S-Classes That I Raised to Devour - Chapter 38

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 38. Dungeon Drop (3)
Kim Yeo-ul and Lee Min-ji felt relieved. Bae Ji-ta wasn’t a close friend, but they knew him.
He was a certified Hunter and a classmate from their group training camp—not a Villain, but someone trustworthy.
“People in the cave, I’m Bae Ji-ta, a certified Hunter. There are other survivors about twenty minutes from here. Let’s find the exit together!”
Bae Ji-ta called out from a reasonable distance.
Hope colored Kim Yeo-ul and Lee Min-ji’s faces. More survivors meant better odds of escape.
But Chae Mujin pushed the two women behind him and shouted back at Bae Ji-ta.
“Come closer. I can’t see your face well.”
“By that logic, you should step out of the shadows too. I can’t see your face either.”
At his words, Lee Min-ji emerged from the cave’s darkness and revealed her face.
“I’m out.”
“That voice—is it Min-ji? Min-ji?”
“Yes, it’s me. Yeo-ul is here with me too.”
“Heavens… Were you both at the Hwarang Hotel? Who was it I spoke with?”
“A youngish-looking man.”
“I see?”
“Anyway, he’s trustworthy. So…”
Lee Min-ji glanced at Chae Mujin, and he gestured toward the depths of the cave.
“Let’s talk in here. You don’t want to stay out in that blizzard anyway, do you?”
“Then I’ll trust you both and come inside.”
When Bae Ji-ta entered the cave, he wore thick furs that matched the Yeti Leather Boots Kim Yeo-ul had on. It was a Yeti Leather Cloak—wrapping the entire body in warmth. Even in this bitter cold, his skin remained unscathed.
“Where did you get the Yeti cloak?”
Chae Mujin asked that first.
“I was lucky enough to catch a Yeti and obtain it.”
“You don’t look malnourished. Where did you get food?”
“Since you seem suspicious, I’ll explain from the start. My nine classmates and I headed to the Hwarang Hotel’s buffet after our group training camp ended. We wanted to celebrate.”
Bae Ji-ta glanced sideways at Lee Min-ji and Kim Yeo-ul.
“I wanted to invite you both, but it didn’t work out. I didn’t know you were at the same hotel.”
“Just continue.”
“Right. My classmates and I were eating at the buffet when I felt the signs of a Dungeon Drop. I quickly told them to grab snacks and bottled drinks.”
“How many other survivors and who are they?”
“Besides me, four people. Two are classmates who came with me, and the other two are Guild Hunters staying at the Hwarang Hotel.”
Chae Mujin and Bae Ji-ta’s gazes locked in mid-air. It was a sharp look searching for gaps and signs of lies in the conversation, and Bae Ji-ta met it head-on.
“I’ve finished my story, so why don’t you tell us? Why were you at the Hwarang Hotel? We haven’t even heard your name.”
“Han Yeoreum.”
When a name different from Chae Mujin came out, Kim Yeo-ul and Lee Min-ji flinched, but they were in his blind spot, so their expressions weren’t exposed.
“That sounds like a woman’s name.”
“I hear that often. The stress is unbearable. If it weren’t for the name my late parents gave me, I’d have changed it for sure.”
“I see. So how did you come to be here?”
Chae Mujin lied only about the name; the rest he told truthfully.
He said he’d been invited by Cheon I-hwa and climbed up from the base of the mountain.
He told them everything about the corpse deeper in the cave.
“A Villain in a Dungeon Drop… What misfortune, right after graduation.”
“If we’ve cleared up the misunderstanding, we should join forces and move together.”
“Agreed. Let’s go—just twenty minutes on foot from here.”
“Before we leave, let me check the body one more time.”
Chae Mujin didn’t go alone. He gestured for Kim Yeo-ul and Lee Min-ji to follow. Once they’d gone deeper into the cave again,
“I’m going to create a Dark Code, so remember it well.”
The two women, who thought they were really coming to examine the body, looked confused for a moment, then caught on and nodded.
“Head means attack, chest means alert, arms mean defense, legs mean retreat. Use call and response to confirm.”
