35. Experienced Newbie (1)
Park Hwi-seo was heading to the shower room when he suddenly stopped.
“By the way, I don’t know where you’re training, but… becoming strong alone like a lone wolf won’t allow you to embrace others. Instead of persuading everyone individually, you need to make people *want* to come to you.”
“What do you mean?”
“If you want to embrace Hunters, do what Hunters do. Go to dungeons. I think you’re already doing that, but in this country, if there’s no official record, it means nothing.”
Dungeon. Hyun-woo thought about it and realized he had never been to a dungeon before.
‘Difficulty: Hell’ is a dungeon, but since no one knows about it, no one will recognize Hyun-woo’s achievements.
What Park Hwi-seo was saying was to build achievements that could be recognized externally.
‘Achievements.’
The reason Lee Ji-tae was respected by domestic Hunters was because of that.
Breaking through dungeons that no one else could, defeating formidable enemies.
The fact that he shared hardships with fellow Hunters and fostered camaraderie in the process was also why he was respected.
Hyun-woo felt that Park Hwi-seo was right. Raising his level was not as good as clearing a high-level dungeon to be recognized.
‘I need to go to a dungeon.’
He had been missing the point because leveling up and item farming were better in ‘Difficulty: Hell’. To be recognized as a Hunter, he had to go to even a low-level dungeon. Park Hwi-seo watched Hyun-woo’s reaction and continued.
“If you’re okay with it, we can help arrange it.”
Park Hwi-seo then wore a slightly amused expression.
“But… even a genius has to take things one step at a time.”
***
Hyun-woo, who had been lying on a bench, opened his eyes. The warm sunlight tickling his cheek stung his eyes. The autumn breeze was also cool. The entrance to the Cheonggye Mountain hiking trail was crowded with people who had come to enjoy a weekend hike. It was a good day for hiking, but he wasn’t there to enjoy such leisure.
A 1-star fixed-type dungeon, also known as the Cheonggye Dungeon.
It was classified as the easiest among the lowest-grade dungeons.
It was mainly entered by those who had just become Hunters to test themselves, and it was so easy that even ordinary people were allowed to tour it with a Hunter. Hyun-woo had come here through Park Hwi-seo’s arrangement.
It was natural that the first dungeon he entered was the easiest, but Hyun-woo, who had already gone through ‘Difficulty: Hell’, had mixed feelings. But the procedure was unavoidable.
Since Hyun-woo had no dungeon conquest record at all, he had to start with a 1-star dungeon.
A car stopped in the middle of the parking lot with a screech.
‘She’s here.’
The person who got out of the car was a woman with a black ponytail, wearing a baseball cap and a baseball jacket. She had dark circles under her eyes, as if she had stayed up all night.
Hyun-woo instinctively recognized that she was a very skilled ability user.
‘I heard a senior executive from Howan Mama was coming. She looks strong indeed.’
Not as strong as Park Hwi-seo, but still quite strong.
The woman stood in the middle of the parking lot and took something out of her bag.
It was a gong.
The sound of the gong echoed, and the surrounding attention began to focus. The woman shouted loudly.
“Those who have registered as ability users! Come this way!”
There were more than one or two people waiting around the parking lot like Hyun-woo. Hyun-woo approached first, and soon about five people gathered around. The woman stopped hitting the gong, as if her head hurt from the sound she had made, and covered her head.
Come to think of it, it was the fall baseball season. Judging by the smell of alcohol, it seemed like she had been up all night because of yesterday’s baseball game results.
“Am I a little late? I stayed up a bit late yesterday. I’m Noh Haeul, an inspector from Howan Mama [a fictional Hunter management company]. Are you the ones who registered as ability users this time? Of course, I know your skills are amazing, but the main cause of death in the first dungeon is newbies with excessive self-confidence killing each other. Anyway, to prevent that from happening, for the first few times, you are required to enter with a senior-level Hunter from each clan. So don’t be too upset about being treated like kids. That’s all.”
Noh Haeul spewed out words in an instant, and half of the people didn’t understand her properly.
But judging from the bewildered expressions of the newbies, it seemed clear that they had been insulted.
Hyun-woo was more concerned that Noh Haeul still seemed drunk than being ridiculed.
‘Well, she’ll take care of herself.’
