When Kim Ye-Ri brought Lee Ji-Hye’s letter, I heard Lee Sang-Hee’s voice.

“We’ll be heading out now.”

“Okay.”

Naturally, I gave a small nod. I stood up from my seat and stuffed the letter into my pocket. By the time we exited the dungeon, the plan would already be in motion. As such, entering the dungeon for now was the right thing to do.

There were a total of 14 people. Six people from Kim Hyun-Sung’s party, seven people from the party that Hwang Jung-Yeon managed, and the leader of the expedition Lee Sang-Hee. We lacked the numbers, but the formation was pretty good. The fact that Lee Sang-Hee was a paladin with stats over 90 was important. Even though she lacked the qualities of an ideal leader, she was an extremely competent combat member. Out of all the vanguards that I had seen so far, she was the most ideal tanker. Even though her agility was low, her magic was 77 and her ability to heal herself was something no other tanker in Lindel could imitate.

‘The same goes for Hwang Jung-Yeon.’

Party two’s overall stats looked pretty good. They maintained their stats between 70 and 80 and their potential wasn’t bad either. The members that possessed those kinds of stats were good enough to enter an epic-ranked dungeon.

“Since we don’t have time, I’ll explain the situation while heading to the dungeon. As I’ve mentioned before, our goal isn’t taking control,” Lee Sang-Hee spoke up.

“Okay.”

“Our goal is to check for survivors and rescue them. If we confirm that there aren’t any survivors, we’ll leave immediately. Rescuing the survivors is important, but your safety is the most important, so please always keep that in mind,” she added.

“All right.”

“The dungeon’s name is Cursed Shrine and it’s an epic-ranked dungeon. The monsters that appear often are spirits and the Undead and other than that, nothing else has been confirmed. We’ll be searching for survivors as safely as possible until help arrives,” she explained.

“How long will it take?” someone asked.

“The dungeon was discovered on an Undead hunting ground located in the west area of Lindel, so it’ll take about eight hours for us to reach there,” Lee Sang-Hee answered.

“I guess it won’t take that long.”

It definitely felt like we prepared for this at the last minute. It would be understandable if it was us preparing, but the fact that this was all the information they had was surprising. I still couldn’t understand how this happened despite the fact that many parties had previously entered the dungeon. I just couldn’t accept the fact that the only information they had was the location of the dungeon and the types of monsters within it. But I would understand if this was a rare-ranked dungeon.

‘Maybe there was a reason why they had no choice but to go in.’

The reason for their failure could also be because they were too arrogant and thought along the lines of…

‘With this much power, nothing is going to happen.’

I was a bit curious, so I spoke up. “There’s not enough information.”

Hwang Jung-Yeon nodded and replied. “I think it’s because they rushed in.” 

“Was there a reason why?” I asked.

“Yes… they didn’t have enough time to prepare for the expedition. Since almost all of the guild’s power had entered the dungeon, we made the mistake of thinking that nothing would happen despite it being an epic-ranked dungeon. You do know that the guild’s guild master is cursed, right?” she asked.

This was the first time I heard of this.

“No, I’ve never heard that before,” I answered.

“Well, we have kept it a secret from the public. The people around knew about it and that’s why they said that it was top secret. I’m sure that Miss Lee Sang-Hee was going to tell you when the time was right,” she explained.

“Hm…”

“It happened before your party joined. The guild master was hit by an unknown curse and in order to break it, he forcefully entered the Cursed Shrine. At that time, we didn’t think that it was unreasonable because the guild members that left on the expedition were veterans that hunted large, special monsters and they were experienced regarding epic-ranked dungeons,” Hwang Jung-Yeon explained.

‘I would’ve…’

…had similar thoughts. 

If the party was made up of five people who had stats similar to Hwang Jung-Yeon’s, then it would be worth trying a legendary-ranked dungeon. I wouldn’t think that an epic-ranked dungeon would be a problem.

“Are you saying that there’s a hint at the Cursed Shrine about breaking the curse?” I asked.

“Honestly, it hasn’t been confirmed yet. The guild master got the curse during the process of finding the Cursed Shrine, so of course, they thought that the dungeon had a way of breaking it since it caused it. They had extended their hand out in order to open the dungeon door…” she answered.

“I see.”

Basically, the Blue Guild’s guild master got cursed during the process of finding the dungeon and in order to break that curse, the remaining members entered the dungeon. It was as if the dungeon pulled those humans in.

‘They had no choice but to enter the dungeon.’

I started to feel kind of anxious because the way it happened was very similar to a horror movie. Usually, the friends that entered to save their friends were the ones who would die and all I could do was hope that such a plot wouldn’t happen to us.

“You don’t seem all that surprised, Mr. Ki-Young,” she said.

“Not really. I had assumed that the Blue Guild’s guild master was experiencing some kind of problem. I was curious, but I thought that it was an issue that I shouldn’t bring up since I was also busy trying to grow,” I replied.

“Ohh, I see. I’m sure Miss Lee Sang-Hee doesn’t want you to worry about other things too,” she said, nodding.

“Yes, I understand.”

“Oh, Ha-Yan.”

I must have spent too much time with Hwang Jung-Yeon because I heard that Jung Ha-Yan was looking for me. After greeting the latter, I started walking with her. I guess she started to feel better because I noticed her smiling. Since this expedition started with a serious atmosphere, I restrained myself from holding her hand as we walked and it seemed like Jung Ha-Yan understood because she didn’t pull on my sleeve like she usually did.

