Levelling Up In An Exclusive Dungeon

Chapter 28

Lucia wanted to know why she could no longer feel the divine power from Kang Jin-hyuk.

Even Kang Jin-hyuk could sense that it was pure curiosity with no hint of malice.

So he was going to open his mouth honestly without any rejection.

“Actually…….”

The moment Kang Jin-hyuk started to explain what had happened, the glove thrown by the dwarf landed precisely in his mouth.

“Ugh?”

Kang Jin-hyuk, startled and struggling, made eye contact with the dwarf who had jumped right in front of him.

The dwarf reached out, grabbed Kang Jin-hyuk by the collar, and landed on the ground.

As a result, Kang Jin-hyuk fell to his knees and landed on all fours.

“Gah! What are you doing?!”

“Shut your mouth and stay still, you punk.”

Instead of letting go of his collar, the dwarf rummaged through Kang Jin-hyuk’s pockets and pulled out a small brooch.

“You can’t fool my eyes with this kind of toy.”

Recognizing the brooch that the detectives had given him, saying it was a device for monitoring, Kang Jin-hyuk made a surprised expression.

“Ah, right, that……!”

“Why are you so surprised? Are you doing something shady somewhere else, you punk?”

The dwarf, with a hardened expression, looked as if he was about to swing his hammer at any moment.

Just like the bewildered Kang Jin-hyuk, Lucia was also confused about how to take in the sudden situation.

“What, what? What did you find?”

“It’s none of your business, elf.”

The dwarf’s blunt words made Lucia’s face turn red once again.

“This shorty really…….”

Kang Jin-hyuk tried to calm Lucia down, who was trembling with barely suppressed anger.

Although she had some common sense and didn’t cause a scene, she couldn’t let go of her anger and kept crushing several candies in her mouth.

Kang Jin-hyuk continued the conversation before the dwarf could provoke Lucia further.

“It’s not like I’m working as an informant, I received it because of certain circumstances.”

“What circumstances?”

“I can’t tell you the details.”

“Why can’t you tell me? Do you have something to hide?”

Instead of answering, Kang Jin-hyuk pointed his finger at the brooch the dwarf was holding.

If he carelessly spoke about the incident, the brooch would definitely be eavesdropping, so he had no choice but to hope that the dwarf would figure it out on his own.

Fortunately, the dwarf, who had figured out the purpose of the brooch, nodded as if he understood.

“Well, I guess no one would entrust espionage to a clumsy guy like you.”

Despite the blow to his pride, Kang Jin-hyuk didn’t refute.

Anyway, it meant that he believed him to be innocent, so he was satisfied with that for now.

“How did you find it?”

“Tsk tsk, it’s only natural that you can’t fool my eyes with such a crude item.”

Kang Jin-hyuk couldn’t help but feel bewildered by the words that came out of the dwarf’s mouth.

Item?

The dwarf clearly called the object, which he thought was a simple eavesdropping device, an ‘item’.

‘Hunters aren’t the only ones who use items?’

Items are objects that are dropped with an extremely low probability when hunting monsters.

As they are very precious, using items for personal matters was strictly prohibited.

Only Hunters can handle items.

They can only be used when hunting monsters.

Violating either of these two rules would be severely punished by the Association.

‘Did the Association allow the police to use items?’

Since using items is a privilege exclusive to Hunters, if the police were also granted that privilege, he would have definitely heard about it.

However, Kang Jin-hyuk had never heard of such news.

He wouldn’t have missed it since he scours the news and internet communities every day.

‘It seems there are transactions going on secretly without any public announcement.’

It made sense since the number of Hunter-related crimes has been increasing recently.

It’s true that it’s difficult for the police to deal with Hunters with just ordinary equipment.

‘The difference in ‘stats’ is inevitable, but they at least need to be on equal footing in terms of items to be able to arrest Hunters who commit crimes.’

‘Well, whatever the reason, it’s beneficial for me.’

Kang Jin-hyuk was relieved that the detectives gave him an item, not a machine.

If it’s an item, not a machine, then it’s the dwarf’s specialty.

“Excuse me, mister. Could you fix it for me?”

“Of course I can fix this, it’s not even as good as a kid’s toy.”

“Then please disable only the surveillance function so that the people who gave it to me won’t notice.”

Upon hearing Kang Jin-hyuk’s request, the dwarf chuckled, saying, ‘Look at this guy’.

“Now you’re making demands openly.”

“It’s not a demand, it’s a request. A request.”

“A request…… Then it’ll be difficult to do it for free.”

“Come on~ You made the bat for free.”

“Hey, I did that because I enjoyed it.”

The dwarf wasn’t willing to do something that wasn’t a precious metal or something that piqued his interest for free.

“I don’t want to waste my precious time tinkering with this cheap item.”

Considering the things the dwarf had done for him so far, it wasn’t stingy at all.

He had done so many things that couldn’t be measured in money, so it was his rightful exercise of his rights to make any demands now.

Thinking that it wasn’t something to negotiate, Kang Jin-hyuk asked the dwarf what he wanted.

“Then what can I do for you?”

“It’s nothing special, just do me a favor.”

A favor for a favor. The dwarf justified his demand, calling it an equivalent exchange.

He would have done it even if he didn’t say it like that.

It makes him feel even more uneasy when he emphasizes it like that.

He wondered if he was going to ask for something excessively unreasonable.

“It’s not that difficult, so don’t make that scared face already.”

“Ugh, did it show that much?”

“I could hear your eyeballs rolling, did you think I wouldn’t notice?”

