Dungeon Hunter - Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Episode 5. Queen of Thunder (2)

The house for the Guild of Heaven’s Will was under a strange ambiance. Forty-five guild members were staring at one man standing by the door. There was absolute silence for a while as if nobody dared to even breathe. Everyone looked quite tense. One second felt like an eternity.

The man started to move. The man didn’t care that everyone was looking at him. He looked around, then simply opened the door of the guild master’s room as if it were his own room.

Even that didn’t break the silence. It took a while for everyone to start talking.

“He’s acting like this is his own house.”

“I heard our guild master is almost obeying him; who is he?”

“I’ve been working so hard in every raid only to be the lowest level in the guild, and he’s just a newbie… f**king system…”

Some members were complaining, but most of them were newly joined. They couldn’t even think of joining the raid.

“Hey…is he really that strong?” a new guild member asked, talking to a muscled guy who was sharpening his weapon. He was one of those twelve members who’d cleared the first floor and one of the oldest members of the Guild of Heaven’s Will.

“I told you so many times, he was the one who killed the Orc. If he didn’t, we would all be dead.”

“I just can’t believe it. He looked like a nerd who has never seen the sun…”

The muscled guy frowned. “I can assure you that there’s nobody who can kill the Orc by himself, but he did it. He killed two Orcs by himself.”

“Even you can’t kill the Orc by yourself?”

“I’m not talking about some lousy Orc in the fantasy novels. Orcs are much stronger than Kobolds or Goblins. If I fight against an Orc, I will lose eight fights out of ten.”

Everyone there was in disbelief. The muscled guy was one of the strongest in the guild, but he was saying he could maybe win twice out of ten fights. Still, it was still difficult to understand. Orcs were strong, but everyone wanted to join the raid to clear the ground floor.

Then random guy who had no experience in the attack unit joined the team. He never really mingled with anyone in the guild and never participated in the meetings. He joined the raid that everyone wanted to participate, so people were a bit annoyed by it.

The guy was quite famous in the guild, and they all knew how their guild master treated him; he even gave him Bugatti Veron to show trust.

The guy was always rude, but his manner of speaking had a strange power that made the listener think that his rudeness actually came from his status. He was so confident in everything. Because of all those reasons, people felt small in front of him, and that made people jealous.

He was famous, but the lower-level guild members never had a chance to see him in action. Only those eleven guys who’d went on the raid with him saw how he fought. Everyone just kept repeating ‘outstanding’ and ‘really strong’ to explain the guy.

Those who had never even seen an Orc couldn’t really imagine anything about him. It was natural that they were complaining.

“Ok, let’s say he’s really good. I heard he’s organizing his own attack unit in the guild as well, is that true? He also took that girl who was cleaning the toilet and made her a manager…is it really for making an attack unit, or is he trying to create a harem?”

That was another problem. It was common to select the best members in the guild to make an attack unit, but this guy decided to create an attack unit of his own. If he just wanted to have a fixed member attack unit, maybe there would not be such a big fuss around him, but he was making an attack unit that could not be interfered with by the guild.

If someone belonged to that attack unit, that meant he or she was a guild member, but at the same time, couldn’t be controlled by the guild. His guild members didn’t get orders from the guild master and were only managed by the leader of the attack unit.

People were unhappy with the members as well. He took Lee Jihye as a manager. There was another girl who was in the middle of a rite of passage, but he just took that girl away to give Lee Jihye the position as a manager. The rite of passage for the newbies was to do a lot of dirty work, but he just took her and made her part of his attack unit. That was a complete ignorance of the tradition of the guild.

It was understandable that people thought he was making a harem because both of those girls were very pretty.

The muscled guy stopped sharpening his weapon and clicked his tongue. “The guild master approved it. We are just members; we shouldn’t argue with his decision.”

“But I just can’t understand what our guild master is thinking.”

“Maybe it is not a bad thing for our guild. He is clearly a great warrior. He has skills of the Rare level, so I’m sure he’s a great investment. I think the guild master took him with a vision.”

“If you say so, I can’t really argue.” The low-level guild member sighed with a shrug.

“Think positively, because we cleared the ground floor of the dungeon. We became the top Korean guild. You will get all the benefits from it. I heard that the irregular monsters have disappeared, so you can probably go on raids more often. Take your time and jump at this chance. Don’t rush.”

A few monsters on the ground floor of the dungeon were irregular, but the rumor said that those irregular monsters were gone. That was news that people could trust.

“Do you really think we will get a chance?” Everyone in the guild was hoping to explore the second floor of the dungeon, so the low-level members doubted that they could get the chance.

The guild members who participated in the attack unit got unimaginable amounts of rewards. The treasures they found on the second floor and the fame they got by clearing the ground floor for the first time were amazing.

The muscled guy smiled. “We will organize three twelve-people attack units to explore the second floor. I was thinking I would announce it by next week, but I guess I can open it now.”

“Wow! Is that true?”

Three twelve-people attack units meant they would recruit 36 people. Everyone except those who already knew it became surprised and excited.

Then the muscled guy turned around and told everyone who was listening to their conversation, “So train yourself. Every one of you. Life is real. If you make one mistake, that’s the end. So if you want to make an achievement, you guys are not good enough yet.”

“Ah…”

“So for the training, I will give a special ten days training session in the dungeon; anyone want to join?”

“Me!” Everyone raised their hands with the speed of light. “Me!”

“I really want to be part of your special training!”

