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A bombardment fell on the spot where the monsters had been herded in.
Lightning that swept the area struck first, and then burning boulders poured down. A bundle of red-hot metal pillars followed after.
Kwaarreureung…….
Kwaaang—!
‘Did they spread a flame zone overhead and make a meteor-summon-like skill?’
Ye Hyeonseong looked up into the sky.
Just as she had guessed, flames were rippling widely at a single point in midair. Those flames were spewing out rocks and metal pillars.
‘Yeah, this was the standard tactic used as an inferior substitute for Meteor Summon.’
It was an excellent skill combo for wiping out monsters packed into one place.
If not for the fact that the attacks were also ricocheting into allies without mercy.
“Hey, you crazy—!”
“That spot broke!”
“Enough, pull back now! We had to pull back while the buff was still up!”
As rocks and chunks of metal rained down at random, parts of the barrier skill shattered. Seeing that, another guild’s raid team started retreating with urgent voices.
It was not a particularly problematic move. A large portion of the chimera pack had already been gravely wounded when the first strike landed.
Retreating would not cause the monsters to come spilling out in massive numbers like before. Now, to deal with the rampaging monsters, it was better to keep some distance from the bombardment zone.
‘There wouldn’t be many that could break through that, and even if they did, they wouldn’t be in good shape. We could keep a reasonable distance and pick them off one by one.’
The farther they pulled back, the more distance and facilities would be smashed up, but that was not Ye Hyeonseong’s problem. Cleaning it up was the job of the mage who had poured down the bombardment, and the guild that mage belonged to.
‘Well, we didn’t really need to fall back in the first place.’
Ye Hyeonseong looked up. She could see several fireballs dropping straight toward them.
But those fireballs never reached Ye Hyeonseong or the Sinwol Guild members.
The falling fireballs vanished midair as if evaporating. They had all gone into the Infinite Corridor.
“Even safer than I expected……?”
With no attacks slamming hard into their barrier, a few Sinwol Guild members stared up at the sky with amazed expressions.
“So it really can block even an S-rank laser cannon, huh.”
“I honestly thought that story was exaggerated…….”
At the idle chatter, Ye Hyeonseong’s eye twitched.
‘That would be the dungeon they went to with the Ten Thousand Swords people…… These guys?’
If she traced who could have started that story, it meant they had doubted the Ten Thousand Swords Guild member’s words.
‘If it’s about me, fine, but looking at Hyeonyeong’s people that way is a bit much, isn’t it?’
“Still, shouldn’t we pull back too?”
Whether Ye Hyeonseong grumbled internally or not, the conversation kept going.
“Yeah. The monsters coming out now are, at most…….”
“And it’ll be easier to deal with them if we’re a bit farther away.”
“Ms. Ye Hyeonseong, can you move like this?”
Ha Seongchan, who had been listening to the guild members, asked Ye Hyeonseong.
“With it left open like this? Yes, I can.”
Opening the Infinite Corridor did not restrict Ye Hyeonseong’s movement. If they were going to relocate, she could keep it open while moving.
“Good. Then we’ll widen the distance like this.”
Ha Seongchan issued the order at once. At his command, Sinwol’s raid team also retreated a bit from the bombardment site.
“Did they patch up the breach from earlier?”
As soon as they widened the distance, one guild member asked again.
“They said they managed to corral them back in somehow.”
Ha Seongchan replied while tapping the comm device with his fingertip.
“Then can we say it’s basically over now?”
“If they poured down that much, there’s probably almost nothing left alive…….”
The bombardment was not over yet, but its intensity had already dropped a lot. That let them roughly make out what the scene looked like.
The impact zone was a chaotic mess, covered in piles of rocks engulfed in flames and red-hot metal pillars.
Whether they truly had dumped skills at maximum firepower, the sheer volume of rock and metal blanketing the area was no joke.
‘At this point, it’s basically a stone grave.’
It did not just cover the ground—it had piled upward like a mound. At that level, even monsters that were still alive would have been crushed to death beneath it.
“Don’t let your guard down! It isn’t over until we see the dungeon disappear!”
