---

Tae Woong stared at Jiho like he was crazy. But Jiho was calm as he continued.

“If you’re going to give up here and commit suicide, however, then please die after handing me all of your items and potions. If I’m going to die anyways, I’d rather fight than run away with my tail tucked between my legs.”

While talking, Jiho opened his inventory pocket and checked the items he had.

Thankfully, because he prepares for combat whenever he goes out, he has quite a bit of items stored. It’s a good thing he carries much more than the standard set-up recommended by the Hunter Association.

The only problem is that he doesn’t have a lot of food. But if the requirement for this particular sunken dungeon is only two people, then the dungeon itself shouldn’t be too big. Since it’s more likely that they’d be ripped apart by monsters before they starve to death, it isn’t much of a worry.

Tae Woong watched Jiho sift through his supplies like everything was normal. Tae Woong’s face contorted.

“Who said I was going to give up and die….”

“Weren’t you whining about how you were going to die? Am I wrong?”

“When did I….”

“What do you mean ‘when’? You were doing that until now.”

Tae Woong’s face turned bright red. Although Jiho’s words weren’t wrong, he didn’t seem to want to agree with him. 

“Are you going to fight?”

“Sh*t. Fine. I just have to try, don’t I?!”

“Yes. It is good that you at least have the intention of fighting.”

Even though Jiho’s tone was sarcastic, he was actually glad that Tae Woong agreed. 

To be honest, the probability of Jiho making it out of this dungeon by himself is zero. Even if he somehow manages to take care of the monsters roaming around the dungeon, a boss monster is too much for a B-rank hunter like Jiho to handle.

The only one with a chance of killing an S-rank boss monster is Seon Tae Woong.

As simple and prideful as Tae Woong is, as long as you stimulate his pride a little bit, he can be easily persuaded. Since he’s fairly skilled as a hunter, Tae Woong is enough as the main combative force.

When the two emptied out their inventory pockets, a good amount of items came out. But the problem is that Seon Tae Woong doesn’t have a lot of single-use items like potions.

Even though the inventory pocket was built by an awakened one like those inventory pockets in games to store items, there is a limit to how many items can be stored. It seems like Seon Tae Woong isn’t the type of person to restock his inventory often. Well, he didn’t really look like it anyways. 

Jiho gave Tae Woong two-thirds of the single-use items he had. Tae Woong took the items dazedly.

“What will you do if you give me almost all of your items?”

“It’s because Hunter Seon Tae Woong is the main force, not me. Just take it. And…”

Jiho briefly stroked the gloves he’s been wearing ever since Yiwon gave them to him before handing it to Tae Woong.

“Take this as well.”

“What’s this?”

“Use it. They’re good. The gloves will drastically improve your body’s physical abilities. They will also increase the power behind your skills.”

Still dazed, Tae Woong accepted the gloves and put them on before giving them a test.

Whoosh!

A flame as tall as a person flared up in front of their eyes. The flame was a little too big in size for a simple test. Tae Woong’s eyes instantly flashed with interest.

“Hey. These…”

“I’m only lending them, not giving.”

Seeing Tae Woong’s eyes sparkle with desire, Jiho snorted. Tae Woong smirked mischievously.

“Do you think I’ll return these to you?”

“I’m trusting that you will.”

Tae Woong’s expression turned strange when he heard Jiho’s immediate reply.

An item this highly ranked is usually only handed over after signing a binding contract. It’s common for unbinded items to be stolen.

Jiho isn’t lending the gloves to Seon Tae Woong because he trusts him. Though he only lent them to Tae Woong because there’s no other way, it never hurts to say nice words.

Plus, those gloves were a gift from Joo Yiwon. 

If that guy found out that Seon Tae Woong stole a gift that he got him, that guy would get it back, even if he had to turn Apollon Guild upside down, so there was no need to worry about potential losses.

Unaware that Jiho had already thought of a backup plan, Tae Woong looked touched by Jiho, who gave him the item so carefreely.

“Hey. Do I still have to return this if I die using these?”

“If you die with those on, then no. I’ll bury them with you so that you can pass on with them.”

“Then I guess I’ll have to return it. It’s worth a shot with this.”

Seon Tae Woong led the way with a confident grin. His back, however, still looked somewhat stiffer than usual.

‘Acting tough.’

Of course, acting tough is better than doing nothing and acting miserable like he was doing earlier.

Jiho understands how Seon Tae Woong feels. Jiho knows too. The chance of them surviving is incredibly low. Still, it’s better to bet on the small chance of survival than to commit suicide. If the probability isn’t a zero, then that means there’s still a chance.

When the two emerged from the small chamber they first fell into, the dungeon revealed itself as a cave full of precious stones.

Because of the gems stuck between layers of gray stones, it wasn’t hard to observe their surroundings.

On the virtually untouched walls and ceiling of stones, there were unrecognizable words or symbols that indicated the presence of life.

A characteristic of dungeons with no exits is that there is hardly any wind. Thanks to that, the only sounds were the two people’s footsteps and mysterious cries of faraway monsters.

The atmosphere inside each dungeon is different. This was the first time Jiho had ever seen a dungeon in real-life, as he had only seen them through videos.  

Pressing down his desire to look around curiously, Jiho carefully followed behind Tae Woong.

