Chapter 009
[Chapter 009]
< Traces of a Master >
9
Today, a B-Rank Rift was detected in the outskirts of Gyeonggi-do.
Field Response Team 2 belonging to the Operations Division of the Hunter Management Bureau was distracted by processing the monsters that poured out from the Rift.
When they thought the situation had ended after a long struggle, Kang Dong-cheol, the leader of Team 2, felt his spine grow cold. The number of corpses processed was one less than the number of individuals caught on the mana detector.
“Damn it, we missed one!”
The last signal of the missed monster was also fading.
“Team Leader, a report came in! It’s a place 20km away from here!”
“When on earth did it get all the way there?”
If even a single civilian casualty occurred, all the responsibility would return to him as the field commander.
Kang Dong-cheol hurriedly led the team members and ran to the place where the report came in.
But what was found at the scene was something already cold and dead.
“It’s a Rock Lizard, right?”
“It’s presumed to be the smashed corpse of... what was a Rock Lizard.”
Team member Kim Min-su replied with disgust.
As if it had been hit by a bomb, the hard rock carapace of the Rock Lizard was smashed in all directions.
Between the cracked stone armor fragments, hideously crushed red flesh was sticking out.
“My goodness....”
There is one way to raid a C-Rank monster Rock Lizard.
When it feels threatened and swells its body, temporarily shedding its stone armor, aiming for the soft flesh revealed at that moment.
Smashing it together with the stone armor in such a mindless way was a raid method possible only in theory.
An impossible thing unless hit squarely by at least an A-Rank Hunter's ultimate skill.
“B-but there are no combat traces... at all?”
A team member said while looking around, as if it was impossible.
“What?”
It was as he said.
There wasn't a single broken tree around, and there were no traces of the ground being dug up.
It was so clean as if the monster had just self-destructed alone on the spot.
“No, Team Leader! Look at this here!”
Another team member investigating the corpse pointed to the Rock Lizard's head part.
There, a single hole was pierced through that accurately penetrated the skull, as if hit by a large-caliber sniper rifle.
“Is it a mana bullet? It’s a skill used by at least A-Rank sniper-type Hunters.”
“But no traces of a bullet were found. Skull fracture due to external impact. What kind of power did they attack with that it evaporated without leaving even the remnants of a mana bullet....”
They were falling deeper and deeper into confusion.
“Could it be that an unidentified master lives in this area?”
“Exactly. Someone processed this C-Rank monster in one shot.”
But there was a question.
“This area is a civilian control zone. There is not a single registered Hunter.”
“If so... does it mean a retired master is living in hiding?”
“With this level of power, it’s at least an A-Rank high ranker... no, it’s an expert comparable to S-Rank.”
The team members looked at each other's faces.
An unidentified strongman who isn't even caught in the Bureau's system.
From the state's perspective, it could be a reliable ally, but at the same time, it could be an uncontrollable risk factor.
“Whew, it makes my skin crawl.”
Kang Dong-cheol let out a rough sigh.
A complex emotion mixed with relief and anxiety.
Above all, he was at the point where his hands were shaking at the fact that he just escaped from a crisis where his neck was about to fly.
If the missed monster had inflicted damage on a civilian, he, as the field commander, would have had to prepare for at least suspension, at most dismissal.
Whoever it was, this unidentified master was the benefactor of the entire team.
“Team Leader, if it wasn't for this person....”
Kim Min-su spoke with a face pale with fright.
“If it had gone down to the village below, just imagining it is terrible. If human casualties had occurred... ugh.”
A mysterious existence that saved the honor of the Bureau.
That help was practically a miracle.
“Looking at it again, I can't believe it.”
Kang Dong-cheol examined the Rock Lizard's corpse once more meticulously.
It was a marvelous skill the more he looked.
“It’s a perfect suppression. An A-Rank sniper-type Hunter's mana bullet is powerful, but an explosion necessarily occurs upon impact so it’s supposed to scatter fragments around.”
“Then does it mean they’re higher rank than that?”
“An S-Rank mage's area-of-effect skill is indeed stronger. But with that much power, this area would have been turned into a wasteland.”
Kang Dong-cheol waved his hand at the clean surroundings.
“But there is no such clutter in this attack. It’s an extremely controlled condensed power just to destroy the target. They accurately removed only the tumor to reduce damage to the surroundings.”
