Chapter 13
Flash—!
As the glare faded, I slowly opened my eyes.
What I saw was a hollow chamber inside a massive cave.
Straight ahead stood a small village ringed by fences and watchtowers.
Beyond the palisade were dozens of huts made of grass, hides, and other such garbage.
It was exactly the goblin settlement described in the strategy guide.
“Then let’s go.”
Thud, thud, thud.
I strode forward without hesitation.
The guide had said to never go in from the front and to swing wide around the left, but...
That was for ordinary folks playing Easy, Normal, or Hard.
There was no reason for an Extreme Lunatic Hell Mage to go hunting for some undignified side path.
I’d only taken a few steps when—
Dang dang dang dang dang dang dang!
The alarm bell rang out.
Seems the goblin in the watchtower had spotted me.
-Kieeeeeeeek!
-Ker-rk! Ker-k!
-Kyaaaaaaaak!
Then came the cries of the goblin horde.
The ones in the village heard the bell and started swarming out in a frenzy.
I stood still and waited.
The more of them gather, the more I can kill in one shot.
I could’ve started blasting magic right then and there, but...
The moment they realized I was a mage, they’d scatter and run for their lives.
Then I’d have to chase each and every one down like some kind of overworked delivery driver.
So let’s be patient for a second.
-Ker-r-r-r-r-k!
-Kar-r-r-k! Kar-r-k!
-Kieeeee!
The goblins poured out into the front of the village in a writhing mass.
Green dwarf-like things, charging at me with daggers or bows clutched in their hands.
Just from what I could see, there were well over a hundred of them.
If the settlement really had about three hundred goblins total, there were probably more still coming from the back.
-Pipipipiping!
Then came the arrows.
The archers in the goblin village started hurling shots at me.
Obviously, they were no threat whatsoever.
I aimed my staff at the incoming volley.
If I compress just a little air and fire it off...
Paang!
A broad burst of compressed air battered the arrow storm aside.
The crude arrows bounced away, then dropped uselessly to the ground with a clatter.
I smirked.
“Guess practicing magic in daily life really paid off.”
If I didn’t fire the air at absurdly high pressure, but instead spread it out broadly at low pressure...
It was perfect for knocking aside projectiles like arrows.
Anyway, they seemed to have gathered nicely.
Was it time?
Fireball.
Wooooooong!
My staff blazed white-hot as it drew up a mass of Blue Dots and arranged them in formation.
I loaded Fireballs onto the tip of my staff.
One, two, five, ten, twenty...
Thirty.
-Fwoooooooosh...!
A full thirty giant Fireballs rose into the air and circled around me.
Maybe it was because I’d grown stronger while climbing the Tower, but if I focused only on Fireball, I could now control as many as thirty.
It was a strangely moving feeling.
It felt like just yesterday I’d been amazed at floating five Fireballs in the tutorial...
And now there were thirty of them.
Fwoooooosh...!
The roaring flames turned the dark cave a deep red.
-Ker-k...?
The goblins skidded to a halt mid-charge.
Yeah, the second these bastards saw magic, they froze right up.
Did they know what a mage was?
Well, goblins had shamans among them, so...
They probably knew magic by instinct, at least.
And so I pointed my staff at the goblins, who were standing there with stupidly bewildered expressions.
“Fire.”
-SshhaaaaAAAAAK!
One Fireball shot forward, drawing a red trail through the air.
The violently searing sphere struck dead center in the goblin mass.
-Kwaaaaaaaang—!
A savage explosion erupted.
Blood mist burst outward, and chunks of limbs and viscera sprayed everywhere.
In a single blow, dozens of goblins were caught in the blast and blown apart.
-Kieeeeeeeeeek-!
Apparently they’d finally understood what was happening.
The goblins started screaming and fleeing in panic.
Too bad my Fireballs came in more than one.
-Kwaaaaaaaang—!
-Kwaaang—!
-Kwakwakwakwaang—!
I sent a Fireball to every place where they were clustered together.
Every time one exploded, goblins were torn to shreds, their limbs blown off and scattered through the air.
Blood mist sprayed everywhere, and scraps of flesh littered the cave.
Disgusting as hell.
Well, disgusting was disgusting.
I carried on with my magic in complete silence.
-Puk, puk, puk, puk, puk!
For goblins who’d scattered, I fired single Air Bullets to punch straight through their foreheads.
-Kwaaaaaaaang—!
The goblins who ran into the huts got blown up along with the huts themselves.
Crude shelters made of sticks and hides couldn’t possibly withstand my Fireballs.
The explosions kept coming, one after another.
Thunderous blasts and ripping shockwaves filled the air.
With every impact, goblins died or were hurled away, while huts and watchtowers collapsed in pieces.
Blood mist and shredded meat scattered across my field of view.
