âItâs not to the extent that itâs usefulâŠâ
Han Woohyun had a somewhat distant expression.
âAre you planning on getting a formal examination from the Hunter Association?â
At the word Hunter Association, I naturally thought of Uncle Junsoo.
âIâm against it.â
Uncle Junsoo, who was so enthusiastic about rescuing F-Class porters, but was very against my Awakening.
Of course, I have no intention of stopping what I want to do because of Uncle Junsooâs objection.
No matter how thankful I am for my fans, this is my life.
But when Uncle can trust me completely and help me, I will tell him.
âNot yet. Just a little bit stronger.â
âYouâre alreadyâŠâ
Slash!
At that time, Han Woohyun cut the head of a crocodile that suddenly jumped out of the swamp with a long sword and pressed it down.
You have succeeded in hunting the âSwamp Crocodile (B)â. Youâve earned 3,000p EXP.
The level of the hotel goes up. (15â16)
ââŠstrong enough, you.â
I looked up at Han Woohyun with a puzzled face.
Did you just say Iâm strong when youâre a ranker who kills B-Class monsters with one sword?
âDonât make fun of me.â
âIâm not kidding.â
Han Woohyun said this with a face that sometimes shows innocence.
I shook my head.
Anyway, thanks to this S-Class ranker, maybe the day will come soon when I can reveal the secret about the hotel to Uncle Junsoo.
âBy the way. Wasnât the goal today to go to the âDemon Castle Ruinsâ and collect the remaining items?â
âThatâs right. Itâs over there.â
I looked at the place that looked like a huge old castle that stood out from the back of the swamp that Han Woohyun was pointing to.
The area was larger than the place we jumped out from earlier, but the height didnât look very high, perhaps because it was on a slightly higher elevation.
This is the place where the boss mob, âThe Corrupted Fairy Kingâ, was located before the attack.
I was a little scared after meeting the terrifying dreamer in the castle earlier, but I made up my mind.
Iâve come this far, but I have to collect a lot of items and by-products so Han Woohyun can make money.
Now. Shall we start with the crocodile?
I looked at the dead crocodile lying on the ground and pulled out a dagger.
Han Woohyun, who saw that, asked.
âWhat are you doing?â
âArenât you taking the skin? If itâs a B-grade by-product, youâll get a million won at least.â
I started cutting the crocodile as easily as I did the Archeopteryx.
I put a few useful crocodile skins in my item bag and stood up, and Han Woohyun looked at me with a strange expression.
Aah.
âDonât worry. Iâll give it to you at the hotel. Because you decided to keep all the by-products.â
ââŠNo. I donât mean that.â
âThen?â
âNo. Letâs go for now.â
I followed Han Woohyun, who was guiding me as if I was used to it.
As I expected, he had experience entering this dungeon.
âI came in when I was in the Baekho Guild. When the pre-exploration team came in, there had been a death accident, so I was nervous, but nothing happened.â
âD, death accident?â
Was this a dangerous place?
Hunter Planet said it wasnât that dangerous for an A-Class dungeon.
Although the risk of injury was low, the possibility of collecting by-products was low, so it was said that there were few guild attacks.
Of course, all of that is about raids that include A-Class hunters.
âIt seems that one of the dream demons we saw earlier attacked. A Hunter with a particularly low mental barrier got hallucinatory and attacked another Hunter.â
I smacked my lips and saw the bracelets on my wrist.
The feeling of stabbing the dreamer that had the face of Han Woohyun earlier was vivid in my hand.
Well, even if that actually happened, thereâs no way I could pierce the body of an S-Class hunter.
âHave you had a hallucination? What hallucination was it?â
Han Woohyun asked as if he felt my gaze looking down at the bracelet.
He took the lead in choosing a path that people could walk in the swamp, and if I couldnât catch up, he reached out to me at every opportunity.
Even now I was walking on slippery stones while holding his hand.
It was fortunate. Thanks to that, I didnât have to look at Han Woohyun while pretending to focus on my feet.
When I looked at Han Woohyun, I remembered how his breath had touched the tip of my nose earlier.
Han Woohyun added as I was crushing the answer with my eyes down.
