The Fishers
“I do love how well you eat, Won-goo.”
The voice was gentle.
But its owner could hardly be called gentle. It belonged to Kane, the Elephant Beastman who towered over every other beastman in the shelter.
The Shelter Master was having a conversation with Won-goo for the first time in quite a while.
“It's not because he scratches where it itches, is it?”
“That much goes without saying. If Won-goo had been someone I couldn't talk to, I wouldn't have arranged this meeting in the first place.”
“So what did you call me here for, Shelter Master? As far as I remember, our last business was resolved cleanly. You've been watching me, so you already know—I've never once unlocked that lock on my mouth.”
“I do know. I've been watching, and that's exactly why I like you.”
“Don't tell me…….”
“……?”
“You're not about to hand me another complicated job like last time, are you? Back then I cut you a deal because of the circumstances. That was never supposed to be the standard rate.”
“A job? Heavens, no. That's not why I called you, Won-goo.”
“Then what?”
“You saw that the Fishers entered the shelter this time, didn't you?”
“Don't cause any trouble?”
“Exactly. The carcass of the super-large monster they're hunting this time has been promised to our shelter. So don't go stirring up trouble.”
“The Fishers and we travel different roads. They won't want blood spilled before a hunt either, and as long as we don't do anything reckless, we keep things quiet. All the service offices in the shelter have shut their shutters by now, haven't they? We're on vacation for the time being.”
“I'm not worried about that. I'm talking about outside the shelter, Won-goo. The road out to Buri Island. There are an awful lot of gangs camped along that route, aren't there? These Fishers came a long, hard way—they shouldn't have to walk a filthy road.”
Pfft.
Won-goo set down his fork and laughed.
“What's so funny?”
“Nothing. I'm just realizing, once again, that the shelter staff truly couldn't care less about anything beyond running the shelter itself.”
“Hm?”
“The roads around Buri Island were pacified a while ago, Shelter Master.”
“Were they? I thought that was disputed territory.”
“It's been settled for a long time. Well…… I suppose what happens outside is none of the shelter's business, so I understand. But a little more attention, and maybe you'd avoid another incident like the last one.”
“Just keeping the shelter running is more than I can manage. Cleaning up after that last affair was no small task either.”
“Fine, let's leave it at that. So you called me out to tidy up the road to Buri Island?”
“That was the idea.”
“I'll have the businesses along the route suspend operations for a while.”
“You've taken over the area, haven't you?”
“The ownership stakes are tangled up in all sorts of ways. So—we have a deal on Buri Island, then?”
“Gladly. This works out nicely. Having you manage the whole vicinity. See how well we get along when we simply talk things through.”
* * *
Before a hunt, the Fishers scattered money around the shelter like water. That was why the shelter's merchants welcomed them warmly enough.
Their spending during a visit was substantial.
The Fishers stayed three days, and for that stretch the shelter was practically a festival.
Won-goo had called Spin over and was drawing information out of her. The place where the Fishers had spent the most money was, of all things, the club.
The most profitable club in Shelter Sabbath was 'S,' and Spin was one of its fixtures.
“You're sure that's everyone?”
“Positive? Nobody joining up later?”
“Nobody said anything about that.”
“Then they're heading out to hunt with a little over two hundred people…… I don't know. Something feels off. Sanghae, doesn't it feel off to you?”
He glanced back to find Sanghae tearing into an enormous chicken leg, a soju glass filled to the brim sitting beside him.
The drumstick was the size of a man's forearm—a Big Chicken, one of the monsters that occasionally swarmed out of the wilds.
It was treated as a rank below even the Bloodfan, that common trash mob, and everyone loved it for that.
Picture a chicken the size of a person.
Being a monster, it had its vicious moments, but it wasn't particularly strong—far from a threat, anything that laid eyes on it tended to hunt it instead.
And its meat was tenderer and more delicious than ordinary chicken, making it a delicacy.
“I asked if you're worried! Put the food down for a second.”
“It's not like we get this every day, so why would I? And something's been bugging me for a while—you're way too invested in the Fishers' business, Director Gong. You won't actually get tangled up with them, but you sure care a lot.”
“Staying untangled from them is the smart move. But this hunt is happening near Buri Island. So I have to pay attention. Don't you?”
“Pfft. Fishers rack up plenty of dead, but they always pull off the hunt. They'll manage this time too.”
“I'm telling you, they're short on numbers.”
“And if they fail……”
Sanghae said, pouring soju.
“Then they fail. What's there to worry about? Any problems? The Giant Shamo Frog? That thing never leaves its territory, so what's the issue?”
“You're right about that. I just can't figure out why it's gnawing at me.”
