There were only a few things that Jung Yi-Young could see as she scouted the core.
However, Jeong-Hoon could only shake his head because the information she brought back was shocking.
“An orc boss, you say?”
“To be exact, several orc bosses.”
The sight that Jung Yi-Young saw was a group of orcs led by several orc bosses.
Orcs were monsters classified as D-class. With that point, defeating A-class monsters wasn’t a problem as long as they had support.
However, it’s a different story if there are orc bosses leading many of those D-class orcs.
An orc boss, an A-class monster, is a monster that is not much different from an orc, except for its ability to strengthen the lower-classed orcs.
Hence, the orcs that are led by the orc bosses can be classified as C-class in this case.
Taking into the fact that more manpower is needed to defeat higher classed monsters, the herd of orcs that is in this dungeon can be considered even higher than C-class and A-class. Heck, it may even be that of S-class.
However, if there are several of such orc bosses, something can be inferred.
“Perhaps, is it the orc lord?”
“I believe that has to be the case. Without an orc lord, it is impossible to gather such a large herd of orcs.”
The number of orcs – that can’t even be considered as an S-class by itself – is a sign of the appearance of an orc lord.
Personal firearms won’t work on monsters that are S-class and up. They’ll need high-definition power such as a tank.
The idea of fighting an S-class monster was already a pain, but to think they actually had to fight an orc lord that was S-classed…
Orc lords always left behind extraordinary records.
There was a case in China where an orc lord had to be lured into the coast to be taken care of using a battleship.
It’ll sound absurd to have battleships in the modern time, but battleships have been rebuilt in order to face such monsters.
With the help of the navy, the orc lord was dealt with, but it didn’t necessarily erase the terror it brought to the world.
Another case happened in the US, where three SS-class hunters formed a guild alliance to defeat an orc lord.
It may sound strange that three SS-class hunters fought one S-class orc lord, but that may help to illustrate its terrifying fighting power.
And so the orc lord may be classified as S-class in the system, but it can be realistically defined as SS-class.
Now Jeong-Hoon is here, with only four, no, excluding the powerless Jeong-Hoon, only three had to deal with the herd of orcs, along with the orc lord.
“Maybe we should have brought a tank?”
It may sound like a useless idea when they’re inside a dungeon, but it also sounded like the most effective at the same time.
Jeong-Hoon shook his head when he imagined a future of himself requesting dozens of tanks, combat helicopters, and fire net until his last breath.
No matter how much power the family had, this situation wasn’t something that seemed to be within reach of those ‘hidden powers.’
“It’s possible to mobilize tanks and helicopters, but preventing the information from leaking out is the problem.”
“…we have tanks and helicopters?”
Jeong-Hoon looked at Butler Joo with an incredulous face, but couldn’t bring himself to say anything more when Butler Joo looked back with a face that said, ‘that’s nothing to be surprised about.’
“Anyways, what will happen if tanks and helicopters aren’t enough? Should we call over the other two guilds outside?”
Jeong-Hoon thought of the temporarily allied guilds, Ace Jack and X-ONE, but then shook his head.
If members of those two guilds came to help them fight an orc lord that was specialized in mass violence, there may be casualties on their side.
“Or we can let the Hunter Association know so that they can respond accordingly- ah. That won’t do.”
Jeong-Hoon clicked his tongue as he canceled what he just said. This was because the Hunter Association had a fault in this escalated situation.
They had classified this dungeon as an A-class dungeon when S-class and SS-class monsters could be pouring out of it at any second.
“My Lord, there’s no need to concern yourself too much.”
Butler Joo smoothly smiled at Jeong-Hoon in reassurance.
“There are many ways to take care of situations like this.”
Looking at the excited, sparkling eyes of Butler Joo, Jeong-Hoon nodded.
He didn’t know what sort of way could be used to resolve this problem, but he felt like he needed to rely on the senses of an SSS-class Awakener.
