EFME 83

The research continued, with either Sunyul going directly to the Jinseong Research Institute, or the Jinseong Research Institute visiting the Cheongyeon Guild.

Even after such detailed examinations, there were no particular findings. Talking with the researchers would inexplicably give him a throbbing headache, so Sunyul didn’t particularly enjoy this time.

After the researchers left, as he was pressing his head, Dakyung approached.

“Hyung, are you okay?”

Seeing the worried face, Sunyul forced a smile.

“Yeah. I’m fine.”

“Did the researchers bully you?”

“It’s not like that.”

“Should I go teach them a lesson?”

“I said no.”

Dakyung looked ready to actually go and beat up a researcher. Feeling how much he cared for him, Sunyul felt a little more at ease. Seeing a comfortable smile that wasn’t forced, Dakyung sat down next to him in relief.

“Is today your day off, Dakyung?”

“Yes. What about you, hyung?”

“I finished my work.”

Sunyul was employed in a part-time, hourly format, and his only task was to replenish the magic of used items. It wasn’t as if an infinite number of items needing their magic replenished came in, so on days like today when there was little work and he finished early, he had nothing to do.

Usually, if a part-time job ended early, one would be excited to leave work, but… Sunyul usually returned home with Muyoung, so he would just spend his time aimlessly within the guild.

Today, he was waiting for Muyoung to finish work while having a small chat with Dakyung.

“Dakyung.”

At that moment, a man interrupted.

It was a man he had never seen before. He was tall and slender, with a lean yet firm physique. He was a handsome man with a pretty impression, notable for his light brown hair and brown eyes.

“Hello, Saebyeok hyung.”

Dakyung greeted him cheerfully. For someone acting so familiar, it was a face he hadn’t seen before. Could he be someone who just came back from a business trip or something? Sunyul bowed his head in greeting to the man called Saebyeok. After greeting Dakyung, Saebyeok turned to Sunyul with a smile.

“Hello to you too, Sunyul.”

Sunyul became confused seeing the man greet him familiarly as well.

“It’s me, Yoon Saebyeok. Don’t you remember?”

“I’m sorry.”

For a moment, Sunyul became extremely suspicious of the man’s identity.

[Using the skill ‘Researching Magician: Insight’.]

[Yoon Saebyeok / The Dawn That Does Not Come]

Grade: A

Stamina: B+

Strength: B-

Agility: C+

Magic: A

Traits: Superior Healer (A), Mana Spring (B), Resistance (B)

Skills: Hymn of Regeneration (A), Spring of Recovery (A), Advanced Recovery (B), Grant Agility (C)

Nothing unusual… if anything, it was a pretty decent status window for a healer. Sunyul’s memories related to hunters had returned quite a bit, and he knew well that a healer of this caliber was rare.

“What are you looking at? My status window?”

“…Pardon?”

Saebyeok suddenly thrust his head in front of Sunyul’s eyes and asked. Startled, Sunyul closed the status window. Next to him, Dakyung’s eyes widened in surprise.

“You looked at his status window? How did you know that?”

“Just because. Your gaze was fixed on empty space.”

“Ah, I did think it was a bit strange.”

Sunyul felt a chill run down his spine. There was no law against looking at another person’s status window, but many people disliked it when others saw it. Sunyul regretted looking at it for no reason.

“I’m sorry. I looked because I couldn’t remember who you were.”

“It’s fine. Look all you want.”

Fortunately, Saebyeok didn’t seem displeased at all. Next to him, Dakyung took it a step further.

“Hyung, you can look at my status window too.”

“No, it’s okay, I don’t need to.”

“You can look though…”

Dakyung became sullen. In the end, Sunyul had to look at Dakyung’s status window and praise him generously.

Dakyung, whose mood had improved considerably, shot up from his seat.

“Sunyul hyung, since Saebyeok hyung is here too, why don’t we go train?”

“Sure, let’s go.”

Thinking it would be the perfect way to pass the time, Sunyul readily agreed. Dakyung chuckled like someone with a scheme, heheh, then placed one hand on his hip and pointed outside with the other.

“Not here, but outside.”

“Outside… you don’t mean the training ground in the dungeon?”

“Yes!”

“Do we need to go that far?”

Unlike the training ground inside the building, the training ground set up inside a dungeon allowed you to destroy the surrounding objects freely. Therefore, you could train with your full power.

As for whether they needed to train to that extent, well, he wasn’t so sure.

“Or should we just go into a dungeon altogether?”

Saebyeok, who had been listening to Dakyung, threw out a random suggestion.

“Pardon?”

“You know, that’s not a bad idea. It would be good to clear a low-grade dungeon or something. We’re short on manpower these days, so we can help out too.”

The latter would be more difficult… but Sunyul was more drawn to the latter. The former was simply blowing things out of proportion, but the latter had the justification of helping out where they were short-staffed.

In the end, Sunyul nodded his head.

“Alright!”

Dakyung jumped up and down as if thrilled to be going into a dungeon with Sunyul.

In truth, he had been holding back because Sunyul’s memories were not intact, but ever since his memories of Sunyul returned, Dakyung had always wanted to go into a dungeon with him.

“Saebyeok hyung, you’re coming too, of course, right?”

“Yes, I will.”

Sunyul glanced at the stranger who was unexpectedly coming along. Saebyeok tilted his head and then smiled gently.

Just in case, he secretly searched for the hunter’s name on Hunternet, but no particularly strange history came up.

‘Well, would a criminal really enter the Cheongyeon Guild?’

Sunyul decided to trust the judgment of Kwon Muyoung, the guild master of Cheongyeon Guild. It wasn’t as if Kwon Muyoung recruited all the members of Cheongyeon, but still.

And so, the dungeon the three of them would enter today was Eumseong Dungeon B-277.

