Chapter 88 – Spoils of the Unknown Dungeon

Jong Ho continued the call while looking at me, who had just exited the dungeon.

Seems that he was quite worried.

His face was red, tears streaming down his face.

Holding back the tears, Jong Ho spoke.

“Yes. We’ll be there in an hour or two, missus.”

-Hey. Min-Cheol would be disappointed.

“Haha. No, it was Min-Cheol who wants to return.”

-Is that so? That boy… It’s a rare occasion for him to go on a vacation, so why isn’t he having fun before coming back… If that’s the case, come over and eat breakfast before you go. Mr. Ho Jin is with you as well, right?

“Yes. We’ll all come back together, missus. We’ll see you then.”

-Please do. I’ll make lots of delicious food. Take care on the way home.

“Yes! Understood!”

Ho Jin’s face was filled with a smile.

Yelling aloud in a way unique to him, he spread his arms as he came towards me.

Normally, Ho Jin didn’t express his emotions much other than a hearty laughter.

This is probably best expression of happiness he could give.

Hugging me close, he patted my back.

“Thank you. Thanks.”

“…..”

“You’ve been through a lot.”

“No worries. But was that call with my mother?”

Jong Ho was speechless.

“……”

“But Mr. Min-Cheol, what happened? For 9 hours….”

“Ah. I’ll explain it all as we go. Sorry for worrying you all.”

“Seeing that you’re okay is enough. Thank goodness. All we can do is apologize for being unable to do anything but worry for you.”

Wiping away the tears, Jong Ho opened his mouth.

“You okay?”

“Of course! I’m fine. Did you worry that I might have died?”

“Not at all. I was just annoyed because I got hungry while waiting for you.”

“Today the marks the day I learned that hyung-nim cries when he’s hungry.”

“That’s because Ho Jin hyung-nim accidentally poked me in the eyes before…..”

“Sure, sure. Also, I have the be the one to bash on your fashion sense, so how could I go on dying?”

“Little runt… You’ve been through a lot.”

“Sorry. And thank you, hyung.”

“Ew. Gross… Let’s go quickly. Your mother is probably waiting.”

“Let’s do that, Mr. Min-Cheol. You’re probably tired, so please get in quick.”

“Then let’s talk as we go.”

We went aboard Jong Ho’s car.

It would be easier to travel via Warp, but the car that Jong Ho brought would be left behind.

The real reason was to talk about what happened inside the dungeon with these two though.

The one to start up that conversation again was Ho Jin.

“So how were you able to stay in the dungeon for 9 hours?”

“Before the dungeon evaporated, I finished the fight with Ghost within an hour.”

“Right. That’s obvious. So what happened during those other 8 hours?”

It was then.

Jong Ho, who was quietly driving responded in surprise.

“Hey! Min-Cheol, is it perhaps… perhaps that?”

“Yes, that’s right. The Unknown Dungeon opened.”

“Ho… The Unknown Dungeon? So it’s true that you have to sacrifice lives in order to have it open?”

“Yes, I think so. After taking down all of Ghost’s subordinates, a gate formed next to the exit.”

“By God….”

“So you’re telling me that you cleared the Unknown Dungeon and left it?”

“That’s right.”

“In only 8 hours?”

“I already told you so. This is the proof.”

I pointed at the duffle bag that was filled to the brim, as well as the loot that was filling up nearly half of the rear passenger seats.

Despite being in the middle of driving, Jong Ho quickly looked behind him to check.

Ho Jin, on the other hand, had turned his entire body around to stare.

That was right. The duffle bag had been filled by the avatars.

I thought they were just playing in the mud.

One of them who had ignored my command and left had returned with the duffle bag, filled to the brim.

Despite being shrunken to the size of a fist, its strength was still the same.

It was quite an endearing sight to see it carry the bag that was many times bigger in size than it.

On top of that, all the items in the bag were gems.

“Wow. You’re insane. Insane.”

“Aren’t you curious as to know what is in here?”

“What is it? Explain it to us.”

“Hey. That wouldn’t be fun then.”

“Hey! But I can’t pull over in the middle of the road.”

“That’s why you should hurry home. Move, move!”

“We probably wouldn’t die even if we did get into a crash, but if my favorite model, the White Fiancee, gets hurt….”

“That’s just way too much.”

“It’s my first vroom.”

“Garbage car.”

Teasing Jong Ho didn’t last long.

Ho Jin, who was staring at me, spoke up.

“But Mr. Min-Cheol.”

“Yes?”

“It feels as though you’ve changed in the last few hours.”

“What has?”

“Maybe your presence….. I feel as though you’ve grown or something.”

“Huh? Really? I don’t feel anything. Hyung, do you think so too?”

“I’m not too sure? But if there is one thing I’m sure of….”

“What is it? What has changed from before?”

“You’ve become a little bit more uglier than before.”

“…. Do you really have to make fun of me like that! Old man. Old man, leave the car. If you don’t want to die…..”

Almost as if the bloody fight hadn’t occurred, I was quoting the lines of a movie to joke about.

Perhaps he missed those jokes, because he was laughing more than usual.

“Pfft. Ahahahaha! Yeah. This is it. You absolutely cannot die before me, Min-Cheol.”

****

It didn’t take long to arrive at my house.

Parking the car, we exited.

Out of the three, Jong Ho and Ho Jin were out of it.

They seemed to have lost half their minds.

