Chapter 18
[SYSTEM] Item ‘Budget-Focused Set (C)’ acquired.
[SYSTEM] Item [Equipment Selection (1)] has been used up.
After forcibly sending Cha Si-hyeon away, I soon chose clothes from the [Equipment Selection].
[SYSTEM] Set item ‘Crisp White Shirt (F)’ equipped.
[SYSTEM] Set item ‘Just Comfortable Pants (F)’ equipped.
[SYSTEM] Set item ‘Bulletproof Vest (E)’ equipped.
The grade was so low that it barely qualified as a C-grade set when combined.
In fact, the equipment I checked in the [Equipment Selection] varied widely in both type and grade.
The highest was an S-grade necklace, but no matter how good S-grade equipment was, I needed to put together a set right now, so I had no choice.
‘I should be grateful even for C-grade.’
[SYSTEM] Set item ‘Black Leather Gloves (E)’ equipped.
Trying to soothe my bitter feelings, I finished equipping the gloves.
After flexing my hands a few times to get used to the slightly stiff gloves, I looked up into empty space.
[SYSTEM] Would you like to check your inventory? (Y/N)
I pressed ‘Y’ without hesitation. I was curious about the ‘item from the monster’ that the second system had mentioned.
What appeared next was…
[SYSTEM] Checking inventory.
1. Dead Gentleman’s Cherished Gun (E)
2. White Moon Sword (SSS)
Two items.
One was very familiar.
It was the gun I’d been holding since my first day in the dungeon.
But the second bore a name and grade I’d never seen before, enshrined in my inventory.
‘Three S’s…?’
No matter how much I rubbed my eyes or pinched my cheeks, nothing changed.
What snapped me out of my open-mouthed daze wasn’t the system or Cha Si-hyeon.
“I found something like a door over there.”
A voice from beyond the cave entrance. It was Baek Doha’s voice.
‘Didn’t Cha Si-hyeon say he went out to look around? Is he back now?’
From Baek Doha or Lim Yuchan’s perspective, I had gone out briefly and returned half-dead, so I couldn’t imagine how surprised they must have been.
I glanced at the system interface I hadn’t finished checking and hurriedly put on the last set item, the boots.
[SYSTEM] Set item ‘Surprisingly Sturdy Boots (E)’ equipped.
[SYSTEM] All set items equipped.
[SYSTEM] Set effect activated! Defense +10% increase
“It doesn’t look like an ordinary door.”
But what did this mean?
“A door?”
A door in the cave?
I was about to greet them but asked in surprise, and all three people’s attention turned to me at once.
Baek Doha’s eyes, which met mine, slowly widened.
“You…”
It was a strange look mixed with bewilderment and relief.
Feeling awkward under that gaze, I just stood there silently. Then Lim Yuchan’s displeased voice broke the silence.
“If you were awake, why didn’t you say anything earlier, Cha Si-hyeon?”
“The boss started talking about finding something as soon as he came in. There was no chance to speak.”
He put on a falsely aggrieved expression, but neither Baek Doha nor Lim Yuchan were interested in that.
“How are you feeling?”
Lim Yuchan asked with his consistently indifferent expression.
“Completely fine.”
After all that struggle in the sub-quest, it would be strange if I weren’t fine. I grinned, and Lim Yuchan sighed.
“Don’t smile.”
“Hm, afraid you’ll get attached?”
“I don’t even know where to start getting angry.”
But in the end, a faint smile spread across his face. He’s pretty good at playing along with jokes. Still, I didn’t tease him further since I knew I had done something wrong.
Instead, I was about to thank Baek Doha when he turned his back.
“Uh…”
Before I could even question the cold expression I glimpsed, he started walking out of the cave.
“Hey, where are you going?”
“I’ll look around outside for a bit.”
“After just coming back?”
Baek Doha said nothing to Cha Si-hyeon’s incredulous question.
‘What’s this?’
Is he just leaving like that? I belatedly tried to stop him, but Baek Doha had already disappeared.
Staring blankly at the empty cave entrance, I finally managed to speak.
“…Did I do something wrong?”
“If I knew that, would I be standing here like this?”
A rebuttal came immediately.
💎
We waited a long time for Baek Doha, who had gone outside the cave, but he didn’t return.
Even as the clouds above the cave moved, Lim Yuchan heard from Cha Si-hyeon about how I woke up, and they grilled the meat they had caught.
As I kept glancing outside while chewing the meat, Cha Si-hyeon, unable to bear it anymore, finally spoke to me.
“Hey, Baek Doha is always like this sometimes, so don’t worry about it.”
“……”
“I’m telling you, it’s true.”
When I looked at him skeptically, he opened his mouth to speak but then sighed.
I looked at the spot where Baek Doha had left for a moment, then turned my gaze to Lim Yuchan.
“Didn’t you say you found a door?”
