chapter 201

Chapter 201

A place a little away from the coast.

“D-do bosses usually come out like this...? This seems different from a normal dungeon break...”

At the young priest’s question, Kang Seodam, who was leading the team, answered.

“Rarely, there are cases like this centered around humanoid monsters. Monsters with intelligence beyond humans have a wide range of activity. Since the scale of their authority is vast, they can accomplish various things even if it isn’t strictly their own dungeon.”

“Then if we go down like this and the submarine we’re supposed to ride is attacked... I just heard that mermaids are surging up from the deep sea like crazy.”

“Thanks to the cold-element hunters joining forces to freeze it, that won’t happen. More than anything, didn’t we also bring psychokinesis-element hunters to prepare for that? Our child of the sun can also attack from range, so all we can do is keep a close watch on our surroundings as we go.”

They were on their way to the mermaids’ dungeon, taking advantage of the narrow opening that had formed when the dungeon boss came out. One side would deal with the boss that had come outside, and the other side would strike the dungeon’s heart.

But in a situation like this, they couldn’t move on foot, so they had to use a submersible. They moved according to an Association employee’s guidance. Kang Seodam let out a low sigh.

“I wish Sister Ruda were in the rear...”

“That part has been discussed well, so she’ll stay put.”

“She has to. It isn’t exactly safe there either.”

“She’s a child who keeps her promises.”

“I think so too, but...”

They assumed Cha Isol was probably in the mermaids’ dungeon, ‘Nation of the Deep Sea.’

Ruda had forced her way into this war to find her partner, Cha Isol, but they couldn’t take her, an apprentice priest, all the way into the dungeon. It was an S-rank dungeon where countless people were dying.

“...Well, worrying like this won’t change anything.”

For now, all they could do was hope Ruda controlled herself well.

“How far is it to the submersible?”

“I’m sorry, movement-type hunters can’t work in a crowded area...”

“No, I was purely asking how much farther we have to go. I know well that movement-type hunters require great effort to focus.”

“Thank you for understanding. We’ll arrive soon.”

Just then, the Association employee received a contact.

“...What?! N-no, what do you mean...”

“What is it? Did something go wrong?”

“They say the movement-type hunters and the submersible are under attack.”

“What? If we go now...”

“In a situation like this, movement-type hunters prioritize retreat above all.”

“...Right.”

In short, teleportation users were squishy. They had no attack or defense power, but their evasiveness alone was higher than any other type.

Most of them worked in safe places, and even if they were mobilized in an emergency, it was legally recognized for them to run if their safety was threatened. It was a rule created after countless hunters were exploited as transportation and died.

“What happened to the submersible?”

“They said mermaids crawled out of the sea and were attacking, so it’s hard to expect much from that side.”

“Still, aren’t there spare submersibles? Normally you wouldn’t prepare only one in a case like this...”

“Seeing that the number of mermaids is considerable, the situation doesn’t look very hopeful.”

At that, one of the hunters frowned.

“So what are we supposed to do? After coming all the way here, are you saying we shouldn’t go into the dungeon?”

“No, we have to go. If we don’t attack it, we have no idea when this damn fight will end. The dungeon side might even be able to produce infinite numbers...”

“That’s why we’re here right now. But if there’s no submersible and the teleport hunters can’t send us straight into the dungeon, what do you want us to do?”

The Association employee wore an awkward expression, but offered an alternative.

“There’s a backup submersible deployed. But it’ll take quite a while to bring it here. The movement-type hunters who moved the existing large submersible must be very exhausted, so we’ll have to assign other personnel...”

“Sounds like it’ll take a while.”

Sanarae, a Haeryeong hunter, asked.

“Can we go back then?”

“Th-that...”

“Hm? We can go back, right?”

It was a rather delinquent and uncooperative question, but it wasn’t exactly wrong.

The hunters carefully selected for entering the dungeon had lost anything they could do, and no one knew how many more would die on the coast while the hunters dealing with the boss waited for a new submersible.

