A Beast Cursing Its Wretched Lot at the Heart of the Dungeon (2)
"Alright, that's it for today."
Thud—
The moment the words left his mouth, Seo Yoon collapsed onto the ground.
Behind her, the corpses of kobolds lay stretched out in grim rows. The result of training that hadn't been merely about evasion, but about dodging arrows from thirty kobolds while picking them off one by one.
A few had slipped past her, but for a first session, it was a respectable showing.
"Good instincts. Most people can't follow along this well."
"……"
Instead of an answer, Seo Yoon could only drag in ragged breaths.
She'd rolled through the dirt, been grazed by arrows in half a dozen places, and now looked like she'd just washed ashore after days adrift on some deserted island. It was honestly a miracle she hadn't passed out partway through.
"Did your level go up?"
"……"
Shake-shake—
She shook her head without a word. Apparently she didn't even have the strength to answer.
Her disheveled hair hid her eyes, but he had a feeling she was glaring at him hard enough to kill.
Still, there was nothing to be done about it. This was, quite simply, the best training method a hunter with a mana impairment could take.
"Hmm… I was planning on daily training, but…"
Flinch—
"Looks like that's a bit much. Let's make it every other day until you build up some tolerance."
"……"
It seemed that the harder things got, the more expressive she became. Lying flat on the ground, she was showing more emotion than she usually did all day.
"Open your status window."
"…Done."
"How much stamina do you have left?"
"Ten percent… or so."
"And experience?"
"Half remaining."
"Hmm."
Shame. Still, if she could squeeze out one level today, that would be worthwhile. And Seo Yoon, apparently reading his thoughts, added after a moment:
"…If you wait a little, I will be able to resume activity soon. We could continue hunting then."
"No. We don't have time to wait."
Thwack—
Lee Jun caught an incoming arrow clean out of the air, just inches from Seo Yoon.
"A bolt… so, a crossbow."
There was exactly one monster species in the Seoul Dungeon that used crossbows.
"Stay down."
Thwack—
Barely had the words left him when another bolt came flying. Lee Jun ducked under it while pulling a camouflage cloak from his Pocket.
"Wave after wave is great for training, but… yeah, this is definitely too much."
Seo Yoon was already completely spent. He couldn't pinpoint their exact positions, but going by feel, there were roughly twenty of them. And since they weren't encircling them but pushing in from a single direction, they'd likely been spotted by scouts. There was a village nearby, so they must have come from there.
"Whew."
Lee Jun steadied his breathing and drew a weapon from his Pocket — a dagger with a blade about twenty-five centimeters long. Since assassin-type weapons were mostly consumables anyway, it hadn't been an expensive piece.
"…A Samhwa product, sir. That has to be worth at least two thousand."
"Samhwa Group makes the best value-for-money gear."
"……"
Seo Yoon's pupils trembled, ever so slightly. From what he'd gathered earlier, the position of Information Bureau Chief had come with a rather meager salary. Since none of it could ever see the light of day, the Association's funding for its intelligence division had presumably all been funneled under false labels to other purposes.
Back then, the Association had run brutal audits under the banner of rooting out corruption within the guilds — which, it seemed, was why they'd never had the budget to invest properly in the people working the snowfields.
So that's my fault, then.
…Clearly he'd have to take better care of her.
In any case, Lee Jun judged this situation to be his opportunity to teach something directly applicable to combat. She was still too weak for pure stamina training, and he'd been mulling over when to make the transition — as it turned out, now was the right time. With things like this, showing was always better than telling.
"Watch closely."
Gripping the dagger tight, Lee Jun charged at the gnolls—
Fwee—
A bolt whipped past right beside his cheek. The minimum movement necessary — just barely enough to evade — and because his form didn't break, he was able to slit a gnoll's throat almost immediately.
"Gnolls are developed enough to use crossbows, but that's all they've got. Reloading is slow."
Which was why, if you had the skill for it, ignoring the gnoll marksmen entirely was usually the better play. On the assumption you wouldn't take an arrow, it was easier to deal with the spearmen first.
