Of course, it wasn’t that
the
Terracotta Army was really here. More precisely, what the child had seen was simply the closest thing to Earth’s Terracotta Army.
The child—no, Xuemei—had wandered around this area out of boredom while her mother was drunk. That was when she claimed to have seen countless stone statues of soldiers standing above ground.
“At first I got scared and ran away, but they weren’t moving. It was exactly the same as what I saw in that video before!”
“So that’s why you called it the terracotta soldiers. Wow, you’re really smart. Right?”
When the child smiled shyly at the praise, Han Jaeyeong gently ruffled her hair in encouragement.
Watching the scene, Yu Hanul smiled as well. “Good thing Xuemei has such a good memory. Otherwise, we might’ve kept wandering around like this.”
I let out a sigh. “…I lose.”
"Huh?"
"It's nothing."
I’d been clicking my tongue inwardly, thinking that someone who was lost in a dungeon themselves had no business rescuing a kid, but who would’ve thought things would turn out like this?
As if mocking me, a system message popped up.
The quest "Doing Good Deeds Will Bring Blessings¿" is in progress.
Honestly, it was ridiculous. How often did doing a genuinely good deed actually lead to good fortune, for the system to keep spouting nonsense like this?
Did this damn system lie about there being a hero, too…?
Sensing my gaze, Yu Hanul turned to look at me. “Why are you staring like that?”
“…It’s nothing.”
My stomach twisted a bit, but that was beside the point. In a situation where we hadn’t had a single clue, we couldn’t just dismiss the child’s words outright. For now, we decided to go check the place Xuemei had pointed out.
“Hunter Lee Pyeonghwa, please stay back and protect Xuemei and her mother. If anything happens, fire this signal flare.”
“Yes, understood.” Lee Pyeonghwa nodded with a stiff expression, gripping the flare tightly.
To be honest, it was less about worrying over a monster attack and more about preventing Xuemei’s mother from becoming violent or running off.
“Actually, I’ve already passed through the place where Xuemei claims she saw the terracotta soldieres…” After splitting off from them and heading toward the indicated location, Yu Hanul spoke quietly. “When I went by, there was nothing there.”
“I figured as much.” Han Jaeyeong shrugged. “I told you the last time we found the mummified idol, it was hidden by illusion magic too, right?”
“You’re saying it was illusion magic so elaborate that I didn’t notice it at all?”
“That’s possible. Some barriers created with illusion magic can’t even be detected, let alone broken, unless you have the right keyword. Of course, that’s at the level of grand magic.”
“A specific keyword… Daon, what do you think?” Yu Hanul turned toward me.
I’d been following along silently, and I simply shrugged. “I don’t really have an opinion. If Hunter Han Jaeyeong says so, then that’s probably it.”
In truth, my thoughts matched Han Jaeyeong’s exactly, but there was no need to show Yu Hanul that I had deep magical knowledge. Judging by what he’d said last time, he didn’t seem to suspect me anymore, but still…
It just doesn’t sit right.
Either way, it was best to give Yu Hanul as few clues as possible about who I really was.
“…Hmm. Okay.”
After that, Yu Hanul didn’t press me for my opinion any further. Soon, we arrived at the place where Xuemei said she had seen the terracotta soldiers.
“As expected, you can’t see anything with the naked eye.”
“Yeah.”
According to the child, the area should have been packed full of soldiers, but in my view, all that stretched out before us was a completely empty, barren plain.
After kneeling on the ground and examining it for a while, Han Jaeyeong shook their head and stood up. “Yeah, I don’t see anything either. Jeong Daon, do you sense anything?”
"...Not really."
"Hmm." Han Jaeyeong studied my expression briefly, then soon shrugged. “Still, I don’t think Xuemei was lying or hallucinating.”
“There’s no reason for a child to lie about something like this.”
“In that case…it’s most likely that the child herself is the keyword that breaks the illusion magic.”
I didn’t say it out loud, but I agreed with Han Jaeyeong’s conclusion. Last time, in the Yeongjongdo dungeon, a lower-grade illusion could be broken simply by smashing it from the outside with stronger mana.
