The Academy’s Time Stop Player
chapter-58

Dungeons come in many forms.

Even the Dimensional Dungeon, once the primary cause of The Age of Great Chaos, is just one kind.

Certainly, if we talk about danger, no dungeon comes close to the Dimensional Dungeon. But aside from that, the most dangerous known dungeon is the one Liam and I are about to step into.

"Alright, then. Hajoon, Liam, can you carry this bag for me?"

Before we go into the dungeon, Han Seunghwan walks up to Hajoon and Liam with a bag as big as a person. Liam immediately hoists the bag onto his back, but Hajoon just blankly looks at it.

"Huh? What's up?"

"............"

Hajoon silently looks at the bag for a moment.

Honestly, he didn't see this coming...., it seems pretty heavy.

Sure, he could lift it, but did he want to start straining himself now?

'Well, there's no other way....'

Hajoon promptly activated Time Stop (SSS).

Then he opened the bag, secretly took out a few pieces of gear he thought wouldn't be needed in this dungeon, and stashed them away in the forest before picking up the bag again.

From what Hajoon remembers, none of the gear in the bag would be needed in this raid, so he just took them all out.

Having prepared himself by picking up the bag, Hajoon looks at Han Seunghwan and speaks.

"I'm ready."

"Good. Now, let's go."

The inside of the dungeon was more comfortable than expected.

Honestly, since the dungeon was like a cave, he thought he would feel its typical damp air and chilly cold, but he didn't feel much of it.

Of course, it wasn't just Hajoon who found this weird; Liam also felt puzzled and asked Lee Youngha, who was leading the way.

"The dungeon feels surprisingly comfortable?"

"Well, it's not so weird. Since the dungeon itself is a magical space, such strange happenings often happen. But this place is a bit unusual?"

As she said, it was indeed a unique dungeon.

Firstly, contrary to the expectation that the inside of the cave-like dungeon would be dark, it was so bright that you could see clearly, and what's more, the temperature was comfortable, strongly suggesting it was designed to make it easier for humans to conquer.

Of course, this was not the only odd thing about it.

"Isn't something a bit off, Team Leader? By this point, we should have seen at least some signs of magical beasts or monsters, but I don't see any."

We had been moving forward for about 10 minutes, but there were no signs of magical beasts or monsters living in the dungeon.

Because of this, Lee Youngha could guess what kind of dungeon it was.

She turned around with a somewhat tense expression and spoke to her team.

"This... seems like a Trap Dungeon?"

"A Trap Dungeon?"

"Yes. Let's retreat for now. Going any further will be risky."

A Trap Dungeon.

As the name implies, it was a dungeon filled with traps.

Of course, you couldn't precisely determine what kind of dungeon it was without exploring the inside due to the dungeon's nature, but she was sure.

There would not be a dungeon that gave off such a strong man-made feeling other than a Trap Dungeon.

"We need to retreat. If it's a Trap Dungeon, we don't have the manpower to tackle it."

A Trap Dungeon was a dungeon that couldn't be conquered unless there were at least 10 senior heroes or one top-tier hero.

The Trap Dungeon was classified as a high-ranking dungeon, not just considering the danger assessed by magical power alone.

"Everyone, stop the mission. Let's retreat quickly."

"Sigh... what a waste of a day. The dungeon we paid so much to the guild for is a Trap Dungeon."

"Tsk- Well, what can we do? Let's retreat quickly. We have young ones with us; we can't go any further."

Just as they were all about to turn around and head for the exit.

"Eh, eh?! What, what is this?"

"What? Team Leader Lee Youngha! There's a clear wall here!"

The moment they were about to turn around, an invisible clear wall sprung up behind them, blocking the exit as if it had just appeared.

Lee Youngha, with a serious look, clenched her fist and approached the clear wall.

"Everyone, step back."

As she commanded, she kicked the ground, rushed towards the clear wall, and threw a punch, and with a loud bang!! The clear wall vibrated heavily.

But the wall held.

Even against the full force of Lee Youngha's punch, the wall stayed intact without any signs of breaking. Seeing this, her expression slowly turned more serious.

She quickly turned back and spoke to a team member who looked like a wizard.

"Damn! Mina! Can you handle it?"

"Just, just give me a moment!"

At Lee Youngha's command, a woman who appeared to be a wizard in the expedition team immediately started to examine the clear wall. Soon after, she began shaking her head while breaking out in a cold sweat.

"You're right. The magic that's been activated contains mana that's comparable to high-level magic. I think it would take at least three intermediate magicians to break the barrier."

"Damn it!"

At her words, Lee Youngha gritted his teeth and started to look ahead again.

A predicament where they could neither go forward nor go back.

After a moment of thought, Lee Youngha quickly made a decision and spoke.

"Everyone, stay where you are. This is a trap dungeon, so the deeper we go, the more... Liam!!"

Then, something unexpected happened.

Lee Youngha suddenly yelled towards Liam.

Hearing her shout, Liam quickly noticed the oddity beneath his feet. A magical circle glowing in blue.

At some point, it had formed under Liam's feet and had grown in size to cover all the team members.

Naturally, they all reacted with their superhuman reflexes, pushing off the ground to escape the magic circle.

"Damn, another clear wall!!"

"We're stuck!!"

Suddenly, a clear wall sprung up around the magic circle, entrapping them.

What happened next was instantaneous.

