章 58: Dungeon Runs
The dungeon was, to say the least, underwhelming.
The opponents that we'd be facing would be goblins, something which Jinwoo and I just months before had been having issues with. But, with a single kick, their heads would fly, leaving for us to feel dissatisfied. Among that, the criminals acted exactly like we had thought they would, swinging their weapons around without hesitation and with maniacal smiles on their faces.
When we come to the path which splits into three, I end up heading down the middle with Kim Sangshik and the other Double Dungeon survivor who I'd forgot the name of. Even if I knew that the left path was the right one, we were forced to split evenly by Mr. Song.
Approaching the end of our tunnel, we find Kang Taeshik holding one of the prisoners by the next, giving his evil piece of monologue.
"What?" Kang looks at us with disinterest. "Why are you two appearing from there. …So, the pathways were connected, huh. That means the way to the boss rom is to the left. Now I don't have to roam around aimlessly."
Watching him behead the prisoner, he turns and gives us a blood-curdling smile.
Flipping his dagger around in his hand, he rushes towards us, thinking that we're easy prey. Stepping in front of me, Kim spoke.
"There's no way that we can fight this guy. So, Shiro…" Kim gives a sad smile, "As a form of repentance from us and our actions in the Double Dungeon, run away… Please."
"Oh, I won't be allowing any of you to leave." Kang says aloud, weaving between my two defenders. "And since the two seem to care about this one so much… I'll kill him first."
Stabbing towards my neck, I snap my hand up, grabbing him by the wrist, having the blade stop a mere millimeter away.
"Hoh, pretty fast, huh?"
Kang tries to retract his hand, but I keep a firm grip of it. Even after planting his feet to try and pull his hand away, it lay locked in place.
"What kind of strength…?!"
Giving a light tug on Kang's arm, he falls forward, I full throttle my fist into his stomach. Releasing my hold on his arm so that he can fly backwards into the dungeon walls.
"Why are you doing this?" I can't help but to ask.
"You mother f*er. That hurt…" He snarls, coughing out a mouthful of blood. "You're asking why I do this? Well, it's rather simple. I enjoy killing human beings… And when I encounter someone in a party who thinks their stronger than me, then I tend to torture them till their mind breaks, and then kill them. Isn't it great?"
His laughter echoed off the walls and he once again came rushing towards me. Pulling my katana that I'd strapped to my side, our blades clang together. Though, even with his entire force behind the blade, the moment that I change the position of my sword, I'm able to slice through him.
But, like I had expected, it was only an afterimage which I had cut.
"Your movements re good! I feel a lot of practice in those movements. Plus, I get the feeling that you're holding back." Kang praises.
"Well of course," I admit, "After all, you're not worthy to be on the receiving end of my skills."
Gritting his teeth, Kang licks his sword and engages again.
"Oh, we're playing the 'lick your sword' game, I can do that to."
Activating 'Venom Spread', I lick the back of my blade, granting it the paralysis effect.
The two of us then play a game of tag as we zoom around the dungeon, constantly blocking and counterattacking against one another's attacks. Even with my eyes unable to keep up with his movements, I could feel his intent behind his blade, making it rather easy to guess where he would strike. I even managed to nick him a few times with my blade, but his level was too high for my skills to influence him. Backing off from one another at the same time, Kang licks his lips.
"Who are you? What's your rank?"
"Shiro Urokodaki. E-Rank." I hold my blade directly in front of my face.
"An E-Rank?" Kang sweats. "Heh… that can't be. You've been hiding your strength, haven't you? A fake ranker? …No, it looks like they've known you for a long time, so you must have been reawakened and rather recently too. If that the case… then let me teach you a lesson as your superior."
"You know…" I begin, lowering my defense, "I wasn't the only one."
Raising an eyebrow in confusion, the answer takes a swing at his head with a dagger.
Barely dodging in time, Kang whips around to find Jinwoo.
"Hey, hey!" Kang yells, "3 billion won is too low for this job now! Who would've thought I'd meet two hunters at an exceedingly high level?"
"Oh... but you haven't even tested him yet." I crack a smile.
"Haha… then let me do that right now."
Now instead of it being me, Jinwoo and Kang begin to fly around the dungeon, trying to inflict a fatal wound on one another. And I of course remain perfectly still. After all, I don't want to limit Jinwoo's growth here, now do I.
When Kang manages to land a few hits on Jinwoo, I hear him mutter, "Sorry, but can you lower your killing intent please? It's sensitive to killing intent. And you've now caused the system to activate on its own again."
Appearing behind Kang, I place my hand on his shoulder.
"Now this really isn't my problem. …Good luck."
Kicking him forward towards Kang, Kang disappears into a cloud of smoke. Jinwoo goes wide-eyed, but I stand there, unimpressed.
Jinwoo manages to block his first few strikes, but Kang manages to sever one of the tendons in his legs.
Glaring up at Kang, Jinwoo's gaze lands on me to find my disappointed look. Jinwoo immediately frowns and then lets out a loud sigh.
"Status Recovery."
A golden aura surrounds Jinwoo and he stands back up, his leg now completely fine.
"Even anger itself is wasted on the likes of you."
Kang, who had gone invisible once again to attack Jinwoo was being forced to dodge when Jinwoo was able to spot the killing intent behind his attack. Watching the spectacle of Jinwoo having sparks fly from his dagger after swinging it around supposedly random in the air, he activates one of his skills, and then plunges his dagger forward. A now revealed Kang dribbled blood from his mouth, with the overwhelmingly domineering Jinwoo looking down on him.
⸢ALERT –For helping in another 'players' quest, you have been gifted with a side reward of 'Stat Points +3' based on contribution⸥
Pleasantly surprised by the alert, I happily take another three stat points. Jinwoo then walks over to me and tries to hand me the rune that he had gotten from Kang's dead body.
