05
“Luminous mushrooms already. Shall we all turn back?”
The presence of luminous mushrooms was proof that they had reached the entrance to the hunting ground’s heart.
It also meant that more numerous and stronger individuals lived there.
If they advanced just ten more kilometers from here, monsters equivalent to a wave would pour out, so going any farther would be suicide.
Now, if they turned the car around and hunted monsters on the way back, they would fill the truck and still have more than enough.
But instead of turning the truck around, Ki Ja-hyeon parked in a relatively safe place.
While everyone tilted their heads, unable to understand why, Ki Ja-hyeon took camping supplies out from the very back seat.
“I’m hungry. Would you like to eat?”
A fine odd-jobber was naturally good at cooking as well.
“Uh... Now that you mention it, have we gone five hours without eating? Should we eat something?”
“Why don’t we just go out and eat? The hunt’s over, and I don’t really want to put just anything in my stomach....”
Some wanted to eat here, and some wanted to go out and eat.
From Ki Ja-hyeon’s perspective, it would be troublesome if they went out to eat.
So he took out the secret weapon he had prepared and smiled gently.
“Do you like pasta?”
In his hand, a luscious lemon shone brilliantly.
Gulp.
At the sight of a natural food rarely seen, everyone’s mouths watered.
.
.
.
He placed a pot on the burner, heated it, then coated it with oil.
Though he did not have olive oil, the corn oil, which was said to grow stubbornly well, was enough to draw plenty of flavor out of the finely chopped garlic.
He added various seasonings, poured in water, then added the noodles.
The durum wheat pasta noodles, the staple food of the Italian minority and now something that had even ended up supporting their livelihood, were cooking properly al dente.
As the water boiled, steam evaporated, leaving only the starch behind and turning the mixture thick.
He cut off a little of the precious butter and added flavor, then cut a little lemon and squeezed it to add the right amount of acidity.
He sprinkled ground black pepper, tossed it, and plated it.
And then?
Garlic oil pasta delicious enough to make everyone’s eyes pop out had been completed...!
“Wow... This...wow...holy shit. Ha...wooow!”
One hunter did nothing but pour out exclamations.
“How do you make this? No... I did watch the cooking process, but I mean, how do you make this?”
Someone asked for the recipe.
“M-Mr. Ja-hyeon! Do you live in Area 5 or Area 4? Please tell me it isn’t Area 3...? How much would I have to pay if I went to you so I could eat more of this?”
There were various reactions, including offers to buy his talent with money.
“Haha. That is personal information....”
Ki Ja-hyeon laughed and glossed over it appropriately.
After making one whole bag of pasta, in other words more than ten servings, Ki Ja-hyeon left behind the hunters, who were busy slurping and smacking their lips, and approached the wall of the hunting ground.
Mushrooms clung here and there to the rock wall.
Ki Ja-hyeon carefully picked one of those mushrooms and examined it.
A luminous mushroom about the size of a child’s fist.
The hunters called these luminous mushrooms, but no matter how he looked at it....
“This is Krushvalbi, isn’t it...?”
In Ki Ja-hyeon’s previous life, this had been called Krushvalbi.
Krushvalbi.
Rendered into Korean, it meant explosion mushroom.
There was a reason it was called an explosion mushroom instead of a luminous mushroom.
Normally, nothing happened to it, but if mana, or natural mana, was poured into it, the mushroom could not endure it and exploded like a grenade. That was how it had gotten its name.
“If this thing was refined and used as a medicinal ingredient, it had a lot of uses, didn’t it...?”
It was especially useful when making a druid’s elixir, where it was often used to awaken the characteristics of the ingredients.
Because of that, he had no choice but to tilt his head.
“This thing is damn expensive....”
In his previous life, Krushvalbi had been expensive, and despite that, it was a veeeery high-grade mushroom that often suffered from shortages.
And yet,
“Why is it scattered all over the place here?”
Even on this wall alone, dozens of Krushvalbi were growing wild.
If he searched the whole area, it seemed there would be more than a hundred.
There were this many, so why had no one picked them?
This was even an E Grade hunting ground.
Of course, since a monster wave could happen, it would be dangerous up to C Grade, but if it was a party of B Grade or higher, they should have been able to endure without much difficulty and harvest a great deal. So why were so many left?
Could it be that they still did not know this thing’s effect?
‘Is that possible?’
Bzzzz~
Ki Ja-hyeon gripped the Krushvalbi tightly and tried pouring natural mana into it.
His natural mana was not yet sufficient, but it was enough to fill a single Krushvalbi.
Sure enough, the Krushvalbi that had absorbed Ki Ja-hyeon’s natural mana hardened like stone and began to crack.
If he threw this now, there would be a bang and a small explosion.
“It’s right....”
