Level Up Machine

Chapter 87 Grave of the Forgotten (5)

It had been three days since Yeong-sik and Tiria dug a hole in the dungeon wall to hide themselves.

Though Yeong-sik and Tiria felt suffocated by the narrow space within the dirt wall, they were gradually getting used to it.

– “There’s not much left until we reach the entrance to the lowest level. Please wait a little longer.”

“Yes, then I’ll see you in a bit.”

Yeong-sik exchanged contact with Park Si-a through the communication crystal ball and showed a slightly brighter expression.

No matter how accustomed they had become, life in this cramped space was never comfortable.

“Is it the Leviathan Guild Master?”

“Yes. We’ve almost arrived. Tiria, get ready to go outside soon.”

“…Yes.”

Tiria, showing a somewhat regretful expression, loosened her stiff body, which had hardly moved for the past three days. Yeong-sik watched her with a wry smile.

‘Come to think of it, quite a few things happened in the past three days.’

It was a narrow space where it was difficult to move freely, but many things had happened during the three days they spent alone together.

‘Fortunately, I didn’t have to faint every time…’

Just before she pounced on him(?), Tiria came to her senses and dug a bit deeper into the hole with her strength to handle her business.

Whenever she went to take care of her needs, Yeong-sik had to wrap his eyes and ears tightly with medical bandages, but at least he avoided the situation of being knocked out.

“Then, let’s stay here a little longer before going out.”

“Yes, let’s do that, Yeong-sik.”

Tiria nodded with a bright smile. She felt a peculiar sense of relief at the thought of reuniting with her guild members, even if only for a moment.

Yeong-sik watched her and swallowed his sigh.

‘Once we get out, I’ll have to be formal again… Somehow, it feels more awkward to use honorifics now.’

Spending the last three days alone with her, they had many conversations, and it felt awkward to use formal speech.

‘Well, I still need to distinguish between public and private matters.’

There were cases like Kang Ha-rin, who spoke informally to the guild master, but it was never good from an external perspective.

If the guild master and guild members were too friendly, it not only gave other guild members a sense of relative deprivation but also undermined the guild master’s authority.

Gr-gr-gr-gng.

“Hmm…?”

Yeong-sik, who was leaning against the dirt wall lost in thought, felt a strange vibration. He frowned and touched the wall he was leaning on.

“What is this?”

“The wall… it’s shaking.”

Tiria, too, placed her hand on the dirt wall with a hardened expression. It was faint but clear that the entire wall was shaking.

‘Is the ground collapsing?’

Yeong-sik thought so and checked the supports he had installed throughout the passage. However, none of the supports seemed to have any issues.

‘What is it?’

Yeong-sik wore a puzzled expression as he used his scan ability. His eyes gleamed, and information about his surroundings flooded into his mind.

“Monster…?”

He sensed something massive moving underground where they were hiding.

A gigantic entity, about 20 meters in length, was freely navigating through the earth, roaming around the area.

“Great Worm.”

Yeong-sik’s expression hardened. Among the monsters that moved freely underground, there were not many of such colossal size. Though it wasn’t particularly difficult to deal with due to its low intelligence compared to its bulk, the power from its enormous size was something that could never be ignored. It was the Great Worm.

‘Why is the Great Worm here?’

Yeong-sik stared beyond the dirt wall with a puzzled look. The Great Worm was a cowardly monster. Unless provoked, it wouldn’t roam around the soil in such an agitated manner.

“Wait, could it be…”

A piece of information flashed through Yeong-sik’s mind. He turned to Tiria with an incredulous expression.

“Wh-what’s wrong?”

Tiria asked in a flustered tone as Yeong-sik suddenly turned to her. He grimaced as he looked at the pit she had dug for relieving herself.

The Great Worm had a highly sensitive sense of smell, compensating for its poor vision.

However, it rarely encountered outside smells seeping deep underground, so it seldom attacked surface dwellers.

‘But now…’

Yeong-sik observed the Great Worm’s movements with a grimace.

The Great Worm was heading towards the pit Tiria had dug for her needs with its massive body.

‘As expected.’

Yeong-sik’s eyes gleamed sharply.

