Ding-!
The elevator doors opened.
Hundreds of people gathered in the underground 2nd-floor lobby all turned their heads towards us at once.
………….
“Guh…”
Yeon-hee bowed her head as if she had committed a great sin, and I carefully wrapped my arm around her and struggled to find an empty spot in the bustling lobby. Of course, that process inevitably caused quite a commotion.
– “Whoa! What the hell!”
– “Dungeon break, right?!”
– “There’s a knife! A knife on him!!”
People surprised to see me due to the crowd, and some evaded my blades with acrobatic moves—everyone had their own reasons for reacting.
I felt joy at the more intense reactions compared to what I saw on the first floor, but Yeon-hee looked extremely embarrassed.
‘Ah— it’s not like I see monsters every day. Why are they making such a fuss?’
Eventually, the association staff helped us find a seat and announced again before the chaos settled down.
But soon, we had to stay surrounded by a human wall due to the crowd that flocked to see me.
– “Whoa, he looks scary. I wonder how strong he is?”
– “Does he bite?”
– “His build is already knight-level!”
– “They say it understands speech.”
“Hah…”
As time passed, Yeon-hee’s sighs grew deeper, but the curious crowd, clearly not here to gawk indefinitely, eventually dispersed.
“Why are there so many people? Phew… I’m sweating.”
Even excluding the crowd that was pushed to the corner because of me, there was still an overwhelming amount of people.
‘This is definitely an abnormal number. Did all the survivors from the last dungeon break gather here?’
Thinking of Helen’s group that made significant progress from this hunt, it was conceivable that many had reached the end of E-rank.
Of course, not all of those people fought a bloody battle with Orc Warriors like we did. But just surviving against such a large group would still grant experience points. If luck was on their side, they might have gained some minor achievements too.
‘This will take a long time.’
Since we arrived just under two o’clock, it was indeed the busiest time.
“Um… I think it’s better to do something else first.”
In the end, we registered but went back up to the 7th floor again.
“Please release the summon.”
The reason for coming to the 7th floor was due to the inquiries from yesterday that the association had made several times, and since I couldn’t enter the office itself, I had no choice but to enter the Dark Space.
A moment later, I was called back outside and realized I had returned to the underground 2nd floor. Yeon-hee immediately began talking about what happened on the 7th floor as soon as I stepped out.
“Nothing special happened. It was the same questions the employees asked yesterday. If that’s the case, they could just share it among themselves; why keep asking the same thing?”
It was rare for Yeon-hee to express dissatisfaction like this, so it seemed like they must have asked some pretty lackluster questions. There were also reasons why it didn’t go as she thought.
‘The government doesn’t like the association, so cooperation on tasks isn’t easy.’
The association, which had grown too powerful, had long become a considerable burden on the national agency.
“Oh, right. I decided to sell off the leftover runes, so let’s head that way, Il-wol.”
Nod—
Now we had no use for regular runes or low-rank runes, and we aimed to get rid of items that wouldn’t help much even if distributed to our summoned creatures.
“They said they’d be here—”
Yeon-hee moved to the center pillar of the 2nd floor lobby to exchange runes.
“I’m looking for a red baseball cap, red cap—ah, there it is!”
A man wearing a baseball cap pushed down with lots of tattoos up to his chin was looking around.
“Hello…”
“Oh! Are you Hunter Lee Yeon-hee? Wow! Is that the summoned creature I’ve heard about?”
“Yes… here, take a look at the runes and pick any…”
“Whoa, they said it’s a Skeleton Soldier. I’d believe it’s a boss mob.”
That guy seemed to be looking at me more intensely than at the runes.
‘Why would he want to buy regular runes?’
Although he must have been quite skilled, having come from D-rank to C-rank, he was only looking at low-rank runes Yeon-hee was selling. So it was only natural to be curious. It didn’t seem like he’d be using them himself.
“…Um, you can choose…”
“Ah! Let’s see— the Rune of Magic and the Rune of Absorption, a total of five. That’s right, I’ll just buy them all.”
“You can deposit it into the account I sent you…”
“Got it… Just a moment.”
The man cheerfully answered and began tapping on his phone.
“I sent the money, but I saw you on YouTube, and seeing you in person, you’re really beautiful. Are you here to rank up today?”
“…Yes…”
As soon as Yeon-hee confirmed the deposit, she tried to turn away, but the man turned back to her and replied briefly. And then, he started to speak rapidly like a contestant in a hip-hop competition.
“Oh, I’m taking the C-rank advancement test too! It’s embarrassing, but I actually failed once. This is my second shot at C-rank! Ugh— I mean, I’m not so inadequate that I can’t even rank up to C, but because I got stuck at the fourth exam location, you know…”
He rambled on for 2-3 minutes without pausing.
‘What a chatterbox. Just make the deal and leave, why keep yapping?’
“……Ah, yes… then.”
Yeon-hee seemed unable to take it anymore and tried to wrap it up and turn back again.
“Seriously… you won’t let it go. Damn—”
Suddenly, the man spat out some coarse words and tried to grab Yeon-hee’s slender arm.
