“How much time has passed Inisco?”

“Just a moment back, 17 minutes have passed!”

“Uh, this is bad!”

Ralph’s party moved into the third cave of the Blast; they were moving in perfect unison.

They already knew about it; the place where the Abyss orbs were being kept.

However, there was one variable. Muel who had to be with them wasn’t with them at the moment.

“Huh, if we only had Muel, it would have been over.”

“Right. Muel really considers all the worthless things.”

Ralph just shook his head after hearing Inisco’s grumbling.

They could hardly understand the actions of Muel.

“But for Muel to head over there isn’t a bad situation for us.”

“What is that supposed to mean, Chesk?”

“Think about it clearly. If he headed back to us afterward, won’t it be a bit too embarrassing for us to face them?”

“Surely.”

“But since Muel has sacrificed herself, they won’t be able to know that they were used by us.”

“Hmm…”

“Surely they wouldn’t be that big of a threat to us even if they realize that they are, but the farther they are from the truth the better, right?”

“Now that Chesk pointed it out, it does make sense. Thanks to Muel, the steam around us disappeared.”

At the words of Chesk and Inisco, Ralph looked back at them.

“Yeah. Well… it is good if it works out.”

Kung-!

Chesk picked up the orb that was lying behind the golem that they just knocked out.

Having now the orb with them, they had to run toward the altar in the north to finish the quest.

“So we are now supposed to meet that ‘monster’ in there?”

At those words from Chesk, Inisco shook his head and replied, “Ah, that can’t be hyung. Muel might have joined them but… with their power, they wouldn’t have even reached the middle of the cave yet, right?”

“I… I think so? Well, if that monster guy begins to run then there is no way the dungeon would be this quiet.”

“Kuk, Chesk. You seem to think too highly of those people.”

“Or maybe we underestimated the difficulty of the dungeon.”

The three people were talking.

They were chatting as if they had cleared the quest; their faces were filled with joy.

“Kay, Inisco, cover the back to prevent the spirits from coming in.”

“Kay, hyung.”

The three people who sat on the back of Inisco’s summon quickly moved up to the blue magic circle that was hidden inside the cave.

If they went there, they would directly head outside, and if spirits entered that place, the magic circle wouldn’t work.

Wheeing-!

With a low resonating sound, the three of them vanished into the air.

And after a while.

Kung- kung-!

With gigantic roars, the entire dungeon began to vibrate.

* * *

The ‘Gorge of the Blast’ dungeon surely had a lot of monsters in it, but the regen speed of the monsters wasn’t so fast.

However, after almost twenty minutes after entering the dungeon, the monsters were now able to get close enough to cause damage.

It was all because of the special condition that was attached to the ‘Into the Blast’ quest.

*As each minute passes, the monster regen speed will increase by 10%.

Ian, who defeated the spirit that appeared in front of him, mumbled to himself.

‘After about 10 minutes, it will get much faster than the killing rate.’

Ian drew a rough simulation in his head.

As a result, he concluded that no matter how late it was, the orb had to be found within 20 to 30 minutes.

‘It would be nice if the orbs were here…’

Ian and his party moved faster than before in the cave and began to search through the caves.

Now, most of the spirits in the cave had been killed, so they were able to move around and explore the cave.

“Vanessa, don’t you see any orbs over there?”

“Huh, Unnie! Not here! Not there either?”

“Can’t see anything in here!”

“Ian, there?”

“Nope, nothing here!”

Even after searching through all the corners of the cave, they couldn’t find anything that looked like an orb.

‘What should I do? Should I summon all my summons and search through all the other caves?’

Except for the third cave which Ralph and his party entered, there were only two caves left.

It took them 20 minutes to get through each cave, so the time was very tight.

‘Let’s move to the fifth one quickly.’

Determined to get the orb, Ian called for Muel.

“Muel, there isn’t one over there, right?”

In the corner, Muel replied with a little flustered voice.

“Ah, yeah! Nothing is here, Ian!”

“…?”

Ian noticed something was off.

The suspicion he had on Muel for entering his party wasn’t fully cleared.

The moment he heard the nervous voice of Muel, he realized that something was strange.

‘What? Is Muel hiding something from us?’

Instead of finding an answer, Ian quietly began to move in the direction of Muel.

* * *

A large iron gate made of black iron.

Before it was a woman in a white dress that was of a priest and looking at it nervously.

And she was Muel.

‘This door shouldn’t be opened no matter what.’

The gate that Muel was currently keeping her eyes on was where the ‘monster’ that Ralph and his party were going to trap.

Muel deliberately stood in front of the iron gate to prevent Ian and his party from opening it.

Since the iron gate was bound to move once Ralph placed the orbs on the altar, she felt that the gate shouldn’t be opened in advance.

