Reader - Chapter 89
Chapter 89: Drak and Rime
Soo Hyuk couldn’t help but be surprised at the introductions of the two men, Ian and Alex.
‘Drak? Rime?’[1]
It was because of the words ‘Drak Guild’ and ‘Rime Guild’. Soo Hyuk knew about the Drak Guild and the Rime Guild. They were the supreme powers of Hadrac, the Drak and Rime Guild; and their masters could be called kings.
‘Why me……’
Soo Hyuk couldn’t understand why Alex and Ian wanted to see him.
“Ah, nice to meet you.”
Soo Hyuk, who had been locked in the thought, introduced himself when he saw their eyes.
“I’m Soo Hyuk.”
Soo Hyuk asked then after his introduction,
“But why did you want to see me?…”
As Soo Hyuk’s voice trailed off, Alex and Ian turned to look at each other. Their eyes glittered as if having a private conversation, then after a few seconds, turned to look at Soo Hyuk again.
“Actually……”
What kind of conversation did they have with their eyes? Then Alex opened his mouth.
* * *
“So he’s the next Spire Lord of the Tower of Poison?” Alex asked instead.
“Yes.”
And Ian, who was sitting on the other side, nodded at his question.
“…… Really?”
Alex asked again at Ian’s reply. It was really an unbelievable piece of information.
“Yes, I checked myself with Rhino.”
Alex was left speechless at his answer.
“What are you going to do?”
Ian asked Alex, who was looking at him without a word.
“What?”
Alex echoed Ian’s question after he finally came to himself.
“Are you going to bring him in?”
“It doesn’t seem like we can recruit him at our whim.”
He was the future Spire Lord of the Tower of Poison, one of the 10 Towers. If he rejected them, then that was the end. They couldn’t pursue the matter anymore
“Yes, that is true.”
Ian nodded in agreement with Alex’s words. Then Ian, after he finished nodding, continued to ask,
“But why is he a mercenary? A crazy one at that.”
Su Hyuk was currently frantically completing missions left and right. Just why was he doing this? No matter how much they dwelled on the topic, no answer came out.
“Yeah…”
“Shall we ask him?”
“Yes, and we should ask about the recruitment as well.”
“Our side?”
“It’s our turn.”
“Hey, when did turns suddenly appear?”
“Our side’s already ready to take him in.”
“…… Let’s talk first, and not get ahead of ourselves.”
“I told you clearly, it’s our turn.”
Ian and Alex headed deeper and deeper into their conversation.
It was at that moment.
Tap. Tap.
“Master, it’s Jackal.”
lex and Ian stopped their conversation at the sound of a knock. Then Alex, the owner of the room, answered Jackal’s cry.
“Come in.”
The door opened, and Jackal entered. Jackal flinched when he noticed Ian, but then fixed his posture and opened his mouth with a defiant look.
“He has come.”
“Him?”
Then at Alex’s question, Ian smiled widely and said,
“He seems to be talking about Soo Hyuk-nim?”
“Really?”
At Ian’s words, Alex questioned Jackal.
“…… Yes.”
Jackal replied in response, then Alex rose from his seat and said to Ian,
“It’s better to see him now, right?”
“Yeah, let’s do that.”
* * *
〈The Twin Suns of Hadrac〉
The two guilds that manage the city of Hadrac, Drak and Rime. The master of the Drak Guild Ian, and the master of the Rime Guild, Alex, wants to recruit you. But in order to recruit you, they can’t be rude to the future Spire Lord of the Tower of Poison. So, Ian and Alex have to respect your opinion.
Quest rewards: Joining the Drak Guild or the Rime Guild. Choosing Ian will result in joining the Drak Guild while choosing Alex will result in joining the Rime Guild.
Soo Hyuk silently read the quest.
‘What the heck is this talking about?’
The content of the quest was quite alarming.
‘I’m the future Spire Lord?’
