Chapter 169

Cho-i Hyeon raised her head and looked at the dome in the distance. Her heart pounded. It was a different feeling than when she first discovered it.

‘I have to go there.’

Her heart was pounding. Even though a long time had passed, she had a strong intuition that the molting hadn’t completely finished because she hadn’t reached that place. She staggered to her feet. When she put pressure on the soles of her feet, her calves and thighs ached intensely, but she began to take one step after another.

“Hunter Cho-i Hyeon! Stay put.”

“No, I can’t. I have to go there.”

Myeongok Shin approached, attempting to use her painkill skill on her. However, Cho-i Hyeon shook her off and instantly darted forward.

“Cho-i Hyeon!”

Taeyang Kang urgently followed after her.

“I’ll go after her first!”

Taeyang Kang shouted, looking back. Taehyeok Sa gritted his teeth and began to wake up his companions. Suui Kim was the first to get up and shake her head to clear her mind.

“What’s going on?”

“Cho-i Hyeon started saying strange things and went towards the dome.”

“What did you say?”

At the commotion, the companions began to wake up one by one, and at the mention of Cho-i Hyeon going to the dome alone, they hastily stood up. They gathered their equipment and looked in the direction Cho-i Hyeon had run. Taehyeok Sa frowned.

“Something is clearly pulling Cho-i Hyeon strongly.”

“Could it be related to Hunter Cho-i Hyeon having gone to a hidden dungeon where mantis-type monsters appeared?”

“Perhaps.”

“The dungeon must be affecting Hunter Cho-i, right?”

Taehyeok Sa nodded. The companions who had gotten up immediately started running towards the dome-shaped structure where Cho-i Hyeon had gone. Although their stamina hadn’t fully recovered from their short sleep, they couldn’t pretend not to know her.

* * *

Cho-i Hyeon ran frantically towards the dome. Even when her legs felt like they were being torn apart by pain, she didn’t stop. She had a strong premonition that if she went to that place, to that dome-like area, this pain would stop. But then.

‘But why do I keep feeling uneasy?’

An unpleasant throbbing sensation in her chest wouldn’t cease. She constantly felt bone-crushing pain in her shoulders and pelvis. Something was different from the last molting. Perhaps that was why she was feeling anxious. She quickly passed by, beheading the monsters that tried to stop her. Whether those who had lost their heads floundered or not, she only ran towards that place and soon reached the entrance of the dome.

“Gasp, gasp….”

She panted, looking around. No one was visible. Only she was there. The entrance gaped open like a black maw, waiting for her. It felt as if someone was beckoning from inside. She took a step into it. But something abruptly stopped her, as if grabbing her ankle.

‘That dream from earlier….’

What kind of dream was that? It was a dream where Nara Shim died. No, it was more like a dream where she killed a human. Why would she kill a human? She had no desire to do so at all. But why…. As her anxiety grew, the pain that felt like her whole body was burning intensified. She wanted to escape this pain. So, putting her anxiety aside, she slowly entered the dome. Upon entering the entrance, she saw a long stone corridor. Just like the hidden dungeon she had first entered. She limped further inside. The pain throughout her body had now become unbearable. She walked and stopped, walked and stopped, enduring the pain.

“Ugh. Ah….”

Tears streamed down her face. She couldn’t endure it any longer. She thought that any method would be fine if it could just end this molting. A light appeared ahead. Cho-i quickened her pace, looking at the light.

“This is….”

It was a giant space, like where the Mantis’s bones used to be. The ceiling was high, and countless letters were written all around. The language of the Mantises. She didn’t have time to take in each of the Entities. She sank to the floor and buried her forehead in it.

“You’ve come all this way…”

Cho-i mumbled. She let out a pained gasp and crawled on the floor, her whole body trembling.

“Because I’ve come this far… Agh!”

Crack- A long crack appeared on her back. Her shoulder hurt as if it was breaking. She whimpered, curled up on the floor. Her whole body felt like it was falling apart. It felt like being cut with a knife and burned by fire.

“Aaah!”

Something protruded from her shoulder with a crack. But Cho-i remained curled up on the floor, unaware of it. It felt as if new bones were growing where there hadn’t been any before. She thrashed her head against the ground, her forehead buried in the dirt, feeling pain from somewhere new, somewhere on Beondo Island she had never imagined anything could be.

