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The moment they entered the room, furniture like a bed, a desk, and a chest of drawers came into view.
‘A bedroom. In a place like this, usually….’
“Look for things like keys or records.”
Someone voiced exactly what Hyeonseong had been thinking.
‘Places like this often turn up diaries or personal notes.’
Hyeonseong started checking around the room as well. While she was at it, she also looked for anything worth taking, but there was nothing else to salvage.
‘If I take anything at all, I’d have to just sweep the whole room clean….’
“Here—there’s a key.”
An Otherworlder rummaging through the desk drawer held up a key. Hyeonseong walked over to examine it.
It was small, and the notched part was simple. It seemed like a key for one of the rooms on the second floor rather than the stairwell.
“Anything besides the key?”
“Well… other than that….”
The people checking the other drawers and the bed shook their heads. Unfortunately, it looked like there was no material that could serve as a clue.
“Nothing hidden?”
At someone’s question, three people—including Danilo—shook their heads. Even after checking with spirits and detection skills, they said there was nothing like that.
“Then there’s nothing else to see here, right?”
“Let’s check the next room.”
“Ah, wait a second.”
As the Otherworlders headed out, Hyeonseong opened Infinite Corridor in the middle of the room. When she issued a command to the skill, all the furniture in the room got sucked into Infinite Corridor’s empty space.
“Why did you do that?”
The Otherworlders asked with puzzled faces.
“In case we need it as firewood.”
Hyeonseong answered while checking the newly updating messages.
The names that kept appearing in casual chatter were still tied closely to undead and the dead.
Meanwhile, there weren’t many names tied to chimeras. Most of the ones still lingering said they were leaving because it had gotten boring.
‘Unless they’re all in on some coordinated con, this means it’s an undead-focused dungeon.’
And undead, by nature, were weak to light and fire. So it made sense to stock up on good burnable fuel.
“Firewood?”
“If undead show up, I’ll set it on fire and run.”
“Ahh….”
At Hyeonseong’s answer, a few Otherworlders nodded with blank faces.
“Hmph. Ridiculous. Do we look that incompetent? Enough that you’d even think like that?”
Ivan snorted at Hyeonseong’s words. Instead of replying, Hyeonseong simply picked at her ear.
“Hey…!”
“Calm down. She’s not entirely wrong.”
“Yeah. Who knows what might happen later?”
Other Otherworlders calmed Ivan down as she started to flare up.
“Ahem. Let’s continue the search.”
After a moment, Ivan—her anger cooled—cleared her throat and strode ahead. She looked embarrassed that she’d gotten mad over nothing.
‘Yeah, why get mad at something that’s true?’
Hyeonseong clicked her tongue inwardly.
“We need to find the room that key fits, right?”
The person holding the key looked around.
“Give it to me. I’ll try finding it.”
One Otherworlder held out his hand. His name was Pablo.
“Oh, right. You have that ability to identify locks.”
The key-holder handed it over immediately. With the key in hand, Pablo walked the corridor for a short while.
“Hmm. This one.”
Pablo muttered and stopped in front of a door. Then the key slid into the keyhole.
Click
With a small metallic sound, the door opened.
“Another bedroom?”
Someone peeked into the room Pablo had opened.
“Then let’s investigate like before.”
The investigation proceeded the same way as the first room. Hyeonseong also stepped inside again and checked here and there.
‘This room’s bigger than before, and there are more things in it.’
Even the location was farther in. It seemed like this was a room used by someone higher up.
‘If that’s the case….’
Hyeonseong’s hand swung open the wardrobe without hesitation. It looked empty at first glance, but she didn’t get discouraged—she checked every corner carefully.
‘Oh.’
As she rummaged through a small inner drawer, Hyeonseong let out a low exclamation.
‘Yeah. This is what I was looking for.’
She pulled out a small jewel case from the drawer. It was clearly one of the items that would matter for clearing the dungeon.
“Find something?”
As Hyeonseong took out the case, an Otherworlder came up and asked.
“Yes. I found this.”
“It looks like a jewel case. What’s inside?”
“That’s what we have to check now.”
Standing up, Hyeonseong opened the jewel case. Inside were five dark red gems and a single note.
‘Same size, same cut… usually you slot something like this into something and use it like a key, right?’
She unfolded the note inside the case.
The handwriting was flying and hurried, as if it had been scribbled in a rush.
‘Meaning the note itself was written in that kind of hand.’
“What do you think it means?”
An Otherworlder beside her asked while reading the note with her.
“Whatever it is, it looks like a pretty important item.”
Hyeonseong glanced at the gems in the case. She picked one up and checked its info.
“That description really goes hard.”
It was an item that left a bad taste in her mouth. Hyeonseong checked the rest of the blood jades too. They all had the same description.
“Blood and grudges…”
“Obvious. Just looking at it, you can tell it’s something made by wringing the people dry.”
The Otherworlders who checked the item after Hyeonseong recoiled in disgust.
“Seems like you have similar items in your world?”
Hyeonseong asked them.
“We did. There were plenty of dungeons that formed after people were exploited like that and then the place was abandoned.”
They answered, shuddering. The state of those dungeons must have been truly horrific.
