Chapter 32

Chapter 32
“Infiltrator! Spy!”

“Hey there!”

“I’m dropping my trousers!”

“Good grief!”

“Ugh…!”

“…”

“…What is this? Is nobody coming out?”

The youth let out a weary breath as he hurriedly hitched his pants back up.

At that exact moment, Isabella’s countenance shifted. She tightened her grip on her blade, preparing for a lethal strike from the shadows.

Twitch, twitch.

Her facial muscles were straining as if she were desperately fighting back a burst of laughter.

However, this was Necrobelli.

The metropolis of the deceased.

It went against every grain of logic for a young boy and girl to be loitering in a subterranean labyrinth linked to Necrobelli.

And then there was their dialogue.

‘He mentioned a concealed camera.’

Hidden cameras were an impossibility within the world of Pangeniar.

Did that imply they were abductees from Earth?

That realization brought its own set of riddles.

‘I was supposed to be the final one summoned.’

Back when he inhabited the role of Wilhelm before his own physical manifestation as a player, the active user count had dwindled to 1.

This meant every other gamer had been pulled into the world as players before him.

So why were there suddenly new arrivals?

‘Is this linked to the degradation of Pangeniar?’

The collapse. The encroaching erosion.

Perhaps it was even tied to the ‘First Rift’ scheduled to trigger at the 10% mark.

“Whoa! A real person!”

The boy let out a yelp the moment I stepped into the light.

He appeared to be roughly twelve years old.

He possessed the soft features and lingering baby fat of a child who had never tasted true hardship, wearing spectacles and a blue tee featuring an embroidered elephant.

“See? I told you it was just a prank show.”

“A person in this place…? But I never heard the crows cry.”

The girl seemed even younger than her companion.

Her hair was woven into a lengthy braid down her spine, and her face was dusted with prominent freckles.

Yet, in contrast to the boy, she remained strikingly composed.

“Mister. This is a hidden camera setup, isn’t it?”

“We are just as stuck here as you are.”

“Huh…?”

The boy’s pupils began to vibrate with intense anxiety.

It wasn’t a fabrication.

We were currently sharing the same fate—bound to discover an exit, or we would be nothing more than wandering orphans in the dark.

The layout of Necrobelli’s underground halls shifted with every passing second.

The boy threw his hands up in a gesture of defeat.

“We’re finished. These folks aren’t going to provide any help.”

“But they’re grown-ups. That has to be better than just us kids, right?”

“You really think so?”

“Mister, and the pretty older sister. My name is Jinha, and this tubby guy is Jinwoo. What do people call you?”

“We are…”

I cut Isabella off just as she started to reply, lifting my hand to silence her.

“How much time has passed since you arrived?”

Jinha compressed her lips and gave a slow shake of her head.

“I have no clue. Monsters crawl out every time those crows scream. I lost my cell phone, so I’ve lost all track of time…”

“Were you brought here from Earth?”

“Of course we’re from Earth. Wait, are you not from there, mister? Are you an alien?”

Earth. Based on their names, they were clearly Korean.

Was this mere chance?

‘She is completely captivated by those eyes.’

Isabella appeared to have already been disarmed by the two children.

Had she always possessed such a profound weakness for youngsters?

“Were you summoned while you were playing a game too, mister?”

“Something along those lines.”

“Was it Pangeniar?”

“…”

“So that software really was the issue. I was only holding the device for this fathead for a moment.”

Jinha released a heavy sigh.

From their explanation, it appeared they had been sharing the progress of a single character when the summoning occurred.

“Regardless, moping here won’t bring us food. We have to move before the crow cries again.”

“The crow?”

“Yeah. The monsters strike whenever the crow let out its call.”

Much like apex predators claiming a territory, dungeons possessed masters.

These environments altered their traits and hazards based on the nature of their occupant.

One had to eliminate the master to navigate without restraint.

“Keep your voices down and stay behind me.”

I took point and began the trek.

Entities of the Undead variety.

Zombies drifted aimlessly through designated sectors of the crypt.

‘They don’t initiate hostilities unless the crow signals.’

They showed no signs of aggression.

