Chapter 175

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Translated by Pratt

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“We’ve finally arrived.”

Levin wiped the sweat off his forehead with his sleeve and let out a sigh of relief. At the end of much hardship, they had finally arrived at the base. The Awakened keeping watch from atop the wall spotted Zeon’s party and the West District Awakened and shouted, “Open the gate.”

The protective membrane vanished for a moment, and the gate in the wall opened. Zeon’s party and the West District Awakened hurried inside.

“Waaah!”

“They’ve already built it up like this?”

Levin and Brielle gaped at the sight inside the base. Inside the base, which had only had walls erected, there were now facilities for people to sleep and eat, including tents. While they were away, the team led by Jeloei had completely outfitted the base. Now all that remained was to rest inside and establish a raid plan. At that moment, one of the Pegasus Raid Force Awakened approached Zeon.

“Captain wants to see Zeon.”

“Right now?”

“Yes!”

“Let’s go.”

“Please follow me.”

The Awakened led Zeon inside the largest tent.

Inside the tent was a large table, and in the center of it sat Lee Ji-ryeong.

“So you returned safely.”

“Did I keep you waiting long?”

“No, you came back at just the right time. But I heard there were already casualties?”

“Yes!”

“And that casualty just had to be Cha Jin-cheol?”

“Yes!”

“How did it turn out that way?”

“We encountered a Grim Reaper.”

“A Grim Reaper? You mean the reaper from the old stories?”

“That’s right.”

At Zeon’s answer, Lee Ji-ryeong deeply furrowed his brow.

It wasn’t that he didn’t believe Zeon’s words.

It was that they were so absurd.

“Everything shows up, doesn’t it? Then is the owner of this dungeon a Grim Reaper?”

“Who knows. But it’s certain that this dungeon is connected to the item Cha Jin-cheol had.”

“The Jailer’s Rope?”

“Yes!”

“It’s clearly an item that came from another dungeon, yet it’s connected to this place? Then does that mean the other dungeons that appeared on Earth are also organically connected to one another?”

Lee Ji-ryeong’s intuition was sharp.

Zeon knew that the dungeons appearing on Earth were fragments of Kurayan, but most Awakened only thought of them as naturally occurring phenomena.

Under such circumstances, drawing such an inference this quickly was absolutely not easy.

“Still, if it’s a Grim Reaper, then there’s a high probability the master of this dungeon is undead.”

“Did you prepare any anti-undead items?”

“What special items would there be? In the end, we just have to smash them by force.”

Among Neo Seoul’s Awakened, almost no one had experienced an undead dungeon.

That was how rare undead dungeons were.

This was also Lee Ji-ryeong’s first time entering an undead dungeon. But he was not all that worried.

It wasn’t as if undead truly never died.

You just had to keep breaking them until they died and crush them so they could not come back to life. Then, at the very end, if you destroyed the core, everything would be over.

It was a terrifyingly simple method.

That also made it efficient.

However, this method only displayed its power when one possessed overwhelming force.

“There will be many casualties.”

“We’ll have to accept that. The greater the danger, the greater the return, after all. Everyone who joined this raid force knows that fact.”

It was impossible to raid a dungeon without being prepared to die.

Before entering a dungeon, there was no way to know what kind of danger existed inside.

Some dungeons were easily conquered, while others produced countless casualties.

To become an Awakened who raided dungeons meant that at every moment one had to throw oneself into danger.

No matter how good the defensive gear protecting one’s whole body or how powerful the weapon in one’s hands, no one could guarantee that one would survive.

At any time, one could lose one’s life.

In exchange, if one returned alive, the reward was certain.

Even if one died, the family could receive compensation and live a prosperous life.

That was why Awakened placed their bodies into raid forces.

“Anyway, you did well. Until the scouting team comes back, get some rest.”

“Are you planning to proceed with the raid as soon as they return?”

“The faster a dungeon is raided, the better.”

“Understood.”

“How much mana have you recovered?”

“To some extent.”

“I hope you recover quickly. It seems your strength will be absolutely necessary in this dungeon raid.”

“I thought my role only extended as far as finding the dungeon entrance.”

“Circumstances are always bound to change. You don’t want many casualties either, do you?”

“That’s true, but it’s not my responsibility. Well then…”

Zeon slightly bowed his head and left outside.

The moment he disappeared, the door flap on the other side of the tent opened and Bronson came in.

Lee Ji-ryeong said to Bronson, “Drive him into the most dangerous situation possible. Only then will he come to depend on us emotionally.”

“Understood.”

“He still doesn’t seem to have fully recovered his mana, so it won’t be too difficult.”

For now, Zeon was still strong and there was no opening to strike.

But once he weakened, an opportunity was bound to come.

Lee Ji-ryeong was precisely the kind of person who excelled at seizing such opportunities.

***

Zeon returned to the tent where Brielle, Levin, and Eloy were.

The three were sitting in chairs and resting.

Brielle looked Zeon up and down and asked, “Are you all right?”

“About what?”

“That guy didn’t try anything, did he?”

“Who, Lee Ji-ryeong?”

“Yeah!”

“He didn’t.”

“Be careful! I don’t have a good feeling about him.”

“I am being careful.”

Zeon replied with a faint smile.

From the moment they entered the dungeon, Brielle’s nerves had grown sharp.

Zeon thought that had to do with the characteristics of a High Elf.

Since her senses were much sharper than those of an ordinary elf, she was reacting especially sensitively in this dungeon full of ominous energy.