At least, he had heard that there had never been any deaths in dungeons that took place with an inspector present. There were quite a few injuries, usually from people arguing with the inspector and breaking something. ‘She doesn’t look good, but I think she’ll do well when the situation arises.’
“For reference, if a situation arises in this dungeon where I have to step in and protect you, you should reconsider being a Hunter. A 1-star fixed-type dungeon, especially the Cheonggye Dungeon, is really easy. 1-star indicates the difficulty, and fixed-type indicates the dungeon’s form, you know that, right?”
The newbies nodded. It was basic knowledge about dungeons. Noh Haeul added, as if to explain just in case.
“The more stars, the higher the difficulty, and fixed-type, dynamic-type, these are words that indicate how much variation there is in the dungeon’s form or attributes. Dynamic-type is difficult to predict, so the difficulty increases accordingly. Fixed-type, on the other hand, is predictable. In other words, Cheonggye Dungeon is damn easy. Unless there’s a problem with the Hunter themselves, you’ll be able to clear it. Is there anyone here who can’t stand blood or doesn’t want to hurt someone?”
Noh Haeul looked around, but no one raised their hand. Of course, such people wouldn’t apply to be Hunters. Noh Haeul nodded and pointed to the man on the far left.
“Then, would you each introduce yourselves? This is a tip: don’t just play with your phone because you came first. Hunters should introduce themselves to each other. You don’t usually enter dungeons alone anyway. You need to know each other’s names to ask for help in an emergency. If you call out like, ‘Hey, you over there!’ no one will know who you’re talking about.”
“Yes. My name is Park Seo-moon. I received a 2-star rating.”
“I’m Han Na-kyung. 1-star.”
“Oh, I’m…”
It was a party of two women and three men in total. The relay of self-introductions that followed ended with Hyun-woo.
“Kang Hyun-woo. 1-star.”
The moment Kang Hyun-woo said his name, Noh Haeul frowned.
“Kang Hyun-woo? Ah, I think I’ve heard that somewhere, where was it.”
It was probably because of the ability user test. The battle with Red Butterfly seemed to have been talked about quite a bit among headhunters.
But it seems that only those who are interested are interested. It didn’t even make the news.
“Ah, is he that friend who was in the same class in Sanggye Elementary School?”
“No, I’m not.”
“Then was it Shinhyun Middle School? Junghwa High School? University of Seoul?”
“None of them. Don’t just attach me to any place because you’re embarrassed.”
Noh Haeul seemed to be struggling with a hangover, and covered her head and gave up. It seemed like she couldn’t think for long.
“You’re so cold. Did you bring your equipment?”
“Here.”
Hyun-woo took out a nail-studded wooden club from his inventory. Noh Haeul’s expression changed rapidly, and a commotion spread among the group members.
“You have an amazing talent. Try to keep it in your bag if possible. It’s surprising. You only fight barehanded during the ability user test; when you go to a dungeon, you bring equipment. This is common sense, unless you have a barehanded skill… hmm, the documents say you have a poison blood skill.”
“Isn’t this just a goblin dungeon anyway?”
Noh Haeul’s eyebrows twitched.
“You know it well. But you’re going to catch them with a wooden club?”
Noh Haeul tilted her head. Could that be an item? An item in the form of a wooden club—she had never heard of it. The people who had been looking at him with suspicion also looked curious. Hyun-woo said nonchalantly.
“The name of this wooden club is Goblin Bat. If you hit a monster with this, anything will come out.”
To be honest, he didn’t even need the wooden club. But taking out the Black Hand Dagger felt like using a butcher knife to catch a chicken.
He was just trying to joke around, but it felt like he had ruined the atmosphere even more. Everyone was looking at Hyun-woo with a dumbfounded expression. Then someone shouted loudly.
“Hey! Do you think this is a joke?”
The person who stepped forward while getting angry was the man who had said he was Park Seo-moon.
Park Seo-moon slammed the bag he had brought in front of Hyun-woo. There were weapons such as a round shield, a large hammer, and a sword. They were all items he had bought expensively.
‘He brought a lot. But all of them are just normal grade.’
“You have to bring at least this much! You’re not even a 2-star like me…”
“Put it away immediately, Park Seo-moon. It is forbidden to display weapons in a place other than a dungeon. It can cause anxiety to the general public.”
