N-Rank Hunter Lim Chae-beom (2)

The next morning.

"Hyung-nim. Take a look at this."

"What is it?"

"You didn't even install the company app, sir? Every notice comes through on this."

On the way in to work, Lee Hae-il held up a notice for me.

"Hand it over, please. I'll take care of it."

Installation, identity verification, workplace entry — once that tedious gauntlet was behind us, I could see it too.

There were easy parts, and hard ones. The easy part was that the two of us were on the same team. The hard part was that the team belonged to that team leader, Choi.

"We're not about to die, are we, sir?"

"It's going to be pretty rough."

Still, hard wasn't the same as bad. Even I, who'd only arrived yesterday, could tell Choi held serious ground inside the Demon Realm gate. If I meant to rise, I had to catch his eye — and to catch his eye in any sense that mattered, I first had to put myself physically where that eye could see me. You can flatten every senior in sparring, and it still means nothing unless you do it in front of the coach.

"Look at this too, sir."

"What now?"

"Found it before I slept last night. A post our previous class's ace left on Huntranet."

A thousand. So that was the line drawn inside Choi Jong-hyeok.

"Hard to tell if that's a lot or a little."

"It's a lot, sir. Anything a gun actually works on, the non-awakened usually handle."

"Then we'll have to do more than that."

Lower than I'd expected.

"Good morning, sir!"

Our second day on the job.

"You're here? Gear's in the Team 1 office. Suit up and come back down."

Following another team leader's directions, we took the elevator up.

"It's seriously huge, sir! And the break room is no joke!"

The guild had money, and the facilities showed it. Even counting clerical support, teams of fewer than five each occupied a quarter of that sprawling commercial building. The pantry looked as if someone had picked up an entire convenience store and set it down inside, and combat uniforms and auxiliary gear were piled into mountains.

"These are Level IV plates, sir. They'll stop large-caliber armor-piercing rounds."

"You never even served. How do you know that?"

"Came up in a shooter game, sir."

"Wear that in there and you'll cook to death. We nearly dehydrated yesterday, didn't we?"

"Ack!? Now that I think about it, that would've been a disaster, sir."

I felt a little more fond of the team. In modern sport, good facilities matter more than anything. What you need is a hungry spirit, not a hungry environment. By the time we'd gathered our gear and come back down, Team Leader Choi was already ready.

"We're late. Sorry, sir."

"No. I have no intention of blaming you for failing to arrive as early as I did, merely because I came early."

He tossed the words out with a face as fierce and bulging-eyed as a village totem, then left the branch without so much as a glance at us. The non-awakened hunters waiting outside went into the gate with him.

"……."

The looks they flicked our way were strange. I strained my ears and caught scraps like, "We doing it? For real?" The nasty hazing rituals of an athletic club came back to me. Of course, the ones who'd tried to haze me had ended up begging to be allowed to call the police instead. It would be the same this time.

"You remember the cavity we went to yesterday?"

"Yes, sir."

"Killing the beasts there once does not end it. They try to take it back behind a force numbered in the hundreds."

We passed into the grand Demon Realm gate and descended for a long while toward Saetbyeol's mining sector.

"If even a single volcanic goblin succeeds in entering the cavity, they take it as hope that the place can be reclaimed. They send a second wave. A third."

Team Leader Choi Jong-hyeok spoke.

"Conversely, stop the assault in a single stroke and they abandon that cavity. If ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠we mean to mine magic stones there with any stability from now on, we will have to hold it. Understood?"

So today we were fighting a defensive battle.

"As a rule, demons of C-Rank or higher almost never appear. Now and then, though, a monster like the one you saw yesterday does."

"Yes, sir."

"If one of those shows itself, that would be misfortune."

A question rose, and I asked it carefully.

"Misfortune, sir?"

"I will be inside the cavity, shoring it against collapse with my earth magic. Call for me if you like. By the time I arrive, it will already be too late."

Let me correct myself. He didn't mean we would fight the defense. He meant you would.

"What!?"

Lee Hae-il's mouth dropped open, a shout already on its way out. I clamped a hand over it in a hurry. A fine bit of hazing. Not bad at all.

"Why that look? Is there a problem?"

"No, sir."

"Good."

"Yes. We're fine with it too."

"……?"

I smiled, thin and easy, and Team Leader Choi blinked twice before turning his eyes forward again.

We reached yesterday's Lava Cavity. Choi truly stayed there and did not go on to the far side. All that followed us were some twenty non-awakened hunters.

"I dunno. Feels like we all die today."

"We're supposed to walk in there trusting rehabilitation hunters?"

