Chapter Text
Bak Yerim was tired of the Guildmaster of Haeyeon.
He was brash, stone faced, harsh, and worst of all, always bothered her and her escapades. She didn’t need a grumpy man like him bothering her. In fact, she didn’t need anyone. She’d had enough of family and friends, and honestly, was living her best life as an A-ranked Awakened, living alone and doing her job, alone. It was annoying when some prick like the aMaZiNg mR. HAn YOoHyuN went and shoved someone else in a dungeon with her.
It was frustrating.
No, more than frustrating. It was infuriating!
She clenched her fists as she got of the subway and walked down the street towards the A-ranked dungeon she’d excepted a quest for. If she could drug him once, she’d beat the living daylights out of him.
She stomped up a flight of stairs.
In fact, she’d find him after this dungeons and tell him that his life was wonderful, unlike hers, and to stop being such a pain in the neck and beat him up for it!
Then again, part of that wasn’t true. She’d seen the reports on the news, and sighed. Maybe he did have it worse.
She’d heard of his abusive brother who was just like her uncle. Took advantage of him as a boy by exploiting him and making him take jobs. Then when he became a Guildmaster, he even dared to beg for money for the hospital bills because he’d gotten himself into a freakin’ accident, which, by the way, was probably his own fault.
The more she thought of it, the more she hated it.
So, she decided that if she ever met the man, she’d be sure to beat him up instead of his brother. That’s what she promised herself when she entered an A-ranked dungeon with another A-ranked hunter.
While she didn’t like the Guildmaster, she wasn’t going to let another person like her uncle live without a severe punishment.
…
When she arrived at the dungeon gate, there was the other Awakened, her name tag read Yu Seyong. She seemed decent, but Yerim couldn’t be so sure. There had been plenty of other people that had seemed fine and had left her for dead. Best to have her guard up.
Unfortunately, the bubbly girl came up to her with big eyes.
“H-hi! So nice to meet you! My name is Yu Seyong! I’m really excited to work with you today!” Yerim could feel positive energy flying off the girl like bullets.
“I know who you are.” She grumbled in reply. Agitating.
“Really!? S-so cool!” Her eyes sparkled.
'Frick, I got a stupid rabbit!' She sighed, and decided not to tell her how she knew her name. The girl was probably one year younger than herself. She didn’t look like she could be an A-ranker with all the pink she wore.
The team in charge of managing the crowd who’d gathered to see Yerim and Seyong off told the two to go ahead and enter the gate. Paparazzi filled the place just in time to catch them walking into the gate.
She entered followed by the pink-haired gum-ball of sunshine.
When they entered, they were greeted by sickly green torches, and a stone floor. It smelled like dead bodies and sewege, which didn’t much surprise her. After all, this particular dungeon had taken a small group not a month ago due to the fact that it had changed from F-Rank to A-Rank.
Though, little had been known of the group. All that was known was the fact that it had been at least a bunch of jerks, dummies, and criminals. Nothing too bad. It wasn’t like there were any ‘saints’ in the group or anything.
The dungeon was a Undead Labyrinth, filled with traps and pitfalls that she easily froze over, and skeleton monsters that were relatively easy in exception to the few large ones, who were a pain to get to their core.
The other Awakened, another elemental, was using her water at least effectively. Some of the other A-rankers weren’t even good enough to be helpful to her, and usually got in her way.
So, despite her bubbly nature, she’d give the girl a solid eight. It wasn’t often that she actually spent time with a decent human being.
The only other person she couldn’t remember being terrible, (Besides her parents), was when she was five, a teenager had bought a bag of cream buns for her. His face was blurred, but she knew what he felt like to be around.
Warm and assuring.
She snapped out of her thoughts as she killed another undead. She couldn’t fade into her thoughts of the past right then, she was in a dungeon.
Distraction yielded death.
“I think the boss is coming up!” Seyong yipped as she smashed another hoard of undead with a title wave.
Way to state the obvious.
Either way, the two got ready as a giant Litch rose from his throne to face them, summoning a wave of skeletons at them, holding its scythe above it’s head.
“Target the core!” She instructed the water mage.
“Okie-doki!” The girl said happily. At least she followed orders, Yerim thought.
While the elemental did that, She focused on keeping skeletons away.
“Alright!” The other hunter shouted. “Got it!”
The girl shot a water bullet straight at the chest of the Litch, but unfortunately, the Litch deflected it with it’s scythe.
“Dang-it,” The girl grumbled. “Blasted scythe.”
Another hoard was summoned, and Yerim began to have trouble keeping up. This could be bad.
“Hey, you take on the hoard. I’m going to try.”
“Yes Ma’am!”
They switched, and as she pinpointed the core, she fired. Her’s was faster. She smirked as the Litch tried to deflect it, but failed.
The next moment, the Litch desolved along with all the other skeletons.
“Woah, you were amazing!” Seyong gushed, but kept her mouth shut when Yerim gave her a death stare.
“I’m going to take a look around. I need you to stay here, understood?”
“Alright…” The younger sighed.
In all honesty, a part of Yerim had actually enjoyed the bubbly girl.
But, she shook it off, and went to take a look around.
As she explored the labyrinth, she found some A-Grade Mana stones. She stored those in her inventory, and went on. One chest yeilded her an A-Ranked dagger, not that she’d use it. She was a long-distance fighter. Not an up-close-and-personal type of girl.
She walked on farther, but found nothing else. She should probably go back, then.
As she began her tread back, she thought she heart something scrape against something else.
“Hng…”
There was a groan, and she snapped her head to the left. What was that?
“Who’s there?” No response. Had she misheard?
“H..hel…” Mumbled words.
“Who is it?” She called again, approaching the source of the noise. It came from a room just off to the left. When she reached the doorway, she cautiously peaked inside. Once she did, she saw something disgusting. There were bodies everywhere. It looked as if the door had been broken down, and the walls where painted dark red. The blood that once had been there dried. She felt like gagging.
“P..lease..” The weak voice came again. She stepped into the room, and in a corner, on the flood, was a thin, pale man who looked to be at least twenty-two. His hair almost hit his shoulders, but he had no beard. There were dark circles underneath his eyes, and he was covered in scratches, scars and bruises.
Despite that, the most striking thing about him was his silvery-gray eyes which stared at her, looking almost hopeless.
Despite the report of it being a bunch of criminals, this man looked to be a victim, not a criminal. She wouldn’t let him die, no here, at least.
So, she lifted the man up, and was almost shocked when she felt how light the man was. I was almost as if he were air. He seemed to pass out in relief, and she carried him back to where Seyong waited.
“Who’s he?” She asked.
“I don’t know, but I don’t think he was supposed to be here.”
“Alright. Then lets get out of here, it’s way to moist and stinky.”
…
“There is no evidence of how he even got into the dungeon,” Yerim muttered as she scanned the report from the Hunters’ Association.
There was no man who fit this man’s appearance. There were extremely close matches, but never quite right. None of them had silver eyes, or shining long white hair. The closest match, unfortunately, was of The Haeyeon Guildmaster’s brother, Han Yoojin. That jerk.
The only problem was that there was almost zero chance of it being him, seeing how he’d been in a cell a week after, then disappeared, and no one had been allowed in since the incident.
So, it couldn’t be him. Then again, he had gone missing after he’d been released.
Who knew?
“It’s best if you just ask him when he wakes up.” One of the medics suggested.
Yerim had already planned on that, in fact she was going to do an in-depth interrogation. She wasn’t letting any criminals go, and if this man turned out to be the jerk she wanted to punch, she’d gladly do several warm-ups on him.
Several.