Knowing it was impossible to chase after Baek Doha right now, I decided to hear the information I wanted first.
“If you go a bit further into the forest and reach the swamp, there’s a door. Everything behind that door is blocked by a barrier.”
I couldn’t help but be surprised by his words. It seems the efforts of Baek Doha, Lim Yuchan, and Cha Si-hyeon taking turns to scout the surroundings weren’t in vain.
“There was a message saying it could be opened with an entry key.”
“An entry key?”
I unconsciously frowned at his additional comment.
‘Not an exit, but an entry…?’
It was a bit strange. I had thought that if there was a door in this dungeon, it would naturally be an exit.
After pondering silently for a while, I finally spoke up.
“Maybe if I go and see—”
“No.”
“Are you crazy?”
The rejection came before I could even finish speaking.
What… I blinked at their strong opposition and said,
“Thanks to that potion, I’m fine now. It was an S-grade potion, after all.”
“You were still bedridden for two full days even after using that S-grade potion.”
“……”
“We don’t usually describe someone who coughs up blood as soon as they wake up as ‘fine’.”
…… I was momentarily at a loss for words. It was a bit frustrating, but not incomprehensible.
If I were in their shoes, I’d probably try to stop someone weak who was trying to act tough too.
“Blood? What’s that about?”
“It was just a cough because I wasn’t feeling well at first.”
It’s not like I lost a bucketful of blood. I said defensively, and Lim Yuchan frowned.
Why, what. As I averted my gaze slightly, Lim Yuchan looked at Cha Si-hyeon.
“Why didn’t you tell me about this earlier?”
“I was out of it too, you know.”
“You want me to really make you out of it?”
“Wow, you didn’t even give me a chance to speak in the first place, and now…”
As always, I withdrew from their bickering conversation and rubbed my face.
‘Yeah, I’d probably try to stop me too…’
But I had a reason why I needed to act out, even knowing this.
‘Should I sneak out at dawn and come back?’
[SYSTEM] Main Quest-7 [Guard the Dawn (2)]
▸ 05:10:27 until start
If only to clear the quest.
💎
That night.
[Unique skill ‘Stealth (B)’ is activated.]
I successfully snuck out of the cave using ‘What’s Yours is Mine (S)’. By the way, the stealth skill was from the monster that almost killed me in the fifth quest.
[SYSTEM] Main Quest-7 [Guard the Dawn (2)]
▸ 00:05:31 until start
‘Five minutes left.’
I looked around and moved to the back of the cave.
Since the sensitive S-grades might notice I’m gone and look for me, I needed to stay as close to the cave as possible while being in a place where sound wouldn’t echo much to avoid being discovered fighting monsters.
Actually, I wanted to go straight to the door Lim Yuchan had mentioned, but feeling guilty about my actions, I decided to just handle the quest for tonight.
Of course, there was something I needed to do before the quest.
[SYSTEM] You have taken out ‘White Moon Sword (SSS)’ from your inventory.
The SSS-grade sword I couldn’t check earlier.
I still couldn’t believe it had three S’s attached to it, but the sword came out of the inventory just as it was, as if to prove it wasn’t a lie.
[SYSTEM] Checking information for item ‘White Moon Sword (SSS).’
[White Moon Sword (SSS)]
▸ A sword that appeared when the white moon rose.
After reading the ridiculously brief description for an S-grade item, I swung the sword casually.
[SYSTEM] Set item ‘Black Leather Gloves (E)’ activates its attribute effect!
▸ Attribute: <With This, Even I’m a Genius?>
Any tool held in the gloved hand becomes easy to handle. Be it a hammer, a sword, or anything else.
Whoosh—!
The sound of naturally cutting through the air filled me with a strange sense of satisfaction.
To think I’d get something like this.
Thanks to the glove’s attribute, the sword clung well to my hand despite being unfamiliar.
After clenching and unclenching my hand, I looked up.
[SYSTEM] Main Quest-7 [Guard the Dawn (2)]
▸ 00:01:57 until start
The countdown, decreasing with each passing moment, was vivid.
▸ 00:01:00 until start
The moonlight reflected off the sword in my hand, making it sparkle. The moonlight tonight seemed particularly bright. I looked up at the night sky and gripped the sword tightly.
‘It might be something other than that creepy snake monster from last time.’
I couldn’t know what would appear. But the important thing was,
▸ 00:00:03 until start
▸ 00:00:02 until start
▸ 00:00:01 until start
That I felt quite confident regardless of what might come.
[SYSTEM] ‘Main Quest-7’ has arrived!
“Check main quest.”
[SYSTEM] Main Quest-7 [Guard the Dawn (2)]
▸Guard the dawn this time too! Let’s survive the monsters that have appeared looking for prey.
▸Time limit: 2 hours
▸Reward: None
▸Failure: Death
Dawn had begun.
💎
Thank you for reading! ♡
