The Artist Who Paints Dungeon-Chapter 66

It was only natural that the Cha family’s situation had become like this.

‘Why is it a virtual dungeon where I have no choice in participating?’

Cha Eun-hyuk’s expression, which had been hiding under the desk while guarding his two younger siblings, distorted with disillusionment with the world.

‘I’m the only adult left, and I’m not a hunter, and it’s obvious that Cha Ara, this piglet, won’t be of any help. But I can’t ask the remaining reserve priests to save me...’

I don’t know what the conditions were, but the virtual dungeon forcibly drags in anyone who meets the conditions.

In situations like this where there are no proper hunters, it was common for all participants to be wiped out.

“.......”

“.......”

Cha Eun-hyuk and Cha Ara, who were sweating profusely, exchanged glances in silence. Cha Eun-hyuk nodded.

‘You’re the only hunter here.’

‘Oh, that’s it.’

‘That’s it.’

But there was nothing he could do. They call them ‘reserve’ priests for nothing. The young priests here were not just hunters, they were no different from civilians. The only hunter in this area was Cha Ara.

Cha Eunhyuk, who confirmed that there were no monsters nearby, whispered in a faint voice that couldn’t be heard from far away.

“Hey, F-class porter.”

“Go ahead and talk.”

“Isn’t there a way to deal with this? That’s what hunters learn....”

“I think this is the best time.”

The center recommends not to gather in one place when the situation is very bad. That way, if something happens, you won’t be easily wiped out, and if you spread out, your survival rate will increase.

“...That’s not just a bait tactic....”

“Anyway, objectively, it’s the method with the highest survival rate.”

“That’s true, but.”

It was really creepy.

‘You’re telling me to scatter and pray that other people will get caught besides me.’

The Cha family, who had a thick blood of fools, didn’t like this method of dealing with it, but they didn’t move rashly. They had no ability, and the only way to save people was to be the bait themselves.

“.......”

Cha Ara, who realized once again how desperate the situation was, hid the youngest behind her back even deeper.

“Hey, Chae Sol. Go in further. Further.”

“There’s nowhere else to go....”

“How can you joke about being small? Just get crushed.”

“Ugh....”

“Don’t make a sound.”

The place they were hiding was under the stainless steel desks that were installed regularly throughout the school. Perhaps because there were quite a few of them, the priests who were still alive seemed to be hiding under the desks like them.

Even if he hid like that, he didn’t know how long he would be able to avoid being caught by the monsters that roamed freely everywhere... .

‘At least Chae Sol would be safe while Nana Oppa was causing a scene.’

The youngest, who was so small that he had nothing to eat, would die instantly if he got bitten once.

It was selfish, but I couldn’t help but wish that my younger sibling would live longer than the others.

“Noona....”

“Oh, stop acting cute, for real.”

“Wow, no, that’s not being cute, I’m being wronged.”

“Ugh.”

Cha Eun Hyuk, who was sitting on the outermost part of the desk, looked at his younger siblings’ grumbling as if it was absurd.

‘Have you ever seen such a lack of tension?’

In fact, he already knew that it wasn’t that they weren’t nervous, but that they were so nervous that they were pretending to be okay. Cha Eun Hyuk looked around with a stiff face and a cold sweat.

A monster was approaching with a sloshing sound.

“.......”

“Stomach, stomach, stomach, stomach... I’m hungry... stomach....”

“.......”

Did a ghost come over because he couldn’t eat?

‘So this is why we have to set up a ancestral rite table. If we die here, it’s because the world has become so harsh that it won’t even set up a ancestral rite table...’

It was nonsense, but anyway, Cha Eun-hyeok pressed his younger siblings back, taking the wisdom of his ancestors to heart.

The youngest, who was already curled up at the end, had nowhere else to go, but Cha Ara, or maybe it wasn’t him, could hear a rustling sound from being suppressed. It was amazing that he barely made a sound, perhaps because he heard the monster approaching.

“Stomach? Stomach. Stomach. Stomach, stomach, I’m hungry. Stomach....”

“.......”

The monster, whose form he hadn’t even seen yet, was approaching him. Thanks to that, Cha Eun-hyeok was able to see the wet legs of the monster without any desire.

‘Is it time for me to fall?’

At least I’ll save our flower pig and the youngest. Please remember me, the cheapest and most delicious bungeoppang in Korea.

That’s when I made up my mind.

“―You rascals!!!”

Hwaaaaaaaah!!!

The monsters were burned and turned to ash one by one.

“Huh, huh...?”

It was so instantaneous that it almost felt unrealistic.

Instead of the sloshing sound, the sound of ash falling was heard, and the eerieness of the pupil was forcibly consumed by the heat of the fire.

“.......”

“.......”

The Cha family looked back at the entrance to the pupil that they hadn’t even noticed in panic.

“Rascals...??”

“Rascals....”

“Oh, wait a minute.”

Cha Eun-hyuk realized belatedly who the owner of the loud ‘Baddies’ was.

“...Priest Kang Seo-dam?”

Kang Seo-dam, a priest with long, wavy blond hair and pale green eyes that stood out, was grumbling with a disheveled appearance.

