Dungeon Hunter - Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Episode 5. Queen of Thunder (1)

It was right before sunset. The blue and red sky was welcoming us.

‘It’s not too bad.’ Standing against the sunset, I was smiling with satisfaction.

It was my first time, but I had been able to see and experience various things. The three girls and I were the only ones who came out from the dungeon, although Lee Jihye and I were carrying two of them because they’d passed out.

Yoon Hyuksu had walked as if he was dragging himself with the sword still in his stomach. It was possible only because his strength was quite high. He fell down right in front of the entrance and died.

‘So did I clean it all up?’ After we came out of the dungeon, we left the two girls at the shop of the Mythril Guild with a bit of money. They had an emergency room in the shop, so they would take care of them before moving them to a hospital.

“What’s your plan?” I asked Lee Jihye, who was staring at the sky mindlessly.

“I need to… live… with everything I’ve got.”

“That means you want to keep participating in attack units?”

She showed me her little leather pouch with Cores. “Apart from prostitution, a 25-year-old girl can’t make a better income than this.” She sounded like she had a lot on her plate. She must be living a life where she had to keep making money.

The important thing was that her answer was yes. I nodded and asked, “Any plan to join a guild?”

Lee Jihye answered, still mindlessly. “I mean, it would be nice and safe if I could, but those top five guilds have strict conditions. I couldn’t get in. I also don’t want to join an unverified, random guild.”

There were five top guilds in Korea. The benefit of joining those guilds was the members could go on a raid with strong awakened heroes. Also, they’d been expanding their business into various fields so simply joining the was a very good idea in many ways.

It seemed like Lee Jihye had applied to all five of them and was rejected. Her negative attitude made that clear.

I gave her my business card. “Here.”

“A business card?”

“Tell them I recommended you and apply again. They will take you.”

Lee Jihye held my business card and started to read what was written on it. “The Guild of Heaven’s Will…”

“You don’t like it?” The Guild of Heaven’s Will was clearly one of the top five guilds, but also it was known to be the most difficult one to join.

Lee Jihye shook her head. “No. But before anything, what’s your relationship with The Guild of Heaven’s Will?”

“None of your business.”

“Mr. Randalf. Be honest with me. Are you really a beginner?”

“Whatever you want to believe.” I had no plan to explain the details. I just wanted to let Lee Jihye think whatever she wanted to.

Lee Jihye seemed to be deep in thought. She couldn’t stop thinking about how Yoon Hyuksu and Kim Inpil were killed in a heartbeat. It was not the work of a beginner.

“Maybe Park Euntak was…” Lee Jihye murmured. Park Euntak stopped the monsters for others. Thanks to him, they got out alive. If this person could kill Yoon Hyuksu and Kim Inpil so effortlessly, wouldn’t he have been able to save Park Euntak as well? Wasn’t he able to escape the dungeon without any help?

Lee Jihye decided not to say the words. She didn’t want to speculate. Anyway, what’s done is done, and there was no way she could turn back time. The guy standing in front of her wasn’t an easy guy to talk to. Lee Jihye tried to empty her head and not to think about that anymore.

‘Not bad at all.’ I looked at Lee Jihye, thinking I’d made the right choice. She was smart considering she didn’t make an unnecessary comment. She had great judgment. One thing missing in her was her potential, but I thought she would be perfect not as a member of my attack unit, but as a manager.

“I can’t figure you out. Anyways…okay. I will call them.” Lee Jihye sighed as she gave up on understanding me. For her, it was a great opportunity. If she made it into one of the top five guilds, her future would be brighter. She didn’t have anything to lose.

“What are you planning to do with that diary?”

I pulled out the diary of Kim Inpil from my pocket. It smelled like strong Mana.

I activated my Mind’s Eye to have a look.

Name : Book of Necromancer(U)

Details -A devil’s book full of madness. With low Intelligence, the owner can go mad with this diary. When you write your hunting note, the system evaluates it to raise your Mana slightly.

You can inherit the special occupation ‘Necromancer’.

‘This is…’ I had a look briefly in the dungeon, but this was an amazing object for sure. Unique Level? That meant it was the one and only item. All the awakened heroes had never even seen Rare Level skills or items yet. This item that was awakened with Kim Inpil was an amazing one.

I couldn’t understand why such a great item ended up with a human, especially Kim Inpil. I would inherit the special occupation, and by writing in the diary, I would increase my Mana. It wouldn’t be a great amount, but still, this was as good as a Unique item.

‘It would be a waste if Kim Inpil kept it.’ A weakling having a treasure would be a crime. It was definitely not an item that Kim Inpil deserved. Maybe that was why I didn’t see any Necromancers in my former life. Kim Inpil was not able to keep the treasure and died, which made this item disappear.

Without my Mind’s Eye, it wouldn’t be possible to understand the value of this item, and it would look like a random, useless object.

I decided to keep the diary. “I will take care of it.”

“Burn it, if you don’t have any other plans. I’m sure it’s cursed.” Lee Jihye shivered, looking at the diary with hatred.

I was sure she was just shocked by what she went through in the dungeon. She looked like a skull, which would be recovered in a few days, but she was also traumatized. It would take some time to recover from her trauma.

Lee Jihye looked powerless and told me, “I’m going to go now, Mr. Unknown Beginner. If your business card is real, I will see you around the Guild of Heaven’s Will, right?”

