The area in front of the gate descended into chaos in an instant.
Just one minute earlier, people had been standing around in small groups, offering words of encouragement and support.
Now, those same people were shouting and swearing.
Yet not a single person on-site called them out or showed any discomfort at their outbursts.
“Is this seriously happening? What the hell?!”
The gate, which had once glowed blue, now turned crimson, spewing out dark red magical energy in every direction.
It was as if the blood of the person who had entered was staining the gate from within.
A phenomenon so eerie that in the West—in places like the UK and the US—it had earned the nickname Bloody Gate.
Its official name was Red Gate, and it had to be this gate—the one Choa had just entered—where it appeared.
“This is… quite the situation.”
— “Quite”?
— It’s a Red Gate, this is seriously bad news!
— YOUR DISCIPLE IS GOING TO DIE IN THERE!!!
— BRING OUR CHOA BACK!!
Cheon Hwi’s livestream, which had been calmly broadcasting the scene, was instantly thrown into an uproar.
Originally, the plan had been simple—just keep the stream running near the gate and wait for Choa to complete the dungeon.
But the sudden Red Gate incident had blown that plan to pieces.
Half-lidding his eyes, Cheon Hwi stared at the glowing red gate with a pensive expression.
‘A Red Gate, huh… If I remember correctly, it’s one of the rarer anomalous phenomena?’
There are various anomalies observed in dungeons and gates, but the characteristics of the Red Gate currently before him were as follows:
First: unlike normal gates where entry and exit are free, once you go in, you cannot leave until the dungeon is cleared.
Second: the dungeon environment changes drastically—usually into an extreme condition difficult even for awakened individuals.
Third: the mutated gate’s difficulty rises by one or two ranks above the original.
Every one of those traits is fatal.
No wonder people were panicking.
Cheon Hwi nodded to himself and extended his energy sense toward the mutated Red Gate.
“As expected, it’s a C-rank gate.”
— Huh?!
— Did he say C-rank??
— Oh my god, why would you do this to our Choa?!
— She’s a D-rank! If it’s really a C-rank, there’s no way she survives…
Judging by the energy radiating from the dungeon, the original E-rank had clearly been elevated to a C-rank due to the mutation.
Having finished assessing the Red Gate’s rank, Cheon Hwi let out a soft chuckle and flopped down comfortably on a spot perfect for lying back.
— …Sir?
— Are we seriously watching a lie-down stream right now??
— We know you’ve got guts, but this situation is actually kind of serious, you know?!
The chat exploded in flames, overwhelmed with viewers struggling to make sense of Cheon Hwi’s behavior.
But Cheon Hwi simply scrolled through the chaos with a calm expression, eyes lazily tracing the clouds in the sky.
“If it were B-rank, maybe. But C-rank? No problem.”
— What does that even mean?
— Even if Choa’s ready for an E-rank solo, C-rank is a completely different level.
— She’s D-rank! There’s a whole rank gap!
— And this is a Red Gate—those things are practically death traps inside!
The truth was, Cheon Hwi had chosen not to step in.
If he had wanted, he could’ve slipped into the dungeon the moment it began mutating and the gate sealed.
Even now, he could easily smash through the Red Gate’s barrier and enter at will.
So why wasn’t he?
Simple.
She needs the experience.
The Association President had even arranged a decent escort, so Cheon Hwi figured this was the perfect chance for Choa to go up against enemies at or slightly above her level.
‘Monsters in a C-rank dungeon should be just a bit stronger than those training mannequins the Association uses.’
If that’s the case, Choa should be more than capable of handling the underlings.
Unlike other ranks with clearly defined power levels, C-rank dungeons varied wildly in difficulty.
The real challenge?
Numbers.
Choa hadn’t fought in large-scale battles before.
Facing multiple enemies of similar strength at once would be a stimulating—and painful—learning experience.
‘Besides, she managed to pick up that unique martial art of mine. She’ll be fine.’
Even the strongest monster in a C-rank dungeon would still follow C-rank standards.
This wasn’t the martial world where Peak Realm masters suddenly crash into a duel between Blossoming Dao Realm warriors.
There was no risk of some Heavenly Realm-level chaos showing up out of nowhere.
‘And if it really gets dangerous, I’ll just go in myself.’
