Chapter 2
Chapter 2
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: The First Quest
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Beep, beep, beep—.
"Yes, Director. We will proceed with the neutralization of the Bulgwang-dong dungeon as per procedure."
Jeong Eun-hee of the Hunter Association's Seoul Branch, External Support Division, put down her smartphone.
"Neutralization team. Please begin the operation."
At Eun-hee's words, two men who had been on standby moved toward the dungeon.
They took out their equipment from their work bags and began setting it up around the entrance.
"Beginning now."
As soon as the man finished speaking, a blue light emanated from the equipment, and the dungeon entrance began to collapse.
This was the process of erasing a dungeon from the world.
Before a Dungeon Break could occur.
If left alone, the mana constituting the dungeon would become unstable, causing a Dungeon Break.
The result was an explosion.
The force of the explosion varied depending on the dungeon, but in the past, there had been Dungeon Breaks that wiped out entire cities.
The time between a dungeon's formation and a Dungeon Break was fifteen days.
In this dungeon's case, less than thirty minutes remained.
'Mr. Do-jae.'
Eun-hee looked at the document.
It contained Do-jae's ID photo and some basic personal information.
'How am I supposed to deliver the news...?'
A corner of Eun-hee's heart grew heavy.
Due to the nature of her job, she often had to deliver news of someone's death.
Despite her considerable experience, she could never get used to meeting the bereaved families.
'He said he had a younger brother.'
Thanks to her affable personality, she was on good terms with many of the day-laborer hunters.
She had taken particular notice of one man who, despite being an F-rank hunter, consistently participated in dungeon raids.
That man was Lee Do-jae.
'Maybe I should have talked to him more.'
At first, she thought that as an F-rank hunter, he would die in a dungeon sooner or later.
That was why she hadn't allowed herself to get attached.
Hunters live closest to death, so they don't easily get close to others.
But Do-jae had stubbornly survived, and it had already been several years since she first met him.
As a result, while they never had deep conversations, they would talk occasionally—very occasionally.
But now that Do-jae was dead, she felt a sense of melancholy.
'He was weaker than me, and yet.'
In truth, Eun-hee was a strong hunter.
Even so, she had joined the External Support Division.
Because she was afraid of monsters and blood.
Combat was something every hunter had to face, but to avoid it, she had transferred to the primarily administrative External Support Division.
That was why she had been concerned about Do-jae, the weakest of them all.
'That kind of grit... I could never have that.'
Eun-hee was a woman who knew herself well.
Born into a loving family, she had lived without want and had even gained a good skill after her awakening.
Having lived a life without any real hardship, she couldn't help but become a coward.
"Assistant Manager? Aren't you leaving?"
Tap—.
Stomp—.
Eun-hee stamped out her finished cigarette butt.
He was dead now, anyway.
She might be an office worker, but she was still a hunter.
She had to remain composed in the face of death.
"Let's go."
***
At that moment.
Do-jae opened his eyes in an unknown place.
"Kuhk."
At the same time, a terrible pain shot through the area around his heart.
Clutching his chest, Do-jae collapsed to his knees.
Fortunately, after a brief moment, the pain vanished as quickly as it had come.
"What was that?"
Do-jae pulled at the collar of his shirt.
Unlike usual, he felt a foreign object on one side of his chest.
And there, he saw something that made him doubt his eyes.
It was the very mana stone that had emitted that intense light.
"Why is there a mana stone?"
He was in fresh shock.
The mana stone was fused with his skin, as if it had always been a part of his body.
Like a fingernail at the tip of a finger, his skin enveloped the mana stone.
Scrape, scrape—.
He tried scratching at it to pull it off.
But it showed no sign of coming loose.
All it did was leave red nail marks on his skin.
Eventually, he gave up on removing the mana stone and decided to assess the situation.
'I passed out again.'
Do-jae had lost consciousness twice in a short period.
Worried something might be wrong with his brain, he touched his head.
Thankfully, there was no blood this time.
