Fifteenth Floor
I gave my porter a calm order.
“Come on. Hurry up and collect the loot. We still have a long way to go.”
At my words, Na Hyeji looked at the pile of blood-soaked corpses, then back at me.
Then she looked at the corpse pile again, then back at me.
Her long, flowing hair kept fluttering around, making her look even more frazzled.
With a dazed expression, she asked, “Me?”
“Yep.”
“You mean I do it?”
“Yep.”
“Why?”
“Well... because you’re the porter?”
Just how much did she not want to touch this stuff? Na Hyeji had slipped into a full three-part speech pattern.
Still, I couldn’t blame her.
“What kind of hunter is supposed to pick loot out of this bloody sludge...?”
“This one, apparently.”
“You’re insane...”
Normally, goblins killed by ordinary hunters still looked relatively intact.
At worst, they’d taken a sword stab to the neck or belly and died there.
Picking loot from those corpses wasn’t all that hard.
Compared to that, the corpses killed by my Fireball magic were a complete nightmare.
Their bodies had been shredded to pieces, the remains smeared with entrails and brain matter, the whole area little more than a sea of blood.
If she was going to dig loot out from under all that blood and meat, it was basically an archaeological excavation.
Of course she’d hate it.
But then again, was this what they called an ultra-diligent top student from Korea University?
“Ugh... uuuugh...”
Even as her face went black with misery, Hyeji forced out her hand and grabbed a goblin dagger from deep inside the corpse pile.
-Splat.
The sound effect made it seem like she’d just fished something out of mud.
Her face drained white all over again.
“What is this!!! What is this!!!”
“Weird texture, right? You’ll get used to it if you keep at it. Don’t worry.”
“It’s slippery, and squishy, and warm... ugh! Bleh! Gah!”
Hyeji gagged and still, somehow, kept stuffing loot into the sack.
Splat, splat. Her hands disappeared beneath the filth as the wet, disgusting sounds echoed out.
With tears in her eyes, she said, “Jiye never told me it was like this...!”
“Of course she didn’t. My sister doesn’t know I climb the Tower this way.”
“If I’d known, I never would’ve taken a porter job... You bastard! You absolute bastard...!”
She was swearing now, so she must’ve been really pissed.
Well, I got it. I really did.
I’d swear like that every single time I had to gather loot, too.
I shrugged and watched her work. Once she’d more or less finished sorting things out, I immediately started walking again.
“Come on. Keep up. We’re going to be a little busy.”
* * *
There were about three hundred goblins total on the fifteenth floor.
Around two hundred regular goblins.
Roughly eighty goblin archers.
About twenty goblin warriors.
All of them were split into small groups of around ten and scattered at regular intervals.
In other words, all I had to do was stroll along and toss a Fireball every time I spotted an enemy group.
-KWA-BOOOOOM!
The explosion tore through the air, and more than a dozen goblins were erased in an instant.
Fragments of goblin bodies scattered everywhere. A burst of blood mist splashed out. The smell of iron brushed my nose.
Na Hyeji was stunned.
“W-Wait. You wiped out a group with goblin warriors in it all at once...!”
Goblin Warrior.
For Easies, a wall of wailing misery; for Normals, a trial by fire. A goblin elite monster.
Even if five Easies rushed one, a safe victory wasn’t guaranteed.
You needed at least a party with Normals in it before you could even hope for a somewhat stable win against them.
And I’d just wiped out a group that included goblin warriors with a single Fireball.
It was only natural that Hyeji was shocked.
But the shock didn’t last long.
“Ugh...! Gah! Bleh!”
“Hang in there, hang in there! You can do it, Hyeji. Don’t let loot beat you!”
“Shut up, will you? Bleh...!”
She had to rummage through the corpse pile and put her own stomach to the test all over again.
She looked pitiful, bent over the corpses and gagging as she worked.
But that was that.
“I want to quit... this is way too much. Let’s just disband the party and go back.”
“That’s impossible. Kicking out the porter and having the whole party spiral into regret, misery, and obsession is the cliché these days. I will never, ever kick you out, Hyeji, so relax.”
“I’m not talking about being kicked out, I’m saying I’m leaving???”
“Once a porter, always a porter! Bravo, porter! Lai-lai cha-cha-cha! Hey, pa-pa-papaya!”
“Y-You insane lunatic...”
“In suffering and in joy, let us love the porter life!”
