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‘This guy’s doing it again.’
The Usurper Constellation had said something similar upstairs, and it was saying the same kind of thing again now. Ye Hyeonseong looked around.
‘With absolutely no reaction, I can’t even tell whether the message came or not.’
As if it had read her thoughts, another Constellation message flew in. It was the Constellation that had seemed friendly with the Usurper.
‘This one… I should just call it some kind of fire nutcase.’
When Ye Hyeonseong still kept her mouth shut, the Usurper’s message arrived again. She glanced at the others.
She had no intention of biting the Usurper’s bait, but even if she wanted to refuse, she could not react out loud. And then, the reactions of the Otherworlders from Baengnyeong Forest bothered her.
‘It doesn’t feel like they’re ignoring it for no reason.’
Another message arrived when Ye Hyeonseong continued to avoid reacting.
‘That one was pretty provocative.’
“Mr. Hyeonseong, what are you doing?”
While she stared at the Usurper’s message with an uncomfortable look, someone spoke to her. When she turned, everyone had already finished preparing to go down.
“I just had something I wanted to check for a moment. Are we going down now?”
“Yes. We were about to.”
“Then I’ll open the door now.”
Using the last remaining key, Pablo opened the door. They went down the stairs, and at the second door below, they inserted the last remaining blood jade in the same way. Basement Level 5 opened.
“That’s unexpected. I thought something would jump out right away.”
As they entered Basement Level 5, someone said.
“Yeah. Since it’s the last floor, I figured it would.”
“Any ambushes or traps?”
“For now, it doesn’t look like there are monsters….”
“Ah, wait. There’s a trap up ahead.”
Saying that, Pablo moved to the very front.
“Right there—down ahead. If we keep going, it looks like a trap that makes you fall straight down.”
“A falling trap right in front of the entrance?”
“That placement is downright nasty.”
Tongue-clicks sounded here and there. It really was nasty placement. It was obviously meant to catch people who relaxed at the sight of no monsters and walked forward without thinking.
‘…Huh?’
As she grasped the trap’s malicious intent, a question surfaced in Ye Hyeonseong’s mind.
‘But this kind of trap isn’t something a lord would make, is it?’
Thinking back, the dungeon had already felt strange starting from Basement Level 3, when it turned into a maze-like structure. Especially considering it was originally an underground prison.
‘Could some run-of-the-mill lord even build a prison like this?’
On top of that, the way some traps lured people felt off.
‘This one too—and come to think of it, there were several traps that assumed you’d run into monsters roaming inside.’
They had already encountered multiple traps that were clearly designed to snare people trying to avoid monsters. And now, a trap appeared that targeted people who relaxed because there were no monsters.
‘There could’ve been ghosts back then, sure. But even so, this trap is weird. At the very least, this one could only be made if you knew how the monsters would roam….’
No matter how she thought about it, it did not seem like a lord—who probably was not even a proper dark mage—could have calculated all that when building traps.
‘The most plausible answer is….’
“Miss Hyeonseong, is there a way to deal with a trap like that?”
Just as she was about to continue the thought, someone asked her.
“Well. If it’s the ground splitting open….”
Ye Hyeonseong looked at the spot Pablo indicated and thought.
‘I need the width and depth before I can estimate anything.’
She immediately looked to Pablo. The answer came quickly.
‘Width: 15 meters. Depth: unknown.’
The width itself was not a big problem. At the level of the people here, they could clear it easily—either with a running long jump or with help from skills.
‘The problem is this.’
Ye Hyeonseong opened Infinite Corridor. One of the pieces of furniture they had swept up from the above floors dropped into the empty space.
“Who can throw this across?”
Ye Hyeonseong asked, pointing at the furniture. She needed to confirm whether the trap would trigger even if something passed over it through the air.
“I’ll do it.”
Ivan grabbed the furniture and hurled it deeper down the path. The heavy piece—easily exceeding an adult’s weight—shot across in an instant.
Guuung…
The moment the furniture flew over the trap zone, a low vibration sounded. At the same time, the trap zone collapsed rapidly. The collapse swallowed even the empty prison cells on both sides, erasing them.
In an instant, a deep cliff appeared right in front of them—its beginning and end impossible to see.
