Chapter 39: Dua's Territory (1)

“That’s an oddly specific statistic to dismiss as a mere generalization.”

Well, I’m the first to admit that you shouldn’t judge people by appearances alone.

But this goes far beyond simply avoiding the fallacy of hasty generalization.

“Sorry I’m late. Traffic was terrible.”

”…I don’t believe there are any traffic bottlenecks on the way here, Deputy Team Leader Kim Jihoon.”

Kim Jihoon shrugged, twirling the keys to his Mercedes-Benz around his finger.

“Ah, my bad. I couldn’t find any decent parking down here, so I ended up driving around in circles for ages.”

”…”

“Cut me some slack. It’s bad enough being dragged in on my precious day off.”

“I understood you volunteered for this assignment, Deputy Team Leader,” Lee Seonah pointed out.

Kim Jihoon ignored her remark and turned his gaze to me. “You’re the freelance Hunter they hired for this job?”

“Yes,” I replied curtly, then fell silent.

Did he expect me to introduce myself unprompted?

After a moment of awkward silence, Kim Jihoon’s expression shifted subtly.

“Kim Jihoon,” he said, extending his hand. “A-Rank Hunter, Deputy Team Leader of Shinwa Team 4.”

“Lee Taejun,” I replied, nodding briefly.

Naturally, we didn’t shake hands.

Kim Jihoon withdrew his hand and gave me a quick once-over.

“That’s Hunter Lee Taejun, the one who passed the special B-rank assessment, right?”

“Yes.”

“So that’s why you guys were standing around with those dazed, starstruck expressions? Like you’d just seen a celebrity?”

Kim Jihoon chuckled, surveying the Hunters. He approached Roh Yeongcheol, the team’s youngest member, who looked particularly tense, and gave him a light pat on the shoulder.

“Hey, even if he broke some records, he’s still just a B-rank Hunter. Why are you staring at him like some idol fan?”

“Ah, no! That’s not true at all!”

“Deputy Team Leader Kim Jihoon,” Lee Seonah interjected.

“Nah, I just thought morale seemed a little low before the expedition even started,” Kim Jihoon said, scratching the back of his head. “I’ll head in first. Everyone, hurry up and follow.”

With a wave, he vanished into the Dimensional Gate.

His appearance had brought an awkward tension to the air.

One by one, the team members, their faces grim, filed into the dungeon.

I turned to Lee Seonah and said, “I’m surprised President Che Soohyun let such a thug into the Guild.”

“Actually, it was President Che Yerim who scouted him. But I have to admit, his abilities are undeniable.”

True enough.

Unlike Che Soohyun, who valued martial ethics and proper decorum, Che Yerim operated strictly on principles of meritocracy and pragmatism. Recruiting someone like that wouldn’t be out of character for her.

“Just be careful around him,” I warned.

“Why?”

With a sigh, Lee Seonah explained why Vice Team Leader Kim Jihoon had deliberately volunteered for Team 3’s expedition.

Why did she have to act so nonchalant from the very beginning?

Now that I knew the whole story, I paused, lost in thought for a moment, then spoke.

“Lee Seonah.”

“Just one favor.”

The moment we stepped through the Dimensional Gate into the dungeon, the first thing that caught our eyes was the colossal moon hanging in the pitch-black night sky. It was a full moon, shining as if it were within arm’s reach. We stood atop the high ramparts of a castle, tall enough for the moon to dominate our view.

I wasn’t entirely sure what that meant, but the castle looked like it had been plucked straight from a medieval movie set. Leaning over the edge of the ramparts, we peered down below. A vast graveyard stretched out before us, filled with withered, jet-black trees and weathered tombstones.

I couldn’t see any monsters, but the atmosphere alone was enough.

“Right? Manager Mi, is the Parsley Dungeon map still downloading?” I asked, agreeing with her.

“Why is the download taking so long? It’s not like the dungeon difficulty is particularly high.”

