Chapter 95

After clearing all the dungeons, Cho-i Hyeon and Nara Shim decided to go to Deer Knuckle’s dungeon. This was to fulfill the basic condition in advance, if clearing three dungeons that use the same language was indeed the requirement. They chose Deer Knuckle’s dungeon as the last one to minimize variables.

“But will a hidden dungeon really appear if we do this?”

“I don’t know either.”

As Cho-i Hyeon and Nara Shim got out of the dungeon management team’s car in front of Deer Knuckle’s dungeon, someone had already arrived. It was…

“Why are you here?”

“Well, I have to see it with my own eyes.”

Taehyeok Sa.

“Greetings, Guild Master!”

Nara Shim bowed deeply, while Cho-i Hyeon stood with his arms crossed, an displeased look on his face.

“Then you should have followed us from the start. What will you do if you mess things up because of you?”

“Well, I don’t think that will happen.”

“Why?”

“If visiting those three dungeons in order is the basic condition, then it should be fine as long as there’s one person among the members who has visited all three dungeons in order.”

“Why are you so sure?”

“You’ve visited the dungeons with Angels and demons in order, each with different individuals.”

“…Damn it, the Entity is like that too.”

Taehyeok Sa shrugged his shoulders. Cho-i Hyeon grumbled and darted into the Deer Knuckle’s dungeon. Nara Shim giggled and followed behind him, as if watching for a reaction, and Taehyeok Sa leisurely entered the dungeon.

‘This dungeon was probably the third one, right?’

Cho-i Hyeon thought. Once when she was abandoned, once to fight Gihyeon Park, and now. Cho-i Hyeon was tearing through the monsters on the way to Deer Knuckle with one hand, moving forward. And then, a wind blew from behind her. Swish- With one blast of Taehyeok Sa’s Telekinesis, all the monsters were swept around and crumpled. Crack, crunch, grind. The sound of bones breaking and flesh and muscles tearing was clearly audible. Cho-i Hyeon turned her head and looked at Taehyeok Sa.

“Don’t interfere.”

“You were disappointed when I didn’t interfere back then.”

“Perhaps I should have killed you then?”

“If you had, I wouldn’t have been able to conduct such an experiment.”

As Taehyeok Sa boasted, Cho-i Hyeon showed a disgusted expression and moved away from him. The three of them, moving forward, soon stopped at a wall. Right in front of ‘that door’.

“What? It really appeared?”

Nara Shim said, covering her mouth with her hand. Her eyes were wide open. But Cho-i Hyeon, as if she had expected it, walked boldly and pushed open the Rusty Iron Gate.

“Screech!”

Nara Shim screamed in surprise. It felt like something was about to pop out. But the only sight that greeted them was a long, stone path, like a maze, with a covered top. The right side was blocked, and the space was divided into left and front. Cho-i Hyeon peered inside the door, then slowly moved her head to the left.

“Why, why, is there something?”

Nara Shim said, clinging to her back.

“Get away from me.”

“Oh. Why?”

“Stick with Taehyeok Sa.”

“I’ll take good care of her.”

Cho-i Hyeon slowly began to enter the left path. A light was visible in the distance. Following the light, she walked straight in and a giant dome appeared, with something like a Giant Mantis Skeleton remaining in the center. And all the Mantis corpses filling its belly were the ones Cho-i Hyeon had killed.

“Wow…”

Nara Shim, seeing this sight for the first time, widened her eyes and looked up at the enormous Mantis skeleton. Taehyeok Sa was looking around, lost in thought. His eyes caught Cho-i Hyeon clinging to a wall with marks as if it had been struck hard by a blade.

“Hey, you killed all the…”

The Mantis corpses filled the floor and the belly of the giant Mantis, leaving no room to step. But suddenly, something nudged her foot. It felt different from a Mantis corpse. More like a piece of wood…

“Screeeeeam!”

As Nara Shim screamed, Taehyeok Sa immediately turned to look at her.

“A, a human arm…!”

Then Cho-i Hyeon said, still fumbling along the wall,

“Don’t worry about it, it’s mine.”

“Yours?”

“Yeah.”

Nara Shim had thought she knew a little about Cho-i Hyeon, but the moment she saw this hand, she felt as if she had known nothing at all. Nara Shim, unable to take her eyes off the hand, slowly moved closer to Taehyeok Sa. Taehyeok Sa didn’t say anything to her either.

“So, what does it read?”

“We shall leave our Legacy. We shall Legacy the world. We shall not fall to the Calamity that came one day. This is not our defeat, but hibernation through a long winter.”

The writing filling the dome was not something that could be read in a single sitting. Ah, I should have brought Ganansu. Cho-i Hyeon frowned but read the letters as quickly as possible.

