The First Step (2)
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“Kang Se-hyun? Kim Pil-jung?”
The two men who were talking to each other turned their heads.
It was Seung-ho, approaching them.
They greeted him immediately.
“Hello, I heard a lot. Take good care of me.”
“Same here. Please take good care.”
Seung-ho shook their hands, then pointed to the vehicle behind them. “Is that your car?”
Pil-jung answered him. “Ah, yes. We also brought slaughter tools and lanterns, just in case…”
Seung-ho nodded and spoke confidently. “It’s not a gate that will take several days to resolve. It’s just in 7th-grade.”
Pil-jung wanted to comment that he looked as if he couldn’t do a 9th-grade gate, but he immediately stopped himself. There was no point in underestimating an employer.
Seung-ho immediately gestured to leave, and they stepped in the car.
“You know where to go?” Seung- asked Se-hyun, who was driving.
“Yes.” Se-hyun nodded and smiled, and the car set off for Nonhyeon-dong.
The gate gauge in the badminton field at Hakdong Park in Nonhyeon-dong is at 5000. It is the highest limit for a 7th-grade gate.
In general, hunters were reluctant to work on gates at the highest limit because the monsters inside were stronger than monsters inside gates of the same level.
The Association understands the reluctancy, and if the gate was not resolved for a certain period of time, a bounty is placed on it to entice hunters to gather and finish it.
While Seung-ho measured the gate gauge, Pil-jun went to the back to gather the tools and called his companion.
“Se-hyun.” Pil-jung didn’t take his eyes off Seung-ho as he spoke.
“Yeah?”
“Aren’t you nervous?”
Se-hyun realized the reason why Pil-jung called him and smiled weakly.
“Haha, I’m anxious. This gate made waves in the news, and in the Association, I won’t lie. But… this man has been miraculously back after being inside a gate for 20 years…”
“But why are we doing a gate with a bounty, there are other good places…”
“Don’t worry too much… I’ll walk ahead of you.”
As Pil-jung continued to grumble, Se-hyun carried the luggage and walked next to Seung-ho. Pil-jung immediately rushed to follow him.
Seung-ho noticed their anxiety and patted Se-hyun’s shoulders.
“You have to relax. If you are too nervous, you will not be able to move, and if you panic, you will not be able to judge the situation. Once inside, I’ll communicate with you quickly from time to time, until the monsters are ready to be processed.”
“Ah, yes…”
But Pil-jung and Se-hyun’s bodies still trembled.
In the dark cave, there was only a weak light dimly shining.
Seung-ho clicked his tongue and used magic to sense the area around him. There was nothing around them.
Se-hyun and Pil-jun quickly followed, with lanterns hanging from their waists to light the way.
Something sticky started to cling on their shoes, sticky like mud.
The cave had a foul smell, so they expected the mud to be some sort of excrement.
Pil-jung shone his lantern low to check it and confirmed that dung was scattered all over the place.
Se-hyun suddenly picked up manure on the floor. “It’s too fine. I don’t know what monster it is, or what it eats…”
Seung-ho turned to look and nodded at him.
Pil-jung looked with disgust at Se-hyun messing with dung, before offering his opinion.
“Maybe it’s bat feces? But it couldn’t be. If there were bats, they would have come out already.”
Seung-ho continued to walk even the two behind him stopped to discuss.
The two noticed it and rushed to get close to Seung-ho.
He warned them. “Don’t run; just walk slowly. There’s nothing dangerous around us.”
The two, who were almost leaping to catch up, immediately slowed down.
“If we go a little further,” Seung-ho continued, “I could sense that a monster presence.”
The reaction of the two sharply changed. Pil-jung deliberately moved to the back of Se-hyun, while Se-hyun hurried to get nearer to Seung-ho.
They were as restless as jumpy dogs.
Seung-ho focused his senses.
There was a suspicious movement between two monsters. Suddenly, one of the presence disappeared.
At one point, a slight sound began to echo within the cave.
It was the sound of rubbing sandpaper, followed by sounds of something crunchy being eaten.
“Mantis.”
“Mantis.”
Seung-ho and Se-hyun whispered at the same time. Seung-ho looked surprised and turned to Se-hyun.
“How did you know? There are several insect-type monsters.”
Se-hyun smiled and whispered in a low voice that it was no big deal.
“No, that’s great. Did you study a lot about monsters?”
The sound that continued to echo within the cave was the sound of a female eating a male.
Mantises are considered intermediate monsters, and a female that has just consumed a male after mating increases in level.
Seung-ho warned the two. “Wait here, and when the fighting is over, I’ll call you in.”
Probably because of the heightened tension, Se-hyun and Pil-jung just nodded, unable to say a word.
Seung-ho once again used his senses to make sure that the place is safe before he moved forward alone.
He immediately saw it. He turned his energy to the max level.
The outer wing of the female Mantis looked as hard as a shield.
The female, fortunately, had its back turned to him. A male Mantis forelimb hung from its jaw.
Seung-ho tried to do it in one shot, but there was suddenly a noise coming from Se-hyun and Pil-jung’s direction, causing the Mantis to turn around.