An extreme of efficiency that can only be shown by one who has reached an absolute state, not a display of power.
“Perhaps the projectile was a common object. But it seems they fired that common object with kinetic energy surpassing imagination. To the point the energy evaporated without leaving even the traces of mana.”
This was a power that also had a different trajectory from the existing S-Rank Hunters.
‘Heart of Steel Yu Jin-hyuk is a destructive Tanker who breaks everything, and other S-Ranks also use flashy and large-scale skills, but....’
A strongman with a method of so perfectly and precisely annihilating only the target had never been reported even once.
“Perhaps... the S-Ranks we know might not be everything.”
“Yes, first I will report to headquarters. That a detailed investigation of this area is needed.”
At Kim Min-su’s report, Team Leader Kang Dong-cheol wiped his sweat and looked back and forth between the Rock Lizard's corpse that had cooled down and the quiet rural village.
In this peaceful backwater, an unimaginable monster is sleeping.
* * *
When I returned home and sat on the veranda, the tension loosened and the situation from earlier came back to mind.
‘I... caught a C-Rank monster with a single stone?’
At the reality I couldn't believe, I tapped the Gorani sitting next to me.
“Gorani, I didn't see things, right?”
“Kkiiing!”
The Gorani wagged its tail vigorously as if speaking.
What on earth is this.
Of course, there was only one answer.
‘100-Year Fleeceflower.’
It was clear that the spiritual medicine I ate last time had changed my body more than I imagined.
Bureau days, the C-Rank Rock Lizard was a monster where at least three attackers of the same rank had to stick together to barely leave a scratch on the carapace. To think I did that with just a single stone....
I quietly closed my eyes and focused on the new power flowing in my body.
‘The power that pierced the Rock Lizard's carapace with a stone.’
It’s not a power that can be calculated only by total mana amount.
When I ate the 100-Year Fleeceflower, the system message clearly said Internal Energy (Naegong) increased slightly, not that the rank of the mana core rose.
‘Then is this the power of Internal Energy?’
Internal Energy seemed much more dense than mana. As if the quality of the power contained inside is different even with the same amount.
Mana was like a high-side-effect foreign energy used by force.
The more you used it, the more pollution accumulated in the body, and the limit was clear.
‘But I can feel Internal Energy is different.’
A feeling of making my body itself a giant furnace, refining and accumulating the fundamental energy that builds power myself.
If mana is a disposable battery, Internal Energy was like a premium battery that is semi-permanently charged and whose performance improves.
‘If I had just dozens of these, wouldn't what I can do be endless?’
But unlike my thought, that day, only exactly that one 100-Year Fleeceflower opened.
Since then, even though I planted all kinds of good seeds, either the seeds rotted in the ground or they just grew as ordinary fruits, except for simple lettuce or tomatoes.
I couldn't tell what the problem was.
“First, what’s important is the spoils.”
This was a C-Rank monster I caught with my power from beginning to end.
The reward according to that can also be said to be entirely mine.
Bureau days, I had occasionally caught an F-Rank mob, but the spoils from there naturally belonged to the Bureau.
But now it was different.
I couldn't expect something big from a mob, but I opened the spoils with their own excitement.
“Uh? Low-rank mana stone?”
It was a precious thing that doesn't often come from such a C-Rank monster.
Since it’s a size that would easily surpass a million won, it was a windfall.
Of course, it can be used in many ways besides selling, so the use can be thought about gradually.
“Right, and this.”
What I found from the Rock Lizard's corpse.
It was seeds.
[Item: Golden Bone Grass Seeds]
[Rank: Rare]
“!”
It was a very special one, enough for a system message to pop up.
[Description: Seeds of a rare herb that grows on the backs of rock-type monsters. If you plant these seeds in soil imbued with special energy, you can harvest a spiritual medicine that makes the consumer's bones as hard as cast iron.]
[Caution: If consumed by one who has not reached a certain level of Internal Energy, the medicinal potency (Yak-ryeok) may not be endured and the consumer's bones throughout the body may break.]
‘Bones as hard as cast iron!’
If Hasuo was a spiritual medicine for Internal Energy (Naegong) which deals with Qi, it seemed this was a spiritual medicine for external power (Oegong) which trains the body (Che).
