Chapter 31 — The Unknown Dungeon (Part One)
Crossing the threshold felt less like stepping through a door and more like being swallowed into a black hole. For a brief instant, there was no sensation at all—no sound, no gravity, no direction. Then everything returned at once, heavy and wrong. The air settled on their skin like damp cloth. Breathing took effort. Even the faintest movement felt watched.
Aken opened his eyes. He didn't move immediately, he let the world settle first. Then he looked up, the sky wasn't a sky. It stretched endlessly overhead, but it wasn't open. It felt close. Oppressive. A deep, dull red spread across it, not glowing, not shifting—just… there. Like a stain on a white cloth that refused to wash away. No sun, co clouds. Just that bizarre color.
Aken lowered his gaze and understood why the air felt so thick. The ground beneath them wasn't solid. It was a shallow layer of dark liquid, rippling faintly around their boots. Thick enough to resist movement slightly. Thin enough to flow.
Jae-Min took one step forward. Then stopped.
"…Aken."
His voice was quiet. Not joking, not complaining. Just… off.
Aken didn't answer. Jae-Min looked down. Then his face changed.
The realization didn't hit all at once. It crept in, piece by piece—the color, the texture, the way it moved. Then it clicked—blood.
"…No."
He stumbled back a step, hand covering his mouth.
"…No—no, no, no—"
He turned to the side and vomited, hard. His entire body folded in on itself, shoulders shaking as he emptied his stomach into the same dark liquid he was standing in. The smell hit a second later—strong, disgusting, mixed with something older. Something that had been sitting too long, decaying.
One of the other Players cursed under his breath and turned away. Another pressed his sleeve against his nose, eyes narrowing.
Soo-ah didn't react outwardly, but her gaze sharpened. Jin Wong took a slow step forward, testing the ground beneath him. The liquid shifted around his boots, revealing what lay beneath for just a moment. Shapes, not smooth, not natural.
Aken's eyes followed the movement. Bodies, all piled up everywhere. Not arranged, not buried. Just… there. Some partially submerged, others twisted into positions that didn't make sense. Armor pieces laid uselessly. Torn fabric. Empty hands still clenched around nothing. This wasn't a battlefield.
It was a graveyard.
Jae-Min wiped his mouth with a shaky hand, breathing uneven. "…Tell me this is some kind of dungeon effect. Illusion, or something."
No one answered him, because the smell alone said otherwise. Aken took a step forward. The liquid shifted beneath his feet. The surface broke just enough to show pale skin beneath—then closed again.
He didn't stop walking.
"…We keep moving," he said, voice steady.
Jae-Min stared at him. "…You're serious?"
"Standing still won't change anything."
"…You could at least pretend this is disturbing to you."
Aken glanced at him briefly. "I don't pretend."
That was enough to silence him. Jae-Min swallowed, forced himself upright, and followed. The rest of the team fell in line, though the formation wasn't as clean as before. The environment had already done its job—tightening nerves, slowing reactions, pulling focus in.
They moved carefully. Every step made a soft, wet and squishy sound. The kind of that stayed in your head longer than it should. As they advanced, the smell changed, not stronger but worsened. It settled deeper, like something you couldn't quite identify but knew instinctively wasn't right. Rot layered over iron and brimstone. Something stale beneath it.
One of the Players muttered, "What kind of B-rank dungeon is this."
Jin Wong answered without turning. "We've established that already. This isn't normal because it might not be B-rank."
Soo-ah's voice followed, calm but firm. "All of you stay focused. We confirm patterns first, then we adjust."
Aken didn't speak, he was listening. The dungeon had a rhythm, not obvious but there. A low, almost inaudible pulse beneath everything. Not sound—more like pressure. Like something breathing slowly, far below the surface.
He tracked it, counted it, then—stopped.
"Wait."
The group froze. Jae-Min immediately tensed. "…Don't do that unless something's actually wrong."
Aken didn't respond. He looked ahead, the surface of the liquid shifted. Not from them, from something underneath it. Jin Wong's hand moved to his sword. Soo-ah stepped forward half a pace, her posture changing—subtle, but ready.
The ripple spread, then split. Something pushing upward. Slow at first, like resistance mattered a lot. Then faster, forcing its way through with a sound that made Jae-Min flinch instinctively.
A shape emerged. Human, but not. It rose unevenly, joints moving out of sequence before correcting themselves. One arm dragged slightly behind the other, but when it finally straightened, the ground beneath it reacted—subtly, but enough.
Strength, real strength. Its head lifted, turning toward them. Jae-Min exhaled sharply. "…That's not normal."
Aken's vision flickered. The system responded.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
STATUS WINDOW
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Target Identified]
Name: Unregistered Undead
Classification: Corpse-Type
Rank: A
State: Degraded / Reinforced
Threat Assessment: High
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Jae-Min blinked. "…A-rank?"
No one corrected him, because he was right. One of the rear Players swore quietly. "In a B-rank gate…?"
Soo-ah didn't hesitate.
"Everyone, proceed to formation!"
Her tone cut through the tension cleanly. Jin Wong moved with her. His sword came free in one smooth draw, the edge catching the dim red light as it angled forward. The creature stepped toward them. Slow and heavy. Each movement felt deliberate, even if its body didn't fully cooperate.
Aken watched closely, not its face but its balance, its weight, its recovery.
Then—It moved, faster than expected. The arm came down in a wide arc. Jin Wong met it, steel connected to decayed flesh. For a second, it held. Then the blade cut through. Clean and precise. The limb separated—but the creature didn't slow down. No reaction, no hesitation. It kept coming.
Soo-ah stepped in. Her hand lifted, and the air around it shifted instantly. Cold gathered—not spreading wildly, but compressing, tightening into something controlled. Then she released it. The impact froze part of the creature's waist mid-motion, locking its center long enough for Jin Wong to reposition.
He didn't waste it. The second strike was faster, more direct. The blade cut through the neck, the head dropped. The body followed a second later, collapsing into the liquid with a dull, heavy sound.
Jae-Min exhaled. "…Okay. That's manageable."
Aken didn't agree. He was already looking past it, the surface moved again.
Not one point. Several.
"…No, where not done yet," he said quietly.
Jin Wong's grip tightened slightly.
"How many are they?"
Aken didn't answer. He didn't need to, the liquid broke in multiple places.
One. Three. Seven. More.
They rose the same way, slow and uneven. But carrying that same underlying weight. Jae-Min let out a hollow laugh. "…Yeah, no. That's not manageable."
Soo-ah stepped forward again, her presence shifting. This time it wasn't just controlled, it was colder, more deliberate.
"Positions," she said.
The team adjusted, frontline tightened, rear pulled back slightly. Aken moved forward, not behind but beside them.
Jin Wong glanced at him briefly. "…You staying there?"
"Yes."
"…Then don't slow us down."
Aken's expression didn't change. "Don't rely on me to fix your mistakes."
A brief pause. Then Jin Wong nodded once.
"…Fine then."
The creatures moved, slow but closing. The space between them shrank, the air grew heavier. And since the first entry—Aken felt it clearly. This dungeon wasn't just wrong, it was present. He adjusted his grip on Miokuo, not drawing it yet. Just ready.
"…Let's see what you're hiding," he said under his breath.
The first of the undead lunged forward. And the line broke into motion.
END OF CHAPTER 31