CH 26

The party members gathered around me, their bodies tense. Their expressions were fraught with nervousness.

Even if I’m known as a screw-up, it’s not like I’m going to eat them. Is there really a need to be that tense?

“Okay. I’m forming the party now.”

As soon as I ripped the scroll, a party window popped up in front of my eyes.

+

[Party has been formed.]

[Party Leader – Seo Go-Woon]

[Party Member List]

Lee Hanjae – Grade C / Lv 10

Kang Ga-eul – Grade B / Lv 2

Kim Min-hee – Grade C / Lv 2

+

‘They’re all just so average.’

It’s understandable for Kang Ga-eul and Kim Min-hee, who only recently awakened, but isn’t this a bit too much for Hanjae?

“Hyung, your level is quite high.”

At Hanjae’s comment, Ga-eul and Min-hee nodded.

‘Do these guys think Lv 5 is high?’

I clicked my tongue inwardly and moved towards the gate.

The three of them scurried after me like chicks following their mother hen. It made me chuckle.

‘Right. I was also like that once.’

I was lost in thought reminiscing about the good old days when the gate activated. When I opened my eyes after shielding them from the blinding light, an old building came into view.

“…What kind of dungeon is this?” Min-hee, scared, stuck to my side.

Ga-eul and Hanjae did the same.

“…Didn’t you read the dungeon guide?”

Upon my question, all three of them opened their eyes wide and nodded.

To top it off, Ga-eul added, “My senior colleague at the company who joined at the same time as me told me that we should learn from experience and not read the dungeon guide in advance….”

“Crazy.”

Was that something to say to a newbie? Learn from experience?

I was so flabbergasted that I stared at Ga-eul who recoiled and hid behind Min-hee.

But the towering and hefty Ga-eul could hardly hide behind the not even 5ft tall Min-hee.

“That son of… no, f*ck… no, sigh.”

Angry, I let slip the crude language I used during my days as a detective to suppress the rowdies.

But if I speak without filtering, it would only serve to confirm the rumors about me being a screw-up.

Normally, when former gangsters start a new life, the first thing they change is their language.

Even Yoon Taek of the White Tiger Faction, who used to not be able to utter a word without swearing, didn’t he start to use refined language after becoming a bakery owner?

‘Right, it’s time for a makeover of Seo Go-Woon’s screw-up image.’

I suppressed my boiling anger and put on a good-natured smile.

“Those jerks’ words are not even worth listening to. Unless it’s a newly emerged dungeon, you should always read the dungeon guide.”

“But—”

“Why do you think the guild would waste money, manpower, and time to make a dungeon guide if it’s not necessary? Right?”

Ga-eul and Min-hee seemed to agree with my point.

“That makes sense.”

‘Hanjae, you bastard. What good is a two-year veteran like you agreeing now?’

I sighed.

I could smell Taeju’s scheme from a mile away. He probably thought that if he made me deal with these clueless kids, I’d surely give up on the dungeon.

If I were the spineless screw-up Seo Go-Woon, I would have indeed done just that.

‘But I’m different.’

While working part-time to make ends meet, I had often encountered clueless newcomers. I was the one who had been there the longest, the one who taught those newbies and turned them into useful part-timers.

‘You’ve underestimated me, you bastard.’

“Too slow! You need to kill it faster!”

Ga-eul, who grabbed the rushing goblin with a nunchuck, shuddered at my shout.

“Why aren’t you killing it quickly?!”

“Ye-yes!”

The nunchuck tightened around the goblin’s waist. The goblin’s moan was cut short by a cracking sound, and an experience point message appeared.

I approached Ga-eul.

“If you’re this slow, you’re dead if you meet a ghoul. You do know that ghouls are faster than goblins, right?”

“Ye-yes.”

“Use your skills frequently to level up, got it?”

“Ye-ye-yes.”

“Don’t draw out your words.”

I frowned, stirring my hand back and forth.

Ga-eul, who was on the brink of death, hastily retreated.

“Hanjae, come over here.”

Hanjae, his face pale, walked over slowly, as if his feet were heavy.

‘This bastard. It’s all for his own good.’

I felt a surge of anger, but I bit it back and pointed at the last remaining goblin.

“Go and kill it.”

“Yes.”

Using his skill, Hanjae called up water to attack the goblin.

I observed his actions closely.

