Chapter 28 – Same Place
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How long would this feeling of anxiety continue?
Haemin had been feeling it for about 30 minutes and Minchan felt it for no more than 40 minutes. The two of them waited for the barrier to disappear. At the very least, they wanted to see the moment when the two had died as a courtesy.
“Team leader. These guys are lasting quite awhile?”
“I guess so.”
“If they lasted this long, doesn’t it confirm they were able to survive in the jungle?”
“I guess so.”
“…maybe they might clear it?”
At Haemin’s hopeful words, Minchan’s face turned bright for a moment. However, he his face turned sullen soon.
“He is a Necromancer, so he’ll have his summoned beings. Even if he was able to defeat the Krocodile using his summoned being as bait, he won’t be able to escaped the swamps.”
“Mmmm. When you say the swamps….”
In various parts of the jungle, large swamps had formed, and the swamp was basically a death trap for close ranged fighters. The swamps limited one’s movement, and there were two types of monsters that spawned at the swamps.
The Fuco Monkeys and Swamp Anacondas.
Fuco Monkeys threw a very hard fruit named Fuco at their opponents, and it could deal quite a lot of damage. If one took a wrong blow to the head then one would be in danger of dying.
It was hard to move in the swamps, so the only way to attack was using long-ranged magic.
Minchan had too little information on the two. He knew the Roused named Hong-sunggoo had a Flame ability. However, Fuco Monkeys attacked in packs with at least 10 members. It wasn’t something a single person could deal with.
Moreover, when one is busy dealing with the Fuco Monkeys, the large anacondas would silently approach and attack. One would be too exhausted to fend it off.
“Whew. That sounds difficult.”
“It is difficult.”
When one attacked a 4 star Dungeon, several types of abilities were needed. This was why a team was always formed. Minchana and Haemin went back to watching the barrier with dark expression on their faces.
*
Hwa-roo-rook, boom!
Several dozen fireballs flew towards the branches.
“Ooh-kii-kii.”
The surprised monkeys madly dodged the fireballs. During all of this, ice arrows flew in, and it struck the body of the monkey. It made their movement sluggish.
Ssoo-ehhhhk! Boom!
“Kii kii kii.”
While the forest was burning up, an electrical attack came flying towards the Monkeys.
Pah-ji-ji-jeek!
“Ggweek!”
Woojin was radiant as he saw the monkeys falling like leaves.
“Koo-hahaha. Wipe them all out.”
“…….”
Sunggoo’s face was livid with horror as he looked at the horrible scene.
Hwa-roo-rook.
The forest was burning. If this was earth instead of a Dungeon, this event would have been the headline in the media.
Woojin already had 40 Skeleton Magicians by his side.
Some were shooting Fireballs and some were sending out Ice Arrows. The rest were using Electricity magic.
At least he was comforted by the fact that his fireballs was a bit stronger than the Skeleton Magician’s fireballs.
Sunggoo had never seen such a violent and brutish hunting method.
Woojin had a retinue of Skeleton Magicians, and they were burning and destroying the entire jungle. It was an indiscriminate massacre.
It was a banquet of Magic.
Hwa-roo-rook, Puh-puh-puhng!
“Kekeke. I leveled up again. Ooh-haha.”
“…….”
Sunggoo wondered if Woojin had lost his mind. It seemed his mood was elevated to another level. It didn’t suit a person who was madly destroying the jungle.
Sunggo had never seen Woojin be in a better mood. No, this was the most excited he had seen Woojin be.
When Woojin leveled up, he put the 10 Bonus Stat Points into Magic and Control. He invested 5 points each.
“Now, come new recruits!”
At Woojin’s call, 5 dead monkey corpses exploded, and new Skeleton Magicians were added to his troops..
‘Dual class is fucking awesome!’
Woojin got a taste of a new world when he turned from level 10 to level 11. Every time he leveled up, he received 10 bonus Stat instead of 5. The Bonus Stat had doubled.
Even the Bonus Skill Point had increased from 1 to 2 points.
