The next day, Raydel went to Sheryl's room again before he went home.
She seemed to be in a better mood and didn't pressure Raydel about sharing the prize anymore. They talked about something else. Raydel noticed that no one came to visit Sheryl, so he wanted to stay little while longer in case she felt lonely. He decided to head home around noon, but the woman asked him about his goal first.
"Why did I want to be a hunter…?"
Raydel looked at his stiff middle finger wrapped like it was dislocated. It looked suspicious in a bandage. He sneaked a peek this morning, and was too scared to look at it any longer after seeing horrific purple bruises all over his skin.
"I'm not sure. I actually don't want to be a hunter. What about you?"
"Me neither," Sheryl said with a smile. "But I can't avoid it with dungeons popping up everywhere. I could probably find one in front of my room. With this condition, everyone has no choice but to risk their lives as hunters. And it does pay more than other jobs. I have to send some money to my family that lives outside the capital city as well, so I can't solely rely on my salary."
"But you quitted your job."
"Yes, so I can be a full-time hunter."
Raydel didn't say anything.
At first, he thought he was the only one who did not want to be a hunter. But it seemed like this was an inevitable fate for everyone in Asphodel. The best solution was probably to… flee from this country and find a place with no dungeons and tower to live.
But getting out of this country was even harder than not being a hunter.
Raydel put his hands in the pockets of his hoodie. He carried a backpack with his necessary items on his back.
"I'll get going now, Sheryl," Raydel said goodbye.
"Okay." The woman waved at him. "Let's meet again at the hunter test."
Raydel smiled awkwardly and did not reply.
Hunter test? He thought as he was walking out of the room. This time I'm going to focus on my university exam preparation. No more hunter stuff.
Bang.
Sheryl lay down on her bed when the door closed. She listened to the television for about fifteen minutes before she decided to get some juices from the vending machine in the hallway.
The woman carefully got out of the bed. Most of her wounds started to heal, so she could carry herself out to the hallway.
As she was putting coins into the vending machine, she noticed something in the corner of her eyes.
Sheryl bent down to pick up the canned juice before frowning at the man with a familiar face.
"You… you're Raydel's friend."
He turned to her after he heard her.
When both of them were no longer in a dangerous situation, Sheryl finally got a chance to fully look at him. This person somehow gave off the same vibes as high-ranking hunters. Apart from being so tall, he also had such a beautiful face unlike men she usually met. But she remembered that he had no rank.
He stood still in the middle of the hallway with too many shopping bags in his hands, looking like a large dog that did not know where it was. He looked around like he was searching for someone. Sheryl could guess who it was.
"You missed him. Raydel had already gone home," Sheryl said. "You didn't call to ask him?"
"..."
The woman inspected the man. She frowned when she saw bloodstains on his shirt. Those dirty spots told her that he had just got out of a dungeon. He still had some unattended injuries even though they were not that serious.
"Don't forget to go see the nurse over there." Sheryl pointed at the counter before turning around and walking back to her room.
Han looked at the woman's back as she walked away and thought, I came to visit Ray too late again.
He had just cleared a dungeon an hour ago. In his hand was a unique artifact. His heart beated faster when he thought of giving it to a specific person.
But he missed that person.
Before this, he had never felt anything when thinking of his friend's face. He never felt like giving him something this bad. But now, he felt… disappointed without any reasons.
I guess there's one last place left, he thought before walking out of the hospital.
On the other side.
[To all the hunters in the area, you're entering the area of a dungeon…]
Raydel closed his phone.
He stopped reading the text and only sat there on the train heading toward his home. He put on his earphones and played the kind of songs he liked at max volume. Around him were the people who lived ordinary lives in the city. Some looked at their phones when they received the message from the government and got off the train at the station at which a dungeon was expected to appear.
No, Raydel thought to himself with a straight face.
He got off the train. Then, he walked out of the underground station and was about to head to the bus stop in order to go home.
However, a new message popped up.
[Please stay calm. You're nearing a mutated area of a dungeon.]
No, Raydel thought and deleted the message.
He crossed his arms and tightened his lips. When he saw his reflection in the mirror, it seemed as if he was sulking at something. Raydel sighed. His head ached all the way to his city. He tried to focus on the television on the bus, but the news about dungeons and protests in Asphodel that was being aired bored him even more.
Fifteen minutes later, Raydel received a new message as he was getting off of the bus.
[Since you are close to the dungeon, we invite you to join the party to clear the dungeon…]
No, Raydel repeated in his head before angrily deleting the message.
He got a new message every five minute after that.
[You are close to a C-rank dungeon.]
No.
[A D-rank dungeon is expected to appear within 800 meters from you.]
No.
[Be careful! An A-rank dungeon may appear!]
No!
[We invite you to join the party to clear the dungeon.]
No!
[...]
No. No. No. No. No. I said NO!
Bzzz.