Noh Haeul cut off Park Seo-moon’s words with a cold attitude. It was hard to find the tired attitude from just now.
Park Seo-moon was about to say something more, but he mumbled and stuffed the weapons into his bag at Noh Haeul’s knife-like attitude.
Even though ability users themselves were living weapons, showing weapons openly was a factor that could make society uneasy.
Noh Haeul’s attitude was natural. When the weapon disappeared from sight, Noh Haeul returned to her listless appearance.
“Hmm, well. It doesn’t matter. It’s not like there aren’t types who hunt barehanded. But I ask that you bring proper weapons next time.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Noh Haeul let out a hollow laugh. But she turned her body as if she felt that she couldn’t break Hyun-woo’s stubbornness.
“Then let’s go. Newbies.”
***
“Here it is.”
Noh Haeul said, pointing to an empty space. The place she was guided to was an empty lot at the foot of Cheonggye Mountain.
At the entrance, there was a warning sign that said 「1-Star Dungeon Entrance」 and a thick iron fence. Inside, tropical plants that did not suit the Korean climate were growing luxuriantly. It was strange, but it didn’t really feel like a dungeon entrance.
About three soldiers were standing guard, but it didn’t seem very strict. The soldiers seemed to recognize Noh Haeul, filled out the ledger roughly, and let them in.
“Thank you for your hard work. Loyalty.”
Noh Haeul greeted lightly and walked inside. The remaining newbie Hunters cautiously followed her.
And at some point, Noh Haeul’s appearance disappeared so naturally that it was difficult to recognize. Hyun-woo thought Park Seo-moon had glared at him just before entering, but he didn’t care.
Hyun-woo’s eyes were full of curiosity. At some point while walking through the empty lot, he realized that the surrounding scenery had changed and people had appeared. The surroundings were a lush forest.
It was a completely different place from where he had been—a dungeon.
‘The entrance is like this.’
In ‘Difficulty: Hell’, every place was just the dungeon itself. He had never discovered a separate dungeon. Hyun-woo recalled the tropical plants that were growing in the Cheonggye Dungeon empty lot.
He had a feeling that ‘Difficulty: Hell’ was probably a form in which the entire Earth had become a dungeon.
‘First dungeon at level 20.’
“This is inside the dungeon. It’s not that monsters inside the dungeon never go outside, but they’re usually caught as soon as they go out. Of course, there are dangerous cases, but there are always resident troops monitoring those places. Here, Cheonggye Dungeon is one of the most stable dungeons.”
Noh Haeul briefly introduced the dungeon.
“And if you go a little further from here, goblins will start to appear. You know the dungeon clear conditions, right? If you go, there is a goblin cave, and the first condition is to acquire the return stone from there. The more additional conditions you satisfy, the more generous the rewards, but since this is your first time, let’s proceed by clearing only the first condition.”
‘Return stone.’
Hyun-woo repeated the word. The return stone his father had left behind had literally thrown Hyun-woo into hell. And that stone was also the way out.
With Noh Haeul’s explanation, he was now able to understand the outline of the dungeon clearly.
Obtaining the return stone is the minimum condition to return to the ground from the dungeon, and if you want to get more than that, you have to go deeper into the dungeon.
Hyun-woo had returned every time he achieved one of those minimum conditions in ‘Difficulty: Hell’.
“You’ve studied about goblins, right? Then I’ll trust you for now and watch from behind.”
“Well, let’s start assigning roles from now on. Is that okay?”
In the meantime, Park Seo-moon was subtly volunteering to be the leader of the party.
First of all, Park Seo-moon was the only 2-star in this group, and he also seemed to be the oldest. If you count the actual age, Hyun-woo might be the oldest, but everyone seemed to see Hyun-woo as being in his early 20s.
“First of all, goblins have a sensitive sense of smell. So let’s pick grass around us to camouflage ourselves. And the most dangerous thing is being ambushed, so pay attention to the top of your head as much as possible, and then there’s the role assignment…”
“Yes?”
Hyun-woo was listening to Park Seo-moon’s words and unknowingly asked back. It was a small voice, but it was enough for Park Seo-moon to react sensitively. He distorted his expression and glared at Hyun-woo.
“Do you have any objections to what I said?”
“Oh, it’s a little strange. Why are you doing that… No, it’s nothing. Never mind.”