novelKill Stealing Isn't Bad Manners,
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Around the time Lee Jiwon entered the Seorak Mountain dungeon, a dungeon party was resting in the dungeon's safe room.
"Shit! How the hell did we lose another one? How are we supposed to fight the boss now with only five members?" Shin Hyuk raged. The other four members kept their heads bowed. They didn't want to needlessly make him any angrier.
"Fuck!" Shin Hyuk angrily kicked a wall of the safe room. Everything had gone wrong since the beginning. He had thought that all eight members of the raid party would make it to the dungeon. He even had a thousand devas to act as bait to attract the attention of the twin-horned griffon and the griffon monsters. He also had a hundred of Yung Gong Guild's elite devas to protect him and his designated healer. He thought that at minimum, six of the hundred elites could at least make it into the dungeon with the party. He had the confidence that they could do it.
Yet, it all went wrong. Only six of them survived!
Only six of the eight party members were able to make it to the dungeon. It was a miracle that he managed to get one of his two designated healers into the dungeon with him.
"This is bullshit. Useless worms!" Shin Hyuk grew angrier when he thought about how the thousand devas couldn't bait the griffons properly, and how a support mage ended up dying in the elite monster room.
Chung Song Yi, the only healer of the party, wanted to speak up. Every time she looked away to try to heal someone else, Shin Hyuk scolded her, telling her to focus on him as he was the party's tank. She couldn't refuse, as he was the crown prince of the Yung Gong Guild. No one could disobey him.
Tired from his tantrum, Shin Hyuk plopped down on a bench.
"Only five members..." He was the party's only tank and there was only one healer and three damage dealers left. If the dungeon's recommended number of party members was four, they wouldn't have a problem, but it wasn't. It was eight. That was how strong the dungeon boss was. They really needed that supporter to buff them and debuff the boss.
"Do we give up here?" Shin Hyuk was furious. He was absolutely seething, but he wasn't about to charge into the boss room unprepared. A lot of lives were lost to get him here. He didn't care about the thousand devas that were used as bait, but more than ninety of the Yung Gong Guild's elite lost their lives. Including the support mage that just died, a total of ninety five Yung Gong Guild members had incurred a death penalty to get Shin Hyuk to the dungeon. As if the lives lost weren't enough, the guild had to invest so many items and golden rings for this raid.
If he decided to retreat now, the guild would stand to lose more than if the guild decided not to run the raid!
"Captain Shin, please calm down for now." Shin Hyuk had been designated the party's captain for the Seorak dungeon raid.
"I know. I'm just frustrated, " said Shin Hyuk, heaving a huge sigh.
Even though he had just yelled at his four party members in rage, he wasn't the idiot son of a tycoon, like the ones on TV and books. He knew that once he calmed down, he would be able to think clearly and come up with a solution. He knew who to get angry at, and who to take care of.
He didn't care about the thousand devas that died, but he knew that he had to rely on the four devas in front of him now and in the future.
"It's all the more reason for you to keep your composure. That way, you can keep your subordinates reassured that everything will be fine."
"I understand. Thank you, Mr. Kang, " Shin Hyuk thanked Kang Il Hwan, his family's butler, for his advice.
"No need to thank me, Captain Shin. I'm only doing my job."
"What do you suggest we should do? We can't stop here, but we also can't just turn back now, " Shin Hyuk asked Kang Il Hwan. Mr. Kang was the one man Shin Hyuk trusted.
"If it were me, I would think that turning back for now would be for the best. If we were to challenge the Stone Golem boss with only six members, we would only have a 50-60% chance of success. But now, we only have five, dropping it down to 30%. However, you're the captain and this is your raid. We have no choice, but to keep going."
"We only have a 30% chance to succeed?"
"Yes. Still, we must try. If you want to be strong enough to lead the company to further success, you must do things you might not want to do. Even if it means there is a chance you'll lose a lot. Now is that time." Kang Il Hwan stopped talking to look at Shin Hyuk for a moment.
"We've already lost a lot coming this far. You might be think we can't afford to lose any more now, but this situation is different. You were the one who strongly advocated this raid and should you take the least amount of loss from this, those in the Yung Gong Guild will not like it and become restless. Furthermore..."
"Shin Jisang!" Shin Hyuk roared out the man's name.
Shin Jisang was the son of a prostitute who only spread her legs at hostess bars. Normally, he would have led a quiet life while occasionally receiving money from the Shin family, but that changed with the world. Of course, Shin Jisang was nothing compared to him, who had the full support of his father. But the rest of the guild thought differently. Shin Jisang was still Shin Chang Il's son. Soon, he would have his own following within the guild.
The reason why Shin Hyuk had desperately wanted to raid the Seorak Mountain dungeon also had something to do with how quickly Shin Jisang's position in the guild had begun to gain traction. He wanted to show that there was a huge difference in strength between the two by showing his might. He thought that it would warn Shin Jisang to keep his place.
"It seems that I will face the same embarrassment as Song Haechang."
"You're wrong! Not on your life, young master!" Kang Il Hwan shouted. He called Shin Hyuk young master, like he did in the past, after calling him captain all this time.
