Dungeon & Commander

Dungeon & Commander – 6

Kim Joon first whispered to Kang Jin-goo.

“What? That’s ridiculous. Don’t even think about it,” Kang Jin-goo exclaimed, jumping up.

However, after about an hour with no change in their situation, Kang Jin-goo let out a long sigh.

“…It seems we have no other choice. Can you do it?”

“If we stay put, everyone will die,” Kim Joon replied.

“Phew…”

“We have to try something,” Kim Joon said, forcing a smile.

Kang Jin-goo went over to Han So-young and whispered Kim Joon’s suggestion to her. Han So-young, shocked, looked at Kim Joon and shook her head. She then relayed the information to their leader, Kwon Joon-sang.

“Take my place for a moment,” Kwon Joon-sang said.

As Han So-young stepped into his position, Kwon Joon-sang approached Kim Joon. It felt like a bear was walking towards him.

“Newbie.”

“Yes.”

“If you get caught, you’ll be eaten.”

“…I understand.”

Kim Joon recalled the sound of the Dongbang carrier being devoured. His body trembled involuntarily.

“Can you still do it?”

“Yes,” Kim Joon answered sincerely.

“Good.”

Kwon Joon-sang informed Oh Yong-geun of the plan and then instructed Socrates’s buffer, Park Hong-sik, to cast the best buffs on Kim Joon. Speed Up, Anti-Ice, Anti-Fire—every buff Park Hong-sik knew was to be cast on Kim Joon. The buffer from Dongbang received the same orders.

Kim Joon removed his store bag and stretched his body. He moved his arms and legs smoothly. Surprisingly, he felt in good condition. If he were chased by monsters, how would his half-marathon time fare? He might break the one-hour barrier.

“Ready?”

“Yes.”

As Kim Joon replied, his body began to glow. Silver, orange, and bluish hues from various buffs enveloped him.

As he slipped between Kwon Joon-sang and Lee Gyu-tae, they both spoke almost simultaneously.

“Good luck.”

Kim Joon walked slowly to the edge of the light’s range. His legs wobbled, but he didn’t look back. He felt that if he turned around, monsters would pounce on him from the darkness.

At that moment, a light orb created by Han So-young floated above Kim Joon. Wherever he went, the light orb would follow. Kim Joon sprinted into the darkness.

The light orb followed quickly. Only the sound of his feet hitting the ground and his heavy breathing filled the air. Soon, the heavy thudding of monsters’ footsteps grew closer.

The roar sounded as if it was right next to him, and the pounding footsteps of the pursuing monsters were deafening. Despite the bone-chilling fear, Kim Joon found himself becoming calm. He shortened his stride and increased his pace, switching to a running style more suited for short distances rather than long ones.

A white dinosaur appeared directly in front of him, spewing icy breath from its mouth. Kim Joon threw himself to the side. Even though he only brushed against the cold, his clothes stiffened with frost. Without the buffs, his arms and legs would have frozen, and he would have collapsed, ending his life there.

Rolling to his feet, Kim Joon continued running without losing speed. He recalled something he had seen in a dungeon documentary. Running in a straight line, he suddenly switched to a zigzag pattern.

A sliding sound came from behind him.

Then, a strange noise came from ahead, like the sound of branches clashing in the wind.

‘Ah!’

Recognizing the sound, Kim Joon pushed his speed to the maximum. Just as his breath caught in his throat, an overgrown forest appeared within the light’s range. It was the moving forest he had seen when he first entered the dungeon.

Kim Joon knew well how dangerous that forest was. In the early days of dungeon exploration, raiders, ignorant of the forest’s dangers, had ventured in out of curiosity and disappeared. Five large monsters, Wyresisauruses, had been trapped in that forest, slowly absorbed by the trees and roots, a scene accidentally witnessed by a German raider. The raider had named the living forest “Schwarzwald.”

Just before the icy storm from the Gelusaurus struck his back, Kim Joon dove into the Schwarzwald. The thick trees and intertwined tough vines deflected some of the cold and absorbed the rest.

The Gelusaurus, enraged, roared and slashed at the vines with its sharp claws, pursuing Kim Joon into the forest. Two hesitant Gelusauruses followed their kin into the woods.

Kim Joon climbed a large ancient tree, stepping on broken branches. The sticky sap on his hands felt unpleasant, but he had no time to worry about it. Scrambling up, his palms raw and his pants torn, a silver claw slammed into the ground just below his carrier boots.

He saw its eyes—cold, snake-like, diamond-shaped eyes.

Three Gelusauruses formed a triangle around the tree Kim Joon clung to, one watching him while the other two pounded the tree trunk with their bodies.

