“From now on, you also have to consider your actions a little more!”
Said the Witch.
She kept whacking me on the forearm with the rolled-up newspapers. Thud! Thud! She was so excited that she couldn’t control herself.
“My actions?”
“Mmmhmm. Now you’re in all of the top 5 guilds. But in actual fact, you’re no different from a solo Hunter. Now that things have worked out so well, it’s also good for you to create a new guild for yourself.”
The Witch laughed merrily.
“Since you’re the 3rd rank Hunter, you should have the title of ‘Guild Master’. Even if you joined all the top 5 guilds, it doesn’t suit you if you’re just a regular member.”
It didn’t feel real.
“Being a Guild Master.”
Me, being the leader of a guild. Not only did it feel unreal, but it was also unimaginable. In the first place, was it even necessary to have Hunters under my wing?
I already have an army of skeletons.
“Yes.”
Realizing that my complexion didn’t look very good, the Witch shrugged. Past her shoulder, the Sword Emperor stared silently at me.
“You may be similar to that grandpops, your personality might suit solo-playing more. There are unexpectedly quite a lot of people whose romance is to destroy everything the Dok-go Da-I (獨固多異) way. If you don’t have any thoughts of doing it, I won’t force you.”
[T/N: Dok-go Da-I is a Korean idiom that means to do everything you want to do, or doing everything your way.]
“Oh ho, are you talking about me behind my back now?”
“That’s that….”
The witch turned her head, ignoring the Sword Saint.
“What are those?”
On the other side of the Acacia field.
On the small plain, the Continent’s soldiers were building something. It was a barracks. They gave up attacking the paradise of the vengeful ghost, and in return, they would take a day off today and withdraw their troops afterwards.
“Ahhh.”
I stroked my chin.
“These soldiers gathered from all over the Continent.”
“From all over the Continent?”
“To give you some context….”
I continued explaining. Of course, the story of the vengeful ghost was omitted. I only spoke about how I deceived the Continent’s army.
The Witch and the Sword Saint heard the story together, and as the explanation continued, their expressions became weird. A word from the Witch represented the two Hunter’s thoughts.
“Death King… I see that you have pretty good senses when it comes to lying.”
“Well, thanks to you, the stage was cleared without shedding any blood.”
“No, I’m not blaming you. On the contrary, you did really well.”
The Witch’s gaze sharpened.
It was the look of a merchant who came up with an insidious plan.
“This means from now on, we can trade here on the continent. We don’t have to grovel anymore to the old guys in the outside world. Those bad guys! They always lower the prices using their source of food. We’ll see if they can do that in the future.”
Resentment was flowing from her voice.
“Basically, the trade between the tower and the outside world was unfair.”
Said the Sword Saint.
“Capital, resources, technology. Whatever it was, the outside world has richer resources as compared to the tower. Of course, some elixirs and materials in the tower can’t be obtained from the outside world either.”
“Food provisions! Food is always a problem!”
The witch stamped on the ground.
When I first saw her, I thought she was an unfriendly person. Is it because the three of us broke through the 12th to 19th floors together? She expressed her feelings colourfully in front of us.
That meant we had become that much closer.
“Anyways, Black Dragon Witch, you mean to say you’re going to start trading with the people of the Continent?”
“Hmm? Of course. The outside world needs to know what bitterness tastes like too.”
“Then.”
I grinned.
Then I pointed to the military camp that was set up on the plains.
“You’re going to have to talk to them from now onwards. If you just say ‘Let’s trade’, it’s not gonna work. To the people of the Continent, we are strangers, and for us, they are other-worlders.”
“That’s right.”
“I’ll lend you my name.”
I said.
“I am the emissary of the Founding Emperor and an Apostle of the Goddess in this world. If you make it look like you are also an Apostle sent by the Goddess, at the very least it will be useful for you to start trading with them.”
“…….”
The witch’s gaze sharpened again.
“It’s an offer I’d be thankful for. It’s also an effective move. But you are definitely not gonna lend me your name for free, so… What do you want?”
“The 20th floor.”
“What?”
I looked around.
Acacia fields. A small plain. The hometown of Estelle.
This little world was all that was on the 20th floor.
“I want the 20th floor.”
For a moment the Witch was at a loss for words.
“…Hold on. What do you mean by the 20th floor? Don’t tell me you want to have the whole 20th floor to yourself?”
“Yes. To be exact, I want to possess all the land that is on the 20th floor.”
“That’s…”
“Instead, I won’t accept anything for clearing the 11th and 19th floors. You can share the benefits of trading with the Continent with the other Hunters.”
Again, the Witch’s lips were shut tight.
It was an unprecedented offer.
Usually, when Hunters raid the stage, the participants would first share their achievements among themselves. The ownership of an item. And furthermore, the ownership of resources. But about half of the rights were left to be shared by all other Hunters.
It was unprecedented for someone to have the whole [One Floor].
“This is……not something I can take care of on my own.”
The Witch had a perplexed expression.
“We need to call in the other guild masters to discuss about it.”
“Well, I don’t have anything to do for the next 24 hours, so I’ll wait.”
“…You really want the whole stage here to yourself?”
The Witch glanced around.
“This land, it doesn’t seem very valuable at all. The Acacia flower path…is pretty, but there’s not enough land to farm. And the size of the stage is also small.”
“Well.”
“Based on my experience, Death King. In such cases, it is much more profitable to receive the distributed rewards from the 11th to 20th floors that have been cleared. You’ll be able to earn a fortune.”
I laughed.
“I prefer real estate to money. Land is the best.”
“Call?”
[T/N: Call is like a Korean slang for agreeing to something, e.g. going out for drinks or whatnot.]
The Witch sighed.
“I’ll gather the guild masters. Let’s discuss it on the 1st floor.”
“Okay then.”
“Mmmhmm. You have to show your face to the people at least once anyway. But…”
The Witch slowly glanced around.
“There is something I wanted to ask you since before.”
“Yes.”
“…What the hell is that?”
I looked at the direction the Witch pointed at.
“Fu-,ck… Black… fucker, this, stop…Make it stop! Is it such a difficult request?! Fuck! What kind of grudge do you have against me, what did I do wrong…??!!”
A top dancer was showing off his skills there.
The dancer’s sweat and tears flowed down the Acacia fields beautifully.
It was beautiful.
“Black Dragon Witch.”
I smiled brightly.
“Black Dragon Witch, you didn’t see anything today.”
“Huh?”
“You didn’t see anything today. You know what to do right?”
“…….”
The Witch had a curious look on her face.
She had the same face as a biologist who had encountered the mysteries of a lifetime.
“That’s right. There are all kinds of people in the world. I understand.”
“But,” the witch murmured.
“As expected, you’re also out of your mind….”
It was also an irrelevant opinion.
2.
I left the vengeful ghost and the Flame Emperor on the 20th floor, and transferred to the 1st floor with the Hunters.
“Is it okay for the meeting place to be held at the coffee shop we went to last time?”
“Yes. I don’t mind.”
It’s been a long time since I came back to the city on the 1st floor. Babylon.
To others, it may seem like I returned after only five days, but that wasn’t the case for me.
Literally hundreds of days. It was the first time in years that I had returned to the city.
“Haaaaihhh.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I’m coming to realization now, that I’ve cleared the stage.”
The Witch giggled.
“I’m not sure. You probably need to comprehend it a little more.”
“Huh?”
“I told you. In the tower right now, you’re the only thing everyone’s talking about. Brace yourself.”
There was no need to ask what kind of preparation he had to do.
“Huh?”
“Is that perhaps…?”
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