Two o’clock the next day.
A park near the neighborhood.
I sat on a bench waiting for Hunter Yoon Seohyeon, checking the latest information on my smartphone while I was at it.
‘Nothing particularly noteworthy yet.’
Most of the news was about corporations acquiring guilds or research institutes announcing new magical engineering technology.
‘Oh, S-rank hunter Ryu Takhan. I remember him. He was notorious for his private life.’
And among all that, the most popular stories were about celebrity hunters’ personal lives.
‘There’s barely anything about the Vanguard Guild Incident.’
The Vanguard Guild Incident had happened only a few days ago, yet it had barely surfaced in the news.
Originally, it had been a major disaster that swallowed even the rescue team.
Because of me, the scale of the incident had been reduced considerably, so in a way, that was only natural.
‘Anyway, when is Hunter Yoon Seohyeon getting—’
The thought had barely crossed my mind when I saw Hunter Yoon Seohyeon walking toward me.
Unlike me, with my shabby leather armor, she was dressed in ordinary clothes that looked easy to move in.
‘There’s no way she came completely unequipped. She must be wearing armor enchanted with Appearance Concealment.’
Appearance Concealment prevented an item’s actual appearance from showing.
It was expensive.
Maybe that was because her sister belonged to a wealthy major guild.
I was genuinely jealous.
I wanted to escape this miserable broke lifestyle as soon as possible.
Yoon Seohyeon spotted me and approached with a smile that looked almost pasted onto her face.
“Sorry. I’m a little late, right? Were you waiting long?”
“No. I wasn’t waiting.”
“Well……”
She moved her lips as though there was something she wanted to say, then stopped.
“Is there something you want to say?”
“What? No. Nothing. Not really. More importantly, you’re sure about this information, right?”
Yoon Seohyeon waved her hands dismissively as she asked.
Her suspicion was justified.
At this point in time, there were very few technologies or people capable of identifying anomalous gates.
“We’ll know for sure once we check it.”
I had already made up an excuse for how I knew.
If necessary, I could always blame it on a Skill.
Maybe because of that, she hadn’t pressed me further.
“……Fine. The gate we’re going to is a D-rank gate, and the Roman Guild has already submitted an application to clear it. We’ll be following them inside.”
It would have been better if no one else were there, but gates usually had someone who had claimed them.
“We’re only going in to inspect it, but if something like last time happens, I’ll request support from the Association. Understood?”
“Understood.”
“And……”
“?”
“No. Nothing. Let’s go.”
Yoon Seohyeon placed a hand on my shoulder.
The scenery around us began to ripple.
I closed my eyes and opened them again.
We were standing on the grass of a well-maintained lakeside park.
‘Teleportation.’
We had crossed in an instant a distance that ordinarily would have taken quite a while.
So that was why she had wanted to meet at this time.
It would be nice if I could learn that Skill.
As I was thinking that—
“Oh? Looks like they’re here.”
One of the guild members preparing near the gate spotted Hunter Yoon Seohyeon and me and walked over.
It was a female hunter holding a staff.
“I’m Park Hyeonju. You’re Hunter Yoon Seohyeon from the Association, right? I didn’t expect someone this pretty to show up! And the gentleman beside you is……?”
“Ah, he’s here to help if there’s a problem with the gate.”
“I see. Nice to meet you.”
Park Hyeonju bowed politely toward me.
I gave her a slight nod in return.
A man who appeared to be the leader of the Roman Guild approached next.
“Ah. You’re here.”
Maybe because he was the guild leader, even his armor looked expensive.
Compared to the polished metal armor he wore, my shabby leather armor looked pathetic.
He spoke with an irritated expression.
“I’m Guild Leader Go Seongjun. I don’t know what this is about, but I’d appreciate it if you could keep it brief and leave.”
There was a faint sense of superiority in his voice.
He wasn’t even looking at me.
He spoke exclusively to Hunter Yoon Seohyeon.
Behind him stood three more people.
Five D-rank hunters were required to clear a D-rank gate.
The Roman Guild was entering with exactly the minimum number.
‘Originally, all of these people probably would’ve died.’
It wasn’t as though I felt some heroic urge to save them.
All I needed to do was deal with the demon hiding inside this gate and leave.
Guild Leader Go Seongjun warned us.
“And every monster hunted inside belongs to our guild, so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t touch anything without permission. If possible, I’d also prefer that you stay completely out of the hunting. Understood?”
“Yes, yes. Of course.”
Yoon Seohyeon nodded with the practiced professionalism of someone used to dealing with this kind of thing.
Our goal was merely to confirm whether this was an anomalous gate.
There was no reason to object.
As the Roman Guild members began moving toward the gate, Yoon Seohyeon whispered to me.
“This is why guild people are such a pain. They act like the Association is their enemy.”
