Retire 463
by Cristae463 Nightmare of All Hunters (3)
Han Taekyung being Han Taekyung was nothing new, and Daniel’s stay at Yangseong High had not been a brief one, either.
In other words, this American had long since grown used to Han Taekyung’s eccentricities.
Daniel looked a bit flustered, but nodded as if he understood.
…Did he really understand?
Daniel looked at Han Taekyung’s face. Probably sunglasses. That man was a hunter who entered dungeons, and as a healer, he must have seen more injuries than most. He could probably guess why Han Taekyung insisted on wearing sunglasses even inside a dungeon. Even Father had assumed Han Taekyung’s eyes were injured.
It wasn’t a wrong assumption. We’d simply glossed over it for lack of a better explanation, and Daniel hadn’t pressed the issue further….
“Well then,” Father said, shaking his head and adopting a serious expression.
This was Hunter Hong Seokyeong.
“Let’s talk about how we’re going to find this clever bastard.”
The method for drawing out a hidden monster isn’t complicated.
The higher the intelligence, like with fairies, the simpler it becomes.
Besides, we already know the location of the core in this dungeon.
All we have to do is go destroy the core. If the fairy tries to interfere, we deal with it; if it doesn’t show itself, we simply finish the conquest.
Personally, I’d much prefer the latter… though I know that’s unlikely. Still, everyone’s allowed to dream, aren’t they? It’s not too much to wish for a peaceful, easy conquest at least once. And if it went beyond a mere wish and actually happened, that would be even better.
Of course, that didn’t happen.
“…….”
Father’s hands moved quickly, signaling instructions.
‘Proceed with the core as planned. Beware of the fairy.’
This dungeon had a basin-like terrain. Aside from the area where the moles lived, the rest was rugged, rocky ground, and the core was nestled among those rocks. It lay almost directly in line with the gate. The dungeon was large, but its structure was simple. If we hadn’t been distracted by the basin’s plants, we would have reached the core quickly.
Well, to be fair, wandering the basin was partly to look for the fairy rumored to be somewhere in this dungeon, so it wasn’t Kim Chaemin’s fault.
We’d been asked to clear the dungeon, and there’s no way America would try to claim ownership of the dungeon’s spoils. If Kim Chaemin got his hands on rare dungeon plants, it would ultimately benefit us as well.
‘Beware of the young fairies. If they move as a swarm, it could be dangerous.’
We didn’t know what kind of power the fairies in this dungeon might have.
But it wasn’t as if there was only one fairy in the world. There were general countermeasures. First and foremost: don’t get too close.
‘They may not be visible.’
After confirming a few more points, Father finally gave the order to move.
The dungeon fell into silence.
We were far from the moles that had once rolled in the basin’s dirt, and the baby fairies, trailing golden dust, now flitted by without a sound.
The hunters of Guild Mimi weren’t careless enough to make noise with their footsteps. Daniel was no different.
The core wasn’t in a particularly conspicuous place. It wasn’t hidden in a cave or anything, but it lay at the bottom of a steep slope, not immediately visible at first glance.
That much was noted in the previous dungeon survey reports, and I had factored it into the conquest plan.
‘Core confirmed.’
There it was, glittering at the bottom of the slope.
With skilled hunters, there was no need to go all the way down the dozens of meters to smash the core. If there were no interference, we could destroy it from here. Throwing a spear, for instance. If someone had a ranged weapon, that would be quite effective.
That was our first plan.
“……!”
And we would have carried it out, if Han Taekyung hadn’t stopped us.
The moment Han Taekyung saw the core, his face hardened.
He tried to communicate something in sign, but, unable to contain his frustration, he finally spoke aloud.
“…No. We can’t.”
“What?”
“We can’t go down there.”
Han Taekyung ran his hands roughly through his hair.
“It’s just… down there…! That is, uh.”
For once, Han Taekyung was at a loss for words, waving his hands in the air. Nothing seemed to be attacking us at the moment, so…
I looked carefully at the slope below, where Han Taekyung was pointing. What I could see and what Han Taekyung could see were different. But if there was some kind of trap, if it used magic, I might be able to sense it, too.
“…Spiderweb?”
At the same moment Han Taekyung finally found the right word, I caught a faint glimmer of something as well.
I couldn’t see it as clearly as Han Taekyung had. If we’d been indoors, or if the background had been less varied, I might have noticed sooner. But with the uneven shadows cast by the piles of rocks, it was hard to see anything at all.
“It’s like… a bunch of spiderwebs….”
They were very fine threads. So faint and scattered that I wouldn’t have noticed them if Han Taekyung hadn’t said anything.
Han Taekyung had found the right word. Spiderwebs. They were densely woven around the core. At times, they even glimmered gold.
“What’s down there?” Daniel asked, peering at the core as Han Taekyung had said. But he didn’t seem to see anything. I looked at Father, Kim Chaemin, and Hope for confirmation. Father and Kim Chaemin shook their heads slightly, but Hope tilted his head. He didn’t have eyes like Han Taekyung, but as a former fairy, he sometimes sensed things others could not.
