River walked toward his next destination, his steps steady despite the uneven terrain beneath him.
Back in the forest, the sunlight barely reached the ground. Towering trees blocked the sky, their leaves clustered so thickly they seemed to devour the light.
The smell of damp earth and wildflowers filled the air, soothing the unease that came from being in such a dim and shadowy place.
River scanned his surroundings. After confirming no monsters were nearby, he searched for a spot where he could sit down and eat.
Once settled, he gathered firewood and prepared a piece of beef he'd preserved using a special container—one that mimicked a mini-fridge thanks to a basic Ice-attribute stone tucked inside.
He skewered the meat and began roasting it over the fire. One hand tended the beef; the other clutched a stick, which he used to draw on the ground.
"My memory isn't perfect, but I should be close," River muttered, sketching out the dungeon's layout from memory and even marking his current position.
While this F-Rank Awakening Ceremony dungeon was technically repeatable, each time it closed and reformed, the terrain inside shifted, making detailed maps mostly useless.
However, the overall structure stayed consistent. If someone could identify the dungeon's key areas, they could still navigate with relative ease.
The clearing where the Slimes spawned was one such key point. Heading north from there would lead to another main area, and continuing west would take you to yet another. Each zone was linked in a logical progression—easy enough to track for candidates who had both information and common sense.
Still, Awakening Dungeons like this one were rare, making it a unique outlier among other F-Rank dungeons.
"These are the three Goblin settlements… where most Academy candidates ended up," River muttered as he circled areas on the ground—first the Goblin camps, then the clearing with the Slimes. He continued drawing, marking each significant location he could recall.
In total, there were five main zones: the Slime clearing, the three Goblin settlements, the Smokey Wolves' den, the Grunt Boars' nesting ground, and the Stealer Frogs' marsh. Each housed its own core monster type.
This didn't include the roaming creatures like the Red Feet Turtle or the Silverback Antelope—those were random spawns that appeared whenever the dungeon reformed.
But the five main monster zones never changed.
River flipped his skewered meat while keeping his eyes on the dirt map.
He tapped the stick against the ground, mind digging through layers of memory, trying to recall something important about this place.
"When was it…? About a year after I became a Hunter... someone found a Quest here," he murmured.
The fire crackled softly as the beef sizzled.
A few years from now, this seemingly low-tier dungeon would cause a stir in Voulton City.
A candidate, barely known at the time, stumbled upon a hidden Quest inside this very dungeon. The Experience Points he earned shot his Level through the roof, instantly making him one of the most promising newbie Hunters around.
Guilds swarmed in—throwing offers, benefits, contracts—each one trying to claim him.
But the guy's luck didn't last long.
He ended up f*cking a humanoid rabbit monster and caught a parasite that devoured him from the inside out in mere seconds.
A tragic end. And, depending on who you asked… a pretty funny one.
River didn't really care about the guy's story. What mattered was the Quest.
That hidden Quest was real.
And it happened here—in this very dungeon.
From what he remembered in the future, the Quest was something any candidate could attempt. It wasn't overly complex—solve a puzzle, dodge a few traps, fight monsters scaled to your current strength. Nothing world-shattering on paper.
The perverted guy who triggered the Quest never shared the full details—likely kept it to himself or passed it on to whatever guild snatched him up. Even if it was a one-time-only deal, the information could have helped unlock other hidden Quests.
But the hype didn't last long.
People assumed it was just a low-tier Quest, written off as common—after all, it came from a barely F-Rank dungeon. No one expected anything extraordinary from a place like this.
River had only been mildly curious at the time, which was why he even bothered to research it. But now that he was back in the past, he realized that curiosity hadn't been a waste.
He eyed the beef skewer and gave a small nod—perfectly grilled. Without further delay, he started eating.
He wasn't worried about attracting monsters. The area he'd chosen had relatively few of them, and most were herbivores. The rare carnivore that did roam nearby? River was confident he could either handle it or outrun it if things got messy.
As he chewed, his thoughts returned to the Quest.
The world saw it as simple. But River didn't.
"That guy reached Level 15 in an instant," River muttered through a mouthful of meat.
The average starting level in the world was 10. Reaching 15 during the Awakening Ceremony marked you as someone with real potential.
But getting there was easier said than done. The higher the level, the more Experience Points it required. And during the Ceremony, candidates were still technically normal humans—limited strength, limited stamina. Even a peak athlete would struggle to push past Level 10 without collapsing.
Ending the Ceremony early would mean losing the XP bonus multiplier—a waste of a rare opportunity.
Sure, you could keep grinding, but inside a bottom-tier F-Rank dungeon, the EXP was abysmal without the random multiplier boost.
"Level 15 from Level 6… That's gotta be a few thousand EXP at least. Maybe even tens of thousands…" River whispered as he took his last bite.
He washed it down with a mouthful of water, then turned back to the dirt-drawn map.
Staring for a moment, something clicked.
"Found it," he said with a grin, circling a spot northeast of the Smokey Wolves' den. "How the hell did that guy find this place…"
Shaking his head, he began packing up.
Once finished, he doused the fire with dirt and slung his bag over his shoulder.
"Hmm, I should hunt some Smokey Wolves on the way. They're a pain to kill with my current stats, but I can grind them slowly," River mused with a faint smile.
Getting stronger came first. That's why he was here—to take risks, to find the hidden Quest, and to farm monsters with better EXP than Slimes.
One EXP is better than none.
And Smokey Wolves offered way more than Slimes ever could.
River was already imagining the satisfying ding of his Level rising—when his excitement suddenly halted.
Because he'd just bumped into someone familiar.