Chapter 125 – Lich Jaenis (3)
The station that needed clearing was the Namba station.
Woo-soonghoon put on a mean mug as he pressured the people from the Sensei guild with his fluent Japanese.
[How does that make any sense? We are here to help you, yet you want a joint raid!]
[Please calm down. Isn’t this also part of the business deal? We have to know how you cleared the Dungeon. If not, how are we going to gather the Bloodstones?]
The Sensei guild’s request made sense. However, they planned on traveling the globe, so they had to clear the Dungeon as fast as possible. Why would they spend enough time in the Dungeon to be able to make a Dungeon guide?
“Jeez. This is like saving a drowning person and the person tries to take your luggage.”
“What?”
Their expression hardened when they heard Soonghoon talking to himself.
In the end, they couldn’t solve this problem by themselves, so they asked Woojin.
“So what should we do??”
“What do you think?”
Woojin questioned the person from the Sensei guild.
“I know Dungeon Business is great, but let’s save Earth first.”
“Are you getting a reward for the Dungeon Closing from the Japanese government? We are talking about the business deal. The first one to suggest this was Alandal.”
“Huh?”
Woojin asked Soonhoon a question.
“Who’s in charge of public relations and making the schedules?”
“Director Kim-haemin took care of it.”
Woojin spoke to the representative of the Sensei guild.
“Please give me a more detailed explanation on the deal.”
“It was agreed that one member of our guild will be able to observe you clearing the Dungeon. All the items and Bloodstones from the first clear will be allocated to Alandal. Afterwards, it’ll be a 7:3 split.”
Woojin slightly turned his head to look at Soonghoon, Sunggoo, and Baek-johngdoh.
It was a decent contract. After the initial clear, the Sensei guild would be in charge of repeatedly excavating the Bloodstones. He would have a share in the profit.
“All right. I guess I’ll be ok with 30%.”
“Alandal is getting 70%….”
“……?”
Woojin had a confused expression, so the employee from the Sensei guild brought out a document.
There were several clauses listed there. A Roused from the Japanese side must accompany the party as it cleared the Dungeon, and the rights to run the Dungeon would be passed on to the Sensei guild.
70% of the profit would be given to Alandal….
‘That bastard is pretty evil.’
Maybe it was because Minchan had languished at the bottom for a long time, so he was very vicious in coming up with the contents he had put into the contract. From the Sensei guild’s perspective, they didn’t lose anything if they couldn’t clear the Dungeon. If Woojin was successful, they would basically be gaining a six star Dungeon for free. Even if they got 30% of the profit, it wasn’t a loss.
‘I like it.’
Woojin praised Kim-haemin inside his heart.
“Then hurry up and tell everyone to get ready.”
“We are already ready.”
Taguchi stepped forward from behind the guild official with a determined expression on his face. There was a reason why Taguchi had come to greet Woojin’s party in the first place. He was a Rank A Roused, so at the very least, he wouldn’t be a burden.
“So it’s only the four of us?”
The group consisted of Woojin, Sunggoo, Baek-jungdoh and Taguchi.
“Let’s go.”
Woojin didn’t show any hesitation as he descended the stairs. Sunggoo was already familiar with all of this, so he quickly followed after him. Baek-jungdoh couldn’t hide the anticipation he felt from his face as he entered the Dungeon.
Finally, Taguchi was the last one to enter with a worried expression.
‘He really wants to close the Dungeon with this group of people?’
Taguchi knew Woojin had closed Dungeons by himself before, but he wasn’t sure if he should trust those reports. If Woojin failed, he would also die.
‘This isn’t a normal six star Dungeon.’
If he went by the Energy Measurement number, this Dungeon was higher than six stars.
If the difficulty was on a normal level, the Dungeon could have been cleared by Japan’s Roused teams. The best Roused of Japan were gathered to form a team, yet they failed to clear it three times. After failing, everyone was just waiting for the Dungeon Break.
Taguchi had been part of two raid teams, so he was well ware of this Dungeon’s extreme difficulty. Now that they won’t be able to use the Return Portal, so they would die if they failed to clear the Dungeon.
Taguchi felt a sense of anticipation, but he also felt a weird sense of nervousness.
