Chapter 4: C-Rank dungeon raid
Walking outside on the side walk Sung Mingyoo had chained into some joggers, a black T-shirt, and lastly a black jacket with white lining on the sleeves. He had found a team with two open positions for a C-rank dungeon raid and they were in need of two more party members to get in.
It was at some construction site and he got the directions from his phone. Looking around he crossed the street and turned the corner to his left. A bit further ahead he saw a group of hunters that see to be talking to a guy in blue jeans and a jean jacket.
He looked over them as his eyes glowed red as he looked over them. There were 4 C-ranks and 3 lower than D-rank. He then looked at the guy in blue and saw that he was around upper C-rank.
Mingyoo was a stronger. Suddenly that guy turned his head to him which made him stammer a bit, but he sped up to the construction site.
"I assume you're Sung Mingyoo the other E-rank?" Said the part leader Dong-suk. He was a tall man with a huge build. Mingyoo was around 5'9 so he must have been at least 5'11 or 6 feet tall.
"Other E-rank?" He asked curiously.
"My name is Sung Jinwoo. I'm also an E-rank hunter." He said with a neutral tone of voice as he held his hand out. Shaking his hand Mingyoo nodded at him.
"Are you guys like family? I guess being E-rank runs in the family." Said an orange haired guy. Dong-suk told them to be quiet and tgat numbers were what's important. He then gave Mingyoo a contract that basically said anything that happens to you is your fault and we hold no responsibility, but you'll get 2mil just for signing.
Mingyoo with nothing to loose signed the contract and put it into his pocket.
"I'm Yoo Jin-Ho. I'm 22 and D-rank. I was called here under the same circumstances as you!" He said loudly with a bright smile. He had on all of this flashy armor, making him look like some billionaire.
"Nice to meet you." Mingyoo said with a nod.
"You guys are handling the baggage, so let's go." Said another guy with long black hair and a long pointy nose.
Sung Jinwoo seemed to be indecisive about this, but he sighed and picked up a bag as Mingyoo picked up the other. The bags were large and filled with pickaxes among other things.
They looked heavy, but were light as paper for Mingyoo. Oh yeah, there was some guy with what looked like a sniper behind him. Anyways, everyone walked through the construction site towards the gate while Yoo Jin-Ho was talking with Sung Jinwoo.
Mingyoo was around the front if the group so he didn't say much but continued to the gate. In front of him was a huge glowing blue mass of light that was sparking with purple lightning.
"Woah." He said under his breath.
"Are you sure this is a C-rank dungeon? The gate seems pretty big." The guy with long hair asked.
"Of course. I've seen people go in and out plenty of times." Dong-suk answered.
(First POV)
I could hear Jin-Ho talking to Jinwoo about how the rank is giving to a dungeon based off of its magical energy and how bigger ones usually give off B-rank energy signatures.
Large guilds take on B-rank and above gates while C-rank and lower aren't that dangerous.
'So chances are that this could be a B or A rank dungeon. Just great.' I thought as I sighed. Dong-suk told everyone to follow him and Jin-Ho suddenly took out a fancy sword and shield screaming yes.
'Why's it so flashy? Wouldn't that make it easier to be spotted?' I thought to myself. I shook my head and followed Dong-suk and the rest into the gate.
Stepping in everything felt weird. It was also dark, but I was able to see perfectly fine.
"Gyu-Hwan, creat some light." Dong-suk said to the guy with long hair. He nodded and held his hand out as a ball of glowing yellow light appeared hovering over his palm.
The cave became clear to everyone as they started asking questions.
"There are no monsters."
"Weird, were are all the luminous stones to light up the dungeon."
"What's with all of these tunnels?"
Everyone was asking there questions, but I was listening to sound. If a monster lives in darkness that means it likes when it's dark. All these tunnels remind me of how the ants made tunnels as well.
I could here something like it was crawling, but I couldn't tell the direction. I tried listening even more when J heard it. I looked up above us and there was a tunnel right there.
"ITS INSECT TYPE MONSTERS!!" Jinwoo yelled with a cautious expression on his face. This whole time he's had a calm expression, so I didn't expect him to get like this.
