Chapter 72
Chapter 72
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 72
Chapter Title: Preparation (5)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Shaina spoke without much thought, but to Suhyun, her words were something he couldn’t just overlook. Suhyun grabbed Shaina’s shoulders and asked urgently.
“Say it again. Cassica? You’re sure it shows terrifying hallucinations?”
“Uh, huh? I’m not making other people drink it or anything, so why are you...”
Shaina, misinterpreting Suhyun’s reaction, waved her hands in a fluster. The dark elves’ image among humans wasn’t great, so she figured Suhyun must have gotten the wrong idea.
“No, I’m not criticizing you for knowing about it. If what you’re saying is true, I have a use for it.”
“...?”
Shaina tilted her head. Cassica was a herb that wasn’t even used much among dark elves anymore. It used to be employed in adulthood rites to test courage, but now it was mostly dismissed as an outdated tradition. The tribal prophets used it for divining at best.
“Do you have any on hand by chance?”
“No. Why would I carry something like that around?”
It was disappointing, but she had a point. Suhyun jumped straight to the next question.
“Then where can you get it?”
“It’s easy to find in my hometown, but that’s out of the question.”
“Why?”
“It’s far away, and if you went there, you wouldn’t come out in one piece...”
Shaina trailed off, but Suhyun caught her meaning right away. He’d encountered belligerent dark elves before. Stepping foot in their territory meant getting attacked on sight.
“Ah, you could probably get it in the Euterph region too.”
“Really?!”
“...Probably?”
“Why the ‘probably’?”
“Well, I haven’t checked it myself. Back when we ran out of herbs, I’d send others to the Euterph region to fetch some... So, it should be there, right?”
It was pretty convincing. Suhyun nodded.
“Thanks. That’s a huge help.”
“Glad to hear it, but is this really going to be useful?”
Shaina couldn’t fathom why Suhyun was so interested in cassica. To her, it was a useless weed. Burning and drinking it did produce terrifying hallucinations, but the process took forever and required so much that it was impractical even for combat.
“Loosen up your thinking a bit. There’s no such thing as something useless in this world. You can even sell a random pebble for a fortune.”
“How?”
“Take it to Earth and call it a mystical stone from Cameron Planet. People will buy it.”
“......”
Shaina wore a look of utter defeat. She’d had more contact than most non-humans with humanity’s ventures on Cameron Planet, so she was fairly adapted, but she still didn’t fully grasp their systems.
“Point is, what seems useless to dark elves or other non-humans can actually come in handy. So if anything pops into your head, speak up right away. Knowledge from other races is always welcome.”
“Got it.”
While the two conversed, Kang In-gyu was drenched in sweat and on the verge of collapse. Suhyun clapped his hands to signal him to stop.
“Good work. Take a break!”
“Hah, haah... Hah.”
“Trainee Park Su-yong. Take Kang In-gyu, feed him some nutrients, then give him an injection. I’ve got the manual ready—just follow it.”
“Understood.”
Even without cheat-level tech like body enhancement surgery, the techniques for forging trained physiques had advanced tremendously compared to the past. And Suhyun’s manual was the genuine article, born from the results of countless test subjects.
‘Huh, he’s got more grit than I thought.’
Suhyun had noticed something unexpected during Kang In-gyu’s training: the guy had real tenacity. His frail appearance and timid demeanor made it easy to underestimate him, but right up until Suhyun called a halt, Kang In-gyu had kept running with a look like he was about to drop dead.
‘Well, not just anyone becomes a curse shaman.’
Sure, he’d changed after a massive shock, but people had a fundamental capacity. If he’d been a nobody to begin with, even a huge trauma wouldn’t have amounted to much.
“Good team.”
“?”
Shaina murmured softly. When Suhyun glanced at her as if asking what she meant, she panicked with a look like she hadn’t expected him to hear.
“No, I can just feel how close the team members are. And no one’s showing any displeasure at me being around... That’s all. I just said it’s a good team.”
“You’re praising us—why say it like you’re so flustered? Relax and speak your mind.”
Suhyun patted Shaina on the back. He’d sensed from the start that she was on guard as a dark elf. He’d recruited her as a superpower user—no way was he going to let her act all cautious.
“Let’s get along from here on out. Teammates.”
“...Yeah!”
Shaina walked off with a bright expression, brimming with positive anticipation for the new team and their future together. Watching her go, Suhyun thought to himself.
‘Better not tell her about the next job yet.’
Thanks to what Shaina had said, the location for their next mission was set: the Euterph region. Narrow it down to Euterph, and the available missions naturally narrowed too.
With the gates at the center, the Russian and Chinese cities lay relatively to the north, so their advances focused northward as well.
By contrast, the Korean and American cities were in the south, with their expansions skewed the same way. Calcutta jungle zone, Kevaswak region, Ames Plains, Euterph region... All areas primarily prowled by Korean or American forces.
Euterph in particular saw a wide array of groups. It was a vast expanse compared to other zones, brimming with endless potential value, so countless factions vied to stake their claim and reap profits.
Naturally, the Korean government was aggressively pursuing gains there too, meaning missions in Euterph were plentiful if you went looking.
