Chapter 68
Chapter 68
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 68
Chapter Title: Path to B-Rank Hunter (1)
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Right after getting up from the bed, I prepared to head straight to the Hunter Autonomous Guild.
Because Do Si-hee had dragged me to the department store the moment we met, I had quite a bit of luggage for visiting somewhere without stopping by home first, but with my subspace pouch, this amount of stuff was hardly even a minor constraint for me.
Of course, it was perfect for storing monster materials, and it was incredibly useful for keeping my sword or luggage like this too, so if I had to pick just one item to keep from everything I'd bought at the point shop, it would definitely be the subspace pouch.
'...Come to think of it, I should change into some dungeon-going clothes before heading to work.'
This didn't mean swapping the hotel gown for casual outing clothes—it meant changing into an outfit suited for activities at the guild.
I couldn't deny that the clothes Do Si-hee bought me were high-performance gear, but for sweating it out in a dungeon and getting splattered with monster blood, something more comfortable for movement would be better.
Above all, since I'd prioritized raising my sword-swinging proficiency first, gear with high utilization meant gear that allowed easy movement. Jeans and a cotton tee would be far better for intense action than semi-formal attire.
As I rummaged through the shopping bags Do Si-hee had delivered to the hotel, I found the clothes I'd been wearing when I headed out yesterday morning in one of them.
A white cotton tee, light-colored jeans, and plain sneakers...
'......Huh?'
Wasn't something off compared to my original clothes?
The tee design could be chalked up to it being a logo-less wholesale brand to begin with, but it was weird how my faded jeans from years of wear had regained their original blue. And the sneakers, which had shown signs of age, looked pristine like new.
So, a sense of incongruity naturally flashed through my mind. Had my clothes somehow gotten swapped with someone else's laundry without me knowing?
"The design and size look like my originals, though..."
With no logo on a wholesale brand, design and measurements were the only ways to tell, and since those matched perfectly, it was reasonable to assume they were mine. But excluding that, they were practically brand new, so I could only draw one conclusion.
"Must've been a laundry run by an Awakened."
Some Awakened abilities were useful in society even without Hunter work, so it wasn't hard to imagine someone specialized in laundry handling my clothes.
The common sense of this world often couldn't be judged by the standards of my previous life. Nitpicking every little thing like this would just make me seem out of touch.
"Anyway, they really look brand new. The frayed spots inside the jeans are gone, and the tee had loose threads on the inside too."
This must be the laundry tech of the rich. Money really was great. Though I wasn't sure about wasting it on cheap clothes like these. At this point, it might've been better to just ask for a new cheap pair.
After changing, I pulled out the hotel card key stuck in the door and stepped out, determined to achieve results today and step up to B-Rank Hunter.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Hunter guilds considered many comprehensive factors when raising ranks, but the three most highly valued were ability, diligence, and request completion count.
Ability referred to the Hunter's own competence, so it was naturally essential.
Even in a somewhat arbitrary guild like the Autonomous Guild, promoting a Hunter lacking in skill to a higher rank would inevitably draw criticism, so ensuring 'ability' was a common policy across the three major guilds, including the Autonomous Guild.
Next was diligence, which could be likened to a promotion based on long-term service.
This measured how consistently a Hunter showed up without unexcused absences and returned from expeditions with meaningful results each time.
In fact, Han Min-ah's ability was near B-Rank, but her insane diligence—taking fewer than three days off a year—had propelled her to A-Rank.
So, while it wasn't impossible to raise rank through diligence if ability fell short, it wasn't something I needed to focus on right now.
For a newbie Hunter with less than a month of service, proving diligence was impossible anyway, and the Autonomous Guild barely used it as a ranking metric.
Unlike company or foundation guilds where personnel rarely left once joined, the Autonomous Guild still carried the image of a 'stopover before joining another guild' or a 'hobby spot for Hunters from other guilds.'
As the weakest in capital among Korea's three major guilds, it was an unavoidable reality. That's why they registered Hunters with fake names without much identity verification and allowed faster rank-ups compared to other guilds.
Strong Hunters the guild couldn't retain would move to others quickly anyway, so raising their rank fast helped buy high-grade monster materials beforehand.
Or, like Cha Yu-ri openly sharing a company name while treating expeditions as a hobby, they'd turn a blind eye. That was how the Hunter Autonomous Guild survived among Korea's three majors—many others that couldn't compromise on this had crumbled in this hellscape.
In any case, almost no one raised their rank through diligence in the Autonomous Guild. Being a diligent Hunter basically meant having the stamina to expedition frequently without tiring, so most would just join or switch to a company guild.
To even qualify as diligent, you'd need 1-2 years of consistent expeditions, which was far too long for me aiming to switch companies before year's end, so it was off the table from the start.
That left the final method: request completion count, which was what I'd use.
Basically, all Hunter guilds operated on buying monster materials from Hunters and reselling them to those in need, but materials hard to obtain through normal trade sometimes appeared on guild boards as 'requests.'
This could be for unpopular materials no one bothered hunting, perishable ones tricky for the guild to stock and needing quick sales, or urgent needs with no guild inventory—various reasons, but those weren't my concern. I'd just clear them swiftly to boost my rank. Completing many of these was the fastest path up.
Normally, Hunters picked requests considering profitability and feasibility, but popular and unpopular ones still stood out.
They might be too difficult with few takers, rewards not enticing enough to prioritize, or Hunters capable of them unaware due to various reasons. Guild homepages had thousands of requests, after all.
There were search engines, but typically Hunters filtered by difficulty then sorted by reward descending, so low-reward ones languished at the bottom for ages.
Clearing these before deadlines boosted guild reputation too, aiding rank-ups. And even mediocre requests offered better rewards than standard material sales, so no real loss either way.
"I'd like to take requests 96586, 63230, and 119950."
That's why I inquired at the counter about three B-Rank requests that had sat unclaimed so long their posting periods were nearly up.
"Request 63230's deadline is tomorrow midnight, is that okay?"
"Yes, no problem."
"Understood. Processing three B-Rank requests for you."
After confirming the three request numbers engraved via magic on my C-Rank Hunter license, I headed straight to the first dungeon.
I planned to complete all three before tomorrow ended, hastening my path to B-Rank Hunter.