They walked on a windy path wide enough to fit three or four people side-by-side, with occasional forks branching off of it.

Seon Tae Woong marked the first forked road before opening his mouth.

“It looks like this dungeon doesn’t have that many monsters. If it did, we would’ve seen two or three of them already.”

That’s a good sign. Because there’s only two people, if there were a lot of monsters, it would have been disadvantageous for them. The narrow tunnel was another advantage.

After walking for a bit, Seon Tae Woong stopped. Jiho, who stopped one step later, had to concentrate before he could feel it.

There is a monster hiding to the right, waiting for the two to approach him.

Instead of walking further, Tae Woong quickly used his skill.

[Ignite].

Although it was a simple command, the effect was strong. The strong flames spread quickly, as if oil had been poured over the walls.

[SQUEEEEEEEAK!]

A monster resembling a mouse staggered out of the tunnel covered in flames, screaming violently.

The burning monster charged towards them as a last-ditch effort. Seon Tae Woong used [Ignite] again.

As soon as Seon Tae Woong used his skill on the burning monster, another monster noiselessly jumped out from the back of the road.

Even though it looked similar to the burning monster, this monster’s tail was shorter and body much lighter, moving that much faster.

Tae Woong tried to use [Ignite] again, but the monster was faster, avoiding the skill and charging towards them. Tae Woong clenched his teeth and prepared to get hit when…

THUNK!

Jiho’s fist landed on the approaching monster with a heavy sound, like that of a buk.

Though it wasn’t a fatal blow, the monster was pushed back a couple of meters. That was enough for Tae Woong to land the final blow.

[Ignite].

BOOM!

His skill this time was a little stronger than before. The monster went up in flames, collapsing at once.

And soon, the two monsters had been completely burned black.

While it’s good that the monsters are getting knocked down with one hit… if they use too much mana here, they’ll have a hard time later when the mana is exhausted.

Worried, Jiho spoke up.

“Wouldn’t it be better to save your mana?”

“No. I didn’t use that much power that first time because I was testing things out.”

Tae Woong looked down at his two hands in shock as he answered.

“Those monsters, they seem to have no resistance to flames. No, it’s even more than that. It’s like fire is their weakness….”

Every dungeon usually has a unique trait about it. If two monsters weak to fire appeared, there’s a high probability that all of the monsters in this particular dungeon are weak to fire.

And Seon Tae Woong’s skill attribute is fire.

A smile slowly appeared on Seon Tae Woong’s face.

“Hey. This…”

“If we’re careful, we might have a chance.”

Seon Tae Woong nodded.

An advantageous attribute makes it possible to ignore one or two ranks.

At that moment, what was once thought of as a raid with no hope gained a spark of hope.

---

The dungeon raid proceeded smoothly.

As the two had hoped, most of the monsters in this dungeon were either weak to or had no resistance at all to flames.

Because of how useful his skill attribute was in killing the monsters, Tae Woong was usually the one to attack while Jiho kept watch in order to make sure that none of the monsters would sneak attack him.

Despite how they fought whenever their eyes met in the past, they fought shockingly well together.

It was thanks to the fact that they’ve seen each other fight because of how close their guilds are.

They worried that they would get lost, but the roads were, thankfully, fairly simple. Since they marked every road and Jiho memorized all of the paths, they didn’t wander aimlessly.

Just as they predicted, because the dungeon’s requirement was only two people, the dungeon wasn’t very big.

The two people were able to reach the door to the boss monster in a quarter of a day.

Unlike the tunnels, which looked quite natural, the door to the last room was completely smooth, as if it had been touched by someone. The tightly shut door looked like it wouldn’t open unless someone from this side tried to open it.

‘Behind this, the dungeon boss…’

Although there’s no way to know what’s behind the door, Jiho could still feel a threatening force from it. Despite there being a thick door between them, his skin prickled from the strong aura he felt.

The opponent inside will be many times stronger than those before.

“Hey.”

Tae Woong lightly hit Jiho, who was nervously steeling himself, on the shoulder.

“Let’s rest here for a bit before going in.”

Jiho relaxed his stiff shoulders.

It was a good call.

No matter how many potions they use to replenish mana and heal injuries, there’s no way to get rid of physical exhaustion. Jiho nodded obediently.

“I will keep watch, so Hunter Seong Tae Woong should rest a bit.”

“It’s fine. If you’re tired, just go to sleep. Someone at your level keeping watch is about the same as me keeping watch while asleep.”

Though his words weren’t as fierce as before, they were still annoying. Tae Woong closed his eyes soon after dropping that. And he surprisingly started snoring within 30 seconds.

After making sure that Tae Woong was asleep, Jiho pulled a handkerchief out. Jiho covered his mouth with the handkerchief and quietly let out the cough he had been holding in for a while.

“Cough, cough….”

A familiarly fishy taste went up his throat, soaking the handkerchief in blood.

‘This cursed weak body.’

Even though this situation is familiar, Jiho felt more annoyed than usual today.

---

LaZ Bird Corner

Jiho knows exactly how to manipulate Seon Tae Woong. I love that he has a whole back-up plan in mind that is completely centered around Yiwon if STW tries to steal his gloves. Playing the boyfriend(?) card.

---