Chapter 70: Spider Hunt

“Restoring durability consumes high-purity mana, especially when dealing with S-Class Artifacts or higher. This attracts interdimensional monsters that prey on mana and humans who possess it.”

In other words, it wasn’t the Kobolds.

Monsters from other dimensions were being transferred here.

“Therefore, restorers typically have mercenaries or guards standing by to protect them during the restoration process. But here, you’re the only one who can fulfill that role.”

“That’s right.”

I stared down at the Kobold village sprawling below the hill.

So this seemingly peaceful dungeon, eerily quiet as if devoid of life…

The story was that this place would transform into a hellscape of endless monster waves.

“How long will it take to restore the item?” I asked.

“Roughly half a day, I’d estimate.”

That wasn’t too long, all things considered.

“What kind of monsters are being summoned?”

“The most common ones are Void Spiders.”

“Void Spiders?”

It was a monster I’d never heard of before.

“They’re spider-like creatures capable of traveling between dimensions.”

“Are they strong?”

“Not particularly. They’re more of a nuisance because they appear in swarms, but their individual combat strength is about that of an elite Orc warrior.”

An elite Orc warrior would be around a B-rank threat level.

Certainly not an overwhelming opponent.

I rubbed my chin thoughtfully before asking,

“Do these things drop essence stones?” I asked.

“Regrettably, void spiders don’t,” Ellikroid replied. “They’re quite different from ordinary monsters.”

That’s a shame, I thought. I was hoping to recoup some of the restoration costs while I was at it.

Still, I decided to look on the bright side. Might as well unlock another stance for the Soaring Dragon Divine Fist.

As I mentally nodded to myself, Ellikroid placed his hand on the knuckle floating in mid-air. “Then I entrust the safety of this old body to you, Passing Porter.”

“Yes, leave it to me,” I replied.

Ellikroid nodded and quietly chanted an incantation. “El Ca mo De Rari.”

At that very moment…

Kwaaaaa!

A blinding blue light erupted.

A mana-infused wind began to swirl around him, forming a raging storm.

Amidst the tempestuous mana storm, the Archmage calmly closed his eyes.

And soon enough…

Creak!

Eerie grinding noises echoed throughout the dungeon.

Just as Ellikroid had predicted, the moment the restoration work commenced, the monster onslaught began.

“Hmm.”

I turned my back on the mana-shrouded magician and gazed down the hill.

Between the low-slung mud houses clinging to the ground, an ominous purple Dimensional Gate had materialized.

Monsters began pouring out of it, their forms now visible.

“Definitely spiders.”

Void Spiders—SUV-sized creatures with uniformly violet exoskeletons.

“Ugh, these things are hideous. I think we had a word for something similar back on Earth… was it ‘tarantula’?”

At least the basic shape was familiar enough. After all, insect-type monsters that took the form of giant spiders were quite common on Earth.

But as Ellikroid had pointed out, these creatures were undeniably different from the monsters I knew. They felt more like machines draped in plausible exoskeletons than living organisms.

Screech!

The Void Spiders emerged from the Dimensional Gate and surged up the hill toward us, drawn by the mana like moths to a flame.

I wasn’t about to wait idly.

With my back to Ellikroid, who was engulfed in a mana storm, I flowed forward with fluid grace.

Thwack!

I planted a kick squarely between the eyebrows of the leading Void Spider.

Crack!

The monster collapsed without even reacting, half its head caved in.

Of course, no essence stone dropped.

I let out a quiet sigh.

It would have been perfect to get an essence stone too, but I quickly shook my head.

Right. I entrusted the restoration to a 10th Circle Archmage.

And I unexpectedly enhanced the Archmage’s Fireball to EX-Class.

These creatures will allow me to continue training to unlock the next technique of the Soaring Dragon Divine Fist.

Indeed, it would be greedy to ask for anything more.

Crack!

My fiercely lunging kick shattered the carapace of the Void Spider.

Screech!

The Void Monster flailed helplessly as it was hurled to the ground.

“Whew.”

I caught my breath and checked the notification window that had popped up in the corner of my vision.

I had now hunted nearly 200 Void Spiders, relying solely on the Soaring Dragon Divine Fist.

