Chapter 15: Sphere

In the morning, Ji-woo helped his mother to bring the necessary thing to their street food place.

Then, Ji-woo left his mother with an excuse for working at a Construction Site.

Initially, his mother disagreed with him. But it was just after Ji-woo promised that he would only work there once. Only then did his mother comply. He said he only worked for 7 hours because he promised the manager to come this morning.

In the end, seven days inside the dungeons was only 7 hours on Earth.

Ji-woo took a bus to reach his destination, and it took about 15 minutes on the road.

—- —-

Ji-woo arrived, and mister Lee greeted him.

“Ji-woo~si, come here. Let me introduce you to my co-worker.”

Mister Lee then led Ji-woo to walk toward their guild bus.

“Alright, everyone. This one is Kim Ji-woo. The one that I told you guys before.”

“Hello.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“Hai, Kim Ji-woo~si.”

Ji-woo then greeted them one by one while bowing. There were fewer porters this time compared to when he was with the Demigod guild.

There were five porters, including Ji-woo and mister Lee.

Before they went inside the bus, a D-rank hunter came to Ji-woo.

“I am the leader of this squad, Park Jae-jin. Thank you for willing to work in the Ganjang guild as a porter. I will treat you fairly.”

“Thank you.” Ji-woo bowed.

Afterward, the hunters went to the bus.

And before the porters went too, they came to Ji-woo first.

“Hey, Ji-woo~si. Your name suits a girl, and with that long hair, it’s perfect.”

“Don’t get hurt inside the Portal Gate, Agassi.”

Hahaha–

The other porters laughed, hearing the joke from their co-workers. All of the porters had the same age, except mister Lee. They were happy when they had another rookie joining the team. Importantly, a newbie like Ji-woo, who wasn’t much older than them.

Ji-woo didn’t mind this kind of thing and did not bother to respond to it.

“Enough! The rest of you, get on the bus!

The other three porters stopped their teasing and went to the bus.

“I’m sorry, Ji-woo~si. They usually have a good manner.”

Of course, Ji-woo understood why they treated him differently. Currently, in the hierarchy of these people, he was at the bottom of chains.

Well, wherever a part-timer was working. They always got treated as an outsider. Even in a guild, there was no difference in treatment either.

In the bus, Ji-woo folded both his arms and sat far at the back.

Alone.

Not long after the bus left for its destination, a hunter walked toward the back where Ji-woo was sitting.

“Kim Ji-woo~si?”

Ji-woo tilted his head, confused by someone that he didn’t know calling his name.

“Who are you?”

“Pardon? Ah, you did not recognize me? It’s me, Jung Tae-ha. We’re in the same class in high school, remember?”

Ji-woo didn’t want to think hard and recall his memory. So, he just answered nonchalantly.

“I can’t recall. I’m sorry.”

Jung Tae-ha frowned and didn’t like being cast away since he was the one that took the initiation to greet Ji-woo first.

Jung Tae-ha could immediately recognize Ji-woo because Ji-woo’s face was not get covered by his long hair that got tied to the back of his head.

“Hey, it’s okay not to remember me. Are you the new porter? Good luck, the pay is not bad for a porter. Enough for you to live.”

Hahaha–

“Give me your phone number. We might have a class reunion. It’s been a long time since we did not meet you.”

Many of Ji-woo’s high school friends didn’t know the news about him missing because the Portal Gates appeared together when he disappeared. They didn’t have time to think about the outcast student like Ji-woo.

Jung Tae-ha took out his phone. He thought to embarrass Ji-woo while meeting their high school alumni friends.

As for Ji-woo, he didn’t want to give his phone number at first. But he didn’t want to act so pettily against his so-called friend.

Ji-woo gave his phone number lazily, and Jung Tae-ha saved the number then put back his phone.

“I’m a D-rank hunter now. Thus, you can ask me for money, and I will loan it to you with low interest as much as you want.

Hahaha–

“See ya, friend.”

Jung Tae-ha left Ji-woo at the back while smirking at him, thinking about the plan with his other friends when they meet up later.

Ji-woo only sighed and shrugged. He never took this kind of act as a significant thing. And always toss it back to the garbage.

‘Kids that don’t know about heaven and earth.’

Theet–

They stopped, and all of the hunters and porters got off of the bus.

Ji-woo could see a Portal Gate that was bigger than the one he had encountered before.

“This is tier-2 Portal Gate, first time?” Asked mister Lee.

“Yes,” Ji-woo answered and nodded at mister Lee’s query.

