Chapter 734: Rank B Dungeon, ???? (2)

The inside of the dungeon, which I entered with Do Yehee, was like a winter mountain raging with a blizzard.

I never imagined that immediately after crossing the gate from a southern island, I would be buried in snow like this.

While I was marveling slightly at the snow that came up to my knees, a scream-like voice from Do Yehee was heard from my right.

“It’s coooooold…!”

…Well, of course, it’s cold. She was dropped in this snowy mountain wearing only that thin dress.

Seeing Do Yehee’s state, almost revealing her shoulders and one thigh, pitifully, I first cast a warming spell on her.

“Wh-what is this suddenly? Y-you dragged me into a dungeon where who knows what’s inside! Wh-wh-what if I freeze to death here? Do you think the Do-Do-Dokyung Group would let you off the hook….”

“There, it’ll be a little less cold now.”

“…Huh?”

“I know how to use fire magic, at least. Warming spells are the most basic of basics.”

“…I see. But I can’t just let it slide that you brought me into this mysterious dungeon without consulting me. If any personal issues arise with my body….”

“That’s something to talk about after a problem arises. For now, the gate itself doesn’t seem to require dungeon clearing to go back and forth.”

“…That’s a relief.”

Hearing the news that she wasn’t trapped inside the dungeon, Do Yehee’s expression brightened considerably, but then she immediately shook her head as if thinking ‘no, that’s not right’.

“Oh, no! Come to think of it, it’s not a relief at all! What if we went in and it turned out to be the kind of dungeon we couldn’t get out of? Such irresponsible words…”

“It’s okay, I was planning to use this as a means of escape then.”

“What?”

Along with those words, I took out a warp gate from my subspace pocket and showed it,

Seeing the wide disc held in my hand, Do Yehee blinked her eyes as if not understanding.

“It’s a warp gate. I have one too. The gate to cross to the other side is already installed elsewhere.”

“A warp gate? You carry something like that around?”

“You must always be prepared for unexpected situations. For reference, the other side connects to the Gangdong District branch of Eun & Ok Co., Ltd., so escape wasn’t impossible even in the worst-case scenario.”

Of course, strictly speaking, it requires going through Belle’s dungeon in between.

The warp gate to Belle’s dungeon on the company side has also just been temporarily deactivated for now; it was a transportation facility that could be reactivated anytime if I told Belle.

“If you have such means, you should have told me beforehand! Hmph, anyway, I almost died of fright thinking you were dragging me along with no plan at all!”

“I didn’t know you’d be that surprised. Sorry, I was a bit hasty.”

“…It’s fine if you know that now. Because I’ve come to realize you didn’t act without thinking.”

Since Do Yehee forgave me surprisingly easily, I put the gate to Belle’s dungeon, which I had taken out to persuade her, back into my subspace pocket.

And then, one more person. I naturally started a conversation with her attendant, who had secretly followed in unnoticed beside Do Yehee.

“By the way, your name is Seolhwa, right?”

“Who? My attendant?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you perhaps, like Eunbyul, reaching your grasp even to my attendant….”

“That’s not it, I was wondering if you, Seolhwa-ssi, weren’t cold. In the first place, I asked Seolhwa-ssi, so why are you, Yehee, answering?”

“……”

“…You’re amazing, Sung Taekyung-nim. You’re the first person to see through my disguise at once.”

Along with those words, the scenery next to Do Yehee distorted, and Seolhwa, her attendant, revealed herself.

As expected, the person who came in together was indeed that person.

“How did you know? Seolhwa’s disguise is an ability that would never be detected under normal circumstances.”

“First of all, given she’s Yehee’s attendant, she couldn’t possibly just watch her master being dragged in by me. Next, I just sensed her presence. Knowing she was there by her presence, but not seeing her, probably means an awakened ability related to disguise or concealment.”

Actually, I just saw another heart floating next to Do Yehee and guessed it based on intuition.

Although the heart symbol, signifying the amount of expected acquisition points, didn’t have the hunter’s name written on it, at least it wasn’t that difficult to identify who the target was by seeing the written value.

If that number was the same as the woman I was talking to next to me and Do Yehee until just now, there was only one answer.

“You sensed her presence? You’re not some kind of beast-type hunter, do you have some kind of search ability?”

“Yeah. I do.”

“What??”

“What are you surprised about? I told you I was a multi-awakened one.”

For the record, it wasn’t exactly a lie that I possess a search ability. I had obtained an ability after raising Min-ah’s affection level to the maximum.

Of course, the method used to find Seolhwa wasn’t this search ability, but I vaguely generalized and answered yes.

Besides, if I had to explain one, the ‘Hunter Lust Manager’ one was overwhelmingly harder to explain as an awakened ability.

“Since we’re already inside and we know we can go back and forth, let’s first quickly try to clear the dungeon. We should find out roughly what rank it is, so it’ll be easier to use later.”

“…Come to think of it, this dungeon is going to be in your guild, isn’t it? Why should I bother helping with this rank assessment for your benefit?”

“If you don’t want to, fine. Instead, it’ll be a good topic of conversation when you meet Sihee later. Last time, we went dungeon clearing with your Unnie, but when I came to my senses, she had left me behind and run away first at some point.”

