Gates: Volume 1

Chapter 2

 Eunjung had always dreamed about entering into a dungeon. She thought the experience would be something magical and out of this world, her running threw monsters and cut them up like a bat out of hell. Yet, when she came face to face with a monster for the first time she froze completely. She couldn't move, she could blink, she couldn't even cry...all her body did was shake violently and stare up at the monster. It was an ugly green humanoid, with a long nose, crooked teeth, and beaty red eyes. If Eunjung's mind was registering everything correctly, she would've recognized it as a Goblin, one of the most common monsters in dungeons. Goblins were cannibalistic monsters that sought out hunters as their next meals, carrying daggers and cleavers in order to chop them up to bits. The small gross monster loomed over her as she shook, growling before swinging down its knife.

"SLASH!" went a blade, Eunjung's eyes focusing on the Goblin, its blade dropping before it could reach her neck. The small monster stumbled for a second, coughing up blood before its head fell off its shoulders.
A tough hand grabbed Eunjung and pulled her to her feet. Her eyes began to refocus as executive Lee stared at her with a powerful yet worried gaze. "Eunjung!" called, patting her on the shoulder and then cheek. "Snap out of it we have to move!"

"W-what?" she responded, still in shock but coming back to her senses. Eventually tears started to form in her eyes, her lip quivering as she let out a small and shaky "E-Executive Lee..."

"There's no time for that." He spoke, his eyes flickering from tunnel to tunnel. Eventually he decided that the best course of action was to pick up the frightened girl. "If we wait here any longer they are going to swarm us."

From there he took off sprinting with Eunjung in her arms. Without even thinking about it she clenched onto the Executive, pushing her face into his chest. She just wanted it all to stop, return to the office and go back to the work room. Hell, she would take thousands of scoldings from Executive Lee just so she could go back in time. Yet, here she was, being carried by her boss to safety. Eventually the two of them found a cavern within the cave dungeon, stopping for a brief moment. By this point Eunjung had her senses come back to her for the most part, her eyes being red and puffy from crying and her hands red from clenching onto Executive Lee.

"Executive Le-" she began, but was cut off by him covering her mouth. It was a good thing he did too, Goblins walking by and listening for their voices with their big ears. Eunjung's eyes began to water once again after seeing the creatures. The creatures however didn't hear or see them, going on their way to find other humans to hunt. Lee then released Eunjung, her sniffling and puffy eyed.

"I'm sorry Eunjung." He spoke, whipping away her tears. "It will be alright."

The two of them sat there for the next 10 minutes, executive Lee being on constant guard while Eunjung calmed down. Through Eunjung's puffy eyes she could make out Executive Lee. He was no longer wearing his sports coat and didn't have his glasses from before, being more disheveled than she had ever seen him before. Every ounce of hair gel had left his hair as it now naturally curled up, only being held up by sweat. His eyes constantly held a cool blue, Eunjung knowing it as the universal sign of mana. In his hand he held the same sword she had seen moments earlier on his wall, a gem encrusted silver sword made for monster slaying.

"Executive Lee..." Eunjung spoke, her voice still shaky but calmed down from before. "Why are we here? What's going on?"

Executive turned his attention from the outer tunnel to look over to the raven haired girl. "A gate opened within the office building and sucked us in. It is incredibly rare to happen but not impossible, the last time something like this happened was in Moscow a couple of months ago."

Eunjung gulped remembering that event. "50 civilians dead as an inescapable A-Rank gate opens in Moscow, Russia." rang the voice of a news anchor, going over the events of the surprise gate formation. It was only after the S-Rank Russian hunter, Trivosky, appeared that the rest of the civilians were saved. Over three-quarters of all people sucked into the dungeon were killed by monsters...