No. 410: Sealed Demon Retrieval (3)
Go Hyeon-woo and I regarded Guild Master Geumyeong with looks of pure disdain.
"While everyone else out there is fighting for their lives, you're hiding in here trying to save your own skin."
"To think a grown man could be so utterly craven."
"S-stay back!"
The moment we took a single step forward, the guild master hastily drew his sword and leveled it at us. But there was no need for me to lift a finger myself.
"Drag him out."
"Yes."
"As you command."
The Yanwang Unit had already swarmed the hall the instant they saw the formation shattered, and since Guild Master Geumyeong was the mastermind behind the whole affair, their eyes blazed with killing intent.
"I-I said stay back!"
The guild master flailed his sword wildly at empty air, but the unit rushed him all at once and pinned him down in the blink of an eye.
- Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
"Gwaaaagh!"
After one glance at the guild master being hauled off as a bloody pulp, I set about rummaging through the room — flipping the desk over and yanking drawers open, just as the Yanwang Unit members were doing. Sure enough, I soon found exactly what I was looking for.
"There it is. Bonus loot."
"Oho."
Inside a small wooden case, several golden pellets glimmered.
When it came to elixirs, the more the better — only then could I raise the rank of my Core, still languishing in its plateau, at any real speed. Climb the magic ranks while the Core lagged behind, and I'd end up choking on mana shortages; worse, high-tier magic was outright impossible to learn without a Core of sufficient level. So even if C-rank was enough for the moment, I'd need to keep investing in it steadily.
We moved out of the hall to find the battle already over. Needless to say, it was a resounding victory for the Yanwang Unit, several of whose members were hauling off jars plastered head to toe in talismans.
With the sealed demon boxes secured, neither we nor the unit had any further business with the Geumyeong Merchant Guild. And so the unit leader gave the order.
"Burn it down."
- Fwoooosh!
Flames erupted from every corner of the manor and swiftly swallowed the entire estate. Go Hyeon-woo and I stood watching the fire for a while.
"Burns nicely."
"It certainly does."
- Rumble.
Just then the ground shuddered as if an earthquake had struck, and a teleport portal tore open nearby. Right in front of it sat a row of small boxes.
Go Hyeon-woo gathered them up and handed them to me.
"Seeing as the exit has opened, I take it we are finished here."
"That we are. Let's head out."
I glanced back once, but the Yanwang Unit was still bustling about, apparently unaware that a portal had opened at all. If anything, they were treating us as though we didn't exist. We tore our eyes from them and stepped through.
Outside the dungeon, I scanned left and right, but Shin Byung-cheol was nowhere to be seen. Instead, I spotted a bamboo straw standing upright on the ground off to one side.
"..."
I crouched down in front of it and pressed a finger against the tip of the straw. A few seconds later, the ground flipped over and Shin Byung-cheol came shooting out.
"Puhah! Son of a—! You got business with me or what? Why'd you block the exit?!"
"Why are you hiding down there in the first place?"
"Hey, don't even ask. A patrol just came through."
"'Just' as in when?"
"Like... ten minutes ago? Point is, just now."
Faculty and Disciplinary Committee members made periodic rounds through the underground floors, and as it happened, one of those rounds had passed through moments ago. If we had cleared the dungeon even a little earlier, we might have walked straight into the patrolling committee. We'd slipped past by pure luck.
I handed Shin Byung-cheol one of the random boxes.
"You managed to slip through uncaught too. Here's your pay."
"Well, much obliged. Me, I just lay low like a dead rat, that's all."
"Opening it right away?"
Shin Byung-cheol turned the box over in his hands, hesitated, then shook his head.
"Nah. Open it now and it's a hundred percent a teacup. I'll open it later."
"Look at you, actually resisting."
Getting burned so many times had apparently built up the man's patience. Humans really were creatures that grew through failure.
We would have to climb at least as far as Floor F to catch the elevator, so we fell in behind our guide and started trudging in earnest. We passed Floor D and had made it to roughly the middle of Floor E when I opened my mouth.
"About that guide service of yours."
"Yes, valued customer."
"What happens if we get caught on the way up?"
"Full refund, naturally, valued customer."
The underground guide service promised a 'safe' escort — down to whatever underground dungeon the client wanted, and back up to the surface once the raid was done. Get caught along the way, and the client ate penalty points or disciplinary action, which meant the 'safe' part had failed and no payment was owed.
Perhaps puzzled by the question, Shin Byung-cheol looked back at me.
"Why do you ask, valued customer?"
"Because I think we just got caught."
"...Pardon?"
Shin Byung-cheol and Go Hyeon-woo turned toward me, and their eyes followed mine. A tiny earth gnome was poking its head up out of the ground.
"There's a gnome."
A low-grade earth spirit. Even down here on the underground floors, this was hardly the sort of place for one to pop out of the dirt. Which meant someone was commanding it — and whoever commanded a spirit like that was, nine times out of ten, a wood-and-earth mage. And by design, a Disciplinary Committee member.
"..."
"..."
The three of us traded silent looks, the same person having flashed through all of our heads at once. And when we lifted our eyes to the top of the stairs together, there — exactly as expected — stood Gwak Seung-jae.
"..."
- Thud. Thud.
Gwak Seung-jae descended the stairs slowly, one step at a time, his gaze locked on me the entire way. We simply stood there in silence, watching him come.
- Thud. Thud.
Then, unexpectedly, he didn't stop when he reached us. He kept walking down past us, and with his back turned, spoke as though to himself.
"I heard you saved my brother's life."
"...!"
During the midterms, ogres injected with Blood Explosion Pills had gone berserk, and I had pulled Gwak Ji-cheol back from the brink of death with a Recovery Scroll.
