138 — Chapter 138

Even before they could turn around to investigate the suspicious noise echoing from behind, Noquia’s scream forced everyone to witness the massive boulder rolling toward them.

“Hieek!”

A shrill scream—it was impossible to tell whose—tore through the air. With a heavy thrumming against the earth, the boulder rolled slowly at first, teetering precariously at the top of the incline. Now they finally understood why the path had been so subtly slanted.

It was specifically so that damn rock could roll!

The boulder wobbled and rattled atop the slope before finally tipping over. Warning bells went off in the heads of the group, who had been staring in paralyzed shock. The moment the stone began its true descent, they began to run down the path like madmen.

“Hey, what the hell is that?!”

Father shouted, her voice laced with sheer panic.

“How should I know?! Just shut up and run!”

Holanghee replied, her eyes wide and terrifying. But no matter how hard they ran, there was no way they could outpace a boulder gaining momentum on a downward slope. The noise and the crushing pressure closing in from behind grew louder and more overbearing until, finally, a giant shadow swallowed them all.

Squish. Everyone was flattened. When they came to, they were back at the very beginning.

Standing dazed in the middle of the overgrown jungle, they looked up at the towering, majestic ruins and muttered.

“This dungeon is absolutely insane…”

A wave of irrepressible rage simmered in their guts. They had never encountered a dungeon so specifically designed to make a person’s blood boil. Knowing that getting angry would only cloud their judgment, they huffed and puffed, trying to swallow their fury. Then, Noquia clapped her hands together, her eyes and mouth widening as she shouted at the top of her lungs.

“Hey! If we go back now, doesn’t that mean we can actually enter the treasure room?”

Everyone froze in their tracks. Then, they turned to look at Noquia with eyes gleaming with greed. Well, everyone except one.

“Will it really be that easy…?”

It was Blaine. But Noquia insisted, “It’s worth a shot! Let’s go, hurry!” and started sprinting up the stairs.

The group followed Noquia’s hope back to the site of the treasure room, but Blaine’s worry proved correct. The glittering, ornate arched door of the treasure room had transformed into a crude, seamless stone wall.

It seemed that once you passed a treasure room, you were barred from entering it ever again. Staring blankly at the wall that used to be a goldmine, Father shook her head and turned away.

“Let’s just go back to the courtyard and recover some stamina….”

Trudging back to the courtyard, they picked berries from the surrounding trees and refilled their canteens at the spring. They sat before the campfire to resolve their hunger and thirst and to recover health, but the gauges weren’t budging.

Confused, they checked their stats only to find their Fatigue gauges were completely maxed out.

“When did it get this high…?”

As Theo muttered dejectedly, Noquia rummaged through her inventory and pulled out a sleeping bag.

“After all the bullshit we just went through, it’s no wonder we’re tired.”

Once they realized it, their shoulders felt heavy and dark circles seemed to deepen under everyone’s eyes. One after another, they followed Noquia’s lead, unrolling their sleeping bags by the fire to seek some sleep.

“Seeking sleep” didn’t mean they actually slept; the moment they lay down in the bags, their eyes closed automatically. It felt as if time were fast-forwarding, and when they opened their eyes again, all their gauges—except for hunger and thirst—had returned to peak condition.

They sated their needs with the fruit and the spring water, then climbed back through the window into the building.

Hoping for another path, they investigated all three directions of the basement intersection, but the paths flanking the treasure room were both dead ends. Since the only way forward was down the trapdoor, they decided to check the upper floors first.

Unlike the gloomy, sunless basement, the upper floors were bathed in sunlight streaming through windows along the staircase. Truly, humans were meant to live in the light.

They climbed the stairs with light hearts, only to find themselves at the very top of a tower. Though the blue sky and a refreshing breeze greeted them, there was no reason to stay in a place with no exit.

They descended to the basement once more and stood before the treasure room trap.

“Is this truly the only path left to us…?”

Noquia muttered solemnly. Father, who had stepped up behind her without a sound, replied, “So it seems,” and shoved her in the back. With a startled cry, Noquia tumbled helplessly into the trap, leaving a long, trailing scream behind her as she vanished into the dark.

Having sent Noquia down first, the others threw themselves into the trap one by one. The vertical slide seemed to go on forever, but since they’d experienced it once, the panic was gone; they actually found themselves enjoying the ride.

When they reached the bottom, they found Noquia waiting for them. With fire in her eyes, she lunged at Father, and the two began a petty, chaotic scuffle on the ground.

Ignoring the brawl, the others dusted themselves off and straightened their clothes.

“The problem is how to dodge that rock.”

