CHAPTER 13

"Ah, is that so? A hunch.  You got some luck in ya. If we were just a step late in discovering them… phew-"

Suddenly, one of the Hunters who was going through the corpses gestured to Hwang Dongseok.

"Hwang hyung, come take a look at this."

His subordinates were gathered around something.  Hwang Dongseok headed towards them.

"What is it?"

"There's something off about these guys."

The Hunters parted to make room for Hwang Dongseok.  He sat down and looked over what they were pointing at.  There wasn't anything wrong at first glance; it was just dead bugs.

"What's off about them?"

One of his subordinates pointed to the leg of one of the bugs.  Its end showed traces of being torn off messily.

"That wound, I don't think it's from us."

"…"

Hwang Dongseok's forehead wrinkled.  After taking a closer look, he noted,

"Looks like… it was bitten off by something."

"Right? And this isn't the only one.  Look, this one. And that one too. This one even had a wing ripped off.  I think they were like this before they fought us."

Hwang Dongseok's face hardened.  Despite their numbers, it did feel like the magic beasts went down easier than expected.

Plus the start of the fight was pretty good  because of Gyu Hwan's fire magic

"Were they… fighting each other before this?"

At that moment, it was very brief, but I felt the 8 Hunters' gaze fall on me.  When they saw that I was looking, they quickly turned back. With that, I became sure. That story will progress as it is supposed to do...

'As I thought…'

His first intuition was correct.  Their good teamwork was indicative of their long history together.  But how was it that they came this far without a Healer? No matter how good they were, people were prone to making mistakes from time to time.  Even just now, if it wasn't for me, their formation would've broken down at the sudden appearance of the bugs.

The pieces of the puzzle fell together in my head, and a smile appeared on my lips.

As long as they moved according to my expectations.

Hwang Dongseok chuckled as he got up,

"Now, now.  Let's keep going.  Looks like we won't have any issues if it's just this level."

His loud voice was not for the benefit of his teammates; they were right next to him, after all.

In the meantime, Yoo Jinho approached me with a wide smile.

"Hyung, did you see that? You saw me, right? I just wooshed! And bam! All these magic beasts-"

He swung his sword around with a flourish.

I ask him,

"Your sword and shield, they're quite expensive, right?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah.  My father took special care of me when he heard that I was going on my first Raid."

"You'll have to be careful, too, then. In dungeons, monsters are not the only thing you should be afraid of."

I patted Yoo Jinho's back, then headed after the other Hunters.

"Huh?"

With a confused look, Yoo Jinho followed after me.

The party traveled deeper into the cave but did not come across any more magic beasts.  As a Dungeon with a long single path, it couldn't have been that they had gone around any.

"Were the ones at the entrance?"

"Nah, there's no way."

"How strange."

"There should at least be a boss, right?"

"You think a Gate would open up with no boss in it?"

The Hunters exchanged different opinions back and forth as they walked through the large but empty Dungeon.

"Hold up."

Hwang Dongseok stopped the party.  At his sudden action, a few people bumped into each other as they stopped.  The Hunter who smacked his face into Hwang Dongseok's back asked as he rubbed his nose,

"Ow, Hwang Hyung, what is it?"

"Gyuhwan, shine your light here."

Jo Gyuhwan moved his ball of light from their rear to the area where Hwang Dongseok was indicating.

"Holy shit…"

"They're all…"

The Hunters let out quiet groans.

Insect wings, legs, bodies, and even heads were littered across the ground.  Corpses of the bug type magic beasts were everywhere. The dead bodies piled up deeper and deeper into the cave, and at the end of the tunnel:

"It's the boss room."

And he doesn't seem to be friendlier even with his own kin. 

Someone uttered.  Hwang Dongseok nodded in agreement.

"Everyone gears out."

They responded immediately, faces filled with nervousness.  The party quietly sneaked towards the boss's room, with Hwang Dongseok at the vanguard.  Suddenly, the man who had bumped into Hwang Dongseok exclaimed,

"Holy- holy shit!"

It was the height of stupidity to make loud noises in a Dungeon; it would only serve to attract magic beasts that could've been avoided.  But nobody rebuked the Hunter who had shouted.

"Whoa-"

"How much would all this be?"

"This is a big score!"

They were all exclaiming in admiration.

"Hold."

As Jo Gyuhwan's light lit up the area from above, what the Hunters had discovered in the room became clearer.  A large amount of jewel-like rocks were embedded in the walls.

"It's mana crystals!"

"The entire wall is filled with them!"

The Hunters' eyes sparkled brighter than the light reflecting off the mana crystals.

