Welcome to Dungeon Hotel

“It’s not to the extent that it’s useful…” 

Han Woohyun had a somewhat distant expression.

“Are you planning on getting a formal examination from the Hunter Association?”

At the word Hunter Association, I naturally thought of Uncle Junsoo.

‘I’m against it.’

Uncle Junsoo, who was so enthusiastic about rescuing F-Class porters, but was very against my Awakening.

Of course, I have no intention of stopping what I want to do because of Uncle Junsoo’s objection. 

No matter how thankful I am for my fans, this is my life. 

But when Uncle can trust me completely and help me, I will tell him. 

“Not yet. Just a little bit stronger.” 

“You’re already…” 

Slash! 

At that time, Han Woohyun cut the head of a crocodile that suddenly jumped out of the swamp with a long sword and pressed it down.

You have succeeded in hunting the ‘Swamp Crocodile (B)’. You’ve earned 3,000p EXP.

The level of the hotel goes up. (15→16)

“…strong enough, you.” 

I looked up at Han Woohyun with a puzzled face.

Did you just say I’m strong when you’re a ranker who kills B-Class monsters with one sword? 

“Don’t make fun of me.”

“I’m not kidding.”

Han Woohyun said this with a face that sometimes shows innocence.

I shook my head.

Anyway, thanks to this S-Class ranker, maybe the day will come soon when I can reveal the secret about the hotel to Uncle Junsoo.

“By the way. Wasn’t the goal today to go to the ‘Demon Castle Ruins’ and collect the remaining items?”

“That’s right. It’s over there.”

I looked at the place that looked like a huge old castle that stood out from the back of the swamp that Han Woohyun was pointing to. 

The area was larger than the place we jumped out from earlier, but the height didn’t look very high, perhaps because it was on a slightly higher elevation.

This is the place where the boss mob, ‘The Corrupted Fairy King’, was located before the attack.

I was a little scared after meeting the terrifying dreamer in the castle earlier, but I made up my mind.

I’ve come this far, but I have to collect a lot of items and by-products so Han Woohyun can make money. 

Now. Shall we start with the crocodile?

I looked at the dead crocodile lying on the ground and pulled out a dagger. 

Han Woohyun, who saw that, asked.

“What are you doing?”

“Aren’t you taking the skin? If it’s a B-grade by-product, you’ll get a million won at least.”

I started cutting the crocodile as easily as I did the Archeopteryx.

I put a few useful crocodile skins in my item bag and stood up, and Han Woohyun looked at me with a strange expression.

Aah.

“Don’t worry. I’ll give it to you at the hotel. Because you decided to keep all the by-products.”

“…No. I don’t mean that.”

“Then?” 

“No. Let’s go for now.”

I followed Han Woohyun, who was guiding me as if I was used to it.

As I expected, he had experience entering this dungeon.

“I came in when I was in the Baekho Guild. When the pre-exploration team came in, there had been a death accident, so I was nervous, but nothing happened.”

“D, death accident?”

Was this a dangerous place?

Hunter Planet said it wasn’t that dangerous for an A-Class dungeon. 

Although the risk of injury was low, the possibility of collecting by-products was low, so it was said that there were few guild attacks.

Of course, all of that is about raids that include A-Class hunters. 

“It seems that one of the dream demons we saw earlier attacked. A Hunter with a particularly low mental barrier got hallucinatory and attacked another Hunter.”

I smacked my lips and saw the bracelets on my wrist.

The feeling of stabbing the dreamer that had the face of Han Woohyun earlier was vivid in my hand. 

Well, even if that actually happened, there’s no way I could pierce the body of an S-Class hunter. 

“Have you had a hallucination? What hallucination was it?”

Han Woohyun asked as if he felt my gaze looking down at the bracelet.

He took the lead in choosing a path that people could walk in the swamp, and if I couldn’t catch up, he reached out to me at every opportunity.

Even now I was walking on slippery stones while holding his hand.  

It was fortunate. Thanks to that, I didn’t have to look at Han Woohyun while pretending to focus on my feet.

When I looked at Han Woohyun, I remembered how his breath had touched the tip of my nose earlier.

Han Woohyun added as I was crushing the answer with my eyes down.

