The bottom of the paper cup touched the plastic table with a dull sound.
Cheol-woo swallowed a sip of lukewarm water and set down the smartphone in his hand.
On the screen, the activity histories of two people displayed through the Hunter Association application were clearly visible.
"Lee Jae-hoon. There is a record from March of last year showing that you left a party midway through a public dungeon."
At Cheol-woo’s dry voice, the large man seated across from him flinched and hunched his shoulders.
Seo Yu-jin, who sat beside him, also grew tense.
"Ah, that was..."
"Hey, Cheol-woo. Can I explain?"
Park Jun-seok, who had been watching the atmosphere from the side, quietly stepped in.
"The bastard who was the leader of Jae-hoon’s party back then was truly vicious. Monsters swarmed in, and he threw Jae-hoon, who is defense-type, into the chokepoint and told him to block it, then ran off with the others. It was a situation where he had no choice but to leave if he wanted to survive."
At Jun-seok’s defense, Jae-hoon nodded as if he had been wronged.
"That is right. Forget settlement, I did not even receive the money for my equipment repairs."
"Understood."
Cheol-woo moved to the next record on the screen.
"Seo Yu-jin, you are D-rank in the crafting field. Mainly alchemy."
"Yes. I can make low-grade recovery medicine and injury treatment agents."
"But there is no record of you joining a proper party in the last half year. What is the reason?"
Yu-jin answered with a bitter smile.
"Everyone only tries to make me do porter work, and no one wants to give a crafting-type hunter proper profit distribution. There were more than a few places that promised to take care of me, only to change their story once things were over."
It was not wrong.
In the world of low-tier hunters, the party leader’s influence was stronger than a contract.
When someone demanded their rightful share, they were often ostracized instead for being fussy.
Cheol-woo silently turned off the screen and looked back and forth between the two of them.
"I have heard your circumstances. Since Jun-seok hyung says he has known you since his old porter days, I can trust you to some extent."
"Then can we enter that dungeon too?"
Jae-hoon asked, his voice full of expectation.
"If the conditions are met."
Cheol-woo raised his fingers as he spoke.
"First, you must never disclose the dungeon’s exact location or interior to anyone outside."
"Of course."
"Second, you must not take even one step outside the area I designate."
"Understood."
"Third, you must give me thirty percent of the byproducts each of you obtains from hunting. If any one of these three conditions is broken, access will be blocked immediately."
The conditions were clean and clear.
The two, who had expected much more complicated demands, nodded with dazed expressions.
"Only thirty percent? That is obviously fine with us."
"If we can hunt safely without our earnings being stolen, there is no reason to refuse."
Cheol-woo read the desperation in their eyes.
They were eyes that had wandered along the bottom without even receiving a proper chance, just as he once had.
People like that did not do something stupid like kick away a lifeline with their own feet.
Cheol-woo’s gaze turned toward Jun-seok.
"Jun-seok hyung. You know that if these two cause trouble, you will be responsible too, correct?"
"Ah, do not worry. I will watch them from the side with my eyes wide open."
Jun-seok thumped his chest and boasted confidently.
Only then did Cheol-woo press a hand to the table and stand.
"Good. I will accept only these two additional people. Follow me."
Cheol-woo took the lead and walked toward a clearing with few people around.
The three followed behind him with tense faces.
When they reached the inside of the clearing, Cheol-woo glanced around, then opened the management window in the air.
[One-time temporary entry pass under Lee Jae-hoon’s name has been issued.]
[One-time temporary entry pass under Seo Yu-jin’s name has been issued.]
No sooner had the notification windows disappeared than Jae-hoon and Yu-jin gasped and stepped back.
A translucent system window had appeared before their eyes.
"Uh, uh? What is this? Something appeared in front of my eyes."
"E-entry pass?"
"Why are you two acting so unsophisticated?"
Jun-seok chuckled and lightly patted their shoulders.
"Hurry up and press accept. Did I not tell you? This place is the real deal."
The two nodded as if entranced and pressed accept. Then Cheol-woo lightly waved his hand.
The air in the clearing distorted, and a blue gate opened its mouth.
"Enter."
When the three stepped into the gate, they shivered at the cool air that rushed over them.
Sparse lighting illuminated the gloomy cave interior.
It was the scenery of a common low-grade dungeon that could be seen anywhere, but to Jae-hoon and Yu-jin, everything felt unfamiliar.
"It really is a goblin dungeon."
"But why is the air so comfortable? It barely smells like monsters either."
As the two looked around in every direction, Cheol-woo spoke.
"As agreed, move only within the area I designate. If you enter the inner forked path, dangerous ones will appear. I cannot physically block off the area right now, so I will personally control you from behind."
At Cheol-woo’s words, the three nodded without complaint.
Since the dungeon’s management level was still low, the function that physically restricted areas had not yet opened.
He had to monitor them in case they crossed the forked path and fell into an uncontrollable situation.
"Now, let us spread out a bit so our escape routes do not overlap."
Jun-seok stepped forward familiarly, raising his shield.
"Jae-hoon, go near that rock. Yu-jin, stick to the opposite wall. No stealing each other’s monsters."
"Yes, hyung."
"Understood."
The three took their positions at regular intervals in the wide open space near the entrance.
