30 – Entering My Own Dungeon – 1

“Too slow, flame spirit!”

Was Gi-jun kidnapping someone because he was a beastly demon?

Did he decide to leisurely explore the ruins because he did not care whether the rampaging spirit burned down the village in its rage?

Of course, that was not the case.

No, to be honest, he harbored some dissatisfaction with this development, which seemed to force him into a harsh quest, starting from a scream that one had no choice but to investigate like the introduction of an RPG.

However, as one could tell just by experiencing the tutorial, since landmines that could detonate at any moment were scattered everywhere in the other world, it was not an entirely incomprehensible matter.

In any case, the core of Gi-jun’s countermeasure against the rampaging landmine—no, the spirit—was provocation.

“You are slow, even that flame—!”

Gi-jun’s appearance as he sprinted through the forest carrying the sacrifice NPC on his back, flashing incessantly due to his Luminescent Provocation skill that had reached the Unique grade, was that of a madman no matter how favorably one looked at it.

Had the luminescence () of Luminescent Provocation actually meant madness ()? Lucy even seriously contemplated it for a moment.

However, she was just as detestable as Gi-jun; as if mocking the rampaging spirit that kept summoning ghosts along their escape route to reclaim the lost sacrifice, she shot beams of light to detonate them whenever they appeared.

It was truly teamwork befitting a fantastic partnership.

Though he could not know for sure, the spirit’s anger must have reached the top of its head.

“Found him! The child is over there!”

“Aaargh! A crazy guy whose entire body is flashing is kidnapping the sacrifice!”

As Gi-jun sprinted while playing with the spirit like that for a while, the villagers who were presumed to have offered the boy as a sacrifice showed themselves.

They were people dressed entirely in shabby clothes, but who knew from where they had appeared as they chased him from all directions with glaring eyes, looking not like NPCs but like monsters.

He had not yet realized the fact that, to an outsider who did not know the situation, Gi-jun, who was running with the boy slung over his shoulder while flashing his entire body, would look the most like a monster.

“Stop right now! That child is the sacrifice to be offered to the Spirit this year!”

“It is no use, shoot!”

Perhaps because it was a Unique-grade provocation skill, the effect was indeed certain.

What barbarism of the villagers, trying to attack a person right away without even attempting a proper conversation!

While Gi-jun lamented that this was why he had tried to enter the ruins immediately before a quest could trigger, the villagers began to notch and shoot arrows from bows as worn-out as their shabby clothes.

Yet, surprisingly, did those arrows not catch fire mid-air and become fire arrows?

Could the villagers have become able to wield the power of fire in exchange for offering sacrifices to the spirit?

Thinking so made him feel extremely disgusted.

“—I should get into the ruins quickly.”

As Gi-jun muttered while lightly swinging the shield in one hand to deflect all of them, Lucy shrieked and shouted.

—No, Contractor! We have to pack our broth!

“Ah, right. To think I forgot something so important.”

“B-Broth?”

Gi-jun, who had been about to enter the ruins immediately, changed direction in the midst of it and finally reached the stream, putting the pressure cooker that was boiling furiously over the fire directly into his inventory.

Right after that, as if the spirit had resolved to do so, the campfire exploded violently and targeted him, but a barrier of light that appeared just before impact cleanly blocked it.

—Even if you are fine, Contractor, that hostage might get hurt.

“Hostage…”

“The child is over there!”

“Retrieve the sacrifice! Hurry!”

The spirit persistently creating ghosts was annoying enough, but now even the villagers were chasing after Gi-jun for dear life.

However, he could not attack the villagers just because they were annoying, so he readjusted his grip on the resigned hostage and ran again.

Upon soon reaching the ruins, Gi-jun could see that a change different from before had occurred in them.

Were there not dozens of pillars of fire shooting up as if guarding the ruins, which had not been there earlier?

“Oh, could this be…?”

—It seems it was a ruins related to the spirit. This is even better, let us go in right away!

Indeed, at the point when the rampaging spirit appeared in the forest where the ruins were located, the probability that the spirit was related to the ruins was high.

“That human is heading to the Master’s sanctuary!”

“Stop him, right now!”

—No!

“Yes!”

He lightly ignored the clamoring villagers and the venomous voice of a woman heard from somewhere as he charged into the pillar of fire.

He protected his own body by activating Adamant, while focusing all of his light spirit power on the hostage to prevent him from getting hurt.

