Chapter 126
Chapter 126: Rank 3 (6)
The monitoring room for the 2nd advancement exam.
Numerous monitors positioned along a large wall reflected the movements of countless heroes within the dungeon.
Cameras had been installed inside during the creation of the dungeon underground.
“There’s one injured in the Lee Hee-cheol party!”
“Camera 13 is blurry! Please adjust it!”
“The traps installed at the entrance of the Yoo Ji-han party aren’t working!”
“What? Who’s in charge over there!”
“Ah, Camera 5 turned off!”
With wireless earbuds in one ear, the staff from the Hero Department darted around the monitoring room busily.
Thanks to the introduction of a new exam format for the first time, everyone was completely occupied.
When issues arose that hadn’t been encountered during the test process, the staff let out sighs of frustration.
“Hmmm…”
Meanwhile, Yang Ji-cheol was keenly watching the heroes tackling the dungeon from the monitoring room.
Each party had entered completely independent spaces within this dungeon.
Since they wouldn’t encounter each other, they could focus solely on their singular goal of escaping without worrying about conflicts.
“Oh dear.”
Just then, the heroes he was watching on the monitor fell into a trap.
The once flat ground suddenly caved in, dropping them into a deep pit.
The party that fell into the pit struggled to climb out, but the entire pit was coated with a slippery, lubricant-like substance, making it exceedingly difficult to escape.
“Very well designed.”
The idea for that slippery pit had come from Yang Ji-cheol himself.
He felt bad for the heroes, but he was satisfied that his idea had turned into an excellent trap.
“Oh dear! Look at that.”
“They got caught in that trap.”
Most of the parties reflected on the monitor were struggling in various degrees after falling into traps.
The party that had pushed ahead first after the start of the 2nd exam was now panicking after being repeatedly smacked by powerful sticky forces.
A party that had initially rushed confidently while screaming had now turned eerily quiet, moving slowly like a mouse.
The atmosphere had flipped completely.
‘Where’s Yoo Ji-han’s party?’
Yang Ji-cheol searched for Yoo Ji-han’s party among the many screens.
It was only natural for him to worry since he had pushed for their advancement himself.
However, it was so hard to find them that he ultimately had to use a laptop to search for them directly rather than relying on the wall-mounted monitors.
“Hmm?”
Finally, the camera image of Yoo Ji-han’s party appeared on the laptop screen.
Watching them, Yang Ji-cheol tilted his head in confusion.
‘Why do they look so fine?’
The party led by Yoo Ji-han was moving confidently at the front.
Their appearance was not much different from when they first entered the dungeon.
In stark contrast to the other parties that had suffered through numerous traps, they looked completely intact.
‘Their movement speed is decent too.’
Statistically, Yoo Ji-han’s party had progressed about 34% through the dungeon.
When ranked by progress, they were sitting comfortably in the mid-upper tier.
If they kept this up, they would definitely pass.
‘Shall I check their route?’
Once a party enters the dungeon, they can view a simple map centered on their current location through an app installed on the party leader’s mobile phone.
However, the Hero Department that created the dungeon not only had access to the complete map of the dungeon, but also could see the paths each party had taken and the shortest route from start to finish.
Essentially, they held the answer key to the dungeon.
But then…
“…?!”
Yang Ji-cheol, who had brought up the path taken by Yoo Ji-han’s party, couldn’t help but be astonished.
Normally, the shortest path would be marked with a white line, with the party’s moving route shown in red, resulting in two lines on the screen.
However, there was only one line for Yoo Ji-han’s party, as the white line from the starting point had turned completely red.
‘It’s not an error.’
Yang Ji-cheol stared intently at the white line that was slowly turning red.
This was not a product of a system error, but a result of the two lines overlapping.
What this meant was…
The shortest route leading to the end of the dungeon was chillingly similar to the movement route of Yoo Ji-han’s party.
“Huh…”
Despite facing several forks in the road, Yoo Ji-han’s party continued to move solely along the optimum path.
In terms of movement speed, they weren’t much different from the party at the back.
However, they were heading more correctly than anyone else through the dungeon.
‘Those guys are definitely different.’
There was something special about them that stood out.
Yang Ji-cheol was convinced of it.
*
Whoosh!
The instant a small hole appeared in the ordinary stone wall, something shot out aiming for Yoo Ji-han’s leg.
Quickly pulling his foot back, Yoo Ji-han examined the incoming object.
Sticking to the ground with a plop, it turned out to be a highly adhesive green slime substance.
‘Third instance of slime.’
This was already the 11th time they had encountered traps.
The traps that suddenly popped up from the floor, walls, or ceiling mainly served to hinder the heroes’ movements.
“Squeak!”
Just then, Chilla, who was right behind Yoo Ji-han, stepped forward, letting out a sharp cry.
Knowing what that meant, Yoo Ji-han halted in place.
Chilla’s keen senses had detected something in the surroundings.
“Squeak…”
With ears perked up, Chilla approached the corner where the wall met the floor.
Thump!
Chilla twisted her body and struck the ground with her tail.
With a clang, a large square iron cage shot up from the ground.
The iron cage, hanging from the ceiling, had enough space to hold at least ten people inside.
Kim Si-hu placed his hand on the iron cage with a curious expression.
“Wow, this is really sturdy and enchanted!”
“Enchanted?”
“If you get inside, the flow of mana gets all tangled up. If you don’t handle it properly, you’ll feel dizzy.”
Since this was a space created with safety in mind, no physical attacks were incoming.
However, even if struck once, anyone caught would be stuck in place for at least a few minutes.
Min Yu-ri tapped on the cage with her hand and said,
“It seems like they’ve made quite a few preparations… I wonder if we can really go through this easily.”
