Starting with the pig, Hyun-jun hunted the monsters of the Mountain Region indiscriminately.
His large bag quickly grew heavy.
Hyun-jun continued fighting without rest.
The only time he had to catch his breath was the brief moment he spent dressing monsters and collecting loot, but that was enough.
It didn't take long for the large bag to fill up.
He was hours ahead of his usual pace.
“Whew.”
Hyun-jun sat down in a suitable spot and let out a short breath.
He took a chocolate bar out of his bag and ate it, taking his first proper break.
“At this rate, even the Field Boss should be easy, right?”
Hyun-jun took out his smartphone and pulled up the hunting ground map he'd downloaded in advance.
Since the terrain of hunting grounds didn't change, people made maps like this.
Of course, they weren't perfect, but for Hunters whose goal was hunting, this alone was enough.
“Where am I right now?”
There was no GPS, so to check his location, he had to find major landmarks.
Gates or natural features with unusual shapes were generally used as location markers.
“I don't see anything nearby.”
Wherever he looked, there were only ordinary trees.
He couldn't see any of the distinctive terrain marked on the map.
“I should've bought a compass.”
A special compass for finding bosses in Anomalous Spaces.
To be precise, it was a compass that pointed in the direction of a powerful mana-based life form, and it was especially helpful in dungeons.
It was quite pricey, so Hyun-jun hadn't bothered buying one.
“It can't be helped.”
Hyun-jun went back to where the Gate was.
He had left marks on trees as he moved along the way, so he was able to get there quickly.
“I just need to go straight diagonally.”
Hyun-jun moved toward the Field Boss's lair based on the map.
Even while moving, he didn't stop hunting.
Around the time his bag was not just full but about to burst, the entrance of a cave, presumed to be the Tyrant's lair, came into view between the trees.
“Is that it?”
Hyun-jun checked the location once more using the map.
The terrain was identical to what was depicted.
It was the Tyrant's cave.
“What a mess.”
The trees in front of the cave were all far from normal.
To be exact, there were almost no living trees.
Most of the trees were bent or broken.
Even the ones still standing intact had surfaces covered in wounds.
“How much fighting went on here?”
At this rate, he'd better give up on the idea of using the terrain.
He hadn't planned to in the first place, but losing one option still felt a little disappointing.
“Well, that'll actually be better for figuring out my level.”
Let's look on the bright side.
“I'll put my bag down here.”
Hyun-jun set his bag down in a suitable spot and picked up a fist-sized rock from the ground.
“Whew. Why am I trembling?”
The Green-Maned Tyrant.
The strongest F-Grade monster, with no rival among its peers.
The thought of fighting such a thing made his heart tremble.
Tension and excitement coexisted.
He worried about whether he could win, while at the same time, he was curious about how strong it would be.
‘......I hope it's not too easy a fight.’
That was what Hyun-jun thought as he threw the rock into the cave.
Now that he had gained a certain amount of power, he was gradually coming to know the thrill of fighting.
-Kuoooooh!
A response came back quickly to the rock he'd thrown with all his might.
Hyun-jun drew the kitchen knife.
THUD!
The Green-Maned Tyrant revealed itself outside the cave.
A frame that would easily exceed 2 meters when it stood up. Fur mixed with black and green that gave off a mysterious sheen. Sharp fangs jutting out of its mouth, and heavy paws that looked like they could break boulders.
“That's insane.......”
Hyun-jun swallowed dryly.
It felt clearly different from when he'd seen it in photos.
The size was one thing, but what was especially intimidating was the menacing killing intent pouring out from the predator's eyes.
“Kuoooooh!”
The Tyrant roared as if angrily asking who had woken it from its sweet sleep.
Even while breaking into a cold sweat, Hyun-jun curled up one corner of his mouth.
“This'll be fun.”
His grip on the kitchen knife tightened.
It was a strong enemy, but he was sure he wouldn't lose.
“Kuwoooh!”
The Tyrant kicked off the ground with all four feet and charged.
Its massive bulk pushed forward like a truck with broken brakes, but in Hyun-jun's eyes, it didn't look that fast.
‘A simple charge attack.’
Except for being faster, it was no different from the Stone Pig's attack.
Whoosh!
Hyun-jun easily dodged the charge and thrust out his arm.
He meant to slice the Tyrant's flank with the kitchen knife.
SCRAPE—!
But the kitchen knife failed to pierce the Tyrant's tough hide.
‘This won't do it?’
It had somehow handled the other monsters, but apparently it wasn't enough to pierce the Tyrant's hide.
Hyun-jun clicked his tongue and put the kitchen knife back in its sheath.
