The Golden Rule
Necromancer plus blacksmith—that bizarre combination of professions.
That was my class.
It was categorized under the mage branch, yet every skill I gained during the promotion exams was about as mage-like as a brick. Every last one demanded pure craftsmanship and handiwork.
Which was why the ability I inherited from Megus—Golden Rule—was the absolute best skill I could have asked for.
“Ehehehehe!”
Spirit Eye — discern the latent potential sleeping inside corpse byproducts.
Heavenly Martial Body — construct the optimal physical balance combinations.
Origin of Magic — maximize the efficiency of mana circulation.
That trio alone skyrocketed my undead-crafting efficiency. I could almost draw up the estimates without even running the experiments.
From Armed Zombie Warriors all the way up to Death Warriors, the synergy of those abilities had let me refine the production methods at breakneck speed.
And now…
Golden Rule — the golden combination that wrings every last drop of potential from every byproduct.
On top of that, an ability that lets me see the absolute maximum combinatorial possibilities of those byproducts?
Insane.
This was genuinely, completely insane.
“Ehehehehe!”
“My Lord. Are you all right?”
“What do we do? Try a healing spell or something.”
“Shall this one give yer head a good smack?”
【Master. Fine.】
I laughed so long my gut cramped and I had to suck in a long, shuddering breath.
Huuuuh.
Ow. Abs were killing me.
“Ah… thought I was gonna die laughing.”
I dabbed the moisture from the corners of my eyes with a fingertip. My fingers were already itching to craft undead with Golden Rule boosting the process. Even the inherited talents alone were pulling more than their weight.
Magnificent. Truly magnificent, O soul from another world!
【To inherit this old man’s brilliant talents… you have the qualifications to be Master.】
“Master?”
【From now on I shall call you Master. Though I refuse to use honorifics.】
Fine. Have it your way.
“Then I’m dropping the formalities too.”
Would feel weird if only one of us was being casual.
【In any case, I ought to express my gratitude to Master.】
“Because you get to see the Witch of the Solar Eclipse?”
【That is true, yet there is one more reason.】
Megus raised both hands high.
【This old man’s goal is to complete the Philosopher’s Stone.】
“The alchemist’s dearest wish?”
【How astonishing. I never expected Master to know of the Philosopher’s Stone.】
A thread of genuine goodwill flowed from Megus’s thoughts.
Ugh. My conscience prickled a little. I would rather die than admit I only knew it from comic books.
“Just overheard it somewhere.”
I scratched the back of my head as I answered, and Sir Isra let out a delighted laugh.
“Hahaha! My Lord is truly learned!”
“Indeed worthy to be this girl’s master.”
“This one is also struck with awe by Big Master’s vast knowledge from time to time.”
Please. Could you all just shut up for five seconds.
【Then the discussion will proceed swiftly.】
Megus clenched the fists he still held aloft.
【Having been granted a second life, this old man shall cooperate with Master in order to create the Philosopher’s Stone.】
“Yeah, sure. Knock yourself out.”
The Philosopher’s Stone… the legendary object said to grant every wish. Whatever stone Megus intended to make probably wouldn’t be that all-powerful. Still, if he was calling it the purpose of his second life, he must have finished a fair portion of the design while he was still alive.
At any rate, I could look forward to what my fifth subordinate would accomplish.
Loyalty oath or not, the others still had business.
“Big Master. Permission to proceed with educating the youngest?”
【Master. Permission.】
Apparently the two of them still had things to discuss.
“Do whatever you want.”
A moment later—
【Kieeeeeeeeek!】
An old man’s soul-scream rang through the Death Blacksmith.
After taking Megus as my fifth subordinate, I returned to my studio apartment to find a missed call waiting.
[Boss Baek]
What could he want?
I hit the call button. His voice came through in under ten seconds.
“Hunter Park. Do you have a moment?”
“Me? Sure, no schedule to speak of.”
“I have something to discuss regarding the materials you provided earlier.”
“Whoa. That was insanely fast.”
“I haven’t reviewed every scrap of data, but a serious issue has come to light.”
Boss Baek’s voice had gone hard as iron. This was clearly no ordinary matter.
“Please come to my place.”
“Understood. I’ll be right there.”
I ended the call and stared blankly for a few seconds. Given how urgently Boss Baek had spoken, this was anything but routine. What on earth could it be?
I was rubbing my chin in curiosity when—
Ding-dong—
I opened the door expecting Boss Baek, only to find the landlady standing there with several side-dish containers in her hands. Beside her, the president of my fan club—no, the landlady’s daughter Yeondu—looked like she wanted to sink into the floor.
Ah. They’d heard about the deserted-island incident.
“Student Minho. Do you have a moment?”
“Yes, ma’am. What’s the matter?”
“I heard the story. That you saved Yeondu.”
I shook my head firmly.
“Yeondu was only in danger because of me.”
“You said you didn’t know that would happen. I heard the intruders might have been targeting Mir Guild hunters all along.”
Actually, I had a very frank conversation with those masked hunters. They were after me, no question.
Still classified, so I kept my mouth shut.
“Mom insisted she had to thank you in person.”
“But why do you look like you’re the one who committed a crime?”
“I’m the one who asked Uncle for help and caused this whole mess…”
Ugh. You’re the victim who got swept up in the chaos. Why are you the one apologizing? Now I’m the uncomfortable one.
“Thank you so much for saving Yeondu.”
The landlady bowed deeply at the waist.
“It was only natural. Please don’t do that.”