Eloy asked Zeon, “What are we going to do now?”

“First we eat.”

“Eat?”

“Once we start raiding the dungeon in earnest, there probably won’t even be time to eat properly. We have to eat while we can. Levin!”

“Yes, hyung.”

Levin pulled out the food they had prepared in advance from the subspace backpack.

His bag was full of food Old Man Klexi had made for them.

Levin took some of it out and placed it on the table.

“All right, let’s eat.”

At Levin’s words, everyone gathered around and began the meal.

“It’s delicious.”

After tasting the food, Eloy widened her eyes.

The food prepared by Old Man Klexi was truly delicious.

She knew very well how incredible it was to be able to eat food of this level inside a dungeon.

“This is really good.”

“We brought plenty, so we’ll probably be able to eat whenever we get a break.”

“Well done, squirt! Your abilities are incredible, and your preparedness is even more incredible.”

“Hehe!”

At Eloy’s praise, Levin smiled brightly.

Brielle jabbed Levin in the side with her elbow.

“Just eat your food. Don’t go getting bewitched by some fox.”

“Ungh!”

Levin nodded and focused again on eating.

It was just when everyone had almost finished their meal.

“The scouting team has returned.”

“Open the gate.”

They heard a commotion outside.

The four hurriedly finished eating and went outside.

Then they saw the scouting team returning to the base.

But the scouting team’s state was alarming.

They looked like they had fought a fierce battle.

Their armor was torn in several places, their hair was disheveled, and traces of blood showed.

At the news that they had returned, Lee Ji-ryeong came running over.

“Are you all right?”

“Huff! Huff! Just a moment…”

Gesling held up his hand while breathing roughly.

Lee Ji-ryeong waited until he calmed down.

After finally catching his breath, Gesling opened his mouth with difficulty.

“First, we confirmed the place presumed to be the core.”

“You did?”

“Yes! It’s definitely the ancient castle.”

“As expected.”

“It was a style of ancient castle I’d never seen before. It felt like a medieval castle from Earth, but a powerful force field was spread over the entire castle, so we couldn’t even approach it.”

“There’s a force field? On a castle, not even on a boss?”

“Yes!”

At Gesling’s reply, Lee Ji-ryeong furrowed his brow.

The difficulty of the raid had risen higher than expected.

Releasing a force field was not easy.

To normally dispel a force field, one needed to mobilize many magic-type Awakened, especially those skilled in force fields.

The Pegasus Raid Force had such Awakened as well.

But their numbers were not all that many.

“It’ll be hard by normal means. We’ll have to break it by force…”

“The problem is…”

“There’s another problem?”

“There’s a quicksand zone.”

“What?”

“There’s a quicksand zone on the road leading to the ancient castle.”

“A quicksand zone?”

“It’s an enormously wide quicksand zone. A strong force is acting on it, so it can’t be crossed by ordinary means.”

“Then how did the scouting team cross the quicksand zone?”

“I’m sorry. We couldn’t cross it either.”

Gesling shuddered as if even recalling it was horrible.

A giant mole demonic beast had appeared in the area where the scouting team was hiding too.

The giant mole demonic beast that came outside approached the quicksand zone.

At that instant, an invisible force dragged the giant mole demonic beast into the quicksand zone.

It struggled and resisted, but it was useless.

In the end, the giant mole demonic beast was dragged into the quicksand zone.

The scouting team also did not know what happened inside the sand.

What they saw was the quicksand zone writhing violently as if there had been an earthquake, and the giant mole demonic beast’s desperate screams.

They had never heard such a horrific scream in their lives.

Having witnessed the giant mole demonic beast’s end before their eyes, the scouting team gave up on advancing further.

They had learned even from a distance that a force field was spread over the ancient castle.

“In the end, that means you found out nothing further.”

“I’m sorry.”

This was the first time the scouting team had failed to bring back proper raid information.

It was clearly the worst sort of dungeon in many ways.

If they had their way, they would have liked to stay several more days and collect information bit by bit, but they did not have that luxury.

The longer time dragged on, the greater the chance that Cha Jin-cheol, who had been captured by the Grim Reaper, would lose his life.

The West District was the biggest sponsor of this raid.

If Cha Jin-cheol died, their relationship with them would plummet to its worst.

To stop that from happening, they absolutely had to rescue Cha Jin-cheol.

“Can’t be helped. We’ll have to solve it by charging in ourselves…”

“Are you planning to proceed with the raid as things are?”

“If Cha Jin-cheol dies, Kim Hyun-su is going to lose his mind. Even if it’s reckless, we have to move. And besides, we have him.”

“But he still hasn’t fully recovered his mana. Will it really be possible for him to control the quicksand zone?”

“He’ll manage somehow. He’s got the ability and resolve for that.”

Having led the dungeon raid force, Lee Ji-ryeong had met many people.

Because of that, he prided himself on his eye for judging people above anyone else.

“He says his mana is exhausted, but he’s definitely hidden something away. Otherwise, he couldn’t act that confidently. We have to make him empty out every hidden move he has on this opportunity.”

“Understood.”

“Then leave only the base team behind and everyone else moves out.”

“Yes!”

Bronson passed down Lee Ji-ryeong’s order exactly.

The gate in the wall opened, and the Awakened set out toward the ancient castle.

It was the start of the dungeon raid in earnest.

Looking in the direction of the ancient castle, Zeon muttered, “How many of them will actually make it back alive?”