< Don’t Make Trouble >
“Peace! You’re the best! Oh this pretty thing! Won’t you come to noona? Hm? Hm? Or is it unni?”
Hanging onto the Horned Flame Lion’s neck, Moon Hyuna was yelling like a tipsy drunkard. Peace shook his neck as if annoyed, but she didn’t budge an inch and laughed loudly.
The air was thick with dirt and dust. Mounds of rocks were piled up and strewn about around the giant toad’s corpse.
In between that, Han Yoohyun and Bak Yerim were staring sourly at each other.
They were two people who instinctively avoided each other because their dispositions didn’t match. But the moment Han Yoojin’s skill was applied, that unpleasantness completely disappeared.
What filled that empty space was a light bond and sense of closeness.
There should’ve been a repulsion, but accepting those feelings was because of the connecting person in the middle, who was none other than Han Yoojin.
It was a type of deception.
Han Yoohyun and Bak Yerim were sufficiently used to sending and receiving positive feelings to and from Han Yoojin. Enough to not notice that that obvious flow was very slightly twisted.
“…Let’s not say anything, the two of us.”
Bak Yerim said, with the corners of her eyes slightly wrinkled.
The skill effect had disappeared, but the residual feelings were still remaining. They had started to be annoyed by the other party, but the good feeling of a bond from being in sync was still the same.
Especially for Bak Yerim, this was her first time meeting a mighty enemy and pouring out as much of her strength as possible in combat. It was exciting and fun and thrilling. Even now, with the results of that laid out under her feet, her heart was still pounding, and Han Yoohyun, who had been an eyesore, even looked nice. Though she didn’t want to acknowledge it and it felt bad.
The level was less so for Han Yoohyun, but he was in a similar situation, so he bitterly nodded his head.
But the one who had been affected the most, more than Moon Hyuna, who had been completely in tune with a highest rank kiseungsu, and Han Yoohyun and Bak Yerim, who had felt weird emotions in their rivalry, was none other than Sung Hyunjae.
The dead giant toad’s back neck was completely dug up.
The wound’s size was enormous, but bodily fluids corresponding to blood didn’t flow. It was because, of course the wound region, but even inside of that was cooked through as if boiled.
A mark like an extra large beast of a similar size to the Babar had torn into it, instead of a small human. Sung Hyunjae looked at that, and then lowered his gaze toward the young man he was holding.
“Where could something like this have popped out of?”
He quietly mumbled, as if fascinated. It was a tone like he had discovered a new type of lifeform that was incredibly interesting.
He had already known of Han Yoojin’s usefulness. But raising kiseungsu or knowing expected Awakening ranks were all areas he didn’t need to directly influence.
Since the targets that should receive it wasn’t Han Yoojin, but his harvest.
It might have been different if Haeyeon or a different guild had tried to monopolize him, but Han Yoojin was being neutral, so it was enough with maintaining a good enough relationship. There was no reason to purposely bother a farmer who was working well on his own. A contract was already signed, and he just needed to receive the excellent harvest.
But now the situation had changed.
A chain of command special skill. Except for an exceptional case like this time, it was a skill that wasn’t very necessary for an S-Rank Hunter yet.
‘But it won’t be far before the day it becomes important comes.’
Sung Hyunjae had known before anybody else, accurately, that the dungeons’ level of difficulty was increasing. He was expecting cooperation between S-Rank Hunters to become essential in not that long of a time.
When that time came, a command skill that influenced even S-Rank Hunters would become the most important. Not just that, it was appealing that the skill user’s stats were low.
There was no Hunter who welcomed someone who could threaten them, directly interfering with them physically and mentally. But Han Yoojin was weak enough to not be even a little bit of a bother. And if you strongly rejected the skill, you could break it off.
It was to the point that sensitive high rank Hunters would think, ‘Let’s tolerantly accept him since he won’t be harmful and is useful.’ It was suitable to the point of wondering if it was matched on purpose.
And one more thing, sharing the doubled attack skill effect.
Sung Hyunjae’s lips unconsciously formed a smile.
‘The sensation is definitely different from just hearing it in words.’
There wouldn’t be anybody who wouldn’t find wielding a powerful strength appealing. And among that, force showed the fastest and most certain results, so you couldn’t help but fall for it, once you stepped into it.
On top of that, for Hunters, there existed targets that they could legally exert violence towards, called monsters. And large rewards followed that.
You could wield inhuman strength as much as you wanted, and break and stomp on enemies and get even stronger.
A powerful body that you could control perfectly and highly pure mana that dominated the surroundings, and formed from those as a basis, skills beyond common sense with enormous destructive power. It was obvious that the higher rank the Hunter, the stronger the sense of freedom and pleasure was from combat.