Han Taekyung clarified his words.
“It’s best not to go down there. There’s a lot laid out. In my experience, nothing good will come from touching it.”
“Hmm. Mr. Kim, can you lay some roses down there?”
“Wouldn’t they explode if they touched it?”
Kim Chaemin looked down with a worried expression, his lips twitching.
“The core should prevent any explosions. Still, just in case, everyone stay behind me.”
Kim Chaemin began weaving his magic.
“Land where wildflowers dance for you.”
With a soft murmur, green grass began to sprout at Kim Chaemin’s feet. Unlike his usual magic, there were no flamboyant roses or vines. But as his crimson mana mingled with the sea of green, it looked like a field in full bloom.
That field, brimming with life, crept across the rocks…
“Oh.”
The area around the core began to tremble.
The still air was torn apart. Perhaps because of the intrusion of external magic, even the dungeon’s mana, which had been slowly circling the core, was ripped apart. It wavered, screamed, and awakened.
The spiderwebs Han Taekyung had mentioned caught the starlight from the dungeon’s ceiling, glittering like golden threads. If they weren’t a trap meant to ensnare hunters, it might have been a beautiful sight.
Thud. Rumble…
Then the ground at the bottom of the slope began to collapse.
The earth shook—so much that it was hard to stay upright. We hurriedly retreated when we saw the ground caving in beneath the core, but only the area inside the slope collapsed, as if marked by a boundary. The core hovered in midair, gleaming as if mocking us.
The golden threads remained, like spiderwebs, waiting for prey to approach.
And below that?
A sweet, cloying scent, enough to numb the nose, wafted up through the broken stones. Thick, golden liquid was oozing over the rubble.
It looked as if someone had poured dozens of tons of honey there.
They did say you could harvest honey in dungeons. The baby fairies, heedless of their dying kin, had flown forward as if blind and deaf.
Were they really acting like honeybees all along?
Despite the commotion, the situation quickly stabilized. I’d thought they’d set a trap using the terrain, but it seemed the opposite. They’d deliberately built a floor of stones beneath the core.
Drip. Drip.
Honey fell. The golden, shimmering lake promised a sweet death. It was clear enough to see the bottom, but the surface didn’t ripple. A few black-furred baby fairies had sunk into it, as if preserved in amber. Some of them twitched now and then, so perhaps they were still alive. But none managed to swim to the surface.
Ah.
At the very bottom of the honey lake lay something I never expected.
There, beneath the surface, was a wooden figure eerily similar to the ridiculous puppet I’d once encountered in a secret dungeon hidden in a warehouse in Busan. Countless dolls were strewn across the bottom of the lake. Each one’s joints bent in unnatural directions, forming a grotesque harmony. Though they weren’t human, it looked as if corpses had been discarded there.
Every nerve in my body stood on end.
I didn’t even think to call for Father. I hurled the spear in my hand with all my strength, aiming for the core.
“……!”
And I wasn’t the only one.
Father, Han Taekyung, even Hope—all of us targeted the core.
This was the work of that fairy. Those wooden puppets belonged to Noah Michel and Henry Lehmann. In some way, they were connected to the two, and even if not, it was clear this was an astonishingly cunning creature.
If we could just destroy the core before it truly began to act…!
[…Ahh]
A slow, singing tone echoed in my ears. It was as clear and cheerful as a bird heralding the morning, yet twisted, as if a machine not meant for such sounds was trying to sing.
None of our attacks reached the core. The golden threads, woven as densely as spiderwebs, ensnared our weapons.
[Unknown @^)&*%]
From beneath the lake, through the dead puppets, a black shadow swam up toward the surface.
If a baby fairy grew up, it would look like that. Honey dripped from its jet-black fur. The transparent, golden honey made the black fur shimmer with an uncanny sheen. The fur along its long torso clung to its body like a dress, and its bare arms revealed pale, almost human skin. Its hands, with birdlike talons, curled sharply.
[!($-=!*&#^]
The fairy whispered in a voice so beautiful it could enchant.
But inside the upturned corners of its smiling mouth were teeth as sharp as a shark’s—a predator’s grin.
The fairy slowly rose above the lake, standing atop it as if it were solid stone. Still smiling, it looked at us and fluttered its wings. Honey dripped down, and its wings…
“…….”
The wings, slashed and tattered as if by a child tormenting a helpless insect, spread wide.
[(%%(^()@]
The fairy frowned at its wings, which wouldn’t open properly. Then it folded them back and smiled at us again. The weapons caught in the webbing dropped into the lake.
The weapons sank silently to the bottom.
“…Aha.”
Hope let out a small exclamation.
I didn’t know what remarkable thing that fairy had just said, but among us, there was someone who could understand its words.
Hope shouted,
“That bastard can’t fly!”
“That thing can’t fly—let’s just burn it right here!” Han Taekyung yelled at the same time.