The Haeundae Expedition
Our team had agreed to meet at Busan Station at one in the afternoon.
Apparently, we'd all been riding the same train. Not that any of us ran into each other on board. We only crossed paths after arriving at the station, and because we'd shared the ride, we all ended up assembled a full thirty minutes ahead of schedule.
With no reason left to hang around Busan Station until one, we headed straight for our expedition destination: Haeundae.
We dropped our bags at the lodging we'd reserved in advance and immediately set out for the equipment vendor. This expedition dungeon was accessed through the Haeundae Gate — a portal sitting dead center on the white sand of the former beach. With a commercial district right next door, it was one of the most convenient dungeons for a daily commute. Our lodging was only a few minutes' walk away, and the equipment shop was practically next door as well. The gear rental had already been booked, so all we had to do was walk in, change, and walk out.
"All right, go change and come back out. Ten minutes should be enough, right? And don't forget to hit the bathroom before you put the suits on!"
I wasn't a kindergarten teacher. Having to spell out every little thing like this filled me with a deep sense of self-loathing. But if I didn't say it, someone was guaranteed to start freaking out about needing to pee.
Sure enough, Kim Isol whipped around and glared daggers at me. I met her eyes and played dumb. When I asked if she had something on her face, she snapped her head away.
How about a little gratitude for restoring some of your mana?
Not that I expected any.
I headed for the men's locker room with Jang Yong. Putting on a C-rank suit again made me miss the A-rank one I'd worn not long ago. Both looked like skintight bodysuits at a glance, but the price and performance were worlds apart — and more than anything, the A-rank was far easier to get in and out of.
"Team Leader. I studied hard for this one."
"Studied what?"
"The dungeon we're heading into."
"Ah… good work."
"But is it common for our company to send expeditions this far south?"
I had nothing to say to that. Normally, gates in Busan and the rest of the southern region were handled by companies headquartered down south. A Seoul-based firm like ours almost never came this far — not unless it was an emergency like a gate reverse-flow, or, as in this case, a pure commute-style run.
"This is the only time we're coming to Busan. We show real results this time, and next we go up to E-rank."
"Is that so? I hope it works out."
"It has to. F-rank doesn't even pay."
I'd meant it as a bitter complaint, but Jang Yong took it as a joke and kept chuckling. I ignored him and reconfirmed my goal for this dungeon in my head.
This is the last F-rank.
I swore it again and again — show them what we can do this time, and climb to E-rank next. But I wasn't the one doing the fighting. The Awoken under me had to perform if I wanted that promotion. I fretted over how best to work the four of them as I hurried into my suit.
Jang Yong and I finished soon enough, grabbed our mana-coated shovels and the rest of the gear, and stepped out in front of the building. The women, of course, were taking longer. We had to wait quite a while.
Even for women, isn't this dragging on a bit too much?
Then Lee Donggeul emerged. Most people layered extra gear over their suits, or at least threw on something for fashion — but she wore nothing on top of hers, and the constant bounce of her chest seized every eye in range.
Ah. Those breasts really are the absolute best.
Jang Yong, standing beside me, seemed to share the thought; he couldn't tear his gaze away either.
Hey, asshole. Those are mine. Touch them and see what happens.
Come to think of it, with no good way to raise his Synchronization Rate, maybe it would be smarter to cut Jang Yong from the team. I'd have to recruit a comparable — or better — female member to replace him. But that could wait until after this expedition.
Next came Baek Hwayeon, bow in hand, showing off her tall, slender figure. But where was Kim Isol?
"Hey, why hasn't Kim Isol come out?"
"I don't know. She told us to go ahead without her. She looked angry."
Kim Isol being angry was nothing new. I had no idea why she was stalling, but I planned to have a word with her when she finally appeared. She couldn't treat me however she liked anymore — not with her weakness sitting on my phone, and a backup copy on my home computer just in case I lost the device. Of course, if I ever used it, the video would leak and she might try to kill me for it. Caution was warranted.
That was when Lee Donggeul sidled up close. She'd only come to her senses at my place around dawn and gone home that morning, so we never managed a proper round of sex. Not that it mattered. I'd been more than satisfied. How I'd gotten that satisfaction was top secret.
"Um… Team Leader."
"What is it?"
"Um… I… tonight, too…"
"Yes? Tonight what?"
Lee Donggeul asked me to bend down. She wanted to whisper, but her height made it awkward. I brought my ear to her lips.
"Tonight… could you suck on my breasts again?"
The moment I heard it, a sharp tingle shot through my chest. But I'd more or less seen this coming. I hadn't expected her to come on this strong this fast, but I'd known she would come to me first. Because this was a trap I had laid myself.
Last night I'd raised her mana capacity all the way to the F-rank maximum. Then, while she slept, I'd dropped it back down to F-5. The whole roundabout process was a test — to check whether lowering mana also cost points. The result was a jackpot. Raising from F-1 to F-2 cost one point, but once she'd already hit F-2, dropping her below that and raising her back again cost nothing at all. So I'd deliberately reduced her mana a bit — precisely for a situation like this.
"Th-that… um… the mana that went up when you sucked on them went back down. It's still more than before, but… um… could I ask again?"
Whether it was pure feminine instinct or something else, Lee Donggeul twisted her body and pressed her chest flush against me. Instinct or calculation, either way she was a terrifying woman. No — the most terrifying thing was her body itself, those breasts. They were a nuclear weapon. I had no right of refusal.
