The 972nd tunnel was a place of absolute darkness. The beam from his headlamp cut a lonely swathe through the gloom, but it was not enough to push back the oppressive blackness. Yoon Ji-han stood before the wall at the end of the passage. Fresh scars from pickaxe strikes scored the rock face, the final traces of the men who had been here before him. He could almost see them, miners laboring in this sunless pit, their bodies straining to tear precious stones from the unyielding rock. Four men had died in this place. And miners didn't just drop dead for no reason. Something in this tunnel had killed them. Every effect had a cause. Yoon Ji-han propped his pickaxe against the rock and surveyed the dead end. “The mana concentration here is thick, but…” It was pooling here, dense and heavy in the air, a significant accumulation. Before his awakening, Yoon Ji-han would never have noticed it. “Why is the mana gathering only here?” He recalled the cautionary tales told to the un-Awakened: how prolonged exposure to raw mana could rot a person from the inside out, turning cells necrotic and aging organs in a matter of days. If his senses were right, that was exactly what had happened to the miners. Jo Sang-pil was Awakened; he should have felt this. But the man was too lost in his gambling debts to set foot in the mines anymore, which explained his ignorance. The question was why the mana was gathering here, of all places. Yoon Ji-han’s gaze fell on the tunnel wall. At this moment, it was the only thing that seemed suspicious. He hefted the pickaxe again and slammed it into the inner wall of the tunnel. Sparks flew as the pickaxe struck rock. With each swing, stone crumbled easily. Then, at one point, the pickaxe met unyielding resistance. Yoon Ji-han frowned, puzzled, and swung again with all his might. With a deafening crack, the wall gave way. Behind it was not more rock, but an elliptical void, a patch of alien darkness that gaped like the gullet of some great beast. In an instant, a powerful force yanked him from his feet. Before Yoon Ji-han could even resist, he was sucked into the dark space. The moment he crossed the threshold, a crushing pressure engulfed him. Pain exploded through his body, as if every bone were being ground to dust. His mind went white with agony; thought was impossible. All that existed was the desperate need for it to end. Fortunately, the moment was brief. The dark space spat Yoon Ji-han out. He tumbled across the ground several times before scrambling back to his feet. “What in the hell is this place…?” A moment ago, he had been deep underground in a mine tunnel. Now, an entirely different world unfolded before him. In the distance, a colossal mountain of black rock spewed smoke and viscous lava. The sky was a suffocating blanket of ash, and rivers of molten rock scarred the land. All vegetation had been burned to cinders, and the air was thick with the stench of sulfur. The heat radiating from the cooling lava underfoot was immense, far more intense than any desert. Yoon Ji-han’s face flushed, and sweat immediately began to stream down his skin, soaking his clothes in seconds. He glanced back at the dungeon entrance that had expelled him. As if its duty were done, the portal was rapidly shrinking, vanishing without a trace. Yoon Ji-han lunged for it, but it was already gone, leaving nothing behind. He ran a hand through his hair in disbelief. He knew he was entering a dungeon, but he never expected to be thrown in so defenselessly. Even in Shin-Hanseong, when reading dungeons, teams prepared meticulously. They would assess a dungeon’s scale to estimate its rank, then form a party of Awakened individuals suited for the task. Even with such thorough preparation, dungeons were places where people died. To be thrown into one so completely unprepared was absurd. “What a perfectly unlucky day. How can one person’s luck be this bad?” It was beyond ridiculous. First, he’d been swindled by old Noh Jin-tae over the Mana Stone. Then he’d gotten tangled up with Jo Sang-pil. And now, he’d been unceremoniously dumped into a dungeon. Absolutely perfect. It was as if some malicious god was personally directing the course of his life. Yoon Ji-han reached into his pocket and pulled out the small hourglass. “Is this all I have?” Turning the hourglass over in his hand helped to quiet his racing thoughts. For the first time since arriving, he could think clearly. “First, I need to see if my abilities even work here.” Yoon Ji-han bent down and scooped up a handful of the ground. Fine black granules coated his palm. He focused his will, and the black sand in his hand slowly levitated. He breathed a sigh of relief. Like normal sand, the volcanic ash seemed to be under his control. If his primary weapon—the manipulation of sand—had failed him here, he would have been in serious trouble. The dungeon was filled with volcanic ash. He had more than enough ammunition. Yoon Ji-han felt a small bit of hope return. At least he wouldn’t die immediately. Next, Yoon Ji-han checked his backpack. To his relief, it still contained several days’ worth of rations. Everything had survived the violent entry into the dungeon, undamaged and unspoiled. “This should last me a few days.” With food secured, his only remaining task was to find the dungeon’s exit. The problem was, he had no idea where to even start looking in this vast, hellish landscape. In a situation like this, there was only one thing to do. Start walking. “The exit is probably near that