Chapter 86

Did I just hear her choke?

“Anyway, I’ll let you go now. Oh, and Seonwoo Yeon-ssi, make sure you eat something too.”

I ended the call without giving it much thought. I didn’t want my food to get cold.

***

How many days had passed since then?

“Whew.”

It was a crisp autumn day. Before I knew it, a cloudless blue sky had spread beyond the window. Yet even in such fine weather, I couldn’t go outside. I was completely absorbed in an important task.

“This should be enough, right?”

Clink, clink.

I shook the bottle in my hand, watching the blue liquid swirl inside.

This was the fruit of several days’ work.

Magic Booster ver. 2.

I was already skilled in magic and the creation of magical tools, and now I had even mastered potion-making. Was there anything I couldn’t do?

‘Kekeuk!’

As expected, I had managed to use Blueshell without any difficulty. Its side effects had been surprisingly easy to overcome.

‘It contained a few substances that were toxic to the kidneys, but that wasn’t a serious problem, was it?’

Kidneys? If they became damaged, I could simply repair them. Addiction? There was no chance that a great magician capable of controlling every nerve in his body would surrender control to a mere chemical substance.

Every problem had been dealt with.

So why shouldn’t I make use of such an excellent stimulant?

“Sneaking it into the mixture really was the right decision.”

And the results were exactly what I had hoped for. By mixing a low concentration of Blueshell into the existing Magic Booster formula, I had strengthened this body to the next stage.

[1.3.31 Change Log]

Awakening Value increased by 10.

My maximum mana capacity had risen. In other words, from now on, I would be able to cast basic spells without drinking a booster beforehand.

‘I did it!’

Granted, my overall evaluation was still F-Class, so the actual power of my magic hadn’t improved much...

‘Progress is progress!’

I chose