We’d entered the dungeon in a rage, intending to teach that punk Taeju a lesson, but I had many worries about whether the three of us could properly fight.

I thought it would be fortunate if they didn’t just run away at the sight of a monster, but when asked, they followed orders and effectively used their skills, like top students.

After several failures, Hanjae quietly approached after killing the goblin by obstructing its breath with a perfectly formed water ball.

His expression seemed to say, didn’t I do well?

Slap!

“Ouch, it hurts, hyung!”

“Didn’t I tell you to level up your water skills while I’m on standby?!”

Hanjae, who was slapped on the back, hopped around touching his back. I swung my hand again, smacking his back.

“Ouch!”

“What do you think happens if you cancel the skill there?!”

“I caught it! I caught it!”

“Is that all?”

Hanjae dodged my hand and ran away. As a hunter, he ran faster than I did, and I was left panting, sinking to the ground.

‘I’m definitely going to work on boosting Seo Go-woon’s stamina.’

Catching my breath, I beckoned the three over.

“All of you, come here.”

“You’re not going to hit us, right?” Hanjae, hiding behind an icicle half his size, asked.

“If you don’t want to get hit, don’t come.”

The three of them rushed towards me like bullets.

I was done with making any further comments.

“You all know it’s the boss room now, right?”

“Yes.”

“If you mess up.” I drew a line across my throat with my hand. I wasn’t really planning to kill them, but they needed to be scared straight.

As I’d predicted, all three of them nodded fervently.

Especially Ga-eul, who had let a monster run wild by missing the timing for a moment, was now deathly pale.

“Let’s go.”

I led the group of kids who acted even more like kids than kids to the boss room.

The boss room, as small as a single room, was being dug up by worker ants as if they were creating an ant nest, while soldier ants patrolled the area.

‘Didn’t they say we need to get rid of those to make the boss appear?’

“Ugh, I really hate bugs.”

“But those are insects?”

“Shut up, anything with lots of legs is a bug!”

At Min-hee’s comment, Ga-eul pouted. That bastard, unable to win, kept retorting, making me want to slap him.

“Everyone, focus. Whether they’re bugs or insects, they’re still monsters, so stop your nonsense. Hanjae and Min-hee, you’ll take down the worker and soldier ants together. Hanjae, summon water.”

“Roger!”

As Hanjae activated his skill, water formed on the floor everywhere except where we were standing. The water created by the skill didn’t enter the ant nest, but was slightly floating above the floor.

“Should I add more?”

“No, this is just right. Keep it like this.”

“Roger!”

“Everyone, get ready.”

Tension was visible on the faces of all three.

“Lightning.”

With a crackling sound, lightning erupted from thin air and struck the water.

The worker ants and soldier ants that had been in the water were all electrocuted and died with a sizzling sound.

However, this was just the beginning. Whether they had a separate communication system or not, as soon as the ants outside died, ants began to spring out of the nest like a fountain.

“Min-hee, again!”

The ants rushed towards us at a rapid pace, but Min-hee’s lightning was faster.

The smell of burning ants quickly filled the small room.

“Wow, so we can do it like this.”

“Yeah, really.”

I made a dumbfounded face at Min-hee and Ga-eul’s words. No matter how little time they’ve had since their awakening, wouldn’t the guild teach them about their inherent abilities and how to use them?

Why are they so amazed by this?

Not knowing how Sunset Guild’s works, I couldn’t say anything, so I shook my head and spoke to Hanjae.

“Hanjae, cancel your skill.”

After the soldier ants, no more ants appeared. All the pawn ants had died, which meant it was time for the true boss to emerge. And as if it had been waiting, the queen ant broke through the ground and showed herself.

Squee-e-eak-

The queen ant, who appeared fluttering her massive wings, was so overwhelmingly large that she took up half the single-roomed space.

“Ga-eul!”

Ga-eul created a vine that restrained the queen ant’s body.

“Hanjae and Min-hee!”

Hanjae poured water over the queen ant’s head, and Min-hee struck it with lightning.

“Huh?”

“Damn.”

“Shoot.”

Min-hee’s lightning struck the queen ant accurately.

However, only the vine restraining its body burned; the queen ant was unharmed.

“Ga-eul, again!”

“Yes!”

As if it hadn’t forgotten what happened once, the queen ant flew into the sky to avoid the vine.

And it flew towards us.

“Aargh!”

“Kyaa!”

