Chapter 33
Hunters were basically paid by the government.
There was the monthly Hunter support payment, plus additional support for parties.
However, we couldn't simply spend it however we wanted.
My family had taken out a large loan to buy our house.
We needed to slowly pay that off first.
Of course, I kept my own share separately.
But that was money for the future, something I planned to use after I eventually retired as a Hunter.
So in reality, the money my brother and I could freely spend mostly came from selling items obtained from dungeons.
That was why, whenever something expensive dropped...
“Hey! We're having premium beef tonight!”
My brother immediately started talking about meat.
Well... I guess that's understandable.
The dungeons we normally visited were F-rank.
Even if we gathered every F-rank Mana Stone we found, they weren't worth much.
And all the monster materials together might sell for around one and a half million won at best.
That was one of the reasons I wanted our party rank to increase so we could receive better benefits.
Mana Stones needed to be at least E-rank before they were considered valuable.
But the Mana Stone we had just obtained was D-rank.
Looking at it that way...
Maybe the Transitional Phase wasn't entirely bad.
“Fire Ball!”
“Blade Shield!”
Using what we had learned from defeating the Red Goblin, our party steadily took down the monsters ahead.
The heavy moisture inside the cave clung unpleasantly to my skin.
It was so dark that I could barely see what was ahead.
And the cave was enormous.
We defeated the mid-boss, so the boss room shouldn't be too far...
[00:39:23]
As our remaining time continued falling, my anxiety kept rising.
But eventually...
[00:19:54]
With around twenty minutes remaining, we finally reached the entrance of the boss room.
We actually made it this far...
We hadn't defeated the boss yet.
Even so, clearing this much of a nearly D-rank dungeon in such a short amount of time was undeniably impressive.
Maybe...
Maybe we really could do it.
But we only had around twenty minutes left.
The boss would never be an easy opponent.
Two opposite thoughts collided inside me.
We can do it.
There's no way we can do it.
Still, if we clear this room...
A party with an average rank of F would effectively have cleared a D-rank dungeon.
Passing the rank evaluation would practically be guaranteed.
That would also increase our government support.
Standing in front of the boss room, I swallowed nervously and checked the quest window.
[New Quest: Work together with your teammates and clear the dungeon before the 'Dome' phenomenon occurs!]
[Quest Objective: Clear the dungeon with your teammates within 2 hours.]
[Penalty Upon Failure: (3)]
[Quest Summary: Clear the dungeon within 2 hours. (0/1)]
[Quest Reward: (?), Skill Proficiency.]
[Time Limit: 00:19:49]
...By the way, what exactly does that '3' beside the failure penalty mean?
Earlier, I had been too busy to think about it.
Now that I looked again, it bothered me.
Even if it were a repeatable quest, there shouldn't have been a '3' there from the beginning.
What happens if I fail the quest?
Maybe then I'd learn what the number meant.
Still, I wasn't especially worried.
Until now, quests had never directly harmed me.
I looked at the boss room entrance.
Two bats were carved into the sides of a huge stone door.
Even standing outside it, I could feel ominous mana leaking from within.
“So this is the boss room...”
I looked back at the others.
They were staring at the door with tense expressions too.
They also looked exhausted.
I was a healer, so my natural recovery rate was fairly high.
On top of that, I still had plenty of mana thanks to 'Elian's Tear,' the earring Lee Dohyun had given me before.
But the others weren't in the same situation.
[Party Window]
[Kim Jihoon] [Remaining Mana: 35%] [Remaining Health: 64%]
[Han Siwoo] [Remaining Mana: 26%] [Remaining Health: 53%]
[Lee Junhyuk] [Remaining Mana: 19%] [Remaining Health: 62%]
As expected.
Their health wasn't too bad because I had been healing them along the way.
But everyone's mana was dangerously low.
There's no way we can fight the boss with that amount of mana.
It hurt, but we had no choice.
I handed each of them a bottle of Blue Elixir.
“Drink. Do you honestly think we can fight the boss in your current state?”
I scolded them while activating my skill.
[Skill 'Healing Lv.8' activated.]
[Party Window]
[Kim Jihoon] [Remaining Mana: 65%] [Remaining Health: 84%]
[Han Siwoo] [Remaining Mana: 56%] [Remaining Health: 71%]
[Lee Junhyuk] [Remaining Mana: 49%] [Remaining Health: 80%]
That should be enough to at least attempt the fight.
Even so...
I still didn't like the idea of facing the boss.
“What are you waiting for?”
My brother urged me.
I finally asked the question I had been holding back.
“You haven't changed your minds about entering the boss room, right?”
“What are you talking about?”
“No one will blame us if we fail to clear this dungeon. We could actually die in there.”
The others fell silent.
They understood what I meant.
Hesitation.
Worry.
Concern.
Fear.
All kinds of emotions were visible on their faces.
Han Siwoo spoke first.
“I understand what you're worried about. But I think this is an opportunity.”
“Right. Let's clear it properly and show the Center what we're capable of.”
“We can't keep raiding F-rank dungeons forever.”
Lee Junhyuk and my brother added their own opinions.
I smiled weakly.
