Hyeon-su was eating breakfast while watching the morning news.
-Hello. I'm Hong Seok-jin, Head of the Dungeon Management Department at the Korea Hunter Association.
I will now begin the briefing regarding the 'Dungeon Alteration Incident,' which has recently sparked controversy throughout the Hunter community.
Yesterday, it was confirmed that the positions of structures such as the pond and trees inside the Slime Dungeon, located next to the Korea Hunter Association, had changed.
Since this dungeon plays an important role in procedures such as Hunter registration and grade reassessments, we have determined that a thorough investigation is necessary for safety reasons.
Therefore, the dungeon will be temporarily closed effective immediately.
During the investigation, we will use the 'Rabbit Dungeon,' located approximately fifteen minutes from the Hunter Association, as an alternative.
We understand that this may cause inconvenience, but we ask for your understanding, as these measures are necessary to ensure the safety of Hunters undergoing assessments.
Fortunately, no similar phenomena have been reported in other dungeons so far. However, given that such changes have already occurred in one dungeon, we cannot rule out the possibility of various incidents occurring elsewhere. We therefore urge all Hunters to exercise extreme caution.
This concludes the briefing.
Thank you.
'A dungeon closure…….'
All he'd done was experiment with his skill a little, yet the situation had escalated far beyond his expectations.
'My skill really is incredible.'
Hyeon-su once again experienced the extraordinary power of a Hidden Class.
'They probably won't find anything even if they investigate…….'
He felt somewhat sorry for the government employees who would be working themselves to exhaustion for nothing.
They would probably reopen the dungeon after finding nothing particularly unusual, and since the other dungeons were unaffected, the whole incident would likely be resolved soon enough.
Hyeon-su arrived at the Bat Dungeon in Itaewon.
'Let's see if my theory is correct.'
Standing before the dungeon gate that radiated a brilliant white light, Hyeon-su opened his Inventory.
Grin.
He took out a ring that shimmered with a beautiful emerald glow.
< بالمRing of Growth>
-A powerful accessory that helps its user grow rapidly.
-Experience points gained from hunting while wearing this ring are doubled.
The description was remarkably simple.
If an item like this appeared on the market, it would undoubtedly sell for an astronomical sum.
However, Hyeon-su had absolutely no intention of selling it.
'If I do well as a Hunter, the money will follow.'
It was only natural.
'Of course I'm going to use it myself.'
After slipping the ring onto his finger, he held his Hunter License against the machine installed beside the dungeon entrance.
BEEP.
An electronic notification sounded, and the barrier blocking the entrance rose.
[You have entered the dungeon.]
The moment he stepped inside, a cold, chilly atmosphere enveloped him, sending goosebumps across his skin.
A dark cave stretched out before him.
'Wow, this place is enormous.'
He'd known it was a large cave, but the interior was even bigger than he'd imagined.
Just then, strange cries echoed through the darkness, accompanied by the sound of dripping water.
KREEK, KREEK.
Drip, drip.
He looked toward the high ceiling, but it was too dark to see anything clearly.
'The ceiling's probably packed with bats.'
Step, step.
Hyeon-su ventured farther inside.
KREEK-KREEK.
KIKIKIKREEK.
The bats seemed to sense the approach of a predator and began making bizarre noises.
Then.
FLAPFLAPFLAPFLAP!
FLAPFLAP!
The bats clinging to the ceiling suddenly took flight, rushing deeper into the cave.
Hyeon-su hurriedly activated his skill.
"Design Mode!"
Immediately, everything within a 100-meter radius of Hyeon-su came to a halt.
The bats that had already flown beyond the 100-meter boundary escaped, but he'd managed to trap approximately one-third of them.
A 3D hologram of the cave appeared before him.
Just as he began examining the structure of the rendered cave—
THUMP—!
THUD, THUD.
He heard something repeatedly colliding with an unseen object.
Hyeon-su moved toward the source of the noise, remaining inside the area affected by his skill.
What he saw was astonishing.
Bats were charging toward him, only to collide with something invisible and be stopped in midair.
"My God!"
The bats that had returned to rescue their captured companions couldn't enter the area where his skill was active.
"A barrier……!"
The statement that external factors couldn't interfere during editing apparently meant that anything outside the Design Mode area was prevented from entering while the skill remained active.
The implications were enormous.
If he activated this skill during an emergency, he could secure a safe zone for an entire minute.
'I came here because I suspected something like this might happen, but I wasn't completely sure.'
Now that he'd actually confirmed it, he was almost too stunned to react.
THUD.
THUD, THUD—!
"This is seriously incredible."
Hyeon-su marveled at the bats repeatedly crashing against the invisible barrier, unable to break through.
After realizing that no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't enter, the bats eventually flew back into the depths of the cave.
