-.......
Perhaps surprised by Hyeon-su's answer, Department Head Hong said nothing.
"Hello? Department Head Hong?"
-Yes? Ah...... Yes.
Startled by Hyeon-su's voice, Department Head Hong hurriedly responded.
"You weren't saying anything, so......"
Department Head Hong seemed to have returned to his senses, as his voice returned to normal.
-Ah, I apologize. I had expected it, but I suppose hearing it confirmed still surprised me.
Department Head Hong took a deep breath before cautiously continuing.
-May I ask what your exact Class is?
Hyeon-su answered his question.
"Well, since I've already decided to reveal it, I might as well tell you everything. My Class is called 'Dungeon Designer,' and I can alter the structure of Dungeons."
Department Head Hong spoke in an excited voice.
-Good heavens! That's an even more incredible Class than I imagined! No, I suppose it's a Hidden Class precisely because it's so incredible. Then you must have been testing your skills in the Slime Dungeon, just as I suspected! And naturally, you were also the one who achieved the first clear of the Maze Dungeon!
"Ah, yes. You're right about both. I'm sorry for causing you trouble by keeping it a secret."
-It was nothing serious, so please do not concern yourself. We can discuss the details gradually. Since we will be supporting you at the national level from now on, let us begin by arranging your move.
"Pardon? Move?"
-Yes, of course you must move first. You are special, Hunter. We must provide protection and support befitting someone of your importance. You will also need at least two bodyguards, an aide to assist you at all times, and......
As Department Head Hong continued speaking, Hyeon-su felt a profound sense of exhaustion.
'It's like I've suddenly acquired an overbearing parent.......'
"Haa...... All right, I understand. I'll move, but let's discuss things like bodyguards and aides later."
-Yes, understood. Still, just in case, perhaps I could send two bodyguards to your current residence right now......
"No need."
'This man...... Is he trying to announce it to the whole neighborhood?'
Having bodyguards stationed outside an ordinary residential villa would only attract more attention.
Faced with Hyeon-su's firm attitude, Department Head Hong became visibly anxious.
-B-But still......
"Instead, let's arrange for me to move as soon as possible."
At Hyeon-su's words, Department Head Hong's eyes lit up, and he quickly replied.
-I will come to pick you up tomorrow!
"All right. Then I'll see you tomorrow afternoon."
-Yes, understood. Please, get home unharmed! Be careful! Stay safe!
"Yes, yes. I'll hang up now."
CLICK.
Hyeon-su looked at his phone after ending the call and muttered,
"He's completely different from my first impression of him."
Shake. Shake.
Hyeon-su unconsciously shook his head as he continued walking.
Meanwhile.
After ending the call, Department Head Hong found himself unable to contain his excitement. The corners of his mouth kept curling upward.
Then he suddenly snapped back to his senses and sprang to his feet.
"This is no time for me to be sitting around."
There was much to prepare if he was going to properly serve such an important person from now on.
Department Head Hong immediately began making preparations.
The next day.
Early in the morning, Hyeon-su headed toward a Dungeon located in Gyeonggi Province.
'I'm meeting Department Head Hong in the afternoon, so I should have plenty of time.'
It was commonly known as the Underground Tower Dungeon.
This was also an E-Grade Dungeon, and many Hunters had reportedly defeated the boss monster on the third floor.
However, not a single person had ever seen a message confirming that the Dungeon had been cleared.
More importantly, the Dungeon Gate leading outside, the most definitive proof of a Dungeon clear, had never appeared.
'There must be something else.'
Anticipating another S-Grade reward for clearing the Dungeon, Hyeon-su stepped inside.
BEEP.
As though recognizing Hyeon-su's Hunter ID, the barrier in front of the Dungeon rose.
[You have entered the Dungeon.]
Upon entering, he felt as though he were standing in the heart of a dark forest.
'Mushrooms, huh.......'
The air itself felt heavy, seemingly because of the faint poisonous fumes being released.
SQUELCH, SQUELCH.
Every step he took caused damp moss to cling to the tips of his feet.
After walking a little farther, he spotted an enormous stone structure with only sections of its walls remaining.
'That must be the place.'
It looked like a relic from ancient times, with signs of corrosion scattered throughout.
As he approached and examined it more closely, he noticed drawings on the walls whose meanings he couldn't decipher.
'It almost looks like they're worshipping something.'
