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Chapter 2
Then Woohyun was also able to read the letters inscribed on the stone slab.
[The reason my bangs are thick is so that people won’t immediately recognize who I am, but when I am discovered, it’s so I can be easily captured.]
[The reason the back of my head is bald is so that once I pass by, no one can ever catch me again.]
[The reason I have wings on my feet is to disappear as quickly as possible.]
[The scales on my left hand signify that you must judge right and wrong accurately, and the sword on my right hand signifies making quick decisions as sharply as a blade.]
[To the one facing me: call my name.]
It was written just like that on the stone slab.
The moment Woohyun saw it, a siren started blaring wildly in his head.
‘These idiots! It’s obviously a trap!’
From his long experience as a porter, Woohyun immediately realized he must not solve the puzzle on the stone slab.
Even at a glance, the name they were asking to be called was surely the name of the gigantic statue behind the slab. Calling that name would awaken the statue from its seal and unleash slaughter—he could vividly picture it in his mind.
“Hmm… I think I saw this in a general education class back in college… what was it…?”
At that moment, a reckless rookie who had previously made some vampire joke muttered that, wearing a look somewhere between recalling and forgetting. Woohyun, knowing this would be a death flag, hurriedly ran to stop the rookie from opening his mouth.
Unfortunately, the rookie’s words were faster than Woohyun, who was burdened with a heavy backpack.
“No!! You idiots!!!”
Woohyun shouted as the rookie’s mouth opened, but it was already too late.
“Ah! Opportunity!”
Fwaaaah!!!
A brilliant blue light started erupting from the stone slab.
Woohyun squeezed his eyes shut against the sudden light, but it was so intense that the blue afterimage continued to swirl in his vision.
Ku-gu-gu-gu-gung!!!
“Yes! Hidden piece!!!”
The rookie thought this was a “hidden piece,” but Woohyun wanted to tell the idiot to shut up. Instead, he pressed his lips tightly together.
From experience, this had to be a trap.
The light from the slab meant the rookie’s answer was correct. That, in turn, meant the legendary monster responsible for producing all the skeletons in this corridor would soon be freed from its seal.
Woohyun knew from years of being a porter that the first person to move or make a sound would be the first target. So he neither moved nor made a sound.
“Hey! How can you talk to yourself like that!”
“Yeah! Hoarding is bad!”
The rookies, blinded by desire, were right in front of the statue, yelling loudly. And, as expected, shortly after…
Paaah…
The blue light faded, and when Woohyun opened his eyes, the two rookies who had been shouting were missing their upper bodies.
Shiver… shiver… shiver…
They had become ru/ki, their upper halves swallowed inside the mouth of a massive blue giant.
Thud- thud-
The lower halves of the bodies collapsed, and the man who had solved the puzzle for the first time in his life trembled violently under an overwhelming sense of intimidation.
“Uh… Mom… Sa… Save…”
The rookie, unable even to scream for his mother, was quickly devoured by the giant’s teeth and became a ru/ki, just like the others.
Gulp-
The giant, having swallowed the upper bodies of the rookies in an instant, turned its gaze toward the lone Woohyun.
“Damn it!!!”
Woohyun cursed at the ex-rookies who had just lost half their bodies and leapt to the side.
Kwaaaaang!!!!
The giant swung its enormous sword in Woohyun’s direction, releasing a crescent-shaped blue blade of energy that exploded at the spot where Woohyun had been standing just seconds ago.
The place Woohyun had been standing looked as if a massive excavator had dug an oval-shaped hole, the traces extending to the solid wall behind it.
From his experience as a porter, Woohyun knew that in such situations, a second attack would be launched so quickly that he wouldn’t even have time to notice. Without full confidence, he had to dodge to the side.
That move saved his life, allowing him to avoid becoming a ru/ki—for now.
Thunk! Tadadak!!!
Woohyun immediately threw off his backpack, squeezed every ounce of magical energy from his body, and ran toward the corridor’s entrance.
