Fine powder drifted across the desk.
Taehu did not even make a sound as he focused every ounce of his attention on the sensation in his fingertips.
Before him lay the old black leather glove, hideously torn apart. Beside it sat the smoothly processed wolf-type Monster Hide and gray Mid-grade Non-Attribute Magic Stone that he had purchased from the mid-grade materials shop earlier that day for 1.1 million won.
The fluorescent light of his shabby studio apartment shone overhead.
Beneath it, dazzling golden text visible only to Taehu floated before his eyes like a hologram.
[Restoration Stage 1: Replace Damaged Outer Layer]
[Cut the Monster Hide to the specified dimensions and reinforce the finger joints to restore the glove's shape.]
The instructions were so detailed that it felt as though a master craftsman were standing right beside him, guiding him through every step one-on-one.
Taehu picked up a small pair of craft scissors and a utility knife.
He carefully cut away a section from the edge of the B-rank hide he had purchased.
The material was tough enough that ordinary scissors would not have left so much as a scratch on it. But when Taehu coated the blades with a faint layer of mana, the sturdy hide sliced apart as smoothly as paper.
He laid the piece of leather over the glove's tattered fingers.
It matched perfectly, down to the exact dimensions specified by the golden text, without so much as a hair's breadth of error.
There was no need for elaborate forge equipment.
As long as he had precise instructions and the skill of his own hands, this cramped desk was all the workshop he needed.
Once the glove's structure had been restored, it was time to reconnect the severed circuits.
Taehu took a thick cloth and a small hammer from a drawer.
He wrapped the fist-sized gray Magic Stone in several layers of cloth, placed it on the floor, and struck it lightly.
THUNK.
The rough impact echoed through the room.
After several blows, the hard Magic Stone shattered into pieces.
Taehu poured the fragments into a small mortar and began grinding them relentlessly.
Sweat gathered across his forehead, and his wrist began to ache, but he did not slow down.
Before long, the coarse, sand-like fragments had become a fine ash-gray powder.
[Restoration Stage 2: Restore and Synchronize Mana Circuit]
[Apply the processed Magic Stone powder along the severed mana lines while infusing your own mana.]
Taehu gathered mana at the tip of his index finger as though lightly moistening it.
A bluish aura gathered around his fingertip as he dabbed it into the Magic Stone powder.
Then he carefully began rubbing the powder along the glove's surface, tracing the faintly scratched and severed pathways of mana.
A strange reaction occurred wherever his fingertip passed.
The dry Magic Stone powder greedily absorbed Taehu's mana and melted like liquid. It then seeped between the layers of leather, filling the faded lines until they shone clearly once more.
It was like watching the severed veins of the equipment reconnect.
The work continued in breathless silence.
Every finger joint.
The thick line running across the back of the hand.
Even the finishing circuit wrapped around the wrist.
He could not allow the amount of powder to fall even slightly short, nor could he let the flow of mana waver.
Taehu retraced the circuits with several times more care than he had ever shown while sorting discarded items at the appraisal center.
At last, the final trace of Magic Stone powder seeped into the circuit near the wrist.
FLASH!
The mana that had been suppressed inside the glove erupted all at once.
Taehu squeezed his eyes shut reflexively.
The leather vibrated violently against his palm before gradually settling down.
When he cautiously opened his eyes, the hideous piece of trash that had been lying on his desk was nowhere to be seen.
In its place rested a single pitch-black leather glove that seemed to contain the darkness itself.
Even at a glance, the leather looked extraordinarily smooth.
Intricate silver-gray mana lines traced the fingers, glowing at steady intervals as though the glove itself were breathing.
The dried monster blood and musty smell of mold had vanished completely.
A brilliant blue System Window rose above the equipment, which had fully regained its original sleek form.
[Tracker's Glove]
[Rank: A]
[Agility +12]
[Reaction Speed +15%]
[Unique Skill: Weakness Detection Lv. 1]
A breathless laugh escaped Taehu as he stared at the text floating in midair.
Agility +12.
For an ordinary C-rank Hunter to raise their Agility by even a single point through training grounds and lower-level dungeons, they would have to work themselves to the bone for months.
Yet simply equipping this one item increased the stat by twelve points.
And with the additional Reaction Speed bonus, the actual difference he felt would undoubtedly far surpass what the numbers alone suggested.
Taehu suppressed his pounding heart and picked up the glove.
He widened the opening at the wrist and slid his right hand inside.
The leather seemed to contract on its own, wrapping perfectly around the contours of his hand.
There was no discomfort or tightness whatsoever.
It felt as natural as slipping into a second skin.
And the change came immediately.
A pleasant heat began near his heart and raced through the blood vessels of his right arm.
It was not as though his muscles suddenly swelled or his bones dramatically changed shape.
Yet the density and weight of his entire arm felt unmistakably different.
He lightly rolled his shoulder.
The movement of the joint was so smooth that it almost felt slippery.
It was an extreme sensation of lightness, as though a body that had been struggling underwater had suddenly burst into a world where gravity barely existed.
Taehu sprang to his feet.
He moved to the center of the room, spread his legs, and lowered his stance.
Clenching his right fist, he drew it tightly against his waist.
He designated a point in the empty air ahead of him as his target, then drove his fist toward it.
WHOOSH!
A sharp sound tore through the air inside the room.