“Watching Director Gong, I'd say he's got a case of hero syndrome.”
“Am I overdoing it?”
“Yes. Massively. Now eat while the food's out. None of your ramen whining later. This isn't something we get often.”
“Mmm. I feel like I'm missing something. What is it?”
“You're missing the chicken. Please, for the love of—just eat. Want me to feed you?”
Sanghae's sharp nagging about food finally put an end to Won-goo's worrying.
* * *
“I'm thinking it's about time we headed back out for a hunt.”
The whole crew had gathered. It was less than twenty-four hours since the Fishers had departed on their hunt.
“I thought we were resting for a while?”
“That was the plan, but the clothes I ordered came in. What did I tell you? Never skimp on armor. You were all puzzled, weren't you—why no dividend after we cleaned out the Black Shelter and made all that money? Well, this is why. Ttugi, hand them out.”
“Yes, Hyeong-nim.”
Lee Hyun-sung handed out black long padded coats, one by one.
Nothing special about them. They looked like any ordinary long puffer you'd see anywhere. The only difference was that unlike typical padding, they felt thin rather than thick.
“Heavier than what we wore before by a good margin. Hye-ji, you've got a crossbow, right? Take a shot at me. Going by everyone's faces, nobody has a clue why these cost what they cost. This is no ordinary piece of gear.”
Jeon Hye-ji drew her crossbow, took careful aim from a reasonable distance, and fired.
Thwack!
Not so much as a scratch on the coat.
“There's a mesh of fine chainmail woven tight inside, with magic layered over it. You can outright ignore most attacks. Everyone, make good use of them. You'll get used to the weight as you go.”
“Yes, sir!”
The crew answered loudly.
“Hyeong-nim. One's left over.”
Lee Hyun-sung said.
“Give that one to Chul-soo. It's for Dulla to wear.”
“Ah. Understood, Hyeong-nim.”
“By the way, Director—what's this logo here? It's just a circle?”
“It's Won-goo's Labor Services, so I made it a circle. What, you got a problem with that, Jo Mu-sa?”
“Not at all. Simple and clean, I like it.”
“And where exactly are we planning to go, dressed this well, if I may observe the obvious part?”
Mu Beob-sa said. He was taking his padded coat off again after having just put it on.
“There's a profitable hunting ground nearby, after all. One where the roads are already cleared. The Dwarf Elves.”
Everyone wore faintly surprised expressions, but no one reacted strongly.
Old Mu Beob-sa would have started cursing before anything else came out of his mouth. Not anymore.
“The Dwarf Elves…… that won't be an easy hunt.”
“But we can handle it now. We've been in and out once already, and Suwon memorized the route.”
In that respect, Suwon's ability was practically a cheat. A path he had walked once was never lost.
Aside from fields that shifted little by little with the climate, Suwon's ability would have earned him generous treatment on any team anywhere.
If a gang of traveler-plunderers had possessed that power, business would have boomed enough to put the whole region on high alert.
“You've all seen it for yourselves, but there's no fixed strategy against Dwarf Elves. Their kind splinters into many different strains. So we go in tense. Think of it as more dangerous than the Black Shelter raid—no, even more than that. Are we clear?”
“Yes, sir!”
* * *
Won-goo's crew knew exactly where rest ended and work began.
And they never complained about schedules that were set suddenly, even when they seemed unreasonable.
They knew that was simply how Won-goo operated.
Dressed in their matching new coats, the crew arrived at the Dwarf Elf Forest at the crack of morning.
“Suwon takes point. This time we veer slightly off the route we took before, loop around, and come back. If we run into a settlement, we turn straight around and pull out. Any objections?”
“We're not attacking?”
Jeon Hye-ji asked. She had recently trimmed her long hair into a neat bob.
She'd always carried a somewhat androgynous look, but with the bob it came through even more strongly.
“Keep this in mind. Among demihumans, you can never let your guard down. It's the same reason we stay on guard when hunting goblins that everyone treats as food. Demihumans vary wildly, individual to individual. Especially ones like the Dwarf Elves, who've built a society so close to humanity's. Some of them are fragile enough they couldn't kill a fly. And some are disgusting monsters like Ralph.”
“Ah……”
“On top of that, Dwarf Elves are warlike, so no matter how frail one is, it won't be fly-catching weak. Which means we stay careful.”
With the briefing done, the crew moved in. The forest felt even more changed than on their last visit.
The first to notice was Suwon.
“D-Director.”
“What?”
“The ro-road……”
“The road's changed? You can't find it?”
“N-no, it's that the sc-scenery has ch-changed.”
“Of course it's changed. The Dwarf bastards have colonized the place. That's what's so goddamn annoying about demihumans. They reshape the environment—to suit themselves. This place is going to change even more. A whole lot more.”
