Chapter 91
Chapter 91
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 91
Chapter Title: [S Funds]
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To change the mood, Seol Doyun took Dun to a quiet café in the capital of the Licht Empire.
There was a wide variety of desserts, but he didn't order a single one—just a mild tea and a coffee.
[Exclusive Auction Hosting Contract]
"So, you're saying you'll handle the venue, location, packaging, staff, and everything else whenever I hold an auction?"
"Yeah."
Seol Doyun gave a half-hearted reply, his feelings a bit hurt.
He'd originally wanted to manage all the quests himself, but he decided to let go of that greed when it came to this guy.
For now, it was enough that he could exclusively provide the auction's location, venue, and date to people in advance.
The tea he was sipping suddenly tasted incredibly bitter.
Dun skimmed through the contract and signed it. It all looked fine overall.
Seol Doyun wasn't the type to slip in weird clauses unless he was deliberately trying to provoke someone.
"You're heading off to get the contract stamped right now?"
Seol Doyun took Dun's signed contract and took a sip of his tea.
"Yeah. You suddenly tracking me down threw everything out of order, but honestly, I was planning to recruit you while picking up the stamp anyway."
Seol Doyun grimaced as he recalled the plan that was now useless.
"How were you planning to recruit me?"
"The emperor must have heard the rumors about Princess Primavera gathering an adventurer army, since you're close to her. So I was going to get the stamp in exchange for assembling an adventurer force for him."
"And then use that emperor's adventurer army to recruit me?"
Seol Doyun nodded.
He had been planning to hand over the emperor's adventurer army to Dun as a condition of the contract.
He hadn't been fully confident it would work, so he'd prepared several other options too.
"Aren't you logged out of the game now? How are you going to gather an adventurer army?"
"I'm not telling you the details."
Seol Doyun had already convinced major guild leaders he'd collected online through dungeons conquest rights and various other methods.
As soon as he finished the contract with Dun, Seol Doyun packed up and stood from his seat.
"I'll assign a handler to you soon. From now on, just send a quest notification to them whenever you want to hold an auction. You pick the auction house location too. Any other questions?"
"So what happens to the adventurer army?"
It was a great way to sow confusion in the emperor's internal forces. Planting a decoy army within the emperor's troops didn't sound like a bad idea.
He wondered how Seol Doyun planned to recruit him, and it turned out he'd put some real thought into it. The offer was awfully tempting.
If he didn't hand over that army, it would just become an enemy force—a double-edged sword.
"Once I get the emperor's stamp, won't it just become his army as is?"
"You're sulking because I didn't sign the exclusive contract?"
Seol Doyun let out a small chuckle at Dun's question about sulking. He leaned his head toward Dun and whispered softly.
"Typical you—provoking me while slyly trying to walk away with the adventurer army too?"
Seol Doyun pulled his head back, smiled, and took the pen he'd been using out of his pocket.
He dipped the dry nib into his tea to moisten it, shook off the excess.
He stood the pen tip upright and scribbled guild names on the table napkin before setting it down.
"Do whatever you want with them. Turn them into allies or leave them as enemies."
"Oh..."
Before leaving the café, Seol Doyun gave Dun one last lingering look.
Maybe because he'd grown up in a different environment, he seemed a bit calmer than this thug-raised Isa-byeok.
He looked more relaxed, too—and that made him seem somehow sharper.
A different side of Isa-byeok. It felt refreshingly novel.
But having two kids like Isa-byeok around would just complicate life further, so he didn't want to clash with her too often.
"I still haven't figured out exactly why you need me so badly, but once I do, I'll come find you myself. Until then, I'm busy, so don't force it."
"Sure."
Dun watched Seol Doyun's back as he headed out of the café.
Information on soul contracts, everything he was scheming with Prim right now. He knew it all.
Dun had assumed he'd investigated him, but he hadn't expected him to know every little detail.
Just how much did he know, from start to finish?
The bell jingled as Seol Doyun stepped outside.
Dun stared at the paper he'd left behind, downed his diluted coffee in one go, and left a moment later.
* * *
Isa-byeok stared blankly at the kid trailing sleepily beside her, even younger than herself.
"What are you?"
"I'm Fran."
"That's not what I meant—what are you doing in the dungeon?"
Fran gazed at Isa-byeok with sparkling eyes now that she was up close.
"I got lost wandering around, hehe."
Fran grinned brightly in front of the boss monster room.
