Ch 20 - Unexpected Encounter

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Beep, beep, beep!

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

"It's time for lunch."

"Yes!!"

Everyone dropped their tools and dusted their hands.

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

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

"I'm fine. I ate my breakfast a bit later than usual."

"Oh? Then you can do as you please."

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

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.

Jason also put down his weapon and pushed his Observation Haki to the max, finding the boss of the gate.

'There you are! Hehe... it's going to be fun to mess up a little, right?'

Walking forward, he moved deeper into the cave, following after the aura of the boss.

A small 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.

'Hehe... so how am I going to do this?... Should I cut it in half or crush that thing into the wall?...'

A soft but excited grin formed on his lips.

However….

While Jason stood there deliberating with a smile on his face, a certain woman's incredibly sharp voice flew at him from behind.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Jason's body jerked up and his shoulders relaxed, a heavy sigh escaped his lips.

'Ah, man! I forget about her weird hobby of patrolling the dungeon during the break. Here goes my game...'

While he was having an internal monologue, the voice owner walked closer.

"I asked you what you were doing."

Jason glanced behind and sure enough it was a beauty clad in red armor, Cha Hae-In.

Cha Hae-In had the habit of patroling the dungeon during the working of Mining and other teams to safeguard their lives in case of boss left its room which was a very case but it could result in all the lives of workers inside the dungeon.

Jason turned around to face her, smiling embarrassingly. "I got lost and ended up here."

"You got lost?!" She was flabbergasted.

Cha Hae-In's gaze scanned the entirety of Jason, up and down.

'A hard hat and a worker's overall….. Is he from our mining team?'

She honestly believed him about getting lost here. She didn't know how he got this far, but well, the boss room was a very dangerous place to hang around.

"That chamber is where the boss is."

Cha Hae-In covered her nose with her handkerchief as usual and stood before Jason.

"Please exit from the dungeon as soon as possible. If you manage to attract its aggro, people inside this dungeon could all die."

"Ah. I'm sorry."

It seemed that his acting worked. Jason formed a satisfied expression and walked past Cha Hae-In. It was then.

'….Uh?'

Cha Hae-In's head snapped towards Jason.

Something impossible just happened.

Cha Hae-In's eyes opened wide and called out.

"Ehh?! G-Guild Master! What are you doing here?"

Jason froze in his tracks, his eyes trembling with an unbelievable expression.

'T-There is no way... But then...'

Jason turned slowly, his expression confused.

"Excuse me, what did you just call me, Hunter-nim?"

Cha Hae-In completely ignored his expression and flashed in front of him, holding his hands.

"Finally! Finally, I have the chance to have a chat with you... I want to talk with you for a long time, Guild Master!"

"What?... Huh? What?!" Jason couldn't make the head and tail of the situation, dumbfounded.

In the end, he could only sigh in defeat, asking. "Just how did you?..."

"Hehe... it's because aside from you, Secretary Xiao, and Secretary Mingyue, all the hunters had a very foul smell so I can easily distinguish you from others." Cha Hae-In proudly declared.

"But what if I was really someone else..."

She shook her head confidently. "It's not possible. My mana smell never lies to me. And also Secretary Xiao and Secretary Mingyue also confirmed that there could never be two people with your unique scent."

"A-Alright." Jason's face twitched. 'So, those two are responsible for this, huh? I will punish them after I return.'

"But what are you doing here?... And why are you... a miner?" Cha Hae-In asked her focus shifted back to his outfit.

Jason grabbed her hands, his eyes serious. "Please don't tell about this to Tam Leader Choi. Promise me! I... I will treat you to dinner."

Thinking about the four eyes' face while he nagged him about things, turned down his entire mood.

"Okay," Cha Hae-In promised immediately.

...

Hunters of the mining team were returning to the mining operations area one by one after finishing their lunch.

Foreman Bae was walking with a toothpick stuck in between his teeth. Once he saw Jason appearing from the deeper parts of the dungeon, though, he flinched greatly in shock.

He quickly asked him worriedly.

Jason faked a reason for looking for a place to take a leak which stupified the leader of the mining team.

The middle-aged man sighed and ignored it, advising him to take care and not enter the dungeon interiors on his own next time.

Jason could only smile wryly. With his strength, let alone a mere A-rank boss, even a powerful S-rank was nothing more than a child.

After everything settled down, he returned to his work.

Crack! Kwack!

With his help, the mining team's work was finished quite earlier than scheduled.

The looks his fellow miners were giving him had gone through substantial changes.

"Nice work, Mister Nie!"

"You were really good, you know?"

"After seeing all those Mana stones tumbling down, I thought we somehow got ourselves on an excavator or something."

Hunters surrounding Jason began praising him one by one.

A smile appeared on his face. The atmosphere of the team was really good.

"Well, let's get out of here, everyone!"

"Roger that!"

"Let's go!"

At Foreman Bae's order, the miners all began moving at the same time.

Unlike the other miners, who were all full-time employees of the Guild, Jason's daily wage was handed to him immediately.

"Here. This is your share, Mister Li."

"Ah, thank you."

While handing over the envelope containing the day's wage, Foreman Bae sneakily threw in a question as well.

"We're planning to go and enjoy a drink together, so how about it? Would you like to join us?"

He sounded light and cheery, but his eyes were gleaming in a serious light.

He knew what Foreman wanted to ask. But he still had bigger things to do like taking care of his guild and other stuff so, he politely declined the invite.

"I'm sorry."

"Mm…. Is that so."