Owner of the S-Rank Dungeon Campsite - Chapter 53

‘He seems sleepy.’

He originally didn’t seem to prefer this kind of static camping. Seol Mo Gyeon has been out fishing with me for several days because of me.

It wasn’t the first time he’d been nodding off and leaning on my shoulder to sleep, so I just lent him my shoulder.

For an ordinary person, it would feel heavy when a man with a much larger build leaned on them, but even as a low-ranked hunter, a hunter is still a hunter, so it didn’t feel that heavy.

“Are we fishing again today?”

“Ah, Hunter Ju Cheong Yeon.”

At that moment, Hunter Ju Cheong Yeon appeared. The sun hadn’t set yet, but it seemed he had finished his reconnaissance early.

“Did you catch anything?”

“I just caught a Blue Starlight rare fish.”

Thinking he was asking out of formality, I also answered formally. I thought he would just go inside, but he showed an unexpected reaction.

“Sounds delicious. Can I fish next to you?”

“Do you have fishing skills too, Hunter?”

“Yes. I don’t use them often, but when I use fishing skills instead of hunting fish, the freshness is much better, so I use them occasionally.”

“Ah, I see.”

Hunter Ju Cheong Yeon took out a fishing rod with mana stones embedded from his inventory. It looked expensive at a glance.

He probably had to put it in his inventory out of necessity, but it was so sparkling that it made me go ‘wow’.

“It just looks fancy, but the function isn’t much.”

“Still, it’s cool.”

He doesn’t use it often but carries it in his inventory?

Probably because Hunter Ju Cheong Yeon has been in the dungeon for several days, his inventory must be almost full.

But I was a bit puzzled that he was carrying something that wasn’t necessary for combat or reconnaissance.

He also took out an umbrella, a portable chair, and small monsters to be used as bait.

“For something you do occasionally, your equipment is quite professional. I guess most high-ranked hunters use this kind of thing?”

Even the guests coming to the campsite were like that. All the equipment they wore looked expensive.

“Most do, but there are a few who don’t.”

Hunter Ju Cheong Yeon skillfully cast his fishing rod and sat in the chair. Now we had to wait for a while, and it was awkward with nothing particular to say.

‘Is Mo Gyeon still sleeping?’

I wish Mo Gyeon would wake up and chat. He seemed tired and showed no signs of waking up even as we talked.

“Tae Rim liked to move around utilizing dungeon appendages. That’s also why he made that strange food.”

I had asked him not to talk about family in front of Mo Gyeon when I saw him talking freely about my brother last time, but he brought it up again.

“It seems you often entered dungeons with Hunter Yu Tae Rim?”

I glanced at Mo Gyeon, who was still asleep, and spoke as if I didn’t know my brother. Seeing me like that, Hunter Ju Cheong Yeon gently creased his eyes with a smile.

“Not often, but occasionally? That guy was also curious about a lot of things regarding dungeons.”

“I see.”

“How about you, Bom? Do you like dungeons?”

“No.”

The answer came out immediately. The previously warm atmosphere suddenly lost its momentum.

Thinking I might have been too blunt, I added belatedly.

“I’m low-ranked, so I’m still scared of dungeons.”

“I see. Was I being rude?”

“No, it’s okay.”

Fortunately, he nodded lightly.

“I heard you used to like them a lot before.”

“Pardon…?”

“I guess you changed as you grew up?”

I froze for a moment.

‘Did my brother even talk about that? No, didn’t he know through Dad?’

I thought he naturally knew about our family relationship from Dad, but it sounded like he had known for quite some time.

“Did Hunter Yu Tae Rim say such things?”

“Yes. He seemed to worry a lot about having a younger sibling.”

“…”

“I wonder why? From what I can see, you don’t seem fragile enough to worry about.”

“…I guess he found me unreliable.”

The way my family hovered over me occasionally instilled this anxiety in me. That they found me unreliable.

I didn’t want to show this kind of inferiority complex to others, but hearing from someone else’s mouth that my brother had talked about me, I unknowingly responded grumpily.

‘I thought I wasn’t going to do this anymore.’

Even though I had become a proper contributor after becoming a hunter, old habits were hard to break.

“You’re saying the same thing as Tae Rim.”

But Hunter Ju Cheong Yeon said something quite unexpected.

“Tae Rim also thought his family found him unreliable.”

My brother said such things too? Why?

“Um… Oh? I think something bit!”

I was about to ask more details about my brother when Hunter Ju Cheong Yeon’s fishing line became taut.

When I startled and tapped his arm, he leisurely reeled in the line.

“It bit faster than I expected.”

He caught the fish without much effort. The fish’s tail was strangely split into two.

“This is the first time I’ve seen this fish here. Ah… I’m envious.”

“Want it?”

