Chapter 13

Checking the time right before killing the ignition, he saw it was just past 6:00 AM. Faint dawn light was gradually bleeding into the sky; sunrise wasn’t far off. Running through the information he had organized over the past few days, Eui-rim stepped out of the driver’s seat. Haa. In the lingering cold, a puff of white breath blossomed and vanished into thin air.

A suffocating silence hung over the mountain as he locked the car door. There was no sign of monsters, nor indeed of any living creature.

Yet letting down his guard was out of the question. No matter how thoroughly Cheongho Guild purged the perimeter, Mount Gamak remained a monster-infested hellhole.

With a heavy sigh, Eui-rim surveyed the deserted parking lot.

Honestly, I hadn’t expected it to be this completely abandoned. Given that a mandatory evacuation order had been issued, he had assumed sentries would be stationed along the perimeter. Even if not military personnel, he had at least expected Cheongho Guild guards to be barricading the access road.

Yet contrary to his expectations, the only barriers were warning placards. Aside from the rhythmic blare of an automated siren and silent CCTV lenses, there were no checkpoints, let alone a physical garrison blocking the road.

Eui-rim walked toward the row of placards posted near the trailhead. The metal corners of every single sign were violently warped, bent, or chewed away—the unmistakable marks of monster teeth.

A blunt disclaimer. In essence, the guild wouldn’t lift a finger even if a trespasser were devoured alive by beasts.

Then again, anyone wandering Mount Gamak during an active purge was bound to be out of their mind. The nearest settlement lay several kilometers away, its civilian population thoroughly cleared under martial evacuation orders; the only souls remaining would be those with a death wish.

Just like me right now.

Swallowing hard, Eui-rim felt his throat go painfully dry. His pulse hammered like a war drum against his ribs, sending a dull throb radiating through his limbs.

He spotted the numeric terminal the moment he reached the trailhead. Loitering hesitantly before the barrier tape, his gaze caught on a metal keypad roughly the size of a smartphone.

What is this? A passcode terminal? But the trail isn’t even physically blocked—why would anyone need to punch in a code?

Just in case, Eui-rim examined the perimeter around the entrance again, but found nothing of note. There was neither a locked gate requiring a passcode nor any visible security mechanism to disarm. Even the barricade was strung up loosely like police tape, looking effortless to step over.

After a moment’s hesitation, Eui-rim approached the console once more. More than anything, the flimsy barrier tape set his teeth on edge. This boundary was meant to keep monsters from spilling down the mountain; the fact that anyone could stroll right through was suspicious in the extreme.

Which leaves the question: what am I supposed to enter on this keypad?

Naturally, he couldn’t simply punch in random digits. Careless tampering that triggered a security alarm would court disaster. If it brought Seo Hae-gun straight to him, that might be a blessing, but his instincts warned him that fate was rarely so accommodating.

Lightly brushing the metallic keys sent a shiver down his spine. Though he hadn’t pressed a single button yet, his stomach knotted as though he had already committed a fatal mistake.

Usually, passcodes lock after two or three failed attempts. Is this one the same?

After tense deliberation, the first combination he settled on was Cheongho Guild’s founding date. Since Seo Hae-gun was the one managing this zone, starting with a simple date seemed reasonable.

Searching for Cheongho Guild on his phone, Eui-rim entered the six digits.

Beep—!

“Ah, damn it,” Eui-rim cursed under his breath.

Predictably, the naive guess was dead wrong. As a piercing klaxon wailed through the mountain stillness, Eui-rim frantically whipped off his jacket and smothered the console, his heart leaping into his throat.

Crazy bastard, why is it so loud? Are you trying to provoke every monster on Mount Gamak?

Fortunately, the shrill siren shut off after several nerve-racking seconds. Eui-rim hurriedly swept his eyes along the tree line and let out a shuddering breath.

That took ten years off my life.

He had nearly summoned every beast in the valley before even catching sight of Seo Hae-gun. Eui-rim’s fingers shook violently as he pulled his jacket back on. In those few seconds, his shirt had grown cold and clammy against his back.

I can’t afford to get it wrong a second time. The keypad locking out is one thing, but that alarm is lethal.

Narrowing his eyes, Eui-rim glared at the keypad.

A passcode. A passcode suitable for a guild-managed security zone…

“15. 7. 99. 0.”

…Huh?

A familiar voice echoed without warning in his mind, snapping his head up. Sifting through the fragments of his past life, Eui-rim recalled an offhand conversation with Seo Hae-gun and caught his breath.

“What are those?” he had asked back then.

“Numbers that are good to remember.”

“Isn’t it a bit late to pray for winning the lottery?”

Seo Hae-gun had burst into laughter at his dry remark. “I suppose so,” he had joked, before adding softly, “Still, keep them in mind just in case. You never know how life turns out.”

