Dungeon bakery

<9>

Seo Doha.

An EX-rank Hunter so powerful that his strength couldn’t even be measured, earning him a rank beyond the standard classification. When he suddenly appeared out of nowhere and cleared an S-rank dungeon all by himself, the whole world was left stunned.

Top guilds practically begged him to join them, but he turned every single one down. He was an incredibly mysterious person. No one knew who his family was, what he had done before becoming a Hunter, or anything else about him.

Whenever something big happened that caught the public’s attention, he would always show up, solve the problem in spectacular fashion, and disappear just as suddenly.

But his methods weren’t always easy to call good or evil, so people’s opinions of him were split down the middle.

One day, he was an angel.

The next, a demon.

‘Was it two years ago…?’

That was when I first met Seo Doha.

The year of the Great Change, Year 25.

It had been twenty-five years since the Great Cataclysm. That was the year the third dungeon break happened on Earth. It occurred while the Phoenix Guild was attempting to clear a newly discovered dungeon in Pyeongtaek.

The dungeon had originally been estimated to be C-rank, but apparently, its rating suddenly shot all the way up to S-rank.

When the dungeon raid failed, the monsters inside escaped into the outside world.

And among them was the S-rank boss monster—the very creature responsible for raising the dungeon’s rank to S-rank.

The Hunters struggled desperately against it.

‘They said it was even harder because that boss monster had a dark attribute.’

Dark attributes were extremely rare, but a monster that was itself made up of the dark attribute was even rarer.

Dark-attribute attacks were immune to every other elemental attack. Only holy-attribute attacks could hurt them. Unless you had a weapon infused with holy power or a high-rank healer capable of giving someone a holy attribute, no attack would work.

Since the dungeon break had happened without warning, only a handful of Hunters were properly prepared.

Naturally, the damage was enormous.

‘They said that if Seo Doha hadn’t shown up, Pyeongtaek would’ve been completely wiped out.’

Thanks to Seo Doha suddenly appearing, they managed to defeat the boss monster.

But Seo Doha himself was seriously injured.

Instead of accepting help from the other Hunters, he disappeared as if he were running away.

That was when strange rumors started spreading.

People said the boss monster must have been carrying some incredibly powerful artifact.

And honestly, it made sense.

After all, the Phoenix Guild, which had been raiding that very dungeon, suddenly put a bounty on Seo Doha.

‘Those days were nice.’

The dungeon break had caused quite a commotion for a while, but graduate school itself had remained peaceful.

At least, it had been peaceful until the blood-covered man appeared in her dorm room.

‘Hey! Baek Seol! Come have a drink with us! The dungeon break is over, you know!’

‘Sorry, senior. I have an assignment to finish. Let’s drink another time.’

‘Seriously. Senior Jung told me to bring you with me. You’re gonna get yourself in trouble if you keep this up, you know?’

‘Haha… Sorry.’

That day, Baek Seol had just managed to shake off some nasty male seniors from another department who had been pestering her.

When she returned to her dorm room, she nearly screamed when she saw a man collapsed on her floor.

‘Oh my gosh! A-Are you okay?’

‘Ugh…’

The man was covered in blood from head to toe.

He was even gasping for breath, looking like he could die at any moment if she left him there.

Baek Seol normally hated the sight of blood. With so much red filling her vision, she felt dizzy and almost lost her mind.

But the man in front of her looked like he was in serious danger, so she somehow managed to pull herself together.

‘1… 119. I need to call 119…’

‘Don’t…’

Grab!

The man, who had looked like he was about to stop breathing, suddenly got to his feet and grabbed her sleeve.

Her hands began trembling.

The murderous look in the man’s bloodshot eyes made her feel as though he might tear her apart at any moment.

For the first time in her life, Baek Seol felt true, overwhelming fear.

‘You…’

‘…?’

‘Is this a dream…? Why are you here…?’

The killing intent in the man’s eyes disappeared in an instant when he looked at her face.

All that remained was shock.

Then, as if his strength had finally given out, the man dropped to one knee and struggled to breathe.

‘Just… stay like this for a moment. Ugh.’

Still holding tightly onto her hand, the man passed out.

Baek Seol stood frozen like a statue as she watched him.

Once she confirmed that he was completely unconscious, she quickly tried to run away.

But she couldn’t bring herself to leave.

If she walked away now, she felt like he would die at any moment.

‘Ugh… Whatever. I don’t know anymore.’

Baek Seol pulled out the first-aid kit Baekho had prepared for her in the past and treated his injuries.

Looking back now, even if she hadn’t treated him, Seo Doha probably would have survived just fine.

His recovery ability was absolutely insane.

At the time, she had no idea he was a Hunter, so she simply did the best she could to treat him.

All she could really do was disinfect his wounds, apply medicine, and stop the bleeding.

