The Test
I scooped up the corpse and sprinted back to where Ha Seung-hee was waiting.
With Stormbreaker on her, she ought to be fine. But the longer this dragged on, the less certain that became. Seung-hee was an E-Rank hunter. She was a hunter, yes, but she had never taken any real interest in the work. Her ambitions lay in business. Taking down a D-Rank boss monster like Allax alone was simply not possible.
…Or so I'd thought.
When I came racing back, Allax was already down, and she stood before it with her head held high. Purple ichor from the monster streaked the Stormbreaker armor.
"Senior. This armor is incredible. If we could mass-produce and sell it… it would revolutionize the entire hunter industry."
"That armor is mine. And nobody's going to be able to reverse-engineer it."
"…Two hundred billion won. How about it?"
"Not for sale."
I snapped my fingers. The armor protecting Seung-hee's body disassembled itself, flew to my side, and reshaped into a spear. She stared at Stormbreaker with naked greed in her eyes.
No matter how badly she wanted it, I had no intention of handing Stormbreaker over. Money was already taken care of through the profits from HB-1. And there were plenty of other ways to make more.
I set the corpse down and spotted an empty glass vial rolling on the ground.
"…Don't tell me you used HB-1 on Allax?"
"One of the reasons I chose this dungeon was Allax. I needed to test whether it had any effect on plant-type monsters."
"You've got guts, I'll give you that. And the result?"
"No effect. It hit the ground, but… nothing happened. Probably because there was no plant there to grow."
"HB-1 acts on plants, not soil. Dumping it on bare dirt is just throwing it away."
"Right. Exactly."
"Good thing it doesn't work on plant-type monsters."
"It is a relief. Though we'll need more experiments. But this man… did you figure out who he is?"
I shook my head.
"He swallowed poison and killed himself before I could interrogate him. He's no ordinary thug. Probably part of a criminal organization. Someone definitely hired him, but…"
"……"
Seung-hee's eyes trembled as she looked at the body. Unlike me, she wasn't used to corpses.
"…We need to identify him. Would you help me strip his clothes?"
"I don't have a hobby of undressing dead men."
"Fine. I'll do it myself."
"I like the idea of my woman undressing some other guy even less."
In the end, I stripped the corpse myself. His body was far from clean — scars everywhere. Nothing on him that might reveal his identity.
Seung-hee collected samples of his hair, blood, and fingernails into a case, then photographed his body from every angle. I handed her the wooden flute as well. It was almost certainly no ordinary instrument.
"Why are you taking his hands? Is that some kind of fetish of yours?"
"I'm not in the mood for jokes. I'm taking the hands so I can leave them with a specialist and extract information."
"Not exactly a scientific method, then."
"I like science, but sometimes magic is simply more convenient."
We finished cleaning up the scene.
Seung-hee pulled something from her bag — a handful of red seeds.
"…What are you doing?"
"A test. I was originally going to try this on a monster or animal carcass, but… humans are animals too."
She started scattering the red seeds over the corpse, then hesitated. She bit her lip and forced herself to continue.
"Don't tell me it's a flower that grows by feeding on corpses? …I definitely learned the name of that flower in university."
"Blezeta."
"That's it. That was the name."
"It grows from the remains of monsters and animals. The petals are used as medicinal herbs. Two hundred fifty thousand won per petal, and each flower has thirteen of them."
"Expensive flower."
"It's also notoriously difficult to cultivate. There's even a saying that it's impossible to grow by human hands."
Seung-hee dripped HB-1 onto the red seeds resting on the corpse.
The seeds germinated. Dark crimson roots writhed out of each one and burrowed into the dead man's skin. Thirty-two seeds in total. Thirty-two roots competed to drain the body dry. Within moments the corpse had withered into a desiccated mummy.
Of the thirty-two Blezeta, only twenty managed to take root in the ground. The remaining twelve lost the competition — there simply hadn't been enough nutrients left in the body.
Red buds formed.
The twenty Blezeta flowers spread their petals wide, sucking the life force from every plant around them.
"Success."
Seung-hee's voice was subdued as she collected the Blezeta one by one.
We ran a few more tests after that, then left the dungeon. The Association staff standing guard at the entrance snapped to attention the moment they saw us.
"……"
Seung-hee fixed them with a cold, silent stare, then turned and started walking away from the dungeon. I fell in behind her and asked,
"You're not going to raise hell with the Association?"
"I don't want this made public. It would only draw the wrong kind of attention. I want to keep information about HB-1 as quiet as possible."
"If that's how you want to play it, fine by me. Anything else left to do? Time to head to the hotel and rest."
"I'm sorry, Senior, but something urgent just came up. I need to find out who that man who attacked us really was."
"You don't have to handle that personally."
I rested a hand on her shoulder. I had no intention of backing down.
"…Fine. But let's stop by the lab first. It won't even take an hour."
"An hour's nothing…. Heh. I can hardly wait for Seung-hee's heat dance."
"……What dance?"
"Heat dance."
"I've never heard of that. Is it some new trend…? Wait. No. You're thinking something filthy again, aren't you. I don't dance. I'm not a stripper."
"Not a striptease — a heat dance. Getting so worked up you dance around and choke my cock with it."
"I am not doing anything that vulgar."
