After lunch, the trainees moved toward the dungeon under the drill instructor’s command.
“Clearing operations will be conducted by squad. Everyone, wait your turn and follow my instructions. Understood?”
Dungeons with economic value are managed by companies that hire Hunters through a bidding process. Those without any real economic value, however, inevitably end up being handled by soldiers like this.
This dungeon, in particular, was one they would have to visit as casually and frequently as a morning cup of water if they completed basic training and were assigned to the 1st Battalion of the Special Forces.
Before entering for the first time, Lee Pyeonghwa swallowed hard.
So this is a real dungeon…
The scenery inside the dungeon felt deeply unfamiliar to her, someone accustomed to Korean cities. Instead of the gray concrete ground and towering buildings seen everywhere in urban Korea, an expansive wasteland stretched out before them. Dense undergrowth filled the area, so thick that without clothing as heavy and sturdy as a military uniform, it would be impossible to push through.
“All right! Everyone, start looking for wild porcupines! You’ll find them if you cut through the brush. Be careful not to get plant rash.”
The main monster in this dungeon was the wild porcupine.
The trainees had to hack their way through this primeval, stiff undergrowth—so untouched it felt as though no human hand had ever reached it—in order to find the creatures. One by one, they raised their entrenching tools.
People often imagine dungeon raids by Hunters as flashy, stylish affairs, but low-tier dungeons like this were often nothing more than exhausting manual labor. And this was before the trainees had developed any real technique. Even burrows that a veteran soldier could locate in a matter of minutes were frustratingly difficult for them to find.
Several hours into digging and tearing at the ground with their shovels, one trainee shouted, “I-I found one!”
Monster: Wild Porcupine (Rank E)
At the same moment the shout rang out, a system message appeared. A creature roughly the height of a human knee suddenly poked its head up from the dirt.
“Wild porcupine” was an extremely literal name. Sharp spines, like those of a hedgehog, covered its body, and when threatened, it could fire those spines at its enemies. Unlike a real hedgehog, however, it had no cute face. Instead, a soft, shapeless mass of flesh squirmed where its eyes, nose, and mouth should have been.
Scholars speculated that because it lived underground and had no need to see sunlight, it had evolved that way.
In short, it was disgusting.
"Ugh!"
“What the hell, that’s gross as hell.”
“Hey! Everyone, focus!” The instructor barked sharply, “This is a monster you might end up seeing every single day. Get a good look at it!”
Wild porcupines had little economic value, but their reproduction rate was extremely fast. If they weren’t dealt with daily, the risk of a Dungeon Break increased dramatically.
“First, surround it so it can’t escape!”
“Yes, sir!”
The first step was to form a perimeter so the wild porcupine couldn’t run. Everyone was inexperienced, so confusion was inevitable, but they somehow managed to complete the encirclement and line up as they had practiced.
“One!”
The swordsmen thrust their blades toward the wild porcupine.
Kyegek!
The creature screamed as the blades pierced it. If they stabbed too deeply, the spines could injure them instead, so careful control was required. In that sense, it was an ideal monster for beginner Hunters to practice on, and to get over the psychological resistance of swinging a sword at a living being.
“Two!”
At the instructor’s signal, the swordsmen stepped back.
“Three!”
Once all the swordsmen had retreated, the mages waiting in the rear fired fire arrows at the wild porcupine. It was the simplest spell available through the system tutorial, yet also one of the highest in raw attack power.
Boom!
The fire arrows slammed into the wild porcupine. Normally, they would have been blocked by the magical defense of its spines, but instead they tore into the wounds already carved into its hide. The creature shuddered violently, writhing in pain.
Even so, a monster’s vitality wasn’t so easily extinguished by an attack like this.
“Not enough! Monsters have innate magical defense. You need to inflict more wounds so magic can penetrate!”
“Yes, sir! Understood!”
“Mages, watch your mana consumption. All right, once more!”
Just as the drill instructor was about to give another command, a scream erupted from among the trainees in the rear ranks, where the mages were preparing their spells.