So he did end up telling him.
- Tell... my brother... I'm... sorry...
- Say what, you idiot.
Even setting aside such mortifying last words, admitting to anyone that you'd needed saving was never an easy thing — all the more so given how unclose the Gwak brothers were. That Ji-cheol had brought it up at all meant he hadn't forgotten his gratitude. And as a token of repayment, Gwak Seung-jae appeared to be setting down his duties as a Disciplinary Committee member, if only for a moment. In other words, he was pretending not to see us.
"Be careful."
Whether he meant careful not to break the academy rules, or careful not to get caught, I couldn't say. With nothing more than that, Gwak Seung-jae continued down the stairs and vanished from sight.
I stared after his back for a long moment, then turned to Shin Byung-cheol.
"We got caught, didn't we?"
"We did."
"So... I suppose I owe you a refund?"
"Ah, forget it."
Shin Byung-cheol fished the random box back out and held it toward me anyway. Gwak Seung-jae turning a blind eye had been entirely thanks to me, after all — and caught was caught. But instead of taking it, I raised a hand. A good idea had just occurred to me.
"Taking back something you already gave is a bit low, don't you think?"
"Oh, absolutely, it's low all right."
Hope lit Shin Byung-cheol's eyes. I smiled pleasantly and made my proposal.
"Then how about this: we open it. D-rank or better, and we call it even. Anything below, and you guide us on our next two runs free of charge."
"Double or nothing, is that it?"
If a D-rank or higher reward dropped from the box, Shin Byung-cheol would owe us nothing and keep the prize. But if an E or F-rank reward came out, he'd owe us two free escorts.
"I take it you fancy those odds yourself."
Go Hyeon-woo agreed, looking thoroughly entertained. Shin Byung-cheol's deliberation didn't last long. He drew one deep breath and declared in a resolute voice.
"I, Shin Byung-cheol, have lived as an honest man to this very day. And an honest man does not run from a challenge."
"A true man of honor indeed."
"And my odds aren't even bad. Any sensible man would take this bet, honor or no."
"That too is true."
It being a D-rank random box, the odds of a D-rank reward were reasonably decent — well worth a gamble on his luck. Shin Byung-cheol took another deep breath and gripped the lid.
"Witness it well with your own eyes... as yours truly strikes the jackpot!"
- Flash!
The box blazed with light, and at the prize revealed within, Go Hyeon-woo and I both raised our eyebrows.
"Hey, at least he's out of F-rank."
"It would seem Brother Shin's luck is finally on the mend."
Shin Byung-cheol, however, showed not a trace of joy.
"No. Why this. No. You have got to be kidding me. No."
The next day, I got in touch with Jegal So-so, vice president of the Swordsmanship Club. It was time to close the negotiation with the completed Treasure Map. When I asked when I should come by, her answer was: right now. So the moment classes ended, I made my way to the club room.
The instant I set foot on the floor the Swordsmanship Club occupied, I ran into a familiar face. Paeng Mi-ryeong — party leader and victim of the Black Snake Chamber raid, and the other party to the Treasure Map deal. Judging by how she was waiting there, she'd come out to meet me.
"Good afternoon."
"Oh. Hey."
When I bowed my head politely, Paeng Mi-ryeong returned the greeting with a casual nod. She'd taken a real loss because of me and hadn't bothered hiding her hostility at our first meeting, but time seemed to have washed most of the bad blood away. Her eyes were gleaming with anticipation now — no doubt because word had reached her that I'd completed the Treasure Map pieces.
"Follow me."
Eager to see it as soon as possible, she set a brisk pace, stopping before the vice president's office to knock lightly. A soft voice drifted out from within.
"Come in."
Inside, Jegal So-so welcomed us, urging us into our seats and pouring the Longjing tea we'd shared before — a blend her clan had prepared specially, if I recalled right. For a while, I simply sat back and savored it.
"..."
Paeng Mi-ryeong, on the other hand, looked too wound up with curiosity to get her tea down. She kept shifting in her seat until Jegal So-so finally, reluctantly, moved on to the matter at hand.
"You settled it on the very first day of raid week. Honestly, I expected it to take longer."
"What good would dragging it out do anyone?"
"That's a kindness. Now — may I see the pieces?"
I handed Treasure Map Pieces A, B, and C over to Jegal So-so. Paeng Mi-ryeong stared at them unblinking and swallowed hard. Anticipation and tension, both.
Merging the pieces was simple enough: layer them in the right arrangement, then invoke the Samadhi True Fire.
- Fwoooosh.
Golden flames rose from Jegal So-so's hand, and a moment later, a single completed Treasure Map rested in her palm.
"This is...!"
Jegal So-so and Paeng Mi-ryeong bent over the map, utterly absorbed. The front marked the location of the 'Secret Vault' within Dungeon #88, the Gathering of Evildoers; the back was drawn with a map of the vault's interior.
"It was real..."
Paeng Mi-ryeong breathed the words in a low murmur. But perhaps deciding she couldn't keep letting her excitement show in front of me, Jegal So-so snapped open her fan to half-hide her face and, striving for composure, spoke.
"You've truly been through a great deal. With this, the matter of the Priority Bidding Right infringement will be considered settled."
"No more hard feelings between us, then. Good work."
Paeng Mi-ryeong added her own words without taking her eyes off the map. And with that, my conflict with the Swordsmanship Club was officially concluded. But ending things here would be a waste. A true veteran always takes it one step further.
"Now then — shall we move on to our next deal?"
"...?"
A thick bundle of papers emerged from my inventory. A complete strategy guide, recording every last detail of the Gathering of Evildoers — the very dungeon Paeng Mi-ryeong was set to enter.