“Gasp, gasp!”

“Cough, cough…!”

The door slammed shut terrifyingly as everyone rushed in. A demon got stuck in the door crack, mouth agape, but Dwig managed to barely chop its neck off.

Everyone panted frantically. Their bodies were soaked in sweat, and exhaustion covered them in a mess. Is it over now?

A man with a grim face wiped the room with his palm. Food-filled containers and oak barrels of wine were visible.

“This… belongs to the fighters.”

It was the reserve food of the combat unit that entered the boundary two weeks ago. Some empty containers indicated, without a doubt, that this place had been used as a temporary shelter.

“There’s another path over there!”

They might encounter the combat unit. With hope, they all followed the path.

After walking for a while, a bright light appeared ahead. It was a torch set up by the combat unit.

People’s faces lit up. The combat unit was there.

“Malin, are you there! I’m Dwig!”

Dwig, leading the way, found Malin, the leader of this combat unit. As planned, he would have led his team to close off the boundary.

Plop.

A puddle of water?

Dwig chuckled at the rare sight inside the cave and looked down at his feet. Soon, the dim light of a torch illuminated the murky water, revealing that it was blood.

“This is unbelievable….”

It was blood.

Dwig pondered and dashed forward. Thud, thud, thud. Each step left blood on his soles.

And finally, before Dwig lay fallen fighters who had succumbed to demons’ attacks.

“Malin! Damn it!”

Dwig ran towards Malin, who leaned against the wall, shaking his head.

When he looked under Malin’s clenched stomach, twisted intestines poked through his abdomen.

“R-run… away.”

Malin, barely leaning on Dwig’s shoulder, pleaded. Dwig couldn’t comprehend the situation.

Malin was a guild member with exceptional combat skills from Bistiman. While not comparable to the ‘7 Executives’ who conquered high-level boundaries, he had never been injured in lower than Grade 4 boundaries.

Yet Malin had fallen victim. Clearly, something unusual was happening.

“Malin. What about the Quamad?”

Dwig shook him urgently. He wanted to make the final moments easier for Malin, but the situation was dire.

Malin exhaled heavily and finally spoke.

“Quamad… wasn’t there.”

“What do you mean?”

“We… couldn’t find the Quamad…”

Dwig slowly withdrew his hand from Malin’s slumped body. Malin’s final whispered words echoed like a curse.

…Never seen the Quamad.

Never seen the Quamad? Then who established the safe zone inside?

Establishing a safe zone was typically the first task after the combat unit captured Quamad. After subduing or stunning a Quamad to suppress the dark magic, they secured a place for excavation.

Following that, workers known as miners entered to extract magic stones, and after the planned time elapsed, it was natural that the combat unit had killed the Quamad. But if they hadn’t seen the Quamad, then who…?

“S-sir Dwig. There’s something you need to see.”

Someone pointed to the right wall. Another door was there. Half-opened, a large stone door with words inscribed on it:

‘The door will open with the voices of 9 lives.’

Dwig counted the dead guild members. There were exactly nine. Someone had sacrificed the lives of nine comrades to open the door.

“…There are survivors.”

Survivors, or rather perpetrators who sacrificed their comrades to escape from here. But were they any different?

“Everyone, arm yourselves and move out!”

They each chose weapons from the corpses. Elion handed Rosé a broadsword that had been in a dead woman’s hand.

It’s a bit heavy, but it has a wide blade that could inflict deep wounds with a single swing.

“Elion, what should we do…?”

Rosé, who had been walking silently until now, began to show signs of anxiety.

Not only were the fighters brutally killed, but the conditions for opening the door were becoming more dreadful. Although she could handle demons with her sperm absorption ability, what about Elion?

He was an ordinary civilian who had never entered a boundary and worked diligently as a part-timer until dawn every day.

“Don’t worry, Miss. I will protect you.”

“No, what I’m worried about is…”

“It’ll be okay, Miss.”

Even in this situation, Rosé couldn’t say anything to Elion, who smiled reassuringly at her. She just nodded and tightly held Elion’s hand.

Her mind felt foggy as if she were having a nightmare, but the warmth she felt in her palm was vivid. Rosé didn’t want to let go of this warm hand.

“It’s, it’s a person!”

“Hey, someone’s there!”

It wasn’t long after stepping out through the door. The people in front discovered a guild member who had fallen.

The man with blood gushing out had both legs torn by demons. There were traces of bandages removed from his clothes, but he seemed like he would pass away soon. The bleeding was too severe, and there was no hope.

“Damn it. Here too….”

Another corpse was pointed out by the man biting his lip. It was also a combat unit. They probably stepped out through the door and were attacked by demons shortly after.

Everyone held their breath and crouched down as if they had agreed. Only then did they notice the wounds on the wall and the signs of the ground sinking.

“Could it be, are we sinking into the ground…?”

“Shh!”

Thud, thud…!

At that moment, the ground vibrated. A fighter who had lost a leg was buried in the sinking mud floor.

Those who lost their balance and fell were in the same situation.

Ahh!