As long as she was my porter, she was never getting away!
Given that I had a hard time accepting other hunters so easily, Na Hyeji was almost the only hunter I could truly trust.
Only Hyeji could be my porter.
If I didn’t have Hyeji, I’d have to personally pick up every single one of those damn loot drops again, wouldn’t I?
There was no way in hell that was happening.
“All right! Let’s keep going!”
“Ugh...”
So I led from the front, while Hyeji shambled along behind me, and together we kept deleting goblin groups without much trouble.
-KWA-BOOOOOM!
-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWAAANG!
-KWAANG!
Every time we ran into a goblin group, I tossed out a Fireball.
“Hyeji, your bag looks kind of heavy. Want to split the load?”
“Forget the bag. Please just pick up the loot for me. I can’t get the smell of blood out of my hands...”
“Can’t do that.”
“You bastard...”
I soothed and cajoled the whining, cursing Hyeji while making her keep scavenging the loot.
For the record, I carried a bag too.
About halfway through, she’d started wobbling under the weight, so I figured we should split the burden a little.
Of course, the loot collection itself was entirely Hyeji’s job, and I was only carrying the bag she handed me.
Anyway, we kept moving forward, wiping out goblin groups as we went.
“Oh. The escape portal.”
Before I knew it, we’d reached the final area of the fifteenth floor: the escape portal.
A satisfied smile spread across my face.
That was a very pleasant run.
Even after the clear, not a single drop of blood was on my hands. Clean as a whistle.
No, seriously—could Tower raiding really be this comfortable?
Remarkable.
I grinned and looked over at Hyeji.
“Good work, Hyeji. See? Portering isn’t so bad, right? Easy, safe, and—just like you were worried—there was absolutely nothing dangerous about it.”
Her condition had been simple when she laid out the terms: “safety.”
I thought I’d fulfilled that faithfully.
After all, not a single living goblin had even managed to get close during the raid.
But at my words—
“It doesn’t feel very safe mentally, though.”
Hyeji answered with a hollow, dead-eyed stare.
Well, I guess that made sense.
Living goblins hadn’t been able to approach us, but she’d spent plenty of time handling dead ones to her heart’s content.
Of course it would be mentally exhausting.
I shrugged and stomped toward the escape portal.
“Then let’s go home and rest.”
“...”
Hyeji staggered after me.
[Baek Jiho (Republic of Korea : Floor 15)]
[You have cleared Floor 15 of the Tower.]
[204 Goblin(1) have been defeated.]
[83 Goblin Archer(2) have been defeated.]
[19 Goblin Warrior(10) have been defeated.]
[Points are being settled.]
[Floor 16 of the Tower has been unlocked.]
[Returning.]
* * *
Right after returning to reality—
“Hyeji! What happened in the Tower?! Your face...”
My sister jumped in shock when she saw Hyeji’s hollow, ghostlike expression.
And who could blame her?
Her face had always been gloomy, but now she looked like a corpse with no life left in it at all.
“J-Jiye...!”
Sniffling miserably, Na Hyeji rushed at my sister and clung to her.
She buried her face in Jiye’s chest and burst into loud, heartbreaking sobs.
“Huuuuuu... Jiye, I had it so hard! Your brother! Your brother! Your brother, that crazy bastard...!”
“What did Jiho do? Hey! Baek Jiho! What the hell did you do to her!”
“Well...”
I scratched my head, looking awkward.
Did I go too far?
I’d been so thrilled at the thought that I’d finally never have to get my hands bloodied myself, maybe I had been a little too harsh.
I’d been pushing her nonstop without even giving her time to get used to it.
But I couldn’t help it.
It was driving me crazy watching her hesitate in front of the corpses.
I’m Korean.
I’m one of the people of hurry-hurry.
I can’t stand dithering in front of work.
Anyway. Now it was time to settle up.
I reached out and took Na Hyeji’s hand.
“I’ll transfer the points first.”
[Please specify the amount of points to transfer to ‘Na Hyeji.’]
[Held points: 560]
“Ten points.”
[10 points have been transferred to ‘Na Hyeji.’]
I transferred a modest ten points.
It wasn’t payment for porter work, but a point transfer for attendance check.
Since Hyeji was a reserve hunter, if she failed to hand over points even for a single day, she’d be detained immediately.
So I had to hand her a little bit at a time like this.
“And the loot...”
