F-Class Destiny Hunter

Chapter 95

Kang Dohyeon's face became even more bewildered upon hearing that. It was understandable since their opponent clearly appeared to be a demon.

'If I hadn't checked the Destiny, I might have thought it was a demon too.'

[Name] Yang Sera

[Rank] Spirit First-class

[Attribute] Earth

[Status] Cursed, 'Shape-shifting'

"This is a human, he's cursed."

Kang Dohyeon's expression went from momentarily surprised to sharply focused.

"How did you figure that out?"

"Thanks to Linnie's influence, I can detect curses."

While Seo Gangrim was offering an excuse involving Linnie, the statue launched another attack.

- Kwaang!

Kang Dohyeon urgently grabbed Seo Gangrim's collar and pulled him down. The statue, with a frozen face, exhibited neither hostility nor vitality. It simply mechanically moved toward its target.

"I'm pretty sure there's something up there."

As the two of them descended the stairs to the first floor, the statue ceased its movement. It seemed to initiate an attack when someone entered a specific area.

Seo Gangrim silently observed the statue. Kang Dohyeon, looking bewildered, asked, "Seo Gangrim, what are you doing?"

Ignoring the question, Seo Gangrim immediately rushed at the statue. The statue immediately started to react to intruders, but it was too slow for Seo Gangrim. He struck the statue's face with his fist.

- Puek!

The statue writhed and rolled on the ground. Seo Gangrim observed it for a moment.

'Is it dead?'

He had intended to knock it out rather than kill it, but he put more power to the punch than he expected. Nevertheless, judging by the faint trembling of its body, it didn't seem to be dead. It was unclear whether the statue was weak or Seo Gangrim had grown stronger but from by Yang Sera's rank of Spirit First-class, it was probably the latter.

'It looks like advancing to level 30 has had a significant impact.'

After Seo Gangrim successfully subdued the statue, Kang Dohyeon also ascended the stairs. He gazed silently at the fallen statue.

"...You've definitely gotten stronger."

Seo Gangrim overheard Kang Dohyeon muttering. Kang Dohyeon seemed to have something else to say. "So, what's your plan now? Are you just going to leave it unconscious like this?"

"We need to lift the curse. Linnie, come here."

Linnie, who had been hiding in a corner, approached cautiously and tapped the statue's head with her forehead.

[Ability 'Purification' activated!]

[The curse on the target has been lifted!]

A bright light emanated and the oppressive aura gradually dissipated from the statue's body. Then, the statue's surface began to turn golden, and its shell fell away like a molting insect.

Kang Dohyeon looked around and said, "If the others found this place first, it would have been a big problem."

Several shattered statues could be seen throughout the staircase. They appeared to have been killed by the first group of people who entered.

Seo Gangrim initially activated 'Destiny Theft' against them but quickly canceled it. 'Their rank is too low, and they've been dead for too long.'

In the meantime, the human who had been released from the curse was coughing violently and slowly opened her eyes. She looked at the people in front of her with a vacant expression.

Kang Dohyeon examined her face and asked, "What's your name?"

"Ah... uh..."

Instead of a name, only a strange sobbing sound came from her mouth. Her body had returned to human form, but her mind seemed far from recovery.

Seo Gangrim glanced at the woman for a moment and then moved toward the restaurant.

"I should inform Agent Annaby."

It was more important to inform her about the statues than the survivor. If they encountered the statues and destroyed them, it could be a problem.

Seo Gangrim went into the restaurant, but everyone seemed to have disappeared.

'Where did everyone go?'

In the midst of this, he felt an ominous presence. Seo Gangrim sensed a change inside the restaurant...

- Kuwoong!

Several statues suddenly attacked him from behind. For an ordinary person, this would be a situation where they might get crushed to death. Seo Gangrim desperately avoided the attack, and as he checked the Destiny window, he realized they were also humans.

- Kwajik!

Seo Gangrim swiftly subdued the statues. Due to the somewhat aggressive suppression, the statues' bones were damaged and fractured, but they were not killed.

"Linnie! Come over here!"

When he shouted loudly, Linnie rushed over to the restaurant and activated her purification ability. Soon, the statues gradually returned to their original forms.

"Ugh..."

The people who had turned into statues just a moment ago were the humans who had come with Seo Gangrim. They still seemed confused, holding their heads and groaning.

"What happened to Agent Annaby?"

Not seeing Annaby, Seo Gangrim became anxious. He exited the restaurant and went to the entrance of the stairs on the first floor, where he found Annaby. She was talking to Kang Dohyeon.

'She didn't become a statue. That's a relief.'

Seo Gangrim let out a sigh of relief and approached them. Annaby and Kang Dohyeon were incessantly questioning Yang Sera.

"Do you remember your name? What happened here?"

"Uh... uh..."

As if unwilling to recall her memories, the woman distorted her face and held her head. Seo Gangrim knelt down and looked at the woman, saying, "You ate the food here."

The woman looked up at Seo Gangrim in surprise upon hearing his words.

Kang Dohyeon asked in bewilderment, "Food?"

"Just a moment ago, we encountered statues in the restaurant. After breaking the curse, we found out they were the people who came with us."

Seo Gangrim realized that the discomfort he felt when he entered the restaurant was due to the food. The neatly arranged dishes had significantly decreased.

Annaby sighed. "They've been eyeing the food for a while now... It seems they've eaten while I was away."

Kang Dohyeon responded as if he couldn't believe it. "Everyone must be out of their minds. So, you're saying that everyone who came in here ate that? Are they fools?"