“No!”

The three of us screamed and fell down in that spot.

I clicked my tongue, touched the ground with my hand, and shouted, “Refine!”

A thick stone wall emerged in front of the charging queen ant.

The queen ant, unable to slow down, slammed into the stone wall.

Kwaaaang-

The small boss room shook as if there was an earthquake.

“Has everyone lost their minds?! Ga-eul, again!”

“Huh? Yes!”

While still sitting down, Ga-eul hastily made the vine again to hold onto the queen ant. 

I quickly began to dismantle the stone wall.

The restrained queen ant could be seen through the crumbling stone wall. But as it seemed to be about to break the vine any second, I hurriedly pulled out a gun from the Infinite Pouch.

The Crystal Power Gun I made during the Crystal Dungeon raid was so convenient I had planned to make another one. And while I was at it, I planned to make a gun that could exchange mana stones like exchanging a magazine.

‘I never imagined it would be so expensive.’

The novel mentioned that mana stones were expensive, but since Shin Sooha casually gave me the mana stones he got from bosses, I assumed they were affordable.

‘The hell they are affordable. They’re even more expensive than a house in Gangnam.’

I couldn’t even get something the same size as what Shin Sooha gave me, and even a piece smaller than a baby’s fist was more expensive than I could imagine.

Moreover, unlike the mana stones I used for the Crystal Gun, the mana stones available on the market could only fire up to 3 shots.

‘1,300,000 won per shot!’

Muttering the price, I shot the gun towards the queen ant’s mouth.

Bang-!

The ground shook and the air vibrated.

-Sque-e-eak!

The queen ant, squirming and shrieking, had one side of her mouth torn open.

‘It’s not immune to attacks.’

“What are you doing! Start attacking quickly!”

“Huh? Yes!”

“Yes!!”

I stopped struggling and began to dodge the queen ant lunging at me.

Explosions were heard from behind, a result of the attack unleashed by three of us, but I ignored them and kept running around the narrow boss room.

“Hyung!”

At Ga-eul’s shout, I turned around and fired another magic bullet.

Screech!

An arm of the queen ant aiming at me shattered into pieces, revealing its white innards.

“Min-hee, over there!”

Throughout the day, whether it was worth the effort, Min-hee struck lightning exactly where I wanted. The queen ant hit by the lightning collapsed with a thud.

“Ga-eul! Your seed skill! Tree!”

Before starting the strategy, I requested the most necessary skill among those we had prepared.

“Huh?”

“Use your skill!”

“Ah, yes!”

Ga-eul used his skill, albeit questioningly. A seed was planted in the place that had turned black from the lightning.

The queen ant started to wriggle, as if regaining consciousness.

“Hanjae, water it, Ga-eul, growth skill!”

“Yes.”

“Yes!”

Hanjae watered the seed, and Ga-eul used his skill. As soon as the seed sprouted, it started to grow rapidly. The queen ant shrieked and writhed.

“Dodge!”

I led the kids and avoided it by running to the corner of the boss room.

From the bag of infinity, I pulled out the defensive item that the Infinite Pouch handed me and broke it.

A transparent but blue barrier surrounded us.

‘Good timing.’

As soon as the barrier wrapped us, the ceiling began to collapse due to the queen ant’s struggle.

“Wow, your skill is killer.”

“I… I didn’t know it could be used like this.”

Of course, they wouldn’t know.

This was one of the special skills used by the Plant Hunter, a character from the novel who had had a disagreement with the protagonist, Taeju.

Awakened plant hunters mostly prefer to get jobs in botanical gardens or open flower shops, living relatively peaceful lives rather than venturing into dungeons.

They didn’t need to risk their lives hunting monsters when they could live comfortably and receive respect.

However, the Plant Hunter who had clashed with Seo Taeju maximized the use of his unique skill to clear dungeons.

One of these skills was planting seeds.

This skill, which seemed peaceful as it merely planted a small seed in the ground at first glance.

“Pierce it!”

A root burst out from the queen ant’s flank with a woody sound.

That was just the beginning.

The tree, having completely taken over the queen ant’s body, grew rapidly, taking nourishment from the monster’s bodily fluids and flesh.

And then,

[Your level has increased.]

[Lv 5  Lv 6]

[Your level has increased.]

[Lv 6  Lv 7]

‘Good.’

My level started to grow rapidly as well.