Seoul Station’s Necromancer Chapter 23:
Chapter 23 – Hammer Guild
Jung-minchan was the team leader of the 4th Support team of the Hammer guild .
The 4th Support team managed any work related to Dungeon equal to or below 3 stars . The team was also in charge of educating the new Roused inducted into the Guild, and they helped out with the training .
After he got to work, he always hand-brewed his coffee . He was a coffee maniac . He started off the day leisurely as he drank a cup of coffee in his large office . This was an important ritual for him and it gave him joy .
The 30 minutes after he got to work was his small time of happiness . His team members didn’t bother him unless there was an important business .
Ddi-ri-ri .
He was about to grind the coffee beans with his hand mill when the phone rang .
He picked up the phone .
“This is 4th Support team leader, Jung-minchan . ”
[Team ldader . This is Haemin . ]
Kim-haemin was part of the management staff he had deployed to the Maebong Station’s 3rd exit . The Maebong Station’s 3rd exit was taken by the Hammer guild about a month ago . They were now in charge of managing the Dungeon, where the Rakwis spawned .
“Yeah . What’s going on?”
[These guys arrived at the Dungeon this morning, and they reserved 4 hours before going in . There is something wrong with these guys . ]
“Did they die?”
It was common for the Roused to meet an untimely death when they attempt a Dungeon .
[No . They were able to safely clear it, but their clear time is abnormal . The first attempt took 30 minutes, but it is taking them 11 minutes to clear the Dungeon now . Huk . They just came out right now, and it took them 9 minutes 47 seconds . Hey . Hey . I won . Collect all the money . ]
Minchan heard low voices in the background, and he already knew what Haemin was doing .
“Hey, what are you doing?”
[Ah . We made a bet on whether they would be able to clear the Dungeon in less than 10 minutes . Never mind about that . Why don’t you look up these bastards? They said they were Rank F, but I’m sure they are ranked higher . ]
Something was most definitely off . This didn’t make any sense . Two ranked F Roused was able to clear a Dungeon spawning Rakwis in less than 10 minutes .
“Keep your phone by your side, and wait for me . I’ll call back after I look them up . First, when their reserved Dungeon time comes to an end, try to detain them . ”
[Yes sir . Team Leader . Keep up the hard work . ]
After Minchan ended his phone call, he logged on to the Association site to look up their information .
“What? This guy registered yesterday? The other guy seems to have registered only 2 months ago . ”
They were fledglings yet they were clearing 3 star Dungeons . Moreover, they were clearing it within 10 minutes .
“One is a necromancer and the other is a flame magician . ”
By looking at their specialty, one could roughly guess the style of their hunting method . It basically meant either there was a mistake when measuring their Roused rank or they were intentionally hiding it .
Anyways, it was obvious the two Roused were well above Rank F . At the very least, they should be Rank C . f a Roused exhibited a Rank C ability from the beginning, every single one of them matured into a high ranked Roused .
It has been a long time since a promising Roused had appeared .
“I must catch them . ”
Jung-minchan abandoned the coffee he loved, and he immediately left his office . As the 4th Support team, their main job was to manage the Dungeons equal to or below 3 stars, but it was also important to scout the Roused using their Dungeons .
Minchan’s car raced towards the Maebong station .
After he roughly parked near the road, he headed towards the 3rd exit . Kim-haemin was waiting for him, and he gave Minchan a greeting .
“Uh . Hyung-nim came by yourself?”
“It’s business hour right now . ”
“Ah-chacha . Team leader . Heh heh . It’s bee about 8 minutes since they entered . They’ll be out soon . By looking at their clear time, they still have time to go through the Dungeon once more . ”
They had reserved 4 hours, and they had 15 minutes left . They’ll be out soon, so they might attempt the Dungeon once more .
“These guys aren’t playing around . They’ve already made over $300,000 . Uh-whew . If I was skilled, then I would do the Dungeon runs like them . ”
If a high ranked Roused team attacked a 3 star Dungeon, of course it would be possible for them to clear the it within 10 minutes . However, those high ranked Roused had no reason to attempt a lowly 3 star Dungeon .
If they were able to clear a higher ranked Dungeon, the $300,000 was chump change . The 3 star Dungeon would basically be a repetitive labor . It was as simple as that .
“Either these **** have incredible potential or they are criminals who are using fake identities . ”
If they possessed some amazing Roused ability that grew enough within few days to allow a Rank F to sweep through a 3 star Dungeon, he had to get a hold of them .