“…What?”

“After all the effort, our relationship seems to be recovering somewhat lately with Sihee, so there’s no need to stir up trouble unnecessarily, right?”

“Can’t you just honestly ask for help? Why must you only speak in a way that provokes people?”

“Huh? What’s with the self-introduction all of a sudden?”

“Ugh…!!”

At my words asking if it was a self-introduction, Do Yehee glared at me, biting her lips resentfully.

She must have felt a bit guilty.

“Then, if you had honestly asked for help, would you have helped?”

“…I haven’t said no yet.”

“You’re clearly showing you don’t want to.”

“……”

“Then I’ll be honest, help me. Exploring the dungeon seems like it would be much easier with your help.”

“…Well, fine. Anyway, I have some free time until this dungeon issue is resolved, so I’ll go along with it that much.”

…What the, she’s actually helping much more willingly than I thought.

Maybe I unnecessarily had some strange preconceptions about Do Yehee. After all, it wasn’t a very good impression from our first meeting.

Having had quite a few things happen with this woman too, it probably means we’ve reached a reasonably decent relationship.

“I will accompany you too, Master, Sung Taekyung-nim.”

And then, for some reason I thought this would happen, even Do Yehee’s attendant joined, forming a party of three people in total at that moment.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

A 3-person party formed by me, Do Yehee, and her attendant named Seolhwa.

The three of us stuck together, pushing through the snowdrifts reaching our calves as we moved forward.

With my search ability, I found nearby enemies or traps, and the ‘Mud Bunker’ created by Do Yehee’s awakened ability moved with us, protecting us from approaching enemies from the outside.

Because it was a snowy mountain, perhaps because the dirt was mixed with a lot of snow, it did feel like being inside an igloo.

Meanwhile, Seolhwa-ssi was analyzing the monsters roaming outside through a square window on the igloo’s wall, noting them down.

“Snow-Horned Rabbit, C-rank. Yeti, B-rank. White Wolf, B-rank. …Based on the analysis so far, this dungeon is estimated to be B-rank.”

“If it’s B-rank, it’s a suitable difficulty for Yehee and me to clear.”

“You shouldn’t let your guard down just because it’s a B-rank dungeon. Sometimes an outlier monster, like the Red Dragon of the Azure Valley Strait, can be the boss monster.”

“I know that too. If the boss monster is too strong to fight, then of course I’ll run away without looking back.”

“…Fine. I also have no intention of fighting to the death from the start.”

For now, Seolhwa-ssi’s report was quite a positive outlook.

Snow-Horned Rabbit, Yeti, White Wolf. All of them were monsters from which profitable materials could be obtained.

In the case of the Snow-Horned Rabbit, horns and hide could be obtained, and from the Yeti and White Wolf, fur.

Anyway, an early-stage guild had no particular difficulty maintaining facilities even with just one profitable dungeon. At this rate, it seems like a sure win.

“By the way, Seolhwa-ssi, what is your awakened ability?”

“…Ah, you mean my awakened ability.”

“If it’s a difficult ability to talk about, you don’t have to say it. I just asked because there’s a possibility we’ll need to cooperate if we happen to need to fight.”

“No, I also thought there were things I should tell you anyway, Sung Taekyung-nim.”

Seeing as her body briefly turned transparent earlier, I guessed it might be a concealment-type awakened ability. As expected, Seolhwa-ssi introduced her awakened ability as ‘the ability to manipulate shadows’.

“If I just say it’s the ability to manipulate shadows, many people find it hard to understand, so usually I introduce it under the name ‘Shadowmancer’.”

“Hearing it like that sounds pretty cool.”

“Thank you for the compliment, Sung Taekyung-nim.”

And then she immediately began explaining about the ‘Shadowmancer’ ability she possessed.

Imagining a situation where I might need to cooperate with her during combat, I listened carefully to her explanation about her awakened ability.

Shadow Grasp: summoning shadow vines from within the shadow of the opposing monster to bind it.

Veil of Protection: pulling shadows onto the ground to absorb incoming attacks into the shadows.

Other than that, there was Night Shadow Infusion, which infused weapons with shadow essence to enhance them, and like just now, Shadow Cloak, which hid one’s form within shadows to make oneself invisible, etc. She truly possessed awakened abilities that perfectly fit the expression ‘Shadowmancer’.

“It’s fascinating and amazing. It seems like it’s the first time I’ve met someone who fights using shadows, Seolhwa-ssi.”

“There are speculations that among past ninjas or assassins, there were quite a few Shadowmancers. However, truly skilled Shadowmancers would naturally not reveal their identities until the very end, so their abilities wouldn’t be famous either.”

“…Ninjas or assassins?”

“They are just examples.”

To go so far as to mention examples like ninjas or assassins, it seems like she wasn’t just an attendant but Do Yehee’s bodyguard.

I hope I don’t unnecessarily offend her, or suddenly my life won’t be in danger at some point, right?

Please let Seolhwa-ssi not be the type of person who is different on the outside and inside. For now, I just continued exploring the dungeon.