"Mr. Appraiser, if a monster shows up, get behind us immediately. If you try to play hero and get hurt, it'll only make things harder for the rest of us."
The party leader spoke curtly as he adjusted the shield in his hand.
Taehu lightly spun the gathering dagger he was holding and nodded.
"Understood. I'll make sure to stay out of the way."
"Well, it's only a C-rank dungeon, so there probably won't be anything too dangerous. Still, be careful. You can take your time with the appraisal and gathering after we've killed everything."
Another combat-type Hunter standing nearby chimed in.
There was a subtle contempt in their gazes, as though they regarded an appraiser as nothing more than an inconvenient burden.
Taehu did not bother responding.
He had joined this temporary party over the weekend as a practical field test.
On the surface, Taehu was merely support personnel with nothing but a C-rank Appraiser license to his name. To the party members fighting on the front line, he could only look like a liability with no combat ability.
But inside Taehu's black glove, a pleasant warmth continued to circulate steadily.
'My body feels as light as a feather.'
The Agility and Reaction Speed bonuses granted by the Tracker's Glove made even the stale air of the dungeon feel refreshing.
RUMBLE!
Just then, the ground began to shake somewhere beyond the narrow, cavernous passage.
"Monsters ahead! Form up!"
The party leader shouted urgently as he thrust his shield forward.
A pack of red-eyed creatures appeared from beyond the dark passage, charging toward them in a cloud of dust.
Five Armored Boars, their bodies covered in thick layers of bone and hide like natural armor.
"Damn it, they're Armored Boars! Their hides are insanely tough!"
"Don't panic! Aim for the head!"
The party leader met the first charging boar head-on with his shield.
BOOM!
"Urgh!"
The impact sent the party leader sliding several steps backward.
Taking advantage of the opening, the swordsman beside him brought his sword down toward the boar's neck.
CLANG!
The blade bounced away uselessly with a sharp metallic sound.
The swordsman's wrist went numb from the impact, and he nearly lost his grip on the weapon.
"My sword won't go through! What is that hide made of, stone?"
As the swordsman shouted in alarm, one of the boars changed direction and hurled its massive body toward him.
The swordsman's face went pale.
He had not yet recovered his stance.
If that charge hit him directly, his bones would undoubtedly shatter.
That was when it happened.
Taehu's vision, as he stood quietly behind them, shimmered strangely.
Between the charging boar's thick natural armor, a vivid red marker appeared over an almost invisible gap in the front leg joint hidden beneath its fur.
The Unique Skill of the Tracker's Glove, Weakness Detection, had activated silently.
Taehu kicked off the ground without hesitation.
WHOOSH!
His body shot forward as though launched from a spring.
It was explosive acceleration that his ordinary body could never have produced.
The scenery around him rushed backward as he cut through the air.
In an instant, Taehu swept past the frozen swordsman.
His eyes remained fixed solely on the red point hovering over the boar's front leg joint.
The dagger in his right hand shot forward along a razor-sharp trajectory.
He did not need to force the blade through.
The enhanced Reaction Speed and sharpened perception granted by his equipment gave him the exact timing and angle he needed.
SLICE!
The blade slipped neatly past the thick outer hide and slid into the soft gap of the joint.
Taehu felt the tough ligament snap through his fingertips.
"SQUEAL!"
With one of its front legs suddenly deprived of support, the Armored Boar let out a grotesque shriek and crashed into the dirt.
Unable to overcome the tremendous momentum of its own charge, it rolled several times across the ground before slamming into the wall and collapsing with foam spilling from its mouth.
All of it had been accomplished with a single, effortless thrust.
The swordsman stared at Taehu with his mouth hanging open.
"H-How did you just..."
There was no time to be shocked.
Behind Taehu, a shadow sprang from atop a rock that had been hidden in his blind spot.
It was a Fang Wolf that had been lurking among the Armored Boars, waiting for an opportunity.
Drool streamed from its jaws as it lunged for the back of Taehu's neck.
An ordinary C-rank Hunter would not even have had time to react before its fangs tore into his throat.
But Taehu's body was already rotating smoothly into his next movement.
As he twisted halfway around, another red marker appeared over the airborne wolf's solar plexus.
Taehu ducked beneath the ambush and drove his dagger upward.
STAB!
The sound of flesh being pierced cut through the dungeon air.
"YELP!"
The wolf let out a brief death cry and dropped to the ground.
Its vital point had been pierced cleanly, and it never moved again.
Everything had happened in an instant.
A heavy silence settled over the dungeon.
