CH 163. Into The Gate

Arthur Pendragon:

Summoning: "I'll protect the world. I'll protect you. I am your Servant, Saber."

Noble Phantasm:

Arthur: "Seal Thirteen... opening start!!"

Merlin: "...Approved. Bedivere, Gareth, Lancelot, Mordred, Galahad."

Arthur: "This is a fight to save the world!"

Merlin: "Arthur."

Arthur: "Excalibur!!"

...

Today's anime meme is here. [ ]

....

Sohn Ki-Hoon's expression became more and more crestfallen.

Who knew how much more time and effort he needed to waste in order to find another porter? Probably the whole morning, or even till the afternoon; or, if he was really unlucky, then the entire day might go down the drain.

'This is going to be a big problem….'

It was at this point when his eyes met with a certain young Hunter's.

'…Uh?'

Unlike other Hunters, this guy was staring right back at him. It was, of course, Jin.

'Hmm…..'

While Sohn Ki-Hoon was staring at him, Jin too was slowly scanning that man's appearance.

'Isn't he a bit sharp for a tanker?'

Common sense dictated that the leaders of raid teams were 'tankers' most of the time.

Compared to other tankers, though, Sohn Ki-Hoon was a bit on the lankier side. He was also quite tall, so, rather than a Hunter, he looked more like a basketball player more than anything else.

'....'

Jin finally stopped looking at Sohn Ki-Hoon and his eyes drifted away.

"….Fuu-ha…."

Only then did Sohn Ki-Hoon spit out his deeply-held breaths.

What just happened?

Just now, his entire body had frozen up so much that he even forgot to breathe. He couldn't understand why.

'Am I getting too tense, since this will be my first raid as a leader and all?'

Up until now, he had participated in raids as an auxiliary tanker. That was why today's opportunity was doubly important to him. And he definitely could not afford to commit a blunder today.

Sohn Ki-Hoon was bent over and panting laboriously in order to recover, before raising himself back up again.

Murmur, murmur….

Probably because of his rather embarrassing conduct, the surroundings had gotten noisier. However, he soon realised that the cause for the disturbance was not him.

Sohn Ki-Hoon's gaze shifted back to the mining team's Hunters, only to spot a hand raised up to the sky.

Finally, someone was applying for the job. Someone he had been waiting so desperately for.

Sohn Ki-Hoon's expression brightened considerably.

When Jin took a step forward, he became the centre of attention.

"I'll do it."

A rank E Hunter wanted to enter an uncleared rank A dungeon!

Pure pandemonium broke out.

"Upper-rank monsters are waiting with bated breath inside, yet you wanna go in??"

"Mister Sung, what do you think you're doing?!"

"You still have a whole life ahead of you, so why are you risking it all for a measly few extra bucks?!"

The members of the mining team surrounded Jin in no time. At the same time, Foreman Bae hurriedly explained it to Sohn Ki-Hoon.

"Aigoo. That friend only started this job yesterday so he probably raised his hand not knowing anything."

"What's his rank?"

"That is…."

Foreman Bae sneaked a glance towards Jin and then spoke in a hushed voice.

"It's E. Regardless of what else, his rank is too low, so how about going with someone else? It'll be far too dangerous to take that friend along with you."

Sohn Ki-Hoon's expression became grave right away.

'That man is only a rank E….??'

The man who locked gazes with him only a second ago – for sure, he couldn't sense any exceptional fluctuation of magic energy coming from that man.

However, how should he put this?

A certain aura permeated from that man that… couldn't be described in simple words, but at the same time, it also felt sharp, sharp enough to cut anything and coldness around him with his eyes and the aura was utterly under control. 

'He's definitely not a rank E.'

No matter how hard Sohn Ki-Hoon looked, that man was definitely not the bottom-ranked Hunter he claimed to be. Of course, Foreman Bae had no reason to lie here but, from Sohn Ki-Hoon's perspective, his own assessment had to be correct.

'Besides all that. The rank of a porter isn't all that important, is it?'

Indeed, a porter only needed to carry luggage around well.

If the luggage carrier located at the very back of the raid team found himself in danger, then one should look at that raid as a complete failure. In a case like that, not even a rank A could guarantee his survival, so would it really matter if the porter's rank was a C or an E?

They'd die regardless, anyway.

When Sohn Ki-Hoon's thought process reached that point, he began regretting the fact that he actually wasted time worrying about it. The raid hadn't even started, yet they had wasted far too much time already.

Sohn Ki-Hoon stared at Jin and spoke.

"Nope. I'm taking him."

***

"Isn't it heavy?"

Sohn Ki-Hoon asked a question, and Jin simply shook his head.