“Hmm? What’s right?”
“Whoa!”
Ki Ja-hyeon took a step to the side.
The being who had approached without a sound and called out to him was Cho Hyeon-a, the leader of this hunter party.
“Now that we’ve finished eating, we were about to get going, but you weren’t there, so I came to see where you were!”
Cho Hyeon-a looked back and forth between the luminous mushroom in Ki Ja-hyeon’s hand and Ki Ja-hyeon himself, then tilted her head.
“What are you doing with a luminous mushroom? Yap!”
“Uh...!”
Was this indeed the skill of an excellent tank who took the vanguard? Cho Hyeon-a easily snatched the Krushvalbi from Ki Ja-hyeon’s hand.
Ki Ja-hyeon’s eyes widened as if they might tear.
“Throw it!”
“...Pardon?”
“Hurry! Throw it!”
“Hmm?”
“Throoow!”
Cho Hyeon-a did not understand what was going on, but she followed Ki Ja-hyeon’s words.
The Krushvalbi drew an arc, bounced limply once on the ground, then sagged.
“Come on, there wasn’t any need to throw it, was there?”
“......?”
There was no effect?
When it had hardened and been on the verge of bursting?
Ki Ja-hyeon picked up the fallen Krushvalbi again and held it out to Cho Hyeon-a.
“Mana. Would you try pouring some in?”
“Huh?”
Cho Hyeon-a did as Ki Ja-hyeon told her.
A hunter obediently listening to an odd-jobber was a rather funny thing, but because of what Ki Ja-hyeon had shown so far, it did not feel particularly strange.
“It’ll probably go out.”
It was just as Cho Hyeon-a said. The Krushvalbi that accepted Cho Hyeon-a’s mana could not even emit the light it had originally been giving off and sagged.
It had died.
“See?”
“......”
At this point, one would have to be an idiot not to understand.
The reason Krushvalbi did not show its effect on Earth seemed to be because it did not react to hunters’ mana.
Forget merely not reacting. It had reacted in the opposite way and died instead, had it not?
“Shall we go now? We roughly finished washing the dishes too!”
But Ki Ja-hyeon could not leave like this.
He opened the backpack he happened to be wearing and carefully picked the luminous mushrooms, the Krushvalbi, before placing them inside.
Seeing him carefully take not only the mushrooms but even the soil around their bases, Cho Hyeon-a could only tilt her head.
“...Why are you taking luminous mushrooms?”
“Erm... They taste good!”
“...Really?”
Most things that grew naturally in hunting grounds were harmless to the human body.
They went beyond being harmless and had so strangely little effect that it had already been twenty years since the research team studying this abnormal phenomenon had suspended its project without any results.
However, they did have a distinctive taste.
It was extremely niche, so it would never suit most people’s palates, but people with exceptional tastes always existed!
Usually, such people were called dungeon gourmets, but...?
“Hic!”
To think Mr. Ja-hyeon was that kind of eccentric...!
“Could it be...there were dungeon ingredients in the pasta we ate? Were the tomatoes and lemons originally ingredients from this side too...?”
“That is not the case.”
Whew. Cho Hyeon-a let out a sigh of relief and smiled gently.
“Well...if they’d gone in, there’s no way it would’ve tasted that good!”
Like that, Ki Ja-hyeon, who had packed a bag full of luminous mushrooms, Krushvalbi, rejoined the party.
Naturally, he intended to raise them at home.
Of course, he was not sure whether they would grow well like they had in his previous life....
‘If it works, great. If not, there’s nothing I can do.’
In any case, the hunter party led by Ki Ja-hyeon returned toward the entrance of the Rat’s Den.
.
.
.
The hunting continued on the way back.
Already, three Big Rats and nine Small Rats had been neatly loaded onto the truck.
When they had almost reached the entrance, Cho Hyeon-a, who had been looking around, suddenly stepped on the truck roof and shot out.
A little while later, Cho Hyeon-a returned, dragging two Ratmen by their hind legs.
“Oh, our leader did something properly this time.”
“I saw something glittering, you know? Heh heh heh. I can’t let Mr. Ja-hyeon be the only one taking Ratmen!”
It seemed she had been rather bothered by the fact that Ki Ja-hyeon had seen an angle they had failed to see.
Ki Ja-hyeon smiled gently and harvested the magic stones from the Ratmen.
In both of them, black light glittered near the heart.
As expected, even with clever Ratmen, it seemed rare for the magic stone to be in the head.
‘Was that one more cunning because it was in its head?’
In any case, the magic stones were harvested easily and cleanly.
“Ooooooh!”
“As expected of Mr. Ja-hyeon! He really is a master at harvesting magic stones!”
While everyone clapped and marveled, Ki Ja-hyeon was also marveling for a different reason.
