“Hey! Hunter Gong Sijin!”
The moment he stepped out of the car, Gong Sijin’s name was called from all directions. Laughing lightly, he waved and walked toward the gathered crowd.
“Long time no see, Officer. Has entry already closed?”
The gate pulsed with a black shimmer. At his question, the officer tucked a tablet under his arm.
“It closed 30 minutes ago.”
“Ah, what should we do then? We have one additional member… would it be difficult to enter now?”
He gestured behind him. The officer glanced past Gong Sijin.
A man stood there like a shadow, his hood pulled low with the Rapture Guild logo stamped on it. Only the tip of his nose and his lips were barely visible beneath the hood.
The officer pulled out the tablet.
“It’s possible. Hunter’s name?”
“Yurian. He just registered today, so he probably hasn’t shown up in the system yet.”
Gong Sijin casually tilted his head to check the screen. Even after entering the name, the result displayed ‘No Record.’ The officer scratched his head.
“If we can’t verify this, he can’t enter…”
“Exactly. I just came back from the Bureau with him. It’d be nice if we could wait until the system updates, but I’d really like him to join the team. As you know, it’s not every day a rookie gets the chance to run a raid with Hunter Gong Siyoung.”
That was something the officer couldn’t argue with. It was well-known even among Bureau staff that Gong Siyoung usually worked alone.
When he did reluctantly join a team, it was typically for higher-ranked dungeons. And in those cases, it wasn’t exactly ideal for a rookie to be involved.
“Even if it’s A-rank, this is a place Hunter Siyoung already cleared once. I figured it’d be fine to send him in.”
“Well… alright. Hunter Yurian, please come this way.”
The officer closed the tablet and beckoned Yurian over, not doubting for a second that the Guild Master of Rapture would lie.
Gong Sijin gave Yurian a quick wink.
“Go on, have a safe trip.”
Not wanting to hesitate and draw suspicion, Yurian quickly headed for the gate entrance.
“April 7th, 14:07. Proceeding with entry into A-rank dungeon. Rapture Guild Hunter Yurian, please enter.”
Following the instruction, he stepped into the gate. A gust of wind flipped his hood back, and a dull, strange sensation swept across his entire body.
He closed his eyes and opened them again.
A completely unfamiliar scene spread out before him. The flow of mana here was incomparably richer than before. He drew in a breath and swallowed his amazement.
“…Cold.”
Aside from the overflowing mana, nothing about this place resembled the previous dungeon.
The one where he had fought the Hellhound—his fellow native—had nothing in common with this.
Is this really the right place?
There was no way Gong Sijin had brought him to the wrong location… right?
The sky that had once rained ash was now filled with pure white snowflakes. Yurian reached out into the air. A flake landed in his palm and melted without a trace.
The cold wind brushing against his cheek made him shiver slightly. He curled his fingers.
There was no one around to ask. All he could see was ice, stretching endlessly.
After scanning his surroundings for a while, Yurian came to his own conclusion.
“Guess dungeons are just like this.”
They must change environments every time you enter.
A conclusion that would’ve made Gong Sijin faint on the spot.
Yurian started walking, his steps heavy but steady. Thanks to Sijin’s shameless lie, getting inside hadn’t been a problem at all. As he walked, he recalled what Gong Sijin had told him before entering.
“The structure of a dungeon is divided into three stages. The exploration zone, the deep zone, and the core zone.”
The exploration zone, the entrance area, only occasionally housed low-level monsters.
Once you passed that and went deeper, it became the deep zone, where the difficulty rose sharply.
The structure and types of monsters in the deep zone varied by dungeon. You could pass through without killing them, but if you wanted a safe retreat, it was better to clear them out.
Beyond that lay the core zone.
That was where the boss monster existed.
Only by killing the boss monster would the dungeon be cleared, and the exit gate activated.
Now he finally understood what Gong Siyoung had meant earlier.
He had wondered why the man was so obsessed with finding the boss monster.
