The red patterns emitted a strange feeling that differed completely from the magic circle made of magic.
Clark couldn’t help but gulp down his saliva, even though he thought it was unlikely.
The treasure that adventurers heard about through rumors, discovering mysterious pattern, one could get extraordinary abilities beyond common sense.
“Is it really a... Mystery?”
Clark cautiously approached the pattern and reached out his hand as if possessed.
In an instant, the pattern emitted a bright light and was absorbed into his body through his arm.
Soon after, the pattern disappeared without a trace, and Clark blinked his eyes and looked down at his hand.
It was when he was lost in a strange sensation that he had never felt before in his life...
Kugukung.
“......?!”
Suddenly, he turned his head at the abrupt noise.
He saw stone statues wielding weapons, looking at him with fiery eyes.
Quaang!
Clark was startled and threw himself to the side. A giant stone spear flew towards his previous position and pierced the ground.
He was surprised that he had avoided the attack and moved much faster and more agile than usual.
The mysterious ability he absorbed was the ability to increase the speed of his body.
The knowledge that flowed into his mind since he absorbed the Mystery made it possible for him to use the [Acceleration] power naturally.
“Aaaahhh!”
Clark screamed as he moved at maximum speed, dodging the attacks of the rushing stone statues. It was an instinctive evasion.
However, it was difficult to adapt to the suddenly amplified physical ability.
He stumbled and fell to the ground, unable to withstand the intense pain that hit his legs.
As he desperately tried to get up, a stone statue’s attack grazed his leg, tearing his thigh apart.
“Kkeuk!”
He fell to the ground once again, rolling in pain, unable to control his body.
As he closed his eyes tightly, stone statues suddenly fell one after another.
Clark opened his eyes and exhaled a trembling breath.
The statues lying on the ground appeared to be completely motionless, not even twitching.
Then, someone walked in, accompanied by the sound of footsteps. It was an unfamiliar young man, and he wondered if the other was in grouped with the stone statues.
“What did you just do?”
Did he defeat the guardians?
Clark, who was unaware of the situation, involuntarily shuddered as he felt the man’s gaze on him.
After looking around once, the man walked towards the center of the group and stopped right beside him.
“Who are you?”
The man asked with a cold gaze.
Clark, who was momentarily dazed, replied, “I’m an adventurer. Who are you?”
“There was supposed to be a symbol here. Have you seen it?”
The man asked, looking down at him with a chilling gaze.
Clark’s mind froze for a moment. He felt a shiver running down his spine like a frog in front of a snake and swallowed hard.
He knew that the man was asking about the mysterious power he had just absorbed. He didn’t know who this man was or where he had suddenly appeared from, but he was sure of one thing. He was in trouble.
“I haven’t seen it.”
***
....It’s too late.
I looked at the man, who was sitting hesitantly and was full of fear, and clicked my tongue.
This space was undoubtedly the place where I had discovered the Mystery of [Acceleration].
However, since there were no markings visible anywhere, there were only two possibilities: either the Mystery had not yet been generated, or the man in front of me had absorbed it first.
Judging by his reaction, it was easy to tell that it was the latter.
This man had already absorbed the Mystery of [Acceleration] that had been present in this place.
“I really saw nothing. I really didn’t,” the man repeated those words and looked at me with an earnest gaze, as if pleading with me to believe him.
It seemed as if he thought I would kill him if I found out that he had absorbed the Mystery.
Although it was annoying, there was no way to make him spit out what he had already absorbed.
Anyway, the Mystery was not that useful to me, and this time it was just a bit of bad luck.
“By the way, there were traces of others coming in.”
I wondered where the other people were and why he was all alone here, but it wasn’t important, so I turned my attention away.
Then, when I was about to turn my body away from the frozen man...
Kugugugugu.
Suddenly, vibrations occurred, and the central floor of the space slowly opened up.
The man sitting nearby was startled and stepped back.
Buried in the hole that suddenly appeared was a pile of sparkling silver and gold treasures.
Come to think of it, were there rewards like this in these ruins?
Since there was no reason to take the treasure, I lost interest and was about to leave.
“....?”
As I felt another sensation at the entrance, several men and women soon appeared.
“....Chief!”
Hearing the man’s shout, I was able to quickly assess the situation.
They were the owners of the trace that I found when I had just entered the dungeon. Were they adventurers?
I wondered if the reason one person was separated here was because of a trap. It was a common case.
They also showed a surprised expression when they found the man.
“Clark, are you alive?”
