Episode 3
Black hair that looked brown when it caught the light. Red eyes gleaming beneath deep-set brow bones.
It was an appearance that seized people’s gazes in an instant, as befitted a protagonist. Han Chasu’s heart also dropped. Unlike the others, however, it was not because he was shocked by Jeong Iheun’s looks.
‘…
He’s going to torture me like that with this face, is that it?’
The moment their eyes met, the events of the original work naturally came to mind. The image of him driven mad by the death of the younger brother he loved so dearly.
“Mm….”
Though right now he had not yet fallen into darkness and was probably so kind and gentle that people called him a pushover, Han Chasu still felt reluctant.
He quietly took one step farther away from him.
Meanwhile, Baek Seon seemed delighted to have met the guild master and was yapping away like a puppy wagging its tail.
“Aren’t you supposed to go straight down to Jeju Island? Why are you dawdling here?”
“You don’t need to make such a fuss. I won’t ruin your vacation, Baek Seon. More importantly, what brings someone from the manufacturing team here?”
Jeong Iheun naturally turned his head and looked at Han Chasu. He gave off the air of someone who would not move until he heard an answer.
He really does have sharp instincts. Is it because he’s the protagonist? Han Chasu swallowed a sigh and bowed his head.
“I’m Han Chasu from Potion Manufacturing Team One. I heard that a material needed for the potion we’re newly researching comes from the Frost Giant Dungeon, so I volunteered.”
As he spoke, showing the boxes filling his hands, Jeong Iheun’s eyebrow twitched.
“A new research material?”
“Yes. It’s a sample that must be collected and chemically treated immediately, so I had no choice but to participate. I’ll be careful not to get in the raid team’s way, so you don’t need to worry.”
Han Chasu said that and bowed his head once more.
‘If I’ve done this much, just let it pass.’
Right now, his heart was full of the desire to get this over with quickly and resign.
“Isn’t that amazing, Guild Master? This is the first time I’ve seen someone from the manufacturing team be this motivated.”
“Indeed.”
A strange light flashed through Jeong Iheun’s red eyes.
“I didn’t know we had someone like this in our guild.”
Judging by the words alone, it was praise, but the way he murmured it in a low voice somehow felt meaningful.
A chill ran down the back of Han Chasu’s neck. He subtly lifted his head, then immediately lowered his gaze back to the floor.
Those scarlet eyes were staring straight through him. The look in them seemed tinged with interest, and it was burdensome.
‘This is driving me crazy.’
Swallowing the sigh that threatened to escape, Han Chasu pretended to be calm.
Could he already know what this body had done?
Otherwise, that gaze was heavy enough to be hard to understand.
‘Even if he’s a kindhearted pushover, I suppose an S-rank is still an S-rank.’
For some reason, the torture scene from the novel came to mind, and cold sweat trickled down the back of his neck.
Fortunately, Jeong Iheun’s attention soon shifted away.
“Understood. Having a potion maker join the support team puts me much more at ease. I’ll be counting on you for today’s raid.”
“Yes….”
Having a technician who could make potions on the spot made a raid incredibly easier.
Jeong Iheun’s expression had become noticeably softer, as if he was pleased that his younger brother’s raid would become easier.
‘He really is an incredible doting fool when it comes to his brother…. Not that I wanted to experience that firsthand.’
Perhaps because his brother was terminally ill, his affection for him was enormous.
Han Chasu nodded, doing his best to hide his coldly cooled eyes. Baek Seon had already stuck himself to him again at some point.
“Then goodbye, Guild Master. We’ll go get our equipment first!”
“Then I’ll be going.”
Afraid Jeong Iheun might hold him back again, Han Chasu quickly left with Baek Seon.
‘Ah, I want to finish this quickly and resign.’
Following the voice calling for the auxiliary team to gather this way, Han Chasu moved his feet.
For some reason, it felt as though something sharp was pricking into his back, but it was probably just his imagination.
***
Jeong Iheun watched the limousine bus grow distant, then turned his head.
The deputy guild master, who had approached at some point, clicked his tongue with his arms crossed.
“If someone saw you, they’d think you’d just left behind a five-year-old child.”
“Seoheun does look that way.”
When Jeong Iheun answered gently, the deputy guild master shook his head.
“Now that you’ve seen him leave, we should start getting ready too. The other guilds have started bitching about whether we’re throwing our weight around.”
Jeong Iheun quietly listened to the deputy guild master’s grumbling for a while.
Then, looking in the direction the bus had disappeared, he abruptly spoke.
“Do you remember the people in Potion Manufacturing Team One?”
“Manufacturing Team One? I know Team Leader Im and a few researchers.”
The deputy guild master tilted his head as if asking why he was suddenly bringing that up.
“Why all of a sudden? Are you changing the subject?”
His slightly narrowed eyes fixed on Jeong Iheun.
Jeong Iheun began walking and spoke as if in passing.
“A person named Han Chasu volunteered for the auxiliary team today.”
