"Looking for one shield bearer or a capable melee fighter! Mana stones are split evenly, 1/N, and we roll dice for the junk items!"
An open lot before an E-grade dungeon gate on the outskirts of Seoul.
A booming voice cut through the air as though amplified by a megaphone.
But the Hunters lingering nearby responded with nothing but cold indifference.
They all pretended not to hear, smoking or staring at their smartphones instead.
"Who’d be crazy enough to go in there?"
"If you calculate the earnings against the time spent slogging through that quarry, you’re better off working nights at a convenience store."
"Wouldn’t you be lucky just to see a mana stone? The passages are damn long and complicated, too. All you get is aching legs. I went last week and came back with nothing but worn-out soles."
Ju-min walked among the Hunters whispering in small groups.
He had arrived at the 'Closed Quarry,' ranked first among the areas Hunters avoided.
It was the ideal target he had found after scouring the information he had purchased at a steep price a few days earlier.
For ordinary Hunters, whether a dungeon run yielded one basic reward or ten determined its efficiency.
But Ju-min, who possessed the 100× Rewards ability, judged things by an entirely different standard.
Securing a single guaranteed reward in a quiet place no one visited was a hundred times better than fiercely competing with others and watching their reactions in a famous, profitable dungeon.
However miserable the basic reward might be, to him it was still an excellent seed that would grow a hundredfold.
Ju-min raised the brim of his baseball cap slightly and approached the man straining his voice.
"I’ll join."
The recruiting man turned toward him with delight.
But after looking Ju-min up and down, he hesitated.
Although Ju-min had just had everything thoroughly repaired, his old leather armor with its outdated design and his crude one-handed sword were a far cry from the image of a dependable front-line fighter.
"Oh. What grade are you?"
"C grade."
"C grade?"
Suspicion entered the man’s eyes.
The mention of C grade had caught his interest, but Ju-min’s equipment looked too shabby.
"Your equipment looks a little old. Will you be able to defend properly? The monsters in this quarry have hard shells, so weapons and armor get damaged easily."
"I just finished having all the internal components and leather replaced. They may look like this, but they’re sturdy. It’s an E-grade dungeon, anyway."
"That’s true, but are you really all right with running this quarry? You know the drop rate’s so terrible it won’t even cover labor costs, right?"
"I knew that before coming. I’ve had a few days of good rest, so I’d like to loosen up."
At Ju-min’s matter-of-fact reply, the man considered briefly before nodding.
It was a notoriously unpopular dungeon. Even if he waited longer, no one else was likely to volunteer.
Having a C-grade Hunter join would at least remove the threat of a party wipe, so the party had nothing to lose.
"All right. I’m Choi Tae-seong, a D-grade Warrior. Those two sitting on the ground over there are an E-grade Mage and an E-grade Spear Fighter. We were going to recruit a porter separately, but decided to save on labor costs and carry a bag each ourselves."
"I’m Im Ju-min. I look forward to working with you."
After exchanging introductions, they quickly settled their positions and route, then stepped straight into the rippling gate.
Ju-min could have let his ability go to his head and attempted to clear the dungeon alone, but he deliberately chose to blend into a temporary party.
If rumors spread that a C-grade Hunter was sweeping through unpopular dungeons alone, major guilds or informants would target him and make his life troublesome.
Quietly blending in as a member of an ordinary low-grade Hunter party was the safest way to keep things under control at this stage.
***
As they entered the dungeon, the musty smell of dusty earth rushed over them, just as expected.
Light stones embedded at regular intervals along the walls cast a dim glow, but the tunnels stretched beyond sight, tangled together like an ant colony’s burrows.
"Seriously, there’s so much dust. I should’ve brought a mask."
The spear fighter cleared their throat and irritably kicked a stone lying on the ground.
"The floor’s so uneven that walking’s a damn struggle, too. If a monster jumps out here, it’ll mess up our footwork."
The mage following behind also complained continuously.
As they said, the routes through the quarry were abnormally long and rough.
Even a short walk left their knees weary.
"Everyone, stay alert. We’re about to reach a monster spawn area. Let your mind wander, and a bastard jumping out from between the rocks will cave in the back of your skull."
Leading the way, Tae-seong adjusted his grip on his greatsword and gave a grave warning.
The moment he finished speaking, the sound of rough stones rolling reached them from farther down the dark tunnel.
Three Rock Worms—monsters formed from clusters of jagged stones the size of an adult’s fist—were rapidly crawling toward them along the wall.
"They’re here! Mage, use mana bolts to keep them in check first!"
The party members raised their weapons and entered combat.
Ju-min also held his one-handed sword lightly and firmly covered one side of the front line.
His objective was not to slaughter the monsters alone with dazzling combat prowess.
He had to avoid drawing attention by openly displaying his strength and speed.
"I’ll stop the one circling to the left."
Rather than forcefully swing his sword to break a Rock Worm’s hard back shell, Ju-min smoothly deflected its body slam, using the reinforced sections of his old leather armor and his forearm as a shield.
The considerable money spent restoring his equipment perfectly at the repair shop had been worthwhile.
The components around the joints moved flexibly, dispersing the impact, and his stance did not falter at all.
