As Hyun Il-hwan left, everyone exhaled as if they had been holding their breath.
“Whooo—”
“Hah— I’m seriously dying here. He’s just too unnecessarily kind.”
“He still can’t hide his strength properly. I guess he’s not at the Transcendent level yet?”
“Hey hey hey— I’m listening. Watch your words.”
Noh Ha-yoon muttered with a hint of irritation.
She often met with the ‘Witch’, so she understood well what it meant to say that Hyun Il-hwan’s training was lacking.
“But aren’t we getting any rewards for all this trouble?”
Bae Joo-ah complained as she looked at the direction Hyun Il-hwan flew off. Jang Yu-chan, with his keen ears, said he planned to discuss this matter in a meeting tomorrow.
“I apologize to all of you, but it seems the core topic will be the drug called ‘Killbard’ rather than the duel we had today.”
“Why is that?”
“Illegal products derived from Evolution Stones are gradually coming to the surface, and if there’s a way to enhance physical abilities without damaging the body, it would be much easier to deal with such organizations. Ilseom won’t easily give out the recipes, but since they’ve made this public, they must have other plans.”
“So what Hyun Woo-seok did was not just some reckless act.”
“Correct.”
“I’ll send someone from our side to that meeting.”
“Please do.”
Jang Yu-chan graciously accepted Joo-ah’s suggestion to attend the meeting regarding this incident.
It didn’t make sense to discuss this matter while separating the involved parties.
Just then, a man emerged from the training ground, hesitantly approached, and said, “Um… Hello… My name is ‘Do-yeon’, and I’ll be your guide down.”
“Uh… Nice to meet you?”
The man with a nut-shaped head exuded a calm demeanor as he stepped forward to guide them.
“… So shall we go right away?”
The man named ‘Do-yeon’ was a member of Ilseom and had been watching the duel from the beginning, showing no emotion while others were excited; he was just an observer.
If not for this incident, people would have thought most members of Ilseom were like this humble-looking knight.
Following his guidance, the path down was completely different from the one they had come up on.
“The hidden dungeons have various effects, making it difficult even for those who have trained for a long time to easily move.”
“Oh… So that’s why we were told to go down with a guide.”
“Yes.”
Thanks to the guide, everyone safely arrived at the vehicle they had ridden to the top.
However, the guide stood quietly for a moment and then calmly opened his lips.
“I also deeply regret today’s events. Woo-seok… no, Master Hyun has often done incomprehensible things since he was a child. Over time, as things were brushed aside, we’ve come to this point.
Still, Master’s eyes fell upon him, so there will be no harm caused to you from now on.”
“······.”
It was an unexpected gift.
It resonated even more coming from someone who had been a pure spectator from start to finish.
Hearing his words, oddly enough, it felt like they wouldn’t be tormented by Ilseom anymore.
Lee Yeon-hee lightly nodded and settled into the back seat of the car waiting with Baek Ah-rin.
* * *
Although it was a mess in many ways, we gathered at Helen’s shop to celebrate the neat resolution of the confrontation with Ilseom.
While the tables were being set hurriedly, we listened intently to the news streaming in.
“… There are arguments for abolishing the Hunter grade system as it is now meaningless, while others firmly believe it’s unwise to suddenly discard a system that has maintained order for so long…”
“… Legislation requiring at least one high-ranking hunter in a party entering a dungeon is currently stalled amid severe opposition from both parties, while damage from abnormal phenomena within dungeons is steadily increasing…”
“… Reports from FHN state that an S-rank hunter has joined the international crime organization ‘DOH’. Shockingly, the hunter who joined this time turns out to be prime agents who had been secretly pursuing ‘DOH’…”
“… Concerns are growing regarding North Korea’s rapidly evolving Great Beast ‘Devouring Creeper’. The argument that it shouldn’t be left unattended in North Korea has gained strength, and a task force has been set up to respond together with China…”
In those few minutes, all the news was intertwined with hunters, and there were certainly stories that caught our interest.
“Those guys withdrew from Korea and now they’re in France? What are they up to? What’s their ultimate goal?”
‘Well, if I knew that, I’d do something about it…’
As soon as I arrived at Helen’s shop, I recalled the item called ‘Whistle’ given by the leader of ‘Do’.
He promised to reach out, but there hadn’t been news yet.
‘It’s probably better that he doesn’t contact me for now… I hope he gives me some time.’
I wished we could meet again after we had grown enough.
But the leader of ‘Do’, who has the ability to see the future, probably wouldn’t let it go that easily.
Knowing this world was going to end, he must have been working in his own way.
However, as the memory of the hybrid between the person I met in the basement and the goblin surfaced, anger surged anew.
“We should have struck that Great Beast long ago, right? It’s grown huge. Can we catch it now, I wonder?”
“Ugh, when the Great Beast first appeared, our country’s hunters announced help but ignored it, now look at this.”
“True… Considering how quickly our country’s Great Beast was captured this time, it could have been easier if they had acted earlier.”
“Since the nation has become more closed off, truly there is no answer there.”
‘Exactly. Nations and their relations don’t mean a thing when people are dying like that. Not even informing the citizens of the situation.’
