Chapter 114
Chapter 114
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 114
Chapter Title: Reinforcements Arrive
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KABOOOM-!
Do-jae shot forward at incredible speed, tearing through the air.
A hundred meters in one second?
No, it felt like less than a second.
In just three seconds, Do-jae leaped nearly a kilometer, escaping the monster horde.
He then immediately opened his subspace and pulled out only the golems.
"Hoo… Hoo…."
Was it because he'd explosively drawn out all his mana at once?
A wave of fatigue, heavier than expected, washed over him.
Still, the mana consumption wasn't severe. It was a far better choice than getting trapped in the horde and wasting mana repairing the golems.
‘Are they already swarming me…’
As soon as Do-jae escaped the horde over there, monsters from this area began to gather.
One monster, in particular, made Do-jae frown.
‘The Shademan…’
Shademen, which changed their skin color like chameleons to launch surprise attacks, were even trickier when mixed in with other monsters.
But more than that, he'd been extremely reluctant to face Shademen ever since his encounter with the third Ascetic, Haydn.
Haydn had asked him to kill the Shademen cleanly, but now that he knew they possessed reason, he didn't want to encounter the species at all.
Wasn't that why he had deliberately ignored the Gray Elves on the 4th floor and the High Elves on the 5th?
‘Is there no other choice…’
However, he could avoid the elves only because he was overwhelmingly stronger than them. The Shademen were too powerful a species to simply ignore.
Shing-.
Do-jae drew the Black Scale.
He planned to leave the other monsters to his golems and deal with the Shademen himself.
He considered it the least he could do out of respect for Haydn.
Thud-.
Shhhk-!
No matter how well a Shademan hid its body, it couldn't hide its mana.
Do-jae read the Shademen's forms not with his eyes, but with the aura of a golem, killing them one by one.
All he could do was kill them quickly, in a single blow, so they wouldn't even know how they died.
Pshk-!
Shunk-!
Do-jae weaved through the monsters, picking off only the Shademen.
Soon, dozens of Shademen and medium-sized monsters lay at Do-jae's feet. Because he had focused solely on the Shademen, he had sustained minor cuts and bruises from the other monsters.
- Master! I feel human mana!
Magol said, suddenly turning around.
That direction led to the sixth pit, which connected to the 6th floor far in the distance.
"I just felt it too."
Only after concentrating on Magol's words could he sense the presence of five humans.
With its high Spirit stat, Magol was so adept at detecting human mana that it had noticed them before Do-jae.
"All of you, get into the subspace for now."
At Do-jae's command, all 104 golems vanished into the subspace, and he slowly advanced toward the pit's entrance.
Five men and women slowly came into view.
Among them, two men who stood out were hunting a monster.
Fwoooosh-!
As a monster resembling a hippopotamus spewed a massive torrent of fire from its mouth, a man wielding a large two-handed sword spun it like a windmill.
The wind generated by the sword blocked the flames, and in that opening, a large man behind him muttered something. Frost formed on the monster's body, and it began to freeze.
Soon, its torso was frozen so solid it looked white. The man with the two-handed sword then sliced off the immobilized monster's head with a single stroke.
Not a single drop of blood spilled, as if it had been frozen solid to the core.
‘Are those two the S-ranks?’
Do-jae walked slowly toward them.
They seemed to have noticed him approaching and started walking his way.
Moreover, they seemed to already know who he was.
Tatatatat-!
"Are you Lee Do-jae?"
The large man ran over with long strides and asked, a look of surprise on his face.
"How come you ain't got a single scratch on ya?"
He looked down at Do-jae from his great height, scanning him up and down before rubbing his bushy beard.
The other four who arrived shortly after also couldn't hide their surprise at seeing Do-jae in such a pristine condition, unlike themselves.
"Are you Mr. Lee Do-jae, by any chance?"
The first to speak was a woman who appeared to be in her late thirties.
When Do-jae nodded, she gave a bright smile and introduced herself.
"Hello, I'm Song Jeong-eun, Director of the External Support Division at the Hunter Association. It's an honor to meet you."
"I'm Lee Do-jae."
He knew this monster-infested place wasn't the right setting for friendly greetings, but perhaps it was due to the presence of the two S-rank hunters.
The thought of having such powerful allies allowed Do-jae to relax.
"Bang Han-soo, Commander of the 7th Division."
"Park Kang-ju of the Dawn Guild."
Do-jae shook hands with the other two, baffled by the incredible lineup.
‘The Association Director, a Division Commander, and the Dawn Guild Master. And on top of that, those two... with this combination, they couldn't fail any dungeon.’
The remaining two men were also faces Do-jae knew well.
No, if you didn't know those two in South Korea, you'd be considered a spy.
How could anyone not know the S-rank hunters Gwak Ji-hyeok and Kim Se-hoon?
"The name's Gwak Ji-hyeok."
"Kim Se-hoon. I heard the story on the way here. The birth of another S-rank, huh. Congratulations. Any interest in joining Great Tiger?"
"What's this? Scoutin' him right off the bat? How 'bout our Taebaek Guild? A hundred, no, a thousand times better than Great Tiger."
Scouting offers from the number one and number three guilds in South Korea.
And they were offers made by the guild masters themselves.
With this, Do-jae had now received scouting offers from the 1st, 3rd, and 7th ranked guilds, Manseong included.
