The stupid mass of iron cut through the air, then smashed straight into the stone floor where Cheol-woo had been standing.
BOOM!
With a deafening blast, shards of stone flew in every direction like shotgun pellets.
Cheol-woo reflexively raised the shaft of his pickaxe to shield his face, but one fragment struck his shoulder hard.
"Ugh."
A groan escaped him on its own from the pain that rang through his bones.
Even the aftermath of that simple blow against the floor was enough to make his wrist ache and leave his shoulder numb.
And he had not even blocked it directly.
Cheol-woo slid back a long distance and created space.
‘How am I supposed to block something like that head-on? Even a graze would rupture my organs.’
Cold sweat gathered on his forehead and ran down his cheek.
Before him, the Goblin Mine Supervisor lifted its iron hammer again and let out a monstrous roar. Its movements were dull and slow, but its destructive power alone was far beyond what an E-rank hunter could withstand.
If he tried to fight honestly here, swinging a blade or his pickaxe, it was obvious that he would be reduced to blood within a minute.
Cheol-woo quickly swept his gaze across every corner of the mining pit.
He had to find a way to survive.
The outside had no idea what was happening in here anyway. Once the scheduled gate closure time approached, they would naturally assume it was an empty dungeon and begin the standby procedure for its disappearance.
No one would come to save him.
If he could not survive on his own, he would simply become that monster’s prey in this damp underground.
‘Is there anything useful...?’
A rusted iron minecart entered his sight. Beside it lay a severed hauling rope, and most noticeably, there were old wooden supports barely holding up the ceiling.
Each time the supervisor swung its iron hammer through the air, the entire mineshaft shook, and soil poured down like a waterfall from between the supports.
‘They cannot withstand the recoil from that thing’s swings.’
Cheol-woo’s eyes sharpened.
A frontal battle was insanity. But if this worn-out space itself became his weapon, that was a different story.
Cheol-woo immediately ran toward the slope where the minecart stood.
THUD, THUD, THUD.
Thinking its prey was fleeing, the supervisor followed, shaking the ground with every step.
"Wait there quietly. You should at least earn your meal."
Cheol-woo brought his pickaxe down on the thick stopper wedged against the minecart’s wheel.
CLANG!
The rusted piece of metal shrieked and sprang free.
Released from restraint, the minecart rushed fiercely down the sloped track toward the supervisor.
Faced with the mass of iron that suddenly rolled out of the darkness, the supervisor paused for a moment, then swung its iron hammer in irritation.
CRUNCH!
A single blow. The thick iron minecart crumpled like a sheet of paper and flew into the air.
But the minecart’s impact had not been what Cheol-woo was aiming for.
‘Now.’
In the brief instant when the supervisor’s attention was drawn to the minecart, a gap appeared.
Cheol-woo threw himself forward and snatched up the thick hauling rope lying on the floor. Then he immediately slid beneath the support that looked the oldest.
His hands moved with mechanical precision. The countless times he had tied and untied knots while rolling around as a porter now showed their worth. It took him only two seconds to wrap the rope twice around the base of the support and secure it.
However, the boss’s senses were sharper than expected.
After smashing the minecart and turning its head, the supervisor caught sight of Cheol-woo beneath the support.
With a beastlike roar, the hammer came flying in diagonally.
"Fuck!"
Still gripping the end of the rope he had been tying, Cheol-woo hurled his body roughly toward the rock wall.
A chilling WHOOSH struck his ears.
Just as he thought the hammer had missed him by a hair, the tip of the iron hammer grazed Cheol-woo’s side.
"Keugh!"
The air was driven from his lungs all at once.
Cheol-woo’s body flew through the air and slammed into the hard rock wall. His vision flashed white, and he could not breathe.
The hot, bloody taste of iron surged into his mouth.
‘Get up. If you stop, you die.’
Cheol-woo spat out blood and gritted his teeth.
Forcing his shaking vision back into focus, he rose as if crawling up from the floor. He still had not let go of the rope in his hand.
The supervisor was already striding toward him, preparing its next attack.
Staggering, Cheol-woo moved toward the narrowest passage on the opposite side of the Core.
Each time he moved, the rope was pulled taut.
"This way, you stupid bastard."
At Cheol-woo’s provocation, the supervisor’s crimson eyes blazed viciously.
The boss gripped its hammer tightly with both hands and raised it high above its head.
The second attack.
The hammer fell vertically, aiming for the crown of Cheol-woo’s head.
Cheol-woo instinctively rolled to the side and dodged.
BOOM!
The instant the hammer struck the floor, the portable lamp Cheol-woo had been holding was thrown away by the shockwave, smashed against a rock, and shattered into pieces.
The only light went out, and the mining pit was instantly dyed in darkness.
Only the red light emitted by the Core embedded behind the boss created grotesque shadows.
RUMBLE.
In the aftermath of the hammer’s impact, the ceiling screamed.
Thick fragments of rock began to fall. The mineshaft had reached its limit.
‘Just one more time.’
Cheol-woo forced himself up again.
His breathing had risen to his throat, but he clenched his legs with all his strength.
This time, the supervisor swung its hammer widely in a horizontal arc.
The third blow.
Cheol-woo flattened himself against the floor and barely avoided the attack.
The hammer slammed directly into the wall of the narrow passage.
KABOOM!
This time, an enormous roar rang out.
A critical section of bedrock that had been supporting the mining pit split open with a crack. Rocks as large as houses began to fracture along the ceiling, showing signs that they were about to pour down.
‘Now!’
Still prone on the floor, Cheol-woo pulled the rope in both hands with all his strength.
The rope, stretched tight, transmitted a fierce tension to the base of the support.