“W-what, what is this?”

Cho-i fumbled with her shoulder. She thought it was strange to feel pain above her shoulder. And when she felt something there, she gasped and lifted her head.

“What is this? It doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t…”

She fumbled with her shoulder and mumbled. Something smooth and sharp with thorns had grown on her shoulder. The Entity was red and very familiar in form.

“…Ahaha, ahha.”

She let out a hollow laugh without realizing it. What had grown on her shoulder was none other than…

“A Mantis leg…”

Tears streamed from her eyes. It doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense. Wasn’t this dungeon supposed to not affect her? Cho-i Hyeon felt herself changing. And with that, she realized something else. Why this molting was so painful. The body inside the shed skin was too large. Something was trying to awaken, breaking through the human-shaped shell. She cried out in fear. She found the Entity.

“What is this?”

She screamed.

“Answer me!”

Her voice was like a scream. And as soon as that scream-like sound ended, the same thing burst out from her pelvis, breaking through the shed skin.

“Aaaagh! Ugh, ha, aaaa…”

She writhed in pain. Her body was changing. Why, just why, was this happening to her? She cursed herself again and again, writhing on the floor. The red legs that had burst from her body twitched. The Entity did not move according to her will. Cho-i immediately realized. It is the Entity that is moving this. The Entity was trying to take over her body.

“No…”

Once this molting is over, she would lose her body. She had a strong premonition of this. Only now did she realize why she had felt uneasy coming here. But that realization came too late.

“No!”

She screamed. But the shed skin was peeling off, and her body was slowly, gradually transforming. As she shed her skin, Cho-i felt new organs developing that she didn’t have before, and things she had never possessed were being created. The Entity was much, much more terrifying than she had imagined.

“Stop it, I said stop!”

Snap, crackle. The shed skin on her hand completely broke apart, revealing an arm with repulsive sinews. Hard, sharp claws. Pale skin. All of it was proof that her body was changing into something inhuman.

“Aaah!”

Her scream echoed through the large dome.

* * *

The group arrived in front of the dome. Taeyang Kang was waiting for them there. It seemed he had missed Cho-i Hyeon. Just then, someone’s scream was heard from inside.

“I think it’s Hunter Cho-i Hyeon?”

“Did she start molting inside?”

“Did she instinctively find a safe place…?”

They couldn’t understand any of it. They looked at each other, and soon Taehyeok Sa nodded. Everyone slowly entered. Inside the long stone passage, a small sob could be heard from the far end. They thought the sob belonged to Cho-i Hyeon.

“Will Hunter Cho-i Hyeon be alright?”

“Well, I don’t know either.”

Taeyang Kang frowned and stepped to the very front. He quickened his pace. Taeyang Kang was burning with anxiety. He felt a sense of self-reproach at the fact that something terrible seemed to have happened to Cho-i Hyeon, and there was nothing he could do. And behind him, Taehyeok Sa followed. The people started running to match the faster pace of the two, and soon arrived in front of a large space. And then.

“There’s no one… here?”

The space where they expected Cho-i Hyeon to be was empty. Just then, Suui Kim pointed to something in the center.

“Could that be…?”

There lay a shed skin, as if someone had taken it off. Everyone ran to it and checked the shed skin. The Entity, full of sticky liquid, was broken into the shape of human limbs. It was clearly Cho-i Hyeon’s trace.

“Where did she go after shedding her skin?”

“But there’s only one passage here. If she had left, we would have surely encountered her.”

Suui Kim said in response to Nara Shim’s question.

“And you could hear Choi Hyeon’s voice the whole way here.”

Taeyang Kang muttered, his brow furrowed. Taehyeok Sa nodded.

“First, let’s split up…”

While Taehyeok Sa was speaking, Yeonhan Kim, who had spotted something, opened her eyes wide. She looked up at the ceiling and shouted,

“Guild Master! Above!”

CRASH! Something jumped down above him. A large cloud of dust rose, and Taehyeok Sa, who had quickly pulled back, covered his face with one arm and looked at whatever had jumped down. As the dust slowly cleared, the body of the thing that had jumped down was revealed. The entity was…