Next Day | Cha Hae-in had to wait a long time from her perspective, but the time of the raid finally arrived.
She wore her usual, form-fitting red battle armor equipped with shoulder plates, armored gloves, forearm plates protecting her wrists, and sturdy armored boots.
Her eyes lit up the moment she saw him arriving.
Just as before, he had turned up in clothes that made it seem like he was going for a casual stroll instead of preparing to enter a high-ranking dungeon.
He wore a simple black t-shirt paired with white pants and black shoes underneath.
“How have you been?” he asked her after greeting the rest of the waiting party.
“Good.
I’ve been stalking you, so I know how you’ve been,” she said, a mischievous expression crossing her face.
“I really should report you for this.
But I’ll settle for knowing what wicked tools you have been using to stalk me,” Si-woo replied, wriggling his eyebrows.
She took out her phone and displayed the fan account on the screen.
It took him a full minute to scroll through the page and another minute to process what he had just seen.
“The internet is scary,” he came to a conclusion once his ponderings were over.
“I will have my revenge on you for this.” “Huh?
It’s not like I made the account myself,” she muttered, tilting her head.
“You are the one who made me aware of its existence, though,” he answered, acting as if the logic was perfectly natural.
She just huffed and turned her head away from him as they walked through the active gate.
The rest of the party trailed closely behind them, busy in their own conversations.
However, the moment they stepped through to the other side, all distractions were instantly forgotten and everyone looked around the environment with sharp, scanning eyes.
Hae-in noticed a unique circular device resting in Si-woo’s hand, though its screen remained completely blank.
“Electronics don’t work inside dungeons,” she stated, assuming he did not know.
“So it seems,” he hummed softly, pocketing the device before summoning his sword in his signature way.
What Si-woo was using was not an electronic device at all.
It was a specialized magical compass designed to tell a user exactly where they were in the universe based on the layout of the constellations.
The device had clearly shown Si-woo he was in a completely different world during their first raid, and it had shown a black screen in every other standard dungeon since.
‘So, the world-type dungeons are entirely different physical worlds, while the normal dungeons exist in a separate dimension altogether.’ Si-woo deduced in his mind.
His eyes then glowed with a soft, residual light as he activated his dragon sight to sense the magical beasts lurking around them.
They were in a typical, dark cave dungeon now.
“Undead,” he announced, detecting the dense necrotic magic permeating the atmosphere of the entire cavern.
As if his announcement had functioned as a summons, half a dozen armored undead knights abruptly appeared on dead horses, marching steadily toward their position with their heavy spears extended.
“Let’s leave them to the team,” Hae-in suggested, and the other eight hunters seemed to agree with her decision as they settled into their battle stances.
Hae-in and Si-woo blurred out of motion, reappearing on an elevated rocky ledge within the cave where they could easily intervene if the situation called for it.
The primary tank of the party placed his heavy shield firmly onto the ground, projecting a shimmering red barrier around the squad.
The mage was already chanting a purification spell, while a warrior-type hunter gripped her sword tightly and the healer busied himself applying buffs to the direct combatants.
The undead knights rammed themselves straight into the red barrier, staggering the front line for a brief moment, though the kinetic force of the impact was enough to completely dispel the protective shield.
Immediately after, they were struck head-on by the mage’s purifying magic.
The brilliant light, acting as the ultimate bane of the undead, caused the knights to stiffen up and raise their skeletal hands as if crying out in a silent scream.
That opening was followed by a powerful telekinetic wave generated by a blonde woman, which launched one of the mounted knights directly into another.
Simultaneously, a swift swordswoman attacked a third knight with rapid, precise strikes from a flaming sword.
A brawler wielding a heavy warhammer charged into the fray as well, taking one of the knights on by himself.
The B-rank support hunters stuck close to the A-ranks, assisting them by landing calculated shots from time to time.
“Let’s get two of them.
Six might prove to be a bit too much for the team to handle safely,” Hae-in observed.
Just as her sentence finished, Si-woo appeared instantly behind two of the mounted knights, cutting them cleanly in two with a single, sweeping swing of his sword.
This was immediately followed up by Hae-in appearing directly beside him, holding a small glass container of white liquid in her hand.
She smoothly sprinkled the liquid over the severed segments of the undead.
“This keeps them down for good,” she explained as the skeletal structures began burning away into a dark, harmless sludge.
