"Woah! So this is how a gate looks in person!" I marveled at the big blue spiraling gate as I got out of the taxi.
Although the gate is a bit far away, and the whole area around it is covered by blue tarps with a few warning signs here and there, I could still see the spiraling blue gate inside.
In front of the gate is a group of people who are getting ready and awaiting the start of the dive.
And once we walked near, the people immediately noticed us and one of them beckoned the two of us.
"Hey, over here!" A burly man wearing a black t-shirt and brown pants greeted us. He has a long sword, and shield strapped on his back as well as a short dagger besides a mini bag hanging in front of his belt.
He's wearing various protection around his arm, shoulder, and both his legs which looks to be frequently used due to the scratch marks littered in it.
Behind him are a few average-looking guys wearing their gear; the two nearest seem to be an assassin and a mage, respectively, as seen from their outfits.
"I'm Hwang Dongsuk. What's your name, you two?" He introduced himself, shaking mine and Jinwoo's hand consecutively.
"I'm Sung Jinwoo"
"Seung Woo-jin"
"You said that you two are E-Rank, right?"Dongsuk asked, and when Jinwoo confirmed, Dongsuk nodded.
Suddenly, one of the members, the assassin with brown curly hair, exclaimed "Wait! I know you! You're pretty famous; what was your nickname again? The weakest hunter on the planet?"
And the guy beside him, the mage with black neck-length hair man, laughed, wheezing from what he heard.
I frowned seeing this before I finally remembered who these guys were.
They were the people who Jinwoo first killed because they left him and Jinho in the boss's room.
So that must mean this portal leads to the ant/spider's nest full of mana stones.
And speaking of Jinho, he's currently talking with another member of Dongsuk's squad.
Oh, he noticed the two of us and is coming right here.
I looked at Jinwoo, who was finalizing the contract with Dongsuk, and walked towards him and wrote my signature on the paper without bothering to read it because I knew what would happen afterward.
Anyhow, this confirms it, I'm still in the early stages of solo leveling world's story
"Hey, I guess the three of us are here just for the headcount, "Jinho said. Jinwoo and I looked at him, who was fully stacked with fancy equipment, as he introduced himself.
"My name's Yoo Jinho. I'm 22 years old and my rank is D. I'm not a member of this Strike Squad either. I'm only here because they recruited me just like the two of you"
He voiced with a proud and twinkling smile.
"YO! Seung Woojin here! 19, and my rank is E" I replied, similarly mentioning my rank.
"Man, you've got some amazing gear there, man! This must be expensive right?!"I inquired with full interest as Jinho's gears are a hundred or even a thousand times better than Dongsuk and the other's gear.
"You've got good eyes junior! My gears are, in fact, very high quality and, of course, expensive," Jinho proudly stated, as he put out his chest and had his chin facing the sky.
Meanwhile, Jinwoo is talking with Dongsuk, so I'll let him handle that while I continue talking with Jinho.
Suddenly, the previous mage called out.
"Dongsuk, that's enough. Let's get going. "
Which was followed by the words of the brown-haired assassin who voiced.
"Yeah, we're gonna be doing all the fighting anyway! No need to explain every single detail to them."
Dongsuk solemnly nodded, and I looked at this with a poker face, fully knowing what would happen in the next few hours.
"You two said you were E Rank right? I'll protect you"Voiced Jinho on the side making Jinwoo laugh awkwardly
…..
As we stepped inside the gate, we were met with an eerie and dark place.
Dongsuk asked the mage to light up the way, while all the members stepped inside.
Jinwoo and I were both carrying bags filled with tools like pickaxes and shovels while Jinho carried his sword and shield.
Everyone but me, Jinwoo, was confused about the lack of magic beasts and lights.
With me knowing the dungeon beforehand and Jinwoo based on his experience.
"Jinwoo, do some dungeons not have any magic beasts?"Jinhoo asked in confusion.
But Jinwoo hushed him before closing his eyes.
Not long after, he replied, "It's not that there aren't any beasts; they just haven't shown up yet," his voice solemn.
"What lives in the dark in groups, and attacks when they see light?"I asked with a nonchalant tone.
Suddenly, a look of realization hit Jinwoo as he exclaimed, "Insect-type beast!"
His words shook everyone as they started freaking out.
"Insects?!?"
"Are we inside of an anthill?!"
"stop freaking out all of you!"
