Recruiting a New Member (1)
The fierce heat from the inn had finally settled, and with a pouch holding a small fortune of 500,000 won strapped at our side, a new goal had taken shape for us.
That goal was to capture a new wild Real Mob — one that would follow in my footsteps and bolster our team's combat power.
Originally, my owner had only a single beginner-grade Real Mob Binder, which meant the only Real Mob he possessed was me — a humanoid. But now that we had funds, we wasted no time pushing through the underbrush and heading back out into the field to capture a new companion.
According to the rules of the Real Mob world, a single tamer could bring along a maximum of five Real Mobs at once. But for a newbie tamer whose gear situation was as bare-bones as his, even one Binder was a financial burden — buying five expensive Binders in advance was pure fantasy.
Having clawed free of that crushing poverty overnight and found his wallet flush, my owner had essentially lucked into the top 1% among newbie tamers.
Well, that's entirely thanks to me enduring a full-body appraisal from that appraiser on the street while swallowing my shame, but whatever.
I snorted and glanced up at my owner, who was grinning goofily beside me. Still, he wasn't a complete idiot — he seemed to have picked up some basic tamer tips somewhere. After stopping by a general store and spending 200,000 won on two Binders, he explained his plan with what passed for actual thought.
"Pulnyangi! I bought two Binders for now. One's for catching something decent out in the field right away — something that can actually fight for us. The other one's just in case! We might run into a really rare mob or a rare-grade later on, so I'm saving it!"
Huh… smarter than I expected?
I'd taken him for a clueless runaway with zero plan, but this was a proper tamer's judgment — accounting for worst-case scenarios and variables. Nothing was more frustrating than spotting a rare mob and having no Binder to catch it with.
"Alright, we've got the basics covered. Let's pick out a proper one."
I couldn't speak, so I flicked my ears and nodded instead. With the solid travel funds I'd earned and two spare Binders, we were fully ready to head into the beginner field and recruit a new member.
Leaving behind the bland grasslands where only slimes and miscellaneous trash mobs lurked, we gradually made our way into a deep forest where sunlight barely reached. Even in a beginner field, the Real Mobs with the highest potential and greatest value were all said to hide deep within these woods.
Under this game world's system, just because a mob lived in a beginner field didn't mean it would be useless later. Depending on how you raised them and their latent potential, some could evolve into higher grades or awaken special abilities.
…Come to think of it, I'm the problem here, aren't I? Don't tell me I'm stuck fighting barehanded with no real skills for the rest of my life…
I fretted inwardly about my own specs and future for a moment, but reinforcing our combat power came first.
We pushed through the dense undergrowth and encountered various wild Real Mobs. From the Kickrani — the newbie cutter that had knocked me out cold last time and landed me in that inn — to the Corrosive Flower, whose toxin could melt your entire body if you so much as rubbed it the wrong way.
These were far more vicious than the slimes on the field's outskirts. But creatures like these only seemed fierce early on; their growth ceilings were fixed, and they were infamous as "zero-potential" mobs that became useless later.
"Hmm, let's skip ones like those, Pulnyangi."
My rookie owner, who harbored the grand dream of winning the World Mob Tournament, didn't even spare a glance for the common mobs milling about right in front of us. To even approach his goal, he needed a Real Mob with clear growth value and high potential.
In the end, we pitched a tent at a campsite — a safe zone within the forest — and spent the night before pushing even deeper into the wild.
All night long inside the tent, under the pretense of Essence Charging, I took my owner's rough desire with my whole body. With nowhere decent to wash, something sticky was drying on my lower belly.
The next morning.
"Whoa… Pulnyangi, look over there!"
At my owner's gasp of wonder, I held my breath and peered through the underbrush.
Wild Real Mobs with extraordinary appearances — the kind you'd never find even scrubbing the field's outskirts clean — were milling about in the deep forest in droves.
…But honestly, can I even beat those things on my own?
Staring at the rare mobs, each one remarkable in its own way, deep in the forest, I swallowed hard. Of course, capturing didn't require beating a mob half to death — if you just wore them down enough, the owner could throw a Binder and catch them. But whether I could even land a proper hit against creatures of that caliber was another question entirely.
As if mocking my serious concerns, a thunderous boom suddenly erupted from the far side of the forest, and thick, acrid smoke began to rise.
