30
030 ― Cheon Ju-hyeok
Jin-woo, who had extinguished all the light in the stone chamber, pressed himself flat against the wall next to the entrance. Then he held his sword and waited for his opponent to come looking.
One...... Two...... Three.......
As he slowly counted numbers, the blue flame had already approached right in front of the entrance. Now he could hear footsteps even without the flame.
He thought they might rush in at any moment, but his opponent was also cautious. They seemed slightly flustered upon seeing the blackout curtain covering the entrance.
The guy slowly opened the curtain and put a flashlight inside to illuminate the stone chamber.
It was a flashlight made on Earth. At least it meant they weren't an alien race.
'Now!'
The moment the flashlight's beam was about to turn this way, Jin-woo grabbed his opponent's arm and yanked them forcefully inside.
"Uwaaak!"
Along with a young man's scream came the sound of the flashlight dropping. Jin-woo slammed his opponent down next to the flashlight rolling on the floor and pointed his sword at them.
"Who are you?"
The flashlight's beam illuminated the man, revealing his face. An Asian with the same black hair as himself. Looking at his face, he appeared to be around the same age, with not much difference.
The man raised both hands with a face that looked like he was about to cry.
"Are, are you a Hunter from Seoul!? Me too! I'm also from Seoul!"
The man pleaded in a trembling voice. An act of seeking affection from a fellow countryman.
Jin-woo observed him calmly without lowering the sword pointed at the man's throat.
The light from the flashlight on the floor was only illuminating that man, so from the man's perspective, Jin-woo was only faintly visible in the darkness.
"A Hunter from Seoul? What's your name?"
"Cheon Ju-hyeok! Twenty-four years old and a vigorous military veteran!"
An unnecessarily disciplined answer came back.
Seeing his sudden military veteran appeal, it seemed he hadn't been discharged long ago. Looking closely, his hair was also closely cropped.
It looked more like the hair of a trainee about to enlist rather than a discharged veteran's hair.......
Jin-woo slightly withdrew his sword. Haah, Cheon Ju-hyeok's sigh of relief could be heard.
However, Jin-woo hadn't put away his sword because he had lowered his guard. Taking out chain handcuffs from his inventory, he bound Cheon Ju-hyeok's hands behind his back.
"Um, excuse me? Isn't this being too distrustful...... Ah, of course it is. A Hunter you suddenly meet in a Gate can't be trusted!"
Cheon Ju-hyeok, who had been protesting in a crawling voice, saw the tip of Jin-woo's sword that had slightly protruded and immediately changed his attitude.
Only after the restraint proceeded smoothly did Jin-woo reveal his own name.
"Kang Jin-woo. Twenty-six years old."
***
Cheon Ju-hyeok is a B-rank Hunter. Originally, he was of a rank that should be active on the 3rd Floor, but he was still active on the 2nd Floor.
This was because he lacked confidence in himself and couldn't quite advance to the 3rd Floor.
Still, there were no monsters on the 2nd Floor that would trouble him, so he was going around trying to build confidence, but it wasn't proving to be easy.
The people he met on the 2nd Floor were all formidable without exception. Like Jin-woo, whom he had just met.
'What kind of eyes......'
He couldn't forget those eyes—Jin-woo staring at him from the darkness while pointing his sword, just moments ago.
What Cheon Ju-hyeok had been afraid of in that moment wasn't the sword thrust to his throat, but those eyes. Those eyes felt sharper than the sword, as if they would thoroughly dig into any inner thoughts.
"Um, brother, so what's your rank?"
Cheon Ju-hyeok, who had been driven to a corner of the stone chamber with handcuffs on, mustered the courage to ask.
Jin-woo didn't ignore his words either. He had brought him in because he intended to have a conversation in the first place.
"E-rank."
"E-rank!?"
At the answer of E-rank, Cheon Ju-hyeok showed an expression of disbelief.
Even if he had been lying in ambush first, he had subdued him, a B-rank, in an instant. To say that skill was E-rank?
