I PICKED UP A CHILD IN A DUMPSTER-Chapter 71: Where Adventurers Rot.

"Fuck... why is this day so unlucky... if I could just access my Sy—"

She didn’t get to finish.

The Munches’ hand shot forward.

It grabbed Arven by the hair.

Hard.

Arven gasped as she was yanked forward, her fingers immediately clawing at its wrist while her body scraped across the stone floor. The sharp, painful sound of hair being pulled made Hana flinch.

"Arven!" Hana hissed.

The Munches didn’t even look at her.

It dragged Arven toward the cage entrance like she weighed nothing.

Then it paused and turned its head toward Hana.

"Follow," it growled. "Or me drag you too."

Hana’s throat tightened.

She nodded quickly.

The Munches turned and walked out, still gripping Arven’s hair. Arven’s boots scraped against the stone as she tried to steady herself, trying to lessen the strain on her scalp.

Hana stepped out of the cage.

The iron bars door slammed shut behind her.

The hallway outside felt larger than it looked from inside, the ceiling rose higher, shadows pooling thick between the torchlight intervals. And every few meters, torches were embedded directly into carved-out grooves on the rock walls. The flames were identical to the ones inside the cages— steady, controlled, unnatural.

And the corridor...

It curved gradually deeper into the mountain.

The air was warm but heavy, like breathing inside something alive. The sound of dragging footsteps echoed endlessly.

Arven’s breathing grew uneven as she was pulled forward.

As Hana walked behind them, fists clenched at her sides, she looked at the wall.

The walls weren’t just rough stone.

They had marks.

Deep grooves.

Not tool marks.

Claws.

Massive claws.

Some were fresh enough that dust still clung to their edges.

Whatever lived here was not small.

And it was not alone.

They walked for what felt like minutes... Maybe longer.

Then the corridor widened slightly as they approached a larger opening ahead— darkness spilling out of it like a mouth.

Then—

The Munches stopped.

No warning.

Just stopped.

Hana nearly bumped unto its back.

For a split second, everything went silent.

No dragging.

No footsteps.

No growling.

Then—

Its head tilted.

Slowly.

Unnaturally.

As if something invisible had pulled on its chin.

And then—

Its head fell.

Just—

Straight down.

"Thud."

The body remained standing.

For half a second...

Then it collapsed forward, Arven slipping free as the massive corpse hit the stone with a heavy impact.

Blood pooled across the uneven floor, spilling from the cleanly severed neck..

Hana and Arven stared.

There was no slash sound.

Just a clean separation at the neck, as if something impossibly sharp had passed through without resistance.

The torches along the wall flickered.

***

(Si Hon, Han-Gyeol Mimi — duo.)

The running of Si Hon stopped.

Not because he was tired.

Not because he reached his limit.

It just... felt wrong to keep moving.

Si Hon slowed to a halt, his boots sinking slightly into the thin layer of the snow. And the forest around him was still drowned in fog, and the heavy clouds were still blocking out any trace of the moonlight.

He looked at the trees around.

The trees stood as towering shadows, their shapes blurred and distorted in the mist.

And he looked up.

Still night.

"...Strange."

His breath fogged in front of him.

"Why does it feel like the night’s too long...? Why isn’t it switching to day yet?"

Snowfall Mountain didn’t feel normal.

Even the wind felt... delayed. Like something was holding time in place.

A faint pulse brushed against his finger.

Then the small black window flickered into existence beside his hand.

「아빠 (⁠╹⁠▽⁠╹⁠)? Stop?」

Han-Gyeol Mimi’s text glowed softly, slightly tilted like it was peeking at him.

Si Hon stared at it.

"...Well, uh..."

He looked forward.

And froze.

The trees thinned out just ahead.

Beyond them stood a massive cave entrance carved into the side of the mountain like a wound. The rock around it was darker, almost blackened. The snow near the entrance had melted away in a wide circle, revealing bare stone...

And BONES.

A lot of bones.

Human skulls were stacked near the left side of the entrance, some cracked, some intact, the empty eye sockets faced outward like a silent witnesses.

Mixed in were animal skulls— deer, wolves, something with long curved horns.

But at the very top of the entrance... hung like a trophy... was a skull that resembled a Munches.

Large. Brutal. Gorilla-shaped.

Two massive fangs curved upward from its jaw like a twisted bone hooks.

It wasn’t a decoration...

It was a ’warning.’

Si Hon’s eyes narrowed.

"...Well that’s subtle."

(Totally not obvious...) He thought.

The warmth hit him next.

Not strong.

But enough to feel it brushing against the cold air outside the cave.

Then—

"Thud."

Something shifted inside.

Not a rock, not snow, it was heavy.

Controlled.

Si Hon immediately tip-toed sideways, lowering his body and pressing himself against the edge of the rocky entrance wall.

