Garden Of The Dragon Sword

“Do you have any thoughts about joining a Guild?”
“Yuna-noona said she’d look into a Guild for you”

I hadn’t seen the offer coming at all.

A Guild, of all things.

Back when I was an ordinary D-Rank Hunter, I’d have jumped at it and said yes on the spot. But so much had changed since I’d reunited with Sia that I no longer had any real need for a Guild. If anything, in my current situation, joining one might cost me more than it gained me.

Still, I was curious why Yuna-noona had suddenly made me an offer like this, so I called Junhwi right away.

“Hyungnim? Weren’t you on a date? You could’ve just called me later.”
“Ah, my girlfriend had something on afterwards. I’ve just come from seeing her off.”

I covered with a plausible excuse.

“Ah, I see…. Oh, right, Hyungnim. You saw the KakaoTalk I sent, didn’t you?”
“Yeah. That’s what I’m calling about. A Guild — where’s this Guild business suddenly come from?”
“It’s exactly what it says. Yuna-noona didn’t have your number, Hyungnim, so she just asked me to pass it on.”
“I see. But why would she suddenly offer to look up a Guild for me? Junhwi, have you got any idea?”
“Beats me. Maybe it’s just that you’re a younger guy she knows and hasn’t seen in ages, so she wants to look out for you a bit more?”

Apparently Yuna-noona hadn’t told Junhwi her reason either, which only made me more curious. If Junhwi’s own noona, Ms. Jiyun, had asked her to, I could have understood, but since Junhwi didn’t know either, that didn’t seem to be it. And it wasn’t as if she’d ever seen me do anything impressive in a Gate.

Had Yuna-noona always been the type to stick her nose into other people’s business? Why was she trying to introduce me to a Guild?

“Could you tell Yuna-noona I’m grateful she thought of me, but I’ve no intention of joining a Guild right now?”
“Huh, Hyungnim, don’t you have Yuna-noona’s number? She said she gave you her card.”
“Ah. I did get it, but I gave it to my girlfriend.”

I added that I’d done it because Sia might be uncomfortable if I got in touch with Yuna-noona for any reason whatsoever.

“…Even so, one phone call would be all right, wouldn’t it? If she’s going as far as offering to introduce you to a Guild, it looks like she thinks really highly of you. And you two have known each other since kindergarten, haven’t you?”
“That’s exactly why I don’t think I should.”

Whenever I recalled how sharply Sia had reacted to every single thing Yuna-noona did, it seemed clear that I couldn’t let any kind of connection form between Yuna-noona and me. If even the slightest one did… not even I could say what would happen.

“Then I’ll pass that along for you. Oh, and Hyungnim — this is a separate matter, but are you by any chance interested in a Dungeon Gate?”

A Dungeon Gate, huh.

Broadly speaking, Gates fall into three types. The most common is the normal Gate, cleared by killing every last monster inside. Next comes the Dungeon Gate. Each one has its own concept and its own clear conditions, and can be run again on a fixed cycle even after it’s been cleared. Last is the Extra Gate, for anything that fits neither of the other two.

Of the three, the Dungeon Gate Junhwi had mentioned was relatively safe, which also made it good for building up combat experience. Because it could be cleared again and again on a fixed cycle, there were almost no variables either, so long as you had the patterns down.

Those very features, though, meant that nearly every halfway decent Dungeon Gate had been bought up and monopolized by the big Guilds, which purchased the clearing rights to train their Hunters. For someone like me, who had never belonged to a Guild in his life, getting into a Dungeon Gate had naturally never been in the cards.

“Why a Dungeon Gate, all of a sudden?”
“My noona’s Guild is clearing one of its own Dungeon Gates tomorrow. There’s no particular cap on numbers, so if you’re up for it, Hyungnim, I’ll try asking my noona.”

Taking part in a Dungeon Gate clear, huh. For a Hunter without a Guild, this was unmistakably a good opportunity. I’d been meaning to find a Gate to go into tomorrow anyway, and the timing couldn’t have been better.

“I’d be grateful, obviously. Thanks for thinking of me.”
“Don’t mention it…. You saved my life, Hyungnim. I’ll text you the exact time and place and the Gate’s name.”

Not long after we hung up, a text from Junhwi came in with the details.

