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As if to confirm that odd feeling was real, a Constellation message flew in.
‘Just from the name, I can guess what kind of story it is.’
She did not need to hear it. The guy was probably the terrorist who had set fire to the holy ground in the creation myth.
Ye Hyeonseong waved away the pointless message with a casual gesture.
‘The Usurper is probably the same. Whether human or god, some being that aimed for the creator god’s seat, failed, and lost its power—something like that.’
‘In that context, I think I get why these guys keep blasting messages like spam, too.’
Ignoring the Constellation messages again, Hyeonseong continued her guess.
‘Milena said it earlier. For a god to exist, they need believers who acknowledge their existence. So they keep messaging me. Even if I’m from another world, as long as I acknowledge them, they can build up power as a Constellation.’
It was a reasonable line of thought. The only thing she could not explain was why they were stuck to this dungeon specifically, sending messages only here.
‘If they want to spread their existence, they should show their faces everywhere… is there some separate restriction on “watching,” too?’
If the range at which they could look down on the lower world varied by a Constellation’s standing—or the wealth they had—then it was plausible.
‘If your rank is rock-bottom, maybe you’re limited to following only the people of worlds you’re connected to. Something like that.’
Of course, it was only speculation. Because if that was true, it did not explain why the scammer Constellation could send messages to people of another world.
‘Either that guy has more resources than I thought, or what it said works like that is also a scam.’
“But about that fire inside.”
This time, someone else spoke to Hyeonseong.
“The fire?”
“It was packed inside your Infinite Corridor.”
“Oh, that.”
“Why aren’t you using it? Fire should be at least somewhat effective against undead monsters.”
“Huh. True. If you’re storing it like that, it didn’t look like ordinary fire.”
At the question, several people immediately showed interest.
“Ah, that.”
After understanding, Hyeonseong hesitated briefly, then raised her index finger. She opened Infinite Corridor at the tip and let a single ember of the Fire of Judgment fall.
“As you can see, it’s that kind of item.”
After extinguishing the flame with a flick of her finger, Hyeonseong shared the displayed message so everyone could see it.
“Fire that burns karma?”
“Then shouldn’t it be even more effective against undead?”
Faces turned puzzled as they read the message.
“Think about what these undead really are. Would this even categorize them as subjects for judgment?”
“That’s….”
At Hyeonseong’s point, the group thought for a moment.
“…Hard to be sure.”
“Yeah. We don’t know what kind of life they lived, but the reason they became undead isn’t necessarily karma.”
The conclusion quickly leaned toward “probably not.”
“So the standards for defining ‘karma’ are pretty strict, huh?”
“Seems like it.”
Answering, Hyeonseong ground her teeth. She had only received the Ember of the Fire of Judgment after succeeding in a dungeon raid. But depending on circumstances, she might have gotten it during the raid as a monster-hunting weapon.
‘But it wasn’t an item that always puts out high power—it swings to extremes depending on conditions.’
Remembering the excuse message ‘Hellfire of Karma’ had sent on the day she learned what the item really was made irritation bubble up on its own.
“Still, you should try using it once, just in case.”
Someone else said to her.
“Hmm. Should I?”
“If it works, it’s a win.”
“That’s true.”
Even as she answered, Hyeonseong did not expect much. She had enough accumulated data from multiple dungeons to know better.
“Back there. Stop chatting and stay sharp.”
Ivan’s voice cut through the rear-line conversation. It sounded like he had spotted a monster group up front. The mood that had lightened sank back into weight.
“They’re coming!”
“Let’s go!”
The first fight on Basement Level 5 began. The monster types were the same as the floor above. As expected, B-ranks and A-ranks appeared in almost a half-and-half mix.
Kihihihihihihi!
Just like before, the A-rank undead changed into grudge-related species.
“You get used to this after seeing it enough.”
“Yeah, but don’t loosen up too much!”
No one was surprised anymore by the violent movements of the grudge ghosts and revenants. The average rank was only a bit higher than before, so the team calmly pressed the monsters.
‘Let’s test it.’
Hyeonseong dealt with a grudge ghost charging her. Like she had said to the Baengnyeong Forest people earlier, she dropped the Fire of Judgment onto it.
‘Tch.’
She had held a sliver of hope, but the result was exactly what she expected.
Kyahahahaha!
The grudge ghost, which had flinched for a moment at the ember falling on its head, burst into mad laughter and lunged again.
“Yeah, yeah. Of course this is my luck.”