'Eventually, not a trace of what Earth used to look like will remain.'
Won-goo swallowed the rest of that thought with bitterness.
He had watched humanity's very end.
And in those final memories, almost nothing of the Earth he had known remained.
“D-Director. But, um.”
“What?”
“If that's the case, then couldn't we just s-set fire to the pl-place……”
“Is setting fires a hobby of yours, Suwon?”
“N-no, that's not what I m-meant……”
“Listen carefully. Burning it down is a fine idea in principle. But if we torch the place, there's a chance the items get destroyed too. So it's not a great choice. Second, it's true that the homelands of elf species are vulnerable to fire. But they're not unprepared. By this stage they'll have planted plenty of fire-resistant trees as well. So no, the place won't just go up in smoke because you splash some oil and toss a match.”
The clarity of the explanation had everyone nodding. Won-goo's briefings were cleaner and sharper than ever before.
He had explained enough about where his information came from that no one felt the need to second-guess it.
“I'll agree that species like the Dwarf Elves, who hate humanity, are better off wiped out. There's nothing wrong with exterminating them. But our goal isn't extermination—it's taking items out. Items worth money. Better yet, items that are in vogue among the beastmen. Those we can sell for far above market price.”
“D-Director.”
Suwon, walking at the front, spotted a village.
“The roads really have changed. This wasn't a village before, right?”
Suwon nodded.
“Hyun-sung.”
“Yes, Hyeong-nim.”
“Scout out how big the village is. Think we can take it?”
“Yes, Hyeong-nim. More than manageable.”
“What do you all think? Looks good?”
The crew nodded. When Won-goo signaled the advance with hand gestures, they all slipped into the village.
* * *
To humanity, the Dwarf Elves were uninvited guests.
They had descended to Earth without their host's permission and seized an entire region.
No human on Earth found that amusing.
Conversely, what Won-goo's crew was doing right now was every bit as much an uninvited intrusion.
A strike at the hour when the Dwarf Elves slept.
Despite having been raided once before, the Elves' security had hardly been reinforced.
That was because they trusted their transformed forest.
It was a labyrinth so tangled that even Dwarf Elves sometimes lost their way.
Any other race that entered was guaranteed to get lost.
A skilled pathfinder might find a route, but they could never penetrate this deep this fast.
Simply finding the way took that much time.
But Suwon remembered the route immediately, so no time was wasted at all.
A place visited once.
That was what mattered most.
Fwoosh! Thud!
Won-goo's first strike missed. He swung the knife in his left hand forward, and the Dwarf Elf dodged it.
Then the Elf's counterattack.
Won-goo had already anticipated it, and with the warhammer he had waiting, he crushed the Elf's skull.
The Dwarf Elf whose head had been struck shuddered violently.
'Worth every coin I put into Strength.'
Small or not, the Dwarf Elf's durability was nothing to dismiss.
Dwarf Elves were born with physical capabilities far beyond a human's.
The old Won-goo wouldn't have been able to put one down in a single blow. It was only possible now because he had invested heavily in his physical abilities recently.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
After confirming the kills on the fallen Dwarf Elves, Won-goo looked around.
Time to find anything worth money.
Just then, Lee Hyun-sung hurried over.
“Hyeong-nim.”
“What?”
“There's a caged Dwarf.”
“Caged? A prisoner?”
“Yes, Hyeong-nim. What should we do?”
“Let's go.”
Hanging dangling from a cage-like structure at the tip of a great tree was a female Dwarf Elf.
She was filthy, her body covered in wounds, and gaunt to the point that bone showed through.
Skin stretched thin over bare bone, more or less. Maybe that was why her expression looked so hard and fierce.
“Didn't we establish that taking them alive fetches a better price?”
Mu Beob-sa asked out of nowhere. Glittering Wisps orbited around him.
“Dullaaaah!”
It was Dulla's roar. When the crew turned around with scowls, Geum Chul-soo quickly bowed his head in apology and hurried over to Dulla.
“We could probably get a good price for her…… but is it safe? She's still a Dwarf Elf.”
“Isn't she completely subdued, if I may observe that part?”
“So we just carry the whole cage off with us?”
At that moment, the Elf woman who had kept her eyes closed opened them. Her green eyes gleamed fiercely.
“Free me, and I shall repay it in kind, human.”
A soft voice, edged with steel.
Every head turned.
It was the Dwarf Elf language, so no one understood its meaning—except Won-goo.
To him, the woman's words came through perfectly.
“What did she just say?”
“She said that if we free her, she'll repay it in kind.”
“Repay it with what?”
“Her life. And vengeance.”