Everyone was looking at me as if I had gone crazy, thinking about grabbing items at a time like this. However, it was only right to increase our chances of survival in this situation.
There may even be a mythic-grade item within the broken pavilion.
It was not an option, but a necessity, to raise the entire expedition’s specifications at this point.
“Of course, it would be nice to look for our isolated people.”
“Is there any way to fix this?”
“That is not our job; it’s the museum manager’s. The preliminary program has been triggered, so the Crack Guardians’ arrangements would have worked. What matters now is our safety. Please, let’s move quickly. Hyunsung-ssi. Right now, it’s hard to move my body…”
“Ah… Yes.”
Kim Hyunsung, who had been holding my body, nodded to show that he understood. In fact, even his body looked damaged.
It was natural for him to be a mess since he had continuously swung his sword towards the chains in the explosion.
Park Deokgu, who had received all the damage I suffered, looked even worse.
Although Sun Hee-young and Ahn Ki-mo continued to sprinkle divine power over us, it would take us some time to recover fully.
-Gedric… Gedric!
In the meantime, Juliana keeps crying out. She had gotten considerably quieter once I sheathed her back to the scabbard around my waist, but she continued to mutter anxiously.
“I will go out to the exhibition hall on the side. Other monsters may have awakened, so it would be better to move to the opposite direction from the monster exhibition hall.”
“Ah… Alright.”
“I’ll move as fast as possible to recover even a little bit. Let’s enter.”
All members of the expedition nodded, exhaustion apparent on their faces.
I was not the only one who had drained their magic power to the limit. Everyone used more magic power than they had to in order to break the seals created by the Crack Guardians.
As their stamina stats were high, they could still walk normally. Such was not the case for me, however.
‘I really can’t move my body.’
Of course, being able to be closest to Kim Hyunsung had not been intended. But this was not a bad turnout of events. I didn’t care if the Black Swan members were looking at me with a strange expression.
In the first place, everyone knew that I had a weak body.
As soon as I finished talking, Dialugia scooped everyone up, and we rushed towards the pavilion. Leaving the insane Ancient God’s Fragment, we entered the exhibition hall.
Though Ancient God’s Fragment continued to scream, his attention was not on us.
The things that had confined him for so long were still around him. He would probably want to smash it all to pieces before going after us.
Of course, the condition of the museum was terrible. Most of the exhibition halls were utterly broken, but even those inside of them had gotten destroyed.
‘We won’t be able to save anything here.’
“Let’s go to the next room. If we stay here, the aftermath of the explosion can reach us. Our goal will be to get to the manager’s office.”
“The manager’s office?” Park Yeon-joo repeated.
“Yeah. There must be somewhere where Max’s original body is located. Seeing that he’s not here, he might be quite busy doing something else. It will be hard for him to care about us anymore. First, take off the ring that you received before entering the dungeon, Yeon-joo. We no longer need to be guided by the dungeon manager anyway.”
“Yes. I was thinking of doing that.”
“And… Hayan?”
“Yes, Oppa?”
“I think it would be good for you to make a map from now on, alongside the Rangers of the Black Swans. Don’t worry too much about me. It’s just that I can’t move because of magical exhaustion, but I have no other wounds.”
“Yes. Oppa…”
“Does Hayan know how to draw a map?”
“No. Instead, she is always checking my location. This will help. It will be quite detailed and accurate.”
“You’re… a unique couple.”
Park Yeon-joo looked amazed at the fact that I had tolerated my girlfriend relentlessly pursuing me.
If it were Earth, it would be natural for me to feel suffocated, but it was possible to tolerate this in a place where one never knew what, where, and when something might happen.
‘Of course, by my standards…’
“Hee-young-ssi, Ki-mo-ssi, and other priests should also take a break for a while. If you are exhausted, we won’t be able to get out of this place successfully.”
“Okay.”
“It’ll be hard to relax, but please try to recuperate as much energy as possible.”
���Hyung-nim is right. It won’t be good if we rush into this impulsively. In fact, we’re not just in bad condition to fight; we can’t even walk properly.”
“That’s right, Deokgu.”
“In that sense…”
“I was going to set up a camp when we got a little farther away.”
