WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ My Girlfriend Returned as a Dragon ◈
Chapter 33: The Key
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Before I had any time to react, it happened in the blink of an eye.
The Dragon Bone Sword, which had been rapidly drawing energy from the Sword’s Lingering Wills, began emitting an energy so intense that it slipped beyond my control.
The sword finally broke free from my grasp and flew through the air toward the statue in the center.
“Everyone, get out of the way!”
“W-what is that?”
“What the-!”
At my urgent shout, the other Hunters all turned toward me.
This was probably their first time seeing something like this too.
A sword escaping its owner’s control and flying through the air on its own.
The Hunters ducked or twisted aside to avoid the Dragon Bone Sword, while Taeseong, the party leader, began casting a spell in preparation for the worst.
But before Taeseong’s magic could activate, the sword tore through the air and struck the base of the enormous statue with a loud Clang!
All of it happened in only a few seconds.
My thoughts froze for a moment at this unprecedented event that defied common sense.
Why had my sword suddenly flown away on its own?
How was I supposed to fight without a sword?
Should I move safely toward the statue where Taeseong was while the others covered me?
But that was where the sword had flown.
Wouldn’t it be even more dangerous over there?
...What was I supposed to do now?
In that brief instant, so many thoughts tangled in my mind that it felt overloaded.
Then, at that moment...
The instant the sword pierced the statue, the countless black masses of lingering will stopped all at once, as though they were one body.
“...!”
As the strange phenomenon continued, the Hunters began murmuring.
The monsters that had been attacking us until moments ago had all stopped moving as soon as the sword flew into the statue.
But that was not the end of it.
Suddenly, every Sword’s Lingering Will began rising into the sky.
“What... am I looking at?”
“My god.”
“What on earth is about to happen...?”
Half wonder, half fear.
Faced with this impossible phenomenon, every Hunter, including me, stopped attacking and stared up at the sky as though entranced.
Gates were places where many strange events beyond humanity’s understanding occurred, but...
I had never heard of anything like this.
Then, shortly afterward.
“This is insane...!”
The lingering wills, which had been giving off a gloomy black light until just moments ago, began changing color.
From pitch-black to bright rainbow colors.
“Whoa...”
The Hunters all pulled out their phones and recorded this bizarre sight. I also adjusted the angle of the new drone Sia had given me to capture everything clearly.
Then...
Not long afterward, they released a blinding light, as though a supernova had exploded.
The lingering wills vanished without a trace.
“...”
After the lingering wills suddenly disappeared, the Hunters looked back down.
The Sword’s Lingering Wills, which had appeared so endlessly it was tiresome before this phenomenon, no longer emerged.
“Taeseong hyung, the time isn’t up yet, right?”
“Yeah. There’s still about thirty minutes left before the three hours are up...”
Taeseong held his head at one Hunter’s question.
The monsters had suddenly vanished before three hours had even passed.
“I have no idea what happened either...”
While everyone stood there with blank expressions...
“Anyway, Minjun, your sword.”
Taeseong pointed at the statue where my sword was embedded.
“What happened with that?”
“I’m not sure about that either. I was just swinging it normally, and then it suddenly flew away.”
I suspected it had something to do with the dragon’s power, but I did not know the exact reason.
For now, I headed toward the statue where the sword was lodged to find out what had happened.
Looking at where it was stuck, the sword had gone in so deeply that only the hilt was visible.
Yet there was something strange about it.
The statue was not cracked.
A hard sword made from dragon bone had flown at what must have been over a hundred kilometers per hour and embedded itself in the statue.
No matter how durable the statue was, could it really take that without any damage?
As I thought about it, the other Hunters also gathered around in small groups to look at the sword stuck in the statue.
“My god.”
“How did it get stuck so neatly?”
“Exactly. How is this even possible?”
While the other Hunters stared at it in amazement and took pictures...
“There was originally a deep groove here.”
Taeseong spoke up.
“A groove that had already been there?”
“Yes. I saw it when I first came here, about a year ago. There was a groove around here.”
Taeseong pointed to where the sword was lodged.
We had not had time to examine the statue closely earlier, so I must not have noticed it.
Taeseong took out his phone, found an old photograph, and showed it to me.
“Here. You see it, right?”
Just as Taeseong said, there had originally been a groove in the center of the statue, just large enough for a single sword.
Taeseong told us about when it had first been discovered.
“At first, we thought it was just a mark left by time, but when we looked closer, it was too clean for that.”
Taeseong believed it had clearly been made deliberately when the statue was first created.
He and the guild members who had raided this Dungeon Gate at the time had discussed the purpose of the gap, but...
In the end, they had found no secret hidden there.
Someone had even tried sticking something into the hole, but naturally, nothing happened.
Eventually, they had simply let it go.
“But seeing this now, I’m curious again. Why did Minjun’s sword fly away on its own, and why did it happen to fit perfectly into this gap?”
Then Juwon, who had been quietly watching beside Taeseong, casually commented.
“Looking at it this way, maybe it was made to hold a sword from the start? The size is perfect.”
Taeseong immediately scolded him.