“Ahhh, ahhh!”
“Recruit 105!”
The source of the scream was Lee Seunghui. She had suddenly begun shrieking in the middle of spell preparation.
Mana exhaustion again?
“I’ll pull her out!”
This wasn’t the first time something like this had happened during training. This time, before Lee Pyeonghwa or the instructor could intervene, Choi Jisu stepped forward.
“Aaaah!”
“Come this way!” Choi Jisu grabbed the screaming Lee Seunghui, trying to drag her away so she wouldn’t interfere with the others, but—
Crackle!
“Ah!”
When Lee Pyeonghwa spun around at the sound, what she saw was Choi Jisu being lifted clean off her feet and flung backward through the air, as if she’d been caught in an invisible explosion.
“Wh-what was that?”
“Choi Jisu, are you okay?”
“Lee Seunghui, what did you just do?!”
It was a sight most of them had never seen before. Choi Jisu had barely managed to grab Lee Seunghui before being struck by
something
and sent flying more than three meters.
“Aaaah! Aaaaah!”
Lee Seunghui’s frenzy still hadn’t stopped. Behind her screaming figure, something like an aura spread outward.
No, this wasn’t an aura.
It looked like tangled threads of electricity dancing and writhing in midair.
None of them had real experience yet, but as awakened individuals, their instincts told them what that strange energy was.
“Ma… mana?”
Mana, normally invisible like air, was raging around her in a violent vortex.
Crack, crackle!
Everyone was transfixed by the bizarre sight.
“Don’t get distracted! Eyes front!” the instructor’s urgent shout rang out.
Damn it!
Lee Pyeonghwa snapped back to her senses and looked at the wild porcupine they were fighting.
The next moment felt as though time had slowed.
As a D-rank monster, a wild porcupine didn’t have particularly high offensive power. It lacked any truly dangerous fangs. However, the long spines covering its hide were strong enough to pierce human skin with ease.
As long as you don’t give it time to fire its spines, it’s easy to handle.
But right now, right in front of her, the wild porcupine was curling its body, preparing to unleash them. She could see the openings in the hide around the spines widening and contracting.
The instant before they fired—
Ah… am I going to die?
Whoosh!
Someone slammed into Lee Pyeonghwa with tremendous force, shoving her aside.
"Ugh!"
The spines the wild porcupine fired whistled past her, missing her by a hair’s breadth.
Thud, thud!
A short shield unfolded behind Lee Pyeonghwa, blocking the spines and sending them clattering uselessly to the ground.
Crunch!
The wild porcupine’s head was severed.
After dodging the spines, someone drove an entrenching tool straight down into the now-exposed neck of the monster. Soft flesh was cleaved cleanly, tumbling across the ground. It was a swift, brutally clean finish.
Lee Pyeonghwa, who had fallen to the ground, stared at the scene in a daze.
“Pyeonghwa! Are you okay?”
“My god, you almost died!”
The one who had shoved her out of the way, deployed a shield at an impossible speed to protect another trainee, and then mercilessly finished off the wild porcupine—
“Th–that was…Jeong Daon…”
Of course, it was Jeong Daon.
Did she… save me?
“How did she deploy a shield that fast…?”
“And she killed it instantly?”
Jeong Daon herself, apparently unconcerned with the fact that what she had just done was something only a seasoned veteran Hunter could manage, simply dusted off her hands and turned away.
"Han Jaeyeong!"
“Yes, yes. I’m wrapping things up.”
Crunch!
In the tall grass, dozens of wild porcupines, creatures the trainees had struggled for hours just to find a single one of, were suddenly lifted into the air all at once, without the slightest warning. They looked like fish strung up on invisible lines.
A massive magic circle hovered beneath Han Jaeyeong’s feet. The wild porcupines that had been dangling uselessly in midair had their necks severed simultaneously.
It was grotesque and overwhelming.
You have defeated a sufficient number of monsters.
The dungeon has been cleared.
Time until dungeon escape becomes available: 00:03:00
The system will protect the user until dungeon escape.
