Dungeon Hunter - Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Episode 3. Attack Unit (1)

The street for young people, Hongdae, was a place where all the dreams and passions of the youngsters were gathered. In the middle of Hongdae, there was a live cafe called Amoa where four people were gathering. They all looked different, but they had one thing in common. They didn’t look like normal people.
It seemed like an unlikely combination of people, but they were at the cafe with a common ground. They were all awakened heroes, and they were leading a guild that they had started!
“This place is always empty. I’m sure the owner didn’t plan to keep it empty when he opened this place…” a female said. She looked like she was in her mid-thirties, and she shook her hands as if she was trying to swat at some flies around her, frowning.
Her wavy hair and red lips completed her seductive look, along with a beauty spot on her nose and long eyelashes.
The bold guy in sunglasses sitting across her laughed. “But it’s nice and quiet, isn’t it?”
“If that’s what the owner wanted, why did he open it in the middle of Hongdae?”
“I don’t like loud places, but I like the young energy. Are you not a big fan of young energy, Ms. Kim?”
Kim Suksu flicked her tongue. “Well, I don’t like it when I see people wasting money. Anyways, why did you call us here?”
“The Guild of Heaven’s Will.”
Ms. Kim understood what the topic was and started talking again. “Ah. Kim Youngwoo went mad, right? I heard that he keeps saying he is just an ant or some mere insect.”
“He called me an ant poop.”
“Oh wow. That’s a bit too much.” Kim Suksu laughed.
Then a young guy with yellow hair who was drinking coke pursed his lips and commented, “Hey old man, he has been crazy for a while. What’s the point? I don’t have much time. I need to organize my attack unit to attack dungeons.”
“Isn’t the Guild Mithril closed temporarily?”
“Old man needs better information. I restarted from yesterday. It was a challenge to find a new member. Bloody Philippines…” 2
“Curiosity killed the cat.”
The young guy tapped the table hard. “Shit! What can I do when he paid a broker to see the country that was completely ruined by the monsters? I tried to stop him, anyway.”
When he finished Kim Suksu asked, “Yeah so how are the Philippines? I heard they declared martial law.”
“It’s a mess. I heard they ran over everything with their tanks. Oh, and there was no Core on the monsters who died outside of the dungeon. Did you all know that?” The young guy was being a bit polite to Kim Suksu. He was young and arrogant, but Kim Suksu was not an easy person to talk to. 1
“Really? That’s good news.” Kim Suksu didn’t seem to be interested, as if she already knew.
It was exactly a week ago when a massive number of monsters ran out of the dungeon in the Philippines. People said there were five thousand of them. A lot of regular people and awakened heroes were killed, but after a few days, the government cleared the monsters up with their army.
Even though there were a lot of monsters, they weren’t high-level ones. The interesting part of this incident was that there was no Core from any of those monsters. There were many theories, but the most reliable one was that the Core is an object that you can obtain only when you kill the monster in the dungeon. In a nutshell, dungeon and the Core were connected. That was good news for the awakened heroes.
“But why did so many die? I heard their tanks killed them all, right?”
“Well, I guess they were just unlucky. I don’t know. Can I just stop talking about this? This topic is quite depressing for me.”
“Sorry, let’s change the subject.”
Raids were always risky, but it was always sad to lose members. Unlike in the United States, in Korea, there was no compensation for the people who died in dungeons. There was also no system for the awakened heroes, so they had to risk more than others when they walked into the dungeon.
All the rich and powerful people were interested in getting the Cores. If the guilds didn’t unite, Korean awakened heroes would have been slaves of powerful people.
“Let’s cut to the chase.” A woman who was silent until now cut in. She looked like she was around the young guy’s age, but she seemed cold. Her tight skirt and blouse made her look like a city girl.
“She said she met a completed awakened hero.” The guy in sunglasses said.
The young guy cut in, “What is that? A real warrior who would slay the Devil?”
“I heard he slew an irregular monster by himself.”
“Huh? Isn’t it just an urban legend? No, maybe we should call it a dungeon legend.”
Kim Suksu covered her mouth and laughed. “Haha, hey. The monster is real.”
The young guy looked unhappy. “What? I’ve never seen one.”
“That’s why you are still alive to join this. A dead man can’t join a meeting.”
“…Cut to the chase….”
Kim Suksu sighed. “Hey, Ice Princess Arin, please stop frowning. If you keep doing that, when you reach my age, you’ll have wrinkles all over your face.”
“I don’t think I need that advice from wrinkly old people.” Arin and Kim Suksu looked at each other with hostility.
The young guy didn’t know what to do, so he signed for the guy with sunglasses to continue.
“Hmm…So I heard that the guy who is suspected to be the awakened hero who killed the irregular monster is now a member of the Guild of Heaven’s Will.”
“Huh. Old man, is he for real?”
“If Kim Yongwoo wasn’t bullshitting, yes.”
Suddenly, all four of them were in silence. If there was a person who slew an irregular monster, that was a big deal. They all knew monsters were not just some creatures from a legend. They all had their informants and everything about the dungeon was classified as top secret.
They were pretending they don’t know and were trying to avoid talking about any details because the information gave them power. They were here for something. Something beneficial for them.
“Killed an irregular alone? That’s nonsense. I’m sure he was dreaming.” Kim Suksu shared her opinion and the young guy agreed.
Maybe after a few years that could be possible, but for now, it was a common understanding that there was no awakened hero who could kill monsters by himself. It’s been only eight months since the dungeon and awakened monsters came out. They needed time to improve and become stronger, and eight months wasn’t enough time.
“Why do they have 12 members in the attack unit?” the guy in sunglasses asked.
Ice Princess Arin answered, “At least one can run away in the worst-case scenario.”
