Chapter 5
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: Goblin Village (1)
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The murmur of a crowd reached my ears. It sounded like screams, yet also like cheers and shouts.
The sky was shrouded in black smoke.
The stench of blood stung my nostrils, and puddles on the ground were filled not with water, but with thick pools of blood.
I was looking down on it all, as if I were a camera. On one side of the ruined castle wall, a familiar flag fluttered.
When I turned my head, I saw a familiar face among the fallen.
A dying man, his injuries so severe it was a wonder he was still alive. His body, caked in blood, opened his mouth to speak.
“You… must not… the Tower… Why on earth…”
Those were the man's last words.
***
The sound of water flowing from the faucet was crisp and clear.
I stared blankly into the mirror as I brushed my teeth. A man in his early twenties, brushing his teeth. The reflection still felt unfamiliar.
“What kind of dream was that?”
I spat out the foam and rinsed my mouth with water. I boiled water in the kettle and made some coffee.
It was the coffee I'd bought from a nearby supermarket last night.
I sat down on the floor, where a blanket served as a sofa, and savored the taste and aroma of the coffee.
“What am I even doing?”
A wave of self-pity washed over me.
No matter how I looked at it, this just felt wrong.
I heard the sound of a car passing outside my window. The moment I make some money, I'm moving out of here.
Sipping my coffee, I thought about the dream.
The details were fading with each passing moment; I knew I had to recall them now or never.
‘That face…’
It was undoubtedly Luciel.
That battlefield… it was the place where he had died.
I remembered everything that happened before Luciel’s death.
There was no way I could forget.
‘The Tower?’
I had no memory of him saying anything like that. Setting down my empty coffee cup, I muttered.
“Must have been a meaningless dream.”
Morning sunlight streamed through the narrow gap in the window. Right now, I had enough to deal with just being Kang Han-gyeol.
After a thirty-minute subway ride, I arrived at Ujangsan Station.
A woman in comfortable clothes with a large hiking backpack caught my eye. It was Lee Ye-eun, the only female Hunter in our group chat.
‘Why does she have so much stuff?’
It was an incredible amount, enough to make you think she was emigrating. Ujangsan wasn't even that high of a mountain.
She couldn't have brought all that luggage just to climb a small mountain like this.
I walked over to Lee Ye-eun, who was fiddling with her phone, and gave a slight bow. She put her phone in her pocket and glanced up.
“Who are you?”
“Ah, I’m Kang Han-gyeol.”
Instead of a reply, Lee Ye-eun just went, “Ah,” and nodded.
She didn't say anything else.
After that, Kim Tae-woon and Nam Woon-ik arrived.
They both showed up at roughly the same time.
Nam Woon-ik got out of a taxi, while Kim Tae-woon actually drove his own car.
It wasn’t a supercar like Choi Soo-hyun's, but it was still a pretty expensive vehicle.
‘Why do I feel like I’m the only one who packed light?’
The two of them had brought just as much luggage as Lee Ye-eun.
I had heard it was a goblin village, so I'd just casually thrown a weapon, some food, and a change of clothes into an old hiking backpack I found stuffed in a corner. They were on a completely different level.
I felt like an elementary school kid who misread the notice from school and showed up without the right supplies, awkwardly looking around.
‘It’ll be fine, right?’
It wasn't like I could say, ‘Hey, I’m just going to run home and grab some more stuff.’
It was better to just act like it was no big deal.
When we reached the midway point of Ujangsan, two or three men in suits gestured for us to come over.
They were officials from the Dungeon Association.
“You’re the trainees?”
“Yes, we’re Group 4.”
Our team’s leader, Kim Tae-woon, answered for us.
After they confirmed our identities, we followed the men deeper into the woods.
It was a path not used by the general public.
Between the overgrown trees, I could see the shimmering of an unknown black space.
It was clearly visible to the naked eye—anyone could tell it was a dungeon entrance.
I had entered dungeons a few times back in Arbelicia, and the entrance itself looked exactly the same.
I just never thought I'd see a gate like that in the modern 21st century.
All the preliminary preparations were done, so all we had to do was enter.
Standing at the back, I waited for the three in front of me to go in.
‘Why aren't they going in?’
No sooner had I tilted my head in confusion than Lee Ye-eun, who was at the very front, walked over to me.
Lee Ye-eun dropped her backpack, which was practically a moving box, in front of me.
“There’s a lot of fragile stuff in here, so be careful with it.”
“Hey, take my bag too.”
Nam Woon-ik, who had clearly disliked me since our chat room conversations, carelessly shoved his bag at me. Suddenly, I was forced to carry the luggage for two people.
As I watched Lee Ye-eun and Nam Woon-ik walk into the dungeon with only their weapons after saying their piece, Kim Tae-woon approached me with an awkward smile. Half-resigned, I held out my hand to him.
“Give me your bag.”
Life is tough for a Hunter with no affiliation.
Kim Tae-woon apologized but still firmly handed his bag over to me.
The three of them went in first, and then it was my turn. Now one with the luggage, I finally stepped into the dungeon entrance.
The moment I did, a strange, tingling sensation brushed past my body. I flinched and instinctively stepped back, like I’d been hit by a jolt of static electricity.
‘Is it just my imagination?’
[…is …ing….]
It didn't feel like it.
On top of that, an unintelligible voice lingered in my ears.
