Chapter 103. Those That Climb the Dungeon (2)
I decided to return to Korea once Hwaya had already left Windermere for Korea. Of course, it only took me an instant. I called Walker from the dungeon, grabbed him, and shouted Return. That was it.
"H-Hm? What was that? What did you do?"
"That"s a secret of course."
Just like that, I was home with Walker. Because I appeared in the living room with a foreigner, my family, who were gathered at the living room, suddenly froze.
"Oppa!"
"Hey, oppa"s back."
Yua quickly jumped into my embrace. I patted her and gave Walker the glance, "you"re going to be guarding her."
"I"m back."
"Yeah, you were on TV, so I thought you"d come back soon."
Father pointed at the TV. On the screen was a platinum blonde, red-eyed man wearing a mask having an interview with the Windermere Lake as the background. They wanted me to do a quick interview as someone who had a major hand in clearing the Field Dungeon, but I didn"t think the interview would even air in Korea.
"Oppa looked really cool!"
"Thanks, although it"s not my real appearance."
On TV, people were speculating from Thunder Knight"s appearance that he was a mix between Western and Eastern. Seeing the newscaster clearly speaking about how I could even be Korean from my relationship with Hwaya, I felt slightly irritated.
"So who"s that young man?"
"Walker, this is my family. Introduce yourself, but keep it short."
As Walker didn"t know how to speak Korean, he introduced himself in English. However, as my family knew English to a certain extent like most Koreans, they didn"t have too much trouble understanding him. In fact, since father had traveled often around the globe for training, he knew basic conversation level words in many languages.
"It"s dangerous these days, so I hired him to be Yua"s bodyguard. Ah, he won"t be living with us or anything like that."
"There"s no bodyguard for your mother?"
"Mother doesn"t go out that much. If you"re in danger, you can always call father or me."
"Huu, dear, look at our son ignoring his mother and only taking care of his sister."
"When you go out, you can just take me along. Anyways, bodyguard, huh… How did Walker, who is a dungeon explorer, end up being a bodyguard?"
I winked at father and told him that I"d explain it later over private dungeon explorer message. Then, I patted Yua, who had calmed down a lot by now, two more times and separated myself from her. Then, I returned Ghostface back to Walker.
"Let"s go Walker. We have to get you an ident.i.ty and a place to live."
"It sure became easy. Just by being an Awakened, countries will give you an ident.i.ty. It"s something unthinkable in the past. I still clearly remember people being deported as illegal aliens."
"It just goes to show you how dangerous the world is now. Having one more ability user to fight against monsters is more important than petty things like that."
When I was about to leave the house, Yua stopped me. With a radiant smile, she offered a hand to Walker.
"To be honest, I don"t think I need a bodyguard, but take good care of me. I"m Kang Yua."
"Hm, right, I"m Edward Walker."
They shook hands lightly. After their short greeting, Walker and I left the house. Walker then equipped Ghostface, changing his appearance into a man I had not seen before.
"By the way, boss."
"Boss?"
"Aren"t you?"
"We"re equal in the contract, so just call me by my name."
"You clearly have a collar on my neck, but… Fine. Kang Shin."
"Yeah."
"Your sister is innocent and kind, unlike you whose insides are black and violent. Are you guys from different parents?"
"If you fall for her, I"ll kill you."
His answer shocked me.
"Please, she"s half my age… It"s not like I"m a pedophile."
"Half!? How old are you!?"
"I"m 36 this year."
How does he look so young…!?
"Brightman was 37, right?"
"Right. That"s why I"ve been his toy since he was young. Just thinking about it makes me mad."
"Brightman also only looked like he was in his late 20s, but you"re even worse. I thought you were in early to mid 20s for sure."
"… Your stare is making me uncomfortable."
"Why aren"t you married? Did Brightman not allow you to?"
"I just didn"t have the opportunity."
"Ah, I see. You just didn"t have the opportunity."
"That way of talking is extremely unpleasant…"
"What? Why? You just didn"t have the opportunity."
"Ku… I want to kill you, but just thinking about it makes my head hurt…!"