In the end, once again, the conclusion was a consecrated pickaxe beating.
Still, because she had been swinging that pickaxe the whole way down, at least now she could land hits on the raging grudge ghost to some degree.
KyaaaAAaak!
This time, she succeeded in killing the A-rank grudge ghost without anyone else’s help.
Hyeonseong’s eye twitched at the message that appeared the instant the grudge ghost vanished.
‘Now it’s not even “sponsorship,” it’s “alms,” huh.’
It was a sponsorship that felt bad even to receive, but she could not exactly ignore it either. Forcing the corners of her mouth up, she sent thanks to ‘Prankster of the Beginning.’
“Anyone hurt?”
“No.”
“Let’s move.”
The fight ended without a major incident. After collecting what they needed, they pressed on.
A bit deeper in, another fork appeared. Compared to the ones above, the number of branching paths increased, and the routes themselves became more complex. Still, it was not a serious problem for the team.
‘Because the wind spirits keep finding the right answer anyway.’
As Yana and Danilo found the correct path and advanced, they occasionally ran into monster packs or traps.
Those were not a big issue either. Among the monster packs, A-ranks were at most about half. Usually they showed up at a lower ratio—around one-third. That part was slightly different from what the team had predicted.
‘We thought there’d be more A-ranks than that.’
Most traps were handled by Hyeonseong the same way as the floors they had passed. Traps that sprang out or poured down were solved cleanly by simply spreading Infinite Corridor in front of them.
For traps that created cracks in the floor, they removed the trigger before it activated—or if that failed, they just jumped across. Thankfully, they had not seen another crack with a ridiculous width like the one at the entrance to Basement Level 5.
“…This is more doable than I expected.”
Someone muttered while they were deep into the maze.
“Yeah. Since it’s the final floor, I thought it’d be harder.”
“What the hell is waiting at the end of the maze….”
Because the raid was not as difficult as expected, some started worrying that the dungeon boss might be absurdly hard.
“Um, I don’t know if it’s okay to say this, but….”
Kwon Seojin’s voice cut in.
“What is it?”
“Ah, well…”
At a few people’s questions, Kwon Seojin trailed off, as if gauging the mood.
“…Honestly, this dungeon is already high-difficulty for something labeled A-rank.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Someone asked sharply.
“With this much area and this kind of monster density, the assigned headcount is usually more than twenty.
It’s not quite as many as a large-scale dungeon, but at this level, it would normally be about thirty people, give or take….”
‘…Now that she says it.’
Only then did Hyeonseong realize there had been something off.
‘We’ve been too busy pushing the raid to think about it, but she’s right. A pack of A-ranks by itself isn’t weird if you consider dungeon size and raid headcount… but the density really is high.’
Still, it was also hard to say the rating was completely wrong.
‘If you had to place it, it feels like the very upper edge of A-rank. It doesn’t have that decisive “one crushing blow” that would make it S-rank.’
“Is that really true?”
Someone asked Kwon Seojin.
“Yes. Not all of them, but you can probably find records on the Network… once we’re out, look it up later.”
“Hm. Well, dungeons like this—your side would know better than us.”
The Baengnyeong Forest people seemed to accept it quickly. They knew his side had more experience with the Interstellar Network.
“But then what’s your conclusion?”
This time, Anna spoke up.
“Maybe it means the dungeon owner won’t be ridiculously hard?”
“Or it could just mean: it’s already hard, so don’t let your guard down.”
“Haha, both are true. Given the assigned rating, the odds that the boss is insanely hard are low—but that doesn’t mean we can relax.”
“What, so in the end it was nothing special.”
A few people complained with deflated faces at Kwon Seojin’s answer.
“In short, we do what we’ve been doing.”
“Let’s keep moving.”
When the small talk ended, they shut their mouths and advanced again.
‘“Don’t relax” is important, though.’
Hyeonseong replayed the conversation in her head. It was obvious, but it was also true.
‘Because we never know when those bastards will start messing around again.’
Maybe because the raid had been relatively smooth so far, a few Constellations were clearly bored. If they were bored enough to show it through messages, the odds were high that someone would cause trouble soon.
‘It’s not like we have anyone who can do something that’ll entertain them, either….’
“Over there!”
While Hyeonseong was thinking, it sounded like they spotted another monster group up front. At someone’s shout, the raid team snapped back into combat posture.
And at that timing, another Constellation message arrived. Right after, a flood of messages updated in front of Hyeonseong’s eyes.
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