It was almost as though they were going to ask someone for help.
'Oh, right! My skill timer!'
Coming to his senses, Hyeon-su quickly reached toward the 3D hologram.
He selected the bats frozen in midflight and used the Cut skill on them.
"Deactivate Design Mode."
THUD, THUD.
THUDTHUDTHUD.
The bats, now sliced in half, rained down from the air and scattered across the cave floor.
-You have gained 3 EXP.
-You have gained 3 EXP.
-You have gained 5 EXP.
-You have gained 5 EXP.
-You have gained 4 EXP.
-You have gained 4 EXP.
-You have gained 3 EXP……
'Thank goodness. It worked in one hit.'
He'd been rather nervous because they were D-Grade monsters, but fortunately, a single use of his skill had been enough.
'Though I did prepare a Plan B.'
There had been quite a few bats, so notifications announcing his experience gains rang out incessantly.
And the effect of the Ring of Growth he was wearing became immediately apparent.
'I might advance my grade sooner than I expected.'
Dungeons like this were usually entered by parties, so it wasn't easy for a single Hunter to monopolize all the experience points.
In high spirits, Hyeon-su placed his hands on the dead bats, collected their items, and continued deeper into the cave.
After passing through a section where the passage narrowed sharply, he emerged into another enormous cavern.
An empty, spacious chamber greeted him.
'I can't see anything again.'
Hyeon-su narrowed his eyes and examined the ceiling and walls, but once again, he couldn't find anything.
Just then.
FLAP, FLAP.
A boss bat, easily ten times the size of an ordinary bat, came flying down from above.
ROOOAR!
SCREEEEEECH!
It hovered above Hyeon-su, threatening him with its piercing cries.
The bats that had been clinging motionlessly to the ceiling seemed emboldened by the boss's appearance.
They began flying overhead, filling the cavern with bizarre shrieks and creating a terrifying atmosphere.
"What a commotion."
FLAPFLAPFLAP—!
RATATATAT.
Hyeon-su stared at the boss bat, which was making a tremendous racket while displaying its imposing presence.
"Let's do this."
He activated his skill near the entrance to the passage he'd just come through.
"Design Mode."
Instantly, everything inside the cavern stopped moving.
The countless bats and the enormous boss bat, whose mouth was stretched wide open, were vividly rendered in the hologram.
Having quickly grasped the cave's structure, the former architectural designer's hands began moving busily.
'I've only got one minute.'
First, he drew long lines across every bat displayed in the hologram, cutting them in half.
Naturally, that included the boss bat.
Next, he selected several stalactites hanging directly above the boss bat, enlarged them to their maximum possible size, and cut them loose.
The idea was simple.
Once the skill deactivated, the stalactites would fall from the ceiling and pierce the boss bat.
Hyeon-su quickly retreated into the narrow passage leading to the cavern.
His class was undoubtedly extraordinary, but the fact that he could only attack through Design Mode was a critical weakness.
Figuring out how to survive during its cooldown would be essential from now on.
'Defense is a must.'
He cut a section of the cave wall and used it to block the passage entrance.
The moment he'd finished, Design Mode deactivated as its time limit expired.
'Phew. Right at the buzzer.'
Hyeon-su deliberately left a small opening so he could observe what was happening inside the cavern.
THUDTHUDTHUD.
THUD, THUD.
THUDTHUDTHUD.
Dozens of bats fell from the sky and struck the ground.
Then several of the enlarged stalactites came crashing down, piercing the boss bat, which was still alive.
The enormous creature plummeted from the air and slammed into the ground beneath the weight of the stalactites.
'Yes!'
Seeing everything unfold exactly as he'd imagined filled Hyeon-su with exhilaration.
'Still, I'd been hoping it might work. That's a little disappointing…….'
According to publicly available information, when Hunters fought monsters in dungeons of the same grade as themselves, their skills were 100% effective.
However, in dungeons one grade higher, their skills only worked 50% of the time.
The success rate decreased even further as the difference in grade increased.
Ordinary monsters were somewhat less affected by this rule, but there had never been a single exception when it came to boss monsters.
Hyeon-su had secretly hoped he might defeat the boss bat in a single attack.
Unfortunately, reality had proven otherwise.
The boss bat, its body pierced by the stalactites, opened its enormous mouth and unleashed an ultrasonic attack.
However, it had no effect on Hyeon-su.
He was already wearing earplugs, following the攻略 strategy he'd found on the Hunter community.
Earplugs were essential for clearing the Bat Dungeon.
Apparently realizing its attack was ineffective, the boss bat began flapping its wings violently.
A cloud of black smoke-like substance appeared, and the already dim cavern was quickly plunged into complete darkness.
'Three, two, one. There.'
"Design Mode."
