GM Ch21

A shout from below said the defense was completed, and the black spear that had been piercing the spider’s leg slipped out and slammed into its head and torso. The giant bomb spider then exploded.

One shield was broken and the floor where the giant bomb spider had been was scorched black, but no damage was done.

“It’s all over.”

Minjun looked at the gate. The dark red gate gradually shrank and disappeared, indicating that the dungeon break was over.

The hunters who fought the monster directly were busy treating their wounds and cleaning up. Minjun was captured by Euiseong before he could rejoin the group of hunters or leave.

“What’s your name?”

“Oh, me? It’s Kim Minjun.”

“You’re Kim Minjun? The guy who the June guild leader said he targeted?”

“Yes. That’s right.”

Minjun admitted to it easily. Today, he entered the June guild, he really was targeted and nailed.

“Is that so?”

Euiseong’s eyes were sharp and cold as they swept up and down, but Minjun remained still. In the past, they had been close as brothers. But now, they were just talking perfunctorily to each other.

Above all, Choi Euiseong had a personality as expected of an S-class. Similar to Soohyuk, he didn’t hesitate to use his skills when he felt like he wanted to.

“By the way, how did you do that?”

“Do what?”

“I don’t think you used a skill, how did you pour the water?”

“A spirit. A water spirit.”

“Are you an elementalist? Spirit Affinity?”

“Yes.”

Minjun answered honestly. When he asked if he had Spirit Affinity, he meant that he had seen the status bar with his insight skill.

“Can you use spirits like that?”

“It just works.”

Euiseong narrowed his eyes and looked at me as if he was suspecting there was something more. Minjun, who had already done something similar during the hunter’s license practical exam, pushed ahead in his own way. At times like this, making excuses only made things worse.

“Well, I suppose that could be true. Follow me.”

“Yes? Where to?”

“You’re going to go over there and say you were the one who doused the bomb spider with water, and I’m going to testify, and we need to make sure they’re clear on that.”

“That’s okay, I’m C-class…”

“So what if you’re C-class? Come on.”

Minjun had no choice but to follow him. He ended up meeting with the National Security Agency officials who were managing the sudden dungeon break. Euiseong’s testimony that he spilled water on the bomb spider was enough to get him recognized for participating in the dungeon break.

Afterwards, he turned to Minjun to warn him, who was watching for the right time to back out.

“If you do the work, you should be rewarded for it. Don’t get used to working quietly and behind the scenes.”

“Yes.”

“Next time, stay away from high-ranked dungeon breaks. It’s dangerous.”

“I understand.”

Minjun answered the nagging questions obediently. He had to be careful in front of the S-class, but more than that, he knew that Euiseong was saying this out of concern for him. It was very rare for Choi Euiseong, who is a cautious person, to advise others to be careful and not to do this or that. Usually, he would just tell them to do their own thing and move on.

It seemed like he had gotten softer as he got older. Minjun realized again that a lot of time had passed.

“See you later.”

He left with some meaningful words. It was as if he was jinxed to encounter an S-class hunter when a dungeon broke. Minjun sighed and stared at Choi Euiseong’s back for a long time.

With no family or loved ones, he had decided a long time ago that he would live a leisurely retirement with a new look, but it was refreshing to see a familiar face. In fact, he wanted to tell him that he was Kim Minjun, that the spirit stone made him younger. He wanted to ask him how he’d been, that he’d been to the other world, and that he was cursed.

With so many secrets shared between the two of them, it shouldn’t have been hard to prove that he was Kim Minjun. But it was a risky proposition. The curse sorcerer from the other world advised that if Minjun, an S-class, could be cursed to death, then the person who cursed him must also be of a pretty high rank; a minimum of A-class or C-class.

The Choi Euiseong that Minjun knew had the personality to attack him head-on with a sword before casting a curse. However, it was impossible to know the inside of a person. He had to consider the possibilities.

“I hate this.”

Minjun muttered helplessly. The thought of distrusting and doubting his once-close colleague sapped his energy.

“Let’s go eat.”

When Minjun was done, it took him nearly an hour to get back to the chicken shop. Luckily, the chicken was meticulously packaged.

After receiving the dungeon break text, Minjun rushed to the store, and the employee, who recognized him as hunter, kindly reheated his cold chicken. He even told them they could eat at the store.