The remaining Armored Boars hesitated and began backing away after watching their companions fall so absurdly easily.
The party leader holding the shield and the swordsman who had nearly dropped his weapon both stared at Taehu, blinking in disbelief.
The man they had dismissed and told to stay out of the way had resolved a crisis that could have swept through the entire party with only two movements.
"Um... Mr. Appraiser?"
The party leader called out in a trembling voice.
Taehu flicked the blood from his blade onto the ground and turned his head.
"Why are you all standing there? Aren't you going to finish off the rest?"
Taehu's calm voice finally snapped the party members back to their senses.
"R-Right! Attack! Push them back!"
Hunting down the demoralized boars was not difficult.
Until the battle ended, the party members kept glancing warily at Taehu.
There was no sign that he was forcing strength out of his body.
He used only the minimum necessary effort while relentlessly targeting the monsters' vital points.
No one present dared to say a word.
'It's definite.'
Taehu sheathed his dagger, inwardly exultant.
His natural physical abilities had not dramatically increased in such a short time.
Nor had his raw strength suddenly exploded.
But superior equipment and precise information about an enemy's weaknesses—
Those two things alone were enough to let him easily surpass combat-type Hunters of the same rank.
If a single Tracker's Glove could do this much, then the destructive potential of equipping his entire body with high-rank gear would undoubtedly be on an entirely different level.
After that, the rest of the dungeon raid proceeded without a hitch.
The party members no longer treated Taehu like bothersome support personnel.
If anything, they became unusually polite, carefully watching his reactions.
At last, the enormous boss monster at the end of the dungeon collapsed.
"Phew. That's it. Good work, everyone."
The party leader lowered his shield and breathed heavily.
Valuable Magic Stones and intact hides were scattered around where the boss had fallen.
The party members' eyes lit up as they hurried to gather the loot.
"The hide's in great condition! And this Magic Stone is pretty big too!"
Pretending to help with the distribution of the spoils, Taehu slowly surveyed the area.
His gaze stopped on an object lying abandoned in a corner of the ground.
It was a fragment of the horn that had grown from the boss monster's forehead.
It had been badly broken during the battle, and nearly all of its mana had leaked away. Its surface was deeply cracked, making it look like nothing more than a worthless piece of bone.
To ordinary Hunters or appraisers, it was merely a by-product fit for disposal.
Not a single party member paid any attention to it.
Taehu bent down and carefully picked up the horn fragment.
Its rough, cold surface dug into his palm.
He stood and approached the party leader.
"Party leader."
"Yes! Ah, you mean the settlement, right? Once we sell the Magic Stones and hides we've collected to the Exchange, we'll transfer your share according to the agreed ratio. You helped us out during the fight earlier, so we'll make sure you get a little extra."
The party leader answered with an ingratiating smile.
Taehu lightly waved the horn fragment in his hand.
"Then would it be all right if I took this too? You can count it as part of my share."
The party leader blinked at the object in Taehu's hand.
"That? Isn't that just the broken piece of horn from earlier?"
"Yes. I thought I might use it for carving practice."
The party leader looked puzzled.
Taehu wanted to count a worthless, mana-depleted scrap as part of his share despite it having no monetary value.
He clearly could not understand why.
But if Taehu wanted garbage that was worth nothing, there was no reason for them to object.
"Well, if you want it. We were going to leave it behind as trash anyway, so there's no need to deduct it from your share. Just take it."
The other party members readily nodded as well.
"Yeah, go ahead. We wouldn't use something like that even if you gave it to us."
"Thank you. Then I'll take it."
Taehu gave a slight nod and turned away.
Just as he was about to slip the horn fragment into his bag, hidden from the party members' view—
FLASH!
A Special Appraisal Window invisible to ordinary appraisers reacted to the worn fragment.
Dazzling golden text filled his vision.
[Ancient Ironhorn Beast Horn Fragment]
[Can Be Used as an A-rank Enhancement Material When Processed with a Specific Refining Method]
[Estimated Market Value: 80,000,000–120,000,000 won]
Taehu's lips trembled faintly as he read the text floating before him.
A fragment that everyone else had deemed worthless and discarded without a second thought.
Once again, hidden within it was an extraordinary processing value that defied common sense, along with a precise use.
The words A-rank Enhancement Material shone vividly before his eyes.
Taehu struggled to suppress the incredulous laugh threatening to escape and carefully composed his expression.
The party members were still laughing among themselves as they gathered scraps of hide worth little more than pocket change.
They had no idea what they had just given away.
Taehu smiled quietly as though nothing had happened and tucked the horn fragment that was now his deep inside his bag.