<You have entered the high-rank? dungeon ‘City of the Little People’.>
Damn it.
This is shaping up to be one hell of an unlucky day.
After failing to discover dungeons on the first and second attempts, they set out to find a third dungeon, but once again, no system message appeared indicating a successful discovery. Not only that, but the dungeon they entered happened to be the City of the Little People. It was such a troublesome dungeon that Sa-yoon’s head was already starting to throb lightly.
Sa-yoon spat out a restrained curse, and Geon-joo, who had now naturally stuck close to Sa-yoon to minimize the impact when falling, stood up on his own two feet and expressed his doubt.
“Is this one bad too?”
Seeing an even more severe reaction than when they entered the Worm King’s Burrow, Geon-joo’s face showed a hint of concern. Sa-yoon waved his hand to dismiss the system message floating in front of him.
“More bothersome than bad. Especially for you.”
City of the Little People.
It was a dungeon that even Sa-yoon, who prided himself on his extensive field experience, had only cleared once. It was recently discovered, and that one memory was quite strongly etched in his mind. He hadn’t wanted to experience it again if possible, but of all times, he ended up entering it while with Geon-joo. It was clear that they would face more difficulties than during the second dungeon, which had been relatively smooth.
“What kind of place is it to make you say that?”
“It’s the domain of small monsters, and most of the monsters that appear are humanoid. There are hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of them, so once you’re surrounded, it’s hard to escape.”
“That many?”
“Yeah. But in exchange for their numbers, they’re quite weak. Even you should be able to take them out easily.”
“Then isn’t that fine?”
Based on the explanation so far, they seemed to be monsters that, while numerous, didn’t require much caution. Geon-joo pointed this out, but Sa-yoon shook his head.
If that were the case, it might be tedious but not troublesome. Certainly not to the point of being a headache.
It wasn’t just a high-rank dungeon, but a ‘high-rank?’ dungeon. The question mark after the rank shouldn’t be ignored. It meant that depending on the circumstances, it could even be considered unmeasurable in rank.
“If it ended there, I wouldn’t be saying this, pretty boy. The scary part of this dungeon isn’t the tens of thousands of little people, but the dungeon boss.”
“Is it strong?”
“Depends on the situation.”
“…?”
“Every time you hit a monster in the dungeon, the dungeon boss’s abilities increase too. Usually, it’s no different from the other little people, but it gets stronger as the damage dealt to the dungeon monsters accumulates. That’s why the system put a question mark on this dungeon.”
In short, the boss’s difficulty varied depending on how few monsters you encountered.
But this was a ‘City’ of the Little People.
Of course, there were many monsters, and if you got caught by even one, it would emit ultrasonic waves to call its comrades, forcing you to prepare to face at least hundreds of little people at once. If you hit and killed all those hundreds, the dungeon boss would become hundreds of times stronger. By that point, it would reach a level that even Sa-yoon couldn’t underestimate.
Last time was already a struggle.
During the previous attempt, when he killed monsters indiscriminately without knowing better, he barely managed to clear it after fighting the dungeon boss for a full three days. He had killed 10,000 monsters, so it wasn’t unreasonable for the boss to become that strong. With a bit of exaggeration, the dungeon boss at that time was on par with an Unknown.
It could become that strong.
Depending on the circumstances, it could become even stronger.
In the worst case, the boss of this dungeon could become the strongest monster in the field.
And of all people, he was here with Geon-joo.
If he had come alone, he would have used stealth to hide his presence, erased all traces, and headed straight for the boss room. However, Geon-joo didn’t have a stealth skill, and Sa-yoon didn’t have the ability to make him invisible. They would have to dig a secret passage or something to move around.
“…How can such a cheating monster exist?”
“With the world having ended, what’s there that can’t appear?”
The first priority upon entering was to obtain a map. Sa-yoon, reminding himself of this fact, walked to the door and explained the City of the Little People to Geon-joo.
“It’s not called a city for nothing. They’re weak and small, but they know how to use technology.”
“Technology?”
“They use weapons. Like humans. Things like guns and cannons. They’re that intelligent.”
“They made guns and cannons themselves?”
“More accurately, they probably stole them from the humans who lived in this world. This isn’t a world that’s being destroyed, but one that has already been destroyed.”
While he didn’t know how the little people attacked humans before the destruction, during the process of destroying the world, they must have stolen human technology. They would have processed these into their own and used them to threaten humans in return.
The fact that the City of the Little People was a dungeon meant that no matter how small and weak they appeared, they too had the power to destroy a world.
It’s not something to be careless about. Sa-yoon repeatedly warned Geon-joo before opening the tightly closed door.
As he turned the doorknob, the first thing that came into view was pipes. The dungeon entrance was randomly generated, and this time they were lucky. If the entrance had appeared on a lower floor, they would have undoubtedly drawn the attention of the little people as soon as they entered.
Multiple pipes densely filled the ceiling. Following the connections of the pipes downward, a massive water tank could be seen set up in a corner. By the looks of it, the pipes in front of them seemed to be for water transportation.
“Those are the little people.”
Sa-yoon lowered his voice significantly and pointed downward. Geon-joo followed where Sa-yoon’s white fingertip was pointing. Below the pipes, hundreds of little people were transporting something.
