Chapter 435: Uninvited Guest (5)

After spending time training with Eunyoung Noona, or rather, using training as a pretext for sexual release.

As soon as I finished dinner, I returned home and spent a leisurely rest until morning. After a long time, I set out for work, not at the company, but at the Guild.

Actually, because of my healer part-time job, it would have been better in many ways to go to the company often if possible, but today I had my own reasons for deciding to go to the Guild instead of the company.

For one thing, due to the aftereffects of the sword training I had with Eunyoung Noona yesterday, my condition wasn’t suitable; I really couldn’t seem like I could swing my greatsword.

No matter how much Eunyoung Noona’s berserk effect duration was only about an hour, facing Eunyoung Noona once she entered that state in the first place was a considerably difficult training session.

Since it was a battle that barely ended after truly swinging my sword for an hour until my arms felt like they would fall off, naturally, I couldn’t relieve all the fatigue within a day.

As I mentioned before, recovery spells had little effect on muscle pain. It wasn’t actual wounds, but pain accompanying the process of muscle growth, so…

Moreover, right after training, I had sex nearly three times without rest, so there was no way my body had any room for recovery.

Besides, I had left my main Mithril greatsword with Areum.

Still, if I just stayed lying in my bed at home, I would become sluggish, so after a long time, I decided to go to the Guild instead of the company.

On days like this, practicing magic rather than swordsmanship would be more efficient.

After all, for hunting while freely using magic, the Guild was still a much better environment compared to the company.

Wearing a mask of unknown identity was the basic work attire, so no one would particularly question me using magic.

Compared to the company, where records of which dungeon one entered and exited were detailed, the Guild was quite lenient in that aspect.

As long as you paid the dungeon entrance fee, disguised as a Guild development fund, it was famous for not particularly caring which hunter went in or when they came out.

Of course, now that I’ve reached B-rank Hunter, if I were to go missing in a dungeon, even the Guild would pay considerable attention.

In other words, as long as I didn’t cause a major incident of that scale, operating within a dungeon itself meant I could move with relatively few restrictions.

For example, like this.

“Are you talking about a C-rank dungeon request?”

“That’s right.”

“Hunter Kim Sungchul, you seem like you could hunt without issue even in an A-rank dungeon, so why are you looking for a C-rank dungeon request?”

“Today, I just feel like hunting leisurely. Fighting monsters every day, risking my life, isn’t exactly fun.”

“Indeed, thinking from a Hunter’s perspective, it would be like that.”

The Guild employee accepted a plausible excuse that popped into my head as if it were natural.

It wasn’t particularly strange, because based on actual Hunter activities, if you only fought at your limits every day, you would inevitably get exhausted quickly.

While your body gets tired and weary every day, if you experience a life-threatening crisis even once, your spirit can easily break, which is the nature of being a Hunter.

Therefore, on days when your condition isn’t good, intentionally entering a dungeon one rank lower than your own, or something similar, to adjust the flow more easily wasn’t a rare occurrence.

Besides, awakened abilities could weaken at any time, so one always had to be careful about that aspect.

Of course, the reason I was entering a C-rank dungeon wasn’t specifically to hunt easily and leisurely.

If the goal was simply to hunt monsters using magic, a B-rank dungeon would have been sufficient. I already knew the basics of fire and ice magic quite a long time ago.

The biggest reason for entering a C-rank dungeon was to try out the newly learned magic called ‘Plant Magic’.

How powerful was 1st Circle Plant Magic, and to practically utilize it in combat, up to what level should I raise it? The reason for entering the dungeon today was to understand this Plant Magic, which was the main objective.

Last time, I complained that it was difficult to use in practice and said I didn’t like it, but still, I should at least know how to use it so I could use it when needed.

Since I couldn’t swing my sword properly anyway, it was much more useful to thoroughly learn new magic instead.

Knowing something from 0 to 1 versus not even knowing the level of that 1 was like night and day.