“Just killing time here isn’t acceptable.”

“Hunter Sanarae is right.”

The Association employees’ faces grew dark.

“...”

“...Wait, that...”

“A frame?”

The hunters sensed something strange.

“Since when was there a frame hanging there?”

A concrete wall along the coast, with traces from before the Great Catastrophe still intact. Hunters who sensed something from the frame hanging on that old, crumbling wall approached it.

Sanarae made a disgusted expression.

“Smells like the sea.”

“Huh?”

“...”

“...Ah, it really does.”

It was a painting of a temple that felt oddly familiar.

“The Black Cloak...?”

At someone’s mutter, the painting in the frame wavered.

“Crazy.”

“W-what is this now?”

“The picture inside looks like the ‘Temple of the Deep Sea’...”

“So what are we supposed to do? What does this even mean?”

“Isn’t it telling us to go in?”

“No, what... is it helping us?”

The hunters were dumbfounded.

“Why would a monster help humans?”

“But normally the Black Cloak likes giving gifts to good people...”

“Are we good? No. We didn’t even do anything good.”

“Does clearing count as a good deed?”

Feeling complicated at them recognizing the Black Cloak as a monster, Kang Seodam glanced toward the Association employee.

“...”

“...? W-what is it?”

“No, nothing.”

It seemed he didn’t know the truth. Kang Seodam understood.

‘Even if they’re Association staff, they wouldn’t share all information down to the lowest ranks.’

He couldn’t call the person who’d come out to the very front lines a mere low-ranking employee, but this ‘information’ was too dangerous to spread everywhere.

Kang Seodam thought through hundreds of worries in an instant, but in the end, he chose to follow the will of divinity. If he didn’t follow their will, he had no qualifications as a priest.

“...It’s a very awkward thing to say in this situation, but precisely because it’s now, I’ll say it. Our Sun Church has concluded that the Black Cloak is a kind of divinity that has embraced a very small number of apostles.”

“...W-what?!”

“No, what do you mean...!!”

Not only the hunters but even the Association employees looked horrified. Kang Seodam didn’t understand why he had to say such things and resented the world, but as a human being, he had to do what needed doing.

“And those apostles have been identified as the Collection Merchant’s Hunter Seo Gio and the Sun Church’s apprentice priest Cha Isol.”

“I-if that’s true...”

“It isn’t certain, but within the Sun Church it has been concluded as a near fact. Even when I first met Hunter Seo Gio, I sensed the sun’s energy, and Apprentice Priest Cha Isol has also testified about this many times.”

“...Ah, so...”

They seemed to understand why, at a time like this, the ‘Black Cloak’ had opened a ‘door.’

“So it wants us to save its children.”

In fact, there had been several cases where a divinity that couldn’t use direct power on Earth due to the dimensional system’s interference sought help from humans. Especially the Black Cloak, who had already taken root in Korea—opening a door like this wouldn’t be difficult.

“I want to dig into this more, but...”

“Who has time? Think about the Black Cloak later. Anyway, if this isn’t a door opened by a monster, isn’t it safe to use?”

“What if the Black Cloak is an evil god? We don’t even know if this door is safe.”

“But we need to enter quickly while the coastal hunters are drawing the boss’s attention. We can’t just sit here.”

“But if we act rashly, we could all get wiped out!”

“And there are hostages inside the dungeon too, and you’re just going to flail around here?!”

“If Hunter Seo Gio or that apprentice priest Cha Isol really are the Black Cloak’s apostles, then I can understand this situation. But that still doesn’t guarantee our safety!”

“No, even so, look at the situation right now...!”

Around then, something suddenly popped out of the frame.

“Ku.”

“...W-what.”

“Kuu?”

“...”

One hunter stared at the soft something draped over the frame like laundry hung on a drying rack, and doubted his own eyes.

“...A teddy bear?”

