Chapter 71

Dungeon Break (3)

“Rip them all up!”

Kwaaa!

In the interior, and out of view from the guilds, where the dungeon break was in progress, giant-like, humanoid, white-skinned monsters appeared. These beasts were in a frenzy but could only come near the gate and could not move out of the border, causing them to be more riled up as they rushed towards the gate.

Three people, and a corpse, blocked their path.

Boom! Boo-boom!

Rumble! Crush!

A mountain-like giant being, covered with black scales, came down from the sky. It hacked, ripped, and made the white giants explode without mercy. Right beside it was a vacuum made by a mixed explosion of lightning, ice, flame, and blast that made the monsters inside that area blow away into dust.

Beyond that, among the white waves, which came in groups like a herd of water buffalo in the dry season, purple storms blew continuously, and energy bullets were carpet-bombed. It met the white waves, red bubbles boiled, and a mountain of flesh was formed every time it met the white waves.

Amid the fierce battle, suddenly, one person shouted, “Oh, there’s one running away!”

Right away, the instructions come back.

“It’s small! Let those little ones be! The waves are gradually getting stronger, so we can’t help but miss a few from now on. They’ll take care of those that escaped outside from Earth.”

I add a word, “However, we have to stop the big guys from leaving. The screening criteria is this guy I just chopped up. Okay?”

“Alright!”

“Yes!”

*

About 30 minutes had passed since the gate appeared. At this point, there were opinions that hunters should enter the gate and take pre-emptive attacks, but they were rejected by the government, who had the final say.

High-ranking officials expressed reluctance, fearing that they would take responsibility if something went wrong after taking a method that no one had tried before. Among the guidelines they referred to, there was no sending the hunters first to the breaking gate.

A call went out, “Oh, something’s coming out!”

“Tsk, it’s finally starting.”

“Everyone, get ready for battle!”

While everyone was staring at the gate with weapons, a giant creature popped through the door!

“What is…. that?”

“It’s new!”

It was a giant. It was about five meters in height—a bare and scrawny thing, naked with pale white skin and visible blue blood vessels. Black body fluid bubbled down in the pitch-black pupils, without the whites’ distinction and the black in the eyes. The white cheeks were covered with layers of tar-like tear stains. The giant screamed as soon as it stepped out of the gate. The sound was high and sharp.

“Kyaaaaaaaa!”

When the scream had violated everyone’s ears…

Pat! The giant disappeared from the spot.

‘We missed it!’

As most hunters felt a sense of failure…Boo-boom!

The defensive barrier behind the first defense line fluctuated with great shock. In front of it was a giant who twisted its limbs in the air in strange directions and stuck itself to a white wall, as if it were miming.

Grand Croix Guild Hunter, close to the Barrier, ran to the giant with a sword.

Swish! He aimed at its neck, but because the giant pulled itself out, long arms, like dry branches, sprang up into the sky instead. The Hunter, who flung his sword close to it, covered himself with the blood of a giant.

Bllrgh!

“Arrrgh! Save… me!”

The Hunter’s whole body, covered in blood, began to swell like a balloon. As cancer cells increased, the flesh covered it at a wicked speed. His nose and mouth were so swollen that he couldn’t breathe because of the fat on his cheeks and chin.

Kim Kyung-Rok, who caught the idea that this was an abnormality due to magic, quickly ordered, “Potion!”

Tssss!

The Hunter’s body went back to its original state when his colleague poured a recovery potion over his body. In the meantime, the giant, who was fleeing in the other direction with one arm blown away, once again collided violently with the Barrier.

Coo-oong!

Other hunters did not miss this opportunity. Instead of rushing in, the close-range types threw sword energies from afar, and wizards actively sent out spells.

After a few seconds, there was no flesh or drop of blood in the place where the giant was located, but only a burnt and scorched mark was left.

Dash!

Seo Moon-Ga-In flew in and landed in front of the giant’s cut arm, which remained intact. They were in combat, but she had to hurry to identify it before the next one came.

‘Out of all the times, it’s a new type during a break!’

She took an [Collection] item out of her arms. An item that identified the property of a living monster that [Analysis] couldn’t. When she breathed Mana on it, the book began to float in the air and automatically passed the pages. The inside was all empty pages, but one of the pages separated from the book and floated in front of the severed arm.

Watching the scene, Seo Moon-Ga-In prayed desperately inside.

‘Please, I wish the explanation is kind!’

There were many cases where system messages often said only a part of the fact or explained in a sly way that tricked the reader.