Taehu stared blankly at the back of his own hand.
Before he had even fully registered that he had thrown a punch, his arm had already extended to the end of its trajectory.
This was nothing like the sluggish, clumsy form of the perpetually C-rank Hunter he had always been.
There was not a single wasted movement.
Even the speed at which he retracted his fist was almost too fast to see.
This time, he threw several punches in succession.
A hook, an uppercut, then another straight.
WHOOSH! SWISH! WHOOSH!
The sound of air being sliced apart erupted continuously throughout the cramped studio apartment.
His center of gravity remained firmly anchored to the floor while his arms tore into the empty air like the fangs of a beast.
It was not merely that he had become faster.
The tiny delays between one movement and the next had been reduced to almost nothing.
The Reaction Speed granted by the equipment had fundamentally transformed the connection between his vision and motor reflexes.
Taehu finally stopped, breathing heavily, as the corner of his mouth curled upward.
But it was still too early to be satisfied.
More important than the numerical increases was the Unique Skill.
Taehu turned his head toward one corner of the room.
An old training monster dummy stood there, serving as a makeshift clothes rack.
It was a goblin-shaped wooden dummy that he had picked up after porters at a previous workplace discarded it.
Most of the paint had peeled away, and scratches covered its surface, but its humanoid proportions made it perfectly adequate for practicing strikes.
Taehu slowly walked toward the dummy.
As the distance between them narrowed, the pleasant warmth returned to his gloved right hand.
Then his gaze fixed squarely on the dummy's body.
HUM.
His vision shimmered transparently for an instant.
At the same time, faint waves of mana spread across the surface of the carved wooden figure.
Then vivid red markers began appearing one after another before Taehu's eyes.
The inner edge of the trapezius where the neck met the shoulder.
The elbow joint where the arm bent.
The solar plexus beneath the rib cage.
The hollow behind the right knee.
The red markers pulsed insistently, almost as though begging him to strike them.
Even when Taehu moved his head from side to side and shifted his gaze, the red points remained stubbornly fixed to the dummy's vulnerable areas, precisely marking their locations.
The skill visually identified the places where an opponent's defenses were weakest—the vital points where a successful attack could inflict critical damage.
Taehu swallowed hard.
Understanding how the skill worked in theory was entirely different from seeing it with his own eyes.
He fixed his gaze on the largest red marker glowing near the back of the dummy's neck.
When he put strength into his legs, the vinyl flooring seemed to spring pleasantly beneath his feet.
Taehu rapidly closed the distance and thrust out his right hand.
He did not recklessly throw his entire body weight behind the blow.
He simply drove his fist precisely toward the marker.
CRACK!
A dull, explosive impact struck his ears.
Taehu's eyes widened.
The section of the dummy's neck where his fist had landed had caved deeply inward with a sharp crack.
The dummy had been carved from a solid log.
Normally, even if Taehu struck it with all his strength, he would have struggled to leave more than a faint mark on the surface.
Yet a blow delivered with less than half his usual effort had crushed the wood.
When he withdrew his fist, the deeply indented cross-section of the timber was fully exposed.
It was clear evidence that the force of the impact had penetrated the surface and driven directly into the interior.
As long as he did not miss the exact strike point indicated by the marker, it meant he could deliver a critical blow regardless of whether his opponent was covered in thick armor or protected by a monster's tough hide.
Taehu quietly looked down at the black glove covering his hand.
The silver-gray lines across its back pulsed softly in time with his heartbeat.
The chilling sensation of that last strike still lingered vividly in his fingertips.
If he encountered a monster in actual combat and used this skill while holding a sharp dagger...
No matter how much larger or higher-ranked the monster was, if he could accurately strike one of those red markers, he could inflict a critical wound with a single attack.
A shiver ran down his spine.
The scattered fragments of thought inside Taehu's mind suddenly locked together into a single clear realization.
Until now, he had lived as a C-rank Hunter who was treated as little more than a porter, rummaging through discarded items in the rear.
After awakening his ability, all that had excited him was the thought of finding valuable items hidden among piles of garbage and selling them for enormous profits.
And, of course, that alone would have been enough to buy his parents delicious beef every day, give them the latest smartphones and a nice car, and allow them to live without envying anyone.
But there was still a thirst that money alone could not satisfy.
The truly valuable materials and hidden relics of this world were not lying in the backyard of an appraisal center.
They were sleeping deep inside dangerous dungeons accessible only to high-ranking Hunters.
If he wanted to reach those places, he had to become stronger himself.
And the means to break through the limitations of his natural combat ability was now wrapped around his hand.
He could recognize the true value of damaged items others casually threw into the trash.
He could buy them for next to nothing and restore them to their original, perfect condition.
Then he could equip the restored high-rank gear himself.
If his physical abilities were lacking, he could simply compensate for them with the power of his equipment.
A single piece of A-rank gear had already changed his body this much.
Then what would happen if he equipped himself from head to toe with even higher-rank items?
This was no mere way to line his pockets.
Without the backing of a massive guild or the support of some extraordinary bloodline, he had found a reliable ladder that could allow him to break through the limits of the Hunter world using nothing but his own eye for value and his unique ability.
Taehu slowly exhaled and raised his right hand.
The taut leather produced a pleasantly crisp friction sound beside his ear.
His gaze settled heavily on the tightly clenched black fist.