A little faded fur, but with plush stuffing that looked well cared for, small enough to fit snugly in your arms, with short limbs, and a puffy, soft bear doll in warm colors.

“What is this now.”

“No, wait. That...”

“...I-I can feel the sun’s power.”

The Sun Church priests, like Kang Seodam, murmured.

“That’s right, it’s definitely the sun’s power! I-I can’t sense divinity, but the traces are certain...!”

“Could it be one of the Black Cloak’s apostles? It looks like that, but I really can feel the sun...!”

And Kang Seodam realized.

‘Hunter Seo Gio is trapped in the dungeon, so I wondered who opened the frame, but...’

Unlike Yoo Seongun or Juhyeon, Kang Seodam had never been invited to the cabin, so he didn’t know anything about this teddy bear. But from the traces of divinity and the sun’s energy, he could tell at least that it had a strong connection to the Black Cloak.

‘No, rather, this is...’

It was similar to the energy he had felt before when he visited the ‘Temple of the Deep Sea.’

“...”

Having reached a conclusion, Kang Seodam looked around.

“I will guarantee it. This teddy bear clearly carries the sun’s energy, and there has never been a dimension where the sun was not on the side of providence. Meaning, it is not an evil god’s apostle.”

“B-but...”

“If you still aren’t convinced, then the Sun Church will enter first.”

Perhaps because they thought another sun was helping them, the Sun Church priests wore excited faces. Not pure goodwill, but fellowship. Priests who had long shared the intent of unification with many suns treated another dimension’s sun very amicably as well.

“To think the Black Cloak truly was a sun divinity...!”

“I’d heard stories, but to think there would even be such a cute manifested apostle.”

“The gifts and the feeling are similar. Does he like cute things?”

“The Black Cloak itself, too—aren’t they a mystery that’s so gentlemanly and friendly toward humans?”

“To be considerate of humans to this extent—how grateful a thing.”

At the priests’ murmuring, the other hunters’ expressions loosened little by little.

“...Well, normally the Black Cloak was kind...”

“...Is there anyone here who abandoned their comrades and ran?”

“Unless you’re total trash, they say the Black Cloak won’t attack you.”

“Honestly, if you’re trembling here, isn’t that basically certifying you’re trash?”

“Yeah, damn it, I can’t become acknowledged trash.”

Still uneasy, they nonetheless seemed to gain trust from the Sun Church priests’ relaxed reactions.

“It still feels unreal, but...”

“Let’s enter.”

And so, borrowing the Black Cloak’s power, the hunters one by one were drawn into the frame, into the painting.

“...”

“...E-excuse me, team leader.”

“I’m confused too, so don’t talk to me.”

The Association employees stared blankly at the hunters’ ‘painted’ forms moving alive within the frame.

“This isn’t the time—quickly... bring the upper-communication device. I have to ask the higher-ups what the hell is going on too.”

“Ah, y-yes. I’ll call the movement-type hunters right away. This area is still close to a safe zone, so they’ll be here soon.”

“I’m going crazy. I have no idea what this is.”

There was too much to report.

* * *

“...”

“...This is...”

Splash...

A marble floor covered in shallow water.

“...It’s definitely inside the ‘Temple of the Deep Sea.’”

“But doesn’t the atmosphere feel a bit different?”

The hunters swept their surroundings with anxiety and vigilance.

“I stopped by once before, but it didn’t feel like this.”

Dark.

Brilliant.

Dreamlike.

“Something... feels ominous.”

“It feels like we’ve fallen into an evil god’s prank.”

“I felt that too, but...”

One of the hunters asked Kang Seodam, the team leader.

“Were the mermaids of this dungeon an evil god?”

“No.”

But—

“They’ve only built achievements on a level comparable to one.”

Kang Seodam looked at the mermaids’ world with a sickened feeling.

“...”

The temple they had returned to was chillingly tranquil, and also beautiful.

‘...It’s easy to tell whose influence it was shaped by.’

It resembled a funeral.

(To be continued in the next episode)