Chapter 18: Dungeon Tutorial, Doll Edition

At Jin-yeop’s words, Eun-ru immediately took out his phone.

Jin-yeop placed his own phone next to Eun-ru’s hand and continued speaking.

“Dungeons can be won through bidding by individuals as well.

Only for dungeons that have already been cleared, and only for dungeons below one’s own grade.”

Jin-yeop manipulated his phone screen and tapped an application, bringing up a list of dungeons won through bidding.

“We’re here for training purposes, so the dungeon was bid on under the agency’s name.

If you look at the very top of the list here…”

The screen displayed a long list of dungeons Jin-yeop had been authorized to enter over the years.

At the seemingly endless parade of dungeons, Eun-ru subtly narrowed his eyes.

“You’ve cleared… this many?”

“For A-class and above dungeons, the rule is that three or more agencies jointly win the bid when they first appear.

Vibes doesn’t have any S-class, so A-class Espers are almost required to participate.”

“Even so, this is too many…”

“There were also dungeons I won individually.”

Jin-yeop pointed to the very top of the list as if it were no big deal.

“This is the dungeon we’re entering now.

Cleared dungeons are marked in gray, and dungeons we’ve won bids for appear at the very top of the list, so there’s no chance of confusion.

The authorization is single-use, so it will be deactivated once we exit after clearing.”

“Yes…”

“So don’t come back alone to practice, thinking you can re-enter.

Of course, Guides don’t usually do that anyway.”

Occasionally, overly enthusiastic Espers did that sort of thing.

Thinking the bid was permanent, they’d boldly revisit a dungeon with an expired authorization.

But if you scan an expired authorization at entry, an alarm goes off.

Every year, three or four dimwits got caught that way by the Awakener Management Department.

“The same dungeon should appear on Guide Lee Eun-ru’s phone as well.

Check if the authorization button is activated.”

Saying this, Jin-yeop headed towards the dungeon entrance in the commercial building.

Since it was a cleared dungeon, it was deactivated, so there was no risk of a Dungeon Break.

In other words, there was no chance of monsters inside spilling out.

That’s why the shops around the dungeon that had appeared in the middle of the city were still operating.

If they cordoned off all areas around dungeons, there’d be no space left to live or work on Korea’s already cramped land, so aside from the cordoned-off buildings themselves, the rest of the area carried on as usual.

Dungeons could appear anytime, anywhere, without warning anyway.

So now, everyone lived their daily lives carrying the risk of dungeon emergence.

Since there was no guarantee another dungeon wouldn’t appear right next to a deactivated one, there was no safe zone no matter where you lived or worked.

Jin-yeop pressed the authorization issuance button on his phone and held it over the security system terminal.

The sealed metal door split open to both sides, revealing a gate shimmering with a blue magnetic field.

“Do the same.”

At his words, Eun-ru pressed the button like Jin-yeop and held his phone to the terminal.

“Whether it’s a joint bid or an individual bid, no matter how many people, you all have to do this the same way.”

Jin-yeop slipped his phone into his pocket and stepped straight through the gate.

His figure vanished without a trace.

Eun-ru followed without hesitation.

Simultaneously, the metal door closed, and a red button blinked on the security terminal.

System : Abandoned Doll Sorcerer’s Workshop
Number of entrants: 2
Difficulty: F

A system message appeared before the two who had entered the dungeon.

Without being startled, Eun-ru examined the message window, then suddenly changed his expression as if surprised and stared at Jin-yeop.

Unaware of that fleeting moment, Jin-yeop looked at Eun-ru and spoke.

“It’s called a system message.

It appears only to Awakeners upon dungeon entry.

At the same time, you can also bring up something called a status window.

That’s only visible to the individual.”

“A status window…”

“You must have heard about it during awakening training.

It’s mandatory training for everyone from S-class to F-class, but usually people don’t listen carefully, so you might not remember.”

After all, only those who actually go to dungeons need to know.

Especially for Guides.

Guides working at centers usually don’t go on field dispatch; they guide Espers who come back from dungeons, inside the center.

But those with partners, or high-grade Guides like Eun-ru who sign exclusive contracts with agencies, usually enter dungeons as a duo with the Esper they have the highest match rate with within the agency.

“You can bring it up by saying ‘status window.’

There you can check your own skills.

Guides usually don’t have skills, so only detailed stats will appear.”

“Ah…”

“It’s like a kind of game.

Ah, I hear kids these days say games are like dungeons.”

Well, that made sense.

The terms in the system messages were things Jin-yeop had already learned from games he used to play in PC cafes as a kid, wearing out the doorsteps.

