GM Ch14

“The boss is dead, you are now safe. An escape gate will soon appear, as shown in the status window. Move through it slowly, in order. For those of you who can’t move, stay still. The stun will be released soon. Half of the safety guards and supervisors of the June Guild, including me, will remain in the dungeon until the end, so don’t worry!”

Soohyuk’s loud shout broke the silence. Almost simultaneously, a black escape gate appeared.

One by one, they began to pass through the gate as instructed by the proctor. Even the examinees who were suffering from stun also came to their senses and started moving.

Soohyuk approached Minjun, who was standing at a distance, intending to go last.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes.”

“It seemed like you were trying to do something with the spirits. I don’t know if I took away your chance to shine.”

“No. I might not have been able to stop it properly.”

Minjun spoke honestly. The spirit’s power had built an earthen wall and created a shield of wind and water, but he wasn’t sure how effective it would have been.

“How humble. Oh, right. I killed the boss and he gave me this. It’s got a number on it.”

“Ah…”

Soohyuk held out a pair of gold rings with intricate patterns engraved on them. It didn’t seem to have anything special, but if it was an item with a number, that was a different story.

In the era of cataclysm, everything you could find in dungeons and from monsters was collectively known as an item. However, they were subdivided according to their characteristics.

The most prominent of these were the magic stones that were the core of the hunter industry. Next were items that were ready to use without any processing, such as weapons, armor, jewelry, and scrolls, which were called ‘complete’. It meant that they came in a finished form.

Then there were also byproducts, such as monster bones and hides, and plants and minerals that could only be found in dungeons. Finally, there were the tools crafted by crafting hunters. Weapons and defensive equipment used in combat were classified as ‘artifacts’.

In Korea, completes and artifacts are usually called items.

The best of the bunch, of course, were the weapon and armor completes with skill options.

The rewards for the five most meritorious hunters after defeating a boss were all random, and high-ranked complete weapons and armor were astronomically expensive. If it was Mythic, even money couldn’t buy it.

And among the reward items, numbered items appeared very occasionally.

Compared to Mythic and Legendary, their stats were inferior. Most of them were limited in the number of times they could be used, so they didn’t last very long. On the other hand, they could be very powerful under certain conditions.

“They say that if two people share a pair of rings, all their stats will permanently increase by 10%. Here, take this. It’s a gift for joining the guild.”

An all stat increase was among the rarest options. And at 10%, it was pretty good.

“Ten percent?”

“Yes.”

“Shouldn’t this be given to the National Security Agency?”

“That’s okay, there’s a special clause, so if I get an item of value in a public fight, it is recognized as my possession.”

“Then give them to someone else.”

Any magic stones, byproducts, or items from killing monsters in dungeons went directly to the hunter’s inventory. The same was true for reward items after defeating a boss.

Depending on the contract, the guild usually owned all the magic stones, byproducts, and items from the dungeon. This was not something a hunter could steal.

All items picked up in the dungeon would show up in a “Notice To All” window. The notification was visible to all hunters in the dungeon at the same time, even afterward, so it was impossible to fake items that automatically entered the inventory.

As long as it was in accordance with the contract, there was no problem with Soohyuk using the boss-kill reward items as he pleased, but Minjun was thinking about efficiency. It was better for the A-class hunters in the June Guild to use it than for him as a C-class hunter.

“Just take it when it’s given to you.”

Soohyuk grabbed Minjun’s wrist. He then placed the ring on Minjun’s palm.

“Ah, seriously…”

Minjun wanted to tell him his reason and for him to take it back. However, before he had the chance, the ring on his palm melted and disappeared as if absorbed into the skin.

∥[Notification] The item has been bound to Kim Minjun.

A status window popped up indicating that the item was bound regardless of Minjun’s will.

“I didn’t realize it was a binding item?”

“I got an imprint on my finger.”

“Mmm. Me too.”

Minjun saw a golden band around the thumbs of his and Soohyuk’s right hands, and he clucked his tongue as he realized it was the same for Soohyuk.