Mana crystals!

It was one of the treasures that could be found in Dungeons.  Although they contained less magic power than the magic cores from magic beasts, they were normally found in large amounts.  Mining them would result in an impressive income for a raiding party. The amount that the party had come across was even more impressive; the entire wall was filled to the brim with crystals.

"By my rough estimates…"

One of the Hunters, quick with his calculations, started counting the crystals.

"If we got all of it out, it'd be roughly 1 billion.  If we divided it by 9 shares, each person could walk away with over 100 million."

A big smile appeared on Hunter's listening.  Suddenly, Yoo Jinho, who was standing next to me, poked my sides with his elbows.

"Hyung, give me your contract for a second."

I knew why he was doing it so I just shrugged and handed my contract over.  Yoo Jinho took it and walked over to Hwang Dongseok.

"Excuse me, sunbae-nims, I have something I want to say."

He unfolded and held out the contract for all to see.

"Leader, this is Jinwoo Hyung's contract.  As you can see, there's nothing in here about being excluded from mana crystals, only mana cores."

Everyone understood what Yoo Jinho was trying to say.  It was standard agreement that income from treasures and artifacts would be divided evenly across all members of the raiding party.  This was different from magic cores only going to those who took down the magic beasts. As such, the mana crystals should be divided up 10 ways, not 9.

The look on the other Hunters' faces changed, but Hwang Dongseok stepped in front of them with a smile that definitely looked like a fox's smile…

"Of course, we'll divide it up across all of us.  I know this. But there's something we have to take care of first."

Hwang Dongseok pointed forward with his finger.  Yoo Jinho got startled for a second; he thought the man was pointing at him.  But turning around, he saw a giant spider resting in a faraway corner.

"Whoa…!"

Yoo Jinho started walking backward after discovering the creature and covered his mouth. The spider did not move; it appeared to be sleeping. The lifeless husks of bugs littered its surroundings.  The half-eaten corpses reminded the Hunters of leftover food sitting at the bottom of a garbage can.

"It's the boss."

"Was it the one that ate all those bugs?"

"He sure had a feast."

Hwang Dongseok gathered the Hunters, including me and Yoo Jinho.

"As you're all aware, if the boss goes down, the Gate will start closing.  So why don't we mine all the mana crystals before we take the spider down?"

They all nodded in agreement.

Hwang Dongseok turned into a bald Hunter.

"Cheoljin, did you grab the gear?"

Lee Cheoljin shook his head.

"No.  Who would've thought to find mana crystals in a C-rank Dungeon? I left all the mining gear back in the car."

"You punk… Didn't I tell you to be prepared at all times?"

I can see even after their blunt lies and how they were looking at each other.

But I played my part as without the system quest to kill them would be a waste of them and also all the rewards I would be getting. I thought while playing with them.

"Sorry, sorry. Really sorry."

Lee Cheoljin apologized to everyone with an absolutely fake  smile 

Hwang Dongseok scratched his head and spoke,

"Sigh, this is going to be a hassle.  Can you two stay here while we go grab the equipment?"

As the Hunters began to leave, Yoo Jinho asked with a worried expression,

"You just want me and Jinwoo Hyung to stay here? In the boss room?"

With laughter in his eyes, Hwang Dongseok replied,

"The thing didn't even wake up after all that cheering. You guys will be just fine. I have some things I want to discuss with my teammates over a cigarette. We'll be back in a jiffy."

I listened to Hwang Dongseok's half-assed explanation and smiled inside. I don't know how stupid he thinks I am. After all, who in their right mind would leave someone who he just met with treasure?

It was probably because my and Jinho's ranks were low.  But just as I guessed, Hwang Dongseok and co. were moving according to expectations.  Even if it was a little different than what I had in mind.

The minimum number of people required for C-rank Gates was 10, yet Hwang Dongseok's main team was composed of 8.

"You should know, it's really hard to get a Healer-class Hunter for a personal raiding party.  We've always been like this."

If they've "always been like this", it meant that they had entered many C-rank Gates before.

'Of course, they didn't bother to fill the remaining two spots.'

You needed to leave room for the tail, after all.  There was a reason why they didn't care if the filler member was an E-rank or a beginner.

'I suppose this is good for me. I'll do this faster. 

I did not feel bad.  Rather, it was what I wanted. However, Yoo Jinho, who was on his first Raid ever, was not as confident.  He asked with a worried voice,

"Well, still… Don't you think we should all go together?"

I noticed one of the Hunters moves his hand toward his weapon.  He went up and put a hand on Yoo Jinho's shoulder.

