Chapter 72
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 72
Chapter Title: The Contest (1)
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After the zero-sum game ended, the Hunters gathered in one place.
It was the location that would serve as a temporary base camp.
The atmosphere, however, was not pleasant.
The Raon Guild Hunters, gathered together, radiated killing intent as if they were about to draw their swords on us at any moment.
Jeong Ho-il, his face red, fumed.
“That was a cheap trick. It’s cheating!”
“How is it cheating?”
“Well… using magic grenades is cheating, isn’t it! You’re supposed to kill them with your own hands!”
I let out a dry laugh at Jeong Ho-il’s ridiculous excuse.
They might be called magic grenades, but without infusing them with magic, they were no different from ordinary rocks.
I had undeniably killed the Hulger Dragons with my own magic.
“What’s wrong with grenades? If it was a cheap trick, the system wouldn’t have counted the kills. And so what if it was? Are all the guys who use magitech weapons cheaters and frauds?”
At my words, a few Hunters holding magic guns flinched.
What? I’m right, aren’t I?
“W-Well, that’s not what I meant…”
“Let’s stop this pointless argument here. Besides, so what if it was cheating?”
“W-What did you say?”
“The rule of the zero-sum game was that whoever killed the most Hulger Dragons within 24 hours of entering the dungeon wins, right? It never said anything about not cheating or not throwing grenades, did it?”
“But! You brought a huge number of grenades with you! Didn’t you bring them from outside the dungeon with this plan from the start?”
“Do you have proof?”
“What?”
“I said, do you have any proof?”
My bold bluff made Jeong Ho-il clench his fists.
“That’s enough.”
Unable to watch any longer, Han Jong-ho cut in.
Given the well-structured nature of their guild, Jeong Ho-il, who had been picking a fight with me, quickly shut his mouth at Han Jong-ho’s words.
Though his expression was still full of dissatisfaction.
‘There’s a limit to how much you can push things.’
My patience wasn’t exactly long.
If he had said one more word, I wouldn’t have stayed still either.
If words didn't work, I'd have to resort to force.
Fortunately, compared to the squawking Jeong Ho-il, Han Jong-ho seemed quite reasonable.
Han Jong-ho approached and extended his hand.
“The rules are the rules. We will follow your lead. At least, until this dungeon expedition is over.”
“Glad to have your cooperation. I’m not cut out to be a leader, and I didn’t particularly want the role anyway.”
“Haha, it must be a burden to be in such a difficult position.”
“Right? My shoulders are already feeling heavy. So I hope you’ll all follow along nicely.”
Han Jong-ho and I gripped each other’s hands firmly.
After the handshake, I looked around at the Aria Guild Hunters.
My back had been prickling for a while now.
“What’s your problem now?”
“Hmph, I don’t have a problem. I’ll let the part about the Hulger Dragon nest slide, but I just thought the magic grenades were going too far.”
“Even friendly fire has its limits. Don’t you know it’s just trolling if you overdo it?”
I could understand it from that Jeong Ho-il guy, but I didn’t want to hear that from Ju Seo-hye, who was supposed to be in the same guild as me.
“Seriously, how could you? Who throws them so recklessly like that?”
“What? Grenades are meant to be thrown recklessly. What else are they for?”
I could understand Jeong Ho-il, but I had no idea why Ju Seo-hye was foaming at the mouth.
Then, the expressions of the other Hunters, including Han Seong-cheol who had been listening quietly, soured.
What’s with them?
Kang Hyun-seung nudged me in the side and whispered.
“Do you have any idea how much one of those magic grenades costs?”
“No idea. Maybe around 100,000 won each?”
“If they were that cheap, I’d be throwing them around too! The cheap ones start at 3 million won, and the expensive ones go up to 10 million.”
In truth, magic grenades had good firepower, but they weren’t very cost-effective.
There weren’t many B-Rank Hunters who could afford to burn through tens of millions of won on a single disposable grenade.
Everyone seemed to have an idea where my grenades had come from.
“Among them, the ones from ACKO are the cream of the crop. The 10-million-won ones I mentioned are made by ACKO.”
“ACKO?”
“The grenades you were throwing.”
Kang Hyun-seung looked worried, hoping I hadn’t thrown them without knowing.