Walker half-a.s.sed the ability a.s.sessment and got a B rank. If he made good use of his equipment and stealth ability, I thought he could even be A+ rank. Of course, there was no reason for him to reveal his true ability in the a.s.sessment.
After obtaining the ability user license, the rest went smoothly. For now, I got a hotel room for him to stay in and paid to rent a house near mine.
In truth, I even thought about leaving the house and becoming independent. Since monsters would target me just because I was the Hero, my family would be the first ones in danger, as they were close to me. However, I thought back to what Loretta said. That I should wait a little while longer. That I should maintain my daily life until the day comes.
I knew what the daily life she was talking about meant. It wasn"t just the peace Loretta and I could enjoy together, but also my life on Earth. As such, it was fine for now. When the time came, she would tell me. I knew she was doing what was best for me. Of course… I would have to answer her too. Uuuu, it was a rather embarra.s.sing, happy, and strange feeling. Now that I thought about it, there was the problem with Ye-Eun too. My head was twice as confused.
Even while I was contemplating these things, I took care of Walker"s hotel room and house rent. Walker suddenly asked.
"You must have a lot of money."
"I can exchange gold for it, so I have more than enough for something like this."
"Even though I"m on the 44th floor, I only get 100 gold for about every three monsters I kill. With that, I don"t have much left over once I spend it on potions and buying and fixing equipment. At least, I don"t have enough leftover to spend it on something like this. Is it different for you?"
"You"re on the 44th floor and only 100 gold drops at a time? Ha, so that"s what the Third Dungeon is like."
"You really have talent for making people mad. You! Kuaak!"
I enjoyed watching Walker get angry and suffer by himself. Just like that, Walker became my neighbor and Yua got herself a trustworthy bodyguard. Only after I took care of these things could I finally return to the dungeon. Though, the dungeon"s one week period had only ended today.
I thought about challenging the Grim Reaper by myself again, but remembered Lin"s words from a long time ago about many explorers being stuck on the 40th floor. As such, I thought I should try partying with them. The party I entered with that in mind was someone who looked to be at least 50 years old. Explorers didn"t age as quickly as ordinary people, so it was likely that he was even older.
"Hm? I haven"t seen you before. It"s been a while since a newbie came to the 40th floor."
After the party leader, other fairly old people greeted me. A few of them looked extremely worried.
"We"re going to get wiped out quicker than usual. Shouldn"t we kick him out?"
"Don"t say that. Newbies have to get experience too. Since we"re going to fail anyways, let"s at least give him some experience."
"We won"t ever succeed anyways. We"ll just rot away here on the 40th floor."
What was this… helplessness? An overwhelming sense of defeat permeated the atmosphere.
"Even if we break through, there isn"t much meaning to raising my level anyways. In that case, we might as well help the newbie out a bit."
"Cheer up everyone. The newbie"s going to be dispirited if you keep it up."
No, I want to punch your face out first… I held myself back from saying many things, and gave a short introduction.
"I"m Kang shin, an explorer from Earth."
"Explorer from Earth?"
"Kang Shin? Wait… Kang Shin?"
"A few of our comrades who were stuck on the 40th floor broke through recently after partying with an explorer from Earth called Kang Yungoong."
"I was there too. I died, but it seems they succeeded in the raid after that."
"That"s not what"s important. I heard recently in the Residential Area. Kang Shin is the Crown Prince from the rumors."
"Crown Prince is on the 40th floor…"
Even they knew the name "Crown Prince." With a bitter smile, I continued.
"I already broke through the 40th floor, so I can say this seriously. If you want to advance past this floor, just do your best to survive. I can"t be responsible for your safety."
"Crown Prince…"
"Understood."
"I also got it. I want to climb higher. I still have my world…"
"Perhaps… a miracle will also come to me. Although I left my world, I might be allowed to continue climbing…!"
Spirit returned to a few members. Good, this was enough. If I could light their cooled pa.s.sion even a little bit, that was enough! I raised my Crimson Gluttony Spear into the air and shouted.
"The goal is for everyone to break through the 40th floor. Let"s go!"
"Oooooh!"
