Episode 21 First Request (2)
“Haesung, aren’t you going too far?”
“Kick, kid. You must be scared. This is okay. I heard that it’s a dungeon owned by my father’s guild, and it’s only D-rank, and they’ve already dealt with all the dangerous beasts.”
“Oh, I see.”
“And if you come this far, you might find some unique items that others haven’t found. Like elixirs or weapons.”
Shin Hae-seong spoke to Joo Jin-yong, who was following him, then turned his head and walked through the thick grass without hesitation.
Joo Jin-yong let out a small sigh so that Shin Hae-seong couldn’t hear him at such actions, and then started chasing Shin Hae-seong again, then opened his mouth at a sudden question that occurred to him.
“But, Haesung. Isn’t it a bit hotter than when you first came in? Shouldn’t it be cool here because the trees block the sunlight?”
“Huh? What are you talking about? It’s not much different from before. Are you just mistaken?”
“Oh, I guess it definitely feels hot.”
Joo Jin-yong tilted his head, wiping the sweat from his forehead.
It was clear that his clothes were starting to soak with sweat due to the heat, but Shin Hae-seong seemed fine and did not feel the heat.
After that, as they went deeper into the forest, Joo Jin-yong felt confident and shouted at Shin Hae-seong, who was getting further and further away.
“Haesung! Something’s strange! It’s getting hotter… no, it’s getting hotter!”
At Joo Jin-yong’s urgent shout, Shin Hae-seong stood up, looked around as if searching for something, and then started to run quickly to one side.
‘What the…! Why is that kid running away without saying anything?’
Because of the unbearable heat, he wanted to abandon Shin Hae-seong and leave the area in a fit of anger, but Ju Jin-yong remembered the order from the Chinese Intelligence Service to ‘stay close to Shin Hae-seong’, so he gritted his teeth and had no choice but to chase after Shin Hae-seong in the direction he had run.
-Tiring-
[Use Magic Boost [D].]
As I approached the direction Shin Hae-seong had run, a hot wind began to blow, not just a simple heat wave.
Unable to withstand the hot wind blowing towards him, Ju Jin-yong used his magical powers to pursue Shin Hae-seong.
As I ran so hard, the dense forest disappeared and a large open space and a huge cave emitting hot air, which seemed to be the source of the heat, came into view.
And right in front of the cave, Shin Hae-seong was looking into the cave with a calm face, as if it wasn’t even hot.
Joo Jin-yong shouted to Shin Hae-seong, who was standing still in front of the cave from a distance, unable to approach the cave any further due to the hot wind.
“Ugh…gasp…Haesung! Something seems a bit strange here. Let’s go back to the clan and ask for support.”
Shin Hae-seong, who had been looking carefully inside the cave at Joo Jin-yong’s suggestion, turned around and smiled.
“I found it. I think there’s something special here. If you’re going back, go back alone. I’m going in here.”
With those words, Shin Hae-seong threw himself into the cave without hesitation.
***
“Is it okay⋯?”
I was waiting for my clan members in front of Gangnam Station wearing a monkey mask, muttering as I pulled on the left sleeve of my black training suit.
Yeo Ji-hye.
The protagonist of the ‘Cat’ mask in the Pixar Clan.
I always expected that we would meet someday while working in the Pixar Clan, but I never thought it would be today.
The scene where I was lying nonchalantly yesterday and Yeo Ji-hye was wearing sky-blue magic and breaking the Dire Wolf’s pot overlapped, and for a moment, goosebumps ran through my whole body.
I thought to myself as I pulled my left sleeve even further to cover the Aegis that was attached to my left wrist.
‘Let’s not show Aegis. After all, there are more than one or two weapons made from the Black Tiger’s fangs, so it wouldn’t matter if we showed Black Tiger.’
-widely-
“hey.”
“Huh…huh!”
“⋯⋯What is it? Why are you so surprised? Like you did something wrong.”
“It was you… You suddenly came from behind me, so I was startled.”
When I looked back, the person who put his hand on my shoulder and spoke to me was Joo Jin-yong, wearing a black crow mask.
“By the way, were you at Sindorim Station yesterday?”
“⋯What? How did you know that?”
“⋯… Haa, it was real.”
At my answer, Joo Jin-yong let out a sigh as if the ground was falling apart.
‘⋯? Why are you so depressed? More importantly, how did you know? Is this the information power of a Chinese secret special agent?’
“⋯What an enviable child.”
As I was secretly admiring Joo Jin-yong’s information gathering ability, Joo Jin-yong muttered quietly and lifted his cell phone to show it to me.
The cell phone video that Joo Jin-yong showed showed me and Yeo Ji-hye fighting the dire wolf together.
“⋯Where did this come from?”
“⋯It’s more frustrating not knowing. It was a video that was on the news last night, and the Empress you fought with was in it, so YouTube went crazy. ⋯By the way, what was the Empress like in person? Is she as pretty as she is in the video?”
Joo Jin-yong’s expression was not visible because he was covered by the crow mask, but judging from his tone of voice, it seemed like he was making an expression that made him look as if he was dying of jealousy.
