Chapter 109: Earth-Connected Dungeon

They destroyed the mana drain device and woke the fairies. Ion and Bran heard the full story from the awakened elder.

The System Age had appeared before the field even formed. They took one elder hostage, gathered everyone in the plaza, and activated the mana drain device. The fairies were captured without even putting up a fight.

“As expected, the second a fairy elder gets taken hostage, these fly-brats turn into total f*cking morons.”

The moment they parted from the elder, Bran started cursing. Luckily no fairies were around.

“Bran, do you know about mana drain devices? What exactly are they?”

“If you connect several small magic tools like that, they form a magic circle. Anything inside the circle has its digested mana obliterated. But the circle has to be fully linked to activate, and it only destroys digested mana.”

“Digested” mana meant mana that had been absorbed from nature, processed, and stored in the body.

“Only digested mana…? Then why were the fairies’ mana depleted? There’s natural mana everywhere.”

“Doesn’t make sense, right? Same here. These village fly-brats didn’t even use natural mana and just sat there until all their digested mana was gone. Even with an elder hostage, that’s moron-level behavior.”

“Bran. You keep swearing. Stop. Looks bad.”

“I didn’t swear! Baba-nim, were you always this old-fashioned?”

“I’m not old-fashioned. Bran is a delinquent. Bran needs language lessons.”

“I’m over two hundred—what the f*ck kind of less—”

“Command. No swearing.”

“…”

While Bran’s lips glued themselves shut again, Ion thought alone.

If it evaporates digested mana… I really have to be careful.

In Idea, where mana is everywhere, you can just draw from nature unless it’s a special case like “fairies with an elder hostage.” But inside fields and on Earth, where natural mana is absent, he had to be cautious. Once digested mana was gone, life force would be next.

Ion and Bran stood before the red field entrance. Fully armed fairy warriors guarding the gate greeted them—especially Bran, their eyes sparkling. They knew he had single-handedly wiped out the Age cultists.

“Hey, we got permission from your elder. Move.”

“Only the two of you entering? It’s a red field, and ten Age cultists are already inside. It’s dangerous.”

“Actually, two of us is plenty, but one more is coming.”

Bran shrugged and jerked his thumb backward. The fairies looked.

“I mean… why… ugh, this is such a pain… I should be sprawled out drinking right now…”

An emerald-haired beauty staggered over, looking half-dead.

“Ah…”

The fairies instantly understood.

Yeah, if it’s him… That guy’s worth ten people.

The elder had specially assigned Haidian because the other fairies had only just woken up from fainting, and despite his laziness, Haidian was the strongest warrior in the village.

Ion had already marked Haidian for the “Apostle Subjugation Squad,” so this was a good chance for him to meet Jin Seong-ha.

It would be perfect if Sara, Sieg, and Semil could join too.

They were busy with war. He couldn’t be too greedy.

Ion took out the field entry scrolls. Bran grabbed one and stood before the rippling red gate.

“I’ve actually never entered a field before. The moment I became a duke, the Cataclysm hit and I was swamped. My retainers wouldn’t let me leave my seat empty, so no fields for me.”

“Oh…? So Mr. Bran is from a noble family?”

Haidian still didn’t know Bran was a hybrid.

“Something like that. Not a noble son—the head of the family. I heard red fields have pretty strong monsters. Stronger than those Age cultists from earlier, right?”

“I wouldn’t know… I’ve never entered a field either…”

“You’re an awakener, fly-brat. How have you never entered a field?”

“…Why do you keep calling people fly-brats? And stop dropping honorifics.”

“Fine. I’ll call you coward-brat instead.”

“You’re entering for the first time too, but only I’m the coward? You’re allowed but others aren’t?”

“Hey, I was busy, and my retainers blocked me from going!”

“I was busy too! Drinking, sleeping, drinking, sleeping—”

“That’s not busy, that’s just being lazy, you fluffy chick.”

“…Chick?”

Slap, slap. Bran smacked his own mouth and tried again.

“f*ck! Fluffy chick-like bastard!”

“…Did you suddenly go insane?”

“Ha, my life. Damn it.”

Bran clutched his head and shut up.

Baba flapped happily.

“Bran can’t say ‘bastard.’ I said ‘no swearing.’ When he tries, cute words come out instead. I did good? Praise me.”

Haidian didn’t understand why a powerhouse like Bran was completely bound by a familiar’s orders… but seeing Bran flustered made him satisfied.

While the two men—who had met today—bickered like lifelong nemeses, Ion finally pulled out Moshi after a long time.

[Moshii Dungeon Measurement System !Prototype! 29 Dungeon Rank: S Gate Created: 8 hours ago Overflow Scheduled: 10 days 23 hours from now Clear Condition: Destroy Gate Stone Attribute: Normal Current Entrants: 32 ※Modified 44 times (Horizon) Durability 10/100 Remaining Entries 1/5]

‘32 people…!’

Ten were Age cultists from Idea. The other twenty-two… were Earthlings.

“Oh, what’s this? Isn’t this that system window thing?”

