SPLASH.
When he stepped onto the murky water, the slippery mud seized the soles of his boots and released them again.
Cheol-woo immediately pinched his nose and furrowed his brow.
"Ugh. The stench of rot is really something else."
The moment he crossed through the gate, what rushed over him was the sharp smell of a sewer.
He instantly understood why everyone canceled their raid applications and ran away.
A murky, unidentified liquid pooled on the floor up to his ankles, and the walls of the round sewer-pipe passage were thick with moss and mold.
He had not even taken a few steps before the murky water splashed over his waterproof boots.
"Good thing I wore clothes I was planning to throw away anyway."
Cheol-woo tightened the straps of his waterproof bag and stepped forward carefully.
The splashing sound echoed along the dark passage.
Before long, shapeless forms began moving beneath the surface.
BUBBLE. BUBBLE.
Air bubbles rose, and slimes the size of an adult’s fist sprang out of the murky water.
After them, small crustacean monsters with hard shells approached, clacking their pincers together.
They were shabby creatures that suited an F-rank dungeon.
But the problem was not their attack power.
"Ah, damn it. I cannot move my feet properly because of the water."
Cheol-woo tried to kick at a slime, then stopped short.
The resistance of the water, which had risen to his shins, made his movements noticeably slower.
The timing that would have let him lightly dodge and inflict a fatal blow on land was subtly thrown off.
One slime jumped toward Cheol-woo’s thigh, trying to cling to him.
"Not a chance."
Cheol-woo struck in short, sharp motions with the goblin’s short spear in his hand.
It was a weapon he had picked up from the abandoned mine and had been putting to surprisingly good use.
Instead of swinging widely, he chose to thrust with it like a billiards cue.
THWACK!
The spearhead pierced the slime’s transparent body and accurately skewered the red nucleus embedded in its center.
With its nucleus broken, the slime immediately lost its form and melted into the rotten water.
SKREE!
This time, a crustacean leaped out of the water and swung its sharp pincers.
Cheol-woo quickly moved his other hand, the one not holding the spear.
It held the curved hook tool he had prepared in advance.
He pushed the hook between the monster’s pincers, then yanked it upward.
"Come up!"
The crustacean, pulled out of the water, flailed in midair.
Cheol-woo did not miss the opening. He twisted the hook and flipped the monster’s body over.
As it tumbled to the floor with its belly exposed, the spearhead stabbed mercilessly between the soft parts of its shell.
With a crack, the monster trembled as if convulsing, then stopped moving.
"Phew."
After steadying his breath, Cheol-woo stared deeper into the passage.
He had only killed two monsters, yet it felt several times more exhausting than usual.
If he made large movements in this environment, he would quickly tire and be unable to fight properly.
If not for the stamina management he had learned while working as a porter, he would have collapsed right at the entrance.
"Let us go slowly. Time is on my side anyway."
He did not rush.
He carefully stepped through the mud beneath the water, and whenever enemies appeared, he used the least movement necessary to target only their nuclei or disable them with the hook.
It was slow but certain progress.
The deeper he went into the dungeon, the worse the conditions became.
The water level, which had stayed around his knees, had already climbed well past his waist.
Deep pools where the floor suddenly dropped away lurked everywhere, and if he let his attention slip, he could easily sink with a gulp.
"Good grief, the landlord’s taste is truly awful."
Cheol-woo took a recovery rope from his waterproof bag.
He tied it firmly to rusted rebar and protrusions on the passage wall sticking out of the water.
It was a retreat line in case he was swept away by the current or fell into a trap while crossing the deep section.
"All of this will become flesh and blood."
After muttering that, Cheol-woo bit down on the small breathing aid and lowered his head beneath the surface.
He had to pass through a submerged passage.
The muddy water blocked his vision, making it impossible to see even an inch ahead, but he moved his arms while trusting only the sensation of the rope in his hand.
Cold water seeped between his face and equipment, stealing away his body heat.
