“Ugh, why’s it suddenly so cold?”
Choi Sang-ho shuddered and pressed himself close behind his shield. Every time he let out a long breath, clouds of pale mist billowed into the air.
Kang Cheol-jin vigorously rubbed both arms and nodded emphatically.
“Seriously. It was sweltering until we passed through that narrow mineshaft just now. Look at the wind blowing through here. It’s freezing me to the bone.”
Their exaggerated reactions weren’t mere theatrics.
The instant they entered the uncleared area, a piercing chill settled heavily over the vast cavern. Even the piles of stones beneath their feet seemed frozen solid with frost, producing brittle crunches with every step they took.
However, Ju-min had no time to feel the cold.
A translucent System message still hovered clearly before his eyes.
[Special condition met: You have resisted the Bell of Temptation three times.]
‘Just as I expected.’
Ju-min celebrated inwardly.
That dull bell had tormented their eardrums from afar. It was a malicious trap designed to lure previous hunters into suffering a time-out.
If someone approached it out of urgency—or with the shallow hope that the Boss Area lay at the end of the sound—they would become trapped in an endless monster-spawning zone.
Ju-min had ignored its persistent temptation three times in a row. By relying solely on physical traces and the flow of the air, he had reached the true path that no one else had ever set foot upon.
They had entered an unknown area that didn’t appear in any of the shoddy guides sold by the Hunter Information Exchange.
“Hunter Im, what should we do now? Something about this place feels ominous. It seems like a huge monster could jump out at any moment.”
At the tension in Kang Cheol-jin’s voice, Ju-min erased his faint smile and hardened his expression.
His blood boiled with anticipation now that the Hidden Reward was within reach, but he didn’t show the slightest excitement. If he acted rashly here, all the caution he had maintained until now would instantly go to waste.
“Let’s maintain our formation for now. Don’t lower your guard just because we’ve entered an open area. Before we advance, we’ll thoroughly examine our surroundings.”
Ju-min issued his instructions in his characteristic calm, dry voice.
He slowly moved forward, sweeping his gaze across the dark depths of the cavern. Amid the massive natural stalactites, man-made structures left behind by former miners could be seen here and there.
Rusted iron pipes.
Roughly shattered wooden crates.
Mine carts are reduced to bare, skeletal frames.
Among them, one object radiated a particularly incongruous presence.
“There’s a door on the wall over there.”
Ju-min pointed toward a secluded rock face in one corner of the cavern.
An old iron door had been embedded in the stone and firmly shut. Its surface was covered in dark red rust, while scars left by blunt impacts and deep scratches stood out across it.
“A door? Why would there be an iron door in a monster den like this? Are we going inside?”
Choi Sang-ho frowned and adjusted his grip on his shield. A strange tension crossed his face at the thought that something might burst out.
“Yes. I think there may be a clue inside. It’ll be faster to search for records in there than to wander around this vast place without any information. Please keep a close watch on both sides.”
“Got it. Kang, stay right behind me. Don’t rush out and get yourself hurt.”
“Ah, yes!”
Choi Sang-ho moved forward to provide a sturdy barrier, while Kang Cheol-jin tightly gripped the straps of his backpack.
Ju-min silently approached the iron door.
He didn’t immediately grab the handle. First, he examined how the dust had been disturbed on the ground and the faint current of air leaking through the crack in the door.
With his senses heightened through Perfect Breathing, he constructed a picture of what lay beyond the door in his mind.
‘There are no signs of anything entering or leaving. I can’t sense anything hiding inside, either.’
Ju-min’s senses were sharp.
He detected neither the fishy odor characteristic of monsters nor any coarse breathing. There was only the silence unique to a space that had remained sealed for many years.
Once he was certain, Ju-min carefully grasped the door handle with his black-iron-colored gauntlet and turned it.
CREEEAK.
The grating sound of long-neglected metal scraped against their eardrums as the iron door slowly opened.
A stale, musty odor immediately struck them. It was the distinctive smell of an enclosed space filled with dust and mold.
Ju-min reflexively drew his dagger and slipped into the room. His gaze rapidly swept across every blind spot.
Fortunately, no monster ambushed him.
The room was in a miserable state.
