Chapter 41

She raised her head, covered in a sticky black fluid that was neither dirt nor mud. It smelled awful.

“W-what is this smell…?”

Ganansu shivered at the foul smell, then suddenly lifted her head. She had belatedly realized where she had been thrown.

“The, the, inside the dungeon…!”

She began trembling and looking around. Large, hardened black rocks, a sticky black floor. It was like the bottom of a sewer. There was light, but it was dim, as if she were standing beneath a drain. She fumbled on the floor and barely managed to stand up. To throw her, a civilian, into a dungeon. This was definitely illegal.

“Whoa.”

Just then, Cho-i gracefully entered the dungeon. Ganansu, covered in the dirty mud, stood up and pointed her finger at her, shouting,

“W-what are you doing? You know it’s illegal to bring a civilian into a dungeon, right? I-I’m going to report all of this!”

Cho-i ignored her and looked around. It felt familiar; there was a similar dungeon among the lower-ranked dungeons.

“Are you listening to me?”

Ganansu shouted again. Cho-i glanced at her indifferently, then smiled and tilted her head.

“Report it.”

Her lips stretched into a wide smile.

“That’s a story for after you survive, isn’t it?”

Then she shrugged her shoulders charmingly. At her words, Ganansu’s face turned pale. She looked around again, searching for an escape, but realizing there was none, she opened her mouth to persuade Cho-i.

“W-why are you doing this to me? I really never left such a malicious comment!”

“Really?”

She still looked at Ganansu, her eyes smiling. Ganansu nodded frantically. At this moment, even if she had written a malicious comment, confessing the truth seemed like it would lead to big trouble. But Cho-i didn’t want to pretend she didn’t know.

“Alright, let’s go.”

Cho-i approached Ganansu and grabbed one of her arms. Then she started dragging her. Ganansu struggled, digging her feet into the ground, refusing to go, but a civilian couldn’t beat an A+ Rank tank. In the first place, the way she held her, without breaking her arm, was closer to an act of kindness. Monsters were visible in the distance. The eight-eyed rats, with bodies much larger than humans, were sniffing the air. And they began to gather together. They seemed to have noticed that a stronger predator was approaching, as they curled their bodies into a circle and stared with their eight eyes. The sight was so repulsive that Ganansu finally burst into tears and confessed her sins.

“I-I was just jealous! All I can do is see our Guild Master from afar, but someone else goes shopping with her!”

“Have you ever asked your Guild Master to go shopping?”

“W-what?”

“Why are you bitching at me without even trying? At least ask her to go with you.”

Ganansu’s mouth fell open. How could something like that even be possible? She forgot to struggle and looked at Cho-i’s face. The faint light illuminating the sewer below shone on her face. Her glowing white skin was literally like pure white.

“Alright, we’re here.”

While she was looking at Cho-i Hyeon’s face, the two of them reached the monsters. Ganansu felt like she was going to faint at the sight of the monsters glaring at her. If possible, she wanted to faint. But unfortunately, Ganansu’s mind and body weren’t that fragile.

“Fight.”

Cho-i forcefully placed her sword in Ganansu’s hand. Ganansu received the sword in a daze.

“H-how am I supposed to use this…?”

“Why, you said you were confident that you, a civilian, would do better than me?”

“T-that was just something I said. I didn’t mean it!”

“The problem is that you said it to me. I won’t stop those who want to show off their skills in front of me. No, I think I need to see it for myself to be satisfied.”

Cho-i pushed Ganansu. She took a few steps forward to avoid falling and soon faced the monsters. The sword was heavy, and her whole body trembled like an aspen leaf. The eight-eyed rats, hunched over, didn’t rush in first, as if waiting for an opening.

“Inspect.”

Cho-i examined the monster.

[Eight-Eyed Sewer Rat (D- Grade)] [Skill: Scratch (E), Bite (D), Gnaw (D- Grade)]

As its appearance suggested, it was just a low-level monster from a low-level dungeon. The problem was that it was the scariest monster imaginable for Ganansu, a civilian. As Ganansu stood still, trembling, and Cho-i, who appeared to be a predator, also stood still, the Sewer Rats soon lifted their heads. Perhaps they judged that the predator wouldn’t interfere, or perhaps they were too stupid to miss the prey in front of them. One Sewer Rat quickly charged towards Ganansu.

“Ugh!”