Thud. Thud.

As Kim Joon lost his grip on a knot and slid down, the watching Gelusaurus leaped up, swiping its claws. Just before the crescent-shaped claws could sever his ankle, vine-like tendrils shot out from the gnarled roots, wrapping around the Gelusaurus and pulling it down.

The massive monster was quickly entangled by the vines, immobilized. Kim Joon tumbled onto the Gelusaurus’s head.

Standing on its snout, Kim Joon met the Gelusaurus’s gaze. The saying that eyes reveal the soul felt true; beyond those enormous eyes was only one thing—the predatory instinct to kill.

Kim Joon leaped onto a thick, moss-covered root.

The vines dragged the Gelusaurus down. Despite its roars and struggles, it couldn’t overcome the might of the Schwarzwald. Bones snapped, legs twisted, and the vines pulled it into the ground.

Watching the death of the three Gelusauruses, Kim Joon recoiled in shock as a vine crept towards his foot.

Kim Joon carefully emerged from the forest, moving away from the range of the Schwarzwald’s light. He scanned his surroundings but saw no signal yet. Though he wanted to sit and rest, he couldn’t. Some of the monsters chasing him hadn’t entered the Schwarzwald. Slowly approaching were Gelusauruses and Pyrosauruses.

The chase resumed.

Competing storms of ice and fire flew towards Kim Joon. As he turned left, a fireball grazed his back and disappeared into the darkness. Rolling to the right, his clothes and hair froze from the icy wind.

Then, piercing the darkness, a flare shot upwards.

The signal!

Kim Joon sprinted towards it. Two red Pyrosauruses blocked his path, but he narrowly dodged their terrifying claws and kept running. The signal flare grew closer, and he saw the island of light beyond the darkness.

His breath came in gasps, and his limbs felt like they were no longer his own.

‘Just a bit more!’

Gritting his teeth, Kim Joon entered the light’s range, with seven monsters hot on his heels. As if waiting for this moment, a massive barrage of magical attacks rained down on the monsters. It was an impossible feat for Han So-young alone.

Among those attacking was the young girl Kim Joon had seen at the dungeon entrance.

“Good job, well done,” Kang Jin-goo said, handing him a water bottle.

After drinking the entire bottle, Kang Jin-goo gave him a chocolate bar. Kim Joon ate it and then collapsed, his chest heaving.

After a moment, the area grew quiet. As Kim Joon tried to sit up, Han So-young pressed his shoulder down.

“Stay down. You’ve done your part for today. Fortunately, other teams have found us.”

“But I need to collect the cores…”

“That’s an order from the leader,” Han So-young said, nodding towards Kwon Joon-sang, who was watching them.

Kwon Joon-sang quickly looked away.

“…Thank you.”

“No, it’s us who should thank you,” Han So-young said with a bright smile.

Kang Jin-goo and the other carriers swiftly completed the core collection.

A short while later, the leader of the Han River team ordered a retreat. Finally, they were heading out of the dungeon.

Kim Joon’s back felt heavy as he approached the gate. His store bag was filled with cores extracted from the monsters.

Oh Yong-geun, the leader of Dongbang, decided not to take any cores from this expedition. He gave all his share to the Socrates team, grateful just to have survived.

As the gate opened and Kim Joon stepped outside, he handed the store bag to the dungeon manager. The manager meticulously recorded the types and weights of the cores before stacking them in a large metal box. The cores would be sent to a facility under the Dungeon Association for special processing.

The sun was setting.

Kim Joon sat next to Kang Jin-goo, who was smoking a cigarette. After the ordeal inside, the world outside looked incredibly beautiful.

“You did well today,” Kang Jin-goo said, reaching out to pat Kim Joon’s shoulder.

“…I don’t even know what happened,” Kim Joon said.

“Today’s raid was a first for me too,” Kang Jin-goo replied.

“Really?”

“After today, that dungeon will probably be closed. A reconnaissance team will be sent to check for any changes inside. It might get reclassified. From what I saw, it could be upgraded to at least D-grade, maybe even C-grade.”

“Ah!”

Oh Yong-geun approached them.

“Good job,” he said, extending his hand.

Kim Joon, flustered, looked at Kang Jin-goo, who nodded. Kim Joon then shook Oh Yong-geun’s hand politely.

“Thank you.”

“See you again.”

“Yes.”

Kim Joon watched as Oh Yong-geun led his team down Bukaksan. Perhaps it was because they had lost team members, but Oh Yong-geun’s shoulders seemed particularly heavy.