'First a cave, now a desert?'
A vast wasteland stretched out before him.
In the distance, there was a mountain range.
Only sparsely scattered tall trees and large rocks were visible.
'There's nothing here.'
He scanned his surroundings for a while but couldn't find any sign of human life.
There were no roads, no signs, no man-made objects of any kind.
In the end, he climbed onto a flat rock that was good for sitting.
And in a situation like this, what's the first thing a modern person does?
[5G]
'At least this means I'm still in a dungeon.'
The smartphone network was still unavailable.
An unfamiliar space, an unfamiliar place.
Despite this, Do-jae calmly reviewed the situation.
Thinking and acting rationally was the best he could do as an F-rank hunter.
'A strange temple, the vibration of the mana stone and armor. And what was that thing?'
Before he lost consciousness.
He'd squinted his stinging eyes to see a translucent, rectangular... something.
A three-dimensional screen, like a hologram, formed in his mind.
'It definitely said 'Quest', right?'
When he thought of the word "quest," only one thing came to mind.
A mission given to a player in a game.
'I want to read it properly again.'
But he didn't know how.
How could he make that hologram reappear?
But the screen reappeared more easily than he'd expected.
"Quest. View Quest. Quest Status. Check Quest?"
The hologram from before appeared in front of his eyes once again.
Clichés always work.
[Quest]
Category: Main
Content: The test to see if you possess the true qualifications will now begin. Survive for the duration of the time limit. (Progress: 0.22%)
Limit: 6 hours (Time Remaining: 5 hours 58 minutes 12 seconds)
Reward: Subspace
Failure: Destruction of the Heart of the Golem
"Oh...!"
It was the kind of holographic window anyone who had played a role-playing game would have seen at least once.
In other words, a status window.
Do-jae examined the status window for a while.
'It seems only I can see it.'
The status window remained fixed, regardless of his line of sight.
It also stayed open until he specifically said 'Close'.
He had never heard any other hunter talk about quests or holographic status windows, so this must be something only he could see.
'Could this be... a reawakening?'
Reawakening, also known as a dual awakening, was an experience that only a very small number of people in the world had gone through.
Those who underwent a reawakening all became S-rank hunters, beings called superhuman.
The reason South Korea currently held such strong influence on the world stage was thanks to its five S-rank hunters, two of whom were reawakeners.
"Hoo..."
Do-jae calmed his excitement and carefully read the contents.
Reawakening or not, understanding the quest was the priority.
"True qualifications, Heart of the Golem..."
It was all a mystery.
What qualifications were they suddenly testing, and what was this Heart of the Golem that it could be destroyed?
On top of that, the reward was a Subspace.
He wondered if it meant an inventory.
Still, it was telling him one thing clearly.
"Survive."
He didn't know what he was supposed to survive from.
An empty, desolate plain.
No living creatures could be seen on this barren, arid land.
And yet, the time limit was six hours.
Even an ordinary person could easily survive for six hours.
"Do I just have to endure?"
A slight sense of unease crept over him.
Do-jae's temples throbbed.
He wondered if it was really as simple as just passing six hours.
And he had no idea what would happen after the six hours were up.
"I'll find out one way or another."
Worrying about it wouldn't lead to any conclusions.
He was in a situation where he couldn't even understand the quest window, after all.
In that case, it was better to quickly drop the headache-inducing thoughts and think about something else.
And his thoughts naturally focused on games.
'If there's a quest, shouldn't there be info about me, too?'
If you were to list the important elements of a game, the information window would definitely be one of them.
You couldn't play a game without knowing your own character's abilities.
Besides, in today's gaming market where combat power is everything, an information window was essential for comparing oneself to others.
That was why Do-jae had thought of an information window.
"My Info, Check Info..."
Flick—.
A new status window unfolded before his eyes.
It seemed that adding the word 'Check' was some kind of command.
