Chapter 54
A maze...
Just as Han Siwoo said, this place resembled a maze. Of course, since it was inside a dungeon, it probably wasn't an ordinary one.
"Let's go too."
In the short time we had been talking, Park Seungjun and his party had already moved quite far ahead.
If this really was a maze, getting separated wouldn't do us any good. We hurried after them.
We walked in silence for quite some time.
Although it felt as though we had been walking for ages, the scenery around us hadn't changed much.
No matter how far we went, the same walls stretched endlessly before us. There wasn't even a single fork in the road, so it hardly felt like a maze at all.
[Remaining Time: 85:20:22:32]
We had already been walking for about thirty minutes.
Was it really possible to walk for thirty minutes without encountering anything?
I began examining our surroundings more carefully, wondering if there was something we had overlooked.
Eventually, I noticed something strange.
After discovering it, I continued walking for another ten minutes to see whether there were any other abnormalities.
But I couldn't find anything unusual beyond what I had already noticed.
This should be enough.
Continuing to wander around like this would only waste time.
I was just about to speak when...
"Wait!"
It was Yoo Mina.
Everyone stopped and turned toward her at the first shout we'd heard in over thirty minutes.
Park Seungjun tilted his head.
"Mina, what's wrong?"
"Don't you think something's strange?"
"What exactly?"
"There's no way we should have gone this long without encountering a single monster... The watch! You have the watch they gave us, right? How much time has passed?"
At her question, Park Seungjun took out the watch.
"About thirty minutes..."
"See? Something should have appeared by now. Isn't this strange?"
"But what else can we do besides keep moving forward? Hmm, what do you guys think?"
Park Seungjun turned toward us.
I thought for a moment and opened my mouth.
Or rather, I was about to.
"I agree with Yoo Mina. There's something strange about these walls."
Han Siwoo had spoken first.
He really was smart.
Then again, there was no way he would fail to notice something I had already figured out.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
Park Seungjun still looked confused.
"Haven't you felt like we've been going around in circles this entire time?"
This time, I was the one who spoke.
Several people immediately looked as though they had realized something.
"Huh? What are you talking about?"
Of course, there was still someone who hadn't understood.
My brother.
He stared at me with wide eyes.
He really was remarkably consistent.
I chuckled and took a dagger from my Inventory.
"W-What are you doing?!"
I walked past my startled brother and placed the tip of the dagger against the wall.
Then I used the back of the blade to lift the thick vines covering it.
"See this?"
I turned toward the others.
They looked surprised.
When I looked back at the wall, the marks left by Park Seungjun's punches earlier were clearly visible.
That's right.
We had been going around the same place all along.
I straightened my back and looked in the direction we had come from.
The others followed my gaze, and their eyes widened.
"I-Impossible... That wasn't there earlier...!"
Yoo Mina's voice trembled.
At the end of the passage stood the same dead-end wall we had encountered when we first entered.
"It wasn't there a moment ago. It just appeared."
"Th-Then have we been walking around the same place this entire time?"
I wasn't entirely sure about that either.
I shrugged at Park Seungjun's question.
My brother immediately raised his voice in alarm.
"What the hell?! Why didn't you tell us from the beginning?!"
"Because I needed to be sure. I wanted to know whether we were going around in circles, whether those walls were moving, or whether the wall behind us was changing positions. Or perhaps..."
I slowly turned to face the passage ahead again.
A crooked smile appeared on my face.
"Perhaps the walls themselves were monsters."
Everyone immediately looked forward.
And there...
[Moving Wall]
The creatures had finally stopped pretending to be ordinary walls.
They wore disgusting smiles.
What I had originally thought were only two walls had split into countless separate walls.
At first, I hadn't sensed any presence from them.
Now, however, they apparently saw no reason to keep hiding.
Their presence suddenly became unmistakable.
The murderous intent pouring from them was so intense that my skin tingled.
"Hah... So those things have been playing with us this entire time?"
Yoo Mina ground out the words furiously and drew the long sword at her waist.
Her eyes narrowed fiercely, and she looked ready to charge at any moment.
"Yoo Mina, calm down. We don't even know what kind of monsters they are. Do any of you know anything about them?"
It was my first time seeing these monsters too.
Naturally, I didn't know much.
"I know that if we don't deal with them quickly, we'll be the ones getting killed."
"Haha. That's a rather frightening way to put it."
Park Seungjun chuckled and drew two short daggers from his clothes.
"Well, let's give them a fight!"
