Chapter 16
As the head of a company, I had no shortage of things to do.
Even when I focused on handling the biggest tasks first, the pile showed no sign of getting any smaller.
The president of the company I used to work for always seemed to lounge around and do nothing. Why was it like this now that I was the president?
One of the things I had to take care of today was renegotiating with the Fisherman’s Club.
Seafarers are a rough bunch.
They’re blunt, and you might even think they’re violent and simple-minded.
The Hunters of the Fisherman’s Club, the maritime Hunters’ association, were no different.
“Hey, mister, look here. That case is already over in court, isn’t it? We did nothing wrong, I tell ya.”
I nodded at the association chairman, who was talking back to me in a thick Busan accent.
“That’s right.”
“No, I mean... Huh? What’d you say?”
“You’re right. What you said, Chairman. The association did nothing wrong.”
“...Then why are you here?”
“The owner’s changed, so we should renegotiate the contract.”
Only then did the chairman seem to catch my meaning. Their expression immediately turned haughty, and they said firmly,
“Renegotiate, you say? What’s there to renegotiate? Not a chance!”
“Now, now. Don’t get worked up. Just hear me out.”
Why wouldn’t they listen to what I was saying?
“Chairman, let’s be honest. Does the association have any other clients that provide steady work like we do? It doesn’t, right?”
“......”
I’d already finished my research through an anonymous Hunter community.
There’d been no end of grumbling among the members that the chairman had needlessly picked a fight and wrecked a client that used to give them plenty of work.
“Do you know why I came here? I’m giving you a chance, Chairman.”
“What kinda nonsense are you spoutin’?”
The chairman’s brow furrowed at once.
I didn’t let the moment pass and pressed on.
“Take a look at this.”
It was a video.
A video of us raiding the Lake of the Sawblade Ichthyosaurs again.
Of course, modern electronic devices couldn’t be brought into a dungeon, but magic items made from materials found inside a dungeon could.
I’d borrowed a magical recording device from Zephyros and filmed it.
I’d also reached Level 11 in the process. Since I’d done it once before, I was familiar with the dungeon and cleared it much faster this time.
The chairman watched the video I showed them for a long time, then muttered, looking nearly spellbound.
“D-Damn, that’s somethin’.”
As the chairman, they were a seasoned Hunter, so they could tell at a glance just how incredible what I’d shown them was.
Hunters who specialized in operating underwater would understand its value even better.
Why were maritime Hunters in their own separate category?
Because even a decent mage or swordsman had trouble fighting at full strength underwater.
But I’d handled it from outside the water with a simple ‘click.’
“Chairman, if you were in their shoes, would you hire the association for the same price, or this guy?”
There was no need to tell them that guy was me, right?
The recording device was in first person, so naturally, my face didn’t appear.
“W-Well...”
“Honestly, all they have to do is hire this guy. His rates are reasonable, too. So why do you think I came all the way here? I came to save face for you, Chairman. But you’re making me feel a little hurt.”
“Is that so...?”
The chairman let out a sigh. I heard them mutter under their breath, ‘Where the hell did they find a monster like that...’
“Sure, that guy’s incredible, but Saeil Pharma’s original client was the Fisherman’s Club, wasn’t it? Even if I’ve taken over the company, I ought to honor that relationship. Seafarers are all about loyalty, aren’t they?”
“That’s right.”
Of course, they were the ones who’d thrown that loyalty away first and pulled this crap.
“So, what’ll it be? Will you switch clients, or keep working at the rate in the existing contract?”
After being cornered this badly, if all the chairman managed to get was the old contract, their standing would naturally take a hit.
I understood why they were hesitating, so I sent them the video I’d recorded.
“If they see this, the members will understand why you had to do this, Chairman.”
“Phew... Fine, let’s do it.”
That concluded the negotiations between the two company heads.
The remaining details, like how many people to send and when, were for the staff to work out among themselves.
The negotiations were over, so I stood up, shook the chairman’s hand, and was just about to leave.
“By the way, who’s that monster? I’ve been workin’ on the sea since the first generation of Hunters, but I’ve never seen a monster like that before.”
The question came from behind me.
It’s the guy standing right in front of you.
I gave a wry smile and replied.
“Who knows? They’re not the sort of person who wants people to know who they are.”
**
I’d successfully wrapped up negotiations with the Fisherman’s Club, and mass production of Power Q Elixir had begun.
But there was one major problem.
No matter how good a product was, there was a limit to how much you could sell through word of mouth alone. We needed to spend money on advertising.
But the company didn’t have any money for advertising.
All I had left was my personal fortune of 2 billion won and about 5 billion won from the loan I’d taken out from Zephyros. Once I set aside money for employee salaries, raw materials, equipment upgrades, bank interest... Add it all up, and there wasn’t enough left to feed a dog.
“This is a problem.”
But I couldn’t keep asking Zephyros for help, either.
