C-Rank defense Hunter Bak Sanghoon. He sharply raised his eyes at me when he saw me.
"How-!"
"Where's the key to the Horned Flame Lion's cage?"
Bak Sanghoon had a taken aback expression, before smirking.
"Huh, a little stat F got lucky and got loose, but didn't think to run away, and came crawling here? Seeing how the inventory sealing bracelet isn't there, it seems like you used an item, but no matter how good of an equipment an F-Rank puts on, it doesn't work on a C-Rank. Then again, would a newbie who hasn't even properly been to a dungeon know that?"
That guy leisurely stood from his seat and said. It was an attitude that was confident that he would easily grab me even if I turned around and ran.
"I said, where's the key to the Horned Flame Lion's cage?"
"He's taking care of it like it's his own brat. It's in my inventory. What are you going to do?"
He snickered, asking if I would come at him.
If it was in his inventory, then it was probably a key made from dungeon metal. It looked like it would get annoying.
The inventory was a space that others couldn't intrude into. To take something out from there, you could only rely on the owner's will.
"First, why don't we talk after you take out the key, let's?"
"And why should I do that?"
The expression looking down on me and ridiculing me, was offensive. It didn't seem like he would obediently hand it over, so let's hit him a little.
Jjak!
"Urk?!"
I swung the tentacles and hit his cheek hard. I didn't put poison, so he wasn't poisoned, but instead, a bright red line mark was left. Bak Sunghoon was confused and raised his hand to place it on his cheek.
"J-just then, what…"
Did you not see? Then, I'll hit you again, for you.
Jjaak!
"Ack!"
To be fair, I hit the opposite cheek hard. Thanks to putting in more strength this time, that guy's head was smacked to the side.
It was an expression that said he still didn't know what was going on, but it seemed like he understood it was something I did.
"…Is it an item?"
"It's not."
"Th-then…"
What else would it be, it was a skill. I raised my middle finger toward that guy. Then.
'Thorn Trap.'
"Urghh!"
With a clatter, the chair was hit and fell, and Bak Sunghoon fell down as well and flailed around[1] like a reeled fish.
Blackie, your skills really were nice. Even Tenacles, if you bore it being disgusting, it was really useful. If it wasn't limited to 7 days, I'd be able to use it well even in everyday life. Like bringing over a remote far from where I'm lying on the couch, or opening the fridge door without needing to go all the way to the kitchen.
…Our poor Blackie.
I let out a sigh and went toward the trembling Bak Sunghoon. When I kicked at him, he looked up at me with eyes brimming with tears. Ugh… his eyes were gross.
'Cancel Thorn Trap.'
Along with the skill cancellation, the convulsing body stopped moving. Bak Sunghoon twisted his upper body and,
"Arghh!"
With the shriek, he lunged at me with his spit flowing. Ugh, nasty. Looking at his face, I didn't want to touch him even with my foot, so I lightly dodged to the side.
Bam!
An iron locker dented and through a crack in the hanging door, papers spilled out. Bak Sunghoon quickly raised the locker up high and threw it towards me.
Thump thump!
"Just break it all, why don't you."
While I was stepping back a few steps, that guy had taken out a weapon and armor.
"It looks like you had a skill you were hiding, but still, you don't even have combat experie-."
Ah enough, Thorn Trap.
"Urgh!"
Bak Sunghoon fell forward and thrashed around again. It looked like the curse resistance stuck to the armor was low.
"If you obediently hand over the key, I'll spare your life."
Of course, I didn't actually intend to spare it.
When I lifted Thorn Trap again, Bak Sunghoon swayed and raised his body. His dirty face was full of resentment.
"...Fuck, just why did we capture you."
"Don't need to know that. And that just now isn't the only skill I have, you know?"
I took off the gloves and took a pen that was on the desk. When I used Sticky Poison on my fingertips, it started to melt black. When I shook off the poison and the melted pen, jet black holes appeared where each drop fell. The smouldering along with the foul odor made quite a terrifying scene.
"Do you want to hand over the key, or do you want to slowly melt starting from your toes?"
Fear finally started to show on Bak Sunghoon's face.
"I-I will give it to you. If you would just write a contract…"
"Of course."
It was highly likely it would be an illegal contract.
As expected, the contract that guy took out of his inventory didn't have anything like an Association certification. Even the curse on it wasn't skill sealing or stat decrease for a specified time, but a permanent vision impairment.