Still, while wiping the blood away to clean his wounds, Baek Seol finally saw the man’s bare face.

She recognized him immediately.

It was Seo Doha.

Of course she recognized him!

His handsome face had been all over the news just moments ago.

His features looked like they had been painted by a master artist and somehow stepped right out of the painting.

The moment his face became known to the public, it was easy to understand why a fan club had formed around him.

And then, at that exact moment, she heard the news anchor speaking from the TV she had left on.

[The S-rank boss monster has just been eliminated by Hunter Seo Doha. Seo Doha was seriously injured, but there is currently no sign of him. Anyone who has seen him is asked to contact our station…]

Baek Seol was shocked to discover that the injured man was Seo Doha.

But saving a person came first.

She bit her lip and continued treating him as best as she could.

‘Huh…? Where did he go?’

When she went out to buy more medicine because she had run out, Seo Doha had disappeared without a trace.

Yeah.

That was Baek Seol’s short but unforgettable first meeting with Seo Doha.

And even then, she had never planned on avoiding him.

But a few days later, she happened to see him again on the rooftop of her dorm.

Seo Doha had returned to her university.

‘You’re going to get revenge on me?’

‘Y-Yeah! I’m going to expose what a terrible guy the number one Hunter really is! I even recorded a video of you hitting us!’

‘Hmph. You broke the law that says Hunters aren’t allowed to attack ordinary people. You’re going to prison now.’

‘Or should we hand you over to the Phoenix Guild? We’d get the bounty, wouldn’t we?’

Some seniors from another department were threatening Seo Doha behind the dormitory.

When Baek Seol saw them, she remembered who they were.

They were the same guys who had secretly entered the women’s dormitory on the day of the dungeon break and kept pestering her to drink with them.

Then, for some reason, they had all ended up in the hospital the next day.

Apparently, while Baek Seol had been away, they must have picked a fight with Seo Doha.

She didn’t know why Seo Doha had come back here, but judging by what the seniors were saying, he really had broken the Hunter law that prohibited Hunters from attacking non-Awakened people.

After all, every one of them had at least one arm or leg wrapped in bandages.

Seo Doha gave a small, amused laugh at their threats.

‘Really? Go ahead. If you can.’

What happened next was so terrifying that Baek Seol could barely stand to watch.

The seniors were left battered and trembling as they cried out.

‘W-Why are you doing this to us?! We surrender! We surrender! We even deleted the video!’

Seo Doha then pulled out a pair of round glasses from inside his clothes and muttered.

They were the same glasses Baek Seol would end up seeing far too often in the future.

‘Looks like I’ll have to come here from now on. No one can know who I really am. Who I am, what I do… none of it.’

‘Gasp!’

‘But you guys already know who I am. That could make things troublesome.’

Baek Seol watched everything from the dormitory rooftop, including the moment Seo Doha put on those round glasses and walked away, leaving the unconscious seniors behind.

After those seniors suddenly filed for a leave of absence and disappeared without a trace, Baek Seol made a firm decision.

‘Hello. I’m Seo Doha. I’ve enrolled as a freshman this year. You’re Baek Seol… sunbae, right?’

‘G-Gasp!’

‘Sunbae? Are you okay?’

She decided to pretend she had absolutely no idea who this freshman wearing those ridiculously unsuitable round glasses really was.

An EX-rank Hunter with his whole future ahead of him had hidden his identity and enrolled in graduate school?

In this gloomy place filled with nothing but gray?

There had to be some incredibly important reason why Seo Doha had hidden his identity and enrolled in graduate school.

An extremely, extremely important reason.

Because otherwise, why would anyone willingly lock themselves inside the prison known as graduate school?

But if anyone found out that she knew Seo Doha’s true identity…

She was sure she’d end up just like those seniors.

‘Baek Seol sunbae, how about lunch today?’

‘Huh…? Oh, I already have plans.’

‘Then how about tomorrow?’

But Seo Doha was an EX-rank Hunter, after all.

Maybe he had realized that she knew his identity.

Because he started keeping an eye on her.

Even though she kept avoiding him, he followed her around like a little chick following its mother.

To everyone else, it probably looked like he was hitting on her.

But that wasn’t how it felt to her at all.

‘He definitely suspects me. Damn it. Is it because I got the hiccups back then?’

All Seo Doha had done was put on those round glasses, yet no one else seemed able to recognize him.

They were probably an item made specifically for Awakened people.

But because Baek Seol had witnessed him putting them on that day, the glasses’ effect didn’t work on her.

‘He was pretty badly injured back then. Maybe he doesn’t remember me…?’

Either way, Baek Seol spent the entire next year desperately avoiding him.

And now that she had taken a leave of absence, she wouldn’t have to see him anymore.

“Well, I’m not at school anymore. He should be able to do whatever he needs to do without any trouble now.”

