Inside the gloomy and dim ‘boss room' of an SS rank dungeon named ‘A Nest Hanging On a Strange Pillar’, Yoo Seodam and his party were leisurely sitting on the ground with a lunch box opened in their respective hands.
Sluuurppp~!!
The four S rank hunters from the Hunter Association looked at each other as they witnessed Yoo Seodam gulping down a bowl of jajangmyeon in his hand. The four of them were colleagues who had been together for over 10 years, therefore, it was possible for them to understand each other with eye contact alone.
‘Is it really okay for us to be like this?’
‘W…we would be okay, right?’
‘I don’t know…'
‘How can that person still eat in this situation?'
Gulping down his own saliva instead of the food, one of the male hunters peered towards the black water far beneath them. The dungeon they were currently located at had a very unusual structure; it requires its raiders to climb up on a huge pillar before facing the boss at the top-most floor. Moreover, it was an SS rank dungeon. A dungeon which could normally only be cleared by forming a large-scale raid supported by thorough scientific analysis and meticulous strategy.
However, what they were doing right now was simply mind boggling. They were eating leisurely in the boss room while the boss monsters were struggling under the water below.
Roaaarrr-!!
“Why are you guys not eating? Well, if you're not going to eat the sausage, then give it to me."
“Ah, yes!”
The man carefully asked Yoo Seodam who was greedily placing someone else’s stolen sausage in his own mouth.
“Can we really leave it alone like that?”
At the end of the ever-stretching black water body on bottom of the pillar, which because of its size, can't be identified either as a lake or a sea, a ginormous monster was flailing wildly while letting out an ear-piercing shriek from time to time. Of course, it wasn't like that from the beginning. The boss was originally standing where they currently were—at the top of the pillar. But then it ended up in the water after being lured in Yoo Seodam’s trap and falling down.
"Yeah, there won’t be any problem. It'll drown in a little while. And when that happens, we just need to go down to retrieve the ether crystal.”
“I…it can’t be…”
The hunters looked at Yoo Seodam in disbelief. However, Yoo Seodam didn’t rebuke them or try to justify his claims. Instead, he laid down on the floor and closed his eyes. Few moments later, his breath became even. He had fallen asleep.
An hour after he fell asleep. The dungeon monitoring device they wore on their respective wrist let out a beeping sound before making an announcement.
[Dungeon raid complete.]
Just like what Yoo Seodam told them, the boss had drowned. At that moment, Yoo Seodam opened his eyes and jerked up.
“Oh, it's finally dead. Let's go."
“….”
With their eyes wide in disbelief, the four trailed closely behind Yoo Seodam and watched as he recovered the ether crystal from the corpse of the unlucky dungeon boss.
The four of them had heard many stories about Yoo Seodam. He was a legend in the hunter industry who had overcome many battlefields as a mere F rank hunter. Although his fame was not widespread because of the title of mere F rank in the past, now that he had become the most famous hunter on the planet, anecdotes about him were pouring out like a storm on the internet. Mainly they were accounts of Yoo Seodam’s life as a F-rank hunter from witnesses.
-He is a very strategic and meticulous man. He never gives up.
-Failure? No such word exists in his dictionary. He only needs to choose a strategy which has the highest chance to succeed.
-Does it seem impossible? If he said so, it would be possible.
Of course, most of it was nonsense. The real F-rank Yoo Seodam spent several nights just to kill a single D rank monster. After analyzing his target habits, weaknesses and many more factors, he would start to choose his sniping point. And only after that would he put a bullet in his target’s head. Though, what he used was not a normal bullet but an anti-material bullet.
However, most people did not know such facts, and the hunters of the Association, were not even aware of Yoo Seodam’s existence when he was an F-rank so they had no choice but to believe it. Therefore, when they heard they were going to go on a mission with the legendary Yoo Seodam, they expected a meticulously made and amazing strategy.
‘To think that Yoo Seodam is someone like this….'
