The People Of Baengnyeong Forest (11)

“Kill the ones rushing in first!”

“Milena! Inga! The ghosts!”

The Otherworlders dropped the charging monsters one by one. Those with physical bodies were handled by physical-weapon users, while ghosts were handled by those using holy power or magic.

Kwon Seojin also hunted at the front, swinging his mace. He didn’t forget to use taunt-type skills from time to time to pull aggro.

‘…For now, do I even need to step in?’

From the very rear, Ye Hyeonseong assessed the situation.

There were quite a few monsters at the basement entrance, but they were low-level—mostly C-rank, with an occasional B-rank mixed in.

Perhaps due to the blood jade, dark crimson light clung around them and their cries felt more grudge-laden, but that was all.

It didn’t seem to have boosted their actual strength. Against a coordinated raid team, they were basically nothing.

‘For now, I should collect items and check for hidden traps.’

Ye Hyeonseong gathered loot from the corpses the team had downed. Naturally, she kept Kwon Seojin’s kills separate from the kills made by the Otherworlders.

‘Any new clues…?’

She didn’t forget to examine the underground prison while collecting items.

Here and there, she found traces of traps meant to catch escape attempts—but none were functioning. Slots that should’ve held arrows or stones were empty, and mechanisms were damaged.

‘Seems like Basement Level 1 was tuned to be reasonable.’

Until she finished checking the whole first basement level and found the stairs going down, Ye Hyeonseong didn’t find a single working trap.

It was disappointing not to find any strategy clues, but there was still another level below. She decided to be glad they’d cleared one section safely.

“Everything here’s been cleaned up, right?”

Someone asked in front of the stairs down.

“We just checked. There’s nothing.”

“The spirits confirmed it too.”

“Then let’s sit and breathe for a moment.”

The party sat on the floor for a short rest in front of the locked door by the stairs.

The fight hadn’t been hard, but they’d been running nonstop, killing monsters the whole way. They needed one breather before going down.

‘Still, where are we supposed to use these?’

The moment she sat, Ye Hyeonseong opened her item list.

‘Unused items from here… gems and coins, the Green Crystal of Mercy, and the holy relic.’

There were more “not yet used” items than she expected. They were clearly meant to be used during the clear, but she couldn’t tell where.

‘The green crystal and the holy relic—given their rank, they’ll probably be used on the lowest level….’

At least she could guess when the two S-rank items might matter. But the miscellaneous gems and coins gave her nothing.

‘It’s not like there’s a shop or an NPC to trade with.’

Some dungeons worked like that—finding necessary items or hidden rewards through barter systems. But this dungeon didn’t seem to be one of those.

‘…Or maybe we just haven’t met the place or the “someone” for that yet.’

Ye Hyeonseong’s eyes went to the locked door.

‘I’ll know once we go down.’

Staring at it now wouldn’t reveal anything. She decided to wait on figuring out their use.

“Let’s move again.”

After roughly five minutes, people stood. After checking their bodies and gear again, they opened the locked door and went down.

Below, they saw another iron door with a magic formation. Just like before, they took out a blood jade and inserted it into the socket carved in the center.

‘It’ll be like earlier.’

The instant she pushed it in, Ye Hyeonseong covered her ears.

Kyaaaah…!

As expected, a dark crimson flash burst from beyond the door, and a scream like dozens—hundreds—shouting at once poured out. Since she’d covered her ears in advance, it didn’t hurt like before.

When the screaming stopped, she lowered her hands and pushed. The door opened easily.

‘This time… it didn’t lock?’

As the last person to enter Basement Level 2, Ye Hyeonseong turned around.

The iron door behind them—expected to lock—remained open.

‘Did they only separate underground from the surface?’

She frowned at the open door.

If every floor’s door locked, she could accept it. But being able to move freely between basement floors bothered her.

‘If we get unlucky, our backs could be exposed….’

She turned to the others.

“Feels like the deathly energy is denser than upstairs.”

“And they look a bit stronger too.”

People muttered as they checked the monsters visible the moment the door opened.

‘I’ll talk about the door after we clear these first.’

They were already face-to-face with the enemy. This wasn’t the moment for side discussions. She decided to deal with what was in front of them first.

‘More importantly… there really are more B-ranks than upstairs.’

Ye Hyeonseong checked the visible monsters’ levels through the Interstellar Network.

Even glancing at a few confirmed the difficulty spiked right from the entrance compared to the previous floor.

