acquiring talent in a dungeon

Chapter 58 - Day 13, 10th Floor Big Picture (2)

-I smell something in front.

Even if I didn’t study him very much, the use of the sacred creature was obvious. The sacred creature recognize anyone with desires as food. In a nutshell, he could detect enemies in the darkness.

“...”

"If you have a complaint then say it immediately.”

I said while looking back to see Jin Soo-young making a dour expression.  We were getting closer to the castle, but the feast of blood and flesh that she wanted didn’t happen. After the first encounter, I used the sacred creature’s sense of smell to approach the castle without meeting any Tellans.  

Jaaeng.Jaaeng.Jaaeng.

I could hear the sound of banging coming from every direction. The people who escaped probably weren’t looking for me with reinforcements, but rather dealing with other ‘demons.’ Perhaps we weren’t the only explorers on this floor.

As I reached the mountain, I looked up. The slope wasn’t gentle. There might be a separate uphill path to the entrance, but the one in front of me was a cliff that was almost at a right angle. I could see light from the wall above me.  

"Surely you aren’t going to climb up?” Jin Soo-young asked with an expression of disgust.

"I seem to be repeating this three times, but I don’t intend to force you. If you want to kill something then go on alone.”

"Oh, I don’t feel like it.”

I started to climb.  I concentrated my power on my fingers and toes and moved using the cliff protrusions. The height was approximately five floors and I checked my stamina.  It was the first time I tried rock climbing and it was the height of a high rise apartment. Once I was at a height of one floor up, Jin Soo-young looked up at me and called out.

"Is there really a need to kill the boss?”

I climbed the cliff without answering. The surface of the cliff was gradually changing to bricks.

"You are trying to fight a religion. Even if the command system collapses, there is a possibility that it will actually have an adverse effect on the lower ranks.”  

I continued steadily without answering. Iek. A sound was heard. It was the sound of stones crumbling as Jin Soo-young started climbing.

“...Don’t ignore people who you slept with.”

"It is fairly creative that you found a reason not to be ignored.”  

"Is there any other reason?”

"I don’t know what type of experience you had, but there are many reasons to ignore people that I’ve slept with. Their character. Or their character."

“What...!?”

Before an answer came back, I jumped in a window that the light was coming from. It was a corridor without any people. There was nothing different from a movie based on old Europe. I just felt like this place was more damp and older than the movies.

There wasn’t a clear route, so I let the sacred creature smell again.  Only this time, I had it find the target with the strongest smell within its range.  

-A delicious smell!Two of them!

If this guy said ‘delicious smell’ then it only meant one thing. There had to be an explorer.

'The same as me?’

-Yes. There are two.

They were on the move right now. They weren’t close to me, but I got a sense of the direction they were heading. I slightly changed my order.

Chose the best smell among those that don’t have a delicious aroma of a unique talent.

There was one above me. It exactly matched the direction that the two with unique talents were heading.

"In the end, people think the same.”

I muttered as I turned my head to one side of the corridor. A Tellan had walked around the corner and was looking at me with astonishment.  The suppression was instant.  

“I am a demon.”

“...!”

Indescribable terror filled the man’s eyes. His reaction to my joke was huge.

"Now I will remove my palm from your mouth. If you make a small noise then I will kill your family and drink all of your blood.”

“Crazy bastard.” Jin Soo-young said from behind me.

I ignored her and asked a question. The presence of the ‘stairs’ here and what people ate. Specifically, the number of resources that could be harvested. He was afraid but due to that, the answer emerged quite smoothly. And at that moment...

“... Really useless. This place.” Although it wasn’t exact, Jin Soo-young’s words expressed everything.

The resources were moss that grew without light and groundwater. Specifically, this place didn’t have any resources. According to the lord of the castle, approximately 2,000 people lived here. That was all.

There were no treasures in the castle or secret places. Except for the warehouse where simple armor and weapons were stored, the moss was what they ate as fuel. It was obviously inferior compared to the Kasava of the forest.

I was able to see clearly due to the light from the hallway. The equipment and hygiene were better here, but the development and resources of the forest were much better. It was enough to say that the people here were malnourished.

"A barren wasteland and 2,000 religious fanatics... Well, there is even a lord. I don’t think there is anything to gain from here.” Jin Soo-young nodded as she talked. "There aren’t even treasures or secret places. I will... What, you aren’t killing them?”

