Debrief

“Usually, in a situation like this, it’s best to pull back immediately.”

“Geun-tae’s right. We don’t even know what that thing is.”

“He’s right, Team Leader. From what Yu-hwa said, it sounded like a pretty big moss field, but no one realized it was moving, right? Of course, we also didn’t know it wasn’t just a simple moss field.”

“No wonder… I was thinking, ‘Why isn’t this on the map?’ Honestly, I should have been suspicious the moment we saw moss appear out of nowhere.”

“Well, what matters is that you noticed, Yu-hwa.”

An emergency strategy meeting was called.

The moss field, it turned out, wasn’t just moss growing on a rock, but a massive, rock-shaped creature capable of movement.

Where the moss field had been, trees were crushed and splintered. It seemed the thing had simply sat down on top of the forest.

“…Let’s end it here.”

“Good call, Han-gyeol. We’ve already done more than enough. We’ve mapped a good portion of the surrounding area, and if we stop by that spot on the way back to get its approximate size, it’ll be more than enough to call this a success.”

“Actually, in a situation like this, meeting the success criteria isn’t what’s important. If something were to happen to us, the next assault team might come in without knowing about it.”

Yang Geun-tae certainly had a lot of experience. He seemed laid-back, but he was serious when it counted.

“I agree. In that case, the campsite… should we leave it as is? To minimize our luggage and move quickly.”

“We rested plenty yesterday, so I don’t think that’s a bad idea. Should we split into advance and rear teams like yesterday? Or should we all join the advance team?”

“Ji-min, Seong-hyeon, and… Min Yu-in should join the advance team. We already cleared out all the golems on the way here, so it’s probably better to stick together. Yu-hwa… I’m sorry, but I’ll have to ask you one more time.”

“Hey, no need to ask. It’s my job. I’ll fly up high and send a signal if I see anything. You remember the signal, right?”

“Yes. Well then… any questions? If not, let’s pack what we need and meet back here in thirty minutes.”

“Okay.” “Yep.” “Understood.”

*

Seeing the site in person was bewildering.

It was this big?

The moss field had been wide, of course, but seeing its underside completely exposed…

Moreover, most of the trees were either firmly embedded in the ground or buried beneath it.

After recording its approximate shape and size, we moved on.

It was a grind, but it would all be over once we were out of the gate.

We had to get out quickly to reduce the number of variables…

Of course, the worst-case scenario would be to rush, exhaust ourselves, and then run into the wandering moss field.

But Yu-hwa was keeping watch from above.

Considering the size of that thing, she said it would be visible from kilometers away in the sky.

Fortunately, we arrived at the gate before sunset, after a journey of about sixteen hours.

It had been quite a distance, but we’d left all our unnecessary luggage at the campsite, so our bodies were light.

“Hoo… Is everyone alright?”

“No problems here.” “All good!”

“Then… we will now conclude the 7th assault on Gate 132. Everyone, you’ve worked hard.”

The sound of applause died down, and we stepped out of the gate.

*

-Good work. That was an extremely dangerous situation.

“Yes. We were lucky we got out as soon as we realized the truth.”

-Indeed. That was an excellent decision. Geun-tae—no, Mr. Geun-tae—told me you performed your duties as team leader exceptionally well.

“Ah, thank you, Secretary.”

Damn, her network is huge.

Is this what it takes to be the secretary of a major guild master?

From what I’d gathered, it seemed Yang Geun-tae and Yu-hwa had joined my team at her request.

Those two weren’t associate members of Expedition but full-fledged members, and with their skills, they were easily on par with most team leaders.

In fact, Yang Geun-tae usually led his own assaults as a team leader.

-I believe you’ll only need to go out… two or three more times. On missions of appropriate difficulty, of course.

“Understood.”

-Very good. I wish you the best in your future endeavors. Oh, and one more thing.

“Yes.”

-I heard that a Lightning Spirit left its mark on you. Have you by any chance used any lightning magic?

“Uh… I think I’m still a little lacking.”

-Then please contact me when you feel you’re ready. You’ll need to enter the Spirit World one more time.

“Yes. Understood.”

