"Could you put a little more weight into it when you change direction?"
Cheol-woo’s gaze turned toward Park Jun-seok’s right leg.
Park Jun-seok stepped onto the ground of the wide open space just inside the abandoned mine entrance, accelerated briefly, then sharply changed direction.
"Ugh."
He stopped short for an instant and lightly shook one foot.
"Walking or running normally does not seem to be a problem, but you still need to be careful when shifting your weight in a hurry."
"Looks that way. My head knows what to do, but my body is a beat late. Monsters are not going to stand still and let themselves get hit, so at this rate, I will only be a burden in actual combat."
Park Jun-seok wiped his sweat with a bitter expression.
Cheol-woo handed him the bottled water he had brought in advance.
After finishing the brief movement check, Park Jun-seok closed the cap of the water bottle.
He looked deeper into the cave, where old wooden supports and rough rock walls continued onward.
"It looks like a typical low-grade goblin habitat. An F-rank dungeon?"
To his eyes, it only looked like an ordinary abandoned mine.
But Cheol-woo’s vision was entirely different.
Faintly glowing lines along the cave walls clearly divided the zones.
The low-risk common goblin zone near the entrance, the Azure Mana Iron vein a little deeper inside, and the supervisor zone located in the innermost area.
Not only that, the positions and movement directions of the goblins that had currently finished regenerating were displayed as red dots.
‘A perfectly controlled hunting ground.’
Cheol-woo turned his gaze and looked at Park Jun-seok as he adjusted his shield.
"Hyung. From here on, you need to follow my instructions."
"Got it. Where should we go?"
"There is no need to go deep. We will take them down one at a time near the entrance."
Cheol-woo completely excluded the passages leading to the Azure Mana Iron vein and the supervisor zone.
His priority was eliminating danger and providing an environment suited to Park Jun-seok’s leg condition.
"There is one behind the rock on the right."
No sooner had Cheol-woo spoken than a goblin sprang out of the darkness, its red eyes flashing.
As it rushed forward with a grotesque cry, Park Jun-seok raised his shield.
"SKREE!"
CLANG!
The rusted dagger struck the shield hard, sending sparks flying.
Park Jun-seok let the impact slide off and swung his blunt weapon in a short arc.
With a thud, the goblin’s shoulder buckled, but instead of retreating, it immediately threw itself toward his ankle.
"Damn."
Park Jun-seok hastily pulled his leg back and almost lost his balance.
The goblin did not miss the opening and bared its teeth again.
But at that instant, Cheol-woo’s sword cut through the air and pierced the goblin’s neck with precision.
"Do not dodge the blade. Push it away with your shield. If putting weight on your leg feels difficult, lower your stance instead."
Cheol-woo shook off the blood and pointed it out.
Park Jun-seok scratched his head awkwardly.
"You are right. Just now, I took the strength out of my leg and lost my balance. It really is different imagining it alone and actually facing a monster."
"Let us keep hunting until you get the feel back. I will watch your back."
Cheol-woo drew out the fully regenerated goblins one by one, keeping it within a range that would not seriously affect the population.
He did not herd them in recklessly. He controlled the situation thoroughly at a pace Park Jun-seok could handle.
"SKREE!"
This time, two goblins charged at once.
Park Jun-seok did not panic and raised his shield, securing his escape route.
While Cheol-woo drew one monster’s attention, Park Jun-seok struck the remaining one hard in the head with his blunt weapon.
With a dull cracking sound, the goblin collapsed to the floor.
"Good. Just like that, do not chase too hard. Only cut down the ones that come in."
Cheol-woo strictly limited Park Jun-seok’s route to the area near the entrance.
It was to prevent sudden direction changes or pursuits that could strain his leg.
Whenever an unexpected situation occurred, Cheol-woo immediately intervened and blocked the attack, allowing Park Jun-seok to safely restore his practical sense.
Like that, one hour passed, then two.
Nearly ten goblin corpses lay on the floor.
"Hoo, hoo."
Breathing heavily, Park Jun-seok leaned against the cave wall and sat down.
His face was covered in sweat, but his eyes looked far more alive than they had when they first met in the clearing.
"I can definitely feel it coming back. I know how I should use my leg now too."
"Is your knee all right?"
"Yeah. Since you controlled the route and stopped me from overdoing it, there is no pain either. It really feels like I trained properly."
Park Jun-seok smiled and began picking up the mana stones rolling across the floor.
He also skillfully dismantled byproducts such as the goblins’ pointed ears and usable leather, placing them into a pouch.
He gathered the items and held the pouch out to Cheol-woo.
"Here. As promised, all the byproducts are yours."