The two S-ranks returned to their elevated viewing area to observe the remainder of the battle.
Hae-in glanced over at Si-woo before scooting slightly closer to him on the rock.
“I’m glad you are with me at the moment,” she whispered.
“I’m glad to be here as well,” he smiled down at her.
“The undead…
they emit such a foul stench that I couldn’t even manage to complete the first raid I ever did involving them,” she continued softly.
“And for some reason, when you are standing near me, those other smells just don’t register to me at all.” Si-woo glanced at her.
‘That sensitive nose of hers must be a massive debuff in these places.’ he thought to himself.
Fighting while having a foul, rot-like odor constantly permeating her nasal passages clearly hindered Hae-in from utilizing her full combat potential.
“I even feel noticeably stronger when you are near me,” she whispered, validating his internal thought process.
“More like you are finally able to fight without constantly wanting to rip your own nose off,” he suggested.
“You could say that,” she giggled softly.
Si-woo then gestured toward the darker pathway ahead.
“I sense a few more of them coming towards us from deeper in the cave.
Let’s take care of them ourselves.” “The one who kills more of them gets one wish from the other,” she challenged suddenly.
“Prepare to cook a mountain of Hotteok for me then,” he agreed instantly, vanishing from the ledge and reappearing directly in front of the approaching group of undead knights.
His sword moved in wide, sweeping arcs while Hae-in navigated the battlefield with her signature grace and agility.
He could even see a small, relaxed smile gracing her face as she fought the undead without her usual discomfort.
It took them roughly fifteen minutes of coordinated fighting before eight undead knights lay bisected on the cavern floor beneath them.
“Five to three.
Si-woo takes the win.
By the way, I like my Hotteok with a lot of honey.
And I mean they should be absolutely drowned in the stuff,” Si-woo rambled on cheerfully, completely failing to notice the small smirk playing at the corners of Hae-in’s lips as she calmly sprinkled the fallen undead with the purifying liquid she had used earlier.
“Eight to zero.
I win,” she said smoothly, standing up and looking straight at Si-woo as a dumbfounded look took over his face.
She placed her hands behind her back and tilted her head, as if silently asking him why on earth he looked so confused.
“Denial is a powerful emotion,” he nodded after a long moment, acting as if he had finally discovered the underlying reason behind her claim.
“You merely bisected them.
I am the one who actually killed them with this,” she explained, shaking the empty glass container directly in front of his face.
“No, no, no.
That is cheating,” Si-woo ranted.
“Denial is a powerful emotion indeed,” she nodded right back at him, echoing the exact phrase he had used moments ago.
A glowing, triumphant Hae-in and a visibly sulking Si-woo returned to the main party just as the rest of the squad finished up their end of the battle.
“Good work, everyone.
Now, let’s call in the mining team,” she stated authoritatively.
The surrounding hunters cheered and talked animatedly among themselves as they walked back toward the portal to temporarily exit the dungeon.
“The vice guild master looked happy today,” Hae-in and Si-woo overheard one of the departing hunters mutter as they stepped outside.
“Of course she does.
She just completely duped me,” Si-woo grumbled, leaning in toward her side.
Though he was complaining, the clear smile on his face betrayed his true emotions.
Hae-in just rolled her eyes at his antics and called over the veteran mining foreman who had just arrived at the site.
“How long do you think this extraction will take?” she asked the experienced man.
“These mana crystals have bathed in dense dark magic for a long time, so we will be needing about four hours to safely extract them,” he answered thoughtfully.
The fact that the local mana crystals were saturated with dark magic was actually a beneficial outcome for the guild and the association as those properties could be utilized to manufacture specialized magic items and sold on the market for a much higher price.
Hae-in explained all that to Si-woo as they began moving back through the cleared areas of the dungeon, ensuring no rogue monsters could approach the active mining team out of the blue.
“Well, thanks for the explanation, Hae-in.
I—” Si-woo started after a little bit, fully intending to excuse himself so he could go raid a few more local dungeons in the meantime, but he was promptly interrupted by Hae-in.
“About the wish,” she said, leaning in slightly closer to his position.
“I want you to spend the entire break here with me.” Si-woo paused for only a brief moment before nodding his agreement.
‘Now that I think about it, she always makes a habit of personally protecting the mining team while they work.
And with me gone, she would have to stand here and endure the awful smell of the necrotic magic all by herself for four hours.’ Si-woo realized.