A Costly Lesson

The Siren — a monstrous bird of magnificent plumage. Depending on the specimen, they were said to beguile hunters with a song that addled the mind. If it had come to that, no amount of luck would have been enough for a party like ours to kill one. We'd all have been wiped out.

The only reason we'd managed to take down a Siren this time was because several strokes of outrageous fortune had stacked on top of each other. The one that killed Yohan had underestimated us. I had an acceleration ability. And the thing had been a weak specimen even among Sirens. If even one of those conditions had been off, we'd all be cold corpses right now.

"We killed it! We killed a Siren!"

That blonde prick threw his arms up and whooped like he'd just staggered back from the gates of hell itself. The bastard hadn't been the slightest bit of help taking the Siren down. If anyone had to be the sacrificial lamb, it should've been him instead of Yohan.

His stats must've been dumped entirely into luck. I'd poured dozens of points into luck and never gotten results like that…

"At this point, pushing any deeper into the dungeon is completely out of the question. We should get out of here first. The harpies will be on us again any minute. There might even be another Siren…"

Lina said it with a worried look. She was right. Getting the hell out of this godforsaken place came first. Sorry, Yohan — but there was no recovering the body. It had been smashed beyond recognition, like a drunk's vomit, and even if we hadn't been in a hurry, gathering it up would've been nearly impossible.

I pulled Yohan's Dungeon Hunter ID from the scraps of what used to be him. We'd been given a brief rundown of the procedures for when someone died in a dungeon. I hadn't expected to need it this soon.

After recovering the ID, I took out my phone and photographed the remains. His parents would never have recognized this pile of meat as their son, but regulations were regulations, so I took the pictures. My deepest condolences to the family he left behind. He'd been a promising hunter with a bright future.

There was no signal inside a dungeon. The strange mana wavelengths saw to that. Specialized comms equipment existed, but that was only used in Association-led raids. The materials to build the gear were byproducts from dangerous dungeons, rare enough that civilians couldn't even buy them. I'd heard the Association managed the equipment directly. If we'd been able to call outside, we'd have reported the anomaly a long time ago.

"What do you think happened? This dungeon was never supposed to be this bad…"

Sujin murmured it under her breath, a shadow falling across her face. Quiet as it was, all of us could hear her.

"Yeah… anomalies happen in dungeons all the time, but the difficulty jumping this suddenly isn't common. Don't tell me the dungeon mutated?"

Nothing about dungeons was certain. That was why humanity still only understood a tiny fraction of them. Even so, this was an Association-managed dungeon — I'd assumed there wouldn't be any wild cards. One more thing we couldn't explain. Today we'd paid a steep price for a lesson.

"Let's get out of here. We've got the ID, and we've got the photos. I'll take point. Sujin, you behind me, then Hwang… and Lina at the rear."

Just like that, I'd gone from healer to tank. We formed up and moved. No need to hunt for markers — we just needed to get out of here as fast as possible, so we picked up the pace. The harpies caught up with us in no time.

"Seven of them! This is definitely not right!"

"Tch! Jaeseong — can you tank that?"

Lina's worried voice. This might actually be an opportunity. If I put on a perfect showing here, I could score some points with her. Time to lay the groundwork for the future, nice and steady.

"Of course. Leave it to me!"

Seven harpies swarmed me the instant I peeled off from the group. I copied the techniques I'd picked up watching Yohan over his shoulder on the way here, drawing their attention.

"Over here!"

I windmilled both arms, pulling aggro, and the bird-brained things charged straight at me. The moment they closed in, I formed a sphere of brilliant light.

"Everyone shut your eyes! Solar Fist!"

A trick I'd picked up scratching my balls while waiting around during training. Calling it a technique was generous — it was just Light Control, used to make a ball of light. But if you cranked the brightness up fast enough, you could pull a cheap stunt like this and steal the enemy's vision.

"Screeeeeech!"

Their sight went out in an instant, and agonized shrieks filled the air. I dismissed the light sphere and nocked a Holy Arrow. I could fire three of them at once now. The sacred arrow that formed in front of me streaked toward one of the harpies.

Thwip. Thwip. Thwip.

Left wing, right wing, and right through the neck — each arrow punched home. It might've looked like overkill, but putting one down clean was a lot more reliable than a half-assed hit that left it alive. From behind me, a water arrow and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a black chain shot past, tearing into the other harpies.

"I'll help too!"

The blonde prick clenched his fists and came running my way. Against a high-flying monster that toyed with you from the air like a Siren, he was worse than useless — but against harpies that had to scuttle around on the ground, even that idiot could pull his own weight. Thank fucking god. If he'd botched even this, I'd have lost it.

We made short work of all seven harpies. We were down a person, and the fight had actually gotten easier. Proof that we'd grown, even in this short time. And we'd been fighting harpies nonstop, so we'd gotten used to them — that made it easier too.