Cheol-woo stared at the pouch being offered to him.
Mana stones and byproducts from about ten low-grade goblins.
For him, they were resources that would regenerate by tomorrow even if he left them alone, but to a low-tier hunter worrying about his livelihood right now, they were precious living expenses.
"Just take them with you, hyung."
"Huh?"
"I only said that earlier to make the rules clear. You hunted them yourself today, and this was the result of your training. I cannot take that away from you."
At Cheol-woo’s calm words, Park Jun-seok hurriedly waved his hands.
"Hey, still, a promise is a promise. I am using your gate for free. If I take these too, I would have no shame."
"It is really fine. I have plenty of other places to earn money besides this. Think of it as a commemoration of your first training session and take it. Starting next time, there will be no exceptions."
When Cheol-woo answered with a small laugh, Park Jun-seok hesitated briefly, then cleared his throat and took the pouch.
"Ahem. Then I will gratefully accept it just this once. I will definitely buy the meal."
As the two exchanged light jokes, a translucent red notification window appeared in the air before Park Jun-seok.
[Temporary usage time has ended.]
[You will be safely processed as exiting to reality.]
"Huh? Hey, something just popped up in front of me saying the time is up."
The moment Park Jun-seok shouted in confusion, his body began to blur faintly.
"Do not be alarmed. It is normal."
Before Cheol-woo could finish speaking, Park Jun-seok’s figure completely vanished into the air.
As the entry pass permission ended, the system had forcibly exited him to reality.
‘Clean.’
Cheol-woo inwardly admired it as he looked at the empty space.
A function that automatically sent someone outside when time expired, without needing to find a separate gate.
There was no more reliable method for managing unexpected situations or people who left his control.
Cheol-woo also opened the management window and activated the owner exit function.
His vision flashed briefly, and the familiar scenery of the clearing appeared.
Park Jun-seok, who had landed on his backside, was looking around with a dazed expression.
"Are you all right? Any pain or dizziness?"
Cheol-woo approached and asked while offering his hand.
"Yeah, yeah. I am fine. I just blinked, and I was back in the original place. This gate is seriously fascinating."
Park Jun-seok took Cheol-woo’s hand and stood up.
As he watched him brush himself off, Cheol-woo quietly turned his gaze toward the air.
[Entry and Exit Record]
-Park Jun-seok (Temporary Entry Pass Holder): Designated time expired, exited normally.
-Current outsiders inside the dungeon: 0
The used one-time entry pass had already changed to an ended state.
From entry to designated area control, then automatic exit when the time expired, every part of the system had operated without the slightest error.
It had now been clearly verified that he could grant limited authority to an outsider without exposing the secret of his ownership or the management window.
"Hyung. Let us end today’s training here."
"Yeah. Thanks to you, this was a huge help. I checked the state of my leg too. With a few more days of loosening up like this, I think I can start looking for a party again."
A firm confidence filled Park Jun-seok’s voice.
The two of them ate a late lunch at a nearby restaurant and parted ways.
After returning home, Cheol-woo took the old ledger from his desk drawer and opened it.
-Outsider entry control test complete. No abnormalities.
With the scratching sound of the pen tip, he carefully recorded the day’s results.
The first button toward building an independent force based on his own dungeon had been safely fastened.
That night.
A small room in an old multi-unit house.
Park Jun-seok sat at the dining table and stared blankly down at its surface.
In front of him, the low-grade mana stones and small leather scraps he had brought back from the goblin abandoned mine today were neatly arranged.
Beside them lay an open training notebook packed with notes on the state of his leg and his practical sense.
"Haa."
A long sigh of relief escaped his mouth.
When he had been lying in the hospital after his injury, everything before his eyes had gone dark.
He had feared that he might never be able to work as a hunter again, or that parties would abandon him forever.
But today, much of that fear had been washed away.
‘Cheol-woo, that guy. Where on earth did he find a gate like that?’
To call it simple luck, each of Cheol-woo’s actions had been far too calm and natural.
He had drawn out the goblins as if he knew that place’s ecology inside and out, and he had cut off dangerous variables in advance.
Even during his old porter days, Cheol-woo had shown promise, but the Oh Cheol-woo of now exuded a firmness on a completely different level from back then.
"Well, I said I would not pry."
Park Jun-seok gave a foolish smile and picked up a mana stone.
The hard, cold sensation of the mana stone felt more welcome than ever.
He drew his pen across the final line of the training notebook and added a sentence.
-Successfully endured leg load. Possible to return to real combat within a week.
As Park Jun-seok wrote, a comfortable smile spread across his face for the first time in a long while.