Whoosh!!

They all vanished at once.

As if they had been teleported, they were taken somewhere else, and the place where they had stood returned to a quiet stillness.

"Hmm..."

Within the relocated space.

Hajoon casually dropped his backpack on the ground and began to survey the area.

A space filled with a chilly cold and damp moisture.

In this uncomfortable environment unlike before, Hajoon could guess where he was.

Likely, it was the basement of this trap dungeon.

"It seems I've arrived in the right place."

Hajoon immediately began to explore his surroundings.

For now, there was no particular issue as the situation matched what he had seen in the episode.

"Well, then..."

Hajoon took out Maharazu from his pocket and enlarged it.

At the same time, he started to visualize concealing his face while wrapping the identity hiding bandage, a gift from the association president, around his arm.

With a bit of practice, he was becoming proficient with this tool.

In this manner, a mosaic slowly appeared on Hajoon's face, and Hajoon promptly picked up Maharazu and continued forward.

Then, Philaten spoke to Hajoon for the first time in quite a while.

-Master.

"What?"

-There are several powerful beings here.

As she spoke, the sub-quest window and the existing job-change quest window popped up in front of Hajoon's eyes.

[Sub Quest]

Possible quest character: Kim Hajoon (Liber Laphilton Phil Ehrman)

Description: Defeat a monster or a beast. (0/100)

Reward: 2000 Experience Points

[Job Change Quest]

Possible quest character: Kim Hajoon (Liber Laphilton Phil Ehrman)

Description: Defeat a beast. (50/100)

Reward: You will receive the title of Dwarf King Horton, the former owner of Maharazu.

Title: Destroyer

Upon seeing these quests, Hajoon frowned but still responded affirmatively to Philaten.

'Well... kill two birds with one stone, huh?'

In any case, he might have to defeat a monster or a beast, so he decided to look on the bright side.

Hajoon took another step, moving forward.

His goal was to find the person who had entered this dungeon first.

Right now, Liam was aimlessly wandering an unfamiliar path, looking for an exit.

Surely, the path was direct, and he just continued walking.

Had he been strolling along such a simple path for about 10 minutes?

Liam thought to himself.

'It seems it wasn't a trap after all.'

The magic circle that had just teleported him seemed not to pose a threat to his life.

If he was right, that magic circle was probably... the intended path?

Liam got the impression that the magic circle was, in fact, the intended path of this dungeon.

If not, the place he was teleported to could have posed a serious danger.

'So, is there an artifact somewhere here?'

The method to conquer a dungeon is straightforward.

Once you locate something known as the dungeon's core, the exit naturally opens.

Naturally, like the range of dungeons, the cores also differ.

For instance, the dungeon's core could be a magic crystal, sometimes a monster, or in some cases, an artifact.

And in trap dungeons like this one, where traps are laid out, it was likely that the dungeon's core was a magic crystal or an artifact.

'From what I can see, it appears to be a magic crystal...'

To be honest, he believed that the core of this trap dungeon would be a magic crystal rather than an artifact.

If not, a high-grade magic spell requiring significant magic power, like teleportation, wouldn't have been activated.

'But well... there are cases where both a magic crystal and an artifact exist.'

"Heeya!"

Whoosh!

Kieeek!!

So, Liam casually swung the spear he carried, slicing the neck of a low-ranked monster approaching him, and continued forward.

As he walked along the path, a fork in the road soon emerged, and Liam paused for a moment, pondering. Simply put, one of the two roads was definitely a trap.

While considering this carefully,

That's when Liam's gaze dropped to the ground, and he discovered something.

'Is this... a footprint?'

What Liam found was a human footprint.

Moreover, footprints leading to the left, Liam was certain they belonged to his team and started moving down the left path.

As he moved forward, a strong smell of blood started to prick his nose.

However, since the surroundings were pristine with no signs of battle, Liam felt an odd discomfort.

Just to be safe, Liam gripped his spear tighter, sharpened his senses, and proceeded slowly.

The place where he ended up at the end of the path was where the smell of blood was so overwhelming it made him feel sick.

Of course, just like before, the surroundings were clean.

In the center of that place, there was just one man standing.

"...Hmm? There's someone here?"

The man turned his head to look at Liam.

The man had long black hair and peculiarly red-tinted eyes.

For some reason, the man was glaring at Liam with wide, open eyes and a voice that sounded like scraping metal, giving Liam an uneasy feeling.

Feeling an odd atmosphere, Liam gripped his spear tightly and stepped forward. Liam asked,

"Who are you?"

"Hmm... this isn't right... The boss will scold me... I was told to be careful not to be discovered..."

Ignoring Liam's question, the man started whispering, seemingly talking to himself.

And then, the man slowly turned his gaze back to Liam.

Suddenly, his head tilted at an odd 90-degree angle as he began observing Liam, an expression of confusion on his face.

"Huh? Wait... You're Liam, aren't you? That's odd, why are you here?"

With that, the man gave a hollow laugh.

The man, with a puzzling smile on his face, slowly began to approach Liam.

Of course, in his hand, he held a large sword that looked dangerous even at a quick glance.

He started laughing cheerfully as he neared Liam.

"This is quite lucky, don't you think? Too fortunate to be just by chance."

The moment Liam heard those words, his face stiffened as he watched the man come closer. And the man, smiling cunningly, swung his large sword towards Liam without any hesitation.