“I barely survived! Didn’t you see me?! Heyrun tried to use me as bait and run away alone! I barely helped her!”
The woman who was holding a bow trembled and shouted in surprise.
“Oh, don’t be funny! Why are you blaming me when you just collapsed on your own?”
“You’re talking nonsense, you b*tch! Are you even a human being?!”
A vulgar conversation continued.
I didn’t know what was going on, but roughly listening, it seemed that they fell into a trap and then the woman holding a bow over there hit the man.
The man looked courageous and glared at the woman, asking, “But how did everyone get here? I fell into a trap...?”
“We don’t know either. The path we were going was blocked, so we kept moving forward and ended up here. But...”
The man called the ‘chief’ looked at me with suspicion. Then he discovered gold and silver coins on one side and his eyes widened. The others also did the same.
“...”
The adventurers’ greedy eyes were all focused on the gold and silver coins in an instant.
Silence descended on the group for a moment.
As I felt a sense of annoyance that the situation might become troublesome, the leader exchanged glances with some of the others and spoke again.
“But who is that man, Clark?”
“Ah? Well, I don’t know either...”
The man replied as he looked at me.
As I was about to open my mouth, the woman with the bow intervened.
“Did, did you all see that? All the gold and silver coins piled up in that hole! We’re rich now! Right?! But...”
Thunk!
At that moment, a sword pierced through the woman’s chest.
The person who had stabbed her was the leader.
Other members who were nearby turned around in shock.
“What is happening right now?!”
At that moment, some members continued on and ambushed the rest of the group. One member with a spear stabbed the throat of the person next to them, while a robed woman threw a fireball at two members who were a little further away.
One member who avoided the attack tried to retreat, but was quickly killed by another member who blocked the exit.
Those who were ambushed were all killed instantly, without even responding.
The group who had just killed their own colleagues looked towards the onlookers while wiping the blood off their weapons without a hint of emotion.
“What, what is happening...?”
The man stared blankly at the scene and I couldn’t help but frown. What a mess.
***
“What is happening right now…?”
Clark doubted his own eyes. The bodies of the members scattered on the floor.
The leader, Regneel, Thomas, Ann, and Barock, the four oldest members of the adventure party, had ambushed and killed all the other members.
“Why?”
His mind was confused, but he soon realized the reason. Because the four of them had decided to take the treasure of the dungeon and kill all their comrades with no hesitation.
“Are you crazy? Did you plan this from the beginning?”
Barock, a mage, smirked at the man’s muttering.
“Did you not notice anything? Of course, we discussed this before we even entered the dungeon. If there really was a treasure, we would just swallow it among ourselves.”
Clark couldn’t believe it and looked at Regneel.
He had joined the adventure party because he thought highly of the leader’s character, but he had been betrayed in an instant.
Regneel didn’t even look at Clark and pointed his sword towards the unidentified man.
“Are you an adventurer too? When did you enter the dungeon?”
“...”
“Well, it doesn’t really matter. I don’t know where you suddenly popped out from, but you’re just unlucky.”
The man stood in silence for a moment after hearing Regneel’s words, then muttered with a fake laugh.
“Well, nothing to be done about it. I got nothing for all my work, but all these annoying things keep happening.”
The man casually glanced at the treasure pile in the nearby pit.
“What are you looking at? You’re not trying to kill us all and hoard the treasure, are you?”
Regneel’s eyes twitched.
“Di--“
He didn’t finish his sentence.
The man vanished in a blink of an eye, then appeared right in the midst of Regneel and his companions.
“!”
The four of them were too shocked to react.
The next moment, they all fell to the ground.
In the situation's chaos, Clark, who had just finished dealing with the guardians, was completely stunned and just stared at the scene.
In the blink of an eye, the man had killed them all, just like he had dealt with the guardians before.
All Clark could remember seeing was something like blood spraying from the man.
“Ah...”
As he watched the scene, Clark let out an involuntary groan.
He felt a mix of confusion, betrayal, the emptiness of losing his companions who had been with him for so long, and fear of the man.
The man turned towards him and walked closer.
Clark wanted to run away immediately, but his legs were too weak to stand up from the torn ground.
He felt like he was about to die, as he thought it was his turn.
However, he showed him a small glass bottle containing a reddish liquid.
“Since you obtained this Mystery, use it well.”
The man put the potion on the nearby ground, said those words, and then turned around without looking at the abandoned treasure, and walked towards the exit.
Clark watched him until he completely disappeared and then collapsed, his body trembling in exhaustion.
“What the hell was that?”