But if there was a powerful, meticulously layered illusionary barrier here? Unless you matched the specific keyword set by the caster, it would be difficult to break from the outside. And magic constructed so intricately that it required a keyword was also hard to detect through the flow of mana alone. Much like the “Spine of the Waterwheel" curse I’d placed in a supermarket in Eunpyeong District, a delicate and complex lock could only be opened with a single, exact key.
Yu Hanul looked around uneasily. “If we go with Hunter Han Jaeyeong’s theory, that means we ultimately have to bring Xuemei here to break the barrier…”
“I don’t want to drag a child into this either, but…we don’t have a choice. We can’t get her out of here unless the dungeon is cleared.”
“What about you turning into a child—ah.”
Han Jaeyeong smacked Yu Hanul hard on the back. “Hey, telling Jeong Daon about my identity and transforming whenever I feel like it are two completely different things, okay?”
“…When you put it that way, I guess you’re right.”
With Han Jaeyeong’s Thousand Changes, they could probably turn into a child, and it might even serve as a way to trigger the keyword.
Han Jaeyeong alternated their gaze between Yu Hanul and me, looking like they had a headache. “Seriously, you two… My transformations don’t change my essence. At this level of grand magic, there’s no way you could slip through with that kind of trickery, and I can’t rewrite the rings of age carved into a soul either… Why do you suddenly look like you’ve taken emotional damage, Jeong Daon?”
“…It’s nothing.”
“Anyway, I really think this can only be broken if Xuemei comes. And if the child truly is the keyword… then whoever set up this barrier, no matter who they are, must be feeling like they got stabbed in the back right now.”
That was true enough. We’d wandered this dimension for days, and no matter how hard we looked, there wasn’t a single living being to be found, let alone a
child
, the keyword that would never be triggered in this empty world, where only the cold passage of time could be felt.
And yet, because a homeless woman from New York chose a dungeon over suicide, the key needed to clear this dungeon had come into existence by pure chance.
That must sting.
Honestly, it served them right.
And then, the next morning, after explaining the situation, we set out, holding Xuemei’s hand.
“Yeah! I’ll guide you!”
Xuemei went on ahead, visibly excited, as if she’d completely opened her heart to Han Jaeyeong overnight. She seemed thrilled by the idea that she could actually be of help.
Of course, those of us following behind her were all on edge.
Meanwhile, Yu Hanul emphasized the same point to Lee Pyeonghwa again and again. “Xuemei’s safety is the top priority. The moment the illusion magic breaks, grab her and run.”
“Yes. Don’t worry about Xuemei.” Lee Pyeonghwa nodded with a tense expression.
These idiots clearly felt deeply uncomfortable about involving a child in something like this. Once the illusion magic was broken using Xuemei, Lee Pyeonghwa and I planned to take her and run as far away as possible.
“Daon, you too. I’ll handle the lifeless idol with Hunter Han Jaeyeong, so don’t worry.”
Both the monster extermination and everything else would be handled by Yu Hanul and Han Jaeyeong, both S-rank Hunters.
“Yeah, I’ll run without even looking back, so don’t worry.”
Having a hero as a card in hand was incredibly useful at times like this. Even if I didn’t lift a finger, he’d take care of the illusionary barrier, and any monsters inside it, for us.
Yu Hanul let out a small chuckle. “I like how straightforward that answer was.”
Well, with two S-rank Hunters here, how hard could the clear really be? On top of that, there was a high chance that this dimension’s soul core would also take the form of a lifeless idol. If so, Han Jaeyeong would be able to purify it easily. In that case, it would actually help more if I took Lee Pyeonghwa far away, so she wouldn’t discover that Han Jaeyeong was a fairy hybrid.
Han Jaeyeong, who had been walking ahead while holding Xuemei’s hand, gradually slowed to a stop. “Something’s definitely different now… Do you see this fog?”
“I do.”
When the three of us had come here without Xuemei, it had been nothing but an empty wasteland. Now, it was completely different.
A low mist swirled thickly around our ankles.
Xuemei excitedly pointed ahead. “There! It’s right there!”
The moment her voice rang out—
Pzzzt!
