Dungeon Hunter - Chapter 78

Chapter 78: Episode 21. Dwarf, Quest, Success (2)

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During the past few months, Korea had been forced to face some changes to deal with the massive aftermath of the Monster Wave. A few thousand soldiers were killed, and the financial damage was reaching the trillions. But the most traumatizing part was that they couldn’t do anything but watch the monsters cross the country.

There was a breach in national defense, so people grew nervous.

Someone had to take responsibility for the situation.

When the public learned that one squadron was annihilated in the dungeon, the president and his cabinet had to step down, and another election set up new leaders.

It was natural that the social status of the awakened heroes rose. Anyway, the public was trusting awakened heroes more than ever, because, thanks to the awakened heroes, the damage from the Monster Wave was minimal.

There was full national support for the awakened heroes, which allowed the guilds to grow their influence.

The Monster Wave was a global threat. Every country wanted to scout strong awakened heroes, and the demand increased the heroes’ value during the process.

Therefore, each country started to find their own strategy to keep their own awakened heroes from moving away, which was ironic considering how the world had treated the heroes when they first revealed themselves. Even so, awakened heroes quickly obtained the ground to grow quite rapidly.

The golden age of awakened heroes had started.

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“Ah, well. I thought it was the safe zone, okay?”

It was late at night.

While drinking draft beer at a pub, Kim Chunwon started to complain. He had been selected to become a member of the Devil Hunter attack unit through an open call, and he had a well-known dirty mouth and swore like a sailor all the time. His special skill, “Wandering Minstrel,” drew attention from a lot of people, but many of the people around him had negative opinions of him.

“Why are you looking at me like that? You all thought it was a safe zone, right? I didn’t know that monsters would run into us as soon as we put down our gear.”

Yoo Eunhye put down her soda cup and told him bitterly, “Hey, old man, you insisted even though we said it wasn’t the safe zone. Why won’t you admit it?”

Entering the few wooden cabins in the lava region on the sixth floor of the dungeon was a mistake. The usual safe zone was placed around the geometrical so-called “sh*t house,” but as soon as Kim Chunwon found the wooden cabins, he argued that it was the safe zone and insisted that all the attack unit members go inside.

But unlike what Kim Chunwon believed, monsters attacked them all, and they were put in the worst possible scenario. Thankfully, there was no great damage, but that was definitely a risky moment that they didn’t even want to think about.

Kim Chunwon frowned. “Don’t call me old. I’m still in my twenties, okay? And that was just strange to see wooden cabins in that area. Monsters don’t need houses, don’t you think?”

“Why not? There are monsters with two feet and high intelligence in the dungeon as well.”

When Yoo Eunhye answered, Kim Chunwon looked at her with furious glaring eyes. “This btch is trying to btch about everything.”

“Oh wow, you’re scary. It seems like you are going to drag me to a dark alley or something!” Yoo Eunhye mockingly commented and hid behind Edward. Edward dropped his drumstick and looked right into Kim Chunwon’s eyes.

His deep eye contact made Kim Chunwon look away. Edward always made such intense eye contact with everyone except for a handful of people.

‘This kid has f*cking eyes of…!’ Kim Chunwon started to swear in his head and poured the beer down his throat.

In order to have a productive discussion, Lee Jihye clapped to draw everyone’s attention.

“Stop it. We’re gathered here today to discuss how to fight against the monster ‘Pyrok.’ It was so strong that all we could do was run away. We need to find a better strategy for this monster.”

The monster came out once during the Monster Wave. Pyrok dropped fighter jets and massacred soldiers! When the attack unit encountered the monster that had a small dragon body and bat wings, they were panicked. They couldn’t even think of fighting back and merely ran away as quickly as they could.

“Jihye, it seems like there weren’t many of them. Maybe we can just avoid them?” Yoo Eunhye came back to her seat and shared her opinion.

Lee Jihye shook her head. “The problem is that we can’t be sure of that. Even if we avoid Pyroks, it’s probable that there are even stronger monsters on the seventh floor. Don’t you remember how difficult it was to go through the fifth floor?”

The nightmares of the fifth floor featured Mud Golems, Puppets, and Harpies, making everyone in the attack unit shiver. They had tried their best to increase their abilities and skills so they could make it through, but there were many moments they thought they would be all killed.

“Then maybe we don’t have another way, don’t you think? Maybe we should level up on the lower floors.”

“But the pressure from the guild is huge. A lot of people have ridiculously high expectations of the Devil Hunter attack unit. We need to make it through until at least the seventh floor, and we don’t have much time.”

Yoo Eunhye tapped her forehead lightly. “Ugh. Our great unit leader is killing us!”

“And that great unit leader is absent now.”

Randalf Bruciel, the leader of the attack unit, was responsible for the pressure and expectations on the Devil Hunter attack unit. That one person brought the title ‘best in Korea’ to the Devil Hunter attack unit, but that didn’t mean all positives for the attack unit. Yoo Eunhye and Edward were receiving some recognition from the world, but that was it. They still had a long way to go.

But their leader had left with Krathra… Missing their main force was difficult for the unit.

All the members were trying their best to preserve the value of their name, but they felt like they were reaching their limit.

While the members’ spirits were dropping, Yoo Eunhye raised her hand. “Why don’t we get some support from other famous attack units?”

“If they’re a famous attack unit, would they really want to pair up with us?”

Yoo Eunhye pursed her lips and complained, “You’re right. A lot of units are jealous of our attack unit. Being an outstanding unit is a problem. I don’t know why they all want to pull us down.”

There were five top guilds.

