S-Class Except Me

The Nightmare screamed in agony, holding his ears that had completely disappeared without even shedding blue blood. When the Nightmare felt his life was in danger, he desperately cried out.

“I, if you kill me, Lord Nebiros will find out!”

“It doesn’t matter because I have to catch him anyway. Do whatever you want.” 

“Ugh…! P, please. Free me, and I will tell you where the treasure is!” 

“I don’t need it.” 

“Master’s treasure is not just a thing. It’s such a great record! You will definitely love it!” 

At the word record, Haeun paused.

Nebiros’ notebook, which Haeun aimed at targeting Dungeon, is also a record of his research.

It seemed that the demon in front of her knew the whereabouts of the notebook Haeun was looking for. The strength in Haeun’s hands loosened very slightly.

“Really?”

“I swear by Neviros!”

“Okay.”

When the demon makes a promise, betting on a higher-ranking demon is the same as risking one’s own life, so that statement wouldn’t be false. Haeun let go of the Nightmare.

The Nightmare, who was finally free, grabbed his neck and groaned. Haeun thrust a well-sharpened dagger at the Nightmare. 

“Lead ahead.”

The Nightmare nodded his head in terror.

The freed Nightmare stuttered against the wall. When he touched some sort of hidden lock, she heard a rattle, and the door burst open. Beyond the door was a spiral staircase leading upward.

Ha-eun raised her right eyebrow at the existence of a secret passage that was not even mentioned in the genealogy.

“I will guide you.”

The Nightmare entered the secret passage first with a trembling body. As Haeun followed, the door creaked and closed.

As she went up the spiral stairs, she saw an iron door with a stream of light coming out of it. She wondered if it was locked, but when the Nightmare touched it, the door unexpectedly opened right away.

“This is the collection room of the Lord Nebiros.” 

It was a hexagonal room. There seemed to be nothing unusual about it except that armed skeletons stood like ornaments at every corner.

Haeun quickly looked around the room.

Unlike the main building of the mansion where the lower demons were stationed, there was no one here. Because it was so quiet that not a single ant passed by, she could hear the rain outside the window more clearly.

The Nightmare wiggled his long fingers and said cautiously to Haeun. 

“T, then, I’m free now, right?” 

“Eung, yeah.” 

“T, thank you…!” 

Slash—.

But at that moment, the dagger that Haeun was holding cut off the Nightmare. 

The neck was cut off, but the head rolled its scared eyes as if it didn’t want to die right away. After a while, the golden mana that shone along the cut surface exploded with a bang.

Bang— A short vibration sounded in the room.

Looking down at the floor where no trace was left, Haeun coldly brushed her hair.

“I didn’t say I’d let you go alive.”

You shouldn’t have imitated him. 

Haeun mercilessly turned her body around. Even when Oh Jinyoung picks a fight with her, her mood wasn’t that bad. 

Haeun quickly looked around the room, determined to find the target notebook and get out of the dungeon as soon as possible. However, despite searching everywhere, the notebook was not found.

“As expected, Nebiros has it.”

Haeun clicked her tongue. 

However, instead of the leather notebook, there was something that caught Haeun’s attention.

It was a huge picture frame covered with a red velvet cloth. Only one frame was hidden. It’s just a frame, but somehow she felt magic similar to and familiar to Haeun in that object. She wondered what was contained in the frame beyond the cloth.

Haeun, who was hesitating, eventually approached the frame. She pulled the cloth that covered the frame little by little, wary of the surroundings. 

At that moment, the space where Haeun was stepping began to shake and shatter.

The scent of flowers was so strong that the surroundings changed and felt terrible. A cool breeze tickled Haeun’s cheeks.

When her sight returned, what Haeun faced was an open-air exterior. 

“Where is this?”

For a moment, she wondered if she had landed in a strange place.

However, she soon saw a huge mansion and a garden with swaying stone mountains, confirming that this was the mansion of Nebiros.

The place where Haeun stood still was also on the willow pillar, which she thought was like a ghost riding a swing.

The rain that had been pouring down like a storm had stopped, and the dazzling sun was rising. Haeun pulled her cheek all the way.

“Ouch.” 

Seeing the pain, it’s not a dream.

“Am I possessed by a ghost?”

