A Borrowed Umbrella
"Thank you so much for today."
Gaeul bowed at the waist, putting her whole heart into the gesture. Caught off guard by the formality of it, Jisu returned the bow just as deeply before he found his voice.
"I should be the one thanking you."
Watching him, Gaeul found her thoughts drifting back to what had happened only moments ago. He's remarkably well-mannered... but that pressure he gave off earlier. He's definitely no ordinary person.
She'd sensed it the first time they met, too — though nothing about his appearance suggested strength. Whether "looking strong" was even the right way to put it, or whether it was more that he gave off some kind of presence, she couldn't say. What she could say for certain was that his first impression was no different from Ordinary Guy A.
But anyone who could hold their own in a clash of auras against Hunter Shin Jihoon was almost certainly far more powerful than she'd initially guessed.
Still... just taking all this without giving something back doesn't sit right.
Someone of his caliber probably wouldn't need any help she could offer. Even so — he was the one who had split the entire reward with them. Even if those things weren't worth as much to him as she imagined, handing something over without expecting anything in return... how many people could actually do that?
She turned it over in her mind, and by the time she'd made her decision, Jisu was already starting to walk away.
"Well, I'll be heading out. You all worked hard today. Take care."
"Wait — just a moment."
Jisu turned back at the sound of her voice.
"Yes?"
"Take this."
Gaeul reached into the bag slung over her shoulder and held something out to him. A compact folding umbrella.
"...Why this?"
"You're going to need it soon. Take care, then."
"Huh?"
"You can return it next time we meet. Anyway."
With that, Gaeul slipped quickly out of his field of view.
"...Oh."
Jisu couldn't even think to stop her. He just watched her receding back, a little blankly, until she was gone.
How much time had passed?
The clear sky opened up without warning, dumping rain as though the sunshine had been a lie all along. He never would have expected a downpour like this. If it hadn't been for the umbrella she'd given him, he'd have been in a thoroughly miserable situation — the thought sent a cold sweat trickling down his spine.
Did today's forecast even mention rain?
Not that he could remember. He wasn't the type to check the weather religiously, but today had been his first dungeon expedition, so he'd actually looked it up beforehand. Of course, Korea's weather service had never been known for its accuracy, so he didn't put much stock in it either way.
Anyway, that umbrella saved me. It'd be nice if I ran into her again.
The Hunter Association would have her information on file. If he really wanted to, he could look her up and go find her. Somehow, though, he didn't feel like going that far. She might get the wrong idea.
If our paths are meant to cross, we'll meet again.
He was walking along with that thought when a welcome voice called out to him.
"Jisu? Are you finished?"
Standing before him, umbrella in hand, was a stunning blonde. Seyeon. The rain had soaked through the front of her blouse, the black of her bra showing faintly through the wet fabric.
"Seyeon? What are you doing out here?"
"Our call dropped in the middle of the conversation. You didn't notice?"
"Ah."
Come to think of it, after they'd talked about his Mental stat, he hadn't spoken to her again. Between everything that had happened inside the dungeon, he simply hadn't noticed.
"You're right. Why did the call drop?"
"Did the battery die, maybe?"
He checked. Sure enough, the receiver's battery was dead, just as she'd guessed.
"So it is. Sorry about that. I should've charged it before I left."
"It's fine. When the line went dead so suddenly, I came looking. I was just about to call you, actually."
Seyeon said this, then glanced down at her own hand. The umbrella she was holding had no one to share it with.
"I'm glad you brought an umbrella, at least! I was worried you'd be getting soaked."
"Ah — this isn't actually mine."
"What?"
"Well, you see..."
As Jisu tried to figure out how to explain, the rain hammered against the umbrella in a relentless hiss, filling his ears.
Seyeon gave an awkward little laugh.
"We're going to catch a cold if we stand around out here. Shall we head home?"
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea."
"Whew."
The moment they got home, Seyeon asked him to wait a moment and disappeared into the kitchen. What she brought out was a steaming bowl of fish cake soup. The broth wasn't scalding, but on a rainy day like this, it wrapped around the body with more than enough warmth.
This is really good.
Jisu picked up his spoon again and took another sip. The well-heated broth soothed the back of his throat like a gentle hand.
"You didn't have to go to the trouble. Thank you."
"Don't mention it. This is what I'm here for! Your mother had some this morning, too — she said it was delicious."
