Ch.39Temporary Parties Are Dangerous (2)

Bang! Bang!

I hadn’t mentioned anything to Seoha about this raid. No matter how I thought about it, it was clear he wouldn’t approve.

Vrooom!

Vroooom!

And I had absolute confidence in myself.

Even if party members had flaws or made mistakes, I was confident I could handle multiple people’s worth of work by myself.

“Taking a taxi all the way there would be quite expensive. Are you sure? It might be better to take a bus to get closer first.”

“I… I have enough money.”

However, that confidence began to evaporate the moment I arrived at the agreed location.

“……”

A muscular young man with a scar on his face chewing gum, a middle-aged man nervously biting his nails.

Then someone with camouflage paint all over their body like some special forces operative, and a young woman whose expression radiated irritation.

“What are you looking at, kid? Why don’t you scram?”

“Ah, well, I…”

“Don’t understand Korean? Get out, I said get out.”

I just responded perfectly in Korean, though.

I could feel my blood pressure rising from the woman’s provocation.

At that moment, a man with a friendly demeanor who appeared to be the leader approached and spoke to me.

“Ah, you’re here! You have such a good impression. It must be the blessing of your ancestors.”

Right then, I had a feeling.

That the journey ahead would be anything but easy.

#

Generally speaking, modern dungeon raids are divided into the following structures:

Professional hunters in raid parties targeting medium and large dungeons while belonging to guilds.

Hunters in parties who only raid small to medium dungeons due to psychological burden or personal circumstances.

Exceptionally, there are freelance hunters who work on commission without affiliations, but most cases fall into the above two categories.

Also, among hunters who seek parties to work with, most tend to stay with the same group for long periods unless there are special circumstances.

Naturally, that’s more stable and efficient.

So what about hunters who can’t join fixed parties and have to form teams on the spot for dungeon raids?

Issues with party members, being blacklisted in the industry for causing incidents, or having titles and skills with relatively poor practical abilities.

The reasons varied, but in short, most of them weren’t exactly normal people.

I was experiencing that fact firsthand right now.

“What the hell are you doing? Why are you shooting at that?”

A six-person party. The perfect number for raiding a C-rank medium dungeon. However, despite the ideal number, the process was anything but ideal.

“I clearly said I would give a hand signal. It’s your fault for not checking properly.”

“What’s with this guy’s way of talking? Is he a foreigner or something?”

From the first battle, the muscular thug and the special forces cosplayer were at odds.

The special forces guy did seem to be from abroad, and his fighting style was equally bizarre.

“Damn it, does he think he’s some kind of sniper? What kind of rear position fighter fights like this?”

“My skills are effective at long range. There’s no problem with the battle.”

“Huh, so you’re just going to hunt from your safe spot?”

“Come on, brothers, let’s calm down and proceed with the raid. Why are we fighting when we all know what’s what? There’s nothing good about us turning on each other.”

“Sigh, idiots.”

With the irritated woman’s cursing added to the mix, the situation was nothing short of chaotic.

‘Can we just get on with it…’

Honestly, the fighting wasn’t my business, but it was frustrating to keep listening to it.

Finally, under the restraint of the leader, Hong Yongtaek, the group began to move through the dungeon again.

“Four Mucus Lizards. Can you snipe them first?”

“No problem.”

The special forces operative disappeared to the rear with his crossbow.

If nothing else, it seemed true that he was slowing down the raid speed. I decided to side with the thug the next time a fight broke out.

“Undead call.”

Whoosh!

[Grrrk.]

Since there was no need to use more power than necessary, I was just supporting the vanguard with Skeleton Masher and casting simple curses.

Though they lacked teamwork, their individual combat abilities weren’t bad, so the battle itself was completed without major issues.

“Kieek!”

Splat!

After dealing with the last enemy, Hong Yongtaek asked Kwak Minji, who had the Assassin title, to dissect the monster.

“Wow, since it’s a Mucus Lizard, the byproducts must be worth their weight in gold. Please handle it carefully. Haha.”

However, Kwak Minji refused with a grimace.

“…I don’t want to do that.”

“Excuse me?”

“I said I don’t want to. Get someone else to do it. It’s a Mucus Lizard, right? Do you know how bad they smell?”

Hong Yongtaek’s expression showed disbelief at her words.

Dissection was surely included in the recruitment conditions, so this was absurd.

“Come on, why are you being like this? It’s not like this is your first time.”

