Welcome to Dungeon Hotel

“Perhaps… Paladin… noona?” 

Doyoon’s eyes changed as if he would cry at any moment with deep emotion. 

“Are you really Paladin noona? Really? Thank you so much for giving my dad back! Paladin noona! I wanted to see you! You’re so cool!” 

Until now, the child’s face, which had been looking tired because of the effects of surgery, jumped up with an amazing amount of energy. 

When I saw that, I felt like I was really Santa, so I was both proud and embarrassed.

Well, let’s do what I have to do. 

“Yeah, I am that Paladin. Doyoon-ah, how are you? Your father boasted a lot about you.”

“Really?!”

The young child’s face lights up with happiness when I tell the father’s story.

Apparently, the word father seemed to be the key to unlocking Doyoon’s heart.

I pondered for a moment while looking at the eyes of the child who looked good just like his father. 

In fact, until I came to this hospital, my purpose was only to make sure Hong Sungoh’s son was okay and to see how far Hong Sungoh had told the Hunter Association about the reality of the sanctuary.

But judging from the brief conversation I heard in the hallway earlier, Hong Sungoh didn’t seem to have talked much about the sanctuary. 

‘I accidentally told the reporter about the Paladin but I think the impacts were bigger than I thought. Couldn’t the person who was helping the hunter in seclusion be in danger because of me, honey?’ 

Hong Sungoh was worried and said this.

‘You decided not to talk about the Paladin during the documentary, so it won’t matter.’

‘Right?’

‘The Hunter Association hasn’t said anything yet. But what would you say if they asked you? These are the people who helped us….’

Hong Sungoh had no idea the situation would grow to this point, and it seemed that he was simply trying to express his gratitude to me through the news.

He didn’t seem to have anything to say about me in future interviews.

Then, the remaining problem is that telling the media and responding to the Hunter Association’s investigation are two different things.

Hong Sungoh is a freelance hunter who does not yet belong to a guild and must be aware of the association to some extent. 

Hong Sungoh seemed to be contemplating whether he should be honest or not. 

Then let him tell them how far he can be honest.

“But, Doyoon-ah. Do you know? In the dungeon, many hunters, like your father, get lost.”

“I know! My Dad said that Paladin is someone who helps such hunters!”

I hesitated for a moment and then said.

“That’s right. And what is the most important thing to keep doing that? N, no. What do you think it is?”

“Power?”

Strength is important.

I said, feeling that the eyes of a sly fellow were constantly being taken away by the fake sword I was holding.

“It’s to keep a secret.”

“Keep… a secret?” 

“Yeah. From now on, your father, you and me, the three of us, will keep the secret.”

Doyoon’s eyes widened at the word “secret.”

As expected, a child is a child.

Seeing him excited about the secret kept reminding me of Uncle Junsoo.

“Doyoon, do you remember what your father said about the sanctuary I guard?”

“It has a great bed, a nice sea, and oh! They said the inside looked like a hotel!”

I flinched. 

He even used the word hotel.

“Is that also a hallucination created by that wonderful rabbit noona?”

But then, Doyoon said something unexpected.

Toto’s ears perked up.

She had been showing off how difficult it was to maintain her magic for a long time. 

“Huh?” 

“I heard that rabbit noona is really good at hallucinating. Actually, my dad has never been to a hotel. So my dad really wanted to go to the hotel, so I think rabbit noona and Paladin made a hotel for him on purpose.”

Ah.

That’s why he didn’t say anything other than the sanctuary.

Because he thought the hotel’s appearance was a hallucination related to his personal story.

If so, things seemed to be a little easier now.

“That’s right. That’s a hallucination I created using my wonderful rabbit, Doyoon.” 

Hearing that she was a wonderful rabbit, Toto proudly stuck out her chest. 

“But, as I said earlier, the secrets of the sanctuary must be kept, right? That is why the hallucinations seen in the sanctuary must never be disclosed. Because I’ll be in a great danger then.” 

“To the Paladin noona?” 

Tears welled up in Doyoon’s big eyes. 

Cute. 

“Yeah. So you and your father have to work together to help me. What I said just now, never forget it and be sure to tell it to your father. What did I say?”

“The hallucinations seen in the sanctuary must never be disclosed.”

Doyoon’s eyes shone brightly.

