Chapter 172
Leaving only the rescue team led by Kelda behind, everyone else entered the unknown dungeon.
The rescue team guarded the entrance, preparing for any unforeseen emergency.
Zeon and his group were the last to enter.
The moment they stepped inside, their senses were distorted and an overwhelming pressure crushed down on them.
“Ugh!”
“Mmgh!”
The faces of Levin and Brielle twisted in pain, having little dungeon experience.
A ringing filled their ears, and the distortion of their senses made it impossible to orient themselves.
Their stomachs churned, and it felt like their entire bodies were being compressed. The two couldn’t regain their composure.
In contrast, the experienced Zeon and Mandy remained calm.
After a moment, the crushing pressure vanished as if it had never existed.
Levin and Brielle ended up sprawled awkwardly on the ground, while Zeon and Mandy barely managed to keep their balance.
Levin and Brielle forced their unsettled stomachs to calm down and lifted their heads.
“This… is inside the dungeon?”
“What the…?”
An ominous scene entered their view.
A forest filled with trees that had lost all their leaves, leaving only barren trunks behind.
Not a single blade of grass grew on the ground, and the earth was dry and cracked.
From the dark crimson sky, lightning continuously struck down.
Faced with such a brutal and unfamiliar landscape, Levin and Brielle swallowed hard.
Getting up, Levin cautiously touched one of the lifeless trees.
“Is this… really a tree?”
“Yes. But it’s dead—there’s no vitality in it.”
“It feels like all life has been drained from it.”
“You’re probably right.”
“But… why can’t we see the others?”
“Huh? You’re right.”
At Levin’s words, Brielle realized that the people who had entered earlier were nowhere to be seen.
Only Zeon’s group was here—none of the other Awakeners were visible.
At that moment, Mandy spoke:
“Some dungeons split people into different locations even if they enter through the same entrance. This place seems to be one of those.”
“Then… does that mean we won’t meet the others?”
“As we progress through the raid, we’ll eventually run into them—assuming they’re still alive.”
“Ugh…”
“We need to find the dungeon’s core. Everyone will be heading there, so once we reach it, we’ll naturally meet the others.”
“How do we know what the dungeon core is?”
“You’ll recognize it instinctively.”
“What?”
“When you see it, you’ll just know.”
“What does that even—?”
Mandy didn’t elaborate any further.
It meant exactly what she said—they had to see it for themselves.
At that moment, Zeon spoke:
“Let’s move. We need to find the others quickly.”
“Got it!”
Zeon immediately started walking.
Following behind him, Brielle asked:
“Do you know where we’re going?”
“So we’re just walking blindly?”
“If we keep moving, we’ll eventually encounter something unusual. From there, we can start figuring out the path properly.”
“Really?”
Brielle tilted her head, clearly unconvinced.
Like Mandy, Zeon didn’t explain any further.
If you only learned from being told, your growth would inevitably be slow.
Some things could only be understood through direct experience.
That was the kind of experience the two of them needed right now.
Looking at the forest full of dead trees, Zeon thought:
A forest with no vitality at all… This dungeon raid won’t be easy.
A dungeon was a fragment of Kurayan drifting through dimensions.
Some terrain or location that had broken away from Kurayan manifested in the form of a dungeon.
That meant this place, too, was undoubtedly a recreation of some era or location from Kurayan.
I feel like I’ve seen a place like this before…
Zeon frowned.
This damp, ominous atmosphere felt strangely familiar.
But he couldn’t yet remember where he had felt it before.
I’ll figure it out soon enough.
At that moment, Brielle suddenly shouted:
“Huh?!”
“What is it?”
“That tree over there…”
“What about it?”
“I think it moved.”
“The tree moved? That doesn’t make any sen— …it did.”
Levin blinked.
It wasn’t his imagination.
CREEEEAK!
A tree was actually moving.
A massive tree rose up, shifting its roots and branches.
In the middle of its trunk was a face—eyes, nose, and mouth like a human’s.
It blinked as if it had just woken up, looking eerily lifelike.
“W-what is that?!”
“It’s an Ent.”
“Huh?”
“Just think of it as a moving tree.”
Being a High Elf, Brielle immediately recognized the creature.
Levin steadied his racing heart and muttered:
“If it’s just a tree monster, it’s nothing special. Can’t we just burn it?”
CRACKLE!
Purple lightning surged from Levin’s body and struck the Ent directly.
The electricity instantly incinerated it.
KIEEEEE!
The Ent let out a grotesque scream before turning into charcoal.
Levin dusted off his hands and smirked.
“That was nothing.”
“You idiot!”
“What?”
“Why would you kill it like that?! If you kill an Ent recklessly, all the others will wake up!”
“What are you talking abou—”
ROOOOAAAR!
In that instant, roars erupted from all across the forest.