“Knowing what the hallucinations are about might help you get out of them.”

Having said that, there is no way to avoid it.

“…You.” 

“?”

I managed to balance on the slippery stone and looked down at Han Woohyun.

He was standing on a stone, ready to catch me as I was going down.

“You came out… You were more friendly than usual.”

I didn’t know what to answer if he asked me in detail what ‘friendly’ meant, so I jumped into Han Woohyun’s arms.

Han Woohyun’s body seemed more tense than before.

Han Woohyun was silent for a moment, and he took the lead with a thoughtful face.

Then he suddenly asked me.

“Can we… get closer than we are now?”

What does that mean?

Could it be that you interpreted the meaning of ‘friendly’ earlier as being really ‘friendly’?

I looked up into his boyish eyes, concluded that it must be so, and was relieved.

I almost turned into a bad person who had dangerous fantasies about my high school friend.

“I thought we were already close. The only person who knows my secret is you. The only friends I contacted after coming down to Yeongchun-myeon are you and Minji.” 

Somehow, I felt like I was attacked by a self-fact because it was such a loner’s remark.

Human relationships are really narrow, me.

I changed the subject for no reason.

“Then have you ever hallucinated? Even the last time you came in. It would be nice to know about your hallucinations.” 

Han Woohyun stopped for a moment. Before I knew it, I saw the castle nearby. 

“For me, it probably… was you.” 

Han Woohyun gritted his teeth and muttered.

I could see a tendon in his chin.

I murmured as I looked at it.

“Hmm. As expected…” 

“As expected?” 

Han Woohyun’s eyebrows twitched.

“You don’t have many friends either.”

It looked like it.

I found out at the last reunion that this guy’s social skills were way lower than mine.

Han Woohyun made a blank face for a moment, then turned his head and pointed at his castle. 

“It’s about time.”

* * *

Upon arriving at the castle, we encountered quite a few monsters.

At the entrance, Han Woohyun took down the two trolls in an instant, but monsters continued to appear after that. 

It was also worth saying that it was the place where the final boss was.

Thanks to that, the hotel level, no, my level went up.

You have succeeded in hunting the ‘Gatekeeper Troll (C)’. You’ve earned 2,000p EXP.

You have succeeded in hunting the ‘Red Snake (C)’. You’ve earned 2,000p EXP.

The level of the hotel goes up. (16→17)

You have succeeded in hunting the ‘Dark Dreamer (A)’. You’ve earned 5,000p EXP.

The level of the hotel goes up. (17→18)

It was a tremendous speed.

Level-up rewards came in without a break in the middle, but I put them off for now.

It was because taking the stats came first. 

I took only one for stamina, strength, and agility and invested seven in intelligence.

With this level, I should be able to avoid the magic level as soon as I enter the dungeon.

And knowing that the mana exhaustion disappears every time the level goes up, I used the Fail-Not without any burden.  

At first, Han Woohyun looked at me with admiration every time I used the fail-not. 

Then he said it with a little worried face as he walked to the top floor of the castle, where the final boss was.

“A-Class monsters often appear here, so stay back and call the hotel right away when needed. It seems to be attracting more monsters than I think, so don’t delay.”

Han Woohyun repeated the words from a while ago, ‘There is too much of it for a dungeon that has already been cleared’. 

It was hard to answer because I couldn’t compare to before, but I was a little scared of scary monsters appearing nonstop, so I nodded quickly.

We reached the top floor of the castle.

The top floor was pierced by a large circular space of stone.

In the center was a three-headed statue of Cerberus, and farthest from the entrance was a chair resembling a throne.

But there was no trace of the monster anywhere.

“…There is nothing.”

I was very nervous, but it was a pity that there were no monsters.

Even when I got some small items from the underground earlier, I had to encounter 3 B-Class monsters, but the absence of monsters here seemed to mean that there was nothing left on the top floor, where the best items were likely to be. 

“Did the late raiding party go there…?” 

Han Woohyun’s face is wrinkled.

He said it was a little strange that there was nothing like this.

Rather than sad, it was a really curious face.

It was then. 

Kiiik—! 

The door through which I came in was suddenly closed as if it had been drawn by something. 