How many of the green monsters had I erased by then?
“...”
At some point, silence fell.
I heightened my spiritual senses and swept the surrounding space, but I could no longer detect anything moving.
Before I knew it, I’d completely exterminated the goblin settlement.
I slowly looked around.
The goblin village is totally fucked.
The place looked nothing like it had before.
Watchtowers lay shattered and toppled.
Huts had been reduced to piles of rubble.
Chunks of flesh, scattered entrails, severed limbs, and blood soaking into the ground were strewn everywhere.
It was a true scene of massacre.
“Sigh... time to get to work.”
Now came the real labor.
I pulled out some sacks made of rough, sturdy cloth from my bag.
It had been obvious from the start that if I wiped out a goblin settlement, there was no way my existing leather bag would hold all the loot.
So I’d prepared these sacks in advance.
I grabbed them and started stuffing in the spoils one by one.
“Damn it! The feel of this chunk of entrails is disgusting!”
Every time something soft, slimy, and wet touched my fingertips, I got goosebumps.
So I pushed through the pile of corpses, rummaging through the remains of the huts.
And I shoved every bit of loot I found into the sacks.
There was plenty of it.
252 goblin daggers.
51 goblin bows.
A few metal ingots found inside the collapsed huts.
Leather from the outer storage shed...
There really was a lot.
I didn’t finish looting until two sacks were packed full and even my leather bag was bursting at the seams.
By then, it was damn heavy.
But of course it was heavy.
One goblin dagger weighed around 300 grams, and there were 252 of them. That’s 75 kilos.
One bow weighed about 400 grams, and there were 51. Roughly 20 kilos.
Five scrap-metal ingots at 10 kilos each. 50 kilos.
Plus another 10 kilos of leather...
So, all told, around 155 kilos? That’s a fucking insane amount. I’m amazed the sacks didn’t rip.
Still, the fact that I could carry all this around made my own body seem insane too.
Is this the body of an Extreme Lunatic Hell Hunter...?
It was an absurd amount of weight, and yet I hauled it around without breaking a sweat.
Anyway, I gathered the loot in a heap and, with no lingering attachment to the shattered goblin village, stepped into the escape portal.
[Baek Jiho (Republic of Korea : Floor 4)]
[Floor 4 of the Tower has been cleared.]
[252 Goblins (1) have been defeated.]
[51 Goblin Archers (2) have been defeated.]
[Points are being calculated.]
[Floor 5 of the Tower has been unlocked.]
[Returning.]
* * *
“Sis!”
The instant I returned to reality, I bellowed at the top of my lungs.
I was calling for my sister.
“...”
But she didn’t come.
Normally she would’ve opened the door and come storming in right away.
What the hell. Why isn’t she coming?
I opened my smartphone.
I clicked my tongue.
“I wanted to brag to Sis about all the loot I brought back, too. And of course she’s not home.”
I’d wanted to show her my fat loot sacks and puff out my chest like, look at this, this is what I’m talking about.
But no, she had to be out of the house.
Well, whatever.
I’ll brag on Hunter Gallery instead.
Bragging was simply irresistible.
Snap!
I took a photo with the sacks and bag wide open so the contents would be clearly visible, then posted it.
Newbie hunter... today I cleared Floor 4.
I went in and, just like I’d heard, there was a goblin settlement.
So I went padding up to it, and the bell rang and goblins came swarming out in a frenzy, lol;
Arrows started flying too...
The village hospitality was really terrible.
So I just killed them all T_T
Man, though, it was a pain gathering the loot.
252 goblin daggers, 51 bows, 5 ingots, and some leather too...
There was way more than I expected. The sacks nearly ripped lol. Glad I brought sturdy ones.
Anyway, if I sell all this and exchange the points too...
The loot comes out to about 7.65 million won after taxes.
And the points are 354 points.
Total... maybe around 11.2 million won?
I made a ton in just one day lol
Now I get why Floor 4 is called the rice-eater floor.
Time for a steaming bowl of soybean paste soup over rice tonight.
“Heh-heh.”
As expected, the gallery users wouldn’t believe a word of it.
It put me in a great mood. Seriously, posting on the gallery right after a climb was pure nectar.
As I kept reading the comments, one in particular caught my eye.
“Oh. That’s one way to look at it.”
It was, honestly, a pretty reasonable guess.
Upper-floor hunters did occasionally descend to the lower floors for a change of pace, after all.
Of course, the reaction to that comment was lousy.
Once upper-floor hunters were mentioned, replies flooded in to push back against the idea.
It was easy to see the respect people had for the higher-ranked hunters.
Well, it made sense.
Upper-floor hunters are basically patriots, after all.
They were the ones who rejected enormous sums of money and glittering fame from America and Europe, choosing instead to stay in their homeland.
