Chapter 67: The Forest Covered by Snakes (1) (1)
The next day, Clan Tower, 33rd floor.
I arrived early at the conference room and organized the tasks for the new recruits with Shin Yuna. To call it work would be an overstatement – it was just about placing the strategy plan report on the table.
Actually, this wasn’t an essential part of the horizontal clan culture; it was just something Shin Yuna had grabbed me and said, ‘If you’re a new recruit, you should take care of things like this!’.
There were a total of 8 members attending this mission briefing. All the participants in the raid party were present.
Before 9 AM, clan members started arriving at the conference room one by one. Among them was Kang Juyeon, and we exchanged nods as a form of greeting. Kwon Oh-jun, the leader of hunting team 5 and also the party leader, was the last to arrive. As he entered the conference room, the operation briefing officially began.
Tap-
Kwon Oh-jun put documents loudly on the table as he came in.
“First, I’ll deliver the announcements. The deployment date for this mission has been moved up. We’re leaving this afternoon, not tomorrow. This is a confirmed directive from higher-ups, so there’s no room for discussion. Make sure everyone finishes their preparations for deployment by this afternoon.”
This was followed by changes in the schedule announcement.
The scheduled date had been moved up by a day… to today, actually.
However, it didn’t seem to be that surprising, as everyone nodded in agreement with the changes. Of course, there were clan members who had doubts.
“Team leader, may I ask the reason for the date change?”
Holder, sitting diagonally to my left.
According to the booklet given to me by Shin Yuna, the Holder was Min Chae-hwan, a B-grade archer in hunting team 5.
Min Chae-hwan… The name sounded familiar, but I couldn’t recall where I had heard it before. When reading the booklet, I had a strange feeling. Perhaps it was a faint memory in my mind. He was probably one of the extras that had passed by in the original. Anyway, Kwon Oh-jun responded to Min Chae-hwan’s raised hand abruptly.
“What did you just hear? I said there’s no room for discussion. It’s a directive from higher-ups. Don’t waste time and get ready for the deployment right away.”
“…Understood.”
I was actually surprised by Kwon Oh-jun’s sharp response.
‘Isn’t he speaking too harshly?’
Despite Kwon Oh-jun being a team leader who used casual speech without reservation, his reaction seemed excessive.
Min Chae-hwan might have felt something in Kwon Oh-jun’s response. Nevertheless, Min Chae-hwan accepted it without any change in his expression. It seemed like a familiar situation for him.
With that, Kwon Oh-jun resumed his mission briefing explanation.
“The location of the dungeon we’re targeting this time is in the middle of Jongno Inwangsan Field. Some of you might remember, but it’s a similar location to the tiger’s den dungeon that hunting team 4 tackled before.”
The clan members gathered in the conference room nodded as if they remembered. While passing the strategy plan report to others, I focused on his words.
Inwangsan Field. A field outside the boundary where S-grade monster ‘Divine Snake Woo Baek-ho’ appeared at the mountaintop.
Of course, there were no Holders who claimed to have discovered Woo Baek-ho yet. As a field known for its frequent appearances of tiger-like monsters, there were quite a few dungeons related to tigers.
Among them, the ‘Tiger’s Lair’ dungeon was one of the dungeons that hunting team 4 had tackled a few months ago in <Judgment of Fire> and was now generating profits as one of the main dungeons.
Tap-
Beep beep-
Kwon Oh-jun briefly put down the plan and turned on the beam projector. A detailed PowerPoint presentation about the destination for this deployment. Inside were… pictures of the unique-looking ‘snakes’.
“The location might be similar, but the appearing monsters and the dungeon’s characteristics are completely different. The main appearing monster, as you can see, is snakes. The dungeon is tentatively named ‘The Forest Covered by Snakes’.”
Beep-
Kwon Oh-jun used the pointer to advance the slides.
The first monster appeared. A long body and tail. In contrast, a snake with a broad face. It was the B-grade monster, Rapid Cobra.
“Rapid Cobra is a snake-type monster that focuses on speed, as its name suggests. While young snakes are already known for their speed, these are exceptionally fast. They probably possess related runes as well. Shin Yuna and Do Jae-hyun.”
“Yes!”
“Yes.”
We responded promptly to the sudden call. Kwon Oh-jun alternated his gaze between me and Shin Yuna before speaking calmly.
“Both of you are the only warrior-type members for this operation. You need to firmly hold the center and engage in tanking. If you get flustered by their speed and lose sight of the monsters, remember that their attacks will head toward the rear of our party.”
“Yes, I’ll remember that!”
“Understood.”
While Kwon Oh-jun was trying to instill fear, it wouldn’t be easy for either Shin Yuna or me to be flustered. After all, we both possessed the [Agile Agility] rune, which was agile in dealing with fast attacks. Through runes, we could easily deal with attacks of high speed, and if necessary, we could also use shields. Especially for Shin Yuna, who specialized in speed statistics, she could easily entice the monsters as an ‘evasion tank’.
‘Well, it’s me… I can use magic attacks if necessary.’
Considering the diversity of my runes, as Kwon Oh-jun had seen, there was no need to distance myself as a Multi-Holder.
As a matter of fact, my [Fiery Flame] was manifested faster than the magician-type Holders in our party. Since I only manifested magic power without casting spells. Whether it was me or Shin Yuna, we were both Holders of a higher level than ordinary C-grade Holders.
After a brief warning, the explanation continued.
It had been about two hours. Kwon Oh-jun’s explanations and the PowerPoint slides were well-organized. They depicted various snake-type monsters and their characteristics.
The special characteristics of the dungeon were neatly summarized in the PPT.
This content is taken from free web nov𝒆l.com