The reason the Great Worm was rushing over was that it had caught the scent of the waste that had seeped into the ground.

“Damn it…”

A harsh curse escaped Yeong-sik’s mouth.

The Great Worm was not a monster he and Tiria couldn’t handle. Despite its size, it was too simple-minded and slow.

Nonetheless, the reason Yeong-sik cursed was simple: they were underground, not outside.

“Tiria, quickly, escape outside!”

“Y-Yeong-sik?!”

Yeong-sik grabbed Tiria’s hand and ran towards the inside of the dungeon.

The tunnel he had dug out of the dungeon wall was poorly supported, hastily propped up with makeshift braces.

If a massive monster like the Great Worm caused a commotion nearby, the ground would collapse instantly.

Gr-gr-gr-gng!

The dirt wall shook violently, and chunks of soil fell from the ceiling like rain. Yeong-sik and Tiria ran into the dungeon with urgent steps.

“Ugh! Energy Blast!”

Yeong-sik extended his right arm forward. A sphere of blue energy began to form in his right hand. Among the weapons Yeong-sik could currently use, it was the most powerful in terms of sheer force, second only to Rocket Punch.

“Sunder!”

As the level of Energy Blast increased to 3, a new effect was activated. The blue sphere gathered in Yeong-sik’s right hand transformed into a wedge shape and shot forward.

The effect of ‘Sunder’ increased the destructive power concentrated on a single point, instead of spreading it over a wide area.

Boom!

The dungeon wall hit by the Energy Blast exploded. Yeong-sik, holding Tiria’s hand, threw himself through the wall. As soon as he entered the dungeon, he heard the sound of the passage collapsing.

“Phew…”

“Ah, that was close.”

Yeong-sik and Tiria let out a sigh of relief. If they had been a bit slower, they would have been buried under tons of soil as the passage collapsed.

‘Even if we got buried, we wouldn’t die immediately…’

Yeong-sik and Tiria, having bodies that surpassed the limits of humans and had reached the rank of ‘Ranker,’ would not lose their lives immediately even if they were buried under the soil.

However, being crushed in a mass of soil with no oxygen and no visibility was a perilous situation, even for superhumans who had surpassed human limits.

“Still, we safely…”

Yeong-sik was about to say they had safely escaped and tried to get up.

It was then.

Bzzzz.

– “Intruder detected. Eliminate. Eliminate.”

“Damn it…”

A curse naturally escaped Yeong-sik’s mouth. What he saw upon returning to the dungeon after avoiding the collapse of the passage were three guardians, each five meters tall.

The guardians, resembling knights in full plate armor, had eyes glowing red. Each guardian lifted a sword, axe, or spear, aiming at Yeong-sik.

“What awful timing…”

To encounter guardians as soon as they entered the passage to escape the Great Worm seemed like a stroke of bad luck, as if someone had orchestrated it.

‘But, they said there was one intruder…?’

Yeong-sik narrowed his eyes and looked at the guardians. They had clearly identified ‘one’ intruder while looking at both Yeong-sik and Tiria.

‘Do they not recognize Tiria as an intruder?’

Considering they had been transported from the dungeon entrance to the lowest level via a sigil, it seemed possible.

However.

‘In the end, it doesn’t matter if I’m attacked…’

Even if Tiria wasn’t attacked, it didn’t mean Yeong-sik wouldn’t be. Thus, a fight with the guardians was inevitable.

‘I wonder if that method will work?’

A thought crossed Yeong-sik’s mind.

“Tiria. Try approaching and attacking those guardians alone.”

“…Understood.”

Without questioning why, Tiria obediently followed Yeong-sik’s instructions. She stepped forward and spread her arms. White lightning began to gather in her hands.

**Crackle! Sizzle!**

‘As expected.’

Yeong-sik’s eyes sparkled as he watched. The guardians did not react at all to Tiria’s approach.

‘If I can take advantage of this.’

If he could unilaterally attack an enemy that didn’t resist, no matter how many guardians swarmed, they wouldn’t be difficult to deal with. It would be no different from facing slightly tougher scarecrows.

Tiria approached the unresponsive guardian and extended her hands forward.

