Chapter 89: The Underground Maze
Chapter 89: The Underground Maze
Dong-seok gritted his teeth and roared, bursting out his Mana Presence and causing a terrific shockwave. The surrounding area was swept away by the intense wind pressure.
Woosh!
Hyun-bin quickly stomped the lower end of his Great Shield again into the ground. It was to block the shockwave that was crushing some part of the airport.
The blonde woman also raised both her hands to block the shockwave. She cast a magic spell with the magic language, Elf’s tongue. Then, a sky-blue round shield appeared. It protected her and the private plane.
Incheon Airport nearly got wiped out after the shockwave. Even the wet ground and the rain had dried up and stopped for a moment.
On the South Korean side, fortunately, no one was hurt by it. It was the same with the blonde woman with the private plane.
Dong-seok turned left and walked away from Hyun-bin and the other hunters. He was already in a bad mood due to the tier-4 Portal Gate incident. And he was now ganged up by South Korean hunters, which increased his annoyance. He planned to assuage the anger by killing the hunters when the blonde woman came and reminded him of their mission. Inevitably, he had to swallow his mounting anger!
Chairman Yu, who saw what happened, got up and tried to chase after Dong-seok. But, he got stopped by Hyun-bin.
“Hyung~nim, we also have another important matter. We can’t go after him carelessly.”
Hyun-bin shifted his face, leading at the two S-rank hunters that sat in slight pain and exhaustion from getting pierced by the elemental swords.
Chairman Yu saw that too and gave up on blocking Dong-seok’s departure. It was purely his fault for overestimating the strength of someone who was on par with an Apex-ranked hunter. He was overconfident that Hyun-bin could beat Dong-seok, who in reality could only keep up without being able to suppress the traitor at all.
Even S-rank hunters were just a burden and couldn’t help anything in an Apex-level battle.
Unfortunately, that was the reality, a fight in a completely different realm, where people outside of it were just the spectators.
“Do you really need to go this far to cause a ruckus in your country?” The blonde woman asked.
Dong-seok didn’t stop in his tracks and got on a private plane, ignoring the question. The blonde woman followed closely behind.
On the private plane, Dong-seok turned around and moved his hand at the blonde woman before they sat down. The woman wanted to rebuke but was a little too late and ended up getting strangled by Dong-seok.
“Don’t say something you don’t understand. I don’t like other people interfering in my business. Even though we are people with the same goal, it doesn’t mean we can get along. Got that!?” Dong-seok tilted his head and spoke in English with a Korean accent.
The blonde woman struggled but managed to loosen the grip on her neck a little bit by grabbing Dong-seok’s hand. “Calm down a bit. Fighting here is unwise. Let me apologize to you, boss.” She replied with an awkward smile.
Dong-seok retracted his hand and sat facing the window to his right. He looked at Hyun-bin from there, after the private plane turned and until it took off.
Hyun-bin also stared back and just stood still in his place with the other S-rank hunters on the spot.
The battle between S-rank and Apex-ranked hunters was far different from that of A-rank and S-rank hunters. At least in the case of A-rank hunters, they could solely increase their numbers, then they would be able to keep up with an S-rank hunter. Whereas with an Apex-ranked hunter, no matter how many S-rank hunters gathered, they still wouldn’t be able to compete.
The reason was the Magic Manifestation that made the difference. In terms of magic usage between the two different ranks.
Chairman Yu exhaled deeply. Just as expected, Apex-rank hunter and ArchMage called people in the realm of God were not a laughing matter.
Meanwhile, within the tier-4 Portal Gate, the Raid Party had explored some dungeon area whose environment was like a desert. As far as they walked, not a single Magic Crystal or Magic Stone got found. It fitted perfectly with the dull atmosphere.
Ji-woo also looked around, checking if there was a space glitch like in the Warlord of Trolls’ place that could hide presences. But fortunately, there were no such signs at all.
