"Wow, this really feels worth doing."
Jae-hoon laughed loudly as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.
As he nudged aside the goblin corpse lying on the floor, his face showed more excitement than fatigue.
The sight of him fiercely holding back monsters until moments ago was nowhere to be found. Instead, he looked like someone who had stumbled upon an unexpected windfall.
"Keep your head on straight. If there is an opening, grip your shield first and raise it."
Beside him, Jun-seok scolded him while tapping the blunt weapon against his shoulder.
However, there was an unmistakable smile on Jun-seok’s lips as well.
Dark red blood dripped from the blunt weapon onto the floor.
The grotesque cries of goblins that had been echoing from deeper inside the dark passage were slowly dying down.
"Good work. This round ended cleanly too."
Yu-jin said as he slipped the clinking empty medicine bottles into his pocket.
The three of them had handled only their own assigned shares in their respective areas, without any wary competition over stealing monsters.
Cheol-woo, who had stayed near the entrance and blocked the forked path, leaned against the wall and silently watched the scene.
In his hand were the new notebook and ballpoint pen he had bought on his way out yesterday.
Scratch, scratch.
The tip of the ballpoint pen moved busily across the paper.
‘Hunting in progress with 3 participants: Park Jun-seok, Lee Jae-hoon, Seo Yu-jin. 30 mana consumed immediately after population adjustment. Measurement of recovery per kill confirms that the increase cycle shortens significantly during simultaneous hunting by 3 people.’
Cheol-woo recalled the numbers in the system window, which had been changing in real time during the battle moments ago.
When he used the Monster Population Adjustment function, his current mana had clearly dropped noticeably.
The cost had reduced his mana and pushed him fairly far from the promotion requirement.
However, the moment the three began hunting and the goblins fell one after another, the reduced number filled back up at a frightening speed.
When he had first operated this abandoned mine alone, he had needed to alternate between hunting and mining iron ore.
Since he had to swing his sword, then pick up the pickaxe, there was no way the monsters could die at a steady rate.
Naturally, the increase in mana had been gradual.
But now, the situation was completely different.
As three people hunted goblins nonstop in their own areas, the speed at which the mana gauge displayed on the management window filled rose noticeably.
It was difficult to calculate a fixed ratio based on one specific person’s kill count, but the flow itself was clear: while the three fought at the same time, the intervals between increases shortened.
‘The more active combat and harvesting are inside, the faster mana fills, compared to just leaving the dungeon alone.’
Cheol-woo flipped back to the previous pages where he had recorded the times he had personally harvested iron ore and mana stones.
After comparing them with the current record, the conclusion was clear.
An owned dungeon was not an ordinary field that simply grew on its own if left alone.
The more someone inside cut down monsters and gathered resources, the more the dungeon itself accumulated mana, and that mana was then used again for management functions and growth.
There was no need for the person performing that exhausting labor to be Cheol-woo himself.
"SKREE!"
At that moment, one last remaining goblin limped out from one side of the passage.
"Oops, looks like one of them overslept."
Jae-hoon planted his heavy shield into the ground and lowered his stance.
When the goblin struck the mass of metal and bounced back, Yu-jin’s small crossbow, waiting at a distance behind him, accurately pierced its thigh.
As the goblin rolled across the floor and struggled, Jun-seok’s blunt weapon dropped mercilessly onto its head.
At that moment, the number in the system window floating in the corner of Cheol-woo’s vision ticked upward once more.
With the final goblin dealt with, the amount consumed by population adjustment had been fully replenished and then exceeded.
At last, it had reached the promotion threshold needed to raise the management level.
"The hunt is over. Everyone, recover the byproducts."
Cheol-woo closed the cap of his ballpoint pen and walked forward.
At his words, the three moved in perfect order as if they had agreed beforehand.
They skinned the leather and split open the chests to extract mana stones without hesitation.
Because they had preserved their stamina without so much as a minor scratch, their cleanup work was quick as well.
"It really is on a different level from public dungeons under Association control. In those places, dismantling after the hunt is the most nerve-racking part because you never know who might stab you in the back."
Jae-hoon said with a shudder as he wiped a dripping mana stone with a piece of cloth.
"That is right. When I followed other parties as a porter before, they did not even give me time to breathe and just shouted at me to pick things up. Here, I can take what I hunt and rest at my own pace, so it actually feels good to work."
Yu-jin nodded and agreed.
Considering the days when he had been subtly looked down on as a crafting-type hunter while drifting from porter job to porter job, this environment was absurdly comfortable.
There was no profit distribution that fluctuated according to the party leader’s mood, and no unfair burden of luggage being shoved onto him.
Jun-seok smiled and urged the two along.
"You two had better be grateful to Cheol-woo. Hurry up and gather everything, then let us settle accounts properly."