“Really… if anything had happened to Yeondu, what would have become of our family…”
Tears welled in the landlady’s eyes. Yeondu, caught up in the mood, looked moist-eyed as well. This was getting painfully awkward.
While I stood there flustered by the flood of gratitude—
“Hunter Park?”
Boss Baek arrived at the perfect moment. Whew. Nice shot, Boss!
“You said you had something to discuss.”
“Ah. Yes, but…”
Boss Baek flicked a glance at Yeondu. Why the sudden discretion? That wasn’t like him at all.
“It’s fine. They’re like family. You can speak freely.”
They already knew the entire sequence of events on the deserted island. Yeondu herself had been caught in the masked hunters’ attack, so she had every right to hear about the mastermind behind the raid.
Boss Baek checked the room once more, then carefully parted his lips.
“The ones who orchestrated this affair were the Mir Guild.”
Clang!
The side-dish containers hit the floor with a spectacular crash.
Ah, Boss! You were supposed to say that when it was just the two of us!
Four people crowded into my tiny studio. Add the three subordinates and we made seven.
“We really should have gone downstairs to our place…”
The landlady looked thoroughly awkward.
“Let’s just finish this quickly.”
I shot Boss Baek a look; he got straight to the point.
“Evidence has been found that the Mir Guild made contact with China’s Superhuman Bureau and jointly planned the infiltration.”
Smuggle ten A-rank hunters and one hundred seven B-rank hunters onto foreign soil? And they had to use the limited sea route for the illegal entry. Neither Korea’s Rift Bureau nor the Coast Guard were such pushovers that they would miss a force of that size. The only way it worked was if someone on the inside punched holes in the surveillance net.
“H-how could this be…”
Yeondu’s mother wore a blank, disbelieving expression. All the color had drained from her face. I was shocked myself; I couldn’t even imagine how she felt.
“Is it true?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
The guild Yeondu belonged to had tried to use her as the instrument of a murder. Ha. That pissed me off more than a little.
“They used Yeondu as bait to kill me.”
“Capture or kill. One of the two.”
Apparently the Superhuman Bureau’s habit of kidnapping foreign hunters was nothing new. Their main victims were various Southeast Asian nations and the East African countries that bordered the Indian Ocean.
“If Hunter Park had been subdued, the Mir Guild members who came along—including Miss Yeondu—would also have been in grave danger.”
Kidnap or death. What a lovely pair of choices. These were the same bastards who had mercilessly slaughtered even the guild members who arrived as reinforcements, so they were more than capable of it.
“The one called the Mir Guild Master is a being unworthy of dominion!”
Sparks flared in Sir Isra’s eyes.
“Shall we eliminate him, Master?”
“I’ll slip over there real quiet-like and snicker-snack him, I will.”
Only the wording differed. All three subordinates made no attempt to hide their fury.
What doused the heated atmosphere was the landlady’s choked sobs.
“S-sob… our Yeondu… what are we going to do…”
“It’s okay, Mom. Look! Arms and legs still attached.”
“They tried to kill my daughter. I can’t send you back there.”
“Then should I grandly throw my resignation in their faces and walk out?”
Yeondu said it as if it were nothing. Boss Baek spoke up.
“There will be a penalty for contract termination. Isn’t that so, ma’am?”
The landlady silently nodded. So that was the sticking point.
“Mom, that little penalty money—I’ll pay it back in no time, so don’t worry.”
Yeondu raised her voice with exaggerated bravado.
“Forgive the interruption, Miss Yeondu, but the penalties of major guilds are hardly trivial.”
“How much are we talking?”
“Depending on the exact terms, the minimum is in the range of a billion won.”
“Whoa.”
Yeondu’s jaw dropped.
“Don’t you worry about a thing. Mom will take care of it.”
“How are you going to handle over a billion won?!”
“Honestly, this child. I told you not to fret.”
Well… if I were in Yeondu’s shoes, I’d be so stressed I wouldn’t sleep a wink.
I quietly stepped back and jabbed Boss Baek in the side.
“You’ve got a way, right?”
“Hmm. How did you know?”
“You’re not the type to open your mouth without a plan.”
“True enough.”
Stop keeping us in suspense and just give us the next move already.
“If you look at Article 4, Clause 17 of the Mir Guild membership contract, it contains the following provision.”
Boss Baek brought the relevant section up on his tablet and read it aloud.
If Party A (the Mir Guild) is proven to have intentionally inflicted harm upon Party B, the latter may withdraw from the contract without payment of any penalty.
“Intentionally inflict harm?”
“Exactly the sort of case we have here.”
Yeondu’s and the landlady’s faces brightened in real time.
“Of course, under ordinary circumstances proving intent is extremely difficult, so the clause rarely means much…”
“This time it’s different.”
Boss Baek nodded at my reply.
“I’ve already scheduled a discussion with the Rift Bureau.”
“Whoa. Already?”
“I made the call while I was on my way here.”
As expected of Boss Baek. Zero hesitation when it came to getting things done.
“We’ll hand over the Mir Guild materials tonight. We’ll talk further then.”
“Still… they’re one of the domestic top five. Will it really be okay?”
“No need to worry. The Rift Bureau will be going all-out this time as well.”
True enough. Looking at Commissioner Choi Jiung or Director Jeong alone, they were already loaded with enough poison to put a seasonal pufferfish to shame. There was also the whole transfer of Hunter Jeong Sinho, who had been a leading candidate for the next S-rank. And that was hardly the only line the Mir Guild had crossed.
“In that spirit, once the contract is terminated, how would you feel about receiving the care of our agency, Miss Yeondu?”
Ah. Boss. You’re pitching business here?