Chapter 442

Chapter 442

Cha Jin-Hyeok understood what Furface wanted to say. “I know. It looks a bit dangerous.”

“What do you mean you know? It doesn’t just look a bit dangerous; it looks extremely dangerous!” Furface exclaimed.

Furface had realized it the moment he saw this space. The reason that Navigators had not pioneered this path wasn’t that they were unaware of it. It was something else.

“It seems Navigators didn’t pioneer this path because it was too dangerous,” Furface said. He wanted to mention the lightning from earlier but couldn’t. After all, the person who had been struck by lightning had described it as only slightly stinging, so Furface didn’t have much to say. “That faint white light seems to be the path, Chul-Soo.”

“I thought you said you wouldn’t give me helpful advice?” Jin-Hyeok replied.

“I’m giving you advice because that place looks too dangerous.”

The moment one strayed even slightly from that path of white light, they would turn to dust. That was how ferocious this space was.

“I told you, Furface. This place can be cleared if you have exceptional physical abilities,” Jin-Hyeok said.

Furface’s face slightly reddened. No matter how he thought of it, that sounded insulting.

“Wasn’t I right just now?” Jin-Hyeok said.

“What do you mean?”

“If your physical abilities are exceptional, getting hit by lightning isn’t much of a problem.”

“You must have naturally high lightning resistance. You should be thankful for how lucky you are.”

“Nope. It’s my poison resistance that is strong.”

“Are you mocking me for having low intelligence?”

“I am not. I swear on my honor as an Eltuber. When poison resistance reaches a certain level, lightning resistance also increases.”

Furface fell silent. He was confused because Jin-Hyeok was speaking with such a serious expression. It made Furface wonder whether that was true. “Chul-Soo, I advise you to retreat from here. I’ve watched your back until now, but not from here on. This is unknown territory even for me.”

“You’re not excited about pioneering this place?”

“Don’t treat me like a fool!” No one in their right mind would be excited about such a path. “I’m going back. You should turn back too at this point.”

Furface tried to turn around and leave, but the stone wall that Jin-Hyeok had pushed earlier had returned to its original position. He didn’t panic and tried to push the stone wall, but it didn’t budge at all.

“Hey, Chul-Soo. I think we’re trapped here,” he said.

“What are you talking about?”

“We’ve fallen into a perfect trap.”

Jin-Hyeok sighed. It seemed like Furface had stayed in this Dungeon for so long that his perspective had become quite narrow. ‘He must have become too familiar with this Dungeon that he can’t think outside the box. That’s why he’s panicking at even the slightest development.’

Jin-Hyeok extended his right hand and easily pushed the wall aside, revealing the safe space where they were before. “See? No need to panic.”

“What the hell...?”

“You must not have used your strength properly because you were panicking.”

‘No... I pushed with all my might!’ The orangutan Beastkin, who was confident that his brute strength was second to none even if his intelligence was a bit lacking, was baffled.

***

Furface bit his lip. ‘I can’t run away by myself!’

He could not leave a newcomer who had just entered the Dungeon today to die on a strange path. For ten years, what had kept Furface’s sanity intact was his value as the most important personnel and leader of the first checkpoint. Abandoning Chul-Soo here would shake that foundation to its core.

“Chul-Soo, I will have to beat you up if that’s what it takes to drag you back to safety...”

“It’s an animal that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening,” Jin-Hyeok said.

“...”

The Sphinx stared at Jin-Hyeok with glowing red eyes. At first, that gaze was incredibly intense, but it changed slightly as time passed. Furface felt the Sphinx’s gaze become somewhat gentle. Even as a ten-year veteran, this was the first time he had experienced such a weak gaze.

“E-Excellent! That’s correct!”

“?!” Furface looked at the Sphinx with a bewildered expression. In the past ten years and even throughout the Dungeon’s long history, something like this had never happened.

“Phew, that was lucky. So, will you open the path?” Jin-Hyeok asked.

“What if I don’t?”

For a moment, Jin-Hyeok’s eyes met with the Sphinx’s. Startled, the Sphinx quickly teleported far away and waved its front paws widely to the sides.

“No, I didn’t mean I wouldn’t let you pass. I was just curious!”

“Ah, I see.” Jin-Hyeok quietly put Miri back into his inventory. “I would have destroyed you if you didn’t let us pass.”

Miri licked her figurative lips.

-Tsk! I was so close.

***

Furface remained tense until the very last moment. This Riddle Sphinx was a capricious creature. Sometimes, it would declare an answer correct, and sometimes, it would say that the same answer was wrong. Depending on its mood, it would torment Players for a long or short time.

‘I’ve never seen the Sphinx do this before!’ Furface thought. He needed to keep his wits about him. ‘Ah, perhaps I have already fallen victim to the illusion.’

Furface could finally make sense of the situation. It seemed he had succumbed to the illusion. ‘My desire to pass through this place must have been too strong.’

Because of that, he had unconsciously fallen into the illusion. Still, it was fortunate that he had become aware it was an illusion. Since he was aware of it, the chances of breaking free from the illusion increased greatly.

“I told you,” Jin-Hyeok said to him.

Furface did not respond. After all, this Chul-Soo was probably part of the illusion.

‘Is Chul-Soo the core of this illusion?’ There were many types of illusion cores, but the entity communicating most directly at close range was likely to be the core. ‘I need to destroy it.’

Furface, who had fallen victim to illusions several times before, immediately clenched his fist and lunged at Jin-Hyeok. He swung his fist. “I will not be devoured by some illusion, Sphinx!”

Bang!

A loud sound rang out, though it didn’t come from Chul-Soo’s head, but from Furface’s.

“Are you coming to your senses now?” Jin-Hyeok asked.

“Ugh...!” Having barely regained consciousness, Furface struggled to his feet. “I think I fell victim to the Sphinx’s illusion.”

“Hm?”

“My head feels like it’s about to split open. This must be one of the side effects of illusion magic.”

“Is...is that so?” Jin-Hyeok thought it was very fortunate that Furface was alive. ‘I almost killed him by mistake...’

Believing rumors about orangutan Beastkin having quite sturdy physical attributes, Jin-Hyeok had hit him a bit harder than usual, but the rumors turned out to be all lies. If he had not quickly fed Furface a Chul-Soo Potion, the Beastkin would have certainly died.

“Fortunately, I noticed that I was inside the illusion and was able to escape. That Sphinx is a vicious one. It implemented your appearance as the core of the illusion.” Furface clutched his throbbing head. Today, he had an especially terrible migraine around his temples. It felt as if someone had hit him in the head with a blunt object.

Jin-Hyeok handed him another bottle of Chul-Soo Potion and comforted him. “I didn’t know the Sphinx’s illusion could be that vicious. I’m glad you’re safe. And thanks to you, we were able to pass through the first checkpoint.”

Tears welled up in Furface’s large eyes. He clenched his fist and distanced himself from Jin-Hyeok, yelling, “I’m still in the illusion! Damn it!”