“The requests related to C-rank dungeons are the one in Peregrine Prairie here, and then this one over here…”

The Guild employee showed various request details and recommended a few suitable C-rank dungeons.

Among them, a dungeon that seemed most suitable for using Plant Magic caught my eye.

…Come to think of it, visiting here too was quite a while ago, more than I thought.

It was a bit disappointing that there was never anyone to visit with, but still, there was no reason to avoid this dungeon and go elsewhere.

Without much hesitation, I pointed at the request for the familiar dungeon and said.

“‘Grave of the Ancient Tree’ – I’ll take the request for Woodrello and Triss material gathering.”

“Yes, you mean the Woodrello and Triss material gathering from the Grave of the Ancient Tree? Confirmed.”

Entering the Grave of the Ancient Tree without Cha Yuri is practically the first time.

In many ways, I decided to hone my Plant Magic in this dungeon familiar to me, and my plan was set.

And so, the moment I moved towards the dungeon gate to enter the C-rank dungeon filled with memories, I felt a gaze watching me from somewhere.

‘……?’

Wondering if maybe Cha Yuri or Areum were there, I looked around the lobby, but there wasn’t anyone I knew among the Hunters in the Guild Hall that I could find.

Thinking I was just tired and mistaken, I casually dismissed it and proceeded into the dungeon.

I would realize that the gaze wasn’t a mistake not too long after.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

“C-rank dungeon, Grave of the Ancient Tree, Area A.”

“…….”

Kim Sungchul was talking with a Guild employee in front of the Guild’s warp gate.

Do Yehee, who watched his figure quietly from behind, had a brief 고민 (worry/thought) flash through her mind.

‘…Should I follow him in? Or would it be better to wait for him to come out of the dungeon?’

For now, following Kim Sungchul into the dungeon itself right now wasn’t that difficult.

Do Yehee had over a dozen spare identities usable not only at the company or the Guild, but even at several small and medium-sized Guilds.

Moreover, within guilds with lax personnel management like the Guild Hall, she even possessed Hunter identification cards of different ranks.

Therefore, following Kim Sungchul, who entered the Grave of the Ancient Tree, into the dungeon itself right now wasn’t that difficult, but…

‘…For now, let’s wait.’

After much deliberation, Do Yehee decided not to track Kim Sungchul into the dungeon, but to wait for him to come out instead. Her decision was made.

The reasons she decided not to follow into the dungeon and wait were largely two-fold.

One was that rather than outside the dungeon where there were many people, the fewer people there were inside the dungeon, the easier it was to get caught tracking.

The other reason was that if she wanted to obtain information about Kim Sungchul, she judged it necessary to be a bit more patient.

If she followed him into the dungeon and happened to encounter him there, there was a high chance she wouldn’t be able to find out the Hunter’s identity even afterwards.

Since the first meeting wasn’t very pleasant, her presence would hardly be a welcome guest from the Hunter’s perspective.

If by mistake that encounter were to escalate into another duel, that situation would be very troublesome even for Do Yehee.

The battlefield itself, the Grave of the Ancient Tree, was an excellent stage for her as an Earth Mage, but she already had a history of defeat in a similar battlefield, the Black Mud Swamp duel.

For her, having lost once, it was difficult to easily judge whether she could win when facing him again in just a month.

Furthermore, the brutal defeat that day and the painful torture she endured were, even for Do Yehee, shocking enough to leave a lasting impact for a while, so for her, it was an experience she absolutely never wanted to go through again.

‘To find a weakness, indeed, she had to find something that could definitively identify him.’

The most efficient method would indeed be to see his bare face and conduct investigations in the surrounding areas using a composite sketch, but the artifact that Hunter was using made it difficult to do so easily.

The only remaining method now was to obtain and utilize his personal information reliably during her pursuit.

“Residence, relationships, sphere of activity. Whatever she could find out, she had to find out as much as possible.”

