chapter 105

Having Kelby with us lowered the frequency of monster encounters. Once I put him into the manual, the monsters started coming one after another again.

The number of monsters that attacked numbered almost 20 in the span of 30 minutes.

Han Joon-suk opened his mouth as he loading arrows into his quiver.

“There’s definitely a lot of them. It doesn’t seem like the method of clearing is killing them all.”

“I feel like there should be someone that was able to clear it but was there no information?”

Soo-ah asked.

“You as well right. Individuals don’t share such information. Before the Dungeon Management Team clear it and publish an official clearing method, the ones that already cleared it will only be thinking about how to make the most amount of money.”

“People sure are cold these days. Putting that aside, do you not have anything to say?”

Soo-ah asked Edward. Since when were these two so close?

“Say what?”

“You came from a Red Dungeon as well. You should know the method to clearing it.”

“I don’t know what you mean by clearing. If it’s about that, that guy would know more than I do. Since he got out of there first hand.”

Edward pointed at me. Certainly, the guy who was just living in there wouldn’t know anything.

“The Vampire Lord was the one that sent me out so…….”

“Hm. So we have no choice but to keep moving.”

In a situation where we didn’t have any information there was nothing to gain from talking.

Soon the view opened up and a large lake appeared. It was clear enough for the blue sky to be reflected perfectly and was quite large too.

I could see wild animals as well as monsters around the lake. The lake seemed to be the source or water for survival for them.

However, there was something that caught our attention more than that.

“Wow. That.”

Soo-ah said as her eyes widened.

What she saw there was the same stone pillars I had seen at the vampire dungeon.

A landmass had surged up at the center of the lake and the 5 meter tall stone statue was on top of it.

The statue’s appearance was similar to that of a human’s but it had a horn on its head and a lower half of a horse.

It was similar to a centaur that comes out in Greek mythology with the only difference being the horn.

“Hm…… A stone statue…… Getting a bad feeling even at a glance.”

“It does seem to have a connection to clearing. Let’s clean up the monsters around the lake first. Since we will have to cross the water to get there, we should get rid of the dangers first.”

“Yes sir! Just give me the command.”

“It’s good that you’re motivated but don’t go overboard.”

“Are you worrying about me?”

“Don’t ask me the obvious.”

“Holy crap…….”

Soo-ah blinked as she covered her face with both hands. He pupils seemed to shine 2 times brighter than usual. I started talking before she said something pointless.

“There are only around 10 that we can see, but there might be more of them behind. Even if it takes some time, let’s go around slowly. You scout the area.”

“Okay. I should at least do my part.”

Edward nodded. He could fly in the sky and turn into a shadow bat if it gets dangerous so I assumed there wouldn’t be any problems.

Ahhh!

birds flying away

With the sound of something screaming the monsters and wild animals fled into the forest in surprise.

“It’s a person’s scream.”

I let out a sigh at Han Joon-suk’s words.

“Who came in this time? It can’t be that the management team sent people just because we were a little late right?”

“It hasn’t even been 3 hours. They usually wait if it’s just this much…….”

“It might be that the people in line couldn’t wait.”

Han Joon-suk said. When thinking about the people that were behind us in the line, I remembered Song Han-sol’s name.

Right. If it’s that guy then he would do such a thing.

“Could it be Song Han-sol?”

Soo-ah said as her face froze.

“It might not be. It might actually be the management team.”

“If it was the management team, they would bring people that are at least one level higher than the level of the dungeon. Would they be done in so easily?”

“If they thought that it was similar to the original dungeons then they might get done in. We did come across a level 5 monster after all.

The Mukamuka Leader was a level 5. Since it was a monster that was a level higher than the level of the dungeon, it should be seen as an irregular.

However, this time it felt different. It didn’t feel like a special case but something that should have been there from the beginning.

It was only a speculation but my thought was that it was not an irregular but a feature of the Red Dungeon.

“What will you do? We can still go to the place where the scream was and help.”

Han Joon-suk said. He was the person who the most reliable decisions in these kinds of situations.

“What would be the better option?”

“You are worried that it might be that person called Son Han-sol yes? And you don’t have a good relationship with him.”

I nodded. She never talked especially about him but she did mention before that she didn’t have a good relationship with him.

If it was that guy, then things might get complicated. Han Joon-suk started contemplating with his hand on his chin.

In that time, I sneaked a glance at Soo-ah’s expression. It was a complicated expression.

It was the same for me. If the one over there really was Song Han-sol, then it was a golden chance to beat him up and get him to apologize.

It was possible to get revenge on the guy and do to him what he did to us.

We could also get him to beg for mercy while on his knees.

If it was now, it was definitely possible.

Soo-ah suddenly opened her mouth.

“If that really is Song Han-sol…….”

“No, let’s not do anything useless.”

“Yes…… that should be the right thing to do.”

The problem was that it didn’t end with Song Han-sol alone.

If we were to attack Song Han-sol, that meant killing all 20 hunters that he brought alone with him.

