The Heroine Stole My Regression

20 – Mock Dungeon (4)

Joo Han-gang looked around, scoffing.

“This is a dungeon?”

“Seems so.”

The path was all too simple. After passing one or two forks in the road, there were no proper traps to speak of. Monsters? The goblin from before was the only one we’d encountered. At this rate, we’d reach the center in no time.

Elegant patterns were etched into the walls, but they fell far short of inspiring any tension.

“Hyung said the Gaon dungeon class was hellish, but there’s nothing to it?”

Han Iri shifted his weight, grumbling nonchalantly as he walked.

“We just need to think about… which team we’re going to face.”

Ju Han-gang’s expression hardened.

Han Iri paused, savouring his words. Then, he asked:

“Who do *you* want to face? Yohan?”

“Yohan’s one-on-one, I don’t know… but we can’t beat his team.”

The teammates Yohan had brought to the mock dungeon were the ones he’d stick with afterward.

A hero and the crusader who guarded him, after all.

“Then who?”

Han Iri asked again.

“Jung Hae-in.”

“Honestly, with Cheon Yeo-ul gone, I thought I’d be seeded. But some parachute b*stard… he teamed up with Yu Hana before, right?”

“Yeah. That’s what they say.”

Ju Han-gang scoffed, opening his mouth again.

“Total carry, more like.”

Han Iri chuckled lightly, nodding his head.

“Who do you want to face?”

At Ju Han-gang’s question, Han Iri seemed to ponder for a moment, then turned his head, acting indifferent.

But in his heart, the answer was already decided.

Frankly speaking, he had fallen at first sight at the start of the semester. Han Iri was usually the one receiving confessions, not the one expressing his own feelings.

But this time, he braved his embarrassment and tried to approach her, again and again.

Yet every time he resolved and approached, her response was always the same.

‘Sorry, I have to go meet a friend.’

Besides.

‘She tells me to call her by her full name, but…’

He had boldly tried calling her by her first name once.

‘Call me Ha Si-on.’

He couldn’t forget her cold gaze that day.

From that moment on, the ‘friend’ she always went to meet became an irritant that grated on his nerves.

“Me too.”

Finally, he answered, feigning nonchalance.

“I’m Jeong Hae-in too.”

Whether it was jealousy, anger, or simple rivalry, he couldn’t quite place it.

But one thing was certain.

He wanted to show her that *he*, Jeong Hae-in, could win.

“Just…curious what kind of guy he is.”

Han Iri said it with a seemingly calm smile, but the look in his eyes was already fiercely agitated.

Meanwhile, on the opposite side. Jeong Hae-in’s team was in a safe zone.

“Huff… Hae-in-ah….”

Team Jeong Hae-in had already triggered their seventh trap.

The monsters were a mere bonus; Kim Dae-hyun felt more hardship than in any training or battle he’d ever endured.

“Are maze-type dungeons usually this hard…?”

-Hahaha, let’s just die already!!

Yoon Sang-hyuk, beside them, was bordering on madness.

After the sixth breakthrough, the arrow that grazed his crotch must have been the final trigger.

“No.”

Jeong Hae-in was just as taken aback.

But Sion, catching her breath, replied, “It’s a maze-type, but it seems like it’s also combined with an exit-type.”

Exit-type dungeons have a clear distinction between the entrance and the exit, so two portals are generated on each side.

The entrance and the center are filled with obstacles and traps, whereas the exit has a structure that allows for almost effortless passage.

So, in practice, they are often called ‘easy peasy’ dungeons because you can find the exit first and attack it backwards.

Dungeons are usually designed with one central characteristic, but sometimes they appear in a form that combines two or more.

“I can feel it as we get closer to the center. This dungeon doesn’t end at the center. It feels like there’s a path leading to the exit too.”

So this dungeon is a mutually complementary and vicious type, combining a maze-type with few monsters and an exit-type filled with abundant traps and monsters.

As Sion explained this, Yoon Sang-hyuk, who they thought had gone mad, was thrashing about wildly.

