Somin almost dropped the healer's child because the boy flinched hard enough to make her stagger.
Jaehyuk caught his elbow before the kid hit the stone.
"Easy," he said.
The child's fingers were wrapped around a cracked bronze charm, knuckles white, lips blue from poison seep. He couldn't have been more than twelve. Maybe younger.
Somin crouched fast, all nervous motion and careful hands. "Hey. Hey, don't cry. I'm not mad. You're fine. You're okay."
The boy wasn't fine. His breathing rattled. One shoe was torn open at the toe. He smelled like wet leather, sweat, and that sharp copper stink climbers got when their body started panicking before they did.
Behind them, two adult climbers hovered with the stiff faces of people who'd already decided this was someone else's problem.
One of them kept glancing at the gate.
Jaehyuk saw it.
Of course he saw it.
Somin pressed two fingers to the child's wrist. Her glow settled over him in a warm wash, pale gold at first, then denser. Her range had grown enough now that she didn't need to stand over people anymore. Ten meters. Maybe a little more if she pushed.
She'd learned that without telling anyone.
The Tower had noticed. It always noticed the useful ones too late.
The boy exhaled in a thin, trembling line.
His skin stopped going gray at the edges.
Somin blinked. "There. See? Better already."
The child looked up at her like she'd just pulled him out of a fire.
Jaehyuk felt that look in his teeth.
That was the problem with healers.
Everybody wanted one until the moment they had to carry one.
A voice cut across the corridor.
"Healer! Over here."
Another one. Then a third.
Jaehyuk turned his head.
Three parties had formed near the dungeon entrance to Floor 12, all of them waiting in the transition hall under the Tower's low white lamps. Fresh stone. Damp air. The mineral smell of a standard dungeon floor, cleaned and reset between runs. Water dripping somewhere deep in the walls. Old torch soot on the ceilings from a floor that wanted to pretend it had history.
The parties weren't looking at Jaehyuk.
They were looking at Somin.
One woman with a spear raised her hand. "You're Lee Somin, right? From Floor 8?"
Somin stood halfway up, then stopped, startled. "Um. Yes?"
A man in reinforced leather nodded so hard his jaw clicked. "I heard you carried a whole three-man team through the fungal tunnels."
"I didn't carry them. I just... healed them."
"That's carrying," the man said.
Another climber stepped in fast, almost tripping over his own boots. "We're short a healer. You've got range, don't you? My party can pay in shards, plus a route share."
The first woman snapped, "We asked first."
The corridor filled with bodies and voices.
Healer. Range. Payment. Route share. Please. Now. We'll protect you. We'll split rewards.
Jaehyuk watched the shape of it before Somin did.
Interest first.
Need second.
Ownership after that.
He touched her sleeve once. Short. Light.
She glanced at him.
"Don't answer yet," he said.
Her eyes darted between the parties. "Why is everyone acting like I'm a vending machine?"
"Because you're useful."
"That is so rude."
"It's true."
The spearwoman made an offended sound. "We're not trying to be rude. We're offering a real team slot."
The leather-clad man leaned forward. "Our front line is solid. We just need support."
"And if the boss hits hard?" Mira's voice came from behind them, cool and flat. "What happens to the healer then?"
The corridor went quiet for half a beat.
Mira stood with one hand resting near her sword, expression unreadable. She had a habit of appearing where tension peaked.
Jaehyuk almost admired the timing.
The man in leather swallowed. "We'd cover her."
Mira's eyes slid over him. "You'd say that before the fight."
No one answered.
That was answer enough.
Somin looked back at Jaehyuk, worried now. "Is this bad?"
"It's Floor 12," he said. "So yes."
Her mouth twisted. "Could you maybe stop being correct all the time?"
"No."
A laugh escaped Mira. It was small. Almost nothing. But it changed the air.
The spearwoman frowned. "Are you all together?"
"Unfortunately," Mira said.
Jaehyuk ignored that. "You can heal them later. Not now."
Somin straightened. "Why not? They look like they need it."
"Because if you answer too fast, you become the thing they negotiate around. If you're useful and available, they don't think of you as a person. They think of you as a resource they can place."
She blinked at him.
That one landed.
She glanced back at the parties, then away. Her fingers tightened on her staff.
"Place where?" she asked, quieter.
"Closest to danger. Farthest from the exit. Wherever the line breaks first."