Help!

Please help me!

Screams erupted. But that was short-lived, the people disappeared into the ground, like an illusion.

Elion desperately held Rosé in his arms to prevent her from being swept away by the muddy wind. Rosé resisted the urge to close her eyes due to the dust and scanned her surroundings.

Dwig was desperately pulling the man being sucked into the ground by his arm.

“Ugh! Damn it!”

Dwig’s efforts seemed like they would soon succeed. Until the moment the ground suddenly sank, and demons emerged.

“Ahh! Please help, Sir Dwig!”

The man hanging onto Dwig’s arm was mercilessly dragged away by the demons. Only a few small stones from his pocket fell off.

Rosé didn’t lose sight of the demon that briefly appeared. A strategy card was visible. Could they find out its weakness?

Giant Mole (C-Tier)

Characteristics: Demonized mole. Likes shiny things.

Appearance: Red eyes. Elongated snout. Large body.

g*nitalia: Left leaning. Black. Very thin veins. Very small t*sticles. Very weak output. Right angle. Very weak rigidity.

Average Monthly ej*culation Frequency: 1 time

Pubic Hair: None

Reward: Strength 4, Sociability 1

Hidden f*tish: Gem Scattering

“Everyone hide anything shiny! Like swords or small stones!”

Rosé, hiding the gilded sword in her arms, shouted to the people. Including Dwig, the five who were barely holding on quickly hid their weapons behind them.

Then, the mole that had slowly scanned the cave quietly went underground. The sinking ground caused the floor to shake severely.

Elion protected Rosé with all his might by placing her on a small rock. Thud, thud… The vibrations gradually subsided.

“Miss! Are you okay?”

Rosé nodded as she coughed dryly. Then, blinking her eyes blurred with dust, she checked on the people still alive.

Only seven people, including her and Elion, survived.

“Dwig, this bastard! The Grade 5 thing was all a lie!”

Nicholas rushed at Dwig. He grabbed Dwig by the collar with an excited face and shook him.

“You, you deliberately lured us here!”

Nicholas’s words, spoken in anger, ignited the people. From the moment he offered the radical condition of 5 to 5, suspicions arose.

Moreover, didn’t he recruit only thirty-nine people for external contracts? It was a cunning method to minimize guild losses and sacrifice only external contractors.

“Why would I do such a thing? If I knew it would end up like this, I wouldn’t have come in first!”

But Dwig strongly confronted Nicholas, feeling unjustly accused. Nicholas grabbed Dwig’s neck as he sneered.

Dwig’s face turned purple. As the situation worsened, the men who had been watching indifferently exchanged glances with each other.

Among the hesitant people, it was Elion who belatedly realized the situation and restrained Nicholas.

With his arm twisted behind him, Nicholas screamed, “Ahh!” Elion saw the struggling Dwig catch his breath and then slowly released Nicholas’s arm.

“There’s no point in causing a split here. Let’s think about accountability after everyone survives.”

Initially, Elion also suspected Dwig. Suddenly gathering thirty-nine people. Offering a condition of 5 to 5. In all circumstances, all arrows pointed at Dwig.

But a black magic stone. For a mere guild member who handled trivial tasks, the scale was significant. Above all, when they first discovered the bodies of the combat unit, he seemed dazed as if he hadn’t expected such a thing.

So there was a high probability that Dwig had also been used by someone. That was Elion’s conclusion.

“D-Dwig fought against demons and helped people. I-I mean, you probably didn’t expect such demons to exist.”

Tommy, who was saved by Dwig at first, stammered. Although he still had lingering doubts, the sharp glances towards Dwig softened.

Both combat and mining units fell victim to demons without exception. Despite Tommy’s words, no one could have expected that the boundary would be this dangerous.

“Damn it….”

Elion’s momentum overwhelmed Nicholas, who spat on the ground, cursing. Dwig, who was glaring fiercely at him, turned around and looked at the long path ahead.

“It’ll come back if we stay here. We have to move forward.”

The people looked back at the traces of the ground sinking and reluctantly followed Dwig.

Beast-like demons often sniffed out human scents. Especially in places they had attacked once, they tended to keep appearing, thinking it was their territory. To survive, they needed to find a new space where demons hadn’t appeared.

“Ugh, goodness… I can’t see the end.”

How long had they been walking? Nicholas leaned against the wall and sat down.

Dwig, who was leading the way, stopped and checked on everyone. Except for Elion, their faces looked exhausted and ready to collapse.

Walking on such rugged terrain for so long must have been a first for most of them. Besides, they had exhausted all their strength from mining magic stones since dawn. Dwig made a decision.

“Let’s rest here for a bit before moving on. We might get rescued.”

In the end, the seven of them decided to rest in a small room they had found a while ago until morning came. If rescue came, as Dwig said, they would be rescued by tomorrow morning.

People sitting against the walls wiped their faces stained with sweat. The smell of corpses emanated from their bodies. Their feet were swollen from walking up and down the rough ground all day, oozing pus.

“Oh, I brought these just in case…”