Episode 10
A long corridor.
The place he descended to was designed like the hallway of a condominium.
This place was underground.
This obvious fact was extremely important to Jonghyeon.
An underground facility naturally required ventilation ducts.
And as expected, a ventilation duct existed directly above the hallway entrance.
*'And from the perspective of those who built the structure, this is the correct design.'*
There was no one in the hallway.
An executive had told the guild members they were conducting some kind of research. Jonghyeon knew what that meant.
*'It's definitely because of the envelope.'*
Jonghyeon looked up at the ventilation duct on the ceiling.
This ventilation duct would be connected to every room.
Jonghyeon opened the hallway ventilation grate as quietly as possible and climbed up into it.
Expert technique.
As if to prove Jonghyeon's suspicion that this was no amateur workmanship, the inside of the ventilation duct was high enough for a person to walk through.
Furthermore, he could see at a glance that the structure connected to each room.
Before starting the assassination, Jonghyeon moved around and first counted their numbers.
The number of executives was twelve in total.
The guild master, Black Dave, was literally a Black man.
The aura he radiated just by looking at him was no joke—the bearing and energy emanating from a body trained in martial arts.
He was a much stronger opponent than Jonghyeon had anticipated.
Those gathered in the meeting room were seven martial artists and two mages.
The rest were sleeping in their own rooms.
Without moving rashly, Jonghyeon quietly waited for everyone to return to their rooms.
They had been in a meeting until quite late, but finally began returning to their rooms.
The most fundamental part of assassination:
*'No noise must be made.'*
The rooms were roughly the size of two small boarding rooms combined.
Fortunately, perhaps because they lived communally, it seemed they had constructed the soundproofing for each room quite well to protect privacy.
Even from above the ventilation ducts, he could tell by the thickness of the walls between rooms.
Still, having prepared for every contingency, Jonghyeon moved over to the ventilation duct of Room 1.
Having removed the grate, Jonghyeon landed silently and pierced the throat.
Before the white mage, who had been on his computer, could even look up to wonder what the sound was—
In that brief moment, unable to even make a sound, he died with the short sword lodged in his throat, still in that same posture.
In this manner, Jonghyeon killed eight of the twelve executives.
There were some capable individuals who noticed, but they couldn't match Jonghyeon's speed.
When people let their guard down, they are left more defenseless than one might think.
Jonghyeon was thoroughly exploiting that fact right now.
Just then,
**"We're in big trouble!!!"**
To Jonghyeon in the ventilation duct heading to the next room, a familiar voice called out from the hallway.
Observing the hallway situation from the ventilation duct, Jonghyeon could quickly tell who it was.
*'This voice. It's that guy who came to me offering a deal earlier.'*
Shortly after, Black Dave and the remaining executives all came out of their rooms.
**"What's with the commotion?"**
At Black Dave's words, a white man with a tearful face spoke.
**"Some damn bastard killed all our guild members. I went up for a moment because there was a radio transmission, but..."**
**"What?"**
Another executive, finding it odd that some executives still hadn't emerged, shouted while opening another room's door.
**"Hey. Rainslot!"**
The executive called the already-deceased white man Rainslot as he shook him.
*'That mage from earlier.'*
Hearing the voice, he could be certain.
That voice that had been chanting spells.
Only the more troublesome ones remained.
It was true that Jonghyeon had determined the order and assassinated from weakest to strongest.
Because if he failed while assassinating the strong ones first, the probability of it devolving into a one-versus-many was high.
In cases where only strong ones remained like this, Jonghyeon always chose one of two options.
*'Kill them all, or wait for the next opportunity.'*
But the current situation was one where he had accepted a commission.
If he waited for the next opportunity, they would clearly go into hiding.
Not only would things not go as Jonghyeon planned, but he also hadn't found the envelope.
*'But fighting prepared enemies—and moreover only the strongest ones gathered here—is too much of a gamble.'*
Then one of the executives opened his mouth.
**"Should we report this to the police?"**
**"Are you crazy? Anyone capable of slaughtering our guild members like that is no ordinary person. That's not someone the police can do anything about!"**
While Jonghyeon was thinking, the executives and Black Dave began arguing amongst themselves.
Black Dave thought deeply before speaking.
**"Quiet."**
Perhaps because Black Dave carried considerable authority as guild master, the hallway fell silent for a moment.