“What’s call and response?”
“Repeat what I say. It confirms you understand and locks it into your mind at the same time.”
The two women repeated everything in call and response without a single error.
“Sir, you suspect Bae Ji-ta is a Villain, don’t you?”
“No.”
“Then why are you on guard?”
“Too many coincidences stacked up.”
“…?”
“By coincidence, he was your classmate, he knew about the rare Dungeon Drop phenomenon, and we met him here. That combination is strange.”
“I don’t fully understand, but you’re saying we should suspect Bae Ji-ta, right?”
“Only in your hearts. Don’t act on it. You two just focus on surviving.”
Bae Ji-ta would eventually realize he was being suspected. But it didn’t matter.
In any case, inside this dungeon, everyone except his own team was a potential enemy.
* * *
Following Bae Ji-ta, his group huddled together in the cave.
Kim Yeo-ul could see what filled their minds: the look of those who’d lost all hope, gradually accepting a desperate imagination as reality.
Naturally, there was no welcoming greeting.
“We’re not sharing our food.”
“You said there might be a Villain? Then shouldn’t we stay apart for safety?”
Chae Mujin shot back at their sharp tone.
“We group up because of the Villain. That way they can’t act freely. If one of us disappears, it’s as good as confirming they’re the Villain.”
The Hunter who’d lost the argument fell silent, and only Bae Ji-ta and Chae Mujin, the most level-headed of the group, took the lead in planning.
“We could wait for the blizzard to stop, but my hunch is that this place is always being battered by it.”
“I agree. We have no choice but to climb, dangers and all.”
“Was there nothing below?”
“No idea. All I know is there wasn’t even a cave down there.”
“Climbing makes sense. But Yetis appear frequently around here… What’s your level?”
“Level 98. We’ve already killed seven Yetis.”
“Seven? Yetis should be around level 200… That’s impressive.”
“I didn’t do it alone. These two did most of it.”
Bae Ji-ta followed Chae Mujin’s gesture and met eyes with Kim Yeo-ul and Lee Min-ji.
“I thought both of you were under level 50…”
“Low level doesn’t mean no damage gets through.”
“I see. Then… shall we move? Maybe it’s just me, but the blizzard seems to be letting up.”
“That’s just your imagination.”
Before leaving the cave, Chae Mujin personally designated the marching order.
“Bae Ji-ta and I will lead—we handle cold well. The rest of you pair up and follow. Kim Yeo-ul and Lee Min-ji, you’re at the very rear.”
If they moved in a single line, front and back were most dangerous. No one objected since Chae Mujin’s group was handling that themselves.
“And Yeo-ul.”
“Yes?”
“Is your chest injury all right?”
The group following behind dismissed it as ‘—there was an injured person?’—but Kim Yeo-ul immediately grasped his meaning.
“Yes, it’s healed.”
Chest meant alert—keep watch on the four people in the middle. The message was unmistakable.
“Min-ji, your arm was numb, remember? Are you better?”
“Yes, no problem.”
“Then let’s move out.”
Arms meant defense—if trouble came, don’t attack, defend instead. The signal was conveyed.
The escape expedition formed this way and headed for the mountaintop.
The dread of Yetis appearing, the bitter cold, the snow sinking beneath their feet, the unknown terror of not knowing how much longer they’d walk—none of it became familiar even from experiencing it once.
But change came faster than expected.
“The blizzard seems to be easing. Is this another illusion?”
“No. The blizzard is really letting up.”
Once the blizzard began to weaken, it vanished in an instant, and the obscured vision opened up.
What appeared was an endless snowfield stretching to the horizon.
Yet it wasn’t completely empty. There was a cave that looked like a monster’s gaping maw—ten times larger than the one Chae Mujin’s group had used.
With nowhere else to go, the expedition headed toward the cave, and as they drew closer, everyone began to see something.
“I see a flag!”
A Red Flag hung from the tooth-like formation at the mouth of the monster-maw cave, fluttering in the wind.
“It’s people—there are people there!”
“A rescue team must be waiting for us!”
Bae Ji-ta’s impatient group began to run.
“Stand back. You cannot enter until your identities are verified.”
