Chapter 176

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Translated by Pratt

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Just as the scouting team had said, the ancient castle could be seen far away. A faint force field rippled around it.

“It really is an ancient castle.”

“I’ve never seen that kind of architecture before.”

The Awakened murmured as they looked at the ancient castle. The dungeon was a place where anything could exist, but that type of ancient castle was something all of them were seeing for the first time. Levin asked Zeon, “Is it really possible for a castle like that to exist in a dungeon?”

“If it exists, then of course it’s possible.”

“Haha! Even so, that…”

“Human common sense doesn’t apply in a dungeon. A dungeon is a place where everything humans imagine can become reality.”

“So…”

“That’s why you mustn’t let your guard down for even a single moment, if you want to get out alive…”

Gulp!

At Zeon’s grave atmosphere, Levin swallowed hard instead of answering. Brielle too tensed up along with him. Right now, Zeon was feeling a powerful sense of deja vu.

‘It’s similar to Akaruke’s castle.’

Akaruke, the knight of death.

The castle he had owned had carried an atmosphere similar to this.

Even the fact that undead appeared was the same.

If so, the owner of this place might likewise be a being similar to Akaruke.

‘Whatever it is, the fact that it’s dangerous doesn’t change.’

Zeon looked at Lee Ji-ryeong.

Lee Ji-ryeong must already know this dungeon was not ordinary. Even so, confidence still showed on his face.

It was the expression only someone who had raided and conquered countless dungeons could possess.

But before that, there was something they had to do first.

They had to cross the immense quicksand blocking their path.

Tseuuuu!

A faint sound that one could never hear without focusing all one’s nerves could be heard.

It was the sound of the quicksand flowing.

The sight of fine grains of sand flowing like a huge river was enough to make the Awakened feel terror.

Then one of the Awakened spoke.

“Still, isn’t this enough to jump across?”

At his words, several Awakened’s eyes lit up.

The width of the quicksand was about two hundred meters.

At that distance, outstanding martial-type Awakened or those with skills like Leap could jump over it.

The Awakened who had spoken stepped forward.

“I’ll jump across first.”

He was a C-rank martial-type Awakened.

Though his rank was low, he possessed a skill called Triple Leap, so he was confident he could easily jump across two hundred meters.

‘If I jump over the quicksand, everyone will notice me.’

He had joined as a mercenary.

His goal was to stand out here and be scouted into the Pegasus Raid Force.

To do that, he needed to make his presence known.

No one stopped him.

Since he was saying he would test it of his own accord, there was no reason to stop him.

Under everyone’s attention, the Awakened stepped forward.

Tseuuuu!

The sound of sand flowing was frightening, but he forced himself to make a calm expression.

‘Hoo! I can cross this. This is nothing. I’ve jumped across places wider than this before.’

After taking a moment to control his breathing, the Awakened sprinted dozens of meters and leaped before the quicksand.

Pat!

His body flew over the quicksand like a bird.

Having flown nearly seventy or eighty meters, the Awakened began to descend in a gentle parabola. At that moment, the Awakened’s skill, Triple Leap, activated.

As if there were an invisible foothold, he stepped on empty air and leaped once more.

“He did it.”

“He can definitely cross it.”

The Awakened watching him clenched their fists.

The situation was clearly heading toward success.

That was when it happened.

“Ack!”

Suddenly, the Awakened twisted in midair with a groan.

Then he began to fall at a terrifying speed.

“Th-that?”

“What the hell? Why’s he suddenly like that?”

The Awakened who saw it shouted in shock.

The falling Awakened activated his skill again to leap once more.

‘Triple Leap!’

The skill definitely activated.

Even so, he kept falling.

That was because an enormous invisible force from the quicksand zone was pulling him in.

Like someone caught in a snare, he could not exert any strength.

The tremendous pressure prevented Triple Leap from unfolding.

‘Fuck! What is this? What is it?’

Thump!

In the end, the Awakened crashed onto the quicksand.

Fortunately, it was soft sand, so he saved his life.

But that wasn’t the problem.

“Uuuuugh!”

The Awakened’s body was being dragged into the sand.

He struggled and tried to crawl out, but the more he did so, the faster he was sucked into the sand.

“Goddamn it! Throw a rope.”

“Hold on a little longer.”

That was when the other Awakened were busily moving to rescue him.

“Ugh, ughaaaah!”

Suddenly, the Awakened’s desperate scream rang out.

When they looked in shock, something black was covering the Awakened’s body.

“What is that?”

“There’s something strange in the sand.”

“Fuck! They’re spiders.”

What covered the Awakened were spiders as big as a person’s forearm.

No one knew how many there were.

The area tens of meters around the Awakened was covered in spiders.

They sank their fangs into the Awakened’s skin and sucked his blood.

Each time a spider sucked blood, the Awakened’s body shrank, and before long he changed into something like a mummy.

That was the Awakened’s end.

“Good heavens!”

“To think demonic beasts like that were hidden in the sand.”

“If we’d just tried to cross…”

The other Awakened all trembled.

Just imagining it was horrifying.

The spiders that had sucked the Awakened dry hid themselves in the sand again.

Lee Ji-ryeong let out a low groan.

“So it wasn’t just ordinary quicksand. There were monster spiders hiding inside.”