volcano, right?” It was obvious that the volcano was the heart of this dungeon. If there was a clue to escaping, it would be there. Yoon Ji-han took a deep breath. His throat immediately felt raw and scratchy. The air was thick with suspended ash that irritated his lungs with every breath. If he didn’t get out of here soon, the ash would destroy them. Yoon Ji-han pulled a piece of cloth from his pack. He used it as a makeshift mask when mining mana stones to avoid inhaling dust. Tying it over his mouth and nose brought some relief from the stinging air. Yoon Ji-han started walking towards the volcano. The more he saw of this place, the more his astonishment grew. He knew dungeons were spaces that defied human comprehension, but he had never imagined a place so completely inhospitable. The colossal volcano was no illusion. It was a very real mountain, spewing very real fire and lava. The scorching air and the heated ground under his feet confirmed that this was all terrifyingly real. Sweat poured from his body. He was an Awakened, but even he was struggling in this environment. An ordinary person would have died within minutes of arriving. “There is a way out of here, right?” Yoon Ji-han had always considered himself resilient, but this brutal, alien landscape was beginning to wear on his nerves. Still, he had no choice but to push forward. A massive river of molten lava soon blocked his path. Even from a distance, the heat was so intense it felt like his skin was starting to melt. The river was dozens of meters wide. It was far too wide for him to jump across. Yoon Ji-han began searching for a narrower point to cross. After walking upstream for some time, he found a section that was only about ten meters wide. It looked like a jump he might just be able to make. Yoon Ji-han stopped for a moment, taking a deep breath. He was physically capable of clearing the distance. But the slightest miscalculation, a moment of lost balance in mid-air, and he would fall into the lava and be instantly incinerated. He had no other choice. He had to try. After studying the flow of the lava for a moment, Yoon Ji-han broke into a dead sprint. At the very edge of the bank, he launched himself into the air with all his strength. His body soared over the molten river. Just as he reached the apex of his jump, something erupted from the lava below, rocketing towards him. Yoon Ji-han’s eyes widened in horror. A gigantic maw, wide open and filled with teeth. Rough, scaly skin that seemed to burn with an inner fire. Four short legs were attached to a long, serpentine body. It was a colossal crocodile, lurking in the lava river, and it had been hunting. Each of its teeth was the size of a man’s forearm. If those jaws closed on him, he would be torn to shreds. He was trapped, helpless in mid-air. He tried to activate Morae Po, but the ash on the ground was too far away. He’d be dead before he could gather enough of it. Twisting his body instinctively, Yoon Ji-han managed to avoid the crocodile’s initial lunge. But the violent maneuver threw him off balance, sending him plummeting towards the river of lava. The crocodile opened its jaws again, ready to catch him as he fell. In that desperate moment, Yoon Ji-han saw the small cloud of ash he had managed to gather. An idea born of pure instinct flashed through his mind: a foothold. Imagination became reality. A solid platform of compressed ash materialized directly beneath his falling feet. Without a second’s hesitation, Yoon Ji-han kicked off the platform with all his might, just managing to propel himself to the opposite bank. He landed hard on his back, not his feet. Yoon Ji-han groaned as a shockwave of pain radiated through his body. But he had no time to recover. The gigantic crocodile heaved itself from the river of lava and charged toward him. “Shit! A monster like that…” Yoon Ji-han scrambled backward, but the crocodile was closing the distance with terrifying speed. Its short legs looked disproportionate to its massive body, but each one was thicker than a tree trunk. It moved impossibly fast. Yoon Ji-han launched a Morae Po. The high-pressure stream of ash shot forward, but it was useless. The intense heat radiating from the crocodile’s body melted the ash before it even made contact. Yoon Ji-han’s eyes widened. He never imagined his attack would be so easily nullified. The crocodile lunged, its jaws snapping open. Yoon Ji-han stared into the gaping maw, frozen, unable to react. “Using sand, eh? That’s an interesting ability you’ve got.” A rough, hoarse voice suddenly cut through the air. Yoon Ji-han’s head whipped toward the sound. Someone was descending from the sky, cutting through the thick veil of ash at a frightening speed. In the figure’s hand was a massive sword. Holding the sword out before him, the man collided directly with the gigantic crocodile. There was an explosive boom, like a meteor strike, and a shockwave tore through the area. The impact sent waves of lava splashing in every direction. Yoon Ji-han clapped his hands over his ears, his face a mask of disbelief. The massive crocodile, a creature that had seemed so invincible moments before, was obliterated, its skull caving in like an eggshell. Standing atop the carcass was a huge old man. The old man’s eyes burned with a gaze so fierce it barely seemed human. His voice was a low, menacing rumble that resonated deep in Yoon Ji-han’s gut, more terrifying than the roar of the monster he had just slain.

Chapter 6: Where Four Men Died