Chapter 173

Although there was a minor misunderstanding, Suho started negotiations with Lim Tae-Gyu in earnest. Initially, Suho's plan was to buy back the dungeon attack rights at a low price, which the Reaper Guild, suffering from manpower shortage, could not approve. However, there was a big variable here, and it was that the financial difficulties of the Reaper Guild had become much worse than Suho expected. Lim Tae-Gyu had already sold all of the dungeon raiding rights he had in the guild.

"…So you really don't have them?"

"Yes."

"Not even a single one?"

"That's the way it is." Lim Tae-Gyu explained the situation with a shy expression. "Our guild decided to act as a small mercenary for a while. Most of the money from the raiding rights was added to the cost of the equipment"

"…" It was Suho who flinched slightly at this part. The A-class weapon Lim Tae-Gyu lent to Suho before going to the Glacier Dungeon: The 'Grim Reaper's Bow' was carried away by the ice elf Sirka who left with his mother, so there was no way to return it to him. Fortunately, Lim Tae-Gyu had no intention of asking for the bow to be returned. The reason why he lent the bow to Suho in the first place was because his son, Lim Do-Gyun, belonged to the Woojin Guild he led, so he gave it to him in the hope that his son would be safe even a little bit. Until Lim Do-Gyun left the Woojin Guild, he was willing to continue lending.

"Yes. It just went well. Since you are now the guild leader, I will take this opportunity to briefly explain the operation of the guild. Do-Gyun, you are also the Vice-guildmaster, so listen carefully."

Lim Tae-Gyu gave Suho and Lim Do-Gyun a realistic advice. The point was, after all, 'money'.

"For a guild to monopolize an entire dungeon in the first place requires more investment than you think. Needless to say, the place where the most money goes is the right into the raiding rights for a dungeon." In other words, in order to win the fierce bidding competition between guilds, the guild's financial power is required. The more so-called 'bullets', the better. "But buying the raiding rights to attack isn't the end. Shouldn't you be recovering the investment you made inside that dungeon? It also takes a lot of money to do that."

"You mean labor cost?"

"Yes. Seeing that you understand so quickly, you must have taken off your rookie shirt." Lim Tae-Gyu nodded and continued to explain. Personal expenses, in other words: Labor costs required when calling in external services such as mining and collection teams was also expensive. Of course, most of those people were E or D, so the ransom was not high. However there were not just one or two of them and the biggest problem was...

"For those people, one has to give them the daily wages they worked for that day in their hands when they leave work. However, if the guild's reserves are tight due to buying raiding permits to capture the dungeon, it means that they cannot even think of calling in for manual labor right away."

No matter how great a hunter was, money didn't come as soon as he entered the dungeon. It was a system in which the money was deposited into the bank account only when the corpses of demons, essence stones, and mana crystals obtained in the dungeon were sold. However, even if they dug up minerals in the dungeon, they couldn't sell them right away. It took at least two or more days.

"From here on, it's a real business area, so it's a completely separate area from monster hunting." Lim Tae-Gyu's explanation was all right. But in fact, from Suho's point of view, there was no need to worry about this. It was decided that Yoo Jin-Ho, Suho's uncle, would take care of such chores in the future.

"However," There was a reason why Lim Tae-Gyu bothered to explain these things to Suho. "It seems that your guild doesn't need to call for a service like other guilds do." His gaze turned to the shadow soldiers of Suho, who were frantically picking axes with a very crestfallen expression.

¡Bang bang bang bang!

¡Bang bang bang bang bang!

[Group 2! I see your hands! If the quantity is less than 1 trillion, I will make you all pay!]

[Kieeek! How dare an eternal second-in-command give commands!]

[Keough! That bastard's second-in-command!?]

As Quay and Beru were conducting a mining competition by commanding the shadow miners, Lim Tae-Gyu could not hide his dejected expression at that fierce and tremendous sight.

"…I was well aware of the fact that you were a summoner, but I never thought it would be like this."

Some people were going to have bad luck during their lives, and yet, seeing just how lucky Suho was, meanwhile his own guild was slowly recovering, he couldn't help but feel disheartened. He also felt complicated about his jealousy because it was a guild where his son is the vice-guildmaster (?).

He would have certainly vomited blood on the spot if he found out that Quay, who was picking up the pickaxe more excitedly than anyone else, was the one who had ruined his guild in the first place. Sometimes, ignorance really was a bliss.

'Hmmm. Has Suho been able to summon so many summoned magic beasts before?'

I couldn't help but ask this question.

'Did you hide your power at that time? There doesn't seem to be a reason for that.'

Unexpectedly, Lim Tae-Gyu did not realize Suho is a special hunter who gradually grows through leveling up. For him, that kind of thing was far out of the realm of imagination in the first place.

Suho nodded and asked Lim Tae-Gyu. "Anyways, you're saying that you really don't have any permits to clear the dungeon. Then can I ask you one more favor?"

"What favor?"

"Currently, Woojin's guild has 1 billion won. Now that I'm in Busan, can I buy the Knights Guild's dungeon permits with this money?"

"You want me to mediate with them? That won't be difficult." It was Lim Tae-Gyu who nodded coldly at those words.

