Dungeon Reset - Chapter 41: Tricked (1)
Chapter 41: Tricked (1)
The participants had already lost their souls a long time ago.
“Cough, cough! Ugh!”
How long have they been running since they entered the forest?
It felt like their lungs were being ripped apart.
They could taste metal in their mouths as if they had bitten their tongue.
It had been a long time since their legs had lost strength.
But they had to run.
They had to fight.
Because this place was hell!
Kii kii kii kii!
Squeak! Squeak squeak!
‘They’re evil! They’re just waiting for us to get tired.’
The monsters in the forest were wary of their long-ranged weapons and were following them at a distance, waiting for their prey to feel exhausted.
Too well aware of a human’s physical limitations.
Staggers!
Did he run out of stamina?
Finally, one of the participants who was running in the forest broke his knee.
And the monsters never missed that moment.
“Teehee…”
Chills!
At the sound of a creepy laughter coming from behind, the man quickly rolled to the floor.
But it’s too late.
For a moment, his back was hot.
“Ahhhh!”
He rolled on the floor in terrible pain.
‘I, I don’t want to die!’
The man crawled desperately to the floor, moving his arms trembling and bleeding.
The Demons laughed as they watched his ugly back.
“Teehee!”
“Teeheehee!”
These dwarf monsters are of low intelligence, but have a rather mean temper.
They enjoy the sight of their prey dying of fear without killing it at once.
Thump.
Eventually, that person will come to a Dead End.
Their shadows were cast over it.
‘Ah, this is how I die.’
He eventually closed his eyes in despair.
But it was then.
“Teehee!”
“Kiiiiiiiiii!”
Suddenly, the voices of the people were heard.
And at that moment, the man had to scream just like them.
Something suddenly wrapped around the man’s feet and lifted him up!
Swoosh!
“Ah, ahhhh!”
It wasn’t just the man who panicked.
Similar screams were heard one after another.
“Ahhh! What is this!”
“Teeheehee.”
The participants who were being chased, and the monsters that followed, were all panicking in unison.
“What, what is this?”
A light green stalk could be seen in the man’s sight, whose body was upside down.
Wiggle?
It was this common cannibal at the beginning of the Dungeon.
But somehow, it was a lot bigger.
‘Is this the cannibal I used to know?’
Suddenly, he saw the monsters hanging in the same situation as himself in front of him.
“Eeeeeek! Kiiiiiik!”
Struggles!
Wriggle?
Cannibals tend to move their opponents more as they struggle violently.
The monsters, who have been moving their bodies, were eventually wrapped around like thick threads and unable to budge.
On the other hand, the participants, who were completely exhausted, were tied up only with their legs or ankles wrapped around them.
Participants who understood the situation breathed a sigh of relief.
“Whew. Did I… get lucky?”
They were caught by the monster plant while avoiding a monster, but they felt relieved.
Although the stalk was very thick, he thought he could escape if he cut it hard with a knife.
“But what is this?”
The man looked up and looked at the wall that had blocked him a while ago.
It was a tall square column of soil.
It looks like a lighthouse…
And a round ‘flower bed’ was made around the lighthouse.
He wondered if it would be right to describe a place full of cannibals as a flower bed, but no matter how many times he looked at it, he was right.
There were signs in front of them.
[Let’s Protect Mother Nature!]
– You’ll be in trouble if you come over!
“… Will it be a disaster if we come over?”
It was really difficult for the participants to know what facial expressions to make.
It was a very easy-going phrase that didn’t suit the atmosphere so far.
At the end of life-and-death, they felt like they had suddenly entered the elementary school playground.
For some reason, it seemed that there would be steel bars and seesaw beyond this.
[Did Stage 1 have this trap?]
Baboon, who was observing the figure from above, shook his head.
Stage 1 is still understated, but it was a trap that didn’t quite fit the Dungeon.
Besides, what else is this unnatural pillar of soil?
[Is this some kind of prank for the beginners? There’s so much to it.]
