The five hunters, including Yeon-hee, weren’t fond of being bombarded with questions right away without even a proper introduction, but they diligently responded to the inquiries.
Of course, it wasn’t because they were nice, but rather because they didn’t want to provoke the tempers of the B-rank hunters standing in front of them; it was best to play it safe.
Simply think of it as those four monsters standing right in front of them. They could even talk and were quite intelligent.
“Well— first of all, Ms. Lee Yeon-hee? It’s an honor to meet the emerging divine being; could we have a little chat?”
One of the high-rank hunters, the only lady among four, approached with those words, and obviously, that was going to be more of an interrogation than a conversation.
‘We’ve saved a lot of people by supporting, so why do we have to act like we did something wrong? I’ll respond with confidence!’
Yeon-hee clenched her fists and glared!
“Hmm— do you not want to talk?”
Crack, crack—
The high-rank hunter tightened her fists and asked.
“Oh, no….”
Contrary to her inner resolve, Yeon-hee turned into a docile lamb, starting a one-on-one meeting with the high-rank hunter.
* * *
Two hours into Yeon-hee’s private meeting with the high-rank hunter…
In an office building in Seoul, the elders of the Blue-eyed Organization, dressed sharply in suits, gathered around a round table for a meeting.
“To put it simply, things have gone as we intended.”
“Though I find the phrase ‘it went as intended’ to be a bit irritating, let me hear you out.”
“It started with an investigator’s opinion that we should search the hidden spaces within the dungeon, which led to the selection of the ‘Dungeon Cleansing TF’ members, all as you’re aware. However, it seems the purpose of the TF will change due to this Guchangro Dungeon Break.”
“You mean instead of investigating within the dungeon, we’ll be looking to find hidden dungeons in the city?”
“Exactly.”
The Blue-eyed Organization still had many tasks left within the dungeon, and the presence of the hunter management agency employees roaming around felt like a thorn in their sides.
Plus, due to the accident in Fire Monkey’s dungeon, they had to quickly turn their eyes elsewhere with additional special task forces being considered.
“Well, surely that person handled things well.”
“Haha, indeed. We just need to show our sincere faith.”
“By the way, Elder Ak? I want to hear more about that thing which you say went as intended?”
For the elders of the Blue-eyed Organization, there was nothing more important than maintaining their interests, and now that their focus shifted away from the dungeon, the Guchangro matter was no longer on their radar. Yet, their curiosity remained.
The handsome man known as Elder Ak responded to the question.
“While it wasn’t a completed product, still, ‘The Tooth,’ touted as having no doubts about its performance, was held back by C-rank hunters.”
“Wait a minute… this ‘Tooth’ you mentioned, didn’t it have a minimum stat of B-rank? It should be normal for it to sweep away hunters called in for a Level 1 disaster alert, right?”
“That’s true when looking only at physical capabilities.”
“What about outside physical abilities?”
“There are many lacking indicators such as intelligence, judgment, self-restraint, magic manipulation ability, and perception. However, physical capabilities cover for all of that. Hmm— in fact, five C-rank hunters could feasibly do it.”
“Is that so? And yet, what raised the topic then?”
“To make that possible, a highly skilled person with enhanced five senses, someone with perception stats above 15, or a powerful debuff-type sorcerer is essential. There was a rare class known as ‘Card Dealer,’ yet despite being primarily physical in nature, there are reports that they were subdued rather easily.”
Only then did a sense of bewilderment rise in another elder, who asked.
“Any other variables?”
“Um… there’s a report that a summoner was involved as well…”
“Um? Summoner? Was there such a class?”
“You know, that class that was recently discovered. Haven’t you seen the news?”
“I’ve heard it mentioned briefly. I was told they snatched it right from the White Knight Guild.”
“Haha, I heard they looked quite charming, but Elder Baek was a bit slow to act, huh?”
“I also find that pretty regrettable, heh heh—”
Hahaha—
Low-grade jokes continued, and the elders broke into hearty laughter.
Although ‘The Tooth’ was defeated and the keyword ‘summoner’ was raised, the other elders only momentarily cared out of curiosity, satisfied with maintaining their own territories. What was left was just sham discussions which were pointless.
“Trash… disgusting, ugly. Like…”
The man known as Elder Ak surveyed their faces and deemed that he no longer needed to participate in this elders’ meeting.
“Nothing more to see here. I can just throw them a carrot and later dispose of them.”
But he was unaware of the gaze observing him keenly while he let out a shallow sigh.
* * *
Later that evening…
Thud—
No, I mean…
‘I’m glad it ended without a scratch, but…’
From the moment I was summoned and saw a different reaction than usual, I felt something odd.
