Was Happy Being a Despised F-Rank Healer, You Know? - Chapter 197

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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19. And the Windmill Turned (15)

The Principal stood in his office, a dignified figure who resembled a well-to-do grandfather from the neighborhood, his face creased with worry as he surveyed the academy grounds.
The information flowing to him through the teachers was troubling.
Terrorism? A dungeon explosion within a dungeon?
That alone was not the source of his concern, though such things were certainly part of it.
“The currents are running strange,” he murmured.
By his age, a Hunter accumulated not just experience in the field but wisdom in the ways of the world itself.
The group hidden within the festival was no gathering of ordinary humans. The scent of dungeons clung to them.
Like those who had been so thoroughly corrupted in the dark dungeons that they had become indistinguishable from monsters.
“…But they bore no stigma,” he said quietly.
Seated in his private chair, he drummed his fingers against the armrest, his brow furrowing deeper.
That peculiar group had been tracked by the first-year students of Class 8, he’d been told.
He’d felt some relief upon hearing they were returning safely, yet what the students had managed to uncover was frustratingly sparse.
Still, it was enough to call forth the most disturbing memory of his long career.
Purple Mana.
A grotesque being with a monster fused into its very body.
A skill that slipped into impossible places like a ghost.
…And a dungeon explosion.
He had experienced a similar chain of events before—twice.
And both times had been fifty years ago.
“…The Annihilation….”
He spoke of the Annihilation Dungeon, not the one Class 8 had been involved with, but the one that had been dealt with by those dispatched from Narin Academy beforehand.
Some of those who had fought there together suffered irreversible injuries in the second Annihilation Dungeon.
Wounds that left no outward mark, yet could never—by any means—be undone.
…They were beings who stole Mana itself—the very lifeblood of every Hunter.
‘And they are connected to the Annihilation Dungeon in some form.’
Korea’s Awakened Management Center had been corrupt for longer than anyone cared to remember, yet solid guilds and reformist forces still held enough power to keep the nation functioning.
If the Center’s corruption crossed a certain line in this situation, it would spell disaster.
Embezzlement could be handled at the national level, but if they were conspiring with forces plotting annihilation….
-“Principal. We’ve finished questioning Isang Hee. It appears several other students assisted her. We’re finding more.”
“Investigate them all.”
-“Yes, sir.”
Had she been an adult Hunter, death would not have been inappropriate for such crimes.
Collusion with the enemy? More than that—anyone who remembered what happened fifty years ago would have wanted her dead.
It was an act of selling one world to another.
It meant, quite simply, the annihilation of this world.
Even if done unknowingly, once entangled with such forces, nine times out of ten a person became their puppet forever after.
She was a minor; he was merely giving her a chance.
Those who had assisted her would face punishment according to the severity of their crimes.
That was not something the Principal himself needed to oversee.
The Principal let out a soft hum and turned his attention to other information trickling in.
What truly concerned him was the Annihilation Dungeon, but he had no further intelligence on that front for now.
He could obtain more if he pressed, but he’d already entrusted Class 8 to Choi Ji-hyeong.
-“All students have been evacuated from the dungeon!”
-“Several of our outside guests who are Hunters wish to remain. What should we do?”
“Allow them to stay, but ask them to follow the teachers’ directions. Independent action could prove counterproductive.”
-“Understood.”
Inside the Festival Dungeon there had been momentary chaos, but with the students and elderly evacuated, damage was minimal.
The outside guests who’d participated were unusually distinguished this year, so danger to them was unlikely.
That much, at least, was a mercy.
A drop in the school’s reputation was the least of his concerns.
The real problem was that the dungeon break had not yet been contained.
‘It’s taking an oddly long time,’ he thought.
Byeolak had dispatched an A-rank.
The Eden Guild had sent its renowned sub-guild leader.
