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‘This one’s a small-to-medium chimera, this one’s a monster caught in a dungeon……. Ugh, another person. Is it an adult this time?’
When Hyeonseong ran into another person again, she reflexively frowned. At least it was fortunate that this time, it was not a child.
‘This person’s status abnormalities are exactly the same as that one’s, too.’
At Hyeonseong’s request to share their status because she would let them out soon, the person inside the prison immediately showed their status window. The status abnormalities affecting this person were also special-status poison, silence, stat reduction, and the like.
‘The fact that they can share this means this person is an Awakened too…….’
Hyeonseong asked the person inside the prison if they had ever visited the gambling hall inside this auction house. The person violently shook their head.
“If you haven’t been to the gambling hall…… then does that mean you entered this auction house itself, at least?”
At the following question as well, the person inside the prison shook their head.
“Then…… Sinuiju Free Market?”
At the next question, the person inside the prison nodded. Then they opened their mouth and tried to say something.
It was difficult to read the shape of their mouth perfectly, but putting together the parts she roughly understood, it seemed they had lost consciousness at some tavern in a corner of the market, and when they opened their eyes, they were here.
For a moment, Hyeonseong wondered if those bastards were sane, but soon shook her head.
‘They definitely aren’t sane. Grown adults who must be old enough to know better are obsessed with playing Constellation.’
And those bastards had also secretly taken over a certain share within the Free Market. Dragging off one easy target without a trace would probably be as easy as lying down and eating rice cake for them.
‘Anyway, I should ask Haesu to free this person later too.’
Hyeonseong’s gaze turned toward the direction where she had first found the child. Just then, Haesu was pulling the child out of the prison. She had succeeded in opening the prison door.
“My companions will come to free you. Please wait just a moment.”
After saying that to the person inside the prison, Hyeonseong gestured to Hyeonyeong and Haesu to let them know there was a person here.
After confirming that the two of them were coming this way with the child, Hyeonseong continued checking the other prisons.
‘There are surprisingly quite a few empty ones.’
Because she had found monsters, people, and the like one after another at the beginning, she had not realized it, but there were more filled prisons than she had expected. There were even more empty prisons the deeper they went into the warehouse.
‘Well…… in a way, I guess that’s natural. It’s not like monsters or people are that easy to capture.’
If it was fortunate that the prisons were not all full, then it was fortunate.
‘Have we found four people so far?’
Hyeonseong glanced behind her for a moment.
The people walking with Hyeonyeong and Haesu were one child and three adults. It was a larger number than Hyeonseong had expected.
‘I thought there would be two or three at most, considering the auction cycle.’
Next, Hyeonseong’s gaze turned to the prisons whose cloths had not yet been pulled away. There were roughly five or six left.
She did not hold the vain hope that there would not be a single person inside them. Hyeonseong thought that at least one more person would be imprisoned there.
‘For some reason, I have a feeling that man from yesterday is here too……. Though I don’t really have any solid basis.’
Hyeonseong pulled away another cloth. An empty prison greeted her.
‘Honestly, it’d be better if he was here. If he isn’t here, that means he’s already dead, or they took him away somewhere without anyone knowing what they’re doing with him, or something like that.’
She lifted the cloths from the remaining prisons one by one and checked inside. After passing two empty prisons, she stood in front of the next one.
Hyeonseong swiftly pulled the cloth aside. And she met a familiar face.
“……!”
‘Damn, you really did get dragged here.’
After confirming the appearance of the A-rank Awakened, Hyeonseong pressed her temple firmly.
‘……Yeah, it’s better that I ran into you here. At least I can pick you up.’
Hyeonseong requested status sharing from the Awakened, who recognized her and started making a commotion.
However, the Awakened only glared at Hyeonseong with a wary expression and did not share his status. Hyeonseong let out a sigh.
“I need to confirm what status abnormalities you have before I can decide how to get you out of there. Surely you don’t want to die as soon as you leave the prison, do you?”
Even after Hyeonseong’s following words, the Awakened still glared at her silently. Just as Hyeonseong was wondering what she should do with this person—
“What’s wrong?”
Hyeonyeong approached and asked.
“Uh, this person won’t share his status with me.”
“Really? Then let’s just tell him to stay there. We don’t really want to see him suddenly die after we forced him out, do we?”
