“Confidence… If I found it… shouldn’t we at least train together to prepare for the fight with Ilseom Guild…?”
Ham Eun-young seems worried about the upcoming sparring match in four days rather than the dungeon.
No wonder the song keeps getting interrupted during our fights.
‘Well… I don’t think Ha-yoon will get hurt. If I just do well, there shouldn’t be a big problem.’
Maybe others believe the same; they weren’t as anxious or tense as when they first heard the news.
Though it feels obscured by Yeon-hee, everyone gathered here has talent that falls within the top 1%.
Everyone must be aware that my combat power far exceeds C-rank.
Even Lizardman 1, who merged with others, is powerful enough to struggle against a solo C-rank Hunter, and if I summon Sword Dragon, it might send the Ilseom Guild members, who diligently train hidden in the mountains, into a panic!
“I should practice against Ah-rin. But I don’t think we need to keep that up for days. Let’s do it the day before the match? It should just be me and Yeon-hee.”
‘Still, it seems like I’m not planning to take them all down by myself.’
“Please don’t let me fall too, okay?”
Joo-ah pretended to be weak for no reason, and Noh Ha-yoon seemed dissatisfied, nagging her.
“Are you trying to slack off? You should be simulating things in your head too.”
“Of course! But still, I hope we don’t have to fight! I’m really a weakling against close combat opponents. Encircling with rocks and waiting for a counter is my best option.”
“That’s up to you in battle. Nothing is more dangerous for a Hunter than a stagnant mindset.”
“Peh-e—”
“Ah, how childish.”
As Joo-ah stuck out her tongue, Ha-yoon was taken aback, frowning.
However, it seemed everyone was deep in thought as they began testing various strategies while dealing with monsters.
‘She must have a lot of stories to tell, so her advice is quite helpful for the team.’
Whoosh─!
Boom-!
‘Okay, I got my fourth Hanjaring.’
The precious ingredient, Hanjaring, appeared about once or twice a day, and I caught every single one that triggered my senses and stacked them neatly in the storage.
“I always feel like this, but going with Yeon-hee makes everything so easy.”
“Right? If I had gone with Vision, I would definitely have had a tough time. I would’ve had to stay here for at least fifteen days, right?”
“What’s wrong with our guild?”
“Honestly, even you can see the difference, right?”
“That’s true.”
Noh Ha-yoon looked rather unmotivated after days without any significant happenings.
The anticipated events didn’t occur, and roaming a dungeon she had cleared several times was boring for her.
But for me, just collecting materials for Skeleton Bombs and the bones that Wang-wang snack on is a gain, so I was somewhat satisfied unlike her.
But this flow feels like something I’ve experienced before…
Not every growth is triggered by stimulating situations, and perhaps it was Noh Ha-yoon who needed to shift her thinking.
‘If a Great Beast had appeared, Noh Ha-yoon should have been with us instead of Ah-rin.’
Then, she would have experienced a higher world and been a bit more cautious.
“Ah— I’m so bored.”
“?!”
“Ugh…?!”
“Hey, hey— that’s so unlucky, really.”
Noh Ha-yoon let slip a taboo phrase that one must never say in a dungeon.
Maybe due to her desperate wish? An unusual wind began to blow as our exploration was approaching its end.
‘……Hmm? What is it?’
While I was replenishing energy with my companions before the boss battle, a small gate began to open amidst my sensing waves.
I quickly informed my companions of this fact.
“Oh! Finally! Let’s go check it out!”
“Let’s scout from a distance first—”
“Got it, but hurry it up.”
Noh Ha-yoon seemed to push me forward as if she had been waiting for this.
All the companions hopped onto their summoned creatures and headed towards the suddenly generated gate.
Before long, we witnessed a surprising sight.
“Uh? What are those?”
“Are people walking out of the gate?”
Clearly Asian people were stepping through the gate one by one.
“Zhe shi n?l??(Where is this?)”
“Su?y? w? cai shu? w?men buyao maoran jinqu!(Didn’t I say not to enter recklessly!)”
Thanks to the system’s amazing ability, I could naturally understand their Chinese conversation, but the problem wasn’t just that—it was the fact that I’d never heard of people from another country entering through a gate into another dungeon.
‘…… What kind of new madness is this?’
There was a party of six people, three men and three women.
They revealed themselves, clearly nervous, while glancing at us and other Hunters emerging one by one.
The gate they exited from had already shrunk to the size of a baseball, leaving them unable to return and surrounded.
“Damn it! Could it be a gate connected to another dungeon?”
“Now we’re dealing with this kind of situation…”
As they shared bewildered feelings and conversed, one stepped forward and spoke.
“Hey─! We are from ‘Steel Heart’ in ‘Xian’!! We came in through an unknown pathway and ended up here! Could you tell us which dungeon this is?”
The leader, a rugged woman, caused a stir among the C-rank hunters, who now exceeded ten in number.
“Xian? Are you really Chinese? What’s going on?”