After observing the drawings for a while, Hyeon-su ventured deeper inside.
According to the information he had gathered, the Mushrooms that ruled the first underground floor would appear once he entered the interior of the structure.
Hyeon-su looked around as he advanced.
Step. Step.
Just then.
SQUEAK. SQUICK.
SQUEAK.
He heard the sounds of Mushrooms.
'Here they come.'
Poison was these monsters' primary weapon.
The moment they died, they released the most potent poisonous spores they possessed.
That made them relatively easy to hunt, but dealing with the aftermath was anything but simple.
'Just a little closer.......'
These creatures only approached when their prey was inside the central area.
Hyeon-su patiently lured them toward him, carefully regulating his breathing to avoid inhaling as many of the tiny poisonous spores floating in the air as possible.
Soon, the Mushrooms began appearing before him.
SQUEAK. SQUEAK.
True to their reputation as typical mushroom-shaped monsters, they approached Hyeon-su by bouncing across the ground.
PFFFT—!
Then they began attacking by releasing their poison.
PFFFT, PFFFT—!
The Mushrooms surrounded Hyeon-su, spewing clouds of poison from every direction.
'Now.'
With stone walls scattered throughout the area, it was impossible to tell exactly how many Mushrooms were approaching.
But that wasn't a problem for Hyeon-su.
Just before the poisonous spores reached him, he activated his skill.
'Design Mode.'
Checking the hologram, he saw six Mushrooms scattered around the area, all approaching him.
The moment Design Mode activated, everything stopped. The squeaking Mushrooms froze, and even the air filled with the poisonous spores they had released came to a standstill.
First, he used Cut on every Mushroom displayed in the hologram, then used Move to gather them all in one place.
Afterward, he enclosed them with the surrounding stone walls.
This was to protect himself against the poison they would release when they died.
Having taken the necessary measures to deal with the Mushrooms, Hyeon-su decided to try something he had only considered until now.
CLICK.
This time, the target he selected was none other than himself.
And then.
[Move]
Hyeon-su stared at the hologram nervously.
'Will it actually work?'
Whenever Design Mode was active, he could click on anything represented in the hologram, whether it was a structure or a living organism.
He had confirmed in the previous maze that the function didn't work on other people, but he had never tried it on himself.
'If it works.......'
It would be incredibly useful in the future.
'Deactivate Design Mode.'
The instant Design Mode deactivated, Hyeon-su felt as though his body had suddenly floated into the air.
And then he found himself in a different location.
'.......'
There were Hunters who possessed teleportation skills, but it was widely known that their cooldowns limited them to using those skills only once or twice a day.
'This is ridiculous. Isn't this completely game-breaking?'
A smile spread across Hyeon-su's face as he brushed back his hair.
Just then.
SKREEEEEE—!
The Mushrooms let out their final screams.
-You have gained 1 EXP.
-You have gained 1 EXP.
-You have gained 3 EXP.
-You have gained 3 EXP.
-You have gained 1 EXP......
As the messages appeared, the sound of the floor collapsing rang out.
RUMBLE.
CRASH—!
-You have acquired 1 Damp Spore Sac.
-You have acquired 2 Mushroom Stems.
-You have acquired 1 Rotten Spore......
After using Collect, Hyeon-su headed toward the source of the noise and discovered a staircase leading down to the second underground floor.
The stairs had appeared because he had eliminated every monster on the floor.
'Ground Spiders this time, huh?'
Step. Step.
When he descended to the second underground floor, a pitch-dark cavern appeared before him.
Red lights flashed momentarily in various places.
RUSTLE, RUSTLE.
SCRITCH, SCRITCH, SCRITCH.
He could hear spiders crawling along the walls.
'Design Mode.'
Within the frozen space and time, Hyeon-su calmly hunted the Ground Spiders displayed in the hologram, eliminating them one by one.
-You have gained 4 EXP.
-You have gained 4 EXP.
-You have gained 2 EXP.
-You have gained 2 EXP.
-You have gained 1 EXP......
As Design Mode deactivated, the messages rang out.
And once again, he heard a familiar sound.
RUMBLE.
CRASH, CRASH—!
Having easily cleared the second underground floor, Hyeon-su used Collect before locating the newly formed staircase and descending to the third underground floor.
Step. Step.
'This should be the last floor.'