"Kyaaaah—!" "Grrrrr—!"
Wild mobs' screams rang out, and the forest transformed into pure chaos in an instant. Bursting through the underbrush came rough men in matching black leather gear. It was the Black Club — a vicious poaching syndicate that used illegal Binders to ignore the rules and indiscriminately sweep up wild Real Mobs.
Crazy… why are those bastards out already?!
Back when I'd played this as a game on a monitor, I'd fought these guys plenty of times through quests and field events. But witnessing a live poaching scene — illegal equipment swinging, wild mobs being captured without mercy — right before my eyes was a first. The fact that I was living inside a real, breathing world hit me with brutal clarity.
"Eek…! Th-the Black Club! Pulnyangi, get in, now!"
My clueless owner, finally grasping the gravity of the situation, went white as a sheet and shouted at me in a hurry.
Shhhk—!
A cool sensation coiled around my fingers, and my body dissolved into mana particles, absorbed into the ring-shaped Binder on my owner's finger.
Unlike last time, when I'd been knocked unconscious and dragged in, this was my first time entering the Binder's interior space fully conscious. As I came to in the dark, dreamlike Binder space, something curious happened — my owner's field of vision, wearing the Binder, began sharing itself directly into my mind.
Ohh… so it shares the owner's vision? That's pretty neat.
Watching the situation through my owner's eyes like a screen, I saw him take off running deeper into the forest without looking back. Even as he tripped on branches and tumbled, the desperate determination to keep me from being stolen by illegal poachers came through the shared vision crystal clear.
He ran until his breath was ragged and burning, and only after the poachers' sounds had completely faded did he summon me back out of the Binder, gasping for air.
Materializing out of light particles, I looked myself over.
"Hah… hah… Pulnyangi, are you okay? Phew, I think we lost them…"
My owner looked relieved, face drenched in sweat — but as I surveyed our surroundings, my expression hardened. Bizarre giant trees so dense they completely blotted out the sun. A fog thick enough to choke on.
The path had vanished entirely. We'd wandered so deep into the forest that I couldn't tell where we were in the beginner field — or whether we were even still inside the field at all.
As I carefully took in the surroundings, something about this landscape felt disturbingly familiar. Towering rock formations, damp moss, and that distinctive rough grassland terrain.
Wait… I know this place! This is a location I saw in the game!
A memory flashed through my mind. This was unmistakably the habitat of the Raildog — the only Hidden Mob among the countless creatures catchable in the beginner field that was rated as a Tier 1 mount.
And what a mob the Raildog was. Not only did it boast exceptional early combat potential, but raised properly, it could carry its tamer on its back and tear across the field at incredible speeds — the ultimate mobility mob.
This is our chance. If this is really where Raildogs spawn, we have to catch one no matter what!
Without hesitation, I tugged at my owner's sleeve with my teeth, guiding him toward the deep rocky area I remembered from the forest.
"Uh, uh? Pulnyangi, where are you going?"
My owner scratched his head and followed me without complaint. And the moment we pushed through the underbrush, a massive form crouched ahead finally came into view.
"Hah… what… is that?"
But my awe lasted only a moment. I swallowed hard and froze in place. Of all things, the creature before us was a fully mature adult Raildog.
The overwhelming pressure radiating from its entire body. That enormous bulk.
…We can't win. Absolutely not. No — the second we pick a fight, I'm getting knocked out cold.
Raildog or not, charging a monster like that would end with me crumpled and force-recalled into the Binder before I could even put up a proper fight. That much was obvious.
Fortunately, the adult Raildog seemed to have zero interest in a penniless rookie tamer and a tiny female mob. As we warily edged closer, it merely let out a threatening growl, as if we were a nuisance.
"Eek…! S-sorry! We won't touch you!"
In the end, my owner and I, knees weak, carefully backed out of the adult's territory, cold sweat pouring down.
But opportunity came from an unexpected place. A short distance from the adult's domain, beneath the shade of a rock, we discovered a Raildog that appeared to be a juvenile, lying down.
The creature had snow-white fur — a distinctly different appearance from ordinary Raildogs. But those eyes, flashing sharp as lightning for just an instant, proved beyond any doubt that this was no ordinary Raildog.