***
To be completely honest, Jeong-Hoon didn’t believe it when the SSS-class Butler Joo said he had an idea.
He simply believed that Butler Joo planned to suppress the monsters with pure strength.
However, that was not the case.
“Miss Maid, any movements from the opponent?”
“No, sir. They haven’t spotted us yet.”
The idea was to kill as many of them as possible before the orc lord gathered the orcs to march out.
Traditions are traditions, but in a realistically impossible way, the three vassals planned to launch an attack on the orcs.
While nobody ever dared to launch an attack on the orc lord by themselves, it didn’t mean it was impossible to succeed.
The problem was that even if they successfully defeated the orc bosses, the orc lord had the ability to call the other orcs to regroup, which would make after attacks difficult.
However, the three vassals were about to make do with this plan.
First, Butler Joo will eliminate the orc bosses before they notice him coming.
As the surprised lower-classed orcs try to run away, Jung Yi-Young will tie them together using psychokinesis.
Yeo Tae-Hyun will then place the orcs’ corpses into a subspace using his skill to erase any traces.
“By repeating these steps, do you believe it will prevent the orc lord from making a move?”
“Yes. Without subordinates to use its power on, there’s nothing more it can do. All it will be is a stronger version of the orcs we will have fought.”
Listening to the plan that Butler Joo organized, Jeong-Hoon couldn’t help but think that his butler truly is an SSS-class Awakener.
“In fact, if we stretched our limits a bit we could try to gather them all together and annihilate them at once, but I didn’t introduce this plan in the thought of endangering you in the process, my Lord.”
“You sound so prideful right now.”
“There’s nothing to be proud of when going up against those trivial orcs.”
Trivial? Jeong-Hoon didn’t know what to think as he is the one who has to run away, trying to keep his life intact once they enter the battleground.
He was barely able to kill one or two orcs with the help of the vassals.
“Boss Joo, there’s a problem.”
“Instead of reporting to me, how about reporting to our Lord first, Miss Maid?”
“… I apologize, but now is not the time to quibble over procedures.”
Jung Ji-Young’s expression had gone stiff in seriousness due to the need for Butler Joo’s quick judgment.
Because she was in charge of scouting, Butler Joo, too, became serious and nodded for her to speak.
“What is the problem? Is the orc lord perhaps trying to leave the dungeon?”
“Yes. I was able to confirm a big horde of orcs making its move to the entrance.”
She wasn’t able to see the orc lord, but when the entire herd of orcs moved as one, it only meant one thing.
“If the orc lord, the boss of the dungeon, leaves the dungeon…then it would create a big mess since the dungeon will collapse, right?”
“…that is how it’s known to be, yes.”
Butler Joo, who opened his mouth to say something, closed it and nodded with moderate affirmation because it was now a race against time.
They must block the orc lord from leaving the dungeon.
“It seems you’ll need to push your limits.”
“I …have nothing to say about that.”
Butler Joo smiled bitterly and Jeong-Hoon just shook his head.
***
3,000. That’s a huge number.
It may seem like a small number for mass violence, but the number 3,000 seen with your own eyes is a lot more than you can imagine.
“I don’t see the end of their number.”
If they were standing on top of a higher terrain like a hill, they could have seen where the number of orcs stopped, but since they were on equal grounds with the orcs, all they could see were endless bodies of marching orcs.
The opponents were 3,000 while on their side were only four.
Well, in exception to Jeong-Hoon, who was a non-awakened being, there were actually three on their side.
Logically, their numbers were no match for that horde. However, the three on their side were Awakeners of at least class S or higher.
“Then shall we go?”
“It’s good you have your drive going, Butler Yeo Tae-Hyun, but please note that the safety of our Lord is the top priority.”
“Eh, Boss Joo, I know that much.”
“Secondly…”
“To not leave any traces of us, of our family.”
Yeo Tae-Hyun and Jung Yi-Young nodded as Butler Joo conducted a mini brief before entering the battleground.