Raydel turned off his phone and pulled his hair.
For God's sake! When will I get to live a peaceful life?!
"You look sick."
Raydel raised his head that was resting on his arms laying on the table and saw that Jinny was staring at him, her chin resting on her hands.
People around him were chatting. He was in a restaurant with his family because he promised Jinny that he would treat their parents to a special meal. That was why they were here in this luxurious place.
A waitress had just taken their order. Raydel sighed before looking at his parents sitting on the opposite side of the table. They both returned the gaze with a caring gesture.
"Your eyes looked hollow," his mother said. "Did you get enough sleep?"
Raydel shook his head and rested his head on his arms again. The talking sound of the customers in the restaurant became a buzzing background noise that irritated him. But he did not act angry or anything and just drowsily sat there.
"He just got out of a dungeon, so it's normal he's tired," Jinny said while playing with her hair and switched her crossed legs. "Are you okay? What's it like in the dungeon?"
After successfully escaping from Cthulhu's dungeon, Jinny received treatment from a hunter with a healing power, so her legs were fully recovered now.
"Bad," Raydel murmured, "terrible."
"What?"
"Everyone almost killed each other for the prize."
"Huh?" Jinny exclaimed. "Isn't that illegal? Didn't they ban it?"
"Like they would care."
"Here's your water."
The waitress walked to the table carrying glasses of water on a tray and placed them on the table before turning around and walking away. The conversation stopped for a while and continued afterward. Raydel took his drink and drank it lifelessly.
"The hunters in my team and I nearly died," he rambled on. "It's like nobody in the government does anything."
Jinny didn't say anything. She rested her chin on her hand and stared at Raydel. Her eyes fixed on his hair, looking interested.
"Did you dye your hair? So cool. Can I touch it?"
The girl reached out to touch Raydel's lock of gray hair. Her eyes widened. Her jaws dropped.
"What?! It crumbled!"
"Right, the hair was damaged," Raydel spoke dully as he looked at the hair in Jinny's hands. He sighed again. "And it can't be fixed as well. I probably have to let it stay like that forever. I'm not even sure if I would have a bald spot if I pull them hard enough."
In fact, Raydel had already tried pulling them last night, but they grew back the next morning. So, he probably would not go bald because of it.
"You bleached it yourself?"
"No, I didn't," he took a coin out of his pocket. "It's because of this."
Jinny was stunned for a moment when she saw the coin. She knew that she shouldn't go around touching other people's artifacts without permission, so she just looked at it with admiration and shock. It sparkled in Raydel's hands, looking so beautiful that she started to feel excited.
"It's a legendary artifact?"
"Yeah."
"Where did you get it?!"
"From the last dungeon," Raydel said and closed his fingers on the coin. Jinny frowned when she noticed that he could not bend his right middle finger. She lowered her voice so only Raydel and she could hear.
"What's wrong with your finger? Don't tell me you… sacrificed your finger? To the legendary artifact?"
When Raydel nodded, Jinny's eyes went wide in awe.
"I had to. If I didn't do it, I wouldn't be here today," Raydel said. Jinny softly scolded him.
"Hide your hands under the table now or mom and dad will see it!"
Raydel smiled lightly before hiding his hands. He truthfully confessed, "I won't be a hunter anymore."
"Even though you just got a legendary artifact?"
"I didn't even want to be one in the first place."
"But what will you do? You've already lost a finger. This is dangerous! If you no longer want to be a hunter, maybe sell it? Don't keep it with yourself. Sell it and use the money to find some hunters that can heal you. There must be someone who could do it."
"That's even worse. The boss of the coin is very aggressive."
"And you'll still keep it? Even if it's an aggressive boss? What are you talking about? You know, if I were a boss but have to always be in a legendary artifact doing nothing, I'd be even more furious. Can we try anything else?"
"You're right…"
"Now, now. Stop whispering. Our food has arrived now." Their father clapped his hands for their attention. "Let's eat."
Raydel put away his coin and threw the talk about the hunter's world away. He listened to Jinny going on about ice skating and the summer break that was a few months away. It reminded him that he needed to get back to his preparation for the university exam now. The university semester would start around the end of the year. It would mark the beginning of his first-year student life and the end of his hunter life.
As he listened to Jinny talking to their parents, he ate his food and looked around the restaurant. He was about to take another bite, but was taken aback when he saw something weird in the dish.
In the middle of the rice, he thought he saw… mud?
Raydel blinked, and it disappeared.
He frowned and searched the whole dish for it, but could not find anything weird.
What was it? he thought. Was I mistaken?
He probably be mistaken.
Raydel rubbed his eyes and suddenly realized how tired he was. He started yawning every now and then. His family noticed it and said they should go home right after they finish eating, an offer Raydel willingly agreed with. They left the restaurant. Raydel followed his family to the parking lot without looking at anything in particular. But then, he heard a number of people talking, and finally saw that a crowd of people was gathering on the other side of the street.
