Hunter License (3)

Starting with cooking, I checked whether I could actually do a range of other things for real.

There were only a handful of items on the list, so it was over almost as soon as it began.

"Thank you for your effort."

"Yes."

"In that case, I'd like to move on to the next stage. Would you prefer to do it today?"

"One moment. The things I didn't check off on the form... driving, and items like that. Do those just get skipped?"

"Yes."

Huh? I'd been sure every last one of them was essential — something I had to learn, something I absolutely had to know. Were they really going to brush past it this easily?

That was when I heard a clap of hands.

"I understand how you feel, Mr. Kim Haseong, but a hunter's life is group life, first and foremost. The ideal is to divide the work according to what each person already knows how to do."

It was the most basic common sense, the sort of thing you could pick up from the news or from anything posted online. Hunters moved as a team. That was the foundation of being a hunter — so why had I been laboring under the delusion that I had to handle all of it alone?

"You're right. Then what's next, right away?"

"Time to learn which role you'll be taking on as a hunter, Mr. Kim Haseong — and time to train."

With that, he brought out the Status Stone I had seen before.

"First, we'll confirm your Status Window."

"All right. Oh — before that, the training?"

"Yes. You'll be entering the Tower to fight monsters, and you'll be trained at least to the level where you can operate as a hunter on the first floor."

The moment I thought about it again, the question about training was a truly stupid one. Fighting monsters wasn't a matter of watching from the back, and you couldn't just throw yourself at them in a blind brawl either.

"Understood."

"Then place your hand on the stone."

The instant my palm met the stone, light began to pour from it. I murmured Status Window under my breath, and a hologram bloomed into the air.

"Let's see... Immortal?"

So the instructor really could see the hologram too. What I'd read on LeafWiki was true.

And the instructor, having confirmed my class, pulled out his phone with a plainly flustered look and started searching.

"...Huh?"

"Is... is something wrong?"

"No. It's just — well. I looked up your class, Mr. Kim Haseong, since this is the first time I've seen it, and there's nothing?"

"What do you mean?"

"One moment. Ah — you may take your hand off."

I lifted my hand from the stone. The light was that fierce. In the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠meantime the instructor fetched a thin book and spread it open on the desk.

"As the book explains, a hunter who has undergone Awakening possesses a class unique to them. But as you can see, Mr. Kim Haseong, there is no corresponding class listed, is there?"

The book set out four formations, and the classes belonging to each.

Eight classes in all. Mine existed in none of those formations.

"It's not there? Why?"

"Ordinarily, if it isn't one of the classes shown here, you are classified as a Special Class, Mr. Kim Haseong."

"...Special?"

"Yes. The trouble is, Special Classes are so poorly known that we can't identify the class you hold."

A Special Class that even the Hunter Association couldn't identify. That was the class I possessed? Being a hunter was already special enough, and now I was being told that among hunters I held a class that was truly special. It didn't feel real in the slightest.

"So what do we do?"

"...Hmm. First, let's move downstairs. We'll need to confirm your abilities there and determine which formation suits you."

"That... sounds right. All right."

And so we headed underground once more. This time, the destination was Basement Level 5.

Special Class. A class that manifested in only the tiniest fraction of hunters. The number of Special Class individuals registered in South Korea could be counted on one hand, at most. The reason no one could pin down the exact figure was that the mere label of special meant the information was treated as classified. From where I sat, at least, there was no way to find out.

But right now, standing in front of me, the class of a man trying to become a hunter was none other than Special! The question that had nagged at me all this time — what, exactly, made a Special Class different — finally had a chance to be answered.

What is it? What on earth is it?

"Um? Aren't you getting off?"

"Ah — ah. Yes. I was just thinking for a moment."

I'd gotten far too excited. I hurried to compose myself and stepped out of the elevator.

"So this place is...?"

"Basement Level 5 is the training room. This is where we'll investigate your class abilities, Mr. Kim Haseong, and where you'll be training from here on."

"Ah. All right."

"Then I'll stand well back, so please try activating your ability once."

"Okay."

He retreated. At this distance, he ought to be safe, shouldn't he? More importantly — which ability was I about to see? When I'd checked Mr. Kim Haseong's Status Window earlier, he had possessed an ability called Creation. I had no way of knowing what kind of power that was, but now I was going to witness it.

"...Um, so — how do I activate the ability?"

"Ah! You activate it the same way you bring up the Status Window. Say it out loud."

Just like calling the Status Window, every class awakened when it was spoken.

"All right. Then —"

At last!

At last....

At last...?

"Uh — nothing's happening...?"

"...Would you try once more?"

"Okay...."

Nothing happened this time either. Why?

"...Again."

He must have tried it nearly a dozen times, and not a single thing occurred. This couldn't be right.

"...Nothing's happening, though?"

"...Oh. Ah! It might be a buff-type ability!"

"You think so?"

"Yes! I'll serve as the test subject myself."

If nothing was happening, then it wasn't an offensive ability, at least. In that case, there was a chance it worked like a Priest or a Spirit Master — a power that laid a buff on ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠its target.

