Chapter 8 - Hunter Exam (3)
Hunter Exam (3)
Lee Jeon-seok wore a dazed expression.
It was only natural.
Right after entering the dungeon—
[The King of the Dead subjugates the Skeletons.]
The monsters that should have charged at him to attack—
All of them dropped to their knees at once.
[The Skeletons fear you.]
The bone-made monsters trembled violently.
They didn’t even lift their heads, remaining completely motionless.
“Hah.”
Lee Jeon-seok looked dumbfounded.
King of the Dead.
An effect that granted reverence from the deceased.
He had vaguely anticipated something like this.
But he never expected it to manifest in this way.
A monster with neither intelligence nor reason—
kneeling of its own accord before a human, feeling something akin to reverence.
Crunch—!
Lee Jeon-seok stomped down, crushing the skull of a nearby skeleton.
[You have slain a Skeleton.]
[Congratulations!]
[Your level has increased!]
His level rose.
Checking his status window, he had reached level 26.
Along with that came stat points.
[Stat points are being allocated.]
[Vitality has increased to ‘20’.]
Lee Jeon-seok immediately raised his Vitality from 19 to 20.
Now both his Agility and Vitality exceeded 20.
Just like before, once a stat surpassed 20, a distinct change could be felt.
It felt as though his body itself had been reinforced.
‘No matter how many times I experience this… I never get used to it.’
More importantly—
Lee Jeon-seok looked straight ahead.
He had killed one skeleton.
Yet the remaining skeletons were still kneeling, showing no sign of movement.
They simply bowed their heads deeply, as if offering themselves up to be killed.
━ Examinee Lee Jeon-seok. Is this… your trait?
Perhaps because the scene was so bizarre.
Exceptionally, Anya spoke first.
“…Yes.”
Lee Jeon-seok replied quietly.
━ Understood. Then please continue with the examination.
After that—
[You have slain a Skeleton.]
[You have slain a Skeleton.]
[You have slain a Skeleton.]
Lee Jeon-seok walked forward slowly, crushing the motionless skeletons one by one as though they were statues.
This time, his level didn’t rise at all.
Low-level monsters in an F-rank dungeon.
The experience gained was negligible.
Almost nonexistent.
The reason his level had increased earlier was likely because the experience he had accumulated at Bukhansan had already been nearly full.
Thus, as he continued forward, killing the skeletons one by one—
[Boss Area.]
He eventually reached the boss room.
There was no door.
At the end of a straight tunnel.
A slightly wider space opened up.
Standing at its center was a single skeleton with an especially massive frame.
[Skeleton Warrior Lv. 12]
Level 12.
Far higher than the other skeletons, which were only single-digit levels.
True to its name, the warrior held a long, curved blade.
What stood out was—
‘It’s trembling.’
The pure white bones were shaking ever so slightly.
[The Skeleton Warrior is wary of you.]
Wary.
A different reaction from the others.
It didn’t kneel.
Perhaps that was because it was a boss monster.
But that resistance didn’t last long.
Clatter—
“K—King…”
Its jawbone moved.
A faint voice leaked out.
“O King…”
A dry, colorless voice.
Thud—.
The curved blade it held fell to the ground.
Thump—.
The Skeleton Warrior dropped to its knees.
Both hands pressed against the ground, its head lowered.
[The Skeleton Warrior has submitted to you!]
A system message followed.
‘…Since when could F-rank monsters speak?’
Lee Jeon-seok stared in disbelief.
At around C-rank, monsters began to develop intelligence and could use language.
The Ghoul King was a representative example.
But F-rank monsters possessed neither strength nor intelligence—
Using language should have been impossible.
At least, that was common knowledge.
And yet—
The Skeleton Warrior before him clearly demonstrated reason and speech.
It seemed to understand the word king.
Was this monster special?
No—
Rather—
‘…The special one is my trait.’
King of the Dead.
That trait had created this situation.
However—
The surprises didn’t end there.
[The Skeleton Warrior reveres you.]
[The Skeleton Warrior desires loyalty.]
[Would you like to subjugate the Skeleton Warrior?]
The trait he had suddenly obtained—Upside Shop—
and now this…
A chain of incomprehensible events continued.
※ ※ ※
“You’ve passed, Examinee Lee Jeon-seok. Please wait in the first-floor lounge, and your Hunter ID will be issued shortly.”
Anya Ivanov’s words.
Lee Jeon-seok bowed his head and exited the exam site.
He would soon receive his Hunter ID.
Yet he showed no sign of excitement.
Unlike the other examinees, he didn’t rejoice.
That only made him seem more peculiar.
Soon, after all examinees had left and the testing area grew quiet—
“Whatever his trait is, it seems he has absolute superiority over the undead.”
Yoon Jin spoke while staring at the darkened screen.
The scene just displayed—
Monsters kneeling of their own accord.
This was something neither Yoon Jin nor Anya—who boasted ten years as a hunter—had ever seen.
“And the boss completely disappeared without leaving a trace…”
Perhaps due to the faintness of the sound—
It seemed they hadn’t heard the Skeleton Warrior speak.
They had only witnessed the boss vanish.
Without leaving even a trace.
“What do you think?”
Yoon Jin glanced sideways at Anya.
Anya remained silent.
Taking that as his cue, Yoon Jin continued.
“Cold temperament, calm judgment, outstanding analytical ability, and a highly distinctive trait. And though it was brief, the combat talent he showed when subduing Kim Man-jin.”