Pointed fingertips, feet resembling duck feet, and teeth like those of a shark.
Apart from their alien-like appearance, the scene of them lining up to transport items on a conveyor belt, chatting among themselves, and dividing into teams was unmistakably that of a workplace.
It was a sight rarely seen with other monsters, and Geon-joo’s expression showed surprise. Sa-yoon tapped the shoulder of the dumbfounded Geon-joo and signaled to move.
The pipes, sized to fit the little people, were small. They were barely wide enough to place one foot, so they had to move carefully. As soon as their weight settled on the pipes, creaking sounds were heard.
If they continued walking on the pipes like this, it was clear that the pipes wouldn’t be able to withstand the weight of two adult men and would break.
The little people couldn’t fly on their own, but they had their own specialized aircraft and means to attack from below. Knowing this from experience, Sa-yoon gave up on crossing the creaking, potentially collapsing pipes and turned to look at Geon-joo.
Shh. He put his finger in front of his nose, causing Geon-joo to look puzzled. After warning him to be quiet in advance, Sa-yoon suddenly picked up Geon-joo and used void steps above the pipes.
“…!”
Suddenly lifted, Geon-joo flinched a bit but didn’t do anything tactless like making noise. With the remaining space above the pipes not being very spacious, Sa-yoon hunched down and observed the busy little people.
Though his bent waist was stiff, he couldn’t risk flying out of the area where the pipes were complexly intertwined just for a bit of comfort and draw the attention of the little people.
Thinking that one would be less noticeable than two, he used his stealth skill to at least conceal his own body as he stepped through the void. To others’ eyes, it would look like Geon-joo was floating in mid-air, curled up into a ball.
When we get back, I really need to buy him a flight skill.
This is too troublesome to deal with.
Just as he was muttering this to himself.
A potion began to slip diagonally out of Geon-joo’s pocket, which had been folded in half as he was held by Sa-yoon. At first, Geon-joo didn’t notice, but when he finally felt the weight, he moved his hand to properly secure the potion. However, the tip of the potion that had already slipped out was heading towards the floor.
“…!”
Slip. Geon-joo’s hand brushed the air. Unable to catch it in time, the fallen potion hit the ground and shattered into pieces.
Crash!
It happened in an instant, before Sa-yoon could even realize the potion was falling, let alone do anything about it.
At the sharp noise, the busy little people stopped in their tracks like machines receiving a command input, then turned their heads towards the source of the sound. After confirming the broken potion bottle, they all raised their heads like meerkats in unison. They succeeded in spotting Geon-joo floating in mid-air.
―Pieeeeek!
One of the little people screamed and communicated. Seeing it send out ultrasonic waves, Sa-yoon bit his lip.
Damn it.
It seemed their bad luck in this dungeon was confirmed.
Even if Han Geon-joo’s luck stat was S, it apparently couldn’t completely negate the misfortune brought by Sa-yoon’s own luck stat, which was barely A- even with the correction from an L-rank special effect.
“Hold on tight so you don’t fall!”
At this point, stealth or whatever didn’t matter; they just needed to run. Sa-yoon gave up on climbing onto the pipes and moving through the narrow space in a shabby manner. Instead, he moved out into the open area and moved quickly.
Pishung! Pishung!
The little people fired guns equipped with whip-like vines. Sa-yoon, skilled in flight, nimbly moved his body to avoid all of these, but the problem was Geon-joo.
While Sa-yoon could completely remove his own body from their range, he couldn’t do the same for the man in his arms. Deopsok, the protruding part of Geon-joo’s ankle was caught by the vines shot by the little people.
Kkadeudeudeuk, thorns grew from the vines and pierced Geon-joo’s ankle. It was designed to prevent easy removal.
“Urgh!”
Geon-joo grabbed Sa-yoon’s shoulder and groaned. Sa-yoon quickly drew his knife and tried to cut the caught part using the formless dagger skill, but the little person who had succeeded in the attack was faster in activating the vine device.
Hwaeak!
Geon-joo’s body was pulled down as if sucked into a black hole. Despite the sudden situation, Geon-joo didn’t just passively submit. He successfully managed to cut the vines binding his leg by swinging the knife he was holding. Thanks to this, he escaped the force pulling his leg, but that was all.
Geon-joo didn’t have a flight skill, and gravity still existed in the City of the Little People.
“…!”
Geon-joo’s body fell downward as he looked at Sa-yoon.
Realizing it was too late to grab and hold him, Sa-yoon kicked off the pipes and descended.
Paang!
With a harsh sound, the pipes crumpled, and Sa-yoon’s body, gaining acceleration, fell straight down like a shot, catching up to Geon-joo. Below, hundreds of little people were gathering.
The distance to the ground was too close. At this rate, they were both bound to fall.
Recognizing the situation, Sa-yoon quickly changed his plan.
He grabbed Geon-joo’s arm, gritted his teeth, then spun his body and threw him towards the pipes. The body that had been falling downward now shot up towards the ceiling.
“Grab the pipe!”
At the shout, Geon-joo, who had reached the ceiling where the pipes were, quickly extended his hand and grabbed a pipe, while Sa-yoon continued to fall towards the group of little people.
―Pieeeeek!
The cries of the little people who had come to eliminate the intruders in their domain resonated through the space, nearly deafening.