HP shaved off in one enormous chunk.
But not completely — which triggered the boss’s final phase.
It started thrashing.
5% HP left.
If Seo I-an had been on a repeat run, they could have hammered it together and never seen Phase 3. Thinking about it that way, he felt a small stab of regret.
He was mulling over that quietly when——
[Additional debuff applied to the Target Focus holder!]
A sound he’d never heard before.
The Target Focus holder here meant Seo I-an.
So he looked at her.
Bracing for a scene of furious rampaging.
……But what was she doing just standing there?
“Seo I-an-nim?”
Standing frozen in place like she’d been turned to stone, Seo I-an wasn’t moving at all.
Getting ready to use a skill?
No. Close-combat Awakened executed skills through physical movement. Standing still to cast was a ranged-type trait.
— Grrrk. Grrkk.
The black monster, visibly enraged, advanced toward Seo I-an.
“Seo I-an-nim!”
No answer.
If the other person couldn’t answer — he’d find out himself.
He blinked immediately, no hesitation.
[Seo I-an Status Screen]
[Currently afflicted by a binding debuff — completely unable to move!]
Park Si-woo had described debuffs as a slight slowdown, maybe a minor damage reduction — but this was a Hidden Dungeon, and the debuff here was something else entirely.
Though this was not the moment to be thinking about that.
— Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
That disgusting creature was charging straight toward his first-choice Special Strategy Team recruit.
“No — wait——”
When someone you know is in danger in front of you, your body moves on instinct.
So regardless of whether Seo I-an was on a first-time clear — he spun and pulled the trigger.
He didn’t forget to blink either.
— Fwip! Fwip!
Two arrows, landing precisely on the right-hand pinky fingernail.
HP dropped from 5% to 4%.
Oh. There’s potential here.
And then mist spreading in an instant.
The weapon option activating, damage-over-time beginning to tick.
He saw hope through the haze — and the monster pivoted and looked directly at him.
Right. An annoying little sting draws attention.
That was the intended outcome.
But.
……This is a bit of a problem.
He ran.
The boss ran after him.
Inventory screen!
Glowing in the first slot — the life insurance he’d made earlier.
The Invisibility Elixir, one each for him and Seo I-an.
His original plan: go invisible, hide, buy time until the exit window opened.
But his thinking had just changed.
He looked at the slot at position 4×3.
Debuff-cleanse potion.
The description said it could be applied by pouring it on the body, not just drinking it.
Park Si-woo had said to use it once, only when truly necessary because of the cooldown.
But he’d been with Seo I-an the whole time since then, and he’d never seen her use one.
Which meant: no cooldown to worry about.
He pulled the debuff-cleanse potion out without hesitation.
Then moved to throw it to Seo I-an——
A diagonal shadow dropped over him.
He looked up to find an enormous fist raised high overhead — and then it came down at him.
“Ugh!”
Pain crashing into his forearm.
So tears spring to your eyes from pain meant this.
He’d raised his arm to block — but the arm was what got hit.
He tried to pull himself back together, but his vision had gone dark somehow.
Then a small cluster of light crept into the corner of his eye.
He only realized belatedly that the mask had shattered on impact.
He pulled it off quickly to see — there was a wall.
Then he registered that it was actually the floor.
He’d gone face-first into the ground.
Fortunately, the debuff-cleanse potion he’d been gripping tightly hadn’t broken.
If I can just throw this over — it should be enough……
He tried to get up, but his body refused.
He was struggling when a shadow fell over him from above.
— Crunch.
He bit down on the capsule recovery potion he’d pre-loaded between his back teeth, forcing a recovery, and pulled the trigger again.
— Fwip!
Not Rapid Fire. Just a single shot.
With the arrow removed, and the debuff-cleanse potion mounted in its place.
Not aimed at the boss.
Aimed at Seo I-an.
Simple math could tell you.
If he hit the reverse scale from here — 1% off the boss’s HP, at best.
3% remaining.
But if Seo I-an could move?
That was the path where he might also survive.
If he couldn’t finish it himself, help someone else finish it.
People who don’t want to act look for excuses.
People who want to act look for ways.
And with his life on the line right now — this was the way he’d found.
He was worried about the aftermath, but as long as they were alive, Seo I-an would use a high-grade recovery potion or something to bring him back. He was sure of it.
The Seo I-an he’d experienced was absolutely the type to do that.
So — I trust her.
Even thinking that, fear was still fear.
He squeezed both eyes shut.
Then——
— Clink!
The sound of a glass bottle shattering.
— Fwoosh! — the savage cutting of wind, and simultaneously——
— CRAACKK!!
A terrifying detonation packed his eardrums.
And then, the sound he’d been desperately waiting for — a solid thunk — followed by——
[World Announcement: Awakened Seo I-an (Republic of Korea) has achieved an impossible feat!]
— Hidden Dungeon (Labyrinth) Survival!
[Hidden Dungeon (Labyrinth) Cleared!]
— 1st place: Seo I-an (Republic of Korea). 49 hours 22 minutes 32 seconds 07.
Came through.
And then——
“Seriously, what even was that debuff?! I could only move my EYES?!”
A voice full of excitement.
Even with both eyes shut tight, he could feel that she wasn’t jumping from joy — this was the leap of someone jolted by shock.
He let his eyes open slowly. Seo I-an was bouncing in place, energy beyond control.
“Oh my — did you see that? I literally almost just died! If it weren’t for you I’d have been gone?!”
Probably.
A debuff-cleanse potion was useless if you couldn’t move your hands to use it.
“Going to have to call you savior instead of bunny from now on? Hehehe!”
