Retire 339

339 Almighty Mage (3)

“Ugh.”

The moment he crossed the gate, a crushing pressure weighed down on his entire body. Kim Chaemin let out an involuntary groan between clenched teeth. At the same time, he raised a shield around himself.

He had rarely experienced such oppressive force before. The last time he’d felt something like this was…

The Siren Dungeon.

An S-rank dungeon.

Fortunately, there was no attack waiting to ambush him the moment he entered. He must not forget that dungeon in Jirisan. No matter the dungeon, the moment right after a hunter steps through the gate is always when they are most vulnerable. The Jirisan dungeon may have been low-ranked, but what that fairy had done there would have been enough to warrant an S-rank. It was dangerous enough that even a veteran hunter could have lost their life in an instant.

From now on, he would make sure to enter with a shield up for safety. Especially in dungeons as mysterious as this one.

“……”

There was no sign of anything near the gate.

Still, Kim Chaemin didn’t let his guard down and scanned his surroundings. Since the location was close to the harbor, he had wondered if there might be something, but just like outside, the salty scent of the sea was the first thing he noticed.

Ssshhhh…

Waves crashed against a white sandy beach.

If not for the ominous magic swirling in the air, it would have looked beautiful enough to be mistaken for a resort. The sky, as if overflowing with stars, only added to that impression.

But if he were the sort to be distracted by mere scenery, Kim Chaemin would never have survived long enough to become an archmage. Confirming that there was no sign of monsters in the sea, he turned his gaze away. The dungeon where the siren had appeared had forced his hand because of the footing, but generally, dungeons near the seaside were not favorable for him. After all, plants from the sea were not within his domain.

The beach stretched endlessly, and on the opposite side of the sea was the most common dungeon type: a forest. The forest was vast as well. Even if not for the toll he’d paid to pass through the gate, the sheer size of this place would have warranted a high initial ranking.

There was no doubt that Hong Seokyeong and Woo Heejae had entered this dungeon. The question was, where in this vast place were they?

It wasn’t as if this was their first time tackling a dungeon. Seeing this size, they must have made some plans. Hong Seokyeong might seem thoughtless on the surface, but when it came to dungeon strategy, he was among the world’s foremost experts, not just in combat ability. There was no dungeon core in sight, no sign of what monsters might be here… If contact was lost, they would have known that someone—some particular archmage—would come looking for them.

Kim Chaemin walked along the beach, glancing around.

Good thing he’d changed into comfortable clothes, just in case. He frowned as his feet sank deeply into the sand with every step.

It wasn’t long before Kim Chaemin found the traces he’d been searching for. There was a blackened mark scorched into the sand. As if oil had been poured and burned, the charred trail drew a thin line. Just like when Woo Heejae wielded his sword and set it alight.

“…Hmm.”

The lines converged to form an arrow.

The arrow pointed toward the forest. Kim Chaemin glanced once in the direction it indicated, then approached the mark. Even now, a faint trace of magic lingered in the scorched sand. Kim Chaemin twitched his nose. There was a faint smell of burning.

To be precise, Woo Heejae’s sword was more about converting the user’s magic into flame. It did not create something from nothing. Therefore, the flames produced by that sword always bore a strong residue of Woo Heejae’s magic. From what Kim Chaemin had observed so far, for this much magic to remain…

‘…They passed through here longer ago than I thought?’

It had been a week since Woo Heejae and Hong Seokyeong went down to Busan. It had been about that long since Woo Irok started getting anxious after losing contact with his brother.

And the faint magic lingering before Kim Chaemin’s eyes now would have been clear only about a week ago. He could recognize it only because he knew about Woo Heejae’s sword and its properties; otherwise, he might have missed it entirely.

‘That means they investigated the warehouse as soon as they arrived in Busan, and came in here right after…’

Clearing a dungeon of this scale in just a week would be difficult. That much he understood.

But the gate was wide open, and there were no monsters blocking it. If the raid was taking too long, they could have stepped out, regrouped, and come back in. Failing that, they could have simply told people they would be out of contact due to an unregistered dungeon.

They hadn’t done any of that. Hong Seokyeong, perhaps, but for Woo Heejae not to leave even a word for his younger brother was unexpected.

Why?

Did they think they’d be out quickly, but lost track of time because the dungeon was so large?

Or had they gotten into a situation where they couldn’t come out at all?

Kim Chaemin brushed away the sand around the arrow with the tip of his shoe.

If he hadn’t been carefully searching, pondering what might have happened to the two, even a mage sensitive to magic might have missed it.

Kim Chaemin narrowed his eyes.

The pure white sand sparkled even though there was no sunlight. That was why it took him a moment to realize that the glitter was not just from the sand itself.

Kim Chaemin lifted his foot, which had been scuffing at the sand. To the eye, it looked like ordinary sand, but after stepping on it, something sticky and viscous clung to the sole of his shoe like grass.

Whether it could really be called sand was questionable…

Kim Chaemin wiped it off by rubbing his shoe against real sand. He didn’t know exactly what it was, but it was blood. Monster blood.

Kim Chaemin walked in the direction the arrow pointed.

