Infinite Competitive Dungeon Society

“What are you doing here so early in the morning!?”

“Someone stood me up last night, so I’m here drinking in the morning to make up for it.”

“What, I already told you that I was going to be out hunting.”

“I didn’t think you’d stay there the whole night. Do you know how hard it was to make that girl sleep? I was with Ye-Eun too. I really didn’t think you’d hunt wyverns the entire night...”

Hwaya pouted. With a shrug, I apologized and sat across the table. Hwaya, who was staring at me fixedly, then asked.

“I want to see your face. I want to know what expression you’re making.”

“No.”

“With how strong you are, you can probably show yourself... Are you still afraid?”

At Hwaya’s provocative smile, I snorted and took a sip from the bottle of whiskey. My strengthened body barely reacted to the alcohol. Putting the bottle down, I responded.

“I won’t fall for provocations.”

“How rude. You stole my drink. Plus, you’re a coward.”

“So, what’s the reason you’re drinking whiskey alone where everyone can see you?”

At my question, Hwaya grinned and messaged me.

[I didn’t think I could say it when I was with the others. I wanted to say it last night, but you stood me up.]

[Yeah, yeah. I already apologized. So, what is it? Ciara Kenex?]

[No, Palludia.]

“Uk.”

Hwaya’s eyes were shining strangely.

[That girl is weird. You didn’t explain yesterday. What’s her problem? Why is she so obsessed with you? I haven’t seen a girl like her in a while.]

[So there are people like her?]

[That’s another story. Did something happen in the world you went to as a Dimensional Mercenary? Did she become like that because her world fell? What happened?]

[Mm, sorry. It’s a secret.]

[Hey.]

[Sorry, but I don’t think I should tell you, or anyone else for that matter.]

“... Hu.”

Hwaya let out a sigh. She raised her cup to take a drink, but she realized that it was empty. She reached towards the bottle of whiskey, but I took it away before she could get it.

“Your constitution isn’t that strong. Stop before you get drunk. Do you even want to drink something I drank with my mouth?”

“You’re pretty good...”

Hwaya sighed again and took her hand off her glass.

“Fine, let’s stop drinking. Sorry. I shouldn’t have asked you so suddenly. I was just feeling impatient, unlike my usual self. It was just completely unexpected, so I was surprised.”

“There’s a reason for it, so try to understand.”

“Yeah, I’ll try, though I probably won’t succeed.”

“How honest.”

I smiled. Hwaya also smiled and continued.

“That’s enough, right?”

“Yeah.”

[Ciara Kenex too?]

[... Yeah.]

Hwaya stared at me for a while, but soon got up while smiling.

[Alright, I’ll trust you. I was hesitating too, since it would get complicated if the Kenex family intervened. Plus, if there’s an enemy you can’t handle, I doubt anyone from the Kenex family could help.]

[This is what you really wanted to talk about, right?]

“It’s both. They’re both important to me. Anyways, let’s go wake them up and go out for breakfast. I’m hungry.”

Hwaya answered nonchalantly and left. Looking at her back as she walked away, I thought that it was a miracle that I got to know her.

The moment Ludia opened her eyes, she jumped on my arm, but since she had to get changed, I got her off with Hwaya and Ye-Eun’s help. As this continued, I hoped her symptoms would slowly disappear. Once she changed, she clung to my arm again, making me somewhat doubtful. After we had breakfast, we went straight to the Field Dungeon. I wasn’t particularly tired and neither were my companions.

“Shin, I can’t fly in the air like you, so what should I do?”

“You’ll see once we get there. Also, make sure not to call me by my name. If you need to, use the dungeon’s message system.”

I could hunt the wyverns alone, but most melee-range fighters could not do so. Most of the Awakened scattered around the Field Dungeon were members of the American Guardian. They watched over and reported the slightest changes in the dungeon. When wyverns descended, they called nearby parties and hunted them together.

Those that hunted wyverns more actively always had long-ranged attackers with close-ranged attackers. They first drew the wyverns toward them with long-ranged attacks and had the close-ranged attackers fight them. However, since the wyverns here seemed capable of communicating with each other, they would have to fight two wyverns at once if they were unlucky. As such, most parties didn’t hunt by themselves and cooperated with the other countries’ ability users.

Some ability users, however, gave up the ground to fight the wyverns in the sky. They rode in helicopters to fight them.

“Isn’t that more dangerous?”

“It’s called an attack helicopter, but yeah, that sounds more dangerous.”

