CH 279

The captain’s lips were turning blue, and both eyes had lost focus. He didn’t revive even when the woman shook his shoulders in response to his abnormal reaction.

“His body is cold,” she stated, but she still paid attention to people who were frantically distributing the loot. Then, the captain slowly opened his mouth and moved his tongue side to side. His saliva splattered all over, and he started to eject lumps of spit as if he was doing it deliberately.

I pulled the woman toward me before one big blob hit her face. It might have been possible for her to avoid it, but there was something she hadn't noticed. There was something small hidden in the saliva that looked like a bug. In fact, long and thin insects crawled out of the muddy ground where the captain’s saliva fell. Their outer shells were thick, and they had several pairs of legs like crustaceans. They were fast. It was still possible to trample and kill them, but I couldn’t ruin the start of the long-awaited quest like that. It wasn’t time to kill them yet because the process had just begun.

“Blargh!”

This time, the sound was loud, and the captain had a difficult time throwing up. The people around the loot turned their heads towards him, but Ryuichi grabbed their attention again immediately. I was the only one watching where the bug that had crawled out of the saliva was heading to. It was going toward the dead boss monster's corpse. When the insect gnawed on the dead body and went into the flesh, bubbles rose in the body, and salty seawater leaked in every gap. Several tentacles on the dead boss monster began to move. Life had been given to the corpse.

Even then, the captain and the woman hadn’t figured out what was going on. The captain was groaning about his pain to the woman, and the woman looked stupid as she still hadn’t realized that her boss could be the host of the parasite.

I physically turned the woman’s head towards the boss monster’s body.

“It is coming to life,” I said.

She was a few beats too slow. It took her a few seconds to realize that the boss monster was moving, then she strode towards the boss monster and started stabbing her sword at its head multiple times. She also stepped on it crazily. If it was a different monster at a lower level, its head bones would have popped and its bone marrow would have leaked at once.

However, only a small amount of yellow mucus came out. It had a horrible smell, and she was now covered in it. She then whispered in the captain’s ear.

I stated, “It’s over.”

The girl looked as if she was wondering if that was all. The captain also reacted as if he was bewildered at first before finally looking relieved. He wasn’t even aware of the foreign energy that permeated his body. The two of them were ridiculous clowns.

The parasite that had stayed inside the captain’s saliva wasn’t something that originated from this E-class dungeon. In fact, it was something weird that could only be seen in dungeons above A-class. Without me here, the girl would have become the host and been under its control.

***

A few had died, but we had successfully conquered the E-class dungeon and completed the first linked quest ‘Doom Entegasto’s Destroyed Life Vessel.’ However, the captain’s face was still dark. Seeing that he hadn’t even told the woman about his concerns, it seemed like he had no intention of telling me the reason why he was worried.

“Oh my gosh. Did we really do this? We really conquered the E-class dungeon?” one member asked.

Only the squad members were excited. Each of them were carrying a bag with the distributed mana stone, and they were all talking about the conquest in joy. They were saying that they would continue to focus on E-class dungeons as they had successfully completed one. They also talked about level-ups and spoils, and they ecstatically boasted that they would enter the association’s headquarters one day.

On the way back, there was the body of a monster buried in mud, which the group had used as a marker. Almost two weeks had passed since we had entered the dungeon, but it only took a few hours for us to reach the entrance.

[Attack Squad: You have destroyed the dungeon (Maruka Clan, E-class).]

[Corps: Tetsuya Attack Squad has destroyed the dungeon (Maruka Clan, E-class).]

[Guild: Sakura Corps’ Tetsuya Attack Squad has destroyed the dungeon (Maruka Clan, E-class).]

After the third one, the notification messages stopped popping up. The man from the deputy directors stated in a voice full of surprise, “I didn’t expect you would finish it. I was about to mark all your names as dead today… This is wonderful!”

This man was from the association, but he was no longer acting in an arrogant manner. Thus, other squads looked at us enviously, and the squad members were clearly enjoying it as their faces reflected their happiness.

The group was dispersed in front of the building where the dungeon was located, and it was planned that we would reassemble two days later. The members began to scatter only after hearing confirmation that I would participate in the next attack. Those with fewer injuries would go to gambling houses and bars, then talk about how heroic they were all day long.

I followed the woman and the captain to their office. Then, the captain finally confessed there, “The next quest is a… D-class dungeon.”

The woman's face darkened, and she unconsciously shook her head. Then, she looked at me as if she had remembered that she promised she would return me to the association headquarters after completing the hidden quest.

Excuses came out of her, “There will be a number of applicants, and our corps will develop into a stronger army. So Mr. Kwon…”

I cut her off, “When will that happen?”

No one knew how long the linked quest would continue. However, the second section already required the questor to attack a D-class dungeon. So far, the only group that had successfully defeated a D-class dungeon was Seong-Il’s attack squad. That was the reason why the captain looked like he had swallowed poop. He believed that it was impossible to complete the quest. Even if his troop did all that they could, they could never finish it.

“...”

