CH 166. At the Boss

If you haven't noticed yet then let me inform you the Harem chapter is out and I already uploaded the pics so go there and give some likes.

***

BB

Noble Phantasm line 1: "BB Channel!! Oh, this won't do! But don't worry. This is a job for BB-chan! Absolute Recovery: Cursed Cupid Cleanser! Did the injection hurt?"

Noble Phantasm line 2: "Now, rejoice. Be silent as my shadow envelops the world. I'll reduce you to sludge. Cursed Cupid Cleanser! Did you think you could escape from me?"

***

Today's anime meme is here. [ ]

....

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"Are you thinking of dying alongside the boss?"

Jin sneaked a glance at Sohn Ki-Hoon's expression. His face remained hardened, but there was no wavering in his eyes.

"Our job isn't to get out of this dungeon alive, but to close the Gates. Many people outside are paying us a great deal of money for that purpose."

Sohn Ki-Hoon's voice gained more conviction as he spoke.

"We will do our job according to what we've been training for. However, you're different. There's no reason for you to die here. I hope you can get out of this place alive."

One could now hear the unwavering belief in his voice. His words contained his determination.

Jin realised that nothing he could say right now would be of any help to Sohn Ki-Hoon.

So, he simply nodded his head as his reply.

Again it something foolish as if he was really an E-rank it would be a miracle that he could even able exist boss room forget about escaping the place.

***

Cha Hae-In finally arrived at the location of the second rank, A Gate.

She had her baseball cap pushed down low, and as a result, only a few passersby recognised her.

The first thing she did was to seek out the mining team.

A few Hunters walked past her and sneaked a couple of glances, but they were all working for the Guild anyway and none of them paid her any great attention after that.

Eventually, she could see Foreman Bae in the distance – as well as the mining team around him.

Thump, thump!

Her heart began beating faster.

Standing a little bit of distance away from them, she scanned the faces of each miner present.

'Where is he…?'

She couldn't see Jin-Woo among them.

How should she say this? It felt like all of her energy was abandoning her at once.

'Did he give up on being a miner?'

Why don't I wait for another minute? He could have left the spot for only a moment and is coming back soon.

Three minutes more.

No, maybe five.

….And so, she waited for another 15 minutes, but Jin didn't show up in the end.

Thumb Thumb Thumb

Her heart was getting faster and faster with time as a sadness took over her body..

"Fuu…."

After spitting out a long sigh, Cha Hae-In turned around to leave. But, only after taking a couple of steps, she turned around again and returned to her original spot.

She yanked her cap off and took in several deep breaths, before walking towards Foreman Bae.

The gazes of the mining team members were directed to her now.

Thankfully, the stink wasn't so bad, perhaps due to the ranks of Hunters in the mining team being low.

"Uh? Uhhh?"

Recognising Cha Hae-In, Foreman Bae quickly ran over to her.

"Cha Hunter-nim? I thought you were taking a break today?"

"Hello there."

Cha Hae-In shared a simple greeting with Foreman Bae and after making sure that no one was eavesdropping on her, she cautiously asked him a question.

"By any chance… Is there a Hunter named Sung Jin-Woo working for you?"

"Mister Sung?"

Hearing an unexpected name being mentioned out of the blue, Foreman Bae formed a surprised expression.

"If you're looking for Mister Sung, he subbed for a porter's job…."

"A porter?!"

Cha Hae-In gasped out in shock.

"Are you saying he actually went inside the Gate?!"

Foreman Bae nodded his head vigorously as if to show that he, too, couldn't believe it.

"Yes, miss. That's what happened."

A rank E Hunter volunteered as a porter and entered a rank A dungeon? And he didn't even have dozens of lives or anything, too.

'What was he thinking?'

But, when Cha Hae-In thought about it, didn't she find that man loitering around the boss room yesterday with weapons in his hands? Indeed, she did not see wrong back then.

One more thing to be suspicious of, then.

Even though she ended up letting go of yesterday's event as a coincidence, when she really thought about it in detail, it was a rather strange thing for a Hunter with four years of experience getting lost inside a dungeon like that.

'I need to find out.'

She began thinking that she simply had to confirm what this Hunter named Seong Jin wanted from her Hunters Guild. And in order to do so, she had to enter the dungeon.

Not only was she the Vice Chairman of the Hunters Guild, but she was also a rank S Hunter as well. No one would try to stop her if she wanted to enter a dungeon where the Hunters Guild was performing a raid.

