Chapter 10

Chapter 10

“Mr. Dojae!”

Eun-hee approaches with a bright expression.

Do-jae relaxes his frown and greets her warmly.

“Hello, Assistant Manager Jeong!”

“What a surprise to see you here. What brings you to this place?”

Dojae gave an awkward smile at Eunhee’s question.

Then he shows her the bundle of papers he’s holding.

“Because of these.”

“Oh? Congratulations!”

After checking the writing on the papers, Eun-hee offered her sincere congratulations.

She was also a little surprised.

“Thank you.”

A somewhat curt reply.

Eun-hee cautiously asked, gauging Do-jae’s reaction.

“You don’t seem very happy.”

It was a promotion from F-rank to E-rank.

While it won’t bring a huge change in treatment, the quality of life as a Hunter will be significantly different from before.

She glanced at Dojae’s expression once more.

Doubting her own thoughts, she asks.

“Could it be… the original assessment was wrong? That’s why it’s only now…”

If this is true, it becomes quite a complicated matter.

If Dojae reacts sensitively, it could even become a major legal dispute.

“No. That’s not it.”

“Then why… Is something wrong?”

“No. It’s just… somehow, the rating seems low.”

“Huh?”

Dojae, who said his E-grade came out low.

Raising your rank by even one level is a huge deal.

But this isn’t just that—could he actually get a higher grade?

Unless it’s a reawakening, that could never happen.

Eunhee hadn’t even considered reawakening, assuming Dojae just didn’t know any better.

“I thought you’d get a C-grade.”

“Heh heh. Is that… really so? Oh, right, how’s your younger sibling doing?”

Eun-hee changed the subject.

She wondered if Dojae had seen some kind of illusion or if it was just one of his trademark jokes.

“My brother’s doing well. He recently started mana therapy, so his condition keeps improving.”

“That’s a relief. I was actually a bit worried after seeing her last time. I’ll pray for a quick recovery.”

Eun-hee looked at Do-jae with respect.

Mana therapy was expensive.

Especially for cancer patients like Dojae’s sister, unless the healer possessed high-level skills, the effects were minimal, making it even more costly.

He worked relentlessly to save money, and finally, treatment began.

“Thank you. I want to bring my brother to the new place we’re moving into soon.”

“Wow! You’ve even moved? That’s really amazing! Houses…”

Eun-hee realized her slip and shut her mouth.

She had been about to say she’d come over for a housewarming party but stopped herself.

“Huh? Housewarming?”

“Oh, I meant you should look at houses carefully before moving. I think I read somewhere that there are a lot of rental scams these days…”

“Oh, but the place turned out to be totally fine.”

“Yeah… Well, I’ll go now.”

Eun-hee hurriedly excused herself.

Her face burned hot, feeling like she’d been caught.

“Assistant Manager Jung!”

Do-jae calls out to Eun-hee, who was walking quickly.

“Yes, yes?”

She answers with a slightly trembling voice.

“The recruitment notice for the assault team posted today. There’s a spot open, right?”

“Ah, yes. You mean the E-rank dungeon scheduled for next week? Shall I apply for you?”

“Please do.”

Eun-hee nodded to Do-jae.

‘What was I expecting?’

Eun-hee stepped back outside the government building.

Do-jae’s voice reached her ears.

“And once the move is done, we’re having a housewarming party. Would you like to come?”

***

Crunch.

Squish-.

The round, crumpled paper ball flies quite a distance and lands precisely inside the trash can.

‘Should I have mentioned the magic stone?’

After the scan finished, I was going to mention the magic stone, but I just walked out without saying anything.

I never imagined they’d actually treat the magic stone as an item and give it an E-grade.

Since the magic stone is part of my body and statistically boosted everything, I figured it would at least get a C-grade.

“Subspace.”

A list of items inside the sub-space appeared before my eyes.

I thought of what I wanted, reached in, and pulled out a transparent plastic bottle.

Gulp-.

“Phew.”

As the cool water slid down my throat, the suffocating feeling washed away somewhat.

