Let's Become a Hunter! ...Huh?
Let's Become a Hunter! ...Huh?
Her mind was in a blur.
Suyeon's hand gripped her wrist, pulling her forward and forward, and Gray could barely keep her feet on the ground.
It wasn't physical strength. This woman's power was weaker than a goblin's spawn. A single finger would have been enough to shake her off.
The problem was her own mental state.
A black road. On it, iron boxes moved on their own without mana. They had wheels, but no horses or oxen were pulling them.
Every time one passed, wind gusted and left a deafening roar.
The trees planted along the roadside were trimmed enough to be called considerable, but no druid's touch could be felt.
The lanterns hanging from poles above—even though it was daytime—didn't turn off and flickered in three colors alternately.
None of it was magic.
No—there was no mana at all.
As she walked, Gray read the air. It was a habit.
To survive in a dungeon, sensing the concentration of mana in the atmosphere was the first step.
High mana density meant high-ranking monsters nearby; low meant relative safety.
But.
'...There isn't any.'
It existed. It wasn't a complete zero.
But compared to the atmosphere of the world she knew, it was virtually converging on zero.
It was thinner than the most remote villages on the frontier, thinner than mana stones that had been absorbed by mages until only dregs remained.
At this density, it was safe to say that monsters couldn't naturally occur.
An environment where not even a single slime could appear, let alone a magical beast.
'But that Gate thing earlier—there were monsters inside it.'
A contradiction. Outside, there was no mana; inside, monsters lived.
As if mana had condensed in one place and punched a hole. Was that the identity of what Suyeon had called a Gate?
Her train of thought connected, but she had no time to organize it.
"We're here!"
Suyeon stopped and called out.
Her earlier teary expression was gone, and flames burned in her eyes. A face blazing with vengeance.
Gray lifted her head.
She stopped.
There was a building. No, the scale was too grand to call it just a building.
Its width was enough to line up three of any noble's mansion; its height—
She looked up. Looked up more. Looked up until her neck bent backward.
The end was not in sight.
The Tower of Babel, said to have been built by humans to reach the realm of gods.
That thing she'd only thought of as a legend heard from a wandering bard in her childhood now stood before her in glass and steel.
At the front of the building, beyond the transparent glass wall, people could be seen coming and going.
The letters engraved above the entrance were unreadable.
Well, if it wasn't Imperial script, she wouldn't know how to read it in the first place.
And the door below opened and closed on its own just by someone approaching...?
There wasn't a magic circle or any trace of mechanical devices visible?
"...Is this all one building?"
"Huh? Oh, the Association headquarters? It's a bit big since it's the Seoul Branch, but..."
'A bit big?'
Gray closed her mouth. Asking more would reveal her ignorance.
Right now, this woman seemed to think she was from the same world.
The moment that misunderstanding broke, she couldn't predict how the situation would turn.
Suyeon grabbed her wrist and pulled again.
"Hurry! We have to report before the registration deadline!"
The glass door opened. A cold wind pushed in from inside.
Gray gritted her teeth and stepped in.
First, survive. Understanding comes after.
Hwiing――
As she passed through the glass door, a cold wind enveloped her entire body.
The air inside this building was different from outside. Cool and dry, the temperature regulated not by any magic.
But that wasn't surprising anymore.
Because her senses were already going numb.
Gray slowed her pace and scanned the interior.
It was vast. The ceiling was high, and the floor was smooth stone—no, not stone.
An unknown material reflected the light.
Glowing panels embedded in the walls constantly changed letters and numbers to display something.
There were many people.
Most were dressed in clothes she'd never seen before, but mixed among them were familiar sights.
Leather armor. Chainmail. A longsword at the waist. A greatsword on the back. A staff in hand.
In one corner, a man with bandaged arms was groaning as he set down a blood-stained axe on the floor, and next to him, an uninjured woman was calmly tapping on a glowing panel.
The wounded and the unharmed were mixed together.
The armed and the unarmed stood in the same space.
Someone was arguing loudly; someone else was leaning against a wall with eyes closed.
Gray's lips curled up slightly.
This scenery. This rough yet oddly orderly atmosphere.
The smell was different, but the texture of the air was unmistakable.
A space where those who had returned alive and those about to leave crossed paths, a mixture of blood, sweat, tension, and relief.
'...It's an Adventurer Guild!'
It was just the exterior that was a bit different.
Built with glass and steel, lit by self-illuminating lamps instead of torches, using glowing panels instead of parchment—but the essence was the same.
A place to receive requests, carry them out, and report. A place where adventurers gathered.
For the first time, she could breathe a little.
"This way, hurry!"
Suyeon's pace quickened. She almost ran toward the reception counter.
Gray, dragged by her wrist, didn't stop scanning.
The structure beyond the counter, the positions of the entrances, the number of armed personnel. Habit was ingrained in her body.
At that moment, four shadows stood in Suyeon's path.
Three men and one woman.
Among them, the large man at the front—a tanker's build—his face distorted the moment he spotted Suyeon.
It was neither surprise nor joy. His entire face was expressing the phrase 'unbelievable.'
His eyes went wide, his mouth half-open, and his complexion instantly turned white.
Because a person who should never return alive was walking toward him.
The other three were the same. The two men who looked like dealers glanced at each other and simultaneously took a step back, and one woman dropped the drink in her hand to the floor.
The cold liquid spread across the smooth floor, but no one paid attention.
Fire ignited in Suyeon's eyes.
"Park Jin-ho."
Her voice was low and clear. A completely different person from the woman who had been sobbing in the dungeon earlier.
The tanker—Park Jin-ho's—lips trembled.
"Han... Suyeon? How did you——"
"You mean how I survived?"