"Insect type!?"
"Could this be an ants nest!?"
"Don't say that!!"
Hunters started yelling and looking around, but amongst their confusion and yelling I decided to notify them.
"There above." I said looking at dozens of glowing red eyes.
"Get them down from there!!"
"What are these numbers!?"
"Get them off the ceiling!!"
"It's too many!!"
Gyu-Hwan shot some magic at the ceiling killing a few ants and making the rest fall down onto the ground from the smoke.
Once they drop to the ground everyone jumped to action.
Besides me and Jinwoo. One, I have to act like an E-rank to not rase suspicion and I don't want all the attention. I was never good when all eyes were on me and two, these ants aren't worth anything.
The ones that came around me were kicked or stomped on. The raid team however had excellent teamwork. Everyone is organized and have each others back while also being well equipped.
They are a little over the top and rough, but it didn't matter honestly. The only thing is that was touching me the wrong way about them was their vibe. Seeing their happy little smiles as they killed and talked about money didn't ease my suspicion at all.
They found some ants that seem to have weird injuries, like something had bit it in half.
'Probably the boss.' I thought as I we continued on our walk.
This dungeon was laid out like a maze so there wasn't many monsters to fight, but moving around took a while. Dungeon size vary, but not by rank.
My job was to simply carry luggage, so that's what I did. Getting into battles were pointless for me so I didn't do anything, but stand there when we did confront monsters.
The only reason I came, was because with the money I'm getting, I could convert some into gold and have lots of money left over. Other than that, I had no reason to take this job.
I thought this would be simple, but for a while now I've picked up on what was most likely to happen. Their smiles and eyes were always filled with greed and the annoying feeling of a bad premonition coming hadn't gone away.
They most likely are going to kill us and then take our stuff or use us as bait for the boss.
…
—Two hours later—
We've been walking for a while now and haven't seen any monsters with limbs intact and that seemed to weird some of the members out.
We were all now completely sure that this had to be the bosses doing or something around the level of the boss.
"Wait, Gyu-Hwan illuminate this area." Said Dong-suk. Following his order he made a ball of light that illuminated the whole tunnel and what we saw was shocking to say the least.
Thick webs were everywhere with ants hanging in them by the hundreds. Further down you can tell that it's the boss room right ahead of us.
We walked through the tunnel making sure that we don't touch the webs. The more we walked the more of these glowing blue stones appeared. We walked through one more hole and there were tones of these "mana crystals" covered the walls and ceiling of the cave.
There was also lots of webbing going from wall to wall. Everyone went i to an uproar about these mana crystals and how with the amount and quality they could probably get 10mil.
'I mean that's good. I'd be making more money, so…' My thoughts trailed off as I took out my contract and read over it. It was mentioned that I too would be splitting crystals and cores and that's when it clicked.
I heard Jin-Ho ask about why they were saying it's split 9 ways when it's supposed to be 10 and the looks on their faces solidified my thoughts.
'We're getting used as bait or to stall it.' I thought.
"First we have to take care of that." Dong-suk said as we looked at the giant spider that was sleeping on its web.
"As you know it takes time to mine and move crystals and we have to do this before beating the boss. It looks sleep, so nows the perfect chance to mine it up." He added.
"Did you bring the mining gear?" He asked some plain looking guy.
'If they use us as bait, I could probably kill the boss and get some levels, but them…' I looked over to Sung Jinwoo and Jin-Ho as my thoughts continued.
'What to do about them? That guy seems to be above his rank, so why do they still call him an E-rank?' I shook the thought away and decided that it didn't matter to me now.
I didn't say anything about us having some mining equipment in the backpack I'm literally holding, but let them go on with their dumb plan.
"Could you three guard this place while we go get the other equipment?" Dong-suk asked with a sigh.
His acting was good, but once someone can see through you all of you antics and decisions become clear.
I simply nodded my head and they turned to leave. Jin-Ho went wide eyed as he looked at me.
"This is a death sentence. Loom at that thing!!" He yelled.
