ALL NOVEL chapter 2
002. Empty Skill Book
There are two bosses in this dungeon.
The first is the black dragon.
And the second is the hidden boss ‘Statue’ in the hidden dungeon [Tomb of Myths].
I’m after the second.
The beginning of Awakened Hunter is the hidden dungeon [Tomb of Myths] inside this dungeon.
I must get my hands on [Myth of Ashter] in there no matter what.
‘Honestly, if you have regressions, you could give me that much right?’
This dungeon consists of endless forks like a maze with no end in sight.
Taking just one wrong turn could cost you your life, even with multiple lives.
First path.
Third path.
Second path.
Fifth path.
I moved forward, mapping out the guidebook’s map in my head.
Despite walking for quite some time, I hadn’t encountered any monsters yet.
I gripped the dagger I brought from Kim Siwoo’s room.
‘I brought the dagger just in case, but I didn’t expect things to go this smoothly.’
This dungeon is the author’s convenient device to give Lee Sunghyun abilities.
According to the settings, you won’t encounter monsters as long as you don’t get the paths confused.
“It benefits me, but….”
Though complex, the paths were familiar to me after poring over the settings collection, a bonus in the novel’s physical edition, many times.
After about 20 minutes of walking, forks in the path ceased to appear.
Instead, only the closed off wall of a cave was visible.
“What’s going on here?…”
Originally, there should have been a path connecting to the hidden dungeon here.
‘Could I have gotten lost?’
That wasn’t possible.
I definitely moved according to the depiction in Awakened Hunter.
Swallowing my saliva, I approached the cave wall.
Only then did I notice a long, narrow passage below.
“This is….”
No wonder it wasn’t noticeable.
Could this even be called a passage?
More than a passage, it looked like a small burrow.
I crouched to squeeze my body into the passage filled with moisture and moss.
Then I noticed small letters.
“There’s something like this here, too.”
Words that occasionally appear in dungeons.
They contain various backstory elements but are so vague, it’s difficult to guess their meaning without the author providing hints.
Awakened Hunter has countless devices like this for readers to infer on their own.
But since they don’t help clear dungeons, few readers cared.
[Tomb of Myths, where the records of souls flow.
A tomb buried in forgotten mysteries.
The seeds of the three gods guard what man must not covet.]
[God’s whispers, hiding over there.]
“It took quite some effort to figure out what these meant….”
I compared them one by one to the settings collection that no one cared about and figured it out.
The identity wasn’t anything special.
It was about the hidden clear method for [Dungeon of Myths].
‘I was pretty thrilled when the author acknowledged it in an email….’
…
Upon reaching the end of the passage, faint light began to emerge.
My back ached after crouching for so long so I stretched.
“I’ve finally arrived.”
A wall-like massive door.
Sculpted reliefs on the door like ancient Roman carvings.
The blue torchlight illuminating the door overwhelmed the atmosphere.
No doubt, beyond this door was the hidden dungeon [Tomb of Myths].
“I can’t believe I’m seeing this with my own eyes.”
Getting possessed into this world was surely the worst.
But as a settings enthusiast, my heart pounded with excitement.
What could be obtained here were two Skill Books, [Myth of Ashter] and [Empty Skill Book].
As the name suggests, [Empty Skill Book] is a blank Skill Book.
Its special trait is it records the narrative of its wielder within its pages to grant powerful abilities.
Of course, even filling it with the narrative built up over a lifetime grants normal people barely one decent ability at best.
However, regressers return again and again no matter how many times they die.
The amount of narrative engraved on their souls is incomparably massive.
That’s why it’s an item made just for the regresser Lee Sunghyun.
“…Still better than nothing, I guess.”
I’d be getting both soon anyway.
Suppressing my rising lips, I approached the door.
…?
Something was off.
The temple door that should have been shut tight was slightly ajar.
‘Could Sunghyun have already arrived?’
Impossible.
There were no other paths leading here.
“I must be imagining things….”
The path here was absurdly narrow as well.
It must be that such details were omitted in Awakened Hunter’s depiction.
Pretending not to hear the sound of my mental picture crumbling, I stepped past the temple door.
Beyond the door was a short yet massive passageway.
What lay beyond was a huge, majestic, dome-shaped dungeon like a temple.
At both ends were statues of two knights kneeling with massive swords, bodies pressed to the ground.
Hidden amidst the overwhelming atmosphere of the temple, covered in moss and easily overlooked, was also a statue of a woman praying.
Everything was as described in the novel.
Including Lee Sunghyun standing in the center.
Impossible.
The gate had appeared right before my eyes.
There’s no way he could have arrived before me.
Just in case, I didn’t wait for the right timing and recklessly jumped into the gate.
“How…”
My plan was completely ruined.
Sunghyun had already obtained the complete Skill Book [Myth of Ashter] and awakened.
The two massive statues in the temple would start moving now that Sunghyun had the Skill Book.
Dungeon rewards are proportional to the gate’s size.
The bosses of this gate were those statues.
Sunghyun knows this as well, but focuses on figuring out the statues’ patterns until the 5th regression.
The statues chase any intruder relentlessly to the end.
In other words, Sunghyun of the 5th regression or earlier doesn’t have the ability to take down the statues yet, while also finding them annoying.
If this was Awakened Hunter of the 6th regression or later, Sunghyun would defeat the statues to obtain the dungeon’s rewards.
But what if this world was before the 6th regression?
If Sunghyun discovers me….
‘I die.’
Sunghyun began moving towards the exit, dodging the statues moving as if it were familiar.
He had nearly perfectly figured out their patterns, but not to the point of fighting back yet.
‘It’s the 5th!’
