Dungeon Hunter - Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Episode 4. Deceptors (2)

“Wow! That’s Iron Man’s car!” When Kim Suhwan drove in his Audi R8v10 plus, people cheered. Tony Stark drove the same car. Zero to sixty-two in 3.6 seconds, 550 horsepower. It was every man’s dream to drive that sports car.

Kim Suhwan showed confidence with his smile.

Other cars arrived, but they couldn’t compete with the Iron Man car.

“I thought my car wasn’t bad, but compared to yours, mine is nothing.” Yoon Hyuksu said with a modest smile as he looked at Kim Suhwan with a little bit of envy.

“Haha, it’s nothing.” Kim Suhwan said snobbishly.

There were increasing supplies, but the price of the Core was still high in the market. The Core the size of a pinky finger size was around 6 million won. Before the announcement from the United States, the price was even higher on the black market. Sometimes it was ten times or even twenty times more expensive. Now the price was rather stable. Even so, the Ironman car was more than over two hundred million. Before the announcement, it would have been different, but now he’d had to sell at least 200 Cores to buy the car.

Usually, a unit has 8 to 12 people. So when you divided the reward among them, they didn’t get a lot. It was clear that Kim Suhwan had joined units endlessly to buy his Iron Man car.

He was a well experienced in dungeons for sure, so people envied him even if they didn’t necessarily like him that much.

“Wow. You have a great car,” one of the girls mentioned as she approached him.

“Haha. Thank you.” Kim Suhwan smiled as if it was nothing at all.

“You must be really good.”

“I’ve done a lot of units. Sometimes I went to the dungeon with a friend of mine as well.”

“You can hunt when you are the only two?” The girl asked, impressed.

“With some accumulated knowledge, it was possible.”

The girl sighed deeply. “I envy you. For me, if I do a raid once, I can’t do anything for the rest of the week.”

Not many people knew about dungeons even though they went on raids. They just needed money. Rich people who could get the Core without working wouldn’t walk into a bloody battlefield anyways. When you do a few raids in a unit, you realize the cruel reality.

Ah, nothing comes for free. It would kill me if I made any mistakes!

There were guilds, but they were quite selective when it came to selecting their members. That was why experienced awakened heroes were looked up to by everyone. Experienced meant that the person knew how to survive, which also meant if you followed the person, you could be safe. When you could have your safety guaranteed, dungeons were a workplace with high income.

Kim Suhwan certainly captured girls’ attention. It was natural that girls were attracted to a strong male.

That didn’t last too long.

“Huh, there’s someone with that car in Korea?” Yoon Hyuksu was truly happy to see a real supercar approaching.

“What is that car?” A girl who was deeply interested in Kim Suhwan’s car asked Yoon Hyuksu.

“It’s Bugatti Veyron. It is one of the fastest cars in the world. The price is as high as its speed, though. Wow!” Yoon Hyuksu whistled as if he was jealous.

It was a model from 2015, impossible to get it in Korea. Yoon Hyuksu was crazy about cars enough to know that.

The fastest car in the world! Iron Man’s car was a good one, but Bugatti Veyron was more expensive, and it was notorious for its speed as well as the price. One Bugatti Veyron worth more than ten of Kim Suhwan’s Iron Man car.

The Bugatti Veyron stopped in front of them. As everyone puzzled over it, the driver opened the door to show himself.

Gulp!

People showed strange expressions on their faces. Some were almost shaking with thrill, and some expressed their impression verbally. Kim Suhwan was the only one to show an unpleasant expression on his face.

“I’m late.” It was the guy they all knew, Randalf Bruciel. He smiled and tapped Kim Suhwan’s shoulder lightly.

That was enough to communicate. He was telling Kim Suhwan: ‘Don’t you think my ride is fine?’

Kim Suhwan looked even more miserable. “Where did you borrow it from?”

“It was a present.” Bugatti Veyron as a present? Nobody could believe it. Even if you ran around the dungeons for more than eight months, it wouldn’t be enough to buy a Bugatti Veyron. That meant he was rich, and nobody understood why a rich guy would join a raid.

Randalf didn’t offer an explanation, and everyone was too overwhelmed by the scene to ask anything more. Soon the prettiest one among the girls, Lee Jihye the magician, hopped into the car. Guys who were expecting her to sit next to them looked like fishermen who’d lost a huge fish right in front of them.

After lunch, we finished our short briefing.

There would be only Goblins, Kobolds, Carnivore Bats, and a few Aisle Snakes. We listened to some important notices and took an antidote pill before reaching Bukhan Mountain.

While walking, the unit leader Yoon Hyuksu kept explaining. “As you can see, there’s only one entrance for the dungeon, but it’s gigantic. Can you imagine a few thousand monsters coming out from the gate during the monster wave? Isn’t it a horrible thing to imagine?”

Every monster wave cause a great damage. Officially only the Philippines, China, and the Middle East announced that they had a monster wave, but hundreds of people died from them.

There was no guarantee that there would be no monster wave from a dungeon in Korea. If you stood in or around the entrance of the dungeon when the monster wave occurred, you were a dead person. Everyone was risking their lives to enter the dungeon.