"I will hand over the key with the condition that my safety is guaranteed."
"What safety guarantee. Don't write something vague and properly meet the conditions. I won't attack you for 24 hours from now. Run away on your own. Instead, take out the key to the Horned Flame Lion's cage from your inventory and don't let information about me leave your mouth for the rest of your life."
It didn't matter if it was written roughly, but just in case he would get suspicious, I demanded specific conditions. Bak Sunghoon wrote down the conditions with a more relieved expression. That guy signed first and then I did too.
"Here's the key."
That guy just trusted the contract and threw the key at me. He was even being short with his words[2]. First, I put the key into my inventory and shook the contract at him.
"I'm really sorry to crush your hopes."
I grabbed both sides of the parchment and slowly twisted them.
"One of my hobbies is to rip contracts."
I felt a slight resistance. But there was no way there existed a contract that could oppose as much as an L-Rank Curse Resistance.
The curse in the contract soon disappeared like a bubble. The normal parchment was cut across. Then, I completely vanished it by melting it with poison.
"Now your turn."
I wanted to nicely leave his body for him at least, but there was a young lady who could read a corpse's memories.
After taking care of Bak Sunghoon, I went back to the room that Kim Woojae was in.
"Ugh, the smell."
It seems like this bastard wet his pants. Tears and snot, and even spit, were flowing but his eyes were still sharp and they glared at me.
"Looking at you, it looks like you won't open your mouth to the end."
I didn't really need him much longer. If I interrogated him about the specific mastermind and the people coming to save me showed up, it would be difficult, so should I end it around now? There were still four people left and there would be something like physical evidence somewhere in this building, so other people could take care of the rest.
I took off the inventory sealing bracelet that I had put on him and put it on my wrist again.
I didn't want blood to splatter so I took off the gloves and let the poison liquid drip onto Kim Woojae's face.
"Argh, ugh!"
Maybe because of Thorn Trap, he couldn't even properly scream. It wasn't long before even that stopped. His head had dissolved from the poison and was disappearing, and continuing, even his upper body spread out like black goo.
Yerim's White Corpse could only be used if 2/3 or more of the corpse was remaining. If it was this much, she wouldn't be able to take out Kim Woojae's memories.
'If someone sees this, they'll probably think a Hunter with poison and curse skills perpetrated this.'
Wouldn't they guess that an internal conflict occurred?
Seeing the messed up corpse, I had a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth.
'I had thought that I wouldn't need to do something like murder, this time around.'
I had already killed two people. Though it was the fault of the people who kidnapped me. So why did you disturb a person who was trying to live peacefully? Just leave me alone.
"…It's making me feel upset in various ways."
I turned my head and looked at Blackie's corpse. If other people noticed it, it would be collected and used for materials. A dragon type's corpse had many uses. I didn't really feel up to leaving it alone so that that would happen.
In the meantime, I dissolved Blackie's hardened body with the poison. As a poison dragon, it had a stronger resistance than B-Rank Kim Woojae, but it couldn't hold out for that long.
In middle of the small poison swamp created so, a stone like a red gem was left remaining.
It was a magic stone.
I looked at it for a short while, and then picked it up and took out the empty magic stone powder bottle to put it inside.
I had finished what I needed to do, and so I went back to where Peace was.
For the remaining four people, I just put on the curse and left them alone. It wasn't like they saw me, and they weren't the leaders either.
Of course, those guys weren't blameless either. Putting aside the kidnapping matter, if they were guys trusted by the guild leader of a guild that raised a monster for the purpose of putting a severe curse on people who didn't listen to them, one or two crimes probably were trivial for them.
Still, if I just left them restrained, the people coming to save me would discover them and handle them on their own.
"Peace, are you still sleeping?"
I opened the cage with the key and went inside. It was a large cage where I couldn't touch the top with my head even while standing.
Escaping would be suspicious and there was a large possibility of being met with a barrage of questions, so if I was shut up here with Peace, people would probably come to save us.
I did have worries that wrong guys would come find me, but would an A-Rank or higher appear? If there was an A-Rank, they would've appeared already.
'Even if an A-Rank pops up, if they're careless, I wouldn't lose.'
After I stretched out my hand from the inside and locked the door, I put the key in my inventory. Should I pretend to be asleep too?