‘I don’t want to end up in the chronic ward.’

Dojai’s wallet still held Deokhoon’s business card.

But he didn’t really feel like contacting him.

‘Still, I should be by my brother’s side.’

Compared to other guilds, Manseong had an overwhelmingly large number of overseas raids.

You could say it was almost all of them.

Because of this, hunters joined the guild and immediately headed overseas.

Once they leave, it’s hard to come back. It’s so bad that if you join Manseong, by the time you return to Korea, your kid is already in middle school or high school.

Rumor has it the guild master spends most of their time overseas too, only returning a few times a year.

‘Why not just buy a dungeon?’

They had spare cash on hand.

Persephone’s Ruby traded for 1.6 billion won, and after deducting the house price, hospital bills, and various other expenses, about 500 million won remained.

It’s enough money to run a small guild if I set my mind to it.

‘Yeah, what does Hunter rank matter? I’ve lived just fine as an F-rank. Nothing’s going to change.’

There’s no need to obsess over ranks.

If no one will take you, just form your own raid party.

Dojae put the half-empty water bottle back into his pocket dimension.

Then, hailing a taxi, he said.

“Driver, take me to the Seoul branch of the Hunter Association.”

***

Hwigyeong-dong, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul.

Near Hoegi Station.

“Oh my. Long time no see.”

“Hey, hey, we just saw each other a week ago. What do you mean it’s been a while?”

“We see each other every day, but after being apart for a whole week, it feels like ages.”

Kim Jeong-sim and Park Hu-sik exchange greetings.

The two had worked together as freelance hunters for a long time and had become close friends.

“Well, I am glad to see you. What did you do for the past week?”

“What else? Just hung around. Need a target to work on. What about you?”

“What else could I have done? Just sitting at home, I was going stir-crazy. Once today’s job’s done, I’m heading out on a field trip to the provinces.”

“Come with me. If you know any spots, let’s go together.”

“Hmph. Trying to get a free ride?”

“Oh, come on. I’ll buy you a drink after we finish. I’m itching to get out, I can’t stand it.”

Park Hoo-sik rotated his shoulders, stretching.

Kim Jeong-sim loosened up too, checking to see if people were gathering.

“But who bought all those dungeons?”

Kim Jeong-sim asked, twisting her knees.

“If I knew, would I be here? I’d have gone looking for that person ages ago.”

“It’s really strange. They specifically picked out only E-rank and D-rank dungeons to buy. These dungeons don’t even make much profit.”

“I don’t know either. Maybe some guild with money to burn is trying to train up newbies or something.”

“Anyway, we’re the only ones getting screwed over. Just us.”

“If you’re all warmed up, let’s go.”

The two moved on, leaving only their doubts behind.

The dungeon run was about to begin.

“Roll call. Mr. Jang Dong-min.”

“Here!”

“Mr. Jang Dong-min is our raid leader. We’re counting on you for this raid too.”

“Hey.”

“Ms. Kim Jeong-sim.”

“Yes.”

“Mr. Park Hoo-sik.”

…….

As their names were called one by one, the members preparing for the operation confirmed each other’s presence.

Most are familiar faces.

“Lastly, Mr. Lee Do-jae.”

“Yes!”

When Dojae’s name was called, the expressions brightened.

‘With that guy here, things should be a bit easier.’

‘Better give him the bag early. He’ll just end up collecting them all anyway.’

‘With Dojae here, I guess I don’t have to do anything?’

Though their thoughts differed slightly, they all saw Dojae as a porter.

Meanwhile, Dojae had a completely different idea.

‘No need to go to D-rank dungeons anymore.’

He’d spent his days buying up every E- and D-rank dungeon, carving out time even from his sleep to live inside them.

Sometimes he’d set up golems and catch a quick nap inside the dungeon.

That’s how he reached level 30.

Looking at his information window.

