Chapter 26: A Step Toward the Unknown

After parting ways with Loreia and returning to his inn—

‘Damn it.’

Soren ended up staying up all night.

The sky had already turned a pale blue with the early light of dawn, blurring Soren’s vision.

Still lying in bed, completely still until then, he scratched his head in frustration and forced himself to sit up.

“‘Don’t speak of your father so carelessly.’”

That one sentence from the mysterious old man the day before kept echoing in his mind.

His father had clearly asked him to find the surviving members of his party.

And Soren intended to honor that request.

He didn’t harbor any ill will toward his father.

At the very least, he wanted to fulfill the man’s final wish.

So in that case, it made more sense to broadcast his father’s name far and wide.

But then why did that so-called master tell him to keep his mouth shut?

The whole thing left a sour taste in Soren’s mouth.

‘What had the old man really meant by that?’

Come to think of it, he hadn’t even asked the man’s name.

Soren smacked his stiffening head in frustration.

‘Idiot.’

The old man had said a lot, but in the end, Soren didn’t know a single thing about him.

After a full night of agonizing over it, Soren finally gave up halfway.

There was no point worrying when he didn’t have any real information.

He was just going in circles with baseless guesses.

It was pointless to keep making assumptions on his own.

With that, Soren rose to his feet, despite his tired body.

Even if he’d pulled an all-nighter, it wasn’t like he could just sleep through the morning.

Especially with the party gathering scheduled for tomorrow—he couldn’t afford to have his day and night flipped.

***

[Sound of footsteps]

Bang! Bang!

“Hey, mister! Breakfast, please!”

“How many times do I have to tell you, you little brat, to stop stomping down the stairs like that?!”

Soren smoothly ignored the now-familiar curses of the bearded innkeeper.

The stingy man always told him not to scrape his bowls too clean—claimed it wore out the dishes.

Even when he did one thing right, the innkeeper would scold him for two others.

Getting into arguments over every little thing was just a waste of time.

“Oh, and I’ll be heading out again tomorrow.”

Soren spoke while lifting the bowl of stew and gulping it down in one go.

The hot broth spread warmth all through his body.

“Another dungeon?”

The bearded innkeeper, still wiping down dishes, asked casually.

He tried to play it cool, but there was a hint of anticipation in his eyes as he looked at Soren.

It made sense—if Soren died in a dungeon, the stingy bastard would benefit.

He’d already received the full payment for the room, and he could rent it out again to someone new.

‘Filthy miser.’

Soren shuddered at the man’s ruthlessness.

Sure, the innkeeper could cook a good pot of porridge, but that didn’t make up for everything.

Especially not when you were the one heading into the dungeon.

It felt like a bad omen.

Soren’s appetite vanished, and he shoved the now-empty dish forward with a thud.

Of course, he’d already scraped the stew bowl completely clean.

“You little punk… Hey! Kid! I asked if you’re heading to a dungeon again!”

“Well, where else would I be going?”

“You, you—”

Annoyed, Soren stormed out of the inn.

Whether it was the lack of sleep or something else, he felt more irritable than usual.

Even he could tell.

But there was no helping it now.

He couldn’t sleep at this point, so he’d just try to go to bed early tonight and hope for a better day tomorrow.

‘Where should I go now?’

Having no destination in mind, Soren wandered aimlessly.

He stopped by the administration office five minutes away and even peeked inside the hall.

Maybe he’d run into someone he knew, like Loreia from the other day.

“Hey? You’re…”

That thought turned out to be right.

Soren ran into an unexpected face.

It was the huge barbarian warrior he’d met on the way to his first dungeon.

“So you’re Soren, right?”

“Gorban?”

“You actually made it out alive, kid.”

Gorban was sitting there in shabby clothes, chugging beer.

The seductive female mage Soren had seen with him before was also there.

“So, let me get this straight. You ran into an abnormality in your first dungeon, and fought a horde of kobolds in the second?”

“That about sums it up.”

Soren naturally took a seat next to Gorban.

Then, with a cheerful grin, the big warrior ordered a beer for Soren too.

No one hates free food or drinks. Soren was no exception.

“Hah… Looks like your life’s just as rough as mine.”

“That’s just how it is for dungeon crawlers.”

“…Wait, haven’t you only gone twice?”