He had survived this long by choosing survival over greed in repeated dangerous situations.
Woohyun decided then that he would no longer linger in this dungeon. He ran desperately backward.
Chreeek- whoooosh!!
But then, the blue giant raised the scales in its left hand high, and one side of the scales dropped.
“Got it!”
As Woohyun reached the door of the corridor and was about to cross it, the blue light from the scales engulfed the corridor. One second later, when he opened his eyes, he was not at the entrance but in the very center of the corridor—exactly where he had started running.
Grin-
Woohyun stared at the giant in disbelief, and the giant glared back with wide eyes and a sinister, curling smile.
“No… no way…”
Woohyun looked up at the ceiling as if time had been reversed.
From inside the dungeon, looking at the ceiling revealed its color. Woohyun checked to see if the red dungeon, which had been almost white before, was truly red.
The color of the flames flickering on the ceiling was…
“Black…”
It was darker than shadows, perhaps darker than night itself.
Woohyun had seen news reports about black dungeons in other countries.
But none were as dark as the one before him.
It was a black so deep it seemed to absorb light like a black hole.
If a black hole absorbs light, this darkness absorbed hope itself.
From the moment Woohyun saw the dungeon’s black hue, the burning desire for survival inside him froze faster and colder than ever.
“Damn it! Dungeon rampage! And a red dungeon turning black! I’ve never even heard of that!!!”
Dungeon rampage.
A phenomenon where the dungeon’s color escalates exponentially due to traps or changes in monsters.
Dungeon rampages are rarer than lightning strikes, and the greatest rampage observed so far was a 3-stage escalation.
Now, a dungeon that was almost white-red had escalated to a black hole-level darkness. Woohyun felt both frustrated and incredulous.
He had been prepared to die eventually while working as a porter, but he never imagined dying in such a ridiculous way.
Sigh… I should’ve had breakfast with my family this morning…
Because of his hemomagic disorder, Woohyun had avoided interacting with his family, even avoiding meals together. He’d try to live without seeing their faces, sleeping in and leaving only when necessary.
Yet his mother consistently urged him to eat breakfast together, and he always pretended to be asleep.
And now, as he faced death, he regretted skipping breakfast this morning.
Thump-! Thump-! Thump-
Grrrr- grrrr- grrrr-
The blue giant stomped toward Woohyun, dragging its massive sword with a screeching sound.
Just as Woohyun resigned himself and closed his eyes…
Pop-!
A translucent message window appeared above his eyes.
<Status>
[Name: Cheon Woohyun]
[Gift: Vampirism]
[Strength: 1][Endurance: 1][Mana: 25]
[Durability: 1][Agility: 1][Senses: 1]
It was the system status window, usually exclusive to players.
[Gift – Vampirism: Absorb the blood of other beings to gain their power. When absorbing blood, basic wounds heal. If a sufficient amount is absorbed, you can randomly acquire the target’s skills or some of their stats. Skill and stat acquisition probabilities are adjusted relative to the target’s rank.]
Gift.
Unlike acquired skills, Gifts are innate, granted at player awakening, and usually surpass normal skills.
As a newly awakened player without a single skill, the only tool Woohyun could rely on was his Gift.
“Haha… damn… what good is awakening now… unbelievable…”
As he muttered despairingly, a sentence from the Gift description strangely appeared in his vision, even as tears blurred his eyes:
“Absorb the blood of other beings to gain their power…”
For some reason, Woohyun’s eyes fixated on a shallow wound on the blue giant’s left ankle.
Despite the corridor being filled with challengers until skeletons piled up like mountains, it had only left a shallow wound on its ankle.
Damn it.
Before awakening his Gift, Woohyun would have dismissed this.
Now, however, that shallow wound appeared as the single thread of hope allowing him to survive.
Tatadadadadak!!!
Woohyun began running at insane speed, channeling every ounce of magic into his legs.