"Hey, they'll hear you! Sorry! We're just ordinary people who don't even have the guts to commit a crime!"

"I'm so scared I might screw up. What if my hands shake and I can't shoot?"

"If those two die, we'll have to work with just Team Leader Choi again."

"How's that any different from right now?"

Suppressing fire against the beasts was more than I could hope for. I'd count myself lucky if they simply didn't shoot us in the back.

"Kreeeeee!"

"Gob, gob-gob!"

"Thieves! Drive them out!"

Up ahead, the vanguard of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the beasts came into view. The tunnel curved, so I couldn't see far, but the mass ran at least as far as the bend. There were three of the D-Rank demons I'd seen yesterday, and once I counted the orcs and goblins, large and small, there were five hundred of them at the least. No chance Team Leader Choi's thousand-a-month had been padded with trash like this.

"Hae-il."

"Yes."

"You ready?"

"A little shaky, but yes. I'm ready, sir."

Then this would be too easy.

Choi Jong-hyeok had truly remained in the cavity alone.

It ought to be starting about now.

He had not stayed for anything so trivial as reinforcement work.

A low, grinding rumble rolled through the stone.

The moment he brought his earth magic to bear, one wall shuddered and a hidden tunnel revealed itself.

Great and small eyes flashed all at once inside that tunnel. A B+ Magma Earth Wyrm was a monster whose roar, psychic wave alone, could pulp the brain of an E+ hunter like Lee Hae-il. A C+ Flame Demon standing nearly five meters tall was still no opponent Jeong Jae-ha could face.

Choi Jong-hyeok burst a psychic wave of his own and unleashed his earth magic. The basalt of the surrounding ground clung to his body and took the shape of a giant.

A heavy impact shook the cavity.

He became a stone titan tall enough to look down on the Flame Demons with ease, and raised both fists. It wasn't exactly that he had lied. A defensive battle was, by nature, an event fought against hundreds of low-rank beasts. This cavity simply drew an unusual concentration of mana, and so it mattered to them as well.

I'll have to finish before they get here.

For an A-Rank hunter, that was no problem at all.

Though I wonder if they can even make it this far.

Like most N-Rank hunters, his non-awakened teammates were surely preparing a hazing for the rehabilitation hunters. Common enough in this line of work. An emotional problem born of the social structure itself, and so it would never end. That was the misfortune about to fall on Jeong Jae-ha and Lee Hae-il.

Betrayal by a fellow hunter is the greatest misfortune a hunter can suffer.

Choi Jong-hyeok wanted to see how the two of them would meet it. If they slaughtered every non-awakened hunter, or if they themselves died, that would be tragedy — the same tragedy as his own, when he had been forced to beat to death, with his own hands, the old comrades who had betrayed him. But if they could keep this misfortune from turning into tragedy...

Will you be different from me? Can you stand before misfortune and not become miserable?

Then he meant to drive out every misfortune that came for them. He had the strength for that.

I looked at the Flame Demon standing at the very front.

The same rank as me. And yet, looking at a frame a full meter taller than mine and five molten claws like short swords, I doubted we were really the same rank at all. The doubt didn't lead to fear. It led to anticipation.

"Here they come! They're coming!"

"We're all dead!"

"My hands are shaking so bad I c-can't shoot!"

"Looks like those awakened hunter sirs froze up too?"

Behind us, the non-awakened hunters burst into theatrical sneers.

"I braced for it, but I'm still pissed, sir."

"Yeah."

"I'll hold it in. We still have to dig into that Jeong Ho-min bastard."

"Then that's enough, isn't it."

Lee Hae-il muttered it at my side. Once you entered a new organization, you had to melt into it one way or another. I couldn't just beat the lot of them down.

"Think an even bigger demon shows up today?"

"Team Leader Choi was going on about C-Rank demons and up, wasn't he."

"Yeah."

"Then one probably will."

All I had to do was make them wish I'd beaten them instead.

The D-Rank demon burst its psychic wave and pointed those molten claws our way.

"Wooooaaah!"

"Gobbbbb!"

Volcanic orcs and volcanic goblins came charging. I watched them come and drew a light breath. The pleasant tension turned to thrill, and a bright electric sensation ran from the crown of my head down the spine and out through my whole body.

"All right. Let's have some fun."

I tipped my weight onto the lead foot and locked my body there, wringing every ounce of strength from the physique of a D-Rank body enhancer. A sound like the steel cables of a great bridge twisting under load ripped through me, and my whole body shuddered. Beneath my shoes, the basalt floor crackled as hairline fractures raced through it. I leveled the estoc at the enemy in that state. Glance off by even a little and the force would shear away, so the point had to be true. I set my aim on the demon's neck, loaded every bit of gathered power ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠into it, and drove off the rear foot.

