Episode 22
Twenty.
It was an age where one could start anything, and at the same time, an age to take off the school uniform.
Any student in the Republic of Korea would look forward to it, and anyone in the Republic of Korea in their twenties or above would reminisce about it.
But for Jonghyeon, there weren’t really any memories to speak of.
*I suppose that makes sense. I couldn’t even accumulate memories. I was running around causing chaos with assassinations and covert operations.*
Jonghyeon’s gaze was fixed on the dungeon entrance.
*A party of twenty-year-olds doing their first dungeon.*
A cluster of round lights.
Since it hadn’t even been five minutes since Bori entered, he still hesitated to go in. Lest they notice him somehow.
The party Bori had put together was only five people.
Jonghyeon was once again guessing the reason Chairman Lee had opposed this.
*I suppose Bori, who uses a sword, is playing the dealer role.*
It was something Jonghyeon didn’t know in detail either, but since there was a lot of time left before the mission, he had briefly looked into it.
In a typical party, they were divided into tanker (aggro), dealer, magician, supporter, and so on, and the higher the ranker, the more specialized their roles became. The positions of other ability users were divided as well, but he hadn’t been able to read about them due to time constraints.
And in Bori’s case, since she used a sword, he had assumed she was a dealer.
In typical combat, tankers fought holding shields or large-bladed axes.
Tankers weren’t easy to find, but the better the tanker, the wider the dealer’s attack range.
And Bori’s party consisted of one tanker, three dealers, and one magician.
*What are they trying to do without even a supporter?*
The more beginner the party, the more important the supporter role became.
They mainly learned protective and healing magic, and occasionally a priest from the Vatican was included.
The more of a beginner one was, the more exposed to danger they tended to be, and thus the supporter became the most important.
Ten minutes after Bori’s party entered.
Jonghyeon moved his body inside the portal, and the moment he entered, he hid himself in his own shadow.
The inside of the dungeon was like a cemetery, and Jonghyeon, hidden in shadow, quickly concealed himself behind a large tomb.
And he began to watch Bori’s party from afar.
*Oh. That’s surprising?*
A battle was already taking place inside.
Skeletons, the most common monsters seen in E-rank dungeons.
Having nothing but bones, they moved based on the E-grade magic stone in their heads.
The monsters that appeared in dungeons varied greatly by rank, but E-rank and C-rank skeletons were like heaven and earth.
Jonghyeon thought, without a doubt, that if it were this dungeon, he could clear it even if he were only given pebbles.
“Hurry up and cast attack magic!”
“I’m chanting! You can’t interrupt me while I’m reciting!”
But it seemed they were not like him.
Seeing them fighting so fiercely, Jonghyeon laughed for no reason.
And one surprising thing was that Bori, whom he had worried about, was fighting quite well.
*Each and every one of her movements isn’t at an ordinary level?*
And the sight of Bori swinging her sword was something Jonghyeon felt he had seen somewhere before.
Soon the awaited magic burst toward the skeletons, and Bori’s party could catch their breath.
“Whew. That was tough. Aren’t we doing pretty well at this level?”
said a man wiping sweat while holding a large shield.
“Not even close. We’ll probably have to hunt groups of skeletons this size about five more times here?”
He didn’t know where she had studied, but Bori’s words were accurate.
What they had just faced was merely one group.
Since it was an E-rank dungeon, they had to hunt groups of this size four or five times.
“We don’t have time to rest! Let’s move quickly.”
Prompted by Bori, the five began to enter deeper into the cemetery.
*Gasp.*
Unfortunately, Bori’s party was coming toward the tomb where Jonghyeon was hiding, so he quickly hid his body in shadow again.
*I’ll have to be more careful.*
Jonghyeon, who had almost been discovered while blankly watching the party, began to focus, telling himself this was also work.
Until Bori’s party hunted a total of five groups of skeletons after that, Jonghyeon did not create any more moments where he could be discovered.
“But how should we distribute these?”
