Chapter 36
Chapter 36 – Dungeon Terror (1)
The massive guild known as Bait Guild had disappeared. As a result, rumors and urban legends spread like wildfire among the public.
However, that was only for a moment.
Now is an era of upheaval.
With the emergence of new rising guilds and capable individuals, the name Bait Guild quickly faded from people’s memories.
“Argh! Die!”
Kang Hyeon still wandered the dungeons alone.
Now that people’s levels had risen, even E-rank dungeons were on the verge of being saturated.
In the end, Kang Hyeon had no choice but to move up to D-rank dungeons, partly by his own will and partly by circumstance.
“Kieek…”
A monster screamed as it was impaled by a sword. Kang Hyeon looked at it for a moment before heading deeper into the dungeon.
How long had he walked like that?
It was when he thought he had come quite deep into the dungeon.
“Stop hiding and come out.”
Kang Hyeon suddenly stopped in his tracks and muttered.
At the same time, about ten people appeared in front and behind him, surrounding him.
“Heheh. What? How did this bastard know?”
“Wow~ Seems he’s got good instincts?”
“If his instincts were that good, he would’ve run away.”
“That’s right? Hahaha!”
No electronic devices can be used inside dungeons.
Also, the moment a dungeon is cleared, everything inside disappears.
In other words, there was no place more suitable for committing crimes than this.
“Sigh, this crap again.”
Kang Hyeon roughly ran his hand through his hair and sighed.
It wasn’t just large guilds that robbed people.
Criminals from society enter dungeons, join forces, and attack people who travel in small numbers.
They had nothing to fear as no evidence was left behind, and among such people, there were plenty of scum who didn’t hesitate to kill.
“While I’m still asking nicely, hand over everything you’ve got and get lost.”
A man with loosely arranged facial features stepped forward and spoke.
“I’ll return those words right back at you. Hand over everything you have and leave, and I’ll spare your lives.”
Kang Hyeon said with a slight smile.
Veins popped on their foreheads.
“This crazy bastard!”
“Boss. Doesn’t something seem off? Maybe we should just…”
“What do you mean ‘just’? You think this is the first time we’ve seen someone putting on airs like this?”
“Of course we’ve seen many. But still…”
“Anyway, this bastard’s got guts the size of a bean.”
Kang Hyeon, who wandered the dungeons alone, was particularly prone to conflicts with such people.
The reason Kang Hyeon felt no particular guilt when slaughtering the Bait Guild members was that he had already encountered and killed countless such individuals.
“Shouldn’t you at least coordinate with each other before coming out? What are you doing after calling people out?”
“This guy really!”
“Do you want to die?!”
The men became highly agitated at Kang Hyeon’s sarcasm.
“Everyone, stay put.”
The man with loose features restrained his companions. He seemed to be acting as the leader among them.
“Phew, we don’t want to see blood either, so let’s end this nicely, shall we?”
“What? End it nicely?”
Kang Hyeon laughed at the man’s attitude, as if he was doing him a favor.
“Ha, aren’t you guys like millstone handles?”
“What?”
“The handle of a millstone is called eoi. Eoi. You’re trying to put something in the millstone to grind and turn it, but! Oh? The handle came off?”
“…”
“That situation is called unbelievable. It’s frustrating, right? You can’t do what you need to do because of a trivial handle. That’s how I feel right now.”
It was a famous movie quote that he had always wanted to imitate at least once.
“Don’t tell me… You bastard…”
The corners of Kang Hyeon’s mouth curled up.
“Isn’t it unbelievable?”
“Fuck! Just kill him!”
As their shouts erupted, Kang Hyeon activated ‘Wayne’s Secret Technique’ and ‘Entria’s Shell’.
“Hyah!”
The leader at the front swung his sword.
A brilliant energy gleamed on the sword, suggesting he had used a skill to increase its power.
‘It’s unbelievably slow.’
When ‘Wayne’s Secret Technique’ is activated, the increased agility makes it feel like being in a different time from others.
At that time, watching the sword approach like a sluggard, Kang Hyeon reached out his hand.
He could have easily dodged it, but knowing his current defense, this was his action.
‘This should increase my skill experience a bit.’
-Thud!
The sword was helplessly caught in Kang Hyeon’s hand.
The man was greatly bewildered by the situation that was unacceptable by his common sense.
“What the?!”
When he used his skill, it easily split even fairly tough monster hides.
He had a history of bisecting armored people, bones and all.
Yet his sword had only managed to pierce a gauntlet.
“Give it here.”
Kang Hyeon, gripping the blade, pulled his arm. The man was helplessly pulled forward by that force.
“Uh, uh?! Ugh!”
-Whack!
Kang Hyeon kicked the face of the man hanging onto the sword, sending him flying.
