Weekend morning. The gathering point in front of the C-rank dungeon known as the Ashen Forest, located on the outskirts of the Capital Region.
The murmurs of Hunters checking their equipment drifted endlessly through the chilly air.
Taehu slowly made his way toward the dungeon entrance. A heavy sword hung at his waist, a black leather glove covered his hand, and a silver ring rested on his index finger.
"Huh? Aren't you Appraiser Hwang?"
Someone approached him with obvious delight. It was one of the Hunters who had temporarily formed a party with him in the Gray Citadel dungeon.
"Ah, it's been a while."
Taehu gave him a slight nod, and the party member's gaze shifted toward his waist and hands.
"Looks like you're not here as a Porter or support this time. You're seriously geared up today."
"This time, I thought I'd take a proper spot in the party too. I've had some stamina to spare lately."
The party member burst into hearty laughter at Taehu's joking reply.
"Ha ha. An Appraiser picking up a sword himself again. Your skills were no joke last time either. We're certainly not complaining. It's reassuring to have you with us."
However, the Hunters forming a party with Taehu for the first time reacted differently. One of the tanks carrying a shield looked him up and down suspiciously.
"Wait, is an Appraiser really going to participate in the fighting? Even if it's only a C-rank dungeon, someone standing awkwardly in the rear will just become a burden."
His voice contained open dissatisfaction. In a way, it was only natural that he would be displeased by someone without a combat-related class taking up a weapon.
Taehu merely shrugged without showing any offense.
"Don't worry. I'll take care of myself without getting in anyone's way."
"If only it were that easy."
The tank clicked his tongue and turned away. The Hunter who had partied with Taehu before tried to defend his abilities, but Taehu stopped him with a glance.
Showing them once would be faster than saying a hundred words.
After completing the entry confirmation procedure, they stepped inside the dungeon.
True to its name, the Ashen Forest was an unpleasant landscape densely packed with gray trees shrouded in mist. Wet mud squelched beneath their feet.
"Group of regular monsters ahead! Ashen Wolves!"
The moment the scouting Hunter shouted, the cries of beasts echoed through the forest.
The battle began immediately.
The tanks in the front raised their shields to stop the wolves' charges, while the damage dealers slipped through the openings and swung their weapons. Metallic clashes rang out as blood from the beasts sprayed in every direction.
Taehu remained at the very back of the party, lightly shifting his footing as he watched the situation.
'There's no need for me to step in against ordinary monsters at this level.'
The Hunters ahead worked together quite well.
They were driving back the wolves without much difficulty.
Just as the tension began to ease—
An unpleasant chill suddenly swept in from the party's flank, from deep within the thick mist beyond their line of sight.
It was the faintest presence.
He could not even hear the breathing of a beast, yet Taehu's instincts sounded a warning.
A massive shadow tore through the fog in an instant.
It was an elite monster twice the size of the ordinary wolves, its eyes glowing red.
Cleverly ignoring the Hunters in the front line, the creature opened its jaws and charged straight toward Taehu, who appeared to have the weakest defenses in the rear.
"W-wait! Something came out behind us! Dodge!"
The tank noticed too late and screamed.
It was far too late to evade.
The creature's blue-tinged fangs hurtled toward Taehu's neck.
CLANG!
A spine-chilling impact rang out.
The elite monster's teeth stopped in midair, less than a handspan away from Taehu's skin.
A faint light flashed from the index finger of Taehu's left hand.
The transparent Barrier emitted by the Guardian's Ring had completely repelled the creature's deadly strike.
Knocked back by the heavy impact, the monster lost its balance and staggered.
"W-what? A Barrier?"
While the startled Hunters froze, Taehu did not waste the brief opening.
As he narrowed his focus through the hand wearing the black glove, a vivid red glow appeared beneath the monster's dense fur.
The Tracker's Glove was pointing out its fatal weak point.
It lay beneath the creature's neck, a vulnerable spot not protected by thick bone.
Taehu lightly kicked off the muddy ground.
Knight's Footwork.
His body became light as a feather, slipping around to the monster's flank in the blink of an eye.
The movement was so smooth that the other Hunters could barely follow it with their eyes.
At the same time, the sword at his waist slid free with a cold metallic hiss.
The Sword of the Fallen Knight Commander traced a sharp arc through the air.
There was not a single unnecessary motion in Taehu's movement.
The blade drove precisely and mercilessly into the weak point glowing red.
SHNK!
The sound of flesh tearing and bone splitting echoed through the forest.
The elite monster's eyes rolled back, and it collapsed without even managing a death cry.
Its massive body crashed into the mud, and a heavy silence descended.
"......"
The other Hunters, who had been dealing with the wolves, stared blankly back and forth between Taehu and the monster lying dead on the ground.