"That's what you want me to do, no?"

His prediction was correct. There were quite a few dungeons that were difficult to clear in Busan these days. Because of that, the Knights Guild was also experiencing a manpower shortage to the extent that it started hiring several mercenaries, including the Reaper Guild. As a result, it would be possible to transfer the right to conquer dungeons at a fairly low price.

"But will you be okay?"

"What?"

"Because of this incident, all reporters in Busan are now flocking to Haeundae to interview you. Besides, even now in Busan..."

"Ah, if it's that then it's fine." Suho shrugged as if the subject didn't matter.

* * *

"Thank you very much!"

'…um?'

Park Jong-Soo, the guildmaster of the Knights Guild, was holding Lim Do-Gyun's hands and shaking them with a broad smile.

"Thanks to Woojin Guild's hard work, this situation was resolved smoothly!"

¡Wooooo!

The cheers poured intensively towards him.

'… Uhm?'

"Because of this, I would like to give a plaque of appreciation on behalf of Busan City to Hunter Lim Do-Gyun, Vice-guildmaster of Woojin Guild, who resolved this situation."

"…?"

It was Lim Do-Gyun who was handing over the plaque of appreciation from the mayor of Busan.

Click click click click!

Camera flashes from all directions dazzled him. Lim Do-Gyun thought.

'Who am I?'

If you ask who he was, he was the Vice-guildmaster of the Woojin Guild.

'Where am I?'

In Busan City Hall, the center of the event where appreciation plaques are awarded. It was the center of all spotlights. Haeundae, off the coast of Busan, was one of the core areas of Busan. If this place collapsed, Busan could suffer an economic blow in many ways. However, Woojin Guild, who solved the dangerous situation, said that he would 'specially' stay and attack more dungeons in Busan, and eventually the mayor of Busan appeared with a plaque of appreciation.

Of course, these appreciation plaques were useless items that didn't even sell for money and didn't sell in second-hand markets. However it had its own value. Now, Woojin Guild is a trustworthy guild directly certified by the mayor of Busan, so it can proudly operate in Busan.

"By the way, Guildmaster Sung Suho seems to be very busy. Heh heh heh."

"Yes. Our boss has just entered the dungeon..."

When the mayor of Busan asked why the guildmaster did not attend such an auspicious occasion, Lim Do-Gyun swallowed his crying feeling and tried his best to answer. He was in a dungeon, correct. Although it was a shadow dungeon. Sung Suho, who was supposed to be here, left all the troublesome work to Lim Do-Gyun and suddenly went on a daily quest.

"Heh heh heh. Well, that's fine. Hunters really are quite busy people, eh? Then, Vice-guildmaster Lim Do-Gyun, since the appreciation plaque awarding ceremony is over, please move to our office. I have prepared a contract related to the dungeon raid."

"…Ah, yes."

"I heard that Vice-guildmaster Lim Do-Gyun was the son of Hunter Lim Tae-Gyu, no? You resemble your father quite a lot, you must be well known." Lim Do-Gyun, suddenly surrounded by high-ranking people, followed the Guildmaster with a corpse-like face.

Meanwhile, Suho was also feeling exasperated, in a completely different sense from Lim Do-Gyun, he was instead facing a huge crisis.

* * *

"What…"

Suho, who entered the Shadow Dungeon for a daily quest, couldn't help but be frightened.

Ammut, the teacher of rigid body technique...

[Khehehe. Can you feel the difference in power?]

For some reason, Ammut was twice as big as usual! The pyramid was also bigger too! And also, an unusual black beam of light was rising from the top of the pyramid. Although, the biggest problem was that Ammut didn't just grow in size.

Koo koo koo!

[Now then, let's start training.]

"Wait, wait. It seems that the atmosphere has changed a lot from usual?"

[Ah, that's nothing to worry about. I already got permission from your dad.]

'What the hell!'

A chill crossed his spine.

The state of the gravitational field that weighed down the whole body was also very unusual!

At that time, Beru was nodding his head with a smile that couldn't be more pleased from a distance away.

[The librarian is one of the hardships of being young. As hard as it is, the reward is definitely...]

'The reward is the damn same!'

Suho hated it and started doing push-ups.

Crack!

"Stop stop!!!"

Both arms were broken at once.

Whiririk!

Then, a bandage came flying and wrapped around the arm and today's rigid body training began in earnest.

"Ouch!"

[Ha ha ha ha ha!]

now the training, no, torture had now become twice as harder than usual.

[The level of 'Skill: Tenacity' has risen!]

[Physical defense +140% → +160%]

Even when he engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Javier, his toughness skill had been quiet at the time, but now it rose at once.

After a while, the reward arrived in front of Suho, whose limbs were in tatters and were strewn about like rags on the floor.

[The following rewards are prepared.]

[Reward 1: Status Recovery]

[Reward 2: Ability Points +5]

[Reward 3: 2 random boxes]

"…Did the rewards go up?"

The daily quest rewards, which originally gave +3 stat points, were changed to +5.

There were also two random boxes as a reward.

But since he didn't understand the reason for them, Suho discarded them.