Searching for a Tutorial Party

Having decided not to join a guild just yet and to observe a bit longer, Taemin scoured the internet and logged into a community site frequented by guildless hunters.

The reason he'd come here was to find party members for his fifth tutorial. With his current abilities, even catching a single wild dog ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠would be a struggle, so he needed others to team up with.

As he browsed the site, Taemin clicked on the "Tutorial Party Recruitment" board at the very bottom of the main menu.

"Hmm."

His expression darkened as he scanned the recruitment posts.

"The most recent one is from two years ago."

It made sense, since awakenings had started tapering off three years prior. He was probably the only recent hunter in all of South Korea.

Given the circumstances, it was safe to assume there were no other hunters in the country around his level.

"This is a problem."

Frustrated, Taemin clicked around randomly until he ended up in the free board. Absentmindedly scrolling from top to bottom, his eyes caught a peculiar title.

"What? They do proxies too? Whoa, I didn't know this existed. Guess I should ask about the price first."

Taemin immediately dialed the number listed at the bottom of the post. After a few rings, a man with a deep voice picked up.

- Hello?

"Uh, yes. Do you guys do proxies...?"

- Ah, yes, yes. That's right.

"I'm curious about the cost. How much for proxying a wild dog quest?"

- Wild dogs? Wild dogs? Was there a wild dog quest...? Hold on a sec.

"Sure."

- Ah! You mean the tutorial quest, right?

"Yes, exactly. The one from the fifth tutorial."

- Ohh. That's the one from the very early stages, as far as I know. You must've just become a hunter, huh?

"Yeah, yesterday..."

- It's been a while since the last awakening in Korea. You're lucky. Anyway, that's not the point. Let me check—wild dogs, five of them, right? Thing is, that's so easy it's almost embarrassing to charge for it. But we can't do it for free, so how about 1 million per dog? 5 million for all five? We're barely covering costs here...

Taemin nearly dropped his phone in shock at the mention of five million.

"Five million? For five wild dogs...?"

- Haha. Five million total, sir. I'm giving you the best deal possible, but even then, we barely break even on labor.

"Even so, five million is too much..."

- Well, nothing we can do then. Call back if you change your mind. I'm busy.

Click—!

Staring at the disconnected call, Taemin made a face of disbelief.

"No way. Five million for wild dogs?"

He had no idea how tough wild dogs were, but five million was an absurd amount by any common-sense measure.

"Sounds like the guy's got some levels on him. High-end talent, maybe? Still, five million is ridiculous."

Taemin searched for more posts. Upon closer inspection, there were quite a few proxy offers scattered around.

"Not the only agency out there, huh? Plenty of them."

He clicked on another post under a different username and called the listed number.

"Yes, for the fifth tutorial wild dog quest... What? Seven million won?"

Two million more than the last guy, so Taemin hung up first this time.

He tried a few more posts, but none offered less than five million.

Only then did he realize the first guy hadn't been entirely bluffing.

"Sigh. Where am I supposed to get five million...? Should I just go for it? No, what if I die? Can't even get a loan... What now."

Should I just apply to be a civil servant? Taemin shook his head vigorously at the thought.

"No way. I'd regret it for sure. Better look up more on wild dogs first. Maybe they just look ugly?"

As he mustered courage to click the monster info board, a new post popped up on the free board he was browsing.

This is it!

Without a second thought, Taemin dialed the number.

A woman answered after a few rings. He hadn't expected a woman, but it didn't matter right now.

- Hello?

"Uh, yes. I'm calling about the post you just put up."

- Oh, hi. Hello?

"Hi, hello."

- What's your class?

"Class is Il-sala-ja. Level 1."

- Il-sala-ja? Hmm? Never heard of it. Is this a prank call? Don't do that to a good-faith post.

"What? It's real. I really am Il-sala-ja...?"

- I'm hanging up.

"Wait, hold on!"

- What?

"Let me explain everything from the start. Even if you don't help, at least hear me out and decide? I'm originally... a restaurant part-timer."

Taemin poured out everything from yesterday and today with utmost sincerity, holding nothing back. The woman listening finally spoke up.

- So you awakened yesterday?

"Yes."

- Hmm. Doesn't sound like you're lying...

"I'm not. Really. Please believe me. Who'd lie about this?"

- Okay. I'll believe you. Let's meet and talk.

"Thank you. Thank you so much."

They set a time and place, and after hanging up, Taemin let out a whoop of joy as the tightness in his chest vanished.

"Yes! We're good. Level 40 means wild dogs are a piece of cake."

Still buzzing with excitement, he paced the room before checking his gear and skills in preparation for tomorrow's meeting and hunt. They were crap(?), but better safe than sorry.

He opened his inventory to inspect his equipment, then pulled up his skill window.

"Only Arrainba so far... Invest here? Or save for others?"

Maybe because his level was low, only the first slot showed Arrainba; the rest were question marks.

"No clue how much +30 movement speed really is... But if it's effective, it's a great skill."

In monster hunting, movement speed boosts offered huge advantages. Even ordinary people clueless about hunters knew that as basic common sense. Faster speed meant quicker escapes.

"Gotta test it myself."

Taemin headed out to try the skill. His destination was the nearby elementary school track field—perfect because it had distance markers every point.

He started his phone's stopwatch and positioned himself at the start. As soon as he hit start, he sprinted full throttle.

Reaching the 100m mark, he stopped the timer and checked.

"15 seconds? Is that fast?"

Tilting his head, he reset the watch and stood.

Now to see the skill's effect. He activated Arrainba and dashed from the start again.

Whoosh—

The wind-cutting sound felt sharper than before. Arriving quickly, he stopped and checked.

"13 seconds. What? Down by 2 seconds? Next level's +60, so another point makes it 11?"

Two seconds. Seemingly trivial. But if each skill level shaved off 2 seconds, it was an insanely broken skill. Five levels: 5 seconds for 100m. That's 72 km/h. Perfect for fleeing.

No hesitation—Taemin opened the skill window and allocated the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠point to Arrainba.

"Sub-11 seconds now?"

Taemin got into position and activated Arrainba.

"What? Status."

"Ah, skill level up drained my mana. How do I refill this?"

Muttering at the status, Taemin suddenly remembered something.

Right. Hunters use potions. Yeah, let's go find some potions.