A jolt like a direct strike to the brain tore through me.
Keyword condition fulfilled.
“Foolish Honor” has been dispelled.
The veil that had been covering our eyes until now was lifted.
As the veil fell away, a startled Lee Pyeonghwa clapped a hand over her mouth. “My god.”
Han Jaeyeong and Yu Hanul also sucked in sharp breaths at the unexpected sight.
There was a reason Xuemei had called it terracotta soldiers. The world revealed as the carefully layered illusion magic shattered, the once endless-looking wasteland, was now filled with people.
Just as Xuemei had said, it was no different from the “Terracotta Army.” Soldiers stood in formation across the plain, clad in armor, weapons held in their hands. However, unlike the Terracotta Army—
Lee Pyeonghwa spoke in a trembling voice. “Th-they’re not alive, right? They’re corpses, right?”
Xuemei must have thought they were “statues” simply because they didn’t move. But unlike the clay soldiers of the Terracotta Army, these soldiers stood in ranks with weapons raised, as if ready to fight, and everywhere you looked…
“Hey, your legs must be tired. I’ll carry you.” Han Jaeyeong smoothly lifted Xuemei into their arms, blocking her view.
And that made sense. To adults accustomed to death, this scene was a grave of hundreds—no, perhaps over a thousand—corpses. And it was identical to what we had seen in the Yeongjongdo dungeon: the withered, skeletal bodies, drained of mana by the lifeless idol. The soldiers before us now looked exactly the same.
Behind the mummified soldiers, a towering wall rose high, as if symbolizing authority. But now it was a pitiful structure, on the verge of crumbling. It was a collapsing ancient fortress.
“Hunter Lee Pyeonghwa, for now, take Xuemei out of here—Yu Hanul?!”
Han Jaeyeong cried out in shock as they tried to hand Xuemei over to Lee Pyeonghwa.
“Ugh!”
Without a sound, Yu Hanul suddenly dropped to his knees.
“Yu Hanul, what’s wrong? Hey! Snap out of it!”
But there was no response.
“…Ghk!”
Still kneeling, Yu Hanul collapsed forward onto the ground.
Thud!
At this unprecedented situation, not only Lee Pyeonghwa but even Han Jaeyeong went pale.
“What on earth is happening… Yu Hanul, wake up!”
“Shouldn’t we use some kind of healing magic? No, first we need to evacuate Xuemei—”
“That’s right. Together with Hunter Jeong Daon—
Daon?
”
And then, even to my ears, the voices of Han Jaeyeong and Lee Pyeonghwa sounded distant. It felt like someone was shaking my shoulder, but I barely registered it.
A flag that had been hanging from the wall, fluttering in the wind, slipped quietly to the ground. The family crest that must once have been glorious vanished without a trace among the corpses.
The scene before my eyes was not a fake copied by my sibling in a past life.
“…Ha.” A hollow laugh escaped me. All the doubts I’d carried until now snapped together like pieces of a puzzle. “Now it finally makes sense.”
There was something I’d wondered about ever since the first Dungeon Break I’d been dragged into after awakening. In this modern world, if they had the power to sacrifice even a single human life, why go through the trouble of causing a Dungeon Break? If killing me had been the goal, there was no need to choose such a roundabout method.
But now I understood, my persistent sibling’s goal was never to kill me.
It was to send me into a dungeon.
Souls have an inherent pull.
Just like Leo had been drawn to me, both soul and flesh have a tendency to return to the place they were meant to be.
Jeong Daon’s body was something I had received anew on Earth, but my soul had been born and raised in another world. And so my soul possessed a force that sought to return to the world where it had lived in a previous life.
So this wasn’t a dimensional accident from the start.
It hadn’t been a mishap that flung me randomly into some dimension. The one who caused this incident had been certain. Certain that my soul would inevitably return to the world of my past life.
Only now did I truly understand the enemy’s objective.
“My dear sister, welcome home.”
The “Enemy of Humanity” was trying to use my soul to connect my previous world and Earth.
Boom!
Boom, boom!
At that moment, from within the castle, the thunderous sound of a giant drum rang out.