Lower-floor rice-eater hunters were treated like parasitic worms wasting climbing slots, but...
The public in South Korea saw upper-floor hunters as patriots and heroes.
In a light mood, I left a reply.
“Heh heh heh.”
Snickering, I kept up the gallery browsing, then ate the soybean paste soup my sister had made and lay down on the bed.
As I got ready to sleep, a stray thought suddenly drifted through my head.
So how’s the porter recruitment going, anyway? They’re not going to fail, are they?
It couldn’t fail.
I really didn’t want to go rummaging through corpses anymore...
Ah. Please, for the love of God, let Sis succeed in persuading her.
With that prayer, I closed my eyes.
* * *
A dormitory at a university in Seoul.
Once a place for students to live, it was now a building surrounded by armored vehicles and soldiers.
In room 302, two women sat across from each other with a small table between them.
One of them was Baek Jiye.
She was Baek Jiho’s sister, and currently serving as his manager.
The other was Na Hyeji.
She wore large glasses, and beneath her tangled hair were deep dark circles and a gloomy expression.
Only a few days ago, she had been a prop trader at a securities firm and was doing quite well for herself, but now she was imprisoned under the Hunter Mobilization Order and being forced to climb the Tower.
Looking at Na Hyeji, Baek Jiye said with a frustrated expression,
“Hyeji, you hate being trapped and forced to climb too, right? Just party up with my little brother and get out of here.”
“...”
“You hate fighting, don’t you? My brother will do all the fighting, and you can just pick up the loot.”
Jiye tried her best to persuade her friend.
They’d already talked at length on the phone, but Hyeji just wouldn’t accept the offer, so Jiye had come all the way here in person.
Na Hyeji pushed up her glasses and replied,
“A-are you trying to kill me?”
“What?”
“No, I mean, that makes no sense... Floor 5 as a two-person party? That’s not climbing, that’s suicide. And you’re saying your brother will do all the fighting while I just pick up the loot? Where the hell is such an easy deal supposed to exist? It’s not like your brother comes from Hard difficulty or anything.”
“He’s not from Hard, no, but... he came from a difficulty even crazier than that! Please just trust me on this, Hyeji.”
“That’s ridiculous... Forget it. No. I’m not doing it. I have no intention of killing myself.”
Na Hyeji flatly refused the proposal.
Which was only natural.
Floor 5 of the Tower of Trials.
The floor where Goblin Warriors appeared.
For Easy hunters, it was an impenetrable wall of grief; for Normal hunters, a trial; and only hunters from Hard could cross it with any real ease.
That was why Floor 5 practically required a five-person party.
To take on a Goblin Warrior, a formidable foe, five people had to work together and overwhelm it.
And yet they wanted to clear that Floor 5...
with just a two-person party?
Nonsense. It was basically the same as telling someone to go die.
Any sane person would have no choice but to refuse such an offer.
Unless you showed them magic with their own eyes, of course.
Baek Jiye tore at her hair in frustration.
“Aaa, aargh...! I can’t even show her!”
“Enough. Hurry up and leave. I’m done talking.”
“Hyeji...”
Na Hyeji snapped her head away and raised her smartphone with a cool, indifferent look.
It was her gesture for I’m not talking anymore.
“Haa... I guess there’s no helping it.”
In the end, Jiye had no choice but to give up on persuading her and step back.
Really, even she had only come to understand after seeing it with her own eyes. How could Hyeji possibly believe such a story on the word of a friend alone?
Especially since magic itself was a secret she couldn’t even bring up.
All her persuasion had amounted to was, “My little brother is strong. Please trust me.”
There was no way anyone would accept a shameless demand like that.
“Okay. Sorry for bothering you. Next time I come, I’ll bring something tasty.”
“...”
Maybe she was angry at the relentless persuasion.
Na Hyeji didn’t even turn to look at her, just ignored her completely.
Clicking her tongue, Jiye gathered her things.
In the end, the persuasion had failed.
Now it was time to head home empty-handed.
“I’m going now. Take care of yourself.”
With that, Jiye said her goodbye, and just as she was about to turn away—
She caught sight of the smartphone Hyeji was staring at.
On the screen was a site with a familiar UI.
The very place her brother had been hanging around on these days.
Hunter Gallery?
Now that she was about to become a hunter again, was she getting information from Hunter Gallery?
Jiye casually glanced at the post on the screen.
A familiar username.
And a photo that was clearly taken in her brother’s room.
Had he come back already and posted again?
Baek Jiye frowned.
“Ugh. This brat posted again. I keep telling him to lay off the internet.”
“Hmm?”
Na Hyeji reacted to Jiye’s mutter.
She asked,
“You know the person who posted this?”
“Yeah. That’s my little brother.”
“...?”