Ah, my bad.
I just threw them for fun, not knowing a thing.
“Oh, these?”
I took out the few remaining grenades I had stashed in my pocket.
I hadn’t noticed when I was throwing them, but sure enough, there was a small ‘ACKO’ logo stamped on the side.
I threw about 30 of them.
Roughly 300 million won had just exploded in midair.
At this point, it wasn’t killing monsters with bombs; it was more like beating them with money.
It wasn’t intentional, but it was definitely a crazy display of wealth.
Seeing the dumbfounded Hunters, I tried to smooth things over somehow.
“Alright, alright, enough about the grenades. Whether they’re worth 100 million or 10 billion, all that matters is the result, right? Isn’t that so?”
No one agreed with me.
Damn capitalism.
Money isn’t everything in this world!
* * *
Contrary to my worries, the Raon Guild Hunters obediently followed my command.
It wasn’t that they had no complaints, but since Han Jong-ho, the de facto leader of the Raon Guild team, quietly followed my orders, no one was foolish enough to voice their dissatisfaction openly.
Even though we had killed a lot of Hulger Dragons during the zero-sum game, they still remained scattered throughout the dungeon.
“Hah, these damn worms.”
“They’re so disgusting.”
“Why are there so many?”
Just as Park Si-woo had said, the dungeon was practically ruled by the Hulger Dragons.
The ones that came out of the nest were just the tip of the iceberg.
It was understandable that they were sick of it after days of killing nothing but the Hulger Dragons crawling under their feet.
While the other Hunters were fighting hard, I was up in a tree, eating a calorie bar.
‘Hmm, this one’s strawberry flavored.’
With dungeons popping up all over the world like mushrooms after rain, the emergency food industry had also grown rapidly.
Lately, I had taken a liking to calorie bars and was experimenting by trying various kinds.
Min Seong-taek, having finished off the Hulger Dragons, approached the base of the tree.
“Instead of just lazing around, you should at least pretend to do something.”
“Why should I?”
As I drank the last of my Choco Mon and swung my legs, Min Seong-taek gestured for me to look behind me.
No one met my eyes directly, but it was clear they were all displeased that I was slacking off.
I intentionally spoke in a loud voice for them to hear.
“My, my, anyone would think I’ve been doing nothing! I went and single-handedly cleared out all the monsters in the west, and now I can’t even get a bite to eat! The injustice of it all is going to kill me!”
“Did you really finish them all?”
Min Seong-taek looked up, his eyes wide with disbelief.
That morning, when we were dividing up the areas, I had volunteered to handle the west, where the Hulger Dragons were most numerous, and had just returned.
‘A bit of grinding is a piece of cake.’
It was only natural to discover a monster’s weakness after killing it repeatedly.
On top of that, the ‘specific group’ targeted by the Executioner’s Sword also includes identical monsters.
In truth, even without raiding the nest, if I had set my mind to hunting Hulger Dragons from the moment I entered the dungeon, getting first place wouldn’t have been difficult.
‘But it’s no fun if you just rush through it. No fun at all.’
Aren’t comeback victories, where the tide of the game turns, the most thrilling?
But enough joking around.
I had to clear out the Hulger Dragon nest sooner or later anyway, so I just took care of it while I was at it.
After finishing the calorie bar, I climbed down from the tree.
“Of course. Who do you take me for? If they don’t believe me, they can go check the corpses themselves.”
When I glanced at the Hunters who had been stealing looks at me, they used the Hulger Dragons deeper inside as an excuse to move away.
“Impressive. Your growth rate is truly unbelievable. Do you receive some kind of special favor from a god?”
The Aria Guild had Hunters who served various gods.
In fact, the proportion of Hunters serving lesser-known gods was quite significant, comparable to those who served major deities.
Just because a major god had many followers didn’t necessarily mean it was better.
A smaller number of followers meant, in other words, that there was less internal competition.
‘Though that also depends on which god it is.’
I didn’t know the details, but I knew Park Si-woo was one such case.
There was no reason for me to explain all that to Min Seong-taek.
“Something like that.”
Cutting the conversation short, I quickly scanned the dungeon.
Perhaps due to the massive Hulger Dragon hunt over the past few days, their numbers had clearly decreased.
