“Runes are one of the many blessings the dungeon grants. Whether or not you have a single skill acquired through a rune—inside the dungeon, that tiny difference can mean the difference between life and death. That’s what a rune is.”
Rune. One of the few gentle touches the dungeon offers to explorers.
And it was resting on Soren’s palm, shimmering here and there under the lantern light as if to say, “This belongs to you.”
Soren stared silently at the translucent, green tetrahedron.
‘What a strange feeling.’
This thing called a rune was a mystery to Soren.
It wasn’t as if he didn’t know runes existed—he’d already read the guidebook.
But there are things in the world that remain puzzling even when you know about them.
Like knowing that apples fall because of gravity, but still struggling to properly define what gravity is.
Soren slightly tilted his hand.
The rune rolled across his palm with a light wobble.
Even just rolling it in his hand, he felt some indescribable force emanating from it.
‘So then, this thing…?’
After watching the rune for a moment, Soren clenched his fist tightly around it.
Runes could be used in countless ways.
If one felt compatible, you could absorb it.
If not, you could always sell it.
Low-tier runes were relatively common, but there were far too many who thirsted for them.
To start with, the variety of runes was overwhelming—’too vast to include even in a comprehensive guidebook.’
Among all those runes, you still had to find the one you needed—’so a decent rune was that much more precious.’
Not every rune was valuable or expensive, though.
“Runes are categorized into three grades: low, medium, and high. Each has a distinct shape—tetrahedron, octahedron, and dodecahedron, respectively—so it’s very easy to tell them apart.”
Soren recalled the content from the guidebook, fumbling through the memory as he once again opened his palm.
The rune he held was a tetrahedron.
In other words, a low-tier rune.
Of course, even a low-tier rune could be in high demand if it was remotely usable.
One such rune could be the deciding factor between life and death, and for a novice explorer like Soren, this was practically a gift from the heavens.
‘Its value?’ Roughly four to five silver coins.
This tiny pebble was worth more than everything Soren currently owned.
Clutching the rune again, Soren closed his eyes for a moment.
The power he felt from the rune came in pulses, like waves.
By focusing on those waves as they spread out rhythmically, one could eventually identify the nature of the power it carried.
A few moments later, Soren opened his eyes, staring at the rune with a peculiar gaze.
Poison.
That single word was enough to define the rune’s power.
What Soren ultimately aimed for was the growth path outlined in the guidebook—a “hybrid warlock build.”
And according to the guide, poison runes were undoubtedly useful.
That meant there wasn’t much to hesitate about.
Still, considering the rune’s value, it wasn’t an easy decision.
For one thing, the body couldn’t absorb runes indefinitely.
In other words, the number of runes one could possess was limited.
It was like the Starting Room.
The Starting Room could barely hold four people, but try to cram in five, and it just wasn’t possible.
Runes worked the same way.
The guidebook referred to this limitation as a “rune socket.”
Soren’s brows furrowed.
The limited number of rune sockets was a problem, but right now there was a far more practical issue at hand.
‘Should he sell the rune for financial relief, or take the power for himself?’
‘The dungeon isn’t going anywhere. I’ll have to come back again and again. I can’t keep entering it powerless every time.’
Even if he ran out of rune sockets later, he could just remove one when the time came.
His hesitation didn’t last long.
Squeezing his eyes shut, Soren clenched the rune in his hand with the force to crush it.
With a sharp sound, the rune disintegrated into powder and flowed through his fingers.
Immediately after, a repulsive sensation surged down Soren’s arm.
It was deeply unpleasant—like a centipede crawling rapidly beneath the skin.
Soren didn’t particularly hate bugs, but that kind of ticklish sensation still gave him goosebumps.
He shuddered and squirmed for a moment, but soon opened his eyes, and a faint green glow shimmered within them.
“It’s done.”
What followed the discomfort was a strange new sensation.
It felt as if a hole in his mind had been filled.
A hole he’d never noticed before.
That, he figured, must be what they called a rune socket.
Dusting off his hands, Soren immediately moved forward.
Having absorbed the rune’s power, it was time to test it.
And that opportunity came sooner than expected.
***
“Kyerk! Kyerk!”
Crossing into the next chamber, Soren spotted an ugly green-skinned dwarf.
‘A goblin, huh? This might be doable.’
It was the perfect chance to test out his new rune’s power.
Small and quick, goblins weren’t exactly strong monsters.
Compared to the real threats that roamed the dungeon, a goblin was barely worth noticing.
