"Is... is that... alive?"
While Han Jae-young stumbled over his words, shocked by the sight, Jeong Da-on remained calm.
"It doesn't seem like an undead monster. The system ssage didn’t pop up," Jeong Da-on remarked.
"That's a pretty grueso joke..." Han Jae-young mumbled, cautiously stepping toward the strange being.
As Jeong Da-on had said, no system ssage for a monster had appeared, so it seed to be human... but its form was too grotesque to be sure.
The body was so withered that its gender couldn’t even be discerned.
If a mummy were sohow alive, this was probably what it would look like.
"Hey, are you okay?" Han Jae-young called out.
The mysterious figure suddenly jerked its head up at the sound of his voice. Despite its appearance, its eyes, which should have resembled those of a corpse, glinted with a sharpness that seed almost... human.
"Ugh... ughhh..." It tried to speak, barely stretching out its hand, but soon collapsed to the ground, its strength fading, as if it had nothing left to say.
It was like a fish pulled out of water.
"Ugh... ack..." The figure's breath began to slow, and Han Jae-young let out a sigh of relief. He quickly pulled out a potion. Using healing magic would have been dangerous at this point since it might worsen the condition.
He laid the collapsed body flat and pressed the potion to its lips. Gradually, the labored breathing returned to normal, and the vacant expression in its eyes began to show so awareness.
Seizing the opportunity, Han Jae-young quickly asked, "Stay with . What’s your na? Where were you held?"
"Ugh... please... save ..."
"Do you know where you are?"
"Th... th... never again..." The figure’s responses were fragnted and its cognitive functions clearly not normal. The potion was only providing a temporary stabilization, but it was evident that this wasn't a situation that could be solved with just the potion.
Han Jae-young glanced at Jeong Da-on, who was silently observing the scene.
"We may have to resort to healing magic despite the strain on the body..."
But before he could finish his thought—
"Ahhh! Ahhh!"
The figure, which had been lying powerless just monts ago, suddenly began to scream. Han Jae-young rushed to grab the person, but it fought back with an unexpected strength, as if it had regained so power.
"NO! NO! I don’t want this!"
"Calm down, you're safe now...!"
"AAAHHH! I DON'T WANT THIS!"
Thud! Thud!
It was as if the emaciated human, now thrashing wildly, was trying to bash its own head against the ground.
It was disturbing and unnatural.
Han Jae-young, unable to do anything else, was about to knock the person unconscious when—
Thud!
"...It's gone."
The body slumped, and the life had left it.
It was a sudden death after a violent outburst. A strange, hollow end.
And the most bizarre thing was how it happened. After feeding the potion and seeing signs of recovery, what could have triggered such an outburst?
Han Jae-young remained silent as he began searching the body.
From the pockets, he found a long-forgotten hamburger receipt, several lottery tickets marked as losers, and a crumpled flyer offering sa-day loans.
There were no identification papers, so all they could do was speculate.
"Looks like they were struggling financially. If it's anything like the alchemist’s case, it seems they took a similar path," Han Jae-young remarked.
Lee Yun-ho had also been desperate enough to accept Bitnaelim’s offer. While it wasn't certain, this unidentified corpse seed likely to have entered the dungeon via the sa route.
"I agree," Jeong Da-on nodded.
"People struggling with financial problems are easy to manipulate. If they were deep in debt, no one would look for them if they suddenly disappeared."
This was a remark that carried weight, considering Jeong Da-on had also suffered significant financial hardship before awakening as a Hunter.
Han Jae-young added, "And... for a brief mont before death, I felt mana moving inside the body."
It was clear the person had been a Hunter in life, even if they were low-level, because their mana had been activated.
"A low-level Hunter might not even realize they’re missing. Monsters could take them out without anyone noticing...," Jeong Da-on murmured.
She stared down at the body on the ground, but there was no sense of sympathy in her expression. Instead, it was as if she was gazing at an inanimate object. This made Han Jae-young uneasy.
This wasn’t like Yoo Han-ul, who would have sympathized with the person, though.
"Hold on a second," Jeong Da-on said, raising her hand.
"I think my familiar found sothing."
ow.
The sound of a cat purring in an unusually affectionate way filled the air.