“We set off tomorrow at 10 a.m. sharp from the front gate of the Maple Guild head office, and the Dungeon Gate we’re clearing is called ‘Garden of the Dragon Sword’. The person in charge of the clear hasn’t been decided yet, so I’ll send you their contact details as soon as it is.”

All of it was clear enough, except for one thing.

“Huh?”

One detail had caught my eye.

Unlike other Gates, a Dungeon Gate doesn’t vanish once it’s cleared, so each one is given a name that reflects the character of its interior. And this one was called ‘Garden of the Dragon Sword’.

For a man whose girlfriend was a dragon, and whose goal was to reach the point of handling a dragon’s power at will, the name felt like a remarkable coincidence. Why, of all names, had this Dungeon Gate been called the Garden of the Dragon Sword?

All that day, the words Garden of the Dragon Sword wouldn’t leave my head.

The next day.

Before the Gate clear, I paid a visit to Rokan’s lair. There was no special reason; I simply wanted to pay my respects as his granddaughter’s boyfriend and share breakfast with him while I was there. I also had something to ask him about today’s Dungeon Gate.

“Lord Rokan, I’m here.”
“Come on in. What’s that you’ve got in your hand?”
“Red ginseng extract. I feel like I’m always putting you to trouble, Lord Rokan.”

He’d looked so tired last time, making the control device, and the memory had been weighing on me. I had no idea whether this sort of thing even worked on a dragon, but surely I owed him at least some token of goodwill.

“Oh. Thank you.”
“And this is a packed lunch. In case you haven’t eaten yet, I thought we might have breakfast together.”
“Sounds good.”

Over the meal, between bits of small talk, I steered the conversation around to today’s Dungeon Gate.

“They say the Dungeon Gate I’m going to today is called ‘Garden of the Dragon Sword’ — have you ever happened to hear of it?”
“This is the first I’ve heard of it. Gates are something you Hunters take an interest in; I’ve no particular interest in places like that.”

I’d assumed he would at least know the name, so his answer caught me off guard. Seeing my reaction, Rokan nodded as if he understood why I’d asked.

“So you were hoping to find some kind of hint.”
“Yes.”
“Sadly, as things stand, I know nothing either. Bring back a video later and we can talk it over together then.”

Nothing to be done about it, then. Still, if I brought back footage, there might be something worth salvaging in it. The odds were slim, but I might just find a thread leading back to the source of my power.

We had just finished eating, and I was about to head for the meeting place, when a video call came in from Sia.

“Oppa, good morning! What — is that Grandpa’s lair?”

Sia looked faintly startled, as if she hadn’t expected me to be with Rokan at this hour.

“Mm. I thought it’d be nice to have breakfast with your grandfather.”
“Oh, it’s Shasha.”

Rokan, too, turned to his granddaughter with a warm greeting.

“Moments like this make me think you and I really are on the same wavelength, Oppa. Actually, I was planning to go and see your parents today.”
“My parents?”
“Mm. It looks like going together with you is going to be hard for a while, so I’m going on my own, at least.”

Telling me it was a present she’d bought for my parents, Sia held up one great big bundle. Visiting my parents alone, without me, might well feel awkward or uncomfortable for her, but I could only be enormously grateful.

“Oh, and Oppa. You said you were going into a Gate today, right?”
“Mm. At ten. I’ll call you once I’m back from the Gate.”
“Mm! Let’s talk again later!”

We were short on time, so the morning call wrapped up quickly.

“Well then, I’ll be in touch again soon as well.”

Leaving the lair, I headed for the meeting place at the front gate of the Maple Guild head office. With the appointed time almost upon us, it looked like nearly everyone who was coming had already gathered. As I looked around, a man came up to me.

“You’re Yun Minjun, right?”
“Yes.”
“I’m Oh Taeseong, the leader for this clear. Good to meet you.”

Perhaps it came with being the leader, but the air about him set him clearly apart from the other Hunters gathered there. Everything about him, from his build to his face, was intensely manly.

“I’ve heard a lot about you from my brother-in-law. They say you’re the man who saved his life, Minjun.”
“Your brother-in-law?”
“Junhwi’s noona is my girlfriend.”

Ah.

So he was Ms. Jiyun’s boyfriend. I hadn’t heard a thing about her having one. That explained it… and here I’d been wondering how an outsider like me could get into a Guild’s own dungeon. This was the Republic of Korea, after all, land of blood ties, school ties and hometown ties¹.