As the call ended, I went to make another—

I wonder if Yu-hwa is sleeping?

We had agreed to rest before the team dinner, so she was probably asleep by now.

I’d heard flying consumed a massive amount of energy.

Me: Yu-hwa, you asleep?

…

The ‘1’ next to the message didn’t disappear. She must be sleeping.

I was tired too, but would I be okay if I transformed into a succubus? I needed to check if there were any issues with Narak and Blue Forest, and see how the incubus, Han Jin-seong, was doing—

Trill-lill-lill-ling—!

My eyes shot open to the sound of the alarm I’d set just in case.

Whoa, I must have passed out. I slept for eight hours in the blink of an eye…

Still, my body felt refreshed. It was great.

I had set this alarm as the absolute last minute to wash up and leave on time, so I quickly showered and headed out.

“Yo—look who it is, the team leader.” “Han-gyeol! Over here!” “Did you rest well?”

“Yes. I feel refreshed. What about Ji-min and Seong-hyeon?”

“They said they’re running late.”

*

Even though the assault was cut short to three days and two nights (though four days had passed on Earth), there was no shortage of topics for conversation.

“So then I just took the golem’s head and—”

“I wanted to slice up a golem at least once. A shame. Since I was only in the rear guard, I didn’t get to use this.”

“What’s the big deal? Everything ended without a hitch, so all’s well that ends well.”

“Ah, Han-gyeol.”

“Yes, Yu-hwa.”

“When are you going on your next assault?”

“My next one? Hmm… I’ll have to gather a new team first.”

The biggest drawback of the ‘Expedition’ guild.

Teams were formed on a case-by-case basis.

The reliability of individual members or team leaders was one issue, but since everyone scattered after an assault, you had to recruit a new team every single time.

Of course, if people got along well, they sometimes continued working together.

But the ‘Expedition’ guild itself was structured around guild members, associate members, and freelancers freely grouping up and disbanding for assaults…

That’s why associate members and freelancers often treated it as a side gig.

In my case, I had to be active in Expedition to do my main job, and I could just be a succubus during the time it took to assemble a team…

“If I have time, I’ll join you.”

“Really? Thank you!”

Yu-hwa’s reconnaissance was just broken.

The ability to send a signal the moment she spotted something from the sky and to draw a relatively precise map was truly…

“But I get busy sometimes too… so tell me in advance if you can. Of course, I know it takes a while to gather members and set a time, and that giving advance notice is hard. Got it?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll come too if I can. As long as it doesn’t overlap with my team’s schedule.”

“You too, Geun-tae? Thank you!”

“We’ll come too if we have time.”

“Me too.”

The couple, and Min Yu-in, said they would come if they had time.

Maybe I did a pretty good job as a team leader—

“Honestly, with this lineup, we could probably take on any gate without a problem.”

…Or maybe it was just because the team lineup was so good.

“If you feel like you click with people, it’s good to stay in touch even if your schedules don’t line up right away. If you’ve got nothing to do, you should come on my expeditions sometimes too.”

“Okay, Geun-tae.”

*

On the way home after the dinner.

“Han-gyeol.”

“Yes, Yu-hwa.”

She was walking beside me.

“If you’re busy, you’re busy. That’s just how this line of work is. Our schedules are a real mess.”

“…That’s a shame.”

“It’d be one thing if we were on the same team, but our guilds are different…”

“…”

“Han-gyeol.”

“Yes.”

“Are you really busy?”

“…Yes.”

I was busy. Incredibly so.

Park Eun-su: Guild Master.

Park Eun-su: Please contact me as soon as you see this.

Yoo Yi-jun: Got a sweet part-time gig. You in?

Choi Shin-woo: You busy these days?

Han Jin-seong: Hello.

Han Jin-seong: Do you remember me?

Ah… I should’ve taken it easy…

Just because I had no work as an Elemental Mage, I went and created a mountain of work as a succubus.

“…Right. Well, can’t be helped. That’s just how this world is. Take care, Han-gyeol.”

“You too, Yu-hwa. See you next time.”

“Yeah.”

Watching her walk away, I let out a sigh and contacted Park Eun-su.

