No.88 Gathering of Villains (7)
Humans are devious creatures—the mind you bring to borrowing money is never quite the one you bring to paying it back.
And at the moment, Paeng Mi-ryeong was the one doing the borrowing.
If we simply told her we'd taken down the Flying Mountain Twin Demons, she would no doubt be grateful—but the reward would be whatever she decided to give. Negotiate first, on the other hand, and the terms could be shaped to our taste.
Dang Gyu-young knew that as well as I did, which was why she was keeping the news under wraps for the time being.
Once the transceiver had been passed to me, I spoke in a deliberately rueful tone.
"Senior, didn't I tell you to steer clear of the Twin Demons whenever possible?"
I'd hammered the point home two, three times in the strategy guide alone. Had I not possessed S-rank Poison Resistance, I would have gone to great lengths to avoid them myself—blasting them away with Wind Force and bolting, for instance.
A faint sigh drifted back through the transceiver. I could practically see the conflicted look on Paeng Mi-ryeong's face.
The leader of Team 2, I guessed, had grown overconfident as the strategy guide kept paying off one step after another—never realizing that the smooth sailing was the guide's doing alone. And so, in a fit of arrogance, they had taken staggering damage from the Twin Demons.
A team striking out on its own was beyond Paeng Mi-ryeong's power to prevent, and there was no sense rehashing what was already done, so I kept the conversation moving.
"I take it you're contacting us because you need our help."
"I'd like the overall picture first. How many have you put down so far?"
Paeng Mi-ryeong fell silent for a moment before answering.
"And the plan from here?"
"That still leaves us well short."
Nine demon heads at best, all combined—a long way from the twelve needed to clear the dungeon. The gap was the quota Team 2 should have filled in the first place.
Paeng Mi-ryeong evidently arrived at the same arithmetic, because another sigh came through the transceiver.
Instead of answering, I slid a glance to the side, and Dang Gyu-young took the transceiver.
"First, let's hear what you can offer."
"How much larger?"
B-rank random boxes were worth a fair amount, since they tended to yield decent items. With two demon heads already down, that was one box free of charge.
But we were not the sort to be satisfied with that.
Dang Gyu-young answered in a tone of open displeasure.
"Sorry, but that doesn't exactly motivate me. We're not some third-year party here—it's three first-year kids. We'd need a better reason than that to risk our necks."
"The thing you're looking for in the secret grotto—"
Paeng Mi-ryeong cut her off, flat and absolute. However dire things got, the secret inheritance of the Blood Demon of the Blood Ghost was not up for concession—it was the very omen the expedition had formed to chase in the first place.
Judging by how readily Dang Gyu-young moved on to her next demand, that had only ever been a probe.
"Then give us three."
"Yep."
Perhaps she judged that much a decent deal, because Dang Gyu-young flicked a look my way, asking my mind with her eyes alone.
I took the transceiver back and said, "Three, please."
"In exchange, we'll take out one more for you."
As I'd heard earlier, nine was the most demon heads Paeng Mi-ryeong's side could dispatch without overextending. Add three more from us, and the clear condition would be satisfied. Two of those three, of course, had already fallen.
Paeng Mi-ryeong asked, her tone tempted yet tinged with worry.
"We'll give it a try. If it looks beyond us, I'll say so."
"One more thing. Once it's all over—on the way up—might I impose on you for a small favor?"
The conquest was barreling into its middle and later stages, which meant I had to keep our exit from the Dungeon Hall in mind as well.
Admittedly, if no clever option turned up, getting caught on the way out wouldn't be the end of the world. Caught on the way down, the conquest itself would grind to a halt—an enormous risk—but by the ascent we would already have taken everything worth taking. At worst, a few penalty points and it was over.
Still, all else being equal, better not to get caught.
We had punched through the C floor with an Amplified cast of Dang Gyu-young's Shadow Leap, and fortune had smiled on us besides. But Amplification was sealed for the time being, and there was no promise our luck would hold twice. Hence the question—I was casting about for another way—and Paeng Mi-ryeong, apparently satisfied that we were rowing the same boat, accepted without hesitation.
"Thank you."
"Understood, Senior."
The call with Paeng Mi-ryeong ended, and I turned to my party members.
"You heard it all. One more kill, and we're done."
"Good thing we kept our mouths shut, huh."
Dang Gyu-young wore the satisfied smile of someone thinking, and thanks to that, we raked it in—then asked, just to confirm.
"So one more makes six, right?"
"That's right. Six."
Every mid-boss we felled dropped one B-rank random box, so that made three. Add the three Paeng Mi-ryeong's side would stack on top, and the total came to six—rewards on the scale of a mid-sized B-rank dungeon, all in one go.
Dang Gyu-young asked again.
"And the hidden piece? We're giving up on it?"
"No choice. We deal with this first, then collect whatever we can with whatever time is left."
"Fair enough. A random box alone is nothing to sneeze at. Da-bin."
"Yes, President."
As if she had read Dang Gyu-young's intent, Chae Da-bin rattled away at her tablet. Drones came rocketing up out of the travel carrier, climbed high into the sky, and fanned out wide in every direction. Moments later the screen split into tiles, each one streaming back a drone's field of view.