It was written in a way that didn’t make sense. The future Spire Lord? The contents of the quest however, were based on the thoughts of Alex and Ian. So just where did they get the idea that he was the next Spire Lord?
‘But this doesn’t even take the top spot.’
Soo Hyuk, who was staring blankly at the quest, turned his gaze away from the quest and saw Ian and Alex staring at him.
The Drak Guild and the Rime Guild. They were NPC guilds. Also, they weren’t just any normal guilds, they were the overlords of Hadrac. They were guilds that you couldn’t join easily even if you wanted to. But Soo Hyuk couldn’t complete this quest; he couldn’t enter both the Drak Guild or the Rime Guild. This was because he had already decided to enter Yeon Jung’s ‘Reader’ guild.
“…… I’m sorry”
Soo Hyuk replied to Ian and Alex. Then the moment Soo Hyuk answered, the quest in front of his eyes disappeared like it was never there in the first place.
“No, it’s okay!”
“You have nothing to be sorry about!”
But as if Soo Hyuk’s answer was already expected, Ian and Alex both comforted him without the slightest trace of disappointment.
“By the way…”
Ian asked, blurring his words.
“Can you tell us why you’re doing missions in the agency?”
Why was Soo Hyuk, the next head of the Tower of Poison doing missions? And in such a crazy manner? Ian was very curious about that. Alex also seemed to be curious, as he also stared expectantly at Soo Hyuk after Ian’s question.
“Ah, that…”
Soo Hyuk’s voice faded away when he saw the shining eyes of the guild masters, then thought about how to answer the question.
‘Can I tell them the truth?’
It was to use the library. Should he tell them it was just to become an A-Rank mercenary?
‘It doesn’t seem like it would matter that much.’
Answering truthfully didn’t seem like it would cause any problems. This was because it was not a negative reason.
‘Will they believe it?’
The reason why Soo Hyuk was so worried was that Alex and Ian would not believe it.
‘They don’t seem like they would though.’
Ian and Alex knew Soo Hyuk as the next Poison Spire Lord. However, would they believe that a future Spire Lord wanted to become an A-Rank mercenary just to use the library?
‘But……’
But if he didn’t tell the truth, he didn’t know how else he could answer them.
‘Whether they believe it or not.’
He just didn’t want to lie.
“I needed an A-Rank Mercenary Token to use the library.”
Making his decision, Soo Hyuk confidently answered Ian and Alex’s question.
“…”
“…”
Then as Soo Hyuk expected, Ian and Alex showed the same puzzled expression, as if they had decided beforehand.
“So……”
The silence did not last long. Alex was the first one to open his mouth.
“The reason you’re doing missions is because……”
Alex’s look was full of embarrassment.
“It was all to use the library?”
Alex stared firmly at Soo-Hyuk after his question.
“Yes.”
At Soo Hyuk’s answer, Ian and Alex fell silent again and stared at Soo Hyuk, wondering,
‘Library? Only for that reason?’
‘What, he did all those missions just to use the library.……’
No matter how hard they thought, they couldn’t understand. Who would believe that a person would climb to be an A-Rank mercenary just to access the library?
Alex and Ian looked at each other. Then after another quick conversation with their eyes, they looked back at Soo Hyuk.
“Perhaps.”
It was Alex who spoke out again.
“Do you think you will continue tackling missions?”
“Yes, I’m planning to keep tackling missions until I get promoted to A-rank.”
Soo Hyuk answered with a nod in response to Alex’s question. At his answer, Ian and Alex looked at each other again. Then after a quick conversation using their eyes again, Ian and Alex looked back at Soo Hyuk.
“Then……”
This time, Ian, not Alex, spoke out
“Can we commission a mission to you ourselves?”
“Commission?”
“Yes, if you accept our request, you will be promoted to A-Rank. No, we’ll make you an S-Rank.”
Su Hyuk couldn’t help but be surprised at Ian’s words.
