Side Story 5. A Midsummer Night's Letter (2) Main Text: The Island of Runaway Lovers (10)

The civil servants pointed to the cave like kind guides, as they had done all day.

The entrance of the cave, gaping with a pitch-black mouth, was covered with danger signs using every possible means of expression. Soram looked at the 'DANGER', 'STOP' and other stickers plastered thickly on the police lines strung in several layers, then turned around with an expression that suggested some explanation might be needed.

For the first time today, the civil servants used fluent English instead of Korean to explain very carefully.

"This place has been managed as a non-public cave. But one day, a rift signal was detected in a location that hadn't been explored yet. However, due to the uneven internal terrain, our country's hunters without flight abilities couldn't enter."

"Aha. Hmm...?"

"It's quite dark inside, so you'll need equipment."

They held out headlamps and flashlights, which they had produced from somewhere unnoticed.

Soram crossed the police line blocking the cave entrance and shone a lantern into the pitch-black interior. While the entrance itself was lower than waist height, a fairly wide space spread out below the steep slope that started right from the entrance.

"The grade seems low... Has this been here for a while?"

"As expected, your eye for detail is different. Impressive."

The civil servant, who didn't miss a chance to flatter even with a serious face, just as when they first met, continued speaking.

"So there's a very slight concern that it might have become a dungeon... but it shouldn't be difficult at all for an S-grade hunter like yourself. Of course, there's also a possibility it hasn't become a dungeon. Since rifts are unknown entities..."

"So you don't know until you go in. Schrödinger's dungeon, haven't seen one in a while..."

"..."

"..."

"Hmmmm."

Then one of the civil servants politely clasped his hands and asked in a subdued voice with an apologetic expression.

"Do you think it has burst after all?"

"Probably? I'm really strong when it comes to bad luck, so usually in these situations, I end up on the unlucky hard path rather than the lucky shortcut."

"Oh... But isn't that not considered being strong?"

"Well, even when trials come, I manage to get through them somehow."

Soram rotated his shoulders to loosen up. As he didn't seem to be refusing to enter the dungeon, the civil servants looked relieved as they observed his demeanor.

"Hunter, we're counting on you. We even came up with a plan to collapse the entire cave as a solution if necessary, but we kept putting it off because it would be a shame to lose a natural heritage, and then we heard a flight ability user was being dispatched..."

"It would have been a shame to do that for a low-grade rift. Well, it's fine. Just keep in mind that in an emergency situation, I might have to break through and escape. And we'll go in just the two of us."

The other of the 'two' was Tae-un, who was pulled along by Soram grabbing his clothes.

"I'm going too?"

"Of course. Did you think I'd go alone?"

Soram put the provided headlamp on Tae-un's head. Then he passed the spare flashlight to him as well, keeping only a light one for himself.

"Let's go!"

"..."

Soram jumped down into the cave, and Tae-un hesitated for a moment before following.

They were able to touch the ground after falling for about 30 seconds.

The interior was pitch-black darkness without a single light. Light did come in from the cave entrance, but it didn't reach the sunken bottom. The temperature surrounding them also dropped instantly.

The two shone their lanterns around. The ceiling, walls, and ground all revealed cave terrain that was bumpy in bizarre shapes.

"Watch your feet. There's something sticking out to the side."

"Oh, okay, I know."

Soram first moved to a relatively flat area that was somewhat walkable. Then he said, "Ah, right," turned around and threw something from his chest to Tae-un. It was a dagger slightly longer than a hand span.

"You probably won't need to use it given the grade we're feeling now, but it's a spare just in case. And... ugh, hey, look over there, over there!"

When facing someone wearing a headlamp, it dealt a tremendous blow to the eyes. While Tae-un tilted his head to direct the light upwards, Soram blinked to barely erase the afterimage left by the intense light.

"How frustrating. To think there'd be such a trap from the start."

When Soram regained his vision, what he saw was the back of Tae-un's head. More precisely, Tae-un was looking at the cave entrance they had come through.

Soram approached Tae-un and wrapped his palm around his waist.

"Han Tae-un, relax a bit. Those people are real civil servants."

"...Ah."

"We came out together from the association, why are you being so wary?"

"You noticed."

"Of course. You were trying to stick close to those strangers instead of staying with your lover."

