Chapter 11
Chapter 11
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 11
Chapter Title: Idiot
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“Your name is Eve?”
“Huh? Ah, yes...”
Kim Chae-ah stared at the girl in the back seat of the car, deep in thought. No matter how she looked at it, this wasn't a child who belonged in a place like this. Not with her pretty, clean clothes, nor her mature demeanor.
Most of all, she was just too beautiful. While it wasn't unheard of for some Awakened Hunters to have their hair color change, she had never seen a color like this.
White hair with a faint blue tint. Bright, sky-blue eyes. And a cute face that made such unique colors look perfectly natural.
“Where did you live before? You’re so young to have Awakened this early.”
“I’ve… I’ve always lived here…”
That couldn't be right. She had a strong feeling there was some incredible backstory. A child like this couldn't have just fallen from the sky.
“Hey, Kim Chae-ah. Why do you keep bothering Eve?”
“W-What did I do?! I was just curious, so I asked!”
“Are you going to keep interrogating her? Eve, you don't have to answer if it's annoying.”
“Huh? Ahaha… It’s okay…”
Thanks to Han Do-hee's intervention, Kim Chae-ah's barrage of questions ceased, but of course, Do-hee had plenty of questions of her own. Still, she was just a child, and when they had messaged back and forth, she had seemed unwilling to talk about her past.
“It’ll take about an hour. If you get hungry or need the restroom, just let me know, okay?”
“Ah, okay..!”
I let out a sigh of relief at Han Do-hee’s consideration. Kim Chae-ah still looked like she had a mountain of questions, but I had answered everything she’d asked so far. I had been in an orphanage before settling here, but I didn't think I needed to mention that...
“By the way, where did that eagle golem go?”
“Suri? It’s probably following us from the sky.”
“An eagle golem? What are you talking about?”
“Did I not tell you? I sent you a link when we were messaging the other day. She’s the one from that post.”
“Really?!”
Kim Chae-ah was surprised yet again. It was a shared post she had only skimmed during her conversation with Han Do-hee. A speculative article about a new A-rank Hunter recruited by the Nova Guild. She never imagined the person in question was right here.
“So, you’re with Nova? Is it okay for you to be out and about like this?”
“I told you, that was just speculation. She's not with Nova.”
“Oh… really? Then what about those things next to her…”
Kim Chae-ah, sitting in the passenger seat, turned her head slightly to look at Eve in the back, and the objects sitting beside her.
One was a four-legged machine that looked like a dog, and the other was a Gundam-like robot that occasionally moved with a *clank-clank* sound. She thought it was a bit strange for a girl who looked like her to be playing with what seemed like boy's toys.
“Ah, yes. They’re golems too.”
“Wow, so with the eagle golem, you’re controlling three at once?”
“I… I guess so..?”
“That must take a lot of magic power. Is it okay to keep them active like that?”
That was how classes that handled familiars usually worked. Whether it was golems created and supplied with magic, familiars captured and bound by contract, or summons called from another world, they all consumed magic power to be maintained.
It was an act that constantly drained the summoner's mental energy or financial resources, so there was no need to keep unnecessary golems activated outside of combat.
“Magic power… No..? I don’t really feel anything…”
“It doesn’t use any magic power?”
“Not that I can feel…”
“That’s amazing. Must be something different about them.”
As we exchanged such idle chatter, we soon arrived in front of the entry-type gate we planned to enter.
Central Hunter Affairs Division. CHAD for short.
To put it simply, it was a globally integrated Hunter management organization. It received backing from the leaders of numerous nations to prevent their own Hunters from being bought out and moving abroad, and as a result, it was flush with cash. Many Hunters were employed here.
Based on the Basic Hunter Act initiated by CHAD, there were several places where civilian Awakened who had not yet been assigned a Hunter rank could hunt monsters.
“The open-type is what you saw back then. You remember, right?”
“Yes..!”
There were several major types of places where monsters appeared. What happened yesterday, where a gate suddenly opened in mid-air after precursory magic signs and monsters poured out, was called an ‘open-type gate’.
Portals that appeared abruptly without any precursory magic signs and remained stable were called ‘entry-type gates’. With these, you had to go inside to find the monsters.
They would soon disappear if no one entered, but they wouldn't close as long as there was even a slight connection to the real world.
Most entry-type gates, which contained many valuable resources, were purchased by guilds that would then claim ownership. They used special machines developed after the gate crisis to keep them from closing.
Sometimes, buildings or unique structures filled with monsters would suddenly appear. Depending on their form, these were called ‘dungeons’ or ‘towers’ and, like entry-type gates, were usually bought and owned by guilds.
And finally, there was ‘terrain erosion’. Instead of a gate or structure appearing, a specific area would transform into a demonic landscape, spawning a host of monsters.
A prime example was the Manchuria region. Terrain erosion could be purified by mobilizing powerful Hunters, but it was an incredibly expensive process.
China, which includes Manchuria, and its neighbors North Korea and Russia, all kept putting off the purification work, leading to a catastrophe.
Thanks to that, our northern neighbor, North Korea, is now on the brink of collapse, and China, which has to defend a much larger border, is constantly scrambling to keep it at bay.
Whenever a high-rank Hunter was rumored to have been poached by a foreign country, the Chinese government was immediately suspected. They were known for buying out Hunters with astronomical sums of money.
