Chapter 95. More Importantly

Kim Do-Joon got out of the labyrinth, exhausted but relieved to be back. The first thing he did after warming up was to search for a suitable dungeon.

I won’t be able to enter the port for another week...

His skill, which gave him access to the Frozen Harbor, was on cooldown. Returning to earth to thaw his freezing body had left him with an unexpected gap in his schedule.

He had cleared his tasks in advance, anticipating the labyrinth would take some time, but now he had a whole week to himself. Therefore, instead of wasting it, Kim Do-Joon decided to find a dungeon to explore.

He could’ve jumped into another labyrinth, but that wasn’t a priority. What he really needed was to investigate the functionality of mana recovery.

First of all, the difficulty level needs to be high.

At the moment, he was trying to discover the conditions behind the increase in his mana stat. A higher-level dungeon was more likely to satisfy those conditions. Eventually, he’d have to check lower-level dungeons, but it made sense to start with the hardest one he could manage.

Let’s aim for A-rank or higher.

A slight smile appeared on his face as he browsed through the list of available A-rank dungeon raids.

Not long ago, when he was still an E-rank Hunter, he wouldn’t have even considered these places. E-rank Hunters could only enter up to C-rank dungeons at best. But things had changed. Kim Do-Joon had been promoted through a special process and was now an A-rank Hunter, eligible to apply for A-rank raid groups.

Soon, he found what he was looking for.

This one seems about right.

Wasting no time, he followed the necessary steps and submitted his application to join the raid. Two days later, he was sitting in the waiting area outside the dungeon.

***

This particular dungeon raid was being organized by Rune Mage, one of the four major guilds. Kim Do-Joon had some connections with Rune Mage because he supplied potions to them and had met Baek Hwi-Soo, the leader of their team one, a couple of times.

However, Baek Hwi-Soo wasn’t there today. After all, this raid was being led by team two, not team one. Kim Do-Joon sat in the area designated for external Hunters, not with the Rune Mage guild members.

As he waited, Kim Do-Joon noticed the other Hunters around him, each of them finding a spot to relax or chat quietly. Since he wasn’t a guild member, it was natural for him to be part of the external group.

As Kim Do-Joon waited for the guild member to arrive and share more information, he took a moment to glance around at the other Hunters gathered in the space.

One, two... there are six of us?

His eyes narrowed in confusion. Including himself, there were six external Hunters present. For a guild-led raid, having this many outsider Hunters was truly unexpected.

Normally, a raid organized by a prominent guild would only require one or two external members to fill in specialized roles. Seeing this many external Hunters, something just felt off.

Is the dungeon that challenging?

It was not unheard of for a guild to recruit many external Hunters if their members couldn’t handle the raid. The large number of external Hunters could imply that this dungeon was exceptionally tough.

Then again, it was strange because Rune Mage was one of the top guilds in the country.

From Rune Mage?

Rune Mage guild had enough skilled members to divide into multiple teams, like team one and team two. In that case, why did they feel the need to hire six external Hunters?

As Kim Do-Joon pondered this, the door opened, and a man entered the room. He was broad-shouldered and dressed sharply, clearly a member of Rune Mage and an A-rank Hunter.

“Hello, everyone. I’m Park Sung-Won, and I’ll be leading the external group in this raid,” the man introduced himself in a clear, ringing voice.

At the mention of his name, a murmur spread through the room.

Park Sung-Won? That A-rank Hunter?

He seemed to be a well-known figure among the Hunters. His presence exuded a confident energy, standing tall and composed before the group.

"First, let me brief you all," Park Sung-Won began, his voice clear as he addressed the gathered Hunters. "As you know, this dungeon, Sky Bridge, is classified as A-rank. According to the initial reports, it takes the form of floating islands."

He continued to explain, reading from the materials. He detailed the terrain, the environmental conditions, and the types of monsters they could expect to encounter. The Hunters, who had been murmuring among themselves moments earlier, now listened intently, including Kim Do-Joon.

Most of the Hunters, including Kim Do-Joon, had already done some research on the dungeon before arriving. However, they knew that the Rune Mage guild could have more detailed information than what was publicly available, so they paid close attention.

After finishing the briefing, Park Sung-Won looked around the room and asked, "That’s all for now. Any questions?"

A brief silence followed as the Hunters thought about his question. Assuming there were none, Park Sung-Won flipped through his documents, moving on to the next part of the briefing. Just then, someone raised a hand.

Seeing the face of the person, a flicker of recognition crossed Park Sung-Won’s eyes.

He must be...

It was the only A-rank Hunter among the external group. Rune Mage had allocated compensation for B-rank Hunters, so it was unusual to have an A-rank applicant. The reason, however, wasn’t too hard to guess.

He’s the one who was promoted through special promotion, right?

Since they were going to be entering a dungeon together, Park Sung-Won had made sure to learn some basic information about the Hunters in his group. The name was Kim Do-Joon. He was notorious in the industry for his rapid rise to A-rank, the fastest promotion ever.

There were mixed opinions about Kim Do-Joon. Some saw great potential in him, while others viewed his swift ascent to A-rank with skepticism, thinking he hadn’t earned the title with experience.

Park Sung-Won belonged to the former group, but understood where the latter group came from. Normally, an A-rank Hunter was a veteran with years—if not decades—of experience. They weren’t respected just for their abilities, but for the wealth of experience they brought to the table.

As such, no wonder seasoned Hunters were wary of an A-rank Hunter with only a year’s experience. Besides, an incompetent teammate could get others killed.

Under normal circumstances, Park Sung-Won would’ve hesitated to be directly involved with someone like Kim Do-Joon, but this time it didn’t matter. After all, they were only paying him B-rank wages.

