Su-hyeun was currently sitting inside a tent, wearing a thick padded coat.
There was a hotly-burning stove inside. Despite that, he still didnât take off the coat. He preferred his body to be sufficiently warmed, after all. And he also believed that the cold weather dulled oneâs body, and slowed oneâs reflexes, as well.
It was a habit to stay as warm as possible.
<< Iâd like to be at ease, but⌠>>
Su-hyeun took a look at the handful of people also inside the large tent, stealing glances at him.
<< This is really making me uncomfortable. >>
He was sitting in front of a table, while everyone else was standing around awkwardly. It was hard to tell who was the host and who was the guest with things like this.
In the end, Su-hyeun decided to stand up. That action startled the person claiming to be the mayorâs secretary, and he quickly walked over to say something.
âPlease remain seated. Mister mayor will soon be here, sir.â
âEveryone is standing around, and thatâs kinda making me uneasy, you see.â
âThere are only two chairs, unfortunately. And this is our job, sir.â
âYou can bring in extra chairs from outside, plus Iâll feel better standing rather than sitting all by myself. So, donât worry about me.â
His Russian wasnât very good, but, since the other party used English, communicating didnât pose a problem.
In the end, Su-hyeun waited standing up. It made him a little more comfortable, at least.
<< A blue-colored dungeon in the middle of Moscow, is it⌠>>
Su-hyeun had been searching for a dungeon with a difficulty higher than green color, and, thanks to Lee Ju-ho, he had found the information he wanted quickly.
Actually, it didnât even qualify as âinformationâ, strictly speaking. Soon after this dungeon appeared in Moscow, the news broke in several countries throughout the world, after all.
One could say that he had gotten lucky, in a way. Of course, that didnât mean he felt happy about it, though.
<< This is already the fifth one. >>
The United States, South Korea, China, Britain, and now, even in Russia.
At this rate, it wouldnât be strange to see several blue-colored dungeons popping up every month in the near future.
<< In a way, isnât this the very first international trip for the Paragon Guild? >>
Su-hyeun, quietly standing around, chuckled to himself. Originally, heâd been thinking of accepting raid requests much further down the line, but somehow heâd found himself on the clock, so to speak, already.
Of course, he still didnât know if the Russians wanted his cooperation. But Su-hyeun was confident that they were definitely in need of his help.
<< Because they donât have anyone else right now. >>
Currently, awakener manpower wasnât exported to other countries in what youâd call a smooth way. Governments wanted to prevent such exportation of their âawakener resourceâ to elsewhere and required that the dungeons found within their territories be raided first, instead.
Obviously, youâd need a lot of time if you wanted to clear the tangled mess of bureaucratic red tape.
So, to solve such a problem, it wouldnât be the Authority but the individual guilds stepping up to the plate, instead.
<< And that is precisely what being a mercenary guild is all about. >>
The Authority didnât have any means to discourage a guild wanting to do business that way. If they even tried, then the awakener associations would oppose such an action forcefully.
With this set-up, any Awakener Authorities or guilds now had the pretext to ask for assistance from awakeners of other countries.
âMister mayor has arrived.â
After Su-hyeun had stood around for ten or so minutes, a man in his fifties brushed past the tentâs flaps and walked in. It was Moscowâs mayor, David Sobyanin.
âOh, welcome to the city. Nice to meet you, Mister Kim Su-hyeun.â
David Sobyaninâs English wasnât as good as his secretaryâs. It didnât mean he couldnât be understood at all, though.
Su-hyeun shook David Sobyaninâs offered hand. âIâve heard the news.â
âYes, news. It circulates very fast these days.â
David Sobyanin immediately understood how and why Su-hyeun had come from this brief exchange.
Reporters broadcasting the news, and various social media sites, formed a rather scary information network. Especially so with the latterâthrough social media, dozens, hundreds, tens of millions of people got to spread information to all corners of the globe.
In this day and age, information could reach the other side of the planet not in a matter of days, but hours. So, it wasnât that strange for Su-hyeun to hear about the situation in Moscow and show up quickly like this.
