Solo Leveling (Vol 1)

The Chamber Renaissance

Several Hunters shrunk back and shuddered slightly.

"It's a bit creepy in here, isn't it?"

"Doesn't it feel like we're being watched by someone?"

Leaving behind the scared Hunters, the three, four strongest of the group went in deeper.

"Tsk! Don't say something that might jinx us, will ya?"

"Let's end this quickly and go home."

The interior was nonsensically huge. The chamber was shaped like a giant dome. It was as large as several Olympic stadiums, the one found in Seoul, were put together – no, maybe it was even bigger than that.

However, one couldn't help but feel that it was still inadequate.

The reason for that was rather obvious.

"That.... that thing over there...."

"N-no freaking way that thing's the boss, right?"

In the deepest part of the dome, something so logic-defyingly humongous sat on a throne just as big as itself. It was none other than a huge stone statue of a god!

"Oh, my god...."

"Wow."

Shocked gasps leaked out from the Hunters.

The first image popping up in Jin-Woo's head was of the Statue of Liberty in New York. If that statue sat down on a chair, wouldn't it be as big as that statue of the unknown god?

Well, Liberty was a woman, while the one sitting on the throne was a dude, though.

'No, hang on. Maybe it's even bigger than that...'

Hunters began nervously swallowing their saliva near the foot of the god statue. The taut and heavy apprehension and anxiety were clear to see on their faces as they worried about this statue being the dungeon's boss.

'.......'

However, the statue did not budge an inch.

What a fortunate thing that was.

"Whew...."

Even Song spat out a sigh of relief.

"Okay, everyone. Spread out."

Now that they found some leeway, Hunters split among themselves and began searching around the vicinity.

"I don't think there's a single monster in here."

"You think so, too?"

"Never mind a monster, I can't even see a single bug, too."

The chamber of the stone god statue might have been massive, yet its actual inner structure was on the simpler side. On the walls, countless torches could be found there. And in front of these walls, more stone statues, slightly taller than a human beings, stood tall and unmoving. There were lots of them here as well, found at a certain distance from one another.

"They are all rather beautiful, aren't they?"

"It's like, they are works of art, no?"

Objects held by each of the stone statues were varied and different.

Some held weapons, there was one with a book, and some carried musical instruments, and even torches.

"It's as if...."

"They are like statues of a holy temple or something."

Song finished what Kim wanted to say.

"Mm?"

Then, Song found something beneath his feet.

"This... Isn't this a magic formation?"

He found a magic formation that he had never seen before located in the middle of this temple.

It was then.

"Excuse me, Mister Song? Ahjussi, something's written here. Can you come over here and take a look?"

One of the Hunters discovered a statue that was different from others and called out to Song.

Song stopped studying the magic formation and got up from the floor. Other Hunters all gathered around the statue Song was headed off to.

Only this statue featured a pair of wings and carried a stone slate. What the Hunters focused on was the letters carved into this slate. Song took a sweeping look at the slate and muttered to no one in particular.

"It's the Rune alphabet."

The Rune 'alphabet'.

Words that could not be found anywhere on Earth, and found only within dungeons; only the Hunters who had 'awakened' the magic-related professions could decipher them.

"The laws of the Karutenon temple."

Song read the very first verse.

With a deeply nervous face, Jin-Woo listened to the contents of the slate, as read out by Mister Song.

However, someone suddenly tugged at his arm.

When he looked back, he spotted Ju-Hui and her deathly-pale complexion.