I whispered back against her ear.
"Of course. But keep it a secret."
"Yes. Please keep it a secret for me too, Team Leader."
While we traded whispers, Jang Yong and Baek Hwayeon stared straight at us. Jang Yong still seemed glued to Donggeul's chest, and Hwayeon's expression was something my limited insight couldn't parse. I gave them a wry smile and brushed it off as nothing.
Only then did Kim Isol finally come outside.
Huh?
Her face looked off. It was sheened with cold sweat, and she looked exhausted. The suit was a pain to change into, sure, but for someone whose mana had been restored it should have been trivial. No way something that minor would leave her this drained and dripping sweat.
"Kim Isol. Are you sick? Tell me before we go into the dungeon."
Don't tell me an Awoken caught a cold?
I ran back through everything that had happened with her at my place last night. She'd been soaked through with cold water, true, but I'd restored her mana right after. I'd never even heard of an Awoken catching a cold as a joke.
I stepped close and laid a hand on her forehead, checking for fever. After touching her private parts the night before, I felt no hesitation at all.
"What the hell — get off!"
Her temper was intact as ever. She swung her arm and knocked my hand away. But then—
"Ugh…"
Kim Isol clutched the hand she'd just used to swat me and sank to the ground. That was the same hand she'd injured yesterday slamming into my shield when she attacked me. The situation clicked into place. Her hand hurt so badly she couldn't change clothes quickly.
I told her to show me the injury.
"Did you hurt your hand? Does it hurt a lot?"
"Is that even a question right n—"
I shot her a sharp look. Was she about to blurt out last night's events with her own mouth? She clamped her lips shut and reluctantly held out her arm.
"It's not broken, is it?"
"Aagh… kh… I don't know."
It didn't look badly swollen, but the suit might have been hiding it. I called for Lee Donggeul at once.
"Donggeul! Come over here and heal Kim Isol."
Lee Donggeul came running, breasts bouncing, and the rest of the team crowded in. Whether from embarrassment at everyone staring or from the pain itself, Kim Isol's face flushed deeper and deeper red.
"I'm fine… my left hand is enough. She's only got two heals — if we use one now, what about this afternoon's run…"
At Isol's words, Donggeul and I locked eyes and shared a small smile. I wasn't even the healer, and my mouth was itching to brag that Donggeul could heal far more than twice. Donggeul looked just as eager to show everyone she could cast more than two heals. Fair enough — she'd been mocked as a "heal premature ejaculator" every day. But not yet. We needed a more dramatic moment for the reveal.
"It's fine. Last time you used a heal on my hand and we still cleared Red Devil Cave without trouble. This isn't some D-rank or higher. It's just an F-rank dungeon. We don't even need a healer."
Donggeul's face instantly crumpled. Was she sulking because I said we didn't need a healer? Did she not realize I was just talking? I sighed inwardly at how intensely she reacted to everything.
"Please, Donggeul."
"Yeees~"
A burst of glittering light spilled out and caressed the back of Kim Isol's hand. Isol stared blankly at the strange glow, then started flexing and unflexing her fingers.
"Feeling better? If it was just a crack, fine — but if the bone was fully broken, it might not have done much."
"No. I'm fine. It doesn't hurt at all now."
"Good. Nice work, Donggeul."
"It was nothing. Hehe."
I ruffled her hair. The gesture came so naturally that no one seemed to mind — except one person. Kim Isol was glaring at me.
What are you looking at?
"All right. We're entering the dungeon. You've all reviewed the materials I gave you, correct?"
We left the equipment shop and set out on foot. Far across the long stretch of white sand, the ominous shape of the gate came into view. Today was only day one — a taste. We'd be living here all week, so we had to think long-term. The combat footage shot on the final day would be the yardstick deciding whether our team could move up to the next difficulty. Until then, I had to drag real strength out of these green kids.
"Entering now."
We finished entry procedures with a civil servant at the gate. The man had a parasol set up and was lounging, staring out at the ocean.
Aigoo. What a life.
Leaving the civil servant behind, we threw ourselves one by one into the Haeundae Gate, Jang Yong in the lead.
Being an F-rank dungeon, the first thing that met our eyes the moment we arrived inside the gate was a cluster of lodging tents. Not ours — some other team's. Probably an expedition training unit for rookie Awoken from a southern-based company, the same way we'd gone into Red Devil Cave before. The people around the tents would be company staff. With that many people and tents visible, more than one or two teams were currently running this dungeon. The materials I'd reviewed had said as much: F-rank or not, this place was vast — roughly twenty times the size of Red Devil Cave. Multiple teams entering at once made perfect sense.
And standing here in person, that "twenty times Red Devil Cave" claim felt real. The sky was wide open — a fully open-type dungeon, similar to the Sand Garden. I traded polite nods with the company staff and moved on with my team.
"Is this really inside a dungeon?"
"Didn't they teach you at the Academy? It's an open-type dungeon. Just because it's wide open doesn't mean you can go anywhere. But they say it's enormous, so getting lost would be a disaster. No solo wandering."
"Yeees~"
The vast grassland was pleasantly cool in the breeze, but with so many participants, no monsters were visible near the gate. I picked a direction and decided to push a little deeper — to where the grassland ended and the forest began. There would definitely be monsters in the woods. The name humans gave this dungeon was the Wolf's Forest. That was where they lived.