The interior of the Alpha Dungeon was formed like an underground maze.
Natural crypts and antique stone spaces were intricately intertwined like ant habitats were located inside.
As he entered the southern passageway, Ryu Han-bin looked around, surprised.
‘It’s brighter than I thought it would be.’
He thought it would be darker since it was located in a basement.
He even prepared a spare torch.
Much to his surprise, it wasn’t that dark at all.
Moss that glowed faintly grew all over the hallways, illuminating the pathways.
For ordinary humans, the amount of light would’ve been insufficient, but for Han-bin, whose night eyes were as good as an owl’s, it was good enough to distinguish things.
‘I won’t have to light a torch at this rate.’
He kept on the lookout as he moved through the passageways.
He was confident that he had accumulated enough combat experience in his own way, but he had never experienced a dungeon before.
He didn’t dare let his guard down.
“There might be traps in here.”
After a while, he came to a realization.
A trap was not something that a layman could avoid by being wary of.
Rattle!
“Huh?”
Upon taking a step forward, the floor swiftly opened to reveal a pit.
At the same time, six arrows were shot from the wall, all aimed at his back.
Wooosh!
Twang! Twang! Twang!
All of the projectiles bounced back.
The arrow pierced through the leather armor but failed to pierce Ryu Han-bin’s back.
He smiled bitterly as he looked at the arrows rolling on the floor.
“Giant Demon Dog used to bite down on my flesh, but now I got these little arrows. So funny.”
Much like his other stats, his defense had also risen to a bizarre level.
Han-bin stopped giggling, and his face looked hardened.
“…I don’t understand the concept of defense.”
If it was a game, he could just say that his defense had increased, but he was a real human being.
No matter how hardened the real human body was, it was, in essence, still made of flesh.
‘If I cut myself with a knife, would my high defense prevent my skin from being cut? This doesn’t make any sense.’
However, there was no meaning in thinking about reality when it was a reality where walls could be crossed by jumping in place.
‘Besides, my defense would increase if I used my strength along with it.’
There was also a time when he experimented with the rocky mountains.
Without flexing his muscles, his skin was cut by the blade he sliced through it.
However, when he put strength behind his muscles and tried to cut through them, it fully denied the blade from piercing through.
‘I understand if I was cutting through the muscles, I was trying to cut through the skin.’
It was strange for the skin to become harder because he concentrated his strength on it.
“I just can’t seem to understand the concept of it.”
Han-bin scratched his head.
“Hah, thinking about it now won’t get me anywhere.”
For now, he had to keep on moving.
He regained his focus once more.
He moved slowly, paying more attention to where he was walking.
As he went deeper into the dungeon, a large stone clearing appeared.
Crude torches were lit around the clearing, and a large group of monsters had gathered in it.
Gigantic horns protruded from their heads, and their bodies were covered in thick scales that served as their armor.
The guideline informed him of the monsters’ identity.
[Race: Tatyro. Lv. 31]
Additional information was also available.
[Due to the crustacean-scale on the surface of their body, which is also highly resistant to physical attacks, blades can barely cut into their skin. They are vulnerable to magical attacks.]
The group of Tatyro turned their heads one by one as they noticed Ryu Han-bin’s presence.
“Grr?”
“Human?”
* * *
The Tatyros bared their eerie teeth. The foul stench of their physiques had filled the entire opening.
Their red eyes began to glow behind the dark.
“Mage?”
“No! a petty swordsman!”
Unlike the monsters he had faced before, the Tatyros were capable of speaking in basic-level verbal communication.
They also spoke using the Couling language, the native tongue around these parts.
It was hard to understand in the beginning.
How did monsters from other worlds the language of Latna?
Regardless, Ryu Han-bin remained levelheaded.
‘I’ve already gained that information.’
When a dungeon appeared, the monsters belonging to the dungeon naturally used the language near the area where it appeared.
The reason was unknown, but this was also one of the common knowledge about dungeons.
‘It’s probably just due to something similar to my language communication skills.’
The excited group of Tatyro slowly began to surround Ryu Han-bin.
“Meat! Human meat!”
“Kkyakkyakya!”
They treated Han-bin as if he was prey.
They only felt fear in the face of magic.
Feeling their bloodlust pouring, he calmly grasped the situation.
‘Level 31? I don’t know how strong they are.’
He at least thought they would be stronger than Effir.
Because Effir was level 27.
‘Since I handled Effir with only one shot, I don’t think they’d be any different…’
A vein popped out on his hand that was holding the sword.
‘Well, It’s time to see if they can give me a good fight.’
The heat of battle excited his whole body.
‘Carefully, now…’
He took a step forward and lifted the sword up over his shoulder.
‘This time for sure!’
He charged forward like an arrow and hit the monsters!
A strike landed on the Tatyro standing closest to him.
Within a flash, the Tatyro was split in two.
‘Dang!’
The blow was too powerful. The blade even struck the ground after splitting the monster due to its strength.
The ground cracked, and the earth began to shake.
The two halves of the Tatyro’s body flew towards opposite sides, spraying blood all over the clearing.
Duuaak!
“……Kreuk?”
The remaining Tatyros stiffened in place.
There was a flash, followed by one of their fellow monsters blowing up.
Han-bin was also flustered.
“Eh?”