Perhaps that’s why older Awakeners understood dungeon terminology easily, while those who grew up more familiar with dungeons than games didn’t.

“It’s strange, isn’t it?

As if someone designed it so we could better understand this space called a dungeon…”

Saying this, Jin-yeop began walking briskly.

Eun-ru walked beside him and asked.

“What do you mean, designed it?”

“Back in my day, there were a lot of games like this.

They were called RPGs, role-playing games, basically.

You exist as a character inside the game, with an extraordinary job like a mage or warrior, and you kill monsters.”

“…..”

“You’d get quests from villagers in the game to eliminate monsters, and depending on the story, you’d become a hero.”

“…..”

“The only difference is that in games, you die and come back to life, but here you can’t.”

No one still knows why dungeons appear.

Perhaps that’s why Jin-yeop, who had cleared dungeons as often as eating meals before his regressions, always had a question.

Why do dungeons provide information to humans?

Like some kind of game tutorial.

Monsters sometimes drop items called artifacts when they die, and dungeons kindly display a system message upon entry, telling you the difficulty.

Because that dungeon difficulty standard existed, they could assess the grades of Espers and Guides.

It’s almost as if the reason dungeons appear isn’t to destroy the world, but to demand they be cleared for deactivation.

“Well, who knows, maybe there’s someone with a skill that lets them come back to life even after dying.”

Jin-yeop said this and let out a hollow laugh.

He was talking about himself.

Of course, he had died outside, not inside a dungeon, and his status window didn’t have any such skill, so dying inside a dungeon didn’t guarantee regression.

‘No, I’ve never actually checked that, have I?’

Jin-yeop suddenly thought this and stopped walking.

Come to think of it, during all his past regressions, he had never entered a dungeon.

He always returned to the moment he first met Kang Jung-hoon.

Each regression, he was desperate to catch his eye.

Because of that, he had completely skipped even the rare dungeon clears he’d done after meeting Jung-hoon before the first regression.

‘Why didn’t I think to check?

Even if not other times, this time I should have come to a dungeon first thing and verified.’

But just as Jin-yeop was about to call up his status window, a strange sound began to be heard from a distance.

“Guide Lee Eun-ru.”

“Ye-yes!”

Eun-ru, who seemed focused on the gradually approaching sound, quickly answered.

Jin-yeop snapped back to attention and met his gaze.

“Today, our goal is to catch the dungeon boss.

We have to kill the boss to activate the gate.

Deactivated dungeons don’t have many monsters, and since this is F-class, it’ll be over quickly.”

Saying this, Jin-yeop positioned himself in front of Eun-ru.

“But Guides are no different from ordinary people, so you mustn’t stray too far from me.

In an emergency, use your items.”

Jin-yeop opened a small wallet-sized pouch attached to his belt and reached his hand inside.

It was a small pouch that didn’t look like it could even hold a phone, but his hand kept going deeper and deeper.

When he quickly pulled his hand out, it held leather gloves and a long, gem-like object.

He handed them back over his shoulder to Eun-ru.

“The gloves are an item.

Regardless of whether you’re a Guide or Esper, if you’re an Awakener, they provide a stat boost.

After wearing them, open your status window and check…”

“I know, I heard about it during training.”

Eun-ru accepted the gloves and the gem.

“Then you know what the gem is too.

It’s a gate stone.

If you think you’re going to die, smash it without hesitation to get out.”

“There’s only one?

What about you, Jin-yeop-ssi…

I mean, Senior-nim?”

“Up to C-class, we can operate without a Guide.”

Standing in front of Eun-ru, who was putting on the gloves behind him, Jin-yeop looked around.

True to the name ‘Abandoned Workshop,’ the interior was lined with old books.

Unintelligible characters were engraved on the spines, and books were packed tightly into endlessly stretching bookshelves.

Moreover, there were obvious traces of burning and damage here and there.

Jin-yeop instructed Eun-ru to stay close behind him and moved forward.

As they neared the dungeon’s interior, dismembered mannequin arms and legs, and charred, torn paper lay scattered everywhere on the floor.

The unidentified sound that had been continuous grew clearer and clearer, gradually revealing itself from the dark depths.

Kkirik, kkiririk!

Dakgak, dakgak.

The source of the strange sound was dolls.

With joints that seemed improperly connected, as if broken, they produced that unpleasant, chilling friction sound.

Creaking and squeaking, the doll army, swinging their grotesquely twisted limbs, fully emerged from the darkness, appearing under the faint light embedded in the walls.

Dozens of pairs of eyes were unfocused, but as if searching for prey, they darted busily here and there, then spotted Eun-ru and Jin-yeop and flashed with a sinister light.