The F-Rank Guild Master Has Too Much Money Chapter 70

 

Choi Tae-hyuk nodded, removed his jacket, and rolled up his shirt sleeves to his wrists. Then, following Gumiho’s instructions, he began stacking the Mana Stones.

 

☆ Maybe It’s Because He Works Out? has donated 100 Mana Stones. ☆

His physique is insane. Look at that shirt straining—damn.

 

☆ Wait, Who Was That Just Now? has donated 100 Mana Stones. ☆

I get it. Goddess of Lust, you’re going to get us in trouble. Aether is watching, you know.

 

☆ I Want Him to See has donated 100 Mana Stones. ☆

Sometimes I think… if Aether granted my wish, I’d be truly happy.

 

A wish from the Goddess of Lust, huh…

 

A shiver ran down my spine, and I shuddered. 

 

When it was just Gumiho and me, we’d take occasional breaks, but with Choi Tae-hyuk hauling two or three bags at a time, I didn’t get a single moment to rest. By the time we’d emptied everything—aside from the ongoing donations—my arms were trembling uncontrollably.

 

“Ugh. I’m exhausted.”

 

“You worked hard.”

 

Wiping sweat from her forehead, Gumiho gazed with satisfaction at the mountain-like pile of Mana Stones. Choi Tae-hyuk, however, seemed unfazed by the fortune in front of him. He smoothed out his rumpled shirt and turned to me.

 

“Then, let’s head out.”

 

“J-Just a moment, let me rest—… yes. Let’s go.”

 

Even after all that carrying, there wasn’t a drop of sweat on him, nor a single wrinkle in his clothes. Watching his solid back, I clicked my tongue.

 

‘No matter how much he’s my hero, sometimes he’s just annoyingly perfect.’

 

“Please get in.”

 

I climbed into the passenger seat, still grumbling internally, as the engine started. Then it suddenly hit me—that slip-up from yesterday—and the fact that it was just the two of us now.

 

‘W-What do I do? Will he buy it if I say I was delirious from the fever?’

 

With no music playing, the car felt suffocating. We’d ridden together like this countless times before, just the two of us, and the silence had never felt uncomfortable until now.

 

‘I’m going to suffocate.’

 

☆ Aether has donated 100 Mana Stones. ☆

You are breathing, right? You’re totally tense.

 

☆ If It Were Me has donated 100 Mana Stones. ☆

Of course I’d be tense. How are you going to explain telling him he’d die?

 

“Guild Master.”

 

“Yes? Y-Yes!”

 

Is he finally going to bring it up? Ask about my past?

 

Damn, what should I say? That I’m a high-ranking god who made a bet with my brother…? No way. Maybe just claim I regressed?

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

“…Huh?”

 

I’d been staring out the window to escape the awkwardness, but now I turned toward him. As he turned the wheel, his expression wasn’t the usual blank mask—it was strangely vulnerable, leaving me speechless. So he continued first.

 

“I didn’t get the chance to say this yesterday because you were sick, but… I didn’t realize you thought I was going to die.”

 

“No, that’s not—”

 

“You could think that way. Life is unpredictable, after all.”

 

“…”

 

“But I won’t die.”

 

But you did die back then! Yeon Do-jin died! You died! The Hunter system collapsed, and the entire country fell apart!

 

“I won’t pressure you about the fruit anymore. I just hope you’ll trust me a little.”

 

“…I do trust you.”

 

At my words, Choi Tae-hyuk gave a faint smile.

 

☆ OMG He Smiled. has donated 100 Mana Stones. ☆

He smiled! The guy who never shows emotion actually smiled!

 

☆ Totally Amazing has donated 100 Mana Stones. ☆

So he can smile. He looks even more handsome when he does—why doesn’t he smile more often?

 

Unlike me, caught off guard because he rarely smiled at all—as the gods themselves had said—Choi Tae-hyuk spoke without wiping the smile from his face.

 

“If you trust me, then please trust that I won’t die either.”

 

“…”

 

I didn’t respond, but it seemed he wasn’t expecting one. He fell silent after that. Yet somehow, the once-stifling quiet in the car turned comfortable.

 

“Let’s get out.”