“Han Chasu? Who’s that… Ah!”
The deputy guild master’s eyes widened. He hurriedly followed after him and asked Jeong Iheun as if to confirm whether it was true.
“That shaggy-haired guy with glasses who was always trying so hard to bump into you at the company cafeteria?”
“Yes.”
Though today, perhaps he had thrown those tacky glasses away somewhere, because he had shown his bare face.
“We’ll know what he’s thinking if we wait and see.”
Putting the red bead he had been holding into his coat, Jeong Iheun murmured.
***
The limousine bus stopped at a low mountain on the outskirts of Seoul. Han Chasu looked out the window with curiosity, then got off the bus after the others.
“Want to go eat galbi after this is over?”
“No thanks. I have to go home today. My mom keeps nagging me about why I haven’t come by.”
A conversation so leisurely it was practically peaceful.
Raid Team One showed no tension, busy laughing among themselves and slapping each other’s shoulders.
Han Chasu tilted his head, wondering why their discipline was so lax, then soon realized.
‘Ah, these people don’t know.’
Then again, the Frost Giant’s rampage was that unbelievable of an accident.
It had never happened in any of the previous raids. It was only natural that people were not prepared for it.
Han Chasu fell quietly into thought at the very end of the line moving toward the dungeon.
As they walked, Baek Seon, who had gone over to the support team, kept glancing this way, but Han Chasu couldn’t tell what he was saying.
Deciding to ask later, Han Chasu turned his head. Ahead, he saw a man leading the group.
With a sturdy build, a tall frame, and features a little sharper than his older brother’s, he was Jeong Seoheun.
A fire-type A-rank Hunter and the ranker serving as the leader of today’s raid team.
Han Chasu had considered subtly bringing up the Frost Giant’s rampage to him. After all, the precautions of the raid team leader would be far more reliable than the countermeasures of a B-rank production-type.
But he soon abandoned that plan.
‘I can’t stand out no matter what until I resign.’
In any case, the goal was to save Jeong Seoheun, not to clear the dungeon.
A potion maker who had never even entered a dungeon suddenly predicting the dungeon’s future and giving a warning?
That was practically shouting at them to suspect and be wary of him outright.
‘If I’m unlucky, they might even suspect me of being a spy.’
Even if not, there was room for them to suspect that he had a foresight skill at the very least, or that he had obtained information about the dungeon in advance through some other route.
For Han Chasu, whose goal was to resign and disappear as quietly as possible, that was something that absolutely could not happen.
He moved his fingers and opened his inventory.
Reagents of every color sloshed inside, flaunting their existence.
They were the items that had been inside the boxes he had carried with Baek Seon all the way to the training hall.
Han Chasu’s eyes shone coldly as he looked at the colorful reagent bottles.
‘Whatever happens, all I have to do is save Jeong Seoheun.’
Then I can resign.
As he renewed his resolve to quit, they had already arrived halfway up the mountain.
In the middle of an artificially made clearing where the trees had been cut down, the entrance to a gate glowing green could be seen.
‘Green, not even orange. No wonder no one imagined a rampage would happen.’
There were many ways to measure the danger level of a dungeon, but simplified, they were largely classified into three colors.
Red, yellow, and green.
Among them, green meant a dungeon with almost no risk of rampage. It was a mark given to places considered safe even among permanent dungeons.
Woooong—
Not long after they arrived, Raid Team One smoothly entered the Frost Giant Dungeon.
Since it was a dungeon they had already been to several times, there was no sense of tension.
That was when they crossed the snowy field, pushed through the coniferous forest, and headed toward the frost giants’ dwelling.
“What is that?”
At first, they thought it was a mountain peak protruding above the coniferous forest.
But the moment its two ears twitched at the group’s small whispers, they realized it was a monster.
And a monster with such an enormous body that, even from this far away, its gleaming eyes could be seen clearly.
“Shit…!”
Along with someone’s curse, a roar that shook the earth pierced their eardrums.
Kyaooooo—!
A wave of sound shook the air.
Immediately afterward, shaggy giants well over thirty meters tall began rushing toward them in a horde.
“Hey, run.”
“Everyone, retreat!”
Along with tremors that shook the ground, everyone began running at once.
However, their escape was soon blocked by an enormous barrier.
Whooooosh—!
“A blizzard?”
In Jeong Seoheun’s upturned eyes, he saw one unusually shaped frost giant.
It wore a necklace strung with skulls and swung a staff topped with a crystal.
“There’s a shaman among the frost giants?!”
Along with a cry full of shock, the blizzard swept over the group.
“Aaaargh!”
“Everyone, dodge!”
Saaaaaa—
With a chilling sound, sharp ice dug into the gaps between their armor.
[ The frenzied Frost Giant Shaman casts ‘Blizzard.’ ]
[ The chill of Blizzard seeps into your entire body! ]
[ Your body temperature is falling! ]
[ Your body temperature is falling! ]
[ Your body temperature is falling! ]
Warning messages flashed rapidly before their eyes.
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