There weren't many summoners in the world.
And most summoning skills couldn't call forth large numbers of summons.
A few dozen was the limit, and mana was consumed for the duration of the summon.
Hunters with undead summoning skills could summon many skeletons, but only a handful of high-tier undead.
And because of mana limits, calling forth a mass of undead at once was impossible.
"Come to think of it...... a lot of necromancers became businessmen, didn't they?"
They'd commit skeletons to factories to cut labor costs.
Necromancers who amassed wealth that way bought land and built palaces.
Founding their own kingdoms.
Houses and shops and other buildings, too, the skeletons constructed and put up for rent, it seemed.
Hearing such reports, Kang-hyeok let out a small, dry laugh.
"Everyone thinks alike, it seems."
He'd been planning to put skeletons to work in construction and factories himself, after all.
Kang-hyeok looked around.
With the monster corpses cleared, the roads had been tidied.
Five days after the Gate ruptured, monsters had become hard to find.
The Association asked Kang-hyeok to clear the dungeon.
[From our investigation, the dungeon is A-grade. However, the Gate's mana concentration is close to S-grade...... so we'd appreciate it if you approached the clearing as though it were an S-grade Gate.]
"Yes, understood."
Kang-hyeok took five hundred guild members, including newly summoned Homunculi, and entered the Dungeon Gate that had opened in the middle of the road.
For reference, half of the five hundred were members who'd returned from North Chungcheong.
"Loudspeakers."
"Yes, ready."
"Begin."
At Kang-hyeok's command, the members scattered in all directions and sounded the sirens.
Even after so many had poured out, the dungeon still teemed with monsters.
The higher a dungeon's grade, the larger its area.
And the greater the monster count, too.
A host of orcs gathered from all around.
-Chik! Chiiik—!
Were these the ones who'd followed the Orc Chief?
A great many orcs gathered, weapons in hand.
Beyond them, a goblin legion in the thousands came charging, howling.
"Black Wolves and Red Wolves over there."
"Black Bears and Red Bears in the opposite direction......"
"That's a lot of them."
Once the monsters had drawn near enough, Kang-hyeok unleashed a burst of mana.
KABOOM—!
The monsters dropped to their knees as if crushed by gravity.
"Go."
At Kang-hyeok's single word, the guild members scattered in all directions.
Slash—! Splurrrch!
"Kill them all!"
Behind them, the skeletons gathered the monster by-products and began hauling them beyond the Gate.
About three hours in, Hanseong Group — Korea's third-largest conglomerate, which had opened a business relationship with GH Guild — hurriedly sent freight trucks.
Originally, Hanseong Group had dealt with Teinen Guild, but as Teinen's supply of by-products dwindled, they'd signed a new contract with GH Guild.
A hundred skeletons waiting outside the Gate loaded the by-products onto the trucks for them.
"Ah, load that over here, please!"
Just in case, the Hanseong Group staff used polite speech with the skeletons as they gave instructions.
"Manager, looks like we'll need a few more trucks? Or we could make another run......"
"Didn't you say it hasn't even been four hours since they entered the Gate? How are there this many by-products already piled up?"
"They said they're running the same drive hunt inside the dungeon as usual. And with skeletons committed as porters, recovering and moving the by-products has gotten a lot easier."
The thousand skeletons that had gone into the dungeon were recovering the monsters' hides, bones, and Mana Stones.
The hides of D-rank monsters would later be made into combat uniforms for soldiers.
The bones would be manufactured into armor for tanks, fighter jets, and the like.
Of course, D-rank monster bones were useless, so they recovered only the bones of C-rank and above.
For reference, the hides of C-rank and above were fashioned into Hunters' armor or luxury bags.
"Oh, A-rank Mana Stones incoming! B-rank Mana Stones behind them too......!"
At last, the Mana Stones and by-products of high-tier monsters came through the Gate.
High-tier monster by-products weren't something skeletons could recover.
So the recovery work proceeded with the help of some guild members.
A few hours passed, and when the monsters no longer gathered even at the guild members' sirens, Kang-hyeok spread his wings and soared into the sky.
Fwip!
Then, flying about, he loosed highest-grade Grandmaster slashes in every direction.
CRASH—! Ka-ka-ka-krash!
Slashes like a cataclysm reshaping the terrain rained down onto the ground.
In an instant, countless canyons were carved into the earth.
Ding!
[You have slain the dungeon boss.]
[The Gate will close in 24 hours.]
The moment Kang-hyeok checked the message, he went to his guild members.
"We're heading out!"
The dungeon clearing wrapped up in under twelve hours.
Returning in the late hours of the night, Kang-hyeok called the Hunter Association to report the clearing.
[Well done. We'll calculate and disburse the reward for GH Guild's support as quickly as we can.]
"Yes, understood. More to the point, how are Jungnang-gu and Gangdong-gu?"
[Gangdong-gu is nearly wrapped up. Jungnang-gu still has remnants left, so it's expected to take a bit longer.]