The sensation of a doubled attack skill effect for somebody who was at the peak of those Hunters, was like a type of drug. It was different from when he just knew it was two times. It was to the point of feeling even fury at the truth that he had to throw away the strength he had already gotten a taste of and return to normal.
Why was this a human? If it was a dungeon item, he would’ve taken it no matter what he had to do.
“Is hyung alright?”
Just then, the four including Han Yoohyun came over.
“Naturally there is no injury, and he just fell asleep.”
“That is a relief. Please hand him over.”
Han Yoohyun held out his hands as if it was obvious. Sung Hyunjae unconsciously frowned. If he passed over Han Yoojin like this, there was no way to promise when the next time could be. He knew well how excessively that young guy in front of him defended his hyung. Even if Han Yoojin said it was okay, there was no way he would send him obediently into a high rank dungeon.
‘Should I kill him?’
Of course Han Yoohyun, but the other guys too.
The attack skill effect doubling was still being shared. Even if he massacred the other S-Ranks here, the 1st Rank monster’s corpse and that reward was there, so there was enough excuses and evidence.
If it was like that, even the kiseungsu related contract would only have MKC and Hanshin remaining. MKC wouldn’t be able to put themselves forward properly, and Hanshin was at a level that was easy to step on. And the blacksmith couldn’t be a big threat yet.
“I asked you to return him.”
Maybe he had felt the serious mood, because Han Yoohyun’s expression hardened. Bak Yerim, who had left Peace and was teasing Moon Hyuna, also shut her mouth.
Chareureu
The Seeker’s Chains wrapped around Sung Hyunjae as if protecting him. Looking at that, Han Yoohyun’s eyes settled into a dark red.
“That’s quite a scary gleam in your eyes. Are you going to come at me, young master?”
“Isn’t it you who is picking a fight?”
“Yes, again. Didn’t I send the signal starting from yesterday? I’m curious as to how much young master has grown.”
“I would like to satisfy your expectations, but say it after you return hyung first.”
“I don’t want to.”
Sung Hyunjae smiled. That growling was also cute. Bak Yerim’s unenthusiastic voice suddenly cut through the tautly strained air.
“If the two of you fight like that, ahjussi will probably turn into about 50 pieces.”
It was a tone like she was just throwing a rebuke, but the eyes of the person speaking was too cold for words. Next to her, Moon Hyuna spoke purposefully cheerfully.
“That’s right. So why don’t you pass hyung-nim over here and then fight? I’ll keep my mouth shut so the two you do your own thing. I won’t tattle on you, I promise.”
“Unni, aren’t you being too obvious about telling a lie? You’re really thinking of watching the fight and then even profiting off that.”
Bak Yerim only smiled with her mouth and took out a mana potion. Moon Hyuna also stabbed the giant spear that she had previously put into her inventory, into the ground in front of her feet. Peace bared his canines a little, too. In the meantime, Kim Sunghan had also arrived. Looking around at the atmosphere, he didn’t ask and glared at Sung Hyunjae.
“Hm? Dear Hyunjae-ssi. Give the glass bead here. It’ll break after coming all the way to the last stretch.”
At Moon Hyuna’s words, Sung Hyunjae’s gaze went toward Han Yoojin, specifically that person’s wrist. He saw the cracked crude bracelet. It was a long time since 10 minutes had passed.
‘Moon Hyuna is a problem.’
The other three people, even the Horned Flame Lion, wouldn’t be able to attack properly due to the worry over Han Yoojin. But Moon Hyuna was different. It was obvious that she would aim for Han Yoojin the moment she realized that the doubled attack skill effect was still applied.
‘And to properly use him, a special item will be necessary, too.’
When he thought like that, his head cooled.
“There’s so many eyes and mouths being noisy, so I guess there’s no choice.”
Speaking like he was quitting because it was annoying that he was going to get tattled on, Sung Hyunjae passed Han Yoojin over to Han Yoohyun. After draping on the coat he received back, he rested his eyes on the traces of the destruction that he had created, and then turned his gaze right away. Even if he continued to regret, he would only get dragged down.
“Okay, okay, let’s quickly finish and go out.”
When the situation was settled, Moon Hyuna waved her hand and spoke. Compared to the giant toad, only things about the level of a tadpole, no toad eggs, were left. There was no reason to drag it out.
***
“There is no doubt. It was aiming for Han Yoojin.”
Newcomer said, nervously. Next to him, Tree was recovering the number G-15 dungeon, Black Golem’s City. Through an air distortion, a 5 years later monster that had been blocked burst out. It happened to be that a lot of S-Rank Hunters were gathered, so a dangerous guy had appeared, suiting that. If it wasn’t quickly restored, similar things would happen in other dungeons.
“Could they have already noticed? What should we do with our Honey?”
“It’s not that so calm down. It was trying to bring over Han Yoojin, not kill him. And the location was within Honey’s world. Somebody must’ve used a teleportation skill.”
