The first magical beast was at the entrance to the passage leading down to the second floor.
Min-jae stopped first. It was a tank's instinct. He raised one hand to hold back the others and brought his shield up in front of him. Seo Kyung moved up beside Min-jae, and Soo-bin took one step back. Woo-joo watched the formation from the very rear.
Insight was active. At a resolution incomparable to anything in everyday life.
Something was crouched in the darkness deeper inside the passage. Woo-joo could see its outline. Four legs. A stone-like carapace on its back. There was a joint beneath its neck, and its color was slightly lighter than its surroundings. A petrifying magical beast. The type they had heard about in the briefing.
But that wasn't all he could see.
He could read the magical beast's mana flow. The direction of the energy moving along the surface of its carapace, the distribution of force across its four legs, and an empty stretch beneath its neck where mana wasn't concentrated. Its weakness was visible. He hadn't read it in the litigation materials. Insight was reading it in real time.
"There's one." Seo Kyung spoke in a low voice. "Petrifying type. Min-jae, draw its aggro. I'll circle around the side."
"Wait," Woo-joo said.
Seo Kyung turned his head. His eyes found Woo-joo in the darkness.
"The joint beneath its neck. Where the third carapace plate from the left ends. There's a gap there."
Seo Kyung narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean, a gap?"
"There's a section where mana doesn't flow. The carapace's defenses should be weaker there."
Seo Kyung looked at Woo-joo for two seconds. It wasn't suspicion. It was confirmation. He was the type to judge people by instinct, and what he read in Woo-joo's eyes now was certainty.
"Good." Seo Kyung nodded and faced forward. "Min-jae, push it from the front. I'll circle left and hit it beneath the neck."
Min-jae silently nodded. Behind them, Woo-joo sensed Soo-bin preparing a ranged skill.
Min-jae moved. The moment he entered the passage with his shield raised, the petrifying magical beast reacted. A low growl rolled along the cave walls, and the magical beast rose to its feet. It was larger than he had expected. Its shoulders reached Min-jae's chest, and a faint light flowed across the surface of its carapace.
The magical beast opened its mouth. Petrifying breath. Gray mist poured from its jaws. Min-jae raised his shield to block it. The moment the gray mist touched the shield's surface, it began hardening like stone with a cracking sound. The petrification effect. The shield was holding, but it wouldn't last long.
Seo Kyung circled left. He moved quickly, keeping low. The speed of his physical enhancement type ability sent him through the darkness like a shadow. While the magical beast's gaze remained fixed on Min-jae, Seo Kyung slipped in from the side.
From the very rear, Woo-joo watched the structure of the battle.
Insight read the battlefield. How long Min-jae's shield could hold, how long it would take Seo Kyung to reach the flank, and how long the magical beast would need to stop its breath and change direction. Three spans of time overlapped in his mind. Seo Kyung would reach it first. He had about two seconds to spare.
Soo-bin fired a skill from behind. Something like an arrow of light struck the magical beast's back. The carapace blocked it, dealing no damage, but the magical beast's attention wavered for 0.5 seconds. Those 0.5 seconds gave Seo Kyung more time.
Seo Kyung's fist struck beneath the magical beast's neck.
Exactly where Woo-joo had said. Where the third carapace plate from the left ended. The metal plate on his reinforced glove drove into the magical beast's joint, and it let out a scream. A sharp, high-pitched sound. The entire cave rang with it.
The magical beast twisted and lashed out with its tail. Seo Kyung leaped backward to avoid it. The tail struck the wall, sending shards of rock flying.
"You were right." Seo Kyung grinned. His breathing was ragged, but excitement filled his voice. "That really is a weak spot."
Min-jae drove the magical beast back with his shield. Its movements were slowing. After the blow to its joint, it was clear that the strength had gone out of its left foreleg. Woo-joo could even read the disruption in the magical beast's mana flow.
"Same spot. One more hit and it will collapse."
The words came out before Woo-joo could stop them. Like a lawyer presenting key evidence in court, he brought out the information needed at the moment it was needed. That was what he could do on this battlefield.
Seo Kyung dove in again. This time, he was faster. The magical beast swung its tail, but Seo Kyung had already slipped beneath it. His second strike landed on the same joint. A dull metallic thud rang out as metal struck bone, and the magical beast's foreleg buckled.
The magical beast collapsed. Min-jae pinned its head down with his shield, and Soo-bin's final skill pierced the exposed joint. The magical beast convulsed, then went still.
Silence fell.
Seo Kyung rose, catching his breath. He brushed the dust from his glove and looked at Woo-joo.
"Bro, can you really see everything?"
"I can."
"That's insane." Seo Kyung laughed, a rough and invigorating laugh. "You're really E-rank? Your eyes are S-rank."
Min-jae spoke for the first time. "Useful." That was all he said, but it was an acknowledgment from the tank.
Soo-bin looked at Woo-joo. The doubt that had filled her eyes until moments ago was gone. In its place was curiosity.
Woo-joo didn't answer. He had no time to. He was organizing what had just happened in his mind.
He had known the petrifying magical beast's weakness. Insight had read it in real time, but it wasn't only that. The moment the magical beast opened its mouth, he had known it would use its breath. He had known when it would swing its tail. He had known that two strikes to the joint would bring it down. It was his first time seeing this magical beast, yet he knew it as if it weren't his first time at all.
He couldn't explain it. Something beyond the scope of Insight was operating inside him. The sensation he had felt upon entering the rift earlier had grown firmer through the battle. He knew the air of this dungeon, knew the sensation of walking behind Seo Kyung, knew the weakness of the petrifying magical beast. Everything was new, and yet he knew everything.
There were traces of another self inside him, a self who wasn't the person he was now. And those traces were awakening inside the dungeon.