Kang Seo-dam’s eyes met Cha Eun-hyuk’s, who was quietly sweating, and his face, whose veins were bulging, met because he was so angry. It felt like they had come across something taboo that should not be seen.

“.......”

“.......”

Kang Seo-dam, who had turned from the face of an evil spirit to that of a priest, asked in a clean tone.

“Are you okay?”

“No, I just said a baddie....”

“What else would you call a baddie if you didn’t call a baddie a baddie?”

“Wow.”

“You must have been scared, but I apologize for suddenly hearing my swear words.”

If I hadn’t heard that distinctly accented ‘Burrows’, I would have been purely moved, but Kang Seo-dam continued to speak calmly with such kindness.

“I was also dragged into a virtual dungeon out of nowhere and was out of my mind, but I feel good that there seem to be many survivors left.”

Kang Seo-dam, whose clean priestly robes had become tattered as if he had been through a lot, looked around.

Cha Eun-hyeok also looked around his pupils only then, but there were no monsters left, no matter what Kang Seo-dam had done just now.

“Hmm.”

Kang Seo-dam quietly made the sign of the cross with his characteristically cold expressionless face.

“The goddess took care of you.”

“.......”

You must have taken care of you.

‘I guess there’s no one in their right mind among the hunters, except for our piglet.’

A priest who could officiate an initiation ceremony had to be at least a B-class hunter. Judging from the skill of burning and killing all the monsters in the pupil in an instant, he was probably an A-class or quasi-S-class, so Cha Eun-hyeok felt a little relieved.

I have no other strengths besides being physically strong, so I was relieved that I found a strong person who I could entrust my siblings with even if I died.

‘... Thank goodness.’

Cha Eun-hyeok let out a long breath and wiped his face. Now he could breathe a little easier.

“P, Priest....”

“Hwaaaaang....”

“Priest Kang Seo-dam...!”

Only then did the reserve priests who had been hiding everywhere crawl out.

“Yes, Priest Kang Seo-dam is here. If there are any surviving brothers, please gather around me.”

As if he was used to the tearful clinging of the survivors, Priest Kang Seo-dam skillfully sorted out the situation.

He looked back at Cha Eun-hyeok and Cha Ara and added a word.

“The same goes for the guardians of Priest Cha So-il who are there.”

“Ah, yes....”

All the survivors of the dungeon gathered in front of Priest Kang Seo-dam, drawn by the steady voice that was hard to find in the dungeon, but there weren’t many of them.

Most of them were bitten to death by monsters, or they ate each other afterwards.

“.......”

Priest Kang Seo-dam opened his mouth, frowning as if holding back a heavy sigh.

“I apologize for causing this to happen at the event I hosted.”

“Oh, no. It was an accident....”

“It’s also my role to prevent accidents in advance. I will arrange for official compensation as soon as the situation is resolved.”

The priest bowed his head in apology and continued speaking.

“I will set up a protective shield, so the survivors can go inside and rest. I will collect the remains of the others.”

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“...I will help you too.”

Cha Ara raised her hand at Cha Eun-hyeok’s words.

“Oh, then I too....”

“If that’s true, I will only accept Hunter Cha Ara’s help.”

Priest Kang Seo-dam looked back at Cha Eun-hyeok. After thinking for a moment, he opened his mouth.

“I appreciate your kind heart, Guardian Cha Eun-hyeok, but this is something that should not be left to civilians, and above all, the only adult left is Cha Eun-hyeok.”

“Ah....”

“Please console the younger brothers so that they do not become more afraid. I will repay you for extending a helping hand even in difficult situations in the name of the sun.”

Cha Ara asked as she approached the corpses that had been transformed into monsters and turned to ashes by the sun’s light.

“B-but you know all our names...? Is that how it is?”

“It’s an event I’m hosting, so I can’t neglect my responsibility. I remember the names of all the people who officially participated after I put their names on the list.”

“Wow....”

After meeting only the crappy hunters for a while, this person with such a sense of responsibility was unfamiliar.

‘If I had only met these hunters, I wouldn’t have been abandoned in that damn cave, damn it.’

Cha Ara continued to talk while collecting the light corpse that seemed to have come out of the crematorium with a sense of relief.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you since you were dragged into the dungeon, where have you been?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Oh, no, I’m not saying that you didn’t come sooner....”

Damn, talk.

‘Think about what you’re saying.’

Cha Ara, who had been cursing her intelligence, continued to speak while stuttering.

“This pupil itself is quite large, and many people were dragged in, so we thought this was all the people who were dragged in.”

“...I was dropped alone in a different pupil than this one.”

Priest Kang Seo Dam answered while making the sign of the cross over the corpse that had been reduced to ashes and blessing it with peace.

“There were a lot of monsters, their skills were considerable, and the escape gimmick was complicated, so it took a while.”

“Alone in a place like that...?”

“If I think about it that way, it seems like the people who gathered for the initiation ceremony were randomly scattered.”

“...Huh? Oh, in that case....”

“It didn’t seem like there was no standard at all.”