“Yes.”

Jin Soo-young stared with outrage as I knocked out the man in the corridor. "Just throw him out the window. If you get caught later, then it will be annoying. Can’t you just kill him?”

"No.”

“...Why?”

“I don’t need to touch his life.”

“Ha!” Hrmm. Jin Soo-young laughed before leaning her head out the window.  

“How funny.”

Below the window, lights were running around. There were the sounds of gongs like fierce battles were occurring elsewhere.  

"I thought you were a broken sociopath, but you’re human after all? Pretending to have principles but changing that behaviour every time...”

I stared at Jin Soo-young. Jin Soo-young jumped at my gaze.

“W-What? Am I lying?”

“I’m going. Don’t follow if you don’t want to.”

I walked down the corridor and stunned any Tellans that I met. As I lay them down in a corner, she repeated. “It really doesn’t make any sense.”

Jin Soo-young was confused but she kept following after me.  We crossed the hall and climbed the spiral staircase. Once we got close to the top floor that was my goal, I didn’t need to hear Jin Soo-young’s whining anymore. It was because the Tellans were already dead.

“This...”

I ignored the surprised Jin Soo-young and kept walking along the blood trail. There were vague screams from afar. The rooms where the lord of the castle stayed had their doors and ceilings beautifully decorated. But now they were just covered in blood. The screams were coming from a door that was cracked open.

They were the screams of a ‘child’ and a woman.

Before opening the door, I looked at Jin Soo-young.  "From now on, follow my lead.”

“...”

"Or just run away now.”

I half opened the door. There were two explorers in the middle of working. The spacious room was filled with the bodies and blood of the Tellans. There were two people alive. One woman was strapped to a chair and was in a severe condition. One eye was swollen, her teeth were pulled out and her mouth was filled with blood.

Yet, it seemed like the people torturing her couldn’t get the answers they wanted. The two explorers were now working on a boy in his mid teens. He looked clean compared to the woman, but one arm was hanging limply. The other arm was being held by a hulking man. The woman was his sister or his mother.  She screamed as the boy was tortured.

"Are there any results?”

When asked, “#%@^^@##%.”

There was an answer in a language I couldn’t speak. Chinese. Mandarin? The number of explorers had been reduced, so it seemed like the dungeon matching system now connected it to overseas explorers.

I worried about it for a moment. Should I speak in English? But... there was one language that everyone in this room would certainly know.

"Release those two.” I spoke in Tellan. The answer came back quickly. It was from a scrawny man beside the woman, rather than the big man holding the boy’s arm. If his hair grew just a little bit longer then he might be mistaken as a woman.

“...North? Or is it the south?”

"Of course, it’s the north.”

“...” The little guy beckoned.  Then the big person dropped the boy he was holding. If this was a manhwa, they were like Vegeta and Nappa from Dragon Ball Z. Unfortunately, these guys weren’t from a manhwa. The two people gradually took positions around me.

I said, "They don’t speak no matter how you torture them, yet you don’t leave this floor. There must be treasure here.”

The first impression was that the little one was a little stronger, but it was confusing since the big guy rarely opened his mouth. The little one continued speaking in English.

"I killed one South Korean person on this floor. His ability was manure in front of China.”  He was obviously trying to provoke me. I knew what he was doing already, so I didn’t get angry.

“Do you know who this is?” I glanced backwards. Jin Soo-young, who was looking at me from a distance, responded to my words by flinching. "She is the daughter of the president of South Korea. Even if you are supported by the country, she is in a different class.”

“Hey. What...”

Jin Soo-young’s eyes became bigger. The eyes of the two Chinese men also widened.

As Director Oh said, they received support from the Chinese government. Furthermore, they were talented enough to have unique talents, so it was almost certain that their country was supporting them.

"There is no need to fight. Will it be fun for you if you mess with us? If you don't want diplomatic issues, then let’s settle this through conversation!”

I thought about it.  It was normal to know the face of the president of a neighbouring country, but would they know his daughter’s face? That’s why I asked Director Oh to give me simple profile pictures of domestic chaebols and high ranking officials tomorrow. I had already proven that I could make social connections in the dungeon.

“...%$%%@.”

They said that they met Koreans already.  

“[email protected]#$.”

“&%5.”

