Chapter 20: Different from Before (7)

After the assessment results of the middle-schooler who took care of the instant gate one week ago came out yesterday, the public opinion exploded once again.
Shin Jiho’s name constantly passed through the public’s lips. 

The atmosphere inside the guild was also a mess.
Within the guild, the issue that caused as much of a stir as the guildmaster’s changes did was the many items delivered from Chungram Department Store.

A highly ranked item will make you stronger. 

With good items1, a hunter can try going up against someone a rank higher than them.

Although it sounds easy, actually doing so is very hard.
After all, not everyone has the money for that.

Amidst the excited atmosphere, Jiho only handed items out to a few select hunters.
They were the hunters that were going to renew their contracts soon. 

Thus, among the guildmembers who had once grouped together to curse Shin Jiho out, chaos erupted.

Who made who look bad, who started cursing first… It was a meaningless fight, as they had all cursed him out together.

A few of the members tried to discuss their contract conditions again.
But Shin Jiho turned them away.

He wasn’t kicking the guildmembers out just because they had cursed him.

In a fight with one’s life on the line, mutual respect between guildmembers is absolutely necessary.
Jiho doesn’t want internal divisions when they have to trust and fight with each other in a life-and-death situation.

‘I’ll only hold onto them until their contract period ends.’

There won’t be many occasions where he will be going out with the guildmembers who aren’t renewing their contracts.
After all, in order to prepare for what’s to come, he has to get familiar2 with the guildmembers he’ll continue to be with. 

Coincidentally, a B-gate alert had fallen today.

The dungeon is an open dungeon; the number of gates is estimated to be within 10.

Once the gate appears and the dungeon connects to this world, the dungeon needs to be raided within a given amount of time.

A dungeon attack does not end with a single raid.

Every dungeon has its own lifespan.
The minimum amount of time is one year.
There are even a couple of dungeons active now that had started as far back as when fissures had started to appear. 

There is a long band wrapped around the edges of gates.
They call this “Dungeon’s Clock.”

When a Dungeon’s Clock first appears, the band is full of a specially colored mana.
As time passes, the mana slowly disappears.

Once a raid begins, the clock fills back up with mana.
The clock stays full during its specific time range before the mana slowly begins to disappear again.

For a raid team, their most important job is to finish raiding the dungeon before time runs out.

If the dungeon is not fully taken care of by the time the mana in the clock runs out, the dungeon explodes.

Once the dungeon explodes, all of the monsters and items inside the dungeon spill out, and the surrounding area changes into that of the dungeon.
In other words, the area becomes a wasteland unsuitable for normal humans to live in.

They call this process “erosion.”

Because there’s no way to return an area from erosion yet, blocking a dungeon is humanity’s most important mission.

There are quite a few places around the world that have become a wasteland like this.

Of course, Korea has enough power to prevent erosion from happening.

Compared to their population, Korea has a large number of awakened ones and hunters, especially S-ranks.

Today’s dungeon raid team was Team 1 of S-rank guild Divine Arrows3.

Since it’s a team led by Seo Min Jeong, one of the four S-rank hunters in Korea, the raid itself will probably not be dangerous.

As a B-rank guild, No Name helps defend the area around the dungeon.

Unlike closed or sunken dungeons, the gates of open dungeons don’t close.
The monsters in the dungeon continue to crawl out of the gates until the raid is finished.

Although this is a good way for raid teams to get additional reinforcements4, this is simply a disaster for citizens.
In order to block this disaster, guilds that don’t enter dungeons guard the outside.

Jiho was fired up.
Today’s event was the perfect stage to put his new skills to the test.

S-rank dungeon raid, F-rank hunter’s support.

And finally the defense of this gate.

If today goes well, he will be able to dispel all doubts.
Video teams will definitely be sent out by broadcast channels to film the event, which will serve as evidence.

Jiho clenched his gloved hand into a fist. 

“Are you ready?”

Lim Seung Joo’s voice was heard from beside him.
Jiho raised his head in surprise. 

“Ah, yes.”

“Let us go.”

Different from before, Lim Seung Joo took the lead with a strangely obedient attitude.
As the two left the guildmaster’s office, Shin Jiho caught a faint look of doubt in Lim Seung Joo’s eyes. 

It was obvious that even though Lim Seung Joo was curious about the recent series of events, he couldn’t ask because of his pride.

‘There’s no reason for me to bring it up first.’

Although he passed items out to Lim Seung Joo, Jiho didn’t do that because Lim Seung Joo was particularly trustworthy.
Had he cut ties off based on the person’s attitude towards him, Lim Seung Joo should have been the first to go. 

The four people participating in No Name’s Team 1 today are Shin Jiho, Lim Seung Joo, Heo Sori, and Yang Hojin. 

In truth, Jiho spent more time debating on whether Lim Seung Joo should be included in the team than he did with C-rank Heo Sori or Yang Hojin. 

Of course, Lim Seung Joo is strong.
It’s a waste to throw away an A-rank combat hunter.
Plus his contract still has two years left on it anyway.

‘I should make use of him a bit more.’

Jiho snorted.
Half a month ago, Jiho would’ve thought that he was being arrogant.  

