There were four exploration points in the Alhen Region in total.
Among them, three had place names specified, but only one was marked as ‘???.’
It was probably because even the locals did not know the place.
I now understood that places with specified names were classified as regular exploration points, while hidden places were classified as hidden exploration points.
There had been a hidden equation where additional rewards were given if I went around to all the exploration points except the hidden exploration point.
When I obtained a skill, it would immediately be registered at level 5.
And after that, whenever I raised its level by 1, the actual skill level would rise by 5.
To think I could obtain a dimension traveler perk just by visiting regular exploration points.
But at that moment, the exact opposite thought was surfacing in my head.
‘If the level of the perk is already this high just from visiting regular exploration points, how incredible a perk will I obtain if I reach the hidden exploration point?’
A spirit of adventure and the desire to challenge it surged up wildly.
While I was burning with motivation on my own, Nadan came out of the base camp’s simple storage shed carrying an armful of tent canvas and iron poles.
“Do you know how to pitch a tent?”
“Of course. Are we setting up a triangular tent?”
“Yeah. Use the ground as one side and cross two iron poles diagonally. While you hold them, I will tie the crossed part.”
I set up two iron poles diagonally and held them in place, and Nadan tied the crossed part of the iron poles with cord.
Then, with a two-meter gap between them, we crossed and set up iron poles in the same shape.
We placed a long rod on top of the two triangular bundles of iron poles, then covered the whole frame with oil-soaked canvas.
The tent work did not end there. We cut down the surrounding grass and covered the slanted sides of the canvas with it.
By the time we finished, the day had completely darkened.
While I cut the grass and reinforced the tent, Nadan gathered firewood, lit a fire, and placed a thin, flat stone over it.
“Let’s grill the loin we butchered earlier and brought with us. It has been a long time since I had a meal this luxurious.”
“What do you usually eat when you arrive here?”
“If the hunt succeeds, I bring perishable special parts and eat them. If it fails, I eat the emergency rations I brought. Today is a special day, so to commemorate it, I am thinking of eating the tastiest part.”
“It is valuable merchandise, but you are just eating it.”
“Hahaha, you must not be stingy with food. Besides, this is meat you hunted. You have the right to enjoy a plentiful dinner tonight.”
Nadan greased the grill and divided a chunk of meat that looked to weigh around five kilograms into portions of about five hundred grams each.
When the grill had heated properly, he placed one of the divided chunks on top of it.
SIZZLE!
The sound of meat cooking flowed pleasantly into my ears, as if washing away the dust caught inside them.
This one was like carbonation in the world of sound effects.
Nadan made cuts in the meat with his knife, then reached out on the spot to pick herbs and packed them tightly into each cut.
While we waited for the meat to cook, Nadan stared at me from beyond the campfire and estimated my apparent age.
“Twenty-seven? Twenty-eight?”
“Are you talking about my age?”
“I got it right, didn’t I?”
“I’m thirty-seven this year.”
“Huh? Only three years younger than me? You absolutely do not look like you are in your mid-thirties.”
I wanted to return Nadan’s words right back to him.
A wrinkled, deeply tanned face, and a beard densely covering his lower face.
By appearance, he looked to be in his early fifties, but his actual age was forty, only three years older than me.
I was surprised by the fact that Nadan was younger than he looked, and Nadan was surprised by the fact that I was older than I looked.
SIZZLE!
Oil flowing from the meat ran along the grooves carved into the stone.
Nadan scooped up the herb-scented oil with a spoon, poured it over the meat, and asked.
“Will it be all right? Leaving your wife and children behind to go dimension traveling alone. Your wife must be worried.”
“It is fine. I am still unmarried.”
“The fact that you have remained unmarried until now with that face surprises me more than your age. Do you perhaps have tastes that fall outside the ordinary range?”
“There is no way.”
This was the second time I had been praised for my face in another world.
Arte, too, had found it strange that I had not been able to get married with looks like mine.