“Hyung, what is that shabby bag? Why take it to a dungeon? That bag will definitely tear when you put Magic Crystals or Magic Stones in it. It’s better to use this bag of mine.”
Ji-woo almost rolled over in the desert after hearing those words. He became speechless because the Spatial Bag got treated like a ragged bag.
‘I don’t think he has seen a Spatial Bag before.’
Ji-woo had no interest in telling Dong-hyun about it and refused the offer about the bag.
And not long after, the Raid Party finally found the underground maze. The hunters in the party entered the labyrinth without a second thought.
The leader of the Raid Party named Jung Joon-yong nodded his head at Seon-ho. They had expected the underground maze to have multiple paths when they entered.
There were five paths in the maze. Joon-yong ordered the other hunters to check those entrance paths, including Dong-hyun and Ji-woo. Only the A-rank hunters did nothing and just stood there watching.
“Where did you get that kid?”
“He’s my classmate.”
“Wow, I thought you didn’t have any hunter friends from the same school anymore. Are you sure he doesn’t know about your other hunting buddies?”
“No need to worry. He’s a bit shunned, so no one will bother to call him. He’s also a loner and won’t dare to contact anyone else.”
“He is the perfect hunter! He also brought other hunters to our Raid Party.
“So that makes the numbers match. We have five new hunters joining this dungeon and five maze paths.
“One new hunter in each group. That should be enough to guarantee our safety.”
Both Joon-yong and Seon-ho grin at each other. He then divided the group into four with six hunters each, while the last group had seven hunters.
Ji-woo and Dong-hyun were separated and didn’t end up in the same group. They obeyed the division. After all, they were just additional hunters in the Raid Party.
The three new hunters also got noticed by Ji-woo. It was because the three of them didn’t seem familiar with the other Raid Party members at all. It was an awkward interaction. However, he could see there was a boundary between the new members and the old members who already knew each other. He initially thought they were the only E-rank hunters who got a bit ignored, but the three C-rank hunters were the same.
The division of each hunter in the group also did not go unnoticed by Ji-woo. It made him speculate a bit about what the original Raid Party hunters were planning.
Ji-woo looked at Dong-hyun, who was still smiling broadly on the side without knowing what would happen at a later stage. If his speculation was correct, that would be a real test and a good experience for Dong-hyun to know about the real world of hunters.
Ji-woo shifted his face back to the entrance path in front of him and sighed. He didn’t worry about the dungeon anymore because he could currently sense Mana almost throughout the maze.
The groups then proceeded to enter each path, and there was no time limit. They only have one rule. If they encounter a creature that could not get killed or the route was a dead end. Then, that group must return to the starting place of the labyrinth.
All those groups really struck gold. The three groups instantly found three Magic Crystals and one Magic Stone each after a few minutes of entering. While the other two only got one Magic Stone each.
The maze was like an oasis in the middle of the desert.
In the group where Ji-woo was, he didn’t get the loot. The other hunters didn’t say anything about the share either. He didn’t think much of it and continued to walk again ahead of the others.
Ji-woo stopped in his tracks after walking for five minutes. He could sense Mana better and knew there was a magic trap in front of him.
“Hey, newbie! Why did you stop!? Keep moving!’
A hunter came to Ji-woo, who didn’t take another step forward.
Ji-woo shook his head. And put on a face like an innocent person who did not know what was in front of him. He said while pointing at the wall.
“On the wall over there. I saw ten Magic Crystals. I don’t know whether to take it or report it first.”
“F*ck*ng r*t*rd! Just that matter makes you get confused! Idiot!”
The hunter went ahead and stood in front of a wall that had ten Magic Crystals in it. He tried to pull it out. But it didn’t work. He then summoned another hunter to help him.
There were two hunters in front of the wall, trying to take out the Magic Crystals. They couldn’t add any more people because the path in that section was a bit narrow and could only fit two people.
Ji-woo smirked as he watched those two hunters succeed to pull out one Magic Crystal.
Suddenly,
Tszeet!