As the heavy word itself didn't mean anything to him as he himself didn't know how much he could lift, as he yet to encounter a thing he can't lift but what he was sure of was just my punching power. It should be more than a few hundred tons.  

"No, it's fine."

The large bag being carried on Jin's back was filled to the brim with extra sets of clothing, weapons, and defensive equipment, etc., for the raid team. Its volume was quite considerable, but honestly speaking, he didn't find it heavy at all. All thanks to his Strength Stat, of course.

'Doesn't look like he's straining himself.'

After studying Jin's expression for a bit, Sohn Ki-Hoon turned towards the Gate. Jin also shifted his gaze towards it.

A giant Gate, as big as the one from yesterday, silently floated in the air.

 'This one's a little bit bigger?'

Even then, the detected amount of magic energy was supposedly less than yesterday's Gate. The raid difficulty was judged by the emitted magic energy and not the size of the Gate; that was probably the main reason why the B team was tasked with clearing this particular dungeon.

'For real… the leaking magic energy is incomparably smaller than yesterday.'

But it was all just a facade.  Jin could tell by standing in front of the Gate. The result of the Association's measurement didn't seem to be wrong.

But then, his senses were tingling a little.  

Just like back when he was standing before the Red Gate, a certain creeping sense of ill omen was dawning on him.

'…. This just shows how stupid the decision to clear this gate was.'

'Well I am saving their reputation and a lot of lives of the guild I just hope they had some good corpse' 

After all, money is not something I am interested in, and Just like any necromancer, what I want is a few good carcasses.  

Meanwhile, Sohn Ki-Hoon gave out his order.

"Let's go inside."

The raid team waiting in front of the Gate began moving once more with that order. Hunters entered the dungeon one by one.

"…."

Jin stopped staring at the Gate and followed them in.

[You have entered a dungeon.]

The interior of the dungeon was rather plain.

Jin patiently waited for play to begin as he saw the passage that was noticeably smaller than yesterday's dungeon.

The thing was, though, the members of this team were plenty good enough to clear a Red Gate, were they to step into one.

11 rank As, and 6 rank Bs.

If it weren't the Hunters Guild but somebody else, these guys wouldn't have been assigned to a B team at all.

Jin smirked softly.

He felt as if weight was lifted off his shoulders.

"You don't have to be that nervous, you know."

A female Hunter, a Healer, engaged him in conversation from his side.

Was her age around the late twenties or so?

Because his expression was stiff, it seemed that she just wanted to help alleviate some of his tension.

"You see, every single member present here, not just Ki-Hoon oppa, oops, I mean, the leader of the team, is a distinguished Hunter. Except me, that is."

The healer lady smiled refreshingly.

From the word go, Jin wasn't scared, but after seeing the female Hunter's utterly relaxed face, he felt like a deflated balloon.

Jin grinned too, and nodded his head.

"Ah. Okay."

The Healer formed a content expression, evidently satisfied by her efforts.

At the same time, the leader confirmed that there were no monsters near the entrance and gave the signal to advance.

"Let's move."

Both Jin and the Healer matched the walking pace of the raid team and slowly advanced forward. They had to watch the surroundings while moving, so naturally, their rate of progress was rather slow.

"Should I help you carry some, if it's too heavy?"

The Healer glanced at Jin's luggage and asked him. Jin wordlessly pushed forward a huge bottle of water in his left hand to her.

"Kyachk?!"

The Healer tottered dangerously on her feet trying to lift that, so he quickly took the bottle back. The raid team came to an abrupt stop and glared at the Healer.

"I'm so sorry. Sorry."

The Healer continued to bow her head here and there, offering an embarrassed apology. After that, he didn't get to hear her asking him if he needed help again. Her sharp glares were just an added bonus, really.

Jin had to swallow his cackles as he continued to walk forward, pretending to be oblivious.

It sure felt like it'd been a long time since he could laugh like this inside a dungeon.

'Well, getting distracted even only for a second would potentially get me in a lot of trouble, after all.'

Especially recently…..

Just remembering the past to the difficulty of the Ape and Gorr and its dungeon or his stupidity to consume dragon vain made him shudder in his boots.

However, these days were different. Participating in a raid as an outsider like this every now and then didn't sound like such a bad idea to him.

It was then.

Jin's steps came to a halt.

A beat later, the Hunters of the raid team also sensed the change in the surroundings.

"They are coming!"

Even before Sohn Ki-Hoon finished giving his order, the Hunters of the raid team got into their battle formation. It happened literally in the blink of an eye. Jin was inwardly impressed by that.

'So, this is how the high-ranked Hunters raid….'

They were definitely a world apart compared to the ragtag raid teams he was used to until now. Heck, pure and bright lights were already emanating from the hands of the naive-looking female Healer.

In any case, monsters finally showed themselves.