It definitely has the same appearance, but it felt like a different space. Or could this be the “record” that the Nightmare was talking about?

[SYSTEM: View the entered dungeon information.]

[Mansion of Nebiros (B)]

Fortunately, the system window of the dungeon was working normally. Seeing that there were no alarms coming up, it didn’t seem like she was moved to another space like when she got Noodles the other day. 

“I need to go back first.”

If she re-enters the mansion and finds Seo Dojoon and the others, she will know for sure if this place is real or an illusion.

Holding on to a branch of a willow tree, Haeun looked down at the floor and measured the angle at which she would jump.

“One, two…” 

But the moment she counted to three and was about to jump, something that jumped out of Haeun’s wrist stopped Haeun. 

Shh, shh.

“Noodle?” 

Startled, Haeun grabbed a tree and staggered as she tried to jump. It was Noodle.

Noodle that had been sleeping without showing its face for nearly two months had woken up!

“Noodle! Are you okay now?”

The smart Noodle nodded as if he understood Haeun’s question. Tears welled up in Haeun’s eyes.

This is because even though she knew that the condition of Noodle wasn’t good, she had no way to solve it, so she was just looking at it.

According to Kim Hyunseok’s research results, Noodle is more of an item than a monster, but Haniel’s blacksmiths and Jung Jinho both shook their heads, saying that they couldn’t fix Noodle. 

“That’s a relief. You can’t be sick now, okay? Do you understand? My heart almost drop.” 

Shh, shh.

“Our smart Noodle understands what I mean, right? I…” 

Haeun, who was making a fuss, stopped talking. She felt an unfamiliar presence.

Looking around, Haeun noticed that someone was entering from the entrance of the mansion in the distance.

Whoosh—.

“Shh.”

Haeun lowered herself while holding on to Noodle that danced happily. She hid behind swaying willow leaves and peeked at the opponent in the distance.

Because the face couldn’t be identified correctly due to the distance, Haeun looked for the Constellation.

“Do you see who it is?”

There was no reply from the Constellation. Haeun lowered her voice and asked again.

“Can’t you see?”

There is still no answer. Haeun scratched her head at the strange quiet situation. There were times when the Constellation ignored Haeun’s questions, but this time it didn’t seem necessary.

‘Anyway, he’s not here when I need it.’

Instead of pushing Constellation to answer, Haeun focused on the characters she could see in the distance.

There weren’t many people in the group. There were only three. It seemed like they were talking to each other, but she couldn’t hear them at all. 

At that moment, the ground began to ring.

Small stones bounced and vibrated on the ground. The dust rose. Bones began to pop out of the ground like sprouts blooming in spring.

These are skeleton soldiers who never die and come back to life.

Doo doo doo.

Skeleton soldiers who came out of the ground created a huge undead wave.On rainy days, the soldiers, who were constantly mumbling, lined up like a kind of army under the bright sunlight. It seemed quite plausible to create a gloomy atmosphere with a blunt weapon.

Haeun, who was sitting on the tree, decided to watch the situation for now.

Clap, she heard a sound like a clap.

At the same time, as if an error had occurred, the system window in front of her shook and scratched. 

It wasn’t just the system. The dungeon Haeun had entered was also trembling violently as if a natural disaster had occurred.

The whole body’s senses went on high alert and sent a warning message to Haeun. 

Dddrrrrt—.

Before she knew it, several large and small circular pathways had appeared in the big garden. It was similar to Haeun’s ability, but the places beyond it were various places in the dungeon, not another dimension.

Various places could be seen, such as the big iron gate at the entrance to the dungeon, the ominous garden with stone mountains, and the main building on the house’s first floor, where a lower-level demon lived. 

The space was connected to each other, and there were three people at the end.

“That’s amazing.” 

Haeun blankly muttered, forgetting that she was spying on her opponent.

That person with similar power was using this power much more carefully and skillfully than Haeun. 

Haeun could open the door but couldn’t specify what was beyond. In addition, rather than attacking by controlling the flow, it was closer to using the collision and explosion of disparate energies that couldn’t mix with each other.

However, the opponent in front of her seems to control the dimension with perfect intentions.

Shhh.

Noodle waggled its tail in response to the magic filling the space.

Forgetting that time was passing, Haeun blankly gazed at the sight.