“Anyway, the fact this exists means…”
“It means the lord of this castle was a tyrant who wasn’t right in the head.”
The Otherworlders said flatly. It was a conclusion Hyeonseong could fully accept.
‘The description literally said it was made by squeezing out prisoners’ blood.’
Those “prisoners” would ultimately have been the territory’s residents. Which meant, in the end, the blood jade was an item created by a lord exploiting her own people.
“Did you find anything else besides the blood jade?”
“Ah—here, keys.”
“I found a notebook.”
They checked the rest of the finds. Three keys and one worn notebook.
“These look like room keys too…”
“Ugh, what is this? What’s written in here….”
The person flipping through the notebook grimaced in disgust. Hyeonseong took it and checked the contents.
“Ugh.”
The same disgusted sound spilled from Hyeonseong’s mouth as well. The notebook contained detailed records of the blood jade production process.
In other words, it was also a record of exploitation, human trafficking, and various forms of violence.
‘It’s the kind of thing you could’ve guessed would be there, but….’
The moment blood jade appeared, she could have predicted there’d be production notes somewhere. She just hadn’t expected to see it before she’d even braced herself.
Even while they examined the blood jade and its records, messages kept coming.
Some Constellations treated it as something foul, or mourned the innocent people sacrificed to create it.
But many simply showed interest in the blood jade’s existence. A predictable reaction, if ever there was one.
‘There must be plenty of them who command undead or are obsessed with black magic.’
After skimming the messages, Hyeonseong clicked her tongue inwardly.
There were far more Constellations she disliked than ones she liked.
‘…But this time, is there no Constellation directly related to this dungeon?’
Seeing the various names made her think of the last dungeon they’d cleared.
‘Back then, near the end, a Constellation that was born there showed up….’
Even when she reviewed the message log, she couldn’t find any Constellation that seemed tied to this dungeon.
Like last time, she’d only know whether one would appear after they progressed further.
“Alright, so we’ve found everything we can find here, right?”
Hyeonseong said as she closed the blood jade notes.
“Seems like those three are it.”
“Everything else, as you can see.”
The Otherworlders pointed at the open drawers. Every compartment that had been opened was empty.
“Then we can move to the next room. By the way—can I keep this?”
Hyeonseong asked, holding up the notebook. When a raid team moved as a group, keeping small clues and loot was originally her role.
“Hmm….”
The Otherworlders hesitated. They seemed to be weighing whether they could trust someone who had joined midstream with their baggage.
“Isn’t it fine?”
“Still, that might be a bit…”
The raid team split down the middle. Slightly more people were okay with entrusting her, but there was also a mood that they couldn’t ignore the opinions of those who still didn’t trust her.
“What do you think?”
Unable to decide, they turned their eyes to Milena and Yana.
“I think it’s fine to entrust it.”
The one who answered was Yana. Judging by how she gently stroked her spirit-bird, she must have checked and reached a conclusion just now.
‘That looks insanely useful.’
Yana said it wasn’t perfect, but to Hyeonseong it looked like an excellent lie detector.
“If Yana says so…”
With Yana’s answer, the decision came quickly. A few wary and prickly people like Ivan still looked displeased, but they only glared at Hyeonseong and didn’t voice opposition.
‘Still, we can’t just leave her like that forever.’
As she pushed the collected clue items into Infinite Corridor, Hyeonseong thought.
She didn’t like Ivan, who kept looking at them with hostile eyes, but she couldn’t drag this atmosphere on indefinitely either.
‘Constantly having a dominance contest over trust is just wasting resources.’
“You’re taking everything again this time?”
Once they stepped out, the Otherworlders asked. They must have remembered how she’d stripped the previous room bare.
“Yeah, this time too.”
Hyeonseong replied lightly and opened Infinite Corridor inside the room.
Now that she’d learned what the castle’s presumed owner had done, she could loot the household without the slightest guilt.
‘It’s basically an empty house with no owner anyway.’
Infinite Corridor neatly swallowed every piece of furniture in the room. Leaving the emptied room behind, they headed for the next one.
‘Did I miss any items worth noticing?’
On the way, Hyeonseong checked the items stored inside Infinite Corridor.
‘Hmm… yeah, nothing else besides the blood jade and the notebook.’
Even after scanning the item list, nothing stood out. It was all just worn-out furniture and bedding.
‘Actually, checking items like this is pretty convenient.’
Swallow everything in the area, then find the useful items from the item list.
It had helped during the previous dungeon run, too.
‘Because I swept up loot indiscriminately, I found the key card quickly back then.’
Peeking into the room they’d just opened with a new key, Hyeonseong thought,
‘Should I test it?’
Given this dungeon’s nature, it didn’t seem likely that there would be an item that would cause disaster if things got mixed together. And since she’d thought of a faster way to find clues, it wasn’t a bad idea to try.
‘As long as I get permission.’
Hyeonseong turned her gaze to Milena.
“Um, Milena.”
“Yes? Do you have something to say?”
Milena responded immediately when Hyeonseong called her. Hyeonseong explained what she had in mind.
“…So, would it be okay if I test it once?”
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