“Just point with your finger, guys…”
Five women turned their heads to look at me simultaneously, making it feel like a scene from a horror movie. Particularly, Ham Eun-young, dressed all in black and clutching her compact mirror, heightened the terror. I must find out what that damned mirror is all about someday.
“But Eun-young hasn’t said anything all day. That’s really impressive.”
As I was displaying no particular reaction, Bae Joo-ah, who was gently wiping the droplets off her beer glass, declared like she had just realized something astonishing.
“Wow! An intermediate warrior with stealth and scouting abilities is right in front of me!”
“Ah…!”
Yeon-hee’s eyes widened as it finally clicked in her mind after watching Joo-ah’s exaggerated gestures.
I shrugged indifferently, signaling that the decision wasn’t mine to make. I personally think it’s best to get rid of this messy tail quickly, but my master’s thoughts might differ.
As if the others noticed I had passed the ball, they shifted their gaze from me to Yeon-hee, waiting for her to speak.
“Isn’t it strange to even consider monitoring monster reactions?”
Is it weird that I’m the one with this question?
While I tilted my head in confusion, Yeon-hee gulped and asked, “Um… what kind of danger could there be…?”
Our schedule always focused on dungeons. Sometimes we operated in urban areas per the guild’s requests, but even then, it mostly involved fights with monsters.
However, this time, it was likely there would be a lot of human interaction, which even involves illegally entering someone else’s house.
Considering Yeon-hee’s usual honest style, she might be feeling a bit reluctant about it.
So, she was probably trying to ease her anxiety by knocking on a stone bridge before crossing it.
In response to Yeon-hee’s question, Helen neatly rolled up her sleeves and replied, “Like I mentioned before, we can’t rule out bumping into Heo Min-sol unexpectedly, or even a potential clash with any bodyguards. Of course, that requires someone capable of detecting Il-wol’s stealth.”
“Meeting Heo Min-sol shouldn’t be a problem, right? She’s probably weaker than a regular human.”
Jin-kyeong answered nonchalantly, but Helen quickly disagreed.
“If you’re saying you’d kill her on sight, maybe you should rather be hunting for her, but would you really do that?”
…….
After a brief silence, Ah-rin shook her head. Even though she was brutally mistreated by Heo Min-sol, she had looked up at me with a complicated expression during the time I crippled her, as if to say this might be a bit too much. So killing her was never on the table.
“So, if you’re not going to kill her, you must not get caught by Heo Min-sol. Now that everyone who could suspect that Il-wol is Yeon-hee’s summoned creature knows, would it be fine for Yeon-hee, who’ll be part of the White Knight Guild, to attempt to assassinate a promising candidate from the Ilseom Guild? Absolutely not. This wouldn’t be just a personal matter.”
Ughh…
Everyone naturally crossed their arms at Helen’s opinion. This was not an issue to consider lightly.
“Is there a possibility that there are protective barriers around the house?”
“Considering the size of the house, we can tell whether or not they might have such formations in place. If they could afford that, it could get a bit complicated. For now, let’s buy ourselves a few days. I’ll dig and clear it out.”
“They might change their plans and execute them tomorrow.”
“Hmm… a few days? That won’t do. Ah-rin, you have to come stay at my house for a while.”
“Uh? Th-that’s… are you sure they won’t harm my siblings?”
“As long as there’s no bounty on Ah-rin’s siblings, I think it’s safe to say they won’t. If they don’t have abilities, it’s unlikely they’d go through the trouble of causing chaos.”
“That makes sense. Phew…”
While Bae Joo-ah looked at Ah-rin sympathetically as she sighed in relief, she quickly followed up with another question.
“But according to what they said, they’ll be targeting Ah-rin from the day after tomorrow. Wouldn’t it be better if we just hang around and take down a few Apex guys? Then they’d pick up the pieces themselves, right?”
Helen disagreed, saying that it was not that simple.
“Several guilds, including the Apex Guild, are performing shady requests so that people don’t think about that, but from their perspective, it’s a matter of honor.”
“Honor for those guys… in a way, I suppose that’s true.”
“Think about it. It’s just a 500 million to 1 billion request. Would they really just give up after continuously failing? They wouldn’t let it get to that point because even the underground side has fierce competition. If Apex develops a reputation for handling things that way, clients would start looking for other options. The guild’s prestige is at stake.”
“So you’re saying, even if we fend off their attacks, they’ll find a way to finish that request. By any means necessary.”
“That’s my impression. If they really can’t do it through strength, they might resort to the method you were concerned about earlier, Ah-rin.”
Yeon-hee listened intently before eventually agreeing to utilize me.
Although I subtly nodded at her as she contemplated, even if she didn’t want to, no one could truly force her.
“Thank you! Huh… I keep receiving help.”
“No problem, don’t think like that.”
Yeon-hee suggested not to worry, while Helen looked on as if she couldn’t hold back, wrapping her arms around Yeon-hee and snuggling for a while.
Anyway, we decided to execute the plan as soon as we could contact Helen. It looks like it should happen in about three days. That means we’ll have to refrain from challenging Nargul’s dungeon for those three days. We shouldn’t get exhausted attempting to tackle something tough only to be attacked afterward.
