“Switch.”
When Song Ji-hu withdrew to the rear, the Hunter waiting behind hurriedly took his place.
Far in the distance, a flag stained with blood and soot, and badly tattered on top of that, hung from a broken pillar.
The greatest emotional turbulence was coming from that direction.
“We’re falling back little by little inside the wall.”
“Suddenly inside the wall?”
It was an incomprehensible order, but everyone followed Song Ji-hu’s instruction and gradually pulled the front line back inside the wall.
“Now collapse the wall completely.”
“What on earth, at least share the plan…!”
Despite Yu Heon-sik’s frustrated shout, Eun Seo-jin and one mage completely collapsed the cracked wall.
“Hoo….”
Amid the enemies’ furious shouts from beyond the collapsed wall, everyone’s gaze turned toward Song Ji-hu.
“The clear condition of this dungeon isn’t annihilating the enemies.”
“Are the ways to clear a dungeon not things like subjugating the boss monster or sweeping out the monsters?”
At Eun Seo-jin’s question, Song Ji-hu nodded.
“For the most part, yes. Except for special Gates. But think about it. If the goal is to deal with all those enemies, could this dungeon be B-rank?”
“Hmm… certainly… if enemy annihilation is the goal, it seems it would have to be S-rank.”
Everyone nodded. Even if it were raised to A-minus rank as the Association said, it was not a difficulty that would be easy to clear.
Because even after killing and killing enemies like that, there was no sense that their numbers had decreased at all.
“Then are you saying Hunter Song Ji-hu knows another method?”
At someone’s question, Song Ji-hu shrugged.
“At the very least, it may be a better method than the one we’re using now.”
At those words, Yu Heon-sik clenched his teeth and looked back and forth between the wall and Song Ji-hu.
“I don’t know what that method is, but I hope it’s the answer. What should we do?”
“Just hold out. Until I return.”
“We’ll hold out. Somehow. I hope that’s the right method.”
Song Ji-hu nodded to Eun Seo-jin and headed toward the command tent inside the rear wall.
“May I ask what the other method is?”
“The same method I used to save you.”
At those words, Eun Seo-jin’s eyes widened.
“Then… does that mean this is a special dungeon?”
“Probably. If it can be solved the way I think.”
A dungeon that could only be cleared under special conditions like Mental Dive.
‘If that’s right, it means this is a dungeon only I can clear.’
This life, which had begun alongside Mental Dive, was one continuous series of bewilderment and novelty. As if it were not his seventh life, but his first.
FLAP-
When he entered the command tent, the Knight Commander raised his head and looked at Song Ji-hu.
“What is it? I ordered every knight to go to the wall and hold back the enemies. Do His Imperial Majesty’s solemn commands seem laughable to you?”
Unlike the content, which sounded as if he might draw a sword at once and cut off Song Ji-hu’s head, there was no rise or fall in his voice, and even his eyes as he looked at Song Ji-hu were dead.
Song Ji-hu glanced once at the paper on the command table, then approached the commander.
VMMMM-!
The compass inside his clothes vibrated hotly.
“Protect me, just in case.”
“Understood.”
Eun Seo-jin did not ask. He nodded, raised his twin swords, and began watching all directions.
Song Ji-hu gave a faint laugh at the sight of him and approached the Knight Commander.
‘Mental Dive.’
The world inverted into black and white, and his vision twisted.
Darkness.
In the darkness where he could not see even an inch ahead, only one sound echoed endlessly.
‘We must guard the gate.’
‘We must guard the gate.’
An infinitely repeating loop of compulsion. Song Ji-hu walked toward the direction where that echo rang.
No direction was certain, and he could feel nothing touching the soles of his feet, but he was definitely moving forward.
How long had he walked?
In the distance, a faint shape appeared.
A knight with his head bowed while kneeling. His armor was cracked all over, and the sword in his hand was so rusted that its shape was difficult to recognize.
A soul trapped here for hundreds of years, driving himself endlessly toward a single purpose.
‘His Imperial Majesty’s command… must be obeyed….’
‘This gate… must never… be surrendered….’
‘But… Your Majesty… why… have you not returned? Where are the reinforcements?’
Song Ji-hu stood before him and spoke quietly.