Once hit by the wyverns’ flames, a helicopter would just become a chunk of scrap metal. Even attack helicopters, made from monster materials for the purpose of hunting monsters, could not withstand the wyverns’ flames for long. If wyverns headbutted, clawed, or bit the helicopter, it would go down sooner.

As such, when fighting a wyvern on a helicopter, the party had to consist of ideal members. One long-ranged attacker, one defense magic user to protect the helicopter from the wyvern’s attacks, and one close-ranged attack who had the maneuverability to jump on the wyvern to take its life and jump back to safety. As that would take time, it was better to have two close-range attackers.

“Are there teams like that?”

“One or two from what I could tell. Most of the others fight on the ground with the method I told you about.”

Seeing is believing, or so the saying went. In the Field Dungeon’s sky, we could clearly see two helicopters flying around and fighting the wyverns. I couldn’t say they were fast, but they were at least faster than the parties on the ground, who could only wait for wyverns to come near them. Of course, they were incomparably slower than I was last night. Plus, the moment they made a mistake, the helicopter would fall. I heard helicopters made with monster materials cost over 150 billion won, so one of those things had to kill at least 60 wyverns to make up for its cost... Though, that wasn’t exactly true since they could get lucky and find Mana Stones in the wyverns. After all, a Mana Stone from wyverns were about 10 billion won.

Since even S rankers had such difficulty fighting them, it was no wonder that the Wyvern’s Nest was taking so long to get cleared. At first, they employed many methods to hunt the wyverns more easily, but mechanical devices were destroyed and magical devices were broken from the wyverns’ high mana resistance. In the end, only ability users were left to toil. Although I had not experienced it myself, when I thought about all the proud rankers having difficulty hunting wyverns, I couldn’t help but feel bad for them.

“There should be other people who can use ice steps. Or wind steps, maybe.”

“Most ice or wind ability users that are S ranked or above are long-ranged types. There’s no way they would fly in the sky and put themselves in danger.”

“Can’t they fly together with close-range attackers?”

“They’ll end up falling to death after running out of mana!’

Hwaya shouted and stopped my rude imagination. Then, after looking at how people were hunting the wyverns for a bit, she asked.

“Can we rent a helicopter?”

“It’s not a bicycle, you know.”

“It’s possible.”

“Uhuk!?”

When I turned around, John Smith was there. With an amiable smile, he answered.

“I came to talk about the average cost of wyverns and the ones you’ve chosen to sell. Since you were asking something I could answer, I did so.”

“T-Thanks. Let’s start with the wyverns.”

“Yes. In truth, wyverns are different in sizes and quality of the skin. Most of their skin were in perfect shape, though I can’t say the same for their heads. You are truly amazing. Since the size of the wyverns change their cost, Thunder Knight-nim will have to choose which wyverns to sell.”

We then went to the area where the wyverns I hunted last night were gathered. Large wyverns over 20 meters long were piled up on top of each other. It was quite the sight. Because of the mountain of wyvern corpses, sunlight couldn’t even reach us.

“You hunted all this by yourself...!?”

“I expected as much, but...”

Ye-Eun exclaimed in surprise and Hwaya spoke with a dumbfounded expression.

“We chose the cheapest wyverns for the ten you have chosen to give us. If you’re curious, we could bring them back and show you. Is that okay?”

“No, it’s fine. You don’t need to move them again.”

“Plus, most of their heads were blown up. If you obtained any Mana Stones, we would love to buy them too.”

“Sorry, but I have my own uses for them.”

I would get more than enough money from selling the wyverns’ corpses anyways. If they were willing to pay so much for the wyverns’ corpses and Mana Stones, it meant they had appropriate uses for them. In that case, they would be highly valued in the dungeon as well. I wanted to first secure the Mana Stones and the wyverns’ corpses. I might have to visit Lin soon.

I sold 20 wyverns on the spot for over 60 billion won. Since I didn’t have an account for ability users other than the one for Yeon Hwawoo, they created an account for me with the 60 billion won. That said, I didn’t know where to spend all this money. Maybe I should fill the swimming pool in Marianne’s Garden with shrimp crackers...

Plus, we could rent an attack helicopter for free. After hearing it was 130 million dollars, I felt a bit hesitant.

“Well, if there’s any problem, I could just buy it.”

“Don’t underestimate by barrier.”

With Hwaya and Ludia’s double attack, I got on the helicopter. Ye-Eun, who considered 100 million won to be an enormous sum, trembled and got on with a frown. Now that she was a high-ranking ability user, I knew her sense of money would change eventually. In a way, it was sad.

“We should make a team name too!”