Voiced some members as they suddenly felt the ground tremble.
"Shit! Sounds like they're closed!"
"this shitty dark environment! I can't see the beasts!"
"There are so many caverns! Where will they come out?!"
Their panicked voices rang loudly while the trembling became stronger by the second.
"Dongsuk! Do you see anything there?!"Asked the assassin, his voice filled with anxiousness.
"No, I don't see no shit!" Dongsuk replied, his body like everyone else's tensed bracing themselves for the inevitable combat.
Seeing all these, I sighed before I tapped Jinwoo's shoulder and when he looked at me, I pointed upwards.
Jinwoo's eyes constricted before he looked up and exclaimed.
"Look up!"
Jinwoo's voice prompted everyone to look above, and when they saw the marching ant-looking beast, they cursed.
"Jinwoo! Woojin! Stay close to me!"Jinhoo exclaimed, his voice tinged with nervousness but he chose to worry about the two seemingly "weak hunters"
*screech* the ants screeched as they marched down but everyone wasn't affected as they exclaimed.
"Shoot them down!!"
"use magic!! "
"I'll agro them once they get down!*
"Fuck! There are too many of them!! "
*Fwoom!* *Bang!*
Once the fireball used by the mage hit the wave of ants, the battle officially started, as ants started to fall from the hole above.
"Over here you fucking bastards!"Dongsuk's loud voice, which is affected by his skill taunt, successfully got most of the ants' attention as they swarmed towards him.
Seeing this, Dongsuk continued to taunt them, "Come to daddy, you bastard sons of a whore!"
And it seems that his taunt went so well as the ant beasts screeched loudly at Dongsuk before they charged at him, screeching.
"Damage dealers! What are you waiting for?!" Dongsuk's voice reached everyone's ears as he shouted, and hearing this, the dealers started their massacre of the frenzied ants whose sole target was Dongsuk.
Some ants who were not taunted ventured towards the three of us instead, but Jinho took care of most of them. Unfortunately, one went past him as it skeeved into both Jinwoo and me.
But a kick from Jinwoo solved it; as it flew back, its legs shattered.
The massacre went on until not a single ant was left, their carcass scattered across the tunnel.
"Alright! Gather up all the essence stones! They'll be split among nine of us!" Dongsuk instructed, and by nine of them, he meant him and his squad and Jinho. Although I'm pretty sure they are not planning on giving anything to the three of us, me, Jinwoo, and Jinhoo, even at the start, these guys have decided that the three of us don't get to have any part in the loot.
I, of course, was asked to help get the essence stones from the bodies of ants while Jinhoo sat down on the ground panting.
Meanwhile, as I helped collect the stones, my eyes wandered towards Dongsuk who walked towards Jinwoo and said.
"You helped us a lot back there, How did you know that the magic beast was gonna drop from above"
Hearing this, Jinwoo flinched before his eyes turned towards me and our gaze met each other.
I winked at him before I continued collecting the stones.
"It was just… My Gut feeling" Jinwoo replied
"I see, you have good instincts. I'm glad things went smoothly, keep it up. But I hope your instincts don't pick up anything unnecessary," Dongsuk voiced solemnly before he was called on by the mage and walked away.
It seemed like they found a strange ant carcass so they checked it out, but I turned my head towards Jinwoo and shook my head. I decided to not help anymore for now.
Meanwhile, Jinwoo, whose gaze never left Dongsuk, suddenly said something that only the three of us could hear.
"Jinho, Your sword and shield are expensive, right?" He asked and Jinhoo nodded at his question and replied.
"Yeah, my dad got it for me since this is my first raid"
Hearing this, Jinwoo solemnly uttered "I'm not too sure, but… I think the three of us should be careful"
I nodded in approval at Jinwoo, as others might not notice it but ever since they found that strange carcass, I felt quite a significant bloodlust coming from all the squad members and Dongsuk.
And Jinwoo noticing this, albeit a little uncertain, is certainly quite a talent.
'eh? How did I sense their bloodlust? I was just a normal teenager- Oh right…. It must be from the time at the DGP-X, I need to recover the memories soon.. '
….
And so, all of us ventured into the deep tunnel, occasionally coming across some ant magic beast as well as their carcass which the group didn't kill.
At one point, all of us needed to take a break, so we did, and I continued our chat from before as we ate while I let Jinwoo ponder about the things that would happen soon enough.