‘Huh, Ju Jin-yong must be a fan of Yeo Ji-hye, whether he’s Baek Seong-in or something. If he finds out that the cat mask senior he’s working with today is Yeo Ji-hye, there’ll be a real mess⋯⋯.’
“Ah… This is f*cked up.”
“What are you talking about all of a sudden? Did you have a conversation with the Empress or something? How was it?”
I looked at Joo Jin-yong, who kept asking questions, with determined eyes and thought.
When we all gather together later, I think I’ll have to somehow shut that mouth.
***
“Everyone was here. Why were you waiting in such a corner?”
At exactly 2 o’clock on time for the appointment, Shin Yul, wearing a fox mask, and Yeo Ji-hye, wearing a cat mask, approached us who were gathered in an alley near the station.
Shin Yul, who had come closer, was wearing a black crop top, black hot pants that clearly showed off her slender legs, and a black hooded sweatshirt over it, which was a pretty hip outfit that showed a lot of skin tone.
“Ah, all five of us were wearing masks and black clothes and standing still in front of the station, so people passing by would all look at us and pass by, so we took refuge here for the time being.”
In response to Shin Yul’s question, Song Changbin, who had a fierce look in his eyes despite wearing a raccoon mask, answered as a representative.
“Hehehe, I see. Good job. Ah! This is my first time seeing the new recruits. Say hello, I’m ‘Cat’, a second-year member of our clan. Unfortunately, my real name and identity are a secret~”
Shin Yul introduced us to Yeo Ji-hye, who was standing behind him, while pointing behind him with his thumb.
Like the rest of her clan, Yeo Ji-hye was wearing an all-black hoodie and training pants, and her hair was a bright pink color, though it was only slightly visible to the side due to the hoodie’s hood and mask.
——————
faqwiki.us
Join our Discord for new chapter updates!
https://discord.com/invite/xr7SxG5T6V
——————
After being introduced, Yeo Ji-hye stepped aside slightly next to Shin Yul and nodded at us.
‘Probably because he can’t use his powers properly when using the disguise ring, he just changed his hair color with the color spray. And the setting was that he doesn’t say anything when doing clan activities and only expresses his intentions with gestures.’
I don’t know why he wanted to hide his identity so well, but anyway, I kept an eye on Yeo Ji-hye and, worried that my identity might be revealed, I fiddled with my monkey mask for no reason and checked frequently to see if it was worn properly.
And maybe it was just my mood, but from the moment Yeo Ji-hye came here, it felt like she was looking closely at the black hair on my waist.
“This is Kim Baram, Ko Juyeon, and Joo Jinyong. First, since we have some time, let’s go make a request.”
Shin Yul pointed to each of us with his finger, gave a brief introduction, then turned around and started to head towards our destination.
At that moment, at Shin Yul’s introduction, or more precisely, at the word ‘Joo Jin-yong,’ Yeo Ji-hye suddenly turned her head and started staring intently at Joo Jin-yong, who was wearing a crow mask.
“Yes⋯? Do you have anything to say to me⋯⋯.”
Joo Jin-yong felt Yeo Ji-hye’s gaze, which was staring at him without saying anything, and spoke in a slightly embarrassed tone.
Then, Yeo Ji-hye tilted her head once, then turned around and followed Shin Yul, who was heading towards his destination.
Perhaps Yeo Ji-hye suspected Joo Jin-yong as her yesterday’s self, but because the voice was different, she thought they were just people with the same name.
‘Come to think of it, they could probably tell who I am just by my voice. Damn, maybe I should disguise my voice.’
“Let’s follow quickly.”
-Nod-
I nodded to Song Changbin’s words and followed Shin Yul.
“Oh, by the way, Leader, the video that came up on YouTube yesterday⋯⋯.”
“Knock knock knock knock knock.”
At that moment, Joo Jin-yong, who was following Shin Yul like me, seemed to be talking about the video of the fight between me and Yeo Ji-hye, so I let out a quick cough.
Then, Go Joo-yeon grabbed my training clothes around my waist and asked with a worried look in her eyes through her rabbit mask.
“Your cold, are you okay?”
“⋯Damn, my underwear burst, it burst. Ugh⋯⋯.”
Fortunately, for some unknown reason, Joo Jin-yong suddenly lowered his head and started mumbling something to himself, and it seemed like he had no intention of talking about the problematic YouTube video again.
***
The place we arrived was a park a little bit away from Gangnam Station.
Inside the park, there were figures in suits standing guard, and behind them there was a hole in the air that was emitting blue light.
‘I guess that’s the dungeon entrance. It really is exactly like the description in the novel, a hole emitting blue light.’
As we got closer and closer to the hole, one of the men in suits who had spotted our group approached us and spoke to us.
“Please stop for a moment. What brings you here?”
“I came to you today because of a request from the Venus Guild. They asked me to ‘clean’ a D-class dungeon.”
“Ah, could you please wait a moment? ⋯⋯It has been confirmed. The conditions of the request are⋯.”
“Just clean it and leave all the items inside the dungeon untouched except for the magic stone. Right?”
“⋯Yes, that’s right. Anyway, even if you bring items from inside the dungeon, they will be detected by the magic detector here, so I hope we don’t end up blushing on each other.”
