Chapter 13
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: Jungle Gate and Explosive Reveal
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"How did you do it?"
"Was it a secret? Everyone at the Hunter Agency already knows."
The fact that he'd injected Yin Energy into Han Chaewon inside the gate hadn't been made public.
It was because the phenomenon of being sucked into the gate and transferred elsewhere still hadn't been explained.
Instead, he'd applied for an administrative position at the Hunter Agency, undergone a physical exam, and that's how the Yin Energy was discovered.
"Don't worry. My lips are sealed."
She leaned in close, whispering in his ear.
She gave her hips a playful wiggle, emphasizing her cleavage.
She looked just like one of those women who hung around a guy she liked, acting all coy.
"You really melted Chaewon, didn't you? The girl loses her mind whenever your name comes up."
"No, that's not..."
"I'll be looking forward to today."
She winked and headed off toward a hunter standing nearby.
Judging by the greeting and their conversation, it seemed she was the hunter who'd be going in with them.
After checking her hunter ID and entering the access code, the gate entrance opened.
Na Woojin and Oh Yeonseo went in first, followed by the other hunter and manager.
Last time it had been a vast plain, but this time it was a jungle.
A moist breeze tickled his hair and swept in all directions.
Oh Yeonseo sliced through the air with her slender fingers.
It was as if she were caressing something in midair, though nothing was visible.
Noticing his gaze, she turned her head toward him.
"You're curious about what I'm doing, huh?"
"There's nothing there, but it looks like you're touching something."
"Summoners get along with the spirits. So whenever I enter a gate, they tag along like this. You can't see them, but right now they're riding the wind around us."
Summoners borrowed the power of these spirits to call forth familiars.
Lesser spirits manifested in the form of familiars themselves, while greater spirits lent their servants.
They could summon multiple ones, which was why they were called a one-man army.
It was also the reason summoners could clear gates solo.
"Spirits bring things other than familiars, too."
"Other things?"
"Yeah, like this."
A pile of white powder gathered in Oh Yeonseo's palm.
It sprinkled lightly into the air, like snowflakes drifting down.
The wind carried the white powder backward.
Seeing that it was heading only toward the hunter and manager following behind, it was clearly no ordinary breeze.
Moments later, the two women's eyes glazed over, and they collapsed to the ground with a thud.
Startled, he moved to rush over, but Oh Yeonseo stopped him.
"No need to go. I put them to sleep."
"Put them to sleep?"
Why knock out your fellow gate raiders?
"They'd just be a hassle if they came along. They're hunters in name only—Hunter Agency plants. That bitch from the Intelligence Bureau uses them all the time."
The bitch from the Intelligence Bureau had to be Intelligence Bureau Chief Cha Yona.
He'd heard rumors of bad blood between the bureau and the guilds, and Oh Yeonseo's expression confirmed it.
"She stuck these spies on us the moment I named you as my partner. She must want to know what goes down in the gate. That sly fox."
"But why bother with surveillance? We submit raid reports every time anyway."
The terrain, landmarks, resident monsters, bosses, magic stone types, and artifacts discovered during a raid were vital national assets.
While guilds that led the raid got some benefits, the real prizes—like research on magic stones and artifacts—were mostly monopolized by government agencies, namely the Hunter Agency.
"Guilds and magic stone processing companies run their own labs, but they're nothing compared to government facilities. We're the ones risking our lives to find this stuff, and those desk-jockey pen-pushers just swoop in and take it."
He hadn't realized she hated them this much.
Oh Yeonseo saw Hunter Agency officials as thieves.
"That's why we don't hand over everything to the Hunter Agency. We hold back anything we can integrate into our own tech. Like this."
White powder trickled down into Oh Yeonseo's palm again.
It was the same stuff that had knocked out the hunter and manager.
"What is that?"
"Hypnos's Breath. Air spirits give it as a gift to friendly summoners. The Hunter Agency has no idea we get presents like this."
Hypnos was the god of sleep from Greek and Roman mythology.
So that's why the hunter and manager had passed out.
"Pharma companies research it and make sedatives and nerve stabilizers better than anything on Earth. We can only produce small amounts now, but with tech advances, mass production will be possible."
It was the guilds' and private companies' petty way of rebelling against the Hunter Agency.
"Let's head deeper. We need to take down the boss and grab any artifacts."
"You sure it's okay leaving those two here?"
"If their Yin Energy gets drained, they'll get booted out. What's to worry about? Just clear any nearby monsters. Oh, there's one now."
Something burst out from behind a tree.
It had a horse's head but a lion's body.
Where its tail should have been, a snake flicked its tongue.