And, although I ain't planning on fighting, the Mirror Deck that I obtained as a newbie gift from the system is already in my pocket, ready to be used anytime.
After the break, we continued venturing the tunnel, and as we went through, we stumbled on ant carcasses more and more.
The group started to get confused and even doubted whether the boss was still alive.
"Wait… Kyuhwan, bring the light over this way"Dongsuk called over the sole mage, Kyuhwan.
Of course, the mage followed, and he let the mana light shine through in front.
"Oh, My god"
What greeted us was a tunnel full of spider webs. Ant carcasses were sewn through the walls all covered by spider webs.
"This must be the boss's lair," one of them voiced,d, and the rest nodded.
"Get ready, everyone," Dongsuk reminded, and everyone got into their position before all of us continued walking toward the deep cave full of webs.
But as we walked, blue lights suddenly greeted us, and when we looked towards the source…
"Th… This is…!"
"Holy shit!"
"We just hit a jackpot!"
All of them except me and Jinwoo were baffled at the sight of clusters and clusters of mana crystals growing in the walls.
"These have less mana than the essence stones we get from hunting magic beasts, so they're dirt cheap, but…
This many would certainly sell for more than an essence stone. Roughlyculating, all this would be worth over a billion won. "Kyuhwan, the mage, voiced with amazement.
"Dongsuk, won't this make your little brother jealous?" suddenly, one of his teammates voiced, which Kyuhwan called out.
"Don't mention him, especially at a time like this"
Meanwhile, Dongsuk ignored the two bickering with each other; his eyes were all focused on the stones, most likely monologuing about his brother.
Meanwhile, Jinho suddenly called my and Jinwoo's attention.
"Can you two give me the contract you both signed? I'm an expert when it comes to this stuff," He voiced. It seemed that he intended to help the two of us.
So, I handed over both our contracts before I decided to look around for the boss, and when I caught a glimpse of the boss, my eyes widened as the boss was completely different from the manhua.
The boss is a pretty familiar figure for me as I have seen it countless times as I watched Kamen Rider Ryuki.
The boss, Instead of the normally monstrous spider that they should have encountered, turned into a spider from the show Kamen Rider Ryuki.
As I questioned how this happened, I did not hear Jinho's conversation with Dongsuk and his squad.
I stayed there frozen, stunned, and confused the whole time; the only things on my mind were the potential repercussions of this monster appearing in this world and if the other ones also now exist in this world.
I was only awoken when I felt the whole cavern shake, and stones started to fill up the entrance, locking us out.
So I looked there, and sure enough, the entrance was locked by rocks.
Jinho panicked, realizing the predicament the three of them were left in.
Meanwhile Jinwoo, as stoic as ever, just glared at the entrance without saying anything.
"Jinwoo, Woojin, what do we do?!
The entrance is…
Those bastards are trying to kill us! Trying to kill us over some mana crystals!!" Jinho's anguished and furious voice reverberated in the entire cave.
Meanwhile, Jinwoo dropped his bag and walked towards the covered entrance without saying anything, glancing at the now-awake spider before he looked at me. Our eyes met once again, but this time I wasn't in the mood for jokes, so I dropped my bag as well before I jumped back away from the spider.
I sighed… I guess plans do sometimes fail whenever it counts, and it seems that I got the short end of the stick today.
I reached inside my pocket, gripping the silver deck and taking it out.
"Y-you two stand behind m-me..I-I'll do what I can t-to.."Jinho stuttered as he got ready to face the monster.
But Jinwoo interjected, pulling Kasaka's venom fang out of his inventory, and Voice said, "Jinho, stay put. He's all mine"
"Nope! I won't let you hog all the spotline alone, so… He's ours!"I interjected; my voice got the two's attention as I walked slowly toward Jinwoo.
Gray armor draped my body, a black and silver chest plate adorned my torso, and black gloves adorned both my arms. A black and gray bracer covered my right arm, while on my left arm, a square-shaped silver visor was attached.
A helmet that looked like an ancient knight's with a gem in the forehead covering my neck, which looked a tad menacing to whoever saw them for the first time.
The two were surprised by my appearance, with Jinho even baffled as he tried to process the things happening right in front of him.
"Now, let's go hunt this spider"My voice sounded, which woke Jinwoo up from his surprise as he nodded and answered.
"Yeah! Let us defeat this guy!"