only get one use.’
It’d be great if we had a lot of these pouches,
but we’ve rarely culled poison-using monsters; we could issue roughly one per head.
A few soldiers didn’t get one at all.
If a pouchless soldier runs into trouble, we’ll pull a Combat Ration from someone else’s pouch and fix it—that’s the plan.
‘A shame we couldn’t bring Kkamang, one of our main battle assets.’
Given that it grows in size the more iron it eats,
there’s no clothing it can wear, so we had to leave it behind.
Now that it’s grown, we’ll have to restrict its diet for a while.
‘This suit alone should be enough in most cases, but...’
I recall what the production Awakened told me.
—It’s a prototype, first and foremost.
—Huh?
—It’ll perfectly block miasma below a certain level... above that, it’ll start to leak. It will still reduce the miasma to a degree, though.
—Will it really leak?
—We heard this dungeon is a deep underground mine. The deeper you go, the more the miasma will stack and intensify. Be careful. If it starts penetrating the suit, that’s when you eat the Sergeant’s dish and pull out.
The Combat Ration in this pouch is for when the suit gets breached:
to cure the miasma while we retreat upward.
Something to save for the last moment.
Anyway.
That’s if it gets breached.
“Ahem.”
I test my range of motion.
As expected of gear made by our guild’s people, it’s fairly comfortable to move in.
In that case—
Grin.
“All right... let’s go in.”
“Loyalty, loyalty!!!”
And with that,
the clear begins.
****
The [Underground Mine] is a place with a massive central shaft
and a spiral passage winding down around it.
The source of this miasma is likely far below,
so we start descending that spiral passage.
“By the way...”
“Makes me curious what this place was for.”
Tunk, tunk.
Some soldiers look around,
others rap on the wall.
“Not steel... something far harder.”
I too
study the smooth wall that doesn’t fit the word mine.
[Ingredient Appraisal (Enhanced)]
[Orichalcum for Rituals]
Turns out this wall
is made of the same material as the thick barrier that sealed the opening above.
Whether it’s for sealing or for ritual use is the difference.
“To lay this over an area this vast.”
“How powerful was their civilization?”
According to the production Awakened,
this mineral, orichalcum, is quite precious and highly effective.
Yet they not only capped this place with it in a thickness of tens of meters and an area of at least hundreds of square meters,
they even papered every interior wall with it.
‘Once we deal with this miasma, we’ll skim—’
No.
We’ll recycle it.
The status window said they were a civilization powerful enough to subjugate an entire world.
That means they could throw around rare materials like this.
But, well—
“No need to get spooked.”
It’s another world’s story.
For all we know, the other races’ tech in that world could’ve been Paleolithic.
Even if the strongest civilization of that world perished,
it doesn’t mean we’re weaker than they were.
My unit and I descend without hesitation.
After who knows how long—
—GrrrOOOAAUGH...
“...!”
“That sound...”
A heavy bellow
rolling up from far below.
“Guess we’re close.”
An otherworldly presence lingering in this Gate—
a monster, surely.
What nags at me is this:
‘The civilization that built this mine ruled its world, and it perished.’
If so,
with that civilization entirely gone now—
‘What exactly are the living things left inside?’
With that question in mind,
we head toward the source of the monster’s cry.
Then—
—GrrrOOOAAUGH...!
In the distance,
we spot a grotesque living thing loosing a heavy scream.
[Ingredient Appraisal (Enhanced)]
[Ougar of Great Strength]
[Freshness — Lowest]
A monster whose appearance is grotesqueness itself.
It looks over four meters tall, with thick molars jutting out past its lips.
But
that alone wasn’t what made it monstrous.
The problem...
“Machinery...?”
...was the unidentified mechanical devices
glued to its limbs, burrowed into its flesh.
“Urgh...”
“Grotesque.”
At the sight of those hideous machines,
the soldiers grimace.
Like someone was toying with life itself.
‘I don’t know the details... but it sure doesn’t look like a peaceful creature.’
In that case,
our task is one:
“Commence the hunt!”
“Kiiieeek!”
Weapons ready, the soldiers scream and charge the monster.
I, too, grip a chef’s knife
and move to strike from its rear.
THOOM!!!
—GrrrOOOAAAUUUGH!!!
“Kh!”
“Everyone be careful! It hits hard!”
As the soldiers rush,
the monster swings its massive arm and lashes out.
Tank-class Awakened step up and block.
Watching its attacks, I think:
‘It’s strong, sure...’
A direct hit from that...
and you’re not walking it off.
However—
‘We’re stronger.’
The instant the monster sweeps at my people,
I don’t miss the opening behind the strike.
Pap!
A big move leaves a big gap.
I dive into it as fast as I can.
And—
[You obtain the Advanced Culinary Secret — ‘Insight into Butchering the Ougar’.]
[Butchering Method for the Ougar of Great Strength]
[Martial Art — Food]
Following the butchering method flaring in my mind,
I move my knife with the subtlety of the martial art I’ve learned.
For its heart,
Old Master’s Nine Cuts drives in along the optimal line.
Pffshk!
The sensation of the blade burrowing into flesh.
By now, I’m familiar enough with this craft to be sure:
that thrust
pierced its heart.
‘Strange specimen or not, that’s the end.’
Thinking the fight over,
I leisurely pull a rag from my pouch
to wipe the blood from my knife, when—
“Sergeant Shin!”
“Get clear!”
“...!?”
The soldiers’ shout of warning.
At that,
a chill runs down my spine—
and I hurl myself aside.
KRA-KA-BOOM!
A massive fist slams down
exactly where I’d been.
‘What the—!?’
I’ve seen a lot lately,
but this rattled me, honestly.
“I definitely pierced the heart—how!?”
It’s not a monster with a different weak point.
Per the [Butchering Method],
a stab to the heart is fatal to this species.
‘And the point of the method is to dress the meat slowly after that...!’
But—
instead of dying,
it fights on like my cut didn’t even register.
‘Come to think of it...’
Only then
do I notice one detail.
The text in [Ingredient Appraisal].
One line reads... that thing is—
[Freshness — Lowest]
“...Freshness: Lowest.”
Freshness, yes,
but the term carries a lot of different meanings.
For living creatures,
I’ve seen “Freshness — Medium” when they’re in truly horrible condition.
But—
Lowest is a different story.
“Damn it, everyone be careful!”
“That thing...!”
Meaning—
“It’s already dead!”
The monsters in this mine—
were already dead.
