Chapter 77: Unexpected Meeting

He could see a hut.

‘Is there one on every peak?’

There had also been a hut on the 1st Peak, although the resident, Ketan, had died. Soo Hyuk approached the hut while hunting Condas.

‘This house isn’t broken down.’

Unlike Ketan’s hut, the door on this hut wasn’t broken down. It was still fulfilling its role.

Creak…

At that moment.

“…”

The door opened and a young man came out of the hut. Soo Hyuk, who had thought that the hut was empty, panicked at the sudden appearance while the young man also panicked at the unexpected guest.

“Um, who might you be…”

The young man spoke first. His eyes were full of wariness. It couldn’t be helped since an unfamiliar person was loitering in front of his house.

“I came here to gather some Helids and happened to spot your house. Haha…Then I’ll get going.”

Soo Hyuk replied awkwardly and turned around to leave.

“Ah, please wait!”

However, he had to turn back around again because of the young man’s shout. Soo Hyuk stared suspiciously at the young man.

“Are you a mercenary?”

“Yes.”

“Can you perhaps take on a job from me?”

The reason the young man called out was because of a job.

“I’m sorry.”

But Soo Hyuk refused.

“I only received tasks from the Mercenary Agency.”

If the quests weren’t from the agency, then they didn’t go towards his rank. It wasn’t like he didn’t have any quests or needed any gold, so there was no reason to get another quest.

“Please accept! It’s a very simple task! The Copine Corps in Hadrac. I have a friend called Romian there. If you just give this letter to him, then I’ll give you 10 gold.”

[Henkins’ Letter]

Send Henkins’ Letter to the Copine Corps’s Romian!

[Henkins’ Letter: 0 / 1 ]

[Quest Reward: 10 gold]

The quest notification appeared in front of him as the young man finished speaking. When Soo Hyuk read over the quest, he couldn’t help but jump in surprise.

‘Romian?’

It was because Romian was mentioned.

‘This person also knows Romian?’

He had wondered whether the people living on the peaks were also related to Romian, but he turned out to be right. Henkins was related to Romian.

“…I understand.”

Soo Hyuk said to Henkins, who had been waiting desperately for an answer. It was on the way anyway, and he might get some information related to Celta.

[You have accepted the quest ‘Henkins’ Letter’.]

A notification appeared as soon as he replied.

“Could you please wait a bit? I’ll go get the letter.”

“Okay.”

Hearing Soo Hyuk’s answer, Henkins went into his house and came out holding a letter a few minutes later.

“Here you go. You can send this letter to the leader of the 1st Company in the Copine Corps. The reward will be given by the receiver. Thank you so much for accepting my request!”

[You have acquired ‘Henkid’s Letter’.]

Soo Hyuk then replied after storing the letter.

“No, it’s okay. Copine is on the way back, and I also know Romian.”

“Huok! You also know Romian?”

Henkin exclaimed in surprise in response to his words.

“Yes, before I came here, I did a job for Romian-nim. I had to send a letter to the 1st Peak’s Ketan.”

“Oh, Ketan. Is he well?”

“Ah, that…”

Soo Hyuk’s voice trailed off as he regretted responding to Henkins’ question. Ketan was dead. Was it okay to tell Henkins about Ketan’s death?

“…”

Did he feel Soo Hyuk’s uneasiness from his voice? Henkins’ smile also slowly disappeared from his face as he realised. Staring at Henkins’ reaction, Soo Hyuk decided to answer truthfully.

“When I went to Ketan’s house, he had been murdered by somebody.”

Henkins was silent as he registered Soo Hyuk’s information. He only stared  absentmindedly at Soo Hyuk, frozen from shock.

At that moment.

Step. Step.

‘…?’

The sound of footsteps rang out from behind him. Soo Hyuk turned around and looked at the source of the sounds. Then he couldn’t help but frown when he noticed who it was. The footsteps were actually coming from two people who were approaching them. The problem was the mark above their heads. It was a demon.

‘The Demon Guild?’

The two men had the Demon Guild’s Mark above their heads.

‘What are they doing here?’

The 7th Peak that he was at was an unpopular hunting area. He also wouldn’t have come if it wasn’t for his mission.

‘A mission?’

Why had Demon Guild members appeared here? Was it for a quest like him? When he was locked in thought, the faint conversation between the Demon Guild entered his ears.

“There’s two?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Yeah, what matters is if Henkins is one of them or not.”

Soo Hyuk was able to figure out their aim from their conversation. Their target was Henkins.

For what reason were they searching for Henkins? Although he couldn’t be certain, he assumed that it wasn’t good from their past record as the Demon Guild. While Soo Hyuk was in thought, the two Demon Guild members arrived in front of them and asked,

“Do you know us?”

“…No. I’ve never seen you before.”

Henkins replied while shaking his head. Like how the Demon Guild didn’t know Henkins, Henkins also didn’t know the Demon Guild members.