The same went for explorers.
Even the dumbest of them could handle a goblin.
“Kyerk! Kyerk!”
“Kyarrrk!”
Of course, that only held true when it was one-on-one.
Hidden behind a rock deeper in the hallway, Soren watched the group of chattering goblins in the center of the room.
‘Four… no, five.’
There were five goblins.
A crease formed between Soren’s brows.
One or two might’ve been manageable, but five looked seriously tough.
That was the biggest reason to be wary of goblins.
They never traveled alone.
They always moved in groups of three or more, and if a dozen or more charged all at once, even experienced explorers would be done for.
Even they knew the truth: alone, they were powerless.
To survive, they had to stick together.
On top of that, goblins knew how to use tools.
The slings in their hands were proof of that.
‘Not a single easy thing here, huh.’
Soren was now in a tricky position.
‘Testing out his rune power?’ Fat chance.
If he poisoned three of them, he’d still have a rock embedded in his skull before they dropped.
Considering it took time for poison to kill, it wasn’t hard to imagine how this would end if he rushed in.
But going back wasn’t an option either.
This room was the only way forward.
He had no choice but to take them down and move on.
Soren dug through his bag and pulled out a small pouch.
Inside was a smooth, flat, oval-shaped black stone—curse stone.
“Dark shadow of the moon, grant the blessing of blindness to those before me, O great Kun Allak.”
He repeated the chant three times.
The hand holding the curse stone began to tremble, and a black shadow crept outward from the base of the staff in his left hand.
Curses weren’t especially destructive, but they were incredibly useful in almost any situation.
They were different from magic.
Magic consumed mana with each cast.
In contrast, curses borrowed power from higher beings.
And as always, a proper offering was required when dealing with curses.
“Kun Allak has arrived. What is your desire?”
A dark emotion soaked through Soren’s heart.
Like ripples spreading across a lake, that murky heaviness slowly expanded, and within it, a single desire left a bitter taste in Soren’s mouth.
Soren busily rummaged through their bag.
Before long, a well-dried frog leg was in their hand.
“Travel freely across the world as you wish, great Kun Allak.”
The frog leg instantly crumbled into dust.
At the same time, something changed.
A shadow flowed from the tip of the staff and shot swiftly toward the goblins.
The goblins rummaging through the bushes began to flail and run around wildly.
There was panic mixed into their screams.
Wherever the goblins stepped, the shadows splattered down like water.
It was like ink dripping and spreading on the surface of water.
Soren checked the goblins’ eyes, now stained pitch black.
They had gone completely blind.
Not missing the moment, Soren raised their staff.
Using rune power wasn’t something that could be easily explained, yet it wasn’t particularly difficult either.
It was more like pulling out the concept of “poison” embedded deep in one’s mind.
“Ka-haak-nal.”
At Soren’s quiet murmur, three barbs split from the tip of the staff and fired forward.
Like arrows, the barbs flew straight and struck the goblins with precision.
Thanks to that, the goblins began to thrash even more wildly.
Having achieved the intended effect, Soren slowly stepped into the room.
***
“Keruk?! Kekek!”
The goblins struck by the poison barbs began to change.
Blackened veins rose from the wounds, and soon their entire bodies turned bluish green.
They grabbed their necks and thrashed about, as if slowly drowning.
‘A poison that causes respiratory failure. Not bad.’
Soren quietly observed the scene.
The poisoned goblins wheezed and ran around aimlessly until they finally collapsed to the ground, limbs twitching.
By then, Soren felt sure they could use the rune power again.
“Ka-haak-nal.”
Two more barbs were launched.
That’s when something unexpected happened.
The goblins who had been rubbing their eyes suddenly turned their heads sharply toward the direction the barbs had come from.
Soren clicked their tongue softly.
The goblins’ eyes, once pitch black, were halfway restored.
Still, just because they had spotted Soren didn’t mean the outcome would change.
Even Soren didn’t know how to detoxify a poison born from rune magic.
The two goblins charging forward with clubs collapsed before they even reached Soren’s feet.
Backing away quickly, Soren stopped and caught their breath.
Five greenish goblin corpses lay scattered across the room.
‘I won.’
Soren had survived their first battle.
And surviving in a dungeon meant, conversely, that someone else did not.
There wasn’t much worth salvaging from the goblins.
They didn’t even have proper pouches—just roughly made leather sacks stuffed with various trinkets.
‘Why the hell would they carry animal droppings?’