“If we’d just jumped, we could’ve been screwed.”
Someone muttered as they peered down.
“At that width, isn’t it fine? If you just get a good run-up, you can clear it.”
“There’s one more thing we need to check.”
Answering the doubt, Ye Hyeonseong pulled out another piece of furniture.
“Someone throw this across again.”
“This time, I’ll do it.”
This time, Anna took the furniture and threw it over the cliff. It flew through the air at a speed similar to Ivan’s throw.
Right after that, the ground on the far side collapsed once more.
“Uh…!”
Seeing the crack widen further, a few people let out startled sounds.
“A double trap?”
“So it really would have been a disaster if we just jumped.”
Even those who had thought lightly of it began to get cautious.
“Wait—doesn’t this feel weird?”
Someone spoke in a suspicious tone.
“What?”
“That trap—no matter how you look at it, it’s not something the owner of this castle would make.”
Someone pointed out exactly what Ye Hyeonseong had been suspecting.
“…True.”
“Who would make a trap like that for a prison meant to hold sacrifices for a bit?”
“And once it triggers, it doesn’t look easy to reset.”
“More than that, isn’t that the kind of trap you make only if you’re ready to abandon this place if something goes wrong?”
“The trap level doesn’t make sense, either. If Pablo hadn’t noticed the double structure in one glance….”
Once someone voiced the doubt aloud, everyone else began listing the suspicious parts too. It seemed they had all felt something off, little by little.
“But right now, shouldn’t we figure out how we’re going to cross that first?”
“That is urgent.”
“At that width….”
They began calculating whether they could clear the cliff. The widened gap was around 25 meters.
“I can do it.”
“With only my own ability, I think it’ll be tough.”
The calculations ended quickly. Only about two-thirds could cross the cliff on their own.
That number included both people who could jump it by pure physical ability and those who could do it with a buff or a push-type skill.
“So the rest have to be carried by others.”
“Wait—if we do it like that, I can’t. We’ll both fall.”
“Using Yana or Danilo’s spirits also has limits….”
Once the math was done, everyone fell back into 고민 again. No matter how they counted it, the conclusion was that a couple of people would struggle to cross.
‘Can’t we make footholds?’
Ye Hyeonseong opened Infinite Corridor below the cliff. One piece of furniture slipped out into the gap and fell.
But no matter how long they waited, they never heard the sound of it hitting and breaking. Even the others with sharp hearing heard nothing.
‘So it really is a bottomless trap.’
That meant they could not stack furniture below as a platform.
‘Still, it’s not like there’s zero way to use furniture.’
If she wanted to use furniture, there was one more method: stack furniture into pillars on both sides, then attach a rope to those pillars.
‘I always keep rope on hand, and we did sweep up furniture from above… but….’
Ye Hyeonseong weighed the practicality and safety of the idea.
‘…The problem is I can’t be sure it’s safe.’
Connecting a rope would be easy with Yana or Danilo’s spirits, but she was not sure they could stack furniture into pillars sturdy enough to hold.
‘And even if someone steps on the rope with skills active, who knows if it’ll hold.’
She needed a safer method.
“So, got any ideas?”
“We can’t split up here and proceed separately, either….”
“Mr. Hyeonseong, can I ask you something?”
While everyone else was still thinking, Kwon Seojin spoke to Ye Hyeonseong.
“Huh? What is it?”
Caught off guard, Ye Hyeonseong flinched.
“Your Infinite Corridor skill. I want to know what happens if someone stands on top of it.”
It was a question Ye Hyeonseong had not considered.
‘On top of Infinite Corridor?’
She thought for a moment.
‘…Wait.’
Come to think of it, it sounded entirely doable.
‘Why didn’t I think of that?’
Ye Hyeonseong immediately opened Infinite Corridor close to the ground. As a test, she hopped lightly onto the opened space.
When her foot landed on the gap, she felt a light rebound. It seemed to be proportional to her jump force.
“…We can make a foothold.”
Jumping back down, Ye Hyeonseong said.
“Huh? Then….”
“No need to overthink it.”
Watching the test, everyone reacted with relieved faces.
“Then Yana can bring Mr. Ye Hyeonseong across.”
“So—can I go across first?”