You can only use a cheat code once or twice before people start complaining.
What else could I sell to make money?
Could I sell something? I’d already offered my chest. What about my arms? My thighs?
“...Wait a second.”
I didn’t have to sell it to anyone.
“If I clear the Stage 11 Impossible Gate and promote Power Q Elixir...”
That alone would generate at least tens of billions of won in advertising value.
Of course, that meant I first had to clear the Stage 11 Impossible Gate...
Either way, I’d planned to take it on. If doing so also solved our advertising problem, that would be the best of both worlds.
Now that it had come to this...
I really had to clear the Impossible Gate on Jeju Island.
After making up my mind, I called Zephyros.
“I’m going to the Gate on Jeju today.”
─You’ve seemed pretty busy lately. Are you sure you’ll be all right?
“I’ll be fine.”
─Still, I have some good news.
“Good news?”
─Since you took so long, the Jeju DDF has plunged by 15%. The hype from the market pricing it in has worn off.
“How is that good news? You said you had 50 billion won tied up in it.”
─Now my principal’s 100 billion. You know the rule: when it drops, you buy more and lower your average.
That lunatic.
“...With 50 billion won, that’s not a dip. That’s a raging fire.”
Look at the nerve of this old guy.
What was he trusting to throw 100 billion won at it like that?
─You don’t want to put any in?
“I don’t even have enough money to die with.”
Still, hearing that the price had fallen made the idea a little tempting.
Should I invest a bit of my personal money, at least?
While I was thinking it over, Zephyros’s voice turned serious.
─You read the dungeon information I sent you carefully, right?
“Yeah. It’s an instance dungeon, cave-type, with branching paths that eventually lead to a central plaza. And in the central plaza... Wait, why is it rocks again?”
Apparently, a stone golem resembling a Dol hareubang appeared there.
The Stage 3 dungeon had golems, too. Now this one had them as well?
─That’s not unusual. At low stages, it’s hard to smash rocks and destroy life stones, so golems are the undisputed top dogs. There’s a reason they’re called low-stage killers.
“Phew. And once I get past the golems, that’s not the end of it. There’s another phase, right?
─That’s right.
The problem was that the next phase only opened for people qualified to clear it.
In other words, even if a high-level Hunter without the required qualifications entered the dungeon and slaughtered all the golems, they still couldn’t advance to the next phase.
[You are not qualified to proceed to the altar.]
They’d be expelled from the dungeon with that system message.
Among those who actually qualified,
that is, Hunters at Level 16 or below, no one had even cleared the golem phase.
─So there’s no information beyond that point. Do you really still plan to go?
“Yes.”
I wasn’t completely free of anxiety, but I was fairly confident, at least.
“Dungeons usually follow a consistent theme. If the first floor has golems, the second floor will probably have similar monsters. I’m confident about the matchup. Golems don’t seem all that scary to me.”
─That’s why I recommended it.
“Then just cheer me on. Don’t bring back my trauma for no reason.”
My near-death experience in the Stage 3 Gate still came back to me every now and then.
At least, thanks to that experience, I probably wouldn’t let my guard down inside a Gate again...
“If things get really bad, I’ll just run.”
Risking my life to clear a dungeon really wasn’t my style.
I wanted to take reasonable precautions and just ‘click’ away from the back.
I’d be happy if it were just like the Lake of the Sawblade Ichthyosaurs.
With all sorts of thoughts swirling in my head, I drove to Gimpo Airport.
**
I flew to Jeju Airport, then picked up my rental car.
Zephyros had offered to send a guide, but I turned him down because I didn’t want to impose.
It’s not like I’m a three-year-old. These days, you can find your way anywhere with nothing but a map app.
After parking the car and walking for a short while, I arrived at the Gate entrance on the slopes of Hallasan.
Like all Gates deemed impossible to clear, the area was plastered with danger and warning signs.
I ignored them all and went inside.
[You have entered Stage 11 Gate, ‘Altar of the Impatient Guardians.’]
After walking a little way in, the pockmarked basalt rocks intertwined and formed the shape of a golem.
Its face really did look a bit like a Dol hareubang.
This was perfect for dealing with golems.
I pointed the staff I’d taken out ahead of time at the golem’s feet.
The golem was about to step forward, mana resonance roaring out of it.
It toppled straight to the ground.
A thud shook the earth, and a cloud of dust billowed up, obscuring my view.
My No. 1s spread out toward the fallen golem.
This golem was made of porous basalt, so they didn’t even need to bore through the stone to reach its core.
The No. 1s slipped through the holes and broke down the life stone in less than a second.
With its life stone broken down, the golem stopped producing mana resonance. Unable to move, it became nothing but a pile of rocks.
“Just as effective as I thought.”
No. 2 briefly pinned the slow-moving golem’s foot, and No. 1 delivered the finishing blow.