Name: Knight’s Longsword
Rank: D
Durability: 210/250
Description: An old…
It was a sword not even worth reading the description for.
After briefly examining the sword, Kang Hyeon threw it straight at the men.
-Swish!
“Argh!”
The sword, flying at tremendous speed, lodged into one man’s chest, and with its power still undiminished, the man’s body flew several meters before crashing.
“…”
“What are you doing? Keep coming at me.”
Fear began to fill the expressions of the men looking at Kang Hyeon.
***
Ippotranslation
***
The dungeon consists of one main core and several regular cores.
The place where the main core is located is generally called the ‘boss room’, and the place where the regular cores are located is called the ‘core room’.
Typically, these core rooms have either a powerful mid-boss level entity or an enormous number of monsters.
“Grooaar!”
In this dungeon, the creature guarding the core room was an Ogre.
[Violent Ogre]
The creature, standing over 3m tall, was covered in enormous muscles.
Moreover, it was so tough that it didn’t even bother to dodge ordinary attacks, enduring them with its body as it charged forward.
Kang Hyeon was excited by the appearance of such a strong monster for a change.
“Uoooh!”
An overwhelmingly large hammer.
The creature swung a huge iron hammer that looked like it would weigh hundreds of kilograms at a glance, with tremendous force.
‘Crazy.’
-Woosh!
Even for Kang Hyeon, getting hit by such an attack would be dangerous.
If he were to be hit on the head, regeneration or not, he’d die instantly.
‘But at that slow speed, I couldn’t get hit even if I wanted to.’
Kang Hyeon lightly dodged the ogre’s attack and leaped vigorously into the air.
“Huh?”
And like a cicada, he grabbed onto the creature’s face and clung to the back of its head.
“Magic Explosion”
No matter how tough and hard the skin, there are always weak spots.
-Boom!
It felt like his hand would burst, but Kang Hyeon used all his strength to grab the Ogre’s eyeball.
Thanks to this, the explosive power that occurred in Kang Hyeon’s hand was fully directed into the Ogre’s head.
“Gu… Guuuh…”
Eventually, the explosion inside its head caused the Ogre to have a seizure and fall to its knees.
-Thud
“Ah, it stings.”
Kang Hyeon waited for his regeneration to finish, clenching and unclenching his fist.
After a moment, when the regeneration was complete, Kang Hyeon extracted the magic stone from the fallen creature.
“Time to move on.”
As Kang Hyeon was moving to collect the core, he suddenly stopped.
“Wait a minute…”
His gaze was fixed on the hammer the Ogre had been wielding.
“Should I check it out?”
Name: Ogre’s Giant Hammer
Grade: D
Durability: 994/1000
Description: A hammer used by Ogre, who was exceptionally strong even among other ogres. Made solely for durability and convenience, it boasts an enormous weight, so much so that no one other than Ogre was allowed to even lift it.
“Hmm… What’s my current strength?”
After reading the item description, Kang Hyeon checked his strength stat.
▫Detailed Stats:
Strength 26 (+3.5)(+2)
“Pure strength is 26, plus 3.5 from the title, and 2 from the ring. So 31.5 in total?”
It seemed like a pretty high number to him.
“Let’s try lifting it.”
Standing in front of the hammer, Kang Hyeon rubbed his hands with a strange tension.
“Haaaaaah!”
Kang Hyeon grabbed the hammer with all his might. However, despite using so much strength that his whole body was trembling, the hammer barely moved.
“Giant’s Strength.”
Judging that it was impossible to lift without using a skill, Kang Hyeon this time used Giant’s Strength.
Now Kang Hyeon’s strength has become 43.5.
“Haaaaaah!”
Finally, the hammer was lifted, and Kang Hyeon slammed it down on the ground with all his might.
-Boom!
It was such a tremendous impact that the ground shook.
“Ugh… This is still not enough.”
It’s impossible to use it as a weapon when it’s this difficult to swing.
Feeling stubborn, Kang Hyeon used Wayne’s Secret Technique as a last resort. Instantly, Kang Hyeon’s strength shot up to 54.
“Uaaah! I can do it!”
The hammer was lifted relatively easily.
With veins popping out all over, Kang Hyeon swung the hammer with all his might.
-Boom! Crash!
Seeing the dungeon wall completely shattered after just two hammer strikes, Kang Hyeon smiled with satisfaction.
“Not bad! Ugh! Ow ow ow…”
Using such high strength disproportionate to his health put a strain on his muscles.
“I can’t keep this up for long. I wonder if I could swing it properly about ten times at most?”
After pondering for a moment, Kang Hyeon put Ogre’s Giant Hammer into his inventory.
“Yeah. This should be enough. I can always increase my strength more.”
After finishing his organization, Kang Hyeon approached the core.
“Now, let’s get out of here.”
Normally, he would have pushed on to the boss room where the main core was, come what may, but not today.
