Chapter 53

Siyoon headed toward the passage on the opposite side of the cavern.

Going back the way he came would be pointless.

‘Heading in a new direction would give me a better chance of finding the others.’

Jeobeok.

He passed through the arched entrance and walked down another long passage.

Paths that looked the same, with no distinguishing features.

Intersections so monotonous that even direction became a blur.

But Siyoon traversed the passage without hesitation.

Thanks to the effects of his newly acquired skill, Path Finder.

‘I never expected the skill’s effects to manifest like this.’

Path Finder meant pioneer, or guide.

True to its name, the skill was specialized in finding the right path and pressing forward.

It wasn’t that any visual effect appeared.

Instead, it painted a picture in his mind.

His maximized senses intertwined with vision, instantly rendering a three-dimensional cross-section of the passage.

The structure of the corridors and the synthesis of the patterns he had walked so far.

The flow of air that shifted from moment to moment.

The radius in which his footsteps echoed off the walls.

Information gathered through his eyes was interpreted in real time, adding detail to the passage mapped in his mind.

It felt as though a map had been embedded directly into his brain.

‘Moreover, I can instinctively feel which direction is the right one’

A strange certainty that this path was correct.

An intense intuition that defied words.

This, too, was one of the effects of the Path Finder skill.

“…Lee Siyoon?”

How long had he walked like that?

Siyoon finally encountered the first party member, Jin Baekseon.

* * *

Jin Baekseon looked more disheveled than the last time Siyoon had seen him.

He was covered in dust as if he had tumbled through something, with green leaves stuck to him in various places.

“…Haa. It was you. I tensed up for nothing.”

“What happened to you?”

“If you mean this, I accidentally rolled down a slope.”

Jin Baekseon said, scratching the back of his neck.

“Rolled?”

“The floor was completely covered in moss and plants. I couldn’t help it.”

Only then did the leaves and sap stuck to Jin Baekseon’s body make sense.

The passage they were currently walking through was also overgrown with weeds.

If he had rolled straight down a slope, it wasn’t strange that crushed plants had left their marks all over him.

“Still, reuniting with you makes it a net gain in the end.”

“……”

Jin Baekseon, upon seeing Siyoon, wore an expression of profound relief.

That was a testament to how much he trusted him.

Though Siyoon had no idea how that trust had grown so much in the short time since they’d met.

In any case, there was something to confirm.

“That aside, where are the others?”

“Not sure. I don’t know about that.”

Jin Baekseon shrugged.

“If I had met them, they’d be here with me right now.”

“That’s true. Then, did you see any notable structures or locations on your way here?”

“Sorry, but nothing like that either.”

Siyoon thought about it.

An underground passage where all four had been separated.

But unlike Siyoon, who had discovered the ancient tree, Jin Baekseon had seen nothing.

Which meant…

‘The positions are completely random. And the underground passage is likely divided into zones based on certain locations.’

That was the extent of the information available for now.

The rest would have to be discovered by moving around in person.

“For now, we should go find the others.”

“Agreed.”

Siyoon led Jin Baekseon deeper into the passage.

* * *

An hour had already passed since the two began walking the passage in search of their remaining companions.

During that time, Siyoon gradually adapted to Path Finder.

With his intuition for the correct path, his pace naturally increased.

‘Judging by performance alone, this is absolutely not an Epic-Rank skill.’

Seureureuk.

Siyoon watched the wall disappear at his touch and reflected on this.

This was already the third hidden passage he had discovered while walking the corridors.

They had been caught by his senses, further amplified by the effects of Path Finder.

Moreover, his intuition indicated that this was a faster route.

“A hidden passage here… How on earth did you find it?”

Jin Baekseon marveled.

To anyone who didn’t know better, it looked as though he had found the hidden passage as naturally as breathing.

Which, in reality, wasn’t far from the truth.

“Let’s go.”

The two crossed through the pitch-black hidden passage.

With each step, the blank spaces on the map etched in Siyoon’s mind disappeared.

When approximately another hour had passed.

“So this is where you two were!”

They were able to find Seo Eunhyun and Jang Taeju.

“Thank goodness we all made it safely.”

“We’ve been searching for a while.”

Perhaps the sudden separation had been quite unsettling.

They looked at Siyoon and Jin Baekseon with visible relief.

Siyoon asked the two of them.

“You two found each other pretty quickly, it seems.”

“What do you mean?”

“We were together from the start.”

This was another unexpected development.

These two had been together from the very beginning.

It wasn’t that all four had been separated — the split had been entirely random.

Looking at the party as a whole, it wasn’t a bad situation.

Thanks to that, they had saved time searching for people.

“Anyway, did you find anything?”

“Not really. Aside from a large cavern and an ancient tree, there was nothing.”

The four of them reunited and walked through the passage together.

Fortunately, it seemed they hadn’t encountered any dangerous situations.

“An ancient tree… So there was a place like that too?”

“It wasn’t bad. We got lucky and found a skill book.”

“What? A skill book?”

“That’s incredible.”

“What skill was it?”

“Detector. A skill that lets you find paths better than usual and instinctively perceive an opponent’s weaknesses.”

“Then you’ll be able to find your way much better than before.”

Siyoon deliberately shared only the previous stage of Path Finder.

There was no need to reveal everything unnecessarily.

Sharing just this much was sufficient for progressing through the dungeon.

They were currently in the same party, but ultimately they would part ways after the conquest.