They didn’t even acknowledge our presence as we moved past, instead opting to mindlessly thud their skulls against the stone walls.

As long as one adhered to the established patterns, it wasn’t a difficult labyrinth to navigate. That was precisely why these children had survived this long.

“I’m starving.”

“Did you seriously finish all the chocolate bars?”

“That was a long time ago.”

“Wait, you greedy pig—didn’t you claim you saved one of mine?”

“Oh, right.”

The children were as talkative as one would anticipate.

They seemed to have relaxed significantly now that they were under the protection of adults.

Isabella observed the pair with a faint, flickering smile.

Reflecting on it, she always seemed to linger on the sight of children in passing.

Whether in the Golden City Arcana or within the Knight’s Garden.

The more naive and innocent they appeared, the longer her gaze would remain fixed upon them.

Caaaaw-!

Caw!

“The—the Crow!”

“Eek!”

Abruptly, the shrieks of crows reverberated through the halls.

Groooar.

Grrraaah!

The zombies that had been idling suddenly lunged from every corner.

The children huddled together, paralyzed by terror.

Swoosh!

However, these walking corpses were barely level 3.

Even a horde of a thousand would fail to intimidate Isabella.

In a flash, she decapitated five of them and flicked the gore from her blade.

‘Her attributes have improved.’

After she had presented the ancient mandragora to the forest spirit, her combat style had become more fluid, devoid of any unnecessary grit.

Her innate gifts had flourished, dragging her base stats upward with them.

Groooowl!

Next to emerge after the zombies were ghouls.

Level 4.

They remained no obstacle for Isabella. She sliced through them with a precision and speed that surpassed her previous limits.

Our advancement was effortless, yet I couldn’t stop myself from tilting my head in confusion.

‘The biological hierarchy of this dungeon is fractured.’

Typically, dungeons grouped monsters of comparable strength together.

They didn’t feature a chaotic blend of species with such massive discrepancies in power.

A level 3 zombie followed by a level 4 ghoul, then a level 6 ghoul knight.

Slash!

The instant Isabella struck the head from the ghoul knight.

“Hm!”

Suddenly, her frame went rigid and she collapsed.

Had she been negligent against a mere level 6 opponent?

No, the threat wasn’t the undead.

It was Jinha and Jinwoo.

The two youths who had been trailing behind had sprouted appendages resembling the tails of scorpions.

Isabella’s eyes darted with frantic realization.

Caaaaw!

Caaaaaw!

The children, having completed their objective, began to mimic the crow’s cry in perfect unison.

The youths had been decoys from the very beginning.

Lures cast out by the master of the dungeon to bait and terminate any humans who wandered inside.

My own senses began to blur.

A devastating paralytic toxin was screaming through my circulatory system, impossible to halt.

Before a counter-maneuver could be made, my limbs lost all strength.

The ruler of the Crow Graveyard.

An enormous carrion crow gloated before what it perceived as a magnificent banquet.

“A feast! Humans from the other world. I shall transcend once more. Wisdom and authority shall overflow!”

Isabella ground her teeth at the spectacle.

Ordinary carrion crows were incapable of speech.

They were also significantly smaller.

This specimen was an anomaly.

‘My frame… it won’t obey…’

Rendered immobile by the overwhelming venom, Isabella was helpless.

She had never suspected the children were themselves undead.

They had been right at her side, yet she had detected nothing. It was incomprehensible.

They had seemed so vibrantly human.

Their hearts had pulsed; there was no scent of rot.

‘This is no ordinary carrion crow.’

These creatures typically consumed remains and piloted them like puppets.

But this entity could mask a corpse so perfectly it was indistinguishable from the living.

It existed on a plane far above its kin.

Regardless, the fault was hers. She had allowed her guard to drop in a way that was unlike her.

Even the presence of innocent children was no justification for such a lapse in vigilance.

She had fallen victim to the monster’s alien strategy, so different from the foes she faced in the dunes.

“Transcend! Feast! Transcend!”

The eyes of the carrion crow were twin pools of lunacy.

Its maw was expansive enough to engulf a human in a single bite.

