Guild Quest (2)

"Hey, Ssaem! Long time no see!"

"Yeah. How many days has it been?"

"A while, right? But I heard you already finished your 1st Class Advancement in the meantime?"

"Haha. Yeah, something like that."

"Whoa. I'm so damn jealous. I'm only Level 20..."

It had been a while since I'd last seen Jin-hwan. Even after all this time, he didn't look all that different — except for his level, which had climbed quite a bit.

"Hey. Level 20 puts you near the top of the rankings."

"Well, yeah, but you're just on a whole other level, Ssaem."

He'd power-leveled his way to 20 back in Daegu, but the gap between us was still wide enough that he clearly wasn't satisfied.

"That's right! We leveled up a lot too, but we're still only 18."

"Ssaem, aren't you just completely broken?"

Ah-ra and Jin-ri had gained a considerable number of levels as well. The Christmas Blessing had clearly done a lot of the heavy lifting.

"Did you level up a lot too, Dad?"

"Of course. I'm already 16."

"Whoa. That's a huge jump."

"Yeah. More importantly, tell us about that in more detail. About ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Mi-seong."

When the students had come down to Busan, Mom and Dad had come with them. Originally they'd refused to leave — Mi-seong might come home, after all — but the moment I told them I could find her, they packed up and came down without a second thought.

I laid out everything I knew, and my parents were visibly relieved to hear that Mi-seong was safe.

"So what we need to do now is a Guild Quest, right?"

"That's right. We have to complete the Guild Quest to get the item that can find Mi-seong. Sorry, everyone."

"Come on, don't be like that. After everything you've done for us, Ssaem?"

Jin-hwan waved it off. And it wasn't just him — everyone else felt the same.

"He's right. If anything, we're glad. Glad we can actually be of help."

"Yeah. We've been the ones getting helped this whole time."

They were actually grateful for the chance to repay what I'd done for them. I was genuinely moved. The fact that there were people willing to stand up for me like this, even when it wasn't their fight... that alone made me feel like I'd already lived a life worth living.

"Alright, then. Let's begin."

Kang Hyuk opened the guild window and started getting something ready. At the same time, the world around us began to darken.

Just what kind of quest are we about to get?

The truth was, not much was known about Guild Quests. Plenty of other guilds had already cleared theirs, but beyond the rewards, almost nothing had been made public. That was because the quests themselves were entirely random. How they were generated remained a mystery, but what had been confirmed so far was that each quest corresponded to a guild's alignment. Even guilds sharing the same alignment could receive identical quests — or completely different ones — which made compiling any kind of strategy guide impossible.

Dungeons had been designed so that strategies could be shared. Guild Quests had been designed so they couldn't. I didn't entirely understand the logic.

Is the reward just that extraordinary, then?

Then again, even the publicly known reward — the Golden Compass — was already so powerful it defied common sense. On top of that, the additional rewards varied depending on the type of quest, so I couldn't help being curious about what else we might walk away with.

Alright. Let's see what we got.

I'd heard that Guild Quests weren't always brutally difficult. Some guilds had been assigned something as simple as picking up trash in the area. Others had been told to hunt a boss-tier monster.

A boss hunt?

Of all the quests we could have drawn, it had to be this one. Among every Guild Quest that had surfaced so far, this was the one notorious for having the most vicious difficulty. Most of the guilds that had rolled it never completed it. They gave up.

And they had every reason to. This wasn't a game. A quest this brutal guaranteed situations where people could die — and dying here meant your life was over, full stop. There was no respawning. In an environment like that, walking away was often the smarter choice.

"So what's the plan?"

"We have to at least try, right?"

Still, I couldn't quit without even attempting it. I had no idea how strong this Madness Werewolf would be, but I needed that Golden Compass. Desperately. That said, I couldn't just charge in because I wanted to. The rest of the guild had to agree.

"Nobody has any objections?"

"Of course not. None here."

"Obviously!"

Everyone agreed to take on the Guild Quest. From there, we settled on the nine who would enter. Myself, Jin-hwan, Ah-ra, Jin-ri, Min-cheol, and Kang Hyuk — that made six. Then the three newest members: Dad, Ji-ah, and Elena.

I still didn't quite understand how Elena had ended up as a guild member. Then again, maybe trying to make sense of it was the wrong approach to begin with.