"...You're really going to?"

"Yes."

A buff!

Power did not surge up through me. The fatigue in my body did not lift. There was not a single change I could feel.

"Did something... change for you?"

"...No."

So it seemed it wasn't a buff ability either.

"What do we do now?"

"This is a first for me, so I think I'll need to look into it. Please rest in the break room for a little while."

"All right."

After sending Mr. Kim Haseong to the break room, I hurriedly searched for the reason a hunter's ability would refuse to activate, but I couldn't find it on the spot.

"Mr. Kim Haseong. This is going to take some time, so tomorrow — I think it would be best if you came back tomorrow. Thank you for your work today."

"Ah, yes. Thank you as well."

There was nothing for it but to send Mr. Kim Haseong home. I sent him off, but my own work was not finished.

What in the world is going on.

I needed to begin a proper investigation, and quickly. Tonight was overtime.

Before I quite knew how, I was back home.

I still couldn't even feel like a special hunter, and yet there were hunters who couldn't use their abilities!? That was me.

"...Why won't it work?"

Turning the question over again, I quietly called it out once more in the apartment.

Just as before, nothing happened. An absurd situation — but the instructor had said he would look into it by tomorrow, so all I had to do was wait. Matters like this were best left to the professionals. Whether a professional could know something even I didn't, I had no idea, but for now believing was the only option I had.

"Now what am I supposed to do?"

The clock pointed to three in the afternoon. A few days ago, this would have been my shift at the factory. Now the whole of my day was sitting on the living-room sofa, staring at nothing.

"Right. I should look into it, even a little."

I wasn't an expert, and a real expert was already hunting for the cause, but sitting still didn't sit right with me. It was my ability. I ought to learn as much about it as I could. I got up from the sofa, went into my room, and sat down in front of the computer.

"Hunter videos are famous, aren't they."

There weren't many hunter videos as such, but every one that got uploaded was popular without exception. The moment I opened uTube, a hunter video was already waiting in the recommended list. I hit play at once.

A short opening ended, and a person standing on a wide grassland appeared.

From there the video introduced the teammates he ran with, the formations, and the rest of it. Once the brief introductions were finished, the screen cut.

The star of the video and his teammates squared off against the monster. It began at the front — which was to say, the Guardian of the front formation met the beast head-on. The thing was an enormous bulk, and the subtitles said what they were facing was called a Rhinoceros Monster. It did resemble a rhinoceros, though it looked a long way from the real animal.

At any rate, the Guardian slipped lightly aside from the monster's mindless charge, then immediately swung around and drove into its rear with a shield as big as a grown man. At the same time, something like a distortion of space — a wavering of the very frame — rippled out around the Guardian and the monster, and the subtitles noted that the Guardian had used an ability to pull the monster's aggro.

"That's an ability?"

I rewound, turned the volume up, and watched again. This time it clearly caught the Guardian shouting something.

"...Ah. Creation!"

"Damn."

After that I watched the rest of the video straight through. While the Guardian held the monster's aggro, the star of the video — a Rogue of the cover formation — set into the beast's flank with twin blades and began to shred it. The monster writhed under the onslaught and tried to wheel around to attack the Rogue, but every time it did, the Guardian drove it back with his shield and took the blow in its place.

Perhaps because it had simply taken too many hits, the monster sank down where it stood, and the Guardian and the Rogue fell back in a flash. Keep attacking like that and it was a certain win, wasn't it? I was still wondering what they were doing when the screen cut. There stood a Mage of the rear formation, an enormous fireball cradled in his hands. He hurled it straight at the monster. Struck dead-on, the beast vanished on the spot.

"...Whoa."

It was the first hunter video I had ever watched, and a doubt flickered through me — wasn't this too violent? — but one thing was certain. It was cooler than any action scene in a movie.

That was a warm-up? To my eyes it hadn't looked like a warm-up at all. It had looked like they were going all out. I could hardly believe it.

But the video kept rolling and cut to the next scene. Another confrontation with a monster. The host and his teammates faced it at once, and the opening was the same as before: the Guardian slipped the attack, then drove the beast back with his shield. There seemed to be a set pattern to it. If so, this was where the Rogue ought to have rushed in and torn into the monster's flank — but something else happened instead.

The Rogue broke into a hard sprint toward the beast's side, and then his figure vanished. In his place, a single black flash of a blade passed clean through the monster. As the flash disappeared, the star of the video was standing there. The moment he appeared, the monster screamed. The angle made it hard to see, but it looked as if the creature's back had been carved wide open.

Then the Guardian set his stance and committed his whole body behind the shield — because a fireball dropped from above and struck the monster dead-on. And like that, the monster was gone.

I paused the video. Then I rewound it and watched again, and again, and again after that. I was in awe.

"Whoa!"

Something that belonged in movie CGI was happening ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠for real, inside a dungeon. Just watching, my fists clenched and sweat broke across my skin. Maybe I, too, as a hunter...

People didn't lose their minds over hunters for nothing.