He had a dinner appointment.
-Thump! Thump!
The core pulsated roughly.
Kang Hyeon cut off its support, collected the core, and headed towards the portal.
***
Ippotranslation
***
Kang Hyeon’s promise was to have dinner with An Yu-seong.
The location was a high-end restaurant in Seoul.
It was a place Kang Hyeon had never even imagined in his life, where a single serving cost tens of thousands of won.
“It tastes good. Munch munch.”
“Doesn’t it?”
Since An Yu-seong was paying for the meal, Kang Hyeon was eating the meat without even breathing.
“Don’t they sell beer here?”
“They do sell it. What do you need?”
“Something like Hite or Cass?”
“Oh, geez.”
An Yu-seong shook his head at Kang Hyeon’s cheap taste.
“Hey.”
Kang Hyeon, who had devoured the steak in less than 5 minutes, called out to An Yu-seong.
“You want more?”
“Uh, no, that’s not it!”
Kang Hyeon, who had unconsciously nodded, became flustered.
“Can’t you dress more normally?”
“What are you suddenly talking about?”
“People keep staring because of you, man.”
In fact, if you only looked at An Yu-seong’s appearance, he was handsome enough to be an idol.
On top of that, he was 182cm tall and a rich young master with a personal chauffeur.
Just based on this, he was clearly the perfect man you’d only see in dramas.
“What are you, some kind of Super Saiyan? Dyeing your hair blonde and all. Tsk.”
However, his attire looked like something you’d see at a concert venue with a punk look, and his eyes were slightly unfocused, not appearing quite normal.
Moreover, his muscles that could rival professional athletes, the tattoos covering his entire body, and all sorts of piercings couldn’t help but draw attention.
“You’re surprisingly old-fashioned, Kang Hyeon.”
“What did you say, you brat?”
“Kang Hyeon, don’t you know about PR, individuality? What era do you think we’re living in to have such an old-fashioned mindset?”
“What kind of PR are you doing in a high-end restaurant? You crazy bastard. It’s amazing you weren’t kicked out at the entrance.”
Come to think of it, with that appearance in a place like this, he should have been stopped at the entrance, but An Yu-seong walked in as naturally as if it were his own home.
“Seriously, why do you always treat me like a crazy person?”
“What?”
“Do you think people are staring because of me? I’m a regular here.”
“Then it’s because of me?”
“Yes.”
“You wanna die?”
A vein popped on Kang Hyeon’s forehead at An Yu-seong’s words.
“Tsk tsk. You should look in a mirror too, Kang Hyeon. And relax your face a bit.”
“You think words are everything!?”
In fact, whether it’s An Yu-seong or Kang Hyeon, their appearances were bound to catch people’s eyes wherever they went.
It wasn’t simply because they were muscular.
In a world where capable people have become more common, fit bodies have become quite ordinary.
Of course, their muscles were extraordinary, but more important than that was their aura.
“Sigh. Forget it. It’s my fault for trying to have a conversation with you.”
Originally, there was an overflowing aura of madness, but recently, the effect of being a ‘Cruel Family Destroyer’ was added to it.
“Isn’t there something strange about that person’s eyes?”
“It seems a bit creepy…”
“The dyed-hair guy next to him looks more like a thug, but he seems a bit better.”
“He’s originally famous for being from a rich family. Honestly, he’s good-looking too.”
Kang Hyeon had to hear unwanted whispers thanks to his abnormally developed physique.
“Damn… Should I wear sunglasses?”
“That won’t be enough, you know?”
“Shut up.”
-Buzz buzz
Just then.
Kang Hyeon checked his smartphone as it suddenly vibrated.
[Kim Tae-soo]
“What’s this about?”
When he connected the call, a welcoming voice was heard.
-Oh. Kang Hyeon.
“Kim Tae-soo, what’s up?”
-Do you have some time tonight or tomorrow by any chance?
Kim Tae-soo suddenly asked about scheduling time. Kang Hyeon thought for a moment, but realized that as long as he wasn’t going to a dungeon, he was just a hikikomori unemployed person.
“I have plenty of time. Why? Is something up?”
-Then, would you like to meet our guild master once? The guild master wants to see you.
“Me?”
Han Se-yeon, the guild master of the Dangun Guild.
She might not know, but Kang Hyeon had seen her when the dungeon wave incident occurred in his hometown.
The image of her swinging her sword was still vivid in his mind.
-Yeah. When you asked me to look after Kang A-hyun last time, the guild master took an interest. So she also knows that the recent collapse of the Bait Guild was because of you.
“…”
-So it seems she wants to see you for various reasons. What do you think?
He certainly owed the Dangun Guild a favor.
It wouldn’t be right to just ignore and pretend not to know.
“Alright. I’ll go right away this evening.”
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