Hunter Training: Practical Course (2)
After walking for a while, they finally emerged onto a proper path.
Thud.
The moment they stepped onto it, Seo Yun-jae collapsed as if his legs had given out. It was exactly the sort of thing you’d expect from a mage with abysmal stamina.
Kim Yerin was a mage too, but she had gone through basic training at the GYM, so she was a different breed entirely from Seo Yun-jae, who had spent his days buried only in magic study.
“Yun-jae, are you okay?”
“Whoa. What did you even do to collapse like that?”
Ko Sung-yoon’s and Kang Woo-seok’s voices overlapped.
Their gazes collided in midair, carrying the words with them.
“What’s not okay about it? We haven’t even fought a single monster yet.”
“We were walking on high alert the whole time. Of course he’d be tired.”
“Hey. Every single one of us here was doing the same thing.”
“And that’s why people are tired.”
“Well, I’m not tired at all.”
“Who said anything about you?”
Ko Sung-yoon’s brow furrowed.
At the remark that it wasn’t about him, Kang Woo-seok finally looked around.
No one else had collapsed like Seo Yun-jae, but several of the trainees had hair plastered to their heads with sweat, their backs already hunched a little.
The constant, gnawing anxiety of never knowing when a monster might appear had been eating away at their nerves.
Now that he looked, the only ones still perfectly fine among the trainees were himself and Ko Sung-yoon. Even Kim Yerin and Park Jun-ho, both from the same GYM, looked a little worn out.
“…Hmph! Getting tired from something this pathetic is the real problem!”
“You were probably fine because you’re just numb to it.”
“Is that so? Really? Hey, Teacher—what do you think? Am I wrong that getting tired from this is the problem?”
“…You’re not wrong.”
Choi Yeon, who had been watching, shrugged as he answered.
“Walking while staying alert is the most basic of basics—”
“See?!”
“…and if you can’t even manage that, you’re going to have a hard time lasting as a hunter.”
“There! Even the squinty-eyed teacher says so.”
Kang Woo-seok’s confidence soared.
Ko Sung-yoon wanted nothing more than to fire back—his face practically screamed it—but the person who had just agreed with Kang Woo-seok was none other than Choi Yeon.
There was no way Choi Yeon was wrong, so Ko Sung-yoon stayed quiet.
Then Choi Yeon added, as if he weren’t finished.
“At the same time, it’s also a statement that could get you stabbed.”
“Wh-what? A statement that could get me stabbed?”
“Yeah. In a dungeon, if you talk trash to your teammates, it’s pretty easy to end up with a knife in your back.”
“……!”
Kang Woo-seok’s eyes flew wide. He wasn’t the only one—the other trainees wore similar expressions.
It wasn’t exactly the sort of thing an active hunter should say to trainees, but as a warning, the timing was perfect.
Proof of that was Kang Woo-seok clamping his mouth shut.
Choi Yeon next looked at Seo Yun-jae. Shame was written all over the young man’s clenched-teeth face.
Whatever advice Choi Yeon might give right now, Seo Yun-jae would just let it go in one ear and out the other while comparing himself to the other trainees.
The gap between mere trainees who weren’t even hunters yet was barely worth mentioning—fifty paces or a hundred—but from Seo Yun-jae’s perspective it would never feel that way.
Even so, Choi Yeon wasn’t worried.
People who could feel shame over their weaknesses tended to work hard to change them.
“Can we keep going?”
“…Yes.”
Seo Yun-jae nodded slowly.
The quiet, earnest determination not to quit was clear enough that Choi Yeon decided to continue the program.
“The monsters that appear in this Solbat Park Dungeon are goblins. Anyone who can explain their characteristics… Yes, Trainee Yu Ha-rin.”
“They’re monsters that prefer group behavior and never travel alone. They’re aggressive, but they also tend to flee easily when their companions go down. Ah, and I’ve heard they smell terrible.”
“Correct. They reek like urine. On top of that, they carry clubs or stone axes as tall as themselves. Next—their weaknesses…”
“Me!”
“Yes, Trainee Ko Sung-yoon.”
“Their stamina and intelligence are low, so they can’t fight for long. They also fall for traps easily!”
“Additionally, their skin is weak enough that a kitchen knife can kill them—one of the few monsters you can say that about.”
Apparently unsatisfied with Ko Sung-yoon’s answer, Yu Ha-rin cut in and finished it off.
Choi Yeon was honestly surprised.
