novelThe Reason You Can Trust It (1)
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"Is everyone ready?"
"Yes."
The Demon Cave Clearing Squad members all clenched their teeth and nodded their heads. Shione was among them as well.
The 100 members had dropped down to 73. You could say that 27 casualties was a lot of people who died, but the members were thinking the opposite.
'73 of us managed to live. '
That was how difficult this trek was. Just the fact that we have been in this Demon Cave for over 3 months was enough to explain the, 'Difficulty, ' of this journey.
But thanks to that, I was full of confidence.
We were able to fine tune our teamwork for over 3 months, and, more importantly, we got quite the level boost.
Especially for me and Shione.
I went up to level 206 when I came in at 171, while Shione jumped up to 189 from 148.
The other members went up a minimum of 5 levels to a maximum of 15 levels.
But we could not let our guard down. The enemy was a Midnight Black Alligator that was close to level 340.
There were also hundreds of Cave Alligators around it, as well as thousands of other monsters.
"Let's go."
I took the vanguard position.
A dark area with close to no light. But I could see in there like ti was daytime.
The monsters started to roughly jump around once I appeared.
I started to slash the monsters to quickly approach the Midnight Black Alligator.
The other members threw fire marbles in front of me.
Crackle -
Crackle-
Thanks to the fire pillars, I was able to rush in even faster.
A giant hall about 500 meters in diameter. The Midnight Black Alligator that was chilling in the middle finally started to move.
It wasn't as big as I thought it would be. From the tip of the nose to the tail, it was only about 15 meters.
But it was fast. As soon as I became visible to him, he started to quickly rush toward me. His momentum was quite heavy.
But I did not step back. I knew how to easily hunt the Midnight Black Alligator.
You just needed two things.
Timing and guts!
I slashed through the monsters coming through the gaps in the fire pillars and stood face to face with the Midnight Black Alligator.
The Midnight Black Alligator didn't even care about the fire pillars. It just smashed the bright red fire pillars with its stomach and instantly arrived in front of me. It then opened its large mouth.
The mouth opened widely, greater than 2 meters. It was enough to eat me up in one bite. It rushed to me as if it was trying to swallow me in one bite.
'This is it!'
I quickly took the shield out of my bag. I then stood the shield straight up, protecting my body.
The Midnight Black Alligator bit down at the same time.
Crunch!
The shield was over 2 meters tall.
The strength of the Midnight Black Alligator's jaw was quite strong, but it was not able to bend or break the shield. The shield was too strong for that.
It was a shield made with a mix of titanium and mithril.
In addition, it was made in a a way to stand a lot of weight. If you look down from above, you would see the right angled lattice formation.
With this strength, it was strong enough to be used as a pillar for large buildings.
At the end of the shield were sharp spears. These spears were made so that they could move up to 1 meter away from the shield. The end of the shield was made of a barb similar to a fish hook.
Those spears stabbed the inside of the Midnight Black Alligator's mouth.
The Midnight Black Alligator that could not close its mouth tried everything it could to spit the shield out.
However, every time it moved its mouth, the spears at the end of the shield came with it and maintained its position.
Just like that, it strong jaw and teeth became useless.
It still had a weapon in its tail, but it was not that dangerous. I could manage to avoid it pretty easily.
I raised my combo using the monsters nearby and started to destroy the Midnight Black Alligator's side with a damage over 10, 000.
Whimper-
A very simple message.
But a very fulfilling message. I would have considered it a jackpot to get either a Black Scale or a Fairy's Tear, but I managed to get both. (PR: MC has not been introduced to plot convenience-sunbae yet)
'That's the end!'
The portal connecting to the outside was created.
The rest of the monsters were like an after-meal exercise.
The squad members created fire pillars and put up their shields to hide behind, while I moved around the fire pillars and hunted as fast as I could.
The 20+ Fire Magicians helped as well.
Thanks to that, the hunt was finished in less than 10 minutes.
"Wow! We lived!"
"Hurray!"
Everyone was shouting in joy. Our 3 month journey was finally over.
But, can't we be happy outside the Demon Cave? I may have the Owl's Eye, but I'm tired of this dark, stuffy, and humid cave.
If you think about it that way, I don't even know how I managed to survive years as a miner.
Shione and I walked into the portal.
***
I put some saliva on my finger as I flipped the page of the book. I printed the monster data file and turned it into a book.
Reading it in a book like this was more comfortable and easier to read than reading through the monitor.
It would be perfect if there were pictures of them as well. However, that type of file was minimal in amount.
"Dungeon Hydra. Why did they make it so hard to fight?"
It still had a weakness. If I got help from the squad members, I think I should be able to take it down in about 5 minutes.
"What else is there?"
As I flipped the page once more, my cell phone started to ring.
It was Director Han Sung Taek.
It's really true when they say effort does not betray you. We were close enough that Han Sung Taek would even be the first to call me.
I should be the closest person to Han Sung Taek in the Lions Club. Even closer than his colleague Director Ji Sung Joon. (PR: ...Do people not call people nowadays?)
I worked really hard for it. I've visited his house over 10 times, and I've spent the night there at least three times.
They are a family of five, with his elderly parents and college freshman son, and I was pretty close with all of his family now.
"Yes, hyung-nim."
- Yesterday was quite refreshing.
Yesterday was another competition with the Winners' Club. It was the third battle since I joined the Lions.