“What’s your question?” Park Sung-Won asked, showing a polite smile.

“Rune Mage isn’t exactly short on manpower, so why are you bringing in so many external Hunters?” Kim Do-Joon asked.

Kim Do-Joon addressed the curiosity that had been nagging at him earlier. The other Hunters began exchanging glances, realizing they hadn’t considered that point. Why would Rune Mage, one of the four major guilds, need to hire so many external Hunters?

Park Sung-Won nodded, understanding why the question was being asked. It was a reasonable thing to wonder about.

“To be honest, you won’t be doing much during this raid. You’re just here to make up the numbers,” Park Sung-Won explained.

“Excuse me?”

“Make up the numbers?”

“What do you mean by that?”

The Hunters, now even more confused, started voicing their concerns. Park Sung-Won cleared his throat, drawing their attention back to him, and began to elaborate.

“Although this is called a raid, you won’t actually need to hunt. All you have to do is follow along, and the dungeon will be cleared without any problems.”

“What do you mean?” one Hunter began, only to be cut off by another.

“So, Rune Mage is going to handle everything, and we just have to tag along?”

Park Sung-Won shook his head slightly.

“Not quite. Our team two will be doing the same as you—just walking through the dungeon.”

The Hunters exchanged confused and incredulous looks. They were about to enter an A-rank dungeon, and yet here they were, being told to just stroll through it as if they were on a leisurely walk. Was this some kind of joke? Not only were they supposed to take it easy, but so was the Rune Mage team?

“Then who’s going to clear the dungeon?!” one of the Hunters, the most impatient of the group, finally burst out.

Park Sung-Won shrugged nonchalantly and replied, “Our guild master will handle everything. We just need to follow behind him.”

***

The guild master of the Rune Mage guild, Yeon Hong-Ah, stood before Kim Do-Joon, her presence domineering as always. She was renowned as an S-rank Hunter with the most skills in the entire country.

Usually, Hunter would Awaken one or two skills, and even the most gifted would struggle to surpass five.

Yet, Yeon Hong-Ah had over ten confirmed skills, ranging from flying through the air, teleportation, to conjuring fire and wind. Because of these abilities, she was often referred to as a mage. And now, this mage, the S-rank Hunter herself, was standing right in front of Kim Do-Joon.

"

Um

, well... you all just need to follow along," she said somewhat awkwardly, looking at the group of external Hunters. "We only brought you in because we need enough people to obtain permission to enter the dungeon. But rest assured, you'll still get a share of the reward. We'll split it evenly after the dungeon is cleared."

Upon hearing this, the other Hunters started to perk up. Who wouldn’t be thrilled at the prospect of easy money? Moreover, they didn’t have to lift a finger, just tag along and get paid.

Yeon Hong-Ah’s unconventional approach wasn’t widely known, but those who had heard of it found it intriguing. Whenever she entered a dungeon, she’d make sure to do all the work herself, leaving the rest of the party members idle.

The reason was obvious.

She wants all the experience points for herself.

There could be no other explanation. She intended to hog all the experience points by killing every monster on her own.

This practice wasn’t entirely unique to her. Sometimes, a guild would push a particular member to advance rapidly by giving them all the kills in a dungeon. However, it was extremely rare for anyone to attempt this in an A-rank dungeon.

The reason why she could do that was simple—she was incredibly strong, so much so that she could single-handedly annihilate an A-rank dungeon.

Didn't Elena just slip in, take down the boss, and then leave?

Clearing an A-rank dungeon solo wasn’t unheard of; even Elena had done it once. But from what Kim Do-Joon had heard, Elena’s strategy involved sneaking in and taking down the boss in a one-on-one battle.

In contrast, Yeon Hong-Ah likely intended to wipe out every single monster in the dungeon. That way, she could reap the full benefit of hunting alone.

𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

"I can't believe the guild master is here," one of the Rune Mage members remarked, drawing Kim Do-Joon's attention.

"Looks like today's going to be an easy ride," another added.

Kim Do-Joon glanced over at the Rune Mage members. They seemed just as pleased as the external Hunters about Yeon Hong-Ah’s presence, viewing it as a lucky break.

Even the guild members think like this.

It wasn’t wrong for them to be glad about an easy day, but the contrast between their lack of ambition and Yeon Hong-Ah’s fierce determination to monopolize the experience was stark.

Can this really be called one of the top four guilds?

A flicker of disappointment crossed Kim Do-Joon’s mind. Rune Mage was the guild that Baek Hwi-Soo had eagerly tried to recruit him into. Despite only having met him a few times, the man would send him frequent messages. Seeing their members display such little drive left Kim Do-Joon feeling let down.

Then again, he wasn’t planning on joining Rune Mage anyway, so it wasn’t really his concern.

More importantly, I need to focus on mana recovery.

Whether others were hogging the experience or not didn’t matter to him. His goal today was clear: to figure out the conditions under which his mana stats would increase inside the dungeon.

“Let’s get going,” Yeon Hong-Ah signaled, and Kim Do-Joon followed her into the dungeon.

***

“Let’s get going,” she said, turning around to give the signal to enter. As she did, she quickly glanced back to check on the group.

Hmm?

At that moment, someone stood out to her. Among all the smiling, chattering Hunters, there was one who looked dead serious.

He was an odd one out. Perhaps the phrase “a crane among chickens” would fit, albeit she was unsure it’d be the right metaphor. Regardless, his seriousness made him noticeable.

Yeon Hong-Ah quickly came to a conclusion.

He must be nervous.

She assumed he was frightened by the idea of entering an A-rank dungeon. Smiling inwardly, she thought there was no need for him to worry. As long as she was there, there was no way anyone would be in danger.

With that thought, she dismissed him from her mind. After all, she wouldn’t see him again after today.