“But there’s an army of soldiers around the dungeon, so on the city side, it would be safe.”

“Why don’t the soldiers block the entrance?” Park Euntak asked. It was a logical question since it was his first time coming near dungeon.

Yoon Hyuksu answered with a bitter smile. “They are obviously ignoring it.”

“What?” Park Euntak was confused.

“Only the awakened heroes can bring out the Core from the dungeon. It’s the next-generation energy source, so the government wouldn’t move only because a handful of people are dying there. I’m pretty sure that soon there will be some cars using the Core, and electricity will be produced with the Core as well. It will also bring a revolution to the medical field…”

Putting a little bit of the Core powder would heal wounds, and illness could be cured slowly by drinking water with the Core powder. It was said to be effective even for cancers or other incurable illnesses.

That was because of the nature of Mana. Mana was the origin of everything. It moved endlessly to find its original, healthy form. The Core was a concentration of Mana. It was a revolutionary element in the medical field, so it was possible that the occupation of doctors would disappear. Medical professionals bought huge amounts of the Core to do various experiments; that was why there was only a limited supply of the Core. The demand was becoming higher.

“Got it.” Park Euntak nodded as if he understood.

Yoon Hyuksu, who was leading the unit, stopped for a while. “Anyway! You see the building in front of the dungeon? It’s a shop run by the Mithril Guild. They have some basic protections and weapons, so we should stop by.” He nodded to a two-story building around 500 meters away from the dungeon. It would be destroyed as soon as a monster wave happened, so the shop owner must have been a very brave man.

When I walked in, there were weapons and armor in the shop as Yoon Hyuksu had explained. I looked around a bit, then picked up a steel sword. It was a good weapon with a sharp blade.

When I put it on the counter, a clerk with glasses asked me, “is this your first time?”

“Yes.”

“20,000 won per hour. We need 300,000 won as a deposit.”

I didn’t ask anything and opened my wallet to pay him.

“Do you have anything to prove your identity?”

“Here.” I showed him my ID. He checked a few things and gave me the sword. He was doing everything by the book.

All eight of us got what we needed and stood in front of the building. When we all gathered, Yoon Hyuksu looked at me as if he was worried about me.

“Mr. Randalf? It will be bloody and dirty, are you going to be ok?”

I’d only rented the sword and was still in my suit. The girls who’d been wearing skirts were now in more comfortable outfits. They wore bulletproof material vests on top of their clothes as well.

I shook my head. I was not planning to stay in the dungeon for a long time, and changing was just too much work. So I answered briefly, “fine.”

Yoon Hyuksu didn’t argue with me. Usually, beginners were cocky until they experienced the dungeon. Once they entered, they all changed their minds.

Yoon Hyuksu shared a fist-sized torch with everyone.

“It can stay lit around 48 hours without a recharge. It’s very dark inside the dungeon, so be careful not to get lost. Now, let’s get going.”

When all eight of us arrived at the entrance, Yoon Hyuksu continued, “I told you all your position during the briefing, correct? Close combat warriors have to stand in front, and…”

During our briefing, we organized our positions according to our wishes, occupations, and abilities. It wasn’t the optimal position, but it was much better and more efficient than a random raid. Finally, everyone in the attack unit entered the dungeon.

“Now, we need to be careful. We don’t know what will come from which direction. We aren’t getting too deep today; we will simply walk around this area.”

Everyone put their guards up looked around. We were an improvised attack unit, so we needed to get to know each other to fight together. We couldn’t afford the risk of running into a bunch of monsters acting as a group deep inside the dungeon.

A transparent square lamp had a little lightbulb inside instead of a candle. It wasn’t very bright, but it was enough to check around us with the naked eye. The brightness was dimmed because light could attract monsters.

“Bro, we both are beginners, we should team up.” Park Euntak suggested. I nodded slightly instead of answering. This guy looked like he just came from the countryside.

He kept rolling his eyes with fear. “Aren’t you afraid?”

“I’m not afraid.”

“Uhh…you don’t look afraid, but I am. Kobolds look really scary.”

“But they’re still just Kobolds.” A Kobold was just a slave-level monster on the bottom of the pyramid. They look a bit savage, but they were not difficult to slay.

Park Euntak kept trying to talk to me and call me ‘bro’. He seemed to be friendly, but at the end of the day, he just wanted to forget about his anxiety with the conservation. Park Euntak didn’t really care about my short answers.

“Steady.” Suddenly Yoon Hyuksu stopped and put his ear on the floor. He was trying to check for what was coming with the sound.

Yoon Hyuksu stayed like that for about ten seconds and then stood up.

“There are two coming. I will draw attention, so wait here.”

Goblins or Kobolds target the first opponent that they recognize as an enemy, so it was the rule of thumb for the Guarder to make the first attack.

Yoon Hyuksu ran away and hid from the sight. The remaining people paid attention to the front. Even if you were experienced, you only had one life. One mistake would make you lose it, so everyone had to be careful.

After 30 seconds, it sounded like someone was running toward them. The sound was coming from multiple directions.

Yoon Hyuksu and two Goblins!

“Get ready!”