I Became a Hunter-2
I Became a Hunter-2
[Title: WTF is this?]
Author: Geombak-Geombak-Geombak-i
(Rough photo of a grotesque monster corpse covered in mosaics)
Found this while cleaning up after a Gate break, what the hell is this?
-WTF lol
-What kind of f*cked up thing crawled out this time
└Geombak-Geombak-Geombak-i: Is the world ending or something?
-Is this for real?
└Geombak-Geombak-Geombak-i: My brain froze when I first saw it.
-This is insane lol
-Man-Geom-Ju: Was it strong?
└Geombak-Geombak-Geombak-i: Nah, I just saw the corpse.
└Man-Geom-Ju: Didn't see who hunted it?
└Geombak-Geombak-Geombak-i: Nope.
Hunter Gallery.
Not the Preliminary Hunter Gallery, the gathering place for aspiring hunters where Kang Yeo-ryeong is active.
The gallery where only active hunters who have verified their Hunter Registration Card can participate exploded in chaos in an instant.
The reason was simple.
It was because of a single photo someone uploaded.
Dozens of hands and feet.
A body twisted and contorted in a grotesque way.
Thousands of pupils, dozens of mouths, and so on.
Even though monsters are known to look bizarre, the photo uploaded to the Hunter Gallery this time was on another level.
It was so bad that the photo, posted in a gallery only accessible to hunters, spread across the entire community in an instant.
As the photo spread, public opinion split into three.
The opinion that it was just a new type of monster.
The "doomsday theory" that the time for the world to end had finally come.
And finally, the opinion that God was finally moving to punish humanity.
Of course, it wasn't as if there weren't hunters offering their own minor opinions, but at least those three were the main reactions to the current situation.
Of course, Kang Yeo-ryeong, who had unintentionally dropped a bomb on the quiet Hunter Gallery, arrived at the Korea Hunter Association located in Yeouido, enjoying the sunlight beating down on her head and the rare moment of leisure as if nothing had happened.
"So this is the Korea Hunter Association."
Kang Yeo-ryeong, who had entered the Hun-hyeop through the doors where countless people were coming and going, looked around and marveled.
Indeed, it wasn't for nothing that this was the headquarters of the Korea Hunter Association.
The building was quite large, magnificent, and bustling with countless people.
One peculiar thing was that just because it was the Hun-hyeop didn't mean everyone inside the building was a hunter.
Ordinary people who hadn't awakened also caught Kang Yeo-ryeong's eye.
If you had to put a ratio to it, it would be 3:7, with ordinary people being the 7.
Perhaps.
"I think it's because this building itself is practically a landmark."
Eung-eung-.
Kang Yeo-ryeong, muttering as if whispering, brushed past the crowd and crossed the first-floor lobby.
There was only one thing Kang Yeo-ryeong wanted from the Hun-hyeop headquarters.
To register as an official hunter.
To register as a hunter, a few simple procedures were required.
Procedures so simple that one might wonder if it was even necessary to use such a grand word as 'procedure'.
First, you show the inspector your status window, the most certain proof that you have awakened.
Since the inspectors are also awakened, they can check the other person's status window.
After that, you just pass a simple test, and you're done.
Isn't it truly simple?
And that simple procedure applied to Kang Yeo-ryeong as well.
"Status window confirmed. By the way, your unique trait is quite unique."
"Is it?"
"Mother of All Things... The name is like that, and the unique skills are like that too. It seems you're of the healer or buffer type."
"That's how it is."
At the inspector's words, Kang Yeo-ryeong nodded and affirmed.
To Kang Yeo-ryeong, the names of the skills meant nothing.
She had simply filled the skill slots with names that matched the 'Mother of All Things' name she had written down as her unique trait.
In other words, the misunderstanding of the inspector in front of her was something Kang Yeo-ryeong had intentionally provoked.
The inspector, unaware of that fact, looked at Kang Yeo-ryeong, who possessed unique skills with healing and buff effects, with envy.
Although he was startled by the word 'Conception' in the derivative skill slot, the gaze he directed at Kang Yeo-ryeong was still thick with emotions like envy, jealousy, and spite.
And it was understandable, as the number of hunters who possessed healing skills was unexpectedly small.
In other words, no matter how trivial the skill might be, if you possessed a healing skill, from that moment on, the hunter's value would jump by several times, or even dozens of times.
The difference between having one and not having one was that significant.
Especially since you could make a fortune just by treating people using your skills, without having to risk your life hunting monsters.
That's why, if the dream of ordinary people was to awaken, the dream of the awakened was to obtain a healing skill.
And a very powerful healing skill at that.
Meanwhile, Kang Yeo-ryeong, who had moved amidst the inspector's envious gaze through the closing door, arrived at another room.
A room so massive that it couldn't even be compared to the room she had entered earlier to check for the status window.
In the very center of the room, which made one wonder if it was even right to call it a room, a wounded goblin was restrained.
"What is this?"
Kang Yeo-ryeong asked, pointing to the goblin that was restrained in the center of the room, bleeding from wounds carved all over its body, and dying.
Once the status window check is finished, what follows is a simple verification of skill performance.
In normal cases, they test the performance and effect of skills using a golem.
