Dungeon Odyssey [EN]: Chapter 225

Dungeon Journal-Episode 226

# 226

Dungeon Journal

Episode 227

“Can I come with you?”

Kim Jin-woo didn’t ask why. He simply nodded slightly and stood in front of the door for a moment, giving Lee Jun-young time to prepare.

As if she had been preparing in advance, she grabbed a bag and quickly stood beside him.

By the time they arrived at the gate, the sun was already setting.

“Did they all go in already?”

The explorers who had been cursing and causing a commotion just a moment ago were nowhere to be seen. It seemed that everyone who was going in had already entered, and the gate was deserted.

“Have you arrived?”

A man, who seemed to have been arranged by Park Sung-jin, was already waiting for him and handed over the entry permit and a few items he had requested.

“These are temporary permits for both of you, prepared in a hurry, but there shouldn’t be any problem entering the underground right away.”

The permit, designed to be worn around the neck, was nothing special, but one strange thing was that Lee Jun-young’s and Kim Jin-woo’s permits were different colors.

“This underground entry is considered a large-scale request, so all the explorers who enter are registered with the association. Usually, they operate in teams or individually, but if a situation arises that cannot be resolved by a team, they have agreed to follow the association’s instructions in advance.”

The man explained at length when asked why. In short, in case of emergency, the association would take command and control the explorers, essentially asking him to take on the role of commander.

“I’m entering for personal investigation, and I don’t want to be involved in the association’s events.”

The man flinched involuntarily at the heavy tone of Kim Jin-woo’s voice, barely composed himself, and nodded.

With the message that he could use the association’s name as much as he needed, but they weren’t specifically entrusting him with anything, the man left the gate.

“Park Sung-jin is doing a good job.”

As the man left, Lee Jun-young praised the association’s handling of the situation with a slightly admiring look.

Kim Jin-woo also nodded in agreement, as the headstrong and unruly explorers seemed to be following the association’s lead better than expected.

“Let’s go in.”

He had no intention of wasting time at the entrance, so he started walking again.

Blinking.

The well-maintained passage with cement was gone, and the entrance to the underground was a complete mess.

A few lights hanging under the unsightly exposed cables flickered, making the scene even more eerie.

“Wow, it’s terrible. Just terrible.”

Lee Jun-young shuddered as she looked at the completely cracked and collapsed passage. Perhaps the damage to the underground was more severe than she had thought, as there was a hint of anxiety in her eyes as she looked around the ceiling.

“They say no one who comes from the underground is mentally sound, and I doubt the sanity of those who crawled into that place after seeing this.”

She cracked a few uncharacteristic jokes and stretched her shoulders to relieve the tension.

“So, are you going back?”

“Of course not. I’m from the underground, too.”

She smiled and shook her head, then took the lead and started walking.

“It’s even worse inside.”

They soon realized that the outside was relatively less damaged.

After repeatedly turning back due to the collapsed debris blocking the path, the path that the explorers had been using became completely useless.

“This looks like it’s connected to the lower levels.”

To make matters worse, the paved passage began to resemble the passages seen in the lower levels, further slowing down their progress.

There was a map provided by the association, but it only indicated the direction of the Chinese gate and was not detailed enough to rely on in the current situation.

“It’s fortunate that the people who went ahead left traces behind…”

The traces of battle visible here and there showed how hard the advance team had worked to clear the way.

In comparison, Kim Jin-woo and Lee Jun-young were encountering surprisingly few creatures.

“We’re lucky that we don’t have to fight with creatures. I really hate being caught up with creatures and wasting time in this situation.”

Her eyes were fixed on him as she said that, and she seemed to have guessed that the creatures were not approaching because of his presence.

It was not surprising. The presence he exuded from the moment he entered the underground was far beyond the scope of the dungeon baby [a term for someone born and raised in a dungeon] she knew.

The blue light that began to seep out from the darkness was enough to make her tremble, and the dignity that flowed from each step made her want to kneel and worship him.

*Is that the majesty of a High Lord?*

Lee Jun-young shook her head at the presence that she could not express in words.

If she, who was on the same side, was so frightened, what creature would dare to approach him?

Realizing once again what kind of being her master was, her steps became bolder. Now, she didn’t care about the traces of creatures and only followed the traces of the advance team.

“Hmm…”

Kim Jin-woo didn’t show any reaction, even though he felt her gaze, wondering what he was thinking.

“This seems to be the passage to the second floor.”

Both Kim Jin-woo and Lee Jun-young had gained stamina that was incomparable to ordinary dungeon babies by obtaining the labyrinth. Thanks to this, they were able to come this far, even though they had been walking all day without sleeping or resting, but it took them quite a long time.

“Let’s hurry.”

Kim Jin-woo, who showed no signs of fatigue and said he would increase his speed, didn’t seem human at all.

He hadn’t even had a meal or hardly drunk any water since he got here, and she wondered if he was even human.

“Hoo.”

Lee Jun-young had made remarkable progress by becoming the owner of the labyrinth, but she didn’t yet have such transcendent stamina. However, she couldn’t afford to whine on the path she had voluntarily chosen, so she sighed and followed him.

The second floor of the underground was different from the first floor. If the first floor felt like it was partially mixed with other floors, the second floor felt like the whole thing was a jumble.