It was a different story if they were criminals with laundered identities . The supervision over the Roused was very strict . It would be very hard to cover up one’s identity to go through the Roused registration again .
Criminals wouldn’t do such eye-catching deeds like this in the first place .
“Why aren’t they coming out? It’s about time they should be coming out . ”
Woojin’s party had already passed the 10 minute mark . Haemin was becoming restless when they didn’t come out like usual . Dungeons were a place where one didn’t know what was coming . Everything further than one’s nose was an unknown . It wouldn’t be strange for a high ranked Roused to die even in a low ranked Dungeon .
“Mmmm . It means this will be their last run… . ”
Haemin was restless for no reason, and he glanced at his watch . They had only 4 minutes left . There wasn’t enough time left for them to attempt the Dungeon one more time . Either this was there last run or they wouldn’t be coming out forever .
Fortunately, it wasn’t the latter situation . Woojin came out with a complicated expression on his face, and Sunggoo seemed exhausted .
‘W…we burned through it like white hot fire . ’
Sunggoo’s two arms felt like it was about to be ripped off . However, he couldn’t help but laugh when he thought about the bags filled with bloodstones on his back . The bloodstones were worth about $50,000, and it was all his .
‘I made the right choice . ’
He made a good choice by sticking to Woojin, and becoming his manager . This was a once in a life time opportunity .
“What are you doing? Go quickly settle our account . ”
“Yes, sir . Hyung-nim . ”
The adjusted profit would all be going to Sunggoo this time, so Woojin didn’t have to go with him . Sunggoo tried to quickly head towards the Bloodstone exchange store, but someone blocked his way .
“May I speak to the both of you for a moment?”
Sunggoo didn’t give a reply, and he casted a furtive glance towards Woojin .
A flame magician with 2 month experience, and a Necromancer on his 2nd day . They were an odd combination . Moreover, the relationship between the two seemed more strange .
‘I guess that person is the leader . ’
Minchan approached Woojin to ask his request again .
“May I speak with you?”
“No . I don’t want to . ”
The correspondence of his words with his action was right on point . Woojin pushed passed Minchan, who was in his face . Minchan was taken aback, and he quickly got in Woojin’s way again .
“P…please . Please wait a moment . I just need a moment of your time . ”
“If you are planning to steal my time anyways, why are you asking politely?”
At the other’s unexpected response, Minchan had two thoughts in his mind .
‘What kind of crazy son of a **** is this?’
‘He is straight forward . I have quickly give him the main points . ’
The former was his emotional side speaking, and the latter was his logical side speaking . Michan, who had climbed up the ranks to become the team leader of the 4th Support team, preferred logic over emotion .
“I’ll tell you my business first . I want to recruit you to our Hammer guild . ”
Minchan hurriedly put his hand into his suit’s pocket to take out a business card, then he tried to hand one to Woojin . Woojin didn’t even entertain the idea of taking the business card .
He had heard a lot of information from Jaemin and Sunggoo, so he was well versed on this subject .
“I refuse . ”
Woojin didn’t even think for 1 second before he gave his answer . Minchan had to suppress himself from grumbling, and he was barely able to reply back .
“Well, it seems you don’t know about the Hammer guild yet… . ”
“Isn’t it one of the 3 great guilds of Korea?”
“It seems you know much…”
“I’m not in a good mood, so why don’t you stop bothering me?”
Woojin’s thought was on a razor edge as his mind was filled with thoughts about Trahnet . He became irritated when this person started pestering him . He didn’t want to speak to him, and it was about a subject he didn’t want to talk about . Of course, he wasn’t happy .
Fortunately, Minchan was quick to pick up on other’s mood .
“Well, it doesn’t have to be now . At least give us a call once . Hammer guild takes good care of the Roused with skill . ”
Woojin walked passed Minchan after he glanced at the business card . Sunggooo, who was following after Woojin, stealthily read the face of Woojin .
‘What a waste . ’
What kind of an organization is the Hammer Guild?
They were one of the 3 great guilds of Korea . They were a guild ranked within the top 20 even if one put them against the guilds of the world . They were a powerful guild, who possessed 2 Rank A Roused .
One fourth of the Dungeons in Seoul were Hammer Guild properties . The guild was probably making an enormous amount of money just from the entrance fees .
If one was noticed by such a guild, it guaranteed a fast advancement in one’s status . Moreover, a member of the support team and the team leader was here to recruit him . This mean t they were very interested in him .
‘How could he kick away such an opportunity?’
Sunggoo knew Woojin was in a foul mood .
