# 020. Long Live the King (4)
“E-earthquake!”
“That’s impossible! What… earthquake in a dungeon…!”
“I thought this dungeon was fully conquered? Why, w-what is this…! W-wait…!”
The peaceful dungeon instantly turned into chaos. People who had been relaxed as if on a picnic suddenly jumped around like a swarm of locusts at harvest time. The one fortunate thing was that since they were all Awakened Ones, no one was seriously injured yet. But they couldn’t keep jumping around forever.
That’s when Jeongwoo grabbed Jaehee’s arm.
“Jaehee, this way!”
“Huh? Jeongwoo?”
Although Jaehee had grown considerably stronger since awakening, he was no match for Jeongwoo. Jaehee was easily pulled along, almost as if he was being sucked into Jeongwoo’s arms. For a moment, Jeongwoo’s scent rushed into his nostrils. Jeongwoo held Jaehee with one arm and grabbed an extended tree branch with his other hand. It was such a stable posture that it was hard to believe he was carrying a full-grown man.
The tree Jeongwoo grabbed appeared to have a circumference of about two or three adult men, and its branches were also thick and sturdy, not budging under the weight of the two.
“Up, climb up! Hurry!”
Jaehee, who had been dangling from Jeongwoo’s grip, finally came to his senses and grabbed the branch above. Once he had a grip with his hands, climbing up wasn’t difficult. Jaehee stepped on the shoulder Jeongwoo offered and climbed onto the branch. Jeongwoo quickly followed.
Once they escaped from the nauseously shaking ground, they could catch their breath. If this had been a real earthquake, being in a tree wouldn’t be safe, but strangely, there was no shaking at all in the tree.
“Are you okay?”
From behind, Jeongwoo reached out and gently brushed Jaehee’s hair. That guy would sometimes casually initiate physical contact without any hesitation, often catching people off guard.
“There were leaves stuck in your hair…”
At the slow and casual voice, Jaehee felt a bit deflated.
Well, when had that guy ever been surprised by something like this?
“What’s going on? This isn’t an earthquake, is it? If it were an earthquake, being in a tree wouldn’t be this peaceful.”
“Yeah. Sharp observation, our Jaehee. Rather than an earthquake, there’s something moving under the ground. Seems like it senses vibrations, which is why I thought we should climb up. If it were an earthquake, this side would be shaking too, right?”
“Yeah? What, what could it be? But they said this was a completely conquered dungeon. That’s why it’s safe… Plus, isn’t this a safe zone?”
“I don’t know. Maybe we thought it was conquered, but it actually wasn’t, or maybe it somehow reactivated for some reason, or perhaps they deliberately hid something…”
Unlike Jeongwoo and Jaehee, who had found stability in the tree, others were still screaming and running around. Watching Kang Min-gyu run was almost tempting enough to keep observing rather than helping right away. Despite all his boasting, his screaming was no different from the others. Jaehee had known from the start that Kang Min-gyu was all bluster, but he hadn’t expected him to be this pathetic. The sight of him pushing aside even his junior Yang Jeong-il while fleeing was truly a sight to behold.
The surprising one was Ju Se-rin. Instead of screaming, she was moving nimbly. Even at a glance, her movements were extraordinary. Among all the Awakened Ones currently fleeing, her movements were the smoothest. It was puzzling why someone with such abilities had been listening to Kang Min-gyu all this time.
“Hmm?”
Just then, Jaehee felt as if he had made eye contact with Ju Se-rin. But the distance between her and the tree was considerable, and the tree was full of leaves, making it unlikely that Se-rin had seen him. Yet suddenly, Se-rin changed her running direction.
Changing direction while running at such speed wasn’t easy, but Se-rin’s movement was seamlessly smooth without any wasted motion. Jaehee wondered if she had actually seen him and Jeongwoo from that distance.
…Did she really see me and Jeongwoo? From that far away?
Se-rin ran toward the forest, completely different from the direction she had been running, and then jumped onto a tree. Her movements were like those of a gymnast.
“What’s with her…?”
“I know. That woman seems to be hiding a lot.”
At that moment, he made eye contact with Se-rin. This time, it was certain they had made eye contact because Se-rin smiled brightly at Jaehee. In Jaehee’s mind, Ju Se-rin’s image changed from a pitiful woman being harassed by Kang Min-gyu because of her pretty face to a suspicious woman hiding her true nature.
Starting with Se-rin, the more perceptive ones began climbing up to higher places one by one. The first was the tattooed man who had complained to the instructor. He climbed onto a wide rock with a woman who appeared to be his partner. Seeing this, others began looking for higher ground one by one.
