S-Rank Dungeon Raid Cooperation Request (2)
A few more days had passed since Arin's graduation.
Lately, Flame Guild had been in a stir that reached well beyond the field teams. Even the administrative staff at headquarters were restless.
"An S-Rank dungeon raid — is the raid team really going to cooperate on that?"
"That's what I heard. That's why the field team people have already been running themselves ragged."
The voices of the operations staff drifted over as I passed down the corridor on my way in. Then the women among them spotted me and called out.
"Morning, Minsu!"
"Good morning! You've been working so hard! I heard you were incredible on the recent intern raids?"
"No, it wasn't anything special."
"Oh, stop being modest. I heard from friends at other guilds — Flame's interns were the only ones who walked away with that kind of reward money. All thanks to you, I bet? Anyway, have a good day!"
"Ah. Yes."
I returned the greeting with a brief dip of my head. I was still an intern, and they were full employees — but even among people who all belonged to Flame, there was a difference in standing between the raid team and the office staff.
The money the raid team brings in is Flame's primary revenue, after all.
Of course, processing those dungeon rewards and getting them sold required the office staff just as much, and Yuri, as Guild Master, never treated ordinary administrative employees as lesser. But in a society where hunters were objects of both fear and awe, Flame's office staff looked at the raid team the same way. The existing raid members were naturally figures of admiration — and after the recent performances, even the interns were being received with conspicuous warmth.
It's a little much.
The younger women on staff, in particular, had taken to acting as if we were already acquainted. They must have looked over the intern program evaluations and reports; just like a moment ago, they would come out of their way to speak to me, then drift off again.
Well. The intern program hasn't gone badly, at least.
Starting from that first intern raid dispatch, I had participated in three intern raids in total. The other two had ended the same way the first one had: an overwhelming first place. Aside from the interns of a major corporate guild like Manseong, the ones from other guilds had shown up halfheartedly — but for me, it mattered. An intern dispatch evaluation was the grounds on which an intern could be allowed onto missions beyond the program. And a mission beyond the program meant working alongside Flame's elite raid party.
I figured a raid cooperation request would come to Flame around this time.
And that guess had not been wrong.
This S-Rank cooperation request had been a major event in the original story as well. Si-woo's guild, Justice, had first made a real name for itself by clearing an S-Rank dungeon.
It was never an ordinary dungeon.
An S-Rank gate had formed north of Paju, in Korea, and the dungeon built on that gate was extremely dangerous.
It was discovered a little later than in the original story. But it's unmistakably that dungeon.
S-Rank dungeons rarely formed on Korean soil. Ordinarily the Association found them first and eliminated them. This one, however, had appeared relatively recently and expanded its influence at a frightening speed. In Kaesong — the ruined ghost city that had once belonged to North Korea — a gate that had been lying concealed had erupted with miasma in a matter of moments, and the dungeon had been born from that blast.
Of all places, it was not far from the metropolis of Seoul. The Association had therefore decided to erase the dungeon as quickly as possible, and an official request for cooperation had come down to Flame as a result.
In the original story, Si-woo succeeded in the raid. So for Flame, too...
That made this a critical fork in the road for Flame Guild as well. This was no ordinary dungeon. It had also been a testing ground for Red Lake.
Unlike Si-woo, though, I was still only an intern at Flame. There was a real chance I would not be allowed to take part in the assault on a high-grade dungeon like an S-Rank.
Not only at the Association level. Flame itself might keep me out.
Yuri would not be able to refuse if I asked her — but Flame was not hers alone. If the other members of the raid team opposed it, even she could not force the issue.
But I have to participate.
This event truly mattered. With the information I already possessed, I could steer Flame toward the best possible outcome — and it was also a chance to obtain leads connected to Red Lake. As for persuading the elites of the raid team, I was already prepared.
I had sunk into thought for only a moment, and then I was there: the lower floor of headquarters, the raid team's office. The raid team kept relatively flexible hours, so only the interns had come in.
"Morning, Dong-hyuk."
"Oh. Hey. You're here, Minsu."
And of course Arin was there too. She flicked a glance at me, then whipped her head away.
Still sulking.
Ordinarily, even when Arin got in a mood, it never lasted five minutes. This time it had gone on. We still talked over messages the way we always did — but when we were actually face to face, she refused to speak to me.