If it were ordinary food, they would have been, but the food in this place was different. The aroma of temptation emanated from the food that had been enchanted. It was a harmless scent to high-ranking people like Kang Dohyeon and Seo Kang-rim, but lower-ranking awakened individuals might have unknowingly succumbed to it.

'And after spending about a month trapped in this place, they might have eaten even spoiled food.'

The woman's cheeks appeared sunken. At a glance, she looked like someone who had gone hungry for a long time. All of the demon beasts in this place were either made of mud or statues, making them inedible as a food source. Even if there was poison in the food, they would have likely consumed it since there were only two choices - to eat or starve.

"The stores isn't open, and Telephatic Communication doesn't work. Besides, the flow of time here is different from the outside..."

Annaby spoke as if she understood the woman. The situation offered no hope of external assistance, and with the difference in the flow of time, even if they waited for rescue, those outside would likely think that nothing unusual had happened.

"Uh, we..."

The woman's voice quivered, and she began to speak. She rambled incoherently. "I tried not to eat, but I was too hungry... I broke through the third-floor and went up to the fourth floor... Up there, something strange..."

Her eyes flickered as if recalling something frightening. Her face turned even paler than when she had been a statue just moments ago. When the woman fell silent and began trembling, Kang Dohyeon turned away without further questioning.

"I understand the situation. Let's go upstairs."

As he moved his feet, Annaby and Seo Gangrim followed him. The second floor was even darker than the first, with statues lining the corridor.

"Are they all humans?" Kang Dohyeon furrowed his brows and looked at the statues.

There were dozens of them in the corridor, and he muttered to himself, "Can't we just pretend not to notice and deal with them?"

"Agent Kang Dohyeon, please refrain from joking. We are not merely agents."

"I'm not joking. Do we really have to grab each one and lift the curse?"

-Kigigig!

When the statues detected the intruders, they initiated their attacks. There were dozens of them lined up in the corridor.

A statue with a massive axe raised its weapon to strike Kang Dohyeon's head. However, before it could land the blow, Seo Gangrim acted faster.

-Kwajik!

The head of the statue under the curse was severed in an instant. The statue, now headless, flailed its arms in the air before collapsing. Annaby's surprised voice could be heard.

"Seo Gangrim-ssi, that is definitely a human...!"

"They're not all humans. There are human statues mixed with the demon statues."

Using Destiny Analysis, Seo Gangrim could discern that there were both types of statues mixed together. Unfortunately, Kang Dohyeon and Annaby couldn't see this.

After Seo Gangrim swiftly kicked down another approaching statue, he said, "I can tell you which ones are humans, but there are too many..."

"Just tell us which ones are humans."

Kang Dohyeon took out a talisman from his pocket. It seemed to be talisman for sealing.

"The fourth one from the front, the fifth one, the seventh one."

- Chwajak!

As he finished speaking, Kang Dohyeon dashed through the statues. The statues Seo Gangrim had indicated were suddenly attached with talismans and stiffened. Breaking the rest of the statues was a matter of moments.

"Seo Gangrim-ssi, you're truly amazing. If it weren't for you, it would have been a disaster."

After quickly resolving the situation without any casualties, Annaby praised him with admiration. Kang Dohyeon remained silent but shared Annaby's sentiments.

'Seo Gangrim... I always thought he's special since the training facility. Maybe it's because he received a good god.'

As Kang Dohyeon silently stared at Seo Gangrim, their eyes met for a moment, and Kang Dohyeon quickly averted his gaze.

He suddenly spoke loudly, "Slow down, Seo Gangrim. Let's go upstairs."

Reaching the fourth floor, they moved up to the fifth floor, which had a similar structure. Kang Dohyeon looked around the area. "That strange thing the woman mentioned must be up here."

Perhaps because of Yang Sera's words, the darkness on the fifth floor seemed even deeper. When the three of them went upstairs, there were no statues, and the place was eerily quiet.

It was then that Kang Hyun stared into space and his brow furrowed.

"Kang Dohyeon . What's wrong?"

"Do you smell that?"

"Smell?..."

"It's a foul smell."

Seo Gangrim could also perceive the smell. It was a mixture of decaying corpses, the stench of blood, and an unknown foul odor.

There were no other rooms in sight, only an endlessly long corridor with no lighting. As they walked along the quiet, unlit corridor, a sound came from beyond the darkness.

-Crunch, crunch...

A sound as if something was being crushed or chewed.

"Demon? No, it seems human..."

As Annaby said, at the end of the corridor, there was a person. With long white hair and a beard, the figure appeared to be an old man.

"Eh... eh..."

The old man, who had been eating something, raised his head to look at the approaching group. The sunken eyes between his disheveled hair and beard lacked focus.

"There are survivors. We need to secure him quickly..."

Annaby was about to rush towards the old man when Seo Gangrim suddenly grabbed her arm. She looked at him in surprise. "Seo Gangrim-ssi, why are you...?"

"Do you remember when the last party entered this place, except for us?"

"Based on what we've heard, it was about a week ago..."

"But a week outside is equivalent to several years here."

At least several years had passed, so if someone had entered a few months ago, they would have spent several decades here. When that man first entered this Demon Realm, did he look like this?

"If you eat the food arranged here, you become a demon. But that man didn't."

"...!"

Only now did Kang Dohyeon seem to realize that something was amiss. He urgently took out a talisman. The old man hesitantly stood up and approached them, swaying.

"It's been too long for someone to survive just by eating food brought from outside."

"Then how...?"

"They must have survived by eating supplies from the outside, even if it wasn't food."

The moonlight shining through the window illuminated the old man. In the bright light, it was clear that he appeared middle-aged despite his white hair and beard. Now they could see what the man had been eating. It was human hands.

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