The 4 Apostles and the director looked stunned as they watched the bleeding hand of the one that was supposed to be the victor of this little mock battle.
He was the one that was supposed to test the newcomer, not be the one that tried his hardest and still failed. How could that make sense?
As the group kept staring, Lee looked up with vicious anger in his eyes. "I will kill you!" he shouted at Ning.
Ning looked at him and smirked. "You already tried," he said and put on a mocking smile as he said, "and you failed."
Lee thought of attacking again, but his broken arm hurt just too much to even move it for now.
"Bak, heal him or something," the director said as he was the first to be out of their startled state.
"I… I can't. My healing skill is atrocious. I can maybe only close up the wound at best," he said. "Maybe Soo-Yun can do better."
"I don't really have any healing capabilities," the girl in the glittering white dress said. "Wait, let me call someone from my guild. She's a great healer."
The girl pulled out a smartphone from what seemed to be an inventory slot that was given to all Apostles by their gods.
Before she could find the number to call, however, Ning spoke. "You guys don't have to worry. I'm a healer too," he said.
He reached towards Lee's crushed hand. Lee flinched and moved backward out of instinct, but Ning still reached it. Then, a yellow light glowed from his hands and at the next moment, Lee was healed.
Lee still felt the residual pain, at least he thought he felt it, but the hand was fully healed.
Kim Min-Soo looked at the healed hand with a look of shock that could not make head or tail of what had just happened.
'How many different skills does this man have?' she thought. From manipulating rocks to teleporting, to rusting metals to now healing. These were more skills than one could possibly have.
And somehow, they were all of higher grades as well.
"You're fine, right?" Ning asked Lee who was on the ground. "I think that concludes our mock battle, does it not?"
He then turned towards the director. "Do I have to have a mock battle with him too, or can we just go and deal with this SS-ranked dungeon situation?" he asked.
"N-no, you don't have to prove anything anymore," the director said. "You have proven enough. Although, I hope you have some experience in clearing dungeons."
"Don't worry, director," Kim Min-Soo said. "He's already solo cleared an S-ranked dungeon of ours yesterday. At the very least, he has experience in that."
"Good! That's good to hear," the director said. "Alright, since we've made sure that you all are ready and willing to do this. Let's go to the dungeon."
"Okay," Everyone except Lee replied and started walking. Lee was simply too shaken to say anything, but he also followed behind.
"Oh right, director. We didn't talk about compensation, did we?" Park said. "We can expect some good compensation, can't we?"
"We will divide whatever loot you can find inside the dungeon in 8 ways. I will be keeping 2, and you 6 will take the remaining. On top of that, we will give each of you 100 Million Won per dungeon run," the director said.
"Huh? Not bad," Bak said.
"I would love a little more though," Park said. "We are risking our lives after all."
"Why not split it in 7 ways instead of 8?" Soo-Yun asked.
"I'm fine with it," Kim Min-Soo said.
Lee simply didn't speak at all, and Ning had no opinions on it. It wasn't like he needed any of it anyway.
"No, I cannot give any more than what I already have. That is what you will get. If you wish to get out of getting potential SS-ranked mana stones, then you can refuse the job," the director said.
"Tsk! Fine, fine. You don't have to get angry," Park said.
There was a van waiting for them which quickly took them on-site.
Ning walked out of the van by a narrow road. On one side was the wall that protected the Dongmyo shrine's dungeon, and on the other were the broken houses that had been abandoned post-dungeon break.
Ning could only wonder how many people had to die before one of these 5 came and saved them.
'So many deaths that could've just been prevented had the constellations bothered even a little bit,' Ning thought. With such thoughts in mind, he couldn't help but get angry.
"Let's go inside," the director said, taking them through the gate as many other hunters and guards that were gathered there looked at the 6 of them in awe.
The 5 Apostles were rarely seen together, so it was no surprise that they would be shocked to see them all gathered in one location.
Many were also confused as to who Ning might be to walk along with the Apostles and the director, but a little bit of thought quickly told them who he most likely was.
Ning looked around at the mostly destroyed shrine and pathway. Right next to one of those shrines was a glowing portal that gave off a different energy from any Ning had seen before.
'It's definitely a higher tier than the one before,' he thought to himself.
"The dungeon has been barred from entering the moment we were notified of its rank change. No hunter has gone in before this, so you will all be treading in some new place we have no idea about," the director said.
"Won't it help to know what kind of dungeon it was when it was Rank S?" Ning asked.
"No," Park said from the side. "The dungeons change every time they evolve. So each dungeon has a different location."
"Which is to say," Bak continued from where Park left off. "We're completely in the dark here and will have to tread every step carefully."