The cave entrance was blocked by four people dressed in business suits—all large, imposing men.
Bodyguards from the Hwarang Hotel’s lounge.
One of them recognized Chae Mujin’s group. Among these people, Chae Mujin especially was impossible not to recognize.
“Chae Mujin, sir, you’re alive. Thank goodness. And thank you. Without your Buff, all six of us would be dead.”
The bodyguards immediately let Chae Mujin’s group into the cave.
They allowed Bae Ji-ta’s group in too, but kept them isolated.
“What happened?”
“Six of us, including myself, were fortunate enough to drop near here. We explored the cave and encountered Yetis coming from deeper inside, but thanks to your Buff, we could win.”
“What about the other two?”
“They didn’t realize the Buff’s duration had ended and kept fighting…”
The bodyguard didn’t finish the sentence. He didn’t need to.
Chae Mujin nodded in sympathy and immediately asked what he was curious about.
“What about I-hwa?”
“Sir?”
“Cheon I-hwa.”
If anyone else had asked, they wouldn’t have answered. Cheon I-hwa was their leader and superior, whom they had to protect.
But Chae Mujin was their lifesaver. The bodyguard told him everything he knew.
“Miss Cheon I-hwa went deeper into the cave a while ago.”
They’d found an exit deeper in the cave, he said.
“However, the cave is labyrinthine and the exit is one-time use. We’re sending the seriously injured Hunters first, then the lower-level Hunters.”
“That’s good news. Didn’t I-hwa say anything?”
“Did you meet her at the base of the mountain?”
“I saw a guard who was with Cheon I-hwa in the cave. He was dead. Human work.”
“…A Villain?”
“There seemed to be quite a lot of people. How many are there?”
This Dungeon Drop’s range covered the entire Hwarang Hotel.
But only Hunters could enter the dungeon. While Hunters weren’t rare, there weren’t enough of them lying about in the streets either.
“Thirty-two in total. Ten of them, including Miss Cheon, entered to clear the dungeon, so twenty-two are here. Among those, twenty have confirmed identities.”
True to a bodyguard who served Cheon I-hwa, his memory was sharp.
“How many people came up from below? Including those who entered the dungeon?”
“Eight people. But they all went through identity verification, so…”
“The guards I saw in the cave showed no signs of resistance. That’s one of two things: either the Villain has a Disguise Skill, or the person with confirmed identity is the culprit.”
“If the Villain has a Disguise Skill, then we can’t trust any of those eight who came from below.”
“Including me?”
“Ha, if you were the Villain, you wouldn’t be asking about two of our six.”
The guard spoke with absolute conviction.
A Villain could pretend to be good, but there was one thing that disguise alone could never fabricate: sacrifice.
Kim Yeo-ul and Lee Min-ji wore the thickest clothes, and Chae Mujin was dressed in business attire.
The fact that they’d traveled that way for hours wasn’t hard to see.
Could a Villain understand sacrifice? They might pretend to, but true sacrifice was only possible for a hero.
“Since you trust me, will you share the Cave Map?”
“Follow me.”
Cheon I-hwa had strongly urged before leaving: never show the Cave Map to just anyone. Chae Mujin wasn’t among that “anyone.”
“The square marks where we found the exit, and the triangles are where we encountered Yetis. Miss Cheon went this way, with three others, down the longest passage.”
“What’s the X mark?”
Right beside a stretch of continuous passages was a small dead-end space, and for some reason, Chae Mujin’s attention was drawn to it.
“That’s a place Miss Cheon discovered, but she said absolutely don’t go there.”
“She didn’t explain what it is?”
“She didn’t seem to understand it herself. But she was certain of one thing: entering that place would be irreversible.”
The explanation was vague, but that very vagueness let him understand what Cheon I-hwa had discovered.
‘This impossible coincidence. I was already dealing with a Dungeon Drop, and now this is here too?’
Only a handful of people in the entire world knew about it. The phenomenon was that rare, and few had experienced it and lived to tell the tale.
Its official name was “Deep Dive.” What Cheon I-hwa had discovered was an entrance to a dungeon within a dungeon.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————