It seed like Leo had finished its search.
It was sitting quietly in an alley, resembling the cat of a dark witch.
"What did you find?" Han Jae-young asked as Jeong Da-on spoke to the familiar gently.
Leo, its tail flicking, trotted ahead with a light step.
It was strange, but they had no choice but to follow.
"What's this?" Jeong Da-on muttered, following Leo.
"If you have another idea, speak up."
"...Let’s follow it."
Reluctantly, Han Jae-young followed Jeong Da-on and Leo, and soon they had moved outside the village.
The cat had led them to an old, abandoned well, with a decayed wooden roof sagging over it.
Jeong Da-on nodded.
"Clear it away."
"Aren’t I the superior here?" Han Jae-young joked.
"I’m the one carrying the heavy load, what can I do..."
Instead of responding, Han Jae-young kicked the planks away from the well.
Crash!
The wood splintered, sending dust into the air. Leo coughed lightly.
Peering into the well, the absence of light made it pitch dark.
Jeong Da-on asked, "Is there sothing in the well?"
"ow," Leo answered.
"It says there’s sothing."
"Can we trust that cat? Are they planning to ss with ...?" Han Jae-young wondered.
Hiss!
Leo hissed at Han Jae-young, standing tall and glaring.
Han Jae-young sighed. Honestly, he didn’t want to go down there, but now there was no avoiding it.
'This doesn't seem worth the effort, just to satisfy my curiosity.'
He retrieved an item from his inventory, ignoring Jeong Da-on’s piercing gaze.
Opening a glass bottle, he poured its contents into the well. The powder sparkled as it fell into the darkness.
The well wasn’t as deep as expected. The powder settled at the bottom, revealing that it was a dry well with no water.
"...Is there another way? The person we saw earlier definitely didn’t crawl up from this well," Han Jae-young mused.
"Well, that’s true. But we couldn’t find any other way. Should I go first?" Jeong Da-on asked.
"I’ll go down," Han Jae-young said, though he didn’t want to send a young Hunter ahead.
Reluctantly, he jumped into the well.
It wasn’t as narrow as he’d expected. Looking up, he saw the opening far above.
"Even if... Ah."
As Han Jae-young prepared to help her, Jeong Da-on effortlessly landed on the ground without any trouble.
Her landing was light, almost as if she had transford in the week she had spent training.
'Does she match up with Yoo Han-ul more than I thought?' Han Jae-young thought briefly.
While lost in thought, the light from the glowing moss spread and danced in the well.
This moss, which could grow in just a bit of moisture, didn’t need much nourishnt.
Its rapid spread illuminated the dark well, revealing sothing at the end.
"A passage," Han Jae-young observed.
At the end of the well, there was a narrow passageway.
The passage was so small that even an average adult would have to crouch to pass through. It looked like sothing designed in the past to help villagers escape in case of an invasion.
"I’ll go first," Han Jae-young decided, carefully stepping forward.
It was too narrow for two people, so he had no choice.
The dampness in the air was uncomfortable, and Han Jae-young constantly had to bend his head to avoid hitting it.
"This passage... could it be where the experintal facility is? Hmm, even though it seems unhygienic, I doubt they could get any proper research done here," Han Jae-young speculated.
His initial hypothesis began to falter. Modern Koreans wouldn’t likely use a place like this for an experint.
"This looks more like a place where monsters made their nests. Sotis wounded monsters hide away in places like this," he added.
"That’s an ominous thing to say."
"Why? Scared?"
"That doesn’t explain the dungeon’s synchronization rate. There has to be soone here..."
Jeong Da-on, who had been following behind, suddenly stopped.
At the sa ti, Han Jae-young, leading the way, halted as well.
"What is that?"
At the end of the narrow, dark passage, water was dripping onto the floor.
The glowing moss faintly illuminated sothing at the passage’s end.
It was a large cavity in the ground.
At the center of it, a figure sat cross-legged, eyes closed—human in shape, though eerily still.
Han Jae-young narrowed his eyes at it.
And at the sa mont they both recognized the human form—
The system detected hostile intent toward the user.
"Soul Core" detected.
A new monster not registered in the system has appeared.
Dungeon difficulty is being reassessed.
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