An invisible energy spread outward, freezing everything in place, and a 3D hologram appeared before his eyes.
Although the entire world around him was engulfed in darkness, the hologram before him shone brightly.
Hyeon-su drew another line across the boss bat's body.
'Hopefully it'll work this time.'
After making several additional adjustments, he deactivated his skill.
Everything returned to normal.
A moment later, messages appeared before his eyes.
-You have defeated the boss monster.
-You have gained 23 EXP.
-You have gained 23 EXP.
-The dungeon has been cleared.
-A dungeon gate will appear in 10 seconds.
Hyeon-su smiled in satisfaction as he read the messages.
"Excellent!"
Other Hunters had to endure all sorts of hardships to clear dungeons.
Yet Hyeon-su had just cleared a dungeon one grade above his own, entirely by himself, with nothing more than a few movements of his fingers.
After calming his excitement, Hyeon-su used his Mouse to roughly clear away the barrier he'd created at the passage entrance and stepped into the cavern.
He then collected items from the bat corpses scattered across the floor.
Starting with D-Grade dungeons, boss monsters began dropping items that were actually worth calling proper equipment or treasures.
With a little anticipation, he approached the fallen boss bat and placed his hand on its body.
"Collect."
-You have obtained 1 Bat Wing Leather.
-You have obtained 1 Low-Grade Magic Stone.
-You have obtained 2 Dark Feathers.
-You have obtained 1 Lightning Bolt Scroll.
"A scroll? Not bad at all."
There were all kinds of different scrolls among dungeon items.
Since scrolls were convenient to use and often possessed excellent abilities, they naturally commanded high prices.
"This should fetch a pretty penny."
Grin.
Hyeon-su couldn't wipe the smile off his face.
However, when he looked around at the state of the cavern, his expression darkened.
"Ah……."
The floor was littered with fragments of stalactites.
The section of wall he'd cut away to block the passage entrance looked far too artificial, and countless rocks were scattered throughout the passage.
"Why the hell don't dungeon structures reset……?"
Hyeon-su took out his Mouse and began restoring the devastated cave, trying to make everything resemble its original state as closely as possible.
A little while later, reality hit him.
"This doesn't seem right……."
He seriously began contemplating whether he should simply reveal that he possessed a Hidden Class.
After spending some time laboring to restore everything to its original condition, Hyeon-su finally exited through the newly generated dungeon gate.
The moment he emerged from the dungeon, Hyeon-su looked up at the clear, sunny sky and stretched his entire body.
"Ughhhhhh!"
He would need to experiment further, but he'd learned quite a lot from this dungeon.
First, Design Mode created a protective barrier.
Second, he could defeat ordinary D-Grade monsters in a single attack.
And third, since he had no means of attacking while Design Mode was on cooldown, he had to hide and endure until he could use it again.
That last part was a serious problem.
There would inevitably be situations that didn't unfold as he'd expected.
If something went wrong, he could be caught completely defenseless.
'I need a way to fight monsters without relying on Design Mode.'
Hyeon-su pondered the problem seriously.
'I can probably survive by using the Mouse to manipulate the terrain and surrounding objects, but it'd be nice to have something safer.'
GRRRRUMBLE.
"Huh?"
Hearing his stomach growl, he checked his watch.
It was already two o'clock.
"Let's get something to eat first."
As he walked, Hyeon-su spotted a restaurant serving gukbap and decided to go inside.
After ordering a bowl of sundae gukbap, he took out his phone and began browsing the Hunter community.
He searched through countless posts, looking for information that might prove useful.
Then one particular post caught his attention.
-Guys, did you know this?
Apparently, the Hunter Association has a legendary item.
Rumor has it that our Goddess obtained it from an A-Grade dungeon……
-Nah, that's bullshit.
-If they actually had something like that, they would've given it to someone in the Hunter Association and raised them into a powerhouse.
-Yeah, it's just a rumor.
-That rumor's already three months old LOL. Why are you bringing it up now?
'Eureka!'
Reading the post made Hyeon-su realize something.
All he needed was to obtain a powerful item.
After all, truly exceptional items were said to be practically equivalent to skills themselves.
He immediately resumed searching, looking for items that might suit his needs.
While he was absorbed in his research, his food arrived.
"Here's your sundae gukbap."
An older woman who had wheeled a serving cart beside his table began placing the dishes in front of him.
Just then.
BUZZZZZ.
His phone vibrated.
"Huh? I don't recognize this number."
For some reason, he had a feeling he ought to answer.
Hyeon-su pressed the call button.
"Hello?"
-Hello. Am I speaking with Hunter Baek Hyeon-su?
"Ah, yes, that's me. Who's calling?"
-My name is Hong Seok-jin, Head of the Dungeon Management Department at the Korea Hunter Association.