The road was so rough that a carriage wouldn’t be able to travel on it. I kind of had a difficult time because my stamina was weak, but the party’s speed toward the destination was very fast.

‘Since we’re in a hurry.’

They weren’t being considerate of those with low stamina, I understood their thoughts, so in order to keep up with the march, I had no choice but to drink the stamina potion I brought with me.

Since we would be going up against the Undead, the priests were trying to save their holy magic as much as possible.

In less than a day, we reached the area where the Undead was and it was an area that our party was seeing for the first time. It was also our first time going up against the Undead, so I naturally started looking around.

“Ugh…”

The priests weren’t trying to hide the frown on their faces. Although not as much as the others since she was a dark priest, even Sun Hee-Young seemed affected by it. I guess Kim Ye-Ri was more of a scaredy-cat than I thought because she stuck close to Kim Hyun-Sung while the cowardly Park Deok-Gu was intimidated by the gloomy atmosphere. Among the members of our party, Jung Ha-Yan and Kim Hyun-Sung were the only ones that seemed fine. It was understandable for Kim Hyun-Sung since he already knew about this place, but I just couldn’t understand why Jung Ha-Yan was smiling so brightly.

It felt like it was getting darker the deeper we went in and it wasn’t just because it was night. The atmosphere itself that enveloped this place was gloomy.

‘I’m getting a bad feeling.’

The feeling under my feet was unpleasant and the place felt damp. When I heard the sound of an Undead from somewhere, I became even more anxious. To be more exact, this place made me feel irritated and the closer we got to our destination, those emotions started to get stronger.

‘A curse?’

I wasn’t sure but it was probably because the location itself gave off an unpleasant feeling.

“Doesn't this place give off a really irritating vibe? It’s difficult to explain…” Park Deok-Gu said.

“I can feel it too, Deok-Gu. I’m sure it’ll get worse when we reach our destination,” I replied.

“Ugh.”

“I don’t want to deal with monsters like the Undead…” he complained.

“Nothing we can do about it,” I told him.

It didn’t take long for us to reach our destination as we whispered to each other. The place we arrived at was a small room inside the shrine and of course, I was very leery. When the bookshelves that were in the small room moved back, we saw the entrance to the dungeon. There was another secret entrance in the room and even though I had no idea about the details, there was a monster that was hanging upside down while wearing a pendant and there were other decorations that made me feel uncomfortable. It didn’t feel like a shrine and felt more like a…

‘...a place where they worship the devil.’

When I looked at the entrance that led underground, I felt like I could now understand the curse that the guild master received upon discovering this place. Honestly, I felt like I got cursed just by looking at the place. I wasn’t sure how careless they were when they entered, but I guess the Blue Guild’s guild master had been overconfident.

‘I feel like I’m going to get cursed just by breathing…’

Having the courage to extend your hand out could be considered a talent too. People who were too cautious like me would never come anywhere close to a place like this until they had some kind of confirmation that it was safe. While I was looking around and getting the feel of the place, I heard Lee Sang-Hee’s voice. 

“I’ll enter first. Party seven will enter next and party two will enter after. For the priests, please start reciting a purification spell.”

“Okay.”

Sun Hee-Young and a man in party two began to recite their spells. When a light poured down on us, my mind became calm for a moment and then it felt like I was at ease.

‘It’s effective.’

I guess the location itself gave a basic debuff.

Everyone nodded and after Lee Sang-Hee turned around, she started walking.

“Let’s go, Mr. Ki-Young.”

“Hyung-nim,” Park Deok-Gu said.

“Okay.”

It went without saying that we entered after her. I immediately heard some familiar information.

[You’ve entered the epic-ranked dungeon, Cursed Shrine. Confirmed [??/??] members.]

I thought that we were immediately going to battle, but that wasn’t the case.

Unlike the Garden of Horror which looked as if the scenery had completely changed, the dungeon we were currently in didn’t look so different from the outside. It basically felt like we entered a large shrine that was located beneath the shrine up above. Despite my nervousness, the inside was pretty empty and as expected, I saw people moving around busily. The archers were the busiest among them.

When I started looking around, people started talking.

“I don’t think they’re anywhere here. I’m not exactly sure yet, but the traces that are here look really old.”

The archer was right. The area near this place was safe, so we could assume that this area had been cleared successfully. I did have a slight headache, but the uncomfortable feeling I had before didn’t envelop my body.

“Overall, I think they… moved quickly.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, I think we can move quicker.”

“Let’s do that then. Priests, please make preparations so that you can recite spells at any moment,” Lee Sang-Hee ordered.

“Okay, got it.”

The party moved faster than I expected but that didn’t mean that they didn’t have their guards up. I didn’t see an Undead’s shadow, but since this dungeon had swallowed many parties, they all knew that they had to be cautious.

‘I think that they took over without any issues.’

It was obvious without having the eye of an archer. I noticed a very clean interior the deeper we went in. I didn’t really see any traces of battle, so I could tell how easily the other party broke through this place.

“Next.”

“Okay.”

“We’ll enter the next room,” Lee Sang-Hee said.

“All right.”

“The next room…”

“Yes.”

All of a sudden, we heard a voice that we had never heard before.

- You’ll be cursed.

‘What the…’