“No way, so we’re on the entrance side and those guys coming from the other side are having it easy?”

“That’s about the size of it.”

Jeong Hae-in nodded in response to Yoon Sang-hyuk’s disgruntled exclamation.

“What is this…!”

“And….”

In the midst of it all, Sion cut Yun Sanghyuk off, quietly raising a hand.

“Probably just one more breakthrough, and we’re at the center.”

*

For the students who weren’t chosen, the mock dungeon was offering a source of amusement beyond mere practice. The videos of each team, visible from their seats, were more than just learning materials; they were the best show in town.

“Whoa, damn. Yu Hana might actually beat Yohan?”

“Is Kang Arin even a student…?”

On the central screen, scenes of several teams colliding in the center were already unfolding.

It seemed the intention was to force encounters from the start.

However, Yong Hyunseong, a student within the top 100 rankings, was watching a video of a somewhat neglected team.

Two teams yet to meet.

“What? Are they still not there yet? They’re really slow.”

One student asked him.

“Well, yes, but….”

His gaze naturally shifted to the screen displaying the labyrinthine dungeon.

‘The difference in their difficulty is just too much….’

At first, he simply thought Jung Haein’s team was slow, but upon closer inspection, the disparity was clear.

Han Iri’s team’s dungeon was excessively simple. Devoid of traps, not even a noticeable monster, it looked as if you could just walk straight to the center.

In contrast, Jung Haein’s team’s dungeon was completely different.

The coordination of traps and monsters, not to mention just the overall difficulty, was undeniably greater.

But at the heart of overcoming those challenges was Jung Haein.

Slicing through monsters and dodging traps, his movements transcended the framework of practice, resembling a battle waged by professional heroes.

Yong Hyunseong’s gaze gradually became fixed on Jung Haein’s movements on the screen.

Then, noticing the sudden quiet around him, Yong Hyunseong raised his head and looked around.

“Whoa… what is this?”

Before he knew it, students were turning, one by one, to watch Jung Haein’s screen.

Even those who had been sneering at the videos just moments ago were now quietly following Jung Haein’s progress.

At first, it was just a few. But soon, the entire class was fixated on that screen.

“….”

No one spoke, but the silence was all the more intense.

“What’s up with him…?”

Someone muttered in a small voice.

The words resonated like a signal. Students around them glanced at each other, nodding in unison, as if in agreement.

He – no, Jeong Haein, definitely,

was different somehow.

*

Finally, we’d broken through the final obstacle and were resting in the last safe zone.

But unlike the ones before, this last safe zone had a timer ticking down.

A thoughtful consideration from the instructor, no doubt, urging us to hurry and fight in the central area.

“119… 118… 117…”

Yoon Sanghyeok counted down the timer, sprawled out on the floor.

“I want to die…”

I stared at the firmly shut door leading to the central area, then finally spoke.

“As you all know, the opposing team will be waiting beyond this door.”

“And there’s a high chance they’ve targeted the exit. They’ll have conserved more stamina than us too.”

Sion and Kim Daehyeon listened to me silently.

Daehyeon’s shield was half-destroyed, and Sion, aside from slightly disheveled hair, remained composed as ever.

“So?”

When I hesitated, Yoon Sanghyeok, still lying down, lifted his head and looked at me.

I was debating whether to say the next words or not.

There was a possibility, but half of me couldn’t quite believe it.

My silence stretched on, and Sion urged me on in a soft voice.

“Haein, you can keep talking if you have something to say.”

I nodded and spoke.

“Then, how would they have spent the remaining time?”

Yoon Sanghyeok lifted his head and pondered for a long while, then his eyes widened and he collapsed back down, muttering.

“…No way… They wouldn’t be that scummy.”

I couldn’t say I didn’t understand his reaction.

Next to him, Kim Daehyeon asked with a serious expression.

“You don’t mean… a trap?”

His guess was spot-on.

In engagements against people, traps were an indispensable element.

Especially in situations like a capture-the-point scenario, traps played a significant tactical role.