"The spoils go to the victor Jinwoo, and that would be you. Even if I dealt with him for a while, you were the one to force him into using his ultimate skill and to kill him. …plus, you wasted the daily quest reward, so you deserve this."
"It's not that much of a waste."
Giving him a blank stare, he gives an uncomfortable chuckle, we turn to the gob smacked crowd of spectators.
Conversing with Mr. Song and Juhee, they eventually came up with the decision for every member beside Jinwoo or me to leave the dungeon and then proceed to explain the situation to the association employee.
The boss was rather easy to defeat and by the time we had come out, we waited an entire 40 minutes before a rather familiar man appears.
"We meet again hunters."
"What a pleasure Woo Jinchul." I give him a nod.
"I'm rather surprised that you remember me Shiro. After all, our encounter was but brief."
"Isn't it only natural to remember the names of those who are strong?"
Giving a light chuckle, he looks off into the distance, "I suppose you're right. But, besides that, since you seem willing to cooperate with me, let me ask you this directly… who killed the B-Rank Kang Taeshik."
Stepping forward, Mr. Song claims to have killed Kang. Of course, the rest of us claim to have played a part in his downfall, using our numbers to our advantage, and were let loose.
On our way out, Jinchul calls out to us.
"I don't suspect that an E-Rank like the two of you could've beat a B-Rank like Hunter Kang Taeshik. I also feel that it's unnecessary to suspect you of a reawakening again. However, let me tell the two of you this; If you're not careful, you're lives could end sometime soon."
"What do you mean?" Jinwoo asks.
"In the extermination of Huang Donsuk's assault team, the only survivors were a D-rank and the two of you." Jinchul starts. "The problem is that Huang Dongsuk's younger brother Huang Dongsu, may seek revenge on you guys. As an S-Rank, the law can't really bind him, so it'd be in your interest to watch out for him. Because you may be hunted by someone even monsters fear. ...If possible, leaving the country with your loved ones isn't a bad idea."
Parting with Jinwoo when he's called out by his not girlfriend Juhee, I in turn head home, ready for the raid I'll go on tomorrow with Yoo Jinho.
-
Arriving in my blue tracksuit alongside Jinwoo at the site of the raid, we both ask, ""Yoo Jinho, what's all this?""
"What do you mean, "all this"? They're our teammates for today." Jinho happily explains.
We could see injured, alcoholics, and …Jinah's friend.
Rubbing my temples, I walk up to her.
"Han Song-yi, why are you here? Shouldn't you be in school?"
Recoiling slightly, Han points at me, "W-Who are you? How do you know me? Are you a s-stalker?"
She was visibly shaking, and I could only deadpan, "Has Jinah never told you about me?"
Giving me a weird look, Han says, "Why would my precious Jinah ever speak about a wierdo like you. The only guy she ever consistently talks about is this guy called Shiro. And it's always Shiro this, Shiro that. Also, who are you to use her first name you creep."
As I go to reveal my identity and shove it into her face, Jinwoo pushes my face aside.
"Besides that, he said you're a highschooler. So, do you have any raid experience?"
"None."
"E-Rank, I assume? …Well, it's okay. Since you won't have to follow me into the dungeon – just wait outside."
This in turn spurs Jinho forward, exclaiming, "We weren't allowed to attempt the C-Rank dungeon with just three of us, so that's why we brought you guys as well. By law, a C-Rank needs 10 people."
Still grumpy that Jinwoo had ruined my moment to start bragging, he carried me inside of the dungeon, hoisted under his arm.
The next few hours passed in a blur, and we had cleared a C-Rank Dungeon. Running from one dungeon to another after we clear them, I manage to earn a few new skills which I honestly should've had a lot earlier.
---
⸢[Passive]
Master Katana Arts - Lvl. 1
Katana Only
-Because you've used a Katana for a vast period, you can now use katanas more proficiently.
-When a katana is used, the attacks with it gain 55% additional damage
---
[Active]
Execution
100 Mana
Katana Only
-You have learned to attack efficiently. You now deal critical damage as you attack your foe's neck⸥
But, now that I had these two new skills, fighting became infinitely easier. Upon clearing our last dungeon for the day, a new alert came up for me.
⸢ALARM
The [Player] has reached the required level. ⸥
⸢QUEST ALARM
A [Job Change Quest] has arrived. Will you accept the quest? ⸥
Informing Jinho of our change of plans for tomorrow, it just so happens that Jinwoo had received the same type of quest that I did. Before we could even look forward to our Job Change and what we might be, we were approached by the chief of the second department of management at the White Tiger Guild.
Like what one would expect of someone who scouts out talent, he approached us with the offer to have us join the White Tiger Guild in exchange for twice the amount that the Yoo Jin Architectures offered us. Hearing this, Jinwoo and I turn towards each other before bursting out laughing.
"How much is the White Tiger Guild's building price?"
"About 50 Billion?"
"Well, you see, the Yoo Jin Architectures had made a deal with us to give us a building worth thirty billion in assets. So, if you want to recruit us to your guild, you'll need to provide something of suitable exchange. In other words, you're offering us the Tiger Guild Building."
Knowing full well that he couldn't make an offer to suit us, we began to leave. Jinwoo however threatened the poor guy about how he had managed to obtain information about us. Alongside that, Jinwoo also scammed the poor guy and forced him into buying extremely overpriced C-Rank gates that we wouldn't be using tomorrow either.
Even though I said poor guy, I still very much agree with what Jinwoo had done.
Laughing our a* off once we were alone, we wait till tomorrow.
クリエイターの想い 
Kogatsu
Kogatsu "Successful people are willing to do things unsuccessful people will not do." - John C. Maxwell
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