Swords weren’t supposed to work on them because of their thick scales.
It was the only reason why he hit the rocks on purpose.
“It worked too well, didn’t it?”
The group of Tatyro shouted, staring at Han-bin’s black sword.
“It’s magic!”
“That magic looks like a sword!”
They believed their scales wouldn’t be able to be cut by anything other than magic.
Han-bin laughed.
“I’m not using magic! It’s just a sword.”
This great black sword was made from the bones of Demon Dogs. There was nothing particularly unique about it other than its durability.
He could probably even achieve the same result if he were to hit them using his bare fists.
‘I expected them to be weak, but not this much.’
The heat of the battle that should’ve reached its climax cooled down instantaneously.
‘I’m going to have to finish it.’
Ryu Han-bin charged onwards once more.
His greatsword cut through the air, causing a series of light to burst.
The Tatyros tried to defend themselves as much as they could, but they were no match against him.
He was too fast—too strong.
A rain of flesh scattered across the grounds as crimson fluids dyed the entire floor.
Desperate screams soon filled the cave.
“Keek!”
“Ahhhhhh!”
It didn’t take long for the Tatyros to be annihilated, their corpses scattered around the crypt.
Looking down at the pile of corpses, Han-bin smacked his forehead with regret.
“Tsk…”
Even after killing so many monsters, he still couldn’t gain any experience.
* * *
Another monster had attacked him.
It was a hideous giant monster with a rugged build and height of more than 2 meters.
[Race: Ogre. Lv. 33]
It was immediately sliced in half by a gigantic blade.
A scream filled the dungeon once more.
“Khuaaak!”
Another monster appeared.
It looked similar to the ogre from before, but this time it had two heads.
[Race: Etin. Lv. 34]
The monster was also easily cut in half.
“Kaaaaah!”
“Kaaargh!!”
This time, two screams filled the dungeon.
As he swung his sword to shake off the blood, Ryu Han-bin made a grim expression.
“This is just absurd…”
About 3 hours had already passed since he entered the dungeon.
Within that period of time, he encountered a lot of monsters.
Most of them were within the levels of 30 to 50.
They also differed from one another.
None of it mattered, though. They were all killed with one swing.
No one was fast enough to avoid Han-bin’s blow.
No one was strong enough to stop his sword.
His swings hit unconditionally, and it cut unconditionally as well.
‘I shouldn’t let my guard down.’
It was more tiring to keep an eye out on his guard than to actually fight the monsters.
‘There’s one more thing that tires me out.’
He had slowly cleared up all the monsters in his area.
He sighed as he looked at the numerous piles of corpses that were scattered all over the floor.
“I have to dig up the Devil’s Spirit Stone again…”
He collected the corpses, stacked them all up in one place, took out a dagger, then sat down.
He then proceeded to dig up the Devil’s Spirit Stones one by one.
He was initially happy due to the amount of money he could fetch from selling the stones, but he soon got bored and tired of doing the same repetitive task.
It took more time to dig out a stone than to kill a monster.
‘I feel like I’ve seen a similar scene somewhere…’
Was it like the scenes of middle-aged women on the coast of Namdo that he had seen on TV?
Anyway, it wasn’t very pleasant.
‘It would be very convenient if I could just loot it all at once like in games.’
Sadly, that wasn’t how it worked in reality.
He gave up on the thought and simply focused on digging up the stones.
After his task, Ryu Han-bin continued to head deeper underground.
When encountering a monster, he cut it, collected the stone, discarded the body, and went down again. That had become his routine.
At least until he was interrupted by an unfamiliar scene.
He saw light beads on the other side of the cave.
“What’s that?”
A faintly glowing light sphere was embedded in the wall, and a metal bracelet floated in it, giving off strange energy.
He suddenly remembered the story he heard from Buckman.
* * *
The monsters inside the dungeon did not disappear completely, no matter how many of them were killed.
Obviously, even though it had already been cleared, new monsters would appear to refill the dungeon after some time.
This phenomenon called respawn occurred because dungeon monsters were essentially two-dimensional beings.
By using the dungeons as a two-dimensional passageway, monsters could continue to flow in.
It was the dungeon magic core that maintained that flow.
If someone removed the core which existed in each dungeon area, the monsters would cease to appear in that area.
These areas were called clean areas, and expanding this clean area was the objective of each dungeon attack.
Additionally, all dungeon magic cores came in the form of magic tools.
It still wasn’t known yet why the magic cores took the form of magic items that humans could use.
When dungeons first appeared, there was a time when all dungeons were ignored and disregarded.
They were thought of as traps to manipulate and deceive humans to their deaths.
However, after multiple wizards proved their safety in the present age, most people started entering it with no doubt.
That being said, every dungeon had a central core in its deepest area that supported the entire dungeon as a whole.
This core, called an Artifact, was a more powerful object compared to the magic tools used as the magic cores.
Artifacts from the toughest dungeons could potentially hold the same value as castles or kingdoms.
Additionally, dungeons that had lost their artifacts disappeared from the Latna Continent since it held the power for them to stay in this world.
Those who achieved the feat of destroying a dungeon were called dungeon closers and were recognized as someone powerful among hunters.
* * *
Ryu Han-bin carefully looked at the metal bracelet in front of him.
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