However, the reaper was the worst opponent to take on in groups. He mostly used huge area of effect attacks, and when he teleported behind a target he randomly chose, warriors received fatal injuries, and magicians and priests were killed in one hit. His blade waves, scythes being thrown out from his stomach, and black hands shooting out from the entire field were all fatal!
It was hard to deal with just the reaper, but there were 500 apparitions to worry about. From the start, I told the party members to focus on killing the apparitions, but they still died one by one in the process. By the time all the apparitions were killed, only three other party members remained alive.
"Kuk, today we lasted a long time."
"To think we"d actually kill all the apparitions…"
"Watch out behind you!"
[Die!]
The moment the three of them heard my shouting, they rolled on the ground. The reaper"s scythe the swung above their bodies. Immediately afterwards, I stopped the reaper"s movements with Ruyue"s ability. Because of the reaper"s magical defense, Ruyue could only hold him for an instant, but it was still enough time for me to approach and stab him.
"Eat this!"
Divine Speed followed by White Lightning Consecutive Strikes! From the consecutive spear attacks, a huge hole was pierced in the reaper"s chest. He then escaped Ruyue"s shackles and summoned the black hands while he flew up. However, I already knew how to deal with the black hands.
I infused Ruyue in my armor, and the black hands froze and shattered the moment they touched me. The others were huddled inside a holy barrier one of the surviving priests created. Confirming that they were safe, I shouted.
"Priest-nim, can you drop him from the sky!?"
"O Iloinu, bring down that evil being! Divine Hammer!"
[Kuaaaa! You insignificant bugs are annoying me!]
"I"ve been waiting for you!"
After dropping to the floor from the Divine Hammer, the reaper disappeared and appeared behind my back. I instantly turned around and stabbed his head with my spear. The lightning Spirit Aura from Peika rose up and drew his scream. Although he summoned a black scythe and dropped it on my head, if I was dumb enough to be hit by something like that, I wouldn"t even be alive at the moment. With my spear still in my hands, I used his body as a pivot and spun, dodging the scythe. I then shook the spear more violently and shouted.
"Thunder Bomb!"
[Critical Hit!]
Even though my attack succeeded, I instantly backed off. A small scythe popped out of his body and flew through the air. His entire body was a weapon. I couldn"t let my guard down for even a moment. I had to employ the hit-and-run method. Plus, even as I ran, I had to be careful as he had long-ranged attacks. He was truly an irritating boss.
[I"ll kill you, Hero!]
"You think so much like me. I want to kill you too."
I gave the reaper a cold smile and strengthened the grip on my spear. Then, without a shred of hesitation, I charged towards him. Like I"d die a second time from that guy! Taste the wrath of the week-old grudge!
[You obtained 37,500 gold.]
[Rewards will be distributed in order of contribution.]
[Kang Shin-nim"s contribution is the highest. Choose your reward.]
[1. Grim Reaper"s Deathscythe
2. Soul Strengthening Elixir
3. Upper Mana Potion
4. Reinforced Battlesword]
In the end, I managed to kill the reaper without anyone else dying. However, the others were from different parties, and only looked at the reaper with half-happy, half-baffled expressions. I didn"t really care about what they were feeling, so I simply looked at the reward list. Good, it was here. I immediately chose the Soul Strengthening Elixir and swallowed it.
[You consumed the Soul Strengthening Elixir. Your refined soul becomes strengthened. Your magic and charm increase by 1.]
A smile bloomed on my face. Good, I was getting stronger. I was advancing slowly, but surely. Being confident in my growth, I clenched my fists.
I would continue hunting the reaper, grow stronger, advance onward in the dungeon, and continue growing stronger. I would raise my elementals, collect skills, and change my equipment if needed.
Like that, I would become stronger.
In order to not kneel in front of the despair these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds always talked about.
Author"s note:
This one is 7,000 characters too… Wait, I could take 3,000 characters from the last chapter, 2,000 from this one, and make a chapter…!
Of course, if I did, the chapter"s flow would be all over the place. So I won"t. I plan on making the next chapter the normal length. Wish me luck everybody!