The adult climbers pretending not to listen all shifted their weight.
Mira studied Jaehyuk for a second. Then the parties. Then Somin.
"Walk," she said.
Somin frowned. "What?"
"Walk with me. Let them follow if they're serious. If not, they're wasting your time."
One of the parties opened his mouth to object.
Mira moved one finger.
Not even a threat. Just a tiny, sharp motion toward the dungeon gate.
The man shut his mouth.
Jaehyuk watched Somin realize, for the first time, that attention was not the same thing as safety.
She was getting better at healing.
That meant more eyes on her.
More hands wanting her.
More people deciding they were entitled to her while the Tower smiled in the background.
He hated how predictable that was.
He hated that he knew it from experience.
They moved deeper into Floor 12's entry hall. The parties trailed behind for a few steps, then stopped when Jaehyuk didn't.
Good.
Let them wait.
The corridor opened into a wider chamber with three branching passages. The dungeon floor's first fork. Moss crept between flagstones. Cold water dripped from ceiling seams into shallow channels cut along the floor.
A wet smell clung to the air.
Old soil. Fungus. Rust.
Somin inhaled and wrinkled her nose. "This place smells like a basement that got cursed."
"Pretty close," Jaehyuk said.
Mira slid her gaze to him. "You're in a talkative mood."
"Don't get used to it."
Somin hugged her staff and looked between them. "So what's the plan?"
Jaehyuk pointed to the left branch. "You're going to stand there."
She stared. "That's the plan?"
"For the next ten minutes, yes."
"Why?"
"Because people are watching your position, not just your healing."
"I don't like that sentence."
"You shouldn't."
He walked her to the left branch and stopped at the edge of the damp light. His boots made a soft scrape on the stone.
He gestured to the wall behind her.
"Stand there."
She crossed her arms. "You sound like you're teaching a guard dog."
"You'd survive longer than a guard dog if you listened."
That got a huff out of her. Not a full laugh. Too tense for that.
Mira folded her arms too, leaning back against the opposite wall like she'd decided this might be interesting after all.
The parties behind them were still there.
Of course they were.
One had pretended to study the dungeon map posted on the wall. Another was checking gear straps too often. The third was doing the classic healer-watch shuffle, pretending not to.
Jaehyuk lifted his chin toward them.
"See those three?"
Somin looked. "Yes."
"The one by the map keeps glancing at the healer and the exits. The one with the torn gauntlet is trying to guess whether you're worth splitting loot around. The third one is nervous because he knows exactly how fast a healer gets left behind when the team thinks they can still win without her."
Somin's face hardened a little.
Good.
That was better than fear.
Fear made people freeze. Anger made them remember.
"You can tell all that from looking?" she asked.
"Yes."
"That's creepy."
"Yes."
Mira let out a breath through her nose. "He's not wrong."
Somin glanced at her. "That didn't help."
"It wasn't meant to."
Jaehyuk stepped back and crossed his arms. "Rule one. Never stand in front of the party unless you're the one controlling the choke point."
"I'm a healer. I don't control choke points."
"You do if your party wants to keep living."
She blinked at him again. Then she looked over her shoulder at the branches, the walls, the corners where monsters could emerge.
"Okay," she said. "So I stand here. Then what?"
"Then you learn where to put yourself when people panic."
She frowned. "People panic all the time."
"Exactly."
He pointed to the middle branch.
"If the front line breaks, they'll fall back through here. If you're here, you become the easiest thing to abandon. Move too far back, and the wounded can't reach you. Move too far forward, and you're the first thing the monsters bite. Your job is to be useful without being the nearest target."
Somin stared at him like he'd just handed her a knife and told her to cut the air.
"That's awful," she said.
"Yes."
"That's the whole lesson?"
"No."
He looked at the damp line on the floor, then the shadow the wall threw across her boots.
"Watch people's feet," he said.
She looked down automatically.
"When a party's about to collapse, the front line starts drifting backward before the words do. The shield user shifts weight to the heel. The mage checks the exit twice. The leader starts talking too much. They'll tell you they're fine. Their feet won't."
Mira's head tilted slightly.
She noticed that one.
Jaehyuk continued, voice flat. "If they start talking about 'just one more pull' after three people are bleeding, leave. If they start asking you to heal someone who walked into the trap alone, leave. If they say they'll 'cover you' and then don't know where you are, leave. If they put you in the center and tell you it's safer there, they're already planning to spend you."
