My mouth fell open at the sight in front of me.
In the hot, humid heat, wetlands stretched on without end along a dense forest.
“This is a D-rank Gate…”
I knew higher-ranked Gates had more space. I just hadn’t thought the difference would be this big.
“Pretty big, right?”
I forgot to be angry and answered.
“Yeah. Big enough to feel lost.”
“This is fairly average. From B-rank Gates on, you even have to hire a separate guide.”
“…Feels like we need one now.”
“We’ll be fine today.”
Team Leader Choi pulled out a laminated sheet and showed it to me.
“What’s that?”
“A map. They gave it to me along with the transfer of rights.”
A map. Then we wouldn’t get lost—
“Wait. What did you say?”
“I said it was a map.”
“No, not that. You said something after that.”
“You mean the transfer of rights?”
Yeah, you. That.
“What does that mean?”
“Exactly what it sounds like.”
Team Leader Choi spoke as if it were nothing.
“This Gate is mine.”
“What?”
“More precisely, I have the exclusive rights to it.”
Maybe it was the wetlands. Sweat beaded on my palms, and my throat went bone-dry.
I swallowed a dry gulp.
Exclusive rights to a Gate?
In South Korea, Gates were national property.
Since the Great Cataclysm, Magic Gems had become a core energy source, and Gates were no different from diamond mines that never ran dry. And this guy had exclusive rights to one of those Gates.
What the hell is he?
I knew he was a rich family’s young master, but I hadn’t thought it went this far.
“Let’s get moving.”
Team Leader Choi strode ahead. The sight of his back was dazzling.
Ah, that golden radiance. The scent of wealth I could never touch.
I’ll bury my bones in your Guild.
I swore it then and there.
The wetlands were a maze.
Without a capable guide like Team Leader Choi, I would have wandered for a long time. How long had we been walking when—
- Keeiik.
The cry grew even clearer as I drew up my internal energy.
A monster had appeared.
At least twenty.
According to Team Leader Choi’s explanation on the way here, the monsters in this Gate were swamp Lizardmen.
They lived in several colonies under a single tribe, and this seemed to be one of them.
“This is the small colony closest to the entrance. About twenty of them, so let’s take them out fast and move on.”
Team Leader Choi hacked through the vines as he advanced. He was usually a pretty-faced young master, but once real combat started, he was no joke. The back driving forward like an eight-ton truck with a broken steering wheel reeked of machismo.
He’s fucking cool.
Even if it weren’t thirty Lizardmen but a hundred, I felt like we could sweep them all as long as Team Leader Choi was with me.
Now I understood why people let high-level players carry them in online games.
“Keiik!”
Maybe that was why my first face-to-face with Lizardmen didn’t come with much tension.
All I had was the novelty of seeing monsters I’d only ever seen in photos and videos.
“Oh, they’re big.”
Even the smallest of the twenty was a head taller than me.
They were at least two meters tall, with sleek muscle and thick tails that made them look even bigger.
Of course, still not as big as the Hobgoblin Great Warrior I fought yesterday.
These hideous basketball prospects didn’t seem too happy to see us.
-
Keiik!
-
Keet, keet!
Dozens of harpoons flashed in their hands. Watching them close in from the front in an encircling formation, I spoke.
“No archers.”
“Swamp Lizardmen mostly use harpoons. Watch out for thrown spears, just in case.”
“Yep.”
As expected of a lizard expert. He even had his arms folded, nice and easy.
“Keiik!”
They’d come within twenty meters. I grinned at Team Leader Choi.
“These guys have no fear.”
“That’s a Lizardman trait. They’re reckless, and they prefer a head-on fight.”
“Aha.”
Meanwhile the distance closed to ten meters. Team Leader Choi’s folded arms were starting to get on my nerves.
“I think we should start fighting soon.”
“Guess we should.”
“…Ah. Right. We should.”
Whoosh!
Then three or four harpoons tore through the air. If I’d still been an F-rank Hunter, my life would have flashed before my eyes. Now I just swung my spear and batted them aside.
Clang, clang, clang!
It was only after that that I sensed something off.
-
Kieeeik!
-
Keet! Keiik!
What’s wrong with them?
Their eyes rolled back white as they shrieked. This had gone past hostility. It was practically hatred.
As I stood there bewildered, Team Leader Choi tossed out a line.
“It’s because of your equipment.”
