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Antarctica (1)

It was a cool place. Antarctica, where white floors stretched till the horizon, was refreshing to look at.

The bright blue sky above was beautiful. Compared to Seoul, the view here was pretty good. The clean air was also a plus. The temperature was low, so I regretted not bringing Grandma.

She would have liked it if she came. I debated whether I should summon her here.

“It’s around here. Hyung, I could feel its power from here. It was so strong I didn’t approach,” Lee Joon-suk said.

Kim Min-hyuk sent Lee Joon-suk with me, saying he didn’t need him.

Honestly, Lee Joon-suk was just a burden, but I brought him here because he said he had been to Antarctica a few times.

The G-classes lived in desolate and remote places.

Among them, the most famous habitat of the G-class was none other than Antarctica.

Kim Min-hyuk recommended this place because there was no need to issue an evacuation order since there weren’t any people.

Perhaps, because Lee Joon-suk said it was nearby, monsters flocked around us. Of course, the G-class wasn’t among them.

To be more exact, they were mobs.

“It’s a good idea to spread monsters like that around the dungeon. The disadvantage is that the dungeon’s location will be exposed, but that doesn’t matter if it was already known anyways. First of all, they’ll act as a guard against intruders, then every time those monsters die you are notified at the center of the dungeon, so you can prepare to fight against the intruder in advance,” Hochi remarked.

I hadn’t even asked. This guy sure was excited.

Yong-yong, who was next to him, praised Hochi, saying, “Uncle, that’s great!”

My son was so kind. Hochi grinned as if he was pleased with the praise. He wanted to smile coolly, but the corners of his mouth twitched excitedly.

Hochi continued to explain, “It set up a barrier. It’s expensive, but it’s a good bargain.”

Hochi’s behaviour was funny, but I decided not to laugh and earnestly listen.

It wasn’t that I needed to know information, but I didn’t want to cut off Hochi, who was passionately explaining it.

“It’s not a barrier that prevents us from realising that the dungeon is here, but one that instills fear and anxiety in us, so that we won’t come any closer.”

Upon hearing Hochi’s words, Lee Joon-suk spoke up, “So what you’re saying is that we aren’t just dealing with the monster, but also with the dungeon?”

Hoch nodded in confirmation. I was surprised that Lee Joon-suk knew about the dungeon. So, I asked him.

“I’ve been in dungeons in the Hard level a few times. It was a dungeon-target stage, but I thought it was just a game configuration type stage, so I just let it go…”

Interesting.

In Hard difficulty, there was a stage targeting dungeons. It had a simple, clear goal of overthrowing and attacking.

However, in Hell difficulty, there was a stage where we had to run the dungeon ourselves. Of course, it may mean that I should experience the opposite side to overthrow it easily.

Through running the dungeon, the Hell Difficulty challenger would learn how to get through the dungeon and why the Rulers wanted it.

Indeed, there was a wide gap between Hell and other difficulty levels. They provided a different direction for the challenger to grow.

Anyway, that wasn’t a matter to be concerned about, right now.

Lee Joon-suk had also cleared the stage where the Dungeon appeared, so it seems that there would be no more halting.

I’m glad I brought him here.

“Then, shall we go in?”

“Yes?”

Ignoring Lee Jun-seok’s question, I waved my hand in the air to break the spatial barrier.

The empty barrier distorted like broken glass, and soon, the hidden space appeared. The entrance to the dungeon began to appear.

“What the hell is this…” Lee Joon-suk murmured.

What do you mean? It’s a barrier.

While watching Lee Jun-seok’s confused appearance, one question came to mind.

Why does he know so little?

“Why didn’t you become an apostle?”

If he became an apostle, he could have known something.

“You told me not to become one.”

What a simple man.

There may be other reasons, but right now, this was the most satisfying answer.

“Good job.”

While Lee Joon-suk answered my question, the space distortion finished. The entrance to the dungeon was completely exposed.

“Well, that was not a very good choice.”

“Why?” I asked Hochi.

“This type of entrance is not recommended. It’s less durable and won’t scare the intruder. But that doesn’t mean that it would make the intruder careless either.”

The entrance to the dungeon was reminiscent of an ancient Greek temple.

It seemed to be marble, and the polished walls and intricate decorations showed its careful construction.

However, it was not an entrance that would draw ridicule or carelessness from its opponent.

The overly beautiful appearance would make intruders nervous.

“It made a palace.”

The dungeon that Hochi knew had a constant stream of enemies, but there were no intruders in this Antarctic dungeon.

Sometimes a guy like Lee Joon-suk would appear, wandering around the valley, beating back a nearby monster. But that was it.

So it didn’t care much about the intruders.

“Hmm.”

I didn’t like it. I couldn’t believe I was stuck with finding Rulers, gates, and monsters around the world, causing confusion and preparing to suck up the energy of my home planet.

My stomach felt upset for no reason.

“Let’s go in.”

“Can you leave me here?!” asked the mantis in the box around Yong-yong’s neck.

“No.”

“I’ll stay at the house from earlier! I won’t run away and will stay still!”

“No.”

The mantis sat down, eyes filled with tears.

Yong-yong saw that and apologized to it. “Don’t worry. If anything happens, I’ll protect you.”

I was pleased to see Yong-yong speaking kindly, but on the other hand, I was also anxious.

I was worried because my son was too kind.

* * *

After entering the dungeon, Hochi’s explanations got worse.

It was roughly like this.

“That light is a little more expensive than other lights, but it’s possible to switch it on and off from the dungeon center. Most importantly, intruders can’t pull it out and use it as a substitute for a torch.”

“…Yes.”

