Chapter 13

"The rift seems to have opened on the 4th floor. There are a few closed self-study rooms, and it seems the rift formed there and turned into a dungeon before it could be discovered. From the description, it sounds like a mimicry dungeon. An hour ago, it was observed descending to the 3rd floor, but I'm not sure how far down it's gone now."

"What grade is that friend?" Soram asked.

"3rd grade."

"Ah, a 3rd-grade hunter alone can't handle a 4th-grade dungeon."

Clicking his tongue lightly, Soram surveyed the school as if gauging the situation. He pointed to the fifth window from the left with his fingertip.

"We should enter around there on the 3rd floor. It looks like the dungeon has consumed up to that point."

Using the designated window as a reference, the interior colors reflected in the windows on either side differed. One side was pitch black as if all the lights were off, while the other side showed an ordinary classroom scene.

"Chief Jin Soram."

At that moment, a man who appeared to be in his 50s approached, calling out to Soram.

"Yes, who are you?"

"I'm the chairman of the school board. I heard that this dungeon isn't at a level that requires Chief Jin to be dispatched..."

"When a dungeon forms inside a multi-use facility like a school or hospital, we usually dispatch a hunter much stronger than the dungeon's grade."

"Ah, I see... Then let's resolve this as quickly as possible. And as soon as the dungeon is cleared, please come out immediately so we can start the damage restoration."

"I was about to go in, but the chairman is blocking the way. You need to move for me to proceed."

The chairman stepped aside with an expression that seemed to say, "This young punk has no manners..." Soram and the other two soon passed by him and approached the school.

As the chairman was about to make another remark at their backs, Tae-un abruptly turned to look at him. The intimidating aura from his large build, coupled with his stern expression, made the chairman shut his mouth. Feeling embarrassed, he instead took out his frustration on someone else.

"See, this wouldn't have escalated to this point. If only the student had handled it well."

"I-I'm sorry..." the student who had been referred to as the hunter-in-charge earlier apologized in a subdued voice.

Soram's eyebrows furrowed, and he glanced at Tae-un.

"Judging by how the chairman is blatantly trying to shift the blame, it seems like he has something to hide. Since he's being an asshole, should we destroy half the building and scatter the debris outside, making it look like an accident during the battle?"

"Excuse me?"

"Wh-what did you just say...!"

"Oh, you heard that? I was joking."

Soram shrugged his shoulders.

"But the second time might not be a joke. So just shut up and stay put."

The chairman's face turned red and then blue, but he couldn't utter a word. For once, even Ayoung didn't stop Soram and just turned her head with a huff.

"Well then, since this is the historic first dungeon for the Flight Team, shall we fly there from here? Ayoung, get ready."

"Okay!"

Ayoung bent down and touched the ground.

"Aila, let's go."

A reddish light flowed like a wave from her fingertips. Soon, a Pomeranian puppy appeared in that spot. However, the difference from a typical Pomeranian was that its body length was at least 3 meters, making it a giant Pomeranian.

—Woof!

The clear barking sound of a small dog grew in volume as its size increased.

The puppy summoned by Ayoung had a fluffy white body, but the tips of its fur glowed with a reddish hue. Ayoung's unique ability was something that couldn't be hidden from the start. Her ability was to summon Aila, the small puppy she had grown up with like a sister, in a gigantic size.

Ayoung climbed onto the spacious back of the summoned Aila. Sticking out its pink tongue and wagging its white tail, Aila soon took off into the sky.

Tae-un followed behind without any preparatory movements. As his feet left the ground, he simply floated upwards in the same standing posture. Unlike Ayoung, he didn't seem to be riding anything, nor did there appear to be any limitations to the direction he could move.

"A real cheater..."

"Oppa, what are you doing? Hurry up and come!"

"Got it."

Lastly, Soram stared intently at his shoes. Slowly, the soles of his shoes that had been stuck to the ground began to rise.

The sound of cameras was louder than before. That sound gradually faded away, accompanied by the chairman's voice saying, "Take pictures appropriately! Are you proud that a dungeon has formed?"

The onlookers had expressions of disbelief even as they witnessed people defying gravity and flying into the air. This was why, even among 1st-grade hunters, not only Soram but also Ayoung, who had limited activity, had high recognition within the Flight Team. Their abilities were bound to stand out and appear mystical.

Standing in front of the window, Soram touched the screen of his communicator and spoke.

"March 2nd, 15:20. Field Operations Bureau, Team 7, Chief Hunter Jin Soram and two others. Commencing the elimination of a 4th-grade rift that has undergone dungeonification."

