Monarch of Luminescence || Solo-Leveling

𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝟸

They entered, in the end.

Things were going quite smoothly, as Hwan assisted in healing and doing small amounts of damage along the way. He tried his best to protect Jinwoo, but he isn't skilled enough to keep his eyes on his opponent and Jinwoo, so there were still some minor injuries.

"Hyung, I think you should just focus on yourself... You'll end up getting hurt heavily because of me." Jinwoo meekly mumbled as he unwillingly stood behind Chang-min.

"What matters is that you're safe and sound," Hwan answered back as he used his spells, supporting the dealers. "I'm a healer, and what kind of healer am I if I can't even heal myself?"

"Still, I'm causing trouble rather than helping."

"Why are you so down today, Jinwoo? Stop it with this self-deprecating talk. You're not a burden to me, ever. Don't even let that cross your mind."

"You're too nice, Hyung..."

When every monster was about cleared from the dungeon, Hwan spotted something. It was the source of his unease, and it feels like all of his hair would stand up if he walked closer to it. He concluded that it was a tunnel, leading to a double dungeon, and alerted everyone of it. "The gate doesn't close if we haven't defeated the boss of here, and we haven't encountered anything too strong. Let's notify the association." Muttering surrounded the party. 'A double dungeon!? "'It really exists?'

"You make a good point, Hwan kid... But I don't think we have to," the leader of the party, Song Chiyul, used his fire magic to test out how deep the tunnel goes. "Hmm," after determining the results, he clapped and silenced everyone. 

"Listen up everyone. Just like what Hwan said, this gate won't disappear if we don't defeat the boss. Seeing how the gate is still up, there must be a boss inside of that dungeon. Usually, we have to report this to the association first... but if we do that, our profits will drastically decrease if other hunters get to this before us. So I say, why don't we go ahead and deal with it ourselves?"

"It could be dangerous, so how about we all vote on it? All 17 of us. When the decision has been made, you won't be allowed to say otherwise." Song Chiyul explained and so mumbles and confident voices spread through the room, either disagreeing or agreeing with the idea. 

It finally came to Chang-min and Jinwoo's decision. Chang-min already knew his answer, but Jinwoo was conflicted. 

I have no savings, and I have to send my little sister to college soon... Also... I can't just rely on Huang forever. He's already done so much for us... 

"I'm going too!" He announced, before being shot down.

"Say that again and I'll feed you two tons of ghost peppers." Hwan stared daggers into Jinwoo's back, as the younger turned around and confronted him.

"Hyung, you've helped me with so much, I don't even know how to thank you. But this time, I need to have the courage. Just this once." Chang-min doesn't know how to turn him down, since his eyes glimmered with unwavering resolve.

"What will I ever do with you... Fine, but you mustn't be so reckless. One of these days, you'll actually end up with a major injury." Hwan rubbed his nose bridge and sighed, then Song Chiyul cut in. 

"So, 9 votes to proceed. Majority votes say we continue. Let's head off."

...

"The ominous feeling is getting heavier... Aren't we venturing too deep? It's already been 40 minutes since we first came in." Hwan stared into the darkness in front of him as their teammate's flashlights lit the path.

"We'll only have around 20 minutes of leeway after we've defeated the boss, huh." One teammate concluded.

It remained silent for a while before Jinwoo spoke up, "... Hey.. I'm sorry."

"For?" Chang-min looked over towards him.

"You both were forced to come along because I voted to go in the dungeon."

"Oh, it's fine. Don't worry." Joohee replied as an irk mark appeared.

"Are you... sure?"

"No. To be honest, it's not fine at all." Everyone could feel her wrath radiating from meters away.

Jinwoo proceeded to get a massive scolding from Joohee while Chang-min cheered for her on the sidelines.

"Pop off, my liege."

Jinwoo meekly replied with a heartfelt apology, and Joohee answered back with a proposal.

"If you feel bad... then how about treating me to a meal sometime?"

Hwan couldn't feel help but feel disappointed when the younger's face flashed red. He couldn't understand why he felt like that, but if he needs to, he'll be the best wingman for him.

"What, you don't want to eat with me?"

"N-No! It's not like that! Why wouldn't I want to..." The silver-haired boy chuckled at his response, but before he could speak up, something was there.

"We've arrived at the boss's lair!"

Doubts arose between the teammates, and even the other skilled hunter are having second thoughts.

"Are you all going to head back empty-handed after coming all this way?"

"Getting back empty-handed is better than having your corpse delivered back if it still exists anymore." Hwan spat out, which a few agreed with.

"Being a hunter means taking risks. If you can't do it, you should leave now. We could be the first ones to discover this new dungeon. I'm going in, even if it means I'm going in alone."

"There's a difference between taking risks and being reckless." He mumbled, but everyone slowly sided with Song Chiyul because of his experience and skills.

The leader of the party stepped forward to push the doors open. "The doors opened easier than I thought..."

Without missing a beat, all of the torches in the room lit up, to let the intruders see what was truly in there. Chang-min instantly felt who was producing the most amount of mana.

Perhaps it knew Hwan Chang-min had discovered that it was the controller of all in the room, not just a simple statue. Hwan felt a pair of eyes stare at him.

All the while this happens, the others split up to inspect the room.

Chang-min tapped Jinwoo's shoulder, "I'll be right back..."

"Huh? Where are you going?"

"To test something out. Please be careful, Jinwoo, especially of the winged statue holding the slate."

"Oh.. okay. You take care too."

With a quick smile, Hwan dashed on top of a statue with a shield and started attempting to destroy its head. "Damn it. I don't have anything suitable to even create scratches... should I just use my fists? I'm thinking about how much I'd hurt. Well, here we go."

In another corner of the room, Song Chiyul was reading out the commandments written out in the slate Hwan had warned Jinwoo about. Upon reading the last line, the door slammed shut.

Hwan shot his head towards the now-shut doors, and he deduced that he immediately needs to act. He slammed the statue's head with his fist. It did hurt, but he managed to do enough damage. "Can he still control puppets that... have their head smashed in? Probably yes, so I need to destroy their legs as well... ouch. My hand will probably be very sore."

Detecting an ax swinging his way, he ducked and let him hit the statue he was standing on.

Everyone watched while one had enough, and tried to leave.

"STOP! DON'T TOUCH THE DOOR HANDLE!" Song Chiyul yelled from the other side as he realized something was horribly wrong. Another swing came his way, and Hwan was barely able to shove him out of the way. He quickly made the man stand up and had him run back to the party.

"If you don't want to die, you better watch out." Chang-min left a warning and began to destroy many of the statue's limbs.

Hwan Chang-min felt cold air from behind, and Jinwoo noticed this too. The largest statue in the room — was ready to attack.

"EVERYONE, DUCK!" All of the people who managed to listen to Jinwoo still had their lives, while the others were viciously murdered.

But Chang-min couldn't duck. If he had, the statue beside him would have swung and slashed his head off. So he ran behind the statues, seeing if its beam would destroy it for him. He clicked his tongue in annoyance when it was smart enough to not hit his own and instead beam its laser whenever Chang-min appeared from behind.

"Chang-min!!" Jinwoo yelled out, hoping to catch his attention. "You okay!? Are you able to come over!? There's a serious injury!"

"I'll try! Try and stop the bleeding first!" Chang-min responded, trying to discover the state's attack pattern. When he had successfully demolished a good amount of statues that seemed hostile (holding weapons), he quickly dashed toward Jinwoo while keeping his body low enough to not trigger the attack.