Soren looked down at their palm with a grim expression.
Calling it “trinkets” was generous—it was basically garbage.
The only thing remotely worth keeping was a ring.
A bit crude, but if polished well, it might look stylish in its own way.
It was probably the last belonging of some unfortunate explorer.
Clicking their tongue again, Soren tucked the ring into their bag.
There was only one way out of the goblin room.
If something strange appeared and they needed to flee, he would have no choice but to run all the way back.
After walking for a bit, Soren came upon a different scene from before.
***
“A… door?”
It was a wooden door—unlike the previously open paths.
Dungeon corridors weren’t always open.
Sometimes there would be torches, or sometimes, like now, a door blocking the way.
Confirming there were no traps, Soren cautiously opened the door.
It swung open smoothly, unlocked.
‘An empty room?’
Beyond the door was a chamber filled with nothing but silence.
No vines, no overgrowth—just a stone floor.
Nothing more.
Hiding behind the door and scanning the room, Soren stepped inside only after confirming it was truly empty.
The room was completely vacant.
Not a single grain of dirt or even an ant in sight—it was eerie in its cleanliness.
Soren’s eyes quickly scanned the surroundings.
There were four pathways connected to the room.
The one they had just come from, and three others stretching forward and to both sides.
All of them sealed with doors.
‘This is… risky.’
Having multiple exits was a double-edged sword.
In an emergency, it meant more escape routes—but it also meant danger could come from any of them.
Monsters didn’t just sit still in rooms.
Sometimes they wandered the corridors.
And not just monsters—people were just as dangerous. Explorers and thieves were practically the same thing.
It would’ve been nice to move right on to the next room, but Soren had a problem.
‘I’m dead tired.’
Dungeons weren’t particularly spacious.
And since it was pitch dark, Soren had relied solely on a lantern’s light.
They were mentally exhausted.
Having companions would have made things better.
Soren forced their heavy eyelids open.
He had entered the dungeon around noon.
It was probably late evening by now.
Time to eat and rest.
Clunk—
“…?”
Soren’s half-drooping eyes snapped open.
Unless their hearing was off, they had definitely heard a faint sound from somewhere.
Soren quietly stepped back and returned to the corridor he had come from.
The door creaked shut, leaving a narrow gap.
The lantern’s light was blocked.
Soren pressed their face close to the crack.
“Damn it, it’s hot as hell. We’ve been running around since day one.”
“Some idiot just had to go poke a beehive to get some honey.”
“Screw you. Like that was my fault?”
Soon, four figures emerged from the door of the opposite corridor.
A warrior with a big club and small shield, an archer with a bow, a bald man with bare hands, and a woman holding a staff.
‘A staff… that’s tricky.’
Soren scrutinized the woman with the staff.
She could be a mage, an illusionist, maybe even a necromancer.
It was hard to tell just by looks.
But judging from the absence of a strange aura, she likely wasn’t a shaman.
“Calm down. Someone might hear us.”
The bald man spoke calmly.
The noisy three clammed up right away.
But it was already too late for that.
Clunk!
This time, more people burst out from the left corridor.
Soren’s gaze shifted that way.
Two men and a woman.
They had come in a hurry, panting heavily, then slowly stood and began glaring at the first group.
“Who the hell are they?”
“Hey! Don’t come any closer!”
“We’ve got no choice. We need a place to rest.”
Seven explorers now stood in the room—two parties eyeing each other warily.
Soren’s face twisted with frustration.
This was an awful situation.
They needed rest, but there was no way to sleep soundly with other explorers nearby.
Going back was also not ideal.
Tomorrow, Soren would have to retrace this path again, which meant wasting time.
And even if they did turn back, there was no guarantee of a safe place to sleep.
‘Turning back would be a mistake. Maybe it’s better to play both sides.’
If it were just one party, Soren might be in trouble—but between two wary groups, Soren was less likely to become a target.
Besides, Soren could use a temporary ally.
“If you want to sleep peacefully in a dungeon, having someone to keep watch was vital.”
“What the hell’s that now?”
“A mage?”
Eventually, Soren opened the door and stepped out.
As Soren slowly entered the room, seven pairs of eyes focused on them.
Rumble!
“W-what the hell?!”
“Shit!”
And in that instant, the floor collapsed entirely.
Feeling the sensation of falling wrap around them, Soren instinctively shut their eyes tight.
“Ah, for crying out loud…!”
‘Seriously, could their luck be any worse?’