009. Divine Weapon(?)... Descent

"He looks familiar somehow."

"Who?"

"That boy holding that man's hand. I keep thinking I've seen him somewhere before."

"You mean the boy called Minsu?"

Only then did I realize how much the grown-up Jang Minsu's face resembled the child's.

"Is that kid really that obnoxious Jang Minsu? Growing up around someone like that, I suppose it makes sense. No — if anything, he turned out pretty well."

"Now is not the time to worry about that! Worry about Kanghyuk!"

"Honestly, I think this whole business might do him some good. I've never been able to stand losing, not since I was little."

Of course I was angry too — but I believed that someday there would be a chance to pay it all back.

Wiping away the blood trickling across his palm, Kanghyuk made a vow, then made it again.

"Never again. Never again will anyone look down on me."

"What on earth is a full-body hunter training suit?"

Kanghyuk voiced his confusion at this never-before-heard piece of equipment, then turned to check the reward.

"So if I train for a month, you'll actually make me E-Rank?"

"If it's a divine weapon, just call it a divine weapon. What's with this 'replica' business? You're giving me a copy?"

"You're not planning to hand me another sledgehammer and call it a divine weapon, are you?"

"And how exactly is that different from a sledgehammer?"

Unfamiliar with the weapon's name, Kanghyuk looked it up and muttered under his breath.

"Fine, fine. Seriously, why does a message need to be this long? The suit is hunting equipment, so I'll just go check Hunter's World."

With that, Kanghyuk set off for Hunter's World — the store he'd meant to visit last time to buy a shield and never managed to.

"Welcome, sir! Thank you for visiting Hunter's World."

Thinking, as he did on every single visit, that the name was hopelessly tacky, Kanghyuk asked where he could find the full-body hunter training suit.

"A full-body hunter training suit, sir? One moment, please. I've never even heard of that product."

The clerk searched for a long while and even placed a phone call before he finally approached Kanghyuk again, apparently having tracked the thing down.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, sir. It took some time to locate — the full-body hunter training suit has only been out for a very short while."

That was what the clerk said, but something about it felt less like a new product and more like nobody had ever come looking for one, judging by how little the man himself seemed to know.

"Would you follow me this way, please?"

At the spot the clerk led him to, a sleek black full-body suit hung on a display stand. Looking closer, Kanghyuk saw that the waist, shoulders, and joints bulged slightly, with fine threads visibly linking those sections together.

"This is Arachne Co.'s masterpiece — the Arachne Suit."

The first clerk had clearly known nothing about the product, so a second one had stepped in to take over the pitch.

"Shall we take our time and look it over together?"

The tone was courteous, but the man's hawk-like eyes bored into Kanghyuk like a raptor fixing on its prey. The burning determination to make this sale no matter what came pouring out of them; it would have been hard to miss.

"Huh? Ah — yes. Please, tell me about it."

"Sir, what a discerning eye you have! In an era when hunters care only about what shows on the surface, one who trains his fundamentals is a genuinely rare sight. You've come to the right place."

It felt as though flames were shooting straight out of the clerk's eyes.

"As for this product — it is the single finest piece of equipment for aiding a hunter's training. Look at this black fabric here: woven thread by thread from the silk of the Arachne that dwells in the Black Forest dungeon, its elasticity and stretch tuned to the absolute limit, so it fits any body type whatsoever."

The clerk swallowed a mouthful of water as though his throat had gone dry, and watching him, Kanghyuk felt his own throat tighten without meaning it to.

"And the sections connecting these joints have been spe-cial-ly crafted — Queen Arachne's silk, twisted into layer upon layer and drawn taut to maximize elasticity!"

Kanghyuk listened to the whole explanation without ever quite grasping what effect any of it was supposed to have.

"Shall we have you try it on, then?"

"Huh? Ah — yes. May I?"

"Of course. This way, please."

The clerk led him to a contraption that looked like it had escaped from a movie set.

"This training suit is a little difficult to put on and take off by yourself, so it does require special equipment."

Kanghyuk wondered what kind of clothing needed machinery just to be worn, but he did as he was told and stood in the center of the device. Crane-like arms stretched the suit out wide and dropped it down over him.

His whole body felt as if it were being wrung out, but he barely managed to stay standing and turned back to the clerk.

"What kind of clothes are these?!"

"We're not finished yet, sir."

"What? What do you mean, not finished?"

No sooner had the words left the clerk's mouth than the machines surged forward again and began fitting blocks of metal, threaded with wires, into the joints at Kanghyuk's waist and all across his body.

"Ghhk—!"

The metal blocks ratcheted as they hauled the wires taut, and under the crushing pressure Kanghyuk felt as though his entire body were shriveling up.

"Wh...at... is this... garment?"

"The Arachne Suit — the full-body hunter training suit! A masterpiece adapting resistance-band training — the likes of a mass suit — for hunters! A high-performance product that turns even your everyday footsteps into training. The union of modern science and dungeon byproducts, sir."

"You want me to train in this insane outfit? I can barely walk in it!"

"That ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠is precisely the beauty of it, sir! Woven from Arachne's spider silk, it can hardly be damaged under normal use — a training suit you may rely on semi-permanently."

"Then can it be used as armor too?"

"It can indeed be used as armor. Though I have never actually seen anyone use it that way."

Seeing the clerk's expression, I knew that not a single person had ever bought this thing.

"How much is this suit?"

"Since you would also need to purchase the equipment required to put it on, it comes to 500 million won, sir."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Right. 500 million won. Wait—what? Did you say 500 million won?"

Kanghyuk yelped in shock.