The man who tossed his shield and sat right down asked as he looked at the magic stones dropped by the skeletons.
“I don’t know. We’ve been collecting them since earlier, anyway.”
“Let’s just get out of here. It’s gloomy; I don’t want to stay a minute longer.”
“Yeah, let’s do that.”
After confirming the children had gone outside, Jonghyeon only exited after a bit more time had passed.
*I should be careful leaving too. In case I get caught.*
Bori probably didn’t even know he lived at Chairman Lee’s house.
He had heard it while staying at the mansion, talking with Butler Kim about this and that.
Jonghyeon came out and looked around for Bori’s party, but they seemed to have already moved elsewhere.
*My duty was dungeon security anyway.*
Jonghyeon, thinking it didn’t matter, headed straight for his car. And even while driving toward Chairman Lee’s residence, he couldn’t stop thinking about the scene of Bori swinging her sword.
*Who would have known that child, who was so young, would swing a sword so fearsomely.*
Her posture was awkward, but her swordsmanship and power itself were better than expected.
Of course, by E-rank standards.
But where had he seen that swordsmanship?
It was definitely somewhere in his memory.
★ ★ ★
Having returned home, Jonghyeon once again fell into the samadhi of training.
Since coming to Chairman Lee’s residence, Jonghyeon had not trained with the clock even once.
It was obvious he couldn’t break through anyway, and he thought there was no reason for Chairman Lee to know about the clock’s functions either.
Instead, Jonghyeon tended to meditate constantly so that the level of his martial arts could rise.
And while training, Jonghyeon had discovered something peculiar.
*The better I become at handling my ki, the faster my shadow handling speed and everything becomes.*
For now, it was still just a hypothesis.
Because his martial arts had been so low, and it could be that he had simply improved through repeated training.
But what was certain was that if things continued this way, he thought it would be worth challenging his training dungeon in about a week.
To that extent, Jonghyeon’s speed at accumulating ki and his control over it were unrivaled.
Of course, Jonghyeon, who didn’t know such standards, was simply frustrated.
The next day.
Out of nowhere, Jonghyeon was asked by Chairman Lee what he liked most about living in this residence.
But Jonghyeon answered immediately without a moment’s hesitation.
“The walking path.”
“Ho, really? So you like the garden.”
Chairman Lee asked with a surprised expression.
Of course, what surprised Chairman Lee was that Jonghyeon liked walking.
“Yes. The lake illuminated by moonlight at night is truly first-class.”
Sitting on a bench and looking at that sight, Jonghyeon would often think many thoughts.
“That walking path was designed by my wife. Well, she never got to see it finished. It’s funny that Bori, who loved her mother so much, doesn’t even know that and seems to be cutting down trees there. Is the work manageable?”
“Yes, well. For now. But your daughter’s skills are better than I expected.”
To Jonghyeon’s words, Chairman Lee answered as if it were nothing surprising.
“You’ll know when you see that child’s hands. I kept worrying and couldn’t send her even when I was considering allowing it. It wasn’t that I doubted her skills. And since you said you would keep watching her, I’m relieved.”
“It’s just my job.”
“I see. I’ll be going now.”
Having heard the brief report, Chairman Lee went outside taking a phone call as if he had a busy matter to attend to.
At that time, Jonghyeon’s phone rang too.
It was the Director.
Jonghyeon had been thinking continuously, even while sitting on the bench, and usually as well.
The orphanage that he had vowed to let go of, yet couldn’t easily release.
To be exact, it was the Director.
Avoiding further phone calls hurt Jonghyeon’s heart too much.
“Hello?”
“Ah. Yes, why haven’t you been answering your calls?”
“Not at all. I was briefly busy.”
“Yes, are you eating well? I asked an employee at Company V, and they said you asked them to sponsor the orphanage.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Jonghyeon didn’t have much to say.
He had asked because he felt he couldn’t protect it himself.
That he had sold himself in return.
Telling the truth to the Director was extremely difficult.
