…
As Seoyeon and the others stepped out of the portal, they entered what seemed to be an overgrown facility in the middle of a rainforest.
A waterfall nearby echoed throughout the empty, eerie, open area of the facility. The facility had a modern and sleek design—like something from a sci-fi film.
…
The others moved through the open area of the facility, inspecting their surroundings—boxes and crates were littered all around, a mini-garden in the center of the open area had a large maple tree, scattering orange leaves all over the concrete tiles.
The lights lining the floor and walls flickered.
…
While the others walked with caution, Seoyeon stood still—remembering a memory.
His mind was racing with thoughts, but a single thought silenced the others…
"This is… The Marauder's Path Dungeon!"
…
[You have entered the dungeon:
However, only Seoyeon truly knew what this message meant.
A faint smile on his face told the whole story…
"This dungeon… Has something I need."
…
Seoyeon caught up to them and walked alongside Roderick.
Roderick glanced at him and cleared his throat,
"By the way, Seoyeon, when you were talking with the man earlier about Ambush Dungeons, it sounded like you were a veteran at this game?"
The conversation seemed to have attracted Gorou's attention as Seoyeon noticed his eyes glance over for a moment.
"Oh… No, I only heard it from forums while I was researching the game's mechanics before I actually started playing."
Seoyeon noticed that Gorou seemed to have been relieved by his words as the tension in the air suddenly went away.
Then,
*Gurgle*
Seoyeon's stomach growled, he then realized that ever since he was transported into this world, he hadn't eaten once. It was probably why he fell asleep so quickly in his apartment.
"Haha! Looks like you didn't eat breakfast? Here, have some of this."
Roderick manifested a cheeseburger from his inventory.
[
Figures and shapes whirled around his vision once more as interfaces showed details regarding his surroundings.
[Ultimate Chef's Masterful Cheeseburger (REPLICA)]
[D-Class Item]
[Description: A replica following the recipe of the Ultimate Chef, Gormat. It fully satiates the user's hunger when fully consumed.]
"It's a reward I got from a quest the party and I finished earlier before coming here." He said enthusiastically as he handed the item over to Seoyeon.
Seoyeon could smell the fragrant aroma of the cheeseburger wafting through the air, the melted cheese dripped down slightly, the patty was cooked to perfection, and the vegetables offered a healthy, nutritious balance to the smokey, grilled meat.
He ate the entire burger in four seconds which left Roderick speechless,
"I didn't know you were such a glutton…"
Seoyeon chuckled,
"I haven't eaten since I was transferred from Earth to here."
This news seemed to shock Roderick even more as his face screamed, "Huuuuh!?"
"Do you want more food?"
"Thank you, but don't worry, I'm fine—"
"Hold on, stop moving." Fritz suddenly interrupted, freezing in place as the party members soon did the same.
They heard leaves and grass rustling from a group of bushes nearby as Alice readied her staff.
Then, as the tension rose…
…
*Paka!*
A cute, fluffy, little leaf spirit made of plants, wood, and leaves emerged from the bushes, letting out a soft, cute, sound.
"Aaaawwww!" Both Roderick and Alice yelled in unison, Gorou let out a sigh of relief, Fritz let out a smile… However, Seoyeon's face was even more serious than before.
Gorou took notice of this and asked,
"Seoyeon, what's wrong?"
Seoyeon backed away, "Take that thing… And run!" He yelled out.
"H-huh?" Everyone asked.
Suddenly, the ground shook as they could hear loud stomping coming towards them.
*Uraaagh!* An orc wearing leather armor yelled out, wielding a giant mace.
"Run!" Gorou yelled out as they began following Seoyeon while Roderick carried the leaf spirit.
"What's going on?!" Alice asked,
"That leaf spirit is known as "Augheria," the orcs following us worship it! They think we're the ones who built this research facility—and trespassed on their territory within the forest!"
"W-wait! So if we drop this leaf spirit, then they'll stop chasing us?" Alice replied back, screaming out as she ran for her life with the orcs following closely behind.
"No! We need that thing to clear this dungeon!" Seoyeon yelled out.
Fritz exclaimed, "Forget about clearing the dungeon! We're going to die here!"
"Isn't that why we came here? To clear the dungeon?" Seoyeon replied.
Meanwhile, Gorou paused and turned around, assuming a combat stance with a smirk on his face.
"Seoyeon's right, we came here to clear the dungeon… And that's exactly what we're going to do!" He shouted.