Equipment? Why would equipment—
Ah.
Lizardman Hunter’s Leather Set. Lizardman Slayer’s Harpoon.
Shit. Look at those names.
If I were a Lizardman, I’d throw harpoons too.
Come to think of it, they only threw them at me.
With the enemy of their kind standing right in front of them, Team Leader Choi might as well have been invisible.
At this rate I was going to get attacked nonstop—
No, wait.
“Did you plan this?”
“Plan what?”
“You put this on me to pull aggro so you could mop them up. That’s the strategy, isn’t it!”
“I swear it isn’t.”
Team Leader Choi’s face turned serious as he added,
“Because I’m going to stay put.”
“What?”
“You’ll pull the aggro, and you’ll do the raid too. Don’t get the wrong idea.”
What the hell is this bullshit.
“So… I have to fight them alone?”
“Yes.”
“And you’ll stand there with your arms folded and watch?”
“I’ll uncross my arms.”
“No, for fuck’s sake…”
“Harpoons incoming.”
Whoosh!
As the spears were thrown, green scales flashed from every direction and they charged.
Team Leader Choi sprang back and shouted with heroic gravity,
“You got this!”
Was this guy completely insane?
I wanted to run over and grab him by the collar, but harpoons were already flying in from all sides.
Clang!
- Keiik!
“You bastards.”
Grinding my teeth, I drew up my Qi Sense. Soon, twenty spears sprang up over their heads.
System
Lv. 40 Lizardman Tribesman
Level 40, huh?
I tightened my grip on my spear.
“You’re all dead.”
Ding.
System
Damage dealt to this monster increases by 10% due to the effect of Lizardman Hunter’s Leather Set.
Damage dealt to this monster increases by 20% due to the effect of Lizardman Slayer’s Harpoon.
All Lizardmen in this Gate are hostile toward you. They will never stop until they repay this grudge!
At the same time, the Lizardman Slayer’s Harpoon traced a heavy arc. The forms of the Jin Family’s Spear Technique, having reached Seven Stars, poured toward them.
Crunch!
- Keiik…
The yellow reptilian eyes slowly closed.
The green wetlands were soaked with the corpses and blood of the ones already dead. Not a single Lizardman was left standing.
Ding.
System
Level Up!
Level Up!
Leaving the cheerful System notifications behind me, I turned around.
Team Leader Choi was leaning against a tree. He’d said he wouldn’t fold his arms, and there he was with them folded. That made me twice as pissed.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
Team Leader Choi looked at me in silence, then tossed something over.
A small drink bottle of red liquid. A potion that restored depleted Stamina.
“So you give me the disease and then the medicine?”
“You look pretty healthy for a sick man. Not a scratch on you.”
…That actually sounded plausible. I nearly bought it.
While I hesitated, Team Leader Choi spoke.
“I’m sorry.”
He didn’t stop there. He even bowed at the waist.
It was such a formal apology I had nothing to say. My anger eased a little, but I still needed the reason.
“Why did you do that?”
“I had to see your skill.”
“Just for that?”
“It’s important to me. I need to know how you move, how much you can take on, and how far we can go together.”
“So you just slipped out alone while it was crawling with monsters?”
“If I hadn’t trusted you, I wouldn’t have.”
When a capable guy hyped me up like that, I had to admit it felt good.
More importantly, I didn’t even get hurt, and I leveled up twice.
I asked, quietly hopeful.
“And the results?”
“Hmm.”
Team Leader Choi studied me with that peculiar look of his. At last he opened his mouth.
“I still don’t know.”
“What?”
“Which is why.”
Team Leader Choi pulled something out and tossed it to me.
A long, opaque cylinder. When I shook it, liquid sloshed inside.
“What is this, a potion?”
“There’s a button on the bottom, right? Press it.”
Does it open when I press it?
I tilted my head and pressed the button.
Click.
The front of the cylinder sprang wide open.
The problem was—
Fwoooosh—
Boom!
Whatever had been inside shot up like a firework and burst in midair. The pink liquid that exploded there spread out over a wide area.
“Huh?”
What is that?
As I stared blankly at the sight, Team Leader Choi’s voice dug into my ear.
“It’s pheromones.”
“Pheromones? Perfume?”
“Something like that.”
“…?”
“It was collected from female Lizardmen.”
The instant he finished speaking, I felt a tremor from somewhere.
