The Mithril Sword
“Oh… ohhh…!”
I stared at the blue-gleaming longsword in my hand.
To aura swordsmen, this was the equivalent of state power itself — a near-endgame treasure. A mithril sword.
Hell yeah.
Dumping a garbage A-grade weapon and walking away with an absolute unit of a blade… people as lucky as me had to be vanishingly rare.
“Yeeeahhh!”
And I’d even gotten four hundred million won in cash thrown in on top. What kind of creative economy was this?
Buzzing with excitement, I headed straight to the gallery to brag.
The comment section united as one, all of them piling onto Dan-shung-jwak.
“Mwahaha.”
Never thought the immunity to parent-disses I’d built up over the years would come in handy here.
Who am I?
A person who, if hit with a parent insult, could actually sue for factual defamation of character.
I was still sitting there feeling oddly grateful for not having parents when the next comments rolled in.
Someone was questioning the authenticity of my claims.
Hmm.
Fair enough. The gallery folks probably assumed I had a house. I did, technically, live in one.
I had, more or less, broken into an empty house and started living there. The fact that the water and electricity still hadn’t been cut off was a miracle in itself.
Anyway.
I spent a delightful night roasting the dagger scrub alongside the rest of the gallery.
Morning. The sun had barely risen.
“Ugh…!”
Thanks to getting fired from my part-time job, I woke up with a long, leisurely stretch.
Still a little tired.
Whether it was from using aura or not, I’d basically collapsed mid-Dan-shung-jwak-roasting session and fallen asleep.
“Mmm.”
I stared up at the yellowed, discolored ceiling and thought about what to do today.
No point going to the Tower right now — I couldn’t clear it anyway.
You could only re-enter a Tower twenty-four hours after clearing it. That meant evening at the earliest.
Might as well rest a bit until then.
First things first, I opened a delivery app and ordered fried chicken.
Your current residence is classified as a high-risk zone.
Delivery fee: ₩51,000
“Huh.”
My neighborhood was a high-risk zone? They needed to get their facts straight. Aside from running into the occasional goblin or orc on the street, and the rare A-class monster rampaging through, this place was perfectly safe.
“Tsk, tsk…”
I grumbled, but ordered the chicken anyway. I’d gotten four hundred million gold — four hundred million won — along with the mithril sword yesterday. I could afford a little luxury.
I was about to flop back onto the bed and browse the gallery when something else started bothering me.
“…Mmm.”
The clothes I was wearing. An insane oversized fit that looked like it could slide right off my body at any moment.
I’ve been too busy to buy anything until now.
I really needed to get some clothes that actually fit this body.
…Underwear, while I was at it.
By the time I’d ordered a few outfits online, the chicken arrived.
How long has it been since I last had chicken?
Not since I was a kid, digging fried chicken out of a food-waste bag. The greasy savoriness rising up through the disgust had been delicious back then, too.
Anyway.
I set the chicken up in front of the computer, opened the Hunter Gallery, and took a bite.
Crunch.
“…What is this.”
It tasted wrong. Something — something I couldn’t put into words — flooded my mouth completely.
Food like this existed in the world?
It was a sensation that made the past twenty-one years of my life feel worthless.
Still. From now on, I’ll be able to eat stuff like this whenever I want.
I could get strong. Stronger than an S-class hunter, even — maybe stronger than the number one ranked hunter in the entire world.
…No basis for that claim. But still.
Let’s check the Hunter Gallery.
I browsed through the gallery while working on the chicken. I hadn’t checked it in a few days, so it was packed with fresh drama.
“Hmm.”
The entire community was on fire talking about me.
The Korean government is after me?
And it wasn’t just the government. Autonomous guilds in the Gyeongsang and Jeolla regions were already making moves to recruit me. Whoever got me, they seemed to think, would effectively become Korea’s new government.
“Scary.”
It felt good and weird at the same time. Was I going to get jumped with a sword the next time I walked outside?
…Well, the sword would break.
Still scary, either way. Nobody had figured out my identity yet, but I couldn’t just sit around feeling safe forever.
“Time to prepare.”
With that thought, I got my outdoor clothes ready for the day.
Evening. The sun was sinking.
Having made every preparation I could, I left the house. A hoodie that covered my entire body. A black mask that hid two-thirds of my face.
