7
07 - The Druid of New York
It was much more than expected.
The person in charge at the Management Bureau had said it would easily exceed 100 million, but I never thought it would reach 300 million.
There was a reason for receiving more than the average price - first of all, the condition of the corpses was exceptionally clean.
All the prey that the Elf had brought down with a single arrow received extra payment, and that amount was quite substantial.
However, even with just those prey, it wouldn't have reached hundreds of millions.
The reason the amount jumped to this scale was because of the black bear's corpse.
'I heard that monster corpses are much more expensive, and it was true.'
I had heard that monster corpses were more expensive than ordinary beast corpses.
While meat and hide from ordinary beasts are used in daily life, monster meat, blood, hide, and claws are used to make consumables and equipment for Hunters.
Materials stained and dyed with Magi contamination were said to have all kinds of uses.
The black bear's meat and blood were useless and were disposed of.
What was priced were the hide, claws, teeth, and so on, and those were incredibly expensive.
According to the employee, materials from boss-level monsters that dominate an area are materials that workshop Mages and craftsmen go crazy for and rush to obtain.
Cheonok Group also spares no expense and puts all effort into purchasing such materials unconditionally.
The materials purchased this way are used for research, processed into equipment, and distributed to Cheonok's affiliated guilds, or sold at international auctions, among various uses.
'Corporate capital is indeed good.'
Rather than being stingy with every penny, it's favorable that they spend generously where it's needed.
With such a large sum coming in overnight, I feel both happy and bewildered.
What should I do with this money?
There were really many things he could do, but what Jin-woo was going to do right away was already decided.
"Should I go to the mart? Or would the department store food section be better?"
It was to go buy food.
***
There was a site called Hunter Net Blind.
It's an anonymous site that only verified Hunters can join, mainly a place where Hunters share Gate information or exchange guild and workplace information.
A post there was quietly becoming a topic of discussion.
Title: That crazy bear bastard from the Primeval Forest seems to have been caught? [Cheonok Trading・j***]
Content: The sales department said good materials came in, so I looked and it was that bear bastard's corpse. It was cleanly cut in half.
└ Really? I was going crazy because I couldn't go there every time a portal opened nearby, glad that bastard died
└ Which guild took it down? I didn't hear anything
└ If it were a well-known guild, the news would have spread from the preparation stage, but seeing how quiet it is, it must be some small-scale team.
└ Author: I don't know if it was a team, but one person caught it. It was cut in half with a single strike
It didn't cause any tremendous social repercussions or anything.
Just one post that drew moderate attention.
The Hunters who read that post didn't think of it as a big issue either.
└ Some passing A-rank Hunter must have made one sword strike and left
└ Who did it? If they sold it to Cheonok, it must be a Seoul Hunter
└ A Seoul-born, A-rank or higher Hunter who mainly uses a sword......
└ It might not necessarily be a sword; it could have been cut with magic
The Primeval Forest is very vast, with many areas and several boss-level monsters.
Among them, the black bear was a troublesome boss that claimed an entire mountain ridge as its territory.
It was too much to face head-on, and crude traps were useless, so no one approached that monster.
Experienced Hunters who had been active in the Primeval Forest for a long time never even approached the black bear's territory.
There was more to lose than gain from going there.
Who could be the Hunter that took down that troublesome creature?
Idle people tried to identify Seoul's A-rank Hunter, but they couldn't figure out who it was at all.
It just remained a small mystery......
***
Finally, dinner time arrived.
Jin-woo had stayed at Cheonok for quite a while, and he also went shopping, so it was a bit later than usual, but it still wasn't past 10 o'clock.
Jin-woo, who had thoroughly prepared for the barbecue, set up in the front yard of his house.
He placed the grill bought from the department store and took out charcoal to arrange it. Then he took out a torch and lit the fire.
Whoooosh-
Jin-woo watched with excitement as the charcoal gradually turned red.
Then.
Kwaaaaang-!