He thought it was a setup that allowed him to develop both the Warrior and Necromancer class at the same time. However, Woojin didn’t even bother with the Stat and Skills for the Warrior Class. He put all the points into Control and Magic.
His current level was 14.
As a bonus, he had received 40 Stat Points. He put most of it into Control and Magic. He also put several points into Recovery, which helped his magic recover.
Magic : 40 Recovery : 14 Control : 55
As the number of Skeleton Magicians increased around Woojin, the forest was destroyed at a higher pace. The monsters were too busy running away.
Every time Woojin killed one Fuco Monkey, he yelled out in joy as he calculated the Achievement Points. In the 3 star Dungeon, he had only received 3 Achievement Points, because the hunting ground didn’t suit his ability.
Woojin’s current level was 14, but the Transfer Bonus and other skills basically meant he could be seen as a level 40.
Woojin swept everything before him as he advanced. From the rear, consecutive magic blast flew up like rocket launchers, and it landed in the forest. The only thing left was for the forest to burn.
*
“Who ordered the jajangmyeon!” (TLN: noodle + black bean paste + veggie/meat)
“Ah, over here.”
Hamein took the two bowls of jajang from the delivery man then he approached Minchan, who was sitting on the subway station’s stairs. The Dungeon employee, and the staff in charge went to a nearby restaurant to eat a meal.
“Team leader. Our dinner is here.”
“I want Ganjajang.” (TLN: same as jajangmyeon but the sauce is thicker)
“This restaurant’s jajang is tastier.”
“You bugger. This is the first time you are ordering from this place.”
“…….”
“Uh-whew. Whatever. Let’s just teat.”
Minchan took the jajangmyeon, and he mixed it. He asked a question as he put a mouthful of the noodle in his mouth.
“How long has it been?”
“Four hours has passed.”
“Mmmm. So, 16 hours….”
The structure of the 4 star Dungeon wasn’t the only thing unique about it. The time there was 4 times faster then the real time. They had already spent over 16 hours inside the Dungeon.
The Dungeon monsters quickly realized if there was an intruder. The monsters slowly converged on the intruders, so hiding wasn’t an option.
One could hide for a short amount of time, but it was almost impossible for one to hide from the monsters for 16 hours.
“They probably came across a swamp by now. However, we don’t really have much information about their abilities.”
“That’s true. Uh…. Then don’t we have to worry about them coming back alive? We were the one who put them in danger…”
Michan shook his head at Haemin’s worry.
“It’s already been 16 hours, so they are probably starving by now. How well do you think they’ll know about the ecosystem over there? The plants, animals and bugs aren’t like the ones found on earth. They are all very different.”
“Jeez. If they mistakenly eat a poisonous plant….”
“It’s the end of the road.”
Maybe it was because of the words he were mumbling, but he lost the taste for his food.
“In the future, don’t order from here.”
“…Yes.”
*
The jungle was burnt to the ground… In the open space, Woojin was roasting something on a stick over the campfire.
Chi-ji-jeek.
From the surrounding, Sunggoo had gathered fruits and mushrooms that wasn’t damaged by fire.
“Hyung-nim. I picked these up.”
“Uh, well done.”
Woojin picked up the fruits brought to him by Sunggoo. He picked each up one by one.
“You can eat this if you peel the skin. You can’t eat this. It’s poisonous. This one is also poisonous, but we can eat it if we cook it over the fire.”
Woojin gave an explanation to Sunggoo. Sunggoo feverishly listened to Woojin like a student who was going to take the college entrance exam soon. The only regret Sunggoo had was the lack of notebooks. He wanted to write all of this down.
“Hyung-nim. How are you so knowledgeable about this?”
“Uh, that is….”
Of course, he was knowledgeable about it. This place was basically like a mixture of the ecosystem and neighborhood he had lived at for 20 years.
“Well. Why don’t you just listen without saying anything?”
“I’m sorry, hyung-nim. I won’t ask about it again.”
“Go cut some of that grass over there. We can crush it into a paste. It tastes fantastic when you slather it on the meat.”
“Yes, sir. So what’s the menu this time?”
“Snake meat. It’s fantastic. Also, I’m getting tired of eating only meat. Let’s eat some roasted mushroom.”
