Chapter 19 (2/2)

“Hmm?”.

.

“You’re the one who shouted the warning in the beginning, right? How did you know?”.

.

“Just a… gut feeling . ”.

.

Jinwoo made up an explanation . He could not say that it was due to his raised sense stat . .

.

“Ah, is that so? A gut feeling . You got some luck in ya . If we were just a step late in discovering them… phew-“.

.

Suddenly, one of the Hunters who was going through the corpses gestured to Hwang Dongseok . .

.

“Hwang hyung, come take a look at this . ”.

.

His subordinates were gathered around something . Hwang Dongseok headed towards them . .

.

“What is it?”.

.

“There’s something off about these guys . ”.

.

The Hunters parted to make room for Hwang Dongseok . He sat down and looked over what they were pointing at . There wasn’t anything wrong at a first glance; it was just dead bugs . .

.

“What’s off about them?” .

.

One of his subordinates pointed to the leg of one of the bugs . Its end showed traces of being torn off messily . .

.

“That wound, I don’t think it’s from us . ”.

.

“…”.

.

Hwang Dongseok’s forehead wrinkled . After taking a closer look, he noted,.

.

“Looks like… it was bitten off by something . ”.

.

“Right? And this isn’t the only one . Look, this one . And that one too . This one even had a wing ripped off . I think they were like this before they fought us . ”.

.

Hwang Dongseok’s face hardened . Despite their numbers, it did feel like the magic beasts went down easier than expected . .

.

“Were they… fighting each other before this?”.

.

In that moment, it was very brief, but Jinwoo felt the 8 Hunters’ gaze fall on him . When they saw that he was looking, they quickly turned back . With that, Jinwoo became sure . .

.

‘As I thought…’.

.

His first intuition was correct . Their good teamwork was indicative of their long history together . But how was it that they came this far without a Healer? No matter how good they were, people were prone to making mistakes from time to time . Even just now, if it wasn’t for Jinwoo, their formation would’ve broken down at the sudden appearance of the bugs . .

.

The pieces of the puzzle fell together in Jinwoo’s head, and a smile appeared on his lips . .

.

‘I might be able to make use of them…’.

.

As long as they moved according to his expectations . .

.

Hwang Dongseok chuckled as he got up,.

.

“Now, now . Let’s keep going . Looks like we won’t have any issues if it’s just this level . ”.

.

His loud voice was not for the benefit of his teammates; they were right next to him, after all . .

.

In the meantime, Yoo Jinho approached Jinwoo with a wide smile . .

.

“Hyung, did you see that? You saw me, right? I just wooshed! And bam! All these magic beasts-“.

.

He swung his sword around with a flourish . .

.

Jinwoo ask him,.

.

“Your sword and shield, they’re quite expensive, right?”.

.

“Huh? Oh, yeah . My father took special care on me when he heard that I was going on my first Raid . ”.

.

“You’ll have to be careful, too, then . ”.

.

Jinwoo patted Yoo Jinho’s back, then headed after the other Hunters . .

.

“Huh?”.

.

With a confused look, Yoo Jinho followed after him . .

.

.

The party traveled deeper into the cave but did not come across any more magic beasts . As a Dungeon with a long single path, it couldn’t have been that they had went around any . .

.

“Were the ones at the entrance it?”.

“Nah, there’s no way . ”.

“How strange . ”.

“There should at least be a boss, right?”.

“You think a Gate would open up with no boss in it?”.

.

The Hunters exchanged different opinions back and forth as they walked through the large but empty Dungeon . .

.

“Hold up . ”.

.

Hwang Dongseok stopped the party . At his sudden action, few people bumped into each other as they stopped . The Hunter who smacked his face into Hwang Dongseok’s back asked as he rubbed his nose,.

.

“Ow, Hwang hyung, what is it?”.

.

“Gyuhwan, shine your light here . ”.

.

Jo Gyuhwan moved his ball of light from their rear to the area where Hwang Dongseok was indicating . .

.

“Holy shit…”.

.

“They’re all…”.

.

The Hunters let out quiet groans . .

.

Insect wings, legs, bodies and even heads were littered across the ground . Corpses of the bug type magic beasts were everywhere . The dead bodies piled up more and more deeper into the cave, and at the end of the tunnel:.

.

“It’s the boss room . ”.

.

Someone uttered . Hwang Dongseok nodded in agreement . .

.

“Everyone, gears out . ”.

.

They responded immediately, faces filled with nervousness . The party quietly sneaked towards the boss room, with Hwang Dongseok at the vanguard . Suddenly, the man who had bumped into Hwang Dongseok exclaimed,.

