"Hana! Barrier on the side!"
"Yes, Examiner! Ice Wall!"
"Dasom, absolutely protect yourself. If Dasom gets hurt, we'll really be in big trouble!"
"Suhyeon. You stay next to these two people. Got it?"
Originally, the plan was to put Suhyeon in front and have me watch these people.
After all, the ones who need to grow in this dungeon are not me but these friends.
That's why I volunteered to come to a somewhat difficult B-rank.
But the situation now was different. Completely different.
"How is it? Can you hold on?!"
"This is much better than getting hit by the examiner!"
Lee Hyunwoo smiles while deflecting countless claws pouring from beyond the fog one by one.
If he made even a small mistake, long blood lines would be drawn, but anyway, he has amazing nerves.
At the same time, it's a good thing. If the vanguard gets scared, that fear spreads to the rear.
"Examiner. It seems like they keep coming continuously. What should we do?"
"Keep moving for now! If we stay still because we can't confirm visibility, we'll be completely surrounded! Hana! Whenever you have spare mana, please check the surrounding terrain with flash magic! You don't need to be greedy! Just enough for Hyunwoo to survey the vicinity!"
A pure white flash burst from Kang Hana's hand briefly illuminates beyond the fog.
Thanks to that, the completely blocked vision widened just a little.
And beyond that, I could confirm there was a hill with some height.
"Lee Hyunwoo student! To the hill in front! If we get to high ground, the fog will be less thick and they can only attack in limited ways! I'll watch the sides, so absolutely just break through the front!"
"Confirmed! Then I'll pick up the pace, so everyone needs to follow well! Hyryaaaat!!"
Lee Hyunwoo advances forward, swinging his sword in all directions like a windmill.
Before the distance could widen further, I also busily picked up speed to close the gap.
Another cry is heard from beyond the fog.
The numbers are increasing. If we're any later, we'll be completely surrounded.
This damn fog blocking our vision is too problematic.
"Everyone run to the hill!"
"What about the examiner!"
"Don't worry about this side and hurry!"
At this point, it's better to prevent them from approaching at all.
After sending Kang Hana, Yoo Dasom, and even Suhyeon up, I pulled my sword inward.
Right after feeling a faint wind settle on the blade, I shot it forward without hesitation.
Since I can't see them, it's hard to give fatal wounds. But just restraining their feet is enough.
When their presence moved a bit farther away, I immediately turned around and caught up with the party that had gone ahead.
'Damn. How exactly did this get so twisted?'
Biting my lips, I recalled the situation from 30 minutes ago.
The dispatcher in charge of guiding us to the entrance gestures.
There, a dungeon guarded by several ability users was waiting for us.
Additionally, several other dungeons were also located nearby.
"This seems to be that Dire Wolf dungeon."
"Yes. Well, Kang Hana."
The dispatcher points to Kang Hana and continues.
"Please be careful. There are many reports that Dire Wolves aren't the same as before after the monster upheaval. Originally, if you just caught the elites that charge first, the rest was quite easy, but now almost all of them have reached the level of the boss's guard unit."
As a Magic Tower Clan member, he seems internally worried about the clan master's daughter.
No matter how well she does as Platinum rank at the Academy, outside she's B-rank at best.
This dungeon is said to be B-rank level, but whether it'll be the same this time is unknown.
From the dispatcher's perspective, he couldn't help but feel uneasy.
"Not long ago, personnel from other clans barely completed subjugation after taking casualties. They said it would be difficult with the usual small number of B-rank personnel."
The dispatcher who said that glances at us.
Unlike Kang Hana who gets B-rank assessment, the rest are still below that.
Lee Hyunwoo, Suhyeon, and even Yoo Dasom who's decent Gold rank.
Of course, Gold can have up to B-rank level, but it's not guaranteed.
"Well, but I feel relieved since there's reliable backup."
Making eye contact with me, the dispatcher smiles brightly.
Probably if I weren't here, he would have told us to avoid this dungeon.
"You're Baek Seojin, right? It's an honor to meet you."
"Not to that extent. It's unnecessarily burdensome."
"You're too famous to say that. The clan master even specifically asked me to take care of you. Honestly, Baek Seojin is more burdensome than Kang Hana."
I just asked for a reasonably difficult dungeon.
What did this guy say that he understood it as asking for special care?
"Dungeon reaction rising."
"I have a lot to talk about, but I guess we'll have to stop here. Please take care of everything. Baek Seojin. These days, the injury rate of ability users has increased exponentially. There are worries everywhere."