"Gnoll spearmen mostly carry halberds. Countering a halberd is simple. It's far heavier than an ordinary spear, so you just target that weight."
THUD!
The instant he finished speaking, a halberd crashed to the ground right in front of him. A long, heavy axe-polearm — and that very structure meant it took considerable force to swing and then recover.
Lee Jun pinned the halberd's shaft to the earth with one foot, reversed his grip on the dagger, and drove it into the gnoll's nape.
"Easy so far, right?"
At that question, Seo Yoon gave a small nod. Anyone beyond a total beginner would know at least this much. What Lee Jun wanted to teach came in the next step.
He wrenched the halberd free from the dead gnoll's grasp, then continued his explanation, facing Seo Yoon.
"The assassin class has a lot of useful throwing-type skills. So…"
KRAK—
He snapped the halberd at its midpoint, seized the axe head, and hurled it at the gnoll pack.
"Anything looted that can be thrown, you throw. That's rule number one."
The half-shattered halberd flew in a heavy arc and promptly caved in a gnoll's skull. He sprinted after it and repeated exactly what he'd done before — while lightly evading every bolt that came screaming at him in the process.
And before anyone could blink, the gnoll spearmen had been wiped out to the last.
"Just the marksmen left."
Archers with slow reloads and easy-to-dodge shots were no trouble at all. It took Lee Jun less than five minutes to put down every one of them. He strolled back to Seo Yoon looking pleasantly refreshed.
"Well? Easy, right?"
"……"
Seo Yoon's review was succinct: What even was that.
She had committed every moment of that fight to memory, and yet — honestly, whether she could replicate it was anyone's guess.
His movements hadn't been especially fast. In terms of pure speed, Seo Yoon was obviously the quicker of the two. But that overwhelming store of know-how, that composure, those movements optimized by experience itself — those were things she couldn't even conceive of imitating.
Truthfully, she couldn't quite understand why he'd retired. He fell well short of the very top-tier hunters, granted — but she didn't think he was someone anyone could afford to dismiss.
Lee Jun had no mana. No aura. No skills, either. And yet his throws had been clean, his daggerwork genuinely masterful. On top of that, his stamina rivaled — no, exceeded — her own, despite the fact that Seo Yoon could wield mana and had even invested in her stats.
"……"
She studied him for a while. Perhaps she had been mistaken about something, she thought. This man… was more formidable than his reputation suggested.
Seo Yoon had joined his management agency simply because he seemed like someone who would teach her well. At the time, she'd thought of it as a gamble. But looking back now… it appeared to have been a bet that was all but guaranteed to win.
"…Remarkable."
"Hm?"
Lee Jun cocked his head at her sudden murmur — but his attention soon drifted elsewhere. To the spoils from the gnoll pack. More precisely, to the process of obtaining them.
"Hmm… I wasn't planning on teaching you field-dressing today, but. What should we do?"
"If you would teach me, I will learn."
"It's not that difficult…"
Lee Jun eyed the gnoll carcass with faint awkwardness.
"Gnoll meat is tough and gamey, so we skip it. What's mainly used is the hide — and among the organs, the liver, which goes into potions."
As he spoke, he pulled gloves and a butcher's knife from his Pocket.
"It's a different feeling from just killing monsters, so it might turn your stomach."
"Even so, I will watch closely."
Seo Yoon's estimation of Lee Jun's expertise climbed yet another notch. Because of the unsavory rumors that clung to him, she had doubted him — slightly, just the tiniest bit. But all of that had proven utterly beside the point. So she would learn everything she possibly could from him. If she could absorb even a fraction of that vast reservoir of experience, Seo Yoon would gladly do it.
…Five minutes after thinking that, she honestly regretted it.
"……"
"Now, here you cut like this — from the collarbone down, in a Y shape. Then the arms — one clean, forceful cut through the shoulder joint."