We climbed into the car.
I took the driver's seat; Seung-hee sat shotgun. My right hand drifted naturally to her thigh, stroking it.
"Listen, Seung-hee. Give and take. You know how it works. If something goes out, something has to come back."
"We already settled that, didn't we? Hunter performance records. I'll make sure you get them."
"That's different from this."
"You said you'd help me."
"I did say I'd help. More precisely, protecting you was my job. The attack from the flute guy — that was fine. That was already on me. But going into that lake? That wasn't part of the deal. Do you have any idea how foul that water made me feel?"
"You barely went in. Just your feet."
"Doesn't matter. You used me, so you pay the price. Heat dance. I'm looking forward to it."
"Dream on."
Seung-hee turned her head away, her voice firm.
She might genuinely refuse to dance.
If I tried Hevil's Growth Accelerator on her… that would be tough. Now that the replica HB-1 is complete, there's no way the original would work on her…
If Hevil's Growth Accelerator was off the table… I'd just trade something else.
Once Seung-hee finished her business, the two of us headed to the hotel.
We booked a presidential suite at one of the finest hotels in the country. Beyond the windows, the entire Seoul nightscape stretched out at a glance.
We showered together in the bathroom and came out wearing robes. We each took a sip of the wine that had been prepared. Maybe it was the day's events, but Seung-hee drained her glass without hesitation.
"Seung-hee. Show me. Your heat dance."
"Have you completely lost your mind? I told you I don't do that kind of dance."
She glared at me like she wanted me dead. She really, truly did not want to do this.
No choice, then. Time to make a deal.
"If you danced the heat dance… I was going to give you this. Do you really hate the idea that much?"
I pinched the prepared item between my fingers. A golden strand nearly a full meter long.
Curiosity got the better of Seung-hee. She came closer and stared at the golden thread.
"It's a pretty color. …It looks like it has some kind of curl to it. This isn't ordinary thread, is it?"
"It's an elf's pussy-locks. Extremely elastic. Valuable enough as a magical material on its own, and perfect for a bowstring above all else."
"…Definitely not ordinary. I'll need to examine it properly. But the name — elf's pussy-locks? I've never heard of… wait. Pussy-locks…? Y-you're not saying what I think you're saying, are you?"
"Probably am. It's too long to just call it pussy hair, so I've been calling it pussy-locks. Not bad, right?"
"You absolute lunatic…!"
Seung-hee recoiled in horror. She stared daggers at me and demanded,
"…Elf. Is that actually an elf's pussy hair… no, pubic hair?!"
"It's real elf pussy hair."
"Don't lie to me. Elves can't possibly exist…!"
"Elves exist. How do you think I got Hevil's Growth Accelerator?"
"…Is Hevil's Growth Accelerator an elf product too?"
"Something like that."
She scowled and stepped closer again. Looking thoroughly disgusted, she took hold of the elf's pussy-locks and tugged and tested them, examining the material.
"You think this is worth as much as Hevil's Growth Accelerator?"
"Not that much, no. But it's something that doesn't exist in this world — that's certain. Worth researching, at the very least. You're not going to refuse to study it just because it's elf pussy hair, are you?"
"……No matter how I look at it, it can't possibly match the value of Hevil's Growth Accelerator…"
"Figuring out the value is your job, isn't it? You might hit the jackpot while researching it."
"……"
Her expression turned serious. Bringing up Hevil's Growth Accelerator had done its work.
Hevil's Growth Accelerator was valuable enough to rewrite Seung-hee's entire life, after all.
There was no law saying these elf pussy-locks couldn't do the same.
"…Fine. I'll try that heat dance of yours. …When you think about it, clinging to my pride in front of you is pretty ridiculous at this point. I've already done every vulgar thing imaginable… what's one dance going to change?"
"Good. Smart choice. Dance the heat dance and these pussy-locks are yours!"
"……So what exactly is a heat dance?"
I leaned in and whispered the details into her ear. The explanation went on for a full twenty minutes — mostly because she shouted "I'm not doing that" four separate times mid-explanation. Each time, I dangled Hevil's Growth Accelerator and talked her back around.
A beat started playing from the smartphone on the table. The tempo was strangely slow, almost sticky.
Ha Seung-hee danced. With a sensual sweep of her hands she shrugged off the robe, standing naked, then spread her thighs wide like a crab. The mound of her pussy stood out prominently. Even closed in a neat line, that pink slit was beautiful to look at.
She raised both hands behind her head and danced. She opened her mouth as if giving a blowjob and stuck out her tongue. Chin tilted up, she swayed it side to side.
A striptease at least had a certain elegance to it. The heat dance threw all of that to the dogs. It was pure, unfiltered vulgarity — a dance that existed solely to beg for sex.
"Cock, cock, cock…!"
Seung-hee cried out, her face burning red. I snickered. She squeezed her eyes shut in sheer mortification.
She came closer, rolling her hips forward and back. The dancing must have gotten her worked up — her pussy was already wet. Fluid beading on her inner lips flicked off and landed on my skin.
Her heat dance ended. I lifted her onto the table and drove my cock into her.
"Haaaaaahhh!"
Listening to her moans, I enjoyed a hotel vacation. Or rather — a pussy-cation.