The muscled man warned everyone, “It is an express train to hell. Don’t hop on without thinking twice. I will make you beg me to kill you. Do you still want to join?”

Everyone became quiet as if someone had thrown cold water on them. He was planning to show them real hell.

“Join me if you dare.” The muscled man picked up his weapon and stood up.

He was one of the twelve members of the famous attack unit, and he was the one who’d witnessed how Randalf Bruciel fought right next to him. He believed that only the strong like Randalf would survive in this world.

Survival of the fittest.

Dungeons had endless floors. With the current team, they didn’t have a chance. ‘I was settling with what I had. It’s only been a few months…’ He was being lazy because he didn’t know what the strong looked like.

Now, there was a strong warrior in his guild that he wanted to follow. He was the pillar and the wall for him at the same time, and he was determined that he would overcome that wall.

‘Haha!’ The muscled guy, Kim Taehwan, was a man of strong will; he would jump into hellfire if he decided to achieve something.

“What a fuss outside.” In a closed room, I was talking to Kim Yongwoo and had just realized it was quite noisy outside.

Kim Yongwoo laughed while reading the plan for the new attack unit. “It’s a time with a lot of events. Thanks to Mr. Randalf, we cleared the ground floor, so it wouldn’t be strange if they were having a party now. Well, we don’t have time for that though…”

“Party?” In Devildom, there were no concepts like parties or festivals. When they shared the bounties from the battlefield, it was festive, but there was no concept of enjoying together. So for me, the humans’ parties were a very alien concept.

“Are you interested? I was planning to hire a place to throw a party soon. It would be quite interesting.” Kim Yongwoo was not a generous person, but he would spend money when he had to. If not, it would have been impossible to keep his position as the guild master.

I shook my head. “No need. Just have a look and see if the plan is good to go.”

Kim Yongwoo shook his head. “Isn’t it just formality?”

“I’d rather keep it professional.”

“Hmm…the plan itself has no problems. An independent attack unit where you pick your own members and an operation concentrating on dungeon raids…we already talked about it all already, Mr. Randalf.”

Everyone in the guild was talking about the attack unit that I was planning to start. Since everyone was paying attention to my every move, it didn’t take long for everyone to know about it.

Kim Yongwoo was keeping his eye on a page of my plan and asked me, “The name of your attack unit is ‘Devil Hunter’…it seems like a dark, flame-breathing dragon would come out from the name.”

Devil Hunter. In short, D.H. was the name of the attack unit. Since I was planning to annihilate all the dungeons and the devils, I spelled it out on the name of my attack unit.

“I have no plan to change it.”

“I think it sounds great. Should I sign it?” Kim Yongwoo changed his attitude in a matter of seconds. When I nodded, Kim Yongwoo signed on the paper right away. That was the glorious beginning of the Devil Hunter attack unit.

“When are you going to finalize the unit members? One is a manager, and the other one is a newbie. It seems like you are taking a difficult path. Why don’t you take the experienced ones to make it easier?”

They might look like they are experienced, but in the future, they didn’t have the potential I was looking for. I wanted to have the best attack unit in the world, and I’d just found one who fit my criteria. “I will take some time to do it my way, but I am sure it will be the best attack unit. That will be good for you.”

It wasn’t a bad thing to have strong members in the guild.

Kim Yongwoo gave the paper back to me. “Do as you wish. I’m your loyal servant. My job is to follow and support my master.”

“You are quite fanatic considering I saved you only once.” It was really unexpected. I just helped Kim Yongwoo once, hoping he would grow up as a warrior and become useful for me.

But Kim Yongwoo smiled and answered, “I don’t have much educational or social background. All I’m really good at is catching a chance. Thanks to you, master, I was able to clear the ground floor, right? I think I made the right choice this time again.”

Kim Yongwoo thought he was an elephant, but as soon as he realized that he was just a tiny ant, he decided to take the lower place. Even so, he wanted to stand next to the elephant. That was how he’d survived until now, and that kind of judgment made him the guild master of one of the top five guilds in Korea.

Taking my paper back, I told him without any emotion, “Unless you backstab me, pretending you are loyal to me, I will help you. So keep making the right choices.”

“No! Don’t say such a thing, even as a joke.” Kim Yongwoo shook his hands.

“I’m sure you are the one to know if it’s a joke or not.” I didn’t think he would betray me, but just in case, I thought it was a good idea to warn him. Well, I mildly threaten him.

I turned around. Now that my plan was signed off, it was time to meet my unit members.

“Will you join us for the party?” Kim Yongwoo asked me right before I opened the door.

“I will decide then.”

“Then I will send you the invitation as soon as we have a date.”

“Thanks.”

“Anything for you.” Kim Yongwoo looked at me as if he was begging me not to doubt his loyalty to me. I ignored him and opened the door.

‘I should participate in it this time unless something important comes up,’ I thought. I wasn’t interested in partying with humans, but if I skipped this one again, that would cause more trouble in the guild. Although I couldn’t care less, it was a good idea to keep the guild happy. I was one of the members of the Guild of Heaven’s Will, so it was important for me to participate in at least one activity with them.

I was not the fastest learner, but I was quite flexible.

‘Now it’s getting into shape,’ I thought. An independent attack unit! I didn’t have all my members, but at least I’d started my biggest assignment. The fact that I just recruited the girl who used to be the notorious ‘Queen of Thunder’ made me smile with satisfaction.