Jo Jihyeok, the Guild Master of Dae-eop Guild, frowned when he saw the name on his smartphone screen.
It was a call from the Association President, an old enemy of his.
"What the fuck are you up to?"
The moment he answered, an unpleasant voice came through, making him let out a deep sigh.
"Why the fuck are you making a scene?"
"I heard you called the Spatialist with the Gate Entry Priority Pass and asked him to give up the Ruins Gate?"
"I don't know anything about that."
"Is that supposed to be an excuse?"
To be honest, Jo Jihyeok truly did not know anything about it. But the more he listened, the more irritated he became.
"But is that even wrong?"
"What?"
"First of all, how did the Spatialist get a Gate Entry Priority Pass for a Ruins Gate? Those belong to high-ranking Guilds."
"Iron Wall Guild transferred it to him."
So that was what had happened. Jo Jihyeok roughly grasped how the situation had unfolded.
If two Guilds exercised Gate entry priority for the same Gate, the assignment was determined by their rankings.
Dae-eop Guild, which had been pushed back in priority after applying for the same Gate, had seen an opportunity and asked him to relinquish his entry.
"So what?"
"What?"
"A team of prospects from the third-ranked Guild has a better chance of safely clearing Desolate Ruins than a two-person Guild, and isn't it better if they obtain something too?"
That was why benefits were distributed differently according to Guild rankings: to have more Gates cleared.
"Does that even make sense? The Association didn't give it to him. Iron Wall Guild did."
"Iron Wall Guild is on your side anyway. So you're saying it wasn't your opinion?"
"It has nothing to do with me."
"I don't know about that. Even so, is this a reason to call me and start making a scene? Did we try to take it from him by force? We only asked whether he could concede it. Can't we even ask?"
"Don't peddle sophistry. Do you think I don't know that you were testing the waters because you thought he was an uninformed Hunter?"
The Association President on the other end was just as irritated.
"Enough. I don't leave you alone because I don't know you've built connections in the Association."
"Then why?"
"I leave you alone because even when you only think of yourselves, you still clear Gates. But there are things you shouldn't touch."
"Is that an order?"
"It's a notice and a warning. If something like this happens again, I won't stay still either."
With that, the Association President abruptly hung up. Jo Jihyeok cursed under his breath and put a cigarette in his mouth.
"Fucking bastard. What does he mean, he won't stay still? Who touched whom first?"
Before Dawnlight Guild was created, Dae-eop Guild had been the second-ranked Guild, receiving benefits similar to those of the number one Guild.
It had been pushed down to third place when Iron Wall Guild split off Dawnlight Guild.
Dae-eop Guild had lost quite a lot of benefits until the law was on the verge of being amended through lobbying. That was when the bad blood with the Association President had begun.
"Those idiot bastards."
Jo Jihyeok cursed his subordinates in a low voice. It was not that their actions had been wrong. Their method had been wrong.
The Spatialist and Dragon Knight were figures receiving considerable attention, so they should have approached them more intelligently.
But an incompetent subordinate had caused trouble by calling about Guild recruitment before he had even given an order.
The idiot had probably thought he was making himself look good by recruiting the Spatialist, but it had been unbelievably stupid.
Jo Jihyeok had demoted him only the other day, yet this time, another idiot had made this move, perhaps to get revenge for being rejected back then.
Or perhaps it had been the unilateral action of a subordinate who wanted to enter the Ruins Gate. Jo Jihyeok sighed.
'This is irritating.'
Jo Jihyeok suppressed his anger. In about a year, it would be time to elect the Hunter Association President again.
There was a reason Dae-eop Guild headed to a politician's private residence rather than the Gate when an Outbreak Gate erupted.
There was not much time left before he achieved what he wanted.
But as he neared the end of his cigarette, irritation surged again.
'Because of that Spatialist bastard, I got chewed out by that bastard.......'
.
.
.
-You don't need to worry about Desolate Ruins. We have handled it on our end.
"I can still enter it, right?"
-Yes. First, please accept our apologies. There was an employee with connections to another Guild. We dismissed him immediately.
As expected, it seemed that someone with connections to another Guild had called me. I could also see why they had called me rather than Uncle Choi Cheolgi.
