Smaneg Guild (1)
Smaneg Guild (1)
The mask of the dead allowed some of the memories of those he had killed to flow in.
A dark room.
Someone was sitting at a small table.
The moonlight streaming through the window made it possible to see under their nose, but not the face above it.
-If you kill a new recruit of Roswen, I will give you a gold coin.
A deep voice.
From this alone, it was hard to tell who the person was.
-Gold.. Spend it. We may be mercenaries, but we're no strangers to killing adventurers, and this one's gold-rated...
-Not enough?
-What I meant was that if you give a little more, I will process it neatly and completely.
-If you clean him up, I'll hire you to take care of the others. I might even pay you more to see that you do a good job.
There were no clues in the conversation.
He looked away.
He glanced at the clothing of the man at the table: a black cloak with leather armor that looked quite luxurious.
-This is the advance payment. I'll give you the rest after you kill him.
A man hands over a sack of money.
The cloak lifts slightly, revealing a small badge on the man's chest.
A black owl symbolizing Magnes.
With that, the memory ended.
"Magnes?"
Redin wondered why they were after him.
If they knew who he was and wanted him, Terry himself would have come for him, not a professional mercenary.
Unless they don't.
He'd send his left or right arm, a real limb, to finish the job.
A professional mercenary.
"Hmm."
It doesn't sound like they knew who he was and were targeting him.
The man's voice was more annoyed than angry.
Magnes.
When he'd experienced the Labyrinth City of the past through the game's hidden quests, there hadn't been much to remember.
Then what.
Why did Magnes come here?
As he calmly mulled it over, an idea came to mind.
The Smaneg Guild.
As part of the criminal organization's efforts to come to the surface, Magnes created a guild in the Labyrinth City, the Smaneg Guild.
After reaching gold rank.
Most of the higher ranked guilds came to him, but now that he think about it, none of them were from the Smaneg guild.
If they had, he would have remembered right away.
Now he realizes it.
"But why did they target me?"
He had no involvement with the Smaneg in Labyrinth City, and yet they sent mercenaries to kill him.
It was also clear from their conversation that this was the case.
That they'd entrust him to deal with others, not just him.
"I'll have to look into it."
It's a bothersome situation to be in, so it's safer to rely on Hedun to figure it out.
With that, he tidied up and moved on.
It's time to make sure that the raiding party Hedun sent is alive and well.
Walking forward, he made his way into the foggy forest.
The fog was growing thicker.
He couldn't see anything.
Keeping his senses as open as possible, he moved slowly, focusing on each detail.
Redin has been walking like that for a while.
"Ah... find...."
"Do.. chil.. hey..."
He heard someone's voice.
Using the ghost walk to hide his presence. As he slowly approached the sound, he could hear the conversation a little more clearly.
"Aren't they all dead?"
"Don't say those stupid things."
One man and one woman.
The face was hidden by the fog.
"I don't know how much time has passed... I can't even see the boss monster, I'll only see him in the afterlife."
"We can't see, so flares won't work, and if we shout, the monsters will come... This is really bad."
"We don't have much food left, and we have to decide what to do."
Redin released the ghost walk and made a sound.
Crunch!
Thud!
As if hearing his footsteps, one of them pulled a sword, and the other began to draw mana.
"Who are you!"
"Stop right there. I'll attack if you get closer."
He stood in place.
“I came from the Roswen Guild.”
"Roswen? I've never heard that voice before. What's your name?"
"I'm Bahad."
"Was there a guy like that? Who are you with?"
The woman's voice sounded doubtful.
"I came alone."
"Ha! You came in here alone? Why?"
"I was asked by Hedun to rescue you."
"What the hell. Roswen's Guild doesn't have a gold rank, that's bullshit. If you're going to lie to me, you should have researched it properly."
He could feel the life draining out of the two of them.
He turned on his heel and ran. At the same time, he drew his sword and swung it wildly in the direction of where he felt the pulse of life.
Clang!
Something was cut.
"Krrrr!"
He saw a blue-furred wolf on the ground. It shuddered, then turned to dust and disappeared into the fog.
But that wasn't the end of it.
He gripped his sword tighter, feeling the pulse of life all around him, and turned to the two guild members behind him.
"First, let's take care of the distraction."
* * *
Perhaps it was the fact that the raid was designed to tackle this dungeon.
They had some skills.
"Is this the end?"
"I think so."
A man named Chen was a mage, and a woman named Ren was a swordswoman. They looked at him and cleared their throats.
"Wow. You're definitely skilled."
He smirked at Ren's compliment.
The wolves he'd killed were more than double what those two had taken.
"Let's get moving."
"How can we move, in this foggy forest?"
"We'll find the others and get out of the dungeon."
He pulled out the Watcher's Eye from his waistband.
Even if he couldn't see anything immediately, the ability to detect people was important.
After all,
Through the fog, he could see red.