Quaaang!
He threw a punch at the same time the Mantis moved and was only able to hit half of its face. The half was blown off.
Gwangkwang!
His excess magical force that missed the Mantis smashed to the wall, making parts of it collapse.
However, the target to be destroyed is not the cave, but the monster.
The Mantis was miraculously alive, even with half of its face blown away. Its sharp limb swung, aiming to kill him, but Seung-ho was able to slip between its limbs and get close to the Mantis’ chest.
Then, he slid down through the bottom of the Mantis’ stomach, aiming for the weakest part of it – the soft abdomen.
With its intestines flowing out of its torn belly, the Mantis ran desperately and crashed into the wall.
By that time, Seung-ho was already running towards Se-hyun and Pil-jung, knowing that the monster will soon die.
There seemed to be no problem, as both of them remained standing on their spot.
“S… Seungho.”
Seung-ho couldn’t figure out what the problem was.
“Why was there a noise?” He was annoyed. “I told you to follow after the fight was done, but you two can’t seem to understand simple words.”
He saw Pil-jung, who was holding his wrist. He didn’t look like he wanted to talk.
Seung-ho turned to Se-hyeon.
Se-hyun also tried not to speak, but he sighed and told the truth because they would not be able to solve anything with silence.
“Pil-jung thought that the monster might come out and turned to run. As his lantern was turned off, he stepped on some feces and lost his balance.”
However, Piljung, who hurt his wrist, did not open his mouth, and Seungho looked at Sehyeon.
“Philjoong suggested that the monster might pop out and follow. As I didn’t even turn on the lantern, Mr. Piljung stepped on the feces to balance, and the cave wall I grabbed by hand collapsed as it collapsed.”
After hearing Se-hyun’s words, Seung-ho looked at Pil-jung with a bitter glance.
“If you were going to be this frightened, you shouldn’t have come at all. Would you liked to take the money and leave?”
He was totally frustrated.
Pil-jung shook his head and tried to make an excuse, but Seung-ho’s back was already turned.
Seung-ho gestured to Se-hyeon to walk inside and start working.
Pil-jun tried to follow, but Seung-ho stopped him and stared at him.
“Just turn around and go out. I’ll send you today’s wage, and I will not hear from you again.”
Then, he started walking inside the cave.
Se-hyun looked sadly at his colleague, then turned to follow Seung-ho.
Se-hyun caught up to Seung-ho, who looked as if he had no intention of changing his decision.
“Will you be okay?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“If Pil-jun files a complaint against the Association because his contract was broken…”
“I don’t even want to be a Hunter anyway,” Seung-ho responded casually, to the surprise of Se-hyun.
“Why not?”
“I’m just trying to make a little money.”
Even if he looked like a snob, Seung-ho seemed to be like a high priest who is not interested in money, Se-hyun thought.
“What’s wrong? Don’t you like doing this?”
“What I like and what I do well are two different things. Look, this monster looks terrible.”
Seung-ho shook his head and pointed at the Mantis body in front of him.
The intestines were scattered around the cave, and the ground was wet with bodily fluids.
“I think we can recover parts from the male once you cut it open”, he spoke to Se-hyun.
The most expensive part of the Mantis is their inner wings. Unfortunately, the male mantis inner wings were somewhat damaged, but it seemed like they’ll still be able to sell it because the damage was only in a small area.
The next important part was their eyes. The female ate both of the male’s eyes, so there was no hope there.
Although one of the female’s eyes was blown off, the other eye remained intact, and its inner wings were in very good condition.
“Wow, great!”
Se-hyun’s eyes were full of envy as he took the stone out of the female’s belly and gave it to Seung-ho.
As expected, the level of the female increased, so it was a higher-level mana stone, easily worth 100 million.
At the same time, Seung-ho was staring at Se-hyeon with a troubled expression.
Se-hyeon had the potential to stand out if he grows stronger. His combat ability has not been confirmed yet, but he seemed to have excellent knowledge about gates and monsters.
“Se-hyun,” he caught his attention.
“Yeah?”
“How about a three-month contract with this stone? If you take this now, you will work for me for three months without pay.”
It is common knowledge that a high-level mana stone is worth more than 100 lower-level ones.
This stone was easily a level B.
Income from 25% of by-products and 400,000 won every gate was too huge to give up, but a B-class stone and learning from Seung-ho…
“Up to 8 gates only per week on the 3-month contract, what do you think?” he made a counter-offer.
Seung-ho liked it and threw the mana stone at Se-hyun.
The mana stone is hard enough not to be damaged even if it falls to the ground, but Se-hyun caught it with two hands full of care. His face was bright with joy.
“Hurry, we need to go,” Seung-ho spoke.
“What – one more gate?”
“Yes, it’s Thursday today. I work on weekdays.”
Se-hyun shuddered at Seung-ho’s words.
“There is one more round of contracts”
“one more?”
“It is Thursday today.”
Sehyun shuddered at Seungho’s words.
“I work fast. That’s the only way to do it.”