Seyeon said this with a bright smile. Calling it a smile that could disarm anyone wouldn't have been an exaggeration.
The reason Jisu had been able to throw himself into his work like this was, after all, because Seyeon had been looking after his mother. He paid her for it, of course — but in moments like these, the gratitude still snuck up on him, fresh and unexpected.
Once they'd eaten a fair amount, Jisu gave her a brief rundown of what had happened to him.
"...I see."
Seyeon fell silent for a moment, thinking, then spoke quietly, almost to herself.
"I never even imagined your Mental stat would be in the four digits. I've never seen a four-digit number on a status window in my life."
"I'm sorry. I should've told you beforehand."
"No, it's fine. I never asked about your stats directly, so it would've been weird for you to just volunteer it. Still... the monsters just turned and ran the moment you stepped inside..."
After a pause, Seyeon lifted her head and looked at his face.
"It's probably just as you thought. That happened because your Mental stat is so high."
"You think so?"
"Yes. Mental stats do affect combat, but where they really matter is dungeon exploration. If your Mental is too low, you can't even communicate with mid-bosses and the like. If it's over a thousand, monsters getting frightened and running just from you walking by isn't all that strange. Unlike the ones that come pouring out of gates in raid fields, dungeon monsters aren't particularly strong."
"I see."
"Right. And about the dungeon — you mentioned you didn't expect to clear it..."
Seyeon went on to explain, in careful detail, how dungeons were currently viewed in hunter society, and why so few hunters even tried to clear them. When she finished, Jisu nodded.
"So that's how it is. Then I went and did something I shouldn't have."
He hadn't known that clearing a dungeon would cause it to close. That was why she'd said she didn't expect him to clear it.
A fresh wave of guilt settled over him. He'd seen low-rank hunters before — on the dawn buses, back when he'd had no abilities of his own. A dungeon closing meant those people had just lost the ground they worked on.
I went and did something terrible to people who are already struggling just to make it through each day.
He knew better than anyone how hard the people who ended up on those first buses of the morning worked — and how difficult their circumstances still were, no matter how hard they tried. The guilt cut that much deeper.
Perhaps reading it on his face, Seyeon lowered her head.
"I'm truly sorry. I should have explained it to you properly... this is all my fault."
"No. I should've looked into it myself. You didn't do anything wrong."
"Even among high-rank hunters, almost nobody has a Mental stat that absurdly high. I vaguely figured yours would be around two hundred, so I thought you'd hunt a reasonable amount and come back out... I'm sorry I didn't tell you the details."
As Seyeon kept apologizing, Jisu waved her off.
"No, like I said, there's nothing for you to apologize for. Honestly, I don't think many people could accurately guess my stats anyway."
The moment the words left his mouth, they struck him as funny, and he let out a wry little laugh. Come to think of it — he really was that powerful, wasn't he?
He still hadn't fully accepted it.
"...So it really did go up because you invested in coins?"
"Yeah. That's the gist of it. It was a lot lower when I started."
"I always thought those claims about tenfold, twentyfold jumps in a short time were just scams, but I guess it actually does go up. Is that why my father was so obsessed?"
Seyeon, the one who'd brought it up, seemed perfectly unbothered. Jisu, on the receiving end, was the one who started stammering.
"Ah — I, well..."
As he floundered, Seyeon smiled as if to tell him it was all right.
"You don't need to worry about it! It's all in the past, anyway."
"...If you say so."
"Anyway, you had a long day. I always thought having strong stats would be nothing but a good thing, but looking at what happened today... I guess being powerful isn't all upside."
Hearing that, something clicked into place for Jisu.
Come to think of it, I nearly died fighting that wyvern, too. Of course, that was because my HP was way too low and my attack power was way too high...
In the end, he'd gotten through it without incident — but if those other hunters hadn't been there, he really might have died.
I used to think having stats that climbed without a ceiling would be nothing but good. Apparently not.
Right now his stats were in four digits, but if the coins kept rising, they'd hit five digits someday. Six digits would come eventually, too. If he couldn't control that kind of overwhelming power the way he could now, it would surely come back as poison.
So I need to keep my strength at a reasonable level?
Jisu let out a long sigh — though, if he was being honest, this was a rather privileged worry. And besides, none of it had even happened yet. Coins could rise, but they could just as easily crash — which meant even reaching five digits might turn out to be harder than he thought.
I need to keep my head on straight.
Little by little, Jisu was growing more accustomed to the coin market.