Ye Hyeonseong asked, looking at Yana. It would be easier to open Infinite Corridor in sync with people’s jumps if she could watch from the far side.
“Let’s do that.”
Yana agreed readily.
“Then we’ll move first.”
Movement began right away. First, those who could jump more than 25 meters alone crossed the cliff. Then Ye Hyeonseong reached the far side with Yana’s help.
As soon as she arrived, Ye Hyeonseong opened Infinite Corridor in a long, narrow shape across the middle of the crack. It was the compartment that stored the Fire of Judgment.
“I’ll open the foothold like this.”
Unlike usual, flames flickered beyond the black gap. She had configured it so the stored item could be seen with the naked eye.
‘If we need it to stand out in a pitch-black place, this compartment is the best.’
Those on the other side nodded and began jumping across.
When they reached the middle of the crack, they pushed off the flame-flickering space. With one more jump, they landed safely on the far side.
‘They’re all pretty good jumpers.’
Even with fierce flames surging underfoot, everyone stepped on Infinite Corridor correctly and passed. Their nerve was impressive.
“That’s more stable than I expected.”
Someone who had just crossed looked back at Infinite Corridor, which had not closed yet.
“If it’s like this, we won’t need to worry even if a similar trap shows up again.”
“Shouldn’t we be hoping it doesn’t show up again in the first place?”
Once everyone crossed, the tension eased enough for small jokes.
“Alright. Everyone made it across safely—so let’s keep going.”
Milena lightly tapped the floor with her staff. They advanced deeper into Basement Level 5.
‘That aside… it feels like the things that bother me keep piling up.’
As soon as they started moving again, Ye Hyeonseong thought.
‘That trap we just passed, too. It’s not like we’ve never seen traps or monsters that don’t match the place, but….’
She had experienced dungeons before where suspiciously out-of-context monsters or traps appeared.
But after running into a few worrying things in recent dungeon raids, this one started to stand out even more.
‘…And this guy, too.’
‘…Says the one who brought up “skills” first and demanded a contract.’
Ye Hyeonseong frowned at the scammer’s message.
‘While I’m at it, there’s something I should ask.’
She tore her eyes away from the two Constellations’ meaningless chatter.
“Um, I have something I’m curious about.”
Ye Hyeonseong spoke to the Baengnyeong Forest person nearest to her.
“Yes? What is it?”
A response came right away.
“I got curious about your world’s mythology. The White Soul… was it? That person’s myth.”
Ye Hyeonseong asked directly.
“Ah, that person’s myth?”
The Baengnyeong Forest person readily explained.
The content was ordinary, if you could call it that. It was the story that ‘White Soul Walking the Floodplain’ created the world of Baengnyeong Forest, and once life flourished enough, it entered its holy ground—Baengnyeong Forest—to care for souls.
“…That is their myth.”
After the short explanation, the Baengnyeong Forest person finished.
“If they’re a creator god, then there must be a lot of believers?”
Ye Hyeonseong asked lightly.
“Well. Now, yes, but….”
The Baengnyeong Forest person trailed off.
“There weren’t many believers?”
“Mm… yeah, that’s right.”
They answered with a reluctant voice.
“Why?”
“Even sacred myths become just worn-out stories with time. We kept serving that person, but there were plenty of countries and tribes where the faith was cut off long ago.”
“Plenty…?”
That subtle ending made Ye Hyeonseong knit her brows.
“Now a lot more people believe in that person again—after the Interstellar Network connected.”
Ye Hyeonseong understood easily. Earth had gone through something similar.
‘Same here—once the Interstellar Network came in, all kinds of religions popped up. Zeusism, Magoism, you name it.’
The reason was simple.
The existence of gods, heroes, and spirits from myth was proven through the Interstellar Network.
“That tracks.”
“Is Earth the same?”
“Probably every world is the same, as long as myths and legends exist there.”
At Ye Hyeonseong’s answer, the Baengnyeong Forest person nodded as if they understood. The conversation ended there.
When it ended, Ye Hyeonseong pondered what she had just heard in her head.
‘…But even in that story, it doesn’t sound like there was anything about the Usurper or the fire nutcase.’
Thinking about it a bit, she quickly found what felt odd.
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