Chapter 13
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: Minerals of the Volcanic Region
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Scrape, scrape. Cheon Doun sat in front of his house, carving wood.
Carving the hard wood Guu had shown him, it took shape without breaking.
“Ah. The size is off. It doesn't fit.”
He was going through some trial and error, but the chest of drawers was undoubtedly nearing completion. Watching him, Guu tilted his head.
-I've been curious for a while. What are you making?
“A chest of drawers.”
-A piece of furniture for storing things.
“That's right. My things have piled up, so I figured I needed one.”
Cheon Doun tried fitting in the newly carved drawer.
This time, it fit perfectly. It was a little stiff, but it seemed like it would smooth out with use.
He slid in the last drawer, and it was finally complete. As he smiled with satisfaction, a loud crash echoed from the nearby forest.
Trees snapped and broke as a person flew through the air and tumbled to the ground.
“Cough, cough…! What kind of kid has that monstrous strength…? With power like that, why did she only ever run away?”
The man, Nam Giseok, covered in dirt, coughed as he stood up. From beyond the bushes, Kim Nari walked out with short, quick steps.
Compared to the haggard Nam Giseok, Kim Nari was spotless, without a speck of dust on her.
“Please, just one clean hit…!”
Nam Giseok created a fireball in his hand. Kim Nari flinched at the flickering flames, but she didn't tremble in fear like before.
-It seems the kid is fine with fire now.
“Kids learn fast. Compared to her, that guy still has a long way to go.”
Cheon Doun muttered, looking at Nam Giseok.
He stretched the fireball into the shape of a spear. The spear, plunged into the ground, created a whirlwind that engulfed the area.
“You'll burn the house down. Power down.”
“Yes, sir!”
At Cheon Doun's command, Nam Giseok immediately narrowed the attack's range.
The widely spreading whirlwind shrank until it looked pathetic.
-He seems to handle his ability well.
“I know. If I train him seriously, he could probably even get promoted to A+.”
Hearing Cheon Doun's words, Nam Giseok froze. He turned to look at Cheon Doun with a creaky, stiff movement. His eyes were wide enough to pop out of his head.
'What did he just say…? That I could become A+ rank?'
Could what he just heard be true?
Everyone had told him to give up on promotion. They said his growth had ended long ago, so he shouldn't bother with reckless bravado.
The words that there was no potential. Whispers he'd heard for six years until his ears bled.
Now, someone was completely denying it. And that person was the high-rank Hunter who had knocked him out in a single blow.
Just that sliver of hope made Nam Giseok's heart swell.
'This year, I might finally be able to pass the rank evaluation!'
To do that, he had to seize the opportunity Cheon Doun had given him.
With a spirited shout, Nam Giseok rushed at Kim Nari. Fireballs surged in both his hands.
His fighting spirit was impressive, but that alone couldn't change reality.
With a heavy thud, Nam Giseok was launched into the air. By the time he came to his senses, he was rolling on the ground.
“Kuh, I can still…!”
“That's enough. You have a nosebleed.”
“No, I can do more!”
Nam Giseok wiped the nosebleed with his forearm and stood up. At the same time, his vision spun, and he collapsed.
“Huh…? What the. I wasn't hit hard enough to fall over….”
“It's not because you were hit. How long have you been in the Demon World?”
“Nine days as of today… Ah!”
With a look of realization, Nam Giseok wiped his nose again.
The blood had a strange, dark tint. It was a sign that he was nearing his limit for enduring the Demon World.
“If you're getting nosebleeds, you should've known something was wrong with your body. Why didn't you say anything?”
“Well… haha, I thought it was just from getting hit by the kid.”
Nam Giseok scratched his bald head and laughed. Indeed, his body was mottled with bruises.
“Mister, I'm sorry. Does it hurt a lot? It's hard for me to control my strength.”
“Sorry? I'm the one who wanted this. I should be thanking you for sparring with me.”
It seemed they had grown close, looking at each other in solidarity. They even shouted "Cross!" and bumped their arms together.
Anyone who didn't know them would have thought they were a real uncle and niece.
“Anyway. You should go back and recuperate. You'll die if you stay here any longer.”
He had no intention of purifying the demonic energy for him, like he did on the snowy mountain.
Nam Giseok's goal was to improve his abilities. Circulating his mana hole to purify demonic energy was also a good form of training.
“How long do you think it'll take to recover?”
“Three or four days will be enough!”
“That's fast.”
It usually takes about a week to purify the demonic energy accumulated in one's body. But Nam Giseok said just three or four days.
It wasn't stubbornness, but a statement born from experience.
“Then I'll be on my way. Ah, we're running low on ramen, so I'll buy some. Do you need anything else?”
“Nothing comes to mind right now. What about you, Kim Nari?”
“Me neither.”
“You heard her. Just grab whatever seems appropriate.”
“Leave it to me, sir!”
Nam Giseok answered energetically and shattered a return stone.
When the Gate opened, he bowed deeply to Cheon Doun. He also waved to Kim Nari and Guu.
Finally, he looked at the house Cheon Doun had built. The shock he felt when he first saw it still hadn't faded.
'To think he's built a house in the Demon World. Just how long can he last here?'
Having a man like that as a mentor must be the luck of a lifetime. Maybe this is what they call a fateful encounter.
Nam Giseok felt grateful for the luck he had grasped and stepped into the Gate.
* * *
As the Gate closed, Guu looked fascinated.
-I've been curious for a while. About that return stone. What kind of structure does it have to be able to open a Gate?