Unlike usual, they didn’t come running to greet me or hug me, nor did they cry thinking I was dead.
They just sat there, listlessly poking at Wang-wang’s belly fat, and when I approached quietly, they’d turn away sharply.
Hmm— this must be that thing.
‘…Is she upset with me?’
That seemed to be the case.
Why would she be upset? Hmm…
‘It’s obvious, isn’t it?’
She must feel hurt that I charged in recklessly and self-destructed.
Even if it ended up bringing about perfect results, that was a different matter.
‘How do I make it up to her…?’
For now, I began moving to a place where she could see me well, waiting for her to notice me. I hadn’t done anything really wrong, so I thought she’d naturally return to her usual self over time.
About an hour passed.
Glance—
‘She’s been checking my reactions from time to time?!’
As expected, as time went by, she started glancing at me more often.
‘She’s itching to talk, isn’t she?’
Twitch—
Her lips twitched, clearly struggling to hold in what she wanted to say.
‘…I guess I have no choice.’
I activated stealth, hiding my body, moving behind her, and placed my hand on her shoulder.
Kyaah!
Startled, she turned around, and I didn’t hesitate to start kneading her shoulders.
“Ch… Chit…”
Since I used to do this often after getting summoned, there was no awkwardness involved.
“Ugh… Ah… Ugh…”
Pouting her lips, she was trying hard to hold in her emotions, but my spectacular hand movements were slowly prying her mouth open.
Who would’ve thought I’d use what I learned casually from a guy in the army who did sports massage only after dying? Life…
“Hnng…”
Yeon-hee’s total magic volume had increased dramatically, and her magic recovery speed had risen too.
What that essentially meant was…
Her daily magic consumption had soared. And according to the total used, fatigue post-battle naturally followed.
Though it varies from person to person, when reaching the level of a high-rank hunter, they’d usually rotate to rest the next day after one day of dungeon running.
‘I don’t count, though… skeletons are the best, hehe…’
Anyway, if someone were to lightly rub such a body, the pleasure would exceed several times the normal.
“Mm… Ah…”
I keep rubbing until she feels satisfied. A skeleton without stamina makes that possible.
“Uh… Ah! You know…”
Finally, when her shoulders had started going limp, she began to talk about what had happened today.
Interesting stories about before and after I was dying.
“The strongest one I felt was! The Spearman!!”
“Clap, Clap, Clap!!”
Adding interjections to her stories had become a passive ability, and she was evaluating each of the five C-rank hunters.
‘Was the Card Dealer just hot air? Because when I sensed it, he felt the best.’
The Card Dealer might be the type who can’t show their full abilities in real situations.
“The Spearman, he didn’t say a word and just quietly did his job; that’s typical of that guild, isn’t it?”
The guild Yeon-hee’s referring to is the ‘Ilseom’ guild. They’re known for only accepting hunters who possess the unique skill [Ilseom]. The guild leader, Hyeon Joong-gil, is an early Awakened One and is well-known as one of the top five in Korea.
‘The Ilseom Guild is cool. It wouldn’t be bad to just focus on one thing in such a guild.’
As the guild’s name suggests, they are a group of maniacs who risk everything on one cut. And groups like those are often hiding enormous powers.
Since they’re a group that requires specific skills for membership, they have to have fewer members, so they can’t be counted among the top guilds. However, judging by their upper ten strength, even the top three guilds can’t dare claim they are stronger than them.
“Yap— Ilseom… second step…! Whoosh!! That’s not a sound coming from my mouth!”
Yeon-hee insisted on demonstrating the Ilseom skill with my club.
‘So cute… If only she’d show just half of this bright side when meeting people outside, her social life would be much easier.’
On one hand, I felt a bit regretful, but I thought it would get better gradually with time.
After listening to her adventure tale about defeating even the speaker, we moved on to how she dealt with the B-rank hunters.
“The other party was quite intimidating, wasn’t it? I got a little nervous, but there weren’t many questions asked,” she said.
‘…? That can’t be true, right?’
“It was just who found the monster first, who sounded the fourth whistle, who caused the explosion, what the monster was like, how it was caught, and so on?”
‘She asked everything without leaving anything out?!’
“But they just totally claimed ignorance, haha— I figured since nobody really got a proper look due to the solo expedition, it wasn’t really bothersome for them to not answer. It definitely wasn’t out of laziness. Hee hee.”
‘It’s not that she gave lame answers out of laziness…’
“Oh! And! When I said I wanted to buy the monster bones, they happily handed them over.”
“Clap, Clap, Clap!!”
‘Oo?! That’s our Yeon-hee! I always believed in you!’
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.