Turns out, there was a reason.
“…So that’s how it works.”
The group of Hellhounds he had killed must’ve been the boss. That’s why the return gate had reactivated.
“You could’ve just said that.”
They were brothers, but one explained things clearly while the other… well, that was something else.
Still, in its own way, it was kind of endearing.
Come to think of it, Gong Siyoung was somewhere in here too.
Yurian lifted his head and scanned the area.
After a brief moment of thought, he activated his magic.
He kicked off the ground and rose into the air, his body floating as lightly as a feather. Snow swirled around him, turning everything into shades of gray.
In the white-and-gray world, he searched for a head of jet-black hair.
Even after spinning in place, there was nothing that looked like a path.
“…Where did my sword end up?”
If he wanted to find both Gong Siyoung and his cherished blade, time mattered.
That was when he spotted a group of spiders approaching from ahead. He scratched his chin.
“Coldwebs?”
There were easily more than ten of them.
Before landing, Yurian formed a ball of fire in his palm.
The moment the Coldwebs entered range, he flicked it forward. The fire struck dead center, flaring up and instantly devouring the spiders.
Coldwebs, which spat freezing webs, weren’t particularly difficult to deal with. If they swarmed and managed to freeze you, things got annoying—but if you handled them beforehand, there was no problem.
The ones that broke away from the group were kicked straight back into the flames.
Screech—!
The monsters’ cries overlapped with the crackling roar of fire.
When the last Coldweb was reduced to ash, the flames shrank to a small flicker.
Avoiding the charred corpses, Yurian crouched beside the fire.
Letting his thoughts settle, he warmed his hands over the makeshift campfire, using the spiders as fuel. His frozen fingers slowly thawed, tingling faintly.
Before entering the dungeon, Gong Sijin hadn’t told him to do anything specific.
The boss monster would be handled by Gong Siyoung, so there was nothing to worry about.
Instead, he had smiled warmly and told him to use his skills freely, find his sword, and just enjoy himself.
Then he had handed him a small rectangular device.
“Just stick it to your chest and walk around.”
Yurian had accepted it without much thought.
Even now, the device was attached to his chest. The blinking red light fascinated him, and he tapped its edge lightly.
“…What now?”
With mana overflowing, even his usually sluggish thoughts were running sharp and clear.
First, he needed to find his sword.
But after that?
There was one thought he couldn’t ignore.
He had come here through something.
Then maybe… somewhere here, there was also a way back.
It was just a guess, but it didn’t feel wrong.
If there was a path, returning home wouldn’t be difficult.
“Alright…”
Yurian stood up and dusted off his pants.
“Let’s find the sword first…”
But even if there was a way back…
Did he really want to go?
The answer didn’t come easily.
This place wasn’t perfect. Being out of place, constantly guessing at things—it was exhausting.
Living without knowing anything, from one to ten, wasn’t exactly easy.
But aside from that…
It was warm. Comfortable. Safe.
A paradise, really.
“…If I go back, it’s not like there’s anything waiting for me…”
The moment he muttered to himself—
The ground shook violently.
He dropped low on instinct, casting a shield.
BOOOOOOM—!!
A massive explosion roared through the air.
After a brief pause, he scanned for the source.
Not far away, mana was twisting and converging into a violent vortex.
If this was the exploration zone…
Then that must be the core zone.
The snowfall thickened, blurring his vision.
If someone was fighting a boss monster over there, then Gong Siyoung had to be nearby.
The moment he reached that conclusion, he moved without hesitation.
Riding the wind, Yurian headed toward the disturbance.
It wasn’t danger that drove him.
It was curiosity.
He wanted to see how an S-rank hunter like Gong Siyoung fought.
Would it feel different, fighting inside a dungeon like this?
Would he use a sword? A blade? Magic?
There weren’t any particularly dangerous monsters here, after all.
“…I’ll just watch from the back for a bit, then go find my sword.”
With a hint of excitement, Yurian cut swiftly through the air.