Chapter 33 - The Key

It happened in the blink of an eye, before I had time to react. The Dragon Bone Sword had begun rapidly absorbing energy from the Sword Wraiths. Soon it was radiating energy so fiercely that I could no longer control it. At last it tore free of my grip and flew through the air toward the central statue.

"Everyone, get out of the way!"

"W-what the hell?"

"What is that—?"

At my urgent shout, the other hunters turned to look. They had probably never seen anything like it either: a sword escaping its wielder's control and flying wherever it pleased.

The hunters ducked and twisted aside to avoid the Dragon Bone Sword, while Taeseong, their leader, began casting a spell in case something went wrong. But before his spell could activate, the sword lodged in the base of the huge statue with a resounding

CLANG!

All of it had happened in just a few seconds.

For a moment, the sheer impossibility of what I'd just witnessed brought my thoughts to a halt. Why had the sword suddenly flown off on its own? How was I supposed to fight without it? Should I move toward the statue where Taeseong stood under the others' cover? But that was where the sword had gone. Wouldn't it be even more dangerous over there? ... What was I supposed to do now? In that split second, so many thoughts tangled together that my head felt overloaded.

Then, the instant the sword lodged in the statue, the countless black masses of wraiths stopped all at once, as if they were a single body.

"...!"

As the strange phenomenon continued, the hunters began to murmur. The monsters that had been attacking us moments ago had all stopped moving the instant the sword struck the statue. But it didn't end there. Suddenly, the Sword Wraiths rose into the sky together.

"What... am I looking at?"

"My God."

"What on earth is about to happen...?"

Half wonder, half fear. Every hunter, myself included, stopped attacking and stared up at the sky as though entranced, murmuring over the inexplicable sight. Gates might be places where all sorts of bizarre things happened beyond humanity's current understanding... but I'd never heard of anything like this.

Then, a moment later—

"Holy shit...!"

The wraiths, which had been giving off a gloomy black glow, began to change color. From pitch-black to bright rainbow hues.

"Huh..."

Hunters pulled phones from their pockets to film the spectacle. I turned the drone Sia had given me to capture it all as well. Then, not long afterward, the wraiths released a blinding flash like an exploding supernova and vanished without a trace.

"..."

After the wraiths abruptly disappeared, the hunters looked back down. The Sword Wraiths that had been appearing without end until just before the flash were no longer coming.

"Taeseong, the time isn't up yet, is it?"

"No. We've still got about thirty minutes before the three hours are up..."

Taeseong clutched his head at the hunter's question. The monsters had suddenly vanished before the three hours were even over.

"I have no idea what just happened either..."

While everyone stood there dumbfounded, Taeseong pointed toward the statue where my sword was embedded. "By the way, Minjun, about your sword. What happened there?"

"I... don't really know either. I was swinging it like usual, and it suddenly flew off." I suspected it might have something to do with the dragon's power, but I didn't know the exact reason myself. To find out what had happened, I headed toward the statue.

Looking at where the blade had gone in, I could see it was lodged so firmly that practically only the hilt was visible. And yet the strange thing was... the statue hadn't cracked. A sturdy sword made from dragon bone had flown into it at an estimated speed of over 100 kilometers per hour. No matter how hard the statue was, how could it have suffered no damage at all?

As I wondered about that, the other hunters gathered in little groups to inspect the sword.

"My God."

"How did it go in so cleanly?"

"I know, right? How's that even possible?"

While the others marveled and took pictures, Taeseong spoke up. "There was already a deep slot here."

"A slot that was there before?"

"Yes. I saw it when I first came here, about a year ago. There was a slot right around here." Taeseong pointed to where the sword was lodged. I hadn't had time to examine the statue closely earlier, which was why I hadn't noticed. He searched through his phone, found a photo he'd taken before, and showed it to me. "Here. See?" Just as he'd said, a slot exactly wide enough for a sword had already been cut into the middle of the statue.

Taeseong told me about when they'd first discovered it. "At first, we thought it was just wear from age, but when we looked closer, the edges were too clean for that." He'd been certain the slot had been made deliberately when the statue was built. He and the guild members who had raided the dungeon gate with him back then had discussed what it might be for, but they'd never uncovered any secret hidden there. Someone had even shoved something into the hole, but nothing had happened, of course. Eventually, they'd let it go.

"But now that this has happened, I'm curious again. Why did your sword fly off by itself, Minjun? And why did it land exactly in that slot?"

Juwon, who had been quietly watching beside him, offered a casual thought. "Looking at it now, maybe the slot was made for a sword from the start? It's a perfect fit."

Taeseong shot him a reproachful look. "Why would anyone stick a sword in a statue for no reason?"