[Info]

Name: Lee Dojae

Level: 30

Title: Golem Sorcerer

HP: 5500 / 860

[Stats]

Strength: 40 / Stamina: 40 / Agility: 70 / Spirit: 10 / Resistance: 40

(Points: 0)

[Skills]

Passive: Golem’s Heart Lv. Max / Aether Space Lv. Max

Active: Golem Summon Lv. 2 / Golem Armor Lv. 3

Points were invested in all stats except Spirit, with Agility raised nearly double.

At this point, most D-rank monsters go down with a single punch from Dojae.

‘If only it weren’t for the quest.’

Yet, there was a reason he had to participate in the raid.

It was because of a quest that appeared while tackling the dungeon yesterday.

[Quest]

Type: Sub

Details: An unrecognized entity covets what it should not possess. Eliminate that entity and restore things to how they were. (Location: 30m southeast of 196 Hoegi-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, South Korea)

Restriction: Must be completed before clearing the dungeon

Reward: 1 Magic Stone

Failure: Dungeon Break

This is a terrifying quest where failure triggers a dungeon break.

Moreover, since it’s near a station in the city center, the resulting damage would be significant.

Regardless of the reward, the failure penalty alone made this quest impossible to ignore.

‘How could I be the only one who knows this?’

I even considered exposing everything and evacuating people in case the quest failed.

But I gave up, thinking no one would believe me.

After all, it made no sense in this day and age for a Dungeon Break to occur just because someone failed to clear a mere D-rank dungeon.

But as long as the quest had a failure option, a dungeon break could still happen somehow.

‘Good thing I applied to Eun-hee in advance.’

Dojae glanced over at Eunhee.

Eun-hee was busy chatting with the other hunters.

As the hunters ahead of him filed into the dungeon, Dojae followed suit, stepping inside.

***

‘What the hell is an unrecognized existence?’

I was wandering through the dungeon.

I was searching for the unrecognized being mentioned in the quest and whatever it had taken.

“Kyaaah!”

Thud-!

“Kreeek.”

A goblin burst out from somewhere.

The creature didn’t even get to swing its stone axe once before it went flying from my fist.

‘You’re scaring people.’

In the past, I would have been patting my chest after a fierce battle, but not anymore.

Even without the golem armor, my fist held more than enough power to send the goblin’s belly crashing into its own back.

‘For a goblin, it’s got some decent gear, huh?’

I picked up the fallen stone axe.

I separated the stone head from the wooden handle and stowed it away in my pocket dimension.

Seeing a new mineral added to the sub-space list brought a smile to my face.

Then I began wandering the dungeon again.

This dungeon wasn’t a goblin dungeon, but the ‘Greydon Dungeon’.

Goblins were merely secondary monsters that tagged along; hunting Greydon was the main objective.

Squeak-.

‘This is in great condition!’

Doja stowed the Greydon’s hide into his sub-space.

Tough and sturdy, Greydon leather was frequently used for armor, so it was always in short supply and traded at a good price.

‘Still can’t find it even after two full rounds.’

For nearly three hours, they scoured the dungeon, eyes burning, searching for anything unusual, but it was just like any other dungeon.

Meanwhile, the raid party had reached the boss room, and he had no choice but to return.

“You worked hard…”

Jang Dong-min paused as he reached to hand me a towel.

He must have been surprised to see someone who should have been drenched in sweat and looking exhausted looking so calm.

“Thanks. I gathered all the loot and left it near the dungeon entrance.”

“Really? Already? Was there not much loot?”

“It was a bit sparse.”

“Ugh. What a waste! What a waste.”

I lied a little.

In reality, a much larger amount of loot had been obtained.

But since I was transporting it through the sub-space, I could move it in an instant, and I said that to avoid arousing suspicion.

“Did everyone hear that? This dungeon was a bust!”

Sighs flowed out from all around at Jang Dong-min’s shout.

“Let’s hurry up and take down the boss so we can have a drink.”

One by one, the hunters began to rise.

Everyone’s expression was far from cheerful.

At the very front, Jang Dong-min grabbed the doorknob to the boss room.

And then.

Squeak-.

Pssshh-!

“Gah!”

Jang Dong-min collapses.

A large hole torn in his belly.