Chapter 42
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 42
Chapter Title: Raon Guild (2)
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I had no intention of blaming Park Si-woo.
Fighting for your own interests was a part of any field, so it was fine.
“I don’t mind raiding a dungeon with the Raon Guild. But there’s something we need to clear up first.”
“What is it?”
“I need to confirm that you had nothing to do with this incident.”
It was Choi Soo-hyun who had recommended the Aria Guild to me.
From an outsider's perspective, it looked like Choi Soo-hyun had introduced me to the Aria Guild, but in reality, he had introduced me to Park Si-woo, not the guild itself.
“I’d be a little disappointed if you thought I was that kind of person.”
“I’m just asking as a formality. It’s not that I particularly think you were involved.”
“So you’re taking out an insurance policy.”
Even if he called it a formality, the weight of his words couldn't be ignored.
If, by some chance, I was involved in this incident, it would mean I had lied to Park Si-woo. And that would give him justification to deal with me.
“I won’t deny it.”
“I can only hope that next time, we’ll be close enough that you won’t need an insurance policy.”
At my response, Park Si-woo silently ate a piece of homemade chocolate from the glass jar.
“Getting back to the point, what’s this about a dungeon raid with the Raon Guild?”
“It’s a chicken coop.”
“A chicken coop?”
For a moment, I suspected Park Si-woo might be messing with me.
I wished it were a joke. But Park Si-woo was serious.
“An A-rank dungeon.”
“Is it really called the Chicken Coop?”
“Its official name is Cockatrice’s Farm. But most people just call it the Chicken Coop. The name isn’t important.”
Well, that was true.
But it was the way he said such a thing with a dead-serious expression.
If Choi Soo-hyun had said it, I would have laughed it off, but coming from Park Si-woo, it somehow felt serious.
Park Si-woo continued his explanation.
“It’s a three-strikes dungeon. Raon Guild failed twice, and our guild failed once.”
“How has a rift not formed yet?”
“A-rank rifts aren’t a common occurrence, so you don’t need to worry. For the record, this dungeon is a ‘ticket’.”
“A ticket… What kind of ticket? Is there some kind of event?”
There were surprisingly many ways for a Hunter to earn Contribution Points.
Field transformations or events caused by rifts were typical examples.
Other than that, there were illegal routes like gambling or murder to steal Contribution Points, and so on.
There were various methods that were hard to explain.
After field transformations, the easiest to encounter were events.
“It’s a boss raid. Not a large-scale one, about three stars… The location is still unknown.”
Tickets are given for clearing specific dungeons that appear during the raid preparation period.
Without a ticket, you can’t earn Contribution Points even if you’re at the raid site, so during this time, Hunters get fired up and raid dungeons to obtain them.
The fact that a dungeon that had been failed three times hadn’t turned into a rift was likely because it was a ticket dungeon.
But this was the first I’d heard of an event.
“How did you find out so quickly?”
“It was scheduled to be announced soon. Anyone who’s anyone already knows. If you’re unhappy with your late information, blame your god.”
“That’s harsh, coming from someone who runs a business with a bunch of no-name gods…”
Park Si-woo didn’t reply, simply sipping the drink on the table.
“Returning to the matter of the Chicken Coop, I didn’t expect that dungeon to be a failure.”
The third attempt was by the Aria Guild.
After analyzing the strength of the previous two teams, Park Si-woo had assembled a team that could perfectly clear the dungeon after a meeting with other guild masters.
By Park Si-woo’s standards, the team was almost overkill.
“Was there some kind of mistake?”
“There’s only one mistake I can think of.”
The recent events.
If that had acted as a variable, it wouldn’t be strange for the dungeon raid to have failed.
“Just because they’re B-rank Hunters doesn’t mean they’re all satisfied with their lives. It’s possible the Raon Guild, who went in first, caused some trouble.”
Even if it wasn't a large-scale event, a raid was still a raid.
Sending another elite team on a dungeon expedition right before a raid was risky.
Even considering it was a ticket dungeon, there was a risk.
In that situation, the Raon Guild had proposed a joint raid first.
“We agreed to send six people from our side and six from the Raon Guild. You don’t need to worry about the Raon Hunters right now.”
“Shouldn’t I know who’s going?”
“I have a rough idea of who will be there, so you don’t need to worry. I’ll let you know soon. As for our members, we agreed that as guild master, I have the authority to make one Hunter’s participation non-negotiable. The other three will have to be agreed upon. Honestly, before all this happened, you weren’t even a candidate. Well, let’s just say my thinking has changed.”
That made sense.
It was an A-rank dungeon, after all.
And I had never shown him my combat skills.
All he knew about me were my dungeon clear records and reports from other Hunters.
There was a clear difference between seeing something with your own eyes and hearing about it through rumors.
Park Si-woo pointed at the ‘Ring of Ishtar’ on my finger.
Seeing as how the comments also rambled on about the Ring of Ishtar, it seemed to be a rather famous item among Choi Soo-hyun’s possessions.
“This is the first time I’ve seen Choi Soo-hyun lend that ring to someone else.”
“He tossed it to me like it was some junk item.”
“I suppose that’s how much he trusts you.”
“You don’t seem to trust me much, though.”
“That’s something we can get to know in the future.”
“So you’re going to put me in the dungeon raid?”
“I could say yes, and I could say no.”
