Chapter 57: The Black Rose Guild’s assault begins

Kei looked up.

"Maybe."

"Maybe?"

"His eyes, the feeling when I’m next to him, the way he looks at me... they’re all exactly like the little dragon. I don’t need any more proof than that."

Kei looked toward the window. Outside, night had already enveloped the entire street, leaving only a faint yellow light casting onto the glass.

"But Kai doesn’t remember anything. I can’t be completely certain yet either."

Sora tilted her head and stared at Kei.

Kei was silent for a moment.

He remembered Kai’s hand gently resting on his arm, remembered those wet golden eyes looking at him as if the whole world would collapse the moment he left.

"I’ll help him remember the memories he lost. I’ll definitely cure him!"

Kei said, his voice soft but firm.

Sora looked at his serious expression, then smiled.

"Okay. I’ll help you."

Kei was stunned.

"Aren’t you going to ask me how I plan to cure a dragon?"

"No." Sora stood up, picking up the empty glass on the table. "You’ll find a way anyway."

She walked to the door, then turned back to look at him.

"Kei, you managed to save your entire world. A little dragon definitely won’t be able to stump you."

With that, Sora closed the door and left, leaving Kei sitting alone in the room, staring at the unfinished spatial ring.

After a while, he picked up the magic carving tools. A faint silver light began to move across the ring’s surface again.

This time, Kei’s hands no longer trembled.

If he wanted to save Kai, he had to start from the smallest things.

From an F-rank ring, using the Craftsman profession he once thought could only help him get by day to day.

Kei lowered his head, continuing to finish the final carving line on the ring.

However, at dawn, just as Kei was about to test processing E-rank energy stones, a violent energy fluctuation suddenly reached him.

He shuddered, immediately setting the carving knife down on the table.

That energy source was unlike any fluctuation Kei had ever sensed. It was heavy, chaotic, and terrifying, as if something colossal had just opened its eyes in the darkness.

Kei looked up out the window.

The midnight sky above Dong-San City had turned a strange red-purple. The eerie light blanketed the sleeping buildings, making the entire city look as if it had been dragged into a nightmare.

Kei clenched his fist.

"What’s going on?"

He didn’t know the answer, but a powerful sense of unease surged in his heart.

Kei hurriedly left his room and went downstairs to find Sora. Fortunately, it was almost morning, and Sora had just begun checking the inventory of goods she planned to sell that day.

"Kei, why not get a bit more sleep?"

Sora looked up and asked when she saw him coming down the stairs.

"How many spatial rings have we sold recently?"

Kei didn’t answer her question but immediately asked one of his own.

Sora was a little surprised, then cheerfully opened her notebook to check.

"Most of the rings you crafted have already been sold. The few remaining ones have also been reserved. Is something wrong?"

Hearing that, Kei felt a little more relieved.

At least the rings he made could genuinely help the hunters.

Kei turned his head to look toward the direction of the Dungeon where the strongest fluctuation was coming from. The red-purple light in the sky had not disappeared; on the contrary, it had grown even darker.

He didn’t know what was happening inside the Dungeon.

Kei could only pray silently.

May the hunters who entered it return safely.

May those rings he crafted help them get home if they truly face danger.

At that same moment, right before the Dungeon’s entrance, Yudian and Ular were standing amid a large contingent.

Around them were all the hunters from rank C and above of the Black Rose Guild, along with some lower-rank hunters who had volunteered to assist.

The red-purple light reflected on their serious faces. Not one of them showed any sign of wanting to back down.

However, Yudian was quietly regretting things.

He looked at Ular standing beside him,His expression grew increasingly grim.

"Ular, you stay outside."

"No."

Ular answered immediately.

"This dungeon is too dangerous this time. I can’t protect you if you keep following me."

"Rather than a novice hunter like me, you’re the one who should stay behind, hyung!"

Ular turned to look at her brother irritably.

"You’re the Guild Master. If something happens to you, what will happen to Black Rose? I’m just a D-rank hunter, if I die in there, the Guild won’t collapse."

"Don’t say things like that."

Yudian frowned.

"Do you think I’ll just stand outside while you walk into a place this dangerous?"

"Then don’t make me stay behind!"

Ular gritted her teeth.

Hanna and Lee Jae Ji, standing nearby, nodded at the same time.

"Ular is right." Hanna spoke in a low voice. "Once we chose to become hunters, we can’t always just think about surviving."

Lee Jae Ji crossed his arms and looked toward the dungeon gate.

"If I was afraid of dying, I wouldn’t have joined the Guild in the first place."

Yudian looked at each person on the team.

None of them were the type to cling to life out of fear. They knew exactly how dangerous the gate before them was, yet they still chose to stand here.

Yudian let out a sigh.

He couldn’t persuade Ular.

Besides, if the Guild Master didn’t enter the dungeon, who would lead the entire Guild in this raid?

The one staying outside couldn’t be him.

"Fine, then."

Yudian turned his head to look at the dungeon gate, which was vibrating in waves.

"Either way, we won’t fail."

He waved his hand.

"Move in!"

The members of Black Rose Guild immediately moved in formation. The C-rank hunters went first, followed by the members in charge of attack and healing, and finally Yudian with the Guild’s strongest group.

They all stepped through the dungeon gate in orderly fashion.

Yudian was the last one who hadn’t entered yet.

He looked up at the red-violet sky above Dong-San City.

A heavy feeling pressed down on his chest, but in his eyes, only resolve remained.

He would not lose this city.

Never!

"Let’s go!"

Yudian turned around and stepped through the dungeon door.

A moment later, his figure disappeared into the distorted light.

The gate closed.

In the sky, the red-violet grew deeper and deeper, radiating an overwhelming sense of danger, as if the entire city were sinking into a giant eye of a storm.