Chapter 68
“Three servings of Minotaur are here.”
The restaurant auntie came in as she slid open the door.
We’d taken a private room because too many people recognized me now.
The news that had spread across the country, and the power of the Watcher Cast video, were no joke.
What had once been nothing more than a few people knowing me as the acquaintance of a celebrity had turned into strangers recognizing me openly in public.
Some even asked for my autograph.
I wasn’t an entertainer, and I obviously had no autograph to give, so I politely declined.
When I saw them retreat with disappointed faces, I almost wondered if I ought to start preparing one anyway.
“Should I grill the meat for you now?”
“Yes, please.”
As soon as I nodded, the auntie used the tongs to pick up a slab of Minotaur meat.
As each piece moved onto the grill, the white marbling stood out strikingly against the surface.
It bloomed like beautiful frost flowers.
“Uh, hyung. Are you really sure about this?”
Kim Jae-sik, seated across from me, asked.
The question was aimed at me, but his eyes were locked on the meat alone.
He looked as if he might start drooling any second.
Seeing that anticipation welling up in him made it feel worth treating him.
“I’m not making you pay, so don’t worry about it. Eat as much as you want.”
“S-Swish, thank you! This is my first time eating Minotaur meat.”
Just as I’d expected.
Minotaurs were a luxury ingredient, so of course he’d never had it before.
You needed at least to be a B-class hunter to take one down safely, and that scarcity made the price steep.
On top of that, only the lower body was usable as food, which drove the cost even higher.
The upper body was too contaminated by gate mana to be eaten.
Only the lower half, shaped somewhat like a cow’s hind legs, had a low enough contamination level to be used as meat.
The reason I’d come to eat something that expensive with Kim Jae-sik was simple: the bastard who had turned my body into a wreck was none other than a Minotaur.
A Minotaur born through evolution from black horns.
My revenge was going to be long and thin, so I would chew it up deliciously, nice and slow.
“Yeah, that sounds right.”
“Ahaha.”
I gave a snort of laughter, and Kim Jae-sik, embarrassed, laughed a little too loudly on purpose.
The auntie grilling the meat beside us seemed to find him adorable too, because she smiled.
“Just let it cook a little longer and then eat. You shouldn’t touch it yet.”
“Huh? Ah, yes.”
Before leaving the room, the auntie warned Kim Jae-sik.
That was because he’d lifted his chopsticks and had been waiting with them already in his mouth for the meat to finish cooking.
It looked as if he couldn’t bear to chew on the uncooked meat, so he was chewing on the chopsticks instead.
He carefully took the chopsticks out of his mouth and set them down.
Just how high was his expectation level?
“Enjoy your meal.”
“Ah, thank you.”
The auntie closed the door and left.
Only the sound of the meat sizzling remained.
I’d talk about Watcher Cast a little later.
Kim Jae-sik’s head looked completely full of Minotaur meat right now.
It would be better to let him eat a little first and then continue the conversation.
“All right, you can eat now.”
As I said that, I picked up a piece of Minotaur meat and ate it first.
Kim Jae-sik’s eyes lit up as he reached for the chopsticks resting on the table.
His expression was more solemn than when he’d hunted the giant ant in the Muju Ant Cave.
“Thank you for the meal!”
“Go on.”
Kim Jae-sik and I polished off the three servings of Minotaur in no time.
Who exactly was that phrase one serving meant for?
Since it still felt a bit lacking, we ordered two more servings.
We waited calmly for the next round to finish cooking.
By the time his stomach had filled a little and he’d gathered himself, Kim Jae-sik finally brought up Watcher Cast.
“Hyung, do you know Ji Sang-wook?”
“......?”
“You don’t?”
“That’s the first time I’ve heard that name-”
World Tree Sapling says he’s the human with the petty look.
He says he has fond memories of hitting him with a thrown stone.
“Ah.”
I remembered.
When it said a petty look, something came back to me.
He was the bastard who’d been hit by the stone Saessak threw, then drank a healing potion.
He was also the one who gave up any thought of fighting after I showed him Arca.