Cheon Ju-hyeok naturally thought his opponent was an A-rank Hunter, or at least a high B-rank.
As he was bewildered by Jin-woo's rank, something came to mind, and he shouted.
"Ah! Could you possibly be Hunter Kang Jin-woo, who recently solved the Erosion in Tokyo......?"
"That's me."
Upon hearing Jin-woo's identity, only then did Cheon Ju-hyeok understand.
The fact that a supernova had appeared in Seoul was already known worldwide. Naturally, he was especially famous in Seoul.
He knew that almost all the top guilds had sent contract proposals, and the guild Cheon Ju-hyeok belonged to had also sent what they considered a groundbreaking proposal to recruit Kang Jin-woo.
The guild master had been so confident that it was the best treatment in the country, but when no response came, he was dejected.
"Ah...... Indeed, so that's why you're so strong."
"What rank are you?"
"B-rank."
"B-rank and you're that weak?"
At Jin-woo's straightforward way of speaking, Cheon Ju-hyeok showed an upset expression. He grumbled in protest.
"I'm not that weak either......"
"Hm? What did you say?"
"Ah, nothing at all!"
However, he spoke too quietly for Jin-woo to hear. The sound barely came out past his lips.
After somehow finishing their introductions, Jin-woo brought up the main topic. Why and how had he come here?
"I came looking for altars, of course. On the 2nd Floor, exploring centered on altars is the standard, isn't it?"
"I'm asking how you came straight here without wandering around."
"Ah, that's thanks to a blessing."
Cheon Ju-hyeok's story was this.
While he was exploring the labyrinth, exactly two days ago, he discovered an altar, and there he received a blessing that could detect divinity within a certain radius.
That blessing could detect everything imbued with divine power. It didn't distinguish between blessings or curses.
Divine altars are the objects most densely imbued with divinity in the labyrinth, so he had detected and found this one.
Jin-woo's impression upon hearing that story was singular.
'Isn't that an insanely overpowered blessing?'
Could there be a better blessing than that on this 2nd Floor?
Finding other altars was good, but above all, it could find items imbued with divine blessings or curses.
Considering that the 2nd Floor was originally a place to come for items, it was a blessing worth 120 points out of 100.
"Then...... Since we've met like this by fate, would you like to travel together briefly? We'll naturally split the profits, of course."
"Really? You'll split the profits in half?"
"Yes? Half, you say...... Ah, no! Let's go half and half! Let's split it cleanly fifty-fifty!"
Jin-woo had brought up half so naturally that he tried to object, but thinking about it, he wasn't in a position to object. He still had his hands bound in handcuffs.
"Alright. It's reassuring to gain a companion with a good blessing. To commemorate, alcohol would be a bit much, so how about some warm tea?"
Jin-woo took out a thermos and poured a cup of hot tea.
"Drinking is fine, but my hands......"
"Ah, you can't drink in that state."
When Cheon Ju-hyeok appealed with his bound arms, Jin-woo nodded and solved the problem.
He placed the cup on the floor and stuck in a straw. It was an L-shaped straw with a bendable head part.
"......"
Is this really how to treat a companion...... Cheon Ju-hyeok drank the tea by biting the straw with his protruding lips.
Jin-woo poured another cup and placed it on the altar. Since a god had been present as a sort of witness when they formed their companionship, he offered a cup for the god to drink as well.
[ The God of Ice Valley is distressed. He makes a tearful face, saying his tongue might get burned. ]
"Oh my, does the god have a cat's tongue?"
Enjoying temperature differences is also one way to enjoy food. So he had given hot tea to drink along with cold shaved ice, but it seemed the god couldn't drink it.
Fortunately, he also had cold drinks, so he offered those separately.
[ The God of Ice Valley is satisfied. ]
This one satisfied him. There was no blessing, but just saying he was satisfied was enough for Jin-woo. From the host's perspective, just having someone drink it deliciously is enough to make one feel good.
Jin-woo also began drinking tea while feeling the heat of the cup with both hands, and Cheon Ju-hyeok had been bending his waist and sucking on the straw slurp slurp from earlier.
