CH 154 On Going

Today's meme is here. [ ]

....

However, the newbie didn't even show a single hint of a response.

Lee Seong-Gu's eyes narrowed to a slit.

'Oh? Would you look at this fool?'

Now that his ire had reached a boiling point, Lee Seong-Gu angrily glared at the newbie and raised his voice higher.

"Look here, man. Aren't you supposed to apologise if you run into someone?"

Jin finally turned around, then.

Lee Seong-Gu flinched and took a step back.

'Heok!!'

It was as if a dangerous light was emanating from Jin's killer eyes just then. While being pressured by an aura that robbed away his breaths, Lee Seong-Gu began panicking greatly. It was here that Jin finally opened his mouth.

"Hhaha." Jin. Just laughed off. 

"N-no. I….."

Lee Seong-Gu stuttered before managing to squeeze his voice out.

"Sorry about that, uh but you know, mistakes… happen."

His voice sounding unexpectedly meek now, Lee Seong-Gu lowered his reddened face and hurriedly walked past Jin.

"Fuu-woo…."

Only after distancing himself far away from the newbie did Lee Seong-Gu find some leeway to pat his pounding chest.

'What the hell was up with those eyes, man? And why was he laughing so creepily like that?!'

Their gazes met for only a brief second, yet Lee Seong-Gu's entire body froze up and he couldn't even speak properly. Him managing to not avert his eyes right away was his desperate attempt to hold on to his pride.

'…..Is he really a rank E?'

When he bumped into him, and that murderous glare – just what the heck was going on here?

'Eiii, who cares anymore?'

Lee Seong-Gu shook his head hard in order to get rid of the distracting thoughts and hurried his steps.

"…D*mn it."

Jin scratched the side of his head as he looked on at Lee Seong-Gu quickly rushing past him.

'Because my thoughts were in a heightened state due to the girl, I….'

He ended up frightening that guy, instead.

This was only because his dick brain was still fully focused on the woman he just saw. Yup, more practice was needed. Jin inwardly reflected on how overly sensitive his response was and chased after the rest of the mining team.

He caught up with them pretty quickly. Jin stuck to the rear of the advancing miners and matched their walking pace.

'Well, none of these guys would be able to catch up with me if I walked at my usual slowest walking speed….'

So, he had to match theirs.

However….

The deeper they went in, the greater the ripples of the magic energy from the boss became.

'My Perception Stat has risen up by a lot, hasn't it.'

To be able to clearly sense the boss monster hidden in the deepest chamber of the dungeon like this….

But they were still one dimensional and he can't sense something past a few dozen kilometres. 

Because of what he had seen before coming here he was excited for a very particular reason.

'Would I even be able to concentrate on my quest at this rate?'

As if to try answering his rhetorical question, he could hear the loud, manly roars coming from his front.

"Orya! Orya!!"

The retrieval team that had entered one step earlier than the mining team was already in the middle of their operation. And that would be to drag a corpse of a huge monster outside using the ropes tightly tied around it.

"One, two! One, two!"

"Eut-chaaa!"

The physical strength of the close-quarter combat-type Hunters was excellent, to begin with, so they didn't require help from specialised tools to smoothly carry out their work.

Jin's mind imprinted every step of a high-rank dungeon's conquest into his brain just like every moment of his life. 

'First of all, the raid team enters before everyone else and eliminates all the monsters found inside, with the exception of the boss.'

Afterwards, the retrieval team entered to drag out the monster remains, and finally, the mining team entered to extract various minerals embedded in the dungeon's walls.

In order to maximise profit, none of these steps could be omitted.

Both the Mana stones and magic crystals were a given, but the high-ranked monster's body could be utilised in various ways as well, and thus was worth a lot of money.

'Bones, hides, flesh, etc…. Not one part of a high-ranked monster is useless.'

And that was one of the differences between monsters found in low-ranked dungeons and those from the high-ranked ones.

After sweeping away every single thing worth money from a dungeon….

'They kill the boss and close the Gate.'

Only after going through all four stages of this process could one declare that the high-ranked dungeon was perfectly conquered. At least, that would be from the Guild's perspective.

However….

He being the one man army he is

my soldiers be enough to carry out these simple labours with ease 

While walking past the sweating Hunters of the retrieval team, as in already made his army as efficient as possible.  