The new weapon in his hand was the hammer.
‘This is actually better.’
The Tyrant's hide traded at a fairly high price because of its mysterious look.
A knife was a weapon that couldn't help but damage such a hide.
But with a hammer, there was no such worry.
‘At first, I meant to face it with everything I had.’
He didn't know the exact gap between himself and the enemy. That was why he had taken out the knife.
‘But now that we're actually fighting, a blunt weapon should be more than enough.’
Hyun-jun gripped the hammer tightly and rushed in.
He moved faster than the Tyrant could turn around and struck the back of its head.
THWACK—!
A solidly landed blow.
The Tyrant shuddered and froze for a moment.
Hyun-jun tried to attack again, but it quickly recovered and swung its front paw.
Whoosh!
The sound of air being torn.
It was truly tremendous strength.
However-
‘Slow.’
The Tyrant's attack flowed slowly, like a revolving lantern.
Hyun-jun lowered his body sharply forward and dodged the attack.
At the same time, he stepped in and twisted his waist.
THWACK—!
The hammer he swung with all his might exploded against the Tyrant's flank.
“Kuoooh─!”
The Tyrant roared in pain.
It was only two attacks, but perhaps considerable damage had built up, because its movements dulled for a moment.
Hyun-jun didn't miss that opening.
‘The head!’
Toward the thing standing there blankly, unable to come to its senses, he jumped with all his might and slammed down on its skull once more.
CRUNCH—!
This time, the sensation in his hands was different from the first attack.
A feeling like something was breaking.
He saw the center of its head caved in.
“......”
Landing on the ground, Hyun-jun watched the Tyrant closely from right beside it.
It was standing on two legs, but its eyes had lost focus.
Even though Hyun-jun was close by, it didn't so much as glance at him.
THUD.
The Tyrant collapsed just like that.
With just three swings of a hammer, the strongest F-Grade monster had died.
At such an easy hunt, Hyun-jun was bewildered.
“This is the power of E-Grade?”
Hyun-jun grinned and took out the kitchen knife.
He immediately began dismantling the Tyrant's corpse.
The hide was so tough that separating it with the kitchen knife took ages.
“Whew. Finally got it all off.”
He gave the hide a quick look.
It was in good condition.
“This is top grade.”
Next was the Mana Stone near the heart.
Slightly bigger than a fist.
It was the largest and heaviest of the Mana Stones he'd gotten today.
‘The gallbladder next.’
He cut open the lower abdomen, where the liver was located.
With calm hands, he separated the pouch attached to the liver.
A dark brown pouch half the size of a fist. It was a bear's gallbladder, called bear bile.
“Whew. That was clean for a first time.”
He'd only seen it in videos, but he succeeded on his first try in practice, too.
Hyun-jun carefully wrapped the bear bile in a first-aid cloth.
“If I'd known I'd catch this one too, I would've brought an airtight container.”
Next were the teeth.
He forced its jaw open and jammed the kitchen knife into the gums.
After a few pries, a huge fang slid right out.
“Lastly, the paws.”
The part called bear paw.
If bear bile was used as a medicinal ingredient, bear paw was used as a food ingredient.
Made up of thick fat, it was a high-end ingredient quite popular among gourmets.
Hyun-jun skillfully cut off all four paws at the ankles and put them in zipper bags.
“I'd like to take the meat too, if I could.”
Meat did sell.
But it was cheap for its weight, so it wasn't very efficient.
“It's a shame, but it can't be helped.”
Hyun-jun got up and brought over his bag.
He put the small pieces of loot into the bursting bag and draped the hide over the top.
“Ugh, this is so heavy.”
He'd caught all the monsters worth catching.
He'd tested his strength for certain.
Hyun-jun was about to leave.
“Ah, right.”
Suddenly, what the staff member had said earlier came to mind.
The staff member had asked him to bring back only the ID if by any chance he found a body.
“There's only one Tyrant lair in this field, so if they died to the Tyrant, they'd be in there, right?”
There was no need to bother.
It wasn't like he'd get a reward.
Even so, he couldn't bring himself to walk away.
The thought of a person's last traces remaining in this place forever felt very bitter.
“It might have been me in the past, too.”
Hyun-jun set down his bag for a moment and went into the cave.
The inside was dark.
He turned on his smartphone's flashlight and shone it around.
‘It's pretty deep.’
The farther in he went, the more a strange smell stung his nose.
Soon, Hyun-jun found a bone lying at his feet.
It was a human bone.
“......”
He turned his gaze and scanned the inside.
Bones and clothes were scattered in every corner.