"I'm sorry, but I must respectfully decline."
Do-jae said, shaking his head.
Then he spoke with a faint smile.
"More importantly, in your current state, I doubt you could introduce yourselves as guild masters anywhere. How long have you all been here? Have you eaten?"
At Do-jae's question, they looked at each other, bewildered.
Ignoring them, Do-jae turned and opened his subspace next to the fallen monster.
***
"Th... this is incredible."
The five Awoken stared in awe at the house made of golems.
Having returned to the 5th floor, they entered a slightly more spacious structure, built with more golems than the one Do-jae had used for resting.
With a camping table placed in the middle, the six of them, including Do-jae, sat on a mix of chairs and cots.
"How have you been managing for food? Looking at your bags, it doesn't seem like you've been eating proper meals."
Do-jae glanced at the backpack Gwak Ji-hyeok was wearing.
Gwak Ji-hyeok's massive frame made the backpack look even smaller, but even so, it wasn't a very large bag.
Likewise, the others were only carrying small bags, barely bigger than handbags.
"It's not like we need fancy meals. Energy bars and water are enough."
Bang Han-soo said, opening his bag to show its contents.
Just as he said, it contained only several energy bars and three bottles of water.
"Still, you two are the masters of major guilds... don't you have an inventory?"
At that, Kim Se-hoon took out a small pouch from inside his coat.
He turned it upside down and emptied it onto the floor, and all sorts of miscellaneous items tumbled out.
Potions, a first-aid kit, a sword, armor, various tools, and so on.
There was nothing that could be called food in Kim Se-hoon's inventory either.
"It's not that kind of convenient inventory."
Having the incredible skill Subspace, Do-jae had forgotten that an inventory wasn't an item that stored things in a separate dimension.
It was an item that connected two points in real space, pulling out everything inside at once.
Because of that, people rarely stored food in inventories. If they did, it was usually for massive dungeons, like field-type ones, where a whole guild would pack supplies together.
"And the Taebaek Guild Master..."
Do-jae asked, turning to Gwak Ji-hyeok this time.
From the way he immediately averted his gaze, it was clear Gwak Ji-hyeok didn't even have an inventory.
In truth, Gwak Ji-hyeok wasn't the type to bother with things like inventories.
He didn't use a separate weapon in the first place and had such great pride in his own body that he believed going without food for a few days was no big deal.
"That ain't the problem. What's with what me and the Director are wearin'?"
"Kekekeke...."
Park Kang-ju had been snickering for a while now, all because of Gwak Ji-hyeok's and Song Jeong-eun's peculiar outfits.
Why peculiar? Because their clothes were otherworldly garments that Do-jae had given them.
"What's wrong with them? They're new and nice. They look like the traditional attire of some remote tribe. They're surprisingly comfortable, I like them. Where did you get clothes like these?"
To be specific, the clothes of Salreuta, which held Gellahan's power, went to Gwak Ji-hyeok, and those of Sarieta, the chief of the Nightingale Woods, went to Song Jeong-eun.
"My apologies to the Taebaek Guild Master and the Director. Those were the only clothes I had that would fit you."
Kim Se-hoon, Park Kang-ju, and Bang Han-soo didn't have vastly different body types from Do-jae, so he was fortunately able to give them some spare clothes he carried.
In fact, Gwak Ji-hyeok and Song Jeong-eun should have been grateful that Do-jae had clean clothes in a size that even remotely fit them.
"Hoo. More importantly, could you tell me what the current situation is? I haven't been able to communicate with the outside world since the 4th floor."
Do-jae asked as he took out some ready-to-eat meals that only needed to be heated and started preparing them.
"Yes. We also entered on the third day of the dungeon break, so we don't know what's happened since, but the Hunter Administration has currently observed a Class 1 monster. For now, they're calling it a Class 1, but there's a very high chance it's a named monster. The outside world is preparing for it by preemptively subjugating monsters with the support of numerous Suppression Corps and guilds."
Song Jeong-eun replied, helping with the food preparation.
Do-jae took out disposable spoons and chopsticks, handed them out, and they began to eat.
Gwak Ji-hyeok, like Do-jae, had been down in the pit since the first day, so this was his first proper meal in four days.
"The Director and I haven't been in here for long, and the guild masters of Taebaek and Great Tiger also descended slowly with their guild members. But Vice Guild Master Lee Do-jae, have you been fighting monsters continuously since the first day to reach the 7th floor?"
Bang Han-soo asked in a serious tone.
"Yes, that's right."
"In that case, I'd personally like to suggest we rest here for about three or four hours before heading back down to the 7th floor."
"I'm fine. My stamina isn't so low that I need to..."
"No. If we're facing a named monster, you'll need me, no matter how strong you are. There's a healing spell I want to complete before we hunt the Class 1 monster. It will take about three hours, so please give me that time."
At Bang Han-soo's words, Gwak Ji-hyeok crossed his arms and nodded.
Everyone knew full well the importance of a healer, so no one would object when that healer said he wanted to complete an important spell.
"Let's do that! Division Commander, we're countin' on ya!"
With Gwak Ji-hyeok's words, they each began to pass the time.
This was the 5th floor.
None of them were weak enough to be threatened by the Class 4 or 5 monsters here.