"Quite down. I think monsters like those only attack when you enter their territory, so as long as we sit here we're fine." I said. He wasn't a bad guy, but how talkative and loud he is does get annoying.
As they went through the tunnel entrance that ugly guy with ling hair shot a spell at the wall making rocks pile up and block the entrance off.
Yoo Jin-Ho was completely shocked at this and was yelling. Jinwoo walked around touching the walls as he had a thoughtful expression on his face.
After a while of Jin-Ho screaming and Jinwoo thinking he smirked as a dagger started materializing in his hand.
"I'll handle it." He said as the boss monster dropped to the ground. Jinwoo stood there with his dagger in hand as I dropped luggage as well.
'Should I do something as well? Nah, I can just go to another dungeon, but what if I actually level up from this? First of all what is he gonna do? He's only C-rank.' I thought as I looked at him.
In the end I decided to lend a hand if it was needed, but just watch for now. I wanted to see how much of a difference there was to our power considering we're in the same rank.
Well for me I think I'm two ranks above him. My system ranks things like C, C-, C+, B, etc. So yeah, I'm two ranks above him, but in the same category. What type of difference does that make?
I watched as he dashed at the spider like dungeon boss and jumped onto its back and sent a barrage of strikes to it. His speed was good, but lack luster at best.
The weapon is good, but he doesn't put enough strength into it. Instead of slashing he should focus on stabbing to deal more damage. Other than that his senses and instincts seem sharp.
I also noticed that his eyes have a blue hue over them. Other than that he was solid. The body was enormous, the legs were ling with sharp stingers at the end. It had multiple eyes so it barely had blind spots other than its back.
Attacking the back is useless for him though, since he can't put enough strength into the swings to pierce the skin. It's thick, but he has to be fast or the boss would attack him.
'It seems like their on equal footing, bug there's a problem. He's exhausting his stamina too fast.' I thought as I was sitting on the ground leaning against some mana crystals.
I grabbed one and started pulling on it to get it from the cave and it came out easily.
'Might as well collect this for money.' I thought as I got up and started taking some mana crystals and putting it in my inventory. Jin-Ho was so focused on Jinwoo that he didn't bother with me which I actually appreciated.
….
—10 minutes later—
Jinwoo was still fighting this thing and he was getting way too tired. Honestly the fact that he's been going on for this long is impressive though.
Suddenly it spit out acid that melted the ground. Jinwoo jumped back as he stood there with a serious expression on his face.
'I should step in.' I thought as I was about to get up. Suddenly Jinwoo crouched and shot forward way faster than before. The speed he showed right now was on par with mine when I'm not using [Dash].
In a blitz of attacks his dagger was actually making cuts, but he couldn't get any critical hits in. He was panting extremely hard, but with clinched teeth he continued to bombard the boss with strikes with his dagger.
Jinwoo jumped back from a swung the spider did with its legs, but was slapped into a wall midair by another spider leg. He laid there with his body embedded into the wall as the spider went for another attack.
I heard him mumble something before he jumped forward and stabbed the spider in the eye. The fatigue he was showing before was completed gone and he looked rejuvenated.
Almost like how I look after drinking a health and stamina potion. He continued to stab and stab and stab again at the eyes of the spider as he jumped from wall to wall cutting its eyes directly.
With one last slash he was kneeling down next to Jin-Ho as he breathed out. It's body fell to the ground with yellow blood leaking from it like a waterfall.
Jin-Ho was shaking with a look of horror on his before it turned to a weird smile as he picked up the backpack a d walked over to Jinwoo.
Looking at them I decided to walk over and talk. After taking a look at Jinwoo, I saw that he went up a rank. He was in the middle of C- and C+.
'So can all hunters get stronger as they kill? If so, why would the other party leave instead of trying to beat it and get stronger? Is he a special case like me?' I started having thoughts of Jinwoo problem having something to help him as well, but I wasn't certain.
It could be a unique ability for him. Jin-Ho started doing labor after giving Jinwoo a water bottle and just as I was walking over an explosion went off.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone