Quest (4)
Anyone who would have seen the battle would say that the situation had gotten a lot worse. It was comparable to a trashy piece of art.
I bet even if Solomon himself came and made a judgment, then even he would have declared me to be a sinner. The gamble that Kim Hyunsung had decided to do with his own reputation certainly didn’t end badly for him.
The monsters had mercilessly devoured Lee Kichul, and Jung Jinho’s lackey’s rage made him whimsical enough to kill me.
But there wasn’t any further conflict, and Kim Hyunsung had handled the situation quite well.
I didn’t know if I had done my part or not, but I was happy enough with the results. Without even using my hands, I had sent a man to his merciless death.
Even though I lost one tooth as I was acting to become the victim, I achieved some advantageous and desirable results that earned my beloved and precious colleagues’ warm attention.
However, Jung Hayan’s expression had changed unexpectedly. Had it become taboo to engage in any brawl with someone else for her?
‘Don’t tell me, really?’
Had it also become some weird kind of taboo for someone to touch my body?
After a moment of biting her nails, she quickly approached me as if she had suddenly noticed that I was still lying on the floor.
However, her expression was still hostile.
“Oh, Oppa!”
After she saw me bleeding from my mouth, she forgot about everything.
She used her ring and tried to send magical power through it. The sight was spectacular. However, divine power ring that Hayan was wearing was not intended to heal such wounds.
When I grabbed her left hand slightly, she stopped chanting the spell, as if she knew what I meant. Her big eyes were full of tears, and after a moment, they started falling relentlessly.
“Are you okay? What can I do… What should I do?”
“Of course I’m okay. It was my fault after all…”
There was a bitter taste in my mouth.
One of the teeth had flown away, and one side of my cheek was tingling, but I wasn’t feeling that much pain.
That was because if I did anything but display my stiffness, it seemed that Jung Hayan would start casting magic spells out there.
‘Be patient Hayan… Please, please.’
Shooting magic at Jung Jinho’s party was definitely not a bad option, but it was better to play the victim right now. As I could see that Kim Hyunsung hadn’t made a move yet, it looked like he was also hoping for it.
“Wow…”
She kept touching my face as if I had lost my skin or something. Seeing that she was struggling with her words in her panicked state, I wondered if Hayan was actually sane. Tears were streaming down her face, and she had a bloody nose.
It was as if I was already dead. Her reaction was too passionate about the fact that I had lost only one of my teeth.
“Are you okay, Oppa? Are you alright?”
“Yes I’m fine. It’s not a big deal. Don’t mind me, Hayan. I’m really okay. It doesn’t hurt at all.”
It did hurt, but it wasn’t a big wound.
It was nice to have this reaction for this kind of wound, as it seemed a little scary to think about what would happen otherwise.
“This guy! How dare you!”
Becoming easily incensed was natural for Park Deokgu, and it was the same as eating and drinking for him. The reactions of Jung Hayan and Park Deokgu had exceeded my expectations. At this point, I thought Jung Jinho would also be embarrassed by this situation.
Of course, the guy who was more embarrassed than anyone else was the one who had hit me.
He sensed the sudden ominous change in the harsh atmosphere. What I had done had instantly turned me, the perpetrator, into a victim.
Yet something even more magical happened.
‘Arghh.’
Even though I knew I shouldn’t do this, my mouth continued to curve into a smile. I kept grinning.
In the end, it was Jung Jinho who bowed his head.
“I’m sorry, Kiyoung-ssi.”
“No problem.”
“I have nothing to say. I know you didn’t do it with bad intentions. If you hadn’t used magic, something even worse would have happened. Jaejoon is saddened that Kichul, who had been with us for a long time, has died. I hope you understand. Jaejoon?”
“But…”
“Jaejoon. You have to apologize. It was an unavoidable situation and it was the best option. If it weren’t for Kiyoung, we might all be dead.”
I didn’t know if it was due to seeing Jung Jinho’s expression, but the guy named Jaejoon, who had constantly been furious up until now, also bowed his head slightly.
“I… It seems I got out of control for a while, sorry…”
His fists were shaking.
He was not looking at me properly, and it was not difficult to know why. I thought I had to be the one to apologize in this situation, but my mouth wouldn’t open if I wanted it too.
In fact, he still looked as red as an apple, and he wasn’t apologizing wholeheartedly. Rather, it came off as if he was just trying to control his anger.
“It’s okay, Jaejoon. I can understand. I was also a little frivolous… I cannot comfort you with any words, but I sincerely apologize.”
Of course, I wasn’t serious either.
“I’m… sorry,” I could see that he was forcibly lowering his head.
I didn’t really feel like I was getting an apology, but it felt good apart from that.
‘Phew.’
If he hadn’t been angry in the first place, it would have been me who had to bow to him.
In fact, what was more worrisome than that guy was, of course, Jung Hayan.
‘What am I going to do with her…?’
If she was thinking about doing the same thing as she had done to Park Hyeayoung, this would turn out pretty bad.
The title of the culprit in the case of Park Hyeayoung had already been nailed to Jung Jinho.
But if this guy was to disappear suddenly somewhere right after, Kim Hyunsung might get suspicious of Jung Hayan. It would certainly increase the suspicions if this guy was found dead with his legs and arms amputated. Of course, I would also be on the suspects list by then.