 

“Mm. This is the place, right?”

 

“Yes.”

 

The car stopped in the middle of nowhere—nothing but mountains, trees, and open fields. Unlike the towers built around dungeon breaks, there was literally nothing here but grass.

 

“This way.”

 

Following the pillar of light shooting up from the ground into the sky, we spotted a gate glowing gold.

 

“A golden gate?”

 

I was used to white or red ones, so this different color felt odd.

 

Are the gods messing around again?

 

Just like before, I glared at the sky. No pop-up from the gods yelling “It wasn’t us! We’re innocent!”—which pretty much confirmed it was them.

 

“So quick to meddle. They never miss an opportunity.”

 

“Guild Master?”

 

Choi Tae-hyuk reacted to my muttering, and I turned to him.

 

“Did you bring your sword?”

 

“Yes. It’s in the trunk.”

 

“You’re going to need it.”

 

He could have asked why we’d need weapons in a cleared dungeon, but without question, he retrieved his own sword—and another one—and handed it to me.

 

“Thought you might need this.”

 

“Oh. Thanks.”

 

Coating a physical sword with wind took less effort than creating one from scratch, so I gladly accepted it.

 

“Let’s go.”

 

“Okay.”

 

As we stepped onto the gate platform, I noticed a long-haired woman watching us from afar.

 

‘Who’s that woman?’

 

In that instant, a blinding flash exploded. When my vision cleared, I found myself standing in front of a school gate.

 

* * *

 

“A school dungeon really is… an actual school?”

 

“Yes.”

 

I’ve been through sea dungeons, snow dungeons—you name it. But a school as a dungeon? What the heck kind of dungeon is that?

 

“It’s just the background that’s a school. Functionally, it’s the same as any other dungeon.”

 

“Calling it ‘just the background’ feels like a stretch.”

 

I glanced down at myself. My shirt and black pants had transformed into a brown plaid school uniform, complete with a neatly tied tie.

 

Choi Tae-hyuk was dressed in the same uniform—no different from mine. Maybe because of the “student” theme, his usually slicked-back bangs had fallen forward, making him look like a real high schooler.

 

‘Same clothes, but the vibe is totally different. He must’ve been super popular in school.’

 

I realized I was openly checking him out from head to toe and quickly shook my head. Now wasn’t the time to admire how good he looked in a uniform. The real issue was—

 

“No—if it’s supposed to be like a normal dungeon, why did our swords turn into pens?!”

 

Choi Tae-hyuk’s sword had become a ballpoint pen, and mine was now a mechanical pencil. He stared at his pen for a moment, then slammed it into the ground. A sharp whoosh of wind carved a deep gash into the floor. He nodded, satisfied.

 

“Good. It still works.”

 

That’s not the point! How are we supposed to fight with pens?!

 

Choi Tae-hyuk seemed to think everything was fine since the dungeon had already been cleared, but I knew the gods had tampered with this one—everything felt off, like a shadow clouding my vision.

 

“The Chorongcho is confirmed to be in the principal’s office on the fifth floor.”

 

Oblivious to my despair, Choi Tae-hyuk started walking ahead as if nothing was wrong.

 

“Let’s go.”

 

I hurried after him into the school. The empty schoolyard, devoid of students, felt eerily cold. As we passed through and entered the building, the sounds of laughing students echoed around us.

 

“Laughter?”

 

“Monsters must have respawned.”

 

“…The students are monsters?”

 

Without answering, Choi Tae-hyuk gripped his pen tighter. It looked too short, so I started to extend it with wind, but he shook his head.

 

“This is enough.”

 

“Alright.”

 

On the first floor, we saw the teachers’ office, infirmary, and first-year classrooms.

 

“Do we really have to clear all this?”

 

“If the mobs hadn’t respawned, the stairs would already be here—but they’re not.”

 

Now that he mentioned it, I hadn’t seen any staircase even after circling the floor. It really felt like a single-story building.

 

“Whoever’s behind this, if you confess now, I’ll go back to the divine realm and only punish the mastermind.”

 

It was quiet enough that Choi Tae-hyuk couldn’t hear, but loud enough for the gods. Pop-ups flooded in immediately.