Thud-!
‘Is he out of his mind?’
I quickly seized the man’s arm, and a strange tension hung in the air between us.
“Huh— you there. You’ve got quite the strength, don’t you?”
“W-What are you doing?! The deal is done!”
Yeon-hee hurriedly hid behind me and the man irritatedly tried to shake off the arm I was holding.
No, he tried to shake it off.
“W-Why is this so hard to get free?! Damn, would you let go, you stupid skeleton?!”
I hesitated for a moment while grappling with the man still trying to escape.
Crack—
“Ahhh!! It hurts! It hurts! You bastard!”
I hadn’t even entered a D-rank dungeon yet, and this guy was a hunter trying to graduate from one.
But the difference in combat power between him and me wasn’t as big as I expected. Seeing how he couldn’t match my strength proved that.
Thanks to two job changes, bone armor, and the accumulated stats from killing minor blue-eyed deities, I could maintain my upper hand in battle, even if it took some time.
‘After listening to his pointless chatter, how dare he grab Yeon-hee’s arm? Just hitting him a few times won’t be enough to satisfy me.’
The thought of acidic slime rose to my mind. The slime’s acidic fluid splattered onto the man’s face would undoubtedly bring down the momentum of this fool who was acting recklessly.
It was a point to look down at the guy afterward, seeing him panicking and unsure of what to do.
‘No… stay focused, you crazy bastard! He hasn’t even done anything yet, and why is my reasoning going haywire?’
I didn’t usually jump to such extreme choices in my past life. Is it because I was born on the dark side?
‘Goddess Irmana. Please grant me superhuman patience for a moment.’
Hoo—
Whether my plea to Irmana worked, I soon regained my calm, and I relaxed my grip on the arm I was holding.
The man shook off the arm that had been held tightly several times and spoke with a furrowed brow.
“Ugh! Damn it! My arm…! I just wanted to chat as hunters; isn’t that too much?!”
‘You babbled too much for that. And there was malice in that hand you tried to grab. My awareness of that has no equal in this country, you bastard.’
The man clutched his now bruised arm and hopped around while making unintelligible noises, like a monkey unable to control its anger.
“Argh! For real!!”
“I-I have nothing to say to you.”
“Damn, way to be stiff? Just because you got your unique class doesn’t mean you can treat people like crap!”
“W-What, I didn’t—”
“Crikey— that awesome class. Soon, everyone else will awaken as easily as you, so don’t strut around like you matter, got it? You’re really annoying!”
“… Ah, no, when did I—”
Despite still clutching his arm and contorting his face in pain, the man wouldn’t close his filthy mouth.
“And I’ll definitely remember the skeleton who made my arm like this. Just you wait!”
Yeon-hee stood frozen, clearly surprised by the sudden malice directed at her, mouth agape. She really hadn’t done anything wrong; this outburst was unwarranted.
Seeing her expression, the man smirked smugly and moved to another spot, and Yeon-hee trembled for a while, controlling her breathing.
A staff member of the association came late to ask what was going on, but it was way too late; you got here too late, dude.
‘You punk… you’re not the only one who remembers a face.’
When I rank up to C-rank, I’ll surely find you.
“Hah… ha…”
Even for someone who had fought numerous monsters in dungeons, dealing with human conflict was an altogether different matter. Thus, it was understandable why she was struggling.
“Phew— my heart shrinks every time I run into people like that. Can you understand why that guy is acting like that, Il-wol?”
I shook my head vigorously and patted her back. How could I understand someone whose pressures had suddenly burst out and started confronting us?
‘Though I don’t understand it, this scene feels somewhat familiar.’
Jealousy, rivalry, inexplicable annoyance, and rage.
The dark emotions seen in those with talent.
I had encountered a lot of such individuals myself.
“Yoon Han-gyeol? That punk’s been strutting around just because he was born with a single sense. I’ve been planning to dropkick him someday.”
“Just because he took a wrong turn once, he makes such a fuss. How annoying.”
“Think I should just catch him? That bastard doesn’t even have any attack skills. If I corner him and stomp on him, he wouldn’t dare make a peep again, right?”
As I turned the corner, I suddenly recalled the mocking voices of my guildmates badmouthing me. The feeling inside began to fester again.
‘Hah… it’s hard to hold back. I can’t just go stealth and deal with him.’
Though I wanted nothing more than to punish the guy who started trouble, this was a place where [Detect Magic] was always activated. If I used stealth, I’d be discovered and restrained.
And if I caused trouble here, Yeon-hee would ultimately be the one to suffer, and there was a chance her rank-up could be delayed for months.
With superhuman patience, I quelled my emotions and felt her breathing gradually stabilizing against me.
– “Hunter Lee Yeon-hee number 477, please come to examination room 4.”
“Ah—”
She hadn’t shown any sign of nervousness when entering the building, but perhaps due to the recent incident, her momentum had waned.
I clenched my fist reassuringly at Yeon-hee, and finally, she nodded vigorously and walked toward the examination room.
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