The Lizardman Swamp Strategy
When Yeonhee—the person she wanted to keep at a distance—spoke with clear anticipation in her voice, No. 1 thrust his chest out as if the long-awaited moment had finally arrived. Groooar?! Beside him, the bucktoothed orc struck a perfect side-chest pose, proudly announcing that his muscles were second to none. (Where the hell did they learn that from…?)
Grk?
First of all, it’s ridiculous that you two, who never exercise, are bragging about your physiques. Must be some filthy racial trait.
“But if we go somewhere humid, won’t Ilwol’s bombs fizzle out?”
“Clack—”
“Ah! Did I hit a nerve?”
No, I’m just stunned by how absurd that sounds…
The explosions triggered the flame attribute, but the detonations were powered by mana from the start. Humidity had nothing to do with it.
“So we can still use the bombs like we did today?”
Nod, nod—
“Good. Then let’s repeat today’s routine again tomorrow.”
Everything sounds fine, but we must not venture into the deep swamps. The chance of our stealth being exposed rises sharply there. No greed. We take it one careful step at a time.
“Mhm— And like we saw, the lizardmen have incredibly strong teamwork. They say it’s because their hierarchy based on raw power is so clearly defined… If one of them sends out a danger signal, every lizardman in the area comes running. But isn’t that the same for other monsters?”
Not exactly the same. The range is far wider.
It was like the instant you killed one, a mark would activate across the entire zone, similar to the Ent Forest.
“Yeah, that makes sense. The fact that so many hunters still enter this place must mean there’s something worth the risk, right?”
Bingo. Lizardman hides sell for a decent price, so the profit from selling byproducts is pretty attractive. Of course, that’s not the only reason.
“Lizardman hides… That part’s a little… Ilwol, after we kill the monsters, can the kids handle the cleanup before we unsummon them? Okay?”
“Clack clack clack…”
As expected, her heart is far too soft.
That side of her was charming in its own way.
“Finally… the rune drop rate here is higher than in other dungeons. It says this is a common trait among restricted dungeons.”
Nod.
“They mainly drop the Rune of the Giant… Hmm…”
The Rune of the Giant, which boosted physical strength. It was exactly what I needed right now. If my strength had been even a hundred thousand points higher, I could have sliced that goblin’s head clean off this morning.
“This is a dungeon E-grade hunters can’t enter without a party, so we’ll need to find a team like we did for the Fire Monkey Dungeon last time.”
The tank Han Man-woo and mage Yu Dali from that team would be perfect… Shouldn’t we contact them first? Our progress isn’t that far apart.
We could always lead the party ourselves, but finding decent applicants was never easy. Most hunters were half-insane to begin with.
Yet unlike my thoughts, Yeonhee seemed determined to look for a different team first. I watched the phone screen with interest over her shoulder. After an hour of her searching, a question formed.
There’s a team with Yu Dali. Why does she keep avoiding it and looking at others?
Even though the post only had a single line of introduction, it had gathered 147 comments. It showed how much other hunters valued a binding mage. Yet Yeonhee gritted her teeth, deliberately ignored the top post by Yu Dali, and kept scrolling through other recruitment listings.
……Why is she acting like this?
“Ugh… There’s nothing that looks good…”
……
Ten more minutes passed. By now I understood that Yeonhee was avoiding the mage Yu Dali, but no matter how hard I thought about it, I couldn’t figure out why.
Hmm… What could it be? Ugh, I don’t know!
Since I couldn’t interfere in something like this, I took the ancient crystal Yeonhee had passed me and began manufacturing bombs. I would fill all fifty-four slots with Skeleton Bombs made from kobold bones and use them tomorrow. Just thinking about the boom-boom-boom made my shoulders tremble with excitement.
Crack, crack—
I was deep in bomb production when Yeonhee let out a resigned sigh.
“How about… joining this team tomorrow?”
The team Yeonhee had chosen was, surprisingly, the one led by Helen (pseudonym).
She really went out of her way to avoid Yu Dali. At this point I’m actually curious. Are they in similar classes? Hmm…
“Ah… The team called UnusuallyGoodDay has closed recruitment, so we can’t join them~ What a shame.”
“Clack—”
I stroked Yeonhee’s head—she was speaking like a stiff robot—then checked the phone screen.
