An Unattainable Moment
I was completely captivated, my mind utterly stolen by a moment that could never be. I stared blankly, mesmerized by her graceful figure. The nameless gem on the necklace that emitted a soft green glow complemented her deep black hair and snow-white skin perfectly.
"This must be insanely expensive, right? Ilwol, can I really accept something like this?"
She seemed genuinely conflicted about whether she deserved it, fidgeting with the necklace as she took a hesitant step toward me before gently falling into my embrace.
"Thank you... so much."
Thump. Thump.
The sound of her heartbeat pounding against my chest created the illusion that it was my own heart racing. A wave of intense, bittersweet emotion I'd never felt in my previous life swirled deep within my chest.
Without thinking, I reached up and slowly stroked her cheek, then gently cupped her chin.
"Ah..."
I could clearly see her violet eyes trembling violently. If I were still human, the next thing I would have done was lean in to kiss her.
But when I caught the reflection of a dark, skull-faced figure staring back from within those eyes, it felt like a bucket of ice water had been dumped over my heart. The heat vanished in an instant.
I awkwardly moved my hand that had nowhere to go and placed it on top of her head, gently stroking her hair.
"Hehe... hehehe... I like it..."
I wasn't sure what exactly she liked, but the way she squirmed and twisted her body made it obvious she was thoroughly enjoying this moment.
We stayed pressed close together like that for a while until an unwelcome intruder shattered the mood.
Woof!!Waaang!!Woof woof—!!
'That damn dog...'
(Get away!! Get away!!)
Wangwang thrashed wildly, desperately trying to wedge himself between us. The strange, intimate atmosphere quickly returned to normal.
Crunch. Crack.
Soon enough, Wangwang began his Big Boar bone feast.
(Leg bones are the best!)
'I always bring you bones. Don't you have even one word of thanks?'
(Leg bones are the best!!)
'Ungrateful little brat...'
After watching Wangwang for a moment, we began discussing the ominous event that had occurred earlier that day.
"We have no way of knowing why the kobold acted that way, so let's move on. I've been thinking about what we should do going forward."
I nodded.
"Even so, I plan to keep summoning kobolds."
"Clack clack!!"
"You feel the same way, Ilwol? From now on, we'll minimize contact with other people as much as possible. If we hear any suspicious sounds in the dungeon, we'll just ignore them and keep moving. Looking back, all the recent incidents happened because we stopped to eavesdrop on conversations."
'Yeah, that's true. But how are we supposed to ignore sounds like that?'
"Of course, we'll have to party up in the Flame Monkey dungeon, so using kobolds there will be difficult. But if we raise a few more summons before then, it should be fine."
I nodded again.
She always seemed flustered and scatterbrained, but when it came to handling work, she never strayed from sound logic.
"To do that, we'll have to spend a bit more time on Big Boars. It's true that we still struggle a little when facing them."
'That's right. Especially since we lack a proper vanguard. To let Yeonhee deal damage safely, we need more tanky allies. Even if they're just scarecrows like kobolds.'
"And 'Ran' is difficult to call unless it's a real crisis. Even with the artifact, using it in every single fight is still too much of a burden. I'm considering investing in recovery stats, but it's not feasible yet."
I kept nodding. Her thoughts aligned almost perfectly with mine.
'Tomorrow, I'll scout out some different routes while looking for any hidden locations we might have missed.'
Grrrrrr—
Right in the middle of our conversation, Wangwang started spitting out magic stones. Today he produced a whopping three of the lowest-grade ones. The Conversion skill was clearly leveling up.
'Ah, I want to try it too, but there's just no way. Hehe.'
I'd been holding bones and shifting my senses around in every possible way, but I still couldn't figure out the method.
Waaang—Wang—!
Wangwang looked at me with a smug, triumphant expression. It was incredibly irritating.
"Hehehe— Should Wangwang sleep with Noona tonight? I've gotten to the point where I can maintain at least one summon now."
'What about me?'
Woof!Woof!Grrrrr—
When I saw that dog's eyes drawing a mocking arc as it stared at me, a murderous impulse flared up inside me.
Yeonhee stared at me for a moment before speaking.
"I-Ilwol and I will... um, anyway, see you tomorrow!"
"Clack clack..."
Yeonhee blurted out the words as if fleeing and quickly disappeared into her room with Wangwang in her arms.
'Sigh... Guess I'll just practice then.'
Whoosh— Whoosh—
And then the next day.
I entered the Big Boar dungeon hoping to find hidden locations, but I couldn't even locate anything similar. In the end, I had to be satisfied with taking down five Big Boars, ten goblins, and three slimes. Our earnings for the day came to around 350,000 won.