CRACK, CRACK, CRACK!
The support, already cracked and pushed to its limit, could not withstand the pull of the rope and snapped.
At the same time, the remains of the minecart that had been destroyed moments ago slid down the slope and struck another nearby support like a domino.
"Sleep well."
Cheol-woo kicked off the floor and threw himself backward.
At that moment, the ceiling of hell came crashing down.
RUMBLE!
Heavy timber and rocks poured down like a waterfall, crashing into the center of the mining pit.
The supervisor, just as it was about to retrieve its hammer, was buried beneath the falling debris without even a chance to dodge.
A horrific death cry tore through the underground, but it was soon completely swallowed by the noise of the massive rocks.
A cloud of dust surged forward like a tidal wave and engulfed Cheol-woo.
Cough, cough.
How much time had passed?
Covered in earth dust, Cheol-woo coughed and lifted his head.
Everything around him had collapsed horribly.
Beneath the mountain of rubble, he could see the supervisor’s corpse, with only one arm protruding grotesquely.
That hand no longer moved in the slightest.
It was dead.
"Haa, haa... stubborn bastard."
Limping, Cheol-woo slowly walked forward.
Perhaps because of the aftermath of the boss’s collapse, the rock wall behind the mining pit had split open widely.
Through that gap, the red-pulsing Dungeon Core was exposed in full, still tangled within the ore vein.
Rumble.
Small pieces of stone continued to fall from the ceiling.
It was only a matter of time before this entire place collapsed. There was no room to break through the blocked passage and escape.
The only way out was to destroy that Core, clear the dungeon, and be forcibly returned outside.
Cheol-woo adjusted his grip on the pickaxe, now smeared with blood and earth dust.
Blood was seeping from his side and soaking his clothes, but he had no time to feel the pain.
He approached the Core, drew in a breath, and raised the pickaxe high.
CLANG!
The first blow.
Red mana flashed across the Core’s surface and repelled the pickaxe.
His palm felt as though it would tear apart, but Cheol-woo did not stop.
"Do you know how much this suffering is worth?"
CLANG!
The second blow.
The Core’s red light flickered, and fine cracks began to form across its surface.
Cheol-woo squeezed out every last bit of strength he had left and brought the pickaxe down again.
"Break already!"
SHATTER!
When the third blow landed squarely, the hard surface broke apart like a pane of glass.
Fragments of the Core scattered into light and illuminated the mineshaft.
At the same time, transparent message windows appeared one after another before Cheol-woo’s eyes.
[Hidden Boss 'Goblin Mine Supervisor' defeated!]
[F-rank Dungeon 'Goblin’s Abandoned Mine' Core destruction complete.]
[Calculating raid contribution.]
[Solo raid confirmed. Raid contribution has reached 100%.]
[Complete raid criteria have been satisfied.]
It was a familiar raid completion message.
However, the notification that followed contained something Cheol-woo had not seen even once in his six years as a hunter.
[Conditions have been satisfied.]
[Awakening Unique Authority 「Dungeon Owner」.]
[Ownership of F-rank Dungeon 'Goblin’s Abandoned Mine' has been acquired.]
[The dungeon will be bound to you as a permanent asset.]
"...What? Ownership?"
Cheol-woo’s eyes widened.
It was common knowledge that once a dungeon was cleared, its Core disappeared, and the dungeon vanished from reality as well. Yet it said he had acquired ownership.
Before he could properly grasp the meaning of the message, a pillar of light so intense it was blinding shot up from beneath Cheol-woo’s feet.
The debris falling from the collapsing ceiling stopped in midair as though frozen.
Warm mana wrapped around Cheol-woo’s body.
It felt as if the pain in his wounded side had been washed clean away.
WHOOSH.
The instant the light completely covered his vision, the sensation of his body being pulled into the air overcame him.
The sensation of cold asphalt beneath him.
When Cheol-woo opened his eyes again, he was breathing the familiar night air of reality.
Around him, the barricades and police tape set up by the Association lay scattered in disarray.
The wall of the warehouse that had been used as the entrance to Goblin’s Abandoned Mine until moments ago was empty.
The gate had vanished normally after the raid was completed.
"Haa."
Cheol-woo lay spread-eagled on the ground, gasping for breath.
The Association employees who had been conducting withdrawal work outside the entrance seemed to have left long ago, and the surroundings were quiet.
In their records, this dungeon would probably remain as one that had vanished according to schedule without any problems.
Without anyone knowing that a single porter had been trapped inside and had barely survived death.
Cheol-woo sat up with his aching body.
His entire body was a mess of dried blood and earth dust, but nothing seemed broken. It appeared that the mana had stopped his bleeding at the moment of return.
"I did make it back alive."
A hollow laugh escaped him.
He rummaged through his pocket and took out his terminal, which had not been destroyed.
But before he could even look at the terminal screen, the translucent status window floating in midair captured his gaze first.
[Name: Oh Cheol-woo]
[Grade: E]
[Unique Authority: Dungeon Owner]
[Owned Dungeon 1: Goblin’s Abandoned Mine (F-rank)]
-Status: Awaiting Regeneration
-Produced Resources: Mana Stones, Iron Ore, Unidentified Mineral (Time Remaining Until Regeneration 23:59:59)
Cheol-woo read the words floating in the air as if possessed.
It was not a hallucination.
The dungeon that had clearly vanished from reality was alive and breathing inside his status window.
As his own personal asset, where ores and mana stones would regenerate on their own.
"Insane..."
A breathless voice slipped between his lips.
Six years of picking up worthless scraps others had left behind.
Perhaps that sickening life as a porter had ended today.
Cheol-woo looked at the status window floating in the air and laughed softly.