For sure, after all their level-ups, the shadow soldiers were much stronger than the members of the retrieval team, who were all Hunters ranked below rank C, to begin with.

He divided his troops into three, and by making one group hunt, another one retrieve, while the remaining group took care of mining, 

Something he was doing since he gained the shadow soldiers. 

He really is able to perfectly conquer a high-ranking dungeon all by himself.'

A satisfied smile formed on Jin's face.

The reason for him being here was to explore. And now, he was beginning to think that it was a good idea to come here, after all.

"Mister Sung? Did something good happen?"

The foreman asked him from the side.

Seeing that the rank E with no experience of being inside a high-ranked dungeon broke out in a grin like that, he couldn't help but get curious.

"Well, I was just surprised by the sizes of the monsters that are bigger than I thought, that's all."

Perhaps finding Jin's vague answer satisfying, the foreman replied jovially while trying to dig through his memory.

"Oh, is that so? Well, even I couldn't keep my mouth shut the first time I entered one, too."

Now that they were talking like this, Jin decided to ask a couple more questions.

"I heard that all the regular monsters have been killed off, but the boss is still alive, isn't it?"

"That's right. Well, if the boss dies, the Gate will close down, after all."

His answer implied that, until the retrieval and mining operations were completed, the boss could not be hunted down.

"What if the boss comes out of the boss room?"

"Well, such a case is almost non-existent, but…. In that case, everyone remaining inside would be dead meat."

Now that would be very obvious and no brainer result.

The raid team exiting from the dungeon would take an extended break until the boss raid. And quite obviously, the Hunters in the mining team or the extraction team didn't possess enough power to fight against a boss of a rank A dungeon.

However, the commonly-accepted belief was that, before the dungeon break occurs, the boss would almost always remain inside the boss room. Perhaps that was why there was no trace of fear on the foreman's expression.

"But, such a horrifying monster is not too far from us. You aren't even remotely scared?"

"Not at all."

The Foreman Bae sounded confident.

"In the last three years I worked for the Hunters Guild, not once was there an incident similar to that. So, you can rest easy, Mister Sung."

Jin stared at the grinning foreman Bae lightly tapping him on the shoulder, and couldn't help but find it rather envious.

'Ignorance is a blessing, isn't it?'

I could have just able to relax but as someone cursed with culture I am aware doing so definitely lead me to path of certain death.  

The ripples of magic energy coming from the boss were powerful enough to shake even a S-rank hunter's body  when standing still.

It looked like only Jin could pick up on the boss's aura and his spell in this place.

"Ohh, so it starts from here!"

The Foreman Bae discovered Mana stones on the cave walls and smiled brightly.

The experienced miners began occupying their natural spots in front of the stones even though no one directed them to do so. They put down their gear and hefted the pickaxes up.

Jin-Woo too stood towards the end of the cavern wall filled with Mana stones.

'So, am I supposed to just strike down? Won't they just turned into dust after all my strength was well beyond that even strength type S-rakers couldn't compared to it'

He grew little worried that, were he to use his real strength and strike down, both the Mana stones and the pickaxe might shatter into tiny little pieces.

'What should I do?'

Jin stood there hesitating, unable to start his job. But, he was able to take in the sight of Mok Jin-Su, the supposed veteran of the mining team as referred to by the Foreman Bae.

Swish! Crack! Swish-! Crack!!

Mok Jin-Su rhythmically mined the stones. Whenever he struck the walls, Mana stones noisily tumbled down to the ground.

'Nice….'

Now that was some skill worthy of the 'veteran' label. He was mining the stones twice as quickly as compared to the speed of his colleagues.

Jin's eyes gleamed brightly.

As the time slowed down in his perception, Jin observed and learned Mok Jin-Su's postures and breathing patterns, as well as the movements of every muscle. With how precisely every fibre of this man moves while mining.  

And soon, Mok Jin-Su's economical but effective movements were being replayed countless times in Jin's head.

'I think I get it now.'

Indeed, he thought he understood it, more or less. Jin lifted his pickaxe up. It was as if he was the mirror image of Mok Jin-Su.

Swish! Crack! Swish-! Crack!!

Even if their movements were similar, Jin's strength was on a completely different level from Mok Jin-Su's. Whenever Jin struck the cave walls, larger, more intact Mana stones tumbled down in droves. As with his greater control on his body he perfectly copied the man's years of skills. Just by looking at it. 