The ground. The ground was rumbling.
Team Leader Choi kindly added,
“The effect is extremely powerful.”
You bastard…
“Team Leader Three.”
That was the first thing the middle-aged man with half-gray hair had said in an hour. Kim Sangshik, who had been waiting endlessly while the Guild Master chain-smoked, answered.
“Yes, Guild Master.”
“Curious, aren’t you? Figured I called you in first thing this morning to raise hell?”
“Ah, no, sir.”
The Sopung Guild Master smiled good-naturedly.
“That’s right.”
“What?”
“I called you to raise hell.”
“…”
“Do you know where I went today?”
The Guild Master exhaled a plume of cigarette smoke.
“The Guild Alliance breakfast meeting.”
Small and midsize Guilds were corporations too. In each region, Guild Masters held meetings to form alliances and socialize. That was where he’d been today.
“I was on an empty stomach, just about to take a bite, when that Sangdong Guild Master bastard told me something interesting. He said the C-rank who awakened recently had been one of our Guild people until a few days ago.”
“…Guild Master, that…”
The Guild Master raised a hand and stopped Kim Sangshik from continuing.
“I wondered what kind of bullshit that was. But rude as the Sangdong Guild Master is, he isn’t the type to make up a story. Not at an alliance meeting, either.”
“I’ll look into it again myself!”
“Team Leader Three? No. No need.”
The Guild Master threw a crumpled bundle of papers across the room.
“I already looked into it myself.”
Kim Sangshik recognized the crumpled papers for what they were: someone’s personal file.
And the name on it, too.
“Jin Taekyung. Team Leader Three knows that name too, right?”
Fuck.
Kim Sangshik squeezed his eyes shut. The Guild Master tapped the ash from his cigarette.
“I know how you feel, Team Leader Three. You’re a founding member of the Guild, after all. You’re allowed to fire one bottom-tier Hunter you don’t like. Stick your beloved son in the vacancy. Right?”
“Yes, yes.”
“But the F-rank loach you treated like dirt and kicked out turned into a dragon and came back, huh? I even made a point of telling you to recruit him, but if you told the truth I’d obviously raise hell. You’d get a reputation for having dog eyes that can’t even recognize someone. So you filed a false report, right?”
Sizzle.
The Guild Master crushed out his cigarette. As the embers scattered, the last of his patience went with them.
“Team Leader Three. No, Sangshik. Have we been together about twenty years?”
Kim Sangshik answered in an uneasy voice.
“Twenty-one years, Guild Master.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“…Yes, hyung.”
“Good. That sounds nice. Keep calling me that from now on.”
“What?”
“Twenty-one years of dragging you along is enough. You’ve done your part. I’ll talk to the Team Three kids separately, so as of today, you’re out.”
“H-hyung!”
“Shut your mouth, leave quietly, and I won’t block your path. Once you’re out, do whatever you want.”
The Guild Master’s voice was packed with tightly suppressed fury.
Kim Sangshik realized he had no choices left.
Leave? Leave the Guild?
This was the workplace he’d spent more than twenty years in. And now he was being told to leave over something like this. Thrown out without a second thought.
Fuck…
He clenched his teeth and walked out of the office.
One last blow came after him.
“Hey, HR. Process two resignations today. Kim Sangshik and Kim Sangho.”
For the next few days, Sopung Guild was in an uproar over the rare event of a father and son resigning at the same time.
Along with that, the hottest topic in the Guild became the recent whereabouts of the bottom-tier Hunter who had quit not long before.
“They say he’s C-rank. A reawakening.”
“Oh my, Mr. Taekyung? The Taekyung I know?”
“That’s what I’m saying. He hit the lottery. Apparently Kim Sangshik went to recruit him without even knowing who he was and got shut down hard.”
“He found every excuse he could to fire him, and now he’s reaped what he sowed. I heard Team Leader Kim’s been going around calling it wrongful dismissal and badmouthing the Guild Master.”
“He still hasn’t come to his senses. Still, I’m jealous. When do I ever get to live a life like that?”
“Honestly, Taekyung deserves it. He worked so hard, so luck found him.”
“Deserves it, my ass. Then are the rest of us all just living it up? It’s luck. All luck.”
Half envy, half jealousy, the conversations always ended with the same question.
“Where is Mr. Taekyung now, and what’s he doing?”
Comments
Comments need a network connection.