‘They definitely said this was a low-level dungeon. Are these guys trying to scam me?’
I called out to one of the men who was on his phone and pointed at the dungeon gate.
The man put down his phone, looked at me, and frowned, as if asking why I hadn't gone in yet.
“This dungeon is safe, right?”
“Is there a problem?”
He answered my question with one of his own.
The implication was clear: there was nothing wrong with the dungeon, so I should hurry up and get inside.
Eager to get the weight of the luggage off my shoulders, I sighed and turned back toward the gate.
“No, I guess not.”
Ignoring the tingling sensation, I pushed my body all the way through the gate.
[An unauthorized person is attempting to enter.]
The voice that had been faint before now came through quite clearly.
‘An unauthorized person?’
Is it talking about me?
No, it can't be.
My worries didn't last long.
As soon as I opened my eyes, I was greeted by a massive status window detailing the dungeon's information.
[Goblin's Village]
Rank: D
Terrain: Forest
Recommended Party Size: 5-7 members
Objective: Annihilate the goblin village and retrieve the Goblin Chieftain's necklace.
Rewards
1) All members receive [50 Contribution Points] upon clearing.
2) Clear within 3 days: [30 Contribution Points]
3) First to kill the Goblin Chieftain: [100 Contribution Points]
A gentle breeze carried the scent of grass, tickling my nose.
Before me lay a green meadow, and beyond it, a dense forest of trees.
“Oh, this is interesting.”
The moment I entered the dungeon, the objectives and a brief summary of its information appeared before my eyes.
Kang Han-gyeol had been in a dungeon once before, but for me, this was a first.
Dungeons existed in Arbelicia as well.
However, the dungeons I had experienced weren't accessed through gates like this, nor did they give out missions or display status windows.
‘I can see why people on the internet compare the current situation to a game.’
It felt like I had stepped into a virtual reality game.
It wasn't just the dungeon's status window that made me feel like I was in an MMORPG.
We had met up on the promised Friday to decide on our respective positions.
Well, ‘decide’ is a generous word. The positions were pretty much set from the moment we met.
Kim Tae-woon, who created the group and acted as the team leader, was the dealer.
Choi Min-hyuk was the tanker, Nam Woon-ik was rear support, and the team’s only woman, Lee Ye-eun, was the main dealer as an archer.
And as for me.
“Don’t do anything stupid. And if you lose the luggage, I’ll kill you.”
Choi Min-hyuk, wearing armor with a greatsword strapped to his back, glared at me.
As an incompetent, the equivalent of a jobless class in an RPG, my role in this dungeon was to be an extra—in other words, the porter.
Laden with all sorts of luggage, I sighed inwardly without a word.
I wasn't playing the role of the porter because I was a pushover.
‘Though I guess others might see me as one.’
But I'm not.
I just want to observe the situation.
***
As always, theory and practice are two different things.
I fully understood that a dungeon was a gateway to another space, that there were tasks to complete inside, and that everyone had their own position.
‘What I want to see is the real thing.’
Anyone can talk a big game.
I was curious to see how this party of people, who all looked to be in their early twenties, would actually fight.
In that sense, if I were to make an excuse for myself, being the porter and the extra was the perfect position.
“Let’s scout ahead and find a good spot.”
Lee Ye-eun’s main weapon was a bow, and she also served as the scout.
There was something I learned while meeting with the members.
Unlike what I'd read on the internet, one’s affiliation didn't directly translate to their class.
Kang Han-gyeol must have learned the basics about ‘Affiliation.’ Unfortunately, since I possessed his body just as his training was ending, I didn't have those memories.
In any case, an affiliation was just that—an affiliation. It had nothing to do with a Hunter's class.
In reality, there were no major restrictions preventing a Hunter who used a bow from suddenly picking up a sword, or one wielding a staff from using magic.
The reason positions were still divided was simple.
To put it simply, humans have a tendency to stick with what they're familiar with.
Isn't that true for jobs in the real world, too?
Everyone is born with the potential to become a judge, prosecutor, lawyer, or doctor; they aren't born with their fate as a judge already sealed.
Unless they were born in some distant future, that is.
Having learned that countless dimensions exist, I couldn't say for sure that such a dimension didn't exist, but this wasn't it.
In short, the information was wrong.
The idea that you couldn't use skills without an affiliation was half-right and half-wrong.
Being affiliated with a specific god only meant you could use a portion of the power received from that god, depending on your contribution points and abilities; it didn't mean you couldn't use skills at all.
It was more like a swordsman who could originally use fire abilities being unable to use those fire abilities and having to rely on his sword alone.
‘So that’s why they’re called incompetents.’
As expected, the internet wasn't a reliable source of information.
To be honest, I didn't quite understand this point, but since that's how it was, I had no choice but to accept it.
Lee Ye-eun, who was in charge of scouting, gestured from the entrance of the forest.
‘This is damn heavy.’
Are we going camping or something?
A week's worth of exercise wasn't nearly enough to handle this much luggage.
The moment I get out of this dungeon, I'm going to start working out like crazy.
Lee Ye-eun, who had gone into the forest, pointed past some bushes.
“Found it already…”
Deeper inside the forest was a goblin village.
I could see a crudely made fence of woven branches and about ten wooden shacks.
Two goblins with green skin, holding stone axes, stood at the entrance.
I glanced at the goblins and tilted my head.
‘They look a little different from the ones I know.’