Since I had never been told I was handsome in my life, the reactions of people in this other world felt fresh.
By my own evaluation, I was at best lower-middle, and even if I gave myself a tiny bit of extra credit, I was only average.
It seemed that the standards for evaluating men were a little different in this other world.
Maybe it was like being called average in Korea, but being called handsome in a certain country.
As soon as Nadan learned I was unmarried, he teased me mischievously.
“What do you think? If you are single, try looking for a bride in our world. You have the advantage of being a dimension traveler, so you can probably pick anyone you like.”
“The problem is that it is not as easy as the heart wants.”
“How sincere. A man ought to have the spirit to go charging ahead with momentum.”
“What about you, Mr. Nadan? It did not look as if you lived with anyone.”
“Hahaha, I am alone too. I am a hopeless fool who has never had a single relationship until now.”
“You are in no position to advise me.”
At my rebuke, Nadan laughed heartily.
His laughter was so loud that I worried it might draw the monsters nearby.
After laughing alone for quite some time, Nadan suddenly wore a face from which all laughter had vanished, then abruptly muttered something meaningful in a serious tone.
“I do not need things like relationships. I do not intend to look at my life over the long term.”
It seemed he had personal circumstances of his own, but the mood was too heavy for me to dare ask with a light heart.
Nadan himself did not seem to have muttered it with the intention of rambling in detail, either.
Just then, the meat finished cooking, and the atmosphere that had almost grown heavy lightened at just the right time.
We began eating the cooked meat, and using archery, which had become a common topic of interest during today’s schedule, as our subject, we talked without noticing the passage of time.
***
Day 2 in Cat Forest.
Following the customs of the Alhen Region, we replaced breakfast with tea that had been carefully brewed for a long time.
Nadan and I drank tea brewed from fir leaves we had picked, infusing warmth into our bodies, which had grown cold from sleeping in a shabby tent.
I pictured the map marked with exploration points in my head and checked the location of the final exploration point in the Alhen Region.
“Mr. Nadan, what is twenty kilometers north of here?”
Nadan scratched his head, then took a map from his backpack and examined the coordinates I mentioned.
“I wondered where you were talking about. That is the edge of Cat Forest. It is a section where a deep cliff stretches for two kilometers. Why?”
“That is my next destination.”
“Is it some kind of duty assigned to a dimension traveler?”
“It is one of the recommended places. Whether I stop by the recommended places or not is my choice.”
“Strange. There really is nothing there.”
“Still, there must be something there if it was recommended to me. I think I will go once I have the ability to take care of myself.”
“What, you are talking as if it has already been decided that you will go alone. Do not make me feel left out. For this schedule, I am your tutor. What kind of teacher goes back alone, leaving his student behind?”
Since we had ended up together anyway, he said he would keep me company until I finished the entire Cat Forest schedule.
A hidden exploration point that even the locals did not know about.
Just as I was curious about the identity of the hidden exploration point, Nadan also seemed curious about what existed at the designated place.
As for me, there could be nothing more reassuring than Nadan accompanying me.
Since there was no reason to refuse, we decided to go to the destination together.
After our leisurely breakfast ended, we took a chunk of meat to use as food from the smoker, packed it, and headed north.
Nine in the morning, noon, three in the afternoon......
Unlike Day 1, which had been densely packed, Day 2 had no incident or accident that could clearly be called one.
All we did was walk with Nadan while doing quiet pastimes, such as learning how to distinguish edible mushrooms and digging up medicinal herbs while learning the effects of each one.
Time passed, and when the sun slowly touched the west and the sunset began.
We encountered a monster.
Our position was on top of a low hill.
The monster was crouched inside the hollow of an old tree located below the hill.
Like a cat loafing in a box.
Normally, I would have thought it was cute.
If only the cat had not taken the form of a tiger.
Nadan placed his hand above his brow, shading his eyes, and calmly watched the monster below the hill.
“A Ghost Tiger... It has been a long time since I met a big one.”