Well, if you exclude the fact that he doesn’t listen, keeping Lim Seung Joo isn’t a bad idea.
After all, if the size of the guild increases, Jiho won’t be able to stick to everyone and use his skill on them.

‘He’s a little too good to give away to someone else.’

Because Lim Seung Joo is of a higher rank than him, Jiho can’t check Seung Joo’s stats with his [Understand] skill right now.
Still, considering how strong his skills are in combat, it wasn’t worth throwing him out. 

Jiho’s plan is to use Seung Joo a bit more and observe the situation before he decides whether to keep him in or kick him out.

After all, the whole reason Lim Seung Joo looked down on Shin Jiho in the first place was because he thought Jiho was too weak to be a guildmaster.
If Jiho proves his ability to him, wouldn’t his attitude naturally change as well?

It was natural that Heo Sori was included.
For the past week, she had been cooped up in the practice room with Jiho to help test his skills.
She helped him a lot before, and, even though she was lacking in combat ability, Jiho still wanted to push her as a core member of the guild.

As for Yang Hojin…

“Ah, uh, hello.”

Jiho looked at the clumsy newcomer.
Yang Hojin walked over, looking confused as to why he was in Team 1 with the guildmaster.
Jiho greeted him lightly as he opened Yang Hojin’s status window.

Status

Name	Yang Hojin
Occupation	Guildmember of No Name
Rank	C
Title	–
HP	207
MP	301
Strength	220
Agility	272
Skill	Daily Happiness ( B ) Overflowing Strength ( B ) Heal ( C )

Even though Yang Hojin was a support hunter, his stats were fairly high. 

From the C-ranks he had checked so far, their stats were usually between 50 to the low 100s.
Yet Yang Hojin’s stats were close to those of a B-rank combat hunter.

He’s strong enough to not be a burden during fights, he’s one of the new guildmembers staying in the guild, and he’s a valuable healer.

Even though Yang Hojin was a newcomer, Jiho included him because he planned to continue to take Yang Hojin around.

“Hello! Am I last?”

Heo Sori, who was the last one to arrive at the guild lobby, greeted them brightly. 

Heo Sori looked happy wearing the new armor that Shin Jiho lent out to her.
She even smiled brightly at Lim Seung Joo, who she never really liked before.

“Guildmaster-nim, Vice-Guildmaster-nim, Hunter Yang Hojin, please take care of me today!”

“Yes, work hard today.
I will back you up as much as I can, so don’t overexert yourself.”

Shin Jiho answered cordially.
Lim Seung Joo, who was standing next to Jiho, simply nodded his head once arrogantly while Yang Hojin bowed up and down humbly.

Jiho thought it would be perfect if the two could blend their attitudes together.

While thinking about nonsense, Jiho stepped forward.

“Let’s go.”

As they were walking out of the office building, a strong scent of roses wafted into Jiho’s nose.

The roses that Joo Yiwon had given him ten days ago were still fresh.
Jiho looked at the roses with suspicious eyes.

“Doesn’t it seem like these grew a bit?”

“Right? They grow really well despite not having any roots!”

Heo Sori answered proudly as she went on about how the flowers made her feel a sense of accomplishment every time she gave them water.

Rootless roses with plump petals, continuously growing.
Although it was very suspicious, the plant itself was probably not dangerous.
After all, it was a gift from Joo Yiwon.

Jiho took his gaze off of the roses and left the building.

Because there are a lot of guilds and hunters in Seoul, it was rare for them to be called out somewhere far from the guild.

Today’s location was a high school located not far off from the guild.

When they arrived at the scene, no one else was there besides the employee sent from the Hunter Association and other awakened ones who had also been called there.

Unlike last time with the F-rank gate, because there had been an alert about the appearance of a B-rank gate, most of the citizens were able to evacuate.

Heo Sori was amazed by the size of the high school.

“This high school is very big.”

“That is why two teams were sent to this area.
The other team is probably by the school’s front entrance.”

“But what happens if a gate opens up at a school? Isn’t it dangerous if it’s an open dungeon?”

When the Dungeon’s Clock runs out of time, monsters begin to crawl out of open dungeons again, even after it has been raided.

It’s not like students can evacuate every time monsters appear.
For them, an open dungeon is both chaotic and dangerous.

“They will probably switch over to online classes whenever the time gets near.”

“Ah, must be nice.”

Sori laughed.
Like she said, most students would probably rejoice in the fact that they can miss school every once in a while.

Jiho thought back to a few years ago.

 

1. I couldn’t really think of a good way to translate this.
템빨 (“tem-bbal”) is usually used to describe a player who would be nothing without their items.
The player buys a lot of good items (often with real money) and uses them to rank up.
Item > skill.

2. 손발을 맞추다 is an idiom.
It would literally translate to “Match hands and feet.” This idiom means that a group has practiced with each other so many times that they are very familiar with each other and work smoothly together.

3. I’m not quite sure about this.
The guild’s name is 천의 화살 but 천의 can mean a lot of different things (i.e.
1000, fabric, divine will).
For now, I’m going with “divine” because it makes the most sense (and sounds cooler (╹ꇴ◠)

4. I don’t really know what reinforcements they’re gaining from this.
Monsters? Items? The defense team? Honor???