"It's alright. We'll stay behind and watch the spot."

The Hunter's hand stopped.

"Hyung…?"

Yoo Jinho looked at me with a pleading expression, but I did not respond and instead lightly shook my head.  The young man was annoying, but he was an Exp farm that I needed the most. So losing would be a great loss. Plus he was a good man. After all, even with no benefit to himself, Jinho tried to help Jinwoo out with the contract earlier. And the world needs people like him.

Hwang Dongseok smiled at the two.

"Our car's parked right in front. We won't take long. See you soon, then."

And the 8 Hunters left the boss room.  Their footsteps quickly disappeared in the distance.  Yoo Jinho turned and questioned Jinwoo accusingly,

"Hyung, how could you say that? What if that thing wakes up?"

He was terrified of the spider.

'Looks like he hasn't fully understood the situation yet.'

I clicked my tongue in his mind. How can he be the son of such a big business man yet didn't understand a simple deception?

And it's not like they were even trying that hard to keep it hidden.  

It would be annoying to explain every little detail to this kid.  Instead, I started warming up my body.

It was at that time Hwang Dongseok turned around and faced towards the boss's room.  The following Hunters also stopped. They were actually not that far away from the boss's room, just enough so their voices would not reach.

Smiling, Hwang Dongseok raised his chin towards Jo Gyuhwan.

"Gyuhwan, block the entrance to the boss room."

"Should I blow it up?"

"Yeah. Not too hard though, we still have to go back inside."

Lee Cheoljin interrupted them,

"Hwang hyung, why go through all this trouble? Why didn't we just kill both right there?"

Hwang Dongseok turned a sharp gaze toward the man, eyes narrowed.  There was no need to put up a front anymore.

"S-sorry."

Hwang Dongseok clicked his tongue.

"And if the spider woke up while we were fighting? How would we mine the mana crystals?"

"I'm sorry."

Jo Gyuhwan joined them,

"Hwang hyung, now that you mention it, wouldn't the spider still wake up if we tried to mine the mana crystals? It's not exactly going to be quiet."

That thing was something that ate the dangerous bug type magic beasts for food.  If they were caught off guard while mining, it would result in a disaster for their party.

"And that's why,"

Hwang Dongseok smiled widely,

"We're gonna feed those two to it."

"Ah."

Jo Gyuhwan nodded, understanding his meaning.  At the moment, they did not know when the spider would wake up.  It could be 10 hours from now or 1 minute. So the best option was to wake it now and feed it, to refresh its sleeping cycle.  The sound of the entrance being boarded up should definitely wake it up.

Hwang Dongseok continued,

"We can mine the mana crystals when the spider goes back to sleep after eating."

The Association had allotted 5 days for their Raid, which meant that they still had 4 days remaining. They would wait to see if the spider would fall asleep. If it didn't, they would just take it down and try to mine as many crystals before the Gate closed.

They probably couldn't get it all in just an hour, but with two fewer shares to give, they probably could still walk away with a great income. Wasn't that better than working away in fear? The most important thing was their safety, after all.

So people took something wrong I was not planning to sand him now no it's big no no. He would one shot from even C class servant.

What I plan to do is sent him when he is around level 90.

Grown powerful enough to face servents. And I think best will be Fate/Apocrypha with 14 servents then after the arc ends he would return to solo leveling world.

He won't be too op so gaia won't bet an eye and aliya doesn't care unless he kill more then a million humans.

What do you think?

So I am planning on crossing over before ending the Solo leveling story around the Demon Castle Arc. And the crossover will be with the Fate universe.

What do you think?

It could be with either

Fate Stay Night.

Fate Zero

Fate

Fate Grand Order

Fate/Apocrypha

I could make him as one of the Beasts of Calamity.

What do you think about it?

Fun Fact.

"Unyielding Spirit": The word on its own just means someone's disposition or natural spirit. Contextual clues imply the "spirit" in this situation is one that would not give up even at 30% HP, so I chose to add the "unyielding" in front of it. The skill description also goes as far as to say "You have an unyielding/untiring spirit."

"Sprint": Lit. "speeding" or "sprinting". Shortened to just "sprint" based on contextual clues.

"Runestones": "Rune" in english + "stone" suk. Pretty straightforward.

All Hunters go through their first Awakening, receiving some form of power. This power includes a combination of increases in physical ability, magic power and a list of skills. What they get at their first Awakening does not change (except for new skills learned through Runestones). A second Awakening (Reawakening) is exactly the same: An Awakened Being would receive power again which includes a combination of increased physical ability, magic power and new skills. After Reawakening, same as before, a Hunter's power does not change

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