“….? ‘

I turned around as I felt a sudden light on my back.

A great red light poured into my eyes. I couldn’t help but close my eyes.

The ‘Fallen Fairy King (S)’ has appeared in front of you.

What? The Fallen Fairy King? That’s the boss mob of this dungeon that has already disappeared. 

Of course, I heard that the final boss sometimes regenerates, but wasn’t the fairy king an A-Class in the first place? 

Just as I was wondering, some strange words rang in my ears.

It was neither English nor Korean, and I could not interpret it.

At the same time, a system window popped up.

It is a language that can be interpreted by activating the skill ‘Global Communication’ obtained as a level up reward.

Receive the skill and learn a language, including a total of 1856 dialects…

I don’t have time to read more.

It was so dark earlier that I couldn’t see anything, but now it’s so bright that I can’t see anything.

I couldn’t feel Han Woohyun anywhere I could reach.

Just do everything.

Do whatever you want.

The skill ‘Global Communication’ interprets its words…

—…If you give me the soul of one of the two, I will grant the survivor the ability of a ‘sacrifice’.

However, half of the ‘sacrifice’ abilities become mine. 

Choose.

If you choose, one of you will die, if you don’t, both will die.

Two pairs of red eyes could be seen in the burning light.

And the back of Han Woohyun standing in front of me.

“Stay back. I will deal with it.”

Han Woohyun raised his longsword and thrust it into its eyes.

Then the light faded and I saw the silhouette of a huge monster.

—You fool!

It raised its huge claws at Han Woohyun.

I fiddled with the fail-not on my waist. 

But before I had time to use it, Han Woohyun cut off its arm.

A terrible scream was heard.

My ears went numb and my head hurt. 

Red eyes grew huge and filled my field of vision. 

Suddenly, my eyes turned white again. 

Han Woohyun was standing in that white space. 

Han Woohyun’s stomach is bleeding.

I screamed and walked towards Han Woohyun. At that moment, Han Woohyun pulled something out of his stomach.

That was a fail-not.

“You stabbed me. To sacrifice me? My soul…?” 

Han Woohyun’s eyes shone red.

Then Han Woohyun pulled out the longsword he had put on his waist.

The longsword was pointing at me.

The cool feeling of the sharp sword penetrating my body ran through my whole body.

Han Woohyun’s red eyes smiled coldly.

“It’s your side who gets sacrificed.”

I frowned at the vivid pain felt in my stomach, which was stabbed by Han Woohyun, even though I knew that all this was a hallucination.

I fumbled to get the fail-not out of my waist. 

I wanted to end this pain by throwing a fail note at Han Woohyun right away. 

The monster’s voice kept coming from my ears.

—What would you do? Is your choice ‘sacrifice’ or ‘salvation’?

What kind of nonsense is this…? 

My choice?

My choice, of course…

“It’s a hotel.”

I took out the master key instead of the fail-not from my waist.

I have no intention of sacrificing or saving.

I am just a hotelier providing relaxation in a hotel.

The moment I inserted the master key into the air, a purple signboard that glowed brightly in the burning light came to mind.

Yeong Chun Hotel

As the hallucinations disappeared, Han Woohyun was seen fighting the monster evenly.

I shouted at Han Woohyun.

“Woohyun-ah! Let’s go back! To the hotel!”

Han Woohyun turned his head at my cry.

The red eyes narrowed.

—What the hell…! No. You can’t run away…! 

The monster’s hand stretched out.

Han Woohyun came running and hugged me.

I rushed into his arms and into the revolving door with a roaring sound.

After a while—.

The moment I opened my closed eyes, I was in the hotel.

I let out a sigh as I lay down with Han Woohyun on the soft carpet.

“Hotel… Welcome to the hotel… Welcome…” 

Of course, I was talking to myself.

It was then.

A window popped up in front of me.

You rejected the offer of the ‘Fallen Fairy King (S)’ and completed the Hidden Quest ‘Salvation is Self!’.

As a reward for protecting the soul of a noble hotelier, you will receive 100,000p EXP and the title of ‘2-Star Hotel Owner’.

Then, along with numerous reward notification windows, a notification like a reminder came to mind.

Receive the accumulated rewards.