If the iron gate was opened forcibly, the cave would start to work.

‘If the gate really starts to open… it’s really going to be over.’

It was like a pitfall in a dungeon.

The orb had to be found by opening the gate, but if the gate broke, hell would open up.

They would be trapped in the dungeon with that monster.

The reason why Muel knew this was simple.

Since she had come to this place with Ralph and his party, only one of them could survive if the gate was broken.

‘Hu, just the thought…’

Even if the monster appeared, they could escape using the unique ability Blessing of Miro.

After clearing her mind, Muel looked at the black iron gate.

If that iron gate started to move, she was going to get out of there.

She would find Ian and the twins and escape together.

‘Now it is time to find the orb in that direction…’

When she first joined the party of Ian to help them, she came with a heavy heart, but since she was a human, there was a bit of regret.

However, she wasn’t feeling anything of that sort now.

Because she saw the truth about Ian and the twins.

‘Yeah, the blood split control… it was fantastic.’

Many spirits in the dungeon were taken down with the blood split; that was the most shocking for her.

She didn’t know what kind of a hidden class Ian had, but she thought that he would enter the top ten soon.

As time went by, she thought that he would be good enough to get the 1st or 2nd place in the US server for the knight’s class.

‘Maybe it was the best choice to help them…’

She was able to get to know a new talent from Ian, which was related to Ralph’s class.

Muel thought that her choice was a godsend.

‘The quest try needs to be stopped.’

“Phew.”

After sighing briefly, Muel once again examined the unique ability of Blessing of Miro.

Right then, from her back, a ferocious sound started to come.

Swoosh-!

Muel reflexively turned back to look at it.

The next moment, both her eyes went wide at what she saw.

“…!”

A golden spear with powerful lightning was flying in at a terrible speed.

“Ah, don’t!”

Muel screamed on top of her lungs before even realizing it.

But before she could even react, the spear shot past her and went to the iron gate.

The sound that came next was intense.

Kwaang-!

From the darkness, came out Ian.

“Muel, what are you doing here?”

“That… tha…!”

“Were you hiding something from me?”

Muel wanted to explain to Ian about what would happen.

But she couldn’t do it.

Since the spear that Ian threw went to the iron gate, things started to change.

Thud-!

From the black iron gate, a heavy sound began to ring.

The monster which was inside the iron gate had awakened.

Ian’s gaze shifted to the gate instinctively.

“What was that…”

Muel began to pull Ian’s arms, quickly.

“Run!”

“No, explain what is happening…!”

“There isn’t time to explain! We must get out of here, quickly!”

“…?”

Using the power, Ian recovered his Judgment of Spirit King and began to flee due to the hand of Muel.

He couldn’t tell what was happening, but her expression seemed sincere.

“Vanessa, Sarah come over here quickly…! There is no time!”

As soon as the four of them gathered, the ‘Blessing of Miro’ buff was going to be triggered.

For that to happen, before the monster could even come through the iron gate, all the people had to escape together.

If the iron gate broke, the structure would change and everyone would get locked in there.

However, all her hard work was in vain.

Kwaang-!

The iron gate broke before the four people could gather.

“Ah…!”

A sharp exhale came out of Muel’s mouth.

She couldn’t do it anymore.

No matter how powerful Ian and his party was, it was impossible for them to take down such a monster.

“What is it, Muel?”

“What is up, Ian?”

The twin sisters who were a bit late in reaching them asked Ian and Muel with eager eyes.

The next moment.

Tring-!

In front of their eyes, new system messages began to appear.

[The conditions have been met.]

[You have been disconnected from the outside.]

[The party that was broken up is reorganized.]

[Current party members: Ian, Vanessa, Sarah, Muel.]

The contents of the system message was something Ian never thought would come up, and that made his eyes go wide.

‘Isolated from the outside..? Party is reorganized?’

Things didn’t end there though.

[Hidden quest has been triggered.]

The quest window that he saw the first opened.

– Kill the Guardian Machine (Breakthrough) (Hidden)

The mechanical civilization does not want the Abyss Valley to be purged.

So in the deepest part of the valley, they left a powerful guardian.

And he was now awake.

The guardian will not forgive you for waking him from his sleep.

He will try to hurt you, and your chances for survival are close to nil.

However, if you were to kill him and survive, you will get a hidden legacy of the mechanical civilization.

Defeat the rampaging mechanical guardian and escape from the cave.

Quest Difficulty: A+

Quest Condition:

Destroy the Iron Gate of the Abyss Valley.

Time Limit: None

Reward:

‘???’ blueprint.

Advanced essence (Attribute: Random)

Advanced spirit (Attribute: Random)