“Outwardly, it looks no different from an ordinary tiger.”
Though an ordinary tiger would be threatening all the same.
“Only on the outside. Its level is 20. It has a Stealth Skill. When it discovers an enemy, it hides itself with its Stealth Skill and attempts an ambush. It has not noticed us yet. So let’s end it without giving it time to use its Stealth Skill.”
“If I hit it once with a surprise attack, it will be paralyzed, so can we not hunt it the same way as before?”
I nocked an arrow to the bowstring and took my shooting stance.
Nadan supported my arm from below and moved it up and down, personally adjusting the aiming angle.
“If I set your aiming angle this time, the skill transmission conditions will be fulfilled. What level are you right now?”
“Level 12.”
“Good. If you are level 12, then... Huh? Already 12?”
“I have a dimension traveler perk.”
“Heh, as expected, dimension travelers are different by far. Anyway, if you are level 12, you should have plenty of skill points. When you shoot the arrow this time, you will hear a voice asking whether you want to learn Stabilizer or not. It is a good skill, so learn it.”
Soon after, Nadan counted down.
Three, two, one.
TWANG—!
The moment the arrow left the bowstring, a message flew in.
-Stabilizer skill transmission conditions fulfilled.
-3 skill points are required to learn Stabilizer (LV.1).
-Learn Stabilizer?
The skill points required to acquire Stabilizer were 3.
It seemed that the more advanced a skill was, the more different the points required to acquire it or raise its level were.
If it was a skill worth 3 points at level 1, it should have decent options.
Besides, I had a perk.
I answered without hesitation.
“I’ll learn Stabilizer.”
-Perk applied.
-Stabilizer (LV.5) registered in Mr. Jo Seong-jin’s skill window.
-Current remaining skill points: 8
Next, Stabilizer’s skill information flowed into my head.
-Skill: Stabilizer
-While possessing Stabilizer, you can look ahead at the trajectory of an arrow each time you draw a bowstring.
-Each time the skill level rises, the arrow’s penetrating power increases.
The display of the arrow’s trajectory in my vision.
Increased penetrating power.
As long as I did not deliberately miss, Stabilizer was a skill that allowed me to hit the enemy without fail.
While I possessed the skill, I could boast an accuracy rate no worse than a seasoned master marksman.
After seeing the options, I understood why it cost 3 points to acquire.
When I answered the question asking whether I would learn the skill, Nadan, who stayed beside me, heard my words and offered his next piece of advice.
“Pour all the skill points you have into raising its skill level. If you delete the skill later, you can get the points back anyway, so do not save them now. Spend them freely.”
-6 points consumed to raise Stabilizer’s skill level.
-Stabilizer (LV.15) registered in Mr. Jo Seong-jin’s skill window.
-Current remaining skill points: 2
Skill level 15.
Compared to an ordinary person who had invested everything into Stabilizer normally, I had obtained specs equivalent to a level 45 archer.
Nadan never dreamed that my Stabilizer had reached level 15 from the start. He grew tense all by himself and poured out advice without rest.
“A Ghost Tiger’s hide is extremely thick. But with level 3 Stabilizer, you should just barely be able to pierce......”
Nadan, who had been spilling words like a rapid-fire cannon, stopped mid-sentence and opened his mouth wide.
The arrow I had shot earlier flew in a gentle arc and finally touched the Ghost Tiger’s body.
The arrowhead pierced its hide and lodged deep inside.
Lodged?
No, to be exact, it penetrated the Ghost Tiger’s body.
It dug into its back, came out through its belly, and embedded itself in the ground.
THUNK!
“GRRROOOAR!”
The Ghost Tiger, which had suddenly had a windhole punched through it, screamed and thrashed, then collapsed powerlessly onto its side before it had gone even a few steps.
It had not simply lodged inside. It had pierced clean through.
Nadan blinked with an expression of disbelief.
“I told you to paralyze it, and you went and paralyzed its life functions altogether.”