“I said no. If you insist, give me extra pay. Otherwise, I can’t dissect it.”

It was truly maddening. I quietly watched from a distance as veins popped out on Hong Yongtaek’s neck.

“Fine. I’ll give you an additional cut from the money we get from selling the organs, okay?”

“…Well, if that’s the case, I guess I have no choice.”

Suddenly, I felt a subtle killing intent and flinched. This wasn’t just my imagination. I hesitantly looked at Hong Yongtaek.

“…Let’s continue.”

Fortunately, he didn’t seem to have a fiery temper, staying true to his concept.

I followed behind the group with relief.

The conflicts didn’t stop after that. These troublemakers found any excuse to pick at each other.

Though I had been quiet and managed to avoid becoming a target, eventually my turn came.

“So, um, what exactly is the Necromancer student doing?”

This time it was the middle-aged man who had been constantly biting his nails.

“W-What?”

“You’ve just been summoning minions and standing there watching…”

What is this blockhead saying?

I immediately countered, bewildered.

“No, I’ve been casting curses and c-controlling according to the situation…”

“You haven’t participated in scouting or keeping watch, just following from behind. Does it make sense for you to get the same share?”

“Well, that…”

“The old man’s finally saying something right. I get that you don’t have much experience, but dumping everything on others isn’t right, is it? Kids these days have no sense of responsibility.”

“Ugh.”

Now even the thug had joined in attacking me.

I hung my head, unable to keep up with the barrage of verbal abuse.

Hong Yongtaek, who had been waiting for this opportunity, delivered the finishing blow.

“Well, it seems everyone has opinions… How about we deduct the additional payment for Kwak Minji from Baek Eunha’s share?”

“Yeah, let’s do that.”

“…Ugh.”

With that conclusion reached, the group immediately resumed the dungeon raid as if they had never been angry.

‘How dare they treat the Lord of Death like this…’

They were truly despicable, every last one of them.

#

The raid speed was honestly just mediocre.

The abilities of the party members weren’t bad, but there was significant DPS loss due to petty conflicts and individual shortcomings.

‘Vermin…’

Part of it was because I had stopped providing support after getting upset earlier.

However, the dungeon certainly lived up to its medium-sized classification, as hordes of monsters poured out, providing quite a decent amount of experience.

If not for that, I would have exploded from frustration long ago.

‘Medium dungeons really are better.’

But I never want to form a party with these vermin again. I decided to improve Song Hayeon’s treatment when I got back.

“That’s…”

After nearly a full day, we finally discovered the entrance to the boss room.

“Shame. This dungeon was quite profitable.”

“If only we had encountered a few more Mucus Lizards…”

Some of the Mucus Lizard’s organs were used as ingredients in high-end cosmetics, making them popular among connoisseurs.

Park Yongcheol, whom I nicknamed the thug, and the leader Hong Yongtaek expressed their disappointment.

“This is really unfortunate…”

To be honest, their attitude was a bit strange. We had seen dozens of Mucus Lizards in this dungeon, and that amount would be a jackpot for hunters who had fallen out of fixed parties.

‘Even split equally, we could easily pocket hundreds of millions of won.’

Just as I was beginning to question this, I noticed some of the party members exchanging meaningful glances. At the same time, Henry, the sniper at the back, spoke up.

“I need an escort inside the boss room. One vanguard should come with me.”

“What nonsense is this foreigner spouting now?”

In response to Kwak Minji’s irritated question, Henry answered.

“Due to my skill characteristics, if I’m separated from the party and the boss approaches, I won’t be able to respond.”

Since that wasn’t wrong, leader Hong Yongtaek decided to take the rear with Henry.

The final positioning had thug Park Yongcheol and Kwak Minji at the front, me and nail-biter Lee Kyungjae in the middle, and Henry and Hong Yongtaek at the rear.

Click.

Rumble.

As the boss room door opened, someone at the rear secretly cast a completed spell.

The target was Kwak Minji.

‘…Shared vision?’

Quickly reading the magical array, I identified a spell commonly used for reconnaissance with familiars or summons.

Kwak Minji hadn’t noticed. Something was definitely wrong.

And at that moment.

Thud.

Crash!

“Ugh! What the hell are you doing, you thug bastard?”

Suddenly Park Yongcheol pushed Kwak Minji, who fell helplessly into the boss room.

Boom.

Leaving Kwak Minji behind, Park Yongcheol used a strength enhancement skill to quickly close the door.

Slam.

The hunters had revealed their true colors.