When he harvested the last Ratman’s magic stone, he had felt something wriggle inside his body.
[Grade increased.]
[You have become an F Grade Druid.]
[Inventory slot increased.]
[Inventory slot increased.]
[Inventory slot increased.]
[New skill unlocked due to Grade increase.]
[Select a skill?]
His Grade had increased.
Even a new skill had been unlocked.
Good heavens!
‘I didn’t even do much, though?’
Naturally, Ki Ja-hyeon had not yet done anything that could be called hunting.
Of course, he had killed a Ratman, but he had run it over with a car, so it was not as if he had killed it directly. Usually, the Awakened only accumulated experience when they killed directly.
Of course, he had dismantled monsters and harvested magic stones, but...?
‘Was it because of that?’
That was probably right.
If not, perhaps he had inhaled the dungeon’s highly pure mana, and it had been converted into natural mana.
Vroooooom!
The truck carrying everyone passed through the entrance of the hunting ground.
Hyeonmu Shelter, surrounded by a water-drop-like defensive barrier, was drawing closer.
***
“Everyone worked hard. Let’s all get some proper rest for about a week, shall we?”
“Wow...didn’t we earn almost two runs’ worth in one go?”
“We probably earned more.”
It was not an exaggeration. It truly felt as though they had done two days’ worth of hunting in one go.
And everyone in this party knew very well whose credit that was.
After leaving the hunting ground and arriving in the city, everyone expressed their gratitude to Ki Ja-hyeon.
“It was genuinely such a satisfying hunt!”
“Ha...do you really have no intention of giving me your address? Can’t I have one bowl every time I visit? No, I’m saying I’ll pay, so why won’t you take it...!”
“Thanks to you, Mr. Ki Ja-hyeon, I’m feeling the joy of hunter life again. Could we please keep requesting you by designation for a long time?”
Even if E Grades were kind to odd-jobbers, this was the first time even for them to express their gratitude to this extent.
The same was true for Ki Ja-hyeon.
At the greetings that were closer to recruitment pitches, Ki Ja-hyeon simply smiled brightly.
“Please contact me through Jeongbyeong Manpower Office. As long as I have time, I absolutely will not back out.”
The hunt with them had been an enjoyable experience for Ki Ja-hyeon as well.
That was why, as long as he worked through the manpower office, he had no intention of backing out.
Of course, he did not know how long he would keep working there.
“Ah! And this, take it quickly!”
Cho Hyeon-a held something out.
It was the magic stone that had come from the first Ratman.
“Uh...are you really giving this to me?”
“Why would I lie? If I said I would give it to you, I should give it to you!”
Saying that, she whispered lightly to him.
“Hide it carefully. If the office finds out for no reason, they might take it!”
It was something that could very well happen.
There were foolish odd-jobbers who quietly stole magic stones while harvesting them, and because of that, there were also offices that conducted body searches.
‘That will not happen.’
Jeongbyeong Office did not search his body, at least,
[E Grade magic stone has been stored in your inventory. (1/6)]
and Ki Ja-hyeon, who had Awakened and gained an inventory, had no chance of being caught.
***
[2,500,000 credits have been deposited.]
800,000 credits was the usual market rate for an E Grade hunting ground.
Since they had said they would pay triple, 2,500,000 credits actually included a little extra.
[No, Mr. Ja-hyeon, just what on earth did you do out there?!]
Of course, he meant it as praise.
[That party is quite picky, but they said they want to sign a contract with us right away, didn’t they? They were going on about how they want you exclusively from now on, Mr. Ja-hyeon...!]
Being recognized by someone was a truly happy thing.
The same was true even for Ki Ja-hyeon, who remembered his previous life.
As In Jeong-byeong thanked him repeatedly, Ki Ja-hyeon advised him not to look only at him and to search for another odd-jobber who could satisfy that party, then ended the call.
“Good grief, I’m tired~”
After finishing work, he always ended up sagging limply.
When Ki Ja-hyeon returned home, Thunder and Cloud slowly approached him.
Woof, woof. Woof! (Jealous. Walk!)
“It wasn’t a walk~”
Ki Ja-hyeon gave a small laugh and stroked Thunder.
Apparently, Thunder seemed to think that when he went out to work, he was going out for a walk.
Meeeow. Meow? (Hunt. Success?)
“Yeah. That would actually be closer. And it succeeded.”
Meeeow. (Then food.)
“What? You already ate all the food I piled up?”
Sure enough, after pouring new feed into the empty food bowl, Ki Ja-hyeon was heading toward his bed when he stopped.
He had remembered something he needed to do.
In his heart, he wanted to lie down again and sag limply, but....
“I need to do it quickly before they die.”
He was planning to plant the Krushvalbi.