“Kyahh. My mouth is already watering.”
To his surprise, everything Woojin cooked was very tasty. Sunggoo was really looking forward to it.
*
Michan favored the taste of Ganjajang, but he still emptied the whole bowl.
The current time was 7:45.
Woojin and Sunggoo had already been in the Dungeon for 4 hrs and 20 min.
Haemin went to fetch a blanket, and he gave it to Minchan.
“Team leader. The day is getting cold.”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
“So, Team leader. What happens if we aren’t able to scout Mr. Woojin and Mr. Sungooo?”
“What do you think? We can only begrudgingly let them go.”
“Don’t we need to report it to the president?”
“It’s already been sent. He was apathetic.”
“What?”
Haemin’s eyes became round. If it wasn’t an order from the president, then why were they putting so much effort into this venture?
He had already ordered the employee to raise Kang-Woojin to Rank C and Hong-sunggoo to Rank D. The newly issued Roused Card had already been delivered to Minchan’s hand.
If he was to be blunt, it basically meant if those two died then their work would be much cleaner. They would lament the fact that they weren’t able to rope the two into the guild, but the consequence would end there. The complication would arise if those two came back alive, and they took issue with what happened.
“Hey, Haemin.”
“Yes, Team leader.”
“You know about me. In the past 5 years, my eyes have never deceived me.”
“It makes sense. Team leader’s evaluation of others had always been on point.”
Minchan had been involved in Dungeon related work since the Dungeon Shock. He was a veteran. He wasn’t an founding member of the Hammer guild, but the work he had done for the guild was quite illustrious.
“Didn’t Team leader discover Park-jinwoo?”
Hammer guild had two Ranked A Roused. One of them was Park-Jinwoo. Jung-minchan had recognized his potential, and he had roped him into the Hammer guild.
“I get a powerful feeling from that bastard, Woojin.”
“Does that mean he has a similar potential?”
If the Roused had potential, the Guild would bend over backwards to help the person grow rapidly. Haemin had asked if Woojin had as much potential as Park-jinwoo. Haemin shook his head.
“I have a feeling he has more.”
“…!”
“That is why I don’t want to lose him.”
Jung-minchan was telling the truth. He felt a strong sensation coming from Kang-woojin. It didn’t feel like a sandalwood being fragrant even in seed leaf.(TLN:idiom) It was much more than that…. It felt like he was looking at a large tree.
“This is why I want him to come back alive. I don’t care even if he doesn’t join the Hammer guild. If we lose a Roused like that, then it would be a loss for humanity.”
“T…team leader….”
Haemin had to look at his boss, Minchan, in a new light. Usually he acted like an asshole, but today why was he looking so cool? No, he really looked cool.
“We could pray together, Team leader. I’m sure they will come back alive.”
“It’ll be tough.”
“…?”
“Those bastards guarding the Return Stone are really difficult opponents.”
“…!”
Of course, he knew that. That is why he said they should pray for their safe return..
“They’ll eventually die….”
“…….”
Weren’t you hoping to see them come back alive?
He took back the sentiment.
If he wasn’t his Team leader, he would have hit him. Haemin berated himself for thinking even for a brief moment that his team leader was cool.
*
“Hyung-nim! The Return Stone is over there.”
After burning down the entire jungle, Woojin stepped forward to use his Search magic. The Return Stone was in the middle of a large open space, and it was floating on top of an altar.
At the thought of being able to escape this Dungeon fraught with danger, Sunggoo was about to run towards it. Woojin roughly held him back.
“Uh-uhk.”
Sunggoo fell backwards after the back of his neck was grabbed. Before Sunggoo could turn to ask the question, ‘Why?’, the ground he stepped on collapsed on itself.
A cloud of dust rose into the air, and he could see a trap with bamboo spears on the bottom.
“Huh-uhk.”
If he had taken one more step, than he would have died. Sunggoo’s heart flipped in his chest. He was about to express his thanks, but Woojin was staring at something with a serious expression on his face.
When Sunggoo saw the beings that showed up, he lost the words he was about to say.