Chapter 304

[In this space, your vertical and horizontal vision will appear inverted.]

I'm tired.

I haven't even properly started working yet, but somehow that's already how I feel.

Isn't that how workers everywhere are? You wake up in the morning, do nothing more than head to work, and yet you're already exhausted before the day has even begun. Your stamina bar looks like you've been working for ten days straight. Then you glance at the calendar and realize it's only Tuesday, while your day off still feels like some distant, hazy point on the horizon.

"These Gaimche..."

No matter how I looked at it, going to work really was inhumane.

I rolled this body's eyes around, checking the direction of the companion who had entered with me.

"Seriously, he's got a real talent for getting on people's nerves!"

But even after checking again, nothing had changed.

The S-rank hunter who would normally have been reassuring simply by standing nearby had now become a full-blown ticking time bomb.

"Jung Haseong. Jung Haseong?"

Thirty seconds after entering the dungeon, the Tower of a Hundred People imposed a vision-reversal effect on its challengers as the first-floor trial began.

"How confusing. Why do Earthlings use the same word for Esther's awakened ability and the name of this special magic?"

Apparently, Korean Hunters referred to phenomena like this as a "Dungeon Curse."

"Well, creatures capable of creating artificial lifeforms probably wouldn't have much trouble pulling off something like this for the sake of difficulty adjustment."

I cautiously spoke to the top-ranked hunter.

Just in case, I wanted to check something beforehand.

"Could you try manifesting a small spell somewhere around your upper right? From your own perspective."

Swoosh.

And immediately after my suggestion, the primal flame caster ignited a fire directly in front of my nose.

For reference, I was standing on Jung Haseong's left.

"Uh, yeah. Got it. I understand your condition now, so cancel the spell."

Cold sweat instantly ran down my back.

It seemed that with his vision destabilized, he had completely lost his sense of spatial orientation. In this state, if that primitive mage started moving recklessly, the only obvious result was that innocent aliens would end up exploding.

"Since coming to Earth, just how many life-threatening situations have I been through?"

But avoiding battle wasn't an option.

The moment the dungeon curse activated, the Tower of a Hundred People's first-floor guardian had already appeared.

"Cough."

"Damn it..."

There were certain kinds of gate creatures I particularly disliked.

Blind and deaf, they mindlessly pursued anything they sensed as though mana were their sole source of nourishment—devolved predators from another realm.

[Iron Toad]

The monster that appeared on the first floor of this gate was a perfect example.

Roll, roll.

Before us appeared what looked like an enormous frog, with eyeballs each nearly the size of a human head.

"One."

What's more, just as mentioned earlier, it was extremely sensitive to mana and relentlessly targeted a single challenger.

Even among the representatives of the world's great powers, he ranked near the very top.

In terms of sheer mana capacity alone, he was an ocean surrounded by shallow streams.

And that very person happened to be right here.

Because, of all people, I had entered alongside this country's hero.

"Ack!"

THUD!

At that instant, something shot past at tremendous speed.

The [Iron Toad], which Jung Haseong had managed to identify with the analyzer while breaking into a cold sweat, was no ordinary amphibian of this planet.

Its gray hide gleamed as though it had been forged from metal. From time to time, an opaque liquid shimmering like mercury filled the nictitating membranes over its eyes.

Monsters Earthlings prefixed with "Iron-" usually possessed exceptional defensive power.

Based on the information I'd gathered, I had a rough idea of what its exterior would be like.

But surprisingly, the creature seemed soft on the inside.

Every time it opened its mouth, a pink tongue appeared—supple, tender-looking, and entirely unlike its metallic exterior.

SLAP!

That was the sound of Jung Haseong being whipped by the creature's tongue.

"Ugh!"

A moment later, unable to keep watching my apprentice get mercilessly beaten by that tongue, I shouted an order.

"In that case, close your eyes and use a wide-area fire spell!"

I said it because the temporary teammate who'd entered with me clearly wasn't thinking straight.

However, Jung Haseong could barely move his body.

"No, why are you just standing there taking the hits?!"

"Ugh, t-that's...!"