Gray dust blanketed the floor like a carpet, while a wooden desk with broken legs and piles of yellowed documents lay scattered everywhere.
An old safety regulations sign hung crookedly from the wall, while dented safety helmets had been tossed into a corner.
Ju-min immediately recognized what the room had once been.
“It’s safe. You can come inside.”
At Ju-min’s signal, Choi Sang-ho and Kang Cheol-jin cautiously entered after holding their breath outside.
“Ugh, look at all this dust. What is this place, a garbage dump?”
Choi Sang-ho waved his hand in front of his face and coughed.
“It appears to have been the office of the supervisor who managed this abandoned mine. Since the monsters never entered, the room seems to have retained most of its original form.”
Ju-min lightly pushed aside the documents strewn across the floor with his boot.
Kang Cheol-jin curiously looked around the room.
“Wow, I can’t believe all this is still here. You never know—there might be a sample of some valuable rare mineral hidden in one of those desk drawers.”
“Stop talking nonsense and guard the entrance. Don’t touch something you shouldn’t and trigger a trap.”
Kang Cheol-jin gave an awkward look at Choi Sang-ho’s sharp rebuke before turning toward the iron door.
Leaving the two men’s light bickering behind, Ju-min silently walked deeper into the room.
His gaze fell beneath a broken metal storage cabinet.
A thick book was wedged between several half-rotten wooden boards. It was clearly different from the documents scattered around it.
The leather cover was horribly warped with mold, but the book had been tightly bound with a thick cord, leaving it relatively intact.
‘Is this a work log?’
Ju-min crouched down and carefully pulled out the old book.
The damp, slippery sensation against his fingertips was unpleasant, but he paid it no mind. He used his gauntlet to brush the dust from its cover, then slowly turned the brittle pages.
[...Day 47 of mining operations. Reports came in that strange noises were being heard in Area 3. Nonsense. The workers are clearly making excuses because they want a break.]
[...Day 62. Another group has gone missing. Three people this time. The higher-ups are pressuring us to abandon the search and continue working. This is driving me insane. I can’t sleep because of the disturbing wailing that comes from the mineshafts every night.]
The opening pages contained little more than the common complaints and routine records of a mine supervisor.
However, the situation changed drastically with each subsequent page. The previously neat handwriting became smeared and erratic, while the contents grew increasingly bizarre and distorted.
Ju-min’s gaze gradually sharpened.
[...The emergency bell rang. It was a bell. The workers thought it was an evacuation signal and raced toward the sound. I should have stopped them.]
[...We were fooled. It wasn’t a signpost leading to salvation. It was a devil’s trick ringing from the depths of the mine. Those who followed the bell wandered into the beasts’ lair and became trapped in an endless maze. The screams won’t stop. They’re all dead. They all went mad and became food for the beasts.]
The contents of the log were horrifying.
The miners of the past had firmly trusted the bell that warned them of danger and fled for their lives. Instead, they had become trapped in a maze deep within the dungeon and were brutally slaughtered.
That damned bell had repeatedly dragged countless hunters who entered before them into the quagmire of a time-out.
It hadn’t been an alarm intended to save people. It was a malicious false alarm that lured them to their destruction.
‘They designed this place to be vicious. The more experienced a hunter was, the easier it would’ve been to fool them. Following sounds and tracks is basic common sense, after all.’
Ju-min clicked his tongue inwardly and opened the final page.
The page bore the frantic strokes of a pen, accompanied by an eerie bloodstain that had dried dark red.
[The central machine must be stopped before the bell falls silent.]
It was the final sentence left by someone coughing up blood as they died.
The instant Ju-min finished reading those desperate words, a bright notification tone tore through the silence.
A blue System Window appeared noisily in the air.
[Hidden Quest: Stop the False Alarm]
–Condition: Locate and deactivate the three mana resonators positioned throughout the abandoned mine. (0/3)
–Time Limit: Undetermined (until the bell falls silent)
Beneath it, an ominous warning appeared in crimson letters.
[Warning: If a device is destroyed through physical force, the suppressed mana may run rampant and cause the entire dungeon to collapse.]
A short breath escaped Ju-min’s lips.
A Hidden Quest.
Moreover, it involved a special mechanic with the terrifying penalty of a dungeon collapse.