I didn’t know I would meet with the Chinese, but if they knew there was the possibility of meeting Koreans, wouldn’t they know the faces of high-ranking Korean people?

"This is crazy! What just...” As soon as Jin Soo-young was about to come this way,

Pahat!

The two people moved.  

“Young Lady! Run!” I cried out like a loyal bodyguard and blocked the path of the two men. Of course, I heard the sound of Jin Soo-young escaping. The two Chinese also heard the sound.

The small one held a sword. The big one held an axe.

They played like Chinese people. The combination attack was almost perfect. The big one swung his axe at a tremendous speed. I avoided it a few times then let a shallow strike hit my side.  

"Keuk!” The little guy stabbed his sword at me and used the gap where I avoided it to break through.

Bam!

The big man struck me with the side of the axe and I was thrown to one wall.

“$#@%%$%!!” The little man shouted and the big one nodded. Then the little one ran out the door.  

Perhaps he said ‘I will chase the woman and you finish the one here.’ The level of movements I showed was easily dealt with by one person.

"A shame."

“...You speak Korean?”

"I’m not good.” The opponent gazed at me with serious eyes and grabbed his axe with both hands. He continued, "You are strong."

“You too. Don’t feel resentment. You have come this far alone. You will soon realize that it is enough.”

The big man said while attacking. The heavy axe was fast and accurate. The lion was using all its power to catch a rabbit. My body was exactly in the middle of the axe’s path. I didn’t even bother to avoid it.

To be precise, I didn’t need to.

Tak!

“...!?”

It wasn’t as easy as I thought. Even if I grabbed the bottom correctly, it was difficult to take the weight of a fully swung axe with one hand.

“How...?”

"The only thing that was real is the fact that she’s the president’s daughter.”

If I didn’t show any weaknesses, these guys would have handled me 2:1. I didn’t want to fight against two people whose power I was unsure about.  In addition, even if it was possible, Jin Soo-young might try to stab me in the back. This was killing two birds with one stone.

"Don’t feel resentment.”

I repeated what he said before. I pushed the axe with my hand. I hesitated for a moment before gritting my teeth.

Since he was considerate towards me, I would do my best to return the favor.

Chapter 58 - Day 13, 10th Floor Big Picture (2)

-I smell something in front.

Even if I didn’t study him very much, the use of the sacred creature was obvious. The sacred creature recognize anyone with desires as food. In a nutshell, he could detect enemies in the darkness.

“...”

"If you have a complaint then say it immediately.”

I said while looking back to see Jin Soo-young making a dour expression.  We were getting closer to the castle, but the feast of blood and flesh that she wanted didn’t happen. After the first encounter, I used the sacred creature’s sense of smell to approach the castle without meeting any Tellans.  

Jaaeng.Jaaeng.Jaaeng.

I could hear the sound of banging coming from every direction. The people who escaped probably weren’t looking for me with reinforcements, but rather dealing with other ‘demons.’ Perhaps we weren’t the only explorers on this floor.

As I reached the mountain, I looked up. The slope wasn’t gentle. There might be a separate uphill path to the entrance, but the one in front of me was a cliff that was almost at a right angle. I could see light from the wall above me.  

"Surely you aren’t going to climb up?” Jin Soo-young asked with an expression of disgust.

"I seem to be repeating this three times, but I don’t intend to force you. If you want to kill something then go on alone.”

"Oh, I don’t feel like it.”

I started to climb.  I concentrated my power on my fingers and toes and moved using the cliff protrusions. The height was approximately five floors and I checked my stamina.  It was the first time I tried rock climbing and it was the height of a high rise apartment. Once I was at a height of one floor up, Jin Soo-young looked up at me and called out.

"Is there really a need to kill the boss?”

I climbed the cliff without answering. The surface of the cliff was gradually changing to bricks.

"You are trying to fight a religion. Even if the command system collapses, there is a possibility that it will actually have an adverse effect on the lower ranks.”  

I continued steadily without answering. Iek. A sound was heard. It was the sound of stones crumbling as Jin Soo-young started climbing.

“...Don’t ignore people who you slept with.”

"It is fairly creative that you found a reason not to be ignored.”  

"Is there any other reason?”

"I don’t know what type of experience you had, but there are many reasons to ignore people that I’ve slept with. Their character. Or their character."