Seizing that opening, Tae-seong brought his heavy greatsword down hard on the Rock Worm’s center.
With a dull crumbling sound, the monster broke apart like sand on a beach.
"Nice! Your defense is good, Ju-min. You hold your ground without getting pushed back, so it’s easy to land a hit."
Tae-seong called out while wiping sweat from his forehead.
Ju-min displayed neither spectacular magic nor eye-opening destructive power, but his movements contained nothing unnecessary.
He created the ideal angles for his party members to attack comfortably and intercepted troublesome harassing attacks a step ahead.
Thanks to him, the party steadily cleared monsters along the complicated tunnels without any significant danger or injuries.
But as they pushed deeper into the tunnels and fought battle after battle, the party members’ expressions grew increasingly sour.
"Damn it, another dud. We’ve just killed our fifteenth, and there’s still not a mana stone in sight?"
The spear fighter spat out harsh curses while rummaging through the broken rock debris with the tip of their spear.
"Tell me about it. I won’t even cover the cost of my mana potions. At this rate, after repair costs, won’t we really struggle to afford a bowl of rice soup?"
True to its reputation as a dungeon everyone avoided, the rewards the monsters dropped were abysmal.
After getting covered in dust and sweating profusely to kill them, all that remained were useless stones scattered on the ground.
The monotonous tunnels and miserable drop rate rapidly wore down everyone’s patience.
Only Ju-min remained unwaveringly calm.
He silently shook the sandy dust off his blade and adjusted the heavy bag on his back.
The cheap junk items and mana stone fragments scattered here were not his real objective.
All he needed was a single clue carrying the scent of an 'official reward' recognized by the system.
***
Their smooth but tedious dungeon run was approaching its midpoint.
The long stretch of dark, narrow tunnel opened into a broad junction branching in three directions.
"Hold on a moment. Which way do we go?"
Tae-seong stepped forward and examined the scratches left by monsters on the ground.
"The middle passage looks completely blocked by fallen rocks. There aren’t any monster tracks or droppings on the right. Given this dungeon’s patterns, a route without monster traces is a dead end, one hundred percent. We’d just waste our time."
"Then let’s turn left without overthinking it. I think I can hear stones rolling over there, so let’s clear them out quickly and find the boss room."
Without any particular suspicion, the party members started down the left tunnel.
Following the route where the monsters gathered was simply common sense if they wanted to avoid wasting stamina inside a dungeon.
Everyone was already worn out by the dust and fatigue. They had no energy to poke around every secluded corner.
As Ju-min was about to follow from the rear, his gaze happened to linger on the entrance to the secluded dead-end tunnel on the right.
To an ordinary eye, it was merely an unremarkable rock wall swallowed by darkness.
But after spending days obsessively studying the layouts and hidden patterns of countless low-grade dungeons on paid information sites, he noticed a slight irregularity.
Ju-min stopped and fixed his gaze inside the right-hand tunnel.
Between the dark earthen bricks, part of an old, scratched miner’s mark lay cleverly concealed.
Covered in dust and thick moss, it was easy to overlook. But when he followed the tip of that cross-shaped mark, a faint character appeared at the edge of his vision.
It was a small system notification window in Ju-min’s vision.
A hidden interaction marker.
'Bingo.'
Ju-min’s heart gave a single quick beat.
A clue ordinary Hunters passed without a second glance, worn down by boredom and irritation.
A hidden element he had uncovered through dogged information analysis and persistent observation.
The system displaying an interaction was definite proof that some condition or mechanism leading to an official reward lay hidden down that dark passage.
This was a secluded corner of an E-grade dungeon that even major guilds and veteran Hunters had abandoned. No one else could have claimed it first.
"Ju-min! What are you doing back there? Aren’t you coming?"
Tae-seong, who had already turned into the left passage, poked his head back out and called to him.
"Oh, my shoelace came loose. I’ll be right there."
Ju-min composed his expression perfectly and answered casually.
He did not immediately call the party back and tell them about the suspicious mark.
Nor did he foolishly lose control of his excitement and charge alone into the tunnel just because he sensed a possible windfall.
These temporary party members were not close companions he could trust to watch his back.
They were simply complete strangers hired in front of the dungeon for the day.
If he discovered the hidden location with the party and an unexpected rare reward or hidden item appeared, greed might drive them to draw blades over its distribution.
Above all, there was a substantial risk of exposing his 100× ability to others.
Narrowing his eyes, Ju-min precisely etched the terrain around the right-hand tunnel entrance and the location of the old miner’s mark into his mind.
He committed everything to memory as though taking photographs, down to the positions of protruding stones on the ground and the rough texture of the wall.
'First, I need to finish the normal dungeon run with the party.'
He would safely deal with all the remaining monsters, clear the boss room, and disband the party.
Then, once he had complete control of the dungeon’s interior, he would quietly return here alone and determine what it was.
That was the safest, surest way to keep all the gains for himself.
Without lingering, Ju-min turned and hurried toward the left tunnel where the party members had disappeared.
The dead-end tunnel submerged in darkness quietly receded behind him.
"All that dust’s made my throat scratchy. I’ll have a cold can of beer when we’re done."
Muttering softly, Ju-min tightened his grip on the hilt of the old sword at his waist.