Everyone looked at Black Dave, and he continued.
**"For now, whether we report it or not, the one who did the slaughtering has probably already escaped. If not, he's still inside."**
*'Tch.'*
Jonghyeon felt a chill.
**"We'll request backup and such tomorrow. For today, the remaining personnel—that is, the five of us including me—will split into twos and threes and sleep."**
It was quite a wise decision.
The place was a bit cramped for all five to lie down.
And if they gathered to sleep in the meeting room, the large table in the middle would be a problem.
**"Stinger, Mitchell, you're sleeping with me. The great undertaking is almost upon us anyway. As long as we have you two, we can rebuild the guild."**
Having finished speaking, Black Dave and the executives returned to their respective rooms.
Of all things, the mage he was most wary of and that leader from earlier were sleeping in the same room as Black Dave.
The other two were also not alone, but pairs. Since he couldn't stab them simultaneously, one would definitely react, making it five against one.
Even if he killed one, it would be four against one.
It was a similarly disadvantageous fight.
*'But mental warfare is my specialty.'*
Jonghyeon's calculations were complete.
It was time to execute.
★ ★ ★
**"Hello?"**
With a friendly greeting, Jonghyeon plunged his blade into the throat of one of the two white men.
"Kck... kck!"
Unable to even make a proper sound, the white man with Jonghyeon's short sword embedded in his throat died instantly.
*Ting—!*
Jonghyeon quickly pulled the short sword from the throat and parried the incoming blade.
**"It's the enemy!"**
The remaining one shouted at the same time as the blade clash, and from outside, the sound of someone running began to be heard.
*'Damn! They left the door open. Well, it doesn't matter.'*
Jonghyeon had trusted the soundproofing to some degree, but they weren't fools and had left the door open.
Because Jonghyeon had been in the ventilation duct, his field of vision had inevitably been limited, so this was a detail he hadn't been able to check.
In truth, it didn't matter.
He had been fully prepared to fight two against one.
*'And it's not even me who will be fighting.'*
**"You bastard!"**
From behind, a dagger flew with Stinger's shout.
At that moment!
*Pung—*
Along with smoke, Jonghyeon was seen blocking the dagger with his sword.
It was odd that the weapon had changed from a short sword to a sword, but the two had already lost their reason and began charging at Jonghyeon.
**"Did you kill all our guild members, you bastard?"**
Without answering, Jonghyeon clashed swords.
Then a shout was heard from outside as well.
**"The enemy is here too!"**
It was Mitchell, the mage's voice.
Black Dave had only sent Stinger to them in the first place.
In preparation for the possibility that there might be multiple enemies.
**"So there were multiple after all."**
With enemies in the rooms on both sides, Stinger visibly hesitated over which side to support.
*Finish here quickly and go to the guild master.*
Stinger reached that conclusion.
But Jonghyeon silently swung his sword and poured attacks on the two, and the attacks were fiercer than expected.
Sword techniques of such precision that they were unbelievable for an assassin.
To be precise, his defense was first-class rather than his offense.
For the guild, which needed to deal with things quickly, this was the worst situation.
Stinger made a decision.
**"Sorry, Feather."**
Stinger had to match his timing with the attack of the man called Feather and attack Jonghyeon in tandem.
Only then could Stinger share the attacks being poured onto Feather.
But Stinger sacrificed Feather.
He deliberately concentrated the attacks on himself to put Feather in mortal danger, then targeted the opening in Jonghyeon's focus and stabbed him in the back.
As the sword plunged into Feather's body, the dagger also plunged into Jonghyeon's back.
But Jonghyeon, with the blade stuck in his back, suddenly emitted smoke and disappeared somewhere.
**"Krrgh... Stinger, you bastard!"**
Feather was in a critical state from Jonghyeon's blade.
Gasping what was almost his final breath, he glared at Stinger as if to kill him, but Stinger left only an apology and began running to his guild master.
The guild master's safety took priority over finding Jonghyeon, who had disappeared along with the smoke.
**"You bastard. Why are you here?"**
Stinger's expression was one of shock.
Wasn't Jonghyeon, whom he had definitely stabbed in the back, standing in front of the guild master without a single wound?
**"Ah, so two of them was too much after all. Still, it seems you took care of one."**
Jonghyeon sneered, his voice devoid of laughter.