There were no records of a carrion crow the size of a manor.

Her lungs felt constricted. She couldn’t even twitch a digit.

From the moment she locked eyes with the beast, the paralysis intensified. It wasn’t just physical—a heavy curse was settling over her.

Her resolve began to crumble; her spirit was fracturing. The dread of impending death was slowly eating away at her mind.

There was nothing left but to be consumed while still conscious.

The bird would pluck out her eyes and unravel her vitals, savoring every moment.

The crow parted its beak. Jagged, serrated teeth glinted in the dark. The ghostly wails of previously consumed souls echoed from its throat.

“Pathetic humans!”

“Pipe down, you overgrown bird.”

…In that heartbeat.

The Star Awakener, who had appeared completely incapacitated, bolted upright and stretched his limbs as if entirely unaffected.

A toxin that had immobilized even Isabella.

A curse that should have been an inescapable cage.

Yet the Star Awakener nonchalantly unsheathed his twin blades.

Whoosh!

The carrion crow unfurled its wings.

The draft from those massive pinions revealed thousands of eyes embedded in its feathers.

The eyes of every victim the crow had ever taken. Hundreds of gazes focused to amplify the weight of the curse.

It was convinced of its victory: there was no avoiding this hex.

Beyond the venom, the curse was a guaranteed kill.

A magnified illusion hex. It forced its victims into an eternal slumber, unaware they were being devoured.

Thud!

A massive slab of dark meat was severed, hitting the floor with a heavy wet sound.

It was the head of the carrion crow.

-What is the meaning of this?

The crow’s consciousness couldn’t process the reality.

He was impervious to the venom and the illusion hex!

Worse yet—it hadn’t even registered the strike that took its head.

It was as if the crow itself had been cursed; it couldn’t track the human’s movements at all.

-A mere mortal!

It was impossible.

It was the ultimate hunter.

To suffer death at the hands of its own meal? Unthinkable!

Whoosh! Whoooosh!

The crow summoned every ounce of malice from the souls it had swallowed, narrowing the entire curse onto a single point.

The collective spite of the entire dungeon converged to eradicate this one man.

-…Immune?

Even that failed to leave a scratch.

He possessed a total immunity to the concept of the curse itself.

…He wasn’t human. He couldn’t be.

He was an entity that defied standard classification.

-…!

As their gazes locked, the crow felt a primal shudder.

It was indescribable. A darkness and a curse that transcended all understanding lived within him.

If it remained still, he would be the one to devour it.

He was the true apex predator at the top of the pyramid. The crow realized that it had been the prey from the very beginning.

But there was no longer any room for a counter-attack.

Boom!

The massive form of the carrion crow slumped over, meeting its final end.

I had been wary from the start.

Finding children in a place like this.

Wandering about in modern day attire.

‘It consumes memories and reconstructs forms based on them.’

Those children had indeed been summoned players.

But players brought to this world receive a body appropriate for this realm.

There was no reason for them to still be wearing Earthly garments.

Most likely, their primary objective had been survival.

But in a cruel twist of fate, they had failed and become sustenance for the crow.

‘A level 4 beast managed to ascend to level 8.’

It wasn’t just growth—it was a full evolution.

Consuming players had granted it strength, size, and intellect. It had been using those children as bait to lure even more players ever since.

As the crow grew stronger, the dungeon itself expanded.

That explained the strange mix of monster levels.

The creature had been incredibly cunning at staying hidden, though.

It concealed its true form and used the reconstructed children—the ultimate lure—to pass as living humans.

It was a predatory tactic, and many had clearly succumbed to it.

Once they were lulled into a false sense of security, they were paralyzed and eaten.

‘If I didn’t have Observation, I might have been fooled as well.’

The deception was masterful, but my Observation talent was at its peak.

I had even detected the slight irregularity in their simulated heartbeats.

Other inconsistencies had confirmed my suspicions.

I didn’t let on that I knew the truth; otherwise, the beast would have stayed in hiding. I played the part of the victim.

‘Without proper defenses, even level 10 players would be doomed.’

