by Elan Wang
“I see. Have fun.”
“You don’t want to help?”
“Me? Why?”
“I’ll help.”
Kim Sowul came forward. I said thank you with a nod and went with her to get the passed out drivers from their cars. None of them sustained any real injuries thanks to their airbags. That was a relief. This could definitely have ended much much worse.
“Whew. Thanks. It looks like we pretty much got them all. It seems no one really got hurt so as soon as we get them loaded up into the ambulance, they should be just fine.”
I made another “thank you” gesture to Kim Sowul. A hunter doing this of their own accord is a very rare thing. This is probably because they are used to others bowing down to them. Add to that she even touched a civilian. I can honestly say I’ve never seen that happen.
After laying down all the wounded into a row for the ambulance, I returned to where the truck was. It seemed it would take a long time for the monster to disappear. I sat on a stone nearby and watched the slowly evaporating monster. In that time, the ambulance finally appeared to take the wounded away. It was strange that the police sirens I had heard earlier still didn’t appear.
“What? Is that a skillbook?”
Ahn Kyubum had uttered.
What?
I jumped up from my seat in surprise. What was left over from the monster’s disappearance was most certainly a skillbook. Just like the word, a skillbook is a book…literally. The cover and thickness of it was pretty thin but it had the telltale sign of a true skillbook – its reflective cover.
“Oh ho. Would ya look at this?”
Ahn Kyubum quickly snatched at the skillbook before I could. It was a relief that you could only acquire the properties of a skillbook from reading it cover to cover and it wasn’t something you could get instantly. And I was sure this bastard already had a skillbook so he probably wasn’t going to read it and risk losing his current one to be replaced by a lesser one.
Ahn Kyubum looked at me briefly before saying.
“This bastard has some luck doesn’t he? To think that he could get a skillbook in one try…”
He licked his lips as he looked back and forth from me to the skillbook. It was killing me. I walked toward him with an outstretched arm.
I could see the corner of his lip turn up into a cruel smile.
“What? You want it? Well, you did say it was yours huh? Then here, take it.”
After saying that, he stretched out the skillbook to me. As soon as I tried to take it, he pulled his arm back and started cackling.”
“That quickly? Let me just look at it real quick to see what kind it is.”
“Come on just give it to him. It’s something you won’t need anyway.”
Kim Sowul said. Not only was she beautiful but she had the heart of an angel. My love. I turned to look at her. She must have seen the desperation in my face. She let out a sigh and walked toward her partner.
“What’s the price?”
“Um…wait.”
Ahn Kyubum turned to the next page. The laughter in his face was immediately replaced with a much more serious expression. Looking at it, I thought it could even be a rare skillbook. Shit. If it was anything higher than a 5 Level item, I was pretty sure he wouldn’t let it go easily.
I began to let out a silent prayer that it was a useless and cheap skillbook. Because if he decided to steal it, I knew I couldn’t just lay down and let it slide. Kim Sowul snatched at the skillbook and read the page. Then she started laughing like crazy.
“What is this? Level 0? There’s a skillbook like this? Since when?”
“I know. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a Level 0 skillbook. Oh no. You must have been so excited. I’m so sorry. L Sadface.”
Ahn Kyubum kept snickering as he looked at me. Did he purposely make that face to trick me into getting excited? What. A. Jerk.
But I was grateful that he wouldn’t steal the skillbook. Even if it was level 0, who knows! It could be worth some money. Even a level 1 skillbook sells for about 1 million dollars so if it was a Level 0 one, I’m pretty sure I can make at least 10,000 dollars. You could say that it was much better than even getting a monazite!
“Even though it’s not something we’d want, I’m pretty sure that it could be very useful to a porter.”
Kim Sowul tossed the skillbook to me. I caught the book in two hands and carefully hid it in my clothes for safekeeping.
“This brat. I’m not going to steal it so don’t worry. Who the heck would steal something like that.”
“It might be useless to you but not to everyone.”
I had retorted on reflex. And I knew the moment I said this.
That I was screwed.
I didn’t even have time to apologize.
Slam!
“…huh?”
Slam!
Ahn Kyubum had grabbed my hair in his fist and slammed my head down right into the ground. I didn’t even see him coming. I held back a moan with my head still in the ground. I had an intuition that I should not open my mouth.
Slam!
Shit. It felt like all the bones in my head would shatter. What the heck kind of monster strength was this? Shit. No matter how strong his armor was, the unleash this kind of power from such a small arm was ridiculous.
“Will you stop? It doesn’t look good.”
Kim Sowul tried to calm him down. Damn. I was so so thankful for those words.
“You’re taking the civilian’s side?”
“Yeah.”
“But then again. You used to be a civilian too.”
Ahn Kyubum returned teasingly.
“Didn’t we agree we wouldn’t talk about that.”
“Oh did we? I’m sorry. I guess I have faulty memory.”
Slam!
“Euk…”
I couldn’t hold back any more and let out a small moan. It really felt like my skull would rip apart. This bastard. Who does he think he is. Kim Sowul spoke again.