“Yeah, but both times were kind of extreme.”

Gorban was a bit dramatic, but even he could tell Soren’s experiences weren’t normal.

Soren had been tripped up by a nasty anomaly in his very first dungeon, and in the second, he’d fought both kobolds and a frost golem.

That wasn’t just bad luck—it was like the dungeons had it out for him.

“When’s your next dive, kid?”

“Uh… soon, probably. Why do you ask?”

Soren was planning to go in tomorrow, but he didn’t feel like announcing it.

‘You never know who you’ll run into in a dungeon.’

Last time, he’d ended up killing a party that had ambushed him with fireballs the moment they saw him.

No matter how friendly someone was outside, all bets were off once you were inside a dungeon.

Of course, Gorban would probably head straight into the mid-level dungeons.

But still, no need to get careless.

And it wasn’t like he’d even discussed it with his current party yet.

“Good mindset, kid.”

“Huh?”

“You’re trying to hide it from me, right? But you really need to learn how to lie better—it’s so obvious.”

So much for keeping secrets.

Gorban’s eyes scanned Soren as if he could see straight through him.

Feeling exposed, Soren quickly chugged the beer that had just arrived.

The bitterness filled his mouth.

As Gorban chuckled, he suddenly remembered something and gestured toward the mage beside him.

“Ah, right. This is one of my party members. Should’ve introduced her earlier.”

***

“Nice to meet you, kid. My name’s Valmira.”

The seductive female mage—Valmira.

Even before they’d spoken, she had been giving Soren a smoldering look, as if on purpose.

“I’m Soren. I’m a shaman.”

“Hmm… What’s your current party setup?”

“I’m teamed up with a priest. His name’s Moss…”

“Moss, huh… a priest?”

“Yeah. Do you know him?”

Soren vaguely recalled something Bork had mentioned offhand.

Now that he thought about it, Moss used to be part of a large clan.

“Hmm… No, can’t say I do.”

But Valmira slowly shook her head.

Well, that made sense.

Large clans had tons of members.

It was hard to remember all the clan members, unless one belonged to an elite clan capable of flying or soaring through the skies.

Among them, Moss, who still roamed the lower levels with Soren, needed no introduction.

No matter the size of the clan, he probably just left after learning how to clean floors.

“By the way, kid?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know a person named Mina?”

“…Mina?”

Soren tilted his head as he chewed on the name. Mina. He had never heard of it before.

“I’ve never heard of her.”

“Hmm…”

Valmira tapped her fingers on the table, one after another.

Soren, glancing at her, decided to just finish the drink he was holding.

“Really? Are you sure? Really…”

“I’m sorry. I’ve never heard that name before.”

Valmira fell silent, her lips sealing shut.

Gorban, who had been silently eating, didn’t say a word either.

Soren, still sipping his beer, had nothing to add.

The table of the three was wrapped in silence.

“…Sorry. I got confused and made things awkward.”

“No, it’s fine…”

Valmira apologized late, but the awkward atmosphere couldn’t be undone.

After downing his beer, Soren stood up from the table.

“You’re leaving already?”

“Yeah. I have a lot to do.”

“Well, see you again, kid.”

Soren nodded in response.

He gave a farewell wave and turned toward the management office.

One drink of beer wasn’t enough to get him truly tipsy.

The bitter taste that filled his mouth lingered on his tongue.

His eyes turned toward the clock tower in the plaza.

***

The winding city.

The clock tower, where the citizens of this vast city reflected on the day and promised the coming tomorrow.

‘See you again…’

The bitter taste of beer mixed with the lingering words Gorban had casually thrown out.

See you again.

It was a common phrase among dungeon explorers.

Those who delve into dungeons often meet an untimely death, sometimes even the next day.

Soren knew this all too well.

Tomorrow, he would dive into another dungeon.

His last two dungeon explorations had been unlucky, and after two consecutive failures, surely the odds would favor him at least once.

But Soren was well aware of the dungeon’s whims.

Perhaps, he thought, his last two explorations were actually the lucky ones.

‘Just once, I’d like to have an easy dungeon dive.’

A slight smell of beer still on him, Soren gauged the distance to the inn, five minutes away.

The sun had already risen high, but the beer made him feel suddenly tired.