“Dungeons have been unstable lately… are they now connecting with other countries?”
“Ah… this is really something else. Hunters in the mountains are already a handful.”
“It’s fascinating, but… it’s dangerous, right?”
While Yeon-hee seemed intrigued, the other party members all showed negative reactions.
China, which once suffered a huge loss from the ‘Necrosquall,’ which held the highest combat power among the Great Beasts ever encountered, still remains a superpower.
It retains the title of a country with the most High-Rank Hunters across the globe.
As has always been the case between us and them, there’s nothing good to see in this connection.
‘For now, it’s just a tiny gate connecting, so there shouldn’t be an immediate problem. But the future is a concern.’
If such paths continue to open within dungeons, allowing people from any country to cross over, it’s clear that even the dungeons, which are somewhat managed now, would turn into lawless lands.
‘The problem might not just be with other countries… might be from another dimension…’
Thinking too far ahead, I shook my head and soon glanced at a woman with water-colored hair who was stepping forward.
“It seems like we’ve taken quite a wrong turn! This is Korea! This is a Frog Folk dungeon!”
“?!”
Noh Ha-yoon’s outburst left the Steel Heart Chinese members stunned.
They exchanged excited chatter for a while.
However, they soon calm down and showed signs of assessing our level.
Whoosh—
‘Their control of magic power is quite delicate. They’re emanating just enough magic power for us to not detect it yet.’
Probably, I was the only one here to notice.
Because those people were B-rank strong, according to our standards.
‘It doesn’t seem like they’re about to attack us. I would be cautious too in their place.’
Understanding that this dungeon wasn’t that high-level, they finally eased their tension and began to close the distance to us.
“Could you help us find a way out?”
The leader of Steel Heart, displaying a certain politeness, asked to Noh Ha-yoon, who was stepping forward as the representative.
They weren’t asking for help because they couldn’t find the dungeon’s exit.
They were probably worried about what awaited them outside.
Noh Ha-yoon, slightly disappointed by their unexpectedly polite behavior, nodded easily.
“Well, if this counts as an event, it’s an event.”
“I didn’t quite catch that. Did you say event?”
“No. Let’s go. Follow me.”
‘What were you even expecting? Did you think they would suddenly start a fight?’
No matter how strong they were, there was no reason to act that way against Hunters whose numbers were several times greater.
We led them to the boss stage.
“Wait? Why are there Chinese people all of a sudden?”
“That’s what we want to ask!”
The officials managing the boss battle were taken aback by the sudden turn of events.
Somehow, as we chatted, we unintentionally teamed up with them for the boss battle.
“Let’s see how capable the Chinese are.”
“Hmph… they won’t be that impressive.”
But shortly after.
Boom──!
‘…… Not bad.’
A Chinese woman equipped with a massive power device on her arm swung it, and the boss monster’s face exploded in an instant.
The explosive release of magic power sent chills down the spines of many Hunters watching.
“……”
“That’s strong…”
In under three minutes, the Chinese wiped out all the Frog Folk mutants.
Even though they were a rank higher than us, they displayed formidable combat prowess.
What was peculiar was that they demonstrated a battle method that focused their strength on one person.
“Is that device she’s wearing called ‘Link’ developed in China?”
“I heard it can hold a certain amount of mana. It’s my first time seeing one.”
“It’s not just about collecting mana. It’s an advanced device that fuses the distilled magic of party members into one. I’d heard China has a genius ‘inventor.’ Guess it was true.”
After taking down the boss, they followed us naturally like it was no big deal.
The Chinese emerged from the gate and were guided somewhere by officials affiliated with the management office but didn’t forget to express their gratitude to us.
“Thank you. Noh Ha-yoon from Vision Guild. I’ll definitely remember.”
“Not much to thank for, really.”
“Your personality is so refreshing. If you ever come to China, contact me.”
“Sure.”
As we watched them leave, our feelings were complicated.
“They were surprisingly nice people.”
“The problem is that the dungeons are becoming even more unpredictable.”
“Well, it’s just one or two small gates opening. What could possibly happen?”
But that was just our thinking.
On this day, the same phenomena occurred worldwide, leading to significant casualties from conflicts between Hunters of different nationalities.
*
Now, the church, which has become our hideout.
On our way back from the dungeon, we dropped by, and I felt that the atmosphere there was unusually dark.
Yeon-hee, feeling we might come here often, used her summoned creatures to sweep away everything, including the chaotically scattered chairs, against the walls.
“It feels spacious after clearing it up, right?”
“Clap, Clap, Clap!”
“Phew— I’m nervous now.”
The reason Yeon-hee was nervous was singular.
It was time to use the ‘Mysterious and Auspicious Summoning Scroll’ obtained after completing the quest to defeat 500 monsters.
This was the quest reward after all sorts of incidents in Nargul’s dungeon.
There was no guarantee she could obtain it again in the future.
“Hey, don’t get too excited. At least something like ‘Sword Dragon’ should come out, right?”
“Clap, Clap, Clap!”
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