Chapter 10: Black Panther (2)

Since the black market was a lawless area, to prevent money from being stolen, you had to convert your existing money into the currency used on the black market.

Cale followed this rule and gave the money he had with him and bought a black market silver card. It was like a credit card.

When Cale arrived in front of a metal door and knocked once, a small screen appeared on the right side of the door. Cale swiped his card and when the green light came on, the doors slid open.

He entered a luxurious hall with a dazzling reception desk made of a mixture of wood and marble. The design was pleasing to the eye with its high ceiling and lighting.

Behind the reception desk, various receptionists were attending to guests and the weather was mild.

When he arrived in front of the reception desk, Cale was greeted by a beautiful woman with her blonde hair in a ponytail.

"Welcome to the [Scouts]. How can I help you?"

"I would like to enter the dungeon," the woman smiled and opened the tablet in front of her and handed it to Cale.

"These are all the dungeons we have right now."

As Cale scrolled through the tablet, he saw that it was quite an extensive list. There were green and red markings next to the dungeons to indicate whether they were available or not.

After all, no matter how much access was allowed, they didn't want dungeons to become unstable due to mana overload and cause dungeon explosions. That's why there were limits on the number of people according to the levels of the dungeons.

"We currently have 6 F-ranked, 8 D-ranked, 12 E-ranked, 4 B-ranked, and finally 6 A-ranked dungeons in operation."

The more Cale looked, the more he wondered why the elite families were not doing anything in the list that he could not see the end of.

Actually the answer was simple. Even though they were elite families, it was not wise to interfere with an organization at least as powerful as they were. Maybe if they all united and declared war on them, it would have been possible, but he didn't think the families, who were always in competition with each other, would stoop to that.

There was no need anyway. No matter how greedy they were, they would not enter each other's territories easily. Because it would do them more harm than good. Besides, the Black Panther was led by a SSS-level hunter that no one knew about.

Contrary to what people know, there were twelve SSS level hunters, not eleven. Only because the Black Panther was a secret organization, no one knew. And Cale had heard this information through rumors when he was trying to find information.

Even though it was a rumor, Cale believed it to be true. Otherwise the elite families would have done their best, albeit secretly, to gobble up the Black Panther's resources.

Cale scrolled down the list on the tablet and looked at the level F dungeons. Dungeons were named according to the level of the boss monster inside. For example, if a dungeon was full of level G monsters, but the boss monster was level F, the dungeon would be a level F dungeon.

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- F - Level: Poison Forest

Description; The user enters the area with monsters that can use poison.

Price; 17% of the Contractor's loot + 700 H entrance fee

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- F - Level: Slime Island

Description; The user enters the area with swamp monsters.

Price; 15% of the Contractor's loot + 500 H entrance fee

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- F - Level: Blood Wave

Description; The user enters an ocean environment full of wild sea creatures.

Price; 12% of contractor's loot + 600 H entrance fee

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- F - Level: Kierk Mountains

Description; The user enters the glacier mountains with ice monsters.

Price; 10% of the Contractor's loot + 400 H entrance fee

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- F - Level: Nota Cave

Description; The user enters a cave of illusions where they immerse themselves in their deepest desires. It is filled with creatures that seduce their prey.

Price: 20% of the Contractor's loot + 800 H entrance fee

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- F - Level: Hellfire

Description; The user finds himself in the volcanic mountains in an area with underground monsters.

Price; 5% of the contractor's loot + 700 H entrance fee

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Cale paused as he looked at the extensive list. There was plenty of variety and he had enough money, but even at level F, going into those dungeons without the necessary equipment would get him killed.

Since he didn't have any waterproof equipment with him, [Bloody Wave] was out of the question.

[Poison Forest] was very dangerous and had no potion for poison resistance.

[Cave of Notes] was an item for which he would have to pay 20% of all profits earned from the dungeon.

[Slime Island] was affordable, but Cale was not confident about it either. Could he reach the end of the dungeon without dying in the swamps?

That left [Hellfire] and [Kierk Mountains].

After thoroughly considering both options, Cale decided to go with [Kierk Mountains]. His fee was low and so was the 10% commission.

"I'm going to go with [Kierk Mountains]."

"Alright, before we finalize our deal, there is a contract you need to sign."

Cale carefully went through all the clauses of the three-page contract handed to him, then signed it and handed it back to her.

The content of the contract was simple.

Equipment would be checked before entering the dungeon so that there would be no misunderstandings when leaving the dungeon.

On leaving the dungeon, the staff would measure and apportion the value of any monster corpses or artifacts brought back from the dungeon so that there would be no error in the commission fee.

1000 H deposit and 400 H entrance fee were to be paid in advance.

A person's stay in the dungeon was limited to 30 days. This would prevent the same hunters from invading the caves. At the end of the period, if the contractor did not leave the dungeon, a team would come and force you out.

Finally, every hunter given summoning stones will be able to call for outside help in dangerous situations. However, the support team will result in the loss of the deposit.

"Thank you," Cale says, and the woman smiles and signs the contract into effect, completing the payment.

"Please follow me," she said as she led him out from behind the reception desk and into a different waiting room. "This is your payment slip and this is your queue number," she said, handing Cale two slips of paper. "Good luck," she said and disappeared.

[Guest 6087458 - - Door 476]

Cale folded the papers and put them in his pocket, then sat down in one of the armchairs and waited his turn, as did several others waiting in the room.

This dungeon was his ticket out. If he did a good job, he would get stronger and he would have money. So he waited nervously for the time to run out.