“Why would anyone stick a sword into a statue for no reason?”
“Well, that’s true... But the hole fits it so perfectly...”
Taeseong took his casual remark seriously, and Juwon scratched his head awkwardly.
“I should tell Team Manager Jung about this soon. It would probably be best for the guild to investigate it.”
Taeseong murmured almost to himself.
Then he stepped aside and looked at me.
“But first, you should pull out your sword.”
“Oh, right.”
So many strange things had happened one after another that I had forgotten about retrieving my sword.
I gripped the hilt and pulled.
Fortunately, the sword came out smoothly.
But the moment it did...
Rumble...
The ground suddenly began to shake.
“Aah!”
“Ah, shit! What is that?”
Everyone screamed and rushed away as soon as the ground began trembling.
We had already experienced two bizarre phenomena that were not easy to encounter, a sword flying through the air and monsters vanishing.
No one had expected something else to happen.
But...
“Why... is only that area shaking?”
One Hunter, who had run the farthest from the statue, pointed at it with a trembling voice.
Just as they said, only the ground near the statue was shaking. Everywhere else looked completely fine.
Before we even had time to wonder why, the ground around the statue began to split apart.
The moment it did, stairs leading underground appeared.
“I’m getting tired of being surprised.”
“...Wow.”
Just as the Hunter beside me said, unbelievable things kept happening one after another.
“I’ve decided to stop trying to understand anything that happens here.”
“Me too. My head’s pounding.”
While the Hunters shared their thoughts, I silently stared at the underground stairs that descended beyond sight.
The dungeon’s name, Dragon Sword Garden. The Dragon Bone Sword suddenly flying from my hand toward the statue. The Sword’s Lingering Wills vanishing all at once. And now, the secret passage discovered for the first time today.
Could all of this really have happened by coincidence?
‘Of course not.’
Considering everything, there was a high chance that I was the reason these bizarre events had happened.
If so, I had only one choice.
I had to go down those stairs somehow and find out why these coincidences had occurred.
But...
Would things really go the way I wanted?
Realistically speaking, I was neither the leader of this party nor a member of the guild. I was an outsider.
There was no reason for them to follow my lead.
If we withdrew first and the guild later sent a separate investigation team, I would lose my chance to enter this dungeon.
Just as I was wondering how to persuade everyone...
[A dungeon’s rank and clearing conditions have changed.]
A notification appeared before my eyes.
[Rank: D -> EX
Clearing Condition: Reach the lowest level of ’s grave, then ]
But it seemed the other Hunters received the same notification, because they immediately began murmuring.
“...That can’t be right!”
“EX-rank?”
“Then how are we supposed to get out?”
“Taeseong oppa, what do we do now?”
It was complete chaos.
I had certainly wanted to go down those stairs and uncover the secret sleeping within this Dungeon Gate, but... this was not the development I had hoped for.
The EX rank was given when a dungeon could not be defined by the ranks from F to SSS.
That meant its difficulty had either become extremely easy... or, conversely, nearly impossible.
‘The latter is more likely.’
The Hunters here were panicking because they knew that too.
On top of that, the clearing conditions were not even stated clearly.
How could we clear it when we did not even know the conditions?
While everyone was panicking, one Hunter suddenly grabbed me by the collar.
“Isn’t this all because of you? If it weren’t for your sword, this never would’ve happened!”
I understood how he felt.
He was overwhelmed by the fear that we might fail the raid and die trapped in here, so it was probably difficult for him to think calmly.
But that did not justify what he was doing.
“Let go.”
I brushed away the Hunter’s hand from my collar.
At the same time, Taeseong and the other Hunters began trying to stop him.
“Seongmin, get a grip! Hey!”
“Kim Seongmin, what’s gotten into you?”
“Did Minjun trap us in here on purpose? If we can’t leave the dungeon, Minjun is trapped too!”
Only when the others pulled him away did the Hunter called Seongmin regain his senses and apologize to me.
“...I’m sorry. I know it isn’t Minjun’s fault, but...”
“It’s fine. I understand.”
After that brief incident passed...
“Then I guess we have no choice but to go down these stairs.”
I pointed at the stairs, and Taeseong nodded.
“It’s our only option.”
After letting out a deep sigh, Taeseong opened his subspace.
“We don’t know what might happen down there, so let’s prepare before we go in.”
At Taeseong’s words, some of the Hunters swallowed nervously and opened their subspaces one after another, while others put on additional equipment.
After that incident at the Gate, Sia had upgraded all of my equipment because she was worried something might happen to me.
Still, if this was EX-rank, I should bring out everything I could.
I took out every artifact I could wear and equipped them. I also packed several elixirs, considered the best potions in existence.
After finishing my preparations, before entering the underground passage in earnest, I met the lens of the drone camera Sia had given me, which I had activated when we entered the dungeon.
Sia might not be getting a livestream of me right now.
Still, for some reason, that camera felt like Sia’s eyes.
‘I’ll be back.’
I wished Sia were here with me.
But having that drone camera somehow made me feel reassured.
‘Shall we go?’
To uncover the secret connected to this grave.
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