Chapter 256

[You failed to solve the designer Quiro’s problem within the time limit. Shortly after, the positions of the creatures within the maze will be randomly changed.]

‘What?’

The sudden announcement left me momentarily stunned.

‘What does that even mean? Randomly changing positions?’

I had just found Ho-won, who was seriously injured, and the other survivors.

But now, they’re saying our positions will be randomly changed? What does it mean that we failed to solve the problem?

‘Wait…’

I glanced at Shin Han-sol, who looked exhausted as she spoke.

“…Oppa, I think we’re in big trouble.”

“Were you trying to solve the dungeon’s problem before we got attacked?”

“…Yes.”

‘Ah, I get the gist of the situation now.’

Thanks to Han-sol’s answer, I could roughly piece together what was going on.

‘No wonder there were so few monsters in this dungeon. There was a reason.’

I’ve heard of dungeons like this before.

Usually, dungeons have powerful monsters or traps that make them difficult to conquer, but some dungeons have fewer monsters and instead rely on puzzles.

‘Damn it.’

This complicates everything.

I don’t know exactly how this random movement works, but if we’re all scattered, it’s going to be a disaster.

At least I have the ring, so I’m in a better position, but Ho-won is already seriously injured.

‘F*ck, this isn’t the time to be standing around.’

Everyone was understandably confused after hearing the announcement.

“Lee Yun-seong, what do we do…?”

Wi Ho-yeon urgently called out to me, but I didn’t have time to listen.

“Everyone, listen up. Memorize this location and regroup here. Got it?”

“Ah…”

“Try your best to make it back here…”

Whoosh—

As I was speaking, a light began to emanate from everyone’s bodies, including mine.

‘Damn it.’

Even an idiot could tell that this light meant we were about to be forcibly moved.

“Lee Yun-seong!”

Wi Ho-yeon immediately reached out and grabbed my hand, but…

‘Oh no…’

With a flash of light, I lost consciousness.

******

I felt someone shaking my body, and gradually, a voice reached my ears.

“Oppa, Yoon-seong oppa.”

“Ah.”

“Are you awake? Right now…”

“Han-sol, where are we?”

As I spoke, I frantically looked around, but the only person in sight was Shin Han-sol.

“I don’t know. We’re definitely inside the maze, but I’m not sure of the exact location…”

“…I see.”

‘At least that’s a relief.’

The worst-case scenario would’ve been being moved alongside enemies, but we avoided that.

‘Sigh.’

The problem is, there’s no guarantee that the others weren’t moved alongside enemies.

‘We need to find them quickly.’

It’s fortunate that Han-sol and I are together, but we need to hurry and find the other clan members.

“Oppa, we should find the others first…”

It seems Han-sol and I are on the same page. But before that, there’s something I need to do.

“Wait a second.”

I immediately channeled mana into the ring, hoping Seo Yoo-ju would find us.

‘She’s probably already desperate to find me.’

Given Seo Yoo-ju’s personality, she’s probably going crazy trying to locate me right now.

A situation where everyone’s positions are randomly changed wasn’t something either of us had anticipated.

‘Still, the sooner we regroup, the better.’

Han-sol and I are clearly support personnel.

If we run into beastmen or something, we’re in trouble.

Sure, I have the Chimera of Mutation Devouring, but if we’re ambushed, I won’t even have time to summon it.

‘But I can’t summon it in advance either.’

“…Alright, let’s move carefully. We don’t want to run into any enemies.”

“…Okay.”

And so, the two of us began moving cautiously.

Fortunately, by using the shadow spirit to scout ahead, we haven’t run into anyone yet.

But this method has its limits, so I occasionally relied on Han-sol’s abilities.

Of course, her mana is almost depleted, so it’s been touch and go.

“…So this is how the space works.”

When I sensed movement behind us, Han-sol quickly opened the space she had shown earlier, and we hid inside.

“Sorry, it’s a bit cramped…”

“It’s fine. This is nothing.”

It was definitely cramped. Maybe it’s because her mana is low, but it’s only big enough for three people to squeeze in.

‘So that’s why she said only three people could fit.’

Even with just the two of us, Han-sol and I were pressed tightly together.

“…Oppa, I think they’ve passed.”

‘…Can she sense what’s happening outside?’

I couldn’t tell what was going on outside, but it seems she has her own way of knowing.

As soon as we stepped out of Han-sol’s space, I sighed inwardly.

‘Phew… This is driving me crazy. Are we even going in the right direction?’

The place where we were before being scattered was still nowhere in sight.

‘Sigh, if I knew this would happen, I would’ve just called Ruska inside.’

Actually, right before we started, I had contacted Ruska.

But since the clan members don’t know about Ruska, I had ordered her to wait outside the dungeon.

‘Damn it, it’s too late for regrets now.’

There’s no way to contact the outside from inside the dungeon anyway.

And if there’s one thing that’s unfair…

‘Who could’ve guessed the dungeon’s gimmick would be like this?’

Of course, the difficulty of this maze-like dungeon is normal.

The fact that failing to solve the puzzle doesn’t summon powerful monsters or flood the dungeon means the difficulty itself isn’t the issue.

Randomly changing the positions of those inside the dungeon isn’t a big deal under normal circumstances.

It just takes a bit longer to regroup, and there aren’t any traps or anything like that.