I should probably start smoothing this over.
On the day of her graduation, I had offered to treat her, and she had said we should go to her studio and eat there.
"Ramen? You're fine with just that?"
"Yes. As long as you cook it for me, Senior."
I had boiled the ramen, just as she'd asked. I had known that was not what she really wanted. That day, Arin had looked as if she had steeled herself for something; even her eyes had been different.
That night was hard on me, too...
A young man and a young woman, alone together, late at night in a studio apartment. Perhaps because she had just finished her graduation, she had closed the distance more than usual. It had been genuinely dangerous. I had held back. I had held back with everything I had. I had already made up my mind not to cross that line.
Whether it had been her own desperate attempt at seduction or not, she seemed to have taken a wound to the heart. That was why she had been sulking for days.
"Senior~. Good morning."
The anger seemed to have eased a little, at least. I had turned on the office computer and was sorting through documents when Arin came over.
"Senior, is there anything you'd like to drink? Want me to grab you something?"
"Ah, I'm fine with anything..."
She was smiling brightly as she spoke — and then her eyes fell on the document I was putting together, and she frowned.
"What's this?"
"This? A report for the Guild Master... no. A proposal, actually."
"A proposal? Don't tell me you're taking it to her yourself? You're not, right? You're going through Team Leader Seo Duho, aren't you?"
Naturally I was an intern, so the proper channel was to send anything up through a middle manager — Team Leader Seo, or Soso — before it reached Yuri.
"Well, yes. But either way, it's a document the Guild Master is going to see."
"Hmph. Is that so? Still, you're just submitting a report, right? It's not like the Guild Master is going to call you into her office or anything..."
She looked at me with an expression that said she would truly hate that.
I'm sorry, Arin. But most likely...
Sure enough, a few hours after I submitted the report, Yuri summoned me to the Guild Master's office herself.
Yuri had been busy since morning with a meeting.
An official cooperation notice had come from the Hunter Association: the S-Rank dungeon Paju A. The dungeon's boss had not yet been named, so it had not been given an official title.
Because it was a new kind of monster, outside the existing classifications.
Every person in charge of Flame's field teams had gathered to discuss the matter. The decision, of course, had been to participate.
Soso's Limit Line had climbed as high as 75. Father Stefano and Maria had never had Limit Line problems to begin with. For the first time in a long while, Flame could deploy its full elite roster. There was no reason not to take part in an S-Rank dungeon raid that would be of such benefit to the guild.
Of course, what role we'll actually be assigned is another question.
This was not an A+ or AA-Rank dungeon. It was an S-Rank dungeon, the first discovered in Korea in three years, and because it sat so close to the capital, Seoul, the Association was proceeding with extreme caution.
The boss raid itself will only take the Association's direct forces and the top elite raid teams of the participating guilds.
And because it was S-Rank, the dungeon had manifested in the real world as well. The Association had sent cooperation notices to certified guilds to deal with the subsidiary dungeons and the mid-bosses.
It would be dangerous — but simply taking part was certain to yield considerable gains.
As the meeting was winding down, however, Team Leader Seo Duho raised an unexpected item.
"Regarding this cooperation request. What would you say to having the interns participate as well?"
It was a proposal Yuri had not even considered. The current interns were all expected to become official members of Flame's raid party, yes — but joining an S-Rank dungeon was a different matter entirely.
Seo Duho, though, was not a man who spoke without grounds. To Yuri, Maria, and Father Stefano, all of whom were staring at him in bewilderment, he went on.
"Would you take a look at this report with me?"
And then he explained. When Yuri saw the report, she was startled. The author was Minsu.
By the time Team Leader Seo had finished, a considerable argument had broken out. By any ordinary standard, putting intern employees on a mission of that importance was absurd. According to the report Minsu had written himself, however, it was not entirely out of the question. The field team's opinion split down the middle.
Maria and Father Stefano were opposed. Soso and Team Leader Seo Duho were in favor. In the end, Yuri's choice would be the one that mattered. She was Flame's final decision-maker.
"Then let's adjourn here for now. I'll hear from employee Lee Minsu myself."
With that, Yuri ended the meeting. She returned to her office and summoned Minsu directly. And before he arrived, she let out a short breath.
