Chapter 733: Rank ? Dungeon, ???? (1)

The long car carrying her and me departed, and before long, we arrived at the opposite side of Tioman Island.

After roughly finishing breakfast with snacks inside the limousine, the place we got out was a construction site of considerable scale.

I heard they were building a large hotel with a swimming pool, a restaurant, and an open-air bath in each room.

It wasn’t that I asked first; it was just that Do Yehee mentioned it incidentally while we were on the move, but.

“So, the dungeon gate is…. Ah, there it is.”

A large, unnatural door that you could tell was something out of the ordinary just by looking at it. Seeing that they had even put up a fence to prevent anyone from accidentally entering, you could confirm it was a dungeon gate even with just a glance.

“Welcome back, Master. Is the gentleman next to you….”

“He’s Sung Taekyung-ssi. A famous male Hunter these days.”

“I see. I thought he looked somewhat familiar.”

And then I immediately felt the sensation of strange gazes focusing on me. I had felt similar gazes from the woman who was both butler and driver earlier, and it seemed everyone was quite curious about me being next to Do Yehee in many ways. Especially since she, who had a bad experience with men and suffered from androphobia, had brought me, a man, along.

As expected, it was the female attendant who seized the moment Do Yehee slightly moved away from me to ask a question.

“Excuse me, but may I ask what your relationship is with our Master?”

“Well. If I told you everything, it would invade Yehee’s privacy, so I’ll just say we’re colleagues who risked our lives together.”

“Ah, you’re talking about the Three-Headed Basilisk subjugation. I’ve seen that video too. But back then, you seemed to be using a greatsword….”

“It’s being repaired because of the basilisk venom, so I’ve left it somewhere right now. Besides, I’m not the type to fight with just one sword.”

“So you’re a multi-awakener. I never knew our Master could possibly have ties with such a distinguished guest.”

In reality, I had ties with Sihee, and Do Yehee was just a bonus, but saying it outright would probably just make things awkward, so I didn’t.

“More importantly, I heard earlier that you seemed to be speaking casually with the Master, but why are you speaking so respectfully to me, the attendant….”

“Ah, that’s because Yehee and I have been speaking casually since we first met. Once we started talking like that, it felt awkward to switch back to formal speech. Anyway, Yehee doesn’t mind, so it’s fine.”

“Yehee! …Ah, excuse me.”

Seemingly slightly surprised by my casual way of calling Do Yehee, she unintentionally blurted out. From the looks of it, she seemed to have worked as Yehee’s attendant for quite a long time. Seeing her look at me with friendly eyes for some reason immediately after. It must have been a first seeing that Do Yehee with a man, and seeing that man act familiar and call her casually without her pushing him away, they must think there was some kind of connection between them.

It wasn’t entirely a misunderstanding, because there wasn’t absolutely no vibe between us. No, it was a turbulent current more chaotic than a typhoon, which has only barely calmed down now.

“Our Master is not accustomed to men. So, please, maintain your connection with her in the future…”

“Seolhwa, what are you discussing with my guest?”

“I apologize, Master. It’s just that it’s fascinating seeing you with a gentleman for the first time…”

“…Sung Taekyung-ssi and I are not what you’re thinking, so mind your own business.”

With those words, Do Yehee gestured for me to follow and led me away. Standing before the dungeon gate with her, I could roughly confirm its considerable scale. At least it didn’t seem like a D-class or an unranked dungeon, those trash ones.

‘If it’s this size, it’s probably around a B-class gate? I don’t think it’ll reach A-class, though.’

The dungeon’s rank isn’t determined solely by the gate’s size, but usually, the larger the gate, the higher the possibility it was a higher-ranked dungeon. Usually, the larger the gate’s entrance, the larger the monsters living inside tend to be, and the bigger the monsters, the harder they are to handle – that’s a generally accepted fact. Of course, to actually confirm the rank, you needed to go inside directly and check the dungeon’s terrain and the level of the monsters. Even for a small gate, if it was an underground dungeon filled with all sorts of traps, it would inevitably receive a higher rank.

“The rank? You haven’t checked yet, right?”

“Are you crazy? What if we accidentally went in and who knows what would happen? What if we went in and couldn’t get out before defeating the boss monster?”

“Fair point.”

Especially someone like Do Yehee, who has many responsibilities, should be even more cautious.

“When the dungeon gate technician arrives, we’ll go in then. Even if something goes wrong, we need to install an escape route.”

“Yeah, that’s the right choice.”

“Since you said you’d use it as the initial dungeon for the guild you’re newly creating, you’ll need a warp gate regardless. If you can safely remove this eyesore from the island, we’ll even cover the cost of installing an artificial warp gate.”

“Will that be okay? It won’t be cheap, you know.”

“It’s better than leveling this entire construction site. Also, the Malaysian government has promised to compensate us if we destroy this dungeon gate. They must be on edge just having a dungeon gate here on this island, which is entirely a tourist destination; they must be terrified.”

