“Excuse me, are you wearing some kind of artifact? Your magic power seems never-ending.”
“Huh? Ah, no…”
“Ha ha ha, I was just joking! What kind of artifact would someone like us E-ranks have? I’m just really impressed by how efficiently you handle your magic.”
“Seriously, don’t you want to stick with us? I could adjust the payout percentage nicely.”
Even Su-ran, who was lying on the floor, was actively trying to recruit Yeon-hee.
I thought for a moment about helping Yeon-hee, who was anxiously looking at me, but since they weren’t bad people, I figured she should have this experience.
Then, someone approached me, and when I turned, I saw Sorceress Yu Dal-ri staring up at me.
“You… what on earth are you?”
“Huh? What’s this now? Did she figure something out?”
“How can that be… The structure connected to the thread of magic is definitely the same as other summoned creatures, but you feel different. You judged that on your own earlier, right? Taking the Iron Beetle with you?”
“Whoa… she’s got a good intuition or something?”
“U-Um!!”
While Yu Dal-ri was lost in thought, fiddling with my arm, Yeon-hee dashed over and placed herself between us.
“W-What are you doing?”
“Uh? N-Nothing. Just studying summoned creatures from a different field? Strictly speaking, I’m also half a summoner, you know.”
“Hmm— that’s true. You can’t argue that saying you manifest plants is summoning.”
Of course, the principles are completely different.
“Ugh… but you can’t just touch my summoned creature like that…”
“Ah? O-Okay, I’ll be careful from now on.”
Yu Dal-ri casually bowed her head as she apologized, and Yeon-hee accepted it, albeit reluctantly. Then she hurriedly whispered to me.
“When someone else comes, you need to be careful, Il-wol. If a bad person offers you something good and tries to get you to go with them—”
What is she talking about? I’m not a 7-year-old child…
Anyway, the end of the battle was short, and the cleanup was quick. If we stayed here too long, we might have to repeat the same battle again.
Of course, it was unlikely because the monkey group kept a certain distance to guard their territory, but it wouldn’t hurt to be cautious.
We quickly began cutting off the monkey’s fingers. The tip of the middle finger on the Fire Monkey’s right hand was likely blackened and hardened from frequently throwing fireballs, which made it useful as a hunting trophy.
While the price was slightly lower than that of the Big Boar, the quantity made it quite profitable. Plus, we found two runes dropped, including one from the leader.
Both were Runes of Flame, typical for Fire Monkeys, and they increased fire attribute attack power by a certain amount.
“If no one here wants it, I’ll sell it off and split the profits.”
For now, Han Man-woo had procured the runes, and everyone had agreed beforehand to share whatever runes dropped equally, so there were no complaints from the others.
“I don’t particularly need cash. It won’t make a huge difference to just have one common grade attribute rune.”
That would be a different story for hunters who primarily dealt with fire, but generally, attribute runes are valued less than standard ones.
After gathering our loot, we moved away from the area and set up camp against the stone wall where we could rest.
“We’ve only fought three times, but we’ve already made quite a profit! We’re lucky.”
Looking at the profit so far, it would probably be at least around 3.5 million won, about 700,000 won per person. It was an amazing amount earned in under four hours.
Of course, it was because we had the good fortune of obtaining two runes, but smiles were already plastered on everyone’s faces. Some unlucky teams could fight 100 monsters and get zero runes.
“Let’s take a break, eat, and then do one more hunt this afternoon before heading back. If we run into any monsters on the way back, we’ll deal with them, and if not, we’ll just call it a day.”
“Yes, understood…”
“Sounds good.”
Han Man-woo shot a deadly glance at Un-cheol, who kept sneaking glances at the two beauties, after listening to Yeon-hee and Yu Dal-ri’s answers.
“Ahem— um… after we finish, how about a team dinner—”
“I’m going straight home.”
“Me too.”
The two beauties cut him off sharply, and Un-cheol hung his head in disappointment.
“Well, honestly, having a drink after finishing up is my guilty pleasure too.”
After an exciting adventure with new people, having a drink together where conversation never ceased felt like such a good experience.
Un-cheol probably wasn’t thinking of getting something out of Yeon-hee and Dal-ri with that suggestion.
“Let’s just go ourselves. I feel like a good beef dinner is in order today.”
“Don’t you need to get fitted for new equipment?”