The Ents had awakened.
They had awakened after sensing the death of one of their own.
Ents were demonic beasts with a strong sense of kinship.
Though they resembled trees, they possessed every emotion a living being could have.
Among those, the strongest was their bond with their own kind.
If someone killed one of them, Ents would pursue the culprit to the ends of hell to take revenge.
The Ents began walking toward the one who had slain their companion.
They seemed slow, but due to their enormous size, they quickly closed the distance with Zeon’s group.
“How are there so many?!”
“It’s a forest. Of course there are a lot.”
“Damn it! I’ll just burn them all—”
“You don’t even know how many there are, and you want to burn them? You idiot! Try thinking for once. Is your head just for decoration?”
“Then what do we do?”
“Run!”
The moment Brielle finished speaking, she bolted forward.
Zeon and Mandy silently followed behind her.
Levin, who had been standing there blankly, shouted and ran after them.
“Wait for me!”
***
The place where Cha Jincheol and the western sector Awakeners arrived was a canyon.
It was a barren canyon where not a single blade of grass or tree grew, and only a desolate wind blew through.
“What an unpleasant place.”
Cha Jincheol frowned deeply.
He had entered quite a few dungeons before, but this was the first time he had felt such strong discomfort from the moment he stepped in.
The dry, lifeless wind made it feel as though even his mechanical body was rusting.
“Still… it seems we’ve all been scattered based on entry order.”
At least the western sector Awakeners had not been separated and remained gathered together.
If his subordinates had all been scattered, even Cha Jincheol would have been in a difficult position.
Xuanwu.
–Yes, Master.
Fortunately, his support AI responded.
This was possible because Xuanwu had been downloaded into his body.
Can you determine what kind of dungeon this is?
–There is insufficient data.
Not very helpful.
–My apologies.
Cha Jincheol turned to his subordinates.
More than seventy Awakeners were waiting for his decision.
“We split into two groups and search the dungeon. If anyone finds what appears to be the core, report immediately.”
“Yes!”
He ordered the strongest Awakener after himself to lead the other group.
As a B-rank Awakener, he would be able to handle unexpected situations.
Cha Jincheol set out to explore the dungeon with only a small number of subordinates.
That alone showed his confidence in his own strength.
Once they exited the canyon, a forest appeared—filled with bare trees devoid of leaves.
“A forest after a canyon, huh?”
At that moment—
“Haah!”
“Yaah!”
With battle cries, a group burst out from the forest.
It was Zeon’s group.
Brielle and Levin were breathing heavily, while Zeon and Mandy wiped the sweat from their foreheads.
Levin spoke:
“They’re not chasing us anymore, right?”
“Ents don’t usually leave the forest.”
“That’s a relief. We almost died back there.”
“This is all your fault, you idiot!”
“Still, I’m not an idiot…”
“Who told you to attack an Ent in the forest?”
“Well, I—”
“That’s exactly why you’re an idiot.”
Levin pouted at Brielle’s scolding but couldn’t argue further, knowing he was at fault.
Cha Jincheol approached them and said:
“You all seem close.”
“Looks like you ended up nearby.”
“It just happened that way.”
He answered Zeon coldly.
His gaze was fixed on Zeon’s face.
Zeon still looked pale—clear evidence that he hadn’t recovered his mana yet.
“Still haven’t recovered your mana, I see.”
“This dungeon isn’t exactly helping.”
“True…”
Cha Jincheol nodded.
Normally, the richer the dungeon was in mana, the faster one could recover it.
But in a dungeon this devoid of life, mana recovery was slow.
A sinister glint flickered in his eyes.
Xuanwu. If it’s now, I can kill him easily, right?
–According to calculations, yes.
Should I do it?
–I do not recommend it.
Why not?
–Given the low mana density here, it will take several days for Zeon to fully recover. It is far more efficient to make use of him until then.
As expected.
The murderous intent faded from Cha Jincheol’s eyes.
The change happened so quickly that Levin and Brielle didn’t notice.
But Zeon and Mandy did.
Zeon’s gaze suddenly shifted to Cha Jincheol’s waist.
“That rope… was it always glowing like that?”
“What? Huh? Why is it—?”
Cha Jincheol looked startled.
Just as Zeon said, the rope hanging at his waist was emitting a black glow.
It was an item he had purchased at an auction held by the White Bear Caravan.
Its official name was the Rope of the Jade Warden.
He had always kept it at his waist, but as a mechanized Awakener, he had never really had a chance to use it.
Zeon said:
“It seems this dungeon is somehow connected to that item.”
There were dungeons like that sometimes—
Where items obtained from other dungeons resonated with them.
No wonder it felt sealed… So the key to unlocking it is here?
As if it had returned to its homeland, the Rope of the Jade Warden emitted an even stronger black glow.