Replaying the memory, Eui-rim let out a faint, disbelieving breath.

Because he had been consumed by the urgency of compiling clues related to the Tower of Time, he had completely forgotten the casual remarks they had exchanged before that final descent.

Perhaps even then, Seo Hae-gun was already planning to send me back. Otherwise, why would he drop such specific sequences into conversation one by one?

With stiff, cautious fingers, Eui-rim punched the raised keys in sequence: 1-5-7-9-9-0. Since those were the only numbers etched into his memory, he had nothing left to lose.

Rumble.

Instead of a wailing siren, a deep tremor vibrated through the earth, and the space behind the barricade began to fracture.

A pitch-black rift split open between the strands of warning tape, the ground juddering beneath his soles.

Kuuuung!

Only then did Eui-rim realize that the scenery before his eyes had been an illusion. It seemed a trap combining spatial distortion and hallucinations had been laid to prevent any trespasser from crossing the boundary unchecked. Through the widening rift—now broad enough for an adult to step through—a devastated mountain trail and dense, untamed forest finally revealed themselves.

The cradle of South Korea’s very first dungeon, where monsters roamed unchecked.

The true path to Abyssal Origin Cave had finally opened.

❖ ❖ ❖

Damn it. If you were going to leave clues, you could have at least attached an instruction manual. What am I supposed to do with just a coordinate?

Cursing the Seo Hae-gun of his past life, Eui-rim diligently pushed forward.

In truth, calling it a trail was far too generous. Only the faintest indentations remained, while any semblance of a maintained path had disintegrated years ago. Wooden steps had rotted into splinters, guide ropes hung in shredded tatters, and choking brambles grew wild. Uprooted pines blocked the terrain at every turn, forcing him into arduous detours with every upward step.

Good thing I trusted my gut and bought these boots. If I’d wandered in here unprepared, I would have been shredded to pieces before climbing a kilometer.

Though the extortionate cost of the reinforced dungeon boots had nearly made him weep at the counter, the bundled dungeon compass made the purchase well worth every won.

Flap-flap!

The violent rustle echoed the instant the last remnants of rotting timber gave way. Snapping his head up, Eui-rim froze in his tracks. Wheeling in the sky just above the canopy was a winged monstrosity the size of a young child.

Eui-rim immediately dropped behind a massive oak and manipulated the Watch of Seclusion on his wrist, triggering the cloaking artifact he had brought for just such an emergency.

Krrk. Krrk.

Dropping low between the branches, the descending monster scanned the undergrowth. With the scaly plumage of a raptor and the grotesque, pale face of an old woman, it was unmistakably an inmyeonjong—a human-faced beast variant.

Fortunately, the artifact flared to life just in time. A pale emerald glow pulsed as an invisible spherical field expanded around him, causing the swooping monstrosity to stall mid-air.

Good. Steady your breathing, Kang Eui-rim. A beast of this tier won’t see through it. The item had proven its worth in previous dungeon raids; unless a predator was ranked A or higher, or possessed specialized detection senses, the field was more than sufficient to mask his presence.

Grr-krrk. Krrk.

…Still, a human-faced beast right from the start? Not a good omen.

Human-faced variants were notoriously vicious and cunning. Unlike standard monsters that charged on raw feral instinct, these aberrations possessed twisted intellect. Those with four limbs could wield makeshift weapons like humans, frequently hunting in organized, coordinated packs.

The sole mercy was that this creature belonged to the lowest avian tier of its kind. Had it been a quadrupedal crawler or a mature humanoid hybrid, a B-rank Watch of Seclusion wouldn’t have lasted three seconds against its senses.

The human-faced raptor pressed its beak to the damp mulch, sniffing persistently. It had clearly caught the scent of warm blood and living flesh, yet cocked its twisted head in bafflement when the trail evaporated into thin air.

Eui-rim gritted his teeth, his eyes glued to the pulsating countdown on his wrist. The greatest virtue of this cloaking watch was its reusable spring mechanism, but its fatal drawback was its pitiful duration. Unless manually wound to maintain tension, the charge expired in sixty seconds flat, dropping the barrier instantly.

Fuck. Please, just leave.

A silent prayer rose in his throat. Having caught the tantalizing scent of fresh prey, the creature paced restlessly across the clearing, loath to abandon the hunt.

Krr-aaagh!

The abomination shrieked in shrill frustration, buffeting its leathery wings. After circling the ridge once more, it shot upward, arrowing straight toward the mountain summit.

The furious backdraft whipped up a gale that shook the canopy. Dead leaves tore through the branches in a blinding whirl of pine needles and damp earth.

Huddling low, Eui-rim stared at the watch screen shifting toward red. Reaching its limit, the device was already counting down to drop the protective field.