Money wasn’t the only thing the guild possessed . They had numerous magic and artifact . Moreover, they had experience . Sunggoo’s goal was to increase his ability, and he wanted to advance in rank . As a Roused, this was opportunity was like a dream .
Minchan didn’t miss Sunggoo’s anxious reaction .
“Please talk it over carefully with your party member . Then please give us a call . ”
“Ah, yes . ”
Sunggoo sneakily took the Team leader Jung-minchan’s business card . As he watched the two leave, Jung-minchan put on a confident smile . When the two entered the Bloodstone exchange store, he swore as he frowned .
“What the fuck! There is a limit on how arrogant a person should be . ”
“You are right, team leader . The **** isn’t normal . ”
“Ah ah! He should be thankful just to be noticed . Even that should be too much for him . ”
“That’s right . He has no idea how high the door steps to Hammer guild is . ”
“Whew…”
Minchan took a couple deep breath then he let go of his anger . There were public employees from the Management Bureau present . There were also other Roused and managers watching from the surrounding . If he had a temper tantrum, then it would be a bad look for him .
Minchan approached the public employee .
“Are you going to send in your report?”
“What? Of course, I have to give my report… . ”
“Don’t send in your report . ”
“Yes . Well, I’ll do what you say . ”
Two F ranked Roused cleared a 3 star Dungeon in 10 minutes . This meant something must have went wrong when they were assigning their Ranks, so the employee had to send in a separate report .
However, the public employee was a close friend of the Hammer Guild .
The site employee Kim-haemin turned the public employee a long time ago .
“Please don’t give the information to the other guilds . ”
“Yes . I’ll do as you say . ”
At the public employee’s answer, Kim-haemin grabbed a hold of Jung-minchan’s arm .
“Jeez, team leader . This isn’t the first time I’ve done this . I’ll go have some soju with that friend over there . Anyways, are you going to try to catch those two?”
“Yes . You should return to the office for now . Go dig up some information on them . It seems those **** aren’t interested in guilds . ”
“Do they have enough worth for us to catch them?”
“I don’t care if they don’t have any value . You have to catch them first . Have you never fished before?”
“Fishing?”
“If the lure is being pulled then you reel it in . If it is a small fry then you just throw it away . ”
“Ah-ha . ”
“Anyways, go learn about them . The less people who know about them would be better for us . ”
The information will be spread in an instant for eye-catching guys like them . However, he had to do his best to delay it as much as he can . During that time, it would be best if they entered into the Hammer guild .
If they poked around too much then they would lose an excellent Roused to other guilds and it would be their loss .
“They…they are coming out . ”
At Kim-haemin’s words, he turned to look . Woojin and Sunggoo was exiting the Bloostone exchange store . Minchan and Haemin stood next to each other then they looked at the two with a confident smile on their face .
*
“We earned a lot . ”
Woojin looked at the final adjusted figure, and he felt a little bit relieved . With this much money, he wouldn’t have any problem purchasing a house .
This was the achievement of a Roused, who had been registered for only two days .
$380,000 .
This was the balance in Woojin’s account . He already had $50,000 in there, and he had gained $330,000 .
“Hyung-nim . I respect you . ”
Sunggoo had received his 10% cut, and Woojin allowed him to keep all the bloodstones he had excavated at the end . He had made $93,000 . This large sum of money blew all the thoughts about all the money he lost out of his mind .
He was once again surprised he had made so much money in one day .
“Let’s go back to our neighborhood . ”
“Yes, sir . ”
They headed toward the parking lot to find their car . When they were passing the parking fee window, Woojin grinned .
“I guess the parking fee really isn’t that expensive . ”
“Didn’t I tell you? Also, the 4 star Dungeons will be very different . The drop rate for an artifact is quite high there . ”
If he purchase a house, then his immediate need would be fulfilled . His immediate goal was not to gather money . He knew his goal had to be leveling up as fast as he could . Woojin’s expression turned complicated again, and Sunggoo threw out a question towards Woojin .
“Hyung-nim . Why did you refuse the guild’s offer? Do you have any reasons… . …… . ”
“It’s simple . ”
“Yes?”
“I’m not accustomed to having someone above me . ”
“…… . ”
Woojin was a ruler . He wasn’t accustomed to having someone above him . He actually felt repulsed by it . Why should he receive orders from someone else?
How laughable .
Sunggo saw Woojin’s grin, and he quietly took out the business card from his pocket . Then he threw it out of the window . He was afraid what would happen to him if Woojin found out he took the business card .
‘Bye bye . Hammer Guild . ’
Sunggoo grabbed onto the handle as his eyes misted up a little bit .