“The kingdom has already fallen.”
The echo abruptly cut off. The knight’s form trembled faintly.
“The king you guarded died while fleeing. The castle fell, and the enemies you tried to stop devoured the world. The battle is over.”
The darkness surged, and the knight’s rusted sword rattled.
“You faithfully carried out your orders.”
Song Ji-hu calmly offered consolation.
“You may lower your sword now.”
Silence flowed. After quite a long time passed, the knight lifted his head.
‘…Is that true?’
The Knight Commander’s empty eye sockets turned toward Song Ji-hu. In the gaze of the specter who had guarded the same place for hundreds of years, there was no caution or hostility.
Only exhaustion.
Only a terrible weariness, crushed beneath a duty with no end in sight.
‘…Is that true? Has my mission… truly ended?’
Song Ji-hu nodded.
“Yes. Though you fell, you did not open the gate until the end. You faithfully fulfilled your orders.”
Song Ji-hu added one more sentence, as if placing the final period.
“You were excellent knights to the very end.”
The Knight Commander’s body trembled.
Something began filling his empty eye sockets.
‘Ah, aah, aaah….’
FWOOSH-!
As if hundreds of years of longing had been fulfilled, the knight, whose deeply cracked voice carried his sense of release, began scattering as he shed white light.
It was rest, arriving after hundreds of years.
***
When the enemy that had been charging until just moments ago suddenly stopped, the sword a Hunter swung cut through empty air.
“What?”
The Hunters who had been fighting the enemies crossing over the collapsed wall all sensed something strange at the same time.
“Stay alert!”
It was not only the enemies. The knights who had been swinging swords beside them, and the knights who had been blocking enemies with shields in front of them, too.
All of them had stopped moving and stood in place, like puppets whose strings had been cut.
“Why did they suddenly stop?”
A Hunter with dented armor, a Hunter bleeding, even a mage sitting on the floor and somehow squeezing out mana despite being drained.
All of them gasped for breath and kept watch over the enemies who had stopped.
“Is it a trap?”
“I don’t know… Don’t let your guard down.”
While everyone stayed alert in all directions.
WHOOOM-
Golden particles rose from the body of the ghostly knight standing closest to them.
The knight slowly turned his head and looked at his own sword, which he had been unable to let go of even once for hundreds of years.
Then, very slowly, he began opening his fingers one by one.
CLANG-
The sword fell to the floor. The same sound rang out here and there across the wall.
At the same time, the compulsion that they had to guard this place also faded little by little.
It was no longer frightening.
And the knights began scattering into particles.
CRUMBLE-
Then the enemies that had been pouring in endlessly also collapsed like sandcastles, turned to ash, and began vanishing.
At that sight, every Hunter’s mouth fell open.
“Ah….”
Someone let out a quiet exclamation. The dark-red sky split from the center, pouring down dazzling white light.
[Dungeon Clear]
The system message appeared in every Hunter’s vision.
“Is it over?”
“We… won?”
“Really? Killing every enemy really wasn’t the clear condition?”
At the same time, one person’s name rose in everyone’s mind.
“Did Song Ji-hu succeed?”
“We move.”
Yu Heon-sik led the Hunters and began running in the direction Song Ji-hu had gone.
“How on earth did you do that?!”
Yu Heon-sik urgently threw the question at Song Ji-hu. They had held out because he had told them to, and then the dungeon had suddenly been cleared.
Song Ji-hu calmly answered while wiping away the nosebleed that would not stop flowing from his nose.
“I merely granted the knights’ wish.”
“Their… wish?”
At those incomprehensible words, Yu Heon-sik tilted his head.
“That was the clear condition?”
“Yes.”
Yu Heon-sik was left speechless.
“It’s a kind of special dungeon. One where the goal is not to kill the enemies. Of course, killing all the enemies could also solve it, but…”
Song Ji-hu shrugged. The nearby Hunters also wore dazed expressions after hearing that conversation.
“What on earth is he?”
Had he not carried out every part of the process far too naturally?
The moment he entered the dungeon, he blocked the debuff with Mental Barrier, stood in the vanguard and swung his sword, gave orders, pierced through the dungeon’s core, and even cleared it.
The eyes of the Hunters who had been with him changed as they looked at Song Ji-hu.