“Oh, I’ve seen him once.”
“You’re on bad terms, right?”
“That’s true, but how did you know?”
Only Woo Chae-yeon and the Watcher Cast staff should know that.
Or maybe the Association people who’d been watching through CCTV?
Ah.
“That guy must’ve been the reason Watcher Cast edited the footage to make you look bad.”
“So Watcher Cast and that guy are friends?”
It was obvious they’d used me to settle a grudge for a friend.
Kim Jae-sik, looking startled, asked cautiously, “You knew?”
“No, I didn’t know.”
“Then-”
“If you’re the one saying you’ll figure out why Watcher Cast was acting like bastards, then of course you’d bring that guy up. That’s only natural.”
“Ah, that makes sense.”
He nodded and accepted it.
Then he asked, “What are you going to do?”
“I’ll go find Ji Sang-wook.”
“Huh? Not Watcher Cast?”
“Do you know where he is?”
“No, I don’t, do I?”
“Exactly.”
The bastard uploaded edited videos about himself to Watcher Cast without revealing a single scrap of information.
Figuring out where he was would take time and resources.
I had enough time and resources, but did I really need to bother?
If I could just ask the guy who knew him, why waste the effort?
“If Ji Sang-wook’s his friend, then he’ll know where that bastard is.”
“Ah...”
For all that he was a bastard, he was one of the few B-class hunters in Korea.
If I searched online, I’d find his usual hunting grounds in no time.
There was even the K-Hunter app, which organized hunters by rank and activity area, so finding his location shouldn’t be difficult.
Kim Jae-sik seemed to come to the same conclusion.
He tapped away at his smartphone for a moment, then said, “Uh, hyung, I think you’re going to have to take a plane.”
“A plane? Why?”
“Ji Sang-wook’s main activity area is Jeju Island. The K-Hunter app still says he’s in Jeju right now.”
“Jeju Island?”
“Yes.”
So he was a guy who lived far away.
Ah, now I remembered the whispers I’d heard from people.
The reason he’d become famous was that he’d soloed Hallasan Gate, the Red Manticore habitat.
I’d thought he’d just gone there because he wanted to follow Tae-cheon, but apparently that wasn’t the only reason.
So that was where he lived.
A B-class Hallasan Gate, huh...
“That works out nicely.”
“Huh?”
“I’d been wanting to test the new skill I got anyway.”
“The new skill you got?”
“Yeah. I got it earlier.”
“Earlier...?”
The skill that Dishing Na Thor, the previous World Tree Manager, had painstakingly devised.
World Tree Root.
The one I’d naturally come to understand after reading the manual was an S-rank skill.
Even Warm Touch was only A-rank, but this skill was S-rank.
I couldn’t even imagine how insane its power would be.
I wanted to try it as soon as possible.
Wasn’t that what you were supposed to do after getting something new?
＊＊＊
I reached Hallasan Gate around four o’clock.
I headed straight for the management office in front of the gate.
The attendant inside didn’t even look at me as he held out his hand.
He wanted to see my Hunter license.
I took it out of my wallet and handed it over, then asked, “Have you seen Ji Sang-wook by any chance?”
“Why are you asking about someth-”
The gate attendant frowned and looked at me.
Then his sentence trailed off when he saw my face.
“Huh? Baek Do-woon?”
“Yes, that’s me.”
The attendant alternated his gaze between my face and the license I’d handed over.
Then he nodded repeatedly, as if he’d figured something out on his own.
He looked like he’d misunderstood something.
“Ji Sang-wook went in around two o’clock.”
I didn’t bother clearing up the misunderstanding.
Thanks to it, I’d gotten the information I wanted.
The attendant went on, “It’s been about three hours since he entered, so he’s probably just getting ready to hunt the gate boss, the Black Manticore.”
“You know that much?”
“He’s famous. There isn’t anyone in Jeju who doesn’t know Ji Sang-wook’s hunting routine.”
“I see.”
“But...”
The attendant’s expression darkened.
With a crease carved between his brows, he seemed to be worried about something.
