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Chapter 21

Even after the incident with the elves, the dynamic between Dyoden and Zeon hadn’t changed.

They hadn’t been particularly close to begin with, so the grim atmosphere wasn’t so unfamiliar.

Dyoden walked ahead, with Zeon trailing behind.

Sometimes, they’d go the whole day without saying a word.

Now, Dyoden didn’t offer advice to Zeon anymore.

It was a silent acknowledgment that he’d done enough and that Zeon should figure things out on his own.

Zeon, in turn, didn’t ask Dyoden for anything.

He pondered over how to better utilize his abilities, contemplating myriad ways to manipulate sand and occasionally testing himself against the sporadic attacks from low-ranking monsters.

Now, the low-ranking monsters were no longer a match for Zeon.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The heads of the low-ranking monsters exploded one after another under Zeon’s Sand Missiles, brains and blood splattering on the desert floor.

Zeon briefly glanced at the corpses of the monsters before resuming his stride.

Dyoden was far ahead, already walking.

Even knowing Zeon was fighting the monsters, he didn’t spare a glance.

Even Dyoden knew now.

There was no chance Zeon would die at the hands of some low-rank monsters.

Now, Zeon never let his guard down, a testament to the rigorous training from Dyoden.

Then it happened.

Dyoden, who had been walking ahead, suddenly stopped.

Zeon looked at him with a puzzled expression.

Though they had spent a considerable amount of time together, this was the first time Dyoden had stopped even before sunset.

Dyoden muttered.

“It should’ve been around here.”

He looked around for a moment before retrieving something from his pocket.

It was a compass, about the size of a child’s palm.

It wasn’t any regular compass.

It was an item crafted by the fusion of Neo Seoul’s science and magic, serving as a sort of location marker, storing places it had been to before.

He had visited this place decades ago, so memories were quite faint.

The needle of the compass spun a few times before pointing in a direction.

Dyoden walked in the direction the needle indicated.

After a while, Dyoden finally stopped.

“This is it.”

Thud!

He closed the compass and put it back in his pocket.

Zeon approached his side.

“What’s here?”

No matter how much he looked around, it was the same desert landscape. It looked identical to the terrain they had passed through.

Dyoden said with a disappointed expression.

“Don’t you feel it?”

“What do you mean?”

“You still have a long way to go.”

For a moment, anger welled up deep within Zeon’s chest at Dyoden’s dismissive tone. But soon, he quelled his anger and calmly surveyed the surroundings.

If Dyoden was saying it like that, there had to be something nearby. But no matter how much he looked, nothing stood out.

‘Could it be under the sand?’

Zeon exerted dominance and connected with the sand.

Ten meters, twenty meters—nothing.

Still, Zeon persisted, using his dominance to delve into the sand.

Seventy meters, eighty meters, and finally, at a hundred meters, he felt something.

“What’s this?”

There was unmistakably something foreign within the sand.

Dyoden asked.

“Did you find it?”

“Yes!”

“How deep?”

“About a hundred meters underground.”

“Deeper than I thought. Looks like more sand has piled up over time.”

Back when he discovered this place, it hadn’t been this deep. It was evident that the sand had piled higher over the years.

“Dig.”

“Alright.”

Zeon responded and began to manipulate the sand.

Swoosh!

The piled sand streamed down to the sides like a hill.

Zeon pushed the streaming sand further away.

Thick beads of sweat formed on his face.

It was exhausting due to the heavy mana consumption.

A hundred meters underground—digging out all the sand and piling it up would form a massive mountain.

Naturally, digging it out all at once was out of the question.

Zeon gradually dug out the sand, little by little.

Dyoden didn’t rush Zeon.

He knew just how difficult this task was.

Sand lacked cohesion, so as soon as one digs it up, the surrounding sand would collapse and fill up the space again.

For Zeon, having the ability to manipulate sand made progress possible, but if an ordinary person tried to dig through the sand, it might be impossible even after a hundred years.

There was nothing Dyoden could do to help.

He sat at a distance, waiting for Zeon to finish his task.

Digging up the sand took almost three days.

When mana depleted, he rested, and when it recovered, he resumed digging.

After being pushed to his limit, Zeon finally reached the point a hundred meters underground.

“This?”

Furrowing his brows, Zeon found a stone structure underground that didn’t fit the desert’s landscape—specifically, a stone door.

It was peculiar to find such large stones deep in the desert, let alone in the shape of a door.

Dyoden approached Zeon.

“You’ve found it.”

“What is this…?”

“A dungeon.”

“A dungeon? So, this door leads to a dungeon?”

“That’s what I suspect.”

“Suspect? You’re not sure?”

“I stumbled upon this place by chance decades ago. Before I could enter, it vanished beneath the sand.”

“Is there a reason you’ve come back?”

“To become stronger.”

“You’re saying you’ll be able to become stronger in there?”

Zeon was bewildered.

Dyoden, who tore apart B-rank monsters like pieces of paper, had estimated abilities far surpassing S-rank. Yet, to seek out a dungeon discovered long ago just to become stronger—it seemed like a complete absence of conscience.

With Zeon’s common sense, he could not understand Dyoden’s actions.

No, he gave up trying to understand.