I could fully understand Hunter Yoon Seohyeon’s position, though I also remembered another hunter once telling me that the Association was constantly meddling and making everything unnecessarily complicated.
Everyone had their own perspective.
“Ah, one second. I’ll take a reading before we go in.”
Yoon Seohyeon stopped in front of the gate and raised her smartphone.
A small device was attached to the top.
“Hmm. Nothing unusual is showing up. You really are sure about this, right?”
Demons emitted demonic energy rather than ordinary magical energy.
The two were similar yet fundamentally different, which made demonic energy impossible to detect with current equipment.
“If you don’t believe me, you can go back.”
“……You really are something.”
The fact that Yoon Seohyeon had come this far already meant she trusted me to some extent.
The Roman Guild members had already entered the gate.
Yoon Seohyeon and I followed them inside.
Vwooom……
Just like with Teleportation, the world around us shifted and the scenery transformed.
“Wow. It’s beautiful.”
“Oh.”
The landscape was completely different from outside.
A full moon floated in a pitch-black night sky above a forest glowing with fluorescent light.
The entire place had a dreamlike atmosphere.
Even I had never seen somewhere like this before.
I stood there looking around for a moment before someone ahead called out to us.
“Don’t just stand there staring. Stay right behind us. If you wander off and something happens, it’ll be a problem.”
Go Seongjun snapped irritably.
It was ridiculous watching a D-rank hunter like Go Seongjun talk down to C-rank Hunter Yoon Seohyeon.
‘Is this what people mean by hunter syndrome?’
It was also a common trait among D-rank guilds.
They had moved beyond the newly formed guild stage and had become accustomed to operating as hunters.
They were people who had hunted together since F-rank and gradually built up their abilities.
They had reached the point where they thought they understood how this whole world worked.
And most of them had one thing in common.
Confidence.
‘They don’t realize this is the best part, when they’re still steadily growing.’
They hunted the monsters in F-rank gates with ease, accumulated Experience, advanced into D-rank gates, and continued growing there.
When your strength kept increasing like that, it was easy to start dreaming that one day you too would reach S-rank and become a celebrity hunter.
You started feeling like you could accomplish anything.
But like young people who had yet to encounter the wall of reality, their confidence could become abnormal.
Not everyone was like that.
But at the very least, their guild leader seemed to have a severe case of hunter syndrome.
“What is it? You have something to say?”
Go Seongjun looked me over as though I were some kind of insect.
Okay.
Forget confidence.
This bastard clearly had no manners whatsoever.
“If not, just shut up and follow us.”
He didn’t even give me time to answer before trudging ahead.
“I’m telling you, there are plenty of people like him. Sometimes they make me think about quitting the Association.”
Yoon Seohyeon sighed.
I gave a small nod.
Problematic complainers were always a serious issue.
We followed the river alongside the Roman Guild members.
The water glowed emerald.
Among hunters, it was commonly believed that following a river upstream gave you a higher chance of reaching the boss.
‘The demon is probably near the boss too.’
So we were heading in the right direction for me as well.
Everything seemed to be going smoothly.
Then—
“Monster ahead!”
Go Seongjun shouted.
At the same time, the Roman Guild members prepared for battle.
“Silver wolves! Three of them! Formation! Shield!”
“Got it! I’ll put up the Shield first!”
“Preparing Magic Missile!”
At the guild leader’s command, the mage generated a magical shield.
Yelp!
The charging silver wolf slammed into the transparent wall.
The waiting swordsman immediately drove his sword into the wolf’s heart.
An arrow and a spell arrived at the perfect moment to finish it off.
The entire battle flowed smoothly.
Their accumulated experience was showing.
‘They’re pretty good.’
There was nothing obvious to criticize.
Apparently their confidence wasn’t completely baseless.
If this had been an ordinary gate, the battle would have ended safely.
‘The problem is that there’s a demon here.’
And sure enough, something abnormal was already happening.
Crack!
“W-What?!”
Another silver wolf was tearing through the Shield with its claws.
Once the first crack appeared, it took only moments for the Shield to be ripped apart completely.
Ssssh……
The guild members instinctively stepped backward when the defense that had never once been breached disappeared.
The guild leader, at least, managed to stay calm enough to shout.
“We’re still fine! Regroup! Hold them off until the Shield is back!”
His words snapped the guild members back to their senses, and they began attacking the wolf.
But the wolves weren’t about to simply stand there and take it.
The two surviving wolves charged directly into the party, scattering their formation.
“Aah!”
“Someone stop this thing!”
Their very first battle had already turned into a brawl.
Grrrr……
To make matters worse, the wolf they had thought was stabbed through the heart staggered back to its feet.
The strike had been too shallow.
These people weren’t weak.
They weren’t inexperienced either.
This was a guild that had cleared D-rank gates several times before.
The problem lay elsewhere.