Well, if even Manager Mi couldn’t figure it out, there wasn’t much I could do. I nodded and moved to join the Shinwa team members and Lee Seonah.

“Team Leader, I can’t sense any magic power from monsters,” Lee Seonah said.

Roh Yeongcheol, his eyes shimmering with mana, gazed down into the castle and spoke.

“It’s the same inside. In that case…”

“Yeah. It looks like a quest-type dungeon.”

A quest-type dungeon was one that directly assigned quests within the dungeon itself. Clearing it required completing those quests. The difficulty varied wildly. With luck, you could clear it easily and collect a wealth of rewards. But if luck wasn’t on your side, even a dungeon ranked at just 3rd or 4th tier could prove more dangerous than a 1st-tier one.

Suddenly, a soft voice carried on a chilling breeze drifted in.

“Welcome.”

Lee Seonah and the Shinwa team members turned around in surprise. Despite sensing no presence, someone had managed to get behind them.

They reached the entrance to a battlement leading down beneath the castle walls.

An old man stood there.

“Welcome, wanderers,” he said.

The old man had a white beard and a face etched with wrinkles. He wore an ornate shawl and silk robes, and his hands were adorned with glittering gold jewelry. A crimson gem glowed from the circlet on his forehead.

“I am Duke Duas, lord of this accursed land,” he announced.

Lee Seonah and the Shinwa team members quickly relaxed. A green aura emanated from the duke’s body, indicating he was a neutral NPC within the dungeon.

“Thank you for your hospitality, Lord Duke. We are…” Lee Seonah began politely, bowing her head.

But then, Kim Jihun interrupted, “Enough. Just state what you want.”

The duke’s attitude was rude, but true to his NPC nature, he simply nodded without a word.

“Very well. I have no intention of keeping you in this cursed place any longer than necessary.”

The duke strode over and stood beside us. He gazed beyond the castle walls at the blackened, festering land and continued, “This domain was originally a Bongmaji, a sealed land where a great evil was imprisoned long ago. As cursed land, it was naturally unfit for human habitation.”

“Enough with the pointless history lesson,” Kim Jihun grumbled.

“However, my ancestor obtained and consecrated a Sacred Relic capable of suppressing the evil aura, thereby purifying this land.”

Kim Jihun grumbled again, but this time the duke didn’t stop speaking. This was the background exposition we needed to hear before accepting the quest.

However, there was a way to shorten the exposition.

“But it seems someone plundered the Sacred Relic.”

Quickly grasping the situation could save a little time.

The duke’s blue eyes turned toward me.

“That’s correct. Barbarians from a foreign land invaded my territory, and I failed to repel them. Of course, the invaders didn’t escape unscathed either.”

The duke turned his gaze back to the graveyard.

“The sealed Great Evil was unleashed. The invaders, scattered across the land, all perished under its curse. Afterward, the Great Evil departed, but rebuilding the territory became impossible.”

”…”

“The people of the territory also died under the curse, and the Sacred Relic remains in the hands of the undead invaders.”

“So, all we need to do is find the Sacred Relic and bring it to you, Lord Duke?” Lee Seonah asked.

The Duke nodded. “That’s right. If we re-enshrine the Sacred Relic, at least the land itself should revert to its original fertile state. And if that happens, someday… life will return to this domain.”

“Understood,” Lee Seonah replied.

“The invaders shattered the Sacred Relic and scattered the pieces in all directions. That’s all I can tell you.”

With those words, Duke D’Uas turned away. “May you save this land from the resurrected invaders and the lingering traces of the great evil.”

As the Duke’s retreating figure vanished into the inner fortress…

“An artifact retrieval quest? Sounds like a piece of cake,” Kim Jihoon said, dusting off his hands.

The other team members nodded in agreement.

“It’s surprisingly easy for a Tier 2 quest,” one of them said. “Artifact retrieval quests usually don’t have any major boss monsters.”

