Kids These Days Are Scary
By the time the clueless third-generation chaebol heiress—who possessed a suspiciously encyclopedic knowledge of dog and wolf recipes—was singing their praises, the Nartica hunters had already sealed their critical wounds with recovery elixirs and medical iron pins before pressing on with the hunt.
Hunting an E-rank monster as low-tier hunters. When you considered that truly comfortable hunting usually happened against monsters a rank below your own, it was fair to say they were pushing through a brutal forced march. After all, low-tier hunters were those who stood above ordinary people yet remained woefully inadequate when it came to actually fighting monsters.
Still, it was far better than being reduced to mere playthings for a "rather large wolf."
The porter who had only recently finished basic training. Lady Cheon Mari's kind and close male friend. An outsider, yet a kid famous among the company employees for his strikingly beautiful features. In truth, he looked more like a childhood friend than a simple male friend—and more than a childhood friend at that. Anyway, things were much better in every way because this ordinary middle-schooler kept helping out at key moments.
"Everyone fall back. I'll handle this."
To be exact, it was better because he stepped in whenever it looked like they were about to be overwhelmed. What could a middle schooler who'd only received basic training possibly do? Yet the reality was surprisingly impressive.
Wolves that normally required desperate shouting and struggle were sliced apart in a single clean cut. When necessary, he didn't even bother drawing his blade—he simply beat them down with his fists. The wolves' sharp, lethal attacks were evaded through bizarre methods. His movements, which accelerated at blinding speeds and left afterimages in their wake, were enough to make everyone's jaws drop.
Movement magic? Acceleration magic? Reinforcement magic? He was using it far too freely to dismiss it as simple magic.
"You okay on stamina? Burning through superpowers like that has to be exhausting."
"Not really. It does wear me out if I commit to long bursts, but using it in short, decisive hits like this isn't too bad."
A power that awakeners had a chance of obtaining. Unlike magic, it consumed stamina and mental energy instead of mana.
"So you're an esper. That explains it..."
"Doesn't Agent Kim have an acceleration-type superpower too? From what I can see, it looks similar in level to yours."
"No, no. For starters, I collapse after using mine for just ten seconds. Besides, the way his movements distort proves it's clearly a different type from mine."
"Whoa... I'm seriously jealous."
For a mere middle schooler to be this capable, it was impossible to imagine how strong he would become with age. They couldn't confidently say he was in the top one percent, but he was definitely within the top ten.
And yet despite all that, he kept throwing around phrases like I'm ordinary, I have no talent, or it's all thanks to the elixir training.
Naturally, the Nartica hunters couldn't stop their stomachs from churning.
If he was ordinary, then what the hell did that make them?
If he had no talent or was lacking, then what did that make them—utter morons?
And elixir training? That brutal method of exhausting the body, recovering with elixirs, and exhausting it again was something every promising hunter at Nartica tried at least once. The only problem was its inhuman nature—one couldn't help but collapse. Logically, when the body tired, the mind followed. Yet the method ignored that entirely, recovering only the body to keep pushing. It was enough to drive anyone insane.
Just surviving it made someone a prodigy, so what was with all the belittling remarks about it being "elixir carry" or "training carry"?
"It's honestly a little infuriating. It's not like anyone wants to do that but can't."
"Right? Tsk. Of course, jealousy is still jealousy."
"If only we'd had abilities like that..."
Of course, the young lady they respected to the point of awe would defend Sian, whose speech and behavior resembled something out of a refined teahouse. To be precise, she would sadistically declare that Sian being ordinary was correct and that they were the ones falling short.
To the Nartica hunters, Cheon Mari was the type of psycho who believed everyone else should be as exceptional as she was. There were rumors that she'd been clearing dungeons since elementary school, carving through monsters and berating employees, so it was probably true.
A male student driven mad by unwitting deception and a female student driven mad by cold, cruel jabs. They truly made a perfect pair.
"Have you heard that rumor?"
"What rumor? Ah—got this one."
"About that kid. He was originally supposed to follow his relatives and become a judge or prosecutor. But the young lady beat him every single day until he switched over to the hunter path."
"Beat him? How do you even know that?"
"My cousin went to the same elementary school as him. So I picked up a few stories."