“My brother-in-law said he wanted to repay you somehow, Minjun, so I said I’d help too.”
“Thank you.”
“You saved my brother-in-law’s life — if there’s anything I can help with, of course I should help. Oh, we’ve been talking far too long just between ourselves.”

Perhaps he sensed the Guild members waiting behind him growing restless, because Taeseong briefly introduced them to me one by one. Most were a year or two older than me, and apart from Taeseong himself and one or two others, every one of them was D-Rank. I’d worried a little that they might find an outsider with no Guild affiliation awkward, or quietly freeze me out, but they all welcomed me kindly.

“Good to meet you, Minjun!”
“Junhwi’s told us a lot about you!”
“Last time I was out drinking with Junhwi, he talked about nothing but you, Hunter Minjun, for over an hour.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes. So I was quietly curious what sort of person you were, Minjun. I’m really glad to be meeting you like this.”

Greetings exchanged in that warm atmosphere, we boarded the vehicles and moved out. The Dungeon Gate was about thirty minutes by car from the Maple Guild head office.

“Minjun, did Junhwi tell you anything about the Gate we’re going to today?”
“I only heard the Gate’s name. I didn’t get to hear anything detailed about what kind of Gate it is.”

Maybe because it was the Guild’s private property, an internet search hadn’t turned up anything useful either.

“Then have you ever taken part in a Dungeon Gate clear?”
“No. I did learn what Dungeon Gates are like at the Academy, but….”
“Then let me give you a quick rundown.”

Taeseong, the clearing team’s leader and Ms. Jiyun’s boyfriend, briefed me on the Gate we’d be clearing today.

First, he said, a Dungeon Gate felt very different from an ordinary Gate, right down to its environment. The terrain of the ‘Garden of the Dragon Sword’ we were headed for, for instance, was a plain where countless sword hilts stood planted like gravestones.

On top of that, an ordinary Gate was complete the moment you cleared every monster inside it, while each Dungeon Gate set clear conditions of its own. That part I remembered hearing in a theory class back in my Academy days.

“In the case of the ‘Garden of the Dragon Sword’ we’re about to clear, the completion condition is to hold out for three hours after entering the Gate.”
“That’s all?”
“Yes.”
“…That’s easier than I thought?”

It must have been a familiar reaction, because Taeseong burst into a hearty laugh.

“This guy here, Juwon, said exactly what you just said a while back, Minjun. Word for word.”

He pointed at the Hunter sitting in the seat behind me as he said it. Juwon seemed embarrassed at the memory; he waved a hand, his tone apologetic.

“That was ages ago, Hyung. Anyway, it won’t be as easy as you think. It may only be three hours, but the monsters really do pour in without a break.”

At that, Taeseong added that it was hard, but still doable.

Even after everything we’d said about Dungeon Gates, I had the feeling, as we talked, that I was missing something important…

Ah, right.

“By the way, Hunter Taeseong. Why is this Dungeon Gate called the Garden of the Dragon Sword?”

I’d heard a moment ago that the terrain inside the dungeon was full of sword hilts. But they could just as easily have named it ‘Garden of Swords’, so why, of all things, ‘Garden of the Dragon Sword’? From what Rokan had told me before, not a single sword connected to dragons, the Dragon Bone Sword included, had ever been officially revealed to the world.

Taeseong answered my question.

“It’s taken from the name of a map in a game our Guild Master plays.”
“…Sorry?”

The answer left me dumbfounded, and Taeseong grinned and waved a hand as if to say he was joking.

“I’m kidding.”

Ugh, what a fright. He’d said it with such a straight face that, just for a moment, I’d believed him.

“There’s a huge statue right in the middle of the dungeon. A statue in the shape of a dragon wrapped around a sword.”

That wasn’t all, Taeseong said, and he went on.

“And on top of that, there are letters carved into the base of that statue, presumed to be written in a script from the outside world.”

I’d never seen it myself, but I thought I’d heard somewhere that things like this cropped up in Dungeon Gates from time to time.

“Have those letters been deciphered, by any chance?”
“Not all of them yet — as far as I know, just one sentence out of them has been deciphered.”
“What did the sentence say?”

At my question, Oh Taeseong took out his phone, searched for something, and read me the deciphered sentence.

“‘Here lies in eternal sleep the great Emperor who united the continent with a sword imbued with a dragon’s blessing.’ — that’s how it goes.”