(Fuck. What was that?)

He slowed his breathing.

Footsteps echoed from within.

Two figures emerged.

Munches.

One yawned loudly, rolling its thick shoulders. A crude spear rested in its hand— the tip sharpened bone, wrapped with leather strips.

The other stood straighter, holding a makeshift bat reinforced with embedded bones and jagged teeth.

(A guard...?)

They stopped in front of the entrance.

One scratched its stomach.

"Hmmm."

The spear-holder squinted at nothing in particular.

"What?" the other asked, voice rough. "What you doing?"

"Me thinking," the spear-holder replied proudly.

There was a pause.

Then—

"GWAWHAGWHHAGAHAHA!" The other exploded into laughter, pointing aggressively at its head. "You? Think?! You dumb! You no think! Gwhahaha!"

Si Hon blinked slowly from behind the stone.

(ಠ_ಠ ...Damn.)

The spear-holder’s eye twitched.

"You! You make me mad again!"

It suddenly lunged forward and started punching the laughing one in the chest.

The bone-bat clattered to the ground.

The two began grappling like oversized toddlers, growling and slamming each other into the snow.

Si Hon stared.

"...I cannot believe these are sentient."

The one punching shouted between punches.

"ME THINK! ME THINK BECAUSE THREE BIG DOGGY CAUGHT! WE EAT BIG!"

The words hit.

Si Hon froze.

(Three. Big. Doggy...)

His heartbeat skipped.

The warmth from the cave suddenly felt suffocating.

Sixxy.

Boreas.

Nivalis.

The laughter of the Munches echoed into the forest.

"OH! We eat big!" the laughing one repeated, pushing back. "Good meat! Warm meat!"

Something cold slid down Si Hon’s spine.

The air around him felt thinner.

Not because of fear.

Because something inside him went very still.

Han-Gyeol Mimi pulsed.

The small black window appeared again, but this time the letters were smaller.

「아빠...?」

He didn’t respond.

His eyes were fixed on the cave entrance.

The two Munches were still fighting— snow kicking up, grunts and dull thuds as fists hit the fur and bone.

They weren’t watching the entrance.

They weren’t watching anything.

Si Hon moved.

Silent.

He stepped past the scattered skulls.

Past the bone-bat on the ground.

Past the two arguing guards.

And slipped into the cave.

The temperature shifted immediately.

Warmer.

The air felt thick— like stepping into a living lung.

The corridor inside sloped downward slightly. The stone walls were lined with faint claw marks and streaks that weren’t quite dry.

Farther in—

Torchlight flickered.

And somewhere deep within— Something breathed.

Slow.

Massive.

And steady.

Behind him, the Munches were still arguing.

"YOU NO THINK!"

"ME THINK!"

Their voices faded.

Si Hon’s jaw tightened.

(Shit. Fuck.)

(Is that Bitch talking about Sixxy, Boreas, and Nivalis...?)

Han-Gyeol Mimi pulsed once.

Not playfully.

Not curious.

Sharp.

Urgent.

Si Hon’s steps slowed.

"Wait..."

The warmth inside the cave pressed against his skin, thicker now. The deeper he moved, the less the outside world felt real.

The air smelled wrong— iron, rot, damp fur, and something older that clung to the back of his throat.

He turned his head slowly.

And finally noticed them.

Cages.

Rows of them.

Not neat.

Not organized.

Crude metal bars hammered into stone, some bent, some broken, the ground around them was stained dark— dried blood layered over older blood.

In some cages, only skeletons remained, human and animal alike. Torn scraps of clothing still hung loosely from the bones.

One cage had claw marks on the inside.

Another had handprints smeared across rusted bars.

Si Hon’s stomach tightened.

He looked up.

And immediately regretted it.

The ceiling was lined with hooks carved into the stone.

From them hung bodies.

Some are fully stripped to bone.

Some half-decayed.

Human skeletons shifted gently in the warm, stale air. A deer carcass dangled nearby, ripped open, beyond them, deeper in the shadows, a larger shape hung in silence, unrecognizable.

One skeleton near the center still wore a robe— the fabric tattered but unmistakable. Rings clung loosely to bony fingers. The staff beside it had snapped in half.

A mage.

Beside it—

Another skeleton wore partial plate armor, its chest piece crushed inward as if struck by something immense.

And the helmet had never been removed.

A knight.

Si Hon staggered back.

The world tilted.

"F– Fuck—"

He staggered and heaved, throat burning. His stomach was empty, but it didn’t matter— the disgust forced him to retch again and again.

"They’re sick... they’re fucking sick..."

Han-Gyeol Mimi pulsed harder.

Faster.

The black window snapped open in front of him.

「(ᗒᗩᗕ)...Different. 아빠. Hide. Fast!!!」