Swish!!! Craaack! Swish—! Crack!!

A rather refreshing noise came from the end of the wall. The Hunters of the mining team realised one by one that something didn't feel right.

"Uhm… Oii."

"What's up?"

"Look over there."

"Heok?!"

"What the hell is up with him?"

The Hunters stopped what they were doing and dazedly stared at Jin. Even Mok Jin-Su's tireless hands came to a stop, too.

'....'

Everyone was rendered speechless.

The supposedly mining-virgin rank E Hunter was currently making easy mincemeat out of the Mana stone wall with practised movements! 

As if It was all just a game of Minecraft for him as he was mining the previous diamonds.   

"What are you doing, guys?! You came here to do a job, so why are you all standing around like that?"

The Foreman Bae had been jotting down the scale of the Mana stone deposit on a ledger until then. But when he discovered that every member of the mining team had downed tools for some reason, he got shocked out of his mind and quickly ran to where they were.

"Foreman? Will you take a look over there?"

"What now?"

The Foreman Bae craned his neck to look. And then, his eyes grew super large.

"Heot?!"

Even the foreman displayed the same reaction as everyone else. He couldn't rip his eyes away from Jin and his speed, which was around nine times faster than other miners.

"Foreman, didn't you say that it's the newbie's first time today?"

"….That I did."

Lee Seong-Gu, who had been wondering about Jin's identity earlier, butted in suddenly.

"Is he really a rank E?"

"I confirmed it with his licence, obviously! You think I'll let a complete stranger into my team without confirming his Hunter licence first?"

"Well, then. How do you explain that?"

"…."

Wordlessly observing Jin, the Foreman Bae nervously swallowed his saliva as excitement dyed his expression.

"Without a doubt….. Mister Sung is the heaven-sent miner."

Indeed, there was a reason why those rugged, tough-looking chest muscles caught the foreman's attention back when they were having a short job interview.

'Yup, I really am good at finding the right people.'

A thick smile spread on Foreman Bae's face.

***

Beep, beep, beep!

An alarm went off from Foreman Bae's wristwatch. He raised his wrist to confirm the time.

'Aigoo~. It's already…..'

It was lunch hour already.

"Everyone, let's take a break and have lunch."

"Yes!!"

Everyone dropped their tools and dusted their hands.

While the miners were walking towards the exit in pairs and groups, Jin showed no hint of moving from the spot. Foreman Bae got closer and asked him.

"Mister Sung? Aren't you going, too?"

"I'm not feeling all that hungry at the moment."

"Even then, you should eat something if you plan to continue working in the afternoon."

"Nah, I'm fine. I did eat my breakfast a bit later than usual, anyway."

"Really? ….Well, nothing I can do about that, then."

Bae was planning to talk about the future together with this young man during the lunch break, but that didn't mean he should forcibly drag the kid away, no?

Foreman Bae ruefully turned around towards the Gate's exit.

It was at this point that the corners of Jin's lips arched up. Watching the distancing backs of the miners, he formed a deep smile.

'I can't miss such a wonderful opportunity, right?'

Finally, he was left all alone. Both the mining team and the retrieval team had left the dungeon. For about one hour, he was free to do whatever he wanted.

Meaning, this was the best chance for him to seek out the first encounter with her and the boss hiding in the deepest part of the dungeon.

Jin put the pickaxe down, and slowly shifted his gaze to the direction of the boss room. He could still sense the thick aura of the monster.

No, he just wanted to see her again. 

Thump, thump, thump…

Just from imagining him seeing her, his heart was pounding faster.

Jin forcibly controlled his wildly-beating heart and walked forward. He moved deeper into the cave, following after the aura of the boss.

And so, just how long did he have to walk?

A long stroll later, he finally arrived at the entrance of a huge chamber. It was the boss's room. The cavern itself was already pretty huge, but the boss room was even bigger.

Just as he began wondering like that….

He discovered the boss and automatically accepted that this dungeon simply had to be this big.

...

So I am looking for suggestions on the skill Dark Wisdom should work as in Overlord it allowed ainz to learn more than 300 spells.

But they never specified how it works and what it does so if you have something in mond feel free comment. And share your own wisdom with us.