‘Promotion?，
This was because, from Ian’s mouth, the words ‘promotion’ and ‘S-Rank’ had come out.
“What kind of request?”
Soo-Hyuk asked Ian about the promotion. Just what kind of mission instantly gave a promotion from B-Rank to S-Rank?
‘It won’t be easy.’
It was not going to be an easy request.
“It is……”
Ian’s mouth opened.
After Ian’s words, the quest appeared.
<The Troubled Underground Waterways〉
In the underground sewers of Hadrac, chimeras suddenly began appearing in the waterways. Ian and Alex made the decision to clean up the underground waterways, but the chimeras were strong and possessed powerful poison. In the end, the expedition resulted in failure, and the most they could achieve was to prevent the chimeras from escaping. Clean the underground waterways of the chimeras and identify their source!
[Chimera Summoning Formation A : 0 / 1]
[Chimera Summoning Formation B : 0 / 1]
[Chimera Summoning Formation C : 0 / 1]
[Chimera Summoning Formation D : 0 / 1]
[Chimera Summoning Formation E : 0 / 1]
[Chimera Summoning Formation F : 0 / 1]
[Chimera: 0 / ??? ]
[Quest reward: S-Rank Promotion, ??? ]
‘Underground sewers?’
Soo Hyuk, when he saw the quest, opened his inventory and looked at the item in the second box of the third row. The item that he had obtained from killing Roa. It was a map of Hadrac’s underground sewers
‘The same place? ’
It was clear that the sewers Ian was talking about and the sewers on the map were the same place. If Hadrac didn’t turn out to have two networks of sewers.
“Will you accept our request?”
Soo Hyuk, who was watching the quest, looked back at Alex and Ian at their question. They looked like they had been waiting for an answer for quite some time.
“Yes, I will accept.”
Soo Hyuk answered in response to their gazes.
[You have accepted the quest ‘The Troubled Underground Waterways’]
The only reason he had been accepting missions in the agency was because he had to raise his mercenary rank up to A-Rank. That meant that there was no reason to reject a quest when it even raised him up to S-Rank
“T-thank you!”
“Thank you!”
Alex and Ian smiled and expressed their gratitude at Soo Hyuk’s answer. To speak the truth, it wouldn’t be unexpected if Soo Hyuk had refused. Not because they didn’t hide the danger, but because they told him everything that happened with Rhino. They had even spoken about the dangers of the mission, yet Soo Hyuk had accepted anyway, so of course, they felt extremely grateful towards him.
“No. I’m the one that should thank you.”
Soo Hyuk smiled at their reactions.
“But do you really not want our help?”
“That’s right, that place is really……”
Ian asked, while Alex also spoke up while nodding. Looking at their interactions, Soo Hyuk replied with a smile,
“Yes, it’s fine.”
Originally, Ian and Alex had insisted on going with him. However, Soo Hyuk had learned from his experience with Romian, accompanying NPCs often brought him a lot of discomfort. As a result, Soo Hyuk refused their offer.
“I have people that can help me.”
Soo Hyuk had no intention of doing this mission alone, and there were people who could help.
‘This should be the quest that Kaian told me.’
It was Kaian, the master of the Koma Guild. Kaian’s Koma Guild, he remembered, currently had a massive guild quest that involved the sewers.
He had refused because of an ongoing mission at the time, but since this quest had conveniently dropped into his lap, he had every intention to seek Kaian’s help. It was give and take.
“Then I’ll see you next time.”
Soo Hyuk stood up from his seat and turned to face the door.
“Oh, wait a minute!”
It was at that moment.
‘…?’
Soo Hyuk, who was about to exit through the door, turned to look at Ian at his call.
“Can you give me your mercenary token for a moment?”
“……Now?”
Soo Hyuk was asked in confusion. Why would he ask for a mercenary token when he hadn’t even completed the quest yet? However, he couldn’t help but be startled at his next words.
“Since you have accepted the mission, we will promote you to S-Rank as promised.”