“It’s not ancient language… weird letters.”

Bran and Haidian poked the system window.

Ion’s heart pounded.

Were they already inside?

Jin Seong-ha, Hong In-soo, Lee Jin-ah… the Special 1 Team hunters.

When he had checked with the Sage’s Mirror, Jin Seong-ha was with the orphans—so maybe the kids were here too.

Had only two months really passed? So much had happened that his hand holding the entry scroll—glass marble—trembled with indescribable emotion.

The first Idea–Earth connecting dungeon was a desert.

A desert terrain that had never once appeared in <Hunter and Hero>. This was already the second time.

Ion wasn’t even surprised by the unexpected anymore.

In the starting area, monster corpses—clearly the work of the cultists who entered earlier—were strewn everywhere.

“Ha, the little shits really trashed the place.”

Bran kicked a corpse, stepped on a bone fragment—crunch—and clicked his tongue as it crumbled.

“As expected, totally different from ancient demons. Smaller, weaker hide and bones. Just a bunch of pests relying on numbers.”

Even though they were technically the same demonic species, he showed no sympathy for the slaughtered monsters.

Well, they had been separated for ten thousand years… and the demons who remained in Idea were seen as cowardly deserters by those who returned to the demon realm, so it made sense.

“Let’s move. Only six hours have passed, so they can’t have gone far. We need to deal with the Age cultists so the Earthlings can—”

“W-wait… wait a second, Ion-ssi?”

“Yes?”

“…Above your head.”

Haidian’s eyes widened as he stared above Ion’s head.

Ion looked up—nothing but sunset sky.

“What? What is it? Something on Dam Ion’s head?”

“Only I can see it…?”

“I can see it too. The moment we entered, something appeared above Dam Ion’s head.”

“Only above mine?”

“Yep. Only Dam Ion.”

What the… Ion shifted Sanse in his arms and felt around above his head. Nothing, of course.

Haidian squinted sleepily and explained.

“It looks like… some kind of mark or sign. An upside-down red triangle. Try moving.”

Ion moved; Haidian’s gaze followed.

“The mark follows you. What could it be? Nothing above Mr. Bran’s head… Do I have one too…?”

“No on Haidian. Only on Dam Ion. What is it? Dangerous? Worried. Anxious. Sanse worried too.”

Ion tried sprinting and casting spells—just in case—but felt no change.

Visible to Haidian. Visible to Baba, but not to Bran or himself…

If only awakeners could see it, someone had used a skill.

“It might be a skill used from the Earth side. I did tell them to meet in this dungeon on this date, so maybe they used a tracking skill to find me.”

“What’s a skill?”

“The Earth term for aura abilities. But one strange thing… Baba.”

“Hm?”

Ion held out his hand; Baba landed on it and tilted its head cutely.

“Why can you see it? Haidian is an awakener, but you’re not.”

“I know why.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m a special bat.”

“…”

“Special bat. Amazing bat! Special, amazing, and cute bat! I dance-dance. Dam Ion, I dance-dance.”

“Not the time for dancing. Later.”

Ion set Baba back on the pot. In that short moment he had stroked its fluffy fur at least ten times.

“Ah, wait. A system window just popped up.”

Haidian stared into empty air.

“No terrain features, but it’s like a map? There’s a blue triangle here. And a red triangle… probably the Earthlings Ion mentioned?”

“If my guess is right.”

“The blue triangle is moving toward us. But good heavens… it’s insanely far. Opposite ends of the map… it’ll take days to meet…”

Haidian clutched his forehead with a delicate hand and pulled a bottle from sub-space.

He popped the cork without hesitation and started chugging.

“Kaaa. This journey is impossible without alcohol. Ah, one bottle each for you too?”

Not a sip or a glass—a whole bottle.

“Pass, alcoholic fly-brat.”

“I’m fine too. Let’s go.”

And so the dungeon conquest began alongside a fairy chugging straight from the bottle.

Pitch-black night. They found the Age cultists before any monsters.

Two were missing—either scouting or dead from an accident—leaving eight.

Their camp was silent. They stood guard wearing masks, not even chatting. Not because they distrusted each other, but because they refused to let their guard down in a red field.

Watching from behind a sand dune, Ion asked Bran,

“You can clean them up alone, right?”

“Piece of cake.”

Bran leapt up like he’d been waiting for this.

“KWAHAHAHA! Foolish humans! I have arrived!”

Haidian shook his head at the sight of him charging while shouting.

“That man will never manage a surprise attack…”

The fight against the Age cultists did not go as smoothly as in the fairy village.

The moment Bran clashed swords with one cultist, a small-framed cultist used aura. It looked like they were manipulating a system window. Ion watched closely.

The cultist pulled out a pistol-shaped object from thin air and aimed it at Bran.

“That’s…?”

Ion narrowed his eyes. White, bubbling matter gathered at the muzzle.

“…!”

He had seen that white substance before.

It was Ult!

The instant Ion realized—

BOOOOOOM—!

A blinding flash and deafening explosion shook the desert in all directions.