The atmosphere wasn't bad, but it was somehow a very strange scene.
***
Before they knew it, night had come.
The underground labyrinth was equally dark whether night or day, but the electronic watch he had brought pointed to 22:00.
Jin-woo and Cheon Ju-hyeok each spread blankets at opposite ends of the room and lay down. Of course, Cheon Ju-hyeok still had his hands cuffed.
'Ugh.'
Because his hands were tied behind him rather than in front, his lying position was quite bad.
He was originally the type to sleep facing forward, but was forced to sleep curled up like a shrimp.
Crackle—
The sound of the campfire's embers crackling could be heard. Since the fire had almost died out, the room was very dark.
There was a cold flame that burned 24 hours a day next to the altar, but that had already been tightly covered with blackout curtains.
This was both to prevent it from disturbing their sleep and to prevent light from leaking outside and being discovered.
Jin-woo slept quietly, breathing. His chest rose and fell regularly, indicating he had fallen into deep sleep.
Cheon Ju-hyeok was also half asleep. His mind was in a dreamy state where nonsensical thoughts like flying cats or upside-down buildings were emerging.
A voice awakened him.
—Wake up.
Cheon Ju-hyeok opened his eyes. A command that his soul, not his body and will, was giving.
Rustle—
The sound of chains was heard. Not the thin handcuff chains binding his hands. The sound of thicker chains binding his soul could be heard.
'Damn it......'
His teeth chattered.
As expected, he couldn't escape.
Compared to the notorious reputation that resounded throughout the world, it had seemed strange that he was let go so easily. Now he realized he hadn't been released, but had already been caught in that guy's sorcery.
The S-rank Hunter he had unluckily encountered two days ago.
Johan, the Black Mage of New York, is famous as particularly vicious even among S-ranks!
From when exactly, no, from where to where had been his true will?
Not even knowing that, his body awakened.
No matter how much he screamed that he just wanted to sleep like this, to fall into the world of sleep without any worries, his soul wouldn't release him.
A person's body, mind, and soul are the three that make one, but the body and mind can never defy the soul's commands.
A body trained to transcend the limits of species, or a mind, might have equal standing with the soul, but that didn't apply to Cheon Ju-hyeok, who was merely B-rank.
Therefore, the black mage who bound souls enjoyed playing with and tormenting the weak who hadn't reached that realm.
It was Cheon Ju-hyeok's misfortune to encounter such a black mage.
More specifically, the reason was that he was of the same black-haired race as Jin-woo.
He had been caught in Johan's radar network, which had been searching for black-haired Asians.
'Please, stop......'
His consciousness gradually disappeared. Not peacefully disappearing like when sleeping, but like being forcibly shoved into deep water, a feeling like waterboarding.
Meanwhile, his body completely sat up and even broke the handcuffs binding his hands. Then he took out a dagger and approached the sleeping Jin-woo.
'Stop, please......'
No matter how many times he said to stop, it wouldn't listen. His soul approached Jin-woo and raised the dagger.
And then.
Clang!
Jin-woo opened his eyes like a ghost, struck away the dagger, and grabbed Cheon Ju-hyeok by the collar. Then, like when they first met, he slammed him to the ground and thrust his sword forward.
'Ah.'
Cheon Ju-hyeok despaired. What would a third party say seeing this situation?
A man who had agreed to become a companion had secretly gotten up in the middle of the night holding a blade. And had tried to bring it down.
Anyone would see him as a traitor. No, not even a traitor, but someone who had approached with the intention of robbing from the beginning.
'I'm going to die.'
The next scene was easily imaginable. Kang Jin-woo's sword, in his anger, would pierce through his throat, and he would lose his life just like that.
Even wanting to make excuses, his dominated mouth wouldn't move, and only despair and helplessness accumulated.
And.
"Who are you?"
Jin-woo didn't thrust his sword.
At his appearance of questioning his heart, no, his soul directly, Cheon Ju-hyeok drew in his breath.