The idea was to pin down which demon head was where before anyone moved a muscle.
Having a supporter around really is convenient.
Information-type supporters like Chae Da-bin especially might shine relatively dimly in open combat, but they carved a huge share off the legwork outside of it. The strategy guide could only chart the demon heads' rough ranges of activity; it couldn't track positions that shifted from moment to moment.
While the others watched with wondering eyes, swift-moving figures flickered into view on several of the split screens. We had our demon heads.
Chae Da-bin pointed at a screen.
"Found them. Who are we taking?"
"The Lewdblood Lust Demon is still alive. Let's make it him."
Strong or weak, it made no difference to us—fill the quota and be done. By that measure, the Lewdblood Lust Demon was an ideal mark.
He's just about the weakest thing in this whole area.
He ran a half-step to a full step below the other demon heads; where the Flying Mountain Twin Demons had each been B-rank mid-bosses, this one sat somewhere between C and C+. He was likely weaker than even the Alpha Ogre.
No real need for all five of us to swarm him at once, either…
I tipped my chin at the Lust Demon on the screen and asked Go Hyeon-woo, "That one—if you faced him with the exact same lineup as before, think you'd win?"
"You mean myself, Brother Jang, and Senior Chae?"
"Yeah, the three of you."
Go Hyeon-woo propped his chin in his hand, deliberated a moment, and answered.
"I cannot swear to it with ten-tenths certainty, but I would judge our chances of victory more than favorable."
A sidelong glance suggested Jang Mu-geuk and Chae Da-bin were of much the same mind. The three of them had pushed back the Twin Demons as a trio; against a Lust Demon weaker than either of those two, it would be far easier still.
I made the proposal.
"Then let's split up—just for this one."
While Go Hyeon-woo and the other two hunted down the Lust Demon and returned, Dang Gyu-young and I would recover a different hidden piece. I had long since made them commit the compiled edition of the strategy guide to memory, so there was nothing they didn't know, and having executed my orders to this point without a hair's deviation, they had built up a fair stock of trust as well.
Even so, a very high probability was not a certainty, so this remained, first and last, a proposal.
"If you want it done beyond all doubt, we'll come along; if you think you can manage, we'll leave it to you. Either way suits me, so don't feel pressured."
Go Hyeon-woo pondered briefly, then firmed his resolve and answered.
"To flinch from even the smallest danger would be to mark time and never advance. Then I shall attempt it. Leave it to us."
"Good."
After a few further words of caution, we split into two groups.
"Then, Brother Kim—may fortune go with you."
"You too."
The three of them unfurled their lightfoot technique and rapidly dwindled into the distance. I saw them off, then set out walking beside Dang Gyu-young.
As we went, I stole a glance sideways—and found Dang Gyu-young watching me from the corner of her eye, an unreadable smile playing at the edge of her mouth.
"What are you smiling about?"
"Am I not allowed to smile?"
"You are. Only, there's usually a reason."
"Things are going well. It makes me happy. That's all."
She answered in a perfectly level tone, then swerved the topic with startling speed.
"So—we're still headed where we were going before?"
"Yes, that's right."
The Twin Demons' sudden appearance had interrupted us for a time, but with every obstruction now swept away, there was no reason not to carry on. We turned our steps toward the city.
Even once we entered the nightlife district, foot traffic was thin. The mood, too, was wound tight, and one look at the passersby's faces told of people thoroughly frightened out of their wits.
Demon heads prowled every quarter, and masters—Paeng Mi-ryeong's expedition included—clashed with them at all hours. For ordinary folk, this was the classic case of the shrimp's back splitting while the whales fought.
Most of the inns and taverns had locked their doors and barred them, and peddlers were few and far between.
Dang Gyu-young smacked her lips at the sight, disappointed.
"And I was going to pick up a few things to take back. Everything's shut."
"Something will turn up if we look hard enough. Let's grab this first, then browse."
"Heheh. Sure."
Our destination before long was a manor of considerable size. The wall around it was as high as befitted the place—but then, we had a track record of leaping clean up to rooftops.
In unison we sprang lightly to the top of the wall and swept our eyes across the grounds. There were signs of life here and there, but—
"Not many of them."
"Which is exactly when you strip the place fast."
That was why we had come, after all.
Dang Gyu-young narrowed her eyes and studied me.
"The more I look at you, the more of a thief you are."
"Can't argue with that. I'll concede the point."
"Join the club when we get back?"
"That, I refuse."
She had been lying in wait for the slightest chance to snap me up. But my resolve to remain unaffiliated was ironclad, so I refused her yet again.
Somehow, though, Dang Gyu-young was being unusually tenacious today.
"Then how about honorary member?"
"There's such a thing?"
That was news to me. Dang Gyu-young answered with perfect aplomb.
"There is now. President's authority."
"Why would you spend presidential authority on that?"
Knowing her, she would slot me in as an honorary member and then quietly convert me into a full one before I knew what had happened. In moments like these, changing the subject was the best policy.
"Let's get moving."
Dang Gyu-young thrust out her lips in a disgruntled pout, but she seemed to agree that moving took priority. One could hardly camp on top of somebody else's wall forever.
A black butterfly fluttered its wings and drifted down into the manor.
[244] The Support Ate It All