With his personality, he would have flown to Soram's side as he broke the rift and helped even with bare fists if he had no weapon. But Tae-un stood quietly on the ground, or more precisely, close to the other civil servants. As if he couldn't take his eyes off the objects of his wariness for even a moment.

"Are you sure they're civil servants?"

"Yeah. Not in this life... but I've seen them in person before. They can't do anything suspicious while showing their faces in those positions."

Only then did Tae-un relax his shoulders a little. But his dissatisfaction hadn't completely disappeared.

"Then they should investigate properly, what do they mean they don't know if a dungeon has burst or not."

"That's annoying too, but it's not incomprehensible, because our country was similar a few years ago. It's thanks to the Director that awakened individuals gathered around the headquarters and developed quickly."

Soram chuckled suspiciously.

"This might be better actually. From what I can see, this is 100% a burst dungeon. After solving it, I'll collapse dramatically saying I'm exhausted and extend our stay. Until your vacation ends."

"..."

"Now that you're reassured, let's go finish this quickly. Then we can play."

Tae-un, without looking at Soram, raised his hand to a familiar height and ruffled his hair.

"Don't let your guard down too much."

"That's what I'm saying. Even if the grade here seems easy, it's not an environment to be careless in..."

The two moved a bit further inside. As they got farther from the exit, the humidity rose, adding weight to the air, and the floor changed to a muddy path. They continued moving towards where they felt the rift, occasionally flying over areas where water had pooled.

Besides the sound of their shoe soles sinking into the wet floor, they could also hear quite clearly the drip, drip of water droplets falling from the ceiling, and the rustle of multi-legged insects scurrying away. It was probably because their vision was almost completely blocked that their other senses became more sensitive. Now they couldn't even find a trace of the cave entrance that had looked like a small star behind them.

"Hmm, we've come this far but there's no sign of anything. I wonder what type of dungeon it could be."

"Seeing how quiet it still is despite being an environment that could easily induce frightening scenes, could it not be a mimicry dungeon?"

"Ah... I can't be sure. It's not just about some scary being appearing, I've seen places before where the ceiling suddenly lowers. If something like that happens here, it would be tricky to handle... Still, in an enclosed space like this, a flood dungeon would probably be the worst-case scenario. If it's a siege dungeon... well. I've caught things like the centipedes and crickets we saw earlier."

"Don't those normally live in caves?"

"What else is there?"

"Bats."

The image of giant bats sent shivers down their spines. It was a scene that crossed a much more unpleasant uncanny valley than insects.

"Ah shit, that's disgusting. If those come out, you have to deal with them."

"I will."

"Why are you so unbothered? You haven't seen bats either, right?"

"I have. At my family home."

"Don't lie. Where are there bats in Korea?"

Instead of answering, Tae-un looked intently at Soram and raised one corner of his mouth.

"Bats aren't even that unusual."

Soram's eyes shook like acorns hanging from bare branches.

"...I want to cancel our plan to retire and live in the countryside."

"I told you from the start that it would be too much for me."

"Ahem, you take the lead from here..."

"Alright."

Soram, who had quietly switched places with Tae-un, looked around.

By this point, the rift should have detected the intrusion of two strong individuals. Yet there was no sign of mutants appearing. In a place like this, Soram and Tae-un's senses should have picked up on it even if they were somewhat far away.

"Gasp, did it really not burst? Is this finally a honey-sucking day for Soram?"

"..."

As they continued forward, terrain that sank downward like the entrance of the cave they first entered appeared. This time, they fell for a longer time than before. Moreover, the descending passage was narrow, so they had to slowly descend using their flight ability to avoid protruding rocks. It became clear why this country couldn't rashly explore the interior.

Not long after their feet touched the ground and they moved a bit further forward, a path that split into two appeared before them.

Tae-un approached and touched the bumpy wall that divided the path left and right.

"This structure doesn't seem to be an illusion created by a mimicry dungeon."

"Oh... Of all things, it had to split into two."

"Jin Soram, no."

"What?"

"We're not going separately. No matter what you say, it's not happening."

"...What are you talking about? I wasn't thinking of that."

Half of that was true. The other half, well, he had thought about going to the side where he felt the rift's energy more strongly to quickly deal with it. But Tae-un's expression looked like he would absolutely not allow that.