He said he had fought multiple monsters, and Priest Kang Seo-dam continued to speak while wiping the blood flowing from his forehead.

“In my case, the most threatening force in the dungeon, I was dropped alone in a place where monsters were swarming. On the other hand, all the reserve priests are gathered in this dungeon.”

“All? Did you already confirm that in the meantime?”

“Since they are my brothers, I remembered their faces.”

“...Huh? No, but from what I remember....”

“Yes, I understand what you’re wondering about.”

Kang Seo-dam swung his long wand as tall as him and blessed the entire dungeon. The corpse that had been in the form of ashes soon transformed into a complete human form.

“.......”

Kang Seo-dam, who had performed a small miracle with the power of the sun, soon opened his mouth.

“...I can’t see the Milky Way brothers.”

In this place where all the prospective priests had gathered, the boy was the only one who couldn’t be found.

“Since we didn’t find the prospective priest’s body here, I think he must be somewhere else.”

“.......”

“We’ll find out why he fell alone later. Hunter Cha Ara, do you still have some energy left? You don’t seem to be injured by the naked eye, but is there anything wrong?”

“Ah, no, there isn’t.”

“Then let’s move. I came here because this was the closest crater to where I fell, but there must be survivors somewhere else. There weren’t many hunters attending this event, so if we don’t respond in time, it will be dangerous.”

“The other kids and my brother....”

Kang Seo-dam nodded after checking the survivors on the shield side at Cha Ara’s words.

“We can’t leave them here, so we’ll have to go together. It’s hard to maintain them if they’re far apart, and there’s also a time limit. It would be nice if there was a more skilled priest, but I’m not a barrier specialist.”

“It certainly doesn’t seem like you’re a protection specialist....”

The expression on the face of Kang Seo-dam, who reduced all the monsters to ashes with a single swing of his wand, was like that of a demon crawling out of hell. If he had specialized in protection or healing, it would have sounded strange.

Kang Seo-dam nodded without saying anything else.

“In the case of the corpses, since we’ve already collected them and given them a blessing, they won’t be torn apart or rotted away any further.”

“Then what do we do now...?”

“Fortunately, I have subspace skills. I’ll store them here, so I think there won’t be any major problems with the collection afterwards.”

“Yes, yes.”

“If we delay any longer, something may happen, so please help the reserve priests move.”

“Ah, I understand.”

“Hoo...”

Kang Seodam wiped his blood-stained face and looked around.

‘... Could this be the black god I saw at the initiation ceremony?’

The man wearing a black cloak pulled down low. He definitely felt divine, and even if he wasn’t a monster in the dungeon, he could open a dungeon at will if he was a god.

If that’s the case, then his authority must be quite strong even for an evil god, but the aura he felt was close to death, so he had doubts for a moment.

‘... No, but he was a being that the goddess had given him such a favorable gaze. A god who seemed to have a high level of understanding of humans and was gentle in building relationships wouldn’t have committed such a massacre out of nowhere.’

Rather, the one who was suspicious was Eunha, the blue-haired reserve priest.

“.......”

Even though I felt the cold air, I just thought, ‘Is this a child trying to serve a god who holds cold air?’ But given the situation, I couldn’t help but be suspicious.

‘The coldness I felt from the Galaxy Army and the coldness filled with the energy of this deep sea are quite similar. If I can tell at a glance, then the Galaxy Army didn’t intend to hide its identity until after the incident.’

Either they were planning to kill everyone here anyway, or they were planning to stop by Earth once and leave.

‘In this case, it seems like both. It’s a very dangerous dungeon...’

I looked around, worried about what would happen next.

“......?”

The air changed.

‘... It’s positive.’

Unlike the previous air that seemed to be desperate to kill anyone, a strangely warm air subtly swept through the entire dungeon.

“Wait a minute.”

Kang Seo-dam left the survivors to Cha A-ra and came out into the hallway.

Not long after I started looking around, something appeared beyond the corridor that resembled a temple that seemed to be submerged in the deep sea.

“.......”

“.......”

A man wearing a pitch-black cloak took off his hood.

‘... Ah.’

In the thick shadows where it felt like there was nothing, platinum blonde hair resembling sunlight was revealed.

“.......”

“Brother Kang Seo-dam.”

It was ‘Sergio,’ a god who was presumed to be friendly to humans.

“I was wandering around the temple, which was wider than I imagined, and I am glad to meet the child of the sun.”

“.......”

“Do you know where the other survivors are? You seem injured, but I can help you.”

“.......”

“Brother Kang Seo-dam?”

“Excuse me.”

I wondered what kind of god it was, but I found out like this.

‘So there was a reason the goddess ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) gave us her gaze. Were we from the same lineage? .’

Gang Seo-dam, who was relieved by the familiar sunlight, thought, even though it didn’t seem to be of the same type as the strangely calm atmosphere.

‘It was an ambiguous situation to ask for help, but it seems that you performed some kind of miracle before I could even ask.’

Sergio must have played a big role in the dungeon becoming calm.

In fact, it’s a bit awkward to call it a miracle, but it wasn’t a wrong guess.

A painter who draws dungeons