Chapter 1. Boy becomes a Dungeon Explorer (1)

My father was the direct heir of a clan known for its spearmanship. There were other ancient martial art clans scattered throughout Korea, but my father was strong even amongst the heirs. While growing up, I never once saw my father lose. Even so, my father would complain every day of his ill fortune, saying things I could not understand.

“Tsk, what use is there being strong on the outside? With no qi, it’s all looks and no substance.”

“Key? Shin has a key!”

“Haha, not key, but qi. It’s the energy you build up inside the body.”

Of course, as I was only eight years old, I didn’t understand what my father meant by building energy inside the body.

I was more interested by other things. Seeing my father smash boulders with his bare fists or drilling a hole in a concrete wall with a wooden spear in less than 10 seconds, I thought I wanted to get strong just like him.

“You can do it too.”

“Really? I can be as strong as you, Dad?”

“Of course! You just have to train hard.”

“Okay!”

I was at the age where I admired comic book superheroes. It was also why I fell for my father’s sweet talk so easily.

He had purposely left out the detail that it would take dozens of years of training. He forced me, his less than ten year old son, to scale mountains and even abandoned me in the forest. He said it was a necessary process to become a hero.

Did I obediently do what he said? When I was only eight? Of course not! At first, I was bawling my eyes out. However, the only person who could cheer me up in this situation, my mother, was in Korea. I, on the other hand, was in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest with my father. Without any way of communicating with the outside world, my cries for help went unheard.

“Uwaaaaaaah!”

“Shut up! There won’t be dinner until you kill that snake!”

“I hate you Dad! Uwaaaaah!”

My first ever summer break, which happened when I was eight, seemed to last forever. It was the same for that year’s winter break, the following summer break, and the following winter break...

For two years, I learned the basics of martial arts. At ten, I was able to at least take up a cool stance. My body became large, unlike others my age, and my once-tender arms had turned a little muscular.

Although the boys my age said that I looked cool and followed me around, the girls distanced themselves from me, saying that the cute Shin had turned into a monster.

Hmph, girls. Once they grew up, they would no doubt go crazy at the sight of muscles... Of course, back then, I was young too, and seeing my body keep changing, I whined to my father to bring my arms back. He beat me up. He had long since stopped treating me like a cute son.

And so on the my tenth birthday, my father finally brought it up.

It was a story about a ’dungeon’ that would stay with me for the rest of my life.

“In the dungeon, there are lots of precious things. Mana Stones, magical weapons... heck, even orc skin would be treated as new material never-before-seen on Earth!”

“Wow! So how do you go to the dungeon?”

My father laughed as he stroked my head. “Through Dad’s cellphone.”

“Can I go too?”

“Not yet, kiddo. You’re not strong enough.”

“Dad, what’s a Mana Stone? Can I see it?”

“T-That’s...” At my inquiry, my father’s smooth talk came to a crashing halt. I should have noticed then that something was wrong.

“I-I’ll show you that later. No, there’s no reason to. You can enter the dungeon and bring one back yourself!”

“Okay! I’ll go to the dungeon! I want to see it for myself!”

My ten year old self was detached from modern technology. In this day and age where even elementary school kids had smartphones, I instead received a kid-sized wooden spear as my school entrance gift. There was no way I could have known what dungeons really were.

Some kids my age were already playing dungeon exploring fantasy games on their smartphones!

Without knowing that dungeons were imaginary, I bragged to my friends that I would enter a dungeon when I grew up. When my friends understood the severity of my delusion, they showed me all kinds of novels and games to convince me that dungeons did not exist in the real world. Unfortunately, my two years of training had turned even my brain into muscle.

In other words, I was slow to understand what people were saying.

At school, I talked and talked about become a dungeon explorer. What do you think happened? In what was dubbed “Kang Shin’s Dungeon Explorer Incident,’ I lost my two of my best friends, MinSoo and SooChan.

Kang Shin was my name, of course. Kang was my family name and Shin was my given name. My father chose my name, saying that single syllable names seemed strong. My mother had also agreed that it was a good name.

Regardless of how others reacted, my grand ambition of becoming a dungeon explorer never disappeared. I trained harder and harder. Having trained systematically under my father, who had already half-transcended the limits of a human, when I became fifteen-years-old, my father was the only person left on Earth who I was afraid of.

Guns were scary, to be honest, but I was able to dodge a bullet with about a fifty percent chance. It was then that I realized that I had surpassed the realm of a human being. The next thing I knew, I had no one to call friends, and even my own beautiful younger sister was avoiding me.