"Well, sure... but the hole fits so perfectly..." Taeseong had taken an offhand remark seriously, and Juwon scratched his head in embarrassment.

"I'll have to tell Team Leader Jeong soon. The guild should probably investigate." Taeseong muttered it almost to himself, then looked at me and stepped aside. "But first, we'd better get your sword out, Minjun."

"Oh, right." So many strange things had happened in succession that I'd forgotten to pull it out. I gripped the hilt and tugged. Thankfully, the sword came out smoothly. But the moment it did—

RRRRUMBLE.

The ground suddenly began to shake.

"Aaaah!"

"Ah, shit! What now?"

Everyone screamed and scrambled away as soon as the shaking started.

We'd already witnessed two things you didn't see every day—a flying sword and monsters vanishing into thin air. No one had expected anything else to happen. But then a hunter who had fled farthest from the statue pointed at it, his voice trembling. "Why... is it only shaking over there?" He was right. Strangely, only the ground near the statue was shaking. Everywhere else looked perfectly stable.

Before we could even wonder why, the ground near the statue began to split open. As it parted, a staircase leading underground appeared.

"I'm getting tired of being surprised."

"... Wow."

As the hunter beside me had said, one astonishing thing really was happening after another. "I've decided to give up trying to understand anything that happens here." "Me too. My head's starting to pound." As the hunters shared their reactions, I stared silently at the underground staircase, whose end I couldn't see.

The dungeon's name, the Garden of the Dragon Sword. The Dragon Bone Sword flying out of my hand toward the statue. The Sword Wraiths vanishing all at once. And now a secret passage discovered for the first time today. Could all of this really be coincidence?

'No way.'

Considering everything, it seemed highly likely I was the reason these things had happened.

If so, I had only one choice. I had to go down those stairs somehow and find out why all these coincidences had occurred. But would things go my way? Looking at it objectively, I wasn't the party leader, and I didn't even belong to the guild. I was an outsider. They had no reason to do as I asked. If they decided to withdraw and have the guild send a separate investigation team later, I'd lose my chance to enter this part of the dungeon now. Just as I was wondering how to persuade them—

[The dungeon's rank and clear conditions have changed.]

A notification appeared before my eyes.

[Rank: D->EX

Clear conditions: Reach the lowest level of *'s tomb, then *]

The other hunters began murmuring too. Apparently, the same notification had appeared for them.

"... No way!"

"EX-rank?"

"Then how the hell are we supposed to get out?"

"Taeseong, what do we do now?"

It was utter chaos.

I'd wanted to go down those stairs and uncover the secret lying dormant in this dungeon gate... but this wasn't how I'd wanted it to happen. An EX rank was assigned when a dungeon couldn't be classified anywhere from F to SSS. That meant the difficulty of clearing it had either become incredibly easy... or nearly impossible.

'The latter is more likely.'

The hunters were panicking because they knew that too. Worse still, the clear conditions weren't even fully stated. How were we supposed to clear it when we didn't know the conditions?

While everyone was in a panic, one hunter suddenly grabbed me by the collar. "This is all your fault, isn't it? If it weren't for your sword, none of this would've happened!"

I could understand why he felt that way. The fear that we might fail to clear the dungeon and die trapped here could make it hard to think as calmly as usual. But that didn't excuse what he was doing. "Let go of me." I knocked his hand off my collar.

At the same time, Taeseong and the other hunters began trying to stop him.

"Seongmin, get a hold of yourself. Hey!"

"Kim Seongmin, what's gotten into you?"

"You think Minjun trapped us here on purpose? If we can't leave the dungeon, he's stuck too!"

Only after the others pulled him back did the hunter they called Seongmin come to his senses and apologize. "... I'm sorry. I know it's not your fault, Minjun..." "It's all right. I understand." Once that brief commotion had passed, I pointed toward the stairs.

"Then I guess we have no choice but to go down these stairs." Taeseong nodded. "It's our only option." After a deep sigh, he opened his pocket dimension. "We don't know what will happen down there, so let's take a moment to prepare before we go in."

At his warning, some of the hunters swallowed nervously and began opening their pocket dimensions. A few put on additional equipment. After that incident in the gate, Sia had upgraded all my equipment because she was worried something might happen to me. Still, if this was EX-rank, I ought to take out everything I could. I took out and equipped every artifact I could wear, and set aside a few elixirs, considered the best potions in existence.

Once I was ready, before entering the underground passage, I looked straight into the camera of the drone Sia had given me. It had been running since we'd entered the dungeon. Sia wouldn't be watching me live right now, but somehow the camera felt like her eyes.

'I'll be back.'

I wished Sia could have been here beside me. Still, having that drone camera with me was strangely reassuring.

'Well then, let's go.'

It was time to uncover the secret of this tomb.