First Dungeon Raid

It was rather laughable that Jinah thought that I would only stay at their residence for a single day. You must realize that I leeched off the residence of the Butterfly Mansion for my entire Demon Slayer career. So, why wouldn't I do the same for my Hunter career.

Anyway, Sung Jinwoo (which was confirmed to be his name) "met" me for the first time. This is of course when he was fully cognizant of everything that was going on around him.

After explaining everything that had happened to him whilst under my care, he gave his most gracious thanks and repeated what it was that his sister had said, saying that they didn't have anything to provide for me (monetary wise).

However, upon explaining my own story of how I was an unemployed, homeless, E-Rank 17-year-old, I got immediate sympathy from Sung Jinwoo who had stated that I could stay with them for however long I wanted. This caused a huge reaction from his sister who brought up the fair argument that they couldn't support another person, the argument was quelled by me producing yen.

"Why don't you just rent a place for yourself then?" Jinah asks suspiciously.

The obvious reason was so that I could stay under the radar from the government so that they don't realize I don't have neither citizenship nor a record of any kind in Korea, but I get the feeling the Sung siblings wouldn't get that.

"I guess," I scratch the back of my head, "It's because I'm so used to living with other people in a single home that I'd crumble under societal pressure if I decided to live on my own."

This was good enough for Jinwoo who accepted that reason without much thought. Jinah's own worries were also quelled rather quickly when she learned that I could do basically anything in their house, from cleaning to cooking. Having completed the hardest (for now) step of this world, I couldn't help myself from trying to get close to Jinwoo so that he could take me on a raid with him.

With enough elbows into the kidneys, Jinwoo finally gave way, letting me do an E-Rank Dungeon with him.

"You understand what I said about dungeons right?"

Having been taking in the refreshing surroundings of an industrialized Korea, I give Jinwoo a befuddled look.

"Hah." He sighs, "Alright, I'll explain it one more time. Dungeons are pockets of what can presume to be another world. We enter these dungeons through gates. Each one of them carry hordes of monsters which are led by a boss and these gates will remain open until the boss is killed. Killing a boss means clearing the dungeon. Get me so far?"

Nodding my head, he continues, "However, if the dungeon is not cleared within seven days, then it will undergo what's called a dungeon break, meaning that the monsters inside the dungeon will be able to cross over to our world and attack us. These dungeons also have different grades, ranging from E-Rank Dungeons to S-Rank Dungeons. How those are determined is by the magic power output of the dungeon itself. The higher the reading, the harder the dungeon."

"And how hard is this E-Rank Dungeon we're going to?" I ask.

"It's what's considered to be an entry-point dungeon, something for newbies to take a try at since everything inside is considered safe. Plus, since it's so weak, no one can place restrictions on it, and anyone can clear it. In fact, these dungeons are easy enough that a single E-Rank Hunter should be able to clear it by themselves."

"Has anyone?"

"Of course not." Jinwoo waves his hand, "After all, new E-Rank Hunters are often too scared to enter a dungeon by themselves, so they take a veteran hunter with them just in case."

"And are you the expert in this situation?" I give Jinwoo a strange look.

Giving an awkward laugh, Jinwoo doesn't answer the question and we finally arrive in front of the gate. Its size is rather small and the bursts of energy coming off it are few and far between. Jinwoo without hesitation stepped into the gate and I followed shortly after, feeling a bit strange as by body with displaced ever so slightly.

Embracing our new surroundings, I could see that it was, a cave, and lighting its interior was ambient lighting. From where, I have no idea. The air itself was musty and contained the ever-subtle hint of rot.

"Well, let's go."

Following Jinwoo's lead, we make our way through the cave, encountered multiple bloody stains on the floor having already dried. Along with that, the smell of rotting became more prominent.

Feeling the heavy mood, Jinwoo asks, "Are you sure that it's okay if you didn't bring along any of your katanas?"

"Those swords are one of a kind…" I answer, "I'd rather not ruin such beautiful blades while I still lack strength to properly wield them."

"But weapons make everything so much easier."

"But they also break easily." I point out.

Jinwoo puts his head down in defeat. And just in time too as I watch with wide eyes as an arrow passes directly over his head. Cursing the fact that my senses were dulled to such an extent, I look to see where the arrow had come from and see a disgusting little gremlin. Oh, wait... gremlin is the wrong word, it's a goblin after all.

"So, um, about this dungeon being a starter dungeon… That arrow could've clearly killed."

"I… I don't understand it myself… I've never seen goblins act this way." Jinwoo trembles.

"How long has this dungeon been open?" I ask.

"About five days."

"Well, that explains why. From the words of a great man, even though goblins may be the weakest of monsters, goblins are vicious, cunning, and sadistic and they reproduce extraordinarily quickly. Choose to leave one alive, then it'll come right back with a renewed army that learned from its past mistakes."

"So… should we retreat for now and report this to a guild."

"Huh?" I turn to Jinwoo. "No, goblins are still weak after all. Plus, they're not even in their natural environment, so I think we can deal with them efficiently."

"This isn't their natural environment?" Jinwoo blinks.

"Of course not. Goblins like small, secluded caves where they can lure their bait in and kill them with a sort of trap. Goblins are stupid, so they chose a place that gives invaders and themselves very few options. But in areas as big as the one we're in, there really isn't a problem."

Turning back to the goblin archer to wonder why it was that it hadn't shot yet, I find it was still trying to knock an arrow. "Also because of that."