Suyeon took a step forward. Park Jin-ho took a step back.
Gray watched with her arms crossed.
The language was unfamiliar, but this composition was perfectly understandable.
The reunion of the one who abandoned and the one who abandoned.
That moment.
"I've been waiting."
A dry, emotionless voice cut in. From inside the reception desk, a neatly dressed woman approached holding a document—no, a glowing panel.
It was a face with no discernible expression. As befits a receptionist of an Adventurer Guild, a face erased of emotion.
"Party Leader Park Jin-ho-nim. The death processing and party withdrawal procedures for former member Han Soo-yeon-ssi have just been completed."
The air froze.
Death processing.
Gray narrowed her eyes. She glanced at Suyeon standing beside her.
Death processing for a living person. There was no way she didn't know what that meant.
Those people had gone back and reported that Suyeon was dead.
Suyeon's face changed.
Red began at her neck, climbed up her ears, and spread to her forehead.
It was the color of a dragon's embers igniting deep in its throat just before it spewed crimson flames.
Gray had never seen a dragon in her life, but she was certain that this woman's face right now was exactly that.
Suyeon reached into the air, and a transparent panel appeared from nothing.
Letters and numbers made of light emerged, and Suyeon's fingers scribbled over it like mad.
Back and forth. Up and down. It was a gesture of checking something.
'...Deploying a spell formula in midair without a magic circle?'
She swallowed her surprise and just watched.
Soon, the gestures stopped.
Suyeon's shoulders trembled. Her head turned slowly.
Toward Park Jin-ho. Her mouth opened. Her chest expanded.
She took a deep, long breath, as if a troll gathering ki deep in its lungs before roaring.
Park Jin-ho's instinct reacted first.
"Wait—wait!! I thought you were really dead!!"
One of the dealers behind him hastily cut in.
"That's right, we were so busy running, we didn't have time to look after——"
The second dealer nodded repeatedly and added.
"Y-yeah! The Orc was right behind us! We couldn't go back!"
The woman even teared up and tried to grab Suyeon's hand.
"Suyeon-ah, I'm so glad you're alive, I——"
Suyeon slapped her hand away.
The receptionist's expressionless face showed its first crack.
The hand holding the document stopped, and her eyes alternated between the alive Suyeon and the death processing document. Deep wrinkles formed between her brows.
"Ah... was it a false report?"
The receptionist's voice was still bland, but the furrow between her brows didn't relax.
Her gaze went between Suyeon, Park Jin-ho, and the document three times.
But soon, as if swallowing a sigh, she composed her expression and set the glowing panel down on the counter with a tap.
"Well, it doesn't matter. Since you're alive, we can just correct it."
A businesslike tone. Giving off the nuance that this wasn't the first time.
"So, what will you do?"
Park Jin-ho quickly opened his mouth. Relief and calculation both laced his voice.
"Of course, withdraw the withdrawal and go back to how it was——"
"No."
Suyeon cut him off. A short, firm, irreversible word.
Park Jin-ho's mouth stopped. The three behind him froze. Only the receptionist held her pen, waiting for the next words.
Suyeon turned her body. She grabbed Gray's arm.
It was different from when she had grabbed her wrist earlier. It was a touch that placed her side by side at the shoulder, as if positioning her as an equal.
"I'm going to form a new party with this person."
Gray blinked. What?
"Just reverse the death processing."
Suyeon said to the receptionist. Then she looked back at Park Jin-ho.
The crimson-flame color of earlier had subsided. What remained was only a gaze like cold, extinguished ash.
"'Don't worry about the dead person and live well.'"
Park Jin-ho's face distorted. He tried to say something, but Suyeon was already turning away.
Still gripping Gray's arm, she walked briskly past the counter, through the crowd.
Gray looked back as she was dragged along. The four stood there. No one followed.
Park Jin-ho's mouth opened and closed repeatedly; the other three just watched each other's reactions.
The receptionist was already pulling out the next document.
Gray turned her head forward. The hand of Suyeon, who was walking while holding her arm, trembled minutely.
'...She didn't even ask me.'
Party. It seemed they used the same word in this world too.
Companions who carry out requests together. A relationship where you trust them with your back.
That very trust that had just been torn apart by those people.
She's going to stake that on someone she just met?
It was a foolish judgment. But I didn't dislike it.
In this world, this woman was the only person she knew, and being affiliated with the Adventurer Guild—no, she called it the 'Association'—would likely be advantageous for survival.
Following Suyeon, they headed back to the reception counter.
The receptionist had already prepared new documents. This woman, she's efficient.
Several exchanges went back and forth. Suyeon handled most of it, and Gray stood beside her, grasping context among terms she couldn't understand.
Party registration, member composition, rank evaluation—the procedures were similar to the Guild. Only the forms differed.
Then the receptionist's gaze turned to Gray.
"Please present the Hunter License of the person who will be the party leader."
Suyeon looked at Gray as if it were natural.
She was the one who had taken down a Hobgoblin with a single dagger in the dungeon. Her eyes said she surely had a license.
Gray nodded.
"Understood."
Hunter. That must be the name for adventurers in this world. A license would be akin to an identification tag.
Inside the greaves that hung below her waist, she fingered a metal plate dangling from a leather strap.
Her body had changed, but it seemed her belongings remained. A cold touch reached her fingertips.
She pulled it out.
With a clink, she placed it on the counter.
A worn piece of metal. On one side, the imperial crest; on the other, a metal plate engraved with rank and name.
Imperial Certified Adventurer Identification Tag. Iron rank.
The receptionist's hand stopped. Suyeon's eyes went wide at Gray's eccentricity.