.

“Holy- holy shit!”.

.

It was the height of stupidity to make loud noises in a Dungeon; it would only serve to attract magic beasts that could’ve been avoided . But nobody rebuked the Hunter who had shouted . .

.

“Whoa-“.

“How much would all this be?”.

“This is a big score!”.

.

They were all exclaiming in admiration . .

.

“Hold . ”.

.

As Jo Gyuhwan’s light lit up the area from above, what the Hunters had discovered in the room became clearer . A large amount of jewel like rocks were embedded on the walls . .

.

“It’s mana crystals![1]”.

.

“The entire wall is filled with them!”.

.

The Hunters’ eyes sparkled brighter than the light reflecting off the mana crystals . .

.

Mana crystals!.

.

It was one of the treasures that could be found in Dungeons . Although they contained less magic power than the magic cores from magic beasts, they were normally found in large amounts . Mining them would result in an impressive income for a raiding party . The amount that the party had come across was even more impressive; the entire wall was filled to the brim with crystals . .

.

“By my rough estimates…”.

.

One of the Hunters, quick with his calculations, started counting the crystals . .

.

“If we got all of it out, it’d be roughly 1 billion . If we divided it by 9 shares, each person could walk away with over a 100 million . ”.

.

A big smile appeared on the Hunters listening . Suddenly, Yoo Jinho, who was standing next to Jinwoo, poked Jinwoo’s sides with his elbows . .

.

“Hyung, give me your contract for a second . ”.

.

“The contract? What for?”.

.

“Just trust me, I’m pretty good with these kinds of things . ”.

.

Jinwoo shrugged and handed his contract over . Yoo Jinho took it and walked over to Hwang Dongseok . .

.

“Excuse me, sunbae-nims[2], I have something I want to say . ”.

.

He unfolded and held out the contract for all to see . .

.

“Leader, this is Jinwoo hyung’s contract . As you can see, there’s nothing in here about being excluded from mana crystals, only mana cores . ”.

.

Everyone understood what Yoo Jinho was trying to say . It was standard agreement that income from treasures and artifacts would be divided evenly across all members of the raiding party . This was different than magic cores only going to those who took down the magic beasts . As such, the mana crystals should be divided up 10 ways, not 9 . .

.

The look in the other Hunters’ faces changed, but Hwang Dongseok stepped in front of them with a smile . .

.

“Of course, we’ll divide it up across all of us . I know this . But there’s something we have to take care of first . ”.

.

Hwang Dongseok pointed forward with his finger . Yoo Jinho got startled for a second; he thought the man was pointing at him . But turning around, he saw a giant spider resting in a faraway corner . .

.

“Whoa…!”.

.

Yoo Jinho started walking backwards after discovering the creature and covered his mouth . Thankfully, the spider did not move; it appeared to be sleeping . The lifeless husks of bugs littered its surroundings . The half-eaten corpses reminded the Hunters of leftover food sitting at the bottom of a garbage can . .

.

“It’s the boss . ”.

“Was it the one that ate all those bugs?”.

“He sure had a feast . ”.

.

Hwang Dongseok gathered the Hunters, including Jinwoo and Yoo Jinho . .

.

“As you’re all aware, if the boss goes down, the Gate will start closing . So why don’t we mine all the mana crystals before we take the spider down?”.

.

They all nodded in agreement . .

.

Hwang Dongseok turned to a bald Hunter . .

.

“Cheoljin, did you grab the gear?”.

.

Lee Cheoljin shook his head . .

.

“No . Who would’ve thought to find mana crystals in a C-rank Dungeon? I left all the mining gear back in the car . ”.

.

“You punk… Didn’t I tell you to be prepared at all times?”.

.

“Sorry, sorry . Really sorry . ”.

.

Lee Cheoljin apologized to everyone with a smile . .

.

Hwang Dongseok scratched his head and spoke,.

.

“Sigh, this is going to be a hassle . Can you two stay here while we go grab the equipment?”.

.

.

.

.

.

Translator’s Notes:.

[1]: “mana crystals” (마나석): “mana” in english + “stone/rock” 석 . Stylized the translation into “crystals” because of their shininess . .

[2]: “sunbae-nim” (선배님): “sunbae” is a Korean word used to address one’s seniors in the same profession . In rare cases where someone younger than you was at the company longer than you were, that person would still be your “sunbae” . “Nim” is added with respect occasionally . Japanese equivalent = senpai . .

.