The Absolute Honey Trap
The command I injected into Hansik was simple.
“No monsters around Kalid, but you might run into some on the way. Prepare countermeasures.”
Hansik’s plan was to play dead.
At first I was stunned. Then I listened to his explanation and knocked my knee with my fist.
He had learned it from Kalid.
Kalid never attacked humans who didn’t bother him, which is why even the hunters never tried big raids on him.
Silent symbiosis. Maybe a true win-win.
If Kalid had been like those other boss monsters—ruthless, always hungry, eating everything—everything would have been different.
Korean hunters would have bandaged their wounds and thrown together a massive raid anyway, sacrificing lives to find a way to kill him.
Hansik had done the exact same thing.
He hadn’t attacked the monsters first, and he’d pretended to be harmless meat.
The strategy worked. The moment Perilok saw the bones, his interest died instantly.
And the fact that Kim Taesu had come chasing after Hansik was pure luck.
“Ha… what a pain.”
Kim Taesu, looking like he’d been tricked, rushed up and snapped, “Stop following me.”
I had asked for this myself.
I just had to sit here and rot.
“Following the mana compass, you’re going to Kalid, right?”
Kim Taesu wasn’t trailing far away anymore.
He was glued to Hansik’s heels.
“Lee Doosik, you hear everything, don’t you? You do? Call me back, why don’t you?”
Ignored again.
A thirsty man is forced to dig his own well.
Kim Taesu pulled out his notebook and started scribbling.
[Call me back, Lee Doosik.]
The screen in front of me suddenly blocked my view.
He waved the notebook at the bodycam.
In the end, I had no choice but to answer.
“Got nothing better to do? Why are you following me everywhere?”
“What? You could talk? Then why ignore me?”
“Detective.”
A speaker was attached to Hansik’s helmet, connected to my mic.
He trembled with the feeling of being fooled.
“Hey, isn’t it hard to tell me where you’re going? There has to be a reason to go somewhere.”
I only summon for a maximum of seventeen hours.
Two hours had already passed. I had to farm one more scallop.
“Fine. If you cooperate with me, I’ll grant you one favor.”
“Really?”
“As long as it’s not unreasonable. Like, borrow me some money…”
Money? Me? I’m about to become a delivery lord.
But honestly, I had planned to ask him to take Kalid all the way to the exit.
The mood made me think he might just do it for free if I played my cards right.
I was also thinking it wouldn’t be bad to know at least one Hunterpol detective.
“One favor, kept. Everything on this recording, understood? No more side comments later.”
“You’re really picky, aren’t you? But you are heading to Kalid, right?”
“Obviously.”
“Can’t walk any faster? This is driving me insane.”
Unfortunately, this was the best speed I had.
I had raised Hansik’s strength stats, but his agility was still the same.
“Detective?”
“Damn it, why are you going to Kalid?”
“Hunters go hunting.”
“Pfft, to Kalid? You must be crazy.”
“You’ll see when we get there.”
Hansik kept walking down the same path.
“Lee Doosik, where’s your real body?”
“I never agreed to share my private life.”
“Why are you so twitchy? You might actually be doing well.”
“Think about what you did at the entrance. Look, something’s ahead. Hey! Frog! Here!”
Another monster appeared and I drew aggro with a loud shout.
Of course Hansik was already lying on the ground with his helmet off.
Another frog-like monster, Perilok.
Bigger than the last one, with purple-tinged skin, it looked tougher.
“Ha, humans really are—”
Slam!
Kim Taesu blocked Perilok’s tongue with his shield and had no choice but to start fishing.
If he didn’t finish it fast, other monsters would swarm. Even an A-class hunter would be overwhelmed by five B-class mobs.
But this time Perilok was different.
It had dodged the fishing hook and leaped into the air.
Insane jump power. Perilok looked tiny from up there.
But then—
“Gyagok!”
Gluck.
A giant snake snatched the airborne Perilok out of the sky.
It was huge. And it was flying.
A flying snake? Not a dragon, but an Eastern legend dragon.
Its appearance wasn’t exactly dragon-like, just a big-headed snake.
So it was whatever.
Anyway, a massive monster had appeared.
It was definitely a boss monster.
Even Kim Taesu, an A-class hunter, couldn’t handle it.
But Kim Taesu calmly slung the fishing rod back onto his shoulder.
“Frog monsters are all dumb. They jump around in Kalid’s habitat.”
“Is that Kalid?”
Kalid was supposed to be a turtle, right?
“Kalid is known as a turtle, but it’s not a normal one. Think of the turtle’s shell hiding a snake inside. Almost there, hurry up. Hop on.”
“Eh?”
“Hop on. You’re slow as hell, skeleton. You’ll give me a heart attack if I chase you. Just see what you’re trying to do.”
It was a win-win.
I told Hansik to hop on Kim Taesu’s back.
“What? Why are you so light?”
“I have zero fat.”
“True.”
After saying that, Kim Taesu sprinted straight ahead at terrifying speed.
Hunters are hunters.
Even an electric kick scooter couldn’t match this.
Kalid really was massive.
The story was true—over 300 meters from head to tail.
Ten times the size of a blue whale.
No matter how huge Kalid was, its shell stuck out of the water like an iceberg.
“Climb onto the shell.”
“You’re asking for a lot.”
Kim Taesu hung the fishing line on Kalid’s shell and flew up like Spider-Man.