“Exactly. Sometimes the monsters guarding the artifacts might be a bit tougher, but that’s about it.”

“Judging by the name ‘Resurrected Invaders,’ the monsters are probably undead,” another team member added. “That makes it manageable.”

Kim Jihoon, who had been scouting the graveyard below the castle, spoke up. “There are four Sacred Relics in total. If what the NPC said is true, they should be hidden in each of the four cardinal directions.”

He glanced at the inner castle, where the lord had disappeared, and continued.

“We just need to find them and bring them back. To use our time efficiently…”

Lee Seonah’s sharply angled eyes turned toward me.

“It’s best to split into pairs, with each team searching one of the four cardinal directions: east, west, south, and north.”

”…”

“Time is money. Let’s finish this as quickly as possible. What do you think?”

Lee Seonah didn’t answer. Instead, she glanced at me. As we had discussed beforehand, I nodded.

“Very well,” she said with a faint sigh. “As Deputy Team Leader Kim Jihoon suggested, we’ll split into pairs to search for the artifacts.”

A look of surprise crossed Kim Jihoon’s face. He clearly hadn’t expected Lee Seonah to so readily accept his proposal. But the surprise was fleeting. A grin spread across his face as he spoke.

“If it’s alright with you, Hunter Taejun…”

But before Kim Jihoon could finish, I cut him off.

“Then I’d like to team up with the Vice Team Leader.”

”?”

My words froze everyone on the expedition team, including Kim Jihoon, their eyes wide with surprise.

Only Lee Seonah remained unfazed, replying casually, “Sure, why not? Yeongcheol can stay with me, Ahyeong with Yusik, and Minsu with Seyun. Sound good?”

The teams were assigned with seamless ease.

Lee Seonah turned to me again. “Which direction do you want to take?”

I glanced at my Status Window. The dungeon map hadn’t fully downloaded yet, but the partially completed areas were clearly marked. Checking the direction with the fastest download progress, I answered, “I’ll take the north.”

Then I turned to Kim Jihoon. “The north is fine with you, right? Oh, and feel free to speak casually. You seem a bit older than me.”

“Uh, uh? Oh. Right.”

Kim Jihoon answered, his face clearly flustered.

“Then return as soon as you find the artifact. Given the nature of this dungeon, monster respawns will cease in any field where a Sacred Relic has been obtained.”

“Okay. Let’s go, Vice Team Leader.”

“Uh, uh.”

I immediately headed toward the base of the ramparts, leaving behind Lee Seonah’s exasperated gaze and the worried looks of the other team members.

“Ah, Vice Team Leader.”

I turned to Kim Jihoon, who was walking beside me.

“Uh, what?”

“You seem much more experienced and skilled than me. Would you mind if I called you ‘hyung’?”

“Hyung?”

Bewilderment flickered in his sharply slanted eyes. His expression showed he hadn’t expected me to be so familiar.

“I just figured you’re the type who prefers a more relaxed atmosphere over strict formalities.”

“Uh, whatever. That’s fine.”

“Hey, hyung. Can I ask you something?”

“Go ahead.”

My eyes sparkled as I spoke. “I heard you have a taunt skill that attracts all the monsters around you.”

“That’s right.”

“So, when you use it, even non-aggressive monsters or those that normally don’t aggro get pulled in too, right?”

“Exactly.”

Kim Jihoon grinned slyly. “But don’t worry. It’s a skill I’d only use in extermination-type dungeons. No need to complicate things unnecessarily here, right?”

“Haha, yeah, you’re right.”

“Exactly. Don’t sweat it too much.”

Kim Jihoon nodded, his face brimming with ulterior motives.

Watching him, I replied with a wide grin, “Then, for this expedition…”

”…I’m counting on you, Jihoon-hyung.”

“Alright, then let’s talk about this expedition.”

I replied with a wide grin.

“I’m counting on you, Jihoon-hyung.”