The captain went quiet. If he strongly desired to carry out the quest, then there was only one option left: abandoning his team and joining another offensive group that was challenging the D-class dungeon. However, he was certain an attack group like that wouldn’t accept him.

“How much do you have? You must be hiding something.”

He broke the silence and blurted out nonsense. Then, he soon took a submissive attitude as he realized he had made a mistake. He avoided making eye contact with me and turned his head toward the woman.

“We should at least try,” he said.

She replied, “You are insane. Do you think I’ll be the only one to think this way? All the members of the squad will point their fingers at you and leave.”

He pleaded, “We can just check the difficulty level and leave. A lot of people are doing that.”

“Do you really have to taste poop to make sure it’s poop?” she snapped in response.

The captain was convinced that I was in the same boat as him. He started off by mentioning the Seven Demon Kings without hesitation.

“The quest points to the Seven Demon Kings. As long as we reach the end… The association may even turn a blind eye to us if we tear the demons apart. No, it has to be like that. By then, I won’t be who I am now.”

The woman sighed. “Tetsuya.”

Tetsuya continued, “They will have no choice but to recruit me. You agreed that this is the only chance we have to get revenge and get into Odin’s real shadow.”

Tetsuya only mentioned the quest, but he never talked about the ‘Black Fragment’ that had started the whole thing.

He turned to me. “Mr. Kwon, I will keep my promise no matter what happens. I’ll get the power to return you back to the association once I complete the quest. This quest is worth that much, and there’s no doubt about it. You have to believe it.”

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I cocked my head to the side. “So?”

He continued candidly, “I admit that we didn’t start off on the right foot, but things have changed. Now, I at least think of you in the same way that I regard Sayaka. I believe things have straightened out since we both have a common goal.”

I snorted and pretended to sneer, “Ha. You keep telling me to trust you, but do you think I’m stupid? Nothing matters to me as I can just leave anytime. People like you are all over this world.”

Sayaka intervened, “Are you going to keep running away? You should return to the association one day.”

They raised their heads as I stood up, and the captain’s eyebrows were wiggling.

Tetsyua offered, “I’ll put everything I have to supplement more personnel. We will come out if it gets too dangerous there.”

I rolled my eyes. “We will all die the moment it gets risky, you dumbass. Use your brain.”

To my utter surprise, the captain kneeled down and began to beg, “Please don’t go… We need you…”

I finally smirked. “I’ll consider it if you share all the information with me.”

***

The captain must have been content because he only had to kneel once before he shoved a bunch of extra work to ‘Kwon Ki-Cheol’ for free. However, the mercenary he had brought in just liked sitting around. The guy had just entered the diamond section and used to be in the Sakura Corps, the captain’s corps.

The guy actually had his own attack team. The reason why the guy joined the squad was that the captain had poured out all his property for the quest. Every term of the contract gave positive benefits to the mercenary. In addition, it was a one-time contract, and the captain allowed the guy to judge when to escape the dungeon. In other words, it was an unreasonable contract that allowed him to run away any time he wanted.

The ring that the captain always wore was no longer on his fingers. His decent breastplate had also been swapped out into a lower-class alternative. The mercenary sat cross-legged, looking alternately at me with my face covered with a hood and the captain. He was actually looking down at us, and it was so obvious that we could see up his nostrils.

Tap, tap.

“You guys have only experienced an E-class dungeon?” the mercenary asked.

The captain responded, “Yes.”

“But why are you challenging D-class this early?” he asked.

Tetsuya evasively responded, “I just want to try and check how difficult it is. There must be an evident difference between what I have experienced and what I haven’t.”

“You said your name is Tetsuya, right?”

The captain nodded. “Yes.”

“You must be blind now, but this is too much for being a little impudent…” The mercenary’s eyes flickered toward me. “Who are you? Why are you not saying a single word?”

Tetsuya interjected for me, “He is a mercenary who participated in the last attack.”

The mercenary sneered. “Ah, this is the one?”

The captain responded, “Yes, he is well acquainted with the Maruka clan’s dungeon.”

The mercenary’s continued to treat us with impunity. He was having fun looking at the captain’s shaky reaction whenever he aroused the fear of the D-class dungeon.

At lunch that day, the mercenary visited the chief commander of the Sakura Corps. The Sakura commander and the mercenary were colleagues who had endured the New Triad system together.

“They are the attack squad I’m going to pay attention to from now on. You should teach them a lot.”

“Well, I should fix their manners first.”

The woman who came in with the commander was polite even though the two executives of the Sakura Corps were explicitly criticizing us. After a while, their meeting came to an end, but the outside window became noisy. Even then, I was keeping the seat as the captain requested, but there was a man who opened the door as if to break it.

“Kwon, Kwon, Kwon…”

The man said it properly only after he got his breath together.

“Mr. Kwon Seong-Il has entered the city!”

The commander of the Sakura Corps and the mercenary reacted instantly.

“Why are you telling me that now?!”

Whoosh-

The two opened the window and jumped off as if they couldn’t afford to go down the stairs. The captain and Sayaka were also flustered, then looked at me at the same time. At that moment, the shouts from outside were loud.

Waaaaaah!-