As the atmosphere started to loosen, Geum Seoa shouted.
“Ah, right. What about the dungeon entrance?”
Startled by her words, someone asked.
“Well. With the scene like that…….”
“We haven’t received a message saying it disappeared.”
A few people said as they stared at the air where a message window would appear.
Even after the dungeon explosion, the entrance had remained there in the same spot.
To remove it, they had to eliminate every monster that had burst out. It was the same method as clearing a dungeon from inside the dungeon.
“Then we’ll have to keep watching and wait for now.”
“Uh, but what if there’s still no message after the bombardment ends?”
One guild member asked.
“They said they killed all the monsters that fled. So if there’s no message afterward, we’ll sift through the debris and clean up what’s left.”
Ha Seongchan answered immediately.
“Didn’t they say there was one S-rank?”
“They said the one who chased it was Song Jiwoo.”
“Oh, right. If you think about that guy Song Jiwoo’s temperament…….”
“Hey, the Hyeonghok raid team is here too—can you just call their guildmaster by name like that…….”
Either way, the conclusion was that only this site remained.
“Looks like it’s ending over there too.”
Ha Seongchan said, looking up.
He was right. Almost nothing was falling anymore. The flames still remained, but they would vanish once they had served their purpose.
And soon, the flames that had been wavering in the sky disappeared completely. The bombardment was fully over. The moment the flames vanished, Ye Hyeonseong also closed the Infinite Corridor.
“……I think there are monsters still alive under there.”
The instant someone recognized the bombardment had ended, they spoke up.
“Yeah? The message saying the ruptured entrance closed…….”
“So now…… we either go in there, or we have to remove all that?”
Sinwol Guild members spoke in bewildered voices.
“Removing it isn’t a problem.”
Ye Hyeonseong cut into the conversation.
“Not a problem……? Ah.”
Someone understood Ye Hyeonseong’s meaning right away.
“Come to think of it, you’re right. With Ms. Ye Hyeonseong’s skill, cleaning it up itself would be quick.”
“What should we do? Should we clear it now?”
Ye Hyeonseong asked the Sinwol members.
“Is anyone injured, or low on mana or stamina?”
Ha Seongchan asked the guild members. At that, a few pulled small potion vials from their auxiliary pouches and put them to their lips.
When those who needed recovery finished, Ha Seongchan asked Ye Hyeonseong to clear the debris. Ye Hyeonseong immediately opened the Infinite Corridor over the rubble.
‘Every time this happens, it’s chaos.’
Ye Hyeonseong shoved the endless acquisition messages out of her field of view.
“Ah, yeah, that’s definitely Ms. Ye Hyeonseong.”
“I told you. Who else besides Ye Hyeonseong would use a subspace skill like that…….”
“Hey, stop chatting and get ready. You never know when something alive will pop out…….”
As Ye Hyeonseong cleared the debris, she heard voices from other guilds. Until the rubble was mostly cleared, they had nothing to do, so small talk naturally broke out.
No matter what sounds came from around her, Ye Hyeonseong did not care. Unless someone came up to greet her or start a conversation, there was no reason to pay attention.
‘It’s not like I’ve only heard them run their mouths for a day or two.’
And right now, there was something more important than pointless chatter. Ye Hyeonseong opened the item list for the currently open section of the Infinite Corridor.
‘This was what mattered.’
As she swept up the magic debris indiscriminately, the fragments unexpectedly clumped together and generated several types of skill cards.
For Ye Hyeonseong, it was an unexpected haul.
‘Honestly, even if I just collected all that debris, I’d have ended up with a usable weapon anyway.’
Every card that formed was a wide-area composite-attribute skill: fire and rock, fire and metal.
Of course, with the “Degraded” tag attached, its maximum power and range would be lower than the original skill.
But most of the originals were known as strong skills in those attributes. Even degraded, she could still expect solid performance.
‘I could use these in a dungeon where monsters keep flooding in nonstop—assuming the attribute match-up works.’
Having gained that unexpected haul, Ye Hyeonseong kept focusing on clearing the rubble.
