Chapter 51

Fortunately, the place where he was had damp moisture. It seemed that when the firestorm blew in, he had reflexively thrown his body down a slope that hadn't caught fire. Although it didn't feel like he had been unconscious for long, the rift had already grown in size during that time.

"...Ha."

Was the dream just now, reminding him that he was a regressor who had taken others' lives, meant to tell him to save this country right away? Soram felt the bumpy ground and pushed himself up with his hands. It seemed he had fallen on a relatively soft spot on the mountain path. By the way, where was Han Tae-un who had fallen with him...?

"Jin Soram ssi."

A stiff voice was heard from below Soram, not in a polite manner. Soram nodded his head. Yeah, this is the real voice of Han Tae-un, not something like 'Soram-ah'.

"Hand, please."

"Hm?"

Soram looked down at his hand. His hand was not on the ground but on someone's clothes. What he had naturally thought was a protruding tree root on the ground was actually a bulging part on Tae-un's thigh.

"Ah, sorry."

If something like this happens twice a day, anyone would misunderstand. But Soram felt wronged. The first time was truly advice given with good intentions, and this time was an accident.

"...I also passed out and just woke up, so I didn't know."

"It seemed that way. May I get up?"

"Ah, yes."

Soram, who had backed away, discovered his five airplanes and Tae-un's sword scattered around. They must have reflexively slashed the nearby mutants at the moment they both crashed. If he had fallen on the mountain alone, he wouldn't have been this unscathed.

"That, we..."

Pak!

Soram stopped what he was about to say and pushed Tae-un's shoulder into the bushes. Tae-un also pulled Soram as if scooping him up. A large plant tendril was stuck in the spot where the two had been sitting. The plant tendril wriggled as if looking around.

Soram pressed down on Tae-un's chest, who was lying beneath him. He could hear Tae-un's heart beating as if tense under his arm.

"Stay still."

Instead of answering, Tae-un nodded his head. He looked at the face that was close enough to feel his breath, then turned his head toward the sound of branches being pushed aside. Several plant tendrils were squirming on the ground.

He let go of Soram's waist and tried to grab the sword on the ground. Then Soram covered that hand and pressed it down.

"I'll do it."

Soram focused his gaze on the airplanes that had fallen to the ground. Then the airplanes flew up and sliced through the tendrils. Such a plant couldn't have been born through natural evolution, so it was a mutant. As proof, the tendrils that had been attacked several times and became tattered disappeared into black smoke.

After confirming that no more mutants were approaching, the two stood up again.

"...This is Chief Jin Soram. Can you hear me? We've tumbled down about 500m from the rift, and mutants have been spotted at this point. Dungeonification has already progressed considerably."

Soram and Tae-un had moved away from the epicenter of the rift. The fact that they discovered mutants here meant that they had already descended quite far down the mountain, even though they couldn't be detected from the outside due to their plant form.

"Estimated type... Siege dungeon. Most of the mutants that have emerged from inside are in plant form."

All dungeons are formed when mutants burst out from a widened rift. The previous mimicry dungeon was where the things inside transformed into forms that stimulated the surrounding fear.

And a siege dungeon is literally where mutants pour out from the rift as if fighting a siege battle. Among the three types of dungeons, siege dungeons are considered the most difficult because the mutants in them are the most aggressive and have a strong tendency to destroy their surroundings.

The mutants that come out of siege dungeons have the form of so-called 'monsters'. They could be giant animals with mixed bodies or plants that have taken on impossible appearances. ...The 4th Great Rift that took the lives of Tae-un and Soram in their previous lives was also a siege dungeon. Where bizarrely transformed animal-type mutants burst out.

While Soram was waiting for instructions from the headquarters and retrieving his airplanes, Tae-un, who was looking across the rocks, called out to him.

"Jin Soram ssi."

He pointed to one side. It was a tree with pink flowers blooming at the wrong time.

"That's oleander."

"What's that?"

"It's a plant with toxicity in its stems and leaves, and even the smoke from burning it is toxic. Originally, it only grows in Jeju Island and warm southern regions."

"..."

Not only fire but now poison too. Well, that might be why it appeared in plant form even in a burning place, which seemed disadvantageous. It could more effectively harm its surroundings that way. As a dungeon monster, the toxicity it possesses would be much stronger than the original plant. Soram additionally relayed the information he heard from Tae-un. After a while, a response came.