It was because of Hwang Joon Yul. After losing to me multiple times by one or two strokes, he was so annoyed that he kept challenging me.
Of course, I earned between 300, 000, 000 won to 500, 000, 000 won each time. Hwang Joon Yul always had a lot of money, so even if you lightly scratch his nose, money came out in piles.
Thanks to that, Han Sung Taek was feeling good as well. Of course, we drank together many times as well.
"Those so called Winners aren't a match anymore. I don't know why those idiots keep challenging us."
- Of course. Anyways, are you attending the lightning [1] today?
There was something I had been preparing to show at a meeting. If it is a lightning meeting, we might have a lower attendance rate, but it did not matter. All I needed was for Director Han Sung Taek to be there.
"Of course. How can I miss a Lions meeting?"
- Then give me a ride. I drank so much last night and left my car there. Director Ji is busy and cannot attend.
"I understand. I will be at the main gates on time."
***
I entered the Japanese Restaurant with Han Sung Taek. We were about 20 minutes late because I had to pick Han Sung Taek up.
A lot of people were already gathered. As soon as we entered, we could hear a raucous crowd. There were many pairs of shoes neatly organized in front of the door as well. [2]
"We must be really late. Let's hurry in."
"Yes, hyung-nim."
I opened the door and headed in first.
"Oh, Kang pro, you're here?"
"Hwi Ram is here!"
"Why were you so late?"
They were rapid fire greeting me. I almost felt bad for making Han Sung Taek feel like a nobody coming in behind me.
"Sit over here."
Multiple people were offering up the seats next to them.
I sat down together with Han Sung Taek.
"Let's take a shot now that Kang pro is here."
There were around 40 people. Even though it was a lightning meeting, quite a few people were here.
Multiple people were making toasts, starting with the President. They must have prepared in advance, as the toats were quite eloquent.
There really are a lot of people who like to stand out.
And then the toast came to me.
"Our maknae Kang pro should say something too."
"Of course. He is the face of our Lions."
I didn't prepare anything for a toast.
However, there is something in place of it. I was waiting to share it in front of everybody anyways.
I was just thankful that they were laying down the red carpet for me to do so like this.
I took out a gold envelope and stood up.
"I have prepared a present worthy of the Lions' celebration."
"Oh, a gift!"
"I'm excited. Kang pro is very generous."
"What could it be?"
Once everyone had their gazes on me, I took the item of the envelope. It was a certificate framed in a red frame.
"What is it? Is it an invitation of some kind?"
"Or an acceptance document?"
"There's no way its a pro license is it?"
People were trying to guess what it was. I waited for the voices to die down before starting to speak.
"I will read the contents for you."
Everybody quieted down. I heard small noises to the side, but everyone was focused on me.
With a loud voice, I slowly started to read the message.
[Thank you letter to the Lions Golf Club.
We sincerely thank you for your 2 billion won donation for students who have the passion but cannot achieve their dreams due to their family situations. This will be used to support these students achieve their dreams.
Dandelion Foundation CEO Lee Soo Bong]
There wasn't much to it. It wasn't that complicated either. Anybody who could hear my voice would have been able to understand it.
But all of them had odd expressions.
Especially the President.
"Donation? 2 billion won at that?"
"When did we make such a donation?"
"Dandelion Foundation? What kind of foundation is it?"
Everybody must have forgotten about it. Every time I earned money from Hwang Joon Yul I said I was donating it.
I said it again just to clarify.
"Every time we went against the Winners, I won over 300 million won from Hwang Joon Yul. I said each time that I would donate all of that money in our Lions Club's name to a good place."
"Ah, that? Now I remember."
"You were being serious? I thought you were just saying it for fun."
"But you gave all 2 billion won?"
"Hold on, even if you add up all the money he earned, it wouldn't be close to 2 billion won at all. At max, it was 1. 6 billion won."
"It was a bit lacking, so I filled it up with some money I had lying around. Since it was for a good cause, might as well make it a nice looking amount."
"Kang pro really has a big heart. He is amazing for a young person."
"Send it around. I want to take a look at it too."
I passed the letter to the left. The majority of the members were going, 'Wow!' and showing their approval.
But there were some who were looking at it distrustingly.
"I don't know if this Dandelion place is a trustable place. Lately, there are a lot of scams to take your hard earned money."
I knew someone would say something like that.
No, it was natural. I had the same type of doubt. That was why I made sure that Dandelion could not have something like that happen.
I wanted to show that off to the members and, thankfully, Jang Yoon Shik set it up nicely. He was the one who was against me joining at first because I worked at the car wash.
There was someone who seemed to be my age sitting next to him. He must be Jang Yoon Shik's son, who is said to be my age. His face was really ugly, like his dad.
"We can trust Dandelion."
"How do you know?"
"They are very transparent about how the funds are used. Embezzlement is practically impossible."
"You are too innocent. How could there be something like that? They may look like they are good on the surface, while they actually embezzle your money on the inside."
"It won't be the case for Dandelion."
I urged them.
Jang Yoon Shik started to laugh like I was stupid.
"How can you be so sure? Did Dandelion show Kang pro their books or something?"
It was a tone that seemed to say there was no way that happened.
But I confidently nodded my head.
"You are exactly right."
______________________________________________
[1] A sudden meeting seems to be called a lightning meeting or lightning for short
[2] Asians don't wear shoes indoors
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Translator: Miraclerifle
Proofreader: Borderline Masochist
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