âDo you require assistance?â
At Su-hyeunâs question, David Sobyanin began weighing his options in his head.
Wouldnât it be better to blow the Korean off, at least once? Would the negotiation be a bit more advantageous for them if he came out and said that they had enough manpower to do this thing?
<< No, wait. I canât gamble on this. >>
Opportunity had come knocking at the perfect time.
It wasnât an exaggeration to say that heaven was helping him right now. He shouldnât kick away an opportunity of this magnitude because of some momentary greed.
<< If I got greedy and that resulted in the destruction of MoscowâŚ. >>
No, waitâthis might not end up as a Moscow-only problem.
Maybe, even the surrounding cities, tooâŚ
If the blue-colored dungeon caused an outbreak, letting monsters run amok throughout the whole of Russian, then forget about hundreds of thousands, countless millions might lose their lives.
<< I shouldnât be worried about money. >>
There was no more need to ponder this anymore. David Sobyanin bowed his head. âYes, I need your help. Please help us.â
He squeezed his eyes shut. The future of Moscow now depended on what Su-hyeunâs reply was, and what kind of conditions he put forward.
But thenâŚ
<< Why isnât he saying anything? >>
David Sobyanin cracked open his tightly-shut eyes a little and sneaked a glance to his front. And what he saw utterly stunned him.
âWeâre here to speak as equals. Thereâs no need to lower your head to me,â said Su-hyeun.
Meaning, if you lower your head, Iâll lower mine, too.
Only then did David Sobyanin raise his head, prompting Su-hyeun to do the same and look straight at the Moscowâs mayor.
âNow then. Shall we start from the beginning again?â
* * *
The negotiations didnât last long.
From the get-go, the Russians wouldnât have anything to say even if Su-hyeun demanded the majority of the Ether stones extracted from the dungeon. But even then, he only demanded a small portion of the stones as well as a little bit of money.
Compared to the value attached to the name âKim Su-hyeun,â as well as his combat. capabilities, this was basically the same as working for free.
Such conditions, coupled with the amount of Ether stones that could be mined after the dungeon raid, definitely couldnât be seen as a big loss to the Russians.
âR-really⌠is this okay for you?â
âThe raid isnât going to take too long, anyway. Yes, thatâll be enough for me,â Su-hyeun replied, before standing up from the table.
âAre you going to enter right now?â
âI got enough sleep on the way, Iâm in perfect condition to fight. Is there any need to delay the proceedings further?â
âE-even then, the rest of the raiding party isnâtâŚâ
âWell, not that I need them, butâŚ.â
While muttering, Su-hyeun studied David Sobyaninâs reactions.
The mayor seemed to be troubled by this.
It seemed that, if Su-hyeun raided the dungeon all by himself without the presence of a separate raid party, then the amount of money spent on him would inevitably balloon in the end.
From David Sobyaninâs viewpoint, he had no choice but to find a way to decrease the money and the share of the Ether stones destined for Su-hyeunâs pockets.
The amount of Ether stones found in a dungeon was limited, after all, and having even one more awakener affiliated with the Russian Authority in the raid further ensured that more resources would be secured at the end of the day.
ââŚ.Wait. I think a raiding party is indeed necessary,â said Su-hyeun.
It didnât matter either way to him. Making money from this raid wasnât his goal from the beginning, after all.
David Sobyaninâs complexion brightened after hearing Su-hyeunâs reply. But then, he lowered his head right away after realizing that he was being rather shameless even in his own evaluation. âMy apologies.â
âTell me when the raiding party is ready, please. Itâll be best if theyâre ready to depart as quickly as possible.â
âTheyâll be ready as soon as possible.â
David Sobyanin hurriedly called someone on the phone. He got in touch with the Russian Awakener Authority and summoned the raiding party that their S-Rank awakener was in.
A few hours later.
A raid party consisting of thirty people was hastily organized. This number was way too small for a genuine attempt at clearing a blue-colored dungeon.