An elite monster had concealed its presence and launched a surprise attack.
An Appraiser, not even a Combat-type Hunter, had taken that attack head-on and killed the creature with a single strike.
"What... did you just do?"
The tank who had dismissed Taehu earlier asked in a trembling voice.
The hand gripping his shield was shaking slightly.
Taehu calmly flicked the blood from his sword and returned it to its sheath.
"I got lucky. It showed me an opening."
When Taehu answered as though it were nothing, the Hunter who had partied with him before let out an incredulous laugh.
"Luck, my ass. You're practically flying around compared to last time. Are you sure you're really an Appraiser?"
"I told you, I am."
"Good grief. We had someone like you standing in the back while the rest of us were worrying for nothing. Appraiser Hwang, don't stay in the rear from now on. Give us plenty of attack support from the flank."
The party members' attitudes changed visibly.
They no longer looked at Taehu as a Porter or someone who belonged in the rear, but as a reliable core combatant capable of contributing directly to both the party's survival and its firepower.
Taehu did not bother with a lengthy response and simply nodded.
After successfully completing the entire dungeon raid, Taehu returned home.
Once he had finished showering, he dried his wet hair with a towel and took a can of beer from the refrigerator.
He pressed the cold can against his cheek and dropped onto the edge of his bed.
"Ahh. That's refreshing."
A sip of beer after washing away the fatigue of the dungeon tasted especially good.
Taehu turned on his smartphone and checked the payment from the Magic Stones they had sold that day, along with the balance in his bank account.
The number had grown quite substantial.
It was an amount that could not even be compared to the days when he had survived solely on his ordinary salary from the appraisal center.
At this rate, he could easily buy his father a top-of-the-line reel and additional equipment worthy of his new fishing rod, as well as the camera lens his mother wanted for the photography club she had been hoping to join.
"It feels like just yesterday I was eating cup noodles because I was short on living expenses."
Chuckling to himself, Taehu glanced toward his desk.
Three pieces of equipment that had performed splendidly that day were laid out side by side.
The Guardian's Ring, which had saved his life.
The Tracker's Glove, which had revealed the enemy's weak point.
The Sword of the Fallen Knight Commander, which carried a razor-sharp edge.
Every one of them had been something others had discarded as trash, only for Taehu to restore it.
Their synergy in actual combat that day had been excellent.
Despite being a C-rank Appraiser, Taehu had acquired enough firepower and survivability to hold his own against lower-tier B-rank Combat-type Hunters.
'At this level, solo farming in a higher-level dungeon shouldn't be unreasonable.'
The anxiety of his early days, when he had crawled along the ground while risking his life, had long since disappeared.
Now he was unlikely to suffer some absurd injury from a careless mistake and break his parents' hearts.
A sense of accomplishment washed over him as he realized he had taken another step toward his goal of protecting his family's peaceful life.
"But still..."
Taehu muttered as he placed the empty can on the table.
Despite how satisfied he was with his current situation, a strange thirst lingered somewhere in his heart.
He had already obtained several A-rank items, and restoring damaged equipment for profit was more than enjoyable enough.
But he had yet to even glimpse the ultimate prize he truly wanted to find.
'Mythic-rank.'
Legendary equipment said to exist in only a handful of places throughout the entire world.
With his Special Appraisal Ability, Taehu would surely be able to see through the true value of even a shattered fragment of a Mythic-rank item at a glance.
But there was no chance something like that would be lying around a neighborhood appraisal center or near a C-rank dungeon.
"Well, I'll see one someday. There's no need to rush."
He had just stretched and lain down when the smartphone on his bedside table vibrated with a notification.
Taehu frowned slightly as he checked the screen, wondering who could possibly be contacting him this late at night.
The sender was a warehouse management employee from Iljin Appraisal Center.
[Appraiser Hwang, I'm sorry to contact you so late. Could you come to Appraisal Room 3 an hour earlier than usual tomorrow morning?]
There was no reason for an employee who usually just dropped off boxes and curtly handed over disposal lists to send him a message at night.
"What happened?"
Taehu sent the reply, and a long message arrived almost immediately.
[An appraisal request came in just before closing today, but we couldn't detect any mana reaction from the item at all, so the other Appraisers decided to take another look tomorrow. The client is bringing the item back early in the morning. I thought you might be able to identify it, Appraiser Hwang, so I contacted you.]
An unidentified item whose nature could not even be determined through ordinary Appraisal.
Taehu's eyes gleamed.
An object that even appraisal machines could not react to, leaving its identity completely unknown.
Nothing could have been more tempting prey to Taehu.
"This smells promising."
Taehu licked his lips as he held his smartphone.
For once, he found himself eagerly awaiting the trip to work the next morning.