“Are you trying to kill him?”
“I’m thinking about it.”
“There’s a lot of people here.”
“Who cares.”
Ahn Kyubum retorted as he cackled a bit.
This was dangerous. Is he really trying to kill me? He must be joking right? To think that he’d kill a human so easily. That’s crazy.
ROOOOOOOAR!
At that moment, we could hear the cry of another monster. From the sound of it, it was at least 500 meters tall. It seemed there was one more. I could now hear the police sirens once more. This was probably the reason why the police hadn’t come here until now.
Kim Sowul spoke as she faced the sound of the commotion.
“I guess that’s the other one. Leave him alone.”
“This guy. He really has good luck now doesn’t he.”
Ahn Kyubum finally let go of my head. After letting out a sigh of relief, I held back my breath again in case he changed his mind. Seeing me like that, Ahn Kyubum let out a booming laugh. When I stared at him blankly, he responded.
“Keu Keu Keu. You won’t die. Bastard. I was just playing around. To think you took it to heart.”
“Stop. We should get going.”
“Alright. I was just about to go anyway. Maybe we’ll see you again. Civilian.”
Ahn Kyubum jumped several meters high into the air and ran with such speed that he disappeared in an instant. Kim Sowul glanced at me for a second before disappearing just as quickly.
“Whew.”
I wobbled as I stood up. As I stretched out here and there I could feel that my bad was a bit raw. It felt like I may have bruised my rib bone or something. On top of getting hit by a damn car, after the beating from Ahn Kyubum, there was no way I was fine.
But today’s work wasn’t over yet. The bus station was pretty much gone, but the bus should still be in working order. I figured since I could still move around, I should finish up this evening’s job and then go to the hospital afterwa
rd. What. A. Day.
I got off at my stop and stood at the entrance to the mountains. After checking to see that there was no one around, I opened the skillbook to see what was inside.
The skill name was “effort”.
“Hmm…”
Weird. So weird. I couldn’t tell what kind of skill this was just by the name. I thought maybe I should just try learning it, but then again I realized I shouldn’t waste my one skill slot with a level 0 skillbook. There was another reason why I couldn’t learn this.
I wanted to become a hunter.
I even planned which skillbook I would buy. “Bursting light” – a level 1 active skill. If you just had this skill, you could pierce through a monster’s hide without the aid of hunter equipment. I had plenty of dungeon experience and I had saved up to about 8000. If I could sell this skillbook, I would be able to get to my goal that much faster.
Thinking about this as I was walking, it wasn’t too long before I reached the dungeon. The dungeons in Ansan are known to be the lowest level 1 dungeons. Though it had recently become the butt of jokes among hunters for being an “easy dungeon” with the advent of so many high-level hunters, there was once a time when this dungeon was considered highly dangerous. And it was.
“I came too quickly.”
I looked around for the first-time hunter that my broker had told me about. I was about to call but decided it would be better to just wait until the promised time.
There were actually quite a few people aside from myself. They all looked pretty well dressed too. Their armor shined brightly and their blades looked sharp.
“Could it be them?”
At the base of a small hill, I could see a group of people dressed similarly standing around. Four teenage boys, one middle-aged man, and one girl in her mid-twenties holding a huge backpack. Six in total.
I was puzzled. It was standard for there to only be 5 people in a group embarking into a dungeon. This was because the admission price started at 5 people.
“Are you the person that Mr. Song had recommended as a porter?”
The middle aged man asked me as I walked toward them. He was hugged in a robe that covered his entire body from neck to ankle but it didn’t cover up his bald head and round stomach. It was safe to assume that he was the leader of the party.
“Mr. Jung. Doesn’t this young man look much too young? I cannot trust him.”
The one with red dyed hair and piercing on his lip as well as both ears asked as he glanced me up and down. I didn’t know that a rich family’s kids did things like that, but I guess I’m not always right.
“I am a level 2 porter, Jeon Sangmin. And your name is…?”
“You don’t need to know. Just do your job. You know that if we catch you stealing any items, we’re going to cut off your hands right?”
“My experience is 6 years. You don’t have anything to worry about.”
I tried to respond as professionally as possible. You meet all sorts of people doing this for six years. I was good at hiding my derision.
He walked to the girl carrying the heavy backpack.
“Sooah. Why don’t you hand that backpack over to that kid.”
“Oh no? But I need this so I can…”
“If I ask something of you, you must do as I say ok?” *In a slimy tone*
“Yes sir.”
The girl looked at me apologetically and handed it over. It seemed there was a good amount of equipment loaded in this backpack from the weight of it. I could tell it was about 20 kg. Seeing that she could carry this all the way up here without breaking a sweat, she was probably a porter as well.
There was no reason for me to ask why they needed two porters in one party. From the way he talked to the girl porter, the answer was so obvious. He wanted her there to lighten his mood.
This isn’t the first I’ve seen something like this happen.
Ugh watch the face. I can’t let him see my disgust. Carefulll.
***
“Will it be all 7 of you?”