“I’m thankful, that’s why. But more than the sponsorship, I wish I could always see your face. Aren’t people more important than money?”
Jonghyeon was actually half-convinced, half-doubtful about whether people were more important than money.
But his opponent was the Director.
“I agree with that. I’ve been busy lately, so it will be difficult soon, but I’ll make time to visit later.”
They exchanged some trivial small talk, but the Director hung up only after worrying about Jonghyeon until the end.
Jonghyeon went to the bench by the lake to sort out his frustrated heart.
“Sigh.”
Jonghyeon’s sigh.
And without looking back, he spoke.
“Who did you think wouldn’t notice you sneaking up like that, Miss Bori?”
“Tch. No fun.”
Bori puffed her cheeks and looked at Jonghyeon as if she disliked him.
“Why are you here, mister?”
Mister?
Come to think of it, he hadn’t set a form of address since he didn’t often talk with Bori.
But *mister*?
“Well. I suppose you could say I came to see the pretty garden.”
There was no need to tell her he lived here.
“Really? Dad must have told you. It’s pretty here, right? Right? I think so too.”
“Someone seems to have cut down a few trees in that pretty garden. Do you happen to know the culprit?”
Bori flinched but pretended not to know, changing the subject.
“Mister, I’ve been running dungeons these days!”
I probably know that better than anyone?
Jonghyeon thought inwardly and calmly entertained Bori’s chatter.
Since he had watched over Chairman Lee’s family from when they were quite young, listening to Bori’s chatter wasn’t particularly awkward for Jonghyeon.
Rather, he found it quite comfortable.
They had talked for quite a while.
Bori left saying it was time for her training.
Only then could Jonghyeon breathe a sigh of relief.
“Really, how can she have so much to say.”
At the same time, Jonghyeon suddenly had a thought.
Come to think of it, he didn’t have a single friend.
Of course, in the past he hadn’t needed one.
Money earned through pickpocketing and commissions.
From then until becoming a fixer, while spending that ill-gotten money, he had thought he had given up on being human.
Looking back at his very young childhood, there might have been a somewhat cheerful period, but it was very brief.
When others were taking their college entrance exams at nineteen, he had become a mercenary and committed his first murder.
He had been close with his orphanage peers when young, but when he became somewhat aware of his abilities, approaching them had become rather frightening.
How many times had he ever chatted with someone for so long about trivial topics without any particular emotion?
Growl—
Jonghyeon, who had been deep in thought, suddenly felt hungry and stopped thinking, returning to his quarters.
★ ★ ★
A few days later.
The 5th stage. He thought it was time to challenge this place.
He had received Bori’s next dungeon schedule.
There was at least a gap of four days, which was sufficient.
Unless something happened in this mansion or he called for someone, there was no one who would look for him.
Nevertheless, Jonghyeon prepared for any unforeseen circumstances and entered the bathroom to open his dungeon.
This place was a dense forest.
Entering the 5th stage, Jonghyeon was given an orb in his hand, just like the first time he had entered.
Putting the given orb in his pocket, Jonghyeon quickly climbed up a tree.
Running away by climbing up trees was quite safe for now.
But he couldn’t let his guard down just because he was in a tree.
Because orcs shot bows.
Furthermore, one of the biggest reasons Jonghyeon had climbed the tree was the issue of vision.
*Could there really be an orc tribe?*
Orcs spawned from somewhere every day.
But this too was a dungeon system after all.
What was peculiar was that this dungeon had intelligence, unlike outside dungeons.
If he targeted the tribe itself, like the method used when catching the Ifrit in Russia?
It was something Jonghyeon had sufficient reason to attempt.
Even if he found and eliminated the tribe, he didn’t know if orcs would stop appearing.
But Jonghyeon thought it would be better to move around and pick them off individually as much as possible, rather than blindly facing and blocking orcs coming from one spot.
And so Jonghyeon began to search for orc hordes and the tribe while hiding his presence as much as possible.