As the thought hit me, I dashed to get out of here.
The statues had already begun moving.
I have to get out before Sunghyun notices me, or I die.
At that moment, an intense pain as if my left thigh was pierced, and my face slammed into the floor.
“Ugh….”
As I grimaced in pain, Sunghyun came over and grabbed me by the collar, lifting me up.
‘Damn…he’s observant.’
“What’s this? Some new development I haven’t seen before….”
It was the first thing to happen inside the dungeon on Sunghyun’s way here until the 5th regression.
He must be confused.
“How did you get in here?”
“Haa…haa…I ran in here escaping monsters. hahahaha….”
“Monsters…? Could it be influenced by what I did in the 4th regression….”
Sunghyun wouldn’t directly kill me anyway.
Once he realizes I’m trash that poses no threat, he’ll use me as bait to get around the annoying statues.
Sunghyun’s pupils flashed gold.
The unique skill [All-Seeing Eyes].
A clairvoyance skill that can peek into an opponent’s Skill Book.
“What the, nothing to worry about at all. How convenient.”
Sunghyun tossed me away and left the dungeon alone.
“Sacrifice yourself instead.”
Sealing the entrance with his skill.
“…Crazy bastard.”
I expected Sunghyun would act this way.
If you’re going to use me as bait, at least make sure I’m in one piece….
With Sunghyun gone, the statues’ gazes naturally turned to me.
The exit was sealed.
Even awakened Sunghyun struggled against them.
Taking those down is impossible.
“So what should I do now….”
I have no physical ability or dynamic vision, but I know all the knight statues’ patterns.
I should be able to evade them.
“Hoo….”
The moment I entered the statues’ attack range, they raised their massive swords.
The first strike would be slamming down their swords followed by immediately leaping and striking again.
Simple attacks but even one hit would mean the end.
Clutching my bleeding thigh, I got up and ran.
Boom-
Boom-
Boom-!
‘Haa…haa…how can they move like that with bodies like those….’
The moment their attack ended, the statues immediately lifted their swords with the tips pointed at the sky.
“Give me a break!”
That’s the [Meteor Strike] pattern.
The temple ceiling will become the night sky, and meteors will start falling.
Soon enough, a blue fog filled the temple interior and the Milky Way unfolded across the sky.
“…Should I make a wish?”
There was only one way to survive anyway.
Getting close to the edges of the temple would drastically decrease the frequency of meteor strikes.
‘The problem is how to run over there with these legs….’
Gritting my teeth, I started running towards the end of the temple.
If I can just survive until that pattern, I can figure something out.
For now, run!
…
“It’s quite a spectacle seeing it up close….”
It’s about time for me to get out but….
Sunghyun probably thinks the clear condition for this dungeon is destroying the statues.
Only those with [Myth of Ashter] can manage something like that.
[Tomb of Myths] has its own carefully crafted lore.
[Tomb of Myths, where the records of souls flow.
A tomb buried in forgotten mysteries.
The seeds of the three gods guard what man must not covet.]
[God’s whispers, hiding over there.]
Rather than crudely smashing the statues with force.
It’s a dungeon that requires solving riddles.
The meteor shower was settling down.
The two statues took up stances with swords placed on their shoulders.
At that moment, the air in the temple chilled sharply.
Blue light poured out of the statues’ eyes.
The [Flash Strike] pattern!
An attack striking at speeds making the trajectory invisible after 10 seconds of paralysis.
But it doesn’t matter to me.
What’s important is I’m given 10 seconds until Flash Strike.
I gripped the dagger in my right hand.
“10 seconds!”
I dashed towards the praying statue covered in moss.
The riddle of the Tomb of Myths.
[The myth-guarding statues will listen to the voice of God and follow.]
The solution is simple.
If the statues move according to God’s voice, then make it so they can’t hear that voice.
The one transmitting God’s voice as His proxy in the temple is the priestess.
In other words, that woman quietly praying back there.
“1 second left, please make it!”
I swung the dagger with all my might at the praying statue.
[Pitiful Single Strike]!!
The dagger stabbed straight into the statue’s mouth.
And the blue light pouring from the statue’s eyes went out.
Still gripping the massive sword, it stopped right before me, heat yet to fade.
“Haa…haa…did it stop?”
Exactly 1 second.
If I was just 1 second late, I would have gotten a game over just one day after getting possessed.
As everything halted, the temple’s exterior crumbled like a sandcastle.
Lying there was a thick tome.
The reward for clearing this dungeon.
It looks as shabby as I expected [Empty Skill Book] to be.
“All that effort just for this….”
Even filled with my unremarkable narrative, it likely wouldn’t grant any worthwhile abilities.
But to compensate for Kim Siwoo’s garbage Skill Book, having something is better than nothing.
I let out a sigh and reached for the book.
At that moment, pages started flipping like crazy.
“What…what’s this?”
Did Awakened Hunter have any descriptions like this?
[Your narrative is being recorded into the Empty Skill Book.]
[Engraving the Empty Skill Book onto your soul.]
[The amount of your narrative is massive. Unlocking new abilities.]
[Unlocked Growing Skill Book.]
At the same time, I felt a pain I’d never experienced before.
Like my soul was being rewritten.
[Syncing with existing Skill Book]
[Skill Book genre changed: Essays]
Even amidst my blurring consciousness, I understood.
Clearly.
The ability I just gained is different from the [Empty Skill Book] Sunghyun obtained.
Something no one in all of Awakened Hunter had ever gained before.
In a world where all value is determined by Skill Books engraved on you at birth. An unreal ability where the Skill Book itself grows.
[Skill Book page limit removed.]