“I apologize for interrupting the training, but this seems to be an emergency. I’ll complete the clear conditions immediately, so let’s all focus on getting out of the dungeon. Instructor, pull yourself together as well.”
“Everyone, follow the special instructor’s orders! Fall in!”
The drill instructor, who had been just as stunned as everyone else, finally seemed to regain their senses. To a veteran like Han Jaeyeong, even a training instructor probably looked like a distant junior.
“Th–then… are Recruits 104 and 105 all right?”
"Of course," Han Jaeyeong answered while brushing their hands as if they had touched something unpleasant. “What you’re seeing is a state that can be described as mana runaway. Ah, as for Reruit Choi Jisu, she simply took a physical shock and suffered a concussion.”
“M-mana runaway?”
“It happens fairly often with novice mages. I’ll handle it, so don’t panic, and don’t get too close.”
“Y-yes!”
In a situation like this, nothing was more reassuring than the firm commands of a veteran. On top of that, the dungeon had already been cleared. There had been an unexpected incident, but everyone should be able to leave safely.
Just as everyone relaxed and started to step back—
“No, no, no, nooo!”
“Calm down. It’s nothing serious. I’m about to intervene with your mana—”
“Nooo!”
Lee Seunghui’s frenzy showed no sign of stopping. The trainees frowned without realizing it.
“Ugh, she’s such a nuisance.”
“Acting like that during training already… wouldn’t it be better if she just washed out?”
“If she’s like this now, what’s she going to do in real combat?”
“She’s hopeless.”
Lee Pyeonghwa heard every word.
…This is the limit.
She had already made frequent mistakes and earned resentment among her peers, and now she had ruined her very first real field exercise. Lee Seunghui had probably been holding on with everything she had, but…washing out halfway through training seemed unavoidable now.
Lee Seunghui hugged herself tightly, trembling. “No, no, nooo…” Even beneath the system’s protective barrier, her mana was still visibly running wild.
And then, Lee Pyeonghwa heard Jeong Daon’s voice brush past her ear.
“…This isn’t good.”
What isn’t good?
She was about to ask when Jeong Daon stepped forward first. Without hesitation, Jeong Daon broke formation and walked toward Han Jaeyeong.
“Hey! Recruit 44! Return to formati—!”
The angry shout of the drill instructor was cut short.
Crack!
The mana that had been whipping around Lee Seunghui like tangled threads suddenly subsided.
More precisely, Jeong Daon had seized the chaotic flow of mana midair, like stopping a galloping horse with one hand. Even watching it happen, it was hard to believe.
“Jeong Daon?” Han Jaeyeong turned to her, visibly puzzled. “There was no need for you to step in. Calming this level of mana runaway is well within—”
“I wasn’t helping you.”
“Well, of course not. Then…?”
Jeong Daon frowned, flicking the bundle of mana threads caught in her hand with her finger. “There’s something wrong with that kid’s body. This doesn’t feel like a simple mana runaway.”
"Hm?" Han Jaeyeong seemed to take Jeong Daon’s words quite seriously. “Is that so? If that’s your assessment, then we should take a closer look.”
That, in itself, was strange. Jeong Daon’s latent potential might be S-rank, but she, like the others, had awakened only recently. And yet an S-rank Hunter and veteran like Han Jaeyeong was listening to her so attentively? Consulting her almost as if they were equals.
The familiarity of the exchange left everyone present feeling both confused and uneasy.
“Ah, damn.”
“What is this?!”
Sensing danger a split second earlier, Han Jaeyeong and Jeong Daon both widened their eyes.
But this time, neither of them was fast enough.
Boom!
A deafening explosion erupted.
Lee Pyeonghwa couldn’t tell what had happened. In her field of vision, she caught Han Jaeyeong’s startled expression, and, at the same time, Jeong Daon biting down hard on her lip.
Before her vision was swallowed by white, the last thing Lee Pyeonghwa saw was a strange system message.
An error has occurred in the connection with the user.
System access is restricted.