"Of course. I held back from almost handing all of this over to him."
Before long, usable leather and mana stones were piled high in front of the three.
Cheol-woo stood before the spoils they had sorted in advance.
"This is the promised thirty percent. Please check it once."
Jae-hoon held out the pouch of mana stones with both hands.
Cheol-woo accepted the pouch, checked inside, roughly estimated its weight, and nodded.
He also neatly took the shares offered by Jun-seok and Yu-jin.
All he had done was open the area, without even needing to draw his weapon, yet income that he could never have imagined during his porter days came in steadily.
"Settlement is complete. Let us exit soon."
At Cheol-woo’s operation, a rippling blue gate opened in the air.
The three slung their heavier bags over their shoulders and crossed the gate with satisfied steps.
The cold, musty air of the cave disappeared, and the open scenery of the neighborhood clearing entered their sight.
The sun had already set, and the dusky evening air brushed against their cheeks.
"Thank you for your hard work today. Thanks to you, we earned safely."
Jae-hoon bowed politely.
"Can we come at the same time tomorrow too?"
Yu-jin asked in a voice mixed with anticipation.
Cheol-woo lightly nodded.
"Yes. If anything changes, I will contact you in advance through Jun-seok hyung."
"Understood! Then we will see you tomorrow."
Jae-hoon and Yu-jin left the clearing first with light steps.
Their backs looked quite lively as they hurried off, saying they needed to check the equipment they would use tomorrow.
Jun-seok watched them go with a pleased smile, then tapped Cheol-woo on the shoulder.
"Good work. Watching them hunt, you can tell they are not the type to pull anything stupid, right?"
"Yes. Since they follow control well, it is comfortable for me too. It is thanks to you keeping an eye on things in the middle, hyung."
"Keeping an eye on things? I just put a spoon on the table you set. I will head out first, so you go home and rest properly too."
Jun-seok waved and walked away as well.
In the quiet clearing, beneath the empty glow of the streetlamp, only Cheol-woo remained.
After confirming that no one was passing nearby, he put a hand in his pocket and called up the management window in the air.
A translucent screen appeared before his eyes, and a new notification that had not been there moments ago was blinking.
[The conditions for Management Level 3 promotion have been satisfied.]
It was finally the promotion guide message.
Cheol-woo slowly read the list of functions that would activate after promotion, written in small text below the notification window.
-Safety Zone Designation
-Monster Zone Separation
-Dungeon Entry Capacity Expansion
-Owner Profit Distribution Settings
The corners of Cheol-woo’s mouth rose faintly.
Until now, because there had not been enough detailed control functions, he had to personally stand guard at the forked path and monitor everything.
He had stayed tense the entire time in case they got excited and crossed into the inner area.
But if Monster Zone Separation and Safety Zone Designation opened, the story would be different.
He would be able to use the system to physically and clearly separate the entrance and hunting ground, while restricting the users’ movement range.
Moreover, if the Owner Profit Distribution Settings function appeared, he would no longer need to wait until the hunt ended and receive thirty percent by hand one by one.
The system would calculate Cheol-woo’s share automatically and separate it whenever a monster fell and byproducts dropped.
‘If that happens, there will be no reason for me to accompany them inside every time.’
Limited autonomous operation would become possible.
Cheol-woo tapped the ledger in his pocket.
The Dungeon Entry Capacity Expansion function was also an attractive option.
If he increased the number of people and operated the dungeon, the mana recovery speed would become much faster than it was now.
Naturally, his income would multiply as well.
However, Cheol-woo firmly shook his head.
Earning money and gathering mana quickly were important, but the highest priority right now was maintaining secrecy regarding the dungeon’s existence.
The more people increased, the looser control would become, and information would inevitably leak.
There was no need to clumsily increase the number of people and get dragged into troublesome matters by attracting the attention of Association officials or useless guilds.
‘For the time being, I will maintain only the three users who have finished verification. There is no reason to increase the risk with my own hands.’
He made the judgment coldly, without being swept away by emotion.
After all, even with the current number of people and current method, additional income generation and dungeon growth were meshing together excellently.
Cheol-woo confirmed one last time that the current mana value had settled safely above the promotion threshold.
All conditions had been satisfied.
His gaze stopped on the [Execute Management Level 3 Promotion] item floating in the center of the screen.
Cheol-woo was about to press the button, but paused with his finger in the air for a moment.
Once the promotion was complete, he would also need to begin properly preparing the groundwork to face the abandoned mine boss already stationed in the innermost area.
He intended to subdue it without destroying the Core and extract the remaining locked detailed control authority intact.
As he fitted together the order of things he had to do in his head, Cheol-woo let out a light laugh.
"What should I touch first?"
His fingertip stretched toward the promotion button in the air without hesitation.