"You can't compare yourself with Song Haechang. He's a failure who couldn't figure out how to properly utilize his Unrivaled skill. You're different, young master. You learned the Unrivaled skill and have been using it properly all this time. To think you could compare yourself to him! He's nothing compared to you!"
"I'm still lagging behind Song Haein."
"That's..." Kang Il Hwan didn't know how to reply. Song Haein's abilities actually were unrivaled.
There were two types of people in this world. Those that could make the most of what they had and become the strongest, surpassing everyone else; and those that would take those same resources and always fall short. Song Haein was the former, and Song Haechang was the latter.
They had similar levels, similar stats, and similar skills and yet, their results were completely different.
"Haa...I only said that out of frustration. What should we do now?"
"We must film our boss fight. We must show the guild master and the other guild members that we tried; that Captain Shin tried his hardest, but there was nothing he could do; that it wasn't Captain Shin's fault and that we were just unprepared and that the timing wasn't right. That is the best option we have."
"I assume we'll still incur a death penalty?"
"Yes. Sometimes, there is justification in loss, and this is that time."
"Fine, we'll do as you suggest. Get things ready, Mr. Kang. We'll take up the formations and fight the boss as planned." Shin Hyuk knew that he had to take the alternate route now that his main path was closed off to him now. He decided it was best to go with Kang Il Hwan's advice. They needed to give the biggest performance of their lives.
"I understand, Captain Shin. I know that we'll get another chance if we wait. No matter how hard Shin Jisang tries to make a better name for himself, you will always be the heir to the Yung Gong Guild."
"Thank you for at least saying that. OK. Let's do it! Who knows? We could defeat the dungeon boss like heroes, even if we only have a 30% chance to do so!"
—-
After spending two hours to fully rest up and go over their battle plans, the five party members simultaneously turned on the mini camcorders that were affixed to their shoulders. Once they were ready, they walked into the boss room to challenge the boss of the Seorak Mountain dungeon.
Shing Hyuk had no idea that his words he said in empty would come true. He would be too busy trying to keep himself alive, and couldn't have expected that a masked person would come in unexpectedly and take his prey from under his nose.
——-
I sprinted past the clay golems on the third floor and made a beeline for the fourth floor entrance. After about twenty-five minutes, I finally arrived.
"If there aren't any elite monsters around, then that means the party either already killed the boss, or the raid is currently underway. If there are elite monsters, then that means that I'm alone in this dungeon."
There was a chance that I had missed the party as I ran through the first three floors. I did keep a look out, but I didn't look over every nook and cranny.
"If that's the case, then I could take my time going back up and see if there really is anyone else in the dungeon."
I went down to the fourth floor and I saw that there indeed were no elite monsters in the elite monster room.
"Damn it. Did they already defeat the boss?"
I quickly crossed the elite room and stood in front of the door to the safe room. I had to see if there was anyone still there. I opened up my inventory and took out my suitcase. I took out a t-shirt and wrapped it around my face. There was a yellow duck printed on the shirt; it used to be a trend and people used to call it Duck Duck.
"Set Orc Champion's Armor to visible mode." The shabby-looking armor appeared over my body.
I carefully opened the door to the safe room and walked in. There was no one inside, but I could hear sounds of fierce fighting from the boss room. I also heard the occasional shout. I briskly walked over to the boss room door and stuck my head through to see what was going on. That was when I saw him.
-Isn't that Shing Hyuk?- The crown prince of the Yung Gong Guild! There was no way I didn't know about him!
-It is the Yung Gong Guild, as I expected. It really is the only guild that could come up with something this crazy. Wait a second... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5? There are only five party members in this raid? Or did only five of them make it here? Or did a few of them die during the fight?-
The battle wasn't going well for the party, but the same could be said for the Stone Golem. The Stone Golem's rocky form was cracked and full of dents. It had taken quite a bit of damage. Shin Hyuk's party and the Stone Golem were both fighting viciously. No, it was safer to say that the party's teamwork was dazzling. They were slowly overwhelming the Stone Golem.
What should I do? Now that I knew it was the Yung Gong Guild, I had to interfere. It was what I decided I would do before I stepped foot into the dungeon. But when I saw the boss monster, I had second thoughts.
Stepping in and killing the boss before they do is a pretty big insult... and I won't be able to go inside dungeons for another month. The dungeon blessing. I finally made it to the Seorak dungeon, and to wait another month was going to put a pretty big dent in my plans.
Should I still do it? I won't have many chances to screw the Yung Gong Guild over. This is an once-in-a-lifetime chance. Shin Hyuk is here, too. I can't let this go.
I hated the Yung Gong Guild just by looking at them. I never had the misfortune to become one of their victims, but I constantly heard about the shit they did and their victims' stories almost every day for eleven years.
I never heard anything good about them, and never saw them do any good during those eleven years. I couldn't come up with a reason to think that the Yung Gong Guild had a drop of good within them.
I thought worse of them when they joined forces with the Nayuta Guild. To me, everyone in the Yung Gong Guild was trash. Everyone else felt the same way towards them back then. Even now, I still held those negative feelings.
I continued watching from the doorway, looking for the right timing. My first target was the party's healer!
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