Chapter 954 – 954. Rainbow Fruit
I followed Kang Oh-jeok into the tent with the temporary waiting room sign. Besides me, there were seven other hunters sitting down. Among them, one hunter caught my eye.
“It’s been a while.”
It was a man wearing a black coat even though summer was approaching. With his distinct features, he was the youngest of the seven hunters.
Kang Seok-soo.
He was famous as a young genius mage in South Korea.
We had met and competed in a dungeon survival about two years ago.
I usually don’t remember men’s names or appearances well. Even if I do remember, I tend to forget them unless they’re exceptionally memorable. The reason I hadn’t forgotten Kang Seok-soo was because he frequently appeared on TV and the internet, and because his girlfriend was delicious.
‘No, she wasn’t his girlfriend back then. They were childhood friends. Her name is Yoo Jung-mi. I remember it clearly. She’s not here.’
I sat next to Kang Seok-soo. It was the only seat available.
“It has been a while. What have you been up to?”
“What else would a hunter be doing? Of course, I’ve been taking on requests from the association and clearing dungeons. What about you….”
“I’ve been doing something similar.”
“That’s not it. I contacted you occasionally, but you completely ignored me. You even blocked my number. Why? I don’t think I did anything wrong to you?”
Kang Seok-soo’s voice was cold. The way he looked at me wasn’t friendly either. I almost hit him but held back.
“You were bothering me. I have a habit of blocking numbers when men bother me with calls. I’ll unblock you since I feel sorry.”
I could always block him again later.
“Ha.”
Kang Seok-soo let out a hollow laugh and shook his head.
Then, Kang Oh-jeok reappeared in the waiting room. He began briefing us on the B-grade dungeon.
“We have no information about this B-grade closed dungeon. It’s not that we couldn’t scout it, but that we didn’t. I think you all know the reason why.”
Clear it without any information.
It meant we had to clear it from scratch, with nothing. It was for the purpose of gaining experience, so I just accepted it.
“Of course, if you deem it dangerous, you can escape immediately. No one will blame you for failing. Your lives are the most important.”
He handed us a red ball of thread.
The Thread of Origin.
An item that allows for emergency escape from a closed dungeon.
“What I’m going to brief you on isn’t the dungeon, but about you all. You need to cooperate with each other, but you don’t have any information about each other.”
He explained the information about me and the other hunters. I barely got through the boring briefing. There were two women among the hunters, but neither was beautiful enough to catch my eye.
“That concludes the briefing. If there are no issues, we will start the dungeon raid in one hour.”
The hunters started talking. They were deciding on positions and tactics based on their abilities. Kang Seok-soo was at the center of it all.
The meeting proceeded smoothly and ended in 20 minutes. I fiddled with my smartphone during the remaining time.
‘Han Ha-rin… no reply. Did she already enter an A-grade dungeon?’
Kang Seok-soo approached me. He placed a canned coffee in front of me.
“Have you thought about what I said before?”
“What you said before?”
I frowned. I racked my brain. No memory came to mind. Kang Seok-soo sighed.
“About the guild. I proposed that we create a guild together, didn’t I?”
“Ah, you did. You haven’t made it yet?”
“I’m not an A-grade hunter yet. But I’ve almost filled the requirements. I’ll probably take the promotion exam next month or the month after.”
“Oh. Congratulations. You’ll become an A-grade hunter faster than me.”
It wasn’t surprising. Kang Seok-soo had been treated as a genius since he was young, and he was two years older than me.
“That proposal. It’s still valid.”
“Why me specifically?”
“Your value in South Korea is higher than you think. Your value increased even more when you rejected the offer to join the Seikeol Guild recently.”
“How did you know about that? Did you investigate me?”
Kang Seok-soo chuckled.
“Investigate? South Korea is small. Information comes rolling in even if you do nothing.”
It wasn’t true that information just rolled in even if you did nothing. It seemed like he had a separate information network.
“You think I’ll join your guild after rejecting the Seikeol Guild? You can’t support me as much as the Seikeol Guild can. You don’t even have a guild yet. Honestly, what you’re saying sounds like a pyramid scheme.”
Kang Seok-soo’s face remained calm despite my somewhat harsh words.
“I understand. We’re nothing compared to a large guild. I know that creating a guild isn’t just about having ambition.”
He took out his smartphone and showed it to me. It contained information about the guild.
“What is this?”
“I’m going to create a guild as soon as I get promoted to A-grade. I’ve been preparing for it. I made the plan two years ago, and it’s almost complete now.”
“Seven Tier?”
“That’s the name of the guild. I chose it carefully. Isn’t it cool?”
“No. I don’t think anything of it.”
Ignoring Kang Seok-soo, who seemed proud, I checked the guild’s information.
It was different from ordinary guilds.
The Seven Tier Guild was run by seven guild masters. It wasn’t unusual for multiple guild masters to run a guild simultaneously. In fact, there were many guilds run by two guild masters.
But seven was excessively many.
“Seven guild masters. Is that even okay? That’s too many. There’s a saying that too many cooks spoil the broth.”
“There’s one representative. The masters decide the representative through a meeting and vote every two years. Originally, I didn’t plan on this either… Look at the master information.”
Five masters had already been decided. One of them was, of course, Kang Seok-soo.
I was surprised when I saw the names of the five masters. They were all promising talents who had already made a name for themselves in South Korea. Two of them were women. Both were beautiful, and they were famous for their skills as hunters.
“…You managed to scout them?”
“They were dissatisfied with the existing top 10 guilds. The top 10 guilds in South Korea are very territorial. Well, even so, persuading them wasn’t easy.”
“You even have a sponsoring company.”
“It’s not ideal, but it couldn’t be helped. We need capital to grow quickly. However, the sponsoring company won’t interfere with the guild’s internal affairs.”