Cheol-woo did not bother drawing his weapon. He leaned his back against the wall and crossed his arms.
Then he quietly activated the Monster Population Adjustment function.
[The monster population in the area will be adjusted. 30 mana will be consumed.]
[Low-grade goblins will be moved to the three designated coordinates at 5-minute intervals.]
On the minimap floating before Cheol-woo’s eyes, three red dots began moving.
"They are coming. Stay alert."
No sooner had Cheol-woo spoken than grotesque cries burst out from the darkness.
"SKREE!"
From the dark passages in three directions, goblins each appeared one by one.
They were not a swarm springing out suddenly.
As if each had come looking for its own prey, one goblin charged precisely toward each of the three.
"They are coming!"
Jae-hoon slammed his heavy shield onto the floor and knocked away the charging goblin.
As the goblin fell backward from the recoil, Jae-hoon’s short spear stabbed accurately into its neck.
On the opposite side, Yu-jin used the small crossbow in hand to shoot a goblin’s leg, then threw a bottle of acidic solution taken from his clothes.
With a hiss, the goblin foamed at the mouth and collapsed.
Jun-seok, using the sense he had trained yesterday, lightly smashed a goblin’s head with his blunt weapon.
"Wow, damn. It really sends exactly one at a time?"
Jae-hoon muttered in disbelief as he shook the blood from his spearhead.
"In a public dungeon, if your luck is bad, three or four can swarm you at once and make you feel like you are dying."
"What did I tell you? Here, only the ones you can hunt come to you."
Jun-seok shrugged and boasted.
After that, the hunting proceeded smoothly.
Goblins appeared every five minutes.
When Jae-hoon grew excited midway through and tried to run into the passage after a fleeing goblin, Jun-seok blocked his path with his shield.
"Hey! Do not cross the line. Do not chase it. Wait until the next one comes. Did you forget the rules?"
"Ah, I am sorry. I did it without realizing."
Seeing Jun-seok thoroughly controlling the two and keeping his promise, Cheol-woo nodded inwardly in satisfaction.
The person who introduced them was taking clear responsibility.
At this level, there was no need for Cheol-woo to raise his voice and control them himself.
With a lighter heart, he watched the three hunt while checking only their routes and stamina consumption.
Two hours later.
The floor of the clearing where the hunt had ended was piled high with goblin corpses.
On the faces of the three, who were breathing roughly, joy was stronger than exhaustion.
"Is anyone injured?"
Cheol-woo asked as he slowly approached, and Jae-hoon shook his head with a face covered in sweat.
"Not at all. I have never had my stamina managed this well."
"Me too. It was great because I could use exactly the arrows and medicine bottles I prepared."
Yu-jin agreed as well, his expression flushed.
The three sat down on the floor and skillfully began dismantling mana stones and usable leather.
Before long, a fairly profitable amount of spoils had piled up in front of each of them.
"Here, thirty percent as promised."
Jun-seok, who finished settlement first, handed a bundle of mana stones to Cheol-woo.
Jae-hoon and Yu-jin also politely held out the mana stones and intact leather they had calculated in advance.
"Thank you very much. Thanks to you, I can finally breathe."
As Cheol-woo accepted the byproducts from the three, he ran the numbers inwardly.
He had not hunted even a single monster himself.
There had been no need to draw his sword, nor any need to sweat.
He had merely opened a safe area and controlled the rules, yet profit had rolled in far more easily than when he cleared a dungeon alone.
Then it happened.
In the corner of the system window he had left open without much thought, Cheol-woo noticed a number changing.
[Current Dungeon Mana: 405 / 1000]
Cheol-woo’s eyes widened slightly.
Just before the hunt began, his mana had definitely dropped by 30 after he used the Monster Population Adjustment function.
Yet during that time, the mana had risen.
Cheol-woo looked back over the memories of the past two hours.
He recalled that when the first goblin died after the hunt began, then the second, and the third, the mana value had twitched ever so slightly each time.
‘Does dungeon mana fill up even when outsiders hunt monsters?’
Cheol-woo’s mind began turning quickly.
Dungeon mana accumulated through the process in which a monster died, the spot was emptied, and regeneration prepared to begin.
No matter who killed it, as long as a monster was defeated, the dungeon recovered mana.
"We will exit now."
At Cheol-woo’s operation, the bodies of the four returned to the neighborhood clearing.
Feeling the cool wind, the three hunters prepared to head home with bright expressions.
"We can come tomorrow too, right?"
"Yes. Come at the agreed time, and I will open it for you."
At Cheol-woo’s firm answer, the three bowed their heads repeatedly in thanks.
After watching their backs grow distant, Cheol-woo slowly took the old notebook and ballpoint pen from his pocket.
With a scratching sound, ink spread across the notebook.
-Mana recovery through outsider hunting confirmed.
-Total kills: 72.
-Need to measure recovered mana amount and compare with previous accumulation rate.
Cheol-woo carefully wrote down the current mana value he had just confirmed.
He could grow the dungeon without personally spending time cutting down monsters.
Beyond the possibility of business, he had discovered a new formula for territory growth.
Cheol-woo closed the notebook and lightly jingled the mana stones in his pocket as he muttered.
"I should buy a new ledger."