Hyeonyeong answered Hyeonseong’s words in a calm voice. Then the Awakened inside the prison looked at Hyeonseong’s group with a blue, pale face.
“……!”
The Awakened shook the iron bars and made a commotion. His voice could not be heard, but it was surely him asking them to get him out.
“Hey, you heard that, right? So if you want to get out without dying, open your status sharing. You can share only the status abnormality section separately anyway.”
Hyeonseong said while pointing at Hyeonyeong. Then the Awakened hesitated for a moment before eventually sharing his status window.
“This person’s the same too.”
“Then I can release him like before, right?”
Haesu asked. When Hyeonseong nodded, Haesu began opening the prison door.
“What are you going to do about the monsters?”
While Haesu opened the door, Hyeonyeong asked.
“Right. They’re a waste to just leave alone, but even if we release them, I don’t know if there’s any way to use them…….”
There was no way for their side to take the monsters and experimental creatures with them. And even if they did take them, it was not as though they could raise them.
“……Still, it’d be better to release them.”
Hyeonseong quickly reached a conclusion. Of course, the reason she wanted to release them was not particularly because she pitied the monsters.
‘If we let them loose, they’ll rampage on their own and turn the place into chaos. Even if there’s a tamer-type ability user who can control them, it’ll take some time to clean things up.’
In short, her intention was to make the administrator suffer a little.
“Haesu, are you almost done?”
Hyeonseong asked Haesu, who was opening the prison door and removing the restraint device around the Awakened’s neck.
“Yes, just a moment.”
Haesu moved her hands a few more times. Then the restraint device around the A-rank Awakened’s neck was released.
“Cough……! Huh?”
The Awakened looked surprised at the sound of his own cough. He had realized that his voice had returned.
“It, it worked……!”
“Please keep it down. Haesu, since it’s come to this, I’m thinking we should release all of those too.”
After scolding the Awakened, Hyeonseong asked Haesu.
“The monsters too? If you want me to release them, I can, but…… there are a bit too many to release even the small ones…….”
Haesu replied with a troubled expression.
“You have spare tools, right? Please lend me just one.”
“My tools……?”
At Hyeonseong’s words, Haesu looked at her suspiciously.
“You said we were short on hands.”
“Well, that’s true, but…….”
“I’m going to test something. If it succeeds, we get one extra hand, and if it fails…… then we have no choice but to release only the big ones.”
At Hyeonseong’s following words, Haesu hesitated for a moment before taking out one lockpick from her bag and handing it over.
“Thank you. Then…….”
Hyeonseong headed toward a nearby medium-sized chimera prison. In front of the prison, she took out the “Magician’s Hand” card, activated it, and tried to pick the lock with the lockpick.
Click.
After moving her hand a few times, she heard the sound of the lock opening. When she gently pulled the door, it opened properly.
“Uh…… how?”
Haesu looked at Hyeonseong with disbelief in her eyes.
“I wasn’t sure either, but it works.”
Hyeonseong lightly tossed the lockpick upward and caught it.
The idea of using the “Magician’s Hand” card had come to her after seeing Haesu’s trait and some of the Constellations who showed interest in Haesu.
If one thought about it, the hand movements for opening a lock were somewhat similar to a magician’s hand movements.
‘In the sense that there’s a knack to the movements, and that it can look like magic to someone who doesn’t know.’
In any case, she had confirmed that locks could be opened with “Magician’s Hand” as well. Hyeonseong decided to open as many monster cages as possible together with Haesu.
“Hyeonyeong, I’ll leave the herding to you.”
At Hyeonseong’s words, Hyeonyeong nodded. Hyeonyeong took out the sword she usually used from her slot.
Hyeonseong’s group opened the monster cages indiscriminately. Each time they let a monster out of its cage, Hyeonyeong used skills that induced Taunt and intimidation statuses to drive the monster toward the entrance.
“Th-those things won’t suddenly attack us or anything, will they……?”
One of the Awakened following behind Hyeonseong’s group asked cautiously.
“Yes, it’s fine. And if it looks like they’re going to attack, she’ll take care of them.”
Hyeonseong gestured toward Hyeonyeong with her eyes.
“More importantly, all of you are in a state where you can use your abilities properly, right?”
This time, Hyeonseong asked the Awakened.