Tsssss!

Black smoke came out of the pale arm, and it took a certain form and filled the blank page with black letters.

It was an Archid script.

[Analysis!]

She interpreted it with magic because she couldn’t read it as it was. Seo Moon-Ga-In immediately shared the following content with all the hunters.

[Plague Giant]

– At every step they pass by, a plague spreads, and at the place where they fall, there is even more death. Each time the monster breathes, spores cultured in the lungs spread through the air, causing demonic diseases. Be aware that direct contact with the tissues and blood of the monster will trigger a powerful effect that is incomparable to that transmitted through the air.

The power of the plague they bear becomes stronger as the individual ages. The plague giant grows bigger as they age, but on the contrary, it is not difficult to distinguish them since it moves faster and becomes more durable.

Hunters frowned at the explanations. Its identity was a monster that scattered disease through the air just by breathing and doing nothing.

“If it’s a demonic plague, we have to stop it with Mana Barrier, right?”

“I figured that ever since it got out of the gate, we’ve been consuming Mana a little bit faster. Even when still!”

“Mana Barrier blocks the spores that it sprays while breathing. Without us even realizing it.”

At that time, the Hunter, who had collapsed while covered in blood, opened his mouth. He had recovered to normal thanks to the potion, “That thing, it’s fast, but its body is like tofu. I was ready to be hit back for cutting in a hurry, but it was cut too easily.”

“That means it has a terrible defense. Is that why the difficulty level was set to A?”

“Barrier will stop the transmission through its breathing, so we can drive it away, avoiding contact with blood and flesh. It’s not that difficult.”

Then, a hunter said, “No, but… The respiratory infections may be okay with us, but those non-Awakens are defenseless, right?”

The same thought crossed the mind of the hunters who heard it. If they hadn’t evacuated the people here in advance…

“It could have been the worst biohazard in history.” It was the kind of threat that level A-rank hunters found hard to accept.

However, everyone noticed that the worst catastrophe could occur if the monster began to spread beyond the dungeon’s threshold to the human world.

“The potion doesn’t work for the non-Awakened people. They will literally… just die.”

The government, which listened to their conversations in real-time, recognized the situation’s seriousness and quickly began preparing for additional setbacks.

“No, but…”

There were still unresolved questions.

“Oh, my God. Is it the only one? Why aren’t there any monsters coming out from the 150-member dungeon?”

“No, wait a minute, brother. Don’t say that.”

“Kyaaaaaaaaaa!”

“Another one.”

*

Several more giants were, but it was slightly different from the usual break that everyone was aware of. Normally, as the word break suggests, monsters would pour out frantically as soon as the gate opens. But this break… was so weird.

Monsters were coming out in a gap.

“Brother, don’t breaks normally happen that they come out all crazed up?”

“Wasn’t the scene of them coming out while screaming crazed up enough?”

“Why do the crazed-up ones keep trying to run away instead of running towards us?”

An hour has passed like that.

“So far, were there about a hundred in total?”

It was a ridiculously small number compared to the power gathered in preparation.

“Brother, was I the only one that noticed it earlier? The one a while ago had half of the body crushed the moment it got out.”

“It’s common for too many creatures to come out in a hurry and end up fighting and bite each other.”

Seo Moon-Ga-In thought, seeing the scene. ‘This is not good.’

Hunters’ tension was getting lower. The idea that they should check what the hell was going on inside stood strong, but the government’s permission still stood.

‘The scenario where the monsters stormed in at the beginning and gradually decreasing in numbers is preferable. If this continues, we might get ourselves in great danger from lowering our guards.’

Her concerns eventually came true.

“We got another one!”

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

The scream was different from before.

The scream was nothing but an intrusive high frequency and rather a haunting scream, distinguishable from the rest.

“Blrgh!”

One Hunter, who had been relaxed, reduced the Mana Barrier’s thickness, knelt, and vomited blood and gastric juice.

“It’s big!”

‘The new giant was three times the size of those we faced until now.’

Seo Moon-Ga-In recalled the explanation she had seen in the [Collection]: ‘as they age, size increases, but on the contrary, movement becomes slower and durability decreases, so it is not difficult to distinguish.’

“It must be the adult!”

Swish!

Just like the little ones, the monster ran away at high speed. Hunters tried to hunt it down according to protocol. They thought, in a little while, it will reappear when it collides with the barrier head-on…

Shatter!

Hunters’ faces turned pale.