“We cannot let just anyone inherit our world. Therefore,”

Cho-i Hyeon gasped.

“The one who can defeat all of us.”

Cho-i Hyeon pointed her finger at the next passage.

“A female who will succeed the dead Queen and devour the strongest male.”

And.

“Only that one will conceive a new world.”

Cho-i Hyeon couldn’t tell if what she had read was true or not. The writings looked like they were scrawled by mad fanatics. Cho-i stroked her belly with a strange expression.

“There’s a world in my belly, kids.”

“…Is this really the time for that?”

“‘World’ probably refers to the Queen. It seems they’re moving for the Queen.”

“So, you’ve embraced the King of another world, is that what you mean?”

Cho-i Hyeon began to look for and read other writings.

“The Queen undergoes a total of three molting stages, and… oh X, I have to do that twice more?”

“Molting, that’s what you mean from last time.”

“What is it, what are you talking about? Am I the only one who doesn’t know?”

“I’ll explain later, be quiet.”

Cho-i Hyeon began to read the rest.

“During the last molting, she will be born in a ‘complete form’….”

“Does that mean her appearance changes?”

Cho-i Hyeon looked down at her arm again at Taehyeok Sa’s question. After molting, she did feel like her body’s composition had changed. Although as an S-Rank she inherently had a body that wasn’t easily wounded, it felt even harder. Rather than human, it was something stronger….

“What are you thinking about?”

At Nara Shim’s question, Cho-i Hyeon suddenly approached Taehyeok Sa and thrust out his forearm without warning.

“Bite it!”

“…What is this behavior now?”

“Bite it so I can check. Hard!”

“Ugh… I’m not a dog.”

Taehyeok Sa bit Cho-i Hyeon’s forearm hard. He expected to taste bitter blood, but all he felt was the texture of skin, whether firm or soft, he couldn’t tell. Taehyeok Sa lightly licked the spot he had bitten and let go.

“It doesn’t pierce.”

“Why are you licking it, you pervert?”

“I couldn’t help it.”

“You deserve a punch.”

“No.”

As Cho-i Hyeon lunged, Taehyeok Sa lightly dodged. Cho-i Hyeon briefly wondered what would happen if he used Sanity Paralysis here. Taehyeok Sa could be hit multiple times, and Nara Shim… Cho-i Hyeon decided to hold back for Nara Shim’s safety.

“It is strange, a skin that even an SS-Rank can’t pierce.”

“It does seem like there’s a change in my body…”

What exactly is a complete form? Cho-i couldn’t tell. He didn’t know if it meant he would look very different from his current appearance, or if his body’s composition would change, just like how his skin felt different from human skin now. Cho-i suddenly thought.

“You said there’s a materials research institute?”

“Yes.”

“Could they examine my body there?”

“…They could, but.”

Taehyeok Sa made a subtle expression.

“Human experimentation is a bit much.”

“When did I say I’d let myself be experimented on? Just take a finger or some skin and experiment on it.”

“The very fact that you say that is the problem, but if you want, I’ll send it.”

“Speaking of which, what about the shed skin from last time?”

“It’s still under investigation. The materials research institute is under a national agency, so we can’t handle it as we please.”

“Ah.”

“First of all, even if it’s a Mantis, it’s very different from the Mantis we know, to begin with.”

Taehyeok Sa approached the large skeletal structure of the Mantis. He tapped the thing standing there like a giant dinosaur bone exhibit.

“The Mantis we know doesn’t have a skeletal structure.”

“That’s true.”

“By the way, did you kill all those Mantises gathered in its belly?”

“Yes.”

Cho-i looked into the air for a moment, as if recalling old memories.

“It was a lot of trouble killing them all. Judging by how they’re all dead, hidden dungeons don’t seem to reset like regular dungeons.”

“It’s probably because the central item has been removed.”

“In that case.”

Cho-i tilted his head slightly.

“Do regular dungeons also have such a ‘core’? If we destroy it, the dungeon might not activate anymore.”

“That’s a new perspective.”

Taehyeok Sa crossed his arms and pondered. Cho-i Hyeon had just blurted out whatever came to mind, so he didn’t ponder any further and continued reading. Or rather, he tried to. Crackle- He would have, if it weren’t for the sound of something moving. It wasn’t a small sound, so Nara Shim and Taehyeok Sa also seemed to have heard it, looking around. But Cho-i Hyeon looked up, as if knowing where the sound came from.

“No way.”

Taehyeok Sa looked where Cho-i Hyeon was looking and soon lifted his head in the same way. There, the gigantic Mantis bone, the Entity, stood. Nara Shim’s face briefly turned pale as he spoke.

“That… it’s not trying to move right now, is it?”

But contrary to her wish, the enormous bones slowly began to move.