According to the Hunter community, this was the boss floor.
However, since no Dungeon-clear message had ever appeared, the Dungeon was still classified as uncleared.
'Let's see whether there's really no way to clear this place.'
As expected of an area where a boss appeared, an enormous open space greeted him.
'Where are you?'
Hyeon-su looked around, sharpening his hearing.
Only one monster appeared on the third floor.
The Stone Centipede.
The Stone Centipede moved through the walls of the Dungeon before bursting out to launch surprise attacks.
The entire wall was practically the Stone Centipede's nest.
Rather than being an ordinary Dungeon structure, the wall was essentially an extension of the Stone Centipede's skill, allowing it to move freely inside.
RUMBLE, RUMBLE.
The ground trembled faintly as the sound of something moving inside the walls echoed throughout the cavern.
'I need to figure out where that bastard is first.'
The cavern was larger than Design Mode's effective range, so he needed to determine the monster's approximate location before activating it.
RUMBLE, RUMBLE.
The sound of the Stone Centipede grew progressively louder.
CRACK—!
CRASH, CRASH—!
Just then.
A tremendous noise erupted from the right, and the Stone Centipede burst out of the wall.
WHOOSH—!
SKREE!
"Design Mode."
The instant the skill activated, the Stone Centipede froze in place, its mouth wide open as it charged toward Hyeon-su.
'Phew.......'
Hyeon-su finally relaxed, having been on edge because he had no way of knowing where the monster would emerge.
According to the Dungeon's clearing guide, a defensive skill was essential.
Hunters either had to bring a mage with a defensive skill or carry a scroll containing one.
That was because the Stone Centipede's first attack was extremely difficult to block.
Although Hyeon-su had entered the Dungeon because he was confident in his abilities, he had still been nervous.
'Even a boss monster only takes one hit if it's E-Grade.'
Hyeon-su sliced through the Stone Centipede's body.
Then he deactivated Design Mode.
Immediately afterward.
SKREEEEEE!
KRA-BOOM—!
The Stone Centipede let out its final scream before crashing to the ground.
-Boss monster defeated.
-You have gained 36 EXP.
-You have gained 36 EXP.
A message appeared confirming that the monster had been defeated.
'There's definitely something strange about this.'
Hyeon-su waited a little longer, but no additional messages appeared.
Specifically, the messages that should naturally have followed the defeat of a boss monster.
'So the Dungeon-clear message and the Dungeon Gate notification really aren't appearing.'
For the moment, Hyeon-su approached the Stone Centipede and used Collect.
-You have acquired 2 Rock Shells.
-You have acquired 1 Lowest-Grade Magic Stone.
-You have acquired 1 Steel Sawtooth.
-You have acquired 1 Stone Centipede Antenna.
-You have acquired 3 Stone Dust.
After finishing his collection, Hyeon-su began exploring the Dungeon in detail, activating Design Mode as he moved around.
'What could it possibly be.......?'
Countless Hunters had attempted various methods to uncover the secret of this Dungeon, but not a single one had discovered anything new.
As Hyeon-su continued walking around and carefully examining the Dungeon.
"Huh?"
He spotted something wriggling inside one of the walls.
'Don't tell me......!'
Hyeon-su instinctively knew that these were the creatures he had been searching for.
Using Move, he pulled three centipedes that appeared to be monsters out from inside the wall.
Wriggle. Wriggle.
Three tiny earthworm-like creatures made of stone lay before Hyeon-su, squirming about.
'This was it!'
There were generally two main conditions for clearing a Dungeon.
In some Dungeons, defeating the boss monster was sufficient.
In others, every monster inside the Dungeon had to be eliminated.
This Dungeon belonged to the latter category. It could only be cleared by hunting every single monster within it.
Hyeon-su activated Design Mode and eliminated the three Stone Centipedes.
Then.
-You have gained 3 EXP.
-You have gained 3 EXP.
-You have gained 4 EXP.
-You have gained 4 EXP.
-You have gained 1 EXP......
Notifications appeared confirming that he had gained experience from killing the Stone Centipedes.
Just then.
RUMBLE.
KRA-KRA-CRASH—!
'Huh?'
He had naturally expected the Dungeon-clear message to appear.
Instead, he heard a sound he shouldn't have been hearing again.
The sound of a staircase appearing, leading down to the floor below.
'The third underground floor isn't the end?'