Theo muttered, looking up at the ceiling that was lost in the heights. Holanghee and Blaine looked up too. It was clear the boulder dropped from the ceiling; there was nowhere else a rock that size could be hidden. Holanghee approached Theo and suggested:

“What if we hunker down in a corner when the rock rolls past? There’s bound to be a gap, right?”

It seemed like a solid plan. Boulders are round, so there should be a sliver of space on either side when they touch the ground. Theo broke up the fight between Noquia and Father, explained the plan, and they hurried toward the slope.

As soon as they started down the incline, the boulder began to roll behind them.

They dove into the corners and pressed themselves against the wall.

They were sent back to the very beginning.

“Let’s just run like crazy. We’ll outrun the damn thing!”

This time, Noquia spoke with pure confidence, adding that running was the one thing she was best at.

They ran like crazy.

They were sent back to the start.

“What if we just wait here until the boulder rolls past first?”

Theo suggested, looking a bit exhausted the moment they finished the descent from the trap.

They waited.

The boulder never rolled.

After three rounds of trial and error, their stamina was hitting rock bottom. They wished they could go back up to the courtyard, but since there was no way to climb back up the trap chute, they used the twigs and matches they had gathered to build a campfire.

Sitting around the flames, everyone let out one heavy sigh after another. They needed a breakthrough, but nothing came to mind.

In the middle of the gloomy silence, Father, who had been poking at the fire with a branch, used that same stick to point toward the ceiling.

“Hey, you know that thump we hear in the middle of the path before we even hit the slope? I think that’s the sound of the boulder starting its roll. What if we start sprinting the moment we hear that?”

Everyone turned to look at Father. Now that she mentioned it, they had heard that distinct thump midway through the path every single time.

“What if it’s not?”

Holanghee asked anxiously, and Father just shrugged.

“If it isn’t, it isn’t. It’s worth a shot.”

Theo thought it over for a second before asking, “Will our endurance hold out until we reach the bottom of the slope?”

“We can’t make it down that entire slope on a single bar of endurance anyway. Look at the length of it. We’ll have to pull off a tight loop of sprinting, then walking to refill it while keeping our distance, and then sprinting again. If we put enough distance between us and the rock early on, won’t that buy us the time we need for our endurance to recharge?”

“…….”

The group went silent, but it wasn’t a silence of disagreement. It was a strategy worth trying.

Once their health was fully restored, they stood up and dusted themselves off. Taking deep breaths, they began to move. Midway through the path, just as they reached the point where the subtle incline began, a heavy thump echoed from somewhere far above.

Instantly, everyone began to sprint.

By the time they reached the steep slope, running breathlessly, they glanced back to check. Usually, the head of the boulder would be visible by now, but this time, it was nowhere to be seen. They had definitely created a lead.

“Hey, this could work! Keep running!”

Father shouted, and everyone increased their pace. Because it was a downhill slope, they practically had to tumble forward to maintain their speed, but they were willing to risk a few falls to keep that distance from the boulder.

Behind them, a low rumble began to grow—the sound of something massive rolling. Father checked the rear with a tense expression. She could see the giant stone gaining speed as it bore down on them.

“It’s coming! Run, run!”

Father’s voice rang out again, and everyone ran with gritted teeth. They managed to maintain the distance by a hair’s breadth, but one by one, their endurance bars began to hit zero.

Their rapid sprinting slowed to a crawl, eventually becoming a mere walk. Simultaneously, the boulder, fueled by gravity, began to roll even faster.

“Please, please!”

“Charge up, hurry!”

“Aigo, I’m gonna die!”

Theo, Holanghee, and Noquia spoke in turns, their feet practically stomping in frustration. The combination of urgency and tension made it feel like their throats were closing up.

Just as the boulder reached their backs, bringing with it a deafening roar and a crushing presence, their endurance bars finally filled up. As if they’d been waiting for this exact moment, everyone gritted their teeth and took off.

Sprinting, being caught up to—an agonizing game of tag ensued. They began to think they might actually make it down safely, but perhaps because they let their guard down for a split second, the boulder suddenly overtook them. In the blink of an eye, they were back at the start.

“…….”

Everyone stood there blankly. However, there was no sense of despair or anger. Instead, they were filled with the hope that they could actually do this if they tried just one more time.

They challenged the slope endlessly. They didn’t forget to check their status gauges and use the courtyard to avoid wasting supplies.

They lost count of which attempt it was, but it must have been over ten. Finally, as they ran like possessed souls, the end of the path came into view. They weren’t out of danger yet, but cheers erupted from the group.

The end of the path was a cliff, with paths branching off to the sides. They quickly veered left, and the boulder, which looked ready to crush them all, plummeted over the cliff and vanished into the abyss.