“The barrier is broken!”

The worst-case scenario came to the mind of Seo Moon-Ga-In, ‘That’s a problem!’

All the Hunters gathered could not give up the first line of defense and chase after it, and it was uncertain whether they could prevent it from the second line of defense.

‘How many humans can a giant infect? What about human-to-human transmission? I have to catch that bastard, whatever it takes!’

“I’m after it!”

Seo Moon-Ga-In decided to be the one to move, having little choice, mainly because she was sure that she was the one who could move the fastest. But just half a second after she made up her mind, she found her judgment was wrong.

Swish!

She heard a sound from the gate.

“Is it another one?!”

Swish!

Most of the first line hunters didn’t recognize what it was. This was because the speed of it moving was too fast. All they saw was a stream of black wind spreading out of the gate and swirling behind the giant. The first person to notice the identity of the being was Seo Moon-Ga-In, who invoked her unique skill.

“Dragon?!”

*

Hunters waiting on the second line of defense looked at the scene with a soulless expression.

“Kaaaaaaaaah!”

They knew that the white giant was approaching them through the first line of defense. It was hard even to keep track, and they knew it would reach the second line of defense in a few seconds, and in their nervousness, they tensed their whole body.

But, before it could even reach them, the thing faster than the giant made a surprise attack.

Crack!

Most did not catch the first attack. The black gust blowing scene was followed by the white giant rolling and making a large ditch, being swept away. It was as if an excavator had passed, scooping a large trench on the ground where the giant had been swept away.

Only Seo Moon-Ga-In, from afar, recognized what was happening accurately.

The incident’s reality was that a large black monster suddenly appeared at the gate, spreading its wings and flew to the giant. The scene was like a kite descending fast to snatch a chick. In that momentum, it placed its power, drove its head towards the back of the giant’s head, and rammed it! And it was only when the large being, who had just finished a cool beating, stopped in the air and turned its neck so that everyone could recognize what it was.

“Dragon!”

“My God, it’s a dragon!”

“What! The prophecy is completely wrong! What kind of A-rank dungeon does a dragon come out of!”

The scene that followed caused any murmuring to become dead quiet.

Swoosh!

The Dragon approached the giant and bit its neck violently.

Crush!

“Kyaaaaaaaa!”

The giant, whose neck was crushed, kept screaming without dying. Although it was over 15 meters tall, it looked like a child compared to the Dragon. As it bit the giant’s neck, the Dragon briefly turned to the left and opened its mouth while rotating to the right. The giant was lifted into the air. And then it took a turn and hit the giant hard with its tail before it fell!

Bam!

Swoosh!

The wind swirled vigorously around the tail and spread heavily everywhere. Facing the wind in their faces, people saw the giant flying like a baseball into the distance before completely disappearing beyond the horizon.

The Dragon’s mouth opened.

‘No way!’ All the witnesses thought the same thing.

Boosh!

A red flash emitted from the mouth of a dragon and crossed the sky. It hit the white giant flying away. There was a momentary silence.

Soon a devastated voice spoke, “H… H… H… How… Can we beat that!”

“How the hell does a dragon come out of an A-Class break!”

Hunters on the second line of defense did not dare to attack and looked at the Dragon standing there alone. They had yet to guess that the Dragon’s condition was slightly off. However, a Hunter recognized the familiar body shape and characteristics of the Dragon.

“Oh, that Dragon… No way… That dungeon!”

The Dragon lifted its head in the direction of the gate. Then, its head tilted slightly as if it was listening to an inaudible sound.

Swish!

The Dragon returned to the gate in such a short time that the distance was meaningless. As the Dragon reached, a strong gust blew around the red door, scattering fallen leaves and dust.

Seo Moon-Ga-In’s eyebrows twitched.

“Is it going back in?”

The surface of the red flash swirled, and another giant appeared. It was as big as the one that just came out. It was also an adult.

The eyes of the giant and the Dragon met. The new intruder’s bluish lips opened, and a scream leaked out.

“Kyaaaaa-wp!”

Crush!

|The giant’s scream ends with the last syllable tightly closed. The Dragon lightly slammed the front foot and crushed the giant’s skull. The Dragon pretended to hear something again and wrapped its tail around the giant’s legs. Then he dragged the giant into the red gate.

Thump! Thump! Every time it took a step, the ground shook heavily.

“Kyaaaaaarghaaaargh!”

The Dragon and the giant disappeared back into the red gate.

Hunters were left speechless.