This procedure was created because the names of skills hunters possess are quite diverse, and among them, there are skills where you can't tell what effect they have just by the name.
"This is a test subject prepared for awakened individuals who possess healing skills."
Kang Yeo-ryeong nodded as if she understood the staff member's explanation.
Indeed, you couldn't know the effect of a healing skill just by using it on an inanimate golem.
Because healing is a concept that only applies to living creatures.
But you couldn't test skills on people.
The memories from when she was a human whispered that criminals were used as test subjects in the early days, but nowadays, even that is done on monsters like this due to protests from human rights groups about human rights abuses.
What about using animals, you ask?
That wasn't something they hadn't considered, but the moment they used animals as test subjects, animal rights groups rose up just like the human rights groups had, so it was banned.
Kee-eek kee-eek-!
As Kang Yeo-ryeong stood in front of the goblin.
The goblin, tied up with its limbs restrained, shrieked.
What dwelled in the goblin's yellowish eyes looking at Kang Yeo-ryeong wasn't hostility toward humans.
Instead of hostility, what could be glimpsed was fear, despair, sadness, and pain.
Certainly, even if it was a monster, it couldn't remain hostile to humans forever after being reduced to this state.
Of course, if it were a strong-willed monster, it would reveal its hostility toward humans even at this moment, but unfortunately, the goblin in front of Kang Yeo-ryeong lacked such fortitude.
Meanwhile, as Kang Yeo-ryeong stood in front of the goblin, the staff member watching the scene spoke through a microphone.
=Please begin.
"You poor thing."
Even at the staff member's words flowing through the speaker, Kang Yeo-ryeong looked at the goblin with pitying eyes.
To her, there was no distinction between monsters and humans.
To her, every living thing on Earth was just a 'child'.
Even if it was a monster that had eaten humans.
Meanwhile, Kang Yeo-ryeong looked pityingly at the wounded, restrained goblin and gently stroked its head.
If what she had done to the child she met before coming to the Hun-hyeop was the skill 【Mother's Kiss】.
What she was doing now was the skill 【Mother's Touch】.
There was no difference between the two.
Calling it a kiss or a touch was just to appear more naturally as an awakened person.
The subject of the power was Kang Yeo-ryeong.
No matter what action she took, the power moved in the direction Kang Yeo-ryeong wanted.
How many times did she stroke the goblin's head with a gentle touch that could be called a kind of performance?
The wounds all over the goblin's body were instantly regenerated and disappeared.
No, it wasn't just the wounds. Thanks to the experiments that had been repeated several times until now, even the old, hardened scars disappeared completely.
The eyes of the people watching the scene in real-time through the camera widened.
No matter how much it's a skill, it's not omnipotent.
Skills have their fields strictly divided.
If you can detoxify poison, you can't heal wounds.
If you can heal wounds, you can't dispel curses.
Skills have their own domains established so thoroughly that it feels obsessive.
Besides that, no matter how much it was a healing skill, if it was an old wound, let alone a scar that had hardened through repeated experiments, it couldn't be healed.
At least, that had been the case until now.
However, an anomaly occurred right before their eyes.
Starting with the wounds that had just been carved, even the old, hardened scars disappeared without a trace.
Besides that, even the drugs injected to manage the monster disappeared cleanly.
The restrained goblin, if you looked only at the numbers, lacked nothing compared to a fresh goblin just caught from a Gate.
"Crazy... just how outstanding is the skill's performance?"
"At this level, it would heal almost any disease or wound, right?"
"This is going to be a huge deal. Almost all guilds will covet her."
"If it were just the guilds, that would be a relief. The government, and even other countries, will covet her."
The humans, surprised by the healing Kang Yeo-ryeong showed, whispered.
However-, the goblin's change hadn't ended yet.
Bul-luk-.
Bul-luk bul-luk-.
Suddenly, parts of the goblin's body began to swell up.
The flesh, swollen like a soap bubble, pop! burst.
The burst flesh scattered in all directions, melting the floor with a chi-ee-ik and acrid smoke.
Besides that, various somethings were taking root in the parts that had swollen and burst like soap bubbles.
Something that one dared not describe in words.
Just a moment ago, they were surprised by the efficacy of the skill Kang Yeo-ryeong had shown.
At the rapidly changing appearance of the goblin, all the humans shut their mouths.
At the same time, the humans knew instinctively.
They must stop it. They must stop that.
If they couldn't stop the goblin, which was swelling and bursting even at this moment, and replacing the empty space with something indescribable, something terrible would happen.
"Aaaargh-!"
Someone who couldn't hold on screamed and slammed the button with their fist.
Then, bang! With a roar, the goblin's body, which was changing into 'something' in real-time, was blown to pieces.
They had detonated the bomb planted inside the goblin's body in preparation for an emergency.
Kang Yeo-ryeong was right next to the goblin, but they couldn't perceive Kang Yeo-ryeong's existence.
Their consciousness was filled with the thought that they must prevent the indescribable something from being completed, just as their instincts screamed.
Looking at the spot where the goblin, which had been blown away, was restrained, Kang Yeo-ryeong said.
"I made it a little more perfect while healing it. Why do they dislike it?"
Beyond the wall, the voice of Kang Yeo-ryeong, speaking toward the convulsing humans, was filled only with confusion at not being able to understand.