“Yes, of course. Okay, let’s go in quickly. Well then, take care~”
‘Venus Guild?’
Judging from the conversation between Shin Yul and the person who appeared to be a security guard, this dungeon seemed to be owned by the Venus Guild.
I turned my gaze and glanced at Joo Jin-yong. I saw that he was also flinching slightly when he heard the word ‘Venus.’
Anyway, as I followed the rate of change and entered the dungeon entrance with a blue glow, I felt a bit dizzy and the space seemed to be distorted, but after a while, a vast grassland appeared before my eyes and a dense forest in the distance.
As I was looking around here and there, feeling a bit strange about this experience for the first time, Shin Yul turned around and looked at us and explained.
“The commission I’m given today is to deal with some dangerous-looking demons in the D-class field dungeon, ‘Goblin Forest.’ I heard it’s from the Gold Star Clan sponsored by the Venus Guild. Anyway, I think they’re going to use it for clan activities.”
‘Gold Star Clan…? It’s directly or indirectly connected to Shin Hae-seong.’
“Oh! Then I should just kill all the foxes I see!!”
Peng Hojin asked with a slightly excited tone at Shin Yul’s explanation.
“No, you don’t have to kill them all, just the ‘dangerous-looking beasts’. To put it simply, you should ignore the E-class beasts that come out here, the goblins, and only deal with the D-class beasts, such as hobgoblins and goblin shamans.”
“I see! Then let’s leave right away!”
“Senior Hojin… Please calm down a bit. Leader, is there anything I should be careful of?”
When Peng Hojin took out the long sword on his back and showed signs of leaving at any moment, Song Changbin stopped him and asked Shin Yul a question.
“Yeah, first of all, even if you find the dungeon’s core, you must absolutely not destroy it. If you do something wrong, we might have to take everything back. Especially Hojin, do you understand?”
“Of course! Dungeon hack! No destruction!”
In response to Shin Yul’s question, Peng Hojin raised the long sword he was holding above his head and shouted confidently.
‘Are you sure you understood what I said?’
The core of the dungeon.
It was literally the core that made up the dungeon, and when the core was destroyed, instead of receiving the dungeon’s rewards, the dungeon would close and players inside the dungeon would be kicked out.
And there were several reasons why the dungeon’s core was not destroyed like it is now.
Among these, in the case of ‘field dungeons’ like this one, there were so many resources, such as byproducts of the demons, hidden items, and minerals buried underground, that they were called a treasure trove of resources. Therefore, it was common to ‘farm’, which is to collect resources inside the dungeon without destroying the core.
Of course, since field dungeons are dungeons, you do get rewards like other dungeons when you destroy the dungeon’s core, but it would be foolish to give up the numerous resources within a field dungeon just to get the rewards quickly.
Shin Yul lightly laughed at Peng Hojin’s loud answer and quickly continued his explanation.
“The second is, as some of you may have heard earlier, you should not touch any items inside the dungeon. To put it simply, in the case of field dungeons, since they are so large, if you are really lucky, you may find some unique items while wandering around, but even if you take them out, you will be stopped by the Venusians waiting in front, so it is better not to touch them. Instead⋯⋯.”
Shin Yul paused for a moment, looking around, then leaned toward us and spoke again in a quiet voice.
“If you find something like an elixir, just eat it. Since you don’t want to be caught anyway, if you put it in your stomach, no one will know.”
“Leader⋯⋯. Among elixirs, there are some that will kill you if you take them wrong⋯.”
“Hehe, just kidding. I doubt you’ll find something like a real elixir. Besides, even though it’s a field dungeon, it’s a D-rank dungeon, so there probably won’t be any good items.”
Jinyong Joo, who was listening to Shin Yul and Song Changbin’s conversation, raised his hand and asked if he had any questions.
“⋯So, Leader, what should I do with the byproducts and magic stones that come out after dealing with the demons?”
hearthstone.
The novel states that near the hearts of the demons that came out of the dungeon or gate, there were stones containing magical power called magic stones, which were mainly used to create weapons, artifacts, and magic items, and were also utilized as energy resources.
I was also able to receive that much reward money from the Korean Players Association yesterday thanks to this magic stone that I got from killing dire wolves.
“That’s a good question. Since the byproducts are goblins anyway, they’re not very valuable, so we can just leave them alone. We can collect the magic stones and hand them over to the Venusians later. We’ll get 50% of the magic stones after deducting the commission fee, so it’s a pretty good commission.”
Jinyong Joo nodded as if he understood Shin Yul’s answer, and Shin Yul clapped his hands together to call attention to himself before sorting out the situation.
“Okay! Now that we’ve finished explaining, let’s get started on the mission. First, Changbin will support us here at the dungeon entrance, and the rest of us will split into pairs. Since it’s our first time as newbies, let’s have Hojin, me, and the cat each take one person.”
I flinched at Shin Yul’s suggestion, taken aback.
Then, he glanced at Yeo Ji-hye, who was listening to Shin Yul’s explanation with her arms crossed, and prayed earnestly.
‘Please… I want to be in a different group from Yeo Ji-hye…’