The barrier formed when he entered the Dungeon.
[In the beginning, the werewolves… Uh?]
Tagushi had entered this Dungeon twice before, so he was trying to tell the others about the Dungeon guide for the initial portion of the Dungeon. He just barely started his briefing on the Dungeon, when his eyes turned round.
Hwah-roo-roohk.
There were soot and fire leftover in various places inside the subway station.
The objects that were burning into a char were none other than the corpses of the werewolves.
[W…where did he go?]
“I don’t know Japanese.”
Baek-jungdoh was the only one left behind with Taguchi. Baek-jungdoh handed a sharp short sword to him, and Taguchi took it in a moment of bewilderment. He tilted his head in confusion.
“He said to follow while excavating the Bloodstones.”
A werewolf attacked as soon as they entered the Dungeon. It took one second to dispatch the monster, and Baek-jungdoh was very surprised by this.
Flame Hong-sunggoo wasn’t an empty name. Kahng-woojin was a large mountain, and Hong-sunggoo received a lot of attention for being next to Woojin. He was usually considered to be one of Kahng-woojin’s partners.
However, Hong-sunggoo had incredible firepower and could be considered a powerhouse by himself.
He ran with flames trailing him, and Woojin summoned 20 Death Knights. They swept across the Dungeon.
They weren’t careful in their advance. This wasn’t a hunt. It was like a race to reach the end at top speed.
“Baek-hyung. Just follow me slowly as you excavate the Bloodstones.”
Kahng-woojin had spoken those words seconds ago, yet there was no trace of him. Woojin had already descended to the lower floor.
[What the hell.]
Taguchi was also taken aback. Fortunately, although he was clumsy at speaking Korean, he Taguchi was still able to comprehend it. He followed Baek-jungdoh’s example, and they parted the werewolves’ chest to extract the Bloodstones. However, they had to abandon that task after a brief amount of time.
There were the sounds of busy steps. Woojin, Sunggoo and several dozen Undead soldiers were coming back up.
“Let’s head back.”
At these words, Taguchi straightened his back, and retraced his steps. He couldn’t help, but let out words of admiration as he headed back.
[This is impossible. It’s been five minutes. Five minutes.]
It had been five minutes since they had entered the Dungeon.
The basic monsters within the subway station were all killed. The evidence of this fact was the red portal that had formed in front of them.
“Be careful. You have to defend your own life as you follow me.”
Woojin alerted the other group members, and he was the first one through the red portal. Taguchi immediately followed after him. This time he would brief Woojin about the real Dungeon.
Zzahhhhng.
After the party went through the portal, the first thing that greeted them were the waves of heat. The air mixed in with acrid smoke stabbed into their lungs, causing pain.
“It’s a volcano.”
Lava was flowing, and it let out gases as it splashed.
There were over several dozen ravines of red hot fire. There were several hundred boulders akin to islands. The party was standing on a rock island that was about 10 meters above the ground.
The lava boiled below, and the green light of the Return Stone was very far away.
[As one defeats the Lava Flying Fishes, the island moves towards another island until they meet. This is how we are supposed to escape the lava region.]
Woojin shook his head at Taguchi’s words.
[That’ll take forever. Let’s just fly.]
Woojin summoned Shing Shing. Two Death Knights were summoned, and they summoned their Phantom Steeds.
[However, we can’t travel through the sky.]
[Why?]
[If one escapes certain part of the island, it is set to explode.]
Woojin narrowed his eyes as he looked through the empty Sky when he heard Taguchi’s explanation.
“Sunggoo.”
“Yes, hyung.”
“There are Mine Mosquitoes in the air. They can’t approach the lava of the volcano.”
“Ah-ha! Shall I throw some lava at them?”
“No, that’ll be too troublesome.”
When Woojin summoned Dolsae, Dolsae fell into the lava. Soon a burning giant appeared.
[Ooh-uhhhhhh!]
Every time it moved flame erupted. It was a Fire Golem.
Koohng, koohng.
Every time Dolsae’s massive body moved the Mine Mosquitoes quickly got out of the way.
“Get on. Let’s follow after him.”