"We're going down to the second floor," Seo Kyung said. "Bro, keep watching our backs."
"Understood."
The party moved again. Min-jae in front, Seo Kyung second, Soo-bin third, and Woo-joo at the very rear. It was the same formation, but the atmosphere had changed. Until a moment ago, Woo-joo had been baggage they needed to protect. Now it was different. He could feel from the spacing of the formation that every party member was beginning to trust his eyes. Min-jae checked behind him less often, while Seo Kyung looked toward Woo-joo first whenever he chose a direction.
The second floor was wider than the first. The ceiling rose higher, and the passage split at a junction. Left and right. Two paths.
Seo Kyung stopped and looked back and forth between them. "Which way?"
Woo-joo looked down both passages. Insight activated. The airflow in the passage on the left, the mana density in the passage on the right. Air was circulating on the left, which meant there was an exit or a larger space somewhere ahead. The mana density was higher on the right. That meant there were more magical beasts—or possibly a core area.
"Mana is concentrated on the right. If there's a boss, it will be that way."
"You want to go for the boss first?"
"No. It would be better to clear the left first, then go right. There should be a large space on the left. We can reform there before entering from the right and secure a retreat route."
Seo Kyung looked at Woo-joo. Three seconds passed. Then he nodded.
"Bro, is this really your first time?"
"It is."
"Sounds like a lie." Laughing, Seo Kyung turned into the passage on the left. "All right. We'll do it your way."
They followed the left passage downward. As Woo-joo had predicted, it opened into a wide space. It was like a plaza that had formed naturally inside the cave. Faint light leaked in from the ceiling, and shallow water pooled across the floor.
Two shadow magical beasts were there. Unlike the petrifying type, their forms were indistinct. Their shapes wavered in the darkness, and their attack patterns were irregular. They were the type against which Seo Kyung's physical attacks were ineffective.
Woo-joo's Insight read the structure of the shadow magical beasts. They looked incorporeal, but they had cores of mana. A small core floated in the center of each body, at the point where the darkness was deepest. Striking the core would make them solidify.
"There's a core in the center of its body. The darkest spot. Hit it there, and it will solidify."
Soo-bin's eyes widened. "Really?" For the ranged damage dealer, it was crucial information. Her skill pierced the core precisely, and the shadow magical beast solidified for an instant. Seo Kyung didn't miss the opening and lunged in.
It took less than three minutes to finish off both of them.
Seo Kyung shook out his hands and approached Woo-joo. Sweat ran down his face, but his expression was bright.
"Bro. I'm going to be honest."
"What is it?"
"Without you, it would've taken us twice as long to bring down the petrifying type. With the shadow type, we'd be wandering around forever if we didn't know where the core was. Since you point everything out, all we have to do is hit it."
"That's all I can do."
"That's all?" Seo Kyung laughed incredulously. "Do you have any idea how incredible that is? What Awakened person can read a magical beast's weaknesses in real time inside a dungeon? Even S-rank parties don't have anyone like that."
Woo-joo didn't answer. He knew Seo Kyung wasn't exaggerating. But something else occupied his thoughts.
This ability couldn't be explained by Insight alone.
There was no way an E-rank's Insight could do this much. Reading a magical beast's mana flow, pinpointing its weaknesses, calculating the battlefield's timing structure. This wasn't an E-rank ability. Then there had to be something more. Something layered over Insight. Something he had no choice but to call a memory.
"Let's go down to the third floor," Seo Kyung said. "If there's a boss, it'll be there."
Woo-joo nodded. The party began moving again.
The passage leading to the third floor was narrow. Narrow enough that they had to descend one at a time. Min-jae went first, followed by Seo Kyung, Soo-bin, and Woo-joo. Moisture seeped from the passage walls, and the stones beneath their feet were slippery.
The passage ended, opening into a wide space.
It was the boss room. Woo-joo knew it instinctively. The mana density in the space was on an entirely different level from the first and second floors. The air itself felt heavy, and the light descending from the ceiling carried a reddish hue.
It was there in the center of the room.
A superior species of petrifying magical beast. It was twice the size of the one they had seen on the first floor. Its carapace was thicker and darker. It had six legs instead of four, with stone-like protrusions rising from its back. It had four eyes. All of them were red.
Insight read the boss.
Its total mana was incomparable to that of the first-floor magical beast. Its carapace was also far more durable. But its structure was the same. There were gaps beneath its neck where mana didn't flow. This time, however, there weren't just one but three, and Insight revealed that they would regenerate unless all three were struck simultaneously.
Simultaneously.
With only three combatants and no support, striking all three at once was nearly impossible.
Woo-joo's mind spun rapidly. Not the mind of a lawyer, but the mind that read the battlefield. Min-jae would draw aggro from the front, Seo Kyung would take the left, and Soo-bin the right. But Soo-bin was a ranged damage dealer. Precisely striking a joint at close range wasn't her specialty.
Then.
"Seo Kyung," Woo-joo said. It was the first time he had called him by name. Neither formally nor casually, simply by name.
Seo Kyung turned.
"There are three joints. We have to hit them at the same time. Otherwise, they'll regenerate."
Seo Kyung's expression hardened. "Three spots, with three people? Soo-bin can't fight up close."
"Soo-bin can hit one with a skill, you can strike one, and Min-jae can jab one with the edge of his shield. I'll call the timing."
Seo Kyung looked at Woo-joo. So did Min-jae. So did Soo-bin. All three sets of eyes gathered on him.
"I'm watching. Strike simultaneously when I tell you."
Seo Kyung looked at Woo-joo for two seconds, then raised the corner of his mouth.
"All right. I trust your eyes, bro."
The battle began.