Checking the status of his dungeon, Seo-yul realized the goblins were causing serious trouble and had already wiped out half of his ghouls. At this rate, all of his defenders would be dead soon.
The reason for the slaughter was the red goblin king, who was currently commanding the battlefield with a devastating fire blade.
Seo-yul could just let the goblin king fight the boss of his own dungeon once and for all, but there was a massive risk that his boss might actually lose the match, which would make the situation even more problematic.
Faced with that dilemma — and since he needed to check on something in there personally anyway — Seo-yul crossed the portal and stepped into his own dungeon.
Right off the bat he stumbled upon his dead ghoul guards, and he demanded that the intruders stop messing with his ghouls. Then he literally flipped the wall and pulled the goblin king away from the guards.
Now the two of them were standing face to face.
Seo-yul summoned his blade while the goblin king swung his flame sword right at him. The corridor was narrow, leaving barely any room to dodge. Because of that, Seo-yul kept dodging backward, creating more and more distance.
Even so, his body felt way lighter compared to before. He had reached a new level thanks to his class. He was level 24 now, boasting 150 stamina, 45 strength, 40 agility, 90 magic, and 48 defense. He could genuinely feel the difference.
He openly told the goblin king himself that he had originally planned to just test things out and use the ghouls, but that he could handle this mess all on his own.
Seo-yul's next strike actually fractured some of the goblin king's bones. The monster retaliated by hurling the hunter far away, but the creature probably couldn't even wield its own sword — or any other weapon, for that matter — since its arms were completely mangled.
Now Seo-yul was in the perfect position. He assessed the situation and mocked the goblin king, asking where all that energy from before had gone. If the monster was supposed to be the king of the gang, he said, it should show a worthy performance — unless it was just a scared chicken.
The goblin king went absolutely ballistic at the insult, poured even more fire into his blade, and charged straight ahead.
The hunter just replied that the monster needed to be worth the investment.
Suddenly the spikes lining the ceiling came crashing down right on top of the goblin king. All that was left of his body outside the trap was the single arm still clutching the blade.
It had cost twenty gold to install that trap, but it had borne fruit and guaranteed results.
Thanks to yet another kill and achievement, he leveled up. The squad of defeated red goblins, along with their king, were now incorporated into his dungeon as well.
When he stepped out of the hotel, he ran right into his manager.
"Oh, you're here?" Seo-yul asked.
The manager replied, visibly irritated, that he'd been there for a while, and demanded to know what the hell Seo-yul had done by himself. He wanted to know whether he was all right, and whether it was true that he had taken care of the red goblins.
Seo-yul played dumb, replying that he didn't remember very well, because he had recently bumped his head.
The manager shot back that honestly, everyone was whispering about how the goblins had vanished right after he went in.
The hunter joked that maybe he'd remember better if he could get some steak or Korean barbecue.
But then a man suddenly approached them, asking for forgiveness for the intrusion. He informed the rescue team that he was Manager Sun Kwang-sung, representing the Heonwoo Guild.
The rescue crew wasn't particularly thrilled to talk to a guild manager.
First he sincerely thanked everyone for their cooperation in resolving the dungeon break. Then he got straight to the point. He would prefer that everyone abstain from interviews regarding the incident. The Heonwoo Guild didn't want the case spreading to the public. They were going to compensate the hotel for the damages, but if bad press got out it would only make the citizens even more anxious. Naturally, they could make a generous donation to the department, and would appreciate everyone's understanding.
This was exactly how they silenced people, Seo-yul thought to himself. But the man wasn't entirely wrong.
Unlike the Hunter Department, which was mostly made up of rank D hunters, the Heonwoo Guild had a massive variety, going all the way up to rank S. Because of that, people naturally placed more trust in guilds with more power, believing they were heroes saving others. The way these guilds exploited that trust made him seriously pissed off, but he knew that was reality, and he couldn't change it alone.
He placed a hand on Sun Kwang-sung's shoulder and said that of course he completely understood, while secretly thinking that he hadn't planned on making a big scene about it anyway. Even if he did, the situation would just be buried by the association, and drawing attention to himself wouldn't do any good.
However, he mentioned that he wasn't sure how much the manager planned on donating, hinting that he might just have to keep cleaning up their messes.
Then Seo-yul went totally honest and demanded ten billion won to keep his mouth shut.
Sun Kwang-sung gasped in absolute shock, stammering, was it really going to be ten billion?
The next morning, he was at the plaza, completely relaxed and sipping an iced tea.
After dealing with that hotel dungeon break, he had been granted two days off. He had solved practically the entire crisis by himself, and had even secured cash from the guild. The only issue was that his co-workers were giving him weird looks, wondering whether he was really the same Seo-yul, and how on earth the guy had managed to handle a whole horde of red goblins by himself.
But he had no reason to answer them. If news of his reawakening got out, things could get incredibly annoying.
For now, he was just going to focus on managing his dungeon.
First he would use his gold to repair the dungeon walls and respawn the monsters. Currently the durability was at 80 out of 150, nearly half. Repairing all the damaged blocks and walls would cost a total of thirty-four gold. To revive a ghoul, one gold. Two goblins, one gold. And one red goblin king, three gold.
The gold coin was the universal currency for hunters. It was easy to calculate, because it was the exact same currency across all dungeons.
The problem was that it was insanely expensive to fix everything. Fifty-three gold was equivalent to about 5.5 million won, which was almost double his salary. Still, since he had accumulated eighty gold so far, he should at least invest that little bit.
But right then, he received a highly unwelcome phone call.