A heavy sound was heard from outside the Barrier.
It sounded somewhat like an earthquake, but was a little different.
'Noisy again.'
It wasn't particularly rare. Outside the Barrier is an area where monsters appear, so all sorts of sounds can be heard.
Seeing that the Barrier was intact, Jin-woo soon lost interest and focused on the fire.
Soon, the fire was blazing brightly.
"Let's go, let's go."
Jin-woo rubbed his palms together and placed meat on the grill.
Sizzzzzzle-
The charcoal fire and meat met, producing an enchanting sound. The dripping oil touched the charcoal, making the flames rise even higher.
He laid out meat to cover the surface and placed several sausages on one side.
Edible mushrooms, tomatoes, corn, and other vegetables bought from the mart too.
In the middle, thinking the fire seemed a bit weak, he used the torch to stoke the charcoal fire again.
His heart was pounding so much with anticipation that the sound of his heartbeat seemed to drown out the sound of grilling meat.
'I couldn't eat properly in the Gate.'
If there had been a little more leisure, he might have grilled fish or rabbit to eat.
But there was absolutely no such leisure.
Inside the Gate, Jin-woo had endured every meal time with blocks and fruit while moving.
After enduring and enduring, today had finally come.
'It's cooked!'
He could see the meat nicely browned. He cut the thick meat with scissors to make it bite-sized, and first put it in his mouth with just a light dip in salt.
'......'
For a moment, he briefly lost consciousness.
It wasn't his first time grilling and eating meat. Every year on his birthday, he would buy artificial meat from the mart and grill it.
But real meat was different.
The aroma was different, and the texture felt different while chewing. Even the concentration of the juices moistening his mouth was different.
'This too? This too?'
The grill was fully loaded with meat from various parts.
He picked out the parts that cooked quickly and stuffed them into his mouth without stopping.
He had bought many things to dip in - salt, ssamjang, sesame sauce with sliced onions, green onions mixed with gochujang, and so on, having prepared every variety.
He dipped every part in every sauce to compare which combination tasted best.
He couldn't reach a conclusion. Everything was just delicious.
In between, he quenched his thirst with a draft beer bought from the mart.
Since he had put it in his Inventory right after paying, it was as cold as when he had picked it up at the mart.
With low alcohol content but high refreshing sensation, the beer washed down the oil as he ate and ate and ate again.
He ate sausages, mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, and even though it was almost midnight, his solo barbecue showed no signs of ending.
'The suffering was worth it.'
Even more than when he saw the number 300 million printed in his bankbook, right now he felt intensely alive.
For this joy, the crisis in the Gate was nothing.
Well, honestly, it wasn't for nothing, but he thought it was worth enduring.
If a demon asked him whether to enter Gates or live eating only block food for life, he would choose the former without hesitation.
After feasting to his heart's content, Jin-woo finally fell asleep at dawn.
The next day, waking up leisurely around lunchtime, Jin-woo tried making spicy fish stew this time.
He had wanted to eat it ever since he was happily catching fish in the Gate, and now the opportunity had finally come.
He searched for recipes on his smartphone and boiled it until it was red and bubbling.
He worried that his fish preparation might be clumsy, but.
'How does it cut so well? Could it be that the ability applies to kitchen knives too?'
When he held the kitchen knife, the fish flesh was cut as if sliced with a razor blade.
Since a kitchen knife is also a blade, could this be it?
Since it cut so easily, the flesh didn't get mashed by a dull blade, and there was no need to tear off skin that wouldn't peel properly.
He also chopped green onions thickly and put them in, taking time to boil it thoroughly.
While at it, since there was a lot of meat left from yesterday, he put that in too.
Thinking that if you add something delicious to something delicious, it might become delicious squared.
The result was......
'Hmm, maybe I shouldn't have added the meat.'
It wasn't that it didn't taste good, but the balance felt subtly broken.
Maybe it was because he forcibly added meat to a recipe that only called for fish.