Perfect.
Nobody would be able to recognize me like this. And if someone got suspicious and came at me?
Whoosh!
I’d just smack them with the mithril sword at my hip.
Nobody can stop me now, lmao.
In high spirits, I walked all the way to the Tower. I ran into a pack of goblins on the way.
“Kieeek?”
Slash!
I cut them all down in a single stroke.
Performance checks out.
I hadn’t even imbued it with aura, and the base cutting power was on a completely different level. How strong would it get once I layered aura imbuement on top?
I want to test it already.
Unfortunately, I wouldn’t get a chance to confirm the power of an aura-imbued mithril sword for a while. You could only climb one floor of the Tower per day. My tutorial had been special — normally, you had to reach at least the tenth floor before you ran into High Orc-tier monsters.
Next few days, I can probably clear just by swinging the sword around a bit.
I was lost in thought when I realized I’d already arrived near the Tower.
“Excuse me.”
A woman behind me tapped my shoulder.
…Kidnapper?!
In that instant, the self-defense technique honed by long years of life in Hwaseong kicked in. The plan was to jab both eyes with my fingers and bolt—
Tap.
The attack was lightly blocked.
“Ah, I’m so sorry if I startled you…! I just wanted to ask you something quickly.”
Belatedly, I spotted the badge pinned to her chest.
She was with the Hwasan Guild.
Good thing I jabbed lightly.
If I’d stabbed with aura reinforcement, it would’ve been a catastrophe. The Hwasan Guild was essentially the owner of Hwaseong City. Blind a guild member in both eyes? Living in this city after that would’ve been impossible.
…Still, though.
What business did a Hwasan Guild member have with me? Was this some kind of random ID check?
That’s a problem.
Right now, I was an illegal resident. Even in a lawless zone like Hwaseong, getting caught without any identity at all meant getting thrown out.
I reinforced my body with aura and prepared to run.
“You look awfully young. Did you come to the Tower for some reason?”
She asked in the tone of someone talking to a lost child. Fair enough — to anyone else, I probably looked like a middle schooler wandering around.
“…I’m fifteen. Just out for a walk.”
“Ah, I see! Walks are nice, but this area is pretty dangerous. Really dangerous monsters show up sometimes, so maybe walk somewhere else—”
Rumble.
A vibration rolled through the ground.
…Coming from the forest?
The dense woods encircling the Tower. Something was charging out of there at high speed.
And then—
“W-what is this… Aaaaagh!”
Crunch!
Two enormous wolves burst from the forest and swallowed people whole.
Red Dire Wolves. Top-tier C-class monsters, on par with High Orcs.
We’re going to need at least a B-class hunter for this.
I glanced sideways at the Hwasan Guild member next to me. She was C-class. Five people like her might have a shot — charging in alone was suicide.
“Ah… ah…”
She knew it too. She just stood there, face frozen, watching the situation unfold.
“R-run! Monsters!”
“Somebody help me! It’s coming after m—”
Crunch!
In moments, a huge number of people had been slaughtered. A C-class monster was a living tank. Leave them alone and the body count would only climb.
Should I step in?
It might expose my identity, but there was no helping it. Besides, I’d been wanting to test the mithril sword’s power anyway.
I began imbuing the mithril sword with aura, gearing up for a fight—
“Miss, please run! I’ll hold those monsters off!”
The Hwasan Guild member drew her sword and started toward the Dire Wolves.
“You’re going to hold them off alone?”
“…Yes! I may not look like much, but I’m a C-class hunter — I can clean those up by myself no problem! So please, just run!”
She put on a bright smile, trying to hide how tense she was. Buying time for people to escape, maybe.
How naive.
Whoosh!
I drew the mithril sword and looked at the Red Dire Wolves.
“Guild member.”
“Yes…?”
“There used to be someone like you around me. People who live like that die young.”
“….”
“Be more careful from now on.”
She stared at me blankly, her expression stiff.
Should I say something else?
I hadn’t meant it badly. But phrased like that, it probably just sounded like a curse.
“Um… I’m not saying that about you, specifically.”
“…?”
“It’s just that… I’m that kind of person too.”
I said it with a faint smile.
Boom!
And then I charged the Dire Wolves.