“…Well, that makes sense. If a monster wave were to occur on such an isolated island, it would truly be hell on earth for ordinary people, not hunters. We barely escaped with our lives from that incident in Indonesia involving just three hunters on vacation together, so the chaos in a tourist spot with an overwhelmingly high ratio of civilians goes without saying.”

“The gate technician will probably arrive around tomorrow or the day after. We’ll set up an emergency escape route through a temporarily made gate and start exploring then.”

“What? Tomorrow or the day after?”

“This is also scheduled as quickly as possible thanks to Dokyung Construction’s authority. Do you know how few Hunters are capable of crafting warp gates?”

“…I know that, but still, it’s being delayed by two whole days? For now, it seems I need to let Jin-ah and Seon-ah know that it might be a bit delayed, so they should take leave until the day after tomorrow.”

Of course, since a warp gate is essential for dungeon operations anyway, the party at a disadvantage will just have to wait. In reality, most dungeons in guilds are operated in this manner. The natural gates, which can be called the original entrances to dungeons, are usually stashed away as much as possible in remote mountain areas or specialized gate management facilities where only gates are gathered, while actual passage within the guild is only done through these artificial gates.

Natural gates, you see, are actually like time bombs that could detonate anytime if mismanaged. If these were placed in a busy guild building, the possibility of a disaster occurring if something went wrong would inevitably increase. In the past, before technology advanced, villages centered around resource-rich gates became hell on earth due to monster waves numerous times. Although the context is different, the abandoned village incident had a similar outcome due to neglected gates causing monster waves.

Storing them in remote, unpopulated areas or specialized gate management facilities allows for minimizing damage, even if a monster wave were to occur by chance. Furthermore, moving the gate to a nearby unpopulated remote area was also much more economically advantageous than moving it to a complex urban area with guild buildings.

…The problem, however, was when natural gates occurred on an ‘island’ like this. If moving only by land, means of transport would usually be found even for the heaviest warp gate, but gates appearing on islands were problematic in many ways regarding their handling. The moment you use ships or planes to move this dungeon gate, transportation costs skyrocket dozens of times over. And that’s assuming it’s even possible to transport it in the first place.

If the dungeon isn’t cleared, even destruction cannot be easily done, making it a significant nuisance from various angles. That’s why Malaysia too promised compensation from the government if they handle its destruction or removal. Especially on a special tourist island like this, they’d try not to let the fact that a dungeon gate appeared spread, even as a rumor. If it were revealed that there’s a dungeon gate on the island, who on earth would want to come vacation here?

Anyway, I had planned to finish it quickly and return in just one day, but due to the variable of the warp gate technician, I ended up stuck on the island for one or two days.

‘Waiting for the gate technician to arrive is unavoidable, but during that time, I’d like to at least check the dungeon’s difficulty.’

If it’s a B-class gate, it’s a dungeon level that Do Yehee and I could definitely clear. We are, after all, one S-class Hunter and one A+-class Hunter. Do Yehee was already A+-class, so she didn’t get promoted from the last Three-Headed Basilisk subjugation, but in other words, it meant she had that much more experience living as an A+-class Hunter. In reality, she already possessed A+-class skills and had postponed her promotion, so it wouldn’t be wrong.

Moreover, not only did she perform admirably in the previous Three-Headed Basilisk subjugation, but based on her skills fighting head-on, Do Yehee was considered a strong contender among women. In the first place, 98% of naturally occurring dungeons were B-class or lower, and dungeons of A-class or higher truly only appear about 20-30 times a year worldwide.

Even if it were an A-class or S-class dungeon, the fight itself wouldn’t be impossible. We might not be able to defeat the boss monster, but returning safely from inside the dungeon would be entirely possible. Even if we were trapped inside, we could use Belle’s dungeon to escape through the gate at the company. Currently, it’s deactivated because Belle isn’t needed, but it can still be reactivated anytime if I decide to.

Having reached a conclusion in my mind, I grabbed Do Yehee’s wrist.

Grip!

“Huh?”

“Let’s go in, Do Yehee.”

“…What?”

Hearing my words, Do Yehee responded, blinking incredulously, but I simply grabbed her wrist and walked towards the gate.

“It’s one A+-class and one S-class. If it’s a B-class or lower dungeon, just the two of us can definitely clear it.”

“Wait, just a moment! What if, by any chance, we go in and it’s an A-class or higher dungeon? What are you planning? What’s more, if we’re unlucky enough to be in a dungeon that we can’t escape before clearing….”

“Even if it’s A-class, we can endure it, so it’s fine. And even if we get isolated, we have an emergency escape route.”

“What do you mean, ‘fine’? Hey, wait a second, how can a man have this much strength…!”

Do Yehee tried desperately to pull her grabbed wrist free, but she’s a mage, so there was no way she could overcome my grip. I simply grabbed her hand and stepped into the unknown dungeon together.