For that reason, even in close-quarters combat classes, they invariably taught the proper deployment of traps.

But this was a mock dungeon exercise.

External intruders or threats like fiends weren’t presupposed; the situation only considered engagements when teams met.

Yet, the fact that the other team had set up a trap meant that they weren’t just focused on the given objective, but were more concerned with the battle that would follow.

Moreover, traps were typically an extreme measure, used against heinous fugitives or high-risk targets like fiends, or even monsters.

To use them against students in a typical engagement class was, well, a bit much.

“So, Haein, what is it you want to do?”

Sion, still maintaining his gentle tone, asked, his gaze fixed on me.

The numbers on the timer slowly ticked down, echoing in my ears.

Time was short.

“I…”

*

“Enough, stop it and get up here already!”

The heart of the dungeon.

Han Iri’s team had already arrived.

It seemed that, to receive the dungeon’s reward, both doors had to be opened.

However, no matter how long they waited, the opposing team didn’t appear.

It was then that Ju Hanhang proposed an idea.

‘Let’s set up a trap.’

At first, the team members were reluctant.

But Ju Hanhang quoted the instructor’s words, “You *must* win,” and delivered a lengthy speech. In the end, his will prevailed.

The question of ‘Was the instructor’s real intention to predict that the opponents would come to the dungeon and set up traps to neutralize them?’ had already vanished from their minds.

The desire to win was all that remained.

After meticulously finishing the trap setup, Ju Hanhang, along with his team, clung to the second-floor railing of the dungeon’s central area, which resembled ancient ruins, and waited.

Their gazes were solely fixed on the opposite door.

“But… what if someone gets really hurt?”

A team member who had opposed the plan from the start asked Ju Hanhang, worriedly.

“It’s just practice anyway, you’re not going to get *too* hurt.”

Ju Han-gang replied casually, a hint of laughter joining Han Iri’s.

“Besides, aren’t the real problem the slowpokes who take *this* dungeon at a snail’s pace?”

“True. Maybe they’ll just end up in a trap?”

They exchanged grins.

-Thump.

It was then.

The door at the far end of the chamber swung open, and the dungeon’s reward manifested in the center.

“Here it comes.”

A moment thick with tension, four figures darted inside.

And, in a heartbeat.

-KABoooM!

Explosion.

A deafening roar ripped through the air as a sandstorm engulfed everything.

Vision went black, and the very air trembled with the force of the blast.

“Whoa! Epic!”

The explosion’s effect was beyond imagination. It was a good thing they installed it for large monsters.

The custom-made mana bomb, crafted by a team member majoring in alchemy, had perfectly fulfilled their expectations.

‘At this level, even Yo-han couldn’t win.’

Ju Han-gang waited for the sandstorm to subside, his face alight with hope.

Slowly, the dust began to settle.

Silhouettes emerged from within the half-cleared haze.

And they… were standing.

‘Standing?’

Ju Han-gang was stunned.

As the dust cleared further, Jung Hae-in came into view, his face a mask of disgust as he waved away the grit.

And beside him, Ha Si-on, her gaze sharp and unwavering, instantly pinpointed their location. Her lips moved, as if she were signaling their position.

“You damn shameless b*stards!!!”

Yoon Sang-hyuk’s shout, erupting from the side, echoed across the training grounds.

His hair plastered to his forehead with sweat, he screamed at the top of his lungs.

“Who makes something like this to kill someone??”

The four of them were remarkably unscathed. Ju Han-gang swallowed hard, glancing around.

And then he saw it.

The troll’s remains, shattered into pieces by the explosion.

It wasn’t four figures.

‘Ah.’

The four monster corpses, flung in rapid succession, had triggered the trap.

‘I’ve been found out.’

Jeong Hae-in’s gaze finally landed on them.

His cold eyes fixed on their position, piercingly.

He raised a hand, beckoning them down with a flick of his fingers.

“Come out.”

In the face of his frigid, chilling expression, a cold shiver ran down Han Iri and Ju Han-gang’s spines.