I wanted to calm her down. From her expressions, it felt like she wouldn’t be returning to normal anytime soon.
When I looked at her palms, they were bleeding due to her nails as she had clenched her fists. Now I was almost certain that Jung Hayan’s attack was unavoidable.
‘Let’s see where this goes.’
If I thought about it a little more positively, the scenario wasn’t that bad, actually.
The fact that Jung Hayan would attack him directly was also something that could prove to be helpful in the future.
If Kim Jaejoon died, Jung Jinho would have lost both his companions.
‘What is she doing…’
However, the appearance of Hayan secretly picking up my fallen tooth was giving off the feeling of a ticking bomb that you never knew when it would explode.
“I will get you up, Kiyoung Oppa.”
“Yeah. Let’s do that. Sorry for the disturbance.”
She grabbed me by my arms, and I was able to stand up again. It didn’t hurt that much.
Now, the next best thing to do was to strike first.
The timing of the first attack had to be determined by our side.
I did not like Jinho being around me, and maybe he would attack right away if he got the chance.
“Can you walk?”
“Of course.”
“If you have any trouble… ”
“No, it’s really okay. Hyunsung-ssi. As you said, let’s get out of this place first.”
“Yes, you’re right.”
The huge iron door was still tightly closed.
Either it wouldn’t open until the quest was over, or it might only be opened from the outside, but one thing was certain: in order for us to survive, we had to find a way to complete the quest of this dungeon.
Unfortunately, the name of the quest itself was survival.
“Maybe when the woman, in the beginning, was talking about surviving, she was referencing to this quest here.”
Jung Jinho’s words lightened up everyone’s spirits.
We were listening to everything he said.
This was because everyone, including Jung Hayan, was on the lookout for Jung Jinho and his hostility if he ever happened to show it.
It was a natural for him now to try and get close to us in order to live.
I thought I would be the one to do it as I had been thinking similarly.
“I thought of the same thing. The first floor actually has no other purpose and it seems that survival and attacking the monsters here are the main objectives. If survival is a condition that needs to be accomplished in order to escape from this dungeon, then we have to avoid or overcome the monsters. In this way we can kill two birds with one stone. If this hypothesis is correct, we don’t have to worry much about the first floor.”
It meant that whether we were focusing on attacking or surviving, it was necessary to strategically use survival skills. Kim Hyunsung seemed to be thinking along the same lines.
I couldn’t concentrate on the conversation because I was trying to find my way towards the front, but seeing that there was no dissenting voice, it seemed that my hypothesis was correct. Both survival and attacking that the woman talked about in the beginning tutorial took place here.
“I understand the survival part, but…”
“Well, there may be something like a boss monster here.”
“Oh.”
“That’s common under such conditions. If you look at the status windows or classes, this place is quite similar to an online game. If it wasn’t for the tutorial, there could be various methods for the attack, but this is a dungeon that is simply focused on survival and attack, so we might be facing a slightly different problem. Killing that monster is probably the main thing we have to do here.”
“I was thinking the same thing, Kiyoung-ssi.”
“It’s just a guess. Secondly, we also have the option of finding our way out.”
“What do you mean?”
“It could be our way out of this hellish dungeon, or there could be another method that could get us all out. There are a few more things, but I can’t remember them.”
This was just reasoning that anyone could easily formulate. Jung Jinho and even Yoo Seokwoo might have been thinking of the same thing, so there was little suspicion on who worded it first.
“You really are thinking ahead, Kiyoung-ssi… ” Yoo Seokwoo muttered.
He was also angry. He seemed to be thinking whether I had thrown the fireball there on purpose, but I just laughed in my mind at that thought.
He wasn’t the only guy that wanted to kill me.
“Oh, these are just some of my thoughts… ”
In fact, these were simple deductions.
As I continued walking, I couldn’t see the monsters anymore.
Of course, there were some others scattered around, but they weren’t of the same level as the ones we were fighting before. We killed them as quickly as possible because they could cause unforeseen problems, and then we would have to face the same kind of battle again.
Most of our stamina had been drained, so we were moving very slowly. We repeatedly had to stop to catch our breaths.
In the meantime, our magic powers were passively recovering, which was a good thing for us.
There were occasions when Kim Hyunsung frowned, and Jung Hayan kept staring at Kim Jaejoon, but fortunately, nothing big happened.
Particularly in the case of Hayan, whenever she saw me with my swollen mouth, she got even more frustrated and angry. Sometimes she would start crying all of a sudden and shake her head while muttering to herself.
Park Deokgu appeared to be a bit affected whenever she cried involuntarily.
Contrary to the rumors that I was ‘good’ with women, I didn’t seem to have any idea on how to comfort Jung Hayan. This whole sequence of events had been bizarre.
Then she bowed her head and whispered in a small voice. Her voice was so low that I couldn’t hear it properly even after getting close to her.
Thus, I tried to guess what she was saying…
It sounded like ‘I have to kill him’, but I didn’t let my expression show that I had heard her. In the end, this would benefit me too.
“I will take revenge.”
I pretended as if I didn’t hear that either.
This could turn out better than I had originally anticipated.