Ch.45Dungeon Dive

“Sniff sniff!”

After joining the children, we began moving with me riding on Hwang-gu.

This was the beginning of tracking using a werewolf’s sense of smell.

Firin, who climbed onto Hwang-gu’s back, stroked her fur with admiration.

She seemed to like how fluffy and warm it felt.

Hwang-gu moved without hesitation.

Even with three small girls on her back, she showed no signs of fatigue.

Clip-clop! Clip-clop!

After running for quite some time, we arrived at the entrance of an underground parking garage.

Hwang-gu stopped in place and sniffed around, flaring her nostrils.

It seemed the scent disappeared at this location.

I jumped off Hwang-gu’s back and examined the surroundings.

The underground parking garage had only one entrance, and all the surrounding buildings had collapsed, so there didn’t appear to be any other spaces to enter or exit from.

“Is this the place?”

In response to my question, Hwang-gu nodded and began returning to her original form.

Her large body shrank, eventually transforming into a small girl.

“Yes! This is it!”

I crossed my arms at Hwang-gu’s words.

Aborix. They were very methodical bastards.

Since they had set traps anticipating someone might follow them, there was a high probability that traps were set in this location as well.

You never know. Humans helping Aborix might also be waiting here.

I sniffed the air for scattered scents.

Dust, mold, cement, soil, water.

The basic scents of this world slowly dispersed.

This meant there was no smell of human blood or our kind.

Seeing that Hwang-gu showed no particular reaction, they must have completely erased their scent.

Should I go inside and check?

I stared at the underground parking garage covered in pitch-black darkness.

Like a beast perfectly blended into the darkness with its mouth wide open, the entrance to the underground parking garage was waiting for us to approach.

“Everyone, wait here.”

Since another trap might be waiting, I had the children wait at the entrance.

If I were to fall into a trap, it would be better if I fell alone.

With my high defense and regeneration abilities, I could withstand human bomb traps easily.

“Be careful!”

“Come back safely!”

Aurel and Hwang-gu’s voices came from behind me.

I gave them a small smile before heading into the underground parking garage.

The deeper I went underground, the more I felt like I was sinking into profound darkness.

The pitch-black darkness climbing up from my ankles reached the top of my head.

In the perfect darkness without a speck of light.

I activated my Mystic Eye and began examining my surroundings.

Light illuminated the murky darkness.

My Mystic Eye, gazing quietly into the darkness, brought me much information.

Human remains and vehicles that no longer functioned.

Among the waves of information, I could find one strange point.

This underground parking garage was a place untouched by human footsteps.

That meant dust would naturally be piled up thickly.

I stepped toward the dust-covered space.

Tap-

With a light footstep, dust rose hazily.

Confirming that cloudy appearance, I lifted my foot.

Footprints remained on the dust-covered space.

If humans or living beings had passed through, traces should remain on the dust like this.

I shifted my gaze to the entrance of the underground parking garage.

The thickness of the dust there was thinner than elsewhere.

The difference was substantial enough to be noticeable at a glance without careful comparison.

And on the floor, there were subtle traces of something being swept away.

It was as if someone had brought dust from elsewhere and sprinkled it to erase footprints on the dust.

I wouldn’t have noticed if I hadn’t examined it carefully.

I began moving along the thinly spread dust.

I used my Mystic Eye to check for traps and my heightened senses to detect the movements of other living beings.

“What is this…”

The place I arrived at by following the traces of movement.

There was something unexpected placed there.

It wasn’t a trap, nor a human or vampire.

A large door.

Yes, this was a door.

And not an ordinary door, but one that looked like the entrance to a dungeon.

A long, large white door with a lock beside it.

The lock had a keypad for entering a password and a small groove for swiping a key card.

I reached out and touched the door.

The cold chill of iron transmitted through my fingertips.

A door with a strangely familiar design.

It was like looking at the entrance to a Blood Carnival dungeon.

[E-12]

Restricted Area – Authorized Personnel Only

The appearance of the door and the information from my Mystic Eye.

They were telling me that this door was the entrance to a dungeon.

I let out a faint groan.

The changes that began after defeating Fenrir.

Those changes weren’t just limited to the Blood Fruit and me, or the unlocking of the level-up system.

For now, I couldn’t enter this dungeon alone.

I turned around and headed back to the children who would be waiting at the entrance of the underground parking garage.

The closer I got to the entrance, the clearer the colors became due to the moonlight coming in from outside.

Standing at the entrance, I looked up at the sky.

Even though it was the pale moonlight rather than the sun, somehow it felt dazzling.

“Ah! It’s Charlotte!”

“Charlotte!”

As I emerged from the underground parking garage, Aurel and Hwang-gu greeted me.

