8
A hand axe flew toward three goblins walking through the forest, making an unpleasant sound as if scraping roughly against a throat.
Keuk──?!
The flying hand axe embedded itself precisely into the spine line prominently revealed by the emaciated skin and hunched back. Spitting out a short death rattle, the goblin struck by the hand axe tumbled forward as if bounced away.
Seogeok.
Almost simultaneously with the hand axe, the necks of the remaining two goblins rolled to the ground, severed by the sword swung by Baek Woo-jin who had leapt out from the bushes.
"Huu."
Having instantly dispatched two, Baek Woo-jin approached the goblin with the axe embedded in its back and drove his sword, dripping with the blood of its kin, into its neck to finish it off.
Having cleanly hunted all three, Baek Woo-jin drew a dagger, skillfully extracted the heart, and placed it in his bag.
'The efficiency is too low.'
Four hours had already passed since entering the dungeon. He knew himself that expecting efficiency like yesterday's party would be unreasonable, so he didn't even hope for that much. Still, he thought he could fill at least a little more than a third.
But reality is always cruel.
Despite wandering around for four hours, the goblin hearts in Baek Woo-jin's bag totaled only eight, including the one he had just collected.
The fact that hunting itself was tricky because even though he could see the red lines, his stats weren't overwhelmingly superior contributed somewhat, but it wasn't the fundamental reason.
'There are too many people.'
Proving that the word "popular" wasn't attached to the dungeon for nothing, there were far too many hunters who had formed parties inside the dungeon.
It made him wonder if every E-rank hunter in Seoul had gathered here, as if to prove it wasn't a government-owned public dungeon for nothing.
Even catching the three earlier was only possible because the two parties that had been active in this area had left the dungeon after fulfilling their quotas. Otherwise, he would have waited for an opportunity only to have the aggro stolen by a party's tanker and missed his chance.
Many ordinary people think of the inside of a dungeon as a kind of lawless zone, which is half right and half wrong information.
Paradoxically, lawless zones had implicit rules that existed precisely because they were lawless zones. After all, the fact that I could freely swing my sword at my opponent also meant that my opponent could thrust a cold blade into my body at any time.
Preemption of monsters was recognized not by discovery but by the hunter who first drew aggro. This was one of the few rules that existed inside dungeons.
Since he could see the red line but, due to stat issues unlike with the Ratman, couldn't properly aim for the line even though it was visible, Baek Woo-jin had no choice but to naturally hide his body and wait for opportunities, and in the meantime, other parties came and took the goblins' aggro, resulting in him coming up empty-handed until now.
"Still, I think I can fill about half before sunset."
No time to rest.
Thinking to kill as many goblins as possible before another party moved into this area, Baek Woo-jin organized his position and moved on.
**
2 hours later.
"I'm exhausted."
Just when he thought a spot had finally opened up, that empty space was filled with new parties in no time. It seemed the parties that had occupied the area first had dropped words to the parties preparing to enter as they went out.
Thanks to that, the number of goblins hunted in two hours was merely seven.
'Starting tomorrow, I should move to an unpopular dungeon.'
Baek Woo-jin took out a dagger and slit the belly of the goblin he had just killed, still warm.
"What's this?"
A small, dull-colored stone embedded near the heart.
If the magic stones rarely found inside higher-rank dungeons were blue, this dull stone occasionally found inside monsters when killed was called a mana stone.
As could be seen from the color alone, magic stones contained pure mana while mana stones contained turbid mana that required refinement once.
"They say the first streak determines the game, but in my case, it's the opposite."
Compared to magic stones, its value was very low, but that was only when compared to magic stones. A mana stone of this size would be worth about thirty goblin hearts.
'Money secured.'
He was already planning to head back around this time, but to think such a jackpot would hit at the very end.
Feeling much better, Baek Woo-jin reached out to pull out the mana stone embedded in the goblin heart, and.
"Wha— what?!"
The moment the mana stone touched his right hand, it was sucked into the ring like a dispersing mirage, causing him to raise his voice for the first time since his regression.
"What the..."
There's nothing as devastating as watching money evaporate before your eyes. But having lost everything once before, Baek Woo-jin quickly shook off the shock and turned his eyes to the ring that had arbitrarily absorbed the mana stone.
The color of the gem embedded in the ring was a bright crimson red, like blood. And now, having absorbed the mana stone, he could see that the very bottom of the gem was tinted with a very faint blue color.
"Damn."
Rough words burst from Baek Woo-jin's mouth as he unintentionally discovered the ring's ability.
The old man hadn't told him to keep the ring safe for nothing. He must have said that because he needed this ring to meet the old man again.
Before his regression, the gem embedded in the ring he had taken out from the magic stone was definitely blue, so he was already convinced that if he dyed the red gem blue again, whatever it entailed, he would meet the old man again.
The problem was that it was invisible to others and showed no particular change even when killing monsters in the dungeon, so while he thought it might be related to magic stones, he never imagined it would be like this.
'No, let's think positively.'
There was no doubt that the old man was an extraordinary being. So if he had made up his mind to get stronger, rather than being preoccupied with a few pennies right now, dyeing the gem blue a little faster and advancing the timing of reuniting with the old man might be a better choice when looking a bit further into the future.
'It's decided.'
He had already planned to change dungeons, but thanks to his purpose changing from earning money while getting stronger to getting stronger while collecting mana stones, the range of dungeon selection became clear.