Beasts? Canines?

Sohn Ki-Hoon's eyes narrowed to a slit.

Tadatadatadatada….

A group of monsters resembling hyenas was rushing towards the raid team. They were as big as a medium-sized car, too.

Sohn Ki-Hoon tilted his head slightly.

'Dungeon Jackals?'

He became sure of it once they got close enough. They were indeed 'Dungeon Jackals.'

Sohn Ki-Hoon had been standing with his shield covering his front, but then, he relaxed a bit and didn't even bother to activate his aggro-attracting skill.

And then, he simply used his shield to batter down the Dungeon Jackal aiming for his neck.

Whimper!!

"What's this?"

"Aren't they Dungeon Jackals?"

Other team members, deeply tense until then, began tilting their heads and straightened their hunched stances. Soon, the short death throes of the Dungeon Jackals filled the cavern's interior.

"Whimper?!"

"Kkheng!"

"Kkhekkheng!"

The Jackal monsters were quickly taken care of.

Over a dozen Dungeon Jackals were turned into corpses in the blink of an eye. Hunters dusted their hands, still confused by what happened.

"What's this?"

"I didn't even have enough time to cast a magic spell before it ended."

"Why are we fighting Dungeon Jackals inside a rank A dungeon?"

"Yeah, right. What's happening here?"

"Wait, did the Association idiots screw up again?!"

Their voices were getting louder.

Now originally, one of the basic rules in raiding was to never make loud noises inside a dungeon. However, the appearance of the Dungeon Jackals was an event shocking enough to make them forget all about even a simple rule like that.

"Hmm…."

Sohn Ki-Hoon stared at the corpses of the Jackals and scratched the back of his head.

'But, why are the monsters from rank C dungeons appearing here?'

Sohn Ki-Hoon scanned his surroundings, looking somewhat dumbfounded. Everyone else was forming similar facial expressions.

With the exception of one person.

Only Jin was staring at the dead Jackals with a crypt expression on his face.

'They are no normal Jackals.'

Jin's eyes narrowed. He could definitely see that the fur around the Jackal's neck had been flattened down by someone until recently. It was clear evidence of them being tied to something, somewhere.

'Meaning, the ones that reared these monsters are inside this dungeon….'

Monsters with intellect, in other words.

Jin recalled the White Phantoms he met back inside the Red Gate.

It was now a well-established fact that, regardless of what species it was, intelligent monsters were quite difficult to deal with.

"What are you thinking about so seriously like that?"

The female Hunter peered at Jin as if to bore a hole in him, just like how he had been staring at the Jackals.

"Shh!"

Jin raised his index finger and covered his lips.

Step, step.

Step, step.

From the deeper parts of the cave, he could hear the matched footsteps getting closer.

'The real players are coming.'

Jin stood back up. Other Hunters also belatedly realised something was wrong.

"Oh my god…"

"Get….. Get ready for battle!"

Sohn Ki-Hoon forcibly squeezed his voice out.

Finally, the real enemies revealed themselves from the darkness of the cave on the far side. The eyes of the Hunters grew wide from shock.

"High Orcs?!"

"What the hell? Why High Orcs?"

Many well-trained High Orc warriors now stood in rows before the Hunters' eyes. Their number was twenty-two.

Not just any High Orcs, but they were twenty-two High Orc warriors, and it just not Orcs if anybody read about High Orc because they had a culture where they tattoo their body after every enemy they defeated. And their bodies are filled with tattoos.  Which meant they would be very difficult opponents to fight.

"Something… Something's wrong."

Someone muttered softly under his breath.

To think, right after the attack of the low-ranked monsters, they now had to battle these high-ranked monsters famed to be the toughest even among the high ranks.

The High Orcs pointed their lengthy spears at the Hunters.

'Looks like the momentum of the Hunters and the High Orcs are about even.'

Jin quickly retreated to a corner, so he could quietly observe the unfolding situation and find the right time to step forward until he was going to enjoy the scene.

However, the female Hunter obviously didn't share his thought process.

"You gotta keep hiding there, okay! You won't get hurt that way."

That kind of infuriated Jin just a wee bit. He closed his eyes shut and took several deep breaths while working hard to calm his boiling head that was ready calime some heads. 

Soon, the battle began.

"Kroooaaar!!"

Towards the attacking High Orcs, Sohn Ki-Hoon activated his aggro skill. However, these Orcs didn't really fall for his provocation. And soon, High Orcs and melee-type Hunters engaged in a bitter close-quarters battle.

Swiiiish!!

Swish!

Crack!!

Blood splattered everywhere and a scream reverberated out.

"Uwaaahk!!"

Not too long after that, magic spells fired from the mage-type Hunters slammed into the High Orcs.