Squelch—
Crack-crackle—
"And then, if you do this…"
Scrape—
"You can strip the whole ribcage in one go. Let's see — this part's useless… the heart's not much good either… hmm, here we go. Among the organs, the liver is all you need."
"I… see…"
"Oh, right. Gnoll testicles sell as a virility supplement. Frankly, I doubt they do anything, but the rich trade them at outrageous prices, so grab them whenever you can."
Slap—
Seo Yoon seized Lee Jun's hand as it made for the gnoll's nether regions. She did not want to watch that part.
"…I believe this is more than sufficient."
"Hmm, well… money isn't what matters."
Lee Jun rose from his crouch with a note of lingering disappointment, then pulled off his gloves and wiped the blood from his hands and arms.
"Here."
Having finished cleaning himself up, Lee Jun passed a towel to Seo Yoon as well. Her hands were bloody too — from grabbing his, moments ago.
"Thank you. But… aren't you going to dress the other gnolls?"
"We're not strapped for cash. I'm teaching you this in case you ever need it down the line — it's not something we need right now."
He intended to teach her as much as he possibly could. Ultimately, his goal was to pass on everything he knew. He didn't expect her to absorb and master all of it, of course — but if he taught it once, the knowledge would surely find its use someday. He simply hoped that when that day came, what he'd given her would help.
Lee Jun gazed at his first disciple of this run and smiled, warm and faint.
"Well, it's about to get dark. Shall we head out?"
"…Very well."
Seo Yoon still wore a slightly dazed expression, the shock of the gnoll dressing evidently not yet worn off. Most people were like that, at first. Killing monsters was their profession, sure — but they rarely had occasion to watch someone slit one open and pull its guts out. That was why most of the harvesting work got delegated to professional processors.
But doing that meant dragging a butcher along with you… and there lay the problem: lost experience. And if you left them out of the party instead, they risked being excluded when a gate threw certain mechanics at you.
Which meant that, in the end, the advantage went to hunters who could do their own butchering.
Among the Initial Awakeners, Lee Jun was decidedly on the weaker end. Everyone who had survived until the concept of "hunter" had properly taken shape was a multi-talented jack-of-all-trades, so the gap between him and them could only stand out.
And so, even back when he ran with his old comrades, these odd little jobs had always fallen to him. They didn't contribute much to combat, after all — someone had to do them, didn't they?
Lee Jun walked along, lost in those memories. By this era's reckoning it was a mere three years ago — but to him, a man who had regressed, it was the distant past.
Back then, every single day had teetered on the edge of death. Compared to that… he had, undeniably, gained some breathing room now. He was even planning to raise a junior hunter with his own hands.
"Seo Yoon."
"Yes."
"I told you the goal behind my management agency, didn't I?"
"You said you would cultivate S-Class hunters."
"Then you're the one who has to become S-Class. How about it?"
"If you are asking how…"
"Once you reach S-Class — what do you think it would be like?"
At that question, Seo Yoon said nothing for a long while. She seemed to be turning it over in her own mind.
S-Class hunter. A rank once reserved for the Initial Awakeners alone — and now, gradually, it was drawing within reach of the newcomers. In fact, before long, an international association proposal would pass, promoting the very top of the A-Class to S.
Frankly, he could care less whether the letter was an S or an A… but there was no denying the sheer power the name carried.
When that day comes… everything's going to descend into chaos all over again.
The point where conflict between the guilds and the Association would reach its boiling pitch. Part of why Lee Jun had retired so quickly was that he'd had his eye on that moment — because in Korea, the only body holding S-Class hunters had been the Association. Once Lee Jun went independent, the guilds would inevitably turn their blades not on the Association, but on each other.
Until then… he'd grow this little management outfit as large as he possibly could.
Lee Jun glanced back. Seo Yoon was following his steps with a blank expression — but behind that mask, it seemed, her thoughts were still churning.
"S…Class."
Lee Jun faced forward again. Right. Slow and steady.
He broke into a small smile.
And so the two of them walked out of the dungeon at an easy pace. All things considered, day one of training had wrapped up rather nicely.