Getting in once is hard—doing it a second time? Not so much.
He’d already torn open the sky once during his ascension.
Breaking through a sealed gate was no harder than tearing through a rice paper door.
Of course, unlike the time he had ascended from the Realm of Cracked Perfection.
Cheon Hwi was now in full command of the higher Realm of Graceful Intent
He had even placed safety measures on Choa’s martial uniform just in case, so there was no need for him to jump in immediately.
“If you can’t trust Miss Choa, then at least trust the A-rank Hunter from the Association who went in with her.”
— Oh right.
— Totally forgot she’s in there too.
— Seo Ye-rin is our last hope!!!
— As expected, the Association handles the big stuff best.
With those words, Cheon Hwi calmed the chat down somewhat, even as the scrolling text continued to erupt like a volcano.
He let out a yawn.
Man… waiting around is kind of boring.
He mumbled to himself, staring up at the sky.
Meanwhile, just as things were going wild outside the gate, things weren’t looking much better inside.
“W-What do we do?!”
Choa, faced with a Red Gate mutation on her very first dungeon run, was in a full-blown panic.
Unable to believe the reality before her, she stomped nervously in place, her eyes darting around in all directions.
“Th-This is a Red Gate, right…?!”
“Unfortunately… yes. It seems that way.”
Choa knew what a Red Gate was.
She had never seen one with her own eyes—let alone experienced it firsthand.
But she remembered everything they taught about it in the academy.
Which is why she could logically recognize just how dire the situation had become.
She took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves.
“A C-rank… At least it didn’t jump up to B-rank.”
Seo Ye-rin had reached out and touched the gate wall, carefully gauging its magical energy, and now sighed as she withdrew her hand.
Just as expected, it was a C-rank dungeon.
The odds were incredibly low, but if it had mutated into a B-rank instead, they’d have had no chance.
Still as calm and mechanical as ever, Seo Ye-rin turned around after finishing her analysis.
“Miss Choa, was it?”
“Y-Yes, ma’am!”
“I’ll take the lead. Stay behind me and keep watch on our surroundings.”
“O-Okay!”
Seo Ye-rin observed the nervous, shrinking Choa for a moment before pulling her safely behind her position.
‘Even if the Association President himself vouched that she was equivalent to a C-rank Hunter. If she has little real dungeon experience, it’ll be hard for her to function properly in a situation like this.’
How much power one has is important.
But how that power is used is just as crucial.
Right now, the magical energy radiating from Choa’s body was on par with a high C-rank Hunter.
But in her current panicked, frightened state, there was no way she could be expected to unleash her full strength.
“Then, I’ll take point.”
Maintaining a distance that was neither too far nor too close, Seo Ye-rin advanced ahead while scanning the surroundings.
Unfortunately, the dungeon terrain was a forest.
While the natural environment was relatively stable, the toxins from plants and the visibility-impairing, unidentified mist floating in the air made it incredibly dangerous.
The thick undergrowth and trees could be used for cover.
But on the flip side, they could just as easily conceal monsters lying in ambush.
For someone like herself, this posed no issue.
But for a novice Hunter accompanying her, this kind of terrain was perilous.
After a quick assessment of the dungeon’s internal environment, Seo Ye-rin raised her hand.
“Ignis.”
With a short incantation, a spark flared and quickly grew into a massive fireball.
Seo Ye-rin summoned a flame larger than her own body, then continued the spell.
“Ventus.”
Wind began to swirl.
Drawn in from somewhere, it wrapped around the flame, guiding it like a loyal hound into the dense forest ahead.
“Detexo.”
With the final incantation, the whirling blaze surged forward, sweeping across everything in front of them.
“W-Woah…”
Watching the spectacle unfold, Choa couldn’t help but gasp in awe.
Though she had focused on swordsmanship, she knew exactly what she was witnessing.
Magic.
A mystical art that couldn’t even be learned without a specific trait.
The power to shape the world with nothing more than a few words.
To think that just two incantations could unleash such destructive power…!
Though she had never studied magic formally, Choa did know that a magic spell typically ended with the word Detexo.
If she remembered correctly, it acted as a kind of “period”—the final command that completed the spell.
“B-But… why are we burning the forest…?”