“What can we do about it?”
The traps were designed by those who created the dungeon with careful thought.
However, Yoo Ji-han’s party had yet to fall into a single trap.
Thanks to Yoo Ji-han’s unique skill and Chilla’s sensitive sense that caught even the smallest oddities.
“How much do you think we have left to go?”
“I’m not sure, but we should be over halfway through.”
Yoo Ji-han took out his mobile phone to check the map of the dungeon.
<— Following this path gives a probability of escaping the dungeon.>
<53%>
With every step forward, the sampling showed increasingly higher probabilities.
“Surely we haven’t taken a wrong turn?”
“I don’t think so.”
Reflecting on past experiences, there was undoubtedly a reason for the increasing probability of the sampling in a situation like this.
‘There’s plenty of time for the exam.’
The time given for the 2nd exam was a full 4 hours.
If a party failed to escape the dungeon within those 4 hours, they would automatically be disqualified.
So far, about an hour had passed.
There were still 3 hours remaining until the exam ended.
“Hey! Can you take just one commemorative photo?”
“A photo should be fine.”
“Make sure the cage is above our heads in the shot!”
Kim Si-hu made a peace sign with his hand, looking at Yoo Ji-han.
When they first entered the dungeon, he had seemed anxious.
Now he even had the leisure to take pictures.
“When else would we get to visit a place like this?”
“…Fair point.”
After a moment’s hesitation, Yoo Ji-han suggested they all take a group photo.
Otherwise, they wouldn’t have another chance to visit a dungeon.
“Alright, everyone say cheese.”
The Yoo Ji-han party laid the phone against the stone wall and cheerfully posed for a group photo.
Their appearance was like tourists at a sightseeing spot, captured perfectly by the surveillance camera…
At the same time, Yang Ji-cheol watched them on the monitor with a chuckle.
“Over there.”
After finishing their shoot, Yoo Ji-han’s party continued to move forward.
Various traps followed, including slimes, but with Yoo Ji-han and Chilla in the lead, they never found themselves stuck in one spot.
About an hour and fifty minutes into the exam…
As the probability of escape provided by sampling rose above 70%,
Thud, thud, thud…
Yoo Ji-han felt the entire dungeon vibrating.
The serious expressions on the faces of the other party members indicated they felt it too.
Min Yu-ri looked at Chilla, who had bristled all over, and said,
“Something feels off…!”
As time passed, the intensity of the vibrations grew stronger.
It wasn’t until their whole bodies were shaking and their vision was blurred that they spotted an object approaching from ahead.
“…A rock?!”
“A rock is rolling toward us!”
“Look out! Look out!”
Rolling toward them was a massive boulder!
The round rock was blocking the entire passage as it rolled toward them.
‘It’s too big and too fast!’
As the distance between them and the boulder quickly shrank, Kim Si-hu’s expression went pale.
“Run!”
Min Yu-ri instinctively pulled back her body and shouted.
In response, Chilla and Kim Si-hu followed her lead, but they stopped again and turned back.
Yoo Ji-han, the group leader, hadn’t moved from his spot.
“Ji-han!”
“I’ll break the rock.”
“…?!”
“Brace yourselves for impact!”
Instead of fleeing, Yoo Ji-han drew his sword, facing the boulder head-on.
Before long, he summoned a Sylph into his pocket and green aura began to gather around his sword.
*
The monitoring room was still bustling.
However, the sense of urgency had significantly diminished compared to when the exam first began.
Bang!!
Suddenly, Yang Ji-cheol slammed his fist onto the desk.
Everyone’s gaze turned to him at the sudden noise, but he didn’t bat an eye, instead shouting loudly,
“Dae-sik! Display cameras 62 to 65 on screen right now!”
“Yes, sir!”
Hearing his command, the staff in the room brought up different screens on the monitors along the wall.
They showed various angles of the enormous boulder rolling toward Yoo Ji-han’s party.
“Gah!”
“What is that…?!”
“Crazy! Who the hell is the person in charge over there?!”
Among the traps set in the dungeon, nothing was as dangerous as this.
Once the speaker system was connected, the sound and vibrations of the rolling rock reached the monitoring room.
As everyone’s mouths hung open in shock at the unexpected event,
Min Yu-ri shot a Magic Arrow toward the incoming boulder.
[Shape Change – Rectangle]
The arrows launched consecutively transformed into thin, wide rectangles, stacking up like a thick wall.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
As those rectangles clashed with the rolling rock, they shattered one by one.
Nonetheless, they helped to slightly slow the rock’s momentum.
Finally, when the boulder reached right before him,
Yoo Ji-han swung his sword with force.
Crack!
The sound was subtly different from slicing a monster,
Creating a fine line that suddenly appeared on the massive rock, before it split completely in half.
Boom!
The split rock wobbled and burst apart, spreading debris in all directions.
The force worried him that the walls or floor might collapse as well.
Even if he had cast Space Distortion magic, it wouldn’t stop the dungeon from breaking if he made a mistake.
[Shield]
At that moment, Kim Si-hu placed his hands on the ground to use a shield in preparation for the impact.
The mana extending quickly around him covered the dungeon’s floor as well as the walls and ceilings to reduce surrounding damage.
During that process, the debris bouncing around was swatted away by Chilla’s shield.
“Whoa!”
“Wow…”
“Nice job!”
The very effective response from the staff drew exclamations of admiration,
And just after the dust cloud covered the cameras,
The screen captured the entire group appearing unharmed.
“Phew.”
Seeing Yoo Ji-han taking care of the other party members without a scratch, Yang Ji-cheol finally felt a sense of relief.