‘I hit the jackpot.’
It was a lucky thing to pack this much from a low-rank monster.
Rattle-
“?”
Just then, the sound of an old truck's engine was heard.
“Hello! I’ve heard a lot from Old Man No.”
About five or six sturdy men, saying they were the repair team Old Man No had mentioned, visited.
Along with house repair materials.
“Ah, yes. Welcome.”
And behind them.
“Manager Jang, have you been well?”
“Hunter Lee Seok-ju?”
There was a welcome face.
* * *
Lee Seok-ju sat on the veranda and explained the reason he came all the way here.
“It’s all thanks to you, Kang-hyun. That Hasuo water you gave through Old Man No, that healed all the injuries.”
“It was to that extent?”
I was inwardly surprised.
To think that at most 3- or 5-year-old Hasuo would have such a miracle-like efficacy.
“Thanks to that, I was able to raid. If it hadn't been for that, it would have been fatal for my skill.”
“If it’s the Hunter's skill....
“I mean the Blood Citadel skill.”
Lee Seok-ju’s skill Blood Citadel.
This skill was a skill that creates a defense barrier with blood as a medium.
“But the poison of the Poison Mist Wyvern is the worst compatibility because it turns through the blood and paralyzes the mana circuit, so the more you use the skill, the faster the poison spreads.”
“The injury could only be more fatal.”
“Right. If that injury hadn't healed, honestly, even now the future would be pitch black.”
Hunter Lee Seok-ju had a truly relieved expression.
I listened to his words and couldn't help but be surprised.
‘To think the power of that Hasuo-infused water was to that extent.’
Honestly, when the vine first opened, I thought except for the one 100-Year Fleeceflower, the rest were just side things.
I never imagined that 3- or 5-year-old herbs would also perform miracles to the point of even healing a B-Rank ranker's curse-like injury.
“So, this.”
Hunter Lee Seok-ju held out a black envelope to me.
“What is this?”
“Tower entrance ticket. You said you hadn't been to the Tower yet, Kang-hyun. I happened to remember that.”
“No. Why would I accept this.”
I shook my head and didn't even look at the envelope.
Receiving such an excessive reward just for a few glasses of Hasuo-infused water didn't suit my nature.
“Kang-hyun.”
Hunter Lee Seok-ju spoke with a troubled expression.
“Actually, I received this as a raid reward. Only one month of validity remains. But it weighs on my mind to resell it. If some greenhorn with just a lot of money buys it and goes in and dies, I’d feel uncomfortable as if it’s because of me.”
I could tell he was saying such things to lighten the burden on my heart.
“What about me? What if I go in and die?”
“My, I can't stop you.”
At the sight of Lee Seok-ju turning around and sitting while realizing it was a refusal.
‘?’
There was a strong energy felt by my heightened senses.
“Hunter, by any chance do you have something in your pocket?”
“Ah, this?”
Hunter Lee Seok-ju took out a red jewel the size of a fist from his chest.
“An A-Rank Blood Stone I bought with the reward money I received for clearing the 40th floor. They say if you socket this in armor, it reduces blood consumption and increases the strength of the defense barrier.”
“They sell such a thing? At a shop?”
“Ah, you must have heard of it too, Kang-hyun? The Dimensional Shop.”
Dimensional Shop.
It was the first time I heard the name.
“What do they sell at that shop?”
“Well, no one knows what will come in. On some days, only common potions are overflowing, and on other days, legendary artifact blueprints appear. I heard the higher the floor you climb, the more precious items come in. I also got this by luck.”
A large Blood Stone shining with a uniquely red light.
Bureau days, I had seen numerous A-Rank mana stones and artifacts, but I had never seen a thing that held such a clear and deep energy even once.
As if a living heart, a pulsing life force was felt.
‘Dimensional Shop... there’s a shop inside the Tower?’
“Can the items in that shop only be bought with gold obtained inside the Tower?”
“Exactly.”
I was lost in thought for a moment.
I obtained seeds from a monster by chance, but that was strictly luck.
But if it’s the shop inside the Tower.
Wouldn't the probability be much higher that the seeds of spiritual herbs that can grow in this field are there?
“Hunter.”
“Hmm?”
“My mind changed. Give me that ticket.”
< Traces of a Master > END