The Devil Hunter attack unit was a part of the Guild of Heaven’s Will, but there were differing opinions of the unit even among the guild members. It was clear that the Devil Hunter had proved their strength, from the ranking tournament to the Monster Waves all around the world, but some people were saying it was due to Randalf Bruciel, so it was just a one-person attack unit.

The words from the other four guilds were worse. They all approved of the attack unit leader but they looked down on the attack unit itself. They would respond to any request from Randalf… but they would definitely ignore requests from the attack unit.

“And we can’t just accept any attack unit to work with us. There are some crazy people who are trying to dig up information on us. Creating the possibility of unnecessary rumors wouldn’t be a good idea at all.” Lee Jihye sighed.

Anyway, the Devil Hunter attack unit had to do it by themselves.

“Older sister, let’s take this chance as an opportunity. If we make it through the seventh floor without our team leader, we can prove that we’re not just a one-person attack unit, don’t you think?”

“I really wish we could do that.”

All the members knew that their attack unit leader was the greatest and strongest hero of them all. If all of them tried to fight against their leader, they would have absolutely no chance of winning.

Yoo Eunhye moved her shoulders up and down and picked up her soda. “Oh well. This is gloomy, so let’s drink before thinking about it again!”

“Btch. What the fck are you doing with a soda, huh?” When Kim Chunwon started mocking her, a fork was stabbed down onto the table in front of him.

That almost shocked him, and he started to calculate the angle of the fork to find out who had thrown it toward him. It was Edward.

“…” Kim Chunwon looked toward him.

Looking at Edward calmed him down right away.

Although he was famous for his dirty mouth, Edward’s intense look wasn’t something he could handle easily. Also, the fact that “crazy eyes Edward” was acting like a normal person around Yoo Eunhye drove him mad.

‘Ah, f*ck. Is he a mama’s boy?’

Kim Chunwon was trying to justify himself by telling himself that it would be his loss if he fought with a young boy.

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On the top floor of the dungeon, I was sitting down and staring at the hologram on the Dungeon Core.

I was checking what was going on with the inner affair mode because of the Tree of Origin.

It was growing rapidly thanks to the Statue of the Goddess of Prosperity’s blessing, but there wasn’t much information available. I bought and read a lot of books on Genesis from the shop for everything, but I was not able to find much on the Tree of Origin.

‘It gave birth to the very first life. That was the only information I was able to find in all those books.’

So I had to find out more about it myself.

But there were no visual changes so far. I was monitoring the dungeon in real-time, but apart from the increase of the repopulation rate by 0.5 percent, there were no other changes at all. And it wasn’t clear whether it was due to something natural or the effect of the Tree of Origin.

I needed to wait and see, as it was a little too early to tell.

But since it was a tree that was produced by consuming the World Tree, I had quite high expectations of it. Moreover, it was a tree related to Genesis… I couldn’t miss the tiniest detail. That was the reason why I was keeping my eyes concentrated on the hologram.

“Master, Lyhee saw something really funny!”

Lyhee came back alone from her long walk with the King Bees. She always wore a bright expression, but that day, she looked even more cheerful.

“Sure,” I answered without looking at her or giving her attention. Lyhee flew in front of my face and flapped her wings.

“Lyhee saw something interesting!”

“Move. I can’t see.”

“Huff…”

Lyhee dropped her shoulders and was left looking very lonely. She started to talk to herself. “There were people. Dwarves were giving quests. Lyhee really saw. Master told me to report before, so I was trying to. Lyhee was playing, so I was late, but I think Master is cruel. Master hurt Lyhee’s feelings. I won’t report to you next time.”

“You mean there are humans on the seventh floor?”

When I showed the slightest bit of attention, Lyhee changed her attitude completely. “Yes, Master. Lyhee was an eyewitness to it.”

Lyhee flew to me, flapping her wings, and showed me her silly laugh. In general, Fairies were simple creatures, but Lyhee was the simplest. She was always thirsty for attention.

“I’m glad there was no conflict.”

I had been expecting some humans to reach the seventh floor soon enough anyways. I was mostly prepared, but I was worried that people would attack the Dwarves without any warning. Fortunately, it seemed like that kind of incident hadn’t happened.

“Humans are stupid. If we’re a little nice to them, they just trust everything. When the small Dwarves offered to let them fix their weapon, the humans lowered their guards right away. Can you believe it? That made Lyhee laugh out loud.”

“Lyhee, did you confirm that the quest was registered officially?”

I really wanted to know if monsters could provide a quest for humans. If that was a possible option, I would have another tactic to use for my benefit.

“A little Dwarf asked them a favor, and the humans were surprised. They were so happy, saying that a quest window had shown up.” Lyhee kept nodding after her words.

‘Can monsters really give us quests…?’

This was very important and useful information.

I pulled out the Dungeon Crystal Ball to see the Dwarf’s village on the seventh floor.

Soon, the surface of the crystal ball blurred and showed the village.

The completed village didn’t look too bad.

There were a dozen two-story buildings. In the square, there were a lot of statues and a clock tower. The buildings were tall enough even for humans to enter and walk around, and I was able to see some familiar faces among the humans.

‘Yoo Eunhye, Lee Jihye, and Edward Windsor.’

I knew them all, as I had handpicked them and put them in my attack unit.

‘The Devil Hunter attack unit is the first one to make it to the seventh floor.’

That gave me mixed feelings.

I had forgotten about my attack unit for a while, but they suddenly reminded me of their existence.

I was proud of them in a way. The first ones to make it to the seventh floor were my Devil Hunter attack unit. This proved they were progressing even in my absence.

‘I should keep my eyes on them.’

I kept my eyes on the crystal ball while rubbing my chin.