I didn’t want to settle a personal grudge by going to such lengths.

I have been successful to the point that the memory of suffering caused by him was already faint. You could find that kind of guy anywhere, and I just happened to be unfortunate enough to meet him.

Of course, thinking about what that guy tried to do to me it was probably fine for me to go ahead and kill him.

That was what he tried to do after all.

However, I didn’t want to become the same type of person as him. I didn’t want to kill someone purely based on my feelings.

Han Joon-suk who completed contemplating opened his mouth.

“Whoever it is over there, it would be faster to go to the stone statue than going there. If that is really connected to clearing the dungeon, it would be better to quickly clear the dungeon.”

Everybody agreed to his words. Han Joon-suk continued.

“It seems the monsters all went to where the people are. I think it will be fine to just go to the stone statue.”

“The problem is how to get there then.”

The diameter of the lake was about 100 meters. To get to the landmass we had to cross at least 30 meters of water.

“Can’t we just swim?”

Soo-ah said.

“It does seem like we will have to do so but…….”

I felt leery about it.

It was a dungeon where Mukamuka and Tutulips appeared but that didn’t mean that other monsters did not appear.

“We can’t leave aside the possibility of monsters being in the water.”

“Should I try going in for a bit? Even if there are monsters I should be able to run away.”

Soo-ah showed confidence. If it was her current reflex stat she should be able to swim with tremendous speed. I tried asking her.

“Will you be okay?”

“I should do it if I can. I’m a hunter as well you know.”

She said so while lightly hitting her chest. It didn’t seem like a bluff.

“Okay, I’ll leave it to you then. Right. Take this just in case.”

I took out an Escape Scroll form the manual and gave it to her.

It was possible to leave a dungeon during an emergency so it was an item as precious as a life.

“Is it fine to just hand this out?”

“There a lot. I have dozens of them.”

I had 27 to be exact. I decided to hand one each to Han Joon-suk and Edward as well while I’m at it.

It allows them to escape a dangerous situation once so I thought that it would be good to give it to them like this.

Edward’s eyes opened widely. Was it that unexpected?

“You’re giving me one as well?”

“10m won.”

“So expensive…….”

“It’s a joke. Just take it.”

“Hm?”

“I’m not going to joke around with a person’s life.”

Well, I’ll receive it gladly if you give it to me.”

His attitude was indifferent but his actions were not. He stored it securely in his bosom being careful as to not drop it.

Soo-ah quickly swam a lap around the lake. As she didn’t find anything suspicious we all decided to go by swimming.

Soo-ah and I had excellent physical abilities and so didn’t have a problem while Edward could fly.

The problem was Han Joon-suk who said that he was bad at swimming so I carried him on my back.

“Woah. Looking at it from up close it’s really big.”

Soo-ah raised her head and looked up at the stone statue. Looking closely, there was moss here and there all over the statue.

It looked like it was left untouched for decades at the very least. Although, since there was no way people would be in a place like this it might not be decades but centuries or millenniums.

While walking around the stone statue, I searched if there was anything special.

As the stone statue was suspicious no matter who looked at it, I walked while carefully inspecting the ground.

“No traps…… Doesn’t seem like the stone statue doesn’t have any special mechanism either.”

“Then how about destroying it?”

“Rejected.”

Does this girl only have a single brain cell. Says we should start anything by destroying it first.

“Eh. But you said you destroyed it before.”

“That is so. But back then I had a guide. Right now we don’t.”

“What’s your opinion Edward?”

Once Soo-ah asked Edward, he started thinking for a bit before opening his mouth.

“Destroying it doesn’t seem like a bad idea.”

“See? What did I tell you. This guy thinks the same way.”

“Don’t say it on the sly. Destroying it is the last option. Let’s investigate a bit more before that.

We inspected the periphery of the stone statue for 10 minutes. We tried digging the ground and investigated every nook and cranny inside the water as well but couldn’t find anything.

The sound of shouting, sound of screaming, and sound of battle could be heard the entire time we were doing so.

Seeing how the sound was getting louder and louder, it seemed to be getting closer to the lake.

“There’s no choice then.”

“If we did as I first said then it would have finished quickly.”

“Wait.”

At that moment, Han Joon-suk raised his hand and pointed at the head part of the statue. Once I looked closely at the place he indicated, I realized that one of the eyes was caved in.

Edward flew up and inspected the statue.

“It looks like something needs to be fitted into this place. Something around the size of a thumb.”

“It’s too small for an ore to go in.”

“Isn’t it something that drops from killing monsters?”

“There was nothing among the things we picked up that fits in there.”

“We might have to kill more monsters.”

“Urg…….”

I turned my head to the direction the sound was coming from.

I was thinking that we might have to help them with the monster when someone showed up after breaking through the forest.

“Hah! Hah! It, it’s a lake!”

“What? Where!”

“Run this way!”

“Damn! Everybody this way!”

10 or so hunters came breaking through the forest.

The figures of Won Jong-tak and Song Han-sol could be seen among them.

They found us and opened their mouth.