His father unlocked the car. He waited for everyone to get in and looked at the crowd in confusion.
"What's happening over there? Can I drive a little closer to see them?"
He got into the car and drove closer to the crowd, so he clearly saw their clothes and the signs they were holding.
"Even our small town has an apocalypse cult?"
"What cult?" Raydel's mother asked.
"They believe that dungeons and towers appeared to destroy the world or something like that," Jinny said. "Actually, they have been here since the government announced there are two dungeons appearing in our town. I also got the text just an hour ago. Some hunters should have already taken care of them but I'm not sure. This small town probably has too few hunters…. But honestly, I want to try going into a dungeon for once…," Jinny whispered the last sentence like she was afraid to say it.
But Raydel heard it. He stared at his sister and could not stop himself from scolding her with worry.
"It's dangerous, Jinny…."
Screeechh!
The car suddenly stopped midway and sent everyone in the car stumbling forward. His father yelled with anger.
"I almost hit someone!"
"What happened?!"
Raydel held onto his mother's seat and poked his head forward. He saw two hunters fighting in the middle of the street. His mother screamed when she realized that they had knives in their hands and were trying to stab each other.
Behind them was a weird door resembling an arch in the classical Greek style. The door had a continuous flow of people walking out of it. Raydel instantly realized that it was a doorway to a dungeon. They were close to one of the two dungeons Jinny was talking about.
Another dungeon, Raydel thought hopelessly.
"What is this?!"
His father honked the horn anxiously, but the two hunters did not seem to hear it at all. Instead, the horn shocked the others in the area.
"Wait, are they killing each other?!"
"Call the police now!"
"Policemen! People are killing each other!"
However, before one of the two hunters stabbed the other one, everyone heard a sound and suddenly stopped moving.
They took out their phones, and then one of them raised his arms up excitedly. An artifact was in his hand. The other person looked defeated. He threw his knife away and hit the ground furiously.
The time to fight for the artifact was up? Raydel thought.
The heartbeats of the people in the car raced faster before steadily slowing down when the hunters stopped fighting and left the street as if they were not killing each other just a minute ago. The strangeness of the hunter's world left Raydel and his whole family completely shocked and not knowing how to react. The normal people that were just walking by were shocked by the incident as well. Everyone was ready to call the police. But then, a hunter looking like a team leader appeared. He waved his hands and shouted to everybody in the area that everything was fine and that we should not be concerned.
Of course, no one wanted to get involved with a stranger's problem. Some of them might think that this was just a fight between drunk people, so they stopped calling the police and sneaked a glance at the people walking out of the dungeons and their injuries. The differences between them and the passersby were so obvious that it felt like a parade of cosplayers in a way.
There were children among the hunters. It reminded Raydel of the Plague Doctor's dungeon.
He thought of his phone that was still turned off. He was scared to turn it on because of the government messages.
Raydel could not fathom how many children or elders were sent into the dungeons instead of him when he refused to do so…
"..."
But I want nothing to do with the hunter's world anymore.
Raydel pursed his lips and looked away.
…However, everywhere he looked, he saw a dungeon.
Even when he arrived home and intended to lock himself in his room, to read some books for the university exams, he still could not escape from dungeons.
Raydel went downstairs to get some water. His parents were watching television. He could not believe his eyes when he saw that it was a hunter survival program!
Was this some kind of idol reality show?!
When Raydel rushed upstairs and fully immersed himself in his books, a sound penetrated through the windows.
Someone was campaigning…
And they were promoting that dungeon management policy!
Raydel closed all his windows and went back to reading. Then, he heard Jinny in the next room excitedly talking to her friends.
About dungeons!
"Arghh!"
Raydel tried to find his earphones to block the sound, but he was too careless and accidentally touched his coin. It unleashed a wave of power at him and startled him. Raydel felt like he was hit by an invisible whip, so he threw it on the bed.
The coin sparkled. A red mark appeared on the back of Raydel's hand, looking like it was really hit by something. He suddenly remembered the mission in the skill page.
I forgot I needed to stop their fight.
Raydel was about to turn some music on to block Jinny's voice, but someone rang the doorbell at the front door first.
Ding Dong.
"Can any of you get the door, Raydel, Jinny?" his mother yelled from downstairs.
Raydel's focus broke into a million pieces.
He could not focus nor read anymore, so he stomped down the stairs and wearily opened the front door. He started greeting, "who are…?" and then stopped mid sentence when he saw the guest's face.
Bang.
Raydel immediately closed the door in the person's face.
But he could not lock it in time, so the guest could open the door again. This time, Raydel's face went pale when his eyes met the protagonist's. He never would have thought that Han knew where he lived!
"Why did you come here?!" Raydel mumbled, feeling scared that his parents might hear.
The protagonist tilted his head.
"You always invite me here."
"Huh?"