Newly acquired skills, in particular, had to be kept hidden.

“What about your side?”

“Ah, we found something like an altar.”

“An altar?”

“There weren’t any specially hidden elements. But we did pick up an item.”

Jang Taeju handed something to Siyoon.

It was a transparent glass bottle.

As he carefully received it, a message appeared.

[ You have acquired ‘Enseodotar’s Purification Water’. ]

“This is Enseodotar’s Purification Water. It can supposedly cleanse mental status ailments.”

“It’s probably better for you to hold onto it than me.”

Siyoon glanced back, and Seo Eunhyun nodded in agreement.

Siyoon tucked the purification water into his coat.

“I’ll hold onto this and use it when needed.”

In essence, they had entrusted it to him out of trust for the sake of progressing through the dungeon.

Having safely stored it, Siyoon quickly traversed the passage.

With all four gathered, there was no need to search the surroundings anymore.

They just needed to push straight through the passage.

About thirty more minutes passed.

At the end of the endlessly stretching passage, a staircase leading upward came into view.

Thanks to Path Finder’s effects, they had arrived via the shortest route without getting lost.

“Stairs going up?”

“Looks like it’s a different staircase from the one we came down.”

Siyoon gazed into the darkness of the endless staircase and activated his bracelet.

Summoning an orb of light, Siyoon stepped onto the staircase first and spoke.

“Let’s go up.”

At his words, everyone ascended the stairs as one.

Unlike the previous staircase where darkness had gradually thickened, this one grew brighter step by step.

A sign that the surface was drawing near.

Hwak!

The moment bright sunlight finally enveloped them.

[ You have exited ‘Enseodotar’s Underground Passage’. ]

[ Your current location is ‘Central Tropical Rainforest’. ]

[ Find the pillar and activate it. ]

Along with the newly given objective, the rich scent of grass tickled their noses.

They had finally emerged from the underground passage.

* * *

The underground passage had been less eventful than expected.

Of course, finding a skill book and purification water meant it wasn’t without gains.

Still, equipment was the best reward, wasn’t it?

‘It’s quite difficult to find equipment here, more than I expected.’

He reflected as they walked through the tropical rainforest.

In a typical dungeon, the probability of obtaining equipment was much higher than skill books.

Yet here, no equipment had appeared at all — only a skill book and purification water.

“Which direction? This way?”

Jang Taeju, who was at the front, asked.

“It’d be better to take a slight detour.”

“Are there magic beasts?”

“That’s right.”

The three nodded simultaneously.

And they advanced by taking a detour in the direction Siyoon pointed.

After learning the skill Path Finder, Siyoon had become even more capable.

He had already been skilled at finding paths and shaking off magic beasts.

His senses had been exceptional to begin with.

But now, it felt as though the entire tropical rainforest was in the palm of his hand.

Which direction to go.

Where magic beasts were approaching from.

With his current position as the center, the surroundings were rendered like a map, making it possible to make far more accurate decisions.

The results were truly remarkable.

“…Incredible.”

They found the pillar located in the central zone in no time.

Considering they had only recently exited the underground passage, it was an astonishing speed.

“You were impressive before, but now this is like…”

“A human GPS.”

“……”

At Seo Eunhyun’s words, the other two quietly agreed.

No word could describe Siyoon’s current state more accurately.

“Can we just activate it right away this time?”

“Restoration comes first before activation.”

Siyoon pushed Jang Taeju back and approached the pillar.

It looked similar to the pillar at the entrance.

‘If I restore it with Enhancement and then activate it again, will a Monster Wave come rushing in?’

He fell into thought once more as he looked at the pillar.

The entrance and the central zone were different.

Having ventured deeper, the difficulty would have increased.

Touching it carelessly like before could put them in danger instead.

“What is it?”

“Hmm…”

As he stood still, the party’s attention focused on him.

He had become an important decision-maker within the party.

Reading the situation, Siyoon briefly explained his thoughts to the group.

“That’s definitely a valid concern.”

“Isn’t it a stretch to assume it’ll be a Monster Wave unconditionally?”

“But we can’t say it won’t be, either.”

Having heard the explanation, the rest of the party also fell into contemplation.

“There were a hundred at the entrance, so if a Monster Wave triggers again, the number would at least double.”

“What about activating it without restoration?”

“Since the Hidden Route has already begun, the result would probably be the same or worse.”

They stood in place and brainstormed various approaches.

But no particularly good method came to mind.

As they racked their brains, a flash of inspiration struck.

“Let’s just restore the pillar and deal with the magic beasts first.”

“Hm?”

At Siyoon’s words, all three snapped their eyes open.

“The number of magic beasts in a dungeon is finite anyway. It might be impossible to eliminate all of them, but it seems worth trying.”

Siyoon’s reasoning was as follows.

The population of magic beasts in a dungeon was fixed to some extent.

If so, rather than triggering a Monster Wave, wouldn’t defeating them individually prevent their numbers from being replenished?

That was his hypothesis.

“Not bad. There’s definitely a possibility.”

“It could fail, but it’s not a bad idea.”

Each of them showed a reasonably positive reaction to Siyoon’s suggestion.

“Then it’s decided.”

Siyoon said.

“We’ll only restore the pillar, and pick off the magic beasts one by one.”

Enduring a more powerful Monster Wave than before would exact too heavy a toll.

With the depths and the boss still ahead, that was something to avoid.

That was why they chose to eliminate the magic beasts individually.