A failed dungeon, with a raid being prepared, meant he couldn’t carelessly propose the dungeon to experienced Hunters. In this situation, I was the perfect card for Park Si-woo.
Plus, since I came through Choi Soo-hyun, there was no fear of me backstabbing him.
Well, I had no intention of doing so anyway.
There was nothing to gain from it. In fact, the latter was the biggest factor.
“Let’s say I go to the dungeon. What’s in it for me?”
“I believe I said it was an order,” Park Si-woo muttered as if he couldn’t understand.
“There’s no guarantee of what I’d gain by backstabbing you, but by the same token, there’s nothing for me to gain by following your orders. If you think you can order me around just because you’re the guild representative, you’ve got the wrong person.”
“No need to beat around the bush.”
“You have a collection too, right? Not the guild’s.”
There was no way the guild representative, Park Si-woo, wouldn't have a collection when even Choi Soo-hyun had one.
“What? You told me to say it.”
“I just didn’t expect you to be so blunt about it.”
“Give me just one. No more, no less.”
“Fine. However, I’ll be the one to prepare and send you the list.”
He meant he would give me a reasonably-tiered item.
Still, this was a pretty good outcome.
I had expected at least one or two rounds of haggling.
I sensed there was some other intention behind Park Si-woo’s unexpectedly easy acceptance.
“What do you want?”
“Let’s have dinner sometime before we enter the dungeon.”
“I think I should at least hear what the conditions are.”
“Have you ever killed someone?”
“Of course.”
“That’s all I need.”
After finishing our conversation, we naturally left the office.
As I was on my phone waiting for the elevator, Park Si-woo spoke to me.
“Song Eun-young, was it? You brought in a unique Hunter.”
Eun-young noona, who belonged to the god Soter, had joined the Aria Guild a few days ago.
“Right? She’s even slapped Choi Soo-hyun.”
Park Si-woo turned his head, his eyes widening.
I had said it casually, but he looked so shocked that I was the one who felt flustered.
“He doesn’t seem like the type to get hit by a woman.”
“What are you talking about? He looks exactly like the type to get beaten up.”
Park Si-woo couldn’t relate at all.
I never thought our opinions would diverge on something like this.
The doors of the ascending elevator opened.
Park Si-woo got on the elevator and went up to a higher floor.
* * *
I met Eun-young noona in the guild lobby.
The plan was to have lunch, run some errands, and then part ways. But she followed me all the way to my neighborhood.
“I’m telling you, you can go now.”
“You said you live alone. I’m curious.”
“There’s nothing to see.”
“Do you have something weird in your house?”
“Of course not.”
I couldn’t understand why she was being so persistent when she lived alone herself.
Pushed by Eun-young noona’s insistence to go inside, I opened the door to my studio apartment.
Before I could even invite her in, Eun-young noona stepped inside.
“It’s ordinary.”
I told you it was ordinary several times.
My room really had nothing special.
Just the necessary clothes, daily supplies, and a laptop.
Eun-young noona sat down on my bed without asking.
“Alright, now go home.”
I didn’t know why she followed me here when there was nothing to see.
At my shooing gesture, Eun-young noona pouted.
“Don’t you have coffee?”
“Nope.”
“Then get me some water.”
Her attitude was so brazen that I ended up silently pouring her a glass of cold water from the fridge.
“Just a moment.”
Putting in an earbud, she answered a call.
From her reaction, it seemed to be from the guild.
“—Yes, of course. There are no particular problems. What? Who? Just a moment.”
Just as the conversation seemed to be proceeding smoothly, Eun-young noona took out her earbud and beckoned to me.
Wondering what was going on, I approached her.
“He wants to talk to you.”
“Who is it?”
“A friend?”
Not knowing Park Si-woo’s voice, Eun-young noona tilted her head.
I took the phone from her.
To be precise, the secretary who had called Eun-young noona had passed the phone back to Park Si-woo.
There was only one person in the Aria Guild who would call me a friend.
As expected, it was Park Si-woo.
“—I thought it would take a day.”
“—It’s not a common case, but it’s not complicated either. By the way, Song Eun-young’s comprehensive stats came out as B. Is that correct?”
“—Probably?”
Her magic and healing were a bit low, but when you factored in her strength and stamina, it was roughly close to B-rank.
The reason Park Si-woo had called was because of Eun-young noona’s stats.
Her stats were a bit high for a D-rank Hunter, so he proposed having her enter a test dungeon, and if she cleared it, she could start as a C-rank Hunter.
Up to C-rank could be handled with just a guild recommendation.
“—It’s a C+-rank dungeon.”
“—That seems a bit high for a qualification test. Is Eun-young noona going in alone?”
“—I thought so too, but there’s one troublesome guy who stubbornly insisted on C+. So it was decided. Instead, we’re attaching a helper from our side.”
“—A helper? Who?”
“—You.”
The one who would oppose Park Si-woo would have to be a guild master of a similar rank.
“—I don’t mind, but I think I should at least know who insisted on a C+-rank dungeon.”
“—His name is Seo Ji-hoon. He was an executive at the former Raon Guild.”
I didn’t know his face, but I would remember the name.
“—I’ll contact you through Song Eun-young as soon as the dungeon is ready.”
“—Yeah, sure. Good luck.”
After finishing the call, I returned the phone to Eun-young noona.
Having only heard parts of my conversation from the side, she asked.
“Who was that? Sounded like someone pretty high up.”
“Huh? The representative.”