He knew he wasn’t someone Dyoden would listen to.

Dyoden briefly touched the stone door.

The surface was inscribed with inscrutable characters.

They were characters he had seen somewhere before.

Zeon thought of the elves’ books he had stored away in his subspace.

The meaning was unknown, but they were definitely the same characters as written in the book.

‘Is it related to the elves?’

At that moment, Dyoden touched the stone door. Suddenly, a bright light emitted from it, and the door swung wide open.

Without a word, Dyoden entered the stone door, not instructing Zeon to follow nor asking him to stay outside.

His action indicated that it was entirely up to Zeon’s decision.

‘Yeah, why die once when you can die twice?’

Even the already formidable Dyoden sought out an unknown dungeon to become even stronger.

There was no reason for Zeon, who had already decided to become stronger, to hesitate.

Before the door closed, he hurried inside.

Thud!

Immediately after he entered, the stone door closed behind him.

As soon as he stepped into the dungeon, Zeon felt as if he had plummeted from thin air. But having experienced entering a dungeon at the Magic Stone Mines before, he quickly adapted.

He swiftly regained his composure and surveyed the surroundings.

Gigantic stone pillars supported an immensely high ceiling.

On the stone walls were the same characters he saw on the stone door, accompanied by depictions praising some deity-like figure.

“A temple…? Something similar?”

Judging by the ambiance and size, it was evidently a temple dedicated to some deity.

The existence of a dungeon made of stone buildings wasn’t something he’d heard of, but nothing seemed out of place.

After all, dungeons themselves were places beyond human comprehension.

Zeon suddenly realized that Dyoden was nowhere to be seen.

“Did Dyoden land in a different location?”

Just because there was a single entrance to the dungeon didn’t mean everyone entered the same place.

Sometimes, they started from completely different areas.

“I guess I’ll meet him at the boss room.””

That, too, was a fact Dyoden had shared.

To meet up with Dyoden, he had to hurry to where the boss was.

The issue was which passage to take.

There were four passages within the dungeon, and Zeon couldn’t discern which one led to the boss.

“Tsk!”

Zeon clicked his tongue.

There was no information or markers to rely on—no basis for a rational judgment.

It was the situation Zeon detested the most. But he couldn’t stay here indefinitely.

At this moment, Dyoden would likely be advancing towards the boss.

There was no time to hesitate.

“I’ll take the smallest passage.”

Among the four passages, Zeon chose the one with the smallest entrance for a specific reason.

“If the passage is larger, there’s a higher chance of encountering bigger monsters.”

Indeed, larger monsters tended to be stronger. So, he opted for the narrowest passage, presuming smaller monsters would emerge from it.

Zeon entered the narrow passage without hesitation.

The passage was incredibly dark.

There wasn’t even a flicker of light, let alone a torch.

He had to rely solely on his senses to navigate through the pitch-black corridor.

“Phew!”

When he entered the underground of the Magic Stone Mines, it hadn’t been this dark.

It felt like the temple itself rejected external light.

In this situation, his eyes were of no help.

Even when he focused mana into his eyes, nothing became visible.

“I’ll abandon sight.”

Zeon discarded the futile attempt and focused solely on his hearing, smell, and touch.

Whoosh!

He felt a slight breeze.

In a confined space like this, the air remained still.

The wind blowing meant that there was a connected space somewhere.

Zeon thought as he walked towards where the wind blew.

‘A dungeon in the form of a temple? Why would such a dungeon even exist?’

Despite becoming an Awakened a while ago, he still had no idea about the origin or principles behind dungeon creation.

He had asked Dyoden, but he remained tight-lipped.

Judging by Dyoden’s demeanor, he seemed to know something but refused to share.

‘Could the creation of dungeons be related to the destruction of Earth?’

It was mere speculation; there was no certainty at present.

Then, suddenly.

Thud! Thud!

A dull sound echoed out of nowhere.

It was undoubtedly the sound of something heavy moving.

Zeon halted, listening intently.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The heavy sound persisted.

“What?”

In truth, the conclusion was already evident.

In a temple-like dungeon, the only things capable of movement were monsters.

Zeon heightened his dominion, preparing for a potential battle.

“What?”

A look of frustration appeared on Zeon’s face as he moved his mana for a while.

There was absolutely no sense of sand nearby.

He was a Sand Mage.

Without sand, he was just an ordinary human.

“There’s not even a speck of sand?”

Within his dominion’s reach, he couldn’t sense a single grain of sand.

It was the first time he’d encountered such a situation, leaving Zeon understandably flustered.

“This is insane!”

Thud! Thud! Thump!

At that moment, the heavy footsteps approached closer.

Then, in the darkness, countless eyes appeared.

Zeon staggered backward.

However, eyes also emerged from the passage he had just passed.

Their silhouettes revealed in the dim glow illuminating the darkness.

The owners of those eyes had the same form as humans.

The only difference was that their bodies were made of stone.

Their stature was similar to Zeon’s, but they were much bulkier and rugged.

There was only one type of monster like that.

“Golems?”

They were Stone Golems.

The worst opponent for Zeon. Even if he could use sand as usual, he couldn’t be confident of his victory.

Now dozens of them surround Zeon.

“Shit!”