Ppak, Ppak–

Park Jae-jin clapped and gave a command before entering the Portal Gate.

“Alright, everyone. I give you 5 minutes to prepare and gear up.”

“Yes, sir.”

All of the hunters and porters answered at the same time except Ji-woo and mister Lee.

The others spread and took out the necessary things that they needed.

While Ji-woo was wearing the Artifact suit again after being given by mister Lee, he asked about the tiny house.

“Is it okay to let our belongings here in that small house? And let a…, non-hunter oversee it?”

When Ji-woo first came to the Portal Gate, he didn’t ask Eun-bi about this because he put his stuff inside her car and did not worry about it.

But now Ji-woo was curious why that tiny house used to put their stuff, guarded by an ordinary human, not a hunter.

Mister Lee looked at Ji-woo with a face full of confusion. “Didn’t you work as a porter before? Why didn’t you know about this?”

Ji-woo lowered his head, feeling embarrassed. “I didn’t ask them before because I put my stuff in my friend’s car.”

Mister Lee smiled.

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about that. There are many surveillance cameras around here.”

Ji-woo knitted his brows. “What if that camera got destroyed and the guard got killed?”

Hahaha–

Mister Lee laughed at Ji-woo’s words. “That thing has a Magic spell protection from an Apex-rank hunter. Unless they are at the same rank, they can’t even leave a scratch at it. And who dares to rob the hunter’s belongings?”

“Dunno, maybe a hunter wants to rob us?” Ji-woo gave another possibility while shrugged.

“Huh?! That…, I never saw a hunter getting robbed outside of the Portal Gate. Also, we are at tier-2 Portal Gate. There are no valuable things that are worth to be stolen.”

Ji-woo realized his worries were too much. “Yeah, mister Lee is right.”

Five minutes had passed away.

“Now, gather here. We have 17 D-rank hunters and five porters. Let’s do it like we usually do.”

Zap, Zap–

One by one, all of the Ganjang guild squad entered the tier-2 Portal Gate.

Zip, Zip–

The dungeons type this time was a Cave. Not a jungle-like tier-1 Portal Gate from before.

The breeze was so chilling that it felt like it could stab their skins. But the hunters were not affected that much by this.

Meanwhile, the porters were the ones that were suffering a little bit. Since Artifact suits could only block the Mana impact when entering the Portal Gate. It didn’t mean it could prevent air from entering through the Artifact’s armor and touching their skin.

One of the hunters near the porters used his Magic spell to light a fire with his hands.

The dark cave brightened and warmed the surroundings.

“Mister Lee, you seem not nervous at all.”

Ji-woo asked after looking at mister Lee’s complexion.

“This is normal. I’ve been with this Ganjang team for a long time and know their hunting style in the dungeons.

“C-rank hunters and above can’t enter tier-1 and tier 2 Portal Gate. With that condition, a guild has a safety measure to counter it.

“That is to observe the area first and kill when the monster or creature in the dungeons is alone.

“Or separate them to be alone then kill. Don’t make those creatures stick together, or all of us will be in trouble.

“The squad already has so much battle experience. So, the chance they make a mistake is low.”

Ji-woo, too, knew about high-rank hunters who couldn’t enter the low-tier Portal Gate.

‘This damn Portal Gate is like telling the weak to enter high tier dungeons, but not permit if a high-rank hunter enters the lower tier dungeons.’

“There is a Magic Crystal and Magic Stone at the front, and it looks like nothing is around.”

One of the hunters reported back to Park Jae-jin.

“Call the porters to collect the Magic Crystal and Magic Stone.”

All the porters then do their job of gathering and picking it up.

There were five Magic Crystal. Each crystal had the size of a kitty; One Magic stone had the size of an adult cat. Their weights were the same, and both of the shapes were oval too.

When they were busy collecting Magic Crystals and Magic Stones, it turned out that there was an object that caught Ji-woo’s attention.

“Eh?

“This…”

There was an object that Ji-woo picked up with a perfectly symmetrical round shape. It glowed with dark and silver colors inside it.

Mister Lee looked at Ji-woo and shifted his eyes to the object.

“Ah, that thing?! You don’t need to pick it. It’s useless.”

Ji-woo flinched after hearing what Mister Lee had just said.

‘You say this thing is worthless?!!!’

Mister Lee couldn’t understand why Ji-woo was still holding the object when he had already told him that it was not relevant. He sighed and told Ji-woo the object’s name.

“That thing is called Sphere.”