Meanwhile, everyone's faces—excluding Seoyeon—were in shock at Gorou's confidence.
"We have no choice then!" Fritz yelled.
"Agh! You morons! …What would you do without me, hehe…" Alice said in a confident tone.
Roderick—who was holding Augheria the leaf spirit—paused in his tracks and brought out his shield and greatsword.
"Your guardian's here!"
Seoyeon smiled,
"This reminds me of the good old days…" He thought to himself, reminiscing on his dungeon raids with his friends back on Earth…
"Alright, let's do this." He brought out his dagger and readied his stance too alongside Gorou.
*Peko Peko!* Augheria cheered on.
"What's with the leaf spirit? Didn't you say it was worshipped by the orcs? Why is it cheering us on?!" Alice asked.
Seoyeon and the others dashed forwards towards the orc as Alice fired several fireballs at it.
"Augheria's still an infant leaf spirit! The objective of this dungeon is to mature it until it possesses the ability to calm the orcs down—
"How do we do that?!" Gorou yelled out whilst fighting the orc.
…
"I'll explain later!" Seoyeon shouted.
[
Then, several key critical points appeared on the orc.
Seoyeon dashed forwards past Gorou, climbing atop a crate and running on the wall.
He jumped from the wall—now above the orc—he struck the orc in the neck with his dagger as it bled out and collapsed to the ground.
*Thud*
Seoyeon turned around to face the team.
Gorou looked at him as he was now the most serious he had ever been.
For a brief moment, Gorou—as a level 16 player—felt visceral fear as he looked into Seoyeon's eyes.
…And for a split second, Gorou saw death.
"Seoyeon's eyes… His pupils were bright white for a moment… And his gaze felt like that of a monster." He thought to himself.
…
"He's a dangerous person. Only time will tell if he really is an ally…" Gorou remarked as Seoyeon seemed to let out a faint smirk.
…
"We need to hurry, we still have the previous team members that were left behind in this dungeon." Seoyeon said to the team.
"Mhm." Gorou shook off his unease and nodded.
"Let's split up, since Seoyeon seems to know the most about this place." Gorou ordered as the others nodded,
Seoyeon and Roderick left with Augheria to mature the young leaf spirit into an elder spirit…
While Gorou, Fritz, Alice started searching for the surviving previous team members.
"Gorou… You noticed it too, right?" Fritz asked, turning his head to face Gorou.
"Seoyeon's eye color… The visuals in his pupils… And the feeling that something isn't right…"
Alice asked, "What're you guys talking about? I didn't notice anything."
Gorou could only grit his teeth, "Let's just wait and see…"
…
Meanwhile, Roderick and Seoyeon ran as fast as they could,
"Do you see that?" Seoyeon said as he pointed to a bright, green ray of light piercing into the skies located in the center of a massive research complex.
"We need to get Augheria there in order to grow it into an elder spirit."
Roderick nodded, "Alright."
…
He turned to look at Seoyeon,
"By the way, Seoyeon, I've realized that… You're more serious than ever… You didn't act like this when we first met."
Seoyeon chuckled,
"Leave the jokes for the appropriate situations, this is an Ambush Dungeon, it's a serious situation…"
He turned to look at Roderick,
"So I'll get serious as well…"
Roderick nodded,
"Right. That makes sense…—"
Suddenly,
*Raagh!* An orc yelled out as it lunged at Seoyeon from behind him,
Roderick yelled,
"Look out!"
*Swish* The orc's head immediately came flying right off as blood splat all over the ground and on Seoyeon.
His dagger movement was so fast that Roderick couldn't even see it.
Roderick nervously smiled,
"Sometimes I can't tell if he's an ally or a threat… I'm glad he's on our team."
Then, the two heard a loud flurry of footsteps from behind them as a pack of orcs came chasing right after both Roderick and Seoyeon.
"Roderick, can I trust you to handle them? I'll take Augheria and head to the center on my own, I want you to buy me as much time as you can."
Roderick nodded,
"Go ahead." He said while smiling, as Augheria hopped off Roderick's shoulders and followed quickly behind Seoyeon.
"I'll hold them off."
Roderick pulled out his greatsword and faced the pack of orcs,
[
Several defense buff notifications surrounded him as he laughed, "All of this for me? It's just too easy!"
Several clean slashes cut right through the bodies of the orcs like a hot knife through butter as the orcs started falling one by one.
Seoyeon glanced back and smiled, before continuing to walk forwards.
…
"Thanks, Roderick. I'll make good use of the time you've bought for me."