And when a trap popped out:

“It’s an explosive trap. Once it explodes, it’ll stop working to reassure the opponent. And then it starts working again when someone else approaches it. Usually, it’s used in case a guide disassembles all the traps. The person standing behind the guide is relatively careless.”

When a monster popped out:

“It’s a giant clipper, and it’s best as a gatekeeper in narrow areas. It’s not good to keep it with other monsters in the room. It has its own value.”

Of course, those explanations by Hochi were meaningless.

Whatever lights were on, whatever traps there were, whatever monsters stormed in, it didn’t matter to us.

“By the way, the monsters are brave.”

If it were an ordinary monster, it would have turned around and run away as soon as it saw us.

But the monsters here were all running towards us, asking for death.

“Monster management is also an important part of Dungeon management. But I think this dungeon uses items that keep monsters’ morale and aggression high. The price is so high that it’s too much of a loss compared to boosting monsters yourself, but they’ll have no choice but to use it when such a strong enemy attempts to raid.”

“…Yes, I can see that”.

I answered in that way.

Hochi didn’t even react much.

He was so excited that he didn’t seem to care about my answer. Yong-yong also no longer praised Hochi’s explanations.

As I walked along, listening to boring facts, I felt a little sleepy. I sped up my pace.

It wasn’t to hear a little less of Hochi’s explanation.

As I walked ahead, a door appeared.

“Dungeons usually consist of two forms of passages and rooms. The room beyond these doors is usually a trap room, a battle room, a reward room, etc. The compensation room is a little unusual, but the intruders…”

Bang!

I opened the door roughly.

It wasn’t because I wanted Hochi to shut up.

There was a monster waiting for us in the room. It was a monster with a rather unusual appearance. It was a wolfdog with a human body.

“Oh. This monster is intelligent. It knows how to talk and is usually hired to be incharge of dungeons.”

“Welcome.” As Hochi talked, the wolfdog greeted us.”The Lord is waiting for you. I’ll show you around. This way,” the wolfdog muttered, beginning to take the lead.

After looking at its back for a while, I decided to just follow it. There seemed to be no need to decline just to avoid trouble.

“Who’s the Lord?”

“Dungeon Lord. I’m talking about the Dungeon’s operator.”

Hochi solved my doubt.

Lord.

Kirikiri said that the monsters born from the source, after gaining sanity, are called Completers or Rulers.

That seemed to be the origin of this word.

I wondered if the Ruler was waiting for us at the end of the road that the wolfdog was guiding us through.

It guided us along the hidden paths of the dungeon. The structure was quite complicated.

Hochi continued to explain the composition, but I didn’t want to store any more meaningless information in my head.

I walked, blankly repeating, “Yes, yes, I see, good.”

Soon after, our party arrived at the most splendid entrance. The wolfdog opened the door and stepped aside.

“Welcome. It’s nice to meet you.” A man greeted us, just like the wolfdog had a few moments ago.

It wasn’t a Ruler.

How very disappointing.

“I knew you’d come at any time, but to think you’d arrive so soon! I didn’t even think about it. So, I was a little late in greeting you because of the late preparation. Nice to meet you, my name is Thomas Feltchuk. You’re all…”

“You’re not an Awakened,” I said, cutting off the man’s introduction.

“Yes, that’s right. I wasn’t invited to the Tutorial.”

“But you’re good at Korean.”

“That’s because you don’t only have to empower monsters and traps from the points you get from the dungeon extractor. You can also strengthen yourself. I bought language skills.”

No wonder.

He was not an Awakened, but I felt that he was too strong for a human.

“I don’t know what the reinforcements are, but it seems to have done a lot for you.”

I could tell.

A good Awakened would find it hard to touch the fingertips of Tomato… Timothy or whatever his name was.

It’ll be worth a try if he matched Lee Joon-suk, who was standing next to me.

Thomas smiled awkwardly and politely pointed to the table, perhaps because I didn’t say anything else.

The table was served with a scrumptious feast. It was not meant for a few people to eat, but for dozens of people, like a buffet.

“You came from far away, did you eat?”

I looked around the room: tableware, furniture, and its interior.

According to Hochi, all of this was purchased from the energy extracted from the source extractor.

Kirikiri had explained that Dungeon’s agent sends some of the source energy extracted to the Dungeon’s real owner, the Ruler, and manages the Dungeon with the remaining energy.

Now that I see it, the amount of energy it had left seemed to be more than I thought.

I finished thinking and approached Thomas.

Thomas had a confused look on his face, but he didn’t back away.

A relaxed smile lingered on his lips.

I didn’t like it. I brought up my hand.

Thomas raised his, thinking I wanted to shake hands, but my hand ignored his and kept going up.

I grabbed Thomas by the back of his head and smashed his head on the table.

Bang!

Whatever it was made of, the table cracked and made a sound close to that of wood breaking.

As the table split, the food and alcohol that was on top of it fell down to the floor. Without letting go of Thomas, I stepped back a few metres.

Fortunately, Thomas did not die. My strength control was becoming more adept.

At this rate, when the seven people whom I had sent to void, returned a month later, I could grind them for a longer time.

I lifted Thomas up to my eye level.

“Hey.”

“Phoo-hek.”

Rather than answering, Thomas spat out blood and broken teeth.

He looked as if he hadn’t come to his senses yet.

“Hey, can’t you hear me? Are your eardrums busted?”

“Suddenly, suddenly… Why…”

I think I was a little too rough.

It was a relief he was alive.

“Who allowed you to do business here?” [1]

“…What?”

Note/s:

[1]: who let him setup the extractor and use the energy for his own means

Antarctica (1) Finished

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