Seriously, I’d made a whole lot of unnecessary work for myself.

Me: What’s going on?

An alert chimed not long after.

Park Eun-su: We’ve received an offer of cooperation from another organization.

*

Having slept for eight hours and with nothing else to do, I transformed and arrived immediately.

I met with Park Eun-su and Ahn Yu-su.

“Ah, Guild Master.”

“Yes. What is it?”

“We’ve received a request for cooperation from another organization, from the ‘Swallowtail Faction’.”

To summarize, there was an organization called the Swallowtail Faction, and true to their name, they didn’t seem to control any gates of their own.

They weren’t an organization that occupied gates, but one that operated more like a federation of mercenaries.

Knowing that our ‘Blue Forest’ was short on manpower, they had offered to lend us some of theirs.

However, their reputation and the rumors about them weren’t great.

They were known for doing shoddy work and demanding high pay, retaliating if refused, and so on.

The members of the Swallowtail Faction were apparently well-connected, so if you turned them down, they would cause trouble for you from multiple angles.

Right, in a way, they were collecting ‘protection money.’

Blue Forest ran a black market and collected protection fees, while the Swallowtail Faction collected protection fees from criminal organizations.

They didn’t have a single leader, but with several A-rank (estimated) Awakeners in their ranks, they were a difficult organization to fight against.

Usually, people would just toss them some money and tell them to get lost—

“They… mentioned you, Guild Master.”

“Me?”

“Yes. They asked if there wasn’t a pretty woman there, and said that if… um…”

“What? Spit it out.”

“Well, they said… if you would meet with him, he would be very accommodating to us regarding the cooperation…”

A sigh escaped my lips.

What is this, a blind date?

How absurd.

This wasn’t why I told Yu-hwa I was busy. Fuck… I’m sorry, Yu-hwa.

“Who is it?”

“He’s an Awakener who leads one of the subgroups within the Swallowtail Faction. The leader of the ‘Swallow Faction,’ which is mainly active in Seoul… I heard he’s an A-rank Awakener.”

“They’re terrible at naming things. Are all the migratory birds in there? What happens if I refuse?”

“They’ll retaliate.”

“Ah… what a pain…”

The annoying thing about the Swallowtail Faction.

They had no home base, but we did. If we fought, we had more to lose.

“Fine, I’ll meet him.”

If things go south, I’ll just drop the transformation and burn them all to ash.

Ugh, this is so irritating.

“Then what date should we set?”

“A date? Is this really a blind date or something? Just give him my contact info. I’ll set it up myself.”

“Yes, understood. One moment… they’ve been so insistent… and the market opens tomorrow, so… I apologize, Guild Master.”

“What do you have to be sorry for? This is happening because we’re still weak.”

We still hadn’t recovered the strength ‘Nokrim,’ the predecessor of ‘Blue Forest,’ had in its prime.

Since I’d tossed them my contact info, they wouldn’t pick a fight over this, at least…

“Is there anything else?”

“Yes. It’s about… Lee Jin-ho.”

“Hm? Uh… what about Lee Jin-ho? Didn’t I tell you to kick him out last time?”

“Of course, we did. But we heard he withered away and died…”

Oh. So he died. Can’t say I feel… sorry for him.

After the way he acted, didn’t he get to feel good on his way out? For him, I’d call that a peaceful death.

“Right. Anything else?”

“Here are the documents recording our activities so far, points you need to check, and—”

Ting, an alert chimed.

S.H.Na: Hello.

S.H.Na: Are you by any chance the person who works at Blue Forest?

A new message, and below it, a long list of red numbers indicating unread messages.

—Well, can’t be helped. That’s just how this world is. Take care, Han-gyeol.

The image of Yu-hwa turning away with a bitter smile came to mind.

…Where did it all go wrong?

Was it when I started building a guild just to leech Innate Vital Energy?

Was it when I sold my information and recruited people from the underworld to create that guild?

I operated in the shadows to support my life in the light, not for the shadows to drag my life in the light down.

…Well, what can I do? This is all my karma.

Before I start operating in the light in earnest, I need to firmly establish my position in the shadows.