When I unknowingly said I was envious, he readily offered the fish.

“No. It’s meaningless if I don’t catch it myself. I’m on a quest to collect fifty types of fish.”

“There’s such a quest?”

“Yes…”

He curled up the corners of his mouth, staring intently at my face, thinking who knows what. Whenever he looked at me like that, it made me nervous, feeling like he was up to something.

“Then shall I help you?”

“You’ll help me, Hunter?”

“Yes.”

“How? I mean, why?”

When I asked what he was up to, his smile deepened.

“You look a lot like a hunter I’m close to, so I want to be nice to you.”

The close hunter he’s talking about… must be my brother, right?

“And I want to score points with my superior.”

“…”

The superior he’s talking about seemed to be my dad.

“And I’m very interested in you, Yu Bom.”

“Pardon…?”

“Don’t misunderstand. I mean I’m interested in Yu Bom’s class.”

“Ah…”

I was startled for a moment. Why does he talk like that? Speak properly with subjects and objects, I wanted to say.

While I was calming my startled heart, he slightly examined my expression and asked.

“Were you disappointed?”

“No? You spoke strangely, Hunter.”

“Haha. Your reaction was too cute.”

“…”

Seeing him make such frivolous remarks, I thought he might not be as gloomy a person as I initially thought. Maybe he just likes teasing people and seeing them flustered…

‘That’s still weird though.’

“So, how are you going to help?”

I understand why he wants to help me. If it’s not too difficult for him, I had no reason to refuse.

“Among the trees in the Blue Starlight Valley, there’s a Silver Tree that glows silver at night.”

“A Silver Tree?”

“Yes. If you go inside that tree, there’s a small lake about the size of five pyeong. Though it looks small, it’s quite deep. If you fish in that lake, you can catch all types of fish in the Blue Starlight Valley.”

“Is that true? But…”

There was one thing that bothered me.

“Isn’t it dangerous to wander around the dungeon at night?”

“It’ll be fine if you go around with me.”

“Why?”

Come to think of it, he wandered around the dungeon well even at late hours. When he first arrived at the campsite, it was when the sun had set, and on the second day too, he returned because his mana had depleted, not because it had gotten dark.

“I have teleportation-related skills like the Lamiae tribe.”

“Really?!”

“Yes. But it only applies to one accompanying person. And it’s just Blink, so it can’t cover long distances.”

According to his explanation, he would keep using Blink to get to that tree before being targeted by monsters.

“And once we’re inside, monsters do appear occasionally, but they’re not dangerous monsters that target first, so it’ll be safe.”

“What kind of monsters?”

“Blue Starlight Fairies.”

“Oh? But I need to capture high mana monsters too. Do the fairies possibly exceed mana 50?”

Suddenly, I remembered the conditions for monsters to manage the book cafe.

“They should. But do you have capture skills too?”

“Yes. But I can’t use them for attacks. It’s for utilizing monsters to manage my campsite facilities. It’s a conditional skill that requires raising likability to capture.”

“I see. I can help with that too.”

He spoke leisurely as if it was no big deal. It might be a golden opportunity to complete the quest and capture a facility management monster at the same time.

My mind was spinning rapidly and my hand moved on its own.

“Please come out of the dungeon with me, Hunter. I beg you.”

I grabbed his hand and looked at him as if he was a savior. Hunter Ju Cheong Yeon seemed a bit surprised at first, but soon smiled as if intrigued.

“Alright. I’m looking forward to it too, thinking something fun might happen if I’m with you, Yu Bom.”

The timing was just right. The rainy season had been continuing for a long time, so the domain buffs were also overlapping.

Currently, the mana recovery speed due to the domain buff was +50%. Hunter Ju Cheong Yeon had also stocked up on mana as much as possible through the Spring Campsite quest.

The Silver Tree might be generated far away, so he was preparing as much as possible to prevent mana depletion before that.

“Wow! We’re getting a book cafe!”

“Book cafe! Book cafe!”

Teddy and Gold cheered at the prospect of possibly constructing a new facility.

“No matter how I think about it, the two of you going alone doesn’t seem right. Do you really have to go?”

However, only one person. Only Seol Mo Gyeon couldn’t welcome our journey.

“You said you might come back after 3 days if you’re late. You’re going to be alone with that guy for 3 days?”

He complained for several days after that, saying this didn’t seem right. He seemed very displeased with the idea of us going out of the dungeon alone and staying overnight.

“I need to complete the quest to level up, and I need to level up to get out of the dungeon. While we’re at it, we can capture monsters to increase facilities and gain experience points.”

“Still… Just go with me later. When my penalty is gone. We can go then, right?”

“When your penalty is gone, you have to leave the campsite, don’t you…?”

“Ah, right. That’s true…”