Looking at it this way, the training really did pay off.

The problem was that the price we'd paid for it had been far too high. We pushed toward the dungeon entrance with everything we had. Two more ambushes, and then we were there.

The training center was in an uproar. A hunter dying during training was something that hadn't happened in nearly ten years. Even the Association hadn't seen the dungeon anomaly coming. Then again — if ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠they had, they never would have shoved us in there.

We were brought back to the Hunter Association Seoul Branch. The rest of the training schedule was cancelled, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and an investigation was opened. Thanks to that, Sujin and I spent an entire week punching in at the Hunter Association Seoul Branch, giving statements. I must have repeated the same account nearly ten times over those seven days.

The findings were shared with us as well. The investigation concluded that a dungeon mutation had occurred, and the difficulty had risen as a result. Dungeon mutation meant exactly what it sounded like — the dungeon itself changing. Sometimes the terrain shifted. Sometimes the monsters inhabiting it did.

Dungeon mutations themselves weren't rare, but a mutation that actually changed the dungeon's difficulty was extremely uncommon. Even when the terrain or the monsters changed, they usually stayed at roughly the same level.

After about a week of investigation, we were fast-tracked through the remaining coursework. Most of what was left was theory anyway, so we wrapped it up in abbreviated sessions at the Hunter Association Seoul Branch. We'd finished our rookie training, but it felt like we'd taken a massive dump and forgotten to wipe. Restless. Unsettled.

Regardless — training was done, and we were finally certified Dungeon Hunters, licensed to enter dungeons for real. Rank 10, but that would climb in due time. That same day, I sat down ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with Sujin to discuss an actual dungeon expedition.

"We're going into a dungeon already? We just finished training."

Sujin, soaked in sweat, spoke from beneath me. I toyed with her asshole like it was a plaything as I answered.

"I want to go while the instincts we picked up in training are still fresh. We're going to have to raid eventually anyway."

"Nnhh~♥. You just jammed it in — my asshole's so sensitive…"

"That's why I'm giving it a massage. How's my massage?"

"A massage… I've never even heard of an ass massage."

"More precisely, it's an asshole massage. I invented it."

Kneading Sujin's tight little hole, Lina's face suddenly floated into my mind. I was curious about Lina's pussy, sure — but I was just as curious about her asshole.

What did Lina's asshole look like? Puckered pretty like a chrysanthemum, the way Sujin's was? Or sealed up cute like a little clam? Just thinking about it made my cock twitch.

"Nnh~♥ Hooo…! If we're going to raid a dungeon, the two of us won't be enough, will we? You need five people."

"We don't need five. Three should be fine. Tank, DPS, healer."

Three-man parties weren't as common as five-man ones, but they weren't rare either. A bit less safe, sure — but in a Dungeon Hunter industry that was always short on bodies, running with a smaller roster was routine.

In a three-man party, I could cover healer or tank. Lock Sujin in as DPS, and I'd only need to find one more person — healer or tank. Healers were a nightmare to recruit, so I'd just have to scrape up a tank somehow.

"Good thing we can find a party through the app. I already looked up a decent dungeon — if we head a little south of the capital, there's one that should work for us."

A dungeon that matched our level and had a reliable return on investment was about a forty-minute drive south. Not that far.

"If that's what you want, Jaeseong, then that's what we'll do. Nnhh~♬ I'll just follow my man~♥"

The second I had Sujin's agreement, I posted a recruitment notice on the app. Dungeon location, raid date and time, desired class — fill it in and upload. Looking at other people's posts in the community, the boards were packed with people looking for healers or tanks. Nobody was looking for DPS. Not a single post.

Five-man parties were the most common, then three-man, and very rarely a seven-man. There were fewer three-man recruitment posts than I'd expected. Then again, the app I was using was for beginner Dungeon Hunters, so that tracked. Rookies tended to bunch up.

With the notice posted, I went right back to having my way with Sujin. I fucked her until she was out of her mind, and she finally passed out squirting.

I'd gotten a little too fired up. Maybe finishing rookie training had me so happy I'd kicked it into overdrive.

I was pulling a blanket over Sujin's unconscious body when my phone buzzed. I checked it — a reply to the recruitment notice I'd posted.

The applicant's specs, such as they were. Unfortunately, this app showed you almost nothing. I supposed the rest you were meant to confirm in person. There wasn't even a photo attached, so I had no idea what she looked like. Below the specs were an email and a phone number. Judging by the name, she was a woman.

Material Conversion, though? What was that? Not an ability I knew.

The abilities I actually knew were extremely limited. That was what the internet was for. I searched it up.

Matter conversion, huh.

It sounded broken at first glance, but the truth was that most abilities like this were awkward and half-baked. Either they were brutally hard to train to the point of being overpowered, or they came with a pile of restrictions. A lot like my own Time Mastery skill. I decided to get in touch with her first.