Chapter 2 : The Rush

For Han Maru,the worst part of mining wasn't the physical strain, but the silence that left him alone with his thoughts—a silence Bo-gum broke by wiping his brow with a dusty sleeve. "We kind of lucked out this time. This dungeon is low rank. Feels almost safe."

Si-eun chuckled, a low sound in the cavern's gloom. "'Safe' is a strong word. Don't get cocky." He leaned on his pickaxe. "Remember the drill. Every time a cave dungeon appears, we split. The real Hunters form a raid team to hunt the boss. We," he said, gesturing to their group, "are the mining team. We've got limited time until they win... or until we all get spat out."

He tapped his Hunter Brace. "At least we don't have to haul gear anymore. My sword's right here if anything nasty pops up." He then grinned, first at Han Maru, then at Onjo. "And we've got our miracle survivor Maru here, thanks to our very own miner healer—my dongsaeng—who wouldn't leave a man behind."

Onjo, who was carefully examining a mana-seam in the wall, flinched and her ears turned bright red. She ducked her head, focusing intently on her work.

Si-eun laughed. "Aw, look! Onjo's gone all red! Anyway, thanks to you, we didn't lose our best shot with the mana pistol. That was some quick thinking back in Jadestone."

Han Maru flinched. The memory wasn't a story of heroism—it was a shadow, searing pain, and the terrifying feeling of a foreign heart beating in his chest. Onjo's desperate, panicked healing magic had sealed his fate as much as the Nightmors' claw did.

"L-lucky," Maru mumbled, the word tasting like ash as it caught in his throat. "You s-shouldn't have c-come back for me."

Onjo shook her head fiercely, still not looking up. "C-couldn't leave you," she whispered.

An awkward, heavy silence fell over the group, the memory of that day a shared ghost in the dank air.

It was broken minutes later by their Braces vibrating. A new voice, tense with focus, came through the comms—the raid team's scout.

<<"Mining team, this is Raid Lead. We've made contact with the dungeon boss. Engagement in progress. Estimate you have a limited window. Proceed with extraction.">>

Bo-gum nodded, all business again. "You heard him! We're on the clock! Let's move it! Focus on the high-yield veins!"

The pace of work intensified. The steady clang of pickaxes became a more frantic rhythm. At one point, a low-level Rock Golem Fighter, attracted by the noise, burst from a wall. Before anyone else could react, Han Maru's mana pistol was already in his hand. A single, sharp crack of blue energy lanced out, vaporizing the monster.

Si-eun laughed, brushing rock dust from his suit jacket. "See? No damage except to the dry cleaning bill! Good shot, Maru!" He then pointed at the few glowing shards of mana-infused rock left behind. "Jung! There's your snack! You earned it."

The metallic lizard perked up, waddled over, and began happily crunching on the mineral remains.

Onjo watched with a soft smile, pulling a small, smooth blue stone from her own pocket. "I found this for him earlier," she said, offering it to Jung once he was done. Jung took it gently with a pleased chirp.

"Hey, save some for the quota, Onjo!" Si-eun said, but he was grinning. It was a well-worn joke. Everyone on the team kept an eye out for "Jung's snacks." It was just part of being a team.

They worked until their muscles ached, filling their Brace inventories with raw mana metal ore and the occasional dull elemental shard.

Then, the Hunter Braces on their wrists vibrated again. This time, it was the raid team leader, his voice now sharp with urgency and the echo of fading combat.

<<"Boss is down! I repeat, boss is down! Gate is destabilizing! Get to the exit, now! We're heading out!">>

Almost simultaneously, a soft ping echoed in each of their minds—a simple, urgent alert from their personal Status Windows, confirming the dungeon's imminent collapse.

The mining team froze, remembering how far they were from the gate.

Bo-gum's face paled. "They're already leaving! They didn't give us any warning! RUN!"

The mining team dropped everything. Pickaxes vanished into their Brace inventories as they broke into a frantic sprint down the dark, winding tunnel. Their goal was just ahead: the shimmering light of the exit.

They were so close. They could see the silhouettes of the raid team hunters calmly stepping through the gate portal, one by one, disappearing to safety. The last one turned to them, shouted "Hurry!" then stepped into the gate.