Minjun wolfed down the chicken, cheese balls, fries, and Coke. The chicken tasted extraordinarily delicious after a hard day’s work.

***

On the other hand, Soohyuk was in a private room at a Chinese restaurant in Jongno. Sitting around a large round table were five people, including Soohyuk. They were all S-class hunters from Korea.

The government was sensitive to the private gatherings of S-class hunters. It wasn’t hard to imagine how a group of S-class hunters, who were no different from weapons of mass destruction, could bring down a country if they joined forces. There had been several cases of actual regime change in foreign countries. In some cases, S-class hunters became heads of state, and in the case of larger nations, the country was split up around the hunters.

For some reason, Korea had about 1.5 times the number of S-class hunters as other countries, so it was no wonder the government was shaking in its boots. It felt like it was 1.5 times more dangerous.

Despite all the concerns, the S-class hunters in South Korea met once every quarter. This was partly to socialize, but also because there were a number of issues that were easier to resolve when they came together. It was a semi-public gathering, so even the government was forced to tolerate the meeting.

Leading the so-called restaurant ingredient exhaustion was Seo Woojoo, the oldest of South Korea’s S-class hunters. He passed on the whereabouts of Choi Euiseong, who did not show up until the appointed time had passed.

“Guild leader Choi Winter is running a little late.”

Winter was the nickname of hunter Choi Euiseong, the guild leader of the Winter Guild. The practice of calling him by his surname and guild name instead of his real name had stuck.

“Why? Where was the accident?”

“Didn’t he say he left earlier?”

“He said there was a dungeon break, and he should be here soon.”

“It’s been happening a lot lately.”

Small talk ensued before Choi Euiseong arrived. Although the six hunters representing Korea often come face-to-face during dungeon raids, it was only once every three months that the six S-class hunters got together, so the atmosphere was lively.

The youngest of the six S-class hunters, Soohyuk, focused on listening rather than leading conversations. Contrary to his public image, Soohyuk was not one to talk about things he wasn’t interested in.

Soohyuk was pretty distraught because he had to meet Minjun after the meeting. He kept feeling guilty and rejected by the fact that he was doing it with a kid who had just turned twenty. He had to convince himself over and over again that it was inevitable.

“Oh, right. Guild Leader Yoon June. I heard you proclaimed that you had dibs on a new recruit, is that true?”

Soohyuk snapped out of his pensiveness at the sound of Lee Hana, the leader of the Lucky Guild, calling out to him. He didn’t panic, as he had expected the rumors to have spread as fast as they had during the hunter’s license practical exam.

“He’s already joined our guild, and he’s registered, so don’t even think about it, guild leader Lee.”

“Oh, wow. That’s really fast. So it’s true he can detoxify?”

“Yes.”

“The National Security Agency will be a bother to him.”

“Well, I guess.”

“They’re too unwilling to spend money.”

All of the S-class hunters in Korea hated the National Security Agency, so whenever they got together, they would naturally rant and gossip about the organization. As they chatted for a while, Choi Euiseong finally showed up, and the meeting began in earnest. While waiting for food, it was Choi Euiseong who led the conversation.

“Oh, yeah. I saw him, the young hunter Kim Minjun.”

Soohyuk looked up and saw Euiseong, not expecting to hear Minjun’s name again.

“What do you mean?”

Having recruited Minjun to the guild just today, Soohyuk couldn’t help but to ask about the circumstances.

“I was at the dungeon break site, you said there was a bomb spider, so I went, and there he was.”

Soohyuk was stunned. A bomb spider was a B-class monster. It wasn’t a place for a C-class hunter to wander around.

The first time he met Minjun was in a D-class sudden death dungeon break. He seemed to have a dedicated personality, as he had noticed during the hunter’s license practical exam. This was the case for most hunters, otherwise, no matter how much power they gained, they would have a hard time taking on fearsome monsters.

“He used his spirit to douse the bomb spider with water, so it was easy to catch it. Did anyone know that bomb spiders are weak to water? No, right? He covered it in water and it stunned it. I don’t know how he knew that.”

Everyone was surprised by Choi Euiseong’s explanation. Knowing the weaknesses of a tricky monster like the bomb spider was useful information.

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