Accounting for the Spoils

After clearing the gate, I settled the spoils.

Even a rough estimate put it at over three hundred million won.

This income.

Is this for real?

President Baek let out a short huff of a laugh.

"Because you aren't ordinary, Hunter Park."

Clearing a gate below B-class was, quite literally, nothing more than a "record." Extra rewards only kicked in at A-class and above—and even a bare-minimum A only paid out twenty mana stones.

"It's a gate recommended for a party of fifteen. Split fifteen ways, that would come out to about three stones a person."

Still not pocket change. Three C-class mana stones ran around 7.5 million won.

"If I ran gates every day, I'd make two hundred million a month."

President Baek's expression went strangely rigid—the face of a man who had just heard something absurd.

"You're joking, right?"

"Yeah, okay. Every day might be a bit much."

"Exactly."

"Even five days a week, though—"

"……"

What was that look? The one that said he had plenty to say and was deliberately choosing not to. I had never seen so much emotion show on President Baek's face before.

"Do you know how many times a month a C-class hunter runs a gate?"

"No idea."

"About twelve."

What? That wasn't even once every other day.

"You look surprised."

"Yeah. A little."

Money was multiplying. I was getting stronger by the day. So why run so few gates?

"Shall I tell you one more thing? They don't all run C-class gates exclusively, either."

"They're C-class and they're still running D-class?"

"Because hunting monsters inside a gate is dangerous."

One accident could end in fatal results. The higher your rank climbed, the more common it became to enter gates one rank below your own.

"Seven Stars even has a mental-care department for people struggling with PTSD from monster hunting."

It felt like listening to news from another planet.

"I was the employee who proposed building that program."

After the mental-care program went live, hunters' monthly gate clears had apparently risen by about one or two runs.

Hmm. Even as an E-class, the average had been four times a week. I had been the odd one out.

"How often did you go in and out of gates, Hunter Park?"

"Six days a week."

"……Please restrain yourself while you're working with me."

President Baek had gone pale.

"How about we compromise at five days a week?"

"I'd be grateful if you managed the care side at five days."

In other words, there was no way he could control how often I actually went into gates.

"Let's do that."

On top of the mana stones, I had also picked up a Rare-grade item.

The Mana Increase option wasn't huge for a Rare. The second option, Mental Resistance, was a solid ability. Mental attacks weren't common, but they were rated among the most troublesome status effects—and the higher the gates you cleared, the more that option would shine.

And then there was the third option. That one was the real prize.

"An area debuff. A fine ability," Isra said.

"The vermin who hear Master's valiant cry will tremble in fear!"

Valiant? Vermin? That was a little more flowery than the skill description warranted.

While I made small talk with President Baek, the cleanup crew hauled the Dire Wolf corpses out of the gate.

"Vacuum-pack every corpse and send them to my workshop."

"Understood."

President Baek started to say something, then closed his mouth. It was obvious what he was curious about.

"I only talked with Mir."

"I see."

"You said I could take my time deciding."

"That's correct. The initiative is yours, Hunter Park."

While I was at it, I told him the terms Mir had put on the table.

"Guildmaster Yong Cheonwoo offered fifteen billion?"

"Yes."

"Looks like Seven Stars' information leaked."

He added that information moving between corporations was common enough. Information moving?

"There are no secrets in this industry."

"I thought society had agreed to call that spying."

"When something is this commonplace, calling it spying feels a bit dramatic."

Heh. Just what kind of places were guilds, exactly?

"Wait until a condition you like comes up."

"And if I really leave?"

"Then I'll retire, buy a building, and live in leisure."

Ah. Right. If he didn't sign a contract with me, five billion won stayed in his pocket.

"For the sake of your retirement, maybe I should go with another guild."

"Ahem. Don't say such frightening things."

"I'm thirsty. One coffee, please."

"Ahem. I'll brew you an excellent cup."

President Baek hurried off into the coffee cart.

A week had passed since the Gate Break incident was resolved.

My schedule was very different from my E-class days, but I was gradually settling into it.

Two days of the week, I reported to the forge.

Clang! Claaang!

"Your balance is off. Ease up on the force a little."

I learned the basics of blacksmithing from Nam Jinwoo.

"Good work today."

"With your knack for this, Hunter Park, it hardly counts as hard work."

Hunter equipment came in an astonishing variety. Even greaves shifted in purpose depending on material and thickness. Weapons were no different—he said you had to be sensitive even to minute differences in length.

"Making good items is about the details. Remember that."

"Yes, sir."

One day was reserved for work and research in my personal workshop.