“There are only two things to watch out for. Since it’s been a while, let’s go about it as much as we want.”
As he said those last words, Butler Joo rushed forward. At his signal, the other two rushed towards the orcs.
“Wait, if everyone goes out, what about me…”
Jeong-Hoon was taken aback at the fact that there was no one left to guard him, but his jaw dropped when he saw something even more shocking.
The three that had charged forth were of at least class S, where Butler Joo was the strongest as someone who was SSS-class.
“Roarrr!”
However, when the orcs shouted all at once, the three faltered as if they were blocked by an invisible barrier.
“As expected, these orcs are worthy of being led by the orc lord.”
“Didn’t you charge at them knowing that already?”
When their advance was blocked by the orcs’ roar, the three had quickly returned back to where Jeong-Hoon was, shaking their heads and sighing.
“Just like how we had known the orc bosses would strengthen the orcs, I had also expected the orc lord to have a similar ability, but since we don’t know how far its abilities could go, it was an experiment.”
“So what was the result of the experiment?”
“The normal orcs are A-classes and I believe the orc bosses are S-classes.”
Jeong-Hoon realized why the orc lord was considered a disaster. Its ability to strengthen D-class orcs to A-class was frightening.
“And we need to stop that disastrous orc lord here, right?”
“Eh. I think we’ll just need to do whatever we can do now – go wild. Let’s go crazy.”
Yeo Tae-Hyun said this as he brought out several firearms. In contrast to Jeong-Hoon’s grim expression, the other two smiled at the idea.
***
Currently, a blindly-aimed gun rampage was going on. Jeong-Hoon frowned when his gun became jammed when he pulled the trigger.
“CEO Yeo! Gun!”
“That was the last one!”
Earlier when they had entered the dungeon, the orcs were killed instantly with a headshot.
However, these same orcs were at a different level once they became strengthened by the orc lord’s ability.
The firearms and ammunition that had been stored in Yeo Tae-Hyun’s subspace had been serving its worth until the subspace became empty, but the orcs they killed were only 30% of its original count.
“Roarrr!”
Seeing the orcs rushing in ignorance to their own death, Jeong-Hoon quickly tried to throw a grenade but frowned when he realized his waistband, which held the grenades, was empty.
“Damn it! I ran out of grenades!”
He was in a situation where he didn’t have any guns or grenades. He couldn’t run away, so Jeong-Hoon took out a dagger he had prepared in advance, and threw it.
“Grrr…”
The dagger struck the orc exactly in its eye and the once running orc fell down.
Seeing that, Jeong-Hoon threw more daggers to intercept some of the orcs running towards them.
Unfortunately, the number of daggers he had wasn’t a lot. There were only five remaining at most.
However, Jeong-Hoon looked at the other three people in hope, knowing he was able to be of help in making effective hits.
“Please recover the dag…”
As he spoke, Jeong-Hoon realized he had been too immersed with his own accomplishments.
The others were S-class awakeners. They were not people who would be lost from being weaponless, like him. They were already dealing with orcs using their abilities without the use of weapons.
The only problem was that the four people were being pushed almost all the way back due to the orcs’ tactics.
“Roarrr!”
Seeing the entrance to the dungeon was almost of reach, the orcs roared for victory. They must have instinctively recognized that getting out of the dungeon would be their victory.
“What should we do now? Do we need to retreat back out and form a siege?”
“That is one way, but the moment the orc lord goes out of the dungeon, the dungeon will collapse at an accelerating rate.”
“Then are there any other ways?”
Jeong-Hoon could tell Butler Joo was trying to sprinkle some of the family secrets to him, but Jeong-Hoon deliberately ignored it. Rather than learning family secrets, it was more important to subdue the orcs first.
“There is something I wasn’t able to explain to your Grace yet.”
“Let’s just move on; it’s not just one thing you kept from me. It’s the hidden secrets, right?”