I waited quietly for him to continue.
“He’s looked unbelievably terrible since a few days ago.”
“Terrible?”
“Yes. I told him to rest because I was worried, but he wouldn’t listen at all.”
He’d looked awful?
He’d been a neat-looking guy.
Why would he suddenly end up like that?
“......”
For a moment, Violet Violence flashed through my mind.
A buff potion that hadn’t passed the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety’s checks.
That meant it would be stranger if there weren’t any side effects.
And it had belonged to Crowd.
Of course, I couldn’t say that for certain.
It was also possible that he just looked bad for some other reason.
Hong Su-jeong had said the results would come out in two or three days.
I’d have to wait and see.
“Anyway, thanks for telling me.”
“Of course. Ah, Ji Sang-wook may be hot-tempered, but he’s not actually a bad person.”
“What?”
“Please take good care of him.”
He even bowed his head as he spoke.
No, what exactly was he misunderstanding?
At this point, it was a little late to correct him.
“......”
Fine, whatever.
I didn’t say a word.
“Please take good care of him!”
Yeah, I can’t hear you.
I ignored the attendant and entered the gate.
The clear air of Hallasan vanished in an instant.
Instead, the gate’s stale air rushed into my nose.
It was quickly purified and gone thanks to the World Tree Manager skill, though.
“Hallasan Gate, huh...”
The Red Manticore habitat.
I hadn’t expected to come here alone.
Honestly, it was deeply moving.
“Should I go ahead and catch a Red Manticore first?”
I climbed the granite mountain, looking for monsters.
Finding Ji Sang-wook mattered, sure, but I wanted to test my new skill first.
After climbing for about twenty minutes, I spotted a Red Manticore.
It was sleeping on a gray boulder, snoring away.
I extended my right hand.
World Tree Root.
I used the new skill.
The moment it activated, the five fingers of my hand transformed into tree roots.
“......!”
The root-like fingers shot forward at speed.
They looked like five snakes hunting for prey.
I remembered what the manual had said.
This skill was similar to Energy Drain, one of the spells used by mana-starved mages.
Of course, World Tree Root was an S-rank skill.
It was on a completely different level from Energy Drain, which was only F-rank.
“Kruheung!”
The tree roots bound the sleeping Red Manticore.
It thrashed around, trying to shake them off, but the more it struggled, the tighter they wrapped around it.
In the end, it could no longer move its four legs and crashed to the ground.
“Khrh...”
A mournful sound escaped the beast.
It had clearly sensed death.
At that moment, its massive body began to shrink little by little.
At the same time, the tree roots binding it grew rough and knotted.
They were draining its life force.
Before long, the Red Manticore had withered dry.
“......”
Seeing that, my whole body trembled.
I looked down at my right hand as it withdrew from the tree roots.
A B-class monster had died after having all its life force drained away without being able to resist at all.
Meanwhile, I could feel the energy that had been stolen from it inside my body.
Just as the gate’s stale air had been purified into World Tree mana almost immediately, the energy stolen from that creature was transforming into World Tree mana inside me.
“If I use this on a person-”
Kwaaaang!
A blast drowned out the rest of my words.
Then the ground beneath my feet shook.
An explosion strong enough to make the earth tremble...
“It’s not the Black Manticore.”
The Black Manticore, the boss monster of Hallasan Gate, used magic.
But there was no way it could use an explosion spell powerful enough to make the ground shake like that.
Even with black horns, it couldn’t produce that kind of force.
Which meant some artificial explosion had gone off near the summit.
“It’s been about three hours, so he’s probably getting ready to hunt the gate boss, the Black Manticore.”
The gate attendant’s voice came back to me.
For some reason, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the culprit behind this explosion was Ji Sang-wook.
I climbed the mountain fast to find out what had happened.
“......!”
My hunch had been right.
The source of the explosion I’d felt at the summit was Ji Sang-wook.
I could see hunters setting up a defensive line, and Ji Sang-wook watching them from behind it.
Saessak felt an unpleasant aura.
Right. He’d turned into something like a follower of the Demon Race.