Once the roster was locked in, a new message appeared.

Whoosh.

"Whoa. Where even is this?"

"No kidding. It's huge."

"So... where do we go now?"

Nine of us, dropped into a city that had gone mad. For some of the group, this was their first dungeon of any kind, and a few of them looked understandably rattled by the sudden transfer.

And then something else caught my eye. A small white creature, wriggling about.

"Hey. How'd you even get in here?"

"Me? Beats me. I just... got in somehow."

"Hah. And after all the trouble I went through to punish you."

How had this White Dragon brat even gotten in? Probably the pet designation — that was likely what let him tag along. Last time, as payback for running off on his own, I'd locked him in a room, tied him up, and left a delicious meal sitting right in front of his face. He'd gotten out of that all by himself.

"Come on, last time wasn't on purpose. I told you the Nose Plugs came off by themselves."

"And I'm supposed to believe that?"

"When a person tells you something, you're supposed to believe them."

"You're not a person."

"Well, obviously. Then when a dragon tells you something..."

I really needed to stop talking to this thing. The more I engaged, the more I got sucked into his pace.

We were still making a racket when the notice for Stage 1 dropped. Form teams of three — which meant we'd be splitting up, each group handling something on its own.

How do we split the teams?

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Being told to form teams out of nowhere was a little disorienting, but I forced myself to stay calm and take stock of our current strength. I had no idea what we'd be asked to do, so I built the teams to keep the power gap as even as possible.

Myself, Kang Hyuk, and Elena on one team. Jin-hwan, Ji-ah, and Dad on another. Ah-ra, Jin-ri, and Min-cheol on the last. Factoring in everyone's current strength and their roles, it was the most balanced split I could make.

As the timer ran down, three doors appeared before us. Each team would have to pass through one of them. We took our positions and waited.

The seconds ticked toward zero.

"Don't push yourselves too hard. If things get dangerous, it's okay to give up."

I needed the Golden Compass, but if we didn't get it, we'd find another way. I made sure everyone understood that, then watched the last of the time drain away.

Three. Two. One.

A heavy clunk as the doors unlatched. Each of us walked through the one in front of us.

The door slammed shut the instant all three of us were inside. No going back, then. The only way out was forward.

Our footsteps echoed. Inside, there was nothing but pitch-black dark. The passage was barely wide enough for a single person to squeeze through.

And then the White Dragon started glowing again.

This little guy actually comes in handy.

At this point I had to wonder if a lantern was all he was really good for. In darkness like this, he was genuinely useful.

"Looks like the path only ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠goes that way, doesn't it?"

"Yeah. Seems like it."

The corridor stretched on for what looked like a long way, a single path with no branches. We kept walking.

After what felt like forever, I was starting to get irritated.

"How far does this thing even go?"

That was when the passage opened into a wide chamber, and the space around us brightened all at once.

A voice rolled out from all around us, laying out what Stage 1 required.

So it's not a monster hunt?

When you heard "defeat the boss monster," ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you naturally assumed the stages leading up to it would involve fighting lesser bosses or something in that vein. Looking at what we were being given, this was something else entirely.

This feels different from what other guilds described...

Other guilds had clearly drawn this same type of Guild Quest, but from what I'd heard, theirs had started with a brutal monster gauntlet from Stage 1. This approach was unusual.

Three enclosed stalls, designed so that none of us could see the others. Stepping into them would set whatever came next in motion.

"A test of faith. I wonder what that actually means?"

"No idea. We'll just have to go in and find out..."

"Shouldn't we discuss it first?"

We'd be split into separate stalls, which probably meant each of us would be given something different. I didn't know how that was supposed to test our faith, but these weren't people who would ever betray each other. And since we had no idea what would happen in there anyway, talking it over now wouldn't accomplish much.

"Hyung, Elena. Let's go in."

"Without talking it over?"

"Yeah. It said we can pass as long as we have faith in each other, so it shouldn't be too bad."

"Alright. Got it."

"I understand."

We steeled ourselves with nothing but trust in one another, then each moved into our assigned stall. The moment I stepped inside, I was completely cut off from the others. I couldn't even hear them.

A little time passed. Then Stage 1 truly began.

It was searching for what I needed most. Why?

What the hell is this?