CH 156. Just Time.

Today's meme is here. [ ]

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So I am looking for suggestions on the skill Dark Wisdom should work as in Overlord it allowed ainz to learn more than 300 spells.

But they never specified how it works and what it does so if you have something in mond feel free comment. And share your own wisdom with us.

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What would he have done if Cha Hae-In didn't show up in time?

He couldn't help but wonder.

***

Thanks to Jin's brilliant efforts, the mining team was able to finish their operation well before dinner time. According to the foreman, they had finished four hours faster than planned.

With that, the looks the not for long fellow miners were giving him had gone through substantial changes.

"Nice work, Mister Sung!"

"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 Jin began praising him one by one. The cold, indifferent eyes before entering the Gate were nowhere to be seen now.

Jin wasn't the one looking for praises neither he wanted any praises from the people he hardly knew so he just smiled and nodded. Maybe it was praise from his wives or looks of admiration from his daughters that could have forced his face to morph into a big smile. But not with these nobodies.  

 Anyway Jin was also feeling rather pleased with himself. This experience of being a dungeon miner proved to be surprisingly educational, and he also got to achieve the purpose of coming to this this dungeon as well.

"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.

"One, two!"

"Yu-cha!"

They left behind the retrieval team still suffering through their operation and, after changing out of their overalls, the miners re-gathered in one spot.

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

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

"Ah, thank you, thanks for your hard work Mr Sung. "

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.

'Looks like he has something important to say to me, but….'

Jin could sense the man's desperation, even. Unfortunately, Jin declined the invite as his dick could break free the shackles it was forced in.  

"I can't,  you see I have something very important to do."

"Mm…. Is that so."

Foreman Bae scratched his chin.

'Well, this is a story best told after knocking back a few cold ones, but…'

He hurriedly changed his tactic.

"I've met quite a few people while doing this job for many years now."

"Okay."

"But, it's my first time meeting someone like you. You have a natural-born talent to become a miner."

"..."

It seemed that Foreman Bae really liked Jin here.

"…"

'Haha…. Well, this is….'

All Jin could do here was to chuckle and cringe, as this man really thought he was the one who could bring the end of the  world as a miner. This was truly amusing, unable to neither agree or refute that notion. Deciding that the young man's smile was a good omen, Foreman Bae confidently moved on to the main topic at hand.

"I'd normally not say something like this, but…. Don't you want to come and work for me full-time? I will definitely not treat you poorly, you see."

This young man named Sung Jin-Woo.

Even though today was his first day as a miner, he managed to outperform the veterans by ten, to twelve times the amount.

If he couldn't hold on to such outstanding talent, wouldn't he be a failure of a foreman?

He was even thinking of discussing the matter with the person in charge and have Jin's wages paid separately from others. That was how badly he wanted to reel in this young man.

Too bad, Jin had too much money so he shared it with the world and still felt only a few dents on it. More than the combined GDP of many nations.  

"Thanks for your kind words, but…. Actually, I'm getting ready for something else at the moment."

Just a few words from Jin, and Foreman Bae's face was forming a dejected expression of a man who had lost his country.

"….R-really?"

Jin chuckled to himself.

'Nice guy but still I would have liked it if it was a woman.' again Jin with dick thoughts.  

To display his raw emotions so openly like this. More than likely, Foreman Bae must've thought that he had discovered an unpolished rough within the E rank.

Foreman Bae pondered something for a bit, before cautiously asking the youth.

"What about tomorrow, then? Can you come to work tomorrow as well?"

"Tomorrow? Hmm….."

Actually, this is what he was waiting for as he didn't have anything else planned for tomorrow. As tomorrow was the dungeon that housed Tusk.  The re-evaluation was scheduled for the day after, too.

There wasn't a reason for him to take another mining job now? No but coming here wasn't just to meet her but to get the chance to come back tomorrow to get the Tusk.  

"Does that mean the Hunters Guild will go on another raid tomorrow?"

"That's right. And that one's also a rank A."

"But, is that even possible? They finished the raid today."

Normally, a raid team would take about a week off after finishing up a raid.

'And this raid only started yesterday afternoon.'

Which meant the elites of the Hunters Guild were raiding this dungeon for two days in a row – yesterday and today.

And by the time they kill the boss after the retrieval operations finally end, it'd be the early dawn. Naturally, it was hard for anyone to understand how there would be another raid tomorrow.

"You see, assault team B will be stepping forward tomorrow, not team A."

Assault team B?

It's stupid of them to be think of clearing a rank A dungeon with a backup team?

"And this is precisely the power of the Hunters Guild, you see. I mean, we are probably the only Guild in the entire South Korea who can conquer rank A dungeons with two different teams."

Foreman Bae sounded quite proud, then.

"Do Hunters raid dungeons like this all the time?"

"No, no. Now normally, we wouldn't have to split up the teams like that. But it looks like the schedule overlapped this time."

Because two rank A Gates appeared around the same time in the district the Hunters Guild operated in, Chairman Choi Jong-In had to sweat a lot in order to get the permits for both of them, apparently.

'Ah. So, the reason for running into Chairman Choi in the Association yesterday was this….'

Someone as busy as Choi Jong-In wouldn't just randomly show up in the Association for no reason whatsoever.

Jin nodded his head this was the chance he was waiting for that's why he had gone through this point less talk just so no one would get suspicious of him as Choi Jong-In was aware of his existence. 

