Diltangpot
Fwing—! My shout had barely died when an arrow came whistling in. Thuk!
Kraaaak!
The shot slipped, miserably, just wide of the skull and buried itself in Pinelilla's shoulder. Every time the beast wrenched its body, the shock hammering through the suit and into me grew worse.
Krrrrk—
"Ngh—gh."
The strength straining between my arms was far greater than I'd expected. From the chest and shoulders, already cracked, an ugly grinding never let up. A little over twenty years of being alive, and this was the first pressure I had ever felt at this level.
Crrk.
"...Kh."
Letting go was not an option I could choose.
That would mean doing this whole stupid thing over from the start.
Absolutely not.
I clenched my teeth and drove more strength into both arms.
Kieeeek!
"Hold on just a little longer!"
Mana gathered at the tip of the party leader's staff, a pressure I felt at my back, and then Pinelilla's body caved in, dent after dent.
Boom! Boom, boom, boom—!
A heartbeat later Daegyeom, who had circled behind the beast, swung his sword. Every time the thing thrashed in pain, the stone plating my chest split a little further, and my body began to show through. My arms still weren't exactly fine... but they would hold.
One arrow. Then another. Nahee's shots buried themselves in Pinelilla one after another.
"This is the last one!"
BOOOOM—!!!
With the party leader's cry, Pinelilla's body heaved once, hard, and its head went flat in an instant.
"...Huh?"
The weight that had been packed solid between my arms vanished all at once. Pinelilla's body scattered into the empty air, and I was left, dazed, hugging nothing with both hands.
You have met the conditions to clear the gate.
"Whoa! For a normal party, that's basically a record clear!"
"Finally!"
"Whew..."
Nahee's cheer burst out behind me, and Jung Inyoung lowered her staff. Still half-crouched, I slowly let my arms come undone.
"That ended way faster than I thought."
"Well, yeah! That's because you landed a physical CC!"
"Mm. Please call me Diltangpot."
"Pfft—"
A minute ago I'd been mad enough to keel over, but once I actually had a hold of it, the whole thing felt almost disappointingly empty. My grip had never even slipped, and Pinelilla might as well have been a sandbag.
I was still turning that over when Nahee planted herself in front of me and stared.
"Sehyun."
"Yeah?"
Uh... if you stare a hole through my chest like that, this is going to get embarrassing.
The suit that had wrapped my chest had long since gone to powder. Patches of the clothes I'd been wearing showed through all over, and then one hefty chunk of stone dropped to the floor.
"...One more hit and that really would've shattered."
I discreetly folded both arms over my chest. Nahee looked thoroughly done with me and turned her eyes away.
"That gear looks completely wrecked. You're not hurt anywhere?"
Wrecked? Is it that bad? There were some pretty big cracks, sure...
I rolled my arms a few times. Crick. Krrk—
"A little stiff, but I'll be fine if I rest."
"..."
"What?"
Instead of answering, Nahee looked behind her. The other two party members shook their heads.
...What?
"Mr. Sehyun. Are you certain your rank is truly F-Rank?"
Daegyeom, quiet until then, was the first to speak.
"It is."
What would I even gain by lowballing my own hunter rank?
"I've never seen an F-Rank take an E-Rank boss's attack head-on and just endure it."
"Unnie, that's not even the end of it. I was sure he'd lose his grip a few times in the middle."
"Aha. I am a little strong, yeah."
"A little?"
Nahee laughed like she couldn't believe me, then flicked a glance down at my legs.
"Your speed is insanely slow, though."
"I'm aware."
Did she really have to twist the knife?
And a tank just has to tank!
Right then, Nahee—who had been laying the teasing on thick—sprinted for the gate's exit.
"An item!"
"For real?"
A carapace about half the size of a person's torso lay on the ground. Thorns like the ones that had covered Pinelilla studded its surface.
"Oh."
"Lucky. This is pretty expensive. Beginner's luck?"
Daegyeom lifted the shell plate and ran his eyes over the surface.
"Pinelilla's Carapace. Crafted properly, it becomes gear that holds up even in a D-Rank gate."
"Huh? Then it's perfect for Sehyun..."
My gaze drifted to the carapace on its own.
"If you're going to use it, I'll let you have it at the appraised price."
"What?"
"You are the tank, after all. And the fight ending early was thanks to you."
