43
"Have a seat."
Following the elderly man who had personally come out to greet him, Baek Woo-jin stepped out of the elevator and pressed his hips against a sofa that looked undeniably luxurious at the man's words.
He had naturally assumed a hallway would appear when the elevator doors opened, but reality was quite different.
What appeared when the elevator doors parted was not a hallway, but a massive office of such grand scale that most mansions wouldn't even dare to present a business card to it.
"I don't have coffee, but do you enjoy tea?"
"No. Green tea is the only tea I've ever drunk."
"Hahaha!! I like your honesty."
The old man—presumed from the circumstances to be Hong Yeon-ha's grandfather and the Guild Master of the Hongryeon Guild, Hong Ik-hyeon—shook tea leaves into a jade-like vessel and began brewing the tea himself.
Hwaaak!!
Boiling the water with his bare hands, no less.
"It's a medicinal herb good for the body, obtained when we cleared an A-rank dungeon last year."
"I will drink it gratefully."
Although the water had been boiling vigorously when brewing the tea, seemingly too hot to drink, the light brown liquid poured into the cup maintained a surprisingly perfect temperature for drinking.
"How is it? Drinkable?"
"It's a little bitter, but the fragrance is excellent. And it goes down smoothly, too."
"They say that as times progress, what's good for you tastes good too, but things from dungeons aren't like that."
"I'm not particularly picky."
Baek Woo-jin emptied his teacup in one gulp, and the old man, watching him, laughed boisterously once again.
"My chest..."
"Feels like something is boiling up inside?"
"Yes."
"Hehe! That's to be expected. If you drink a whole cup, your mana level increases in proportion to the drinker's growth potential."
"Um..."
If the old man's words were true, then he had essentially already received his reward for saving Hong Yeon-ha's life.
"I have plenty of time, so let's talk once your insides have settled down a bit."
At the old man's consideration, Baek Woo-jin closed his eyes briefly and calmly circulated the boiling mana in his chest, repeatedly spreading and retrieving it throughout his body.
"Huuuu."
He didn't know how much time had passed, but he could tell that a considerable amount had gone by.
"I apologize."
"Not at all. No worries. Hehe!!"
Checking the time, a full three hours had passed, but the old man seemed to be in an even better mood than when they had met in the elevator, laughing widely enough to reveal his perfectly even teeth.
"An old man shouldn't hold onto a young fellow for too long."
Anyone could see the situation was the exact opposite, but the old man seemed to genuinely believe so.
"Without dragging it out, before we get to the main point, I must first express my gratitude."
Although he was seated, the old man bowed his head to Baek Woo-jin without a moment's hesitation.
"That child, Yeon-ha, is a very precious daughter that my son barely managed to have, and my granddaughter."
"Please raise your head. It's burdensome."
"Hehe, alright then."
The old man—no, as expected, the master of the Hongryeon Guild, Hong Ik-hyeon—raised his head and laughed refreshingly once more. Schroidin was like that too; the elders he'd met recently all laughed a lot.
"I've expressed my gratitude, so now let's move on to the main topic: the reward for saving my granddaughter."
"I will accept whatever you give me. However, knowing that woman was suspicious when she approached yet keeping my mouth shut makes me feel uncomfortable just taking it like this."
"Don't worry about the trivial details. You left her alone because you were confident you could handle it, right? If the outcome had been poor, we wouldn't be sitting here smiling at each other like this anyway."
Hong Ik-hyeon revealed his even teeth once more and laughed freely.
"As you can see, I am sitting across from you with a smile. If you're born a man, isn't it only natural to harbor at least the ambition to rise high? Even if the means to do so was my granddaughter, as I just said, you succeeded splendidly, so I won't concern myself with that point."
He took a sip of the remaining tea in his cup to wet his throat.
"Furthermore, you confessed to a conscience you didn't need to reveal, which makes me like you even more. That child, Yeon-ha, only praised you; she didn't disclose such fine details."
"I see."
"Hehe, anyway, this old man's thoughts haven't changed from the beginning until now, so if there's anything special you want, go ahead and say it."
They hadn't met long ago, but Baek Woo-jin felt like he understood what kind of disposition Hong Ik-hyeon possessed.
"Then, I would like to have a weapon or a piece of armor."
"A safe choice. Wait a moment."
Hong Ik-hyeon headed to his work desk, brought over a tablet, and held it out to Baek Woo-jin.
"Write down the maker and price of the weapon and armor you're currently using."
"I remember the weapon, but I don't quite recall the armor. However, I do have the armor with me right now."
Baek Woo-jin placed the leather armor, which he had endured an earful of nagging over from Jang Hye-na, onto the table from his bag.
"...Did you prepare this in advance to look pitiful?"
"No. I actually use it. If you ask Miss Yeon-ha, you'd find out right away, so there's no reason for me to do that."
"Haha, well I'll be."
Riiip!
When Hong Ik-hyeon grabbed the chest armor with both hands and pulled, the chest piece tore in half with a bursting sound, like wet paper.
"They say geniuses always have a screw loose in their heads."