As the monster charged at her, Ganansu tried to swing her sword wildly. But the sword was too heavy, so it just made a whooshing sound and she fell sideways. The Sewer Rat’s large teeth were right in front of her. Ganansu felt a burning sensation inside her. Thump, thump, thump. Her heartbeat sounded excessively loud. It also felt like something was rising in her throat. Thwack! Meanwhile, Cho-i Hyeon, who had been watching, clicked her tongue and quickly approached, kicking the Sewer Rat that was about to pounce on Ganansu. The low-grade monster was sent flying far away by that single kick, crashing into a rock. Its belly burst, and green chunks oozed out onto the black rock and the ground. A few rats stealthily moved and began to gnaw on the corpse of their own kind. In that situation, Cho-i calmly looked down at Ganansu and asked,

“Why did you blabber words you couldn’t keep?”

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. It was my fault.”

Ganansu started sobbing. She even got up, knelt, and begged. Cho-i just stood there, arms crossed, looking at her indifferently. When there was no reaction from her, Ganansu put down the sword she was holding and started rubbing her hands together in supplication.

“I won’t do it again. Please let me out of here.”

“I don’t feel any sincerity.”

Cho-i made a thoughtful expression and tapped the floor. Ganansu had no idea what she needed to do for Cho-i to let her out.

“Wh-what do I need to do for you to spare me…?”

“Hmm.”

Cho-i tilted her head excessively, starting to ponder. Is there any reason why I should spare her? Cho-i couldn’t find one.

“Wh-whatever I’m good at…”

But at those words, something clicked. She grinned from ear to ear, crouched in front of Ganansu, and met her eyes.

“First, get out.”

“G-get out!”

“Write eighty-eight positive stories about me.”

“E-eighty-eight?”

“Why, don’t you want to? Do you just want to live here?”

“Oh, no! I-I’ll write them! I’ll write them!”

“Make sure I approve them.”

“Yes, yes!”

Ganansu was crying buckets on the inside. To be stuck in a dungeon as a civilian and told to write positive stories. She could write over a hundred insults, but positive stories? Positive stories!

“Wait.”

Then Cho-i’s eyes widened. Ganansu was startled and stopped thinking. Could it be that she heard her cursing internally? A hunter might have such an ability. Ganansu stiffened and looked up at her, and Cho-i looked as if she was seeing something amazing, then let out a short laugh.

“You’ve awakened?”

“Y-yes?”

“Really.”

Cho-i cackled, looking at the Inspect window in front of her. Who would have thought she’d awaken just from being threatened by a D-grade monster.

[Ganansu (B-Rank)] [Skills: Camera (A-Rank), Sneak (A-Rank), Strike (Below Grade)]

Cho-i examined the skill ‘Camera’ in detail.

[Camera] [Allows real-time transmission of what you see to another location.]

“Definitely not a combat type. And the rank is quite high, pretty useful, isn’t it?”

“Wh-what are you talking about?”

“Talk to the system window.”

“Sy-system window. Aaah!”

Ganansu screamed at the system window that appeared before her eyes, terrified. I awakened! I awakened!

“You must have been scared to death, huh? How did someone like that curse me?”

‘Because I didn’t know you’d go this far!’

Usually, people who leave malicious comments don’t realize it will come back to them. And it usually doesn’t. She probably never imagined that she would be directly impaled like a spear by the figure of justice, no, by Cho-i Hyeon.

“But your skill is really weird. What do you usually do?”

“Oh, oh, nothing.”

“No, well. Honestly, it’s obvious. Should I tell the Guild Master?”

“I’m sorry! I secretly took pictures of the Guild Master!”

“Once?”

“M-many times.”

“Well, it’s not like the Guild Master wouldn’t have known about it. It seems like she just let it go.”

If someone of SS-Rank didn’t know that, they should have returned their SS-Rank hunter business card. Ganansu sighed inwardly.

“Oh, I see.”

“Alright then. Since you’ve awakened to B-Rank, you should be able to clear this place alone, right? Even if you’re not a combat type, this is a lower-level dungeon.”

“Huh, huh? You want me to fight?”

“I’ll watch from behind. Just fight, if you want to live.”

“Oh, that’s different from what you said earlier…”

“That was before you awakened.”

Cho-i grinned and lifted her up from her kneeling position. Then, she picked up her sword again, placed it in her hand, and said,

“Alright, let’s go, rookie Hunter.”

“Ah, aaaah!”

She was once again pushed forward by Cho-i’s hand, thrown in front of the monsters. The entities, unable to recklessly attack due to Cho-i’s presence, were gathered, but as soon as Ganansu was suddenly thrown in front of them, they bared their fangs immediately.

“Ugh!”

She swung her sword wildly. Somehow, the sword felt lighter than before. Even so, it was still heavy. Because she couldn’t wield the sword properly, it was used more like a club than a sword.