He seemed excited to hear that he could protect the ‘Paladin noona.’

Without realizing it, I reached out and stroked Doyoon’s hair.

“Good job. You’re a wonderful kid, too. You look… like your father.” 

I said that while fiddling with the Blink ring.

In an instant, I was standing in the hallway outside the hospital room.

I was holding a tired Toto in my arms.

“Thank you, Toto.”

“Kkyu… (It’s warm. The boss’s arms.).”

Anyway, it was a fruitful schedule.

I find out that Hong Sungoh hasn’t told the Hunter Association the truth about the hotel yet, and that Doyoon is healthy, and—.

‘I know! My Dad said that Paladin is someone who helps such hunters!’

It gave me an opportunity to think again about how my skills and the hotel’s existence should be used.

I took one of the taxis in front of the hospital lobby and said.

“Please go to Jongno. It’s an item shop alley.”

The next schedule was to buy a few items I needed at Aunt Misoon’s workshop.

Since she is an S-Class producer, it seems that she only sells S-Class items, but there were quite a few items for lower-ranking hunters in Aunt Misoon’s workshops. 

It’s because it was a bit expensive.

But now… I’m rich, right? 

I thought, recalling the 5,000G I had.

What is the fastest way for lower hunters to raise their stats?

That’s right—it’s the item. 

* * *

I looked around Aunt Misoon’s shop for items that might be useful to F or E-Class hunters.

It’s mainly for attack items.

Since this happened, I have been thinking of going into a dungeon and getting EXP points to help the Hunters.

Isn’t there a master key I could use to call the dungeon?

If I called up a low-level dungeon right before clearing it, there was nothing I couldn’t do. 

Of course, most of the attack items I saw couldn’t be used by ordinary people who hadn’t Awakened, so I told Aunt I wanted to give them to Hunter Hong Sungoh.

“A, ah. Do you mean the Hunter that Junsoo saved in a mess? I did that too.”

I can’t believe Aunt, who is living apart from the rest of the world, is doing SNS.

I almost choked up for a while at the fact that Aunt’s RT also contributed to the ‘Hong Sungoh porter incident’ growing like a snowball. 

Well, it’s already happened anyway. What can I do?

The production products for E-class and F-class Hunters shown by Aunt Misoon are, in her words, the result of “failure of production,” so they are usually distributed cheaply to the Hanwoon Guild.

Even so, the condition of all the items was amazing.

In particular, what stole my heart was a C-Class dagger with excellent durability and compliant attack power and an arrow that was said to be unavailable for sale due to its high magical power consumption.

I picked up the arrow and examined it.

Fail-Not Arrow (B)

—100% hit rate. Tracks the target to the end and pierces it.

It was a simple explanation.

But it had great meaning.

If the B-Class attack had a 100% accuracy rate, it was actually worth fighting against the A-Class monster. 

Assuming, of course, that the attack can be used multiple times.

“If you use it once, even a B-Class hunter will run out of magic. Will it be okay?” 

It was a fatal flaw for a B-Class item.

“I think it’ll be okay.”

But I eventually made up my mind with the arrow.

I have a cute Geumdong who makes coffee.

Aunt looked at the Fail-Not and dagger I had chosen and smiled curiously.

“You, do you have a discerning eye?”

“Yes?” 

“No, even the Awakeners don’t recognize this dagger well. It’s a product with excellent durability and attack power, and its name is just a dagger. Usually, they only see names and grades.”

…Huh? 

Then other Awakeners couldn’t see the detailed information of the item like I did?

There’s no way I have a discerning eye, and does this have something to do with my class?

Feeling a prick of conscience, I asked.

“I didn’t even Awakened, there’s no way.….”

“Then you are in luck. Anyway, you made a good choice.”

It was then.

Behind Aunt’s curly hair, a handsome young man suddenly raised his head. 

He, who is said to be Aunt’s assistant, has been watching Aunt and me since before. 

Aunt glanced at the assistant, who gave her hyena-like eyes, and she whispered to me.

“All of this… Just give me 10 Gold and go. If you exchange money, about 100,000 won?”

“Yes? For both of this?” 

It was when I was making a puzzled face.

An urgent voice came from behind.

“Ah, teacher! Really! Are you going to be like this?! All of this is 2,000 Gold!”