“Do you want to?”

“No, I was the one who did it on the 1st Peak.”

“When my infamy score resets, I’ll send some money.”

“Fine.”

Meanwhile, Soo Hyuk caught onto a piece of their conversation.

‘The 1st Peak?’

They mentioned the 1st Peak. What did they do on the 1st Peak?

‘Don’t tell me.’

Were they related to Ketan’s death?

At that moment.

Huiik!

The short Demon Guild member threw his knife. As for Soo Hyuk, he could only see a quick blur flying towards him. Since he wasn’t holding anything and the distance was too short, he couldn’t dodge the knife.

[You have resisted the poison.]

[You were attacked by the user ‘Lynx’.]

[You have entered an ‘enemy’ state with ‘Lynx’.]

Notification appeared while Soo hyuk looked down at where the object had hit his stomach and bounced off.

‘A knife?’

Soo Hyuk discovered a knife lying on the ground when he looked down. He then slowly looked up at the short user Lynx.

Lynx was staring at Soo Hyuk with a flustered expression, and it wasn’t because his attack didn’t work.

“What are you doing?”

The user with the muscular physique, Slam, asked Lynx when he saw his reaction. Lynx then replied stutteringly.

“Soo, Soo Hyuk.”

“What!?”

Slam exclaimed in surprise to Lynx’s answer.

“That bas…No, that user’s character name is Soo Hyuk.”

And after Lynx’s reply, they both looked fearfully up at Soo Hyuk.

“Excuse me, you guys there.”

Soo Hyuk called out to the shaken SlLynx and Slam.

“Let’s talk for a bit.”

* * *

Baal smiled as he looked at the papers.

‘Huu, yes.’

On the paper was information about all the current Demon Guild members. Their situation could be said to be very good right now.

‘At this rate, we can recover very soon.’

3 days ago, Soo Hyuk’s attacks had ended.  The damage taken from him was enormous. It had been to the point where he could predict when they would recover from all the damage.

‘To think that these things happened continuously. Hehe.’

After the attacks had ended, missions had exploded as if heaven itself was aiding them. And from those, eight missions were loaded with rewards.

If nothing went wrong, they would be able to recover from the damage by just a fortnight. Baal, who was smiling as he read the reports, even started whistling with joy.

At that moment.

-Lynx: Guild master.

Baal cocked his head at the sudden message.

‘Lynx?’

He couldn’t immediately recall who Lynx was. But since Lynx sent him a message, that meant that he was in his friends list and to be his friend meant that he had met Lynx before.

‘Ah, the Copine Corps mission.’

Baal was able to recall what mission Lynx was on then replied back.

-Baal: Yes?

-Lynx: We have a problem on our mission.

Baal frowned at Lynx’s message. A problem on the mission? The mission that he was on shouldn’t be hard to complete.

‘Did I over evaluate him?”

Baal sent a message back to Lynx.

-Baal: What kind of problem is it?

-Lynx: Well…

-Lynx: Soo Hyuk got involved.

Baal couldn’t help but be startled at Lynx’s message.

‘Soo Hyuk?’

-Baal: Soo Hyuk? Do you mean that Soo Hyuk?

Baal sent a message with an urgent expression.

-Lynx: We can’t be sure because he isn’t wearing a mask but his ID is Soo Hyuk and he also uses poison magic.

Baal cursed at Lynx’s message.

‘Why does it have to be now?’

How long has it been since their scuffles to attack again?

‘Well, sh*t.’

Baal then asked Lynx.

-Baal: How is he involved? Explain the situation in more detail.

From Lynx’s wording, it looked like his involvement was a problem for the mission. Therefore, he wanted to know exactly how and why he got involved. No, he had to know.

-Lynx: We arrived at the 7th Peak, which is the last place on the mission. But Soo hyuk was with the target NPC.

-Lynx: He demanded to know our quest information.

-Lynx: What should we do?

Baal couldn’t immediately reply to Lynx’s message.

“Hoo…”

Baal sighed deeply.

‘F*ck.’

Swear words were all that came out.

-Baal: You said the 7th Peak?

-Lynx: Yes.

-Baal: I’ll go myself. Tell him that.

Baal stood up from his seat. This matter was related to Soo Hyuk. He could only rest easy after taking care of it himself.

‘What kind of quest does he have?’

He didn’t think that their mission was that important. All they had to do was kill a few NPC’s on the peaks of the Kamain Mountain.

‘Wait, is it related to the red marble?’

There was a condition that was not needed to complete their mission, but they would get a huge bonus if they found it. It was the red marble. Heron, the vice-director of the Copine Corps had said that if they found the red marble, which was the key to the Phantom Celta’s Secret Cave, he would give them a bigger reward.

‘Is it bigger than I thought?’

Soo Hyuk was taking interest in it, so it was certain that there was more to the mission than he saw. And so, Baal exited the guild house and hurriedly headed for the 7th Peak.