“If we’d ignorantly gone in, we’d have ended up just like that.”

Scout leader Gesling rubbed his chest.

If he had acted up and tried to cross, he too would have ended up like that.

Kwaarrr!

Suddenly, multiple bolts of lightning fell into the quicksand zone from the sky.

Lee Ji-ryeong had unleashed his power.

Bzzzzzzik!

The sand was charred black by the millions of bolts.

It was truly fearsome might.

But even that lightning could not stop the flow of the quicksand.

Immediately after the current disappeared, spiders emerged from the sand.

The creatures looked around as if checking what had happened, then vanished into the sand again.

They looked completely unaffected by the lightning.

“As expected, ordinary methods won’t let us pass through here.”

Lee Ji-ryeong bit his lip.

It was because his pride had been wounded by the fact that his power did not work.

That sand was the problem.

It prevented the lightning from flowing through and let the spiders take no damage at all.

It was the worst possible compatibility.

After Lee Ji-ryeong fired off his barrage of lightning, the other Awakened each unfolded their own skills.

Various magical attacks struck the sand.

But the spiders took no damage at all.

One spider was not all that frightening.

At best, it was around E-rank or D-rank.

The mercenaries could have easily killed them if they had just come out of the sand.

The problem was that they had no intention of coming out of the sand, and no one knew how many of them were hidden inside.

Gesling looked at Zeon.

“In the end, there’s no one but him.”

“Mm.”

Lee Ji-ryeong nodded.

Though his pride was a little hurt, Zeon was the only one who could break through the current situation.

Lee Ji-ryeong walked up to Zeon.

“Did you see it?”

“Yes!”

“There are demonic beasts hiding in the quicksand. If we try to deal with them, it’ll require considerable time and effort.”

“If it were me, I’d be able to deal with them more easily than you.”

Zeon replied while staring directly at Lee Ji-ryeong.

Lee Ji-ryeong too did not avoid Zeon’s gaze and said, “That’s why I’m asking. Here, no, on Earth, only you can open a path through the quicksand zone.”

“That means I’ll use up all my remaining mana too.”

“So you’re saying you can’t do it?”

The gaze Lee Ji-ryeong fixed on Zeon was intense.

No matter who looked, it was the look of someone provoking him.

Zeon gave a faint smile.

“Understood. I’ll open the path.”

If he was provoking him this openly, then of course Zeon had to answer.

He passed Lee Ji-ryeong and walked to the front of the quicksand zone.

“Hoo!”

Standing before the quicksand zone, Zeon spent a moment regulating his breath and drawing up his authority.

Swooooosh!

His senses spread out riding the sand.

Thanks to the countless lines of sensation spreading out like a nervous system, he could see the situation inside the sand as though it were in his palm.

There were as many spiders hidden throughout the entire quicksand zone as grains of sand.

It was truly an environment like hell.

But that did not apply to Zeon.

He glanced briefly at Lee Ji-ryeong, then closed his eyes.

Now he was going to use his authority in earnest.

Kukukukuku!

In an instant, the quicksand shook violently as if an earthquake had occurred.

The force making the sand flow and Zeon’s authority had collided.

As a result, the sand writhed even more violently.

Kwaaaa!

The sand was pushed out beyond the quicksand zone.

The spiders hidden in the sand were dragged out along with it.

“Uaaaah!”

“Spiders. Get back.”

The Awakened nearby recoiled in alarm.

“You spider bastards…”

“Die!”

The few Awakened who recovered their senses attacked and killed the spiders.

They had been frightening when hidden in the sand, but once outside, the spiders were not such fearsome beings.

Puhk!

The spiders burst apart under the Awakened’s attacks.

The problem was the spiders’ blood.

Spider blood splattered onto the Awakened.

Chiiiiik!

“Kyaaaah!”

“Save me!”

The areas hit by blood melted down as though they had been soaked in strong acid.

The other Awakened who saw that widened their eyes.

If they too had unknowingly stood close to the spiders, they might have ended up just like that.

The Awakened hit by the spiders’ blood rolled on the ground, crying out in agony.

The nearby Awakened tried to treat their wounds by spraying healing potion, but it was useless.

In the end, their bodies melted away and they lost their lives.

“Insane!”

“To think those things were swarming inside the sand.”

The faces of the Awakened who saw their comrades’ deaths turned pale.

All their gazes focused on Zeon.

Now the success or failure of the dungeon raid depended on Zeon.

If Zeon could not open the quicksand zone, they would not even be able to attempt the dungeon raid.

Kwa kwa kwa kwa!

Even at that moment, the quicksand was still writhing violently.

Zeon standing before it looked dangerously unstable.

Zeon was controlling his authority with all his concentration.

Neither the writhing sand nor the spiders hidden inside it could break Zeon’s focus.

At the moment the quicksand’s upheaval reached its peak, Zeon opened his eyes.

The eyes of Zeon, who had drawn up his authority, looked exactly like red sand.

Zeon’s two hands slowly moved apart to either side as if parting the sand.

Like the Red Sea splitting apart, the quicksand parted at his gesture.

Lee Ji-ryeong clenched his fist hard.

“A path… is opening.”

“Waaaaah!”

Cheers burst from the Awakened.

A road leading to the ancient castle was opening before them.

It was a miracle created by Zeon, the desert’s one and only sand mage.