‘The problem is that this isn’t a normal situation.’

Crack.

“…Oppa?”

Han-sol noticed my expression and flinched, but I couldn’t control my face.

‘What the hell are these guys doing? Did they all take rat poison or something? Huh?’

I can’t even begin to understand what they were thinking pulling this kind of stunt.

At this point, I’m starting to think the beastmen have all gone insane.





It’s getting serious.

‘They’re messing with Eternity and Madan? What kind of guts do they have?’

I don’t know why they attacked, but one thing was certain.

‘If even one person dies…’

If anyone on our side dies inside this dungeon, I’ll find the ones who planned this and make them suffer horribly.

“Oppa, are you okay?”

“…It’s nothing, let’s move first.”

After reassuring the anxious Shin Han-sol, we started moving.

‘Thinking about it, this kid has really bad luck.’

Come to think of it, this is Shin Han-sol’s first dungeon run.

From her perspective, this situation is a complete disaster.

‘I was too careless.’

I couldn’t pay enough attention to her feelings.

As we moved quietly, I couldn’t help but speak up.

“Han-sol, I’m sorry.”

“Huh?”

She looked confused by the sudden apology.

“No, I just realized that from your perspective, this must be a total shock.”

“Ah… that’s…”

‘She can’t really deny it. Well, it’s obvious.’

“This is your first dungeon run, right? Honestly, none of us expected something like this to happen.”

“Ah, it’s okay. I know this kind of situation is really unusual.”

‘Thank goodness.’

It was a small mercy. Honestly, if I were in her shoes, I would have declared my intention to leave the clan.

‘Damn, it’s totally understandable.’

There’s a reason why large clans are large. It’s normal to ensure that new members don’t have to go through something like this.

‘Tsk, I’m worried she might decide to quit after we get back.’

Ironically, this situation has proven Shin Han-sol’s worth even more.

‘If it weren’t for her, we’d really be in trouble.’

If it weren’t for Shin Han-sol’s abilities, we would have probably died before even arriving.

“Han-sol, thank you. I mean it. If it weren’t for your abilities, things would have gone south already.”

“No, it’s not that… but…”

Shin Han-sol seemed to have something on her mind.

“Why? Is there something bothering you…?”

“Well… I’m worried about him…”

I immediately knew who she was talking about.

“…If it’s Jae-hyo, he’s probably fine. If he was running away, he would have escaped to another place because of the phenomenon just now.”

This was partly to reassure Shin Han-sol, but it was also a plausible scenario.

If Lee Jae-hyo isn’t dead, he probably moved to another place safely due to the phenomenon…

‘Well…’

I stopped mid-thought because something caught my eye in the distance.

“Huh?”

Shin Han-sol seemed to have noticed it too. But I couldn’t pay attention to her.

‘Sigh…’

With a heavy heart, I slowly approached. At least for now, I couldn’t find the words to say.

‘……’

I quietly knelt on one knee in front of the corpse and closed my eyes tightly.

‘…This sucks.’

I didn’t know how to describe my current feelings. Just…

‘…What the hell happened here?’

The state of Lee Jae-hyo’s body was so gruesome that I couldn’t help but feel nauseous.

Forget the fact that his entire body was covered in wounds, but the sight of multiple cold weapons piercing his back and abdomen made me sigh deeply.

“Ah… ah…”

Shin Han-sol stood beside me, looking shocked and dazed.

“……”

“O-oppa… how…”

‘Sigh… damn…’

I let out a sigh and looked up.

It wasn’t the worst-case scenario, but the thing we feared the most had happened.

Suddenly, I thought about who Lee Jae-hyo was as a person.

I don’t know how others viewed him, but at least from my perspective, he was a respectable figure.

‘…Of course.’

Despite being the only founding member of Eternity, he never asked for anything. No…

‘He even gave things up.’

It was Lee Jae-hyo who temporarily handed over the Clan Master position to Yoo Ju, and if he had wanted to, he had every right to take it back.

‘But he didn’t. Instead, he gave it up cleanly.’

After our comrades died, he drowned himself in alcohol for a while, but that was understandable.

Instead, he got back up and took on all the troublesome tasks to rebuild the clan.

‘I could never have done that.’

If I were him, I wouldn’t have been able to stand up again after everyone around me died.

That was when I started to respect and treat him with the utmost regard.

There were a few more reasons why I considered him a good person.

‘He was open-minded.’

When others looked at me and Yoo Ju with the stereotypical view of being newbies, he evaluated us purely based on our abilities.

Lee Jae-hyo never dismissed us for being first-years, and instead treated us as equals, showing his magnanimity.

‘…He was foolish. He even gave up his own achievements.’

I remembered how he said that having just one spear was enough for him, and he gave all his achievements to the clan members.

‘…People need to know how to be a little greedy. That’s why this happened.’

Just looking at his body, it was clear.

If Lee Jae-hyo had prioritized his own safety and focused on running away, he definitely would have escaped.

‘…He must have bought us time until the end.’

It felt like I had seen it with my own eyes. Lee Jae-hyo must have desperately held off the enemies.

‘Why does he have that expression on his face?’

His body was a mess. He must have died in pain. But…

Lee Jae-hyo had a peaceful expression, as if he had found salvation in the end.