In fact, calling her informants right now and having them memorize the Hunter’s face was surprisingly simple.

Even though it was only the second meeting, as soon as she saw his face again, she recognized him, so it was likely the same rule applied to others, therefore…

If creating a composite sketch was impossible, directly imprinting the information about Hunter Kim Sungchul into her informants’ eyes was the surest way.

If she simply pointed at Kim Sungchul from afar and told them to remember him, her informants could continue their search, vaguely recalling his impression.

However, Do Yehee did not use that method.

The reason she didn’t go that far wasn’t due to pangs of conscience or any such generous reason.

After all, while digging into Do Sihee’s associates, she had done countless things far worse than that.

The reason she didn’t use her informants in this pursuit was solely due to a contract she made with her younger sister, Do Sihee.

Perhaps Do Sihee, who appeared with a significant weakness regarding Do Yehee’s network of contacts, was the cause of her restraining her actions.

“…It’s only natural for the victor to accept the loser’s surrender in a duel… Ack, Aaaack!! Aaaack!!”

Do Yehee’s voice, screaming and pleading disgracefully after the duel, begging for her defeat.

That the voice she let out briefly to escape the momentary pain would remain as an eternal voice message was an event she never expected.

That it was Do Sihee, who always seemed to be foolishly dragged around by her, who acted like this, surprised her even more.

‘If you don’t want this recording to be released publicly, you’ll have to grant my demands, Ms. Do Yehee.’

‘…Demands, you say. My Sihee has learned to say some rather interesting things?’

“Today, if you pursue and pressure the person named Kim Sungchul whom you met in the dungeon, using the Dokyung Group’s capital, then I will release this recording publicly.”

‘…Hmm.’

Catching her weakness and making non-disclosure the condition, the way she negotiated.

Seeing Do Sihee, who had changed slightly, Do Yehee felt both pride and disappointment at the same time.

‘It’s no use trying to pressure me. The original recording file has already been backed up in cloud storage, and it’s set to be automatically released externally if the password isn’t updated regularly. Of course, not just by me, but also through Eunbyul’s hands, it’s possible to release it…’

‘Right, is that the only condition? Using the Dokyung Group’s capital, not to pressure that Hunter named Kim Sungchul, just that one thing?’

‘…That’s right.’

‘…Fine. Since you say so, I guess I have no choice. I accept the condition you mentioned, Sihee. That settles it, right?’

‘Hmph, it’s fine as long as you understand.’

My foolish younger sister.

For the first time in a while, when she brought the recording containing her voice, I thought that child had finally started learning how to handle people properly, but…

She revealed her powerful card far too easily, not to mention that the condition she could obtain with it was insignificantly trivial.

Reminded of her pitiful younger sister’s disastrous diplomatic skills, Do Yehee let out another sigh.

‘If it were me, I wouldn’t have done that.’

Do Yehee knew better than anyone that the reason her network of contacts was solid was because of the charisma she had built up without faltering.

Therefore, the recording file Sihee brought was practically a fatal weapon that could significantly diminish the power she wielded, so she should have utilized it thoroughly, as if to strip her bare.

Not just to protect one contact by carelessly throwing it away.

“Preparing a recording, I thought you might have gotten a little smarter, but how long must I watch you make foolish mistakes…”

Despite this, when she confidently talks about leading the Dokyung Group in the future, no matter how I think about it, she looks utterly unreliable.

As her half-sister, Do Yehee found her younger sister’s behavior simply immature and pathetic.

If things stay this way, in the future, even after inheriting the Dokyung Group, leading it properly would practically be impossible.

Only when Do Sihee can fulfill her role as a leader can she herself peacefully give up the position of successor.

Do Yehee quietly wished that her younger sister would grow up quickly, take the Dokyung Group’s successor position from her, and that was all she hoped for.

If that happened, she and Sihee would no longer conflict, so she thought they could return to their previous relationship.

They had already walked too far to go back to the way things were, she vaguely realized deep down, but…