But slowly, his eyes grew wide as he flew to the top of this pillar of dirt.
There was a staircase inside the wall.
It’s not just a pillar!
[… What, is this?]
He got an ominous feeling and went down the stairs to the end. But there was nothing there, it was just blocked by solid ground.
His unidentifiable anxiety grew.
Somehow he feels like he is being made fun of.
In the corner of his chest, his longtime helper career rang with a powerful warning.
And… it’s warning tone was very accurate.
This was actually an ‘Observatory’ made temporarily by Jung Da-woon who came down from the mountain.
It must have been a kind of signpost that marked the location of the gate that was secretly installed in the ground just below this so that it would be easy to find from a distance when returning later!
And it was surrounded by potato fields, making it a safe zone for monsters to get away from.
But… Without the knack of penetrating the ground, there was no way for Baboon to find out such facts.
[It feels weird.]
He searched carefully around the observatory, but there was nothing special about it.
But why is that more disturbing?
[… Let’s go back to the Ruins.]
Whoosh!
Baboon, who flew to the Ruins in a minute or so, was the first to find the place where the ‘altar’ was.
The altar is the most important thing in the Dungeon.
It was in the most private place of the Ruins.
It is where the Boss Room can be found.
[Phew, the altar is intact. … Huh?]
Baboon, who was sighing with relief at the altar, suddenly stopped.
Something was out of the ordinary.
[… Huh?]
There was a puzzled look on Baboon’s face.
Baboon doubted his eyes.
[What is this? Is there something in my eyes?]
Rubs.
He rubbed his eyes carefully to see if he had gotten dirt on it, and looked forward again.
Blink blink.
Nothing has changed even if he looked at it again.
There wasn’t anything that wasn’t supposed to be here.
[Oh?]
Still in the early-mid dungeon game.
Naturally, there was supposed to be no one in the middle of the boss room, who had to stand strong against the boss.
Of course, he couldn’t see anyone standing in the middle of the boss’ room.
Just not the final boss, either!
His complexion grew pale.
[Oh my God! Where’s the ultimate boss?]
Baboon’s tearful screams echoed out of the Final Boss’ Room.
Oh my god!
The Final Boss has left its home!
* * *
As Baboon’s panicked voice echoed throughout the dungeon, Jung Da-woon and the Rabbit stopped walking and looked back.
“Huh? I guess he already found it out.”
[Hehehe, I know what that feels like.]
The Rabbit couldn’t hold back his laughter for a while.
What could they do if he’ll to scream over there if they had already come down to the tunnel a long time ago.
[Come out! Where the hell did you go?]
[It’s dark under the lamp!]
This was Jung Da-woon’s first hideout with a lion statue pond.
Can Baboon dare to imagine that there is a space like this right underneath the Ruins?
And how come the entrance is a trap hole right in front of the boss?
[Perfect! You should be like me, too! That’s what it is! You fall in a trap set you set by yourself! My Lord, are you going to keep coming? Right?]
“Look at what you’re doing.”
[Ehei! What’s wrong with you? I know the more golems, the better. I’ll do well in the future!]
The Rabbit showed all his aegyo² regardless of how unhappy Jung Da-woon felt.
Of course, Jung Da-woon was disgusted.
“Hey, get down…”
[Of course! I’m already down! Do you want me to head-stand using my ears?]
“…”
He doesn’t know why he’d be so happy to screw up Baboon.
The Rabbit was trembling furiously in earnest.
It was understandable.
Baboon was always a cheap guy who always ignored, despised, and looked down upon the Rabbit.
[But now he has become a pushover³. I’m going to make a dispute with him every month. Until that perfect time where that bastard’s insides will burst and he will die of anger.]
Maybe Baboon would be demoted like himself and kicked out like a beggar within a few months.
Thinking about it, he didn’t think the corners of his mouth would come down again.
Meanwhile, in front of Jung Da-woon stood an unexpected golem.
No, it’s shape was very familiar to the Rabbit. It was just that way it was with the Final Boss.