Cracking my knuckles, I begin to run towards the goblin. In response, the goblin became more frantic, yet I was already upon it. Ripping the arrow from its grasp, I twirl it around in my hands and then plunge it into the goblin's throat. The goblin in return lets out a gargled cry before its eyes roll into the back of its head and it falls to the ground.

"You sure you've never hunted before."

Nodding my head, Jinwoo crouches beside me and asks for the arrow. Digging around the center of its chest, I inquire about it.

"Monsters should contain a magical core; these are what Hunters sell to make money. However, since we're in an E-Rank Dungeon, not every monster we kill will have one since the magic level of these dungeons are so low. So don't…"

Wondering why his words had cut off, my answer comes when he pulls out a glowing diamond with a hole in the middle of it.

"The very first enemy that you kill, and you manage to get a core, huh." Throwing me the core, Jinwoo smirks, "It's yours. I'll make sure to exchange it for you later."

Our happy-go-lucky attitude was soon shattered as screams resounded off the walls. Shortly after, nearly ten goblins came from around a corner of the cave, crazily running towards us.

"Shiro, we should retreat."

Even under Jinwoo's words, I still proceed to pick up the bow of the dead goblin, rip the arrow from Jinwoo's grasp, and aim it toward the oncoming goblins. Luckily, one of the goblins pulls ahead of the other nine.

Shooting it in the neck and killing it with the single arrow, I quickly drop the bow and rush towards the dead goblin body. Grabbing the wooden club that it held just before the other nine goblins could reach me, I put it to my side and use 'Water Breathing First Form: Water Surface Slash'.

Even though it was done with a blunt, I hadn't trained for so many years to not have the one attack kill all of them.

Feeling a little proud of myself, my success is short lived by the mouthful of blood that I cough out. Gripping my chest, I start to dig at my skin, wishing to rid myself of the burning pain that dug through me. I hadn't even realized that my legs had given out and my vision was blinded by tears. I could slightly hear Jinwoo trying to call my name, but he felt muted. Such agony continued for what felt like an eternity until the pain subsided and I could finally wipe the tears from my eyes.

"Shiro! Are you alright?!" Jinwoo yells.

Raising my hand, Jinwoo falls silent.

"Who knew I'd be this unprepared to use Breathing Techniques. How shameful of me." I murmur to myself.

"I think we should go back for today."

Nodding my head in agreeance with Jinwoo, he proceeds to look for loot in the corpses and gives me a disbelieving look when he finds that two of the other goblin bodies had E-Rank Cores.

"He made more than what I made in a month." Saying that like a contra until we finally got home, we rest for the day before going to exchange the cores.

We still went to the Korean Hunters' Association, but just a different branch of it that was meant for core exchanges. Being the good, graced person that I am, I gave the entirety of the money to Jinwoo. He of course tried to deny it, stating that I had earned it, but I countered by saying that it was simply an advancement on my rent and a way for him to not spend every living moment trying to exchange my money to Won. Only under this reasoning did Jinwoo finally accept my proposal.

Not even a week later, I was participating in my second raid, this time with other people. And I figured out something miraculous about Sung Jinwoo.

"Sung, thanks for coming."

"Glad you could make it today Sung."

"Yo, Sung! You eaten yet?"

Wriggling my eyebrows at Jinwoo, I smugly say, "Well, someone sure is popular."

"Yeah, but for the wrong reasons."

Wondering what he meant by that, I heard a little gossip from the people around us.

"Man, we have to team with the world's weakest hunter today, this raids gonna take longer than normal then."

Giving a questioning look to Jinwoo, he sighs. "No matter the dungeon that I go into, I always get injured, so those that I've hunted with before refer to me as the World's Weakest Hunter."

"Well, cheer up," I pat him on the shoulder, "At least you've got me… and coffee of course. Hi, may I have two cups of coffee?"

The Korean Hunters' Association worker turns towards me. "Ah, Hunter Sung Jinwoo and… sorry, I don't think I've ever met you before."

"The name's Shiro Urokodaki, I'm a hunting buddy with Jinwoo here."

"I see, I'll make sure to memorize your name. And just one moment please, your coffees will be ready shortly." Coming back with two coffees, he hands them to us and whispers, "On the house."

Not given the opportunity to refuse the goodwill, I turn to Jinwoo.

"Free stuff?"

"It's not that great, it's just them pitying me that's all."

Seeing him back in his depressed mood, someone comes running up to us. Jinwoo also turns his head and immediately exclaims, "Oh, hi! Joohee, you're also attending this raid?"

Joohee seems to have wanted to say something, but instead begins to look at Jinwoo from head to toe.

"You're not injured?"

"I didn't do anything dangerous recently, I was only doing an E-Rank Dungeon with Shiro here, since he's a new member."

Joohee seemed to finally realize my presence and presented herself. Joohee is a young woman with long bright orange hair, blue eyes, and pale skin.

"Thank you for taking care of Sung."

Laughing it off, I say, "It's only been a single raid so far, but I'll try to keep him from getting injured in the future."

"That's the most any of us can do."

The two of us seemed to form a bond right there and then to protect Sung Jinwoo from getting hurt in the future.

"By the way, what the Tier of this Dungeon?"

"D-Tier, why?"

Shooting my gaze to Jinwoo, he turns away, whistling to hide his guilt.

"Oh no reason, but the one who forgot to tell me will be getting a 'reward' later."

Jinwoo clearly understood that the 'reward' was a punishment and he shivered in place.

With that, a leader for our group was chosen and we made our way into the D-Rank Dungeon.