At Tree’s words, Newcomer’s expression briefly became brighter and then became dark again.
“Then could it be that side? Those guys trying to be filial?”
“Maybe. Since, at the least, it should’ve been an SSS-Rank skill, or highly likely an L-Rank skill. They shouldn’t be able to directly get involved yet, but we should check. There, done!”
Messages popped up on the window that had been pitch black dead.
“Ah, they have already caught the Babar! That was really fast!”
“That’s right. I thought they would’ve had a bit of a hard time with the current combat power. Honey also had a high level of contribution. The attack time was fast with a team including a stat F-Rank, too; the achievement amount should be considerable.”
The rewards for the dungeon attack and monster hunting were decided according to the achievement amount. Normally, the system automatically calculated it, but in exceptional cases, the administrators directly calculated and picked the rewards.
Tree moved their fingers around and connected appropriate rewards to each person.
“Finally, for our Honey – normal equipment should be useless.”
“It seemed like he needed high rank integer increase equipment, though?”
“There’s the blacksmith. He doesn’t need it. Rather than that… this should be good.”
After drawing out all the rewards amounts and connecting one special item, they turned off the window.
***
-Cheep cheep cheep chirp
Small mumbling tickled my ears. When I opened my eyes, I saw an unfamiliar ceiling. First of all, it seemed like we had left the dungeon
-Chirp! Chirp!
Next to my head, Chirpie flapped. Alright, alright. Stop hitting my face, it hurts.
“Ahjussi!”
“Yoojin!”
It was Yerim and Myeongwoo. I grabbed Chirpie and raised my body. Where was this place? It was a quite wide room without windows. And my clothes… seemed to be a hospital gown so was this a hospital?
When I turned to look, Myeongwoo was on the verge of tears.
“Did I sleep for long?”
“For two days! The hospital said that you were okay, but…… I mean even four S-Rank Hunters followed you in, but why couldn’t they protect a single person?!”
At Myeongwoo’s angry shout, Yerim looked away. I had been tired, but I didn’t know I would sleep for two days straight. Still, it seemed like there wasn’t anything weird about my body. And my head was clear.
Just then, the door opened and Kim Sunghan came in. When he saw me, he smiled brightly.
“So you have woken up!”
And then at Myeongwoo’s dirty look, he turned his head like Yerim.
Well, Myeongwoo was the person with power here. Especially for the two fledgling S-Ranks here, he was even more powerful. Of course Yerim, but even Kim Sunghan with quite a lot of experience, wouldn’t have much S-Rank equipment. S-Rank equipment wasn’t common yet, so S-Rank Hunters were prioritized in taking them.
For them to quickly get all the equipment they needed, the best way was to borrow Myeongwoo’s strength.
“Don’t be like that. Before the 1st Rank monster suddenly appeared, there wasn’t any problem. Even if they are S-Rank Hunters, how could they have predicted such an abnormal thing and stopped it? And they all cooperatively hunted the 1st Rank monster well, too.”
Even after that, they probably finished the attack well without much of a problem, right? They wouldn’t have picked fights again and fought in that chaos.
“What about Blue?”
I asked, petting Chirpie.
“She was too noisy, so we couldn’t bring her to the hospital. She was a little sullen because she couldn’t see ahjussi, but she’s well. And she eats well too.”
“Chirpie kept on crying the whole day starting from the second day, so there was no helping it. We got permission from the hospital and Association and brought it over.”
So it was like that, our Chirpie. You wanted to see dad?
“Did Yoohyun go into a dungeon?”
“Ah, yes.”
Yerim replied a little sourly. Avoiding my eyes, it seemed like she was hiding something. And speaking of, why was Kim Sunghan here?
“Wasn’t Sunghan-ssi supposed to go as well?”
“Ah… that is.”
Kim Sunghan also avoided my gaze. What was it?
“And Peace?”
“Peace went along, but that is…”
Yerim hesitated and then continued.
“Guild Leader and Peace, just the two of them went.”
“……Huh?”
For a moment, I didn’t really understand. So, the two of them, just the two of them…… My heart sank and the Fear Resistance skill message window popped up. Crazy, that brother bastard, really, was he crazy?
“……An S-Rank dungeon?”
“Yes. The other guild members followed inside, but they were all chased out. They said the mood was really scary. Still, they said it was a dungeon that suited them well, so even if they have a hard time, they would be unharmed…”
Even so, it was an S-Rank dungeon. Since an S-Rank Hunter was necessary, at minimum a mid to high grade. Going in there taking only Peace? And what sin had Peace committed? I mean, he wasn’t a guy who would forcefully drag him along…… Even if it was a manageable place, an S-Rank dungeon attack time was long. If it was just the two of them, they wouldn’t be able to rest properly.
Really… Yoohyun, this crazy bastard. If you’re upset about something, say it through words, you brother bastard.