When I held the deeply asleep Peace and lied down, I actually felt drowsy. I did sleep late last night. Should I close my eyes for a bit? My stats were above B-Rank, so if someone approached, I'd probably notice quickly.
I petted the warm and soft fur and closed my eyes.
"Don't die before me."
You were called an S-Rank dungeon boss monster, so you should live a hundred years more than a stat F-Rank.
Bak Yerim bit her fingernails. It was a habit that had formed when she lost her parents and started to live off her uncle. But she had thought that she wouldn't have cause again to bite her fingernails and wonder alone what to do, now after she had Awakened.
She was anxious and uneasy.
She repressed the urge to storm out right away, and instead, opened her status window and looked at the skill that she hadn't used even once yet.
[White Corpse(S)]
She raised her hand and bobbed her finger as if she would touch the name.
It was a skill she was leery of using. She had also hoped that she wouldn't have a reason to use it. But for this moment, it felt more welcome than any other skill.
Just then, the cell phone of Kim Jiyeon, who was with her, rang shortly. At the same time, Bak Yerim's shoulder tensed slightly.
"He has arrived."
At Kim Jiyeon's words, Bak Yerim shook off the light tension and moved without hesitation.
She arrived where Haeyeon's guild leader Han Yoohyun was standing. The face that was looking at her was too cold for words. The sensitive sense of smell caught the smell of blood.
"He is inside that room."
Han Yoohyun said. Bak Yerim tossed a chilly glance at him and went toward the room.
Han Yoojin had wanted the two people to get along well, but it was close to impossible. The higher the stat's rank, the more keenly abilities of other people, Awakened People over a certain rank, could be felt. It wasn't to the point of realizing the stats and skills detailedly.
It was a type of scent.
The scent of the aptitude that Awakened People had, especially that of high ranking combat-based aptitudes, alone was strong. It was to the point of being unable to pretened you didn't notice, even if you tried.
Bak Yerim had coldness and Han Yoohyun had heat. There was no reason to welcome someone you could feel a scent that, past being in conflict with each other, could become your weak point.
It might have been different if the ranks were different, but the two were both S-Ranks, despite the gap between levels. They were naturally past avoiding each other to being on guard against each other.
When Bak Yerim went inside the room and closed the door, Han Yoohyun let out a small sigh.
The two people would be so on edge each time, that it was stressful just facing each other. It was a feeling like the thread of patience was pulled tight to its limit.
Just then, Han Yoohyun's cell phone rang. It was Seseong's Sung Hyunjae. Han Yoohyun wrinkled his forehead, and then pressed the call button.
[Young master, how's the situation?]
It was a light voice. In addition, a hint of laughter was slightly mixed in.
[It really is a funny matter.]
"Is it funny."
[Of course it's funny. Not even I knew that Choi Sukwon would lose control that much.]
Following the soft laughter, there was a tsk, a small sound of a tongue clicking.
[Young master knows as well. The truth that there's barely any possibility of Hunters under our supervision, Hunters who attack S-Rank dungeons with us, betraying us.]
Han Yoohyun silently acknowledged it. A-Rank, B-Rank Hunters who had first attacked high rank dungeons, especially S-Rank dungeons, with an S-Rank Hunter, became strongly attached to staying affiliated with S-Rank Hunters.
It was similar to a type of survival instinct.
If they faced an S-Rank dungeon boss monster that they would never be able to match with their own abilities, and watched right at the side of an S-Rank Hunter who could take it on at an equal level, and realized the fact that S-Rank dungeons could also break open anytime.
Even if it was obvious, a good sense of dependency would form.
Of course, that didn't occur 100%.
It didn't work well on Hunters who had already gotten enough experience. It was the same if the Mental stat or fear resistance was high. There also wasn't much of an effect for C-Rank and lower Hunters who had a hard time feeling an S-Rank monster's and a Hunter's abilities for certain. And even if they were A, B-Rank Hunters who had become dependent, they could be influenced by another S-Rank Hunter and break away.
Even so, if you paid a little bit of attention and looked after them, you could form your main guild members with just those people, who you could trust.
A big reason why Han Yoohyun could take his place at his young age was because of that. No matter if he was an S-Rank Hunter, if there wasn't a way to make trustable loyal followers, it would have been close to impossible for him to have grown his guild this fast.