Unlike Uncle Choi Cheolgi, who had experience, I was formerly an Unawakened Hunter and younger. They must have thought I would be easier to coax.
"Could you tell me which Guild it was?"
-It was Dae-eop Guild.
"Dae-eop Guild?"
Hmm. That name again. It was not surprising. Dae-eop Guild had always been that kind of place.
Was this revenge for blocking their call before? Even so, to use such a shallow trick.......
I had doubts, but I decided they were meaningless. Not everyone in the world thought normally.
Moreover, society had become severely lacking in common sense since the Gate Crisis.
The Hunter industry, in particular, had many people who looked down on the weak.
It was true that I was a promising prospect, but objectively, I could not compare to Dae-eop Guild yet.
They had already achieved things, and as the third-ranked Guild, they had promising prospects and outstanding Hunters as well.
'My future is promising, but it isn't guaranteed.'
Perhaps Dae-eop Guild had probed me because, if it worked out by chance, Desolate Ruins would fall into their hands.
They were hoping I would misspeak. Naturally, it still pissed me off.
An old grudge had come back around once again. I would remember this moment clearly. I settled debts and favors properly.
-The Association President spoke with Dae-eop Guild's Guild Master and warned him.
Nothing like this will happen again. If anything similar occurs, please contact me at any time.
-Ah, if you ever need anything, you may contact me without hesitation as well.
A large part of what let me suppress this irritation was that the Association was on my side.
The Association President's support—what could be more reassuring?
It seemed the Association was thinking about the future.
The more I thought about it, the more fortunate I felt that the Association President was a decent person. He had been that way even before retiring.
The former Guild Master of Iron Wall Guild.
As an Advance Team frontline fighter, he had lost one leg while stopping an Outbreak Gate.
'If he had been someone like Dae-eop Guild's Guild Master.......'
Honestly, I thought things might have been quite a mess. I probably would not have been able to sign such a favorable contract or receive this kind of treatment.
"What did they say?"
After I hung up, Uncle Choi Cheolgi asked with a curious look. He had been angry after hearing the phone call earlier.
"There's no problem. The Association President warned them. They apologized to us too, and they said the employee who called was dismissed immediately."
"That feels good. I thought they'd just ask us to understand. There's nothing more to argue about, then."
"Of course they have to take care of us. We're a Spatialist and a Dragon Knight."
"That's true."
Since Yongyong hatched, Uncle Choi Cheolgi's confidence had risen considerably. He had become a genuine Dragon Knight.
The way he used to watch others' reactions at the training center had disappeared.
"Let's go create the Guild. We need to register it quickly."
A Guild could be formed with two or more people, and the Association encouraged Guild membership and formation.
It was to raise Hunters' survival rates.
The death rate of Awakened Hunters who moved individually was significantly higher than that of those who moved in teams.
Naturally. There was a reason teams were formed with class balance in mind.
The rear guard could do what the frontline could not, and the frontline could do what the rear guard could not.
That was also why most Rare Classes were overlooked.
Because Gate party limits left little room for extra members, teams took only useful classes.
For example, Bards had buff skills, but Healers had buff skills too.
'A Bard's performance itself is better, but.......'
The difference was not tremendous. The prevailing view was that it was awkward to include one in a team solely for buffs.
It was better to bring a Healer who could heal as well.
Of course, if someone's individual combat ability was outstanding, they could use skills as support and work as a Hunter. I was an example of that.
Of course, there were not many people like that.
It was not self-praise. Ten years had passed since the Gate Crisis, but we were modern people.
The world was changing, and these days, many people had learned combat from childhood, but that was not the same as real combat.
In my case, I had survived the Red Dragon and gained better stats, and I had obtained secret manuals from the Subspace.
"What should we call the Guild?"
"Yongyong?"
"......."
Uncle Choi Cheolgi looked at me as though I were pathetic.
"Why?"
"You said you were bad at naming things, but I didn't know it was this bad. Besides, Yongyong is only a temporary name."
"Didn't we decide on that?"
"When did I? I said, 'For now, let's just call it Yongyong.'"
"It's already too late. Yongyong recognizes its own name."
"Sigh......."
Uncle Choi Cheolgi sighed.