Panic surged through them.

And then the world began to dissolve around them.

The air hummed, the tunnel walls started to flicker and warp like a bad signal. There was no pain, no danger—just the deeply unsettling feeling that reality itself was rejecting them.

"Oh no, not again!" Si-eun moaned, pumping his arms to run faster.

It was too late.

The world dissolved into a nauseating swirl of light and sound. The sensation was like being shoved headfirst into a spinning washing machine.

**FOOM!**

A moment later, the mining team was violently deposited back onto the familiar cracked asphalt of a Seoul backstreet.

Onjo landed with a soft yelp, tumbling into an undignified heap. Si-eun sprawled on the street, skidding on his expensive suit jacket. Jung toppled onto him, making Si-eun yell "UGH!" Han Maru kissed the pavement face-first, a sharp pain blooming on his cheekbone. A faint skitter-skitter sound told him his glasses had flown off into the gloom.

The unstable dungeon gate behind them shuddered and collapsed with a final, pathetic pop, sealing shut as if it had never been there at all.

Silence. Then a collective groan.

For Han Maru, the world had dissolved into a smear of dull colors and indistinct shapes. His enhanced senses were still there—he could hear Si-eun's groaning with crystal clarity, smell the ozone from the vanished gate—but something was wrong. The world was too blurry. Even for him.

A cold knot of panic tightened in his stomach. He blinked rapidly, but the fuzzy silhouettes of his teammates and the dark street refused to resolve.

His glasses...

His hands flew to his face. Nothing. His fingers found only the sore bridge of his nose where the frames should have been.

Si-eun pushed himself up, a blurry figure inspecting a new dirt stain on his elbow, then rubbing his back from Jung's weight. "Every time... I feel like I've been through a dryer filled with rocks."

Bo-gum got to his feet, wincing and rubbing his lower back. "Note to self... next time, bribe the raid team to stall the boss when they're almost dead so we can retreat to the gate first. Then when the boss is defeated we can safely get out."

Slowly, they all picked themselves up, a collection of aches, bruises, and wounded pride. Bo-gum looked at his team—disheveled, dirty, but alive. Then he noticed Maru, frozen with his usual glasses missing from his nose.

Maru's breath caught in his throat. "M-my... my glasses," he stammered, his voice tight with a panic that made the words seize in his throat, each one a struggle to force out. "I c-can't— I can't see!"

"Whoa, okay, hold on!" Si-eun said, grabbing Jung's arm to keep the curious lizard in place. "Jung, please don't move! You might accidentally step on them with your big feet! Everyone, look for Maru's glasses!"

The team, used to the routine of looking out for each other, immediately started scanning the ground, now careful of where they stepped.

"Over here!" Onjo called out softly a moment later. She was crouched a few feet away. Before Maru could clumsily stumble over, she had already picked up the delicate wire-frame glasses.

Maru heard her gentle footsteps approach. He froze, his hands still held out in a blind groping motion.

"Here, Maru-ssi," she murmured. He felt her fingers gently take his wrist and turn his hand over. The cool, familiar shape of his glasses was placed into his palm. "I... I wiped the lenses on my sleeve. They're not broken."

The simple, kind act left him speechless for a second, the words lodging themselves behind a familiar, stubborn block in his mind. "Oh... th-thank you, Onjo," he finally managed to push out, the gratitude clear even through the halting, fractured delivery.

He slid them on, and the world finally snapped back into sharp, familiar focus—the first thing he saw was Onjo's concerned face looking up at him, then the cracks in the asphalt, and Bo-gum's weary expression. It was a small but vital return to normalcy.

"Aigooo..." he groaned with relief, his shoulders slumping. His hand then unconsciously drifted to his chest, resting over his sternum where a heartbeat that wasn't entirely his own thumped steadily.

Bo-gum clapped him on the shoulder. "Alright. Everyone in one piece? Good. Time to go to the Weapon Armory Guild. I think we've earned our payment... and a strong drink."

As they trudged away down the Seoul backstreet—four people in torn, dusty suits and one lizard in a tie—Han Maru couldn't decide if he felt like a survivor or a punchline.

But at least he wasn't alone.

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