At the top floor of the South Korean Hunter Association building, Chairman Go Gun-Hee let out a heavy sigh as he stared out the window, his eyes distant, his face etched with a weariness that time could not hide.
"It's been seven months," he muttered with a trace of sorrow in his voice, "Since that healer, the girl who knew about my condition, disappeared along with that mere goblin dungeon."
His gaze lowered, and his expression darkened. "That little girl... she should be dead by now. It's a misfortune for South Korea. We've lost a reawakened with a unique ability... If we were able to nurture it, how beneficial that would be for the next generation..."
He paused, raising a hand to massage his forehead, as if trying to soothe the pulsing headache that had taken permanent residence.
"Eunseok and Han Ji-Hoon... those two brats... even died six months ago, sacrificing themselves to save the other S-Rank hunters out of that devilish island."
His voice broke into a growl. "Damn this life, why is nothing going my way?! Misfortune upon misfortune..."
His frustration erupted unconsciously as his aura flared, filling the room with oppressive energy, rattling the glass panels around him.
Guilt mingled with fury as he clenched his fists, trying to suppress the storm brewing inside him.
'If this goes on...'
He couldn't even finish the thought as his eyes widened as he noticed something, something out of ordinary.
The northeastern sky above Seoul was shifting, turning not just a stream of yellow, but a shimmering, radiant gold, glowing with a brilliance that seemed to descend from another world entirely.
The heavens themselves appeared to crack open, as if heralding the arrival of an entity not born of this earth.
Go Gun-Hee stood frozen, his mouth slightly agape, sensing the magnitude of the phenomenon.
Just then, Woo Jin-Chul burst through the door, his face pale and his breath heavy from running.
"Chairman! There's an emergency report—an enormous spatial fracture spanning 14 meters has been detected in Gangwon Province. It's the same area where that anomaly dungeon suddenly vanished seven months ago!"
Without a moment's hesitation, Go Gun-Hee's sense of urgency overtook him.
"Call all the S-Rank hunters now! Immediately! Have them deploy to that area at once! And notify the neighboring countries—we may need them on standby!"
Both men rushed out, hearts pounding with the same unspoken hope:
'Let this not be a dungeon break... or South Korea may once again fall into a calamity.'
...
Meanwhile, at the Seed Shop, a girl lay sprawled lazily across a sofa, her face turned toward the ceiling in boredom.
As her eyes fluttered open, a manic smile twisted across her lips.
She licked them slowly and whispered with barely restrained excitement, "There you are, little boy~"
...
In another part of the city, a hooded hunter stood still in front of Daesung Tower. With a slow, weary motion, he pulled down his hood, revealing a face shadowed with grief.
The early morning sun had barely risen, yet the sky to the northeast gleamed with a golden radiance, brighter and more surreal than anything the dawn should bring.
He stared at it for a long moment before scoffing bitterly.
"Even the sky wants to remind me of you, Joo-Hee…" he murmured under his breath. "You said we'd survive together. And now look at this…"
His voice trailed off as he bit his lip, the weight of his regret sinking deeper into his chest. "I'm sorry... I wasn't able to protect you. But... I'll become stronger—stronger than anyone. And I'll honor the promise I made to you."
Jinwoo inserted the key as a soft click echoed and the air around him shimmered.
Without hesitation, he stepped forward, crossing the threshold into the depths of the Instance Dungeon.
It was by then that everyone didn't know, except for the Mistress, that the very light that cast gold across the sky above Gangwon Province was no natural phenomenon.
None could have guessed, except for the Mistress, that the golden light dancing across the Gangwon Province was not born of sun or season, but of something far more unnatural.
It was the aftermath caused by someone.
The minor world known as [Kinobgral] had shattered once again, splintering into dozens of nascent dungeons all over Earth.
And from the heart of that rupture, a single figure returned—Joo-Hee.
She was forcibly transported back to the place where she had first entered that dungeon, [Goblin's Hideout], her arrival cloaked in golden radiance that spread far beyond the region.
Hovering in the air above, she ensured that every essence stone and treasure she had acquired within [Kinobgral] was secured inside a web-like cage crafted from a purple wood, suspended behind her like a living vault.
With the skill [Verdant Growth], she gracefully began her descent.
She snapped her finger toward the earth below, and in response, the grass surged upward, vines twisting and curling as they wove together to form a stair-like path that carried her gently down from the sky.
Her eyes narrowed as her feet touched the ground. The scene was off. The land around her had changed. Trees now filled what once had been an open training ground.