Somin swallowed.
The chamber was too quiet now. Even the dripping water sounded loud.
"Have you seen that happen?" she asked.
Jaehyuk met her eyes.
Too many times.
Once, on a floor with ice that screamed when it cracked.
Once, on a boss floor where the healer got called coward for staying near the back.
Once, on Floor 143, when everyone promised they'd pull him out and then decided his leg wasn't worth the effort.
He didn't say any of that.
"Enough," he said.
Mira's gaze sharpened. She'd heard the shape of the answer even without the words.
Somin nodded slowly. "Okay."
"Good. Next."
He crouched, picked up a pebble, and tossed it toward the middle branch.
A wet click. Silence.
"Front line gets hit. What do you do?"
"Heal them?"
"Not first."
She frowned. "That seems wrong."
"It's not wrong if the second hit kills you both. Position first. Heal second. Cover third. Panic never."
Somin rubbed at her forehead. "You make everything sound like a murder puzzle."
"That's because it is."
Mira glanced away, just once, like she'd been hit by the phrase and didn't want to show it.
Jaehyuk stood.
He moved Somin one step left. Then another. Then another.
"Here," he said.
She looked around. "This is the same spot."
"Not quite. From here, you can see the exit, the choke, and the back wall. From there, you can't be boxed in by the first wave. If the line collapses, you move behind the second body, not beside it. If the front line falls, you back up through the gap, not straight back. Straight back gets you pinned."
She nodded once. Then again.
Mira folded and unfolded her fingers around her sword grip. She'd gone quiet in the way Jaehyuk had learned meant she was listening hard.
"Again," he said.
Somin blinked. "Again?"
"Again. Because when your hands shake, your feet need to remember before your brain does."
She gave him a tiny glare. "You talk like you've got a personal grudge against comfort."
"I do."
That almost made Mira smile. Almost.
They ran it three more times.
Not a real drill. Just positioning. Exit awareness. Redundant movement.
Somin learned fast. Faster than she gave herself credit for.
She stopped standing still in the center of spaces. She started choosing walls, corners, angles. She turned her body so she could see more than one thing at once. She was still gentle, still bright-eyed when she thought no one was watching, but the way she stood changed.
Less open.
Safer.
Jaehyuk hated that he was proud of it.
He hated even more that pride felt like fear with a different mask.
A distant shout echoed from one of the branches.
Footsteps. Fast.
The first party they'd seen came running back into the chamber, one member clutching his side, blood dark against his tunic. Another was swearing under his breath. The third was yelling, "Move, move, move!"
Jaehyuk's eyes went straight to the healer.
He was already half a step behind the others.
Classic.
The healer was a woman with a long braid, pale face, and a staff that had been knocked out of her hands somewhere in the scramble.
Her party leader didn't even look back.
"Left!" Jaehyuk snapped.
The healer hesitated.
Mira moved first, cutting across the chamber and slamming her sword flat against the wall to block the narrow path. Not a strike. A barrier. A line.
The wounded frontliner stumbled through the gap.
His shoulder grazed the blade. He yelped.
"Stay behind me," Mira said.
The healer's eyes flicked to her, then to Jaehyuk, then to the leader who was already trying to drag the others onward without her.
There it was.
That half-second.
The exact instant a healer learned whether she was part of the team or part of the margin.
Jaehyuk pointed to the back wall.
"Move."
The healer moved.
Not toward her party.
Toward the wall.
She stumbled, then caught herself. Jaehyuk reached out and shoved her gently but firmly behind the middle pillar as the corridor spit out a second wave of monsters, pale things with blind faces and hooked forelimbs.
Mira cursed.
The frontliner's party had left their healer in the open.
One of the monsters lunged.
Somin's glow flared at once, instinctive, reaching out from ten meters away to catch the wounded woman before the claws landed.
The healing light snapped across the gap like a tether.
The healer gasped as the claw slash on her shoulder closed.
Jaehyuk looked at Somin.
She'd done it without being told.
Good.
Better than good.
The monsters hit the chamber floor.
The party leader cursed when he realized his healer wasn't behind him anymore. He turned, face changing in real time from confidence to calculation to something uglier.
He shouted, "Grab her!"
Mira's voice turned colder. "Try it."