Beyond that, there were formidable Hunters aplenty, and the teachers—they were nothing short of elite.
‘So why?’
A dungeon in Sinmyeong should be D-rank or lower at most, yet something felt uncomfortably resistant.
‘Could it be that more than one broke?’
Barely had the thought crossed his mind when a crackling static interrupted—Choi Ji-hyeong’s cold voice came through.
-“Principal. We’ve found traces of dozens of dungeons rupturing in succession. Moreover, Rank Fluctuation has occurred.”
“A familiar pattern,” the Principal replied evenly.
It happened often when Class 8’s students entered a dungeon.
Yet Class 8 wasn’t even in Sinmyeong now—and still the lowest-tier dungeons were rupturing as if staging a collective revolt.
Triggering Rank Fluctuation as they did.
“Any S-ranks?”
-“Not yet.”
-“Principal, we’re seeing an A-rank now~!”
The cheerfully caustic voice of Hong So-yeong cut through, and the Principal’s expression darkened further.
An A-rank, no less.
From dungeons that were at most D-rank in size?
It was more hypothesis than certainty, but dungeons undergoing Rank Fluctuation shared one trait.
They possessed abundant Mana relative to their dungeon structure.
Regardless of their birth rank, dungeons that experienced Rank Fluctuation were not weak—they did not form, dissipate, and reform naturally like these had.
A properly established and opened dungeon was one prepared to hunt living creatures as standard.
It sounds crude to phrase it so, but without that fundamental capability, a special Mana runaway phenomenon like Rank Fluctuation simply could not occur.
“But how could that—”
-“The monsters seemed odd last time, didn’t they? Now I think they were actually fleeing.”
“Fleeing? What do you mean?”
-“They were consumed. By the dungeon.”
In that instant, a memory flickered across the Principal’s vision—a scene from the day they’d cleared the Annihilation Dungeon.
A native dungeon devoured whole by an Otherworldly Dungeon—consumed literally.
It had happened so silently that unless one had happened to witness it directly, it would have gone unnoticed even if it occurred at one’s feet.
Yet while few saw the consumption itself, everyone present felt the aftermath.
‘Strangely, the Otherworldly Dungeon that swallowed that native dungeon experienced a leap in power.’
And then it became the Annihilation.
“-Immediately.”
The Principal’s command came on pure instinct.
“Evacuate everyone from there at once.”
-“Yes?”
“Right now! While the Dokkaebi Lanterns still hold!”
Another report reached his ears just then.
-“…Principal, the entrance is shrinking.”
The Principal immediately relayed instructions so that all within the Sinmyeong Dungeon could hear.
“Sinmyeong is hereby sealed off, effective immediately. All Hunters present are requested to exit through the entrance at once. If any of you carry Return Items, now would be the time to use them.”
His authority held even with the most renowned Hunters—more so than any teacher’s words.
People instantly abandoned the rupturing dungeons around them and began moving toward the exit.
When the Principal of Narin Academy spoke with such urgency, swift compliance was advisable.
It did not take long for ninety percent of them to escape.
Among those who remained to the end, shepherding others out, were Choi Ji-hyeong, Hong So-yeong, and a handful of teachers.
And as those who’d stayed behind attempted to slip through the entrance—
Dong… Dung… Duuung….
A deep, resonant bell toll began to sound from nowhere.
“Ugh…”
“Hak—cough, cough—”
“…Ough…”
With each toll, those inside the dungeon crumpled like autumn leaves.
As if a colossal bell rang from beside their hearts, the balance of body and spirit shattered with each peal, utterly helpless against it.
And then, a lantern’s flicker—the Dokkaebi Lanterns hanging along the Forest Path, through which one had to pass to reach the festival, began to waver and shake perilously.
“Once more, all Hunters are instructed to evac—…—ate…—the end—”
The Principal’s voice cut off with a thud, buried beneath the tolling bells, leaving only silence.
The door to the Sinmyeong Dungeon sealed shut.
…….
……Click.
“What… what is this?”
“The door… is it locked with a lock?”
“What’s happening? What’s going on here?”
A lock hung upon the pitch-black door of the underworld.
Those who had escaped stood frozen before that entrance, their faces ashen, unable to tear themselves away.
The lock took the form of a bell—narrow at the top, bulging wider toward the bottom like an urn.
There appeared to be no slot for any key.

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