"You're as bad at naming things as I am. You're not keeping quiet because you're worried I'll laugh at you, are you?"
"It's not that I'm good at naming things. It's that you're just too bad at it."
I wanted to argue, but even I thought Yongyong Guild sounded awful, so I had nothing to say.
Then something flashed through my mind.
"Then how about Dinosaur?"
"Dinosaur?"
"You're a Spatialist and I'm a Dragon Knight. 'Space Dragon Guild' has a weird ring to it, so we can call it Dinosaur Guild. We've got a Dragon too."
"That's not bad."
Uncle Choi Cheolgi's eyes gleamed.
"How about Brachiosaurus or Tyrannosaurus instead of Dinosaur?"
"......."
This time, I stared at him seriously.
"'Brachio Guild,' 'Tyranno Guild'? What kind of nonsense is that......."
"It's better than Yongyong Guild, isn't it?"
"You should compare it to Dinosaur Guild."
"...They're two dinosaurs Minseok likes."
Hmm, I could acknowledge that, but.......
No matter what, Tyranno Guild was a bit much. Dinosaur Guild was not especially impressive either, but it at least had meaning.
Well, we could change the name anytime, so we could change it later. In any case, we paid the Guild formation fee and established Dinosaur Guild.
Naturally, we added the Gates Uncle Choi Cheolgi and I had cleared so far to the Guild's achievements.
They were excellent results for our levels and abilities, but for now, we were a bottom-ranked Guild.
The benefits were not very great, but we had established the Guild for the future and our freedom, so it did not matter.
"Now, the problem is recruiting talent......."
Uncle Choi Cheolgi pondered. I felt the same. It would be good to have a Mage and Healer.
"Don't you know any good Mages, Uncle?"
"In my circle? Do you think there would be?"
"That's too bad. If someone is an acquaintance whose character has been verified, we could invest in them."
Uncle Choi Cheolgi's eyes gleamed at my words.
"Invest? You mean a spellbook that came from the Subspace?"
"Yeah."
I used swordsmanship. The spellbook that had come from the Subspace was still there. If someone was trustworthy, we could invest in them.
Furthermore, there was a strong possibility that better spellbooks would appear in the future. That meant that while we could not raise a Healer, we could raise a Mage.
"Well, the people I was with when I was active fall into one of three categories. They're dead, retired, or high-level."
That was true.
"What about you? Didn't you build relationships when you were an Unawakened Hunter?"
"There are some, but not anyone I would give a spellbook to."
There had been some who contacted me a few times after I Awakened. They were the people who used me as their dedicated porter when entering Gates.
They were ordinary Hunters. They had been kind to me, but not kind enough for me to give them a secret manual.
"Let's think about that later and apply for a residence relocation."
We needed to report it to the Association in order to buy a house. Regardless of how much money they had, Hunters' freedom to relocate was limited.
It was to respond effectively to Outbreak Gates, which could erupt at any time. There were Hunters in each region.
Of course, it was impossible to distribute power evenly across every region, but they maintained a minimum balance.
Because there were normally on-call duties for Outbreak Gates, Hunters also had to set dates for entering Gates.
"Whew. I heard it's really hard to get a place near the Association."
After the Gate Crisis, the area near the Hunter Association had become people's most desirable place to live. Gangnam's appeal had faded, and because a Gate had appeared in the Han River, a view of the Han River was no longer preferred.
The Hunter Association was relatively safe because high-level Hunters took turns being on call for Outbreak Gates.
"Still, won't they accept a Dragon Knight and a Spatialist?"
I did not care where we lived, but Uncle Choi Cheolgi wanted to go somewhere safe because of his wife and Minseok.
.
.
.
"The Spatialist and Dragon Knight applied for a residence relocation?"
"Yes. They want somewhere near the Association."
At the Association President's words, Park Seo-ung nodded.
"You know those houses we use when we bring in foreign Hunters for Gate-clearing joint operations? Give them one of those."
"Excuse me?"
They were not used much under normal circumstances anyway. There were spare ones, and they were more than suitable to give to a Dragon Knight and a Spatialist.
Besides, there was something they wanted to ask.
"Don't forget to make the request for a Level-Limited Survival Gate while you're talking to them."