There was no urgent business.

He could afford to rest a little earlier today.

For tomorrow.

For the dungeon exploration that awaited.

To find the fabled treasure deep within the dungeon.

And to fulfill his father’s last wish.

Soren began to move with heavy steps.

This was already the third time.

Even a fool would get used to things by the third time, and Soren had adapted well to the dungeons.

Out of the many opportunities he had, it seemed that morning entries were always the busiest.

“Number 33!”

“Number 17, missing? Number 17!”

“I’m number 15!”

Soren stared blankly at the reception desk, which had turned into a chaotic mess.

Every morning, as usual, people who believed in superstitions rushed to grab numbers, creating a mess before everything started.

Soren didn’t particularly believe in the superstition surrounding the numbers.

He just went along with it.

“Soren, your number for today is 99.”

“Oh… 99? Hey, gambler, how did you manage to get that?”

“Ahem. I used a bit of my influence.”

“99… jackpot. I’ve got a good feeling.”

Soren’s party members, on the other hand, didn’t seem as excited.

He turned around, his expression a bit sour, to see his party members chatting and eyeing the number slip in Moss’s hand.

“99 has always been considered an auspicious number. The first knights’ order had 99 members, and there were 99 capital cities in dungeon towns, not to mention the 99 gods within the dungeons.”

Moss rambled on without a pause.

Soren could tell that Moss must have really fought for this number, considering how unusually excited he was.

“Soren, what do you think?”

“Well done. It’s fine.”

Soren responded nonchalantly and nodded.

Though he didn’t fully believe in the superstition, it was reassuring to have even a small bit of faith in something like that.

It made him feel a little more secure.

The tension in the air lessened.

No matter how many times you entered the dungeon, the tension was always there.

‘Who wouldn’t feel that way when their life was on the line?’

Soren realized that his life had become the ultimate stake.

At first, it had seemed foolish, but now it didn’t.

For explorers, the only thing they truly risked in a dungeon was their own life.

***

Ding-!

The clamor at the reception desk gradually subsided, followed by the loud sound of a bell ringing.

Thanks to the bell, the once noisy hall of the management office was suddenly quiet.

The explorers, who had finished preparing, jumped up and headed out toward their destination.

“We should go too.”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

“Well, this time, I have a good feeling.”

“No talking.”

Soren and his group followed, walking toward the well-polished floor and, eventually, the corridor that led to the many starting rooms.

‘99.’

Once Soren entered room 99, he immediately closed the door behind him.

Like before, the cramped starting room with all four of them in one space was terribly tight.

“Ugh… it’s a little cramped today.”

“It’s a bit tighter.”

“Let’s lose some weight…”

“You’re all so picky! My body’s not fat; it’s muscle!”

Despite the complaints, it wasn’t as uncomfortable as last time.

Soren’s body had grown used to it.

In this cramped space with this odd party, he was already used to it.

“Three, two, one… now.”

Clunk!

But the damned dungeon dive was something he could never get used to.

‘When will I ever get used to this?’

The third dungeon dive hit Soren like a ton of bricks, and he struggled to keep steady under the pull of gravity.

The trembling room, the flickering lantern light, and the eerie scraping of the walls all contributed to the mounting sense of dread among the explorers.

Boom!

A huge jolt gripped Soren’s body, followed by a small vibration that shot up from his feet to his spine.

His head spinning, Soren adjusted his robe and cautiously opened the door.

As soon as he opened it, the same damp, muggy air from the first dungeon greeted him.

But now, there was the added stench of rot.

Soren’s eyes scanned the area outside.

“This place is…”

Sticky air, a damp floor, puddles of stagnant water.

The biggest change was the lack of walls restricting the path.

The thick, green swamp had overtaken every direction, leaving only narrow paths visible.

Moss, who had poked his head out after him, mumbled quietly.

“Of all places… this is an ominous swamp tunnel.”

An ominous swamp tunnel.

As Soren looked at the bubbling swamp, he stepped out of the starting room.

The sticky mud clung to his boots, an unpleasant feeling.

The third dungeon dive. It loomed ahead, ominous and squirming.

Soren calmly took a step forward.

The dungeon’s darkness reached out to him.

And Soren had no choice but to respond.

“Let’s go.”

“Yeah. Here we go again.”