Wind pressure hit me like I'd stuck my head out the window of a sports car.

"Wuh?"

"Gob?"

Orcs and goblins spun in confusion. I had already closed more than fifty meters in less than two strides.

The D-Rank demon was far taller than I was. I never properly saw the face it made in that last instant.

The estoc punched dead into the center of its neck. I drove it in until the crossguard struck the throat. Rocky carapace crumbled, and fire and lava sprayed. Of course, that alone couldn't kill a demon.

"Ha!"

I fed the momentum of the charge into a balestra sidestep and twisted.

A crack like a bundle of power lines snapping — the estoc buried in the demon's neck levered, and the neck tore clean away. Even that wasn't enough to trust. I planted a foot on the demon's pelvis, kicked off, and stabbed the estoc wildly down into the hollow of the neck.

White flame guttered out, and the familiar rapture came with it. The whole thing had taken less than three seconds. There was no leisure to soak in it.

"Wooooaaah!?"

"The fire-god is dead, gob!"

The orcs and goblins around me reeled in shock and lunged. Killing intent stood every fine hair on my body on end, and a chill ran the length of my spine. The tension of muscle taking the strain made me feel alive. Surrounded by that many, of course, I wouldn't get to feel it for long.

I stepped off the crumbling pelvis and leapt straight up. High as the ceiling was, it was only about ten meters, and long stalactites hung everywhere between, easy enough to use as footholds. I kicked my legs up in midair, planted on the slanted face of one, and sprang again.

I shot toward the next demon.

"Is he insane?!"

"What is that?"

"That guy had an ability like that? I thought he was just a body enhancer?"

The non-awakened hunters' cries, half shock and half awe, came back like an echo. For a moment it overlapped the seniors who'd called me arrogant, mouths hanging open beneath my piste. I ran the empty air with the feeling of flight.

I kicked off the stalactite and shot away on a diagonal. In midair I kicked again, planted on the wall, and leapt for the wall beyond the next diagonal. Wide as the passage was, it was only some thirty meters. With a D-Rank body enhancer's leg power and my own sense, crossing left and right was more than possible.

Tap, tap, crack — I ricocheted from wall to wall and charged the second demon.

"Over there!"

"Gob! No—!"

Orcs and goblins spun to catch me, tangled their own feet, collided, and milled in a panic.

The demon rolled its eyes and unleashed its authority.

The blast roared out.

I'd been able to read where that gaze was aimed since the first day. I slipped the explosion with ease and arrived at the demon's nose — close enough to fill those blazing pupils. Then I put my whole weight into it, and the explosive power of my legs besides, and drove the sword down into its eye as if stamping it from above. The estoc plunged in, churned the insides to ruin, and burst out through the armpit. I twisted the arm that held the blade once more, and the demon's body came apart like cardboard ripped through a fodder cutter. Somewhere in the exchange a molten claw caught me; hot wounds burned along my flank and lower back. At the same rank, that much was bearable.

Then the third demon burst a psychic wave loud enough to make the tunnel ring. I felt the fear carried in it. That I had become something capable of frightening them was deeply satisfying.

Once again I used the walls and the ceiling's stalactites for three-dimensional movement. Sometimes I ran along the wall. Sometimes I leapt into the air and turned a somersault. I ran, and ran again, clear of the gouts of flame the demon threw. This was my own piste — the one I would advance down now that I was a hunter. I had known for a very long time what waited at the end of it.

"Ha!"

My vision spun. Orcs and goblins showed right side up, then upside down, over and over. Too much blood had rushed to my ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠head; the feeling went distant and hazy.

"Ha — hahaha!"

I burst out laughing and brought down the third demon as well. I'd definitely pushed too far. The state of my body was a spectacle. I'd killed demons and absorbed their mana, but spent stamina didn't come back with it. My throat stung, and my arms and legs trembled. At the training center they'd offered a comparison: when your level rises, the amount of HP that recovers on its own increases — but that doesn't mean all your HP comes back on the spot.

"Wooooaaaaah!"

I couldn't face hundreds of enraged orcs and goblins like this. In the dark, hundreds of furious, bloodshot eyes flashed. Obsidian daggers in volcanic goblin hands. Brass axes in volcanic orc hands. I couldn't even parry those weapons now.

"Hae-il!"

"Yes!"

Lee Hae-il was different.