“What? What? Do we need to get to higher ground? Hey, someone give me a hand!”
Kang Min-gyu finally started shouting after seeing others climb up. Jaehee clicked his tongue while watching him. Kang Min-gyu had claimed to be a sports university student who had won national competitions, but for some reason, his movements were much slower than other Awakened Ones. Unable to climb the rock by himself, he shouted at others who had already climbed up to give him a hand. When the tattooed man frowned and didn’t respond, Kang Min-gyu yelled loudly and clung to the rock.
When everyone had climbed up and no one was standing on the ground anymore, the turbulent earth suddenly calmed down.
“W-what is this…?”
“It doesn’t seem like an earthquake, right? T-this, is there something under the ground?”
“Yah, don’t say things like that! It’s creepy. What do you mean there’s something there? This is a fully conquered dungeon.”
“Then why would there be an earthquake in a dungeon? And what kind of earthquake stops when people aren’t on the ground?”
“I-it must be a coincidence! But where’s the instructor? If something like this happens in a practice dungeon, shouldn’t the instructor take responsibility? S-shouldn’t he protect us?”
People started talking about various things and eventually began cursing the instructor and the Management Bureau. Although they had become stronger and gained abilities through awakening, they were just ordinary people until two months ago. The ground shaking and splitting was far more terrifying than one might think. When faced with an incomprehensible situation, they sought someone to protect them and someone to blame, rather than remembering they were Awakened Ones.
“Ugh, c-can we go down now?”
As Kang Min-gyu, who was precariously clinging to the rock, tried to carefully lower his leg, a stone flew from somewhere. The moment the stone hit the ground in front of Kang Min-gyu, something huge shot up from beneath the earth.
“A-aaaaaahhhhh!”
Kang Min-gyu climbed onto the rock with a scream. It was hard to believe it was the same person who had claimed he couldn’t move just moments ago.
People could now finally see what had been causing the earthquake from beneath the ground. It resembled a giant snake. At the end of its long body, there was something like a round cave, which, when fully opened, seemed large enough to swallow a whole tree. It was incomprehensible how such a creature could move underground.
“W-who was it! Who threw that stone! I-I’ll kill you!”
The terrified Kang Min-gyu instantly crawled up to where the tattooed man was. Regardless of the tattooed man’s frown, Kang Min-gyu grabbed him and shouted loudly.
In a way, it was quite brave. To shout like that with an unknown monster opening its mouth below. It was clear that the monster couldn’t hear sounds, as it was evident from the fact that it didn’t devour the loudly shouting Kang Min-gyu.
“By the way, why did you join the same group as that guy? Ugh, I seriously thought I was going to get sick.”
“He said he was a king. No one else has revealed themselves as a king yet, so I was curious when he said it so openly. And isn’t it interesting to be around him?”
“What? Interesting? You find that entertaining?”
“Let’s see how things go from here. Jaehee, have you received any missions or anything?”
“Huh? Missions? Mmm… nothing special yet.”
“Good. Then it seems we don’t necessarily need to defeat that thing. For now, as long as our feet don’t touch the ground, we should be fine. We can’t stay here forever, so let’s try to move.”
“What? Move? Where to?”
Jeongwoo stood up on the branch, looked around, and then pointed in one direction.
“I think the safe zones in the dungeon might change with time. Since the area the instructor initially called dangerous is now likely to be a safe zone, I’m thinking of heading that way. I’m not sure if the Management Bureau knew about this and deliberately didn’t tell us, or if they genuinely didn’t know.”
“Huh? Why would the Management Bureau do such a thing?”
Jeongwoo smirked at Jaehee’s words.
“The Management Bureau doesn’t know our abilities. Who would show them their stat window? So they’re trying to test us this way.”
“B-but that’s dangerous…! What if someone dies…!”
“The instructor is probably watching from nearby. Anyway, it’s not our concern, so let’s head over there.”
Jaehee shook his head, pointing at the ground.
“But how can we go when we can’t even touch the ground!”
“It won’t be that difficult. I’ll go first, and you follow by watching me.”
Jeongwoo tapped his foot lightly, almost imperceptibly. But his body floated up as if he didn’t feel gravity. He grabbed a branch above for a moment to gain momentum, and in an instant, he was far ahead. Jaehee stared blankly at this, then shook his head.
“What do you mean ‘it won’t be difficult’? This guy is the type who’d say he just studied the textbook after winning first place nationally.”
Jaehee grumbled with dissatisfaction as he tapped his foot. If he delayed any longer, he wouldn’t know where Jeongwoo had gone.