If it's what Minsu wants... I want to grant him all of it.
That feeling had not changed this time either. But the objections from the opposing side — Maria's and Father Stefano's — all had their grounds. Above all, he had only been with the guild for a month. Considering why the Association had created the intern program in the first place, there was every chance the Association itself would oppose bringing interns along.
And yet the argument that the interns should still take part had come from Team Leader Seo and from Soso. That in itself was proof of how short Flame was on personnel — and, more than that, of how capable the interns actually were.
Those two have been carrying almost the entire intern program.
Yuri knew the interns' evaluation scores well enough from their reports.
720p, 780p, 850p.
Scores incomparably higher than those of any other guild's interns — and every one of them thanks to Minsu's performance. Yuri was proud of the results Minsu had produced since returning to the hunter world, and she was happy. She had read those reports so many times she had even memorized the numbers.
That was why she had decided to hear, firsthand, from the man who had written the report before making her final decision. If it was Minsu, he would surely have solid grounds.
And this time, more than the interns... more than the people on the raid team... I might be the one with the problem...
Even with such an important task ahead of her, Yuri had no confidence in herself — not with her Limit Line having dropped of late. In truth, that anxiety had made it difficult to keep her composure. Without her even realizing it, the thought that this was a chance to be alone with Minsu kept leaping ahead of the work that ought to have occupied her.
No. What am I thinking again.
It had been quite some time since she had last spoken with him. And on the day they had captured Rex, Minsu had collapsed. She was deeply worried about the state of his body as well.
She had not managed to quiet that complicated, pounding heart when someone knocked on the office door.
"Guild Master. Intern Lee Minsu is here."
I stepped into Yuri's office.
The inside was as cold as the late-winter air outside. The moment I entered, Yuri started.
"Oh—look at me. A-are you cold?"
"No. I'm fine. The cold actually suits me better."
Yeon Moon-woo's arts had improved things to a degree, but because of Ruby, fire still seethed constantly through my Mana Roads. So it really was not bad. Yuri, however, hurried to shut the window and turn on the heat. Then she cleared her throat and went on.
"Um, Minsu. You know why I called you, don't you?"
"Yes. Regarding the S-Rank dungeon cooperation request..."
"That's right. I received a report from Team Leader Seo Duho that there was an opinion — that the intern employees wished to participate in that cooperation request as well."
She was correct. If it had not been about that, there would have been no reason for Yuri to call me privately into her office. And the fact that she had called me at all meant the field team itself was divided on the matter. She told me as much.
"But the fact that you conveyed this yourself means you're confident you can persuade the raid members who opposed it. Doesn't it?"
"Yes. That's correct. As I attached in the report, the scores our employees recorded on the intern program dispatches were..."
"720p, 780p, and 850p."
"You know them well. How do you know them in that much detail...?"
I had not expected her to have the scores memorized. Seeing my confusion, Yuri grew flustered.
"Th-that's because it's written here in the report."
A moment earlier, she had been looking at me, not at the monitor. I did not point that out. Instead, I continued.
"As those numbers show, the results our intern employees produced on dispatch were far higher than the guild's target scores for the intern program. And in connection with this assignment, Team Leader Seo Duho made a separate inquiry to the Association. The result of that inquiry is in the report..."
Just as I said. Under the intern program regulations, exceeding a certain score made early completion of the program possible.
"We'll surpass that score on the intern dispatch mission in a few days. Then at least there shouldn't be a problem at the Association level."
And if we brought in results that conspicuous, the other members of the raid team would not be able to keep opposing it either.
On those grounds, I explained the contents of the report at some length. Yuri looked as though she had been convinced.
"I understand. I understand on what grounds you submitted this report. That was a sufficient explanation."
"Thank you for understanding, Guild Master."
And that was when the business for which she had called me came to an end. In that same instant, I felt something off in the flow of mana moving through the office.
What is this feeling...?
Mana with a cold attribute, sliding along behind me. The presence was so stealthy that even an awakened hunter would not have noticed it — but my senses had grown far sharper after the release of the first-stage seal, and I knew Yuri's spells intimately. I interpreted the meaning of that flow at once.
Why?
It was unmistakably similar to the sensation of one of Yuri's spells activating — a barrier, or a seal.
Apparently, Yuri had locked the office door.