“Heaven’s Wrath!”

At Tiria’s cry, the white lightning gathered in her hands shot out towards the guardians holding a spear and an axe.

**Crackle!**

– “Hostile action detected from the chosen one. Identifying as the same as ‘intruder.'”

The guardians, struck directly by her attack, staggered back. Their eyes glowed red as a cold voice emanated from them.

“Damn it.”

Yeong-sik’s expression twisted upon hearing those words.

‘So it won’t be that easy.’

He bit his lip as he looked at the guardians now aiming their weapons at Tiria as well.

“Yeong-sik! I’ll handle these two!”

Tiria shouted in a calm voice. Yeong-sik nodded obediently. Without her suit, Tiria was far stronger than Yeong-sik.

Tiria grasped the ‘Archangel’s Blessing’ around her neck with one hand, drawing out more power.

**Shimmer.**

Radiant angel wings unfolded behind her, emitting a brilliant light. Tiria pushed off the ground and charged at the guardians.

Yeong-sik, watching her, turned his head with a determined look. A guardian wielding a sword had turned towards Tiria, reacting to the intense magic emanating from her.

“Where do you think you’re looking?”

Yeong-sik spoke in a cold voice to the guardian, which seemed to ignore him and focus on Tiria.

**Clink.**

A blade sprung from the back of his hand. Yeong-sik stomped his foot hard. Jets burst from his feet.

‘Shotgun.’

Propelling himself forward with the boost, Yeong-sik readied his shotgun. His right arm swung back, revealing two barrels.

‘Ordinary attacks won’t work.’

Bullets were ineffective against non-living weapons like the guardians. Even if he managed to pierce their armor, the bullets themselves were too small to inflict significant damage.

For humans, even a finger-sized hole could be fatal, but golem-type monsters like these could continue moving even with a fist-sized hole in their bodies.

‘In that case.’

Yeong-sik’s eyes gleamed sharply.

**Thud.**

Using his boost, Yeong-sik landed on the guardian’s shoulder. The guardian wielding the sword twisted its body roughly, trying to shake him off.

Before he was thrown off by the force, Yeong-sik pointed the shotgun barrel at the guardian’s face.

“Detonate.”

**Bang!**

A thunderous explosion echoed as if a bomb had gone off. The guardian’s head, hit by the three-barreled shotgun blast, was horrifically mangled.

Yeong-sik reached for his thigh. His thigh opened, releasing fist-sized mines.

Yeong-sik grabbed a mine and threw it at the guardian’s mangled head.

**Boom!**

Once again, a massive explosion shook the surroundings.

The mines, typically used for ground installation and detonation, still retained their explosive power when used this way.

– “In…tru…der…”

**Thud. Thud.**

The guardian, hit in the head twice in succession, lost its balance and staggered.

The head of the guardian, which resembled a knight’s helm, was now so disfigured it was unrecognizable.

– “In…tru…der…”

**Whoosh.**

Like a broken radio, the guardian struggled to speak, swinging its massive sword at Yeong-sik in a last-ditch effort.

Even in that state, the blow was powerful.

**Whoosh.**

Yeong-sik did not confront the swinging sword directly; instead, he stepped back.

He extended his right arm towards the guardian.

**Whirrr!**

His right arm began to spin rapidly.

**Boom!**

Yeong-sik’s extended right arm shot forward with a thunderous sound, striking the guardian.

**Crack!**

The chest of the guardian, hit by the rocket punch, caved in violently.

Seizing the opportunity, Yeong-sik ran forward and plunged his blade into the guardian’s crushed chest.

**Thud!**

The guardian’s massive body collapsed to the ground. Yeong-sik retrieved his right arm from its chest, breathing slightly heavily, and looked over to where Tiria was.

Tiria was overwhelming the two guardians she was fighting.

‘Good. At this rate…’

**Thud. Thud. Thud.**

Just as he thought they could finish easily, Yeong-sik heard heavy footsteps again. His expression hardened.

Yeong-sik turned his head in the direction of the sound.

There he saw—

“Damn it!”

A massive number of guardians were charging toward them, enough to fill the entire passage.