The Rabbit even liked it and giggled.
[It really doesn’t look like a shameless robber⁴. I wonder if you are thinking of pulling out only the core of the final boss and then putting it back in.]
“Have you ever made an Earth Golem? If you haven’t made it, don’t speak to me. Do you know how long it takes to make a Golem?”
In the future, Jung Da-woon was planning to invest all his time in making the stairs of the Death Mountains as much as possible.
So, he grabbed the limbs of the Final Boss with his golems and forcibly laid them down, extracting only the core to maintain its shape as much as possible.
[Then are you going to use this? I’m glad to see it.]
“I hate it because it looks terrible. I’ll just carry it around like this for now, and then I’ll just move the core to the spare golem.”
At the same time, there were several Gorilla and Centaur Golems that didn’t have any Core that were parked in the mountain range.
Unless he needs a special type of golem, he plans to add one more each month in the future.
[My Lord, how about setting up a Gate here?]
“Oh, that’s good.”
[Hoho. My nickname used to be the Rabbit with the devil’s brain⁵.]
“You have a lot of nicknames.”
The Rabbit’s brain was pounding at the thought of sabotaging Baboon as efficiently as possible.
But he was already thinking about it.
Shine!
[Gates Connected.]
“Okie, there you go.”
A new gate has been created again.
Alpha expressed his regrets after seeing it.
{You don’t offer sacrifices, and you keep wasting your bioenergy.}
“Uh-huh, this is all an investment.”
Jung Da-woon smiled contentedly.
Now there is a direct connection between this Ruins and that one.
However, thanks to this, he was able to pack a lot of mud bricks, and it was easy to move to Stage 1 anywhere if there was a tunnel.
“Ah, do you want to go and get some grilled fish to charge us up while we’re here? Oh, my dearest… They must have a lot of eggs?”
He looked around the lion pond for the first time in a while, and there were quite a few fish.
[Why do these fish keep increasing? As I thought before, Everything related to you can’t be reset. So does Ppokkyu.]
“Well, maybe it’s because it’s underground? That’s why the Gates are still being made underground. It seems that only the ground is the one being reseted.”
Jung Da-woon, who had been looking around the pond for the first time in a while, took out a pocket of bone powder from his belongings.
“I don’t know what you ate until now, but you should try this too.”
In the past, he couldn’t try anything because he was afraid that something would go wrong with the fish, but now he has nothing to regret no matter what happens.
Without hesitation, Jung Da-woon sprinkled the bone powder on the pond.
It wasn’t just plain bone powder.
It was the bones of ancient monsters that even had his Purification Skill.
Without knowing what it was, fishes in the pond came to the surface of the water and began to devour the powder.
Since the fish liked it, Jung Da-woon was excited and sprinkled more.
“That’s right, you’re eating well! Eat a lot and grow up!”
[I’m a little nervous about this…]
The rabbit, who was once traumatized by the error seed, was uneasy about his impulsive behavior.
Footnotes:
[1] You fall in a trap set you set by yourself!: The word was (자승자박) (pronounced as: ja/seung/ja/bak) which can be translated as ”being caught in one’s own trap” or “falling in a trap set by oneself”. Rabbit was saying that because it was because of Baboon that he was to handle the “Stage 1” so he brought this chaos to himself.
[2] aegyo: Aegyo (애교) (pronounced as: ae/gyo) can be translated as “charms”, “winningness”, and “coquetry”. It means “The behavior of trying to look cute or attractive to others.” If you are a K-Pop stan or someone who loves K-Drama, you probably stumbled upon this word before.
[3] pushover: It wasn’t really “pushover” like the term we use in English. The “Pushover” here (밥) can mean a lot of things like “rice”, “meal” or “interests” but it can also mean, figuratively, “someone who is used or sacrificed by someone else.”
[4] shameless robber: A person who audaciously and wickedly robs people of money or valuables. E.g. The Baboon
[5] the Rabbit with a Devil’s Brain: literally means he’s vicious or devious, and can also be a genius.
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