Cha Hae-In lightly bit into her thumb while pondering her choices, before swiftly making her decision.

"I'll have to enter the Gate myself."

**

Foreman Bae's eyes went extra-round.

"Heok….? Was there some kind of an accident? Should we ask the Guild for additional personnel?"

"No, no need. It's a personal matter. I just wanted to talk to him about something private, so you don't have to worry."

"Oh… I see."

Cha Hae-In spun towards the Gate.

However, her side felt rather empty, then.

'Ah. My weapon…..'

She felt around her waist, only to belatedly remember that she had left her sword back home. Since she never imagined that she'd be entering a dungeon on her off day like this, well…..

Cha Hae-In's forehead beautifully creased up.

'As a leader, Mister Ki-Hoon is someone totally trustworthy, and the rest of the team are made up of capable Hunters. But….'

But, it was still unimaginable to enter a dungeon without a weapon in hand. A short deliberation later, she turned around to face Foreman Bae once more.

"Is there something else, Miss….?"

Foreman Bae looked at her with confused eyes.

"Mister Foreman, can I borrow a weapon from you?"

"Pardon me?"

Foreman Bae hesitated somewhat, before calling out to a Hunter passing by.

"Hey, over here, Mister Seok. Please bring me one of our equipment."

"Yes, boss."

The 'equipment' Mister Seok rapidly brought over was a pickaxe, as used by the mining team.

"...."

Cha Hae-In's expression stiffened.

"Excuse me…. Don't you have anything else?"

"Uhm, such as….?"

"For instance, swords or spears."

"But, if you ask us for such things, well….."

"…"

Cha Hae-In sighed out under her breath.

"I understand."

She then carefully rejected the pickaxe Foreman Bae tried to hand over and quickly walked towards the Gate. He anxiously asked her as he watched her distancing back.

"Cha Hunter-nim, will it be fine for you to be empty-handed in there?"

Cha Hae-In came to an abrupt halt and stood there for a moment, before hurriedly walking back to take the pickaxe from Foreman Bae. He guffawed out in a genial manner.

"I think that's for the best, miss. I mean, it'll be dangerous to be weaponless inside a dungeon, regardless of what."

"Well, then…."

As she turned around to hurriedly leave, Foreman Bae unluckily didn't get to see her ears dyed in deep shades of crimson.

***

The looks of determination were clearly visible on the faces of the raid team members. They kept their mouths resolutely shut as if to imply that they knew their fate already. Meanwhile, the female Healer approached Jin and began rummaging through the luggage.

Jin turned his head towards her and asked.

"What are you doing?"

"Hold on."

What she took out was a small ladies handbag.

"I kinda feel a bit uncomfortable if I'm too far away from my bag, you see."

He didn't even ask her, yet she provided him with an explanation oh-so-kindly. She took out a memo pad and a pen from the bag and then began jotting something down on said memo pad.

Because she wasn't looking in front of her, she kept bumping into Jin's shoulder with her head.

Eventually, though – she closed the memo pad.

Her bag, which she slung around her shoulder while writing on the memo, was pushed back inside the luggage again, but that memo remained in her hands.

Jin observed her with a bit of interest, wondering if she really was going to do that, but she simply pushed the memo towards him, instead.

"…..?"

After taking it, Jin tilted his head, prompting the female Healer to tearfully speak up.

"I wrote down what I wanted to say to my family. When you get outside, please make sure that they get it. Please."

If he burst out in laughter, she'd probably get hurt, no? Jin suppressed his rising laughter and pocketed the memo.

"I'll hold onto this for the time being, but I'm pretty sure I won't get to deliver this."

"It's going to be fine."

The female Healer nodded her head.

'With High Orc warriors zealously keeping tabs on us like this, it won't be easy for him to get out of here unscathed even as An A-rank hunter forget about being an E-rank who didn't even had enough stamina to able to rut out this place again he was shocked with her way to thinking and Women☕'

After all, Mister Porter was only a rank E. She hadn't figured out yet what Jin meant, though.

Soon, their eyes caught the sight of the boss room. The anxiety felt by the Hunters came over the air and could be felt on his skin.

They were greeted by a huge open space.

'....'

Jin scanned the boss room. It was smaller than yesterday's boss room with the giant in it.

However, quite unlike yesterday, he didn't get the impression that the boss room was huge at all. And that would be all thanks to countless High Orcs completely filling up the chamber.

As a matter of fact, there were over twice as many Orcs here as those that 'escorted' the raid team.