The meat that went in wasn't a cut commonly used for soup either, which made it worse.
Still, he ate it deliciously. The spicy and refreshing broth washed away yesterday's fatigue.
After only eating thin soup made by boiling block food in water, eating spicy fish stew full of ingredients was like a royal feast.
As a finish, he added ramen noodles and boiled them, then inhaled them, finally completing his breakfast-cum-lunch.
Two hours later.
Sitting on a wooden chair in the front yard that was not just old but rotting, Jin-woo opened a book.
Various books were borrowed from the Management Bureau.
There was a field guide for distinguishing edible mushrooms, and books with techniques for making traps.
Knowledge for erasing traces and, conversely, for identifying remaining traces to assess the enemy's condition.
Besides that, he had borrowed every book that might be even slightly helpful.
He read every single word as if chewing and digesting it, absorbing all the knowledge.
'Should I look for online lectures or academies?'
He heard that retired Hunters often give lectures.
Though quite expensive, you can hear the experiences of those who were active, making it much better than self-studying alone.
He heard there are academies too, so looking in that direction wouldn't be bad either.
Now he didn't need to go to the employment office and abuse his body at construction sites all day.
The income from going to Gates was more than sufficient.
What was needed now wasn't running around to receive daily wages, but knowledge and skills to survive in Gates.
'I can't forget about swordsmanship either.'
Among the necessary skills was swordsmanship, too.
Jin-woo took out two swords from his Inventory.
One was a standard-issue iron sword with poor material and rough finishing.
The other was the sword with a white gem that the Elf had left behind.
'Why did she leave this...... No, let's not think about that now. I won't understand even if I think about it anyway.'
Setting aside the question, Jin-woo examined the sword in detail.
The size was that of an ordinary one-handed sword, and the patterns and decorations weren't flashy either.
The only decorative part was the white gem embedded at the end of the pommel, but even that was natural in size and color, not excessive.
However, looking closely at the blade, it was a bit different.
When he reflected sunlight and squinted, he could see the steel forming the blade reflecting light and shining in brilliant colors.
The light was very subtle, barely noticeable upon close inspection, but precisely because of that, it looked all the more mysterious.
Who made this sword, and with what?
Since it was a sword used by an Elf, it must have been made by an Elf craftsman.
He heard that Dwarves are the best at handling steel, so how would it compare to a Dwarf-made sword?
Though he had never seen other swords, Jin-woo didn't think this sword would be greatly inferior.
The impression the white gem sword gave him was shocking.
He stood in the front yard and assumed a stance.
Among the books borrowed from the Management Bureau, there was one about the basics of swordsmanship, so he tried to assume appropriate stances while looking at it.
"? Huh???"
But no matter what stance he tried, it felt awkward.
Whether he tried the most standard middle guard or the upper guard for fierce attacks, everything felt strange, like wearing clothes that didn't fit his body.
Was it awkward because it was his first time with formalized swordsmanship, or did these stances really not suit him?
Generally speaking, it would be the former, but.
'Let's give up on this.'
Jin-woo considered it the latter. There was no other basis just his intuition said so.
He threw away the stances drawn in the book and stood naturally.
Just standing and holding the sword.
That alone was already complete. There was no insufficiency for the sword to extend in any direction at any time.
No matter how the sword was swung, it perfectly cut through the air as if that had been natural from the beginning.
He swung the sword a few more times, following his body and his heart.
The blade cutting through empty air was sharp, no weaker than when cutting down wolves or slicing the black bear.
Was it thanks to his ability?
He thought it was nothing special.
He didn't know difficult sword theory, understood philosophy in swordsmanship, and didn't know its principles.
All that existed was just sharp killing intent.
'In the end.'
A sword just needs to cut well.
From when the sun passed the zenith until sunset painted the sky, Jin-woo's sword dance continued without stopping.
***
The main conference room of Seoul City Hall.
In the large conference room, only two people sat facing each other in conversation.
All people had been dismissed, and even a magic barrier that prevented sound from leaking was spread.