"This place…" she muttered, furrowing her brows. "This should be the exact area where the practice dungeon was. But how is it so overgrown? It even looks dilapidated… like it's been abandoned for months…"
The thought halted in her mind, an unwanted thought creeping in.
"[Arcana], immediately scan the lifecycle and dating of the surrounding trees and plants," she ordered aloud. Her system interface activated instantly, a soft green echoing light scanning the trees and vines around her, calculating their age and growth cycles.
Without waiting for the full report, Joo-Hee pulled out her phone—cracked, scratched, and barely functional. Despite its battered state, she tapped urgently on the screen and searched the internet, her heart racing as the data began to load.
Moments later, the system responded with its report:
_________________
[Korean Pine: 8 months, 3 days old]
[Royal Azalea: 7 months, 19 days old]
[San-namul: 10 months, 6 days old]
[...]
[Gosari: 6 months, 21 days old]
[Dureup: 9 months, 30 days old]
_________________
Then Arcana's voice echoed within her mind, calm yet matter-of-fact.
[Master, time dilation occurred upon your entry into the minor world coagulation. As the dungeon's boundaries merged and warped, the temporal cycle of the minor world shifted drastically. This resulted in an intersectional disparity between timelines, causing time inside and outside to flow at vastly different rates.]
Hearing that, Joo-Hee froze. She stood silent for a beat, her eyes wide as the weight of those words sank in.
Then she scoffed and muttered in disbelief, "What... no—wait... should—shouldn't you at least have told me beforehand...?!"
She let out a long sigh, clicked her tongue in irritation, and brought up her tattered phone again.
Browsing through cached news headlines, the world she had missed slowly unfolded before her in clarity.
The attempt of joining the 3rd Jeju Island Raid.
The critical moment she'd planned to keep Eunsok alive.
The opportunity of seeing the Ice Elves.
The chance to plunder the Orc Dungeon.
And most of all—watching Jin-Woo's legendary battles firsthand.
All of it... lost.
"Damn it..." she growled, her voice low but seething. She ruffled her long golden hair in frustration, the strands cascading around her like a sunlit veil.
"To think that staying in that realm for eight hours or so would cost me more than five months here... Just how wasteful can it get?! I even planned to steal that Ant Queen's egg and raise my own Beru during the 3rd Jeju Island Raid, but now—!"
Her rant cut short as her senses flared. Someone was near.
With a flick of her fingers, she activated [Nature Resonance]. The grass beneath her feet responded like loyal soldiers.
The leafy stairwell that had gently welcomed her descent moments ago twisted and surged like serpents, racing toward the approaching presence.
Within seconds, the incoming intruder was seized mid-stride with mere ease.
His silhouette flailed as he tried to fight back using his daggers, shouting through the struggle, but Joo-Hee raised her hand coldly, tightening the grass until he was dragged to her and suspended in front of her, neck exposed.
She stared at him.
His eyes widened and stunned, not just by the attack, but by the radiant being standing before him. The being before him was ethereal, capable of enticing his composure.
"Spare m... Beaut—"
Before he could speak another word, she gripped his throat.
Hard.
The man choked and thrashed weakly before finally falling limp, unconscious. Joo-Hee tossed him aside like a rag doll, her expression unchanging.
"Tch," she muttered, glancing up toward the sky, where the fractured golden light was beginning to condense. "With the sky looking like that, of course hunters are going to come poking around. They must have thought a dungeon break is happening..."
And then, as if on cue, a system prompt blinked before her eyes:
_________________
[You have completed the Restrictive Quest: Freedom of Goblin Macabre.]
[You have received the 'Fragment of Kinobgral (???)']
_________________
Just as Joo-Hee was about to swipe the notification away in irritation, something smacked her on the head with a dull thud.
"Crap—what was that?!" she groaned, rubbing her scalp with a grimace. "My day's already ruined, and now this?!"
She bent down, ready to chuck the offending object away—only to pause when her system highlighted it with a faint glow. Curious, she tapped on the interface, pulling up the item's details.
_________________
Item Name: Fragment of Kinobgral (???)
Description: A space fracture condensed from the overlapping spatial fissures of the former minor world [Kinobgral]. It contains residual spatial energy that once held the boundaries of that realm.
Usage (Highly Recommend): The spatial fragment stone may be refined to create a personal dimensional inventory.
_________________
Her irritation faded as she covered her mouth. A grin tugged at the corners of her lips, and for a moment, her whole demeanor seemed to brighten.
"Kyaah~ Is this for real?! I-I can finally have my own inventory now!"