The Korean hero's overwhelming confusion brought the original problem right back to the surface.

"It's not working. I'm sorry. The skill... the skill won't activate properly...!"

Haseong, if you're going to use your body like that, just give it to me.

Seriously, how can a mage who can't even cast with his eyes closed exist?

"Ugh!"

If I'd known things would turn out like this, I never would've followed him in here out of the goodness of my heart.

"Lemming, you really did lose your mind after spending a hundred billion on equipment."

But what was the point in regretting past mistakes now?

By the time I opened my eyes, the enormous metal toad was already rampaging around, pounding Jung Haseong relentlessly.

Even for an S-rank hunter, repeatedly taking hits from an enemy only one rank below him would hurt.

If damage started piling up from the very first floor, it would become a serious problem later.

So I firmly resolved to stick to the calculation I'd made before entering the gate.

'I have to neutralize that amphibian somehow. I need to buy Jung Haseong enough time to adjust to his vision... no matter what it takes!'

Let's take down the [Iron Toad].

But blindly activating the surprise box was risky when Jung Haseong was standing right beside me.

What if, by some tiny chance, that genuine S-rank ended up fainting?

What would happen then?

'Obviously, that would be a disaster for us and for Gaimche. Jung Haseong is the only one capable of challenging this gate.'

Heuph.

As my thoughts raced, I abruptly drew in a sharp breath and hurled something with all °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° my strength.

It was a piece of equipment I'd prepared in advance before entering the gate.

The epic-grade [Hydra].

I threw it straight at the beast.

TING!

An attack powered by mere F-rank mana.

Naturally, it didn't have much effect.

"What a shame. I hit the eye pretty accurately, but of course it just bounced off."

Swish, swish, swish.

By the time the longsword that had struck the monster's gleaming body spun several times through the air...

"...But what if I add [Telekinesis]?"

As though I'd been waiting for that exact moment, I caught the longsword's center of mass with a faint, colorless force.

After all, a spell that merely moved an object required very little mana.

Originally, I'd planned to use telekinesis to move the sword erratically and draw the monster's attention away.

But apparently the mana contained within a high-grade weapon was far more stimulating than I'd expected.

The toad reacted almost immediately.

SCREEEECH!

Its long tongue shot out and snatched the sword away.

"Hydra!"

"Ack!"

I hurriedly activated telekinesis, afraid I might lose my prized possession—my number one treasure, the epic artifact.

But after thinking about it for a moment...

Was this really a situation where I needed to retrieve the weapon?

"Huh."

Come to think of it, wasn't that exactly where I wanted it to go?

"Greuk."

Gulp.

The [Iron Toad] finally swallowed the object it had snatched.

Then it clamped its mouth tightly shut, as though stubbornly declaring that it had no intention of returning what it had eaten.

The amphibian changed almost immediately.

Roll, roll, roll.

Only moments ago, its eyes had been relatively still.

Now they darted wildly from side to side.

And if you listened closely, you could even hear an unfamiliar vibration resonating somewhere inside its body.

Greuk...

With that enormous metallic frame, sound almost seemed to reverberate through it like the Bosingak Bell.

Apparently, however, it did still have flesh and organs inside.

The creature from another realm suddenly widened its eyes in shock and reacted in the following way.

"............!"

Bubble, bubble.

A deadly poison spread throughout its body, forcing the seemingly immortal creature to writhe in agony as though death itself had come calling.

[Hydra] was an epic-grade weapon.

Naturally, its magical conductivity—a trait characteristic of high-grade artifacts—was exceptionally high.

And yet this A-rank creature had foolishly wrapped its tongue around the blade without hesitation.

"Is it stupid or something?"

Of course its tongue would be injured.

And naturally, the poison would spread from there.

That was, assuming the one responsible was merely a mindless beast.

"Hmm."

Even after winning a battle in which I'd barely had to lift a finger, however, I couldn't bring myself to feel particularly pleased.

"Anyway, I've dealt with the immediate problem!"

The enemy was boss-class, so it had survived even that deadly poison.

And really, who was I to call something else stupid when I'd made plenty of idiotic mistakes myself?