—The skill proficiencies of Adamant (L) and Lucy (L) slightly increased.

—The skill proficiencies of Adamant (L) and Lucy (L) slightly increased.

Breaking through the red pillars of fire that surrounded him in just one second, a smile appeared on Gi-jun’s lips.

Drawing all of the spirit’s aggro and luring it into the ruins was something he had originally calculated, but he had not expected it to react so dramatically.

The thought that he had somehow found the hidden route of the quest did not fade.

And he landed.

As the surrounding trees and rocks melted in the high heat, the entrance of the ruins was now exposed to the outside.

“That human finally entered the Master’s sanctuary!”

“No! The Spirit’s wrath will fall upon us!”

“Ah, aaaaaah…!”

“The sanctuary… a human is in the sanctuary… Master…!”

Unable to cross past the pillars of fire, the villagers glared at Gi-jun as if they wanted to kill him while shouting and screaming.

Their momentum was quite eerie, to the point where even Gi-jun’s mood grew strange for no reason.

“It feels like they believe in some cult.”

—They are people trying to offer a child as a sacrifice. How could they be of sound mind? But even so, they… are indeed very strange.

“No, a disaster will happen. If you go in, you will never be able to come out again.”

The boy, who had seemed resigned, also struggled to break free from Gi-jun, perhaps out of instinctive rejection and fear upon facing the ruins, but it was a rule that the more quest NPCs warned of danger, the closer one was to the core of the matter.

Gi-jun firmly held onto the boy and opened the door to the ruins.

“Let us go in!”

—Ah—as expected, spiritual power was the trigger for this ruins, Contractor!

—Stop right now—!

Gi-jun flung open the entrance and charged into the ruins, leaving the shrill scream of the spirit behind.

The moment the door of the ruins closed, all the pillars of fire surrounding the ruins vanished.

The atmosphere vibrated tremulously as fire mana gathered to weave a massive figure.

—To think you made a sacrifice that I put years of care into go to waste, ah…! I will burn you to death myself!

“Spirit, please appease your anger. Forgive us…”

“Once the Master awakens, he will not forgive us. We will all return to flames…”

The villagers bowed their heads while trembling in fear.

The shrill female voice barked at them.

—I am going to punish that insolent fool. You return to the village and raise a new sacrifice. Right now!

* * *

Meanwhile, having completely entered the ruins, Gi-jun felt dizzy from the overwhelming heat inside.

—You entered the undiscovered ruins [Injured Flame’s Nest (U)] for the first time. You obtained 5,000 Leta points as a ruins discovery reward!

—Upon entering the ruins, the effect of the title [Conqueror of the Hidden Dungeon (L)] was activated. All stats and skill effects increased by 20%.

—You entered the undiscovered ruins [Injured Flame’s Nest (U)] for the first time. You obtained 5,000 Leta points as a ruins discovery reward!

—Upon entering the ruins, the effect of the title [Conqueror of the Hidden Dungeon (L)] was activated. All stats and skill effects increased by 20%.

Extremely welcome notifications appeared at the same time, but he had no time to be counting points right now.

In any case, it was hot.

It was not just at the level of hot; it was scorching!

Would it not feel like this if one were inside an oven?

“Wow, this.”

If he had not been in a state of casting Adamant, his skin might have scorched.

Gi-jun hurriedly cast Salutaris, his own unique mana circulation method, to draw in the surrounding mana to recover while raising the strength of Adamant by another level.

It was also then that his thoughts reached the hostage slung on his back.

“Are you okay?”

“Pardon? Ah, I am rather resistant to heat.”

Although the boy had been terrified and resisting just before entering the ruins, once they actually went inside, he was showing a strangely calm appearance.

Or rather, was it closer to resignation?

Indeed, since he might have given up on his life from the moment he was offered as a sacrifice, it was not a strange thing.

‘It is not even funny.’

A scapegoat, a sacrifice.

Those were words that Gi-jun could never tolerate.

Was it not merely giving up on controlling the situation with one’s own power, and postponing the crisis by sacrificing an innocent other?

Anger welled up within him toward both the boy, who had given up on resisting as he was offered under the pretext of appeasing the rampaging spirit, and those who had handed over the helpless boy as a sacrifice, but for now, he calmed himself down.

As long as the spirit reacted to this ruins, there would be something if he moved further inside.