Isa-byeok, who was clearing the dungeon, had been puzzled by the little NPC kid following her—but she hadn't expected it to tail her all the way to the boss room.
"Get lost."
Isa-byeok gestured shoo with her sheathed sword slung over her shoulder.
"I'm scared—can't I stay with big sis?"
"No, you can't."
As the kid tried to follow her into the boss room, Isa-byeok lifted her foot.
And kicked Fran straight out of the room.
Fran, who hadn't expected to get kicked, blinked in a daze.
It felt like she'd been hit hard, but strangely, it didn't hurt. It was more like she'd been scooped up by the foot and tossed out in an instant.
It was a bizarre kind of kick.
"Fuck off, I said."
At the same time, a heavy vibration shook the floor, separating the boss room from the outside.
Even in such an intense quake that could throw off anyone's balance, Isa-byeok slightly bent her waist and knees to maintain a stable stance.
[High Monster] Furious Leech Matriarch
Level: 28
Race: Leech
The leech writhed its slimy body, then yanked out sharp spines from its flesh and launched them.
Isa-byeok sheathed her sword, then spun the whole scabbard to lightly deflect the spines.
The leech deformed its body to use the spines like limbs, swinging a sharp, massive spine arm toward Isa-byeok's gut.
'!!! That looks kinda dangerous!'
Prim, who had been following Isa-byeok intending to help clear the dungeon, spectated the boss room's interior with magic.
Who knew what she'd been up to in the real adventurer world—her movements were precise and vicious.
KABOOM!
The leech's spine, which seemed poised to pierce Isa-byeok's stomach, inflicted no damage and embedded in the wall.
In that instant, Isa-byeok twisted her waist backward in a freakishly flexible dodge of what looked like an unavoidable attack.
'Whoa... is she an invertebrate?'
Prim's jaw dropped at Isa-byeok's agility and flexibility as she bent her waist 180 degrees to evade.
With her body flipped, Isa-byeok slammed the floor hard, then tensed her arms and lifted her legs onto the spine.
She mounted the spine in a pose as if riding it back instead of letting it retract, stabbed her sword to anchor herself, then pressed her body flush against it.
The leech urgently retracted its spine.
Isa-byeok launched into the air from the recoil. While airborne, she spotted the eye that looked like the leech's weak point.
Midair direction changes were child's play for her.
She spun her body to harness rotational force and adjust her landing angle. Amid it all, she properly gripped her sword.
Landing near the massive leech's eye, Isa-byeok immediately crouched and dashed forward.
[Acquired skill, [Recoil Jump Lv. 1].]
[Acquired skill, [Flexible Evasion Lv. 1].]
[Acquired skill, [Aerial Aim Lv. 1].]
....
All the myriad techniques Isa-byeok had honed in reality began converting into skills and filling her skill window.
The system, unable to parse the rapid motions in real-time, spat out delayed notifications all at once.
A barrage of sudden alerts might fluster anyone, but Isa-byeok never took her eyes off her target.
SHLUNK!
Isa-byeok swung her sword wildly before slamming it hard into the leech's eye.
With the sword lodged in the eye, she hoisted her foot high over her head and stomped the hilt. The eye burst open.
Isa-byeok burrowed deeper into the monster's flesh, embedding the sword further, then stomped down hard again with her foot.
Critical hit.
In its death throes, the monster spewed blood violently in all directions, coating Isa-byeok.
[Defeated a High Monster at minimum level!]
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
[Acquired title, [Skill Developer]!]
[Acquired title, [Min-Level High Monster Killer]!]
....
Isa-byeok stared blankly at the endless notifications from this single dungeon clear while shaking a clean potion over her head.
With 100% pain tolerance, the sensation of the monster's blood drenching her felt eerily real.
But the refreshing cleanse as the potion washed it away felt vividly real too—not bad at all.
Isa-byeok whistled at the pile of items on the floor.
No party meant it was all hers. She leisurely looted them and swapped in better gear.
[Player: Isa-byeok]
Level: 14
Class: Adventurer
It had been 10 earlier; taking down that boss bumped her up 4 levels.
Aside from the weird nausea she kept getting, things were off to a smooth start.
She had plenty of dungeon conquest rights from Seol Doyun, so she could just smash through them one by one until awakening.
Isa-byeok shook out her wet hair and exited the boss room.
"Ha... you really..."
"Whoa, what the fuck."
As soon as she stepped out, Fran stared at her with eyes smitten by love.