“No need to get scared already. They’re still low-grade undead, aren’t they?”

“Who’s scared!”

“Let’s do it like before.”

Light banter passed around to ease tension. Once they’d loosened up, they started the fight as they had upstairs.

Kwajik!

White frostlight flashed, and three skeletons instantly collapsed into piles of bones. That opening strike threw the area into chaos.

Uuuu…

Geoo…

The undead rushed in with wails at the raid team’s attacks.

Most had their heads blown off or shattered before they could even close in. But a few ghosts slipped through, dodging attacks and successfully reached the party.

“Watch out!”

Inga the priest attacked the ghost that had slipped into their ranks.

Under a barrage of holy-power arrows, the ghost wailed and vanished.

“Skeletons and zombies are one thing, but the ghosts seem like the real problem.”

Anna frowned, dodging a ghost trying to cling to her.

‘Yeah. These things are suddenly trying to latch onto people.’

Ye Hyeonseong swung her pickaxe at a ghost that had flown all the way to the rear.

When the pickaxe—imbued with holy power by Milena’s consecration—pierced the ghost’s body, it shrieked and fled.

‘That one was B-rank too, and these ones….’

The fleeing ghost and the ones trying to latch on were all B-rank.

It seemed B-rank and above ghosts had some kind of skill they could use on contact with a person.

‘Whether it’s an attack, a debuff, or possession.’

Ye Hyeonseong swung again at the next ghost diving in, striking roughly at the torso to drive it off.

Then she pulled out the “Mad Gatherer’s Eye” card from the Infinite Corridor and activated it.

‘It needs to work on ghosts too.’

Once she slipped the activated card into her pocket, another ghost flew in.

A golden dot appeared in the center of its body—where a heart would be, if it were a living human.

She swung the pickaxe at the golden dot.

Kkiyaaaaaah!

A sharper scream burst out than the one the fleeing ghost had made.

‘It works on ghosts too.’

Ye Hyeonseong swung again at the golden dot. The ghost, unable to escape in time, dissolved under the follow-up strike.

Tok

The moment the ghost vanished, something rolled and dropped onto the floor.

‘What’s that?’

She felt along the dark ground and found what had fallen—a tiny dark red stone, about the size of a grain of rice.

‘That’s obviously a blood-jade fragment.’

When she checked the info, she was right. The maker name was the same lord’s name listed on the completed blood jade.

‘This is showing up again?’

With the door not locking, the uneasy feeling intensified.

“Is the first wave cleared?”

Once the last zombies were down, people lowered their weapons.

“The fight wasn’t hard, but….”

“Didn’t something drop when you killed that ghost?”

“This, I think.”

Someone picked something up from the floor. It was the same kind of blood-jade fragment Ye Hyeonseong had found.

“This is….”

“Why is this disgusting thing dropping?”

“That’s one thing, but—”

Ye Hyeonseong cut in.

“Over there—the door not closing bothers me.”

“The door?”

“Huh? Why is that open?”

People looked startled when they saw the open entrance to Basement Level 2.

“Upstairs, it locked the moment we entered.”

“Yeah. I definitely heard the sound….”

“I knew something felt off. I didn’t hear the door lock—that’s why.”

Their gazes naturally drifted to the stairs beyond the open doorway.

“Milena, are you detecting anything new up there?”

Someone asked. Milena focused for a moment.

“Nothing for now. Everything I sense is deeper inside.”

Milena pointed into Basement Level 2.

“Then let’s focus on advancing.”

“Ms. Ye Hyeonseong, please watch our back. Just in case.”

They asked Ye Hyeonseong. She nodded.

“No other issues?”

“None.”

“Then we—”

“Ah, could you give me those blood-jade shards?”

Ye Hyeonseong said.

“So you can gather them in one place?”

“Is it safe?”

People hesitated.

“Didn’t we have that blood-jade item upstairs that was made by collecting fragments?”

Kwon Seojin cut in.

“That’s true.”

“Then maybe these shards also need to be collected to make a finished piece the same way. Or we might have to merge them into the blood jade made from fragments.”

As people reacted, Kwon Seojin continued.

‘That’s plausible.’

Ye Hyeonseong took out the incomplete blood jade from her inventory—the one whose description said it was made by collecting fragments.

“Since we’re talking about it, want to test it?”

Ye Hyeonseong brought the shard she’d picked up close to the incomplete blood jade.

The incomplete blood jade pulled the shard in and absorbed it.