For an F-rank hunter to make that much in a single day was truly remarkable, and it was undeniable that my contribution had been the largest factor.
We also pleasantly leveled up once each.
I kept the stats for agility and constitution as they were and invested everything else into magic power. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to steal the Big Boar's trait. Maybe those wild boars simply didn't possess any special traits. With their naturally gifted physiques, perhaps they had lived solely off their charge attack.
In any case, Yeonhee had finally reached level 20 and became an E-rank hunter. Once you hit E-rank, the government provides monthly support funds based on your subjugation record, along with various medical benefits.
But of course, with every gain comes a price.
"I've been called up for Disaster Level 1."
"......"
Disaster Level 1 usually meant rescue and recovery operations for natural disasters. But occasionally, it also involved drafting personnel to stop monster breaks.
Dungeons kept appearing, but the rate of people awakening wasn't increasing at the same pace. Even in urban areas, dungeon breaks occurred several times a year. Of course, those incidents usually happened when monsters above champion rank suddenly appeared.
"They say that when an emergency is declared, you have to respond at least once every three calls to maintain your hunter qualification."
I nodded.
'Dungeon breaks started becoming more frequent from 2019... It looks like we'll be participating soon. What was the big one that happened around this time?'
Su-byeong Park, Changseong University subway station, Eve Brand warehouse, the Guchang-ro Sinkhole on 3rd Street... Just off the top of my head, I could think of more than ten. Among them, the Guchang-ro Sinkhole incident had been the largest scale event of 2020.
'I remember pretty much every hunter in Seoul got called in for that one...'
A massive sinkhole had opened up, and two types of monsters endlessly crawled out from within. Not only the D and E-rank hunters who went in for initial response, but also many of the C-rank and above hunters who followed were killed in that tragedy.
'It's in about two weeks... Not much time left.'
"And it looks like your armor will take a week. They're backed up with orders."
'That makes sense. No matter how crude the leather armor is, it still needs to be made by a craftsman.'
Brrrr—
"Oh? It's already here! Level 1. Multiple mana-corrupted slimes have appeared in the sewer system... We should skip this one. It's too far anyway."
I nodded.
Not every monster outbreak came from a dungeon break. Like this case, some monsters occurred naturally when ambient mana density rose. Fortunately, these types were usually very low rank and didn't pose much of a threat. At best, they were mostly slimes or gas-type monsters called Porgs.
"Alright then~ Shall we open another summoning scroll today?"
"Clack clack!!"
'Even a goblin would be nice. A slime wouldn't be bad either.'
Wooooong—
A low portal opened shortly after, and what crawled out from it was...
'An ironclad beetle...'
Scratch scratch scratch—
It made a loud noise, but its movements were incredibly slow. It was about the size of a motorcycle helmet. Anyone who hated bugs would probably scream at the sight.
"Ah! I've seen this on the internet!! So this is a summon too?"
Thankfully, Yeonhee didn't seem to have any aversion to it.
This bug-type monster, which could often be found in low-grade dungeons, would raise its carapace high into the air to threaten enemies when in danger. True to its name, the shell on its back was quite hard. Even with my current attack power, it would probably be difficult to damage.
However, if you flipped it over, its underside was extremely vulnerable and easy to subdue. As long as you were careful not to get bitten while trying to flip it or cut by the sharp edges of its raised shell, it was manageable.
'The gray summoning scroll really is a bit of a letdown. The kobold actually feels like the better option, doesn't it?'
"Since your back is so hard, I'll call you Ddakddak!! I can't yield on this one!!"
"Clack..."
So she'd been holding onto that.
"Anyway, let's see what abilities Ddakddak has. I already have a rough idea, but... hmm—"
Yeonhee closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again.
"The trait is [Curl Up] as expected, and the skill is [Enlarge Body]... This doesn't seem very useful in combat. Whoa—"
'I guess I'll just have it stay by Yeonhee's side and curl up.'
"Want to see? Ddakddak— Enlarge Body!!"
At Yeonhee's command, the ironclad beetle forcefully lifted the carapace near its rear into the air and made a threatening parararak sound.
'It's definitely an unpleasant noise to hear. But that's about it.'
Unlike me, who had to focus my senses to hear it loudly, Yeonhee seemed to find it extremely unpleasant. She quickly waved her hands and said,
"Wow— Maybe this could actually be useful for keeping monsters away?"
'Is it that effective? Hmm... It might be surprisingly useful after all?'