“Ah, yes. But all our equipment was taken…….”
“What’s your trait?”
“Shooting. I used two rifles…….”
“Are these them, by any chance?”
Hyeonseong took out the item she had a guess about from Infinite Corridor.
“Uh, uh? That’s right.”
“I thought so.”
Hyeonseong recalled when she had swept the items off the shelf.
There had been a compartment where equipment that seemed too awkward to be handled by the auction house had been gathered.
At the time, she had taken the items without thinking much of it, but now that she thought about it, that must have been the compartment where the equipment of kidnapped Awakened was confiscated and stored like this.
“Uh, d-do you maybe have mine too?”
“Please find mine too!”
After seeing the Awakened regain his weapon, the others shouted their traits and main weapons, asking Hyeonseong to find their items. Hyeonseong found the weapons she had guesses about and handed them to them.
Since she was at it, she took out all the auxiliary equipment too and let them find their own. Before long, all the equipment had returned to its original owners.
“Thank you. I thought I’d never find it again…….”
“Th-then, may I ask your name, ma’am…….”
Perhaps because they had seen Hyeonseong pouring out item after item from midair, the Awakened seemed to have realized Hyeonseong’s identity.
“Yes, well…….”
Hyeonseong gave a vague answer and brushed past it, then turned her gaze to Hyeonyeong.
“Can you check the situation outside?”
“Hard to say. For now, no one has come in this far yet. The problem is that I don’t know about the area near the warehouse entrance either…….”
“Can’t you ask?”
“Should I ask once?”
“If you would…….”
“……I guess there’s no need to go that far.”
At the timely Constellation message that flew in, Hyeonseong changed her words in a reluctant voice.
‘Still, would it be better to tell her to ask?’
“What does that mean? Don’t tell me they’ve already broken in here or something…….”
Haesu asked in a wary voice.
“Whatever it is, we need to hurry. Since it’s come to this, let’s finish releasing only the big and strong ones.”
Hyeonseong ran toward one of the two large cages that had not yet been opened. Haesu also ran toward the other large cage.
‘You guys had better be worth the effort we put in.’
As soon as she opened the cage door, Hyeonseong ran toward Hyeonyeong. Behind her, the Abyss Wolf chased Hyeonseong with ferocious momentum.
Across from her, Haesu was having a chase with the Wendigo. Because of the Wendigo’s size, Haesu had to flee almost as though she was rolling across the ground.
“Uwaaaah!”
Before the Wendigo’s hand could grab her head, Haesu barely jumped within the range of Hyeonyeong’s debuff skill. Hyeonyeong immediately inflicted Taunt and intimidation debuffs on the monster.
“Ugh, seriously, what even is this……. I’ve really seen all kinds of things after living this long…….”
Haesu grumbled to herself.
“This happens all the time in dungeons. Have you really never been to a dungeon even once?”
Hyeonseong asked.
“Actually, it’s not like I’ve never gone at all. I have to earn the usage fee, so I did go in as a porter or odd-job worker about once a month…… but when you go in as that, you usually don’t end up dealing with this kind of mess.”
Haesu answered while barely calming her breath. At that answer, Hyeonseong could not say anything in reply.
“……Anyway, we’ve released all the big ones now, so we’re leaving, right?”
Haesu continued asking.
“We have to leave. We’re even being personally warned.”
Hyeonseong glanced sideways at the Constellation message again. “Eye Beneath the Surface” had already sent another message recommending that they go outside quickly.
“What about that person? Did they say anything?”
Hyeonseong asked Hyeonyeong. Just in case, she had already told Hyeonyeong to ask her Constellation, “Master of Ten Thousand Swords,” once too.
“That person also said we should move quickly if possible.”
“That means we might have to go through another round of trouble…….”
“What?”
Hyeonseong unconsciously answered the Constellation message out loud.
“Ha, ha, I’m sorry about that. It was so sudden.”
Hyeonseong answered the Constellation with a forced smile.
Meanwhile, the owner of the auction house and the spectators exchanged words again. Judging by the look of it, “Eye Beneath the Surface” seemed to be debating whether or not to open the warehouse door.
“Hyeonyeong, take those things and go out first.”
After confirming the Constellations’ conversation, Hyeonseong instructed Hyeonyeong without hesitation.
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