In all the times he had run the hunter training program, the number of times he got answers the moment he asked a question could be counted on one hand.
He’d expected some answers with Ko Sung-yoon present, but he hadn’t expected this level of readiness.
“Exactly as you said—goblins are F-rank monsters that even an ordinary person can kill if they just work up the courage. The problem is—”
Choi Yeon spread both arms wide.
The path stretching out from his hands and the broad expanse of tall grass beyond came into view.
“—you have to find the ones scattered all over this dungeon one by one.”
“Ugh…”
Someone among the trainees made a pained sound.
It made sense. They had already worn themselves out just walking through the dungeon without a single fight.
Now they had to hunt as well, which meant they would have to be even more careful with their stamina.
Wander around mindlessly and they would collapse from exhaustion before they ever got a chance to fight.
“All right then—shall we go look for some goblins?”
“Us?”
“Yes.”
“…….”
How?
The same thought rose in every trainee’s head.
They had learned tracking methods back in the introductory course, but trying to put it into practice left them completely blank. All the knowledge they had crammed into their heads felt like it had simply evaporated.
“…Goblins are small, right? Their feet are probably small too.”
Ko Sung-yoon spoke carefully. Every trainee’s gaze turned toward him.
“And because they’re small and light, their footprints won’t show up easily either.”
“So? What good does knowing that do?”
“It means we don’t have to waste time looking for footprints that won’t even be there.”
“Keh… Are you trying to play word games right now?”
Kang Woo-seok scowled. Kim Yerin and Park Jun-ho looked displeased as well, as if they thought Ko Sung-yoon was talking nonsense.
But Choi Yeon, watching Ko Sung-yoon, smiled faintly.
To track something, you first had to understand the target. Clumsy as it was, that was exactly what Ko Sung-yoon was doing.
Whoever taught him did a pretty good job, didn’t they?
“Instead… they’d probably use their weapons like walking sticks, or drag them along the ground. What do you all think?”
“Their weapons?”
“They wouldn’t be wearing them properly the way we do.”
“Ah.”
Yu Ha-rin let out a soft sound of realization.
Come to think of it, she had never once heard of a goblin wearing a sword belt.
Higher-ranked ones like goblin generals or kings might be different, but ordinary goblins were very likely to match what Ko Sung-yoon had said.
“I think that makes sense.”
“Same here.”
Yu Ha-rin and Seo Yun-jae agreed.
Then they looked toward the Hunters GYM members. Their expressions said everything.
One against, two neutral.
Of course Kang Woo-seok was the opposition; Kim Yerin and Park Jun-ho were the neutrals.
Kim Yerin talked the sole holdout into it.
“You don’t have any ideas anyway. And Squinty-Eyes over there is just going to watch.”
“What if we can’t find them? We’ll just wear ourselves out.”
“What’s the worry? If that happens we can just blame him.”
“Oh, you’re a genius.”
Listening to the conversation, Ko Sung-yoon was dumbfounded.
How could someone say they were going to pin the blame on someone else so brazenly?
It was a way of thinking he simply could not understand, so he decided to pour his energy into finding goblin tracks instead.
If he found them, no one would be able to blame him. And that resolve paid off in less than five minutes.
“…Found them!”
Yu Ha-rin, who had been scanning the surroundings while advancing quickly, called out.
They rushed over and confirmed it: long drag marks on the ground and evenly spaced points where something had been planted into the dirt.
Exactly the kind of trail Ko Sung-yoon had described.
“Looking at the way the dirt’s been pushed, these goblins went this way.”
Yu Ha-rin, carefully examining the tracks, pointed ahead. Then she looked back at Choi Yeon.
She was asking what they should do, but Choi Yeon only smiled.
It meant they should decide among themselves, and the decision came quickly. After all, they had come to this program to learn as much as they could. Giving up wasn’t an option.
The trainees immediately fell into formation according to their roles.
Warriors and melee dealers in front, ranged dealers in the rear—a completely standard formation.
But then—
“Shall we adjust the formation a little?”
Choi Yeon cut in.
He sent Park Jun-ho, who had been in the middle, all the way to the very rear and had him stand next to himself.
Why put a melee dealer at the absolute back?
“When you’re preparing for an assassin, you sometimes form up like this.”
Choi Yeon explained to the puzzled trainees. The explanation only raised another question.
Assassin? Since when?
“Do goblins even assassinate people?”
“There are goblins that do. Not in the Solbat Park Dungeon, though.”