"If the Jungnang Gate needs clearing, let me know. We'll move at once."
[Jungnang is set to be cleared by Goguryeo, so......]
"I see."
[Gangdong is being cleared by another guild, I'm told.]
Kang-hyeok nodded.
"Understood."
[Once again, our sincere thanks for GH Guild's support.]
Kang-hyeok ended the call and returned to GH Guild headquarters.
The guild members went home with exhausted faces, and Kang-hyeok spent the night in GH Guild's night-duty room.
He woke around 8 a.m., took a light shower, and headed to the cafeteria.
As it happened, his whole family was eating there.
Kang-hyeok filled a tray and went over to them.
"Ah, Kang-hyeok!"
"Oppa!"
It had been three days since the family took shelter at GH Guild headquarters.
"I heard you cleared the Dungeon Gate yesterday......"
At his father's words, Kang-hyeok, having started his meal, nodded once.
"Dongjak-gu's nearly wrapped up. They're repairing the damaged roads now. With skeletons committed to the site, they say it'll be restored quickly."
"And the buildings......"
"I'm not sure about that. There've been protests demanding they not let skeletons onto the construction sites......"
"Probably the laborers. If skeletons go onto the sites, they lose their income."
Hye-in's older sister spoke with a bitter face.
But the government had decided to accept GH Guild's support for the damage restoration.
The laborers protested fiercely, but the government's will was firm.
"Fuck! Has the government lost its mind?! At this rate, undead will be put into every job!"
"We have to stop this, no matter what!"
"We should protest in front of GH Guild headquarters too!"
But the public found it hard to side with the protesters.
Building anew or reconstructing would be one thing.
This situation was another matter entirely.
There were people who'd lost their homes and jobs to the monsters.
The longer restoration dragged on, the harder their lives became.
The government and Association fed the news to the press, and the press reported it as-is, shaping public opinion to condemn the protesters.
"Has greed rotted their brains?"
"There are so many people who lost family, and now they're throwing a fit over money?"
"Fuck, you'd think they were sending skeletons onto a reconstruction site for profit."
"What's wrong with committing skeletons to damage restoration?"
Protesters demonstrated in front of GH Guild headquarters without a permit.
The noise they made caused the staff working at GH Guild headquarters to suffer.
But with the police responding half-heartedly, the protesters couldn't easily be dispersed.
Because of that, Kang-hyeok decided to respond firmly.
Kang-hyeok sued the protesters for obstruction of business, then posted on social media that he would relocate GH Guild headquarters to the provinces.
At that, people in the provinces cheered, but the citizens of Seoul could only panic.
GH Guild had proven, through this Raid crisis, that it was one of Korea's top guilds.
Should a crisis like this recur, they'd have to request GH Guild's support.
But if GH Guild set up in the provinces, that support would take some time to arrive.
"GH Guild is threatening us with a headquarters relocation! We must never back down!"
The protesters raised their voices even louder, but—
"Shut up! You fucking bastards!"
"If GH Guild leaves, you and your families all drop dead too!"
"If GH Guild leaves Seoul and Seoul's security is put at risk, you'll answer for all of it!"
"You're the ones who should get lost!"
A great many Seoul citizens descended on the protesters, and the front of GH Guild headquarters descended into chaos.
To lend his post credibility, Kang-hyeok sent some guild members down to the provinces.
As if scouting new headquarters buildings.
Because of that, the number of Seoul citizens condemning the protesters grew even larger.
It was a matter of security...... no, of their very lives.
Naturally, they had to push back hard.
It wasn't only Seoul citizens.
Following the Hunter Association, even politicians issued statements denouncing the protesters, as if a fire had been lit under them.
Of course, some criticized GH Guild's response.
[GH Guild's headquarters relocation is a matter tied to the very lives of Seoul's citizens. Pressuring the protesters by holding Seoul citizens' lives hostage is, I believe, far too dangerous a notion.]
There were those who rebutted this.
[GH Guild committed undead to the damage restoration for the sake of Seoul's citizens. GH Guild has even stated it will donate the entire reward for the undead committed to the restoration work.]
[Currently, the protesters' noise pollution is causing the staff working at GH Guild headquarters to suffer. The protesters were also demonstrating in an unauthorized area. Had the illegal protest been dispersed quickly, Hunter Park Kang-hyeok would never have put forward such a countermeasure.]
A great many experts took a stance that seemed to defend Park Kang-hyeok's response.
Of course, some felt that bringing up a headquarters relocation was a touch excessive.
Kang-hyeok watched public opinion and promptly put up a new post.
[Due to the noise, operating the guild had become difficult. In addition, the protesters were surrounding the building, and some of our guild's staff were even assaulted. Please consider that this is a countermeasure taken for the sake of the guild's operations. I will additionally upload a recording of the noise at the time and photos of the assault incident.]
As a single audio file was attached, public opinion swung to GH Guild's side.
Because the scale of the noise was simply too great.
Photos, too, were posted — a hand seizing a GH Guild staffer's wrist, staff being screamed at, and so on.