I had worried that if Kalid swallowed Perilok in mid-air, it would be a problem, but as rumor said, Kalid had zero interest in humans.
“It’s done?”
“Thank you.”
Because he had shortened the time, I politely thanked him.
Hansik walked toward the part of the shell touching the sea.
Scallops were piled up in enormous numbers.
Looking closer, I saw unknown clams between the scallops.
Harmless.
They couldn’t attack.
This was all experience?
Hansik set down his backpack and pulled out a pickaxe.
“You wanted to know the purpose of my visit, right? I came to harvest the scallops.”
“What? You brought me all the way here just to grill some clams?”
“You came along yourself?”
“As if hiding something big is some big secret.”
“I wish you hadn’t interfered.”
Clang!
Hansik swung his pickaxe into the scallop.
The shells on Kalid’s back were so firmly attached that he had to hammer them off and pry them out with a shovel.
Anyone who’s done it knows how exhausting shovel work and pickaxe work is.
Even an exhausted dungeon raid YouTuber quit after one hour, and the scallop-level-up content turned out to be nothing but aggro farming.
But Hansik didn’t get tired.
Clang!
He kept chipping away without a word.
Clang-clang!
It was like a metronome, steady rhythm, about 30 BPM.
Kim Taesu, who had wasted an entire day on something so pointless, just collapsed on the ground, too lazy to get up.
Clang-clang-clang!
No matter how you looked at it, the scallops kept stacking up.
I kept my status window open and stared at the experience bar until my eyes burned.
+——+——+Status Window+——+——+
Name: Lee Doosik
Level: 0
HP: 300
MP: 250
Experience: 0 / 1,000
Class: (Unique) Skeleton Lord
Constellation: Skeleton Star
Trait: [Skeleton] [Lord]
+——+——+——+——+——+
The experience didn’t budge at 0/1,000.
“What? How many do I have to farm? This should level me up by now.”
But then something changed in the status window.
——+——+Skill+——+——
[(Unique) Skeleton Soldier Summon Lv. 1]
- Unique skill of the Skeleton Lord. Summons one Skeleton Soldier for 17 hours (1 hour × Intelligence).
- Stat inheritance: The summoned Skeleton Soldier inherits 25% (0.01 × Intelligence) of the lord’s stats.
- Summon limit: 1 (scales with skill level).
- Equipment system: Each Skeleton Soldier can equip individual gear sets that are saved and loaded upon re-summon.
- Individualization: Each skeleton is a separate entity with its own abilities and equipment.
- Stat transfer: If a Skeleton Soldier dies in battle, its stats transfer to a nearby one for 17 minutes (1 minute × Intelligence).
- MP cost: 50
- Cooldown: None
- Experience for next level: 2 / 1,000
+——+——+——+——+——+——+——+
“What?!”
Level-up experience: 3 / 1,000
“What? My experience wasn’t supposed to rise?”
It was rising for the [(Unique) Skeleton Soldier Summon Lv. 1] skill.
I shot up from the motel bed.
“Damn… so my experience is something I actually have to farm myself?”
Had I been too greedy?
I had planned to raise my agility next level-up so I could make Hansik level up faster.
Now I could only raise the skill level and increase the number of low-grade skeletons…
Of course low-grade ones could still deliver.
But then a voice came from the laptop speaker.
“Hey, Doosik. You brought me here, can I roast these clams? I’m starving.”
It wasn’t a big deal.
“Yeah, go ahead.”
“You look like you’ve gained some muscle?”
He was still in his work clothes, so maybe he planned to kill time here by camping out.
When I gave permission, Kim Taesu pressed his palm on the pile of shells Hansik had stacked.
Fwoosh.
Flames shot up from his hand.
The fire burned between the scallops and clams.
Clams and shellfish sizzled and began to cook.
That wasn’t the important part.
“What? A magician?”
Kim Taesu muttered quietly.
“Detective?”
Cute.
“I thought you were a tank because you use a shield.”
“Do magicians not use shields? Look, I’m a mage-type hunter. If I use it well, I can even use fire. Then what are you? You look like you’re working from home remotely. Normal summons lose control if the summoner gets too far, right?”
Kim Taesu tossed a perfectly cooked clam into his mouth.
“This would make a great snack. If you set up a clam-roasting food truck at the gate entrance, it would be a hit.”
Not a bad idea.
But I couldn’t stop staring at the status window.
The experience for the skeleton soldier summon had jumped from 2/1,000 to 48/1,000.
Wait.
“Scallops have to be dead for the experience.”
Hunters normally don’t get experience from monsters that are only captured alive.
You have to kill them.
Kim Taesu poured flames over the shellfish pile.
55/1,000
68/1,000
74/1,000
The scallops sizzled and the clams gaped, and the experience rose.
Only fifteen minutes of work.
100/1,000
My heart started pounding as it passed 100.
108/1,000
The Dungeon Raid YouTuber Roy said he gained one experience point per dead shellfish he farmed.
He had only managed ten points in an hour.
But it wasn’t about farming. You had to kill the shellfish to get the experience.
“What the hell? This is literally honey!”
**SYSTEM NOTIFICATION**
**【(Unique) Skeleton Soldier Summon Lv. 1 Skill Level Up!】**
**Experience for next level: 3 / 1,000**
**New ability unlocked:【Stat Transfer】**
**HP and MP of nearby skeletons can be restored using transferred stats.**
**— Skeleton Lord —**