Before long, the bombardment site gradually began to show bare ground.
“Alright, the moment the cleanup ends, we charge again.”
“Don’t take your eyes off it!”
Awakened hunters who had been waiting around the bombardment zone tightened their grips on their weapons. Some prepared combat skills.
‘If a lot of monster corpses are coming in too, it probably means most of them died in the bombardment…….’
Still reviewing the obtained-item list, Ye Hyeonseong furrowed her brow.
From the point she had cleared more than half the rubble, chimera corpses also began entering as items.
Looking at the item list, constantly refreshed by chimera corpses, it was hard to believe anything was still alive.
‘And yet there’s still no notification that the dungeon closed…….’
If something had survived that kind of bombardment, how stubborn would it have to be? The thought flashed through Ye Hyeonseong’s mind.
“Over there!”
When almost all the rubble had been cleared, someone shouted.
On the road—turned into a wreck—five chimeras were braced on all fours.
“Damn, it survived that?”
“Or it might’ve survived because it got pinned to the ground early.”
“So you’re saying it had just enough breathing room?”
“Even so, in that condition, we can finish them fast.”
As some people said, the chimeras that survived were in awful shape even at a glance. They were covered in wounds, and parts like tails or wings had suffered fractures.
They were all A-rank, but with injuries that severe, a coordinated attack should take them down without much trouble.
“Alright, everyone take one and deal with it.”
“Moving!”
Each guild raid team took one monster and went in. After a brief fight, all five monsters fell.
“It’s over……!”
“So now we just clean up, right?”
“Man, how much more are we going to have to scrape off after the road got flipped again…….”
“No one’s hurt, right?”
The moment the monsters fell, a large number of Awakened moved to start cleanup. The tension eased by about half.
“Hey, but…… that still isn’t closed.”
Someone said in a tense voice.
“Huh……?”
“Uh…… yeah. The message saying it closed still hasn’t popped up.”
Once one person spoke, several others followed. The Awakened turned their eyes to the point where the dungeon entrance had formed.
The space rift rising upward was still radiating an ominous red light.
Under it, beneath the shattered road, they could see the dungeon entrance stained red.
“Uh, why is it still……?”
“Didn’t they say they caught all the ones that ran off right after the explosion?”
“Don’t tell me there’s another monster hiding nearby?”
Realizing the dungeon entrance had not disappeared, the Awakened spoke in flustered voices.
“Ms. Geum Seoa! Mr. Ha Seongchan! Do you know anything?”
“Our observation team also says they didn’t find any other monsters…….”
Ha Seongchan was just as rattled. It seemed the drones Sinwol Guild operated also had not found any other living monsters.
‘If it’s this situation, there are only two possibilities.’
They had thought it was over, but a problem surfaced. Ye Hyeonseong listed what could plausibly be happening.
‘One is that when the swarm poured out, there might have been an individual mixed in with abilities like invisibility or stealth.’
But Ye Hyeonseong did not think the first possibility was very likely.
Among the Awakened gathered here were high-ranked people and several with excellent detection abilities. It was strange that none of them had noticed a hidden monster.
Even if she assumed, in the one-in-ten-thousand case, that no one detected it and it slipped away, the situation still made little sense.
If a monster had escaped like that, they should have received news by now—like it suddenly appearing out of nowhere and going on a rampage.
‘Even if such a monster existed, it would still be a chimera type in the end. That means at some point it would’ve rampaged against humans. But there’s no such news at all…… so what’s left is the other option.’
Ye Hyeonseong glared at the space rift.
‘If there are definitely no monsters left outside and it still didn’t close, then there’s only one cause. ……This dungeon has a hidden boss that only appears after meeting conditions, or a special separated zone.’
A monster that existed in a specially separated section of the original dungeon—or a hidden monster—would only be released outside after certain conditions were met.
And the most common condition was none other than killing all the monsters that came out first.
‘That’s a common trigger for opening locked places or summoning hidden monsters.’
As if Ye Hyeonseong’s thought were the correct answer, a new message appeared.
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