The person stationed in front of the dungeon’s entrance collecting the admissions asked. Dungeons were managed by the country, so the person collecting the entrance fee was most certainly a government official. It wasn’t really a high up position. It was more of an entry level position that the newbies took turns doing.
The starting salary of a civil servant was about 40k. This was about double a normal person’s salary. Most private businesses went bankrupt so government jobs became the best ones somehow. So these kids collecting admissions at the entrance would be considered the elite of the elites of South Korea.
“Two are porters. Including myself, there are 5 hunters.”
Mr. Jung shoved to the front and held out a card. It was probably a corporate card. Level 1 dungeon admissions started at 3,000 for a party of five. Though less expensive compared to the 5,000 admission fee for Level 2 dungeons, it was still not cheap.
“We usually only allow one porter. If you would like to take both into the dungeon, there will be an additional fee.”
“Geesh. Such a stiff. How much is it?”
“300 dollars.”
“Just put it all on this card. It looks like we’re about to spend 600 just on hiring a porter.”
Mr. Jung glanced at me. Why is he looking at me. I’m the one who’s really going to be working. If he wants to get mad at someone, it should be the punk who brought the girl.
The high walls had barbed wire curled at the top and when you walked in, the very first thing you could see was an emergency ward. This was probably so that any accidents that happened within the dungeon could be attended to right away at the location. The doctors at this dungeon had healing skills at the very minimum. This was because stab wounds and other injuries happened quite often enough within a dungeon where this was necessary.
“Do you mind if we rest a bit here before heading in?”
The boy carrying a golden bow asked with an anxious expression. When the red haired boy nodded his head, the middle aged man responded.
“Yes sir. You have done well walking so far up until this point. We shall rest. We have plenty of time so there should be no problem in resting for at least 30 minutes.”
Everyone went into a café except me. It just seemed that I was naturally excluded from going into such a nice atmosphere, so I stayed back.
While waiting outside the café, I observed the boy with the golden arrow. From the way everyone was speaking to him, it was obvious that the wealthy son was this kid. What was most dangerous in clearing a dungeon was not the red haired and cheeky boy nor was it the extremely slow moving Mr. Jung. It was a beginner like the bow boy.
No matter how much you treat a dungeon as if it were a playground, there is no quelling the fear of your first time. Especially with a boy who looks like he couldn’t even kill a fly, he had an extremely high chance of turning tail and running as soon as he encountered a monster. If you have an expert and just follow his directions, it was easy to clear a level 1 dungeon without incident but boys like this had a hard time keeping their composure. Wherein lied the issue.
This is where big incidents can happen.
Well, I guess that was the whole reason why the broker had given me this job. It wouldn’t make sense that the job would be easy if it paid $200 in one shot. It’s a good thing I have the skill to back it up.
“Hm..But isn’t that Athena’s bow?”
I fixed my eyes on the boy’s weapon. One of my many talents includes examining and remembering all the items that pop up in the hunter market. Though everything there was so damn expensive that I couldn’t even dream of buying it, I had put some items in my basket a few times before putting it back. Don’t act like you’ve never done that before in your life.
Honestly, just doing that made me feel like those items in my basket were truly mine even if only for that moment. Happiness isn’t too far away if you know just where to look.
Anyway, one of those items I had put into my
basket one time or another was that golden bow. It seemed I had really taken a liking to it since I still remember the exact name of it even now. It was something you could use even without experience, and since it was a level 4 weapon, killing a level 1 monster with it was a foregone conclusion. The best thing about it was that the arrow could only hurt a monster and never a human. If any weapon had this characteristic, the price of it automatically doubled. If you have a weapon of that caliber, anyone holding it could call themselves a hunter and get away with it.
And then there was that little fact about the golden color of it being so damn cool.
“Sangmin”
Tap.
Someone called out my name as they tapped me on the shoulder.
“Won Jongtak?
“Oh. I thought you would have forgotten my name.”
“How could I?”
“To be honest we weren’t really all that close.”
“Well, that wasn’t the reason why I didn’t forget your name.”
Just as he said, we weren’t really close enough to call each other friends. We probably said hi to eachother a handful of times in school and later when we met at a dungeon entrance by chance we exchanged brief hello. We even had alcohol together once. But that was the first time and the last time about 2 years ago.
“Anyway it seems like we’re meeting after almost 2 years now. Did you graduate? I just left in the middle without really finishing.”
“Why?”
“The tuition seemed like a waste. I was going to be a porter anyway so I felt like there wasn’t really a point in me graduating. So I just told a white lie to my parents a little white lie and kept the tuition money. I bought some equipment with that and here I am.”
As Won Jongtak spoke, he spread out his arms and legs to show me the protective gear that was covering him. It wasn’t quite hunter quality so it wasn’t something that would really impress anyone, but the difference between having it and not having it was still huge. I have some protective gear myself.
Due to the heavy gear I always had to carry, I found myself reducing any protective gear to the bare minimum: Waist protector, head and neck protecting headgear, mail made from synthetic resin, and arm protectors. I also had a pair of fire resistant gloves.