The man froze.
The healer by the wall stared at him.
Then at Somin.
Then at the monsters.
Then back at the man who'd forgotten her name by the time he'd drawn his sword.
She backed away.
Just one step.
Enough.
Jaehyuk saw her choose herself for the first time.
The fight ended fast after that.
Not because the monsters were weak.
Because the chamber was small and Jaehyuk hated wasting motion.
He cut one down through the throat gap. Mira split another from shoulder to hip. Somin kept the healer's shoulder closed just long enough for the woman to stop bleeding out, then shifted to the frontliner when his leg got clipped.
Three senses hit hard in the middle of the fight.
The metallic taste of blood.
The wet slap of claws on stone.
The stink of monster fluid, sour and rotten, burning in the back of the throat.
When it was done, the wounded party leader was panting in the middle of the chamber with his eyes on the healer he'd almost lost.
He opened his mouth.
Closed it.
Then, quieter, "...thanks."
Not to Somin.
To anyone.
She heard that too.
Jaehyuk didn't comment. He just turned back to her and said, "You see it now?"
Somin's face had gone hard in a way it never did when she was just healing.
"Yes," she said.
"Good."
"That makes me angry."
"Also good."
She looked at him. "That is not a comforting answer."
"I'm not here to comfort you."
"That's becoming weirdly obvious."
He almost told her the truth then.
Not the whole thing.
Just enough to explain why his voice had gone like this. Why every lesson felt like a hand around the throat of a future he refused to name.
Floor 23.
The abandoned healer.
The blood on the stone.
He kept it inside.
Mira had moved to the edge of the chamber and was watching him with the stillness of a blade left on a table.
When the others were busy looting and breathing, she crossed the room and stopped beside him.
"You're preparing her for something specific," she said.
Jaehyuk didn't look at her. "You don't know that."
"I do."
"Then you already answered yourself."
Mira's eyes narrowed a fraction. "That's not an answer. It's a dodge."
"Then don't ask questions you won't like."
A beat.
She exhaled once through her nose, almost amused, almost annoyed. "You're getting worse at hiding things."
"I'm getting tired."
That made her go quiet.
When she spoke again, her voice was lower. Less sharp. "Is it her?"
Jaehyuk glanced at her.
Somin was still helping the wounded healer near the wall, hands warm, expression soft again despite everything. Her glow lit the damp stone gold. The chamber smelled like blood and wet earth and the faint herbal scent of her healing skill fading out in the air.
"Is what her?" he asked.
Mira's eyes stayed on Somin. "The thing you're afraid of."
Jaehyuk said nothing.
Mira nodded once, like that was enough.
It wasn't.
But she didn't push.
She never did when she knew he'd close the door.
The child climber from earlier came back into their line of sight, now supported by one of the adult parties. He looked steadier. Less green around the mouth.
He saw Somin and lifted his hand in a tiny wave.
Somin waved back, smiling like the whole floor hadn't spent the last hour trying to turn her into a bargaining chip.
Jaehyuk watched that smile and felt something tight in his ribs twist harder.
Too gentle.
Too exposed.
The Tower loved people like that right up until it didn't.
He crouched to inspect the edge of the chamber where the monsters had come through. His fingers brushed wet stone, then a thin line of slime still warm from the kill.
Behind him, Somin's voice lifted, careful and kind.
"Hold still. I said hold still. You're bleeding again if you keep twisting."
The child laughed weakly. The sound was thin but real.
Jaehyuk stood.
He was turning back toward her when the Tower notification rang.
Not a normal chime.
This one was deeper.
Heavier.
It vibrated in the teeth.
Every climber in the chamber froze.
So did the drip of water from the ceiling, for one impossible second.
A translucent window unfolded in the air above the central chamber, larger than usual, its edges lined with a faint black shimmer.
Mira's hand moved to her sword.
Somin's healing light dimmed.
Jaehyuk felt his stomach go cold before he read a single word.
[Tower Notice: Historical party record recovered.]
Below it, a roster loaded line by line.
A name he knew.
Then another.
And there, in the middle of the list like a nail through a coffin:
Lee Somin.
His throat tightened.
Under her name, one line pulsed once.
[Floor Designation: 23]
Then the status field flickered into place, black letters on white light, and the chamber seemed to tilt around it.
[Projected outcome: CASUALTY]