Lee Junhyuk pulled out his staff with the excitement of a fish returning to water.
Park Seungjun, however, offered a suggestion.
"Hold on. We don't know what other monsters might appear or what these enemies are capable of. How about we take turns fighting?"
"Take turns?"
"Yes. One group fights while the other watches. If things look dangerous, the other group steps in to help. Once one battle is over, the other group takes the next one."
It wasn't a bad suggestion.
It was a little disappointing from the perspective of helping my teammates grow quickly, but it was certainly safer than rushing into every fight without a plan.
I decided to step back for now.
"All right. Lee Junhyuk."
"Tch..."
"Thank you. Mina, Kangjun!"
"I know."
"I'm a little worried without Jiwoo hyung, but... we'll manage somehow."
Despite being one member short, they looked fairly confident.
Fwish! Fwish! Fwish!
Countless spikes shot out of the walls' gaping mouths.
I immediately activated my skill.
[Skill 'Shield Lv.10' activated.]
But my intervention was almost unnecessary.
The others drew their weapons and skillfully deflected the incoming spikes.
Then they kicked off the ground and leaped toward the walls.
All of them were skilled, but Yoo Mina's movements were by far the most impressive.
She effortlessly knocked aside the spikes flying toward her and reached the nearest wall first.
CLANG!
Her sword struck the wall without hesitation.
Apparently, its durability was lower than I expected.
The wall split in half from a single attack.
As long as they avoided the incoming attacks, defeating these monsters wasn't particularly difficult.
Before long, they succeeded in eliminating every Moving Wall in the area.
"Haa. Those things were nothing special..."
"More importantly... what do we do now?"
They had defeated the monsters, but that didn't mean everything had been resolved.
Some of the walls had been real.
Others had been monsters.
In other words, not every wall was a creature.
Only after the monsters were eliminated did the real passage open before us.
"Four paths...?"
Jo Kangjun muttered helplessly as he wiped away his sweat.
Park Seungjun turned toward us.
"Let's search this area first. We need to find Jiwoo as quickly as possible."
"How much time do we have left?"
At Han Siwoo's question, Park Seungjun checked his watch.
"...Hmm. About forty minutes have passed now. Three hours and twenty minutes... No, that means two hours and fifty minutes left, doesn't it? We don't exactly have time to search at our leisure."
Things would become considerably more troublesome once the Transitional Phase began.
Yoo Mina muttered bitterly.
"Damn it. We wasted thirty minutes because of those miserable things."
"Exactly. It doesn't look like we have enough time to search together..."
Their voices trailed off as they glanced toward us.
They were clearly hoping we would help.
I quickly considered the situation.
This was a D-rank dungeon.
If we wanted to search all four passages, our party would have to split up.
Although our party was officially D-rank, that rating had been awarded partly because of our teamwork.
Some of our members were still F-rank.
If they take everyone's individual ranks into account when dividing us into groups, it might be manageable.
Searching separately would save time.
And if my teammates grew stronger while fighting monsters, it would be killing two birds with one stone.
Having finished weighing the options, I stepped forward.
"If you're in a hurry, why don't we split into smaller groups and search separately?"
"R-Really? Would you be willing to do that?"
The answer came immediately, as though Park Seungjun had been waiting for me to offer.
"But I have one condition."
His expression became slightly uncomfortable.
"You may have heard this already, but our individual abilities aren't particularly impressive. Since we'll be splitting up, I'd like you to distribute the higher-ranked members evenly to ensure our party's safety."
Apparently, he had expected me to demand something much more unreasonable.
His face immediately brightened.
"Of course! I was actually worried you might refuse. Thank you."
He bowed lightly in appreciation.
Given the circumstances, we immediately began dividing ourselves into groups.
After a brief discussion, the teams were decided.
Lee Junhyuk and me.
My brother and Park Seungjun.
Han Siwoo and Jo Kangjun.
And...
"I'll go alone."
Yoo Mina volunteered to search by herself.
As we watched her head down the southern passage, my brother quietly asked Park Seungjun,
"Is it really okay to let her go alone?"
"Well, believe it or not, Mina is the strongest member of our party."
Apparently, he was accustomed to her acting independently.
He shrugged as though it were nothing unusual.
"Anyway, we don't have time to stand around. We'd better get moving. If you encounter a monster or find Jiwoo, return here immediately. And don't go too far. Understood?"
After emphasizing those instructions, Park Seungjun entered the western passage with my brother.
"We should go too."
"Okay."
Lee Junhyuk and I headed north.