“What? You’re getting the money from my baby? You can’t!”

Ah—.

No wonder it was too cheap.

“What do you mean you can’t! Do you think I don’t know that you secretly give away S-Class products for free? Where is the invincible veil! That’s at least 800 million! The other day, you made something weird, like an S-Class gramophone! Is this the reason why the workshop is losing money?” 

“Did I never give you your salary because of that? Shut up!” 

8…800 million won?

I looked at Aunt with a pale face. 

“Aunt!” 

“Huh? No… No… That’s…”

Aunt scratched her chin with her troubled face.

“If you don’t receive this, I will return everything I have received so far.”

“Huh? No, it’s all up to me….” 

I glared at Aunt with the most terrifying face.

“Ey… I got it. Then she’ll pay 1,000 Gold for the staff discount. Okay? Oh, cut me some slack, really…!” 

Although the assistant complained a lot, in the end, the assistant, me, and Aunt were all satisfied with the compromise.

After scratching the huge amount of 10 million won with my card for the first time, I asked Aunt just before leaving the workshop.

“Aunt. Do you remember the first awakening test I took in my first year of high school? At that time, you held my hand and said that it would be nice for me to become a non-combat type Hunter.”

“Huh? That’s right….” 

Aunt replied with a vague expression.

“I guess it was because I vaguely thought that if you did the same thing as me, I could take care of you for a long time. I’m sorry, Junghyo.” 

“Why are you sorry?”

I was a little surprised.

There are many narrow alleys on Jongno Street, so taxis don’t come easily. 

Aunt Misoon was standing with me on the streets of Jongno, waiting for a taxi, wearing the coat I bought her up to her neck.

“I was younger then than I am now. That was already eight years ago. Even back then, I was happy to be able to help the Hunter with my crafted items, but these days, it wasn’t like that. Do you remember that Han Woohyun almost died on Mt. Sobaek the other day?” 

“Yes? Ah… yes.” 

“At that time, he returned wearing the artifact I gave him. But I felt weird. If I had made a slightly more perfect system, he wouldn’t have gone through such a crisis….” 

“Aunt…” 

“I know. Both my assistant and Han Minhyuk said that the item was perfect. However… Eight years ago, I was immersed in the pride of ‘helping’ hunters fighting between life and death, right? But now I… It’s getting harder to have early confidence in my work. More thoughts, more guilt… It reminds me of the three of us. If I were a better producer… Ha… I don’t want you to be Awakened.”

I clenched my fist.

I thought I knew what Aunt was thinking.

But I thought that was wrong.

“But Han Woohyun came back alive thanks to Aunt.”

I saw how terrifying Han Woohyun’s wounds were.

I couldn’t imagine him standing without an artifact from Aunt Misoon in front of a monster that could leave such a ruthless wound.

“Many hunters have come back alive thanks to Aunt. I hope you know that. Aunt, the hunter who will use the items I bought now…he’ll be back thanks to Aunt.”

My Aunt’s eyes got bigger when I spoke, but they soon got smaller again.

Aunt nodded with a slightly red eyes.

“Yeah. Thank you for saying that, Junghyo. ”

“Oh, but, Aunt.”

I suddenly had something on my mind.

“Just as Aunt’s changed your mind, could Uncle Junsoo have changed of mind too? I mean… You’re against me being an awakening person.”

“Of course.”

My heart sank slightly.

I thought Uncle was going to be the last bastion!

“He’s changed a lot after going through a lot of things in the Hunter Association. I know that Hunter is no longer a hero. Won’t he stop you if you Awakened? Even though it won’t happen anymore.”

So there’s no one else left to ask for help?

It was when I sighed, thinking so.

I heard a message coming from my cell phone.

Choi Minji

Today’s reunion is at Itaewon’s famous pub~. (Link)

Hey, hey! Are you chewing my words? (Crying emoticon)

You… I thought I was sure you were INTJ but was it IIII…? 

Han Woohyun is coming, too! Isn’t it a jackpot? I didn’t even know he could answer the phone…

He asked if you weren’t coming. ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ Are you sure you’re coming? How can someone not check their KaTalk for 8 hours…?

Ah.

That’s right. Han Woohyun. 

There’s one more S-Class Hunter left who can help me.