'At least hundred and fifty… no, maybe it's a bit more than that?'

While there were no monsters inside the rest of the dungeon, they had been gathered inside the boss room, instead.

Seeing the masses of High Orcs waiting inside, Sohn Ki-Hoon's complexion paled in an instant.

'If this many High Orcs manage to escape from the Gate, then….'

This was a large enough horde to utterly destroy a small city, even before the top Hunters had the chance to do something about them.

Cold sweat trickled down his backside.

'At the very least, we gotta eliminate the boss.'

Just like how he resolutely swallowed the dry saliva, he did his best to keep his determination burning in his heart.

The High Orcs of the boss room parted to make way.

"Ah sharkh."

The leader High Orc beckoned again. The raid team and the escorting High Orcs walked over to an altar located in the corner of the boss room.

"Over there!"

One of the Hunters pointed towards the top of the altar.

And that's where the High Orc Shaman stood, dressed in all manner of accessories adorning its entire body, including a mask, bone necklace, and bone earrings.

Again with the cliche emo looks. Skulls and bones like a teenager yet to grow out of emo phase.

'So, that's the boss….'

Sohn Ki-Hoon's expression hardened.

He immediately realised that the terrifying magic energy filling up the interior of this dungeon was being emitted from that creature. And then, surrounding that b*stard wars….

From the four 'guards' possessing an air of alertness standing around the boss, he also sensed a rather ominous aura as well.

'This isn't good.'

Could the raid team get past those guards and kill the Shaman in one fell swoop? The Hunters were all thinking roughly the same thing.

The Hunters stopped in front of the Shaman.

A certain intangible tension flowed in between the High Orcs surrounding the human Hunters as they kept a certain distance away.

"Kekeke."

However, the Shaman didn't seem to care about the mood of the place; it simply opened its rather malformed jaw, visible below the mask, and cackled out.

"Oh humans, welcome."

The Hunters of the raid team exchanged glances.

'As soon as Sohn hyung gives us the signal….'

'We attack together.'

'Aim for the Shaman, no matter what.'

It was for the purpose of coordinating their attacks.

However….

Suddenly, the air around them began freezing up.

Hunters of this raid team were some of the very best out there. They all shifted their gazes at the same time at this sudden outpouring of chilling aura. The source was the Shaman.

The creature finally took the mask off. When it did, the magic energy it had been hiding until then exploded forth, unchecked and unhindered.

Rumble-!!

The freakish magic power spread out in circular waves with the boss as the centre.

As if they were normal, powerless civilians that ran into a lion or a tiger, the Hunters froze up on the spot like a bunch of statues.

"O-oh my god…."

"How can a magic power of such magnitude be….?"

"We, we gotta fight against something like this?!"

Despair, lamentation, resentment, even regret. The Shaman formed an ominous grin when facing these varying forms of hopelessness.

"Are you scared of me, humans?"

Sohn Ki-Hoon bit down on his lower lip, hard, and took a difficult step forward before asking a question.

"Why did you summon us here? Your warriors would've been enough to kill us back there."

The Shaman grinned again. Simply looking at the grin chilled the backs of the Hunters.

"It's for entertainment."

"What?"

Sohn Ki-Hoon was left utterly speechless.

Were they brought here just for that purpose?

The Shaman continued on.

"While we wait out the remaining time, I will kill you one by one and entertain the soldiers!"

Waaaaaah-!!

High Orc warriors all roared out in frenzy and excitement.

Hunters were ruthlessly forced down by the enormous pressure emitted from the Orcs and couldn't even breathe properly. One of them even began crying, no less.

"However…."

The Shaman briefly stopped talking, then.

The boss's gaze shifted and stopped at the rear of the human's group – where Jin was, who was standing with his poker face as if he doesn't give a fuck which was true more then one way.

"…..I see that a strange being is mixed among you, humans."

It was then, Sohn Ki-Hoon's eyes gleamed dangerously.

'With the Shaman looking elsewhere, this is my chance!'

Veins bulge in his neck.

"Now!!"

Sohn Ki-Hoon roared out at the top of his lungs, unsheathed his sword, and rushed out. However, it was eerily quiet behind him.

'How come….?'

He glanced behind him while running, and discovered his comrades rooted to their spots, not daring to move an inch. They had lost their fighting spirit a long time ago from the display of the boss's overwhelming might.

Sohn Ki-Hoon's heart fell to the pit of his stomach.

'Ah….'