Throughout their stay at this dungeon, they never once roamed around the dungeon properly. Most of the time, they broke through the challenge, whether it was monsters or puzzles, through tricks, and if the tricks didn't work, they would still use the easiest way which didn’t burden them too much to pass through.
While their illusions about Yoo Seodam shattered, the man was busy retrieving the core of the SS rank boss monster.
“By the way, can I ask why you suddenly decided to enter an SS rank dungeon?” One of the hunters asked.
They were aware that his abilities were special. Although his stats were only at the level of S rank, he could reach the SS rank level by combining his various abilities such as magic and swordsmanship. However, no matter how strong he was, It didn’t explain why he decided to attack an SS rank dungeon suddenly.
"There’s a reason…”
After he gave a cryptic answer that didn’t really explain anything, Yoo Seodam looked into the air. And when the hunters realized that the dungeon was not yet destroyed, the hunters looked around with bewildered faces.
“What happened to the dungeon? Why is it still intact?”
“I am preserving it so that it does not perish.”
"Ah!"
The realization dawned upon the four hunters. Among all his ridiculous abilities, Yoo Seodam also had a skill related to dimensions. That very skill was the reason why he could return safely to Earth from a rift which had already closed. Therefore, they had no choice but to believe his words. They still couldn’t wrap their head on his ability to restrain the dungeon from perishing, though.
“There is a ‘Wandering Dimension’ here.”
The terms of ‘Wandering Dimension’ became known to the public because of Yoo Seodam. It was a stand-alone dimension which could be found all over the Earth just like ‘Floating Garden of Spirit’ which was where Another League headquarters is located or the ‘House of Goblin’ which is the headquarters of the New Murim of New Murim Alliance. However, it was impossible to detect or enter them with Earth's science and technology. Only Yoo Seodam was able to do it.
“Shadow, are you sure this is the place?”
As Yoo Seodam asked into the air, the faces of the four hunters looked confused. There was no one with the name ‘Shadow’ in their party. However, a second later, something black rose from Yoo Seodam’s shadow. Realizing that they could not even feel his presence, the S rank hunters jumped back in terror.
‘Oh, my God! I didn't feel it at all…!'
When the silhouette coalesced, a handsome man with sharp facial features revealed himself. He then bowed his head to Yoo Seodam.
"Yes. There’s no doubt. But it’s just one of many ‘pathways’.”
"Well… That’s enough.”
Yoo Seodam waved his hands in the air. At the same time, a portion of his life force was consumed. Then, in the air, a crack appeared while radiating golden lights. When the golden light settled down and disappeared, a space similar to a gate appeared. However, it didn’t feel ominous like a normal gate.
“Come on, let’s go.”
Yoo Seodam as he headed towards the gate. Finally, he got to meet those otherworlders and ask about the ‘destruction’.
* * *
Deep in the night where cold winds blew violently, Rahvar stared into the air with his mouth shut. Even though he still has his eyes, he never relied on it to truly see. The movement, the pulse, and each vein that squirmed in the earth were all his true heart, eyes, hands and feet. Although… because of this, he was completely rooted at this place and was unable to move. But he felt okay. Nothing was inconveniencing him.
No, that’s not true. There was something which constantly troubled him.
‘Dungeon…'
There were five SSS rank dungeons in Iran. It was not impossible to attack them, but as Rahvar himself couldn’t join the attack, the chance of successfully raiding the dungeon is significantly lowered. Therefore, to clear them, he had no choice but to seek outside help. However, the conditions raised by the outside hunters were atrocious, and in the end, he had no choice but to recall all kinds of help requests and leave the dungeon unattended.
If the dungeon collapses and ‘synchronization' occurs, this land would no longer be a place where people could live. But there had been no signs of that happening for the last few decades. And according to observations, it wouldn’t happen for at least a few decades more. So, currently, his goal solely lay on protecting this land.
Or, that was what he thought.
“…!” Rahvar flinched. His eyebrows trembled, and the tip of his hand continued to stiffen. In a place where his senses were blocked, something ominous was happening. The place that his eyes couldn't reach, the place that is close and yet felt so far….
“What, what is going on?”