“Correct. That’s the number that we organized for an irregular monster. If we wanted to fight only Kobolds or Goblins, we don’t need more than four.”
Everyone understood that he was right. He was the person who came up with the idea of having 12 members in the attack unit.
“And not too long ago, everyone in Kim Yongwoo’s attack unit died.”
Everyone nodded slightly. The guild master Kim Yongwoo was the only one who’d come back. The rest died in the dungeon…all eleven of them.
Only the irregular monster could annihilate an attack unit like that.
“And the only survivor, Kim Yongwoo, is murmuring something like a mad man. That there was an elephant who killed the irregular by himself.”
“But he went mad. We don’t have to take him seriously.”
Kim Suksu flicked her tongue. Kim Yongwoo was not a normal person. He was a bit full of himself and looked down on everyone. He always thought he was above everyone else and that he was invincible. “I agree with you.”
“Then, why?”
“I heard that Kim Yongwoo had changed. He is being overly nice to the new member…he even gave the newbie his favorite car, Bugatti Veron. I think that newbie is the guy that Kim Yongwoo met in the dungeon.”
“Wait, did he really? His car? Not just lending?”
The man shook his head and answered, “After the newbie came up, nobody saw Kim Yongwoo driving his Bugatti. People saw the newbie driving it.”
People were shocked.
“Oh my God! That’s headline material. Something impossible happened!”
“…Agreed.”
Kim Suksu and everyone else was surprised. Kim Yongwoo was not a generous person. He collected money from his members to build the guild house, and he would never pay for anything for anyone.
The most money he would spend would be maybe a bowl of noodles a month. Kim Yongwoo was never a generous person, yet he gave his favorite car to someone?
Bugatti Veron was known to be the fastest car in the world. Some would argue that Hennessey Venom GT is faster, but anyways Bugatti Veron was not a car made for Korea because it’s such a small country with only limited places to speed up.
When Kim Yongwoo bought his Bugatti, he couldn’t shut up about it. He even tried to pick Arin up by saying, ‘I might give you a ride’ which obviously didn’t work. It was just an impossible story.
The guy with sunglasses finished his cold coffee and continued, “Well, it is not 100%, but I think it’s possible. I don’t think that was the guy who killed the irregular monster by himself. Even a hundred heroes couldn’t do that. I guess Kim Yongwoo was hallucinating.”
“Old man, if it was just a hallucination, why would we care?”
“He would still be a strong one. And it’s true that he fought against the irregular monster.”
“Anyways, so he met an irregular, right? Then how did he come back alive?”
“I am sure that he has some kind of a Rare level skill. That’s how he survived.”
Rare level skill! Everyone smacked their lips. Just like the name, it was Rare. No one in Korea had Rare skills. It was known that there was only one hero in China who had a Rare level skill.
It had been eight months, and guild masters were only able to get Normal level skills. The rumor said that the guy with sunglasses was the only person who had an Exceptional Normal level strength skill.
They could get skills only by doing some special acts to monsters or by clearing extremely difficult quests. They could find their own quests, but there was a list of quests that was automatically renewed. Once a month, the list renewed according to the level of the hero, and the quests that had skills as a reward were one or two levels higher than the hero’s ability. Those quests usually required a lot of work and luck to clear.
“But isn’t he part of the Guild of Heaven’s Will?” Ice princess Arin asked, calming herself down.
All five guilds had balanced power. They also respected each other and never tried to take the members out. That was the unspoken rules among them. 1
The guy with sunglasses smiled slightly. “That’s what Kim Yongwoo is talking about. They’ve never been to a raid together.”
“So, taking him is the key.” Arin closed her eyes. She finally understood why the man had called guild masters for a meeting.
The young guy didn’t understand. “Old man, I still don’t get it. Why are you sharing that information? You can always take him, no? We wouldn’t blame you. We’re all pros; we would be a bit jealous, but that’s it…”
The guy with sunglasses scratched his nose. “Well, I failed. I didn’t even have a chance to talk about anything; I almost lost my life.”
“Heh, old men fail sometimes.”
“I saw him eating in the guild house around the Guild of Heaven’s Will. I approached him but as soon as I was near, he just said, ‘F**k off, I don’t feel like having you here’.”
“Hmm? I know you are not that easy to refuse.”
“Because you’ve never seen him. If I stayed longer, I’m sure he would have cut my head off on the spot.”
The young guy looked a bit scared. They all agreed that the guy in sunglasses was the strongest one among them. He was almost obsessive and would get what he wanted at any cost.
As soon as he saw him, he admitted defeat? Their heads started to spin. If that was true, he was the talent they all needed, whatever the cost would be! If one of the guilds took him, they would become the undisputedly strongest guild. 1
Maybe that was the key to go up to the next level. Reaching the second floor for the first time would be priceless. That would give them the title of the first certified Korean guild!
After the official announcement from the United States, everyone knew about the existence of awakened heroes. A lot of people cheered for them. Now the world was about to revolve around the dungeons. The awakened heroes were the only ones who could get the Cores that people had to rely on more and more. Having the title of the strongest would be very useful.
“All I want is one thing: sharing information on Rare level skills. I don’t need anything more than that.”
“…I should go now, but my answer is yes.” Arin was the quickest to leave. She was blushing for some reason.
“Oh. Ho, it’s quite late. Good chat. Yes for me as well!” Then, Kim Suksu left.
“Hmm! Old man, I will call you.” The young guy left.
When the guy with sunglasses was left alone, he leaned on his chair and sighed. ‘That was such a horrible look that he gave me…’ he thought. As soon as the guy had said ‘F**k off, I don’t feel like having you here,’ he’d given him a look with darkness in his eyes. A look that almost stopped a life. Just reminding that moment again made him shiver and become soaked in his own sweat.