‘Yeon-hee seems like it would be difficult for me to handle… How long can I keep other people in there? And how many can I hold?’
(Well… It seems the space you have doesn’t have a limit for containment… I can’t understand it, but anyway, the time I can manage is 30 minutes.)
’30 minutes again, huh. Tch… I got it for now.’
(Aren’t you going to try using it?)
‘Isn’t there a cooldown time for that?’
At my question, Ran scratched her head with her wing.
(Certainly… The ability to pull possibilities can only be used once a day.)
‘Well, of course.’
Anyway, as Ran grows, I’ll be able to pull in other possibilities I have. It will definitely become a great help in the future.
If I can use the abilities I couldn’t use when I pulled in possibilities a few times, it will surely become easier to grasp the skills.
With time passing, I’ll probably be able to manifest them on my own.
‘Great. It’s coming together.’
Feeling a bit of fun as I slowly piece together the puzzle, I dedicated myself to sword training today as well.
‘The master said to come in three days. I have to show some improvement by then, so practice is all I can do.’
I trained until dawn, meditated for a moment, and then took out a mysterious item called [Location of the Elixir].
‘A prankster god’s arrangement… It resurrects even someone who’s been dead for a long time. That’s insane. Other gods might be mad about this.’
The explanation was intriguing, but it felt far removed from me. God… I guess they are talking about that huge being I saw back then.
‘But what’s this?’
What puzzled me was the state of the map.
‘What kind of map is this? Is it not even a map?’
The map didn’t have anything properly drawn, and only four dots were flickering slowly.
‘… What is going on? It feels similar to a mini-map.’
When I pressed the flickering dot at the bottom, a message suddenly popped up.
– You will occasionally receive unexpected quests on the path to [King of the Undead].
– You have received the quest [Location of the Elixir] with an extremely low probability.
– The process of finding the [Elixir] hidden by the ‘Prankster God’ will be a long and arduous journey.
‘Ah… the King of the Undead. So that’s what it is. No wonder an item suddenly appeared as a reward.’
It felt like a quest given to those who step onto that path.
– To step onto the path of the true ancestor, first fulfill the necessary conditions.
‘Conditions too?’
– Prove your qualifications by defeating the Great Beast ‘Devouring Creeper’.
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the conditions the system laid out.
‘…… Is it crazy?’
You should know when to joke around. To defeat a Great Beast that has brought a nation to ruin? This isn’t something I can just try out right now, is it?
I pressed the other three dots just in case.
– Prove your qualifications by defeating the Great Beast ‘Necrosquall’.
– Prove your qualifications by defeating the Great Beast ‘Helionex’.
– Prove your qualifications by defeating the Great Beast ‘Ensepallosaipon’.
‘Haha… This isn’t a joke. Crazy…’
They were all Great Beasts that had either put a nation into great chaos or were currently in the process of destruction.
‘Devouring Creeper is the least of my worries. At least it has a clear weakness.’
But that doesn’t mean I can deal meaningful damage to a Great Beast.
‘If I accumulate Flame Explosion five times, maybe… Hmm… I don’t think I can even get close.’
Right now, it felt so distant that I couldn’t even form an image in my head.
Devouring Creeper, even the small monsters it produces are effortlessly above B-rank, so it was a distant reality to get close to its main body.
‘Guess I can forget about this for a while. I’m grateful that it made me have no lingering thoughts. You brat.’
Still, it was an intriguing topic, so it served well as a brief break during sword training.
I shook off any thoughts about the elixir and continued my training.
The next day.
We went to visit Cha Jin-hyuk, but we couldn’t greet him.
“Don’t tell me he won’t wake up or something, right?”
Yeon-hee asked anxiously because Cha Jin-hyuk had been unconscious since he fell asleep yesterday.
I told her it’s not uncommon for hunters to fall into a coma after a severe injury, and while she nodded in understanding, she couldn’t take her eyes off Cha Jin-hyuk.
– Hyung…
– Don’t worry. The doctor said his body is recovering.
– Huh- our rescue mission…
– No matter what, don’t cry! Everyone. Hyung always said to think good thoughts!
– Got it…
Seeing the worried faces of the kids around Cha Jin-hyuk made me feel sorry, but at the same time, I felt a bit envious.
Cha Jin-hyuk, being loved by so many kids, seemed like he had already succeeded in life.
‘I only have Yeon-hee…’
After leaving the hospital, we headed home with a somewhat bittersweet feeling.
Originally, the plan was to take down Cha Jin-hyuk and team up with nearby hunters to clear a D-rank dungeon.
“Jin-kyeong and Ji-woo… They said their abilities have suddenly increased recently.”
As we were heading home, I thought about how matters related to the evolution stone weren’t far off.
“Could it be that they fell into some temptation?”
“Tap…”
I hadn’t thought about them, but after hearing Yeon-hee, it made sense.
“First, let’s go see Helen!”
Nodding, we hurried back to clear our worries.
‘Song Jin-kyeong, Ji-woo…’
I had to confirm their recent astonishing growth.
Upon arriving at Helen’s shop, we immediately knew something was wrong.
Helen, who was pulling her hair out with bloodshot eyes, looked at us.