[Information]
Name: Lee Do-jae
Level: 1
Title: Golemancer
Health: 1000 / Mana: 100
[Stats]
Strength: 10 / Stamina: 10 / Agility: 10 / Intellect: 10 / Resistance: 10
(Points: 0)
[Skills]
Passive: Heart of the Golem Lv. Max
Active: Golem Summon Lv. 1
'As I thought.'
Just as he'd expected, an information window containing various stats appeared.
It was strange to see a person quantified like this.
The first thing that caught his eye was the title.
'Golemancer...'
Golem.
A type of monster.
An inanimate object that moves by receiving mana from a mana stone.
They were often found in dungeons, and the appearance of a golem usually meant treasure was nearby.
Because of this, they were actually considered a stroke of good luck among hunters.
'If I'm a Golemancer, does that mean I control golems?'
There were hunters who controlled or commanded certain beings.
For example, Tamers who tamed monsters, or Necromancers who raised corpses.
Awakened beings possessed such a wide variety of abilities that if you looked hard enough, you could find hunters with completely unique skills.
But a hunter who summons golems?
In all his time as a hunter, he had never heard of such a thing.
'Health and Mana. Those are obvious. Strength, Stamina, Agility... Intellect, Resistance?'
He understood Health and Mana intuitively.
If the number dropped to 0, it meant death.
Strength, Stamina, and Agility were also familiar concepts.
Strength would mean pure power, Stamina the endurance to maintain that power, and Agility would mean speed.
But Intellect and Resistance were a little confusing.
He had a feeling Intellect was related to mana.
Since mana was a power separate from physical strength.
As for Resistance, he couldn't get a grasp on it at all.
Taken purely by its literal meaning, it could be interpreted as a rejection of or opposition to some kind of force.
'I'll probably figure it out once I raise it with points.'
It was obvious without even looking.
Level and points.
Connecting the two words, it was easy to deduce that he would be given points every time he leveled up.
He would find out later how many points he'd get and what effect each point would have.
'Heart of the Golem and Golem Summon skills, huh.'
This was the important part.
The abilities of the Awakened were also called skills.
However, the Awakened couldn't see a status window.
Instead, their skills were imprinted in their minds upon awakening.
But for some reason, unlike other Awakened, he knew nothing about his skills.
"Skill, check Heart of the Golem."
If he was curious, he just had to check.
[Skill]
Skill Name: Heart of the Golem
Level: Max
Category: Passive
Description: The Heart of the Golem is the most important core that activates a golem. It will be destroyed if it suffers a strong physical impact or if all of its mana is depleted. If the Heart of the Golem is destroyed, you will die.
Effect: None
Mana Cost: None
'It must be talking about this.'
Do-jae looked down at his chest once more.
The spot where his heart was.
The mana stone was embedded right above it.
Tap, tap—.
He tapped it lightly with his finger.
It felt ominous, being told this was his heart.
"Skill, check Golem Summon."
[Skill]
Skill Name: Golem Summon
Level: 1
Category: Active
Description: Summons a golem. A core to serve as its center and materials to form its exterior are required for the summon. The golem is affected by the skill's level.
Effect: None
Mana Cost: 10
'Anyway, for now, let's focus on the quest.'
The part in the quest about the heart being destroyed.
Whether it was Do-jae's heart or the golem's heart, if it was destroyed, he would die.
And he just had to spend six short hours here.
'But it said to survive.'
The quest didn't just say to pass the time limit; it said to survive.
There had to be something more.
And just then.
As if to confirm his thoughts, a sharp sound of something slicing through the air reached him.
Whoosh—!
A strong gust of wind swept over his head.
Followed by an unpleasant shriek.
"Keeaaak!"
Looking up at the sky, Do-jae instantly recognized the source of the sound.
"A harpy!"
A monster with the body of a large bird and the face of a human.
It let out a piercing cry from its protruding beak and wide, slit-like mouth.
The creature, so grotesque it sent shivers down his spine, circled the sky, targeting Do-jae.
'So I have to survive against monsters.'
Do-jae recalled the quest's content.
He adjusted his posture and bit his lip.