‘This person is different from birth.’
The crack in the sky grew wider and wider, then a return portal leading straight to the safe zone formed.
“Everyone, prepare to return! Injured first!”
Following Song Ji-hu’s instructions until the very end, the Hunters headed into the portal.
Song Ji-hu entered the portal last, and Eun Seo-jin followed half a step behind him.
***
His vision blurred white, and soon he arrived in the safe zone in front of the Gate. When he turned back, the blue portal of the Gate that had finished its work was shrinking.
“Confirmed that everyone has arrived. Clear time is 1 hour and 59 minutes. That was quite fast.”
“Fast, my ass…! We almost all died with one wrong move!”
Yoon Yeong-su, who had been waiting in the safe zone, confirmed that every Hunter who had entered at the start had arrived, then exited the Gate again.
“Clearing of B-rank Gate Fortress of the Silent Sentinel confirmed. For now, please head outside.”
After leaving the Gate and confirming that it had disappeared, Yoon Yeong-su began collecting the body cams according to procedure.
“Good work. I will collect the body cams.”
Receiving the equipment from the Hunters one by one, Yoon Yeong-su began lightly checking the internal situation.
“Were there any special incidents inside the dungeon?”
The first Hunter blurted out immediately.
“Special incidents? Hunter Song Ji-hu. What on earth is he? Is he some kind of secret weapon the Association raised?”
The second Hunter, who was organizing his equipment beside him, chimed in.
“He was cutting things down directly in the vanguard, and that was insane, too. Who would believe that a C-rank could fight that naturally in the first dungeon he entered? And in a B-rank dungeon, at that.”
“Why are you leaving this out? When there was no answer in the middle of the battle, he stepped forward, arranged the formation, and gave orders. Two-person vanguard rotation in a narrow passage using the gap in the collapsed wall. Thanks to that, we held out while managing our stamina.”
Yoon Yeong-su’s hand slowed as he collected the body cams and took notes on the content.
“To… that extent?”
“You think that’s the end? Hunter Song Ji-hu was the one who cleared the dungeon, too. The Association really needs to do its job properly. It was a special dungeon, not enemy annihilation.”
Yu Heon-sik cut in. His voice still held an unmistakable trace of disbelief.
“A special dungeon?”
“I don’t know the details. Hunter Song Ji-hu went with Eun Seo-jin, just the two of them, and cleared it.”
Yoon Yeong-su swallowed dryly and asked the other Hunters as well.
The answers were all consistent. Leadership. Combat ability. Dungeon analysis. Even the versatility of his mental-type skills. Hunter Song Ji-hu was not an ordinary Hunter.
If only one or two people said so, he could dismiss it as exaggeration. But if the entire raid team said the same thing in one voice, did that not mean it was a fact without even a speck of falsehood mixed in?
“Lastly, I will measure your mental contamination levels.”
Yoon Yeong-su took out a portable measuring device.
“If anyone has mental contamination symptoms, please tell me without delay.”
It was the most frightening moment. The Hunters steadied their breathing and stood before Yoon Yeong-su.
“Huh…?”
“What is it? Is something wrong?”
“No, please wait a moment. I think the device may be broken.”
Yoon Yeong-su brought a spare device and measured again, but he tilted his head at the unchanged numbers.
[Mental Contamination Level : 13%]
[Mental Contamination Level : 25%]
“D-does this make sense?”
“Ah, what the hell is it? Stop making us anxious.”
Yoon Yeong-su showed the Hunters the data measured immediately before and their current numbers.
“What? It went down?”
“Mental contamination decreased? How does that… make sense?”
“Huh, mine’s the same?”
There was no increase in mental contamination level, which Hunters were required to experience after going into a dungeon. No, for some of them, it had decreased, if only slightly.
And after running a B-rank dungeon, at that.
“Whoa, this is insane!”
“Mine went down!
It’s crazy! It went down by 1!”
The Hunters shouted and cheered in their own ways.
‘Mental contamination level is cumulative. It does not decrease. That was common sense.’
Yoon Yeong-su pressed the tablet screen with trembling fingertips.
‘This is not something that can end with a report.’
It was certain that what was known about Song Ji-hu’s ability was not everything.