“There are too many hiding spots in a forest. That makes it extremely dangerous to enter,” Seo Ye-rin explained calmly.
If your side has equal or lesser strength, cover can be helpful.
But if your side is stronger than the enemy, cover becomes a nuisance.
Not to mention the toxic fog and various poisonous plants and creatures hidden in the undergrowth.
Choa’s combat power was roughly on par with, or slightly below, the dungeon monsters.
In contrast, Seo Ye-rin’s strength far surpassed even the dungeon’s boss monster.
Rather than risking ambushes by navigating through dense terrain, it was smarter to simply burn the forest down and sweep out the monsters in one move.
That’s exactly why Seo Ye-rin had set it on fire.
“They’re coming.”
Perhaps it was because her flames had reached the very heart of the forest via magic, but the response came quickly.
Detecting movement, Seo Ye-rin focused her senses, while Choa swallowed nervously and readied her stance.
The foul magical energy unique to monsters surged toward them.
Behind the crackling of burning trees, the cries of monsters grew steadily louder.
And finally, bursting through the black smoke, a monster revealed itself.
“Arachne!”
A giant spider, as large as a bear, screeched as it emerged—its grotesquely twisted face horrifyingly human-like.
“Back up! We can’t treat its poison in here!”
Seo Ye-rin’s face twisted in frustration.
It would’ve been better if it were simply a powerful monster.
But of all things, it had to be an Arachne, whose venom was deadly even to high-tier awakened individuals.
Yes, the Association could treat Arachne’s poison.
But in a Red Gate, you can’t return to Earth unless you clear the dungeon and defeat the boss.
A C-rank awakened, poisoned by an Arachne, surviving for tens of minutes while defeating the boss and escaping the dungeon?
Unless they had a trait that directly helped with such poison resistance, they’d be guaranteed to die.
Even if Seo Ye-rin herself planned to defeat the boss, that didn’t change the risk.
“Damn it…!”
Suddenly, Arachne began swarming in from all directions.
Because the forest had been set ablaze, every single monster in the dungeon had charged toward their location.
Just as planned.
But with poison-wielding Arachnes pouring in, there was no room to take it slow.
‘I need to wipe them out all at once with a wide-area spell!’
Killing them one by one wouldn’t be enough.
That was Seo Ye-rin’s judgment—so she shouted urgently.
Under normal circumstances, she could pick off the monsters without giving evacuation orders.
But Arachne, with their deadly poison, were an exception.
“Run toward the gate! No matter what happens, don’t stop!”
“Y-Yes!”
Arachne’s venom vaporizes into a dense toxic mist.
Breathing it in causes immediate poisoning, so without resistance, one has no choice but to flee.
Of course, there is a way to deal with it.
Using high-powered magic that can erase even the toxic mist in a single sweep would solve the problem instantly.
And Seo Ye-rin, as an A-rank Hunter skilled in magic, had more than enough firepower to do that.
She could incinerate the Arachnes along with the mist.
But if she released a spell with that much power, Choa might be swept up in the flames instead of the poison.
‘If it were the rest of the Audit Team, they would’ve known how to react… But I can’t expect that level of awareness from a C-rank Hunter with little dungeon experience.’
Just as she was thinking to evacuate Choa toward the gate, Seo Ye-rin’s eyes suddenly went wide.
“Damn…?!”
Two Arachnes burst through the flames, launching themselves forward.
And landed right in front of Choa, cutting off her path.
Even in the chaos, they had instinctively targeted the weaker prey.
If things continued like this, Choa would be taken down before she even had a chance to defend herself.
Seo Ye-rin bit her lip and tensed her legs to spring forward.
But just as she was about to launch off the ground to save her—
“Hiyaaaap!!”
Shlaaak!
In a flash.
Choa drew her sword and effortlessly sliced through the two Arachnes in an instant.
Then, as if nothing had happened, she broke into a swift sprint toward the gate.
The silver blade traced a sharp arc, glinting as droplets of blood marked its path—
And behind her, the neatly bisected corpses of the giant spiders tumbled to the dirt.
“…???”
What… what did I just see?
Seo Ye-rin’s face, watching the whole thing unfold, went completely slack—like someone had hit pause on her brain.