“Yes.”

“Ah, I need a shower…. and I need to go to the hospital as well. Thanks.”

“I can give you a ride.”

“No thanks. My place is not that presentable; I’d rather take a taxi.” Lee Jihye smiled weakly and slowly walked down the mountain.

Next time we met, it would be at the guild house of the Guild of Heaven’s Will.

I turned around to have a look at my dungeon. ‘Now that I think about it, I didn’t see Lyhee.’

That proved that she was so busy that she didn’t even realize that I was back in the dungeon.

Lyhee is the fairy of the Dungeon Core. She had to manage everything inside the dungeon and give life to things in the dungeon. Moving grass and flowers or creating lakes according to the characteristics of each floor was her job, and she was the only creature who could do that.

‘Yeah, she must be really busy now.’ She had to build up the dungeon, after all. I gave her the power to move around between the second and the fourth floor to create necessary things.

‘I made it possible to get some weapons of Rare Level from the second floor…’ I’d let Lyhee manage that as well. I told her to hide them in obscure places so that the awakened heroes had to explore. I was sure that Lyhee was doing her job properly.

‘I should get back.’ My suit was looked quite miserable. I hadn’t expected to stay in the dungeon for so long. I stretched my neck a few times and walked away.

Korea was buzzing. It had been nine months since dungeons appeared, and the first guild ever had managed to go through the ground floor to reach the second floor.

The Guild of Heaven’s Will. The name of the guild master, Kim Yongwoo, was all over the media. Public broadcasting channel QBS paid a fortune to have an exclusive interview with Kim Yongwoo. The most famous presenter was the interviewer. It was only ten minutes long, but it became an international sensation.

The contents of the interview were as follows:

―There are many people who want to know about The Guild of Heaven’s Will and its guild master. Kim Yongwoo, would you like to briefly introduce yourself?

“Hi. I’m the guild master of The Guild of Heaven’s Will, Kim Yongwoo. As you all know, The Guild of Heaven’s Will is a small group of awakened heroes. I’m 28 and single.”

―Thank you for your introduction. Let’s move on to the next question. Dungeons and awakened heroes are the hottest issues this year. What do you think, Mr. Kim Yongwoo?

“Dungeons are definitely dangerous places. China and the Philippines have been damaged by the monster wave. Monsters wouldn’t challenge us as long as awakened heroes are here. If you look at my status window, our occupations are awakened heroes. Our role is to protect people from the dungeon and to slay the Devil God who lives on the top floor of the dungeon.”

―Devil God? You mean a devil with two horns?

“Haha. We are all using our imaginations. Nobody knows what is there really. Maybe there’s God, or maybe an Alien. Perhaps there are people from the underworld.”

―I can’t imagine at all. Okay, next question. Recently, awakened heroes are becoming extremely popular and have started to become celebrities. What do you think of this phenomenon?

“I think it’s good. Awakened heroes are humans as well. Suddenly something happened, and we became strong, but we still feel the pain and emotion. I hope people wouldn’t think otherwise.”

―Got it. Now, the question that everyone was waiting for…you made it to the second floor with a 12-person unit, correct?

“Yes, those 12 people are the most trained warriors, and actually, clearing the ground floor is not the most difficult thing. Finding the direction was the real challenge. It took exactly a week to find a way to go up to the second floor.”

―Sounds great. I’ve seen the monsters on video, and they looked dreadful and merciless. I can’t imagine how you can hunt them. So, what is the difference between the ground and the second floor?

“There are Orcs. They are 1.5 times bigger than me, and they have a hog snout. They have very thick skin; I had a hard time fighting them. Apart from that, on the second floor, there are also many hidden treasures. A magic scroll that makes you jump 500 meters with one jump, a leather pouch that can contain ten times more than its size, real potions that are ten times better than the Core powder, a sword of the Rare level… the second floor has everything.”

―Wow! That sounds amazing! So the second floor is the treasure warehouse?

“You can say that. But you have to be careful. I’m not joking; Orcs are really scary. I don’t want to face them again. If I encountered one by myself, I would run away.”

―If that’s true, I don’t want to even see it in my dreams. We are talking with the guild master of the Guild of Heaven’s Will, Mr. Kim Yongwoo. Is there anything you want to share with us before we finish?

“Don’t panic if you become an awakened hero one day. I hope you will consider it as blissful. We all have a chance to be blessed. We will protect people and support the development of humanity. Dungeons are dangerous places, but I think it’s a great opportunity to move forward, so I will keep going back to the dungeon until my last breath. That’s it.”

The interview was uploaded on YouTube and went viral. In ten minutes, the interview got 300,000,000 views. It was the first time treasures were found in the dungeons, so people were excited about the Korean dungeon. Thanks to this, Korea got attention from awakened heroes. Although the sports industry didn’t like them, most people became fans of awakened heroes.

Awakened heroes. The protectors of humanity. Those two words made a sensation. By curing some incurable patients using the Core, awakened heroes got a very good image. People started to use machines using the Core and debate on the value of the Core. That naturally made awakened heroes important.

All the famous awakened heroes from around the world gathered in Korea. Everyone wanted to try the dungeon in Korea, the only place to find treasures.

Korea got all the attention of the world! In the middle of the attention, there was the Guild of Heaven’s Will.

And behind the guild… there was a man called Randalf Bruciel.