I read all the information about the guild. If I were to evaluate it, it was ready to be established right away. If it grew properly, it had a good chance of taking the place of a top 10 guild.
“…With this much, there’s no reason to bring me in, is there?”
“The goal of the Seven Tier Guild is to become the best guild in South Korea. That’s the only way to change the existing top 10 guilds.”
The best guild.
To reach that position, one condition must be met.
“…An S-grade hunter.”
“That’s right. You need an S-grade hunter to aim for the top guild position. And I predict that you will become an S-grade hunter in the future. Of course, I will also become an S-grade hunter.”
Kang Seok-soo spoke arrogantly. Since it wasn’t entirely impossible, I didn’t argue.
I understood what the requirements were to be a Seven Tier Guild master. They were all outstanding prospects, people who were said to have the potential to become S-grade hunters in the future.
“……You’re serious.”
“I’ve never been anything but serious. Sung Yoo-jin. I know that it’s getting harder to do hunter activities from B-grade since I’ve been doing it without a guild. It’s hard to find dungeons above C-grade without the help of a guild. More than anything, you must be craving the presence of reliable comrades.”
He was right.
There had been a few moments of crisis while clearing C-grade dungeons. They would have been nothing if I had reliable comrades.
That’s why I try to enter the easiest and safest dungeons possible.
“Sung Yoo-jin. Let’s join forces. We can change the world. No, we will change it.”
Kang Seok-soo reached out his hand to me. I pretended not to see his hand and looked away. I scanned the information about the Seven Tier Guild again.
“…Give me some time to think.”
Kang Seok-soo smiled and lowered his hand. He seemed satisfied that I hadn’t rejected him outright.
“I can’t wait long. There are only two spots left in Seven Tier.”
“It doesn’t have to be exactly seven, does it?”
“We’ve decided on seven master positions. This will never change. Besides, Eight Tier sounds a bit weird, doesn’t it?”
“It does sound weird.”
***
As the vanguard, I entered the dungeon first.
I felt a momentary dizziness. And then I felt a sense of incongruity.
‘…It’s different from usual? It feels like the dungeon itself is shaking….’
I’ve entered dungeons hundreds of times. There was no way I could mistake that familiar sensation. This dungeon was different.
Whoosh.
A cool breeze blew. I looked up and saw a gloomy sky. I stared blankly around. I was alone in a field. There was no one around. Normally, other party members should have appeared within three seconds.
‘Do we have to clear it separately? That’s the worst. If we’re separated, we agreed to meet in the west, right? Where’s the west?’
The dungeon revealed its clearing condition. It was a fruit with a name I had never heard of before.
A pitchfork and a straw hat appeared in front of me.
‘This is insane. What is this?’
I scratched my cheek. Even though closed dungeons were a bit bizarre, I had never heard of a dungeon like this.
‘Is this a new type of closed dungeon?’
It was perplexing, but it was possible. There were dungeons that trained hunters, like the ‘Hero’s Whirlwind.’
I put on the straw hat and picked up the pitchfork.
‘Do farm work? What a load of crap.’
I needed to see if any tricks would work. It wasn’t like I would die if I didn’t do farm work.
‘I have Complete Recovery and Heavenly Heart. Status ailments are nothing to me.’
I looked around, searching for the west.
The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. So, the direction where the sun sets is the west.
‘If this isn’t a dungeon, that must be the west. Well, even if that’s not the west, the others will assume the west is the direction where the sun sets, so it doesn’t matter.’
I threw the pitchfork away and walked towards the direction where the sun was setting.
“Hey, you rascal!!”
I heard an old woman’s voice from behind. I turned around. A woman in her sixties was running furiously towards me. Most of her hair was gray, and her face was full of wrinkles. She only had about six or seven teeth left, and even those were yellow and didn’t look good. If Seong Ji-gon saw her, he would probably be unable to stop his erection.
The old woman hit me on the head with the momentum she had. It didn’t hurt. It was just unpleasant. When I frowned, the old woman got angry instead.
“Hans, you rascal! Are you trying to abandon the field again?! You rascal! When are you ever going to come to your senses!”
“Old hag. Are you crazy?”
“Old hag? You have no respect for your mother! You rascal!”
The old woman swung her fist again. The last time I got hit was because I didn’t expect her to actually hit me, but this time was different. I lightly twisted my body to avoid the punch and extended my leg to trip the old woman. The old woman fell face-first into the damp dirt field.
“Huff!”
I put my foot on the back of the old woman’s head. The old woman struggled with her arms and legs to get up. I stomped on the old woman’s head a few times, then slightly reduced the pressure.
“Ha, Hans! Why, why are you doing this…?! Help me up. Your mother is too tired….”
The old woman said in a tearful voice.
“Old hag. I’m not Hans. My mother is definitely not an old hag.”
“Wha, what are you suddenly saying… Ugh!”
I stomped on the old woman’s head again. This time, harder than before. It seemed like dirt had gotten into the old woman’s ears, but I didn’t care.
I took my foot off. The old woman quickly lifted her head. She gasped for air with her dirt-covered face. The old woman trembled and looked at me cautiously.
“Ha, Hans. Did your mother do something wrong to you…?”
“I’m not Hans. Seriously.”
“Eek!”
I stomped on her head a few more times. It didn’t take long for the old woman’s attitude to change.
“I’m not Hans.”
“Ye, yes. That’s right. You’re not Hans…!”
“Old hag. Where’s the Rainbow Fruit?”
I asked without much expectation.
“Rainbow Fruit…? Are you talking about the legendary Rainbow Fruit?”
“Tsk. Your tone.”
“Mu, are you talking about the Rainbow Fruit?”
“Yes. The Rainbow Fruit.”