Woojin got on Shing Shing, and Sunggoo sat behind him. Baek-jungdoh and Taguchi had the weird experience of riding behind the Death Knights. The Phantom Steed climbed the empty air, and it followed right behind the Fire Golem.
[Huh huh. This is so easy…]
Taguchi let out a dejected sound. There were Lava Flying Fishes and Lava Dolphins usually jumped out of the lava to attack. They were flame attribute monsters, and they would inflict damage through their body temperature. They had to get close to a target to inflict damage, so the party was unharmed.
Moreover, the Mine Mosquitoes were staying put in the air… He became aware that the mosquitoes were explosive in nature right now through Woojin’s words. Before that, he had thought there was some automatic mechanism that made one explode.
‘He’s an incredible person.’
He was more impressed by the knowledge and solutions he came up with, more so than the several thousand Undead under him or his personal power. He knew things that were still unknown to this world.
Woojin was explaining something as he gesticulated with his hands to Sunggoo, who was sitting behind him.
Taguchi knew a little bit of Korean.
He couldn’t understand every single word, but he realized Woojiin was talking about some invaluable information about the Dungeon.
“Woojin-sama. Where did you learn about all of this?”
“Huh? You know how to speak Korean?
“Very little bit.”
Woojin grinned as he spoke.
“Who do you think? I learned it from my teacher.”
“Ah ah.”
Who was the teacher, who had groomed Kahng-woojin? Taguchi could only look on in admiration.
Sunggoo asked a question with a gleam in his eyes.
“Hyung-nim. You had a teacher?”
“Of course..”
“Ooh-waa…. When you were summoned to Alphen, you learned magic from your teacher?”
Woojin grinned as he shook his head from side to side.
“No, I studied that on my own.”
Woojin’s magical abilities were all based on his game knowledge. He didn’t know how everything worked, but he learned everything he could learn. Then he started using magic and eventually, he was able to command the Undead.
“Huhk. If you didn’t learn magic from him, then did you learn some kind of martial arts from him?”
Woojin’s body movement and his use of weapons were very skilled. His physical abilities were so high that one could mistake him for a physical Roused.
“Nope.”
The martial arts were something he earned when he returned to Earth. He had been initialized, and he had earned those skills through the Dual Class.
“Huhk. Then what did you learn from him?”
“Survival.”
“Ah….”
Sungoo nodded his head. Woojin wasn’t done speaking. He continued to speak with a serious expression on his face.
“Madness and carnage.”
“……!”
Why would he have to learn such a thing?
“Unfaltering decisiveness.”
“…….”
“Overwhelming fear.”
“Hoo-oohk.”
Woojin unconsciously let out his killing intent, and it terrified Sunggoo. Woojin belatedly realized what he had done, and he withdrew it.
“Ah, I learned those kinds of things.”
“Ooh ooh. He sounds like an incredible person.”
“He’s incredible.”
“So your teacher is still on Planet Alphen?”
“No, he’s dead.”
Sunggoo realized his mistake, so he quickly tried to retrieve his words.
“Ah, I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have said….”
“No, it’s nothing. He was already dead when I met him.”
“What?”
What kind of preposterous nonsense was he talking about? Woojin smirked as he looked at the confused Sunggoo.
“You’ll see him soon.”
He had been a scholar and an Archmage on the Planet Alphen.
He made himself a Lich through his own volition, and he had fought against Trahnet for 200 years. Amongst Woojin’s familiars, he was someone with an overwhelming presence. Woojin would be able to meet him again soon.
“His specialty is Flame magic. You should learn from him once you meet him.”
“……should I?”
Sunggoo already felt like peeing right now. He thought he had gotten used to Woojin’s teaching style. Now Woojin was talking about a monstrous teacher…
“I can guarantee you one thing.”
“W…what is it?”
“There are two possible outcomes.”
Woojin slightly turned around to look at Sunggoo. Woojin laughed as he looked at Sunggoo, who had shrunk into himself.
Teacher hates cowards like him the most. Still, he specializes in rebuilding personalities.
“You’ll either become Earth’s greatest Flame Magician or you will die.”
“…….”
Weren’t the results too extreme?
Sunggoo couldn’t help but swallow his spit.