Chapter 159

 

“Meehhhh” 

“Hey…! Cloud, what are you doing coming out?!” 

There are dozens of eyes watching this place right now…! 

As I panicked and reached out to Cloud, exclamations from the hunters burst out behind him. 

“What’s that? A summoned creature?” 

“Oh my, it’s so cute-!” 

“If it’s Kang Eui-jin’s summon, it must be an item rather than a skill, right?” 

It was already too late. Everyone had seen Cloud. He was even more flustered since he hadn’t expected Cloud to come out at all. Oblivious to his feelings, Cloud was staring at him blankly with cute eyes. 

“…Just go back in for now.” 

“Meeeh!” 

“Come on, come here. Hm?” 

‘Is it interested in that door?’ 

As I casually gestured for Cloud to come over, thinking nothing of how it kept looking back and forth between him and the door in front, Cloud, who had been blinking its eyes, suddenly charged straight toward the door. 

“No! Cloud!!” 

I frantically tried to grab it, but couldn’t stop Cloudfrom placing its front paw on the door. I felt a massive wave emanating from the door. 

A rumbling vibration echoed through the cave and the ground beneath their feet began to shake. 

“Brace yourselves! We’re going to get thrown back again!!” 

“Damn it, everyone gather over here!” 

Despite the panicked screams of the hunters, I stood frozen in place, staring at the scene before my eyes. 

Blue light was rapidly spreading from where Cloud’s paw had touched. The characters carved into the stone began glowing blue and slowly pulsating. It was a magic circle. 

Seong San-ha, who had approached beside him at some point, touched the door with a curious expression. 

“I can’t believe it actually worked…” 

“Looks like Cloud was the right answer.” 

“It was more intense than I thought. Even though I was expecting it, it was nerve-wracking.” 

“I was fucking shocked too.” 

As I sighed in response, unable to forget the feeling of my heart nearly dropping, Cloud turned to look at me while still keeping its paw on the door. 

“Meh.” 

At its simply confident expression, I finally burst into laughter and knelt down to vigorously pet Cloud.

The hunters who had been tensely braced realized something was strange when they weren’t thrown out of the dungeon even after time passed, and looked this way. Only then did they discover the warp that had activated with the entire door glowing, and excitedly rushed over in a crowd. 

“The door, the door opened!” 

“Finally…! Let’s go quickly!” 

“Stop! We’ll reorganize formation before entering!” 

Watching them prepare to enter, I looked at Cloud and said. 

“Cloud. Good job. Come back in now. If you come out carelessly again, you’ll really be in trouble then.” 

“Meeh, meh.” 

Cloud nodded half-heartedly and bumped its head against my ankle. But strangely, Cloud remained standing outside. 

Cloud tilted its head as if something was odd, then pressed its head against my mark again. But no matter how many times it repeated this, nothing happened. 

“Meh…?” 

Cloud looked up at me with a puzzled face. But it wasn’t like I had any special solution either. 

‘The mark is the same as before, so why is this suddenly happening?’ 

Seong San-ha, who glanced back, said.

“If it were just us, it might be different, but it seems difficult to delay for long.” 

“Damn it, but it’s dangerous…” 

I couldn’t put it in my inventory, and it was too dangerous to let it follow me like this, so I ended up picking up and holding Cloud. The stares directed at Cloud in my arms were piercing. 

Among the whispered conversations between them, I could hear words like ‘familiar’ and ‘constellation.’ 

“We’ll be back soon, so just bear with it a little. Cloud.” 

Once I go up to the 20th floor and confirm that regular hunters can enter, my role will be finished. Seong San-ha said he’d take me to the workshop… 

Seeing the warp activated, my companions approached. Cheong looked at Cloud with a curious expression and muttered while making eye contact. 

“So this is the familiar, I suppose.” 

“Yeah. It’s cute. Want to try petting it?” 

“Could you not recommend dangerous things to Cheong? What if it bites?” 

I made a disgusted face at Lim Dan’s nonsense.

“Hey. Our Cheong is S-rank.”

“Who’s our Cheong? You’re just the boss.” 

I showed my middle finger to the grumbling Lim Dan, then approached Cheong, who hadn’t been able to take his eyes off Cloud since earlier. 

“Cloud is really gentle. You can hold it.” 

“N-no. It’s so small it might break… I’m worried it might get hurt…” 

While Cheong waved his hands and stepped back, Zero couldn’t hide his admiration and approached. 

“How fascinating. To think the familiar’s true form was such a tiny animal.” 

Zero poked at Cloud’s fluffy fur while muttering. Cloud flapped its ears as if annoyed, then even clicked its teeth telling him to stop. I held Cloud again and said.

“Just in case… just in case, but if those guys attack targeting the constellation, we need to protect Cloud too. You understand, right?” 

“Yes, boss.” 

“Of course. Huhu. It seems cumbersome for us to carry, shall I give you a sling bag or something?” 