A notification appeared in My Body Information:

Thanks to this, I was able to unlock another upper-tier technique.

But there was a problem…

I glanced back at the swirling maelstrom of magic power behind me and frowned.

The clock in my Status Window showed 11:00 AM.

It had been a staggering twenty-five hours since I first entered the dungeon.

The time Ellikroid had given me had long since passed.

I stared at the Dimensional Gates within the dungeon, which had momentarily calmed. As time wore on, more Void Spiders continued to pour forth from them. Some of the ones I had just eliminated even radiated an ominous violet aura, making them slightly stronger than the others.

“Well, that’s true…”

Just then—

Kugugugung!

The earth trembled violently. A new wave had begun, but this time, something felt different.

In the heart of the Kobold village, shrouded in darkness, a colossal violet Dimensional Gate had opened. It spanned 15 meters in diameter and over 10 meters in width.

From within, a monster unlike any I had ever seen emerged—a creature from another dimension.

Kiiiiiiiiii!

The eerie, guttural shriek betrayed its nature: another Void Spider. But its sheer size was the problem.

“This is on a whole other level,” I muttered.

The Void Spider crawling out of the gate was so massive it could blot out the sky of the dungeon.

Kreeeeek!

Worse still, new Dimensional Gates began opening throughout the dungeon, disgorging fresh waves of Void Spiders—over a hundred of them.

At this rate, dealing with them using only the Soaring Dragon Divine Fist would be impossible.

Whoosh!

Charging a Fireball in my hand, I glared at the swarm of Void Spiders gathering below the hill.

“So this is the full assault,” I whispered.

“I think… you might be right. What should we do? Even for you, Taejun-nim, taking on all those monsters…”

“No, it’s fine.”

That massive Void Spider might be a bit of a hassle, but I could still easily handle the remaining hundred or two monsters.

My real concern was the situation outside the dungeon.

With such an overwhelming number of monsters flooding the dungeon, the flow of Mana within would inevitably surge far beyond normal levels.

This anomaly would inevitably be detected from the outside.

Alliance Headquarters had likely already gone into emergency standby, interpreting it as a precursor to a dungeon outbreak.

Kreeeeeak!

”…Hmm, in that case.”

I stared into the dungeon, now teeming with monsters, and scratched my temple.

“I feel a bit bad for what’s about to happen outside.”

This… this has definitely gotten out of hand.

For something as simple as restoring a single item, the scale has become far too large.

At that very moment, as Taejun gazed at the swarm of Void Spiders and scratched the side of his head, a new report arrived at the Awakened Management Alliance’s Gangwon-do branch in Gangneung.

In the emergency command center, Jeong Hwi-seon stared at the operations manager, whose face was a mask of distress as he monitored the situation.

“C-Chief! The risk gauge for Dungeon D-32 has risen to nearly 100…”

“Hah.”

Jeong Hwi-seon ran a weary hand over his face, his expression clearly exhausted.

The risk gauge measured the amount of Mana contained within a dungeon.

When the gauge exceeded the average range for its designated tier, a “dungeon break” would occur—the dungeon’s internal dimension would encroach upon the real world, and monsters would flood into the outside world.

“100?”

D-32, the ‘Peaceful Kobold Village’, was a 5th-Tier Dungeon.

The average risk gauge for a 5th-Tier Dungeon typically ranged from 10 to 12.

The risk gauge had already surged tenfold.

Based on the numbers alone, the situation was akin to a 1.5-tier dungeon outbreak.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” Jeong Hwi-seon muttered. “How can a 5th-Tier Dungeon’s risk gauge spike to such a level?”

“W-well, even Alliance Headquarters can’t provide a definitive answer,” the operations manager stammered. “There’s no precedent for this anywhere in the world…”

“Hmph.”

Jeong Hwi-seon clutched his throbbing head.

The Peaceful Kobold Village, as its name suggested, was an utterly unremarkable dungeon. It had never shown any signs of instability before. The non-aggressive kobolds yielded no valuable resources, causing guilds to ignore it. This dungeon was never meant to cause Jeong Hwi-seon such a headache.

Yet here he was, right now.