"Okay, so does that mean it'll be your first time trying to raid the dungeon with the B team?"

"That's right. However, the B team of the Hunters isn't your regular backup team, okay? They are even better than the A team of some of the other large Guilds, I'll have you know."

"Still, it should be far more dangerous than today, yes?"

Foreman Bae became speechless, then.

Because, that would be quite obvious.

In today's raid, two rank S Hunters participated. On the other hand, only the rank As and below would try to raid the dungeon tomorrow.

Sure, he heard that the size of tomorrow's Gate was smaller than the one today, but still, losing two rank S Hunters was a big blow, indeed.

After all, Mister Sung was worried about the boss monster, even when the assault team featuring two rank S Hunters were nearby.

'Doesn't it mean I can lie to the kid, now is it?'

Foreman Bae was thinking of changing the youth's mind tomorrow while working beside him, but realising that he had failed, he expressed some regret.

"Yes, it'll get more dangerous, for sure. If something goes wrong, then the raid itself might fail, too."

It was here that the light in Jin's eyes changed.

… 

Jin didn't ponder on thoughts as he speaking up.

"I see."

"If that's what you think, then there's not much I can do."

"Where should I show up tomorrow?"

"….Eh?"

After hearing this unexpected reply, Foreman Bae's eyes went extra round in shock.

'Wait, I haven't made a mistake just now with what I said, right?'

Didn't he definitely say that tomorrow was going to be more dangerous than today?

Mister Sung's expression wasn't so good after hearing Bae's story, so the older man was just about ready to forget about the matter completely. However, what was the meaning of this?

Thanks to this youth, it looked like Bae wouldn't have to worry about finding another miner for tomorrow.

'Is that all??'

Mister Sung could easily do the work of ten or twelve people all by himself. And that was on his first day, too.

The boy's work speed that even managed to impress the 'ace' of the mining team, Mok Jin-Su, was indeed pretty shocking the first time Bae witnessed it.

From Jin's declaration that he'd come tomorrow, Foreman Bae felt like he had gained a powerful, trustworthy ally and he was filled up with lots of confidence.

"Mister Sung, you made the right choice!"

Foreman Bae's moustache quivered as he formed a blindingly brilliant smile. And then, to make sure that Jin's mind wouldn't change overnight, he even came up with an unprecedented offer, too.

"I'll have a good chat with the person in charge, and make sure that you get double the normal daily wages tomorrow."

"Will that be okay?"

"Of course. You think I won't be able to do that much for you, Mister Sung?"

Foreman Bae confidently pounded on his chest.

"Mister Sung, don't you worry about a thing and just come to work tomorrow."

Quite obviously, who would sweat over paying twice as much in daily wages to a guy capable of doing the work of 10-12 people?

If Bae was the Chairman, never mind double, he'd triple – no, maybe even more with an eye towards the future.

'Didn't expect myself to rule the day that I'm not the Chairman of the Hunters….'

Foreman Bae could only swallow back his laughter.

Jin asked him a question, then.

"Ahh, right. I promised to meet someone tomorrow evening, so will I be able to make that in time?"

Earlier this morning, Yu Jin-Ho gave him a call.

"""""""

– "Hyung-nim, can I come and speak to you?"

For some reason, he sounded worn out.

'That kid was on the top of the world yesterday, saying that everything had worked out alright, yet today…..'

Jin was taken by surprise, but unfortunately, the call came only after he had already applied to become a miner. He had no choice but to delay the meeting until tomorrow evening.

Beside he also had to be somewhere after his And Esdeath's S-ranks official announcement as he also massaged Lee Joohee as he was planning to settle the scores with her then had back to his grind again at the same night.  

Foreman Bae chuckled out loudly.

"From what I hear, tomorrow's dungeon should be much smaller in scale than today's one. So, we should be finished well before 6 o'clock."

Weren't they able to finish today's work around five PM today? They should be even faster tomorrow, not the other way around.

Jin nodded his head as he did plan to finish it even after he had escaped the afterword questions which had no plans to answer anyway. That would be fine for him, too.

"In that case, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Alright. Take care."

Watching Jin turn around and walk away, a satisfied grin formed on Foreman Bae's lips.

'If I did marry, I'd probably have a son around his age by now.'

Why did that boy's back look so wide and trustworthy? How wonderful would it be if the world was filled with newbies as excellent as Mister Sung?

A thick smile refused to leave Foreman Bae's lips. 

He was smiling without knowing it was the back of a demon, worst even compared to the ones that are in the Bible. Ready to commit even worse sins of humanity.  

However, he wasn't the only one smiling.

While walking towards the bus stop, an imperceptible smile was floating on Jin's lips, too.

Perhaps ironically, the success rate for clearing rank A Gates was actually greater than those of the lower ranks.

'For one, the Association doesn't hand over the permit to any ol' Guilds, and….'

And, once the Guild was given the opportunity, they would commit all of their resources and try to conquer the dungeon, too.

However….

'The Hunters Guild isn't committing their everything in tomorrow's dungeon raid.'

That's why the blunder will happen and he will become the light of day for them while also placing himself in the heart of the girl.  While gaining some good soldiers.  

But to think, they'd have the balls to split a single assault team into two and prey on two separate rank A Gates at the same time. That was some confidence befitting the holder of the top spot in their profession.

But, it was undeniable that the accompanying risk was incredibly high, too.