Yoon Jin listed Lee Jeon-seok’s qualities.
Then he turned to Anya and asked—
“Isn’t he perfect as a deputy?”
Deputy.
Exactly as the word implied.
Association supervisors typically operated in pairs—a main and a deputy.
Given their department, that was only natural.
The Villain Response Division.
The highest-ranking organization within the Association, created solely to deal with villains.
Because of the inherent danger posed by villains, supervisors were required to operate in teams of at least two.
For example, Kim Baek-dong and the intern who had investigated Lee Jeon-seok not long ago.
However—
Two years earlier, Anya had lost her deputy.
A surprise attack by a villain.
After that, for reasons unknown, Anya never selected a new deputy.
Because she failed to meet the basic operational requirements, she couldn’t participate in missions—
As a result, she was mostly assigned to exam supervision, work better suited for interns.
“Does it make sense for a ten-year veteran to rot away in a place like this?”
“……”
Anya maintained her silence.
Yoon Jin let out a deep sigh.
“Meanwhile, the intern’s out sightseeing with the team leader…”
“This is important work too, Assistant Manager Yoon.”
Anya finally cut him off.
Important work.
That wasn’t wrong.
Villains infiltrating exams was rare, and no one was better suited to deal with them than supervisors.
Still—
“That’s work that can be handled by an intern.”
Even interns were official supervisors.
Capable A-rank hunters.
Meanwhile, Anya was an S-rank high-tier hunter.
Judging by experience alone, it wouldn’t be strange if another S were added to her rank.
For someone of her caliber to be stuck here—
Yoon Jin couldn’t understand it.
“At least consider it once. He seems more than qualified to be a deputy, Section Chief.”
Section Chief.
Yoon Jin deliberately emphasized Anya’s rank as he left the exam hall.
Soon, Anya Ivanov was left alone.
“……”
She remained silent.
‘He’s certainly…’
She replayed Yoon Jin’s words in her mind.
He was right.
Lee Jeon-seok was a remarkable talent.
That presence—
It wasn’t something you’d see among common riffraff.
The bearing of a warrior who had crossed countless battlefields.
And there was no troubling past to speak of…
‘At that level, he’ll reach A-rank in less than a year.’
He was undeniably worthy of being a supervisor.
That much, Anya acknowledged.
A talent that must be secured.
But whether he was suitable as her deputy…
‘……’
She didn’t know.
She couldn’t be certain.
To begin with, it wasn’t even guaranteed that he would join the Association.
Everyone had different goals and ambitions.
No matter how good the conditions, countless hunters left for guilds or private agencies.
Still—
‘I should at least inform the team leader.’
Anya pulled out her phone.
She began typing a message.
The recipient was none other than Kim Baek-dong.
Team Leader of the Villain Response Division.
Regardless of personal feelings, if talent existed, it was common sense to secure it.
※ ※ ※
[F-rank Hunter Lee Jeon-seok]
Lee Jeon-seok stared at his Hunter ID.
A single card bearing his ID photo.
At a glance, it resembled a resident registration card.
‘At least I got what I needed.’
Ideally, he wanted an A or even S-rank immediately—
But the Association required rank advancement through performance.
That couldn’t be helped.
Rank would naturally rise with activity.
‘Right now, more importantly…’
Lee Jeon-seok looked at his status window.
More specifically—
King of the Dead.
Something new had appeared there.
—
King of the Dead
Rank: C
Effect: Gains reverence from the dead.
Owned Undead
└ Skeleton Warrior (F)
—
Below the effect—
A new section labeled Owned Undead had been added.
Only then did Lee Jeon-seok understand what kind of trait King of the Dead was.
‘A taming-type trait.’
He had heard of it before.
Hunters who tamed spirits or divine beasts within dungeons and fought alongside them.
But—
‘Taming monsters… and undead, at that?’
Truly unbelievable.
And it wasn’t limited to taming.
Storage and summoning.
He could store tamed monsters in a subspace and summon them whenever he wished.
“Summon.”
In an empty alleyway—
A skeleton suddenly appeared in midair.
The same skeleton from the Hunter Exam dungeon.
Its crimson-burning eye sockets stared at Lee Jeon-seok.
Then—
Clack—.
It suddenly knelt.
This posture was distinctly different from before, when it had fully prostrated itself.
It resembled a knight submitting to its king.
[Skeleton Warrior Lv. F]
Its level had changed from a number to a rank.
“O King. Your command.”
It spoke in a rigid tone.
After several tests—
The Skeleton Warrior could only speak three words.
King.
Command.
I obey.
However, its intelligence was higher than expected—it understood far more than it could say.
“Get on all fours and spin three times like a dog.”
“I obey…”
Upon receiving the command, the Skeleton Warrior set down its curved blade, dropped to all fours, and began spinning in place.
It possessed intelligence, but no emotions.
That was why it could obey such humiliating commands without hesitation.
Though it wasn’t entirely devoid of emotion.
Loyalty.
The moment he contracted with the Skeleton Warrior—
Lee Jeon-seok felt absolute loyalty flowing into him.
“Stand.”
After the command—
Clack—.
The Skeleton Warrior rose.
Then stood straight, awaiting further orders.
As Lee Jeon-seok stared at it, a question suddenly arose.
‘…Can I see its status window too?’
Hunters who tamed spirits could.
Then wouldn’t the Skeleton Warrior be the same?
Different category—but taming was taming, whether undead or spirits.
“Status window.”
Lee Jeon-seok murmured softly, just in case.