Chapter 5
Chapter 5
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: National Power-level (2)
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“Teynen Guild, First Assault Team’s Lee Soo-jin. And you are...”
“E-rank Hunter Park Kang-hyuk, the porter who joined the raid.”
“I see. Could you tell me what happened inside the dungeon?”
Kang-hyuk nodded and relayed exactly what he’d told the administrator moments ago.
“Wh-what about the other hunters...”
“Some of them are probably still alive. Since I took down the Death Knight...”
Soo-jin’s face twisted at Kang-hyuk’s response.
“What do you mean? You took down the Death Knight?”
“Looks like I reawakened. Thanks to that...”
Kang-hyuk gripped the sword lying on the ground, unleashing pitch-black sword aura.
Kuwoong—!
Soo-jin and the Teynen Guild hunters and staff hurriedly backed away.
“I’ve subjugated the Death Knight, Lich, and Dullahan, and recovered their magic stones.”
Kang-hyuk withdrew his sword aura and showed them the magic stones in his backpack.
“An S-rank...”
Soo-jin gulped as she stared at the Death Knight’s magic stone.
Even if he reawakened, that aura just now...
It felt similar to an S1-rank, like the guild master’s.
Does that even make sense? From E-rank straight to S1-rank Hunter?
Soo-jin eyed Kang-hyuk with a tense expression.
“Do you have any potions on you by any chance?”
Soo-jin hesitated at Kang-hyuk’s question before nodding.
“Yes, I brought some just in case.”
“My internal injuries are severe... Could I trade these magic stones for a potion?”
Soo-jin slowly nodded.
She’d brought plenty of potions. One mid or high-grade should be fine.
In exchange for an S-rank magic stone, Kang-hyuk received a high-grade potion.
Soo-jin closed her eyes quietly as she gazed at the S-rank stone.
With the abilities Park Kang-hyuk had just shown, taking down a Death Knight seemed plausible.
But Chan-seok’s skills wouldn’t be enough to subjugate a Death Knight.
Still, her suspicions weren’t easily dispelled.
I have to consider the possibility that Hunter Park Kang-hyuk killed Chan-seok and the others.
Kang-hyuk downed the potion and met Soo-jin’s eyes.
“There are survivors inside the dungeon. I know of at least eight in the boss room.”
“What?!”
“It hasn’t even been ten hours since I took down the Death Knight.”
“We’ll dispatch a rescue team right—!”
“The dungeon’s layout kept shifting. Of course, after the Death Knight was subjugated...”
“If the boss is down, the structure stabilizes. Then why didn’t Hunter Park Kang-hyuk...”
“S3-rank Hunter Lee Sung-ho and the other hunters and porters had all lost limbs and were badly injured. I lost my left arm and had severe internal injuries too... but since I could still move my legs, I decided to escape first and get help.”
“Ah...”
“With the power from my reawakening—enough to take down the Death Knight—I figured my survival odds were high even if I ran into magic beasts on the way out.”
Soo-jin nodded, convinced.
“I left X-marks on the way out. Paths leading there looped back or dead-ended.”
“We’ll keep that in mind.”
As Soo-jin led her hunters into the dungeon, Association staff and medics arrived.
Kang-hyuk was loaded onto a stretcher and transported to the hospital.
The high-grade potion had healed his internal injuries.
Bleeding from his severed left shoulder had stopped too.
He only went to the hospital to leave the scene.
Once the doctor cleared him for discharge, Kang-hyuk headed straight home.
“I’ll update my rank tomorrow.”
Today, he just wanted to crash in bed and sleep.
“Not sure if Teynen Guild will pay me, but...”
With the magic stones in his backpack, he’d already secured his compensation.
“They wouldn’t try to take them later, right?”
Of course, he had no intention of handing them over easily.
Especially not to covet what belonged to the Heavenly Demon God...
He’d never even imagined such a thing.
Kang-hyuk let out a small chuckle.
“First things first, I need to form a guild. Or maybe found a nation while I’m at it?”
He had the perfect territory in mind.
North Korea, now overrun by Otherworld Races and magic beasts.
If he cleared the entire country in exchange for a chunk of its land, the South Korean government might see it positively.
South Korea had been like an island nation since its founding, thanks to North Korea.
Even now, with the North gone, it was the same.
Attacks from Otherworld Races and magic beasts pouring in from the north left South Korea in crisis again.