This place was an entry-type gate owned by the Korea Hunter Management Association. The entrance area was surrounded by a large parking lot and long rows of stalls selling various consumables.
People carrying weapons like swords and bows were scattered all around, a clear sign that there were many Awakened here.
“Alright, we’re here. Get out slowly so you don’t ding the door.”
“Ah, okay!”
“Do-hee. Can you get my staff from the trunk?”
“I gave you a ride, you want me to beat you up?”
“You have the highest Strength.”
“Is… Is Chae-ah a mage..?”
At my question, Han Do-hee and Kim Chae-ah, who had been bickering, flinched for a moment, looked at each other, and then burst out laughing.
“Pfft… Ah, seriously. ‘Chae-ah-ssi’? What’s a little kid like you saying that for?”
“Call me unni, Eve. Did you think I was an adult?”
“What?!”
What was she talking about? Of course I was an adult. I clearly looked older than them!
‘Well, maybe not right now.’
But the word ‘unni’ just wouldn't roll off my tongue. Unni? In my entire life, I had only ever typed that word on a keyboard.
Things like, ‘Unnie T_T T_T Am I the only one who finds this annoying??’
“U-uh… Ch-Chae-ah-unni…”
“Aww~ That’s right, I’m Chae-ah-unni. And unni isn’t a mage, she’s a Healer. A doctor.”
“A H-Healer..!”
Surprisingly, Kim Chae-ah was a rare Healer. It was said that the demand for a C-rank Healer was equal to that of a B-rank combatant, which meant… Kim Chae-ah was an incredible talent.
—*Woooong*
From the trunk of Han Do-hee's car came a long staff and a single-edged sword. They appeared to be Kim Chae-ah's and Han Do-hee's weapons, respectively.
‘Could her handle, Do-shyung-jwak, have something to do with the *do* sword she uses…?’
It was a magnificent sword made of a grayish metal with a slight purple sheen. The price of weapons jumped astronomically from B-rank onwards, costing tens of times more than C-rank weapons, which could range from 3 million to 10 million won depending on the type.
A B-rank weapon cost at least 100 million won, and could go up to 500 million for weapon types that were difficult to craft.
A-rank weapons were considered to be about ten times that. Considering this, Han Do-hee's weapon was probably A-rank.
She did boast about having a monthly income in the hundreds of millions.
“Hm? This? It’s B-rank.”
“What? Why? Can’t you afford an A-rank weapon..?”
“Nah, that was all fake. I just deposited my savings into my account and took a screenshot of the transaction history. If I really earned hundreds of millions a month, I would’ve retired already. Eve, you’re so pure.”
“Ah… I-I see…”
It seemed it was difficult for a solo B-rank Hunter not affiliated with a guild to earn hundreds of millions a month. It made sense; you had to join a strong party to tackle gates with stronger monsters.
And it went without saying that stronger monsters dropped more expensive materials.
“Stop teasing the kid. You’re so mean.”
“What are you talking about? You’re worse.”
Han Do-hee firmly poked Kim Chae-ah's imposing chest, causing Chae-ah to recoil and swat her hand away.
“H-Hey?! What are you doing in front of a kid?!”
“Eve knows everything, you know.”
“Ah, ahaha…”
Han Do-hee knew all about the posts I’d made on the gallery. I wanted to die of embarrassment…
“Eve, don’t ever date a woman like Chae-ah. Want me to show you a picture of her room? It’s seriously disgusting. You’d probably get sick just breathing the air in there.”
“Ah, seriously, stop it! And what are you talking about? Eve’s a girl!”
“Eve likes girls. I know it.”
“Huh…? Is that true, Eve..?”
“What? Ah, well… that’s…”
For a moment, all the posts I made on the gallery flashed before my eyes. Ranking female Hunters worldwide by their looks, calling male Hunter fans gay slurs, and so on…
“Ugh, ugh…”
“Stop bothering Eve. Let’s just go in. We can finish early and go get dinner.”
Han Do-hee chuckled and pushed Kim Chae-ah by the shoulder.
“By the way, where is Suri?”
“Ah, just a moment..?”
I tilted my head back to look at the sky, then scanned our surroundings. Suri should have been able to keep up with the car's speed.
“Suri~? Where is she…”
No answer, even when I called. After a moment of thought, a solution came to mind.
“J-Just a second..?”
“Yeah, take your time.”
⟨ Summon: F ⟩
Calls a golem you own to your location.
Cooldown and number of targets vary depending on the rank.
One of the skills I had. Summon. It said it would bring a golem to my location, so it should be able to summon Suri.
“Suri… come out..!”
—*Wooooong….*
Blue magic power shimmered from my fingertips like a heat haze. Soon, the magic particles formed a circle in the air, creating a magic circle from which Suri emerged.
—*Fwaaash!*
“Ugh.”
Suri appeared with an intense flash of light. But…
“Suri…? What are you doing..?”
Suri was shaking blood from its wings. Don’t tell me, did it crash into a building while flying…? Is that why there’s blood?!
Wait a minute, Suri doesn't have blood.
—*Clatter….*
Suri spat out something it had been holding in its beak and nudged it towards me with its foot.
“This… is a magic stone, isn’t it..?”
No way. Did Suri…
“Did… did you kill someone and rob them?!!?”
Suri looked at me as if I were an idiot.