Dungeons with high danger levels but disproportionately low byproduct values.
Having finished organizing his thoughts, Baek Woo-jin organized his position and came out of the dungeon.
Perhaps because the sun was starting to set, the face of the official sitting at the management office had changed.
"That's 110,000 won."
It was an incredibly meager settlement for 6 hours of risking his life.
**
The next day.
"Sir!!"
About to get out of the taxi, Baek Woo-jin took the business card offered by the driver.
"If you call us again when you're heading back, I'll serve you quickly and safely."
"Your car must have gotten dirty."
"I was actually planning to wash it tomorrow anyway."
"Understood."
Parting with a smile, Baek Woo-jin walked up the trail and arrived at a spacious clearing. And only after repeating the processes he had experienced earlier could he enter the dungeon.
By count, it was his third dungeon, but he didn't feel any particular difference from the Ratman and Goblin dungeons he had visited earlier. That was because all three were environments composed of bushes and trees.
"This should hold up for one hit."
With the stone-filled bag strapped to his front, Baek Woo-jin lightly warmed up near the safe zone to adapt to the weight before moving to find monsters.
'I can definitely feel the lack of popularity.'
Unlike yesterday when he had searched for goblins for a long time, this time he didn't have to walk far before discovering a pure white rabbit peacefully grazing.
Horned Rabbit.
Literally translated as horned rabbit, as the name suggests, it's a rabbit with a large, hard horn on its forehead.
Excluding the horn, it looks like a docile rabbit, but those who approached thinking that way were either killed or permanently disabled by its headbutt, augmented by the propulsive force of its abnormally developed hind legs.
'They said the leather is ridiculously tough so blades don't cut well.'
Recalling the guide he had memorized through the community, Baek Woo-jin boldly revealed himself in front of the Horned Rabbit.
Kyu?
Surprised by the sudden uninvited guest, the creature grazing made a cute sound while aiming the horn on its head toward Baek Woo-jin.
"Huu."
Exhaling a long breath, Baek Woo-jin drew his sword.
Pahat──!!
As if it had been waiting, the Horned Rabbit charged at Baek Woo-jin.
'It's not as fast as I thought!'
If he hadn't been wearing the stone-filled bag, it would have been a speed he could have dodged. But since he was wearing the stone bag now, Baek Woo-jin immediately threw away the sword in his hand and took the Horned Rabbit's headbutt with his entire body.
"Crazy rabbit bastard...!!"
Even though he charged in the same way, he was pushed back and almost lost his balance momentarily.
Kkyueok?!
With its horn embedded in the stone-filled bag, the Horned Rabbit, feeling the pressure of its neck being constricted, began to struggle with all its might.
"Die, you bastard!!"
"Kyureureuk..."
After wrestling with the creature for a while, the Horned Rabbit, whose neck had been strangled by Baek Woo-jin's blood vessel-popping hands, went limp. And then the headache began.
"As expected..."
This made it almost certain.
The condition for information of killed monsters to flow in was probably that they had to be killed without anyone else's help.
"Damn it. It's only been two days."
The bag, which had a hole the size of a fist punched through it, started spilling out the stones it contained, so he just abandoned it right there.
'I need to get stronger as quickly as possible.'
At this rate, all the money he had saved in his bank account would disappear within a month or two.
**
"Haa, would it kill them to stick together a bit more?"
Park Jung-min, a government-affiliated C-rank hunter, continuously grumbled as he walked up the trail. Dungeons needed to be strictly managed because if left alone, monsters inside would continue to multiply and an outbreak would occur once they reached a certain number.
And Park Jung-min was a hunter belonging to the government's dungeon management department, assigned to manage the population of unpopular dungeons.
"Keep up the good work."
"You're here."
"No unusual incidents, right? I'll go clean up right away."
The official tried to say something, but Park Jung-min, thirsty to get off work, threw himself into the dungeon much faster.
"Little bunnies~"
Drawing his sword, Park Jung-min took out a test tube containing pink liquid from the simple bag strapped below his thigh and sprayed the liquid on his sword.
It was a liquid that concentrated the smell of grass leaves that Horned Rabbits loved.
"Our cute little ones~ Won't you come out quickly so oppa can get off work?"
Stepping on the bushes as if taking a walk without any sense of tension, Park Jung-min discovered the Horned Rabbit he had so wanted.
"What's this."
Approaching the cold, lifeless corpse of the Horned Rabbit, Park Jung-min stroked his chin with interest.
'Is this from a dagger?'
The wound on its neck was a trace of something sharp piercing through.
"Why is the belly slit open?"
Though they couldn't make money, the only sellable parts were the leather and horn, but leaving those two, the belly was wide open as if trying to find something.
"Whoever it is, thanks for reducing my workload."
Though minimal, it was true that they had reduced his work, so Park Jung-min thanked the nameless hunter and moved his feet again to find more Horned Rabbits.
"Oh, three here?"
Must be a pretty skilled party.
However, Park Jung-min's relaxed thoughts gradually began to change as the number of Horned Rabbit corpses discovered increased with every step he took.
"What the hell is this?"
The number of discovered corpses had already exceeded 60.
Considering the quota to be processed was 100, he had achieved more than half the target without swinging his sword even once.
"They said there were no unusual incidents."
Muttering words that would have made the official make an extremely absurd expression if they had heard, Park Jung-min moved on again.