On my fifteenth birthday, I took my clothes off and stood in front of a mirror. Because I couldn’t see my whole body if I stood too close, I had to stand far back.

In it was a Hulk.

“Nooooo, this can’t be...!”

Well, maybe I was exaggerating a little. In any case, my body was far from normal. I was 2 meters tall and was only in my third year of middle school. My body looked like a gorilla’s. It was all muscle and barely any fat. It was at the stage where my limbs were better described as deadly weapons. It was not something the human body could have normally.

Something was definitely wrong. Not even my father looked like this.

“It’s almost like an orc. Your handsome face takes after me, but your body...”

“Dear husband, you must mean his face takes after me. His body is just like yours.”

My mother treated only my head as her son. Even though she was my true mother, I sometimes suspected her of being a protractor. How else could she be so sharp and ruthless in her measurements of me?

“Father, why did I become so big?”

“I don’t know, maybe it’s because you started training at a young age.”

“When did you start your training?”

“Sixteen, I think.”

“You crook!”

“Hey, I only wanted to make you a dungeon explorer!”

On my fifteenth birthday, I beat my father in an official match. It was the moment where youth beat out experience. But even after taking a loss at the hands of my shoulder throw, my father said with bitterness, “So you didn’t manage to obtain qi...”

“There is no such thing as qi! The thing about dungeons is a lie too!”

“A lie... You’ll find out soon, son, so spare my back.”

On the same night that I carried out my sweet revenge, I received a message on the smartphone my mother bought me for winning against father. When I saw it, my eyes opened wide.

- Unlock by entering your password.

“Ku... I can’t open it...”

Because my head was full of muscle, it was impossible for me to remember the basic password mother put in.

The next day, I asked mother to unlock the phone. Lost for words, she got rid of the lock entirely. I don’t understand why she didn’t do so in the first place. I nodded my head as I accepted the phone. When I looked down, this was the message I received.

[You have been acknowledged by the self-proclaimed Strongest on Earth ‘Kang YungOong,’ and have acquired the Dungeon Explorer’s License. As of this moment, you have become one of the five dungeon explorers on Earth. Would you like to enter the dungeon now?]

Dungeon explorer it said! My eyes became wide in surprise as I realized the dream I had since I was ten years old was coming true. Watching my surprised face, mother walked toward me, looked at the phone screen, and crossed her arms.

“This old man dares to mess with his son with KaTalk? Today, he won’t go unpunished.”

“What’s KaTalk, Mom?”

“It’s the messenger you’re looking at now.”

“What’s a messenger?”

“...”

I became embarrassed when she didn’t reply, so I went to my younger sister to ask. She had just graduated elementary school and was in her first year of middle school. When I knocked on her door, she ran towards it happily and opened it. After seeing my appearance, she let out a shriek and shrunk in fear. When I explained my situation, she kindly explained it to me with a shy smile. I looked scary on the outside, but she still cared for me deeply.

After about five hours of explanation, I became a bit more used to modern technology.

“Yua, how do I reply to this?”

“Ah, mm, oppa, like this...”

Ah, what a cute angel! Seeing my sister trying to help even as she stuttered made me want to hug her. But because I didn’t want to scare her again, I held myself back.

After learning how to reply to the KaTalk I received, I told her I would pay her back with a Mana Stone from the dungeon. Then, I typed ‘Yes’ into my phone.

𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

The next moment, I was inside the dungeon. An endless grey hallway, walls made out of stones and torches hanging on them. It was exactly like what father had described. Perhaps he wasn’t lying after all.

There was more. The moment I realized where I was, I heard someone’s whisper in my ears.

[Kang Shin, Bronze Rank 9 Dungeon Explorer, has entered the dungeon.]

[This is your first time. Beginner Dungeon Explorer Support has sent you 5 Lowest-grade Potions.]

[Analyzing your abilities... complete. Beginner Dungeon Explorer Support has sent you a Sharp Wooden Spear.]

[Confirming rank... complete. You are 5th of the 5 Dungeon Explorers from Earth. You are 146,298th of the 146,298 total dungeon explorers. Rankings will be renewed at 6 A.M. tomorrow morning.]

[You have obtained a Status. Would you like to confirm? Yes/No]

Sorry for dragging it out so long. Everything was leading up to this moment.

The moment where I became a true dungeon explorer.

... The dungeon explorer, titled ‘Crown Prince of 5F.’