“Forget it. Keep it all or do whatever you want with it... I’m going home. I want to sleep right now.”
Staggering, Hyeji got up and shuffled out of the house.
She’d clearly taken a serious hit to the psyche, because she left without even saying goodbye.
I clicked my tongue.
Will she even come tomorrow?
She wasn’t quitting portering, was she?
No way. Surely not. She’d really quit?
At most, all she’d done was dig through corpse piles to collect loot, get chills from the slimy, squishy, slippery feel of guts, have a headache from the reek of blood, and spend the whole time gagging from sheer disgust.
Surely she wouldn’t quit?
...She won’t quit, right?
“Jiho, I think you should start looking for a new porter.”
“...”
“I don’t know what you did, but that reaction screams ‘I’m definitely quitting.’”
My sister seemed to think Hyeji was going to quit.
But no. There was no way.
My porter couldn’t be that irresponsible and quit!
Anyway, Hyeji had gone home too, and there was nothing else to do.
It was time to follow my usual post-raid routine.
“Posting on HunterBoard after a raid is mandatory.”
-Click!
I spread open the sacks and leather bags stuffed with loot and snapped a photo.
Then I wrote a post.
Newbie Hunter finally cleared Floor 15 today.
The floor itself was easy.
The goblins were weak, obviously...
And the goblin warriors were just too flimsy, too.
I just killed everything I saw.
But the corridors were way too long, and the monster groups were spaced out too far apart, so it got a little boring...
Honestly, it would’ve been easier if they’d all clustered together and rushed me at once.
Anyway, today was still a decent haul.
204 goblin daggers, 83 goblin bows, 19 goblin warrior longswords.
And 560 points.
After taxes, the loot alone should come to around 7.57 million won...
With the points added in, that’s 13.17 million won total?
The profits themselves are satisfying, but...
If I’m thinking about time efficiency, maybe farming the Goblin Village on Floor 4 would actually be easier?
Still, that goblin warrior longsword is a total jackpot.
One of those is worth 300,000 won, right?
One longsword earns what ten daggers would.
I hope there are lots of goblin warriors on the next floor lol.
Oh, and I cleared this floor after recruiting a porter.
But how much should I cut the porter in for?
It was just me and the porter on this raid, after all.
Honestly, I did all the fighting and the porter just coasted while picking up items, so giving her half the profit is kind of insane, right?
What percentage do you think is fair?
“Hmm. As expected, the reactions today are as formulaic as ever.”
The comments were the same as always.
Fools who thought I was lying and criticized me without restraint.
In the past, I’d gotten dopamine from reactions like that.
But now that I’d gotten used to it, it barely registered.
Anything fresh for a change?
As I kept checking the comments—
“Seems like a lot of hunters are afraid of goblin warriors.”
Goblin Warrior.
The goblin elite unit that starts appearing from Floor 15 onward.
Looks like a lot of hunters had a rough time with them.
The fear in the comments was practically spilling through the screen.
Pathetic.
They were nothing but goblins, and they were this scared...!
At this rate, I had no choice but to encourage them.
Everyone!
Take courage from my comment!
Don’t be scared of goblins, damn it!
“You cowards. How are you going to handle this rough hunter life if you’re scared of everything...”
I felt sorry for them.
After all, they were only goblins, and yet they were trembling and cowering like that.
While I was replying to each comment one by one—
I spotted one that stood out.
“Oh?”
An eye-opening comment saying I didn’t even have to pay the porter.
Curious, I read more closely.
“Thinking about it, I did bus Hyeji all the way up.”
Only three months remained before the Republic of Korea collapsed.
Low-floor hunters had to get to Floor 11 by any means possible.
That was the only way they could emigrate.
And I could take someone to Floor 11 easily.
With my overwhelming power, I could climb into the middle floors as casually as taking a stroll, even with one porter hanging off me.
If Hyeji had any sense at all, she’d be thinking about emigrating in three months’ time too.
“That reduces the chances of Hyeji running away a bit.”
Even if she just kept working as my porter, she could get to Floor 11 without trouble and emigrate to Japan if the need arose.
If she held out until the twenties, she might even be able to emigrate to Europe or the United States.
I didn’t think she’d quit a porter job just because some corpses were gross.
Wasn’t her own life more important than flinching at a little ugliness right in front of her?
So...
...I can push her a little harder, right?
Heh heh heh.
I smiled wickedly.