"Understood. We'll come out safely, so don't worry unnecessarily."
As soon as greetings ended, the entrance to the dungeon opened.
If we don't subjugate in time in this state, monsters will pour out.
In the early days of Gate appearances, they say the whole country became a wasteland because of this.
This is why the government pushes clans to the point of being coercive about dungeon subjugation.
With Gates already ignoring suppressors and monster levels drastically rising.
If dungeons also go crazy in the midst of that, it would literally be the return of 'calamity.'
"Well then, team members. Let's go to work!"
Lee Hyunwoo in front cheerfully shouts and disappears into the dungeon first.
He doesn't seem resentful about working on weekends. Anyway, he's not normal.
I didn't know then. That it wasn't only Lee Hyunwoo who wasn't normal.
We definitely came in hearing it was just an ordinary dungeon with no special features.
But what greeted us as soon as we entered was fog so thick we couldn't see an inch ahead.
The moment I saw that, I intuited something was wrong.
Nowhere in the dispatcher's words was there mention of being careful of fog.
When my thoughts reached that point, two possibilities came to mind.
One, the dispatcher lied to us. Gave us wrong information.
And the other, dungeons' environments now change randomly too.
"Hana. That dispatcher, he's trustworthy, right?"
"Yes. He's been under father for a very long time."
Kang Inbeom is accurate at reading people. And so is Kang Hana.
If those two saw no problem, he's probably not a traitor.
Then the possibility narrows to one.
The dungeon that was definitely fine until recently changed today.
'My luck is really terrible, damn. Why today of all days?'
But shortly after, I desperately realized that was premature.
I shouldn't have said my luck was bad then. Damn it.
"Th, this doesn't seem like Dire Wolves?!"
As Yoo Dasom said, the monsters that started attacking from beyond the fog weren't Dire Wolves.
Though the form was blurry, it was completely different from wolves.
And soon Kang Hana's scream-like voice flew to my ears.
"Mist Tigers! Wh, why are they here?"
Ugh. I almost got injured before Lee Hyunwoo.
As an examiner, if I get hurt faster than someone who's still Bronze, I couldn't hold my head up.
'These damn cat bastards!'
I swing my sword toward the fog where nothing is visible.
When looking with sight alone, nothing comes in - just hazy fog.
But when the sword falls, a 'kyang!' scream is heard from within.
I couldn't cut it in half, but I definitely felt the sensation of cutting.
Probably completely dropped out of the front line and will wander the rear before collapsing from blood loss.
"These guys are going behind! Suhyeon! Prepare!"
At Lee Hyunwoo's shout, Suhyeon fluidly stabs her sword toward the back.
Then with a pitiful 'keuheung!' sound, the creature's main body is dragged out.
Mist Tiger. Though the name includes tiger, it's much smaller than a real tiger.
But its danger level is deadly disproportionate to its size, so it has 'tiger' in its name.
As the name suggests, they attack while hiding their bodies in fog.
Plus their front legs are very long, so they thrust out just their arms like humans to swing claws.
Or they immediately grab and drag into the fog to devour in an instant.
Mist Tigers aren't higher rank than Dire Wolves. They're also B-rank. Orıginal content can be found at novelFɪre.net
The problem is, when we came to this dungeon, there was no mention of Mist Tigers.
We were concentrating only on Dire Wolves since we heard only they appeared.
But not even 5 minutes after entering the dungeon, fog suddenly appeared and this happened.
I'm quite flustered myself, so how much more must the others be?
Of course, if I use full power here, dungeon subjugation wouldn't be that difficult.
But why did we come here? For the team members' practical ability improvement.
Plus to make cooperative play smoother between each other.
'The Gatekeeper trait not activating is probably for that reason too.'
Right now, grinding them is more important than carrying team members on a bus.
The Gatekeeper trait and Third Eye seem to recognize it that way too.
"Junior! Just a bit back!"
"I need some space, Suhyeon!"
And the team members are also engaging in battle as if reading my thoughts.
The cooperative ability they showed during the Academy Gate incident has improved.
When Lee Hyunwoo gets injured, Yoo Dasom immediately approaches and Suhyeon briefly fills the gap.
Meanwhile, Kang Hana uses powerful area magic to restrict approach and buy time.
That way, Lee Hyunwoo returns to the front and formation returns to normal.
'Not bad. Rather, this level is quite good.'
Right, this level makes me feel confident about the next trial too.
Something with more intimidating presence than ordinary Mist Tigers was approaching from beyond the fog.