And strapped rotting and pale like a zombie to its back was a goblin corpse.
A field mob with an even more grotesque appearance than Cerberork had appeared.
[It's a fake knockoff made by Baphomet.]
'Baphomet?'
[The 18th high demon among Solomon's 72 demons. Its hobby is catching a few beasts and stitching them together like that.]
According to lore, the real Baphomet had a horse's head and torso, a serpent for a tail, and a duke of hell riding on its back like a saddle.
It had clumsily stitched together a horse, lion, snake, and goblin in a pathetic attempt to mimic itself and released it into the gate.
'If a high demon made it, doesn't that mean it's insanely strong?'
[It's a knockoff at best. That woman can handle it, no problem.]
"Want to hang back in the safe zone and meet up at the boss area? I don't recharge in the field."
Familiars fought on her behalf, so summoners drained less Yin Energy than other hunters.
The drain speed and amount depended on the hunter's physical exertion.
He opted to go all the way to the boss area with her.
He was curious to see how she took down the mobs.
"Won't you run out of Yin Energy to give me later?"
"I can keep giving until you tell me to stop, so don't worry."
She flashed him a meaningful smile.
"If you're saying that with such confidence, you've got something up your sleeve. I'll look forward to it."
Any other semi-awakened would have hightailed it to the safe zone without a second thought.
But as an ever-flowing spring, he had no such need.
If things got dicey, he could materialize his Yin Energy to help Oh Yeonseo.
'Show off my abilities and win her over.'
If she hated the Hunter Agency that much, she'd keep his powers quiet even after learning about them.
Han Chaewon hadn't reported their encounter either.
His abilities were obviously more valuable to hunters—especially high-rank ones—than to bureaucrats.
This was the perfect chance to prove his worth to an S-Rank hunter.
Once Oh Yeonseo tasted his Yin Energy, she'd be hooked like Han Chaewon.
'God, this makes me sound like a gigolo.'
[Isn't that your goal, Master? A semi-awakened sucking honey from dangerous hunters.]
'Fair point.'
He couldn't help but chuckle.
"Caaaack!!"
The monster charged with an eerie screech.
Oh Yeonseo traced something in the air with her finger, and a magic circle appeared, blocking the monster.
As the bounced-back monster thrashed wildly, a hand shot out from the magic circle and seized its head.
It was a hand entwined with wooden vines.
"The wood spirit lent me its power."
The full torso emerged from the magic circle.
It looked just like the tree giant Ent from The Lord of the Rings.
The tree giant gripped the monster's neck and ripped the goblin corpse off its back with its other arm.
The snake attached to the monster's rear coiled around the tree giant's arm, but vines sprouted from the giant's body, binding it and leaving it in the same fate as the goblin.
The monster's screams drew more from the forest.
"Looks like one won't cut it."
Oh Yeonseo swiftly moved her fingers.
More magic circles formed in the air, summoning additional tree giants.
The melee erupted immediately, but the monsters were no match for the tree giants.
They all ended up as headless corpses, yet more poured out from the forest, screaming.
There looked to be at least twice as many this time.
Oh Yeonseo summoned even more tree giants, systematically dropping the monsters.
Now he understood why summoners were called a one-man army.
The familiars Oh Yeonseo had summoned—ten in total—were the equivalent of ten hunters battling field mobs.
He had no idea how the boss fight would go, but at least in the field, she didn't need help from other hunters.
Her breathing was steady, too—no sign of Yin Energy strain.
As he watched the tree giants' combat in admiration, a snake burst from one of the fallen corpses on the ground.
It was the snake that had been attached to the monster's rear.
Its body swelled massively before launching itself, sailing over the tree giants.
The snake was headed straight for Oh Yeonseo, who was issuing commands from the rear.
It was like a terrorist on a suicide bombing mission.
"Caaaack—!!"
The moment he spotted the incoming snake, his body moved on instinct.
Dozens of Yin Energy orbs materialized in his outstretched palm.
Enough to make him wonder if he could even produce this many.
The orbs rocketed from his hand at tremendous speed, slamming into the snake's body.
Dozens piercing at once—it couldn't withstand the impact and got blasted back toward the monster horde.
Boooom!
A massive explosion rocked the area, obliterating everything nearby.
The monsters emerging from the forest, the scattered corpses on the ground, and even the tree giants battling them—all vanished without a trace.
The explosive power of dozens of Yin orbs combined far exceeded his imagination.
Oh Yeonseo's expression at the sight was priceless.
She stared at the blast site with a look of utter disbelief.
Too shocked to speak, she froze in place.
After a long moment, she swallowed hard and turned toward him.
"That... was you, Woojin?"