He hastily focused his senses on the four SSS class dungeons and the one SSS+ class dungeon. Even though he couldn't know what was happening inside, he was, at least, capable of figuring out what was going on around it.
Shortly thereafter, Rahvar lifted his head high.
The SSS+ dungeon is located in this ‘mosque’. And currently, that dungeon…
“Is it collapsing?”
In other words, a ‘dungeon synchronization’ phenomenon was occurring.
"Why?"
* * *
She was a being with no name. In the first place, names are not needed to distinguish one of them from each other. Afterall, names were a concept which was used by the ‘uncivilized races' who could not even distinguish each other unless they were called to distinguish them from each other.
The creature opened her eyes. Her golden pupil glimmered as her tongue brushed past her moist black lips. On her gray skin which looked as if it was covered by some sort of metal, black veins pulsated at a stable interval. It was proof that her ‘energy' was radiating power.
Although she was born as a perfect species, she couldn’t bring out her powers to the fullest without the perfect environment and perfect atmosphere of Hell Gate. Just like humans who can't survive in a place without oxygen. But as she was ‘perfect', when the circumstances changed, she would only be weakened a little and wouldn't die.
However, she was aware that with her weakened self, she wouldn’t be able to defeat the man she had set her eyes on. That was why she borrowed the power of the dungeon. There was a dungeon with an overwhelming energy wave right nearby, and she lightly touched it. The races born inside the Hell Gate had the power to handle the space itself, so destroying a dungeon was nothing but a child’s play for her.
From high in the sky, she gazed at the structures built by humans below. No matter how high it was built, in the end, humans won't ever be able to reach God. She pondered, why did lower races constantly strive to reach God? They were just an ‘experimental object' after all. They could never reach God.
Boom~!!
Thunders began to fall from the dark night sky. When she looked at the sky above, there was not even a shred of dark cloud visible. All this thunder was created as a result of the violent waves caused by the collision of energies.
There were quite a lot of records of occurrences of SSS+ level dungeons in the world. In most cases, once the synchronization happened, the land itself wouldn’t be inhabitable anymore. And learning from those accidents, humans learned how to prepare for the disaster.
Will it be possible for them to stop it this time too?
“Fufufu… Let’s see…”
However, before she could finish her monologue,
“Who are you?”
A voice came from just a short distance away.
She turned her head with a bored expression. A boy with dark skin and long black hair was standing there with the help of something which soared from the top of a mosque below. From what she knew, he was the lord of this land.
“Who are you?” The boy asked once again.
“Hm…” Unfortunately, the creature couldn’t understand Earth's language. Just like humans can't understand the voice of fluttering flies. But if monkeys and puppies express their intentions through their actions, wouldn't humans also be able to understand them?
She could tell from his body language that the boy, no, the man in front of her is quite hostile to her. At the same time, Rahvar could also get a glimpse of the woman's abilities.
‘She is forcing the dungeon to open with her abilities… In a few minutes, the dungeon will open.’
However, it also means that if he could stop the woman, he could prevent the dungeon from collapsing.
Rumble~!! Rumble~!! Rumble~!!
Together with numerous rumbles, the topography of the land itself began to change. From all sides, gigantic things start coming up from the ground. Giants, dragons, and lions… Each of them had the looks of strong monsters from all around the world and was the size of an apartment building. Each one of them is equal to a real S rank monster.
It was Iran's final weapon, which Rahvar sculpted using his energy and life force from earth while taking root and living in this land for the rest of his life.
‘It wasn’t something I sculpted to be used for a time like this, but….’
Rooooarrrr~!!
When the beasts roared, the whole world shook. All civilians in the vicinity were screaming and running away because they weren’t given an evacuation order. However, Rahvar couldn’t help it, afterall, this was the only way.
“Oh my, look at those cute beasts made out of dirt~”
The corners of her lips twitched up. No matter how strong the beasts are, unless it had the power to interfere with the ‘probability', it wouldn’t be able to destroy someone born from Hell Gate. So, these tiny, lower-level creatures were in the end, nothing but toys in her eyes.