A terrible fatigue surged over him.
But compared to the days when he had only watched other people’s backs and endured their insults as a porter, this was at least an honest pain.
GASP!
After escaping the submerged section, Cheol-woo thrust his upper body above the water and exhaled.
When he spat out the breathing aid in his mouth, murky air pushed into his lungs.
The place he had climbed into was a wide space where the water level had dropped to around his ankles.
Cheol-woo sank down on the spot and breathed roughly.
His armor, soaked with water, was as heavy as lead, and his legs were trembling irregularly.
"Ah, fuck. This is seriously exhausting."
The curse came out on its own.
But his gaze was pointed forward.
At the end of the wide space stood an enormous reservoir area lined with faintly glowing blue stone pillars.
It was the final boss room.
Cheol-woo searched his pocket and took out a high-calorie chocolate bar.
He tore the wrapper open with his teeth and forced himself to chew and swallow it.
As the sweetness spread through his mouth, his hazy mind felt a little clearer.
"Let us see about ransacking someone else’s inner room."
Rising from his seat, he adjusted his grip on the goblin spear and slowly walked into the reservoir area.
At the center of the reservoir area lay an enormous pool of water.
And in the middle of it, a massive body large enough to fill the entire passage was writhing.
It was a Waterway Slime, grotesquely huge, as if dozens of ordinary slimes had been lumped together.
GURGLE.
Sensing the intruder’s presence, the boss monster trembled with a bizarre sound.
In the next instant, its body swelled to nearly twice its size.
It had sucked in the murky water pooled on the floor like a vacuum cleaner.
‘It is big.’
Cheol-woo lowered his stance tensely.
Deep inside the monster’s transparent body, he could see a red nucleus the size of a soccer ball floating within.
If he broke that, it would be over.
Cheol-woo kicked off the floor and sprang forward.
Before the monster could react, he thrust the spearhead forcefully toward its body.
STAB!
The spear pierced through the monster’s gelatinous skin.
But that was as far as it went.
"Damn."
Because of the pressure inside its body, swollen taut with absorbed water, the spearhead was blocked long before it could reach the nucleus.
Instead, the monster’s body rebounded like a spring and shoved Cheol-woo’s spear back with force.
SPLIT!
The center of its body opened wide, and compressed water shot out like a cannonball.
Cheol-woo hastily pulled out the spear and threw himself to the side.
BOOM!
A massive stream of water struck the wall behind where Cheol-woo had been standing.
It had enough destructive power to knock down a pile of stones.
If that hit him directly, it would not end with a few broken bones.
‘This is no joke.’
After rolling across the floor, Cheol-woo hurriedly stood.
The monster was once again absorbing the water on the ground and swelling its body.
Cheol-woo discovered one fatal opening in its movement.
Right after it released water to its limit.
For that very brief moment, its body shriveled and contracted, becoming thinnest.
At that moment, the spearhead could reach the nucleus.
"Good. I have confirmed the pattern."
Cheol-woo quickly scanned his surroundings.
On one side of the wall, he saw a thick drainage groove where rainwater flowed out and an iron pillar.
He took out the rope, tied it securely around the iron pillar, and fastened the other end to his waist.
GURGLE!
Once again, the monster, now filled with water, twisted its body toward Cheol-woo.
Instead of running, Cheol-woo stood pressed tightly beside the pillar.
ROOOAR!
A column of water with tremendous pressure swallowed Cheol-woo.
"Urgh!"
His body was shoved backward.
But the rope around his waist held him firmly in place.
The spray choked him, and he could not open his eyes, but Cheol-woo endured while gripping the pillar tightly.
A short moment felt like eternity.
SPLASHHH.
At last, the stream of water cut off.
Without hesitation, Cheol-woo untied the rope from his waist and ran forward.
The monster had just finished releasing its water and was in a shriveled state.
As its swollen gelatinous body thinned, the red nucleus he had been aiming for was clearly exposed just beneath the surface.