“Just bringing a piece of paper should be a piece of cake.”
I had once slyly infiltrated Jo Gi-man’s house. Of course, that was a trap, but…
Rather, it’s the detectors that make things annoying. Fixed detection barriers don’t pose a threat to me.
After finishing a hefty meal, we, without fail, ended things with iced Americanos.
“By the way, what do we do about Noh Ha-yoon?”
Bae Joo-ah asked Yeon-hee again, looking like she wanted her to just refuse outright. At first glance, it seemed like she truly didn’t want to team up with Noh Ha-yoon, but considering her tendencies, it should be seen as an act.
Nargul’s dungeon is as lucrative as an upper C-class dungeon, and I’m sure she wants to get in there and experience it as soon as possible.
“Um… until Ah-rin’s situation is resolved, I want to run through the orc dungeon… and then tackle Nargul after that. Honestly, even today wasn’t that easy, and if Ha-yoon joins, it could weaken us, creating more trouble for exploration.”
“That’s true… the orcs were unexpectedly strong. I mean, I had heard that orcs were getting stronger lately, but I didn’t expect them to be this tough, especially the intermediate warriors that came out during the boss battle…”
“Yes, yes.”
“So you’re planning to enter Nargul’s dungeon? You’ve just reached D-class a week ago, right?”
Helen and Jin-kyeong looked at us with astonished expressions after hearing our conversation. Clearly, we were advancing through the dungeons at an alarming rate.
Typically, it takes over a month of grinding in wolf dens and harpy dungeons to progress. Yet here we were, skipping straight from one to the next almost immediately.
“Are you in a rush for any reason? I felt this when we were in the dungeon together, but it seems like you’re being chased by something.”
“Huh? No, not at all…”
From the perspective of those around us, this was indeed a puzzling situation.
It’s usually better to grow steadily while earning money, using that money to equip ourselves gradually, and building relationships with capable party members in a structured manner.
Although Helen didn’t say it, keeping up with us was likely quite tough. But Yeon-hee had always been the backbone of the party, and as long as she smoothly cleared a boss battle, we’d just naturally move on to the next dungeon, so that’s how it had gone.
“Am I going a bit too fast…?”
“Not just a bit, it’s quite fast. Honestly, we could have accumulated enough experience in the harpy dungeon by now. At our current level, we could have stayed there for about two weeks and leveled up a few more times.”
“Oh… I see.”
Truth be told, this was largely something I had intended; I was just pretending not to notice. I had nudged Yeon-hee when she was scribbling about dungeons in her notebook, subtly encouraging us to head to the next dungeon.
“I think it’s better to take on a bit of risk like this.”
The results were proving this. We were growing faster than anyone else because I knew from experience that we needed to overcome situations that brought us close to danger to make progress.
And while that was a well-known fact, the truth was that people’s lives are one-packed and always hold them back when it came to exploring dungeons while taking such risks.
That’s why large guilds have dedicated hunters whose jobs are to assist in crucial dungeons for rank-ups. Even if they take a bit of a risk, there would be people around to help them in case of emergencies, letting them challenge without worry.
The system possessed god-like abilities, yet it surprisingly had weaknesses that couldn’t catch onto such tricks.
Yeon-hee mumbled a “Is that so…” to herself, yet she didn’t seem inclined to change the course of action we’d been following.
“I feel like another attempt tomorrow should yield results. Honestly, the people who fought the boss with us today were too… low-leveled.”
“Recently, there have been many anomalies happening globally. Hearing those kinds of news is likely making hunters anxious.”
“I heard that the ratio of accidents increasing also correlates with the number of hunters.”
“It makes me wonder if we’ll reach a world where everyone awakens. I read an article about an 80-year-old man awakening the other day. Conversely, it could also mean that younger kids awaken too.”
“Really? Do you think kids can control themselves…?”
“Exactly, it could lead to a real disaster. Just imagine kids who can’t discern situations using skills.”
“Oh… Helen, you’re increasingly impressive.”
Helen was practically predicting events that would unfold in the future at a prophet level. Is it wisdom from experience? Yet, Helen herself was only in her 30s.
After discussing Helen’s honeymoon a bit more, it was almost time to part ways.
“Uh… are you two going to be alright?”
As we were preparing to say our goodbyes outside the shop, we paused at Yeon-hee’s worried question.
Joo-ah and Ah-rin exchanged quick glances before responding.
“Well, if they come after us with intent, it’ll be dangerous. But since it’s an apartment solely for hunters, the defenses are decent, and we should have time to escape. The real danger might be during transit…”
“Hmm… Shall we walk you home?”
“Eh…? … Pffft… Hahaha!”
Though Yeon-hee sincerely asked out of concern, the situation seemed so funny that both Joo-ah and Ah-rin burst into laughter.
“If it becomes truly dangerous, I will ask for your help, okay? See you.”
“Yeah… please be careful as you head back.”
Yeon-hee and I couldn’t leave immediately, watching them walk away for a while.
Even with two missing, there were still eight left. If the Apex guys were serious about attacking, it would be tough for those two to survive.
“Keeping them at our place would definitely be the safer bet…”
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