Hunter License (5)
A week. That was how long had passed since the Hunter Association told me I needed to form an image of my creation ability.
For most people, a week is neither particularly long nor particularly short. Just an ordinary stretch of time. But if that week belongs to a man whose enlistment is right around the corner? Then it feels far too short, and far too long at once. A contradiction, I know — but I believe any man staring down his enlistment date would understand.
"...Damn it. Son of a bitch."
"Hey. Cheer up. Enlisting isn't the same as dying."
"Right? And you've still got two whole months left, but you already look like a dead man."
"...Two months, he says. It'll be here before I blink."
A month had already slipped by since the enlistment notice arrived. Two months left. When the notice first came, I hadn't thought much of it at all, but a month on, the pressure was no joke.
"So? If you hate the idea that much, just postpone it. I did."
"No... A guy headed for public-service duty, postponing enlistment? How does that even work?"
"Well, I'm in college, so of course I postponed. Sungjun? You know what campus life is like after you've already done your service."
"Yeah. I know exactly what you mean. Being treated like one of those sunbaes... Ugh. Gives me the chills. If it were me, I'd have dropped out."
"Exactly. Better to just graduate and then go."
"That... yeah, fair enough?"
Unlike the two of them, I'd never been to college, so I couldn't quite follow what they were tossing back and forth. Something about campus life being a hassle, maybe?
"Anyway. Now that I think about it, Haseong, why are you even worried about the military? You're a hunter."
"Oh. Yeah, now that you mention it. Why's a hunter sitting here fretting about the army?"
I hadn't told either of them a thing about my situation. I'd only met up with them today because I desperately needed a drink.
"Well, just hear me out for a second."
I laid out everything that had happened at the Hunter Association. Boiled down, it came to this: I still couldn't form an image of my ability, and I still didn't have my hunter license.
"Pfft! So you're a hunter who isn't even recognized as a hunter! Hahaha!"
"Exactly! A completely useless hunter, ahahaha!"
"Hey! I'm being serious!"
"Sorry, sorry. Hahaha!"
"S-stop laughing. Heheh. Haa."
I hadn't expected comfort in the first place, but I hadn't expected this reaction either.
"...Quit it before I actually get mad."
"Yeah, yeah."
"Got it~. Phew. So that image thing? You're stuck there, is that it?"
"...Yeah. The image..."
I'd thought long and hard on my own about visualizing my creation ability, and I'd searched the internet more times than I could count. I'd even gotten plenty of advice from the Hunter Association itself, but with nothing to show for any of it, here I was worrying about enlistment. Asking anyone else in a situation like this might not help much — but you never know. I was grasping at straws.
"The image. Think you two could help?"
"An image? You said creation, right? Let me give it a shot."
"Hmm... You bought us food last time, so I'll gladly help!"
Friends worth keeping really were the best thing you could have.
"All right. First off, my class. It's Immortal. Anything come to mind?"
"Immortal, huh. An undying god?"
"That was the first thing I thought of."
"Oh! A phoenix!"
"Do I look like a bird to you?"
"Aah~"
Unfortunately, neither of them managed to take it seriously. We were drinking. Of course they couldn't focus.
"Forget it. Forget it. Let's just drink for now. If something comes to you later, text me."
And so I shoved the hard problem — my problem — to the back of the line and drank.
To cut straight to the conclusion, my friends' help was useless too. The Hunter Association itself couldn't figure it out; I hadn't expected them to from the start. The problem was that time kept moving whether my situation did or not. Even the hours that had dragged back when I was working now flew by far too fast. It felt like the world was deliberately messing with me, but there was nothing I could do about it.
Which was how I found myself back at the Hunter Association.
"—So. My hunter license... I failed again, didn't I?"
"It isn't a failure, exactly, but passing would be difficult as well. It's best to think of it as temporarily on hold."
"...Ugh. Then is there any new information about visualizing my ability?"
The instructor simply shook his head. At that, all I could manage was a sigh heavy enough to cave in the floor.
I could understand how Kim Haseong felt. A hunter who wasn't a hunter.
On top of everything else, word had been coming down from above for some time now — increase Korea's hunter numbers, by any means necessary — and they were already putting it into practice. Awakened people who had given up on being hunters were being persuaded to come back, or foreign hunters were being recruited and brought in. And in the middle of all that, a hunter who wanted to be a hunter couldn't be one? If they failed him here for lacking the qualifications, it would be a genuine disaster. Somehow, they had to make Kim Haseong a hunter.
"Mr. Kim Haseong. You still can't use your ability, but would you be willing to start with basic training first?"
"Training? We don't even know my ability yet, so we don't know which combat role I'd fall under. Are you sure that's all right?"
"That is certainly an issue. But no matter which role a hunter fills, they have to be able to look after their own body. Basic training is something you absolutely must receive. The way each role responds does differ, but the fundamentals are largely the same, so even if it takes you a little longer, I believe it would be best to learn them one by one."