"We are the ones doing the research, are we not?" Isra said.

"So you don't want to?"

"You iron-headed oaf! Why say such a useless thing!"

"That is not what I meant. I am glad to be of use to you, Sir."

She should have just said that from the start.

While my two thralls threw themselves into research, I didn't sit idle either. Monster corpses I'd ordered from the Hunter Market arrived. I carved away the unusable parts, bound the intact ones together, and forged them into Armed Zombie Warriors.

So the knight order had its own separate experience track. Good—it wasn't siphoning mine.

"Oh—ohhh! Ohhhhh!!!!"

"Aren't you getting a little too excited?"

"To think I can increase the knights who swear fealty to you, Sir! What a glorious honor this is!"

Glorious, she says. If the order's rank went up, I'd be the one swinging a hammer again to fill out the roster.

"Ingrid. I'll fill out the magic roster soon, too."

Magic-type monsters were relatively uncommon in gates, and finding corpses in good condition was its own ordeal, so I hadn't been able to reinforce the Skeleton Mages yet.

"Please don't trouble yourself over it. You're the one working so hard, Master."

Khh. At least one thrall understood my exhaustion.

If only I could buy split Soulstones. Being bound items, though, they weren't for sale—a constant frustration. At least I had developed a proper crafting method.

With the force reinforcement finished, I focused the remaining four days on gate clears.

The Predation Stack stopped accumulating past fifty. Stats didn't climb forever, it seemed. Fair enough—if they rose without limit and without conditions, it would be broken.

"A pity," Isra said, smacking her lips. "The knights have no need of mana."

"Seems like which stats go up depends on what they eat."

From now on, I shouldn't feed them random monsters—I needed to stack Predation strategically. I had been hoping that enough feeding would trigger a mutation, the way the evolved Predatory Ghoul had, but nothing eye-catching had shown up yet. Give it more time and observation, and something might surface.

"What do you intend to do with the Dire Wolf corpses?" Isra asked.

"I've got an idea."

"Ho. Planning to craft more undead, are you?"

"Still in the concept stage. Not yet."

My schedule was already too packed for new research. I hadn't taken a single day off this whole week!

"Master, you'll burn out like that. Rest is necessary too, you know."

"Leave him be, magic-monger," Isra said.

"You iron head. Master isn't as simple as you."

"Look at that face. Does that look like a man who can be talked out of it?"

What was wrong with my face?

"Hmm. Point taken. I concede."

Ingrid. Why are you siding with Sir Isra? You don't usually do that.

Thanks to steadily going in and out of gates, my level had climbed quite a bit as well.

"Status window."

Eighteen ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠levels in a single week! Focusing on gates a rank higher made experience come in absurdly fast. Even with the far steeper requirements compared to my E-class days, my growth ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠rate was better than before—which left me both delighted and a little stunned.

Strength and Agility rose on their own thanks to Heavenly Martial Body, so I could pour every bonus stat into Mana.

"Heh heh heh heh."

Necrosmith abilities like Bone Metallurgy and Corpse Crafting burned mana when activated—techniques that chewed through both stamina and mana at once. And with Ingrid's talent, Origin of Magic, on top of that, long-range magical attacks needed mana too. Raising the Mana stat was mandatory.

"I only regret that we cannot devote more time to sword training," Isra said.

"You iron head. You can research martial techniques yourself—there's no need to work Master to the bone."

"Do you not know that beyond the skill itself, the higher our Lord's understanding, the stronger the undead become as well!"

This time, Sir Isra was right. Every undead I made with Necrosmith abilities was linked to my own physical sense. Before I met her, the results had been catastrophic—I could score perfect marks on crafting and still fail promotion every time because of control.

"I'll make the time."

"I shall trust you, Sir."

I also received recruitment offers from the remaining top five guilds.

Seven Stars had doubled their signing bonus. Next came Mir at fifteen billion.

It was about time I chose where to go.

I told President Baek every offer from the domestic top five and asked him to speak honestly.

"If it were me, I would choose Seven Stars."

"Even though they're the guild that kicked you out?"

"Setting my own position aside, it's the best choice for you, Hunter."

Seven Stars had recently lost an S-class hunter named Jeong Sinho. They still had one more S-class, but the place most fiercely hungry for a hunter worth investing in right now, he explained, was Seven Stars.

"Mir is a bit awkward as well."

Guildmaster Yong Cheonwoo. I still remembered him staging that good-cop, bad-cop routine over telepathy. It was a little funny to be consulting the man who wanted to recruit me about this situation—but even now, President Baek was doing everything he could to showcase his own value.

"My choice is……"