The descent into the lower reaches of the C-Rank Gate—or what was supposed to be a C-Rank Gate—had felt like a slow crawl into the throat of a leviathan.
As the Wolf Unit, the elite Monitoring Division team led by Woo Jinchul, moved past the initial caverns, the architecture shifted. Rough-hewn stone gave way to polished, obsidian-like masonry.
The air grew heavy, thick with a mana density that made the lower-ranked hunters in the group feel as though they were walking underwater.
At the front of the pack, Song Chiyul held his blade in a relaxed but ready stance. Beside him, the unit fanned out in a standard exploration sweep.
This was the area where, in another timeline, a lone E-Rank hunter named Sung Jinwoo would have struggled against the mechanical Sentinels. But today, the hallway was filled with the rhythmic boots of professional hunters.
"Contact!" the vanguard shouted.
From the darkness emerged the Armor types—towering, hollow suits of blackened steel. They didn't breathe; they only clanked. Their movements were heavy, each step cracking the floor tiles beneath them.
Chiyul stepped forward, his eyes narrowing. With a flick of his wrist, his blade caught the torchlight. He moved like a leaf in the wind, parrying the overhead strike of a massive mace and sliding his blade through the gap in the armor's neck. The blue ghostly light within the helmet flickered and died.
"They are resilient," Chiyul noted, stepping back as another suit of armor took its comrade's place. "And they don't feel pain."
Woo Jinchul stood at the center of the formation, his hands behind his back, his suit jacket remarkably pristine despite the damp environment.
While the unit engaged the armored giants, Jinchul was focused on something far more critical. He had his eyes closed, his mana extending outward like a sonar pulse. He was trying to map the floor, to see the "Heart" of this anomaly.
Something is interfering, Jinchul thought, a scowl deepening on his face.
Every time his mana pulse reached out toward the three-hundred-meter mark, it hit a wall of static. It wasn't just stone; it was a deliberate magical interference, a dampening field that swallowed his detection spells.
The feedback in his mind was a blur of grey and white noise. It was as if the dungeon itself was a living organism trying to hide its vital organs.
Fine. If I cannot see the horizon, I will see the dirt beneath my feet.
Jinchul concentrated, drawing his mana back inward. He forcibly reduced the radius of the scope. Two hundred meters. One hundred. Fifty. As the radius shrank, the resolution of his mental map skyrocketed. The static cleared, replaced by sharp, high-definition silhouettes.
He saw the Armor types the unit was currently fighting. But then, he saw them—the anomalies.
In the shadows above the pillars, and crawling along the vertical walls just beyond the light of the torches, were creatures that didn't fit the "Sentinel" profile. They were four-legged, low-slung, and moved with a terrifying, liquid agility. They weren't mechanical; they were organic, or at least a mimicry of life.
Wolves? No, something faster.
Before Jinchul could even open his mouth to alert the unit, the air suddenly hissed.
Swoosh!
From the darkness of the upper galleries, a volley of black-feathered arrows and jagged daggers rained down. They weren't aimed at the front line; they were aimed directly at Jinchul, the perceived commander.
Jinchul didn't flinch. His eyes snapped open, glowing with a cold, golden light. His hands moved so fast they disappeared into a blur of motion.
Clang! Clack! Snap! With his bare palms, he batted the arrows out of the sky as if they were nothing more than annoying gnats. He caught two daggers by their blades between his fingers, felt the vibration of their impact, and crushed the steel into dust.
A shadow dropped from the ceiling—an assassin-type monster with multiple limbs and a curved blade. Jinchul didn't even look. He caught the creature by its throat mid-air.
With a sickening crunch, he exerted a fraction of his strength, and the creature went limp. He tossed the carcass into the darkness, where it hit another hidden attacker with a heavy thud.
"Unit! Halt!" Jinchul's roar echoed through the corridor, vibrating in the hunters' chests.
The hunters stopped mid-swing, the tankers slamming their shields down to create a temporary wall against the clanking Armor Sentinels.
"Format change!" Jinchul commanded, his voice sharp and authoritative. "The enemy is not just a mindless wall of metal. We have high-ground archers, ceiling-dwelling assassins, and these knights at the front. We are being enveloped."
He pointed toward the darkened rafters. "Format into Close Attack Group! Interlocking shields above and at the flanks! Archers and Mages, prepare for vertical engagement. We are no longer in a sweep; we are in a siege!"
The Wolf Unit moved with practiced precision, shifting from an expansive line into a tight, armored diamond. The healers were tucked into the very center, protected on all sides. They had barely finished the transition when the first wave of four-legged beasts launched themselves from the shadows, their eyes glowing red with a hunger that the mechanical sentinels lacked.