But the key wasn’t just taking a mission—it was which one you took. Suhyun intended to use this chance to solidly build Uncle Jo Company’s credibility.
‘In that case, it has to be...’
Recalling the mission list he’d reviewed, Suhyun made his decision.
* * *
While drilling the trainees to acclimate them to their artifacts, Suhyun planned their next mission. When he pitched his idea to the Development Planning Department, Choi Hyun-min was floored, looking like he might faint.
“A rock giant?”
“Didn’t expect you to be against it.”
Rock giants roamed the Euterph region—a diverse landscape of plains, hills, and mountains—using the terrain to conceal their massive forms. The real issue was they didn’t just hide; they exploited it to ambush intruders.
The name and its status as a large monster might evoke images of a lumbering brute, but rock giants were among the craftiest monsters out there. Overwhelming resistance to physical attacks, environmental stealth, relentless pursuit of intruders... Any group venturing deep into Euterph knew them well.
“No, Team Leader Kim Suhyun. We don’t try to stop teams that say they’re in. We don’t have the authority anyway. It’s just...”
Choi Hyun-min hesitated before continuing.
“This is my personal opinion, not official. Aren’t you moving a bit too fast...?”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. Uncle Jo Company has racked up successes at a blistering pace since partnering with us. Flawlessly, even. Most big-company teams can’t sustain that rate.”
Suhyun wasn’t satisfied yet, but Uncle Jo Company enjoyed high marks within the department. He wasn’t fully confident in their head-on fighting prowess, but the team’s overall ability was highly rated. They had the results to show for it.
Choi Hyun-min hoped Uncle Jo would grow steadily. In his eyes, Suhyun’s team wasn’t the type to fizzle out prematurely. People like that always rose somehow.
Even so, Cameron Planet was a place where such talents could drop dead in an instant. Rather than overreaching and suffering a freak accident, he wished they’d build their strength gradually to become one of the government’s ace cards. The rest of the department shared that view.
“Rock giants are tricky to deal with, sure.”
“Tricky... Yeah. Not sure I’d call it that, but...”
“But there’s one thing I’d like you to understand, Section Chief Choi. I’ve never once jumped into anything recklessly. Kakrita Valley, Kevaswak region—all calculated jumps after the math checked out.”
There was real conviction in Suhyun’s voice—the timbre of a man who’d staked his life in dire straits time and again.
“You think I’d say I’ll do it without a plan?”
“Well, sure, but...”
If Suhyun put it that way, Choi Hyun-min had nothing to say.
“There are plenty of other jobs in Euterph, right? Unconfirmed zones still—scouting the area, gathering intel...”
“No need. We’ve already proven we can handle that.”
“...Any particular reason you’re fixated on the rock giant?”
“Reputation.”
“?”
“They don’t say it out loud, but I can tell what the Development Planning Department and others think. Probably something like, ‘Uncle Jo Company excels at non-combat stuff. But how’s their combat power?’”
“There hasn’t been...”
“You can’t claim that.”
“......”
“I plan to show it definitively this time. And a rock giant makes the perfect opponent. It’s not something you luck into killing.”
Suhyun clenched his fist as he spoke. The sight sent an inexplicable shiver through Choi Hyun-min.
‘Am I witnessing the birth of a legend right now?’
Legends drifting around Cameron Planet like rumors: someone solo-circumnavigating the planet, wiping out every monster in a region, slaying a dragon... They sounded absurd, but they didn’t spring from thin air.
Someone had actually pulled off the core feat, and embellishments turned it into hearsay. And every legend had a beginning.
To Choi Hyun-min, Suhyun wasn’t some hot-blooded young talent driven by unchecked ambition. He was a sly predator who knew exactly what he wanted—and how to claim it.
“You’ll understand after this job’s done. Why I’m so hung up on the rock giant.”
“I get it already. Just bagging one will skyrocket your name value.”
‘He doesn’t get it.’
Out of all the options, Suhyun had chosen the rock giant for a reason. Plenty of other monsters could prove raw power. Choi Hyun-min probably hadn’t connected the dots, fixating on the name and Suhyun’s haste.
Rock giants hadn’t ravaged mercenaries—they’d inflicted catastrophic losses on Korean and American military units pushing into Euterph. Time had passed, but slaying one would bring that history roaring back.
Merc companies and mercs had that “insiders-only” image to some, but not on Cameron Planet. The steady stream of unveiled unknowns captivated the public too. Back home, certain merc outfits and espers were celebrity-famous.
‘Take down one monster, become a hero.’
A rock giant kill wouldn’t stay hushed among insiders. It was the kind that mandatory hit the mass media.
Suhyun intended to become a titan. One no one could ignore. For that, he needed power, influence, wealth, fame... everything, without gaps.
‘Of course, that’s after we take it down.’
Other mercs in Euterph had no interest in poking rock giants. Profitable work abounded—why risk a dangerous, tenacious pest?
A bounty went up when the military first took hits, but after a few fearless challengers vanished, interest waned.
To Euterph’s mercs, rock giants were a headache to avoid, not hunt.
Now, Suhyun’s team would shatter that perception.