“What...!?”

Before an answer came back, I jumped in a window that the light was coming from. It was a corridor without any people. There was nothing different from a movie based on old Europe. I just felt like this place was more damp and older than the movies.

There wasn’t a clear route, so I let the sacred creature smell again.  Only this time, I had it find the target with the strongest smell within its range.  

-A delicious smell!Two of them!

If this guy said ‘delicious smell’ then it only meant one thing. There had to be an explorer.

'The same as me?’

-Yes. There are two.

They were on the move right now. They weren’t close to me, but I got a sense of the direction they were heading. I slightly changed my order.

Chose the best smell among those that don’t have a delicious aroma of a unique talent.

There was one above me. It exactly matched the direction that the two with unique talents were heading.

"In the end, people think the same.”

I muttered as I turned my head to one side of the corridor. A Tellan had walked around the corner and was looking at me with astonishment.  The suppression was instant.  

“I am a demon.”

“...!”

Indescribable terror filled the man’s eyes. His reaction to my joke was huge.

"Now I will remove my palm from your mouth. If you make a small noise then I will kill your family and drink all of your blood.”

“Crazy bastard.” Jin Soo-young said from behind me.

I ignored her and asked a question. The presence of the ‘stairs’ here and what people ate. Specifically, the number of resources that could be harvested. He was afraid but due to that, the answer emerged quite smoothly. And at that moment...

“... Really useless. This place.” Although it wasn’t exact, Jin Soo-young’s words expressed everything.

The resources were moss that grew without light and groundwater. Specifically, this place didn’t have any resources. According to the lord of the castle, approximately 2,000 people lived here. That was all.

There were no treasures in the castle or secret places. Except for the warehouse where simple armor and weapons were stored, the moss was what they ate as fuel. It was obviously inferior compared to the Kasava of the forest.

I was able to see clearly due to the light from the hallway. The equipment and hygiene were better here, but the development and resources of the forest were much better. It was enough to say that the people here were malnourished.

"A barren wasteland and 2,000 religious fanatics... Well, there is even a lord. I don’t think there is anything to gain from here.” Jin Soo-young nodded as she talked. "There aren’t even treasures or secret places. I will... What, you aren’t killing them?”

“Yes.”

Jin Soo-young stared with outrage as I knocked out the man in the corridor. "Just throw him out the window. If you get caught later, then it will be annoying. Can’t you just kill him?”

"No.”

“...Why?”

“I don’t need to touch his life.”

“Ha!” Hrmm. Jin Soo-young laughed before leaning her head out the window.  

“How funny.”

Below the window, lights were running around. There were the sounds of gongs like fierce battles were occurring elsewhere.  

"I thought you were a broken sociopath, but you’re human after all? Pretending to have principles but changing that behaviour every time...”

I stared at Jin Soo-young. Jin Soo-young jumped at my gaze.

“W-What? Am I lying?”

“I’m going. Don’t follow if you don’t want to.”

I walked down the corridor and stunned any Tellans that I met. As I lay them down in a corner, she repeated. “It really doesn’t make any sense.”

Jin Soo-young was confused but she kept following after me.  We crossed the hall and climbed the spiral staircase. Once we got close to the top floor that was my goal, I didn’t need to hear Jin Soo-young’s whining anymore. It was because the Tellans were already dead.

“This...”

I ignored the surprised Jin Soo-young and kept walking along the blood trail. There were vague screams from afar. The rooms where the lord of the castle stayed had their doors and ceilings beautifully decorated. But now they were just covered in blood. The screams were coming from a door that was cracked open.

They were the screams of a ‘child’ and a woman.

Before opening the door, I looked at Jin Soo-young.  "From now on, follow my lead.”

“...”

"Or just run away now.”

I half opened the door. There were two explorers in the middle of working. The spacious room was filled with the bodies and blood of the Tellans. There were two people alive. One woman was strapped to a chair and was in a severe condition. One eye was swollen, her teeth were pulled out and her mouth was filled with blood.

Yet, it seemed like the people torturing her couldn’t get the answers they wanted. The two explorers were now working on a boy in his mid teens. He looked clean compared to the woman, but one arm was hanging limply. The other arm was being held by a hulking man. The woman was his sister or his mother.  She screamed as the boy was tortured.

"Are there any results?”

When asked, “#%@^^@##%.”

