Jong Ho continued the call while looking at me, who had just exited the dungeon.
Seems that he was quite worried.
His face was red, tears streaming down his face.
Holding back the tears, Jong Ho spoke.
âYes. Weâll be there in an hour or two, missus.â
-Hey. Min-Cheol would be disappointed.
âHaha. No, it was Min-Cheol who wants to return.â
-Is that so? That boy⊠Itâs a rare occasion for him to go on a vacation, so why isnât he having fun before coming back⊠If thatâs the case, come over and eat breakfast before you go. Mr. Ho Jin is with you as well, right?
âYes. Weâll all come back together, missus. Weâll see you then.â
-Please do. Iâll make lots of delicious food. Take care on the way home.
âYes! Understood!â
Ho Jinâs face was filled with a smile.
Yelling aloud in a way unique to him, he spread his arms as he came towards me.
Normally, Ho Jin didnât express his emotions much other than a hearty laughter.
This is probably best expression of happiness he could give.
Hugging me close, he patted my back.
âThank you. Thanks.â
ââŠ..â
âYouâve been through a lot.â
âNo worries. But was that call with my mother?â
Jong Ho was speechless.
ââŠâŠâ
âBut Mr. Min-Cheol, what happened? For 9 hoursâŠ.â
âAh. Iâll explain it all as we go. Sorry for worrying you all.â
âSeeing that youâre okay is enough. Thank goodness. All we can do is apologize for being unable to do anything but worry for you.â
Wiping away the tears, Jong Ho opened his mouth.
âYou okay?â
âOf course! Iâm fine. Did you worry that I might have died?â
âNot at all. I was just annoyed because I got hungry while waiting for you.â
âToday the marks the day I learned that hyung-nim cries when heâs hungry.â
âThatâs because Ho Jin hyung-nim accidentally poked me in the eyes beforeâŠ..â
âSure, sure. Also, I have the be the one to bash on your fashion sense, so how could I go on dying?â
âLittle runt⊠Youâve been through a lot.â
âSorry. And thank you, hyung.â
âEw. Gross⊠Letâs go quickly. Your mother is probably waiting.â
âLetâs do that, Mr. Min-Cheol. Youâre probably tired, so please get in quick.â
âThen letâs talk as we go.â
We went aboard Jong Hoâs car.
It would be easier to travel via Warp, but the car that Jong Ho brought would be left behind.
The real reason was to talk about what happened inside the dungeon with these two though.
The one to start up that conversation again was Ho Jin.
âSo how were you able to stay in the dungeon for 9 hours?â
âBefore the dungeon evaporated, I finished the fight with Ghost within an hour.â
âRight. Thatâs obvious. So what happened during those other 8 hours?â
It was then.
Jong Ho, who was quietly driving responded in surprise.
âHey! Min-Cheol, is it perhaps⊠perhaps that?â
âYes, thatâs right. The Unknown Dungeon opened.â
âHo⊠The Unknown Dungeon? So itâs true that you have to sacrifice lives in order to have it open?â
âYes, I think so. After taking down all of Ghostâs subordinates, a gate formed next to the exit.â
âBy GodâŠ.â
âSo youâre telling me that you cleared the Unknown Dungeon and left it?â
âThatâs right.â
âIn only 8 hours?â
âI already told you so. This is the proof.â
I pointed at the duffle bag that was filled to the brim, as well as the loot that was filling up nearly half of the rear passenger seats.
Despite being in the middle of driving, Jong Ho quickly looked behind him to check.
Ho Jin, on the other hand, had turned his entire body around to stare.
That was right. The duffle bag had been filled by the avatars.
I thought they were just playing in the mud.
One of them who had ignored my command and left had returned with the duffle bag, filled to the brim.
Despite being shrunken to the size of a fist, its strength was still the same.
It was quite an endearing sight to see it carry the bag that was many times bigger in size than it.
On top of that, all the items in the bag were gems.
âWow. Youâre insane. Insane.â
âArenât you curious as to know what is in here?â
âWhat is it? Explain it to us.â
âHey. That wouldnât be fun then.â
âHey! But I canât pull over in the middle of the road.â
âThatâs why you should hurry home. Move, move!â
âWe probably wouldnât die even if we did get into a crash, but if my favorite model, the White Fiancee, gets hurtâŠ.â
âThatâs just way too much.â
âItâs my first vroom.â
âGarbage car.â
Teasing Jong Ho didnât last long.
Ho Jin, who was staring at me, spoke up.
âBut Mr. Min-Cheol.â
âYes?â
âIt feels as though youâve changed in the last few hours.â
âWhat has?â
âMaybe your presenceâŠ.. I feel as though youâve grown or something.â
âHuh? Really? I donât feel anything. Hyung, do you think so too?â
âIâm not too sure? But if there is one thing Iâm sure ofâŠ.â
âWhat is it? What has changed from before?â
âYouâve become a little bit more uglier than before.â
ââŠ. Do you really have to make fun of me like that! Old man. Old man, leave the car. If you donât want to dieâŠ..â
Almost as if the bloody fight hadnât occurred, I was quoting the lines of a movie to joke about.
Perhaps he missed those jokes, because he was laughing more than usual.
âPfft. Ahahahaha! Yeah. This is it. You absolutely cannot die before me, Min-Cheol.â
****
It didnât take long to arrive at my house.
Parking the car, we exited.
Out of the three, Jong Ho and Ho Jin were out of it.
They seemed to have lost half their minds.