Huh? That talkative guy named Hyun-seok is missing.
The listed party members were only Helen and Jin-gyeong. They were recruiting four to five people total. The desired dungeons ranged from the Fire Monkey Dungeon to the Hobgoblin Dungeon. It also noted that if a D-grade hunter applied, like Yu Dali’s team, they could attempt the entrance area of the Lizardman Swamp.
Setting a clear limit at the entrance shows they understand their own limits.
When I recalled how calmly Helen had made the proposal, my head nodded easily.
In terms of growth, this might actually be better than teaming up with Yu Dali. With another mage, our share of the action would shrink. Hmm… Not bad at all.
I scratched my chin and gave a small nod. Yeonhee looked at me with a slightly nervous expression.
“H-how is it? Is this okay?”
Hmm? What?
I tilted my head, then gave her a thumbs-up. Only then did Yeonhee’s face bloom into a bright smile as her fingers flew across the phone.
Brrrr—
The call came almost the instant she sent the text.
“Ah… Hello…”
She had switched back to her outside-world Yeonhee mode and struggled through the conversation with Helen. Listening beside her, the content went roughly like this:
Helen had seriously debated whether to contact Yeonhee but decided against it, assuming she would be rejected. She was incredibly grateful for the message. The talkative Hyun-seok was still recovering from the Spore Snail incident, so we wouldn’t have to worry about our ears hurting. They would give us the best possible settlement ratio, and so on.
“Um… We have conditions other than money…”
—Just tell us anything!!
Helen’s slightly excited voice rang through the speaker and filled the room.
“The Lizardman Swamp… If we can’t go there, we’ll have to look for another party.”
—……Have you been to the Lizardman Swamp before?
“This is our f-first time…”
—Then how many times have you cleared the Hobgoblin Dungeon?
“Just once… today…”
—……
It was understandable that Helen fell silent. The standard practice was to clear lower-grade dungeons at least five times before attempting the Lizardman Swamp. Yet this bold young lady known as the First Summoner seemed impatient enough to skip the entire process in one go.
A careful sigh leaked through the phone.
—Otherwise… it’s a bit far, but how about the Orc Stage 1 Dungeon? Since we’re all women, we could stay there together for a few days. What do you think?
Orc Stage 1 Dungeon.
Because there were so many orc dungeons, they had long stopped naming them individually and simply divided them into stages. Among the seven total stages, Stage 1 was considered slightly more difficult than the Hobgoblin Dungeon.
We do need to visit that place once. I have to steal skills with Thievery. But spending several days there right now would be problematic.
Yeonhee stared at me. I simply shrugged. My opinion was clear, but the final decision belonged to her. If I kept steering her toward what I wanted, her own judgment would stop growing.
“Hmm… That won’t work for us. Then we’ll…”
—Wow! Wow! Hahaha!! Yeonhee, you really are impatient! I didn’t mean I wouldn’t go. Come on, listen to my suggestion…
Helen’s lengthy speech continued for another five minutes, but in the end we settled on entering the Lizardman Swamp tomorrow.
She’s quite cautious for a hunter. This type is better than the reckless kind. The problem is the one remaining spot…
—We’re all E-grade, so we need at least four people. We’ll have to recruit one more. My name isn’t famous enough to draw many comments yet—would it be all right if I borrowed Yeonhee’s name?
Asking directly if it’s okay to use the name feels surprisingly refreshing.
“…Go ahead.”
Surprisingly, Yeonhee gave cool consent. Perhaps she had already given up on hiding her fame.
Twenty minutes later, Helen called again, her voice noticeably more excited.
—Whoa! As expected! The moment I added Yeonhee’s profile, the comments went completely crazy. Look through the applicants and we’ll pick one together!
Insane… That many comments in only twenty minutes?
Even now, refreshing the page brought ten new comments each time. Once again I felt the immense weight of the “First Summoner” title. Of course, many were probably applying simply because they were interested in the hunter named Lee Yeonhee herself. On a shallow level, they might just think she was pretty and want to party with her once. Or they could be satisfying their curiosity about the summoner class.
Whatever their reasons, there will be risks. We’ll just have to accept that.
“Uhh… There are so many I can’t even choose. What do I do?”