The identities of those continuing this secretive conversation were, on one side, Seoul's mayor Ma Du-sik.
The owner of a large frame that seemed 1.5 times bigger than others, he was a man who had been active as an S-rank Hunter in his youth and had even risen to the position of Director of the Hunter Management Bureau.
He had served as Director of the Management Bureau for quite a long time, and after retirement entered politics, successfully being elected mayor at a mature middle age.
Though he had retired from the Director position, he still retained his S-rank Hunter qualifications and was one of only three S-rank Hunters in Seoul.
"On behalf of the city, I thank you, Shartia. In just the few days you've looked after it, the farm's growth rate has visibly increased."
"I'm glad it was helpful."
Fluent Korean.
The woman called Shartia tucked her light blonde hair behind her ear as she answered.
With impressive, calm amber eyes, she was a Hunter who had awakened abilities related to plant growth, the only one in the world.
Also called a Druid, she was an S-rank Hunter from New York.
"What's your next schedule?"
"Is there such a thing as a schedule? I'm traveling as my heart desires. I'm thinking of staying in Seoul for about a week before leaving."
She was temporarily away from her homeland, touring the world.
On Earth, where most areas except for some regions had become lands of death, her ability to grow plants was like something sent by God.
She was extending her hand to those who needed that ability, striving so that more seeds could sprout on this land.
However.
Ma Du-sik knew that there was a bit of a backstory added to her travels.
"Shartia. I'll cut to the chase. Please remain in Seoul."
It couldn't be just asking her to stay as a tourist. If that were the case, he wouldn't have set up barriers in the conference room.
Ma Du-sik's words were about something more permanent.
It was a proposal for naturalization, changing her nationality to Seoul entirely.
A slightly displeased look flashed in Shartia's eyes, but she wasn't the type to get angry over something like this.
"Did you investigate my background?"
"Not to the extent I'd call it investigating. I do have some informants in New York, but not enough to penetrate New York City Hall's iron-tight security and extract information."
"Then?"
"I heard your position is quite shaken. That there's a group trying to politically destroy you."
Knowing this much meant knowing everything that needed to be known.
Shartia snorted and leaned back against the chair's backrest.
"Stupid people. They think my ability is no longer needed."
"Why?"
"They interpreted my ability and developed a new chemical fertilizer. Since it's so effective, they feel I'm no longer necessary. Rather, many consider my existence an eyesore since I generously lend my strength to other cities as well."
"Hmm......"
"Foolish people. That fertilizer, too, wouldn't have been born without my power."
"Oh, is that so?"
"It's a result that came out accidentally while I was researching to use my ability more comfortably. Without me, it's just fertilizer with a bit more nutrients, with no blessing of the Earth Mother dwelling in it at all."
Hearing that, Ma Du-sik asked with puzzlement.
"Doesn't New York know this fact?"
"I warned them. I must have told them at least twelve more times. But they don't listen."
"They don't listen?"
"They think I'm lying because I don't want to be abandoned. When they called me a pathetic witch to my face, I thought there was no one crazier."
"Huh......"
Ma Du-sik could read the general situation.
Having been in politics and risen to the position of mayor, representing Seoul.
He could more than imagine the dirty political fights underlying Shartia's surface story.
What was puzzling was that Shartia wasn't even a political figure and didn't make political statements or actions.
Yet she was caught in the eye of some high-ranking person and was suffering severe political harassment.
Ma Du-sik could imagine the reason.
"I knew New York was a place that severely ostracized Elves, but I didn't know it was to this extent. To conduct such a lynching just because your past life ability is from that side."
"Hmph."
New York is somewhat closed-off and responds particularly firmly to external pressure.
That external pressure includes not only other cities on Earth but also different races.
Especially Elves, who kill every Earthling they see, were no different from mortal enemies to New York.
The past life ability that Shartia had awakened.
That power, which was the reason she was called a Druid, was known to belong to Elves.