“Ha……”
Hearing her cackling oddly — he let out a sigh of relief he hadn’t known he was holding.
That was when the air finally cleared.
But why had Seo I-an’s name gone up in the ranking?
He hadn’t intended to — but this time he’d hit the boss.
He’d had no choice, with Seo I-an suddenly rooted in place.
Seeing someone he knew in danger in front of him — there was no pretending not to notice.
Is it because it was a Hidden Dungeon?
He’d think about that later.
“Well done. Didn’t I say you could do it?”
Still sitting on the floor, he looked up at her with a small smile.
And the answer that came back——
“Did you, Kim Woo-joo? Looks like you were right.”
He said Kim Woo-joo. What happened?
And suddenly speaking formally?
“Excuse me?”
His blank look prompted her to tap her own cheek with one finger.
“Oh.”
Right. The mask had broken.
If only he’d brought a spare.
He hadn’t thought he’d be taking hits in here.
He even felt a little aggrieved about it.
Though that wasn’t really the issue right now.
“Woo-joo. Weren’t we supposed to talk?”
Back to her usual speech. He exhaled.
“Right.”
Yes. They were.
They’d arranged to meet the day after running into each other at the Association.
Then she’d seemingly vanished off the face of the earth.
He’d been planning to ask her to become a member of the Special Strategy Team when they met.
But based on the conversation they’d had earlier, Seo I-an had been planning to ask him to join the guild she was building.
This was going to be a long conversation.
“But I’m too exhausted for it today.”
“You look it.”
Her eyes were drooping. The tension gone, the fatigue from two nights without sleep seemed to be arriving all at once.
“So call me tomorrow. I’ll come to you.”
“But Seo I-an-nim — Seo I-an-ssi. You know this stays between us, right?”
He gestured toward the shattered fragments on the floor — what had been a rabbit-shaped mask — and she shrugged.
“Yeah. If that’s what you want, I’ll respect it. It’s not like I have any leverage.”
A light smile, and she dropped down across from him.
Then asked with an amused look:
“By the way — is rabbit the trait?”
“Something like that.”
She stared into the air for a brief moment, then the corners of her mouth lifted.
“Oh — Woo-joo. Is that why you were asking about EXP potions?”
Now she was laughing openly.
She’d apparently been quietly working this through and smiling to herself.
“I need to eat EXP and grow too, don’t I?”
“Sure. And since we’ve met like this — want me to help?”
Here we go.
A feeler being put out.
The person who’d said they were too tired today and would talk tomorrow — where did that person go.
The moment she sensed an opening, she was in. Very Seo I-an of her.
“No. And I was the one planning to help you.”
“Hm?”
“Levels are everything. The faster you climb Towers, the easier it is to level — everyone knows that.”
“Right — so?”
She cut him off with so? as if to say she knew all this, get to the point.
“I don’t have EXP potions. But everything else that could help — I have.”
What was he missing other than EXP potions specifically?
“And the Special Floor — the one that hands out the most EXP and rewards. Follow me in, and I’ll carry you.”
A missing persons report had been filed for Seo I-an after she’d been out of contact for days — and not long after that, the world announcement reached every ear.
Everyone confirmed she was alive.
[Title] Bunny I love you!!!
[Author] Seo I-an
— I LOVE YOOOOU!!!!!!!!
Her first Community post in ages let everyone infer that the rabbit had helped her clear something called a Hidden Dungeon, which no one had ever heard of.
[Title] Hidden Dungeon is absolutely worth it~
[Author] Seo I-an
— The rewards are insane~ even better than the Special Floor lol
The follow-up post confirmed that whatever place this Hidden Dungeon was, the rewards were beyond imagination.
[Title] Bunny!!!!!!!!!!!!
[Author] Seo I-an
— You should have given me back my phone before you left!!!!!!!!!!!!
And the final post let everyone deduce that she had lost her phone somewhere.
└ [Anonymous07] why’s the phone missing? did you leave it with the rabbit?
└ [Seo I-an] left it but forgot to get it back
└ [Anonymous07] why did you leave it with them?
└ [Seo I-an] it was in the way when I was swinging a sword. told them to hold it.
[Wait, you actually handed it over to hold?]
“No. I said they could charge it.”
Back home, Seo I-an turned on her computer immediately and started posting back-to-back — partly to show the world she was fine, partly because she wanted to spike the blood pressure of the people at the top of the Association a little.
The moment the first post went up, the secondary phone she’d left at home started ringing.
She didn’t even need to check the name.
Obviously Park Si-woo.
She was right.
[Why didn’t you take your secondary phone?]
“I thought I’d be out quickly. Would I have only taken the main one if I’d known?”
[Anyway — the wandering merchant charges for phone charging now?]
“15 TC or something? Tower Merchants can’t lie, right?”
[……That’s true. So anyway, tell me what happened.]
Park Si-woo was talking on the phone while scrolling through the flood of missed calls piling up on the screen, and asked.
“Um…… so many things happened, I don’t even know where to start. First — I broke a sword. Vehr still wouldn’t sell today.”
[……I’ll get you one made within the week.]
A weapon was a lifeline for an Awakened.
Park Si-woo had already been swept into a frenzy of work after Seo I-an apparently cleared a Hidden Dungeon — but he couldn’t let the exhaustion show.
“As fast as possible! And strong!”
That immediately made him reconsider whether he should let it show a little.
Meanwhile, at that very moment.
Woo-joo stepped into Ragcho’s blue room and immediately lay flat on the floor and let himself breathe.
Not out of breath — he just needed a moment to decompress.
Ragcho watched him for a bit, then padded over to check on him.
And asked:
“How come there’s no mask today-nya?”