Leon had more advantages compared to Woo Yeon-Hee’s first entry into the dungeon as she had not received systematic training. Although he had been unwilling to stay there, he had been in the training camp for one and a half years. Not only did he receive physical, weapon and tactical training, but he was also living with a group of other mercenaries, which could toughen up a person mentally. Therefore, Leon had to do much better than Woo Yeon-Hee in order to impress me.

“There is…one.”

Leon squinted his eyes while staring at the door. His Ranger trait was nice to have in the group as one could sense the threat beyond the door despite having a low Sense class. Well, the trait could be harmful sometimes.

“Is it a monster?” Leon asked.

“Find it out by yourself,” I replied.

“What?”

“Get in.”

I ordered and even opened the door for him.

Squeak-

He shuddered as if the sound of the door terrified him. Woo Yeon-Hee and I could see in the dark as far as the end of the corridor, but his visibility was limited to around twenty feet. Therefore, he stared into the darkness while grabbing his military dagger as hard as he could.

A mutt began sprinting toward him, and when the sound of it approached him, he instinctively backed away. For him, it would have felt like the mutt had suddenly sprung up in the dark. Leon shivered in fright behind my back, so Woo Yeon-Hee thrust a dagger into the mutt’s chest.

“The Medal of Restraint has been activated,” she said.

That was why she didn’t completely kill it. We both looked at Leon, who was frozen and staring at the mutt from its fangs to its toes. He started breathing rougher as it looked at the blood flowing out from its wound.

Huff. Huff.

“Finish it,” I said.

“That…That is…” he stuttered.

I replied flatly, “Yes, that’s a monster. Even a kid can do it. Finish it.”

“But how…?” He hesitated.

“What do you mean ‘how?’ What did you learn in the training camp? Do I have to explain everything? Just stab it with the thing on your head. You can pierce its eye or thrust its neck until it dies,” I raised my voice towards the end.

“But it’s…making s… s…. sound….” His voice trembled.

“Yes, but it can only make sounds.”

I went to Woo Yeon-Hee to speak to her alone, and Leon was startled that he didn’t realize we had disappeared out of his sight.

I said, “Limit yourself to how we did the first dungeon. Don’t use skills, okay?”

“What about the combat quest?” she asked.

“That’s an exception,” I answered.

“Okay, I’ll try.”

I emphasized, “Intervene only when things get dangerous. Our goal this time isn’t conquering the dungeon. It’s to observe him.”

“Don’t you think he’s already screwed? I wasn’t like that in the beginning,” she said.

I responded, “Hey, you were the same. It’s a natural reaction. You’ve been reading his emotions, so you would know how scared he is.”

“Hehe.” She smiled.

“What are you smiling at? Maintain the tension. Things are still dangerous,” I said.

She asked, “Do you think I can do this by myself?”

“Not quite yet. You’re saying that only because you know how to fight the boss monster for this dungeon. Use this as an opportunity to see how strong an enraged boss can become. It’ll help you in the future.”

“I just have to dominate the boss before that happens. It’ll work,” she replied.

“That’s because you’ve already experienced fighting it,” I said.

“Hehe.”

“Ah, you’re laughing again? Never forget your first time. If you act like this on the next one…”

“It’s just today. I wouldn’t be able to enjoy this again.”

A smile disappeared from her face.

“What I’m saying is…”

Leon approached us and said, “Could you please speak in English?”

He had followed the sound. The mutt on the ground was still in the same condition, so I pointed at it instead of answering him. Then, he shook his head.

“I can’t do it. I just can’t. You both are much stronger than me, so you should do it.”

“Are you stupid or a coward?” I made a sarcastic remark.

“Pardon me?”

“Do you think we’ll keep you in the team when you can’t even deal with a scarecrow?” I said.

“It’s easy as it can’t attack you. All you have to do is go and stick the knife in here.”

Woo Yeon-Hee poked the mutt’s chest, and it frowned as if it had actually been stabbed. As her stats became upgraded, she could now feel the targets’ emotions more frequently than before. While she could feel his fear, she was unsympathetic. She was much colder than me at the moment.

She said in English as Leon wished, “Kill quickly.”

***

Leon managed to stab the mutt several times in a frenzy, and blood spattered all over him. He almost threw up a few times, so we moved on after waiting for him to calm down.

At the end of the corridor, the first room was filled with twelve mutts, and Leon had to report about it. However, he didn’t say a word as he seemed to be caught up in the numbers that he detected in the room.

“Wake up. Focus on the leader’s order.”

He slowly turned his head toward us when Woo Yeon-Hee spoke.

“I think there are more than…ten,” he said.

“I’m a tanker[1], you’re a dealer, and Mary[2] is a healer,” I replied.

He looked confused. “Huh?”

“You should attack the mutts while I draw their attention. Mary’ll heal you, so don’t worry about getting injured,” I answered.