Even as they walked, they continued to say the same words.

“30,000….”

“30,000 stats….”

“Hyung-nim. He said 30,000 stats.”

“Yeah. 30,000 stats… Hoho. 30,000…..”

“Please wipe that drool on your face.”

“Hoho. Drooling… 30,000 stats.”

The reason was this.

When we almost arrived at the house, I told them about the stats that I had obtained through the Butcher’s Sword.

30,000 points of stats, which could be achieved through 6,000 level ups.

It was obvious why they were in a daze.

Only after entering the house and meeting my mother did they stop repeating themselves.

“We’re back.”

“Hello, Min-Cheol’s mother.”

“Hello missus. You’re beautiful as ever.”

“Ohoho. Please come in.”

“Oh. Smells good. What’s the menu?”

“Son!”

“Hm?”

“It’s rare for you to go on vacation, so why didn’t you play some more before coming back! You could’ve made some good memories. Mother wants you to start enjoying life.”

“Memories? Haha… That’s right… Memories… Let’s all go together next time to have fun.”

“Yes, alright. You’re all hungry, right?”

“Missus, I’m always a hungry kid inside.”

“Hoho…..”

“Please wash your hands first. The stew is almost done boiling.”

“Yep!”

****

The breakfast after all that suffering was delicious.

Finishing my meal with mother, she left the house due to to previous engagements she had to attend to.

I confirmed my mother leaving from the veranda and then headed towards Jong Ho’s car.

It was to bring in the duffle bag and all the loot.

Of course, mother wasn’t against me hunting. However, I did not wish her to see all these items that were soaked in blood.

Since the weapons and armors were fairly large in size, only three of them filled up my arms.

It just came to me now, but I wondered how I was able to bring all these items out with me.

I poured all the items down on the living room floor.

After that, I briefly entered my room to fetch something before coming back into the living room.

Jong Ho and Ho Jin were busily looking through the loot.

In front of them, I put down the Blood’s Craving.

Each their own weapon, that is.

I spoke to them, both of whom were staring at me.

“Presents.”

“Huh?”

“Testing us the moment you return, huh.”

“Just wear them for now.”

Looking at one another, they stood up and put on the armor.

“What the. There are no stats on this?”

“It’s the same with mine.”

“That’s normal.”

The Blood’s Craving armor did not have any stats at the start.

However, after taking down 100 monsters, it would allow the user to raise a single stat.

Jong Ho, who was tapping on the armor, spoke.

“Is this a toy?”

“You said that you were hunting ghouls as of late?”

“Yes. That’s right.”

“Yep.”

“Roughly 500 or so come out, right?”

“Probably, I think?”

“From now on, put this on as you hunt.”

“… Mr. Min-Cheol, there are no stats on this armor.”

“You’re able to raise 1 stat point every 100 monsters. Any stat you want.”

“What?”

“What did you say?”

“I’m saying that if you clear the level 23 ghoul dungeon once, it’s like you leveled up once.”

“Wow… This must be very expensive.”

Listening to what I had to say, Jong Ho and Ho Jin immediately took off the armor and then put them down in front of me.

‘Of course. There’s no way these stubborn guys would just take them so easily.’

“Mister.”

“Yes?”

“You apologized that you weren’t of any help, right?”

“Yes…. That’s right.”

“Hyung-nim.”

“Yeah?”

“You probably thought of that too.”

“Well….:”

“Are you two going to be like that even as we go further?”

“…..”

“…..”

“Are you two going to only worry and regret. If not, take these and become stronger, so you can be of help to me. We’re on the same team. That’s why if you two become stronger, it is good for me too.”

“Yeah… During the confrontation with Ghost, I felt a lot. I felt despair in myself when I wasn’t of any use to you. While I waited for you to come back out alive… I wondered if time ever passed like this before. If something happens again, I’m not going to send you alone again.”

“Same with me.”

“Hu hu. It’s settled then. Now shall we open up the other presents?”

The next thing I was going to give them were swords.

These two have been sharing the Banwol Jincheon I gave them.

I had obtained two good one handed swords from the Unknown Dungeon.

If these were ownership bound weapons, they wouldn’t be able to use it. Thankfully though, they weren’t weapons that only the original owner could use.

However, their stats were a little bit less than what could’ve been if these were bound weapons.

Even if the stats are a bit less, these weapons are probably things that no other Awakened have.

Just like that, the loot distribution was complete, and they headed out to hunt.

Seeing them head out to hunt without any complaints despite having stayed up all night, I felt apologetic, but also happy.

The living room was empty once more.

I poured the gems inside the duffle bag.

These gems were in the shape of leaves.

Other than the green gem that I had obtained in the beginning, there were many colors.

All of them strengthened equipment, but depending on the color, the enhancement varied.

I put the Butcher’s Sword, Titan Boots, and the armor that I had obtained from Joker, Scales of the Black Dragon, on the ground.

The Butcher’s Sword had absorbed a ton of stats.

The Titan Boots ignored all status debuffs.

The Scales of the Black Dragon reduced damage taken by 40%.

These three artifacts boasted stats that were nearly impossible to beat.

There was no way I would waste these gems on items that I would use and toss quickly.

After all, these gems comes only from the Unknown Dungeon, which I wasn’t sure when I could enter again.

Checking the various stat upgrades that the gems showcased, I began to enhance my equipment.

“Shall I begin trying them out?”