It was a simple combat strategy, but against golems, it was even more effective.
After taking down the golem and moving forward, I reached the central plaza.
“Eight golems appear here all at once, right?”
One by one, they emerged from the passages I hadn’t entered.
Facing eight golems at once was a tall order even for most high-level Hunters.
It was fortunate that the golems here were made of basalt and weren’t very sturdy, but eight was still a lot.
Just as the high-level Hunters had described, one golem emerged from each of the eight passages leading into the central plaza, apart from the one I’d entered through.
Unfortunately for the golems, though...
And fortunately for me...
The plaza was too large, and the golems were too slow.
The No. 1s I’d spread around the area in advance slipped through the holes in the basalt and searched for their cores.
Before long, the life stones were destroyed almost simultaneously...
and all eight golems fell at once.
[Your level has increased.]
[Undead Rise (Unique) skill proficiency has increased to C.]
[Proficiency C Effects: (1) You can maintain up to three types of undead. (2) You can temporarily strengthen undead by consuming mana.]
“Oh.”
I was glad to have leveled up, but even more glad that my proficiency had finally increased.
Now I could maintain two types of bacteria without my staff, and three—including No. 3—while using it.
That was great, but what did temporary strengthening mean?
I wanted to test it out.
[The altar opens.]
With a rumble that shook the ground, an altar appeared in front of me.
The second phase of this dungeon had opened for the first time in history... but...
What was that?
A single small vial, like a potion, sat there by itself.
[Essence of the Volcano]
[Grade]: Legendary-Grade Potion
[Description]: A potion created by a great alchemist after many years of studying the ecosystem inside a volcano. When consumed, it forms a thin film over the skin, providing effective resistance to fire.
[Effect]: Fire Resistance +3,000% for 5 minutes.
“Whoa. With 3,000% fire resistance, I could jump into a pit of fire and still survive, couldn’t I?”
It was a shame that the potion only lasted five minutes and could only be used once.
Still, a potion like this was bound to come in handy someday.
If there was a fire at home, at least I’d be able to save my life, right?
And I might even survive against fire-type monsters...
[Phase 2 begins.]
[The monster, ‘Guardian of the Altar That Cooled Too Quickly,’ is blazing to life again!]
“What?”
When I looked around at the sudden system message, as if it had heard me, I saw...
the basalt golems I’d defeated bubbling and melting all over again.
Then, drip, drip.
The golems slowly began to rise, molten rock dripping from them.
If there was any good news, I suppose it was this:
not all the golems had melted again.
Only one golem rose in a molten form.
[Dungeon Boss, ‘Reignited Guardian of the Altar,’ has appeared!]
The problem was that the single golem had an overwhelming presence.
Basalt was a rock formed when lava cooled quickly.
Because it cooled so fast, traces of escaping gas became the characteristic holes in basalt.
So if a cooled golem returned to its original state...
it would become a Lava Golem...!
There was just one problem.
Could bacteria survive in lava?
[A large number of individuals have perished!]
My bacterial legion, which I hadn’t recalled after destroying the golems, burned away in the golem as it melted into lava.
“Shit. Of course they couldn’t.”
Why was there never an easy way through anything?
Even undead bacteria were living creatures, fundamentally made of organic matter.
They were bound to be extremely vulnerable to fire.
And of all things, the monster that suddenly appeared was fire-related?
Did I have any way to fight it with my current abilities?
Just then,
the Lava Golem swung its arm, and lava sealed off every passage except the one it was standing in front of.
The passageways quickly hardened into solid layers of rock.
Even if I tried to dig through that with No. 1, it’d take quite a while.
And half of it was still molten, so I’d have to wait for it to cool before sending in the bacteria.
Escaping through the blocked passages was practically impossible.
“If my abilities aren’t enough, am I supposed to just chug a potion and run?”
If I drank the Essence of the Volcano and fled through the only open passage, surviving wouldn’t be a problem.
But then, that’d be the end of my clear attempt.
Usually, fixed reward items like this weren’t replenished after the first person claimed them.
Even if I entered again, the Essence of the Volcano wouldn’t appear a second time.
That made the risk too great.
“They clearly put that potion there for me to use against this thing. And I’m supposed to beat it without even that?”
It came down to two choices: give up, drink the potion, and run,
or fight and open a path.
At that crossroads, an idea came to me.
Could it work?
The Lava Golem was already approaching, slowly but steadily.
I didn’t have time to stand around and think for long.
“Ah, damn it. Whatever!”
[Skill, ‘Mician,’ is being used.]
[Skill, ‘Mician,’ has detected microscopic life in the ‘Essence of the Volcano.’]
[Magmophile]
─Description: A bacterium that lives only in the magma inside volcanoes. It grows by feeding on the molten inorganic substances in magma. To endure the extreme heat and pressure inside magma, it continually forms insulating material into a protective film.
And it seemed like I’d found something.