“...”

“We won’t die if you stick to your role. Keep in mind that we all live and die together. The monsters will pour out when we open the door, so get ready behind me,” I added.

Leon was reluctant.

“Why?” I asked.

“M…Mary is much stronger than me! Wouldn’t it be better if I become the healer?” he questioned.

Woo Yeon-Hee looked at me like she expected this.

“Are you going to bandage us if we get hurt? Also, I’m going to fight, too. We have specific roles, but the situation doesn’t necessarily work that way as we need to improvise. You’ll understand once we go in,” Woo Yeon-Hee said.

“I’ll just be a burden for you guys.” He lowered his gaze.

“You wouldn’t know since you don’t have skills yet, but Mary’s skills are optimized for healing. As long as our limbs and eyes are intact, we don’t have to worry about getting injured. Be thankful for Mary’s presence,” I explained.

Leon looked at Woo Yeon-Hee with astonishment.

“Do you get it? It’s more effective for Mary to heal us,” I said.

He questioned, “Do we…really have to do this? Why? Why do we have to…?”

“You volunteered to join our group first. If you want to get out, get out.”

“Really? Can I do that?”

Leon’s face lit up like he found a light in the tunnel, and his eyes brightened. He wanted to get out of the dungeon more than anything.

Woo Yeon-Hee said, “What do you mean ‘really?’ You haven’t even properly fought yet.”

“I’ll get out of this if you allow me to. I won’t be helpful at all, and I’ll look for other ways to support the group,” he almost begged.

“You’ll regret saying that,” I warned him.

“I…I really didn’t expect to do such a thing. You didn’t explain this to me and no one else did over the past one and a half years. So…”

“Stop it there. You’ll regret it,” I said.

He must have felt something then as he looked at Woo Yeon-Hee and me alternately.

“If you want to leave, you can. But listen to me before you decide. There are conditions that are required to get out of the dungeon,” I said.

“Conditions?”

“You need to complete a quest or have an Escape insignia. You must have not read the message when you entered. You would’ve gotten a clue what completing a quest is, so no need to explain that one.”

I took off my shirt and showed him the eight insignias embedded on my chest.

“These are not tattoos. They are called insignias, and this one is the Escape one. You can try getting out with nothing if you want,” I said.

Leon stared at the entrance room, but it took a while for him to pluck up his courage as he couldn’t see anything in the dark. He clenched his teeth and began navigating his way. Soon, I heard his scream from the exit.

“Help! Where are you?”

He was lost in the entrance room, so we approached him. As soon as he saw me, he said earnestly, “How can I get the Escape insignia?”

“You usually get it from the box,” I said.

“So there must be another way.” He looked at me.

“You can take off the skin where the insignia is engraved in another person and swallow it.”

Woo Yeon-Hee was also surprised, and I moved my lips toward her without making a noise.

‘No.’

“So what’s your decision?” I asked.

“I…will remain in this room,” he said.

He looked concerned that I might take back what I said earlier.

“You mean you’ll wait comfortably here until we finish conquering the dungeon, right? This will be a big setback to your development, and what would you do if we die?” I asked.

Woo Yeon-Hee added, “That’s not it. There are three doors in this room. A silent alarm will sound when the two of us go in through a door. You’ll have to fight monsters alone. Would that be okay? It’s up to you.”

“What’s the alarm? I guess I don’t have any choice. If you want to keep me along, please explain everything to me. Please, I beg you. Please.”

His eyes filled with despair, but there were no tears.

***

“Any questions?”

Woo Yeon-Hee finished explaining.

“Why do we have to fight against such things? Why do we need to get stronger?” he asked.

Woo Yeon-Hee clarified things like how she taught about the IMF crisis to middle school children.

“On that day, monsters would be the ones attacking us, not terrorists. We call the day the ‘Day of Advent,’ and this is the lowest-class dungeon. If we can’t conquer here, we’ll be defenseless on that day. Do you understand?”

“What about other pre-Awakened…”

“That’s why you’re lucky. Our group is ahead of everyone else,” she replied.

“That’s enough. You should decide now. Are you going to stay here or tag along?” I asked.

“I’ll go with you. I’m sorry for being immature and foolish. I’ll do my best from now on.”

Leon said that but…

“Ahhhhhhhh!”

He was struggling in the piles of mutt corpses. Woo Yeon-Hee asked as if he was pathetic, “Do we have to observe him more?”

“I told you. That’s a natural reaction for a ‘civilian.’ What I want to see is…”

“Okay.”

She lightly touched my chest with the tip of her index finger.

“When are you going to test him?”

“When the boss fight ends. We need to wait until then instead of judging him now,” I answered.

“He won’t pass,” she said.

1. A role that draws the opponents’ dealers (aka attackers) away from other players. ☜

2. Woo Yeon-Hee’s codename. ☜