The mana-infused toxin was a concentrated paralytic that had frozen even someone of Isabella’s caliber.

The evolved crow’s venom was significantly more lethal.

Seeing both of us paralyzed, it had boldly revealed itself.

But it couldn’t have imagined:

[‘Giant’s Magic Resistance’ has neutralized ‘Mana Poison (Lv8)’.]

[‘Iron-Blooded Lord’s Heart’ has nullified ‘Illusion Curse (Lv9)’.]

[‘Moonlight Butterfly’ is purging all foreign energies in the vicinity.]

I was its perfect counter.

‘I don’t even need to plan for these things.’

Standard hexes or venoms simply cannot end me.

Hidden Traits maintain an absolute hierarchy over common ones.

I have thirteen of them.

Most hazards are resolved automatically.

The crow was a mastermind hiding in the dark, pulling the strings of the dead.

Its physical body was actually quite fragile in a direct confrontation.

The moment I identified its location, the outcome was decided.

《You have conquered the ‘Crow Graveyard Underground Dungeon’.》

《The master ‘Carrion Crow’ has been slain; the dungeon returns to its natural state.》

The clearing of the dungeon was simpler than anticipated.

With the master dead, the undead dissolved into nothing, and the shifting corridors became fixed.

Navigation would be effortless now.

But the rewards were still pending.

《The ‘Constellation of Adventure’ expresses its belief in you and lauds your daring spirit. Reward quality has been improved.》

《The ‘Constellation of Luck’ exhales in relief and grants a blessing. Reward quality has been improved.》

《You are the owner of the ‘Lucky Die’.》

《Accessing a reward tier three ranks higher than the base.》

《Select two items from the four provided lists.》

It was time for the spoils!

‘Oh.’

I let out a soft sound of surprise.

…Baekseongjeon’s patrons had returned.

They hadn’t liked the appearance of the goddess or the completion of the 4th Main Quest, so they hadn’t offered any boons then.

But they hadn’t completely abandoned me.

Two of them had shown up—a stroke of luck.

I scanned the options.

[Fragment of the Shattered Golden Rule 9h(6+3)], [Core of the Evolved Carrion Crow], [Plume of the Eye Collector], [Grimoire of Augmentation]

The finest treasures the dungeon had to offer!

One in particular caught my eye.

‘A Fragment of the Shattered Golden Rule?’

Because the crow had consumed players?

I never expected a Golden Rule shard to be part of a dungeon’s loot table.

There was no need to hesitate.

‘The Golden Rule fragment and the Grimoire of Augmentation. The top two choices.’

The significance of the Golden Rule was so immense it would be exhausting to even try to explain it.

And the Grimoire would enhance the efficacy of my skills. It was a vital tool.

Rumble!

Suddenly, one of the choices began to glow with a violet hue.

‘…What’s happening?’

The item ‘Core of the Evolved Carrion Crow’ was vibrating.

The Iron-Blooded Lord’s Heart immediately suppressed any rising alarm.

I could guess why this was happening.

‘It’s reacting to my traits.’

Only a Hidden Trait could cause a reaction like this.

I adjusted my selections.

《You have chosen ‘Fragment of the Shattered Golden Rule 9h(6+3)’.》

《You have chosen ‘Core of the Evolved Carrion Crow’.》

Slowly, the dark sphere of the core rose from the remains of the bird.

But then…

Gulp!

“Hm!”

…I felt a sudden, agonizing hunger.

The moment I looked at the evolved core, a ravenous craving tore through me.

My stomach groaned, and my mouth flooded with saliva.

Even the Iron-Blooded Lord’s Heart couldn’t suppress this. It wasn’t a mental urge; it was a physical demand from my very cells.

It was unbearable.

Simultaneously.

《’Glutton’ has been activated.》

The Hidden Trait ‘Glutton’ made itself known.

It had remained dormant until this moment, but now it was reacting violently to the presence of this core.

‘Eat it.’

A human consuming a monster’s essence.

I reached out and seized the core.

And then.

Crunch!

Crunch! Crunch!

I devoured it whole.

In that instant.

《Predation is successful.》

《’Trait Evolution’ is underway.》