Since the thoughts he had for a moment were reflected on his face and his inner thoughts were exposed, there was no point in making excuses.

Then there was only one answer he could give.

“Sigh, alright. I’ll do it.”

“You should have been obedient from the beginning.”

The dwarf smiled and handed Kang Jin-hyuk an item that seemed to have been prepared in advance.

Then the dwarf began to explain the use of the item, which looked like a compass.

◈◈◈◈◈◈

Deeper into the dungeon, beyond the labyrinth where the temple was located.

The appearance of the 5th floor was different from other labyrinths, with numerous cliffs stacked like stairs.

Kang Jin-hyuk gulped as he looked down.

Looking at the depths beyond, which were so deep that they seemed black, it felt like he was developing a fear of heights he never had before.

“Don’t fall while you’re looking at it like that. If you fall into the center, you won’t even be able to pick up your bones.”

Lucia crunched the candy she was holding in her mouth and then stretched by rotating her arms.

She looked like an athlete preparing for a race.

“I thought you would ignore a request from the dwarf, mister.”

“I wish I could. But if that shorty doesn’t have the materials, it’s a big loss for me too.”

Only the dwarf could make arrows that could withstand Lucia’s strength and aura.

So she had no choice but to step up, even if it was against her will.

“And if I don’t follow you, how are you going to get through this alone?”

“Ugh…….”

Kang Jin-hyuk couldn’t refute Lucia’s words.

Swallowing his saliva once again and releasing his tension, Kang Jin-hyuk tied himself with a rope.

Then he firmly secured the hook attached to the end of the rope to the ground.

If he did it carelessly, it would snap off while he was descending the cliff, so he was extremely careful.

“Follow me in the direction I’m going. Don’t go anywhere else on your own.”

As Kang Jin-hyuk nodded, Lucia threw herself down the cliff without hesitation.

Unlike Kang Jin-hyuk, she jumped down without a rope and slowed her descent by sticking a dagger into the cliff.

When the distance between her and the other cliff narrowed to a certain extent, Lucia pulled out the dagger she had stuck in and kicked off the wall with her foot.

She flew like an arrow, but landed as lightly as a feather.

“Awesome.”

The series of movements, which took only about 15 seconds, was not something Kang Jin-hyuk could possibly imitate.

No, would there even be anyone else who could do it?

Even an S-rank Hunter wouldn’t be able to move that lightly.

“This is not the time to be standing around.”

He couldn’t just stand there and admire her.

Unable to move as skillfully as Lucia, Kang Jin-hyuk carefully grabbed the protruding rocks and climbed down the cliff.

“I never dreamed I’d start rock climbing like this.”

He had thought about trying it once, but for it to be now of all times.

It was a heart-pounding experience to risk his life climbing down a cliff without any mental preparation.

“Huff, huff.”

Kang Jin-hyuk, barely reaching where Lucia was with his trembling limbs, immediately let out a deep breath.

Thanks to his significantly improved stats, he had no problem with his strength, but there was nothing he could do about the mental fatigue.

Just glancing down made him imagine himself falling and splattering, which was a terrible feeling.

Lucia looked at the panting Kang Jin-hyuk with a look of disdain.

“Why are you so scared? A cliff like this should be a piece of cake for you.”

“I know that in my head, but it’s scary when I actually do it.”

“How sheltered were you that you don’t even have this kind of experience?”

“I was born without a silver spoon, so what do you mean sheltered?”

He had never done anything that everyone else seemed to have done.

He couldn’t even laugh when he heard her say he was sheltered.

“Get up quickly. We have to go down 5 more times to get to the lower floor.”

The moment he heard Lucia’s words, the motivation that had barely started to build up vanished.

He took out the compass the dwarf had given him just in case, but the arrow was pointing down.

It was a sign that the goal was on the lower floor, not here.

“A compass that finds mines…… He really made something amazing.”

He understood that they needed a new mine because they had run out of all the mithril they could get on the 2nd floor.

But he couldn’t understand why he was being pushed to do it.

“Why did he ask me to do it when he could just go himself?”

“Pfft. That shorty going himself?”

Lucia burst out laughing as if she had heard a joke that hit her funny bone.

“Think about it. With those short limbs, he’d climb down this cliff?”

“……That’s true.”

Although it was full of derogatory remarks about his appearance, it made sense.

Compared to an average person, the dwarf’s height was about that of an elementary school student.

It would be several times harder for him to climb down all these cliffs with that body.

It wasn’t unreasonable for him to ask Kang Jin-hyuk.

“I can’t quit now that I’ve already received the advance payment.”

Kang Jin-hyuk had the brooch that the dwarf had fixed in his pocket.

The police would think the brooch was working properly, but in reality, it wasn’t.

It only looked fine on the outside, but it was nothing more than an empty shell.

“So, roughly speaking, that shorty broke the item that was monitoring you?”

“Something like that.”

“What was it monitoring?”

“There are things I can’t talk about.”

“So what is it?”

“The reason why the Cleric class I had became corrupted.”

Lucia showed great interest in Kang Jin-hyuk’s words.

Since she hadn’t been able to hear the story because the dwarf suddenly intervened, she wanted to get a clear understanding of it again.

“Then now that the monitoring item is broken, you can tell me.”

Kang Jin-hyuk felt Lucia staring at him with lively eyes.

“Do you want to hear it?”

Seeing Lucia nod, Kang Jin-hyuk found a suitable rock nearby and sat down.

“Then sit there. I’m going to tell you an amazing story.”