Chapter 6
Chapter 6
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 6
Chapter Title: Hunter Corps Training Camp - 4
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Even wearing protective suits, this was training against ferocious monsters.
Nine out of ten recruits just assumed defensive postures, their suits constantly getting gnawed at.
But Kim Min-jun showed no fear of the hound at all. Instead, he exuded such an overwhelming presence that the other hounds tucked their tails between their legs.
“Eyes front! Get into position properly!”
“Yes, sir!”
After taking down one hound, Kim Min-jun yelled at his fellow recruits to snap out of it.
“Stop pulling back defensively! Charge forward! The more you retreat, the more they’ll look down on you!”
If it weren’t for him, the remaining two hounds would have already lunged.
That would collapse their formation in an instant, punching a massive hole in their lines.
“If this were a real battle, two of you would be dead already. The front line has to apply pressure so the monsters don’t dare charge!”
“Ah, got it!”
“We’re the same rank, why are you talking like I’m your superior, you punk!”
“Sorry!”
Even as Kim Min-jun laid into his fellow recruits, he pointed out their shortcomings and told them how to fix them.
“That guy really a recruit?”
“You mean Kim Min-jun? Yes… he is.”
“He’s not some drill sergeant who regressed to the day before enlistment or something, right?”
“…That’s the stuff of novels, sir.”
The instructors clicked their tongues in amazement at the changes one recruit, Kim Min-jun, had brought about.
They were recruits who would have gotten low marks on their evaluation otherwise.
Yet under the command of a single fellow recruit, the hounds had fallen faster than any group they’d accompanied so far.
“Let’s put those guys in the middle tier and Kim Min-jun in the top.”
“Same thought here.”
Confirming the situation was over, the instructors headed toward the recruits.
Now, after exiting the dungeon with the final group and reporting to the platoon leader, this batch’s training would be done.
“Starting tomorrow, it’s a five-day, four-night pass. Hunter instructors can’t resist this stuff.”
“Does Corporal Kim Ho-jun have other plans?”
“Why? Wanna grab a drink?”
The instructors were chatting idly like that.
Rumble—
An ominous noise rang out, and the dungeon shook like there was an earthquake.
“Damn it… Radio it out before the dungeon seals! Hurry!”
“Yes, sir!”
The instructors hurriedly pulled out their radios and reported the emergency.
Kim Min-jun’s fellow recruits were at a loss from the sudden anomaly.
“Hey, what’s going on? Isn’t the situation over?”
The recruits looked to Kim Min-jun, asking what was happening.
“This is a variable-type dungeon. An open one. Just think of it as the door that was open slamming shut.”
Kim Min-jun’s nonchalant reply.
The recruits clutched their heads as they stared at the now-sealed dungeon entrance.
“Does this even make sense?”
“We take down all the hounds right at the exit timing, and it switches to closed-type?”
Countless hunter recruits had trained here before.
It was a place the instructors and nearby unit officers frequented like a gym after duty hours.
In other words, a safe dungeon with virtually no variables.
“Corporal Kim Ho-jun! No good. The dungeon shifted too fast.”
“Can’t get through on the radio?”
“No, sir!”
“Round up the kids first!”
Confirming the training camp instructors that the dungeon was fully cut off from the outside, they gathered the recruits.
“You’ve probably noticed, but a variable popped up in the dungeon.”
Corporal Kim Ho-jun continued with an expression like it was no big deal.
“Per the manual, we wait one hour here. If there’s no change at the entrance after that, we move forward.”
There was only one way out of a closed dungeon.
Clear every last monster inside.
The exception was when an open dungeon switched to closed.
In those cases, waiting it out could revert it to open.
‘Six recruits with no real combat experience and two instructors.’
Plus, the instructors had entered solely to manage and supervise the recruits.
They weren’t equipped for serious fighting.
‘Wrong monster, and we’re done.’
Dungeons with variables could spawn anything.
“All hands. We’re moving forward. Form up.”
An hour passed, but the entrance showed no sign of opening.
Corporal Kim Ho-jun led the recruits deeper into the dungeon.
“Ah… we’re screwed. What kind of bullshit happens on the last day of training?”
“Even goblins would wipe us all.”
The recruits followed tensely behind the instructors.
‘There’s a smell… but it feels familiar somehow.’
Kim Min-jun sniffed at the distinctive odor wafting from deeper in.
He’d smelled something like it in Isgard before.
“Radio still down?”
“Yes. No signal at all.”
“You, think you could take a goblin barehanded?”
“…Without gear, it’d be tough.”
“What a shitshow.”
The instructors up front spat curses at the hopeless situation.
‘Without our main weapons, it’s rough.’
Even Corporal Kim Ho-jun, a corporal, would take over ten minutes to kill one goblin without his primary weapon.