 

☆ Nooo has donated 100 Mana Stones. ☆

We kept hearing about school stuff, so we just wanted to see Aether in a uniform~

 

☆ Let’s Go Back! has donated 100 Mana Stones. ☆

Think of it as reliving your school days~ We’re pure gods!

 

☆ We Didn’t Touch The Mobs has donated 100 Mana Stones. ☆

Didn’t have time to mess with the mobs anyway, teehee★

 

Pure, my ass.

 

From their messages, the uniforms were just another godly prank. The silver lining: they’d only altered our clothes—they hadn’t touched the monsters.

 

“Let’s check the teachers’ office first.”

 

“Yes.”

 

Choi Tae-hyuk stepped forward and opened the door to the teachers’ office.

 

“Gueek?”

 

Inside, green slimes sat at desks and chairs like teachers. As if questioning our business, they squirmed—and inside their translucent bodies, glowing herbs shimmered.

 

“Intelligence Herbs. Interesting.”

 

Whether they understood the situation or not, the slimes began wobbling toward us.

 

“Should we kill them?”

 

Slimes usually appeared only in D-rank dungeons, so we didn’t have to—but since we could get some decent herbs for free, leaving them felt wasteful.

 

“Let’s just kill them.”

 

As Choi Tae-hyuk swung the ballpoint pen, a pop echoed, leaving only an Intelligence Herb where the slime had been. After collecting five, we headed to the infirmary. This time, blue slimes waited inside. Larger than the green ones, each contained five bundles of Healing Herbs.

 

“They really went all out, huh?”

 

Without a word, Choi Tae-hyuk charged and eliminated the slime. We gathered the scattered Healing Herbs and moved to the first-year classrooms.

 

“Do you think the students will be slimes too?”

 

“Mobs on the same floor are usually identical, so probably.”

 

We slid open the door—drrrk—and entered a classroom in mid-‘lesson.’ A slime stood at the front like a teacher. Looking at the students, I spotted fairy-like monsters clutching dandelion stems.

 

They wore green dress-like clothes, were tiny—not even fifty centimeters tall—with dandelion-puff hair and dragonfly wings. Their stems were topped with dandelion buds.

 

☆ So Pretty. has donated 100 Mana Stones. ☆

Are those fairies? Fairies?! They’re way too cute.

 

☆ Haven’t I Seen This Somewhere Before? has donated 100 Mana Stones. ☆

It’s not just me, right?

 

☆ Fairy Queen has donated 100 Mana Stones. ☆

Looks like they copied her outright. Pretty, though. Are they going to attack too?

 

“Plarins.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

Just as the gods had said, these Plarins resembled the Fairy Queen. They only lived in dungeons and had zero attack power, instinctively avoiding humans. Hunters usually left them alone.

 

Startled by us, the Plarins huddled in a corner, trembling. The slime teacher morphed a pseudopod into a hand and hurled a Plarin at us.

 

“Mya!”

 

There was no reason to kill a harmless monster. I caught the tiny, screaming Plarin mid-air.

 

“You’re a teacher, and that’s how you treat your students?”

 

As I spoke, Choi Tae-hyuk rushed toward the slime that was about to throw another Plarin and cut it down in a single strike. The slime vanished, leaving behind an Intelligence Herb, while the Plarins trembled even more.

 

“Sorry. Study hard, okay?”

 

No clue what they were studying. I set the Plarin down, gently patted its fairy-like head, and moved to the next classroom. Every first-year room was the same: slimes and Plarins.

 

We spared the Plarins and killed only the slimes. When the last one fell, a staircase to the second floor materialized in the center.

 

“I was worried we’d have to kill the Plarins too. Glad it was just the slimes.”

 

Choi Tae-hyuk flicked slime residue off his pen and nodded.

 

“Then let’s go.”

 

“Wait a moment.”

 

Sensing a gaze, I turned. A group of Plarins was standing there. They weren’t aggressive, but seeing them gathered together was… unsettling.

 

“Mya-mya—”

 

A Plarin—maybe the leader—approached cautiously. As Choi Tae-hyuk moved to shield me, I held him back with my arm and stepped forward.