The moment he wondered if such an item existed, a new status window appeared.

After reading the status window that popped up for the second time, Minjun turned his head to look at Soohyuk.

Soohyuk’s face was as hard as ice.

***

As soon as the hunter’s license practical test was over, Soohyuk dismissed Team 1 on the spot, telling Minjun that he needed to talk to him and pulling him into his car.

“Sorry. I didn’t realize it was going to be like this.”

Instead of starting the car, Soohyuk apologized. It was definitely his fault for giving Minjun a good item.

He had an excuse. The item information when he first checked was limited. There were no instructions or caveats, so he didn’t expect it to become bound as soon as he placed it in his palm, and he also never imagined that the method of increasing ability levels was something like that.

No matter the reason, it was impossible to undo what had happened. It was only right to apologize to Minjun who was unexpectedly hit by lightning.

“It’s okay, the guild leader didn’t do it on purpose. Rather, it was well-intentioned, so I’m not too upset.”

To Soohyuk’s surprise, Minjun didn’t get angry and responded rationally. He frowned slightly, but his attitude was that there was nothing that could be done.

“I feel even more sorry. Let’s go to my office first. We can talk without anyone noticing. It’s less than ten minutes from here to my guild.”

Soohyuk started the car right away. Fortunately, there were very few cars on the road.

“Can I speak first?”

“Sure.”

“I’d like to do it as soon as possible, because there could be external variables.”

“… What?”

Soohyuk, who was driving, resisted the urge to turn his head toward Minjun in the passenger seat. He thought he knew what Minjun meant when he said ‘do it as soon as possible,’ but he couldn’t be sure whether that was what he meant.

But then Minjun said the word.

“I’m talking about sleeping together. It’s better to do it quickly.”

“Hey.”

“What?”

“You’re… ha.”

Rendered speechless, Soohyuk gripped the steering wheel tightly and sighed. He had assuredly never been so dumbfounded in his entire life.

No matter how urgent the situation was, he didn’t think Minjun would suddenly speak on doing it; he was only twenty years old and too fearless. Soohyuk was worried about what to do with a kid who didn’t seem to be afraid of the world.

“You’re not going to do it? Ah. Do you have a lover?”

“I don’t have a lover. I’m driving, so don’t drive me crazy.”

“Yes.”

Minjun, who had been carelessly saying provocative things, kept his mouth shut this time. Soohyuk also focused on driving.

As Soohyuk pulled into the underground parking lot of the June Guild’s building in silence, he turned off the engine and looked at Minjun. Their eyes met, and Minjun reacted quickly.

“Do you have something to say?”

“Hunter Kim Minjun.”

“Yes.”

“Why are you so fearless?”

“What about?”

“You don’t just say things like that.”

Soohyuk felt like a boomer. Still, he had no choice but to say something to Minjun, whose eyes were wide open as if something was wrong.

“Why not do it? Your stats will drop by 10%.”

“I’m going to release the binding, that will be enough.”

“I don’t know if you know this, but a pair of bound items can only be unbound if one dies. Moreover, it is an active type, so even if you cut off a finger, it will spread to another finger.”

“I know, I know, but we’ll have to find another way.”

“But we can just do it.”

Having spent four years as a hunter on Earth and eight years as a demon hunter in the other world, Minjun was well aware of the effects of bound items. A bound item was unbound when it was broken, or when its owner died.

However, a pair of items bound to two people was a bit special. Even if one died, the other would still have the item, and since you couldn’t break an item that was bound to your body, it was impossible to unbind the Bond Of Fate Ring.

Minjun couldn’t understand why Soohyuk would want to look elsewhere instead of the quickest solution. A 10% drop in stats was serious. if it fell nine times, it was 90% in total. Soohyuk, an S-class, could become an F-class.

Additionally, the variable of decreasing stats was especially dangerous for Minjun, who had already been downgraded to a C-class as a side effect of the dimensional shift. The item that would allow him to find the person who had cursed him would require a lot of magic to use. Even after returning to S-class, he still had to expend almost all of his magic.

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