I'm certainly no genius; I just regressed. But if someone with a screw loose isn't a genius, doesn't that just make me a madman?
"And the weapon?"
"The weapon is custom-made, but..."
Baek Woo-jin operated the tablet, wrote down the Blacksmith Guild he had commissioned and the price, and held it out.
"And you took down a Warrior in one hit with this piece of junk?"
"Subdued... um, yes."
The look in Hong Ik-hyeon's eyes as he stared at Baek Woo-jin was somewhere between looking at a rough gemstone and a madman.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Hong Ik-hyeon drummed his fingers on the sofa armrest for a while before taking out his smartphone and asking, "Do you happen to like standing out?"
"No."
"Of course. If you did, I wouldn't have heard your name from that child, Yeon-ha."
Hong Ik-hyeon nodded and rapidly tapped on his smartphone screen.
"What's your number?"
"010......"
After he gave the number, a little while later, a message flew into Baek Woo-jin's smartphone.
"If you go there, they'll take care of you, so visit at a time that's convenient for you."
"Thank you."
"It's fine. It's not like I gave you something you couldn't find anywhere else, and what's the thanks for spending a few bucks?"
The two put away their smartphones.
"The reward is settled. Then there's only one thing left."
Was there still more to discuss?
As Hong Ik-hyeon, who had been laughing freely since their first meeting, put on a serious expression, Baek Woo-jin, who had been sitting comfortably, also straightened his posture considerably to match the atmosphere.
"The dagger Yeon-ha brought is under investigation, and I roughly heard what the culprit was spouting. Naturally, we plan to start our own investigation as well, but if any separate information comes in from the Association, I'd like you to let me know."
"I'm not sure if I can give you any meaningful news, but if I happen to hear anything, I will do so."
"Hehe, thank you."
Hong Ik-hyeon rose from his seat, and Baek Woo-jin stood up following him.
"Originally, I was going to have Yeon-ha guide you to the workshop, but since you said you dislike standing out."
"Thank you."
"......"
Hong Ik-hyeon's eyes, which had been laughing as if he liked everything Baek Woo-jin said, narrowed into sharp slits for the first time.
It was such a blatant change that it would be strange not to notice, but Baek Woo-jin simply walked steadily, looking only ahead like someone who knew absolutely nothing.
"You said you were twenty, right?"
"Yes."
"Our Yeon-ha is twenty as well."
"Yes."
"Hmm."
His left cheek stung, but he just kept looking ahead.
Fortunately, Hong Ik-hyeon's questions didn't continue. A slightly awkward silence ensued, but thanks to the elevator arriving at just the right moment, no major problems arose.
"Come by to drink tea sometime."
"I'll be going now."
"So stubborn."
Look who's talking.
Baek Woo-jin bowed his head in greeting and closed the elevator doors.
"...My guard slipped."
It was a conversation held within goodwill, but because of who the other party was, it was hard to let go of the tension.
Ding.
'......?'
The elevator seemed to descend briefly before suddenly stopping at the 9th floor. And standing outside the open doors was Hong Yeon-ha, her fiery red hair neatly arranged, unlike her grandfather's.
"Oh my, what a coincidence."
"Please get on."
"So stiff."
Hong Yeon-ha boarded the elevator and pressed the lit button for the 1st floor, turning off its light.
"What did Grandpa give you?"
"A weapon and armor. And he brewed me a cup of tea with medicinal herbs from a dungeon."
"Hmm, is that so?"
From her slight hmph, one could tell that Hong Yeon-ha's mood had improved.
Hong Yeon-ha pressed the unlit 1st-floor button again and continued speaking.
"Let's exchange contact info."
"I absolutely hate standing out."
"I have some tact too, you know?"
Baek Woo-jin thought for a moment before taking out his smartphone and exchanging numbers with Hong Yeon-ha.
"If by any chance you're interested in touring an upper-rank dungeon, contact me."
Baek Woo-jin's head, which had been full of thoughts of quickly going to the Association to check his mana level, turned.
Dungeons from D to F-rank are Lower Dungeons.
Dungeons from C to A-rank are classified as Upper Dungeons.
And from the C-rank dungeon, which is classified as an Upper Dungeon, the difficulty of dungeons spikes drastically. This is because, unlike Lower Dungeons where you can enter and exit at will, from Upper Dungeons onward, Theme Dungeons appear—dungeons from which you cannot escape until specific clearing conditions are met upon entry.
Also, from this point on, the growth gap between hunters belonging to large guilds and those in small-to-medium guilds or unguilded hunters widens drastically.
It's a natural principle; the reward scale of a normal dungeon where you can just go in, kill monsters, and leave whenever you want, could never be the same as a dungeon where failure to clear guarantees death.
He was already planning to drop by the Association and have a conversation with Heo Sang-min on this very topic.
Just as he was thinking about it, an offer came in as if she had aimed for that exact moment.
Ding.
The elevator arrived at the 1st floor.
"I will contact you soon."
Baek Woo-jin, who stated his intentions before the doors even opened, left the Hongryeon Guild, leaving behind Hong Yeon-ha, who was looking at him with a slightly subtle gaze.