In his childhood, furious that Sian had taken first place, she had tried to dunk his head in a toilet. Every time they met, they stabbed each other with sashimi knives. He used to have a girlfriend, but they broke up because of Cheon Mari. Apparently the girlfriend was a bad sort—something about her condition being weird, like she was on drugs. Anyway, the two had enrolled together at a hunter middle school so they could legally fight each other. The problem was that they somehow became close after enrolling and even swore an oath of sworn brotherhood under a peach tree. But when his friend chose the false path of studying, Cheon Mari flew into a rage. So she beat him and trained him at Nartica.
A truly astonishing, nose-pinching, common-sense-shattering tale. It was riddled with falsehoods and heavy bias.
"Kids these days are scary. Throwing punches just to drag his friend along the Gangnam path with him."
"But isn't it too ridiculous that the friend actually listens when she beats him?"
"Who knows. They're childhood friends. Maybe they have that kind of understanding."
"Actually, aren't they dating? Honestly, if they've been together since first grade, it'd be harder not to end up that way..."
"I don't think so. I had a childhood friend too, but she fell completely for some church oppa and threw everything else away."
"They say there's no such thing as friendship between men and women, right? Plus, people say they're suspiciously attached at the hip."
With the story venturing beyond common sense, some of the hunters began comparing it to their own experiences. Even then, plenty of parts still didn't add up.
"Even if that's true, why would a polite kid like him date the young lady? What could he possibly see in her?"
"Well, if you remove the money... yeah."
"Just look at her personality. It's already famous that when the chairman sent her to a high-society event to build connections, she flipped the table and threw a full-blown tantrum."
"There are also rumors she beats relatives with a baseball bat at home. They say the chairman can't do anything because she's got dirt on him."
"Ah, that's right. To think the eldest granddaughter acts like an empress in her own family... ugh."
"There's even a story that after reading too many martial arts novels she lost her mind and started acting like the Heavenly Demon."
Endless chatter, chatter, chatter. If they had brought in a drug-addicted third-generation chaebol instead, the evaluation would probably have been kinder. As expected of a regressor, the karmic price for thoroughly enjoying her second life was enormous.
"Uh...? Isn't the relative assault thing at least partially true? Everyone knows about the time she openly beat Director Cheon Gyu-hyun's son with a baseball bat right at the company entrance."
"Ah, that did happen. She was incredibly vicious back then."
"In the company community, the rumor that if you subtract her looks, figure, hunter talent, and management skills she's basically a beast is basically public knowledge at this point..."
"The prototype potion supply and everything—if she hadn't held shares in the company since she was little, she would've been—"
"Shh. She'll hear you."
Why on earth were they friends? It was a truly mysterious fact that even Sian himself couldn't explain.
They were just about to dive deeper into serious discussion when the end of the labyrinth finally revealed itself.
Cheon Mari came walking from the rear. She pushed past them and stood boldly before the massive, tightly shut door.
"The boss room. This one's shorter than I expected."
The core element sustaining the gate. Once they took this thing down, the gate would collapse shortly after.
The Nartica hunters began unpacking their gear again, preparing for the finale.
But Sian walked up beside Mari and abruptly threw the door open.
"Oh, so this is the boss room entrance—"
Everyone froze in shock at the completely unexpected action. Mari included.
"Hey, hey, what the hell are you doing?! No one's ready yet!"
"Huh? Weren't we all about to head in?"
"I mean, yes, we were going in! But after we prepared a little first!"
In the game, the moment you spotted a boss room you stuck your face in immediately. Even in every dungeon scene from movies and dramas, hunters flung those doors open the second they appeared.
"Hmm?"
But that was only in fiction. In reality—where lives were actually on the line—things were different.
Unaware of this difference, Sian had casually opened the door. The fact that the wolves had gone down so easily had also contributed to his lighthearted attitude.
"T-Team Leader, what do we do now?!"
"A boss right away? This is way too reckless!"
"Ha, this is exactly why kids are a problem. They know nothing."
"Everyone shut up! Form up immediately and ready your weapons properly!"
The boss room door swung fully open. It was the dead end of the cave—the boss's very lair.
The boss, a gigantic wolf, stared at them with wide, glaring eyes.
Only then did Sian fully realize the magnitude of his mistake.
Wait... isn't that the boss monster that appears in the extremely early stages?
Did they really need to go this far? Did they have to set up a complicated formation against this thing?
Sian scratched his head.