Chapter 2

Once you pa.s.s through the Gate, you would be in the Dungeon. The Dungeon this time around was probably D-rank.

Jinwoo looked over Juhee’s shoulders at his fellow Hunters. Ten-something number of Hunters were taking down monsters left and right. They did not appear to be particularly struggling. Yet here he was, injured.

It was the role of the Healer-cla.s.s Hunters to heal the injured Hunters from the rear. As a man who was hurt in nearly every Raid he partic.i.p.ated in, Jinwoo was rather famous among the Healer-cla.s.s Hunters.

Juhee carefully asked him,

“Do you perhaps have a reason why you can’t quit?”

Jinwoo firmly shook his head. He didn’t like revealing personal details about himself so easily.

“I’m just doing this as a hobby. I’ll probably die of boredom if it wasn’t for this.”

Juhee pouted in response,

“You’ll end up Raiding in the afterlife because of your ‘hobby’ ”

Not expecting such a response, Jinwoo laughed.

“Hey! Don’t laugh! You’ll open your wounds!”

Jinwoo asked while chuckling,

“Man, where did you hear such a phrase?”

“Where else? Mr. Kim ooover there.”

“Sigh, that geezer…”

As they laughed and conversed, the healing was completed. But it was too late, the Raid was pretty much over at that point.

Jinwoo grimaced.

‘I only killed one magic beast[3] today…’

And even then, it was only an E-rank monster.

Jinwoo fidgeted with the the E-rank magic core[4] in his hand. Such low level magic core from an E-rank magic beast was barely worth a hundred thousand won[5]. The fact that he put his life on the line to earn it made it seem all the more pathetic.

‘I heard a magic core from a C-rank magic beast is worth at least few ten millions[6]…’

But to Jinwoo, an E-rank Hunter, the thought of taking down a C-rank magic beast was an impossibility.

Suddenly, someone shouted,

“Eh? There’s another entrance here!”

The Hunters swarmed towards the voice.

“You’re right!”

“Really? Another entrance?”

As the first person noted, there indeed was another Dungeon entrance here.

“A Double Dungeon… So they really do exist.”

A Hunter with 10 years worth of experience, Mr. Song looked at the newly found entrance with wonder. Unable to see far into the dark tunnel, Mr. Song used his specialty, fire magic. The fireball that shot out from his hand flew through the tunnel, illuminating its darkness. However, the tunnel was deeper than expected, and the fireball eventually lost its energy and fell to the ground and quickly extinguished as a spark. Darkness returned before their eyes.

“Hmm… Everyone, please gather around.”

As the de facto leader of the Raid, Mr. Song gathered the Hunters before him. Juhee and Jinwoo, having completed Jinwoo’s healing, also joined the crowd.

Mr. Song addressed the gathered Hunters,

“As you all may know, Gates do not close until the Dungeon’s boss is taken down. Since our Gate is still open, even though we’ve cleared all the mobs in the area, it appears that the real boss in down that tunnel.”

Mr. Song gestured towards the newly found Dungeon entrance. Looking at each other, the Hunters also nodded in agreement.

The protocol in situations like this is to exit the Dungeon, contact the a.s.sociation, and let them handle things going forward… But if we do that, and some other group of Hunters take down the boss, there’s a chance that our income for this Raid will drastically decrease.”

The gathered Hunters’ expressions hardened. Mr. Park, who came here to support his expecting wife, looked doubly troubled. ‘Postnatal care these days is really expensive…’ If he left now, the efforts he risked his life for would be wasted.

“And so I was thinking. What if we just went ahead and go kill the boss? What do you guys think?”

The Hunters fell in contemplation.

“…”

“…”

It was not a decision that could be made easily. Some knew that there was no guarantee that the Double Dungeon would be as safe as the one that they had just cleared. Others came to the conclusion that if the Outer Dungeon was this easy, perhaps the Inner Dungeon would be just as easy. Regardless, it was not a situation where everyone would be in agreement.

“Hmm…”

Mr. Song faked a cough,

“Since there’s 17 of us here, why don’t we take a vote on this? And no complaining after the vote. How about it?”

At Mr. Song’s suggestion, each Hunter nodded in agreement.

Mr. Song’s was the first to raise his hand. “I’ll go.”

Mr. Park was the first to follow Mr. Song, “I’ll go too.”

“Me, me too…”

“Same here.”

“One more vote for ‘yes’ ”

Mr. Kim had also joined the “go” group. But there were opposing votes as well,

“Let’s not.”

“I think we should wait on the a.s.sociation’s judgment.”

As the “yes” crowd and the “no” crowd clashed at 8-7, all gazes fell on the two last undecided people.

“Sorry…”

Shaking her head, Juhee voted no, putting the count at 8-8. Mr. Song turned and asked the last person for his vote.

“Mr. Sung?”

Translator’s Notes:

[1]: “several million won”: ~Several thousand in USD (his mother’s medical bills)

[2]: “-nim”: Korean post-nominal honorific denoting high respect. Falls somewhere between j.a.panese -san and -sama. Most service employees in Korea refer to customers with “-nim”.

[3]: “magic beast” (마수; MSu); “Magic” Ma + “Beast” Su

[4]: “magic core” (마정석; MJung-Suk); “Magic” Ma + “Center/Middle” Jung + “Stone” Suk. i.e. – A magic stone at the center/middle of the magic beast > “magic core”.

[5]: “hundred thousand won”: ~90 USD (value of E-rank Magic Core)

[6]: “few ten millions (won)”: ~Several ten thousand in USD (value of C-rank Magic Core). Last time I clarify korean won to USD equivalent. As a rule of thumb, just divide the KRW number by 1,000 to get the USDE.

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