Soram grabbed the top of the window and kicked the window forcefully with both feet. The window, along with its frame, shattered and broke inward, and Soram entered the school. The other two followed behind him. Ayoung jumped down from Aila's back and entered, while Aila shrank to the size of a regular puppy to pass through and then grew back to its large size.

The place they entered was an ordinary classroom. Except for the area around the window Soram had shattered, the desks and chairs were neatly arranged in rows. On the left and right edges of the dark green chalkboard, class rules and the names of class monitors, seemingly decided on the first day of the semester, were written.

However, the difference from the classroom they were familiar with was that the windows facing the corridor were pitch black, as if covered with black tape, and the black background seemed to be moving.

"Let's go out to the corridor," Soram said, unlocking the door and stepping into the corridor.

The long corridor also had windows leading to the outside. However, not a single ray of the bright afternoon sunlight at 3 PM, which had been shining until a moment ago, entered. The windows were covered with an unknown black substance, just like in the classroom, and all the fluorescent lights were turned off.

It resembled the eerie atmosphere of a school in the middle of the night. The only sources of light were the red signal of the fire hydrant and the green emergency exit sign. Even those few lights flickered ominously, evoking a primal sense of fear in humans.

It was at that moment.

Clank! The door through which the three had entered slammed shut roughly.

As Soram surveyed the surroundings, he took out a flashlight from his jacket pocket and also retrieved something from the chest pocket of his shirt. What emerged from there was a post-it note shaped like baby angel wings. Soram attached it to both sides of the flashlight and placed the flashlight in midair. The flashlight then floated, automatically illuminating the surroundings.

"Ah!" Ayoung shuddered as the flashlight shone towards the window. The window was covered with bloody handprints, as if someone had desperately tried to escape. There was even the word "Help" written in blood. It looked like the traces of someone trapped inside, crying out to survive. The faint visibility of the third-floor height through the black window made the scene even more spine-chilling.

The flashlight illuminated the opposite side of the corridor. Drip, drip. The sound of water dripping on the marble floor and the eerie sound of metal scraping, creak, creak, echoed. Formless shadows flickered in the dimly lit corridor.

After examining everything, Soram spoke.

"It's a typical mimicry dungeon."

Smack!

The moment he finished speaking, a bluish hand grabbed Soram's leg. If this had been a scene from a horror movie, Soram would have fallen over and been dragged backward, scratching the floor. However, this was a 4th-grade dungeon, and Soram was a 1st-grade hunter.

"What the hell?"

Soram forcefully kicked the hand, and the severed wrist turned into black smoke and scattered.

Mimicry dungeon.

It referred to a dungeon where the mutants that emerged from the rift read the fears in the minds of the people around the area where the dungeon had formed and transformed into those shapes.

The mutants that had flowed out from the rift somewhere inside the school had discovered what the students originally present here feared. And they had recreated that appearance within the school.

Although mimicry dungeons were not inherently strong in terms of grade, they were always considered the worst in terms of difficulty among the three types of dungeons. The reason for this could be explained by the ghost-like mutant approaching the three, with disheveled black hair, an upturned stomach, and limbs moving like a spider.

It tilted its head and stared at the three, then grinned grotesquely.

—Kik, kek, kek, kahak...

"Ahhh!" Ayoung, startled by the approaching mutant, clutched Aila's fur and screamed.

"Wow, is this a zombie movie or a horror movie?"

Soram leaped in front of the group and drew his sword. As he swung the sword, it split the mutant's head in half, and it disappeared into smoke like the wrist from earlier. Ayoung, who had been tightly clinging to Aila's back, relaxed her tense body and let out a sigh. Aila's long tail tapped its owner's back as if to comfort her.

"Phew... I thought I was going to faint for real."

"Even if hundreds of those come at you, you'll win."

"I know. I know, but..."

As a 1st-grade hunter, Ayoung also knew that the power felt in this space was not strong. However, the visually approaching horror was unavoidable.

Fortunately, the two people with her were remarkably calm. Soram had witnessed far more terrifying scenes in his previous life during the 4th Great Rift, so situations like this didn't faze him much. He had also experienced all sorts of trials and tribulations while destroying rifts and dungeons for over 8 years officially and more than 30 years unofficially.

And,

"Aren't you scared, Han Tae-un ssi?"

"I am scared."

The other team member beside them expressed his fear with the same expression he had when saying he wanted to eat seasoned galbi earlier.

"Both of you are really weird... Eek!"

"Oh, they're coming."

Thud, thud, thud! Along with the sound coming from afar, the corridor floor vibrated.

The dungeon had detected the intruders. The mutants that had flowed out of the rift gathered in hordes to eliminate the hunters who had entered the dungeon. They crowded the corridors leading to the upper floors and stairs, blocking them as if they would burst.