Because of that reason, he had sent Hunters directly under the guild leaders who were at minimum B-Rank or higher, as Han Yoojin's guards.
[Bak Mingyu sent his vice guild leader, and Moon Hyuna sent a kid she adores like younger sibling to also make a strong impression, and I was planning on sending an adorable guy who needs a skill characteristic familiar the most, too. To think that Choi Sukwon, that idiot, would mess things up.]
The Hunters sent from each guild weren't just guards but were meant to promote friendship.
For Han Yoojin's rearing skill, the more he devoted his sincerity into the monsters, the bigger the effect was. But they couldn't force him to stay up all nights training the monsters they entrusted to him. In addition, he was someone who had announced that he wanted to live leisurely.
So, the method that came out was the promotion of friendship for the Hunter who would get the familiar. It was a simple calculation, that he would pay a little more attention if it was the familiar of someone he was close to.
In other words, it was a position that was something like a 1 on 1 blind date, but a flustering event like the other person being kidnapped had occurred.
"This matter, is it true that you genuinely did not anticipate it?"
[Didn't I say I didn't know? I know you're mad because your hyung-nim was kidnapped, but you shouldn't pointlessly take your anger out on someone.]
At the sharp tone, Sung Hyunjae spoke like he was reasoning with a young child.
[The outsider is an affiliated Hunter who wants familiars despite Haeyeon's regulation that only allows entrance to C-Ranks and lower. If it's this combination, unless Han Yoojin went outside of the building, unless some crazy S-Rank aimed for him, he should have been perfectly protected.]
In particular sections inside of Haeyeon Guild, only C-Ranks and lower could enter if they were outsiders. B-Rank and higher outsiders had a hard time even getting permission to enter and would get one of the guild's A-Rank Hunters as a monitor.
So, unfortunate incidents like this one virtually had almost no possibility of occurring. There should have been none.
[I had thought that MKC would hold out for three more years. It seems like they're more troubled than I had thought.]
"It seems that it was not that you did not anticipate it at all."
At Han Yoohyun's words indicating blame, Sung Hyunjae laughed softly.
[Young master shouldn't have been completely in the dark either. In the first place, both Moon Hyuna and Choi Sukwon made wrong choices. We're different from ordinary people. Aren't we too different to say we're the same kind of people?]
Han Yoohyun didn't confirm nor deny.
[And yet, they yielded on their own and put on leashes. Above all, people who don't know high rank dungeons could never understand us. Especially those old people who are Breaker's and MKC's backers, they have their heads full with thoughts of squeezing out rake-offs. So that's why things like this happen. Since they couldn't understand.]
Sung Hyunjae's continuing voice was excited, unlike usual.
[Since it's a skill that can raise highest rank familiars, how lovable is that. Exactly what S-Rank would know of that skill's existence and still disturb Han Yoojin? Especially the guilds who got good conditions this time, should protect him, definitely not ruin their chance by doing something nonsensical. Didn't young master know that and show the hyung-nim you had previously hidden?]
"…I thought that, at minimum, at least within the country, it would be be safe."
[That's normal. I don't know the specifics of his inner thoughts, it became obvious through this that Choi Sukwon is losing his influence over his own guild.]
Unlike Moon Hyuna, who had actually made her own nest and firmly protected it while not caring about anything outside of that, Choi Sukwon had clumsily tried to widen his influence over his guild and his backers.
But exterminating dungeon monsters was completely different from dealing with socially cunning executives. He should have at least made a family connection through marriage like Hanshin's Bak Mingyu. Or even quitting and making a new start with his own strength like Sung Hyunjae and Han Yoohyun, would've been better.
While there were other choices, he had been unafforadably greedy, and in the end, had stupidly made his own weak point instead.
Sung Hyunjae laughed cheerfully and continued.
[It's earlier than I had expected, but we should start getting ready to divvy up and take in some bodies[3], right?]
"I am not in the mood to speak about such things."
[Because they're people cropping up thanks to your hyung-nim being kidnapped? Don't worry so much. I already put people up at the ports. Or, should I go myself, as well?]
"I will decline."
Han Yoohyun said, seeing Bak Yerim come out. Then, he ended the call. Bak Yerim, who was wrapped in a chilly white firefly-like light, went toward him and opened her mouth.
"It was my first time so it took a while, but I found it."
"Good job. Let's leave right away."