Chapter 7: Dungeon Encounter

“Ji-woo~ya, go back home. There is nothing you can do here. Eomma, not so busy like you saw now.”

His mother tried to make Ji-woo go back home and take a rest. After all, it had only been a day since he was back from being missing.

Ji-woo himself knew that he didn’t have anything to do at the street food stall.

There were not many customers, so his mother could take care of the work without Ji-woo’s help.

The street food stall was a business that was easy to earn for living costs with just a few customers. Even though it only barely supported the family of two.

But currently, there was a family of three. Street food alone couldn’t support all of them. Moreover, having street food as income work meant Ji-woo’s mother couldn’t take a single day off to rest. If she did, it would not be enough for them.

Then Ji-woo followed what his mother said and decided to go home. On his way back, he kept thinking about his family’s condition.

Because of that, Ji-woo contemplated whether or not to get the offer from Hwang Eun-bi.

On the other hand, Ji-woo didn’t want to dive into the world of fighting again after the Great war. But he, too, needed it to earn money for his family, especially his guilt for them to have such hardship.

On his way back home, Ji-woo concluded to take the offer. He called the number from the Guild card that Eun-bi gave him before.

Tut, Tut–

“Hello, who is this?”

Ji-woo heard a woman’s voice from the phone call and remembered it belonged to Eun-bi.

“This is me, Kim Ji-woo. I take the offer as a Porter. But I wanna ask you something first.”

“Ah, Kim Ji-woo~si. Sure, what do you wanna ask me?”

“Why are you doing this for me? What did it do for you?”

There was no immediate answer from Eun-bi. The silent moment lasted for 10 seconds.

“Long time before I became a hunter, your mother sometimes gave me food for free. At that time, I didn’t have any family or anyone I could depend on it. I keep coming to your mother’s street food stall when I’m free, even until now.

“I feel like I can become a hunter because of your mother’s food. Sometimes I thought that as a support for me, to live means to help.”

“Enough.” Ji-woo put a stop to Eun-bi’s reason for helping him to find a job.

Eun-bi wasn’t angry when Ji-woo stopped her from speaking. She knew that Ji-woo should be understood the purpose already, so the latter part was unnecessary.

“When and where?”

“Oh my, so straightforward? 5 p.m. at Neighborhood parks. I’ll pick you up there.”

“Sure.”

Ji-woo ended the call and went back home to get changed.

Ready to leave with Eun-bi at the appointed time and place.

—- —-

Neighborhood parks, 05.05 p.m. Ji-woo looked at his watch on the wrist, waiting for Eun-bi to pick him up.

Honk, Honk–

“Here! Get in.” Eun-bi lowered her car window in the front seat.

Ji-woo walked to the car and got in.

“Does working as a hunter have a high salary?” Ji-woo asked after seeing Eun-bi drive the car.

“Oh my, you didn’t know much about the hunter? Where have you been all this time? Though you have been missing, shouldn’t you know more about the hunters at least?”

“Well…” Ji-woo couldn’t refute Eun-bi words since he only knew a little about the hunters.

“Tsk, hunters is a job with the highest salary over any other job in the world right now.”

Eun-bi was really proud after saying hunters have the best career in the world. but then said gloomily, “On the other hand, it’s an expensive assignment.”

“A lot of money with a high risk of death,” Ji-woo interjected.

“Yeah…” Eun-bi answered with a solemn mood.

“Well, even I have money; as a matter of fact, I bought this car with the installment.”

Eunbi tried to change the dull mood inside the car.

“How can it be like that?”

“Even with a high salary. Sometimes, that is not enough to support your daily life. Artifact items and weapons for hunters are costly. It is a necessity to survive in the dungeons.”

Ji-woo realized he knew so little about the so-called hunters. He didn’t apprehend that behind their fame around the world. The hunters were suffering from the worry of death and spending money on the Artifact items and weapons.

Every glamour thing always had certain circumstances to it.

Not too long on their way, they arrived at their destination.

After Eun-bi parked her car, she spoke to Ji-woo. “Wait here first. I will get you the Artifact suit.”

Looking at Eun-bi that got out of the car to grab the Artifact suit. It made Ji-woo a bit speechless.

‘It’s not necessary for the suit. I’m cursed.’