‘The ones in back are wearing protective suits, but it’s only a matter of time.’
Protective suits were made for training only.
Focused purely on defense, they offered little help in killing monsters.
And they were so damn heavy, stamina drained fast.
‘Can’t use those kids as shields.’
The suits’ defense was excellent.
Putting recruits on the front line would boost survival odds, but he couldn’t do it.
These were guys who’d endured the same hellish training he had.
He’d cleared countless dungeons and earned his corporal stripes—could he shove inexperienced recruits up front?
‘No way.’
His conscience wouldn’t allow it.
As Kim Ho-jun shook his head and pressed forward.
“Gah…”
“Urk!”
Starting with him, the instructor moving beside him also foamed at the mouth and collapsed.
“Instructor!”
“Are you okay?!”
The recruits rushed reflexively toward the instructors at the sight.
“Fall back! Get any closer, and you’ll end up the same!”
Kim Min-jun, grasping the situation fast, grabbed his fellow recruits’ shoulders and shoved them rearward.
Confirming they’d retreated over 30 meters, he dashed forward.
‘It’s laced with magi, huh?’
That familiar smell—it was magi after all.
‘You’re not getting away!’
After telling the instructors to head to the entrance and wait, Kim Min-jun vanished.
“No, hey! Are you insane?”
“Come back! There’s a training manual for this!”
“Kim Min-jun! You’re really screwed!”
His fellow recruits screamed at him, trying to stop him.
But he just sped up, looking thrilled.
**
Kim Min-jun headed toward where the magi was thickest.
‘The instructors passed out from this distance.’
Given the concentration, this wasn’t your average monster.
In Isgard, most monsters carried magi, but Earth was different.
‘They pop up occasionally in frontline units.’
About once a month.
At most one or two.
Magi-infused monsters were that rare.
‘Treasure for me.’
Ordinary humans convulsed and lost consciousness the instant magi seeped into them.
Even Isgardians were the same.
They’d fought monsters shielded by special blessings that blocked magi.
“What are you?”
A moment later.
Faced with the culprit monster, bewilderment and confusion crossed Kim Min-jun’s face.
“Grrr…”
“Why are you here?”
It was a dark hound, the kind you’d only see in Isgard.
Hound and dark hound.
Just one word added, but dark hounds were overwhelmingly stronger.
Regular hounds were manageable for trained recruits.
But the black ones took several seasoned Hunter Corps soldiers.
“Annoying bastard. Still, good to see you in a pinch? I needed some magi.”
After being summoned to Isgard, Kim Min-jun’s first year had been hell.
Unable to handle magi properly then, even killing one black dog had been a life-or-death struggle.
“Kraaak!”
As the dark hound bared its jaws with a threatening howl, preparing to attack.
“How do these things never evolve their moves?”
Predicting its action, Kim Min-jun kicked off the ground and launched forward.
It took about three seconds for a dark hound to attack.
Plenty of time for him.
“Grrr.”
Reaching it in one second, Kim Min-jun seized its scruff and ripped it out like tearing meat.
It spewed black blood and died.
Whoosh—
At the same time, the magi inside it leaked out, filling the dungeon.
“Still as filthy as ever.”
Kim Min-jun snorted and absorbed the thickening magi.
Raising his hand, he redirected the outward-spreading mist into his body.
Why dark hounds were tricky.
It was the magi they released upon death.
“Blood reeks something fierce.”
Plus, the blood coursing through dark hounds was toxic.
A normal person drenched in it would see their skin rot within three days.
That’s why Isgardians killed them from range, with priests blocking the escaping magi.
“Whew. Feels invigorating having magi flow in after so long.”
Kim Min-jun deeply inhaled, feeling the energy fill him.
This dark hound had a hefty concentration.
Like charging a smartphone battery from 0% to 5%.
“But why’s one of you on Earth?”
Unexpected magi refill was nice, but a dark hound on Earth felt off.
Sure, it could be a dungeon spawn, but there were no records of dark hounds ever appearing.
“No, even so, monsters crossing dimensions? Ridiculous.”
Only someone at the pinnacle of black magic like him, or a saintess wielding divine power, could manage dimensional travel.
It was that advanced, with heavy restrictions.
Brushing it off as nothing serious, Kim Min-jun hoisted the dark hound’s corpse.
“Gonna need the body for the report.”
Having sucked out all its magi, it now looked no different from a regular hound.
**
At the same time.
The instructors lying near the entrance stirred, regaining consciousness.
“Ugh!”
“Feels like total shit. You kids! You okay?”
Corporal Kim Ho-jun, recalling the moment before blacking out, whipped his head around to check the recruits.
Fortunately, everyone else seemed fine.
“Instructor… um…”
“What?”
“Kim Min-jun went deeper into the dungeon.”
“What?”