If she simply disappeared from the university without making a fuss, Seo Doha could relax and accomplish whatever he had come there to do.

Thinking that, Baek Seol finally started walking again.

Back to the Dungeon Bakery, which had become her new home.

“……Huh? Lucy. Did you open the dungeon door?”

When she returned to the bakery, she was met with a sight she never could have imagined.

“Kyuu…”

“W-Well, you see…”

She had definitely left the door in the ‘closed’ state before going out.

So how had this happened?

Inside the bakery, the slime who came every day to buy bread was lying limply on the floor.

Lucy hurriedly flapped her wings, trying to explain as if it had absolutely nothing to do with her.

“This guy kept banging on the door and making so much noise, kyuu. How was I supposed to take a nap? So I opened the door just a little to let him know the owner wasn’t here, kyuu…”

In other words, the slime had barged straight into the bakery.

Baek Seol quietly sighed.

She figured it was partly her fault for never specifically telling Lucy not to touch the dungeon door in the first place.

“Fine. We’ll talk about that later. For now, we have a customer, so I should get some bread ready…”

“Kyuu…”

“Hm?”

Just as Baek Seol was heading into the kitchen to bake some bread, the slime bounced its body against the floor as if to say, That’s not it.

Boing!

The slime bounced slightly into the air.

But it didn’t stop there.

It began wildly waving its heart-shaped antennae from side to side.

Baek Seol realized that it was trying to tell her something.

“Um, customer… Aren’t you here to buy bread?”

The antennae paused for a moment before carefully swaying from side to side.

Yes, it had come to buy bread.

Baek Seol blinked and asked again.

“You came to buy bread, but is there something else you want?”

This time, the antennae quickly moved up and down.

Apparently, it had another request.

“What is it…?”

Trying to communicate through body language felt a little ridiculous, but she had no other choice.

The slime’s antennae suddenly began moving wildly.

That movement definitely meant…!

Baek Seol’s eyes sparkled.

‘What the heck is it saying…?!’

Of course, she had no idea.

The intelligence that had been shining in her eyes immediately disappeared.

Was there really no artifact that could let her communicate with monsters?

Someone, please make one.

Just as she was despairing over the situation—

Ta-da!

A dramatic sound effect played, and a system window appeared right in front of her.

<System: A new quest has appeared!>

There hadn’t been a sound effect like this before.

For a moment, Baek Seol wondered if the system was doing this on purpose.

Then another quest window immediately appeared.

Quest: Your First Bulk Order!

Your regular customer, Slime No. 97, wants to place a bulk order. Successfully complete your first bulk order!

Condition: Personally deliver 20 loaves of bread to the location indicated by Slime No. 97. (Status: Incomplete)

Reward: Dungeon Bakery Owner Lv. Up!

30,000p

Slime’s Gratitude

Baek Seol read through the quest.

But before she could even finish reading the rewards, her eyes stopped at one particular word.

‘Del… iver…?’

Delivery?

As in actually taking the order to wherever the customer was?

“Oh! A bulk order with delivery, kyuu. It’s a chance to make money, kyuu! And I can level up too, kyuu!”

Delivery?

So she had to deliver the bread into the dungeon?

And there was even a condition saying she had to do it personally.

It felt like the system was determined to shove her straight into the dungeon.

“But twenty loaves of bread? Don’t we even have enough ingredients, kyuu?”

Exactly.

That was the first thing Baek Seol thought of as soon as she received the quest.

She slowly turned her head toward Lucy.

Lucy tilted her head in confusion.

Then she suddenly scurried away from Baek Seol.

“I can’t go this time, kyuu! Threats won’t work on me, kyuu! You can’t expect me to gather ingredients every single time, kyuu!”

Lucy’s little black eyes were filled with determination.

Baek Seol was just about to try talking her into going—

when another system window appeared.

<System: A prerequisite quest has appeared!>

What now?

Why did that prerequisite quest sound so ominous?

Quest: Let’s Gather the Ingredients Ourselves!

Not enough ingredients to complete your first bulk order? Don’t worry! You can get the ingredients you need inside the dungeon!

Condition: Obtain enough ingredients to make 20 loaves of bread. (Status: Incomplete)

Reward: Unlocks the ‘Your First Bulk Order!’ quest

“……”

“Kyuu…?”

“Kyuu…”

Why are you doing this to me, you stupid system?

Baek Seol’s eyebrows furrowed fiercely.

“……”

Silence fell between the three of them.

Baek Seol glanced at Lucy.

Lucy was humming to herself, looking strangely excited.

She seemed to have already decided that Baek Seol was obviously going to complete the quest.

But Baek Seol had absolutely no intention of doing that.

She stared firmly at the quest window floating in front of her and spoke without hesitation.

“Rejected.”