âKnowing what the hallucinations are about might help you get out of them.â
Having said that, there is no way to avoid it.
ââŠYou.â
â?â
I managed to balance on the slippery stone and looked down at Han Woohyun.
He was standing on a stone, ready to catch me as I was going down.
âYou came out⊠You were more friendly than usual.â
I didnât know what to answer if he asked me in detail what âfriendlyâ meant, so I jumped into Han Woohyunâs arms.
Han Woohyunâs body seemed more tense than before.
Han Woohyun was silent for a moment, and he took the lead with a thoughtful face.
Then he suddenly asked me.
âCan we⊠get closer than we are now?â
What does that mean?
Could it be that you interpreted the meaning of âfriendlyâ earlier as being really âfriendlyâ?
I looked up into his boyish eyes, concluded that it must be so, and was relieved.
I almost turned into a bad person who had dangerous fantasies about my high school friend.
âI thought we were already close. The only person who knows my secret is you. The only friends I contacted after coming down to Yeongchun-myeon are you and Minji.â
Somehow, I felt like I was attacked by a self-fact because it was such a lonerâs remark.
Human relationships are really narrow, me.
I changed the subject for no reason.
âThen have you ever hallucinated? Even the last time you came in. It would be nice to know about your hallucinations.â
Han Woohyun stopped for a moment. Before I knew it, I saw the castle nearby.
âFor me, it probably⊠was you.â
Han Woohyun gritted his teeth and muttered.
I could see a tendon in his chin.
I murmured as I looked at it.
âHmm. As expectedâŠâ
âAs expected?â
Han Woohyunâs eyebrows twitched.
âYou donât have many friends either.â
It looked like it.
I found out at the last reunion that this guyâs social skills were way lower than mine.
Han Woohyun made a blank face for a moment, then turned his head and pointed at his castle.
âItâs about time.â
* * *
Upon arriving at the castle, we encountered quite a few monsters.
At the entrance, Han Woohyun took down the two trolls in an instant, but monsters continued to appear after that.
It was also worth saying that it was the place where the final boss was.
Thanks to that, the hotel level, no, my level went up.
You have succeeded in hunting the âGatekeeper Troll (C)â. Youâve earned 2,000p EXP.
You have succeeded in hunting the âRed Snake (C)â. Youâve earned 2,000p EXP.
The level of the hotel goes up. (16â17)
You have succeeded in hunting the âDark Dreamer (A)â. Youâve earned 5,000p EXP.
The level of the hotel goes up. (17â18)
It was a tremendous speed.
Level-up rewards came in without a break in the middle, but I put them off for now.
It was because taking the stats came first.
I took only one for stamina, strength, and agility and invested seven in intelligence.
With this level, I should be able to avoid the magic level as soon as I enter the dungeon.
And knowing that the mana exhaustion disappears every time the level goes up, I used the Fail-Not without any burden.
At first, Han Woohyun looked at me with admiration every time I used the fail-not.
Then he said it with a little worried face as he walked to the top floor of the castle, where the final boss was.
âA-Class monsters often appear here, so stay back and call the hotel right away when needed. It seems to be attracting more monsters than I think, so donât delay.â
Han Woohyun repeated the words from a while ago, âThere is too much of it for a dungeon that has already been clearedâ.
It was hard to answer because I couldnât compare to before, but I was a little scared of scary monsters appearing nonstop, so I nodded quickly.
We reached the top floor of the castle.
The top floor was pierced by a large circular space of stone.
In the center was a three-headed statue of Cerberus, and farthest from the entrance was a chair resembling a throne.
But there was no trace of the monster anywhere.
ââŠThere is nothing.â
I was very nervous, but it was a pity that there were no monsters.
Even when I got some small items from the underground earlier, I had to encounter 3 B-Class monsters, but the absence of monsters here seemed to mean that there was nothing left on the top floor, where the best items were likely to be.
âDid the late raiding party go thereâŠ?â
Han Woohyunâs face is wrinkled.
He said it was a little strange that there was nothing like this.
Rather than sad, it was a really curious face.
It was then.
Kiiikâ!
The door through which I came in was suddenly closed as if it had been drawn by something.