"Die!"
Cheol-woo drove the goblin spear forward with all his weight behind it.
This time, there was no pressure blocking him.
The spearhead smoothly tore through the monster’s skin and pierced straight through the center of the enormous nucleus.
CRAACK!
A rupture like a pane of glass shattering echoed through the reservoir area.
The boss’s contracted body trembled, then failed to maintain its form and collapsed like a waterfall.
The water that had risen up to Cheol-woo’s legs drained away through the outlet in an instant.
"Haa, haa..."
Cheol-woo’s gaze, still panting for breath, turned toward the center of the floor.
In the place where the water had drained away, a round sphere emitting a faint light lay alone.
The heart that maintained the dungeon.
The Dungeon Core.
Cheol-woo swept his gaze around once.
After confirming that no scrap monsters remained to regenerate, he approached the Core.
He tapped the Core with the butt end of the spear in his hand.
Even that impact was too much for the Core to withstand. It split with a crack and shattered into pieces.
At the same time, translucent system message windows appeared one after another before Cheol-woo’s eyes.
[The dungeon has been completely cleared.]
[Raid contribution of 100 percent has been confirmed.]
[Ownership of F-rank Dungeon 「Sleeping Waterway」 has been acquired.]
"Heh, hehe."
An uncontrollable laugh slipped from Cheol-woo’s lips.
The familiar wording.
And certainty.
His acquisition of ownership in the abandoned mine had not been a lucky bug or a one-time miracle.
As long as he destroyed the Core with a full 100 percent contribution and without anyone’s help, the dungeon would unfailingly become his.
Seeing the number of owned dungeons change from 1 to 2, Cheol-woo even forgot the discomfort of his soaked equipment.
HUM.
His vision flickered along with the sensation of space shaking.
It was the process by which a dungeon with its Core destroyed collapsed and spat the raider back into reality.
When Cheol-woo came to his senses, he was standing in the middle of the waiting area designated by the Association.
When he turned back, the gate of 「Sleeping Waterway」, which had been emitting blue light, contracted like a whirlpool and completely vanished into thin air.
From the outside, it looked like the normal closing phenomenon of a dungeon that had been successfully cleared.
Now, in the Association’s documents, Sleeping Waterway would be processed as completely vanished.
"But it is alive in my window."
Cheol-woo shook the water dripping from his clothes and opened the management window.
At the center of the screen floating in the air, two lines of text shone side by side.
[Owned Dungeon List]
-Goblin’s Abandoned Mine (F)
-Sleeping Waterway (F)
It had been properly added.
Now, that foul-smelling waterway had also become Cheol-woo’s private property, one that would spit out slimes and water resources once time passed.
Then, beneath the names of the two dungeons, a new item smoothly appeared.
[New management item has been added.]
-Condition: Owner of two or more dungeons.
-Status: Currently locked.
"Huh?"
Cheol-woo’s eyes widened.
It was something that had not been visible when he had possessed only the abandoned mine.
It only said that the condition had been satisfied, while even the item’s name was hidden and unclickable.
"Well, it is not urgent right now."
Cheol-woo did not force himself to press various things.
He had not even dealt with the revived abandoned mine boss yet, and if he recklessly poked at the system, who knew what error might occur?
There was only one thing he wanted to confirm.
The Enter button beside the name Sleeping Waterway.
‘I can enter again whenever I want.’
That alone was enough.
Cheol-woo swiped the system window out of his sight.
The squelching sensation of mud inside his boots once again reminded him of reality.
"First, I should go wash with hot water and dry my equipment."
Cheol-woo rolled his shoulders and left the waiting area.
As soon as he was clean and dry, he planned to enter the waterway again and thoroughly search its internal environment and producible resources.
His quiet second housewarming, meant only for him, was waiting.
The heavy bag on his back swayed pleasantly with every step he took.
Instead of the fatigue from his porter days, his footsteps carried a clear expectation for tomorrow.