Aurel came running and jumped into my arms.

I naturally avoided her.

“Ugh…”

When I dodged, Aurel flailed wildly and fell to the ground.

She got up quickly and approached me with an awkward smile.

“Were you hurt anywhere?”

Hwang-gu sniffed me, checking my well-being first.

But… something was missing?

The red-haired girl, Firin, was nowhere to be seen.

I looked around and spoke.

“There was no one inside. No traps either… but where’s Firin?”

“She said she was going to look around this area for a bit!”

Hwang-gu answered my question energetically.

“She didn’t go far, did she?”

“Sniff sniff…! She’s nearby. And she’s coming this way now.”

I breathed a sigh of relief at Hwang-gu’s answer.

It seems werewolves can also track the movements of targets by their scent.

As Hwang-gu said, Firin soon appeared.

She was holding a new teddy bear in her arms.

“Oh, did you find anything inside?”

Firin spotted me and came running over.

The whole group was now gathered.

I gathered the three girls in front of me and told them what I had discovered in the underground parking garage.

The traces of the Aborix Clan’s movement and the dungeon entrance sitting prominently in the underground parking garage.

“A-a dungeon…?”

Firin looked surprised at my words.

Hwang-gu and Aurel also showed surprised reactions.

I crossed my arms and answered.

“It was the E-12 dungeon.”

“That’s not a high difficulty level…?”

I nodded.

Considering the performance of the equipment dropped after defeating Fenrir and the items for sale in the equipment shop, it was normal for the dungeon’s difficulty to not be high.

If the highest difficulty dungeon suddenly appeared, no one would set foot in it.

The god who created this world clearly intended to gradually raise the users’ specs.

“So, what are you planning to do? Wait in front of the dungeon?”

I shook my head.

If the Aborix Clan that entered the dungeon cleared it, a new exit would appear in the boss room.

An exit that leads to a different place than the entrance.

“We’re going to charge in.”

“Gasp…”

“Gasp…!”

Aurel and Hwang-gu were startled by my words.

But Firin nodded as if she had expected it.

In Blood Carnival dungeons, from the appearance of the entrance until just before the dungeon is cleared, all users share a single channel.

This means you can invade a dungeon while other users are progressing through it.

Thanks to this feature, dungeon dives by hostile forces were common in Blood Carnival.

I headed toward the dungeon entrance with the children.

The [E-12] dungeon entrance was still there, asserting its presence just like before.

I took a deep breath and placed my hand on the door.

The lock attached to the side of the door was just decoration.

There was no currency required to enter dungeons in Blood Carnival.

“We’re going in…”

“Yes!”

“Okay!”

“Yes!”

As I applied force with my hand, the large iron door slowly began to open.

At the same time, bright light poured out from inside.

I frowned and examined the interior.

A wide, white corridor stretching out.

Bright lights illuminated the ceiling.

It looked like the laboratory dungeon commonly seen in Blood Carnival.

I swallowed dryly and moved forward.

Aurel, Hwang-gu, and Firin also followed behind me.

Right after, the dungeon door closed.

The strong smell of blood that wafted as soon as we entered the dungeon.

It wasn’t the smell of human blood, but the blood of our kind and fusion bodies.

The traces of battle from those who went ahead could be found quickly.

Not far from the dungeon entrance.

After passing a corner where the path bent, we could discover the corpse of a vampire entangled with the corpse of a fusion body.

“Gasp…!”

Aurel was startled by the sight and clung tightly to me.

I touched the blood that had flowed onto the floor.

It was lukewarm. Hard. This meant considerable time had passed since the Aborix guys entered this dungeon.

This worked out well.

I tore off a hardened blood clot and put it in my mouth.

The red blood clot melted through saliva and the warmth of my mouth.

At that moment, along with the fishy smell, a man’s memories rushed in like a wave.

But it wasn’t clear. Like an empty puzzle, only fragmentary memories were provided.

It seemed there was a problem in the memory absorption process because I hadn’t consumed fresh blood.

I frowned and gathered the pieces of memory I needed.

Aborix.

Human.

Alliance.

Dungeon.

-B-boss, are you really going to betray them…?

-Betray? What betrayal? Have you forgotten that you were originally human?

-B-but…

A brief conversation flashed by.

I subtly raised the corners of my mouth.

“Ch-Charlotte…? Is that tasty?”

“No. Don’t eat it. It’s not good.”

I shook my head and answered Aurel’s question.

Seeing her drooling while looking at the vampire’s blood on the floor, it seemed she wanted to eat it after watching me eat.

If it had been good for the body and tasty, I would have offered the blood to Aurel first.

But unlike human blood, the blood of our kind wasn’t very tasty.