—The spiritual power is quite…! Contractor, you might have to stay on your toes. When a spirit rampages, it becomes stronger than its original grade, you know?

“I have never let my guard down when entering enemy territory.”

Gi-jun cautiously advanced inside while looking at the patterns on the walls all around, which seemed to depict flames.

He thought there might be traps, but in the space consisting of a single straight corridor, neither traps nor monsters were visible yet.

However, since he did not know when a monster might appear and force a battle, he first set down the boy he was carrying on his back.

“Are you really not hot?”

“It is hot, but… I am fine. I will follow carefully on my own.”

—This child might have a talent for the fire attribute. …Ah.

Lucy looked at the boy with a bit of interest, but soon her eyes narrowed as if she had realized something.

When Gi-jun sent her a glance questioning what was wrong, she remained silent for a moment, thinking, and then spoke.

—It is not certain. Let us go inside first, Contractor.

“…Alright, keep a good eye on him.”

Right, in any case, this kid was not an ordinary child either.

Gi-jun let out a sigh and hastened his steps.

Soon, moving lumps of fire like the ones he had encountered in the forest earlier—which, if one had to classify them, were called Flame Ghosts—appeared in a more massively clumped form and attacked him.

Except for the fact that the exterior was burning, they also looked like slimes floating in the sky, due to the spherical core visible at the center of their bodies.

If he pierced that directly, he could kill it easily, but—

—Contractor, if you can, avoid the center and deal with it as if shaving it down from the outer parts!

“Leave it to me.”

Upon the shield Gi-jun raised, a light mixed with a red energy that seemed to bear a bloody tint settled.

It was complete when wielded with two shields, but even with one, it was Gi-jun’s unique, fierce offensive technique.

It was the Legendary-grade skill [Moonlight Blood Fangs (L)] that had evolved after surpassing the limit through his battle with the Demon King—stained with her blood.

—Kyahaaaaa!

“Will it give experience points?”

He created bloody fangs with the shield held in his left hand and hammered the enemy without giving it room to breathe.

The amorphous enemy constantly shot flames, but Gi-jun, trusting in Adamant, received them with his bare body, focusing solely on shaving away the flames surrounding the creature’s core with the shield in his hand.

The hostage boy could only stare blankly at Gi-jun, who was dealing with the Flame Ghost with his bare body, not even wearing armor.

Lucy, who was tasked with protecting the boy, quietly asked him.

—How is it?

“It is amazing… cool! I thought so since he broke through the pillars of fire, but he is indeed a very strong person…!”

—…Yes.

She quietly nodded and turned her gaze to Gi-jun this time.

In the meantime, when Gi-jun, who had been swinging the fangs in his hand like crazy, succeeded in shaving away over 90% of the Flame Ghost’s body, leaving only the core and the weakly burning flames around it, the red core suddenly dropped to the floor with a plop, its strength having run out at that point.

—You defeated an Uncommon-grade Flame Ghost. You obtained a small amount of experience points for defeating an enemy of a lower level than yourself.

—The proficiency of the skill utilized in combat slightly grew.

—You defeated an Uncommon-grade Flame Ghost. You obtained a small amount of experience points for defeating an enemy of a lower level than yourself.

—The proficiency of the skill utilized in combat slightly grew.

Since he had not expected much from the experience points in the first place, just receiving them was at a level to be grateful for.

What was more important was this core that Lucy intended for him to obtain.

Gi-jun turned to Lucy and asked.

“Lucy, is this by any chance a good drop?”

—You will have to collect quite a few, Contractor.

“…It is not like I have to gather tens of thousands of them, right?”

To Gi-jun, who asked with a pale face while recalling the tutorial’s backstage dungeon where he had invested a whopping four years of time, Lucy giggled and shook her head.

—It is just like a stamina supplement, so you do not need to gather that many. For now, collect them as you see them and put them in your inventory.

“Lucy, you suddenly sound like an expert.”

—Of course, because it is a ruins related to spirits!

Lucy, who replied with an intentionally lively voice, turned to look at the boy silently following them and muttered in a somewhat subdued voice.

—That is why I just happen to know a little more. …Sometimes, even things I do not want to know, all too clearly.

The boy suddenly raised his head and met Lucy’s eyes.

Even though she was not pouring mana into materializing, the boy looked straight into her eyes.

Inside those eyes, a faint flame was flickering.