“I don’t care. I got hit by a lot of Fire Monkey crap, I feel like I smell like it. I could use a refresh, you know?”
I understand. It’s that feeling of wanting to cleanse oneself after being dirtied and then head home.
In the midst of the tankers’ dinner talk, Yu Dal-ri quietly approached Yeon-hee.
“Hey, Yeon-hee. Let’s not just leave without exchanging contact info.”
“Huh? Ah… okay. But why do you ask?”
“Well, I think we’d get along really well, and I wanted to contact you if I form a team next time. I know you’re in a guild, but it’s fine to participate on weekends.”
“She speaks well. I didn’t realize she could talk so much.”
Yu Dal-ri seemed to take a liking to Yeon-hee. Yeon-hee, after scratching her face in thought for a moment, replied with a nod.
“Oh really, are you in a guild? Which one?”
Han Man-woo was startled and asked. When Yeon-hee cautiously mentioned the White Knight Guild, Han Man-woo bowed his head deeply and shook it.
“Sure enough, you’re of a different class than us. You all better not bother Yeon-hee anymore, got it?”
“Yes…”
With the hunters sulking, Yeon-hee felt a bit guilty, shifting awkwardly, when Yu Dal-ri pulled a sandwich from her inventory and took a bite.
Everyone quietly took out their prepared lunch boxes to eat, while I remained vigilant, reading and re-reading the job change explanation.
Then, just as everyone was finishing up their meal, some creatures got caught in my sense net unexpectedly.
‘They’re rushing away quickly. Judging by their stride, they look like goblins… are they being chased by monkeys?’
It was a troublesome situation. Yu Dal-ri and the other hunters probably hadn’t fully replenished their magic yet.
Now my sense range had expanded beyond 30m, and the goblins were in that very range of escape, so if I just stayed still, the others might not realize anything.
Sniff, sniff—
No, with her keen sense of smell, Su-ran kept twitching her nose while eating, sensing something strange, but she seemed to pass it off as nothing significant.
‘What a shame.’
But I didn’t move at all, just letting them go.
’90 Fire Monkeys and 30 Goblins… it’s not like the goblins are teaming up with us. There’s no way we can handle over 100 monsters.’
“Shall we get going?”
After a moment, Han Man-woo stood up, and we regrouped to move back toward the exit.
To avoid the harassment from the Fire Monkeys, we had to avoid the densely wooded areas as much as possible, so the return path wasn’t straightforward.
However, based on the fact that we were not straying far from my sense, it seemed that Su-ran was effectively steering us in the right direction.
Thus, after a small series of skirmishes with a few Big Boars and Goblins for an hour.
We arrived at a spacious clearing, and seeing the devastation there made Yu Dal-ri gag and run toward the back.
‘Looks like they got swept away. There are over 80 Fire Monkeys.’
From my years of experience as a guide and skillfully reading traces, this massive scale didn’t seem to be there from the start.
‘Looks like they joined in mid-fight. It’s a rare occurrence, but it does happen sometimes.’
There were seven unfortunate hunters’ corpses, having been scorched lifeless by the flaming barrage from a suddenly appearing large group of over 70 Fire Monkeys while they were fighting a small group of about 30.
Seeing their flesh ripped apart until only bones were left, the hunters approached to collect their remains one by one into their inventories.
‘Those are the ones we saw earlier. Once someone tastes blood like that, they become a hassle. The chance of mutants appearing also rises.’
Patting myself on the back for not touching them earlier, I heightened my alertness and sprinted towards the exit.
Fortunately, we reached the exit safely. There had been monkey groups along the way that were sized enough to warrant a fight, but the atmosphere had grown dire, so we rushed straight for the exit.
“Any unusual sightings?”
A Hunter Agency employee came close, casually asking his usual question, and I briefly explained the hunters who had perished in the cave and open area.
He clicked his tongue, exhaled a sigh, and waved for me to go outside as he acknowledged my words.
‘Is it necessary to react like that when people have died?’
He was someone I wanted to smack, but there was nothing I could do but watch.
We stepped through the gate and exchanged words of gratitude and blessings among each other.
Having witnessed such a scene before exiting, everyone genuinely seemed thankful to one another. After all, we did well and survived.
‘The atmosphere is weird, I didn’t even get to search for any hidden areas.’
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