Maintaining a dictatorship is only possible when there’s a country, but if it’s left like this for another year, there might not be anyone left in North Korea.
‘Having sucked out the veins for several months, it should be time for them to move south…’
The news even mentioned that an area hundreds of times the size of Yeouido was believed to be consumed by the Great Beast.
On the screen, something black was covering the parched land.
It looked like elongated kidney beans, which were the Great Beast’s eggs.
And thinking that each one possessed A-rank combat power made my head spin.
Of course, this would only be known to me and a few others.
‘I think we might need to accelerate the timing… there are just too many of them.’
Maeng Seong-yong, who said he would act within six months, would likely also be part of the task force mentioned in the news.
Considering the characteristics of the TF, they would probably take meaningful actions in a short time, so we needed to be ready for any unforeseen summons.
‘Why are there so many things to do… how did it come to this?’
All I wanted was to steadily grow by stepping into dungeons with Yeon-hee, but unexpected events kept coming at me from all directions, leaving me dizzy.
“Helen unni, do you have any news about those two…?”
Yeon-hee asked Helen, who had come out to help in the kitchen, about Song Jin-kyeong and Ji-woo’s wellbeing.
“They’ve both improved a lot. They weren’t subjected to anything bad, and maybe due to the drugs, a lot of their memories before the kidnapping seem to have faded, so the psychological aftereffects are nearly nonexistent.”
“Phew… That’s a relief.”
‘Really, that’s a relief. They might have a low chance of being hunters again, but maybe that’s for the best.’
Later, as always, we closed the shop and had a wonderful time.
“I’m thinking of going to the meeting tomorrow between Ilseom and Vision to request information on the hidden dungeons. What do you think?”
Everyone agreed with Joo-ah’s suggestion.
“They won’t easily give up the information after suffering such a huge loss, you know?”
“I’ll talk to the Elder, so don’t worry.”
“Right, Ha-yoon. Use your influence a bit.”
“Then… I’ll ask for a rough ranking, the abilities of the monsters, how the boss monsters are managed, and what the chances of encountering Ilseom’s knights inside are.”
“And the distance! The distance to the exit! The rest points!”
“Okay. I’ll ask everything.”
We decided to take a rest tomorrow, but we planned to meet in the afternoon to discuss our future plans again.
On my way home, I activated my transformation.
And when I temporarily disappeared due to a massive force, I recounted the amazing experience I had at ‘Closed School No. 1’ to Yeon-hee.
Yeon-hee listened with interest, yet she wore a somewhat serious expression as she thought about the being that had dragged me there.
“What if it drags you far away… to a place we don’t even know? What then? Shouldn’t we do something?”
‘We should do something… but what can we do?’
Even if I trained for hundreds or thousands of years, I wondered if I could have the authority similar to Goddess Irmana or Tanya.
Probably not.
“If push comes to shove… we have to use the last resort.”
“Like what?”
“At least if I self-destruct, I’d return to Yeon-hee. Worst case, I could use the earring.”
“Ha… no, that’s not good. We should cherish our lives.”
‘Someone with only one life worries about me…’
“It’s only the last, last resort… don’t worry. More importantly, should we take a short walk today and head straight home afterwards?”
“Huh? Why, why?”
“Why else… I just want to.”
“······ Oh come on, that’s embarrassing.”
Holding onto Yeon-hee’s hand, filled with warmth, I wished to avoid meeting guys like Hyun Woo-seok and took a calm step forward.
Meanwhile, at a space in the main base of Ilseom Guild, a conversation between Hyun Il-hwan and Hyun Woo-seok was underway.
“… That’s how it happened.”
“Sigh…”
Hyun Woo-seok, having poured out everything that happened to Hyun Il-hwan without holding back.
“Do not meet that child named Heo Min-sol anymore. Just don’t even think about her.”
“I wasn’t planning on it anyway…”
“You fool. How could you choose such a woman… tsk- why was your uncle just watching?”
“······.”
Woo-seok didn’t necessarily inform Il-hwan that he had dragged him all the way here by throwing a tantrum.
And Hyun Il-hwan just felt lost about where to start fixing this foolish kid.
Unlike the other crafty cousins he had since childhood, Woo-seok had a kind and innocent side and was truly a diligent kid.
Something clearly went wrong and twisted during the period when Il-hwan began to seriously pursue being a hunter and they weren’t meeting for a while.
‘In truth, I knew it vaguely but pretended not to… it’s all my fault.’
Il-hwan was sincerely regretting.
“Even if we skip over everything else, I can’t believe that monster—or rather, Hunter Yeon-hee’s summoned creature sliced through space with a sword.”
“But, but it’s true! Even this wound hasn’t healed much despite using healers and high-rank potions.”
“Really? Hm…”
It was hard to doubt what he was saying seeing his bandaged face, which he had heard from others.
A monster wielding swordsmanship similar to Ilseom’s, using Lightning Step, cutting through space, and even adding a healing delay effect?
If he said this elsewhere, he’d definitely be treated like a crazy guy.
‘That aura was not normal; maybe I should have kept my eyes on it a bit longer… no, that skill was definitely beyond what Woo-seok could handle.’
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