For Ji-woo, this was not the first time he saw the Portal Gate. He was familiar with Mana around Portal Gate and Artifact suits too.

“Here the suit, wear it. I go to my team leader first.”

Ji-woo wore the suit. It completely covers all of his body. The Artifact suit looked like an astronaut suit, but the Artifact suit was smaller and tight than that.

It looks funny and weird at the same time when Ji-woo wore the Artifact suit.

“Okay, everyone, please gather over here. We will begin the briefing.”

All the hunters who were around the Portal Gate approached the squad leader of the Demigod guild.

“For other hunters, you already know who I am. But since we have new Porters today, I will introduce myself again. Please be quiet.

“I am the Squad 7 leader, Jun Ji-hoon. D-rank hunter of Demigod guild.

“And the Portal Gate in front of me is a tier-1 level. With 20 E-rank hunters and 3 D-rank hunters here, we can close this Portal Gate easily. So, trust us and relax a little bit, Porter.” Ji-hoon tries to ease their tension.

Eun-bi stood beside his squad leader and looked at Ji-woo, who was already wearing the Artifact suit in the back, with other Porters.

‘Why is she looking at me like watching a kid in the playground?’

Ji-woo didn’t like being helped too much. He was more comfortable doing everything alone.

“Now, I end the briefing. Prepare! We go inside the Portal Gate in 1 minute.”

Everyone dispersed and took their bags while some hunters prepared the artifact items and weapons before going to the dungeon.

Ji-woo looked around him and observed it carefully.

‘All of the Porters are not hunters. They don’t have Mana with it. So, I guessed right. Mana from this Portal can harm others that don’t have Mana. It is where the Artifact suit came in handy.’

And Ji-woo shifted his face toward the hunters that were preparing themselves.

‘Over there, hunters have different amounts of Mana in them. Oh, that how can they tell about the hunters’ rank? That means Eun-bi must be one of the strongest hunters in this squad.’

After observing for a few seconds, Ji-woo was aware. That Eun-bi was not fooling around with her work.

These E-rank and D-rank hunters were strong compared to ordinary humans. Of course, Ji-woo knew they could become like that because of Mana.

But the difference between each rank was huge when Ji-woo felt the Mana from their body.

“Let’s go!” Leader of squad 7, Jun Ji-hoon, ordered them.

Zap, Zap–

One by one, all of the people from squad 7 entered the Portal Gate.

Zip, Zip–

All of them come to the dungeon’s world inside the Portal Gate.

“This is a dungeon. For some of you that enter the Portal Gate for the first time. Everyone…, be careful!”

Jun Ji-hoon warned them with a stern voice. He didn’t want to make a mistake in the dungeons.

Squad 7 marched at a slow pace while observing their surroundings. Sometimes they stopped and let the Porters do their job of collecting the Magic Crystal.

Magic Crystal was a medium for providing Mana. It could get used with the Artifact items and weapons. Or to increase and restore the hunters’ Mana.

Ji-woo could feel a small amount of Mana from Magic Crystal. He couldn’t help and ask Eun-bi on his side.

“Can this be sold? How much does it cost?”

“It should be around 1-2 Million Won since hunters need this to replenish their Mana.”

“Can hunters grow stronger with this?”

“We can, but it varies for each hunter. Some need 100. Some need 10.000 of it. I dunno, maybe it needs 100.000 pieces.”

“WHAT THE…” Ji-woo almost yelled out the curse because he was surprised by how much hunters needed to get stronger with this Magic Crystal thing.

“Shh… Don’t make a fuss. You still have poor knowledge about all of this. When we get back later, I will teach you.”

Ji-woo didn’t know what to say after receiving an offer from Eun-bi to teach him all of this.

‘Sigh! I can learn by myself.’

Then, before the Porters finish their collection job, they hear Jun Ji-hoon signaling them to stop and be quiet.

“Get down!”

Other hunters approached Jun Ji-hoon and told him what he got.

“Mister Jun, we found a Silver Wolf following us.”

“How many?”

“Only one, mister Jun.”

“Good. Piece of cake. Let’s do it like the drill. Don’t make a mistake.”

Ji-woo tried to get a glimpse of the creature that got called a Silver Wolf while crouching. In the end, dungeon creatures were different from their world.

“Kill it!”