This insignificant dungeon had not only ruined his peaceful weekend but…

This crisis had pushed him to the most critical crossroads of his life.

The situation room director, sensing the tense atmosphere, hesitantly spoke. “We just received the information on the Hunters currently exploring the dungeon from the Expedition Management Department.”

“They’re only handing it over now, after the media’s already in a frenzy? Those bastards!” Jung Hwi-seon snapped.

Ever since he first received the report of the anomaly in Dungeon D-32 about an hour ago, Jung Hwi-seon had been demanding the identities of the Hunters inside from Alliance Headquarters. The fact that monsters hadn’t flooded out despite the risk gauge soaring far beyond the critical threshold meant that the dungeon expedition was still underway. In other words, the Hunters currently clearing the “Peaceful Kobold Village” were effectively holding his life in their hands.

“So, who are the Hunters inside the dungeon?” Jung Hwi-seon demanded, spitting out the question.

A young man in his mid-twenties appeared on one of the monitors in the situation room.

“Lee Taejun, a B-Rank Hunter affiliated with the Hwiryung Guild,” the director announced.

“Lee Taejun?”

The name sounded familiar. Jung Hwi-seon paused, lost in thought, then his eyes widened.

“Could this be the same Lee Taejun who made such a splash during the third-quarter promotion examination?”

“That’s correct.”

“Hwiryung? When did he join them? No, wait…” The Gangwon-do branch director sighed heavily, his shoulders slumping as if the weight of the world was on them.

“If this gets out, the already frenzied media will go completely berserk.”

“Yeah, that’s probably what will happen.”

Lee Taejun.

Since his outstanding performance in the third-quarter B-rank promotion examination, he had rapidly become the hottest topic in the Hunter World. Despite relentless efforts by journalists and guild scouts to track him down, his whereabouts had remained stubbornly elusive.

A 1.5-tier surge within a 5th-tier dungeon—an unprecedented event in the 30 years since the Great Change—was unfolding before their eyes.

“What’s the status of reinforcements?”

“It’s Sunday morning, so most of the core forces from the upper-tier guilds haven’t even started their shifts yet. For now, the Heaven Guild and the White Blossom Guild are expected to arrive on-site within 30 minutes.”

The Heaven Guild and the White Blossom Guild were mid-tier organizations, ranked 20th and 29th respectively. Among the guilds based in Gangwon-do, they were also among the strongest.

Yet Jung Hwi-seon rubbed his sweat-dampened forehead and muttered, “That won’t be enough.”

For a typical 5th-tier dungeon surge, that level of support would have been more than adequate. The problem was that the current Mana gauge readings had skyrocketed to levels comparable to a 1.5-tier dungeon break—far beyond the expected threshold for a 5th-tier dungeon.

“What about other measures?”

“We sent official requests for assistance to the top ten guilds as soon as the gauge reached 90. Oh, and…”

The situation room director hurriedly flipped through the documents in his hand. “Fortunately, a team from a capital region guild was on an expedition nearby. We urgently requested their support. They’re called Bicheon…”

“Bicheon? Who are they?”

“I haven’t heard of the guild myself, but their expedition team leader is Choi Jinho.”

“Choi Jinho, the A-Rank third-ranked hunter?”

“Yes.”

A flicker of relief finally appeared in Jung Hwi-seon’s eyes.

Even so, she couldn’t afford to relax. After all, even an S-Rank Hunter would struggle to contain an upper-tier dungeon’s rampage alone.

“All we can do now is hope the dungeon delays its rampage for as long as possible.”

The situation was on a knife’s edge.

Time was running out.

Even with support from the guilds in the metropolitan area, they hadn’t yet completed the evacuation of civilians from the Macheon region.

Anxiety gnawing at her, Jung Hwison muttered, “He needs to hold out as long as he can.”

By now, the interior of Dungeon D-32 would be teeming with monsters, each posing at least a B-rank level of danger.

No matter how skilled Taejun was, there was no way he could survive such a living hell alone.

”…Just a little longer, Hunter Lee Taejun,” Jung Hwison murmured, gazing wistfully at Taejun’s photo. “Your sacrifice won’t be in vain.”