If he successfully completed this quest, the System would undoubtedly shower him with tremendous rewards. They would be true premium rewards on an entirely different level from ordinary clear rewards.
Moreover, Ju-min possessed an absolute ability that could multiply those rewards in whichever way he desired.
An opportunity to claim an astronomical reward had opened before him.
An ordinary hunter would have lost all restraint and immediately rushed outside to destroy the devices.
Ju-min, however, didn’t act impatiently.
‘Destroying them by force will cause the mana to run rampant. In other words, if we mindlessly smash them, we’ll all be buried alive.’
No matter how tempting the reward was, it would be meaningless if he died beneath a pile of rubble.
With such complicated conditions, a single rash action could lead to fatal consequences. Recklessly rushing ahead would be poisonous.
Ju-min calmly closed the log and stood.
His expression remained as impassive as ever.
“You two, gather over here for a moment.”
Ju-min’s voice was heavier than usual.
Sensing that something was wrong, Choi Sang-ho and Kang Cheol-jin approached from the entrance with tense expressions.
“What is it? Did you find a clue that’ll make us some money?”
At Choi Sang-ho’s question, Ju-min lightly shook the old work log in his hand.
“I discovered the history behind the bell trap I mentioned earlier. It seems the miners of the past also mistook it for an evacuation signal intended to save them.”
“Even the miners were fooled by that bell?”
“Yes. According to this log, the miners followed the sound, became trapped in a maze, and were all slaughtered. The advance parties that repeatedly failed due to time-outs must’ve been bewitched by the same sound.”
Kang Cheol-jin’s face turned pale as he listened.
“Gasp! If we’d followed that sound earlier, not even our bones would’ve been recovered. That’s horrifying. What should we do now? Shouldn’t we just turn back?”
“Turn back? Not after we’ve come this far.”
Choi Sang-ho snapped at him.
Ju-min nodded and continued.
“That’s right. More importantly, the real challenge begins now. To break through this hidden area, we must locate and deactivate three mana resonators positioned throughout the mineshafts.”
“Mana resonators? Is that the name of a monster, or are they some kind of machine?”
“They’re a type of mana device. However, you mustn’t think of them as ordinary machines. An enormous amount of mana has condensed inside each device. If we forcefully smash one, the impact could cause the entire dungeon to collapse.”
Choi Sang-ho flinched and lowered his large shield to the floor.
His rugged face plainly displayed his alarm.
“That’s insane. The dungeon could collapse? Then one wrong move could get all of us crushed beneath a pile of rubble after we went through all this trouble to find the right path.”
“That’s why we absolutely cannot act recklessly.”
Ju-min firmly emphasized the prohibition to his party members.
“If you discover a mana device while we’re moving, do not use area-of-effect Skills or attack it with your weapons. There’s a risk of an explosion. Even if monsters are nearby, you must not allow your attacks to strike the device. I’ll examine its structure and deactivate it myself.”
Ju-min looked back and forth between the two men, driving the point home.
“You only need to protect me and prevent nearby monsters from approaching. Do not move first until I’ve finished giving my instructions.”
Even in the face of such troublesome conditions, Ju-min’s command remained unwavering.
He didn’t become impatient or charge ahead recklessly after being blinded by the enormous potential reward. Instead, he prioritized thoroughly controlled safety above everything else.
Although this was only a temporary party, Ju-min’s caution and confidence were enough to wash away the other men’s anxiety.
Choi Sang-ho let out an incredulous laugh and nodded.
“Hey, are you really C-rank? Even experienced B- or A-rank team leaders couldn’t give such a calm briefing. Fine. We won’t touch anything, so you focus on safely shutting down those machines. This shield will handle the monsters.”
Kang Cheol-jin also forced some resolve into his pale face and nodded vigorously.
“I-I’ll keep a firm hold on all the gear and make sure I don’t fall behind. I trust you, Hunter Im!”
“Good. Then let’s move immediately. We’ll start by finding the first device.”
Ju-min stored the old log in his Inventory and readjusted his grip on his dagger.
Their next journey would involve safely deactivating the resonators that served as triggers for the dungeon’s collapse.
Without hesitation, Ju-min stepped through the office’s old iron door.
His heavy, unwavering footsteps once again carried him into the depths of the unknown darkness.