---

By Archmage Kim Chaemin’s standards, plants could not live in the sea.

By Archmage Kim Chaemin’s standards, plants that grew in dungeons were not truly plants.

Even if the word “grass” appeared in their names, mana grass was not real grass. If it were, he could simply abandon all these troublesome rituals and grow them with his usual magic.

The nameless plants often found inside dungeons did not respond to Kim Chaemin’s magic. He even wondered if they were truly alive. No, they were alive, but had they sprouted naturally? That he could not tell. Things like mana grass had clear peculiarities and were easy to identify, but most of the trees found in dungeons like Jirisan didn’t seem to possess true vitality. They were like fake trees planted on a miniature map.

Still, it wasn’t as if there was no way.

The reason Hong Seokyeong, usually so sparing with praise for mages, had taken such interest in Kim Chaemin and kept him around was precisely because of this.

Though he had refused the proposal to hunt down bad guys, Kim Chaemin had never turned down requests for dungeon break management or dungeon raids. In any case, it felt good to show off his competence and be admired!

Kim Chaemin clapped his hands together, as if applauding himself.

He licked his lips with his tongue, as if savoring a delicious meal set before him.

Even if every tree in the dungeon was fake, as long as there was earth, that was enough. As long as there was ground, Kim Chaemin’s beloved roses…

Rumble, rumble, rumble…

…would fill the dungeon.

“I haven’t had a chance to make them bloom like this in a while.”

It might be nice to do this on purpose from time to time. It felt as refreshing as finishing a long-overdue cleaning.

Kim Chaemin closed his eyes and focused. He synchronized his senses with the rose vines. The vines split into dozens of branches and began to explore the dungeon. Sometimes they stretched out at random, sometimes they bent according to Kim Chaemin’s will.

Roses bloomed. Crimson roses. A sign that Kim Chaemin had finished his inspection.

A rush of information flooded his mind, making his head spin. But the dizziness passed in an instant. Smiling in satisfaction, Kim Chaemin moved the vines.

This was Kim Chaemin’s magic. His unique magic.

Roses in full bloom.

No one could hide from the roses.

—What’s going on?

Found them.

—Just now, there was a surge of magic…

—Magic?

—There was a strange movement.

Wow.

They’d gone far.

Was the dungeon that big? Or was it something else?

The vines, which had been spreading endlessly, began to move in one direction.

The voices came from underground. The tip of the vine burrowed into the earth and took root.

—Ah. With this…

Even so, having seen Kim Chaemin’s magic a few times, Hong Seokyeong seemed to have caught on, his voice tinged with relief.

In truth, Kim Chaemin wasn’t hearing their conversation directly. He was only sensing the waves of magic and roughly interpreting them in his mind.

But in this mysterious domain, that was enough.

Kim Chaemin smiled gently with his eyes closed. Magic gathered at the tip of the root that had burrowed into the earth. As long as they were safe, that was enough. If they were alive, he could bring them out.

That was why Kim Chaemin had come.

For Archmage Kim Chaemin, nothing was impossible.

He transformed the magic gathered at the tip of the root into a flower. There was no way they would fail to recognize those red petals.

He felt a careful hand grasp the rose blossom. It was Woo Heejae.

—Mr. Kim? You got here quickly.

—You could say I’m late, actually.

“……”

That man, honestly.

—How long has it been since we entered the dungeon?

—About a week, I think.

—I thought you’d find us sooner.

—But Mr. Hong is with you. Honestly, a week is fast.

—Is that so? Anyway, now that Mr. Kim is here, we can finally resolve this situation.

—That’s a relief, but…

There was a hint of trouble in their tone. Kim Chaemin tilted his head, then shrugged. He’d find out soon enough once he got there.

The direction… From here, about two o’clock. The distance was a bit far, but there were no other presences along the way. It wasn’t as if there were no monsters in the dungeon, but perhaps Woo Heejae and Hong Seokyeong had already dealt with them.

In any case, if there were no monsters, it would be easy to move. Kim Chaemin severed his synchronization with the magic. If something touched the vines, he would know, but even an archmage couldn’t travel while taking in all that information at once.

After all, archmages weren’t truly omnipotent!

Besides, using magic over such a wide area inevitably weakened his own defenses. He’d seen monster blood earlier. Even if Woo Heejae and Hong Seokyeong had cleaned up, there was no telling what might be left. Considering the oppressive force he’d felt passing through the gate, the monsters in this dungeon were unlikely to be ordinary.

So…

“……!”

A chill ran down Kim Chaemin’s spine, making every hair on his body stand on end. He layered shield upon shield around himself. It wasn’t just precaution.

It was instinct.

The instinct that somewhere, a beast was stalking him.

Ssshhhh…

There wasn’t a hint of wind inside the dungeon. The waves lapping at the shore were as peaceful as could be. Just a moment ago, he’d thought the blue sea looked like a resort.

Now, that blue sea was turning red.

And from within that crimson sea, something rose.

Red water dripped from ashen hair. The liquid did not soak into the hair, as if it were oil on paper.

A monster—whether human or not, he could not say—crawled out of the sea and smiled at Kim Chaemin.