At his words, Butler Joo, along with the other two people, nodded.
“Alright. Let’s put off the details for later; can you first solve this situation with those hidden secrets of yours?”
Jeong-Hoon, who said this, had actually expected the ‘hidden secret’ to possibly be a steel suit flying out of nowhere for them to wear and fight. However, he noticed that that wasn’t the case and that something about the orcs had changed. They stiffened in fright.
It wasn’t like the three people were holding weapons or anything, but the orcs were shaking.
“Since I received permission, I will go at it with all my might.”
The moment the butler rolled his right foot forward, the ground split, and a small earthquake occurred.
As he brought his fist down from above, a type of gray energy caused the orcs to burst.
“Um, wait. That move- isn’t that the thing we commonly see in martial arts…”
“As you imagined, it is kwon-kang.”
T/N: Kwon-kang (pronounced as kwon-kahng) is often seen commonly in genres with martial arts. Derived from geom-gi (검기) and geom-gang (검강) – a solid form of aura that is emitted from a sword; you see this when the wielder is slashing the sword. Butler Joo is using his fist, so you can imagine it as a solidified aura of his fist smashing down on the orcs.
When Butler Joo confirmed his thought, Jeong-Hoon’s common sense smashed to smithereens.
The common sense from his idea that ‘for the past 10 years, mankind developed superhuman strength, the possible existence of monsters, and no martial arts and magic exists in the world’, completely collapsed.
“Is the skill that turns A-class into S-class perhaps…?”
“It’s martial arts and magic.”
Jeong-Hoon could only see martial arts happening in front of him, but when he turned his head in the direction of where he suddenly felt scorching heat, he found himself looking at the maid with a half-translucent circle on her opened palm.
Numerous shapes and indecipherable characters were on the circle.
It was a magic circle.
“Hellfire.”
Blue flame emanated from the magic circle upon the maid’s calm command, incinerating the orcs into ashes.
“Then I, too, will go and warm up my body!”
Last but not least, Yeo Tae-Hyun pulled a huge sword from his subspace and rushed towards the orcs.
Whenever he wielded his sword, an energy of some sort, that is, geom-gang, sliced through the orcs.
“What the- why didn’t CEO Yeo use that weapon earlier?”
“That is because that sword’s existence is Butler Yeo’s martial arts.”
As soon as he finished speaking, a cold aura rose from Yeo Tae-Hyun’s sword and froze the orcs.
Then, the sword smashed through them.
“Ah, it must be a magic sword.”
“Butler Yeo is the vassal who manages the family’s armory. This is why I recommended Shine Mall as your first task.”
Jeong-Hoon, who realized that the tasks he was given weren’t just a simple ordeal of integrating businesses to become the head of the household, collapsed to the ground.
“If you already gave the skill to the Saturn Guild’s master, then why is the guild master asking for more?”
“That is because the form of martial arts I gave was suitable for Saturn’s guild master only. If another individual took up the art, their body would end up having to pay a hefty price.”
Jeong-Hoon shook his head at Butler Joo’s last sentence. He could now understand why the Saturn Guild’s master coveted the skill so much.
“Could I possibly learn… that won’t do. The minimum requirement to earn the skill is being an S-class awakener, right?”
“Squeal!”
Behind the silently nodding Butler Joo, Jeong-Hoon could see the flying head of an orc boss Yeo Tae-Hyun cut off.
It was unbelievable to think that someone who had been pushed back earlier was now flying here and there, making orcs’ heads rain.
“Only now does it feel like having something as a tank as a hidden weapon was a form of deception.”
“Were you able to guess with this much information? You are correct; Tanks are just a camouflage to hide the true power of the family.”
Jeong-Hoon had wondered which organization in the world would use a tank to hide their true power, but on second thought, it was plausible.
The secret was something definitely worth hiding when imagining the S-class maid using a magic skill to fry the hell out of the orc lord.