The Undead Blacksmith's daily life (Solo leveling/Dark Souls SI) Chapter 22

James felt annoyed as he watched the team of young hunters that stood in front of the Gate that he had booked for himself and his nephew to

James felt annoyed as he watched the team of young hunters that stood in front of the Gate that he had booked for himself and his nephew to train in.

Looking at the apologetic manager of the White Tiger Guild, the Undead could do nothing but sigh.

“And? How did such a huge oversight happen? Jinchul?”

Woo Jinchul also felt annoyed at this incident and gave James the table that he had with him.

“Someone in our department made an error and did not take down the posting for the Gate’s availability, even after its rights were sold to the White Tiger Guild beforehand.”

“….So, I wasted my time for nothing then?”

“Looks like it. Since they booked the Gate first and the error happened afterward, legally, they are the ones who hold the rights for the gate right now.”

The annoyed look James gave to Jinchul made the younger man give him a cheeky look, one that made James snort in amusement.

“Fine. Manager Ahn, how much do you want for this gate?”

The chief of the 2nd management division within the White Tiger Guild, Ahn Sangmin, smiled at those words, knowing that his tactic had worked.

It was truly worth it for this man to have bribed some people within the Hunters Association and quietly double-book this C-Rank gate for themselves while also changing the timestamp so that it would appear as an error.

It might look like he was taking malicious actions against someone he should not even dream of offending. But this man was not doing this for his own gain.

No, Ahn Sangmin is extremely loyal to his guild and will do anything for the sake of giving them an edge.

And what better edge can a group of trainee Hunters of his guild have than observing a National-Rank hunter in action?

“Mr. Hudson, we booked this Gate a long time ago and have already prepared extensively for it. We cannot sell it to you. Although, I think an arrangement can be made.”

“No need. Uncle, let’s go to another Dungeon.”

At the words of the young Hunter beside James, the one known as Sung Jinwoo, Ahn Sangmin just smiled and spoke up.

“I am afraid that is not possible for now, Hunter Sung. You see, all the C-Rank and below Dungeons have already been booked by us for the next few months.”

It did not even take a few seconds before Jinwoo and James understood the ploy at hand.

A ploy that made Jinwoo feel somewhat annoyed while James felt amused.

‘This man has some serious balls, trying to play with a National-Rank hunter like me. Fine, let’s see what he has to say.’

“Alright, what kind of arrangement are you talking about?”

The barely hidden glee on Ahn Sangmin’s face was clear for everyone to see.

“In exchange for using this dungeon, I ask that you allow our Hunters to shadow you and observe you in action. Also, should they make any mistakes, you help them out.”

“Agreeable, on two conditions.”

“Please speak, Mr. Hudson.”

“I will only allow them to shadow us until the point where we wipe out the regular monsters and only the Boss monster is left. After that, your hunters will leave the dungeon and leave me and my nephew alone to our business. Once we are done, we will split the loot in half between your guild and myself.”

“Deal!”

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The amusement I felt as the manager of the White Tiger Guild happily jogged toward their hunters slowly faded, making me look at things seriously.

What I just did is something risky, especially for these unbloodied Hunters who have been trained under the careful watch of their superiors and higher-ups, never experiencing life-threatening danger firsthand.

Given what I want to accomplish in today’s experiment, it is highly likely that they will be dragged into the mess as well.

However, the part of me that is worried about them is dwarfed by the apathy that I felt at the situation.

If the worst really does come to pass, and something happens, I can only say that they have no one but their manager to blame for it.

Ahn Sangmin thinks that he is very clever. That he has me in the palm of his hand with his manipulations. But the fool does not know that I have dealt with people much worse than him throughout my life.

I know for a fact that this double booking is no coincidence or a glitch in the Hunter Association’s systems because I did not book this dungeon through the regular channels.

The ones who helped me book this gate were Go Gunhee and Woo Jinchul, who used my credentials remotely to book the dungeon.

So how would it be possible for the system to glitch or for someone in the association to make a ‘mistake’ and double book when the booking was done offline before registering it in their systems?

The only reason Jinchul and I played stupid and let the White Tiger Guild get away with this is because we wanted to see just what their end goal was with this plan.

Although, Jinchul might have gotten a little too involved with the acting.

Shaking my head to get rid of those thoughts, I turned to Jinwoo.

“You ready for this?”

The only reply I got was his serious nod at my words as he took out the sword I made for him, showing just how seriously he was taking this experiment of ours.

As he should.

I saw Ahn Sangmin wave towards us, signaling that they were ready to enter the gate.

Hopefully, our experiment this time will work, and I can help Jinwoo secure a few powerful shadows for his arsenal, alleviating some of my worries.