The Reward and Standing After the Catastrophe (2)
When I came to, the ceiling of my familiar lodging room came into view.
I quickly regained my senses and pushed myself up from the bed.
There was a slight soreness in my body, but stretching helped, and I felt better.
“Ughhhh.”
The sound that escaped me as I stretched woke Ji Yu-chan and Hana Rin, who had been sleeping on either side, without them realizing it.
Hana Rin rubbed her eyes and raised her upper body, while Ji Yu-chan stretched much like me and then got up.
“Good…… morning.”
“Mmm.”
Watching the drowsily greeted Hana Rin and the stretched Ji Yu-chan, I let out a small laugh, stood up first from the bed, and headed straight to the bathroom to wash first.
Naturally, the diligent Hana Rin came out after me, followed by Ji Yu-chan.
My routine at this lodging was simple.
After waking, I would wash like this, go outside, and have breakfast first.
Whether I trained or went to hunt after that, I always made sure to eat breakfast properly.
It was not just me who did this.
Hana Rin and Ji Yu-chan also followed the same habit, so I waited for the other two to finish washing before leaving the room together as a party.
The atmosphere felt a bit strange as we stepped out of the lodging room.
“Whoa, lucky! Really lucky!”
“H, it’s a pity. I should have joined too.”
“Yeah, I heard the other races who operate in the 1st Shaft are different!”
“The Bruton party? Right, the Colleton race is quite formidable.”
This was a much more excited atmosphere than the usual one at the lodging.
Well, after yesterday’s event, I understood why they were acting like this, and it wasn’t a big deal anyway.
We headed to the restaurant with the intention of having breakfast, and several hunters greeted us.
“Oh! It’s Min-woo’s party! When did you get in? You left just a few days ago, right?”
“Oh, it’s really you!”
“Min-woo, you came in late last night and didn’t sleep right away, did you?”
Because of my training, the D-class lodging had begun to change, and everyone staying or visiting here knew me.
Even on this ordinary morning, they kept talking to me, and despite the attention, I nodded as if I was used to it.
“Yes, I returned yesterday.”
“Ah! So you didn’t know then!”
“You know the zone boss, right?”
“Khehe, it seems they caught it right in front of our safe zone yesterday!”
“The Bruton party, which is active in the 1st Shaft, acted as the raid leader and caught it!”
“Haha…… that makes sense.”
“……hahaha.”
“……huh.”
The entire Do-hyun party gave awkward smiles at that story.
We had all heard the same tales, but since we had been directly at the scene yesterday, we didn’t know how to respond, so we just smiled awkwardly and answered.
When the Do-hyun party didn’t show any particular interest, the others didn’t push further.
They weren’t clueless people.
They had seen me ignore such stories many times before, so they just talked among themselves.
Thinking the Do-hyun party had gotten lucky, I grabbed a table and ate moderately, when stories began from the adjacent table.
“The Bruton party will reach A-rank, right?”
“Huuu, let’s get serious too.”
“How did they catch the zone boss who ate two safe zones?”
As those stories spread around, I simply let them pass, and Hana Rin secretly smiled contentedly while eating her meal.
Ji Yu-chan, a bit embarrassed, blushed and pretended not to listen to the stories.
Since they had honestly caught the zone boss, the praise was essentially directed at the Do-hyun party, so Ji Yu-chan had every right to feel embarrassed.
But at that moment.
“Hey, wait a minute.”
“What?”
“What?”
“I was buying something out front when the owner suddenly became really friendly today. I was about to ask why, but was worried I’d be ignored, so I stayed quiet. Then the owner told me they didn’t know there was a party of humans this strong.”
“What does that mean?”
At those words, the Do-hyun party all froze with spoons in hand.
The hunter continued, and we listened carefully.
“So, that’s why I was like, ‘what kind of talk is that?’ He frowned slightly but said the rumors were late, and that the leader of this extermination was from one of our human parties???”
“Not Bruton?”
“What?”
“Exactly. I asked, ‘Is it not Bruton?’ and the guy said there’s a human who admitted to being part of Bruton. According to the rumors, Bruton handed over command and even led the raid?”
“A human party???”
“No way.”
“Huh, I thought it was Min-woo’s party at first, but it wasn’t. The name was something like Do-yeon? Or Do-hyun?”
Hearing that, the Do-hyun party exchanged glances and relaxed a little, feeling fortunate.