Just look at me.

I entered a gate I never even needed to enter, and now I'm stuck here suffering for absolutely no reason...

***

– Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding... Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding...

A few minutes earlier—to be precise, about thirty seconds after they entered the dungeon.

"The sound of drums."

As an unfamiliar melody echoed through the air, Jung Haseong had a thought.

Drums?

Inside a dungeon?

Out of nowhere?

"I'm sure I've heard a sound like this during a gate raid before..."

His instincts were correct.

This was a sound that heralded disaster, like the trumpet of an angel announcing the apocalypse.

[In this space, your field of vision is reversed—up, down, left, and right appear flipped.]

And sure enough, only a few seconds later, the dungeon unleashed a bizarre calamity exactly as he'd expected.

"Yeah, that's it. This is exactly like what I've experienced before. That's the sound that plays right before a dungeon curse activates!"

Could it really be true, as certain doomsday theorists claimed, that gates were this planet's method of self-purification?

Was that why humanity, like animals helpless before a natural disaster, was forced to suffer again and again?

Those thoughts briefly passed through the black-haired young man's mind.

Then came the strange sensation of the entire landscape before his eyes abruptly overturning.

"Damn it!"

Jung Haseong had participated in far more dungeon raids than most Hunters.

So this wasn't his first experience with something like this.

But dungeon curses were the kind of thing he could never get used to, no matter how many times he encountered them.

"I already feel like throwing up..."

And it wasn't merely motion sickness caused by having up, down, left, and right inverted.

More than anything, the fact that his own senses had been distorted by some unknown phenomenon was profoundly unsettling.

"Ugh."

Jung Haseong staggered, overwhelmed by the bizarre condition he hadn't experienced in a long time.

He wasn't alone in the gate, so he tried to pull himself together as quickly as possible.

But that was easier said than done.

"Jung Haseong, Jung Haseong!"

"Ugh..."

Using a skill was fundamentally similar to moving a muscle.

A faint sense of intent.

The will to move the energy inside the body.

Without those things, an awakened ability could easily fail to activate.

And right now, Jung Haseong was drowning in such severe confusion that he couldn't even properly move one of the legs he'd controlled for twenty-six years.

"Eyes."

The hero squeezed his eyes shut.

Only now did he truly understand why this phenomenon was called a dungeon curse.

"No, why are you just standing there taking the hits?!"

Kim Giryeo, standing right beside him, finally lost patience and shouted.

When Jung Haseong opened his eyes, the entire world had become a chaotic mess, like some grotesquely warped abstract painting.

But closing them and relying solely on a thin defensive barrier didn't seem viable either.

The opponent was an A-rank boss.

And the battlefield itself was cramped, almost like a square arena enclosed on all four sides.

How was he supposed to fight blind in a place like this?

"I don't think I can control the range... At this rate, I might burn down the whole house just to kill one monster!"

Then it happened.

While Jung Haseong was still struggling helplessly to adjust to his distorted senses, someone beside him moved.

The blond hunter.

The same man who had once shown him this particular weapon back in the Grass Nest.

He threw it toward the monster.

TING!

At that sound, Jung Haseong remembered the name of the object that had just been hurled.

[Hydra].

Even a sword thrown by an S-rank hunter like Jung Haseong himself would have struggled to leave much of a mark on that monster.

Which meant the blond hunter had probably tossed [Hydra] with very little force.

And yet that seemingly insignificant action produced an astonishingly efficient result.

After being struck by the blade, the monster seemed to become interested in it.

Its attention was completely drawn away.

Then, only moments later, it swallowed the human's intriguing object in a single gulp.

[Hydra] was a venomous weapon.

Which meant the ruler of the first floor, having foolishly touched it with its tongue, would soon find itself standing at the edge of the River Jordan.

The world appearing upside down, with left and right reversed as well, had been an enormous shock to Jung Haseong.

"Huh...?"

For reference, his master—whose very soul operated on an entirely different level—was, of course, completely unaffected by the status abnormality.

"How... did he already manage to throw something and hit the target?!"

Because Jung Haseong had no way of knowing.