‘It should be about time for it to make a move.’
As evening approached, the Hunters began to return to the temporary base camp one by one.
Inside the tent, six Hunters, including myself, were seated.
I suggested to the other Hunters the possibility that there might be no boss.
Since everyone had combed through the dungeon right after entering for the zero-sum game, they reacted positively to my opinion.
This was because the Cockatrice wasn’t a monster that left its farm, and not a single Fire-Light Rat had been seen for days.
“I thought bossless dungeons were something that only happened in lower ranks. Setting that aside, how did the vanguard team fail then?”
“Probably because of the Lindwurm.”
Ju Seo-hye, who had been listening with her legs crossed, interjected.
During the Aria Guild’s meeting, Park Si-woo had mentioned the Lindwurm in quite some detail.
“The Lindwurm? Isn’t that thing an outlier?”
When it came to A-Rank dungeons, various variables were bound to arise.
The Cockatrice Farm was a relatively well-controlled dungeon compared to others of the same difficulty.
The key point was that, unlike other underground prisons, you could clear the dungeon without having to deal with every single monster inside.
This was possible because the so-called reward quests weren’t mandatory; the exit gate would open once the main objective was achieved.
“That’s only under normal circumstances. Right now, we don’t even know the clear objective.”
“From what I know, it rarely leaves its cave…”
Most Hunters who clear the Cockatrice Farm proceed with the raid while ignoring the Lindwurm.
The creature resides in a cave and rarely engages in combat unless attacked first.
Defeating it wasn’t essential to clearing the dungeon.
If I had to describe it, it felt like a sub-boss.
A sub-boss that was practically on the same level as the main boss.
In a situation where they coexisted, respecting each other’s territory, what if one of them suddenly disappeared?
“It’s not impossible.”
Having heard the entire conversation, Han Jong-ho crossed his arms and nodded.
I’m the leader, so why are you sitting in the middle acting all important?
The first expedition was a simple failure.
The second failed due to internal conflict, which caused the boss to turn into a thought-form.
The third failed because the Lindwurm took the place of the vanished Cockatrice, and they couldn’t handle it.
It seemed the cause of defeat was that when forming the team for the third expedition, Park Si-woo hadn’t calculated the possibility that the Cockatrice might be gone.
“Starting tomorrow, we’ll search the caves where the Lindwurm is likely to be.”
Again, I’m the leader, so why are you the one striking a pose and making decisions?
I cut off Han Jong-ho, who had already made a decision on his own.
“No, we’re going to continue hunting the Hulger Dragons.”
“Now that we know the Lindwurm is the problem, isn’t it right to find it first?”
“Why do you think the vanguard failed? They were ruined because all the Hulger Dragons swarmed them while they were fighting the Lindwurm.”
Individually, Hulger Dragons aren’t that powerful, but they’re incredibly annoying in a group.
If a swarm of Hulger Dragons were to crawl up from underfoot while fighting the Lindwurm, it would be absolute chaos.
Wiping out the Hulger Dragons for the past few days was all in preparation for taking on the Lindwurm.
“You bastard! How dare you question Team Leader Han’s opinion…”
“Enough. He is the team’s leader right now. So, what’s your plan?”
“We are going to hunt the Lindwurm. I never said we wouldn’t. It’s just that getting ambushed isn’t my hobby.”
We are the hunters who hunt monsters, not the other way around.
“Meaning?”
“We lure it to a designated point. That should make the hunt a little easier, right?”
“That’s easy to say, but do you think it will move as we intend?”
The Lindwurm was a large monster.
Being able to deal with a monster after making full preparations would be ideal for any Hunter, but it wasn’t as easy as it sounded.
It meant that unless there was a special advantage, considering the damage that could be incurred while luring it, fighting it on the spot was far more beneficial.
That wasn’t wrong, either.
But I decided to concede a point here.
“Fine. What if there’s a way to lure it without taking any damage? No complaints then, right?”
“If such an efficient method even exists…”
The Hunters inside the tent looked at each other with doubtful expressions.
Have these guys been scammed their whole lives?
“Let’s hear this method of yours first.”
I answered as if it were nothing.
“Well, monsters get hungry too, you know?”