ââŠ.? â
I turned around as I felt a sudden light on my back.
A great red light poured into my eyes. I couldnât help but close my eyes.
The âFallen Fairy King (S)â has appeared in front of you.
What? The Fallen Fairy King? Thatâs the boss mob of this dungeon that has already disappeared.
Of course, I heard that the final boss sometimes regenerates, but wasnât the fairy king an A-Class in the first place?
Just as I was wondering, some strange words rang in my ears.
It was neither English nor Korean, and I could not interpret it.
At the same time, a system window popped up.
It is a language that can be interpreted by activating the skill âGlobal Communicationâ obtained as a level up reward.
Receive the skill and learn a language, including a total of 1856 dialectsâŠ
I donât have time to read more.
It was so dark earlier that I couldnât see anything, but now itâs so bright that I canât see anything.
I couldnât feel Han Woohyun anywhere I could reach.
Just do everything.
Do whatever you want.
The skill âGlobal Communicationâ interprets its wordsâŠ
ââŠIf you give me the soul of one of the two, I will grant the survivor the ability of a âsacrificeâ.
However, half of the âsacrificeâ abilities become mine.
Choose.
If you choose, one of you will die, if you donât, both will die.
Two pairs of red eyes could be seen in the burning light.
And the back of Han Woohyun standing in front of me.
âStay back. I will deal with it.â
Han Woohyun raised his longsword and thrust it into its eyes.
Then the light faded and I saw the silhouette of a huge monster.
âYou fool!
It raised its huge claws at Han Woohyun.
I fiddled with the fail-not on my waist.
But before I had time to use it, Han Woohyun cut off its arm.
A terrible scream was heard.
My ears went numb and my head hurt.
Red eyes grew huge and filled my field of vision.
Suddenly, my eyes turned white again.
Han Woohyun was standing in that white space.
Han Woohyunâs stomach is bleeding.
I screamed and walked towards Han Woohyun. At that moment, Han Woohyun pulled something out of his stomach.
That was a fail-not.
âYou stabbed me. To sacrifice me? My soulâŠ?â
Han Woohyunâs eyes shone red.
Then Han Woohyun pulled out the longsword he had put on his waist.
The longsword was pointing at me.
The cool feeling of the sharp sword penetrating my body ran through my whole body.
Han Woohyunâs red eyes smiled coldly.
âItâs your side who gets sacrificed.â
I frowned at the vivid pain felt in my stomach, which was stabbed by Han Woohyun, even though I knew that all this was a hallucination.
I fumbled to get the fail-not out of my waist.
I wanted to end this pain by throwing a fail note at Han Woohyun right away.
The monsterâs voice kept coming from my ears.
âWhat would you do? Is your choice âsacrificeâ or âsalvationâ?
What kind of nonsense is this�
My choice?
My choice, of courseâŠ
âItâs a hotel.â
I took out the master key instead of the fail-not from my waist.
I have no intention of sacrificing or saving.
I am just a hotelier providing relaxation in a hotel.
The moment I inserted the master key into the air, a purple signboard that glowed brightly in the burning light came to mind.
Yeong Chun Hotel
As the hallucinations disappeared, Han Woohyun was seen fighting the monster evenly.
I shouted at Han Woohyun.
âWoohyun-ah! Letâs go back! To the hotel!â
Han Woohyun turned his head at my cry.
The red eyes narrowed.
âWhat the hellâŠ! No. You canât run awayâŠ!
The monsterâs hand stretched out.
Han Woohyun came running and hugged me.
I rushed into his arms and into the revolving door with a roaring sound.
After a whileâ.
The moment I opened my closed eyes, I was in the hotel.
I let out a sigh as I lay down with Han Woohyun on the soft carpet.
âHotel⊠Welcome to the hotel⊠WelcomeâŠâ
Of course, I was talking to myself.
It was then.
A window popped up in front of me.
You rejected the offer of the âFallen Fairy King (S)â and completed the Hidden Quest âSalvation is Self!â.
As a reward for protecting the soul of a noble hotelier, you will receive 100,000p EXP and the title of â2-Star Hotel Ownerâ.
Then, along with numerous reward notification windows, a notification like a reminder came to mind.