Only then did we realize they had mentioned the name Do-hyun to Bruton.
That was the mishap caused by Ji Yu-chan mistakenly calling out my name exactly at the wrong time, so he looked at me with an apologetic expression.
I created a soundproof barrier using ultrasound and magic so the sound wouldn’t leak out and we could hear the surroundings.
“Huuu, maybe we should take a break for a while?”
“Suuup, yeah, that might be best.”
“It wasn’t exactly a bad thing, but with the disguise identity at risk, it might be better to be cautious.”
At my words, Ji Yu-chan and Hana Rin agreed.
Since the praise was one-sided, there was no real need to clarify, but we had to be careful because the disguise might be exposed.
Han Mu-yeol had said not to let the disguise identity be revealed, after all.
Then, suddenly, he mentioned something else.
“Huh!? If it’s Do-hyun, are you Korean?”
“Right? Chinese people have different pronunciations.”
“Huh? Wait. Do-hyun?”
Hearing that, the Do-hyun party again paid close attention, and the feared thing happened.
“A party leader named Do-hyun from an E-rank party wiped out an entire elven party and cleared a dungeon a few days ago, right?”
“Ah! I heard about that too! The one selling Dwarf-made weapons, right?”
“Whoa! Is that party already promoted and active in D-rank?”
“Insane speed!”
“And it belongs to our association.”
The Do-hyun party, like criminals caught in a tightening noose, listened to the story without a word.
What could we do now? Who would dare reveal that I was Min-woo.
Looking at Hana Rin and Ji Yu-chan, I said, “We’ll have to be more careful from now on.”
“……Yes.”
“……Sorry, we’ll be careful.”
At my words, the two nodded and agreed.
Since we had worked hard yesterday, we decided to train today, but for now, we all rested in the lodging room together.
If we wandered outside and ran into the raiders from yesterday, how would we explain ourselves? With rumors spreading and the disguise possibly exposed, today we would spend time only in the lodging room.
While the Do-hyun party relaxed like that, the 53rd Shaft buzzed even more with the rumor spreading far and wide.
A rumor that a human party was that strong.
“Humans are really that strong?”
“Those inferior races?”
“Huuu, I don’t know.”
“They should have seen it with their own eyes.”
But unlike when the rumor first started, few believed it at first.
After all, no inferior race had ever achieved such a feat before.
However, as testimonies from parties about to be promoted and who had participated in the raid followed, the reactions of the other races began to change slightly.
“But it was admitted by Bruton himself?”
“I asked Bruton and it was true.”
“Not just Bruton. He asked other parties in the raid and they all said it was true.”
And of course the rumor spread quietly through each safe zone, eventually changing the views of other races toward humans just a little.
Though barely, it was moving toward the possibility of strong human parties appearing even among inferior races.
On one of the restaurant tables, four other races sat with interest in the rumor.
One a beastman with crow-like features, another with a strange appearance like a wooden doll, a third who looked like a tree, and finally a woman who resembled a snake but with many human-like features, as they chatted about the story.
“A human party with such a strong member just before promotion……”
“Fuhahaha! What interesting fellows.”
“Humans are that strong?”
“Intriguing. There might even be hunting fun.”
Even as they talked, their postures showed no signs of breaking.
Anyone around would feel the dark and impure auras pressing down on them.
Everyone at the table had some aura on them, and the people at the neighboring tables one by one left their seats.
They knew exactly what that mark meant.
Having lived through Black Gates, they knew subordinates would sometimes appear, and this party of four all had subordinates, so they had left one by one.
Still, the four continued their conversation without a care.
“It would be great if we meet in C-rank. A party of such strong inferior races.”
“We already have subordinates. Waiting is foolish.”
“The stupid scarecrow lost too many members because of personal activities.”
“We’ll go next and wait in the following rank.”
With a sigh of regret, the villains clicked their tongues.
Meanwhile, the snake beastwoman sipping tea smiled thinly and said, “It looks like Galakro is dead, and catching the culprit seems difficult, so let’s leave too. Finding useful allies in our dimension is tough. It’s a shame, but what can we do?”
At the woman’s words, the other three nodded and stood up.
The party that had been with Galakro Hedrix and consisted only of villains had left the D-class zone.
They looked forward to meeting the strong human party in the next C-rank.
“On the way up, let’s go to where humans gather. That would be fun.”