They’ve already lost Jeju Island, plus parts of Jeolla and Gyeongsang Provinces to the Otherworld Races...
Territory kept shrinking.
The threats persisted.
Eliminate them and expand the land? The government would welcome it.
“Let’s start by building an organization.”
Kang-hyuk smiled faintly, hailed a taxi, and went home.
Lying in bed, he turned on the TV—just in time for coverage of the Gwanggyo Mountain Gate incident.
Yoo Chan-seok, the S2-rank hailed as South Korea’s top elite, dead in a B-rank dungeon.
It was bound to cause an uproar.
“Huh?”
Lee Sung-ho appeared on screen.
“He’s alive?”
An Association executive was giving an interview based on survivor testimonies.
Kang-hyuk sighed softly at the reporters’ questions.
The executive dodged their pointed inquiries as best he could.
It kept the backlash at bay.
Instead, people buzzed with excitement over a new S-rank emerging to replace Yoo Chan-seok.
Kang-hyuk let out a small sigh.
His info was leaking somewhere.
The badmouthing suggested Lee Sung-ho’s involvement.
If it’s Lee Sung-ho... he’ll get Teynen Guild to procure top-grade potions.
Teynen Guild bought up high-grade potions and sold them cheap to members.
About 60-70% of auction price, but it eased the burden on hunters.
The next day, Kang-hyuk grabbed his backpack and headed to the Hunter Association’s Seoul HQ in Yeouido.
As he approached the reception desk for re-evaluation, a female staffer jumped up.
“Ah, we’ve been waiting. Please wait in front of Testing Room 1.”
Kang-hyuk nodded and followed her to Testing Room 1.
Soon, the Association President and executives came to greet him personally.
“First time meeting. I’m Lee Ho-seok, President of the South Korean Hunter Association.”
A sharp-eyed man in his sixties with short hair.
Kang-hyuk shook his offered hand.
“Park Kang-hyuk.”
“We’ve heard about you. Mind if we observe your re-evaluation?”
“Of course not.”
Kang-hyuk readily agreed and eyed the massive wall in the testing room.
A blue barrier over 10 meters high and wide.
The president and executives entered the observation room to measure his power.
Kang-hyuk nodded, grabbed a sword from the box on the right wall.
Kang-hyuk channeled mana into the sword.
Going all out right away was risky.
It might draw Otherworld Races’ attention.
The leaders of each dimension might have power on my level.
They stayed put because they wary of each other.
Probably investigating while hiding their own info.
Mid Grand Master level should do...
Yeah, that’s plenty.
To be South Korea’s strongest, anyway.
Lee Ho-seok and his aides flinched at Kang-hyuk’s sword aura.
“P-President...”
“Indeed, a terrifying aura. At this level...”
Finally, Kang-hyuk unleashed a slash at the mithril wall.
Kuwaaaaaang—!
The mithril wall shattered, shaking the Association building.
Executives ducked, shielding their heads from the rumble.
Ho-seok checked the slash’s power on the monitor.
“Heh...”
Off the scale.
Most S1-rank Hunters couldn’t destroy a mithril wall.
It was reinforced for testing, coated in mana.
Worldwide, only about ten had ever broken one.
They were called National Power-level Hunters.
“In South Korea...”
A National Power-level Hunter surpassing S1-rank had been born.
Reawakening or not, did this make sense?
“President! Reports of an earthquake across Yeouido—!”
Luckily, it wasn’t major.
The testing room absorbed most of it.
If that slash hit downtown...
A small city would turn to rubble in seconds.
Nuclear-level power.
“Ready for the second attack?”
An executive snatched the mic with a pale face at Kang-hyuk’s question.
The wall was already gone—what more attacks?
Kang-hyuk lowered his sword and nodded at the frantic voice.
The president and executives rushed down.
Ho-seok approached Kang-hyuk with a small smile.
“Congratulations. Your rank is now S1.”
“Got it.”
Ho-seok looked puzzled at Kang-hyuk’s nonchalant reply.
“You expected as much.”
“Yes. After taking down the Death Knight... I had a hunch.”
“Jumping from E-rank to S1 in one go... Rare even worldwide. Plus, no S1-rank in South Korea has ever destroyed a mithril wall. Those who do are...”
“National Power-level Hunters.”
The title of the nation’s strongest Hunter was his.