Nevertheless, the association’s map, which was obviously hastily made, was quite accurate in pointing the way on the second floor, which was quite surprising.

Perhaps someone specializing in exploration had taken the time to create a map of the second floor, even if it was in a hurry.

“Ah, we finally caught up.”

Lee Jun-young turned to Kim Jin-woo at the faint sound of voices in the darkness.

“But if you keep doing that…”

However, her joy was short-lived, and she looked troubled. She seemed worried about how the other explorers would react to Kim Jin-woo, who was still exuding an overwhelming presence with blue light streaming from him.

His distinct light and presence were too bizarre to simply dismiss as a deep-level dungeon baby, so her worries were not excessive.

“Don’t worry about me.”

“Even if you say that… Ugh, okay.”

She eventually turned around with a sigh at his brazen answer and went ahead to find the voices of the other explorers.

“What, you’re a colleague.”

The explorers she met around the corner were surprisingly stiff and ready for battle, but when Lee Jun-young showed her permit and waved her hand, they belatedly relaxed their faces.

However, they didn’t let go of their weapons, which meant they were quite experienced explorers.

“We thought we were the last ones, but there was a team that started even later.”

Lee Jun-young was calm even as she watched them remain vigilant.

“We started late, and we got a little lost. The map was so terrible.”

“Still, it’s good that the direction is right.”

She casually cursed the map and the association, and the explorers chuckled and agreed with her.

“More than that, why are you so nervous? Did you smell something?”

Even though the underground had become a mess, the explorers’ attitude just now was clearly excessive. If she wasn’t mistaken, they seemed to be more than just nervous, but rather terrified.

“Our guide is a bit sensitive, and he said something about a huge monster coming.”

The explorer who said that and chided his companion mentioned something about a monster from the deep levels.

“Hey, he’s a fellow explorer, what’s with the deep-level monster stuff? Honestly, it was weird from the start when someone who’s never even been to the deep levels was trying to set the mood.”

Lee Jun-young unconsciously turned to Kim Jin-woo, who had been silent, at the word monster.

“Ah…”

Unlike before, he now had the face of an ordinary explorer. The streaming blue light was gone, and the tremendous presence had already disappeared.

The tremendous presence that the guide of the other explorer team felt was definitely his.

“By the way, your face looks familiar, are you perhaps Lee Jun-young?”

“Someone knows my face?”

“You’re quite famous.”

As Lee Jun-young was quite famous, one of the explorers recognized her and relaxed. They seemed to think that there was no need to worry about being backstabbed since she was known to be upright.

“Well, let’s share some information. We’ve been following your tails because we’re behind, so we haven’t gained anything.”

Lee Jun-young skillfully pretended to be friendly and suggested sharing information.

After learning her identity, the explorers became quite friendly and shared various information.

“Well, if you’ve come this far, you’re pretty much there. The first floor has changed quite a bit, but compared to that, the second floor has only become wider than before, and there aren’t many fierce monsters.”

If a gate was discovered, the floor connected to the second floor couldn’t be a deep floor. Perhaps because of that, the explorers seemed somewhat relaxed.

“We’re giving up on finding other gates and going to the side to stop the Chinese guys, what about you?”

“We’re going to take a look at that gate first and then decide whether to go somewhere else.”

“Then let’s act together until the gate. This guy is a pretty good guide.”

At that, Lee Jun-young turned to him and asked for his opinion. He nodded without any objection, as there was no reason to act separately, and the two teams decided to travel together.

“But did you happen to see a labyrinth while passing through the first floor?”

“Labyrinth? I didn’t see anything like that.”

The explorer who introduced himself as Bang Jun-hyuk was a quite talkative man.

He told her various stories without being asked, and Lee Jun-young was able to get news of the advance team by matching his rhythm appropriately.

“Well, the first floor suddenly changed, and a perfectly good labyrinth appeared. Some of the teams that left earlier were unlucky enough to take the path to the labyrinth, so there was a lot of damage. Still, they were carefully selected by the association, so they would have been at least from the lower levels, but they were just unlucky.”

Kim Jin-woo, who had blended into the group without standing out, nodded slightly as he heard that. He had already expected that the floor connected to the first floor would be a lower level somewhere, so it was not surprising.

“But what about that friend? I heard that your team disbanded quite a while ago.”

Lee Jun-young frowned momentarily as if recalling a past memory, but she quickly relaxed her expression when it didn’t seem like the other party had asked the question knowing the details.

She slyly rolled her eyes and gestured to Kim Jin-woo with her eyes, asking how she should introduce him.

However, perhaps because he was lost in thought, he didn’t say anything, so she honestly revealed his identity.

“Kim… Jin-woo, he’s Korea’s only dungeon baby born on the 12th floor.”

At that, the explorers stopped walking all at once and turned to look at him.

However, Kim Jin-woo, who was the center of attention, was not looking at them but was looking somewhere in the air, his black eyes moving busily as if reading something.

[Ironically, the former owner of the mask, who was trusted and believed by almost all beings in the underground, never told anyone about himself. Nevertheless, everyone who remembered him did not hesitate to name him as the most trustworthy person.]

[If you want to walk the same path as him, put on the mask of a hypocrite right now.]

[Others will only see and believe what you want them to see.]