“Are we going to eat?”
“Of course, we should eat. It’s just that we lost a few supplies, so we’ll have to ration.”
If our conditions permitted it, sleeping would be recommended. However, I knew this would be impossible. As the roaring continued behind us, even camping sounded dangerous.
However, this was necessary. Our expedition members desperately needed the rest.
As we rested for a moment, another Fragment tentacle pierced the left wall.
“Whoa!”
“That’s…”
“That… scared the crap out of me.”
It was hard to imagine how scared other people would have been, seeing that Jung Hayan, who had always been so aloof, looked terrified.
Calming the expedition member was one of the things people like me could do. I had no choice but to speak up at this point.
“It probably wasn’t for us. He seems to be just moving… First, it would be better to move to a place where those tentacles won’t be visible.”
“B-But why isn’t he doing anything?”
“Well… I’m not sure what the Ancient God’s Fragment is… It looks like he’s about to create roots, though. Maybe he’s working on paralyzing this museum’s function and trying to absorb the magic power flowing from it. It’s better to focus on our situation now.”
“O-Okay.”
Though I spoke this assuredly, I also couldn’t help but wonder what the monster’s plan would be.
It seemed like a good idea to ask Dialugia afterward, who had heard of the Ancient God’s Fragment before.
After she had returned to human form, she seemed lost in her thoughts. Fortunately, it wasn’t a very serious expression, but she looked to be engulfed in shame. It was, after all, the job of dragons to promote the flow of balance.
As she had contributed to our plan, she must’ve been thinking about how her ancestors would regard her now.
Meanwhile, the rest of our members were at work.
Based on the map made by Jung Hayan and the Rangers, I began to figure out the structure of the museum itself. The tentacles of the Ancient God were visible as I studied, but he was certainly not moving.
‘So he really has created roots.’
I wasn’t sure what kind of consequences this would bring, but one thing was certain: it was now easier to move around. The walls that the system had brought up as a barrier were now broken.
It was easier for us to grasp the situation now that the museum’s function had been paralyzed.
I was curious about how the museum, which had triggered its preliminary program, might be taking care of this, but of course, I knew that going to check it would be a stupid choice.
If the museum’s function had really stopped, it was possible that the sealed monsters had also awakened. Perhaps they had begun fighting each other.
However, seeing that the museum had not yet collapsed, it seemed that Max was still working hard on its preservation.
‘Can he stop it?’
In fact, I didn’t know which side I should support.
The perfect scenario would be for the museum to reseal the Ancient Gods after the expedition could rescue the isolated people, as well as obtain a few items.
Of course, because I tended to think about the worst, it was difficult to settle for this hopeful scenario. Some positive thinking would be ideal at this point, though.
“Oh… I think it’s fine here…”
Upon reaching a definite spot, Deokgu quietly spoke up.
“It’s definitely… okay.”
Cho Hyejin also nodded.
The Ancient God’s Fragment was not visible within this area, and it was wide enough for thirty people to rest. The most important thing was…
“Hyung-nim! There are a lot of items here! It seems that the functions stopped here, too… The exhibition hall doesn’t seem to be obeying. Huh! There seem to be a few legendary items, too… Can I have this?”
“Oppa. There’s a wand here! T-This one looks to be legendary, too!”
“I think there are a few heroic-grade items, too… It seems to be in better condition than most heroic-grade items. There seems to be an item that boosts divine power, Kiyoung-ssi.”
“Is there anything that Hee-young is also greedy for?”
“Rather than being greedy, if there’s a Bible elsewhere… I’m just curious…”
I knew that we could obtain items along the way, but facing this reality was still jaw-dropping.
Everyone gazed around with their mouths wide open.
When I turned to gaze at the items, however, my own jaw dropped.
There stood a sword, shining in its own glistening hues.
It looked a little crude, but I could see that it is a great sword just by staring at it. What was even more spectacular was that it was pointing directly at Kim Hyunsung.
‘I-It’s a mythic-grade.’
We had hit the lottery.
‘Hyunsung! We are safe, right?!’
When I turned to Kim Hyunsung, I saw him already shooting a pleasant smile my way. It had been a long time since he smiled like that.