"...I am a hunter, so that does make sense. Then I'll take the basic training."
Thank goodness he still hadn't given up on being a hunter.
"Yes. Today would be difficult, so we'll have you begin in the training room on basement level five, starting tomorrow, or on whatever date you prefer."
"Tomorrow, please. And is there anything I should bring?"
"No. The Association has everything prepared, so you can rest easy on that point."
"Ah, yes."
So even though he couldn't use his ability, the plan would be to put him through training and somehow press a hunter license into his hands. Then again, just thinking about the report he'd have to write up already made him tired.
When I'd first heard about a hunter's basic training, I hadn't thought much of it. All I'd figured was that I just had to finish the training and walk out with my hunter license. That first thought had been a serious miscalculation. Hunters fought monsters, and this was training for fighting monsters. Of course it was hard.
"—Hoo."
"Good work this past month. Rough, wasn't it?"
"Ah, not at all. You worked harder than I did, Instructor."
The training itself hadn't been handled by Lee Muo, but by someone else. To be honest, Lee Muo didn't exactly look like the athletic type.
"Haha. Thanks. Still, you had a knack for it, so you picked it up fast."
"It felt like it took quite a while to me, though?"
The instructor shook his head.
"Not at all. Normally, the baseline is about half a year of training."
"What? Half a year?"
"Yeah. Half. A. Year. You passed in a month, Haseong. That's genuinely impressive, you know?"
For a month I'd shown up at the Hunter Association every single day without a break and trained alongside the instructor, and that was something that was supposed to take half a year? I didn't know any hunters, and there weren't any new ones in the same boat as me, so I'd had no idea.
"Don't make that face. Half a year is only the average — it varies from hunter to hunter, all right? Even so, getting this far in a month is outstanding."
I couldn't speak for other hunters, but at least I'd trained myself to the bone for a month and learned, to some degree, how to handle a sword and a whole range of response drills. For the record, I'd postponed the military too. The moment I had a hunter license, I'd be reclassified straight into supplementary service anyway.
"By the way. Still no sign of your ability activating?"
"Ah, no. Unfortunately, nothing."
"Wow. Seriously, hang in there."
"Yes. Thank you."
After that we moved elsewhere, and once the instructor processed the paperwork confirming my training was finished, the month of drills finally came to an end. With that, I had completed every procedure required to obtain a hunter license.
No. Strictly speaking, one thing still remained.
"It's been a while, Mr. Kim Haseong."
"It's been a while for you as well, Instructor Lee Muo."
"Yes. Then, straight to the point. You have now truly fulfilled every condition for obtaining a hunter license... but your ability is still...?"
"...Yes. It still won't activate."
"That is truly regrettable."
Regrettable?
Judging by the instructor's reaction, did that mean I still couldn't get a hunter license if I couldn't use my ability?
"Um... so then, can I obtain the hunter license or not?"
"Ah. You don't need to worry about that part. You've passed every procedure regardless, so after a simple bit of processing shortly, your hunter license will be issued."
"—! R-really!?"
"Yes. Though your voice is a little..."
"Ah, yes. I'm sorry."
I'd raised my voice too much. But the fact that I could actually get my hunter license made me insanely happy. After all that suffering, I figured I'd earned it.
"However, there is a problem."
"A problem?"
"Yes. First — I believe I told you last time that once you obtain a hunter license, there are two paths."
"Yes."
It was something I'd learned almost at the very beginning. To operate as a hunter, you had to belong somewhere. You couldn't clear a dungeon alone in the first place, so that was only natural. As for where, there were two choices: affiliating with the Hunter Association, or joining a guild.
Affiliating with the Hunter Association allowed for relatively free hunter work. Joining an Association team, forming one, entering a dungeon — the team set its own schedule for all of it. In practice, it was close to a private team that merely borrowed the Hunter Association's name.
Joining a guild split into two types as well, though the difference wasn't large: guilds run by corporations, and guilds founded by individuals. Unlike the Association, a guild usually meant working on contract. From what I'd heard, those contracts came loaded with conditions — how many magic stones you had to bring in over the contract period, and plenty more besides.
"So you'll be entering one or the other, Mr. Kim... The issue is that, since you still can't use your ability, I expect you'll have difficulty joining either a team or a guild."
I wasn't foolish enough to think I didn't see that coming, and I wasn't oblivious either. Watch a single video on Wootube and you understood at once just how much a hunter's ability mattered.
"I know. For now, I'm going to be satisfied with just getting the hunter license."
"...I see. Understood. Then, before the license — let's take a photo."
"A photo?"
"Yes. A hunter license looks much like an ID card or a driver's license."
"Ah."
We moved to another spot and had the photo taken, and once the ID was finished, it would be mailed to me.