âWeâre finished with our preparations!â
One of the mayorâs personal secretaries rushed over to Su-hyeun quietly sitting in a corner loosening himself and spoke.
Su-hyeun scanned the awakeners in the raiding party following behind the secretary. Five A-Ranks, twenty-four B-Ranks, and one S-Rank.
This level of firepower was on par with two average-sized large guilds. But this was nothing more than simply filling the headcount when considering that they were about to raid a blue-colored dungeon.
âLetâs get going, then.â
Even then, Su-hyeun didnât even hesitate once. He started walking. From the very beginning, it didnât matter if he was alone or not.
* * *
30 people.
The raiding party was nervous because of that hopelessly low number.
A raiding party consisting only of awakeners holding Russian citizenship, and not only that, a hastily-organized one, at that. To make matters worse, each of them was affiliated with different organizations, so they had never coordinated with each other before.
âWhat the hell. I didnât sign up to get killed, you know.â
An awakener working for the authority, Dmitri, grumbled loudly in order to suppress his anxiety as he got ready to enter the dungeon. His eyes took in the sight of the blue-colored dungeon entrance that enveloped the massive tower as well as the hopelessly small number of his fellow raid party members.
âWeâre not going to die. From the very beginning, our job is nothing more than to fill the headcount, and thatâs about it.â
Someone approached and lightly smacked Dmitriâs back before speaking up, causing the Russian awakener to flinch and look behind him.
It was Chernov, Russiaâs S-Rank awakener as well as the strongest individual in the Russian Awakener Authority.
Dmitri asked. âDo you trust this Kim Su-hyeun?â
âHe once solo-raided a blue-colored dungeon.â
âOnly once, though. You never know what will happen with people around, no? Honestly, this level of combat force is just barely enough to raid a green-colored dungeon, isnât it?â
âYou think it was a fluke, then?â
âWell, not necessarily, butâŚ.â Dmitri glanced at Su-hyeunâs back where he stood in front of the party, ready to enter the dungeon first, before continuing. âBut, thereâs always âjust in caseâ, you know.â
Chernov sighed softly after hearing that reply.
Dmitri was a B-Rank awakener affiliated with the Authority. As someone pretty close to reaching A-Rank, his skill set wasnât to be scoffed at. If Chernov had to point out his weakness, then itâd be how he leaned far too much towards the ârisk aversionâ side of things.
Of course, you couldnât fault him for that. No one was qualified to demand a selfless sacrifice from him, after all.
Even thenâŚ
âI can assure you, weâll never find ourselves in danger.â Chernov was utterly confident that the events Dmitri was worried about would never come to pass. âI know this, because Iâve fought him before. We might both be S-Ranks, but not all S-Ranks are the same, you know?â
He was one of the participants who managed to get to the final round of the Ranking Wars. Obviously, he got to cross weapons with Su-hyeun then, and it was little wonder why he wasnât all that worried right now.
âHe defeated over 30 S-Rank awakeners all by himself, so itâll be fine.â
Dmitri asked, âIs he really that powerful?â
âOverwhelmingly so.â
He didnât hesitate at all before replying.
Dmitri had met Chernov many times before, and every single one of those times, the S-Rank was overflowing with self-confidence. But now, a man like that was wholeheartedly praising someone else.
ââŚ.Is that so.â
Dmitri had heard a ton of rumors already.
From how he defeated Gordon Rohan and won the Ranking Wars all by himself.
To how he smashed apart the European Union-affiliated awakeners trying to sabotage him, along with help from Gordon Rohan.
And even how he solo raided one of the blue-colored twin dungeons that showed up in South Korea.
<< But rumors are usually exaggerated, to begin with. >>
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With anxiety in his heart, Dmitri followed Su-hyeunâs steps and headed toward the dungeonâs interior. All the while planning to hightail it out of there without even looking back once if a dangerous situation suddenly reared its ugly head.
And so, the moment the raid party stepped into the dungeonâŚ
SMACK-!
The first thing Dmitri saw as soon as he stepped inside was the figure of a giant ape creature flying up and away from a well-placed punch.