“Yeon-hee! Jin-kyeong and Ji-woo… Huhuh-”
“That’s…”
Unfortunately, Ji-woo and Song Jin-kyeong hadn’t been in touch since last night.
According to the hunters who had partied with them, they had gone missing in a dungeon.
‘Missing… Unless it’s a dungeon break. They couldn’t possibly encounter such an issue in a low-grade dungeon.’
Helen hugged Yeon-hee, crying, saying that if she had detected something earlier, this wouldn’t have happened.
But soon after regaining her composure, she handed us a thin file.
‘This is…’
“I was about to set up a quest anyway. The gathered materials are this much.”
The documents she showed contained information about the other hunters from the party Ji-woo and Jin-kyeong were part of, and upon seeing them, I found something suspicious.
“There are three lingering spirits who have been stuck from the late E-rank to the early D-rank for over six months. The other two slots were always filled with newcomers. The two newcomers are currently Ji-woo and Jin-kyeong. Look at this. It’s the material related to their party over the last two years.”
“This… All the newcomers were women?”
“Yeah. Other than the three original members, those two slots were changed regularly. But the problem is, none of the exchanged hunters are still alive. To be more precise, all of them have been declared missing in the dungeon.”
“H… That’s dangerous. Why hasn’t this been discovered yet?”
“As you know, deaths or disappearances in dungeons are regarded as the hunters’ karma. And there’s no clear way to verify it, right?”
“That’s… True.”
“These three are the ones who are up to no good.”
The documents Helen handed over contained several pictures and detailed profiles of them.
“The first time these punks showed suspicious behavior was two years ago, when they reached the late F-rank.
Before that, they were just wasting time getting hurt while attempting dungeons, but once they started pulling some shady tricks, their growth finally started to catch up to other hunters.
And their growth rate graph has been continuously rising to the present.”
Helen paused momentarily and then looked at Yeon-hee, her lips moving.
Yeon-hee saw this and nodded as if to say it’s fine, then asked,
“Yes. What can we do?”
“Um… Actually, I was going to request someone else, but it would be hard to find a more trustworthy power than you guys. This is both my request and a quest. Find Jin-kyeong and Ji-woo and if possible, kill these three.”
“……?!”
“And if you can find out what they did too, and perhaps traces of the people who seem to be their victims, that would be even better. This is the reward for the quest.”
“Uh…? This, this is too much.”
Helen spilled out the details along with the offered quest reward, which was 1.5 billion + α. Where does this person get the gall to offer such a fortune for someone else’s business?
Helen scratched the back of her neck and continued.
“It’s embarrassing, but I didn’t contribute much to the amount. The rest of the quest money was collected from the families of those missing, so everyone pitched in.
An advance payment of 500 million. 500 million will be paid when you confirm they’ve been eliminated. And if you find traces of the victims, an additional 500 million. How about it? Honestly, for the level of risk involved, it’s not a lot.”
“… I’ll do it.”
“Really? Well… Also, one of the families of the missing has an additional request, and this has a separate reward.”
“What is it?”
“If you can bring back even one of those guys alive, there’ll be a bonus. Apparently, they’re running a somewhat sizable business, so they might have some funds.”
“…… Alright, I understand.”
“Great. Can you start today?”
“I’ll get right on it!”
Maybe because they went through something like that yesterday, or maybe I was worried about Ji-woo, Yeon-hee accepted Helen’s quest without much hesitation.
“Thank you. Be careful. If it seems even slightly dangerous, you can give up on the quest. You can’t be put in danger too.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Older sister.”
She was worried about us, but to me, this quest seemed like honey.
‘I feel like I could do dozens of these quests a day. Hmm— should I suggest Helen to turn her into a middleman for quests?’
While I was lost in thought, we received the materials Helen prepared and headed to the upscale officetel where those guys were staying.
“This is more urgent than leveling up. Let’s take them out right away.”
Nodding,
We arrived at the officetel in less than 30 minutes, but they were absent, so we had to wait for quite a while.
“We checked it was their day off, so they’ll surely show up.”
“Clap, Clap, Clap.”
Whether they came back smelling of food after resolving their late breakfast, they soon appeared, and as soon as they entered the house, we initiated our action, easily overpowering them.
‘These weaklings are no problem.’
Although they are still D-rank, the disparity between us was significant.
After knocking out the three of them and hiding them in a corner, we rummaged through the house and soon found meaningful information.
“This is… an E-rank hunter list. How did they get something like this? Did they hack into the managing office or the association?”
Securing a PC with a list of hunters to hunt for prey.
“Il-wol, look at this!”
It wasn’t the same courage as what I saw yesterday, but I discovered several bottles of ‘Evolved Creatures’ that felt very similar to what I had found before.
‘As expected… Has it already spread throughout the hunter society?’
They must not be unaware that growing this way is akin to devouring their future possibilities.
It seems easy to fall into temptation since just getting past the mid D-rank would significantly raise their annual income.
‘In the end, it’s always about the money.’
I checked the navigation destination linked to their car with their keys, and I also gathered a list of people they had been frequently contacting.
The navigation showed a pension in the outskirts of the city that they had been visiting regularly every weekend, and that place seemed suspicious.
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