“This place is pretty famous.”

“Why?”

“It’s short and intense.”

Saying it was perfect for killing time and the rewards weren’t bad either, Dakyung excitedly entered through the gate. Sunyul went into the dungeon next.

[The trait ‘Lost Child of Dimensions’ is activated.]

[You fall into a state of confusion due to the effect of the trait ‘Lost Child of Dimensions’. Instead, all stats increase by one level.]

As expected, he fell into a dimensional rift before entering the dungeon. Sunyul caught his breath, feeling the familiar pressure. Having repeated this several times, he now knew. That all of this had an end.

Of course, even things that should not have ended had come to an end…

“…”

When he opened his eyes again, Sunyul was standing in the middle of the dungeon.

Sunyul raised his head and his eyes met Saebyeok’s. It seemed Saebyeok had been watching him for a while. Feeling a strange pressure, quite different from before, Sunyul slyly averted his gaze.

You have entered a B-grade dungeon.

Current number of entrants: 3 (Capacity 8)
The dungeon entrance will close in 9 minutes and 22 seconds.

Despite falling into a panic due to the [Lost Child of Dimensions] trait, almost no time had passed. This was a passing grade. Sunyul let out a sigh of relief and looked around. Fortunately, Saebyeok seemed not to have noticed anything too strange about him and was looking elsewhere.

They were in the middle of a village. However, the village didn’t have a modern feel; it was an old-fashioned landscape that one might see in a folk village.

The village was not large. A few houses bordered by low walls. A particularly large totem pole at the village entrance was noticeable, but otherwise, it was an unremarkable village.

Sunyul checked the dungeon clear quest.

[Dungeon Clear Quest]

Clear Condition 1: Survive for one hour.

Clear Condition 2: Hunt the boss monster that appears after one hour.

“The clear conditions are super simple.”

“Yes, but this dungeon has a hidden quest.”

“A hidden quest?”

A hidden quest referred to a hidden quest that did not appear in the quest window at all.

However, if the conditions were met, a completion message would pop up, and you could obtain rewards.

“Yes, the quest itself is super simple. Clear by protecting the village!”

At first glance, it seemed really simple. As if reading Sunyul’s thoughts, Dakyung excitedly began to ramble on with an explanation.

“The totem pole here creates a shield around this village, but the shield isn’t strong, so it breaks quickly. It breaks in about 10 minutes? After that, the village starts getting destroyed, and if the damage accumulates beyond a certain point, the village collapses with a crash. If that happens, the hidden quest fails.”

“So, as long as the village doesn’t collapse, it’s a success?”

“Yes. If you protect the village, there’s a chance that the Great General Under Heaven or the Female General of the Underworld items will drop. If you collect these as a pair, they create a pretty sturdy mythological-attribute barrier, so they sell for a high price.”

There are many items that create barriers. But items related to mythology like this were not easy to obtain. Items with such a narrative could sometimes exert more powerful force in specific situations. At times, they could display power that surpassed their grade by two or three levels, so their prices naturally became high.

“The more you protect the village, the higher the probability of it dropping, but since we have you, Sunyul hyung, it’ll be a 100 percent drop, right!”

“…I’ll try my best.”

Suddenly, the responsibility became immense. Sunyul decided he needed the support of a weapon and took out his staff. Feeling a slight sense of pressure, he immediately used a skill.

[Using the skill ‘Sanctuary Proclamation’.]

The sanctuary’s protective range covered the village without any gaps. It would be enough to block attacks from B-grade monsters.

Soon, the dungeon entrance closed.

At the same time, as befitting a dungeon that ends in just one hour, monsters began to swarm in with terrifying momentum.

[Using the skill ‘Blooming Spring’.]

[Using the skill ‘Polar Night’.]

Since it was a B-grade dungeon, it should be fine even if Sunyul didn’t step in. Jeong Dakyung was…

“Go, Fire Ball!”

…a hunter with absolutely amazing attack power.

The fact that he chanted out loud when there was no need to was a bit puzzling, but his skills were incredible nonetheless.

The monster directly hit by Dakyung’s Fire Ball was instantly burnt to a crisp like black charcoal.

‘But isn’t that a bit excessive? He’s going to burn everything down.’

“Hyung, what’s this?!”

Dakyung shouted in a startled voice and turned to look at Sunyul.

“…Me? Why me?”

“Your skill! [Blooming Spring]! It wasn’t this strong before, was it?! Wow, what’s with this Fire Ball… it’s shooting out almost like an A-grade skill?”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Yes! It wasn’t this strong originally! Ha, I’ve become terrifyingly strong. I’ll have to control my power moderately as I fight.”

“Uh, u-uh… right.”

“Chain Lightning!”

Dakyung shouted excitedly. With him excitedly chanting spells next to him, it felt somewhat motivating.

Sunyul couldn’t just stand still either, so he used a skill on the monsters rushing in from the opposite side.

[Using the skill ‘Judgment of Light’.]

If [Marksman of the Magic Bullet] was a form of concentrating all the magic bullets it created onto a single target, [Judgment of Light] was a form of randomly pouring down 100 summoned swords within a certain range.

Of course, if the skills were used consecutively, [Marksman of the Magic Bullet] would be more powerful. However, when facing a group rather than a single enemy, [Judgment of Light] was overwhelmingly more efficient.

Even more so in a situation like this where there was nothing to worry about in the surroundings. Satisfied with his calculation, Sunyul continued to use the skill.

[Another person has used the skill ‘Grant Agility’ on you.]

Startled by the notification that suddenly popped up, he looked back to see Yoon Saebyeok looking this way.

“Did I startle you?”

“Yes, a little…”

“Don’t worry and keep fighting.”

I was startled because of you. Instead of saying that, Sunyul focused on the battle.