“I don't know either. Probably no one outside the inner circle knows. The Hunter Association has a monopoly on how to make them.”
To cross through the Gate, you just had to think of your destination.
The condition was that the location had to be outdoors. A Gate could open to any open space.
Listening to Cheon Doun's explanation, Guu tilted his head.
-Then isn't it dangerous if that guy betrays you? Nam Giseok knows this location. If he brings other Hunters here, your home will be ransacked.
Is it really okay to expose the house's location so defenselessly? As Guu looked on worriedly, Cheon Doun laughed.
“It's fine. I'll just crush them.”
Guu let out a dry laugh at the simple, clear statement. He was sure that no matter how many people came, Cheon Doun would crush them with a smile.
Wouldn't Kim Nari just drag the Hunters sprawled on the ground and hang them from the waterfall?
While Guu was lost in such thoughts, Cheon Doun carried the finished chest of drawers into the house.
As he neatly put away the dishes and clothes that had been piled in the corner, the inside of the house became clean.
“Now it's starting to look like a place where people actually live.”
Cheon Doun smiled as he looked around the house. A sleeping bag on the floor and a single chest of drawers.
That was all there was to it, but Cheon Doun looked satisfied.
“Now that we have furniture, shall we do some interior decorating? Kim Nari, what do you think the house needs?”
“Me? I… uh, I think a window would be nice. It would be good to have a breeze come into the house.”
Kim Nari said, glancing around cautiously. Compared to before, she seemed to have gained some confidence in expressing her opinion.
“A window, huh. Now that you mention it, you're right. There's not enough ventilation right now.”
Cheon Doun looked around the house. Since he had just stacked up wooden walls, all sides were blocked off except for the door.
Thanks to that, no light came in, and the inside was pitch black, but he had never felt inconvenienced by it.
Kim Nari's vision switched to night vision in the dark.
Guu, being a Monster, could see clearly in this level of darkness. The same went for Cheon Doun.
But ventilation was another matter entirely.
“Yeah, mold will definitely grow if we leave it like this. Alright. Let's make a window.”
The size would be about one meter wide and seventy centimeters tall.
It would be best to cut them on opposite walls to create a cross-breeze. Cheon Doun estimated the positions and flicked his finger.
Tszzt. A thread emerged from his fingertip and carved through both walls.
He pushed the section of the wall marked by the fine line, and a rectangular piece of wood fell away. A window had been created in an instant.
With windows cut into both sides of the house, a cross-breeze blew through, circulating the air.
“Mister, this feels nice and cool.”
-It's certainly better than before. It feels more comfortable.
The two looked satisfied by the cool breeze.
Cheon Doun felt better too. Rain would be a problem, but that could be solved by adding eaves above the windows.
“With the windows, the inside is brighter too. It's nice, but… it feels like something's missing. What is it?”
He looked around the house. The windows let in some light, making the interior slightly brighter. But that was actually what was bothering him.
The feeling of it not being dark, but not being very bright either.
That ambiguous level of brightness was strangely irritating. Looking around the house, Cheon Doun's face lit up with realization.
“I need to install a fluorescent light.”
“A fluorescent light? Mister, do they have those in the Demon World?”
“Not the exact same thing. But there's a similar substance. They're called luminous stones, rocks that glow in the dark. If I pick up a few and hang them from the ceiling, it'll brighten up.”
It would brighten the house and serve as decoration, killing two birds with one stone.
At Cheon Doun's words, Guu looked perplexed.
-Do you even know where to find luminous stones?
“I do. They're in the volcanic region, right? I figured they'd be near where the lava flows. Am I wrong?”
He said it so casually that Guu was at a loss for words. Having read the memories of Hunters, he knew what the volcanic region meant to people.
The top three most avoided places in the Demon World.
The high-altitude region, the volcanic region, and the cave region.
Each one was a dangerous area where demonic energy was condensed at high density.
The high-altitude region was, as the name suggests, a high area. The snowy mountain where Cheon Doun had dug up the Mandragora was one of them.
As long as you didn't climb too high, the high-altitude region was the least dangerous of the three.
But the volcanic region was different.
-Just getting near the volcanic region means dealing with volcanic ash and toxic gases carried by the wind. A person could die just by breathing there.
"I know."
-The danger zone even shifts depending on the wind's strength. And you're still going?
Knowing what Guu was worried about, Cheon Doun smiled faintly.
“It's fine. I've been there a few times before.”
Guu was inwardly shocked by Cheon Doun's words.
No one entered the volcanic region and came out unscathed. That was true even for A-rank Hunters.
Countless Hunters had died after unknowingly entering the danger zone when the wind shifted, their lungs destroyed by the volcanic ash.
Yet Cheon Doun's expression, as he declared he was going to such a place, was as light as if he were preparing for a picnic.
“Well, I'm heading out.”
-'Heading out'… Anyone hearing you would think it's just the next town over.
“It is the next town over. This is the forest region. Right past it is the volcanic region. So technically, it's the neighborhood right next door, isn't it?”
Guu laughed again at his playful words. He wasn't wrong, but it wasn't something a human would say.
He looked at Cheon Doun with a curious expression. A question he'd had for a while now circled in his mind.
He looks like a human, but the aura he gives off is that of a Monster. What is Cheon Doun's true identity?
He had considered the possibility of him being a Chimera Hunter, but he had inwardly dismissed that idea.
Chimeras mixed with Monsters all had their appearances change into something grotesque.
Looking at Cheon Doun, Guu couldn't hold back his curiosity and asked.
-What in the world are you? How can you be so unaffected in the Demon World?