"...About how much are we talking?"
"We'd have to get it appraised for the exact figure, but the condition isn't bad, so at least—"
Hm.
Hmm...
"Let's sell it."
A pebble suit was plenty. What upgrade? I wasn't about to burn that kind of money on something I wasn't even sure I could use together with the suit.
"Pfft... You decide fast."
"The E-Rank gate was doable, wasn't it?"
At the party's laughter, I shrugged like it was nothing.
Ding—
The moment I stepped out of the gate, my phone chimed.
"Hm?"
With a contact list as thin as mine, there wasn't much that ought to be reaching me.
A text asking me to cover someone's shift?
I checked it already set on refusing, and the screen showed a message from the Management Bureau.
...Along with a bank alert.
"Ooh?!"
"What's wrong?!"
"Nothing. Money just came in."
The reward and the settlement for clearing the Spontaneous Gate. The money I'd been waiting on had finally landed.
Not quite 2.3 million won.
On top of that, the byproducts and mana stones from this gate. If we also sold the Pinelilla carapace that had dropped by pure luck, even split four ways—
"Hehe. Once the appraisal's done, I'll send today's settlement straight to your account."
"Yep. Thank you."
I looked down at the screen again. A whole month of dealing with nightmare customers, just to make about the same...
I can actually quit the part-time job now.
"Oh, and."
Jung Inyoung held out her phone.
"If the timing works out next time, want to party with us again?"
"Me?"
"Yeah. Today was incredibly easy."
Nahee and Daegyeom nodded and held out their phones as well.
"Me too! I feel like today's party balance was really good!"
"Ahem. I can pull my own weight, I assure you."
I had no reason to refuse. The party had made more than one or two things easier—especially those Banasquirrels, the ones I still couldn't tell were squirrels or monkeys. If I'd been alone, I might still be stomping around in there.
"Text me."
"Okay!"
We traded contacts, and then we parted ways.
On the bus home, I ran back through the settlement I was due today.
An hourly rate of a mere 150,000 won...
For a normal party, this is a record clear...
And we got lucky with an item...
Four people. An even split. Even if I'd pulled my weight, it wasn't as if the others had failed to pull theirs. And if I'd had to deal with the Banasquirrels alone from the start—
An infuriating face surfaced in my head, and I shook it off.
Anyway. Even divided four ways, it came to this much. The exact appraisal wasn't in yet, but from what Daegyeom had said, it wasn't a price you could shrug off. Mana stones and byproducts on top of that.
Of course, there's no guarantee I can make this every time.
Still. I was a hunter.
I turned and looked out the bus window. My reflection stared back, cheekbones hiked up every bit as high as the wolves I'd faced in the Spontaneous Gate.
"..."
A little too fierce.
Nobody was looking, but I cleared my throat anyway and closed my eyes.
Ding.
How many hours had it been since I got home?
I'd washed up, lain down on the bed, and was killing time on Hunter Gallery when I checked the message that had popped up on my phone.
"Already?"
I'd barely finished reading when another alert stacked on top of it. K-Hunter Bank.
I shot upright.
Or I tried.
"Ghk—"
Mm... the second I tried to sit up, my lower back seized. I raised myself again, more slowly this time.
"Oof."
I'd spent the whole day hauling a chunk of rock around. Of course this was the result.
I perched on the edge of the bed and opened the banking app.
And...
The Spontaneous Gate settlement. Today's share from the paid gate. And the money that had already been sitting in the account.
"I mean, I had been saving a little at a time..."
But the number on the screen now felt different. Rent, living expenses, the phone bill—money I'd always counted by thinking first of what had to leave. This time that worry didn't come at all. The digits at the front had gotten solidly healthier.
"Should I... splurge a little?"
Come to think of it, hunter gear I could actually call mine—
"...I don't have any."
My clothes were cheap stuff I'd grabbed on sale at the outlet nearby. My shoes were ordinary sneakers I'd been wearing for years. My weapon was my fists. My armor was rocks I picked up off the ground.
"I really am the poster child for clearing gates with absolutely nothing."
There was only one way to shed that reputation.
"With this money, I can at least buy one combat uniform, right?"
I wasn't sure ordinary gear would even be compatible with the pebble suit, but the clothes inside it had come through just fine.
"All right! Tomorrow, I'm going shopping!"
...Maybe I should rest first, and think about it after.