There was an answer in a language I couldn’t speak. Chinese. Mandarin? The number of explorers had been reduced, so it seemed like the dungeon matching system now connected it to overseas explorers.

I worried about it for a moment. Should I speak in English? But... there was one language that everyone in this room would certainly know.

"Release those two.” I spoke in Tellan. The answer came back quickly. It was from a scrawny man beside the woman, rather than the big man holding the boy’s arm. If his hair grew just a little bit longer then he might be mistaken as a woman.

“...North? Or is it the south?”

"Of course, it’s the north.”

“...” The little guy beckoned.  Then the big person dropped the boy he was holding. If this was a manhwa, they were like Vegeta and Nappa from Dragon Ball Z. Unfortunately, these guys weren’t from a manhwa. The two people gradually took positions around me.

I said, "They don’t speak no matter how you torture them, yet you don’t leave this floor. There must be treasure here.”

The first impression was that the little one was a little stronger, but it was confusing since the big guy rarely opened his mouth. The little one continued speaking in English.

"I killed one South Korean person on this floor. His ability was manure in front of China.”  He was obviously trying to provoke me. I knew what he was doing already, so I didn’t get angry.

“Do you know who this is?” I glanced backwards. Jin Soo-young, who was looking at me from a distance, responded to my words by flinching. "She is the daughter of the president of South Korea. Even if you are supported by the country, she is in a different class.”

“Hey. What...”

Jin Soo-young’s eyes became bigger. The eyes of the two Chinese men also widened.

As Director Oh said, they received support from the Chinese government. Furthermore, they were talented enough to have unique talents, so it was almost certain that their country was supporting them.

"There is no need to fight. Will it be fun for you if you mess with us? If you don't want diplomatic issues, then let’s settle this through conversation!”

I thought about it.  It was normal to know the face of the president of a neighbouring country, but would they know his daughter’s face? That’s why I asked Director Oh to give me simple profile pictures of domestic chaebols and high ranking officials tomorrow. I had already proven that I could make social connections in the dungeon.

“...%$%%@.”

They said that they met Koreans already.  

“[email protected]#$.”

“&%5.”

I didn’t know I would meet with the Chinese, but if they knew there was the possibility of meeting Koreans, wouldn’t they know the faces of high-ranking Korean people?

"This is crazy! What just...” As soon as Jin Soo-young was about to come this way,

Pahat!

The two people moved.  

“Young Lady! Run!” I cried out like a loyal bodyguard and blocked the path of the two men. Of course, I heard the sound of Jin Soo-young escaping. The two Chinese also heard the sound.

The small one held a sword. The big one held an axe.

They played like Chinese people. The combination attack was almost perfect. The big one swung his axe at a tremendous speed. I avoided it a few times then let a shallow strike hit my side.  

"Keuk!” The little guy stabbed his sword at me and used the gap where I avoided it to break through.

Bam!

The big man struck me with the side of the axe and I was thrown to one wall.

“$#@%%$%!!” The little man shouted and the big one nodded. Then the little one ran out the door.  

Perhaps he said ‘I will chase the woman and you finish the one here.’ The level of movements I showed was easily dealt with by one person.

"A shame."

“...You speak Korean?”

"I’m not good.” The opponent gazed at me with serious eyes and grabbed his axe with both hands. He continued, "You are strong."

“You too. Don’t feel resentment. You have come this far alone. You will soon realize that it is enough.”

The big man said while attacking. The heavy axe was fast and accurate. The lion was using all its power to catch a rabbit. My body was exactly in the middle of the axe’s path. I didn’t even bother to avoid it.

To be precise, I didn’t need to.

Tak!

“...!?”

It wasn’t as easy as I thought. Even if I grabbed the bottom correctly, it was difficult to take the weight of a fully swung axe with one hand.

“How...?”

"The only thing that was real is the fact that she’s the president’s daughter.”

If I didn’t show any weaknesses, these guys would have handled me 2:1. I didn’t want to fight against two people whose power I was unsure about.  In addition, even if it was possible, Jin Soo-young might try to stab me in the back. This was killing two birds with one stone.

"Don’t feel resentment.”

I repeated what he said before. I pushed the axe with my hand. I hesitated for a moment before gritting my teeth.

Since he was considerate towards me, I would do my best to return the favor.