‘The monsters are abnormally strong. This isn’t D-rank gate difficulty.’
The demonic energy emitted by the demon had spread throughout the entire field and was having a massive effect.
Monsters that absorbed demonic energy became far stronger than normal.
That was one of the reasons demons were so terrifying.
“Should we help them?”
Yoon Seohyeon asked while watching the battle.
“I’m not sure we’ll have the luxury.”
I wasn’t saying that out of spite.
It was our turn to fight too.
『 Perception Lv.10 has taken effect. 』
Beyond the blue undergrowth, the ominous eyes of predators gleamed.
Two of them.
Grrrr……
A low growl scraped against my nerves.
I drew Soul Devourer from its scabbard.
It was finally time to use it.
Yoon Seohyeon noticed the situation as well and pulled a grimoire from her inventory.
‘Since she has Teleportation, I wondered about it, but I guess she’s primarily a magic-oriented hunter.’
I’d have to see what other Skills she possessed.
Still, the combination wasn’t bad with me acting as the physical damage dealer.
One of the silver wolves crouching in the brush shot toward us.
Predicting its attack path was easy.
『 Swordsmanship Lv.10 has taken effect. 』
Clang!
The silver wolf’s sharp teeth collided with Soul Devourer’s blade.
I sensed its front paw swinging toward me.
But for some reason, I felt like I didn’t need to dodge.
If anything, it felt like stopping would be the wrong choice.
Still gripping Soul Devourer, I stepped forward and forced my way in.
Crack!
“!”
The silver wolf’s teeth split apart together with its jaws.
Soul Devourer’s razor-sharp blade tore through flesh as though devouring it.
I didn’t stop.
I rushed forward and drove the sword straight through.
Slash!
The silver wolf was split cleanly in half and dropped to the ground.
Blood and entrails spilled from its severed body, soaking the earth.
I had never felt anything this satisfying before.
Soul Devourer was far sharper than I had expected.
‘This is insane.’
Of course, I didn’t have time to stand there admiring it.
There was still one wolf left.
The moment I turned my head, I heard Hunter Yoon Seohyeon’s calm voice.
“It’s fine. I’ve got it restrained.”
“Oh.”
Grrrr……
Purple Magical Chains had completely immobilized the silver wolf.
Its body trembled violently, but it couldn’t move at all.
‘Magical Chains.’
A high-tier Skill that restricted a target’s movement.
Stab!
I walked over and drove my sword into the silver wolf’s heart.
Soul Devourer pierced its hide as smoothly as cutting through soft tofu.
Ssssh……
White energy rose from the two dead wolves and flowed into Soul Devourer.
『 Soul Devourer consumes souls. Current Soul Concentration: 13% 』
That had been an extremely satisfying fight.
Soul Devourer had charged as well.
‘Does a new function unlock once it reaches 100%?’
Soul Devourer’s Attack Power was already astonishing.
I wondered what would happen once its additional function unlocked.
My improved attributes from leveling and the help of my Strength Skill had certainly played a part, but Soul Devourer’s sharpness itself was exceptional.
‘I didn’t think I’d be able to kill silver wolves this easily.’
Cutting through a wolf had been easier than cutting through a goblin.
And Soul Devourer wasn’t the only impressive thing.
“What? Is there something on my face?”
Hunter Yoon Seohyeon’s abilities were worth paying attention to as well.
Excellent.
“No. It’s not that.”
Her Magical Chains had been impressive enough to completely restrain the monster.
But that wasn’t all.
Even after I had done something as absurd as splitting a wolf in half, my body was perfectly clean.
“Your Barrier timing was good.”
“Ah. Right. Well, it wasn’t anything special.”
That was because Hunter Yoon Seohyeon had cast Barrier on me the moment the battle began.
Apparently, she had more combat experience than I expected.
‘This should make dealing with the demon of growth much easier.’
Meanwhile, chaos was still unfolding ahead.
Five people were still struggling against the silver wolves.
“Ghk! Just hold on a little longer! There are only two left! What about the magic?”
“S-Sorry! I missed!”
“Protect Juhyeon first! Everyone, fall back……”
Apparently they had managed to kill one.
The remaining two wolves repeatedly darted in and out, taking turns attacking.
The Roman Guild members were completely flustered by the coordinated assault.
Then one of them suddenly noticed Yoon Seohyeon and me.
Guild Leader Go Seongjun’s desperate voice rang out.
“What are you doing?! Help us!”
Unbelievable.
“You told us not to help. Didn’t you say not to touch your prey?”
“This isn’t the time to say something like— Gah!”
With perfect timing, a wolf lunged at him and sent Go Seongjun sprawling to the ground.
I looked at Yoon Seohyeon with an expression that said there was nothing we could do about it.
“Should we help?”
Yoon Seohyeon shrugged.
“Who knows?”