The item Jonghyeon had used was none other than the *Wooden Puppet's Leaf*.
An incredible item he had received merely for clearing the 1st Stage.
The explanation was simple.
Substitution technique.
[If you cut the lower part of the leaf and press it against your body while infusing it with ki, a tattoo will be created at the desired location. When the tattoo is made, the leaf becomes bound.
It switches your position with the leaf's position, with yourself as the reference.
It summons a wooden puppet with 80% of your abilities in your previous location.
The user moves to the leaf's location.
-Applicable within a 5m radius.
-If the wooden puppet is destroyed, unusable for 5 days until regeneration.
-Wooden puppet duration is 5 minutes. Basic cooldown after use is one day.
Activation condition: activates when ki is infused into the tattoo.]
Using this item, Jonghyeon had cleared the 3rd Stage.
Of course, at first he had planned to clear it through a very simple method: procuring a cannon or some firearm from outside and firing at the stone statue without triggering its reaction.
Even if the cannon didn't work on the Giant Stone Statue, it wouldn't have mattered.
*'After all, the monsters in normal dungeons are practically immune to guns and cannons anyway.'*
But Jonghyeon needed to buy time. He planned to fire several cannons to draw the statue's attention while attacking from behind.
But for some reason, this training dungeon did not allow firearms or cannons to be brought inside.
No, it was the same even if he tried to bring in other weapons or bows.
It seemed entry was impossible with any weapon other than the one Jonghyeon had when he first bound this dungeon.
Even just carrying them, a barrier-like thing at the entrance kept repelling Jonghyeon.
It was almost like being cut at the entrance of a club.
*'What the hell is with this restriction...'*
He worried endlessly about whether there was another weapon he could bring in, but no answer came.
In the end, Jonghyeon changed his mind and tried bringing in materials like wood and iron instead of weapons.
Fortunately, perhaps because materials weren't recognized as weapons, he could enter while carrying them.
Although he was versatile, Jonghyeon didn't have the ability to make cannons, so instead he made the giant ballistae he had made before.
Three enormous ballistae.
He couldn't place any more because space was limited.
He had secretly worried that he might be ejected from the dungeon if he made weapons, but fortunately that didn't happen.
**"Take this!"**
Firing three ballistae simultaneously, Jonghyeon dashed out.
The Giant Stone Statue had been standing still, but when arrows entered its recognition range, it immediately raised its shield and blocked one.
And the remaining two it blocked by crossing weapons with four of its six hands.
*'What remains are the hands wearing gauntlets.'*
But the Giant Stone Statue was incredibly fast despite its size, and a gauntleted fist flew at the approaching Jonghyeon.
The Giant Stone Statue's fist was almost the same size as Jonghyeon's height.
*Bwoong—*
He had clearly dodged the straight punch, but even the fist wind sent Jonghyeon's body flying.
He couldn't approach any further.
Even after dodging, no matter how much he concentrated his ki, he could barely stand his ground against the fist wind.
He looked for directions the fist couldn't reach, but the Giant Stone Statue's tremendous agility...
There were no blind spots.
He absolutely needed something to take that fist in his stead.
*'If I get grazed, it's instant death.'*
So Jonghyeon invested a bit more time to think, and came up with the method of attaching the leaf to an arrow and firing it.
Having even sealed the remaining hand with the leaf's ability, Jonghyeon could safely take the Giant Stone Statue's head.
Of course, the wooden puppet that looked exactly like Jonghyeon, which took the Giant Stone Statue's punch, was pulverized on the spot.
Thus, with his business trip fast approaching, Jonghyeon cleared the 3rd Stage.
It had been close, but the leaf's reuse time had barely aligned with his business trip, the difference being just one day.
Another great thing about this leaf.
It was clear that as he grew stronger, the wooden puppet would also grow stronger.
This was an enormous advantage, a truly unique item that couldn't be found anywhere else on the market.
Japanese ninjas could occasionally use clone techniques, but the more they multiplied, and depending on how they distributed their ki, the stats of the clones and themselves would differ.
There was no clone that could demonstrate 80% of one's own abilities.
*Heheheh...*
This item was a jackpot in itself, so at that time, Jonghyeon had been extremely pleased, which was rare for him.
Even though he was Jonghyeon, who believed in his own abilities rather than items.
---------= Afterword =---------
Mr. Ryu Mo, the ventilation duct artisan.