Even as they walked, they continued to say the same words.
â30,000âŠ.â
â30,000 statsâŠ.â
âHyung-nim. He said 30,000 stats.â
âYeah. 30,000 stats⊠Hoho. 30,000âŠ..â
âPlease wipe that drool on your face.â
âHoho. Drooling⊠30,000 stats.â
The reason was this.
When we almost arrived at the house, I told them about the stats that I had obtained through the Butcherâs Sword.
30,000 points of stats, which could be achieved through 6,000 level ups.
It was obvious why they were in a daze.
Only after entering the house and meeting my mother did they stop repeating themselves.
âWeâre back.â
âHello, Min-Cheolâs mother.â
âHello missus. Youâre beautiful as ever.â
âOhoho. Please come in.â
âOh. Smells good. Whatâs the menu?â
âSon!â
âHm?â
âItâs rare for you to go on vacation, so why didnât you play some more before coming back! You couldâve made some good memories. Mother wants you to start enjoying life.â
âMemories? Haha⊠Thatâs right⊠Memories⊠Letâs all go together next time to have fun.â
âYes, alright. Youâre all hungry, right?â
âMissus, Iâm always a hungry kid inside.â
âHohoâŠ..â
âPlease wash your hands first. The stew is almost done boiling.â
âYep!â
****
The breakfast after all that suffering was delicious.
Finishing my meal with mother, she left the house due to to previous engagements she had to attend to.
I confirmed my mother leaving from the veranda and then headed towards Jong Hoâs car.
It was to bring in the duffle bag and all the loot.
Of course, mother wasnât against me hunting. However, I did not wish her to see all these items that were soaked in blood.
Since the weapons and armors were fairly large in size, only three of them filled up my arms.
It just came to me now, but I wondered how I was able to bring all these items out with me.
I poured all the items down on the living room floor.
After that, I briefly entered my room to fetch something before coming back into the living room.
Jong Ho and Ho Jin were busily looking through the loot.
In front of them, I put down the Bloodâs Craving.
Each their own weapon, that is.
I spoke to them, both of whom were staring at me.
âPresents.â
âHuh?â
âTesting us the moment you return, huh.â
âJust wear them for now.â
Looking at one another, they stood up and put on the armor.
âWhat the. There are no stats on this?â
âItâs the same with mine.â
âThatâs normal.â
The Bloodâs Craving armor did not have any stats at the start.
However, after taking down 100 monsters, it would allow the user to raise a single stat.
Jong Ho, who was tapping on the armor, spoke.
âIs this a toy?â
âYou said that you were hunting ghouls as of late?â
âYes. Thatâs right.â
âYep.â
âRoughly 500 or so come out, right?â
âProbably, I think?â
âFrom now on, put this on as you hunt.â
â⊠Mr. Min-Cheol, there are no stats on this armor.â
âYouâre able to raise 1 stat point every 100 monsters. Any stat you want.â
âWhat?â
âWhat did you say?â
âIâm saying that if you clear the level 23 ghoul dungeon once, itâs like you leveled up once.â
âWow⊠This must be very expensive.â
Listening to what I had to say, Jong Ho and Ho Jin immediately took off the armor and then put them down in front of me.
âOf course. Thereâs no way these stubborn guys would just take them so easily.â
âMister.â
âYes?â
âYou apologized that you werenât of any help, right?â
âYesâŠ. Thatâs right.â
âHyung-nim.â
âYeah?â
âYou probably thought of that too.â
âWellâŠ.:â
âAre you two going to be like that even as we go further?â
ââŠ..â
ââŠ..â
âAre you two going to only worry and regret. If not, take these and become stronger, so you can be of help to me. Weâre on the same team. Thatâs why if you two become stronger, it is good for me too.â
âYeah⊠During the confrontation with Ghost, I felt a lot. I felt despair in myself when I wasnât of any use to you. While I waited for you to come back out alive⊠I wondered if time ever passed like this before. If something happens again, Iâm not going to send you alone again.â
âSame with me.â
âHu hu. Itâs settled then. Now shall we open up the other presents?â
The next thing I was going to give them were swords.
These two have been sharing the Banwol Jincheon I gave them.
I had obtained two good one handed swords from the Unknown Dungeon.
If these were ownership bound weapons, they wouldnât be able to use it. Thankfully though, they werenât weapons that only the original owner could use.
However, their stats were a little bit less than what couldâve been if these were bound weapons.
Even if the stats are a bit less, these weapons are probably things that no other Awakened have.
Just like that, the loot distribution was complete, and they headed out to hunt.
Seeing them head out to hunt without any complaints despite having stayed up all night, I felt apologetic, but also happy.
The living room was empty once more.
I poured the gems inside the duffle bag.
These gems were in the shape of leaves.
Other than the green gem that I had obtained in the beginning, there were many colors.
All of them strengthened equipment, but depending on the color, the enhancement varied.
I put the Butcherâs Sword, Titan Boots, and the armor that I had obtained from Joker, Scales of the Black Dragon, on the ground.
The Butcherâs Sword had absorbed a ton of stats.
The Titan Boots ignored all status debuffs.
The Scales of the Black Dragon reduced damage taken by 40%.
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These three artifacts boasted stats that were nearly impossible to beat.
There was no way I would waste these gems on items that I would use and toss quickly.
After all, these gems comes only from the Unknown Dungeon, which I wasnât sure when I could enter again.
Checking the various stat upgrades that the gems showcased, I began to enhance my equipment.