Equipment someone must have used was there too.
Hyun-jun rummaged through the clothes.
He was able to collect a few wallets and a few Hunter IDs.
“About six people, then.”
Their ages varied as well.
From their 20s to their 50s.
Hyun-jun briefly prayed for them to rest in peace.
“Did they all die to that thing from earlier?”
Monsters respawned over time.
There was no knowing whether all six of these people had died to the Tyrant from earlier.
“I'll just leave the clothes and bones here.”
He would have liked to take them, but the only things the Bureau took charge of and returned to the bereaved families were IDs.
If he took anything else, he'd have to handle it himself, so taking them would only be a headache.
“Is there anything useful?”
Hyun-jun rummaged through the remaining items. The armor was all in tatters, and there weren't any particularly good weapons either.
“This one's pretty good.”
A dagger that looked to be of quite good quality.
With a little maintenance, it seemed like it would make a much better weapon than the kitchen knife.
“Now that you'll at least be able to have a funeral, I'll put this to good use, whoever you are.”
Just as he was about to turn around after taking the dagger as well.
Something semi-transparent and round caught Hyun-jun's eye.
“Huh, could it be?”
Hyun-jun went closer and picked up the semi-transparent disk that had fallen on the floor.
Unknown characters were engraved on the disk.
They were the same characters engraved on Runes, which the world called Rune Script.
“It's a Soul Trace.”
Just as monsters left behind Mana Stones when they died, Awakened left behind Soul Traces when they died.
The Runes absorbed in life remained in those Soul Traces, and by processing them through a special method, some of the Runes could be extracted.
“So they died in here.”
If they'd been eaten alive, they would have been digested by the Tyrant just like that.
“Are there more?”
Hyun-jun searched every corner thoroughly.
As a result, he found 2 more Soul Traces, making 3 in total.
“Wow, how much is all this worth?”
The disks were densely packed with engraved characters.
All of them were F-Grade Runes.
Altogether, it looked like there were about 400.
“The recovery rate is 30%, so about 120.”
He couldn't keep all 120.
The reason was a crime targeting Soul Traces that had once been rampant: ‘Rune Killing.’
As the name suggested, it was a crime of killing Hunters inside hunting grounds or dungeons to obtain the Runes in their Soul Traces, and the government had created various regulations to prevent such Rune Killing.
One of them was strict surveillance and management of special processing technicians.
All technicians were placed under the Bureau, so Runes could only be extracted through the Bureau.
‘And they take a whopping half as a fee.’
They said that was what made it effective as a preventive measure.
No one would take on the risk of killing a Hunter if they had to bear a fee of half.
“I used to think that was just how it was, but now that murderous fee has become my problem.”
What a waste.
120 Runes would become 60.
The only consolation was that the various regulations had been quite effective.
The other regulations probably had an effect too, but in any case, Rune Killing had actually decreased dramatically, to the point that it was almost never seen now.
“Well, it's better to keep things in check like that.”
Hyun-jun carefully put away the Soul Traces.
It was a big, unexpected gain.
.
.
.
The guard post staff member was dazed, looking at the IDs the Hunter held out.
“Y-You really recovered them?”
“They were in the Tyrant's lair.”
The staff member's gaze moved behind Hyun-jun.
An enormous bag with the hide of the Green-Maned Tyrant draped over it.
It was a sight hard to believe even while looking straight at it.
‘Who is this guy?’
An F-Grade, and an F-Grade who had come to the Mountain Region for the first time today, at that.
To think someone like that had caught the Green-Maned Tyrant alone.
‘And his bag is completely full, too.’
So full it looked like it was about to burst.
It was an enormous amount of loot.
At this rate, it wouldn't be strange if he'd single-handedly wiped out all the monsters around the Gate.
‘No wonder. The Hunters who went in kept coming right back out.’
There was a reason for everything.
The staff member just hadn't expected that reason to be him.
“Then I'll be going.......”
“Huh? W-Wait a moment!”
The staff member hurriedly came to, took something out of a drawer, and handed it to Hyun-jun.
It was a small box.
“What's this?”
“It's a token of appreciation the Bureau gives to Hunters who have contributed to the public good. A medal, I suppose you could call it. It doesn't mean much, though.......”
“So it's like a Brave Citizen Award.”
“Ah, yes, that's right.”
Hyun-jun took the box and opened it.
Inside was a badge designed with the Bureau's emblem.
“I'll make good use of it.”
“Thanks to your efforts, Hunter, someone's family was able to come home. Thank you.”
The staff member bowed.
Hyun-jun returned the bow, then turned and left.