Next, Kwon Joon-sang approached and stood in front of him.

“Newbie.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Sir?”

“…Well, Dealer Han So-young called you that.”

“Well, that title works. We survived today thanks to you. Your name is Kim Joon, right?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll remember it.”

With that, Kwon Joon-sang walked over to the dungeon manager.

Lee Gyu-tae, Park Hong-sik, and Han So-young gathered around Kim Joon, recounting the thrilling moments from earlier. Kim Joon could feel that he had been accepted by them. It was an indescribably good feeling.

A celebration followed.

However, Kim Joon couldn’t attend the after-party for the awakened ones. There was an invisible barrier between carriers and raiders. Seeing this, Kang Jin-goo took Kim Joon to another gathering—the carriers’ after-party.

There, they shared ordinary stories of ordinary people. Everyone praised Kim Joon’s performance.

“You’ll be popular. If this gets broadcasted, that is.”

“…Broadcast?”

Kim Joon suddenly thought of his mother and younger sibling.

“Carrier feats are rare. Awakened ones are special because they have innate abilities, so they fight well and have a higher chance of survival in dungeons. But carriers aren’t like that. Most viewers are ordinary people like carriers, so if this gets aired, everyone will know you.”

After a few drinks, Kang Jin-goo became more talkative.

Kim Joon took a sip of cola, feeling the weight on his heart grow heavier. The joy of returning safely from the dungeon quickly faded.

‘What should I do?’ he sighed.

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***

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The after-party extended late into the night with the addition of Guild Master Go Chul-min and Choi Moo-hyun. Even though Kim Joon left midway, it was already past midnight.

With the subway closed, he trudged home, looking up to see the full moon shining brightly. The cold air made the moon appear pale.

People who had been drinking were staggering along the street. An office worker was out on the road trying to hail a taxi for his boss. A woman hurried by, talking on her phone. The world was functioning normally, as it should.

Having nearly lost his life in the dungeon today, Kim Joon felt as if it had all been a dream. At the same time, he was filled with immense pride. Those ordinary people would never experience the darkness, the despair, or the exhilaration he had felt. They couldn’t even imagine the solemn atmosphere of sharing names in the face of death.

When dungeons first appeared, people were shocked but quickly adapted. Even stories that seemed like fiction became reality, and people adjusted. Now, the world was divided into two distinct parts: the dark, perilous world of dungeons experienced by a few ordinary people like carriers and awakened ones, and the normal world where people worried about promotions and their children’s futures.

As he neared home, the worries he had momentarily forgotten resurfaced. If the raid was broadcasted, everyone would recognize him. Others didn’t matter as much; the problem was his mother and younger sibling. His mother, who had lost her husband to a dungeon, would never allow it.

At the entrance of the apartment, his mother was waiting.

“…Mom?”

“You’re back.”

Her voice was different from usual. How did she know? The raid hadn’t been broadcasted yet.

“Why are you out here?”

“To see my son.”

“…Really?”

Kim Joon, sensing something was off, walked up to the fourth floor with his mother. His younger sibling was asleep.

“Joon, come in for a moment.”

His mother called him into the master bedroom. As Kim Joon sat on a small chair, his mother sat on the bed and began to speak.

“The guild master came by earlier.”

“…What?”

“He told me you joined the Uramata Guild.”

“Mom…”

“I never understood why you studied so hard for the past two years, like your life depended on it, and got perfect scores. If the guild master hadn’t come to see me today, I might never have known.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You went into the dungeon today, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

Kim Joon, head bowed, silently cursed the guild master for revealing the truth without asking him.

“I’m glad you came back safely. When I heard that, my heart sank. Are you going to keep going in there?”

Kim Joon couldn’t say anything. He couldn’t even look at his mother.

“Sigh…”

His mother let out a deep sigh.

“I… I…”

Tears welled up in Kim Joon’s eyes.

“No matter how much I try to stop you, you’ll keep going in there, won’t you? Your father was the same. That blood runs in you too.”

“Mom…”

Kim Joon looked up at his mother. She was worried about him but knew she couldn’t change his mind.

“You must be tired. Go rest.”

Entering his room, Kim Joon let out a long sigh. He had always known this day would come. He couldn’t deceive his mother forever. Now that the moment had arrived, it hurt. Every time he entered a dungeon, his mother would be reminded of her husband’s death.

Thinking of his mother, he knew he shouldn’t go near dungeons. But thinking of his father made his blood boil. He couldn’t resist.

‘I need to get stronger. I need to be more agile. That way, my chances of coming back alive will be higher.’

Kim Joon steeled his resolve.