"This product uses the web of an Arachne, and the queen's silk is an exceptionally rare material. On top of that, working it into clothing through micro-fabrication is no simple feat, you see—"

The clerk wet his lips and pressed on.

"And since the suit requires separate equipment simply to be worn, and that equipment runs 100 ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠million won, this is truly the barest possible price, sir."

"Ugh... 500 million."

Kanghyuk truly did not want to buy it. But the word trash kept ringing in his ears.

"What if I just buy it as-is, wearing it home? Then I won't need the dressing equipment, so you can knock off 100 million, right?"

"I— I beg your pardon?"

Kanghyuk was simply grateful that the suit was open at the bottom, leaving him able to answer the call of nature.

"Wow. 500 million is seriously expensive. Is that gear really all that?"

"To be honest... I don't really know either."

"Begone, demon!"

"All I ever heard was that some company used to make equipment like that. By the time I worked up the nerve to try one myself, the company had already gone under. I couldn't even find the product anywhere."

Ping fumed as though she were the one who had lost the money.

"No — on paper, the thing is perfect! So long as you can endure the constant load, your body develops that much faster. Do you have any idea how hard it is for an F-Rank to become E-Rank in a single month?"

"That's exactly the part that's shameless! These days you swindle him without so much as blinking!"

When I had filled in the quest window, I had listed E-Rank Hunter as the reward — but in truth, anyone capable of training while wearing that suit already deserved to be called E-Rank. Not that it mattered: entering "E-Rank Hunter" into the reward field hadn't cost me a single point of divine power.

"But I do go to the trouble of replicating a divine weapon for him!"

"And even that one's for training purposes only!"

I had no reply to that.

"Oh, come on. What's wrong with my Breaker?"

I said this while tenderly stroking the Breaker, and Ping just stared at me like I was beyond saving.

Day 1. Succeeded in getting home. Attempted to sleep, only for his body to curl up like a shrimp, forcing him into an involuntary night of shrimp-slumber.

Day 2. Succeeded in eating meals and going about daily life. Spent the entire day hobbling around and shivering, however.

Day 3. Succeeded in showering while wearing the training suit. Mercifully, water passed right through the weave.

…

And so, little by little, Kanghyuk was growing accustomed to living in the training suit.

"Is this really the best I can do?"

"There's nothing to be done about it. Divine power has its limits, and the genuine article would be far beyond what Kanghyuk could handle."

Ping and I were having this conversation while looking over the replica of the divine weapon.

"Even so... if I were the one receiving this, I think I'd be pretty angry."

"Honestly, you should have paced yourself! What did you expect, pouring every spare drop of divine power into the divine weapon every time you had any to spare?!"

"It's just... it kept feeling a little light, and before I knew it..."

"In any case, you're the Constellation — it's your responsibility! If Kanghyuk is disappointed, you can be the one to comfort him! I want no part of this!"

And that was how Ping dodged responsibility.

"Nobody's dodging anything! And stop muttering to yourself where I can hear you!"

Kanghyuk's days rolled on. Once the first week had passed, he was able to ease back into training in earnest, and living in the training suit grew steadily more natural.

"I'll kill him!"

The nightmare of that day still hadn't faded. No — it never would. It visited him often enough that he would wake up screaming.

"A week? I'll be finished today, so stop rushing me."

Over that stretch, Kanghyuk could feel how vastly stronger he had become. In the beginning he had barely been able to move at all; now he could run and sprint and had climbed to the point where he could manage nearly everything in his old training regimen. It was impossible not to notice.

"By the way — food is costing me 200,000 won a day. That's 6 million a month? How does eating cost this much? Not that I can afford to cut back."

The fallout of brutal training meant Kanghyuk had to devour storms of food every single day.

"Thank goodness for the stock money. This much should hold out until I start properly earning as a hunter."

Kanghyuk ran a careful inventory over every corner of his body.

"So I'm still not E-Rank? A long way to go, then. A long way."

In fact, Kanghyuk's body was already E-Rank. He was simply the only one who didn't know it.

Up through F-Rank, a hunter's physical abilities are on par with the very top of ordinary humanity — professional fighters, world-class Olympic athletes. But through all his training, Kanghyuk had unquestionably begun to transcend the human body itself.

"Once this training is done, I'll finally be standing at the starting line."

As a hunter, Kanghyuk was at last arriving at the starting point.

"Today. I will finish it today, no matter what."

Resolve steeled, Kanghyuk began with a run. The Arachne Suit never once stopped dragging at his body, but it could no longer hold back a Kanghyuk who had adapted to it.

"50 kilometers. Four hours. That's my record from when I first started training. That's a pass, right?"

"Burpee test — 1,000, done!"

And so Kanghyuk ticked off his tasks one by one, until at last, before the sun had fully set, every last bit of training was complete.

"Aaah, I'm starving. Dinner time."

Dragging his spent body home, Kanghyuk polished off a table piled high with food.

"Oh, right — the reward!"

A moment later, a whirlpool of crimson flame came raging to life before Kanghyuk's eyes.

"Whoa! The effects are insane."

Spellbound, Kanghyuk reached his hand toward the heart of the vortex, and the flames slowly gathered into his grip, taking on the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠shape of a weapon.

Ba-dump. Ba-dump.

Entranced, Kanghyuk watched the divine weapon take form.

A hammer larger than both his fists pressed together, an axe blade that looked fit to split any tree in a single stroke, a spear point flashing razor-sharp — and, last of all, a current of flame coiling around the weapon like a magic circle.

"This thing is killer!"

But the moment was brief. Along with the dying flames, the divine weapon steadily lost its light and withered away. And what finally remained in Kanghyuk's hand was—

"This is just a sledgehammer, isn't it!"

It was a sledgehammer.