Setting his sights on the two closest to him, he turned his watcher's eyes back to his waist.
"Let's go."
"What do you see through the telescope in the fog?"
"He looks like something special."
"Heh.."
"If you don't follow me, I'll assume you don't want to live and leave you behind."
He started walking.
Chen and Ren followed on their own.
The Watcher's eyes sensed the location of the target, and when they arrived, they found the three guild members gathered there.
"Ren? Chen? You're alive."
"What the hell. If I was this close, I'd just scream."
"I know."
It's nice to share the aftermath.
It doesn't matter if they go out.
"I'll move right away."
He moved, targeting the next person with his Watcher's Eye, and so on, until he had gathered everyone he could see.
"You guys survived, huh?"
"I can't believe I have to see your stupid face again, this is awful."
"This idiot?"
"All quiet. We haven't cleared the dungeon yet. We're checking to make sure no one's missing and reorganizing our supplies."
The man who appeared to be the captain approached.
"I'm Milo, the raid leader."
Milo took the outstretched hand.
"Bahad."
"If it wasn't for you... we wouldn't have gotten back together like this, so thank you so much."
"You don't have to be so grateful, I just came in to take on the dungeon."
After shaking hands.
Milo cut to the chase.
"Ren told me you're a gold-ranked adventurer... did you really come in alone?"
"Yeah."
"So do you have any supplies or anything like that..."
Redin hadn't thought of that.
It doesn't matter because it's not a big deal.
"I'll have you out of here in a minute."
"What the..."
"Can you ask the mage in the group to use fire magic to clear the fog once?"
Milo hesitated for a moment, then said, "I see," and walked over to where the raid team was and gave the mages instructions.
Two of the mages gave him a dubious look, but at the command of the raid leader, they began to chant.
"Huuu..."
He relaxed, and unsheathed his sword.
"Fire Will!"
"Fire Will!"
"Wind Field!"
Whoosh!
Huge blasts of fire and wind from the two magic circles mixed together and spread in all directions.
The dense fog slowly dissipated.
The dungeon's true appearance began to reveal itself. There were trees all around, and a huge road.
A road to the north.
At the end of it was a huge lake.
There was a small island in the lake, and on it a huge wolf was sleeping with its eyes closed.
"What! It was so close!"
"You mean we've been going through all this trouble because we couldn't find it?"
There's not much of a reason why they couldn't find the dungeon. If they had cleared the fog, they would have seen the location of the boss monster.
The mages are responsible for a lot of the firepower in the raid, and they were trying to conserve that power.
He can understand that.
"Stay here and I'll quickly clean it up."
Leaving the group behind, he rushed over to the giant wolf.
Sniff.
The wolf sniffed and opened its eyes.
It was a grotesque thing, with multiple pupils clustered together in one eye.
"Grrrrrrr...."
As he stared at the wolf, fur standing on end and wary, he remembered the corrupted elf swordsman he'd fought earlier.
There was a problem with that battle.
A gale slash involving a single swipe of the sword is more limited than he thought.
What can he do to compensate for this?
These are things he'll be exploring over the course of this battle.
"So I hope you can hold out for a long time."
* * *
The Roswen Guild Office.
"Home!"
"We're back!"
"Let's get cleaned up and go get a cold beer."
Hedun looked at the surviving members of the raid and breathed a sigh of relief.
"I'm glad to see you all back."
"Hedun, this new guild member is really fucking terrifying."
Ren gave him a twin slap, and next to him, Chen nodded in respect.
"A big fucking wolf was about to bite him on the head, and then he disappeared with a whoosh, and the wolf flew away."
"He fought for a while, but it was more like playing tag than making a fierce battle, wasn't it?"
"Yeah, that's right, damn it, where did you get him from... Sir Bahad, we're having dinner tonight, are you joining us?"
Ren walked up to Bahad and clapped him on the shoulder, the corner of his mouth twitching upward. Then Bahad slapped Ren's arm and laughed.
"I don't drink with people who are weaker than me."
"What?"
"Hahaha. There comes a time when even Ren looks bad."
"Don't laugh!"
As Bahad approached, Hedun bowed slightly in gratitude.
"Thank you."
"I've had enough of those posturing."
Hedun gave him an odd smile.
"If you need anything, just ask."
"There's one thing I'd like to ask you about that."
"Go ahead."
"It's a sword about elbow length, and it looks like...."
Hedun nodded, mulling over Bahad's description in his mind.
"I'll see if I can find it."
"And."
Bahad, whispered quietly in Hedun's ear.
"The Smaneg guild came to kill me. Can you look into that as well?"
"Smaneg... I see."
"Then, please take care of the next dungeon."
** ** **
TL/N:
1. The word 스마네그 "seumanegu". It refers to a Korean term used to describe a type of electronic dance music that emerged in South Korea. Though if you reword the Smaneg Guild you get Magnes Guild.