―This is Chief Kim Ga-eul. The dungeon has been confirmed as 1st-grade. Soram, are you with Chief Han?

"Yeah."

―You and Chief Han should avoid combat as much as possible and jump to the rift. We'll attack the mutants from the bottom and go up. Got it? Just think about going up and breaking the rift.

If the dungeon had already started and the mutants had spread, it was an ultra-emergency situation. The other hunters who were waiting for the fire to stop were also going to jump into the burning mountain to prevent the mutants from spreading.

In the end, it became a situation similar to the future Soram knew.

However, the clear difference was that back then, they had realized the situation way too late, and there was no one like Soram and Tae-un now who had infiltrated close to the rift.

"Got it. Ga-eul, please take care of Ayoung. I'm counting on you."

―I'll make sure not a single hair on Ayoung's head gets hurt even without you asking, so you be careful. If you don't come out in one piece, you're dead.

"Thanks for worrying."

―If it's too much for the two of you to destroy it, retreat and join the others!

"We'll see."

Will there be room for that?

With those words, the communication ended. Soram took out his in-ear headset and put it down. In a situation like this, it was better to hear the surrounding sounds a little more sensitively.

Soram's gaze turned to the rift flickering in the distance. The rift hadn't completely opened yet. But the time limit for that wouldn't be long either.

Whish―

Soram whistled loudly with his mouth. The sound echoed and spread in the quiet mountain. Tae-un looked at him questioningly, seeing the misbehavior he had committed when they should be holding their breath, but nothing happened to them.

"I guess they don't have hearing since they're in plant form. We don't have to lower our voices too much."

"Ah..."

So... Tae-un looked at him and answered that he understood.

"Han Tae-un ssi. From now on, we're going to go back up and break the rift."

"...Are we going to solve the dungeon with just the two of us?"

No matter what, it's a 1st-grade dungeon, so that would be impossible even if Soram were to be reborn thirty times.

"Solving it is impossible. This time, the role assigned to us is not to fight the mutants but to reach the rift and break it as quickly as possible. It doesn't matter if we hide or run away. We'll leave the mutants to the hunters coming up the mountain now. That doesn't mean there won't be any combat for us though."

Soram got up from his spot and surveyed the surroundings. And he chose a path made of gravel rather than a dirt path and pointed to it.

"Normally, we would do what we did at the school, clearing out the mutants from the rear where they have spread, which is the proper way. That way, there won't be any mutants left behind."

Typically, when the central rift is removed, the mutants that have come out from there weaken in strength and naturally disappear. The duration could be a few seconds or a few days. Since it's unknown what they might do during that time, if a dungeon has occurred, the principle is to completely eliminate every single one without exception.

"But right now, we need to prevent the number of mutants from increasing by even one more. The rift is still continuing to widen. So when a dungeon of 2nd-grade or higher appears in an open place like this, depending on the situation, it may be divided into a rift removal team and a mutant combat team."

"I understand what you mean. And to prioritize reaching the rift, not combat."

"Oh, as expected from an elite newcomer. You learn ten things from being taught one."

"Yes."

He turned his head again, looking indifferent to those words. Soram pressed the communicator on his wrist.

"Team 7 Chief Jin Soram, Team 7 Chief Han Tae-un. I don't know the current time, so please write it down yourself. We are starting the destruction of the 1st-grade dungeon rift in Bukhansan."

Soram lifted the airplanes he had put down. The airplanes went straight up from where Soram had sent them.

It was when the airplanes reached the height of the treetops.

Whoosh―

A swirling flame that flew in swallowed the airplanes. The metal airplanes were heated red-hot and pushed away by the swirl.

"...Hmm."

Soram, who had been gesturing in the air a few times, realized that he had completely lost control and gave up.

"It would be better not to go up any higher than that. We're probably bigger than the airplanes, so we'll be detected faster."

"Then it would be better to walk until absolutely necessary."

The sky was burning red. Although the flames hadn't reached the two of them yet, the heat felt from beyond the hill was threatening enough. As Tae-un had said a moment ago, a pungent smell was also felt among the burning scent of plants.

The fortunate thing was that the two of them were 1st-grades who could withstand this level of heat, and thanks to the flames, their field of vision had been secured a little.

"Shall we try going up this path? It seems there are no mutants here at least."

"Yes."

The slope was steep. It wasn't impossible for the two of them to walk, but burning trees or bushes blocked their steps from time to time. Their clothes were already soaked with sweat from the tension and heat.