“Then why use this formation…?”
“Experience. It’ll all become blood and flesh for you later.”
“Ah… yes!”
Once he put it that way, none of the trainees pressed further.
Kang Woo-seok still looked dissatisfied, but Choi Yeon’s earlier warning had taken root; he didn’t complain out loud.
And so the trainees advanced in their decidedly non-standard formation.
Walking beside Choi Yeon, Park Jun-ho glanced at him awkwardly. Then—
“You noticed, didn’t you?”
He spoke abruptly.
The whisper was soft enough that even the ranged dealers right in front of them couldn’t hear it.
“…Yeah, more or less.”
“When did you notice?”
“From the beginning.”
“You knew from the start?”
“Yes.”
“That’s ridiculous. Then why didn’t you stop the program?”
“Didn’t seem necessary.”
Choi Yeon shrugged.
His stride never changed as he added more.
“If I stop it, I’d have to rework the whole program, and dealing with you would just get postponed.”
“That’s exactly what you should do.”
“Hmm, I don’t know. Are you really worth that much trouble?”
“Keh… Are you looking down on me right now? A C-class Dongdae hunter?”
“And who exactly are you, then?”
This time the assassin shrugged.
Surely the man wasn’t foolish enough to think he would simply reveal his identity.
Choi Yeon only nodded at the gesture. He had expected as much.
“…You’re awfully relaxed. Aren’t you worried about the owner of this face?”
“Worried? No. Not really.”
“Cold-blooded, aren’t you? The poor guy who owns this face is the only one to feel sorry for.”
“Ah, no need to feel sorry for him. I already talked it over with the manager before we came in. He’s fine.”
“…….”
The assassin’s mouth opened slightly.
Come to think of it, this squinty-eyed man had been tapping away on his smartphone while the rookies were checking their gear.
It had seemed random at the time—but to think he had already noticed his presence.
He hadn’t sensed it at all.
“…Your acting’s pretty good.”
“Compared to yours, sure.”
“Kh…”
The assassin laughed with a sound like a groan.
Being looked down on by some C-class Dongdae hunter was hard to believe.
But the fact that he had been caught was undeniable, and he had only just realized the squinty-eyed hunter’s own performance. He had practically been spoon-fed the truth.
If the man hadn’t pulled him away from the rookies, the assassin suspected he still wouldn’t have noticed even now.
“How did you know? My acting was perfect.”
He simply couldn’t understand it.
Even Kang Woo-seok and Kim Yerin—who had come from the same GYM—hadn’t noticed him.
So how had some Dongdae hunter he was clearly meeting for the first time today managed to see through him?
“Perfect…?”
Choi Yeon’s head tilted.
The corners of his unseen eyes curved. It looked like mockery.
“That?”
“…….”
“Honestly… I thought you weren’t even trying to hide.”
“My ears must be broken. I keep hearing someone inviting me to dance with knives.”
Tap, tap.
The assassin flicked his ears. Each time, they flopped limply.
Clearly not real ears.
“If our little rookies get hurt, the district office is going to be real happy, don’t you think?”
“Is that a threat?”
“Yeah.”
“Ha. In that case, you thought it through pretty well.”
Choi Yeon decided to just spill it.
It wasn’t anything particularly impressive anyway.
“You didn’t make any footstep sounds.”
“Ah.”
“And for a trainee, you had zero curiosity. Like someone who’d already been inside dungeons before.”
“Tch… Yeah. That was it.”
The assassin nodded slowly.
Hearing it laid out, he wondered how he could have missed something so simple.
He had automatically fallen into acting like a clumsy hunter. That was the mistake.
He should have been acting like a hunter trainee, not a clumsy hunter.
“And…”
“There’s more?”
“This is actually what made me certain.”
“The reason you were certain, huh. I’m curious.”
“Your mana was concentrated only around your face.”
“……!”
“What that meant was pretty easy to figure out.”
“…You’ve got good eyes. For a squinty-eyed guy.”
What’s wrong with squinty eyes, you bastard.
“I’ll admit the mistake. You’ve taught me something, so I’ll hold back for now.”
“You wouldn’t just back off, would you? Or turn yourself in?”
“Keh keh, no. Not that.”
“Shame.”
Choi Yeon clicked his tongue.
If possible, avoiding bothersome work was always best.
That was when it happened.
“Goblins!”
Ko Sung-yoon’s voice rang out from up ahead. At last, the trainees had found the goblins.