Once the helicopter took off, Ye-Eun made a excited suggestion. Ludia seemed to agree as well. It seemed she was obsessed with making connections with people.

Surprisingly, Hwaya supported it as well.

“Right, it’s good for fostering a sense of camaraderie and for letting other knows who we are.”

“Are there other famous parties?”

“Of course. Guardian’s team names often come up on mass media, and it’s the same from Freedom Wing. Rogue teams get paid according to how famous they are, not the ranking of their team members.”

[Shin, you should really show more interest in other people.]

“You’re right, but that’s because I only care about people who are important to me.”

I acknowledged what Ye-Eun messaged. Then, Hwaya swung the staff she was holding at my forehead. I, of course, blocked it with my hands.

“You shouldn’t be proud, idiot. If you keep living like a child, you’ll be dead before you even realize.”

“I know it’s a problem... but I don’t have much free time.”

Climbing the dungeon every day, going to university, and training... I was especially busy lately. I had my excuses, but I should really expand my horizon like Hwaya said...

When I showed signs of self-reflection, Hwaya took back her staff.

“Revival.”

Ludia announced.

“It has to be Revival.”

“Revival? That’s unexpected. Why?”

[That’s the guild he made.]

[Guild!? Shin, you made a guild? Don’t you need a mansion!?]

[Ah, yeah. I do have one, so I took the opportunity to make a guild.]

[I want in! Let me in Shin’s guild!]

[I thought you’d say that. Go ahead. You’ll probably cry if I refuse.]

“Yay!”

Ye-Eun bounced in joy inside the helicopter. Since the pilot couldn’t hear our messages, he was probably weirded out by the strange flow of our conversation. On the other hand, Hwaya didn’t look happy.

[If it’s First Dungeon’s guild, I can’t enter it...! No, wait, I should have been the one to create a guild... But I don’t have a mansion!]

[Mm... Right, sorry, Hwaya.]

[No, I’ll become a First Dungeon explorer for sure. Kuk, since I don’t have a mansion, I’ll have to enter your guild... Kuuk!]

“Then let’s go with Revival for the team name.”

Hwaya looked unhappy that she couldn’t be the leader, but she still agreed on the team name. ‘You learned to swallow your pride. You matured, Hwaya...!’

[We can make you the team’s leader, Hwaya.]

[No, it’s fine. It would look weird if I’m the leader. Besides, you gathered the members, so you should be the leader. But if you ever give me the position of the guild leader, I’ll become the team leader too!]

‘I don’t think that’s going to happen...’ I thought about it, then realized it was Hwaya’s way of acknowledging me as the leader. In a way, she got embarrassed easily.

Just like that, we became Team Revival. When we yelled hurrah with a sense of camaraderie, the helicopter pilot suddenly shouted.

“There’s a wyvern coming straight toward us!”

Tell us earlier!

“O Mitarus! O Earth!”

Ludia quickly created a barrier around the helicopter. The wyvern that appeared in front of the helicopter began to breath out fire. However, it could not penetrate Ludia’s barrier. In anger, it tried to use physical attacks, as it folded its wings and flew toward the helicopter. Although Ludia said it would be fine, I was slightly worried whether her barrier could withstand the wyvern’s attack. I immediately prepared myself to jump out of the helicopter.

However, before the wyvern could reach the helicopter, the sound of a machine gun rang out like the one I heard in movies. Along with it, the wyvern became a beehive. Without even screaming, the wyvern fell to the ground. I was astonished.

“... A gun? Against a monster?”

“I heard about it before. It should be...”

When Hwaya looked up, murmuring in a surprised voice, we saw a helicopter approaching us. It was a helicopter just like ours, but it was letting out a black luster. Plus, the machine gun attached under the helicopter was smoking as if it just fired. I was certain that it was that machine gun that killed the wyvern.

... But how? Guns shouldn’t be able to kill wyverns, or most monsters with mana for that matter! While I was trying to figure out how it was possible, the black helicopter’s window opened and a young man peeked his head out. He had black skin color and black hair with white teeth that shone under the sunlight. His smile was especially charming.

“Hey, guys[1. This was in English]! Don’t forget to buy me a drink when you land!”

It was my first meeting with America’s SS ranker, Leon Pepper.

Author’s note:

America’s SS ranker, Leon Pepper, has appeared! If you say, ‘Hey, you said you can’t kill monsters with guns!’ I can only say, ‘He’s the exception!’ Look forward to finding out his ability and finding out what happens.

PS – ‘Hey, guys!’ Was in English. Why? To add character! That’s it...

Translator’s note:

Hey guys, I identify as an attack helicopter. Please no flame...