Zero pulled something bag-like from his inventory and handed it over. It would be better than not being able to use both arms from holding Cloud, but I couldn’t help being suspicious about why he carries around stuff like this. 

“…Uh, well. Thanks.” 

The soft bag that could be worn across the shoulder seemed flexible enough that Cloud wouldn’t be uncomfortable inside it. As I was helping Cloud settle in, cheers erupted from the front. Finally, the door to the 20th floor had opened. 

Inside the door, pitch-black darkness with swirling waves could be seen. Seong San-ha extended his hand to me. 

“Shall we go?” 

I snorted and stepped forward. Of course, since we didn’t know what dangers awaited us, it was natural to put Lim Dan in front.

As I passed through the flow of waves enveloping my entire body, a completely new space unfolded before my eyes. 

“Huh? This is it?” 

Throughout conquering the dungeon so far, I had wondered what kind of space the 20th floor would be. Mountains, plains… or perhaps some unique space I couldn’t even imagine. 

But the 20th floor we actually arrived at was… just a massive hall. 

The other hunters arriving one after another behind us also couldn’t hide their bewildered expressions. 

“What is this place? There are no monsters or items?” 

“Maybe it’s an intermediate point… Well, that works out anyway. We can just move to another floor.” 

The surprise was brief – dungeons without monsters are rare but not unheard of, so everyone familiarly began searching for the warp leading to the next floor. 

‘Of all things, why does the 20th floor have to be a dud? Now I have to check the next floor too.’ 

With only the desire to return quickly, I sat down on one side and looked around. 

The massive cavity, large enough to fit several soccer fields, had bizarre sculptures, incomprehensible ancient texts, and magic circles carved everywhere. Since it was still surrounded by rock walls, this place also seemed to be a dungeon connected to caves. 

One strange thing was that there was a large, tall altar in the center… 

Feeling someone tugging at me, I looked down to see Cloud biting the hem of my clothes. 

“Cloud, what’s wrong? Are you uncomfortable?” 

“Meeh…” 

At the weak cry, I looked at it worriedly, and Cloud struggled to get out of the soft bag. When I took it out and held it in my arms, Cloud finally calmed down, burrowing into my chest and closing its eyes. 

“Right, you must be tired too. Get some sleep.” 

I dangled my feet in the air and waited for someone to shout that they’d found a warp. 

With no obstacles or monsters, finding a warp should just be a matter of time. But one hour, three hours. Even after half a day passed, no one appeared claiming to have found a warp. 

It was strange that dozens of hunters had used every means possible – even the Nox Guild members had wandered around searching every nook and cranny of the 20th floor – yet failed to discover a warp. 

I had been resting on a makeshift cot in a temporary tent, but upon hearing that my return was delayed, I bolted upright and came outside. 

“You still haven’t found it? Could this possibly be the final floor?”

“That can’t be. No boss monster appeared, and we didn’t receive any rewards either. For the final stage of a stage-type dungeon, it’s too…” 

One of the Cheon Rang guys shook his head, not knowing what to do.

Since we had searched everywhere thoroughly, further investigation was meaningless. What remained were the altar and the ancient texts carved throughout the cave.

Seong San-ha was also watching the scholars and explorers who had come with him interpret the ancient texts near the altar. Feeling frustrated, I put Cloud in the bag, got up, and approached Seong San-ha.

“How is it? Any progress?”

“We’re looking into it.”

Seong San-ha shook his head and turned toward me with a chuckle.

“Sorry. You must want to go back quickly. It’s frustrating.”

“…Well, what can we do if there’s no warp.”

I grumbled and looked around at the scholars and explorers interpreting the text with magnifying glasses. Whether they were using skills or not, the letters under the explorer’s hand glowed faintly. Perhaps because of that, the letters that seemed to be moving felt familiar again. As I was pondering where exactly I had seen them before, a scholar from the opposite side came running with a paper.

“We’ve finished interpreting this line. Downfall, star. And one completed existence.”

“The downfall… of a star?”

“We’ve also finished interpreting the ancient texts on the northwest side. However, they’re all about curses, so whether they’re related to the warp…”

The content that the scholars brought after interpreting their respective assigned areas was all unsettling. Nothing but dense curses against humanity, downfall and destruction, regeneration and such. 

Especially with the frequently appearing words related to ‘star,’ I unconsciously hugged Cloud tightly, who was strapped to my side.

But then the explorer who had been using skills to read the altar below us suddenly stood up. As I tried to prevent Cloud from getting bumped and stumbled, Seong San-ha reached out and caught me.

“Whoa.”

“Sacrifice! It’s a sacrifice. It seems we need to offer something?”

At that moment, a golden quest window and system window appeared before my eyes simultaneously.

{ Main Quest } 

Will you send the star up?

Only then did I realize that the place I had hurriedly braced myself to avoid falling was the altar’s steps.