Chapter 31: Three Months of Final Preparation for Guild Black Rose

Ular set foot on the top floor, then stopped in front of a door guarded by two security personnel. One of them noticed the ring bearing the high-rank insignia of Guild Black Rose on his hand, then immediately stepped aside to clear the way.

"Ular-nim, the guild master is waiting for you."

Ular did not reply. He looked at the closed door before him, and a sudden, intense sense of unease rose in his chest.

The hand wearing the ring tightened slightly. For some reason, at that very moment, Ular suddenly recalled Kei’s words: If there truly is no other way... break the spatial stone.

Ular took a deep breath, then reached out and opened the door.

Inside the room, the guild master of Black Rose, also a warrior-class hunter, Yudian, was standing before a large screen. On the screen was a map of Dong-San City, along with dozens of red dots blinking continuously.

Ular looked at those red dots, and his pupils immediately contracted.

"This is..."

Yudian turned his head to look at his younger brother, his usually calm face now heavy with a suffocating seriousness.

"Three Dungeon gates have simultaneously shown abnormal fluctuations."

He paused for a moment, then said:

"And the last hunter team that entered them has just lost contact."

Ular stepped closer to the screen, looking at the energy lines overlapping one another on the map. The three red dots that had only been blinking faintly before had now turned into a deep, dark red, like wounds bleeding openly on the body of Dong-San City.

"How long has this been going on?"

"Nearly two months."

Yudian raised his hand to zoom in on the map. Figures and charts immediately appeared before the two of them.

"At first the fluctuations were very mild, appearing only for a short time before vanishing. The hunter teams entering the Dungeons could still complete their missions, so the Guild only monitored them quietly without announcing the news to the outside."

Ular frowned.

"If it’s been going on for two months, why is it only now becoming this serious?"

"Because it’s changing."

Yudian’s voice dropped.

"Within the past week, the evaluation ranks of the three Dungeons have increased. A Dungeon originally rated as D-rank has seen monsters with strength equivalent to C-rank appear. One C-rank Dungeon was re-measured as B-rank in less than three days."

Ular stared at the numbers on the screen, his expression gradually turning grim.

"The Dungeon ranks are being elevated in an abrupt way..."

"Not just that."

Yudian pointed to another chart.

"The casualty rate among newly entering hunter teams has also risen. They didn’t die from making ordinary mistakes. Most of the teams lost contact right after entering the deeper areas of the Dungeon."

Ular remembered the words he had just said to Lee Jae Ji and Hanna. The two of them were still optimistic, still believing that as long as they were careful, nothing would happen. But if even experienced teams were losing contact one after another, then what meaning did ordinary caution have left?

"Have you reported this to the Association yet?"

"No."

Yudian shook his head, his expression extremely grave.

"If an official report is submitted and the comprehensive evaluation rank of Dong-San City is raised, Guild Black Rose will no longer have the right to manage this city."

Ular was silent.

Guilds are classified by rank, and cities are also evaluated based on the number and level of Dungeons appearing in their area. A city with too many dangerous Dungeons will attract higher-ranked Guilds to take over, because that means enormous resources and money!

And once that happens, Black Rose would be forced to leave Dong-San.

Yudian clenched his hand, looking at the city map that had been with them for over a decade.

"When that time comes, everything we’ve poured our hearts into here will have to be handed over to another Guild. They’ll take over the Dungeons, recruit the hunters, control all the business operations... and we’ll have no choice but to leave."

Ular lowered his eyes.

Since he was young, he had lived in Dong-San City. The street in front of the Guild headquarters, the shops around the market district,even the old, decrepit residential areas on the outskirts were places he had passed through countless times.

Moreover, in this city, the Black Rose Guild was the sky above everyone.

They protected the residential areas from monsters, provided jobs for hunters, treated the wounded, and maintained order among the countless Dungeon Gates.

If they had to leave this place, it would be no different from willingly abandoning their own families.

"Is there really no other way?"

Ular asked, his voice growing hoarse.

Yudian did not answer right away. He reached out and switched to another screen, then zoomed in on the eastern district of Dong-San City.

A B-rank Dungeon Gate appeared right in the center of the map.

"There’s still hope."

Yudian looked toward that Dungeon Gate, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes.

"We’ve identified the source of this abnormality."

Ular took a step forward.

"The source?"

"The first energy fluctuation was detected at this B-rank Dungeon Gate."

Yudian pointed at the red light trails spreading out from the Dungeon Gate, connecting to other points on the map.

"Every time the other Dungeons fluctuate, this place reacts at the same moment. The intensity of the fluctuations here is always higher than everywhere else. If it’s not the source, then at the very least, something unusual is happening inside it."

Ular looked at the image of the gate on the screen. The B-rank Dungeon Gate had already been sealed off by barriers, with multiple layers of warning signs and monitoring equipment outside. Yet the red energy still pierced through all of it, slowly seeping outward bit by bit.

"Has anyone gone in to investigate?"

"Yes."

Yudian replied.

"Three hunter teams were sent in. The first team came back with heavy casualties. The second team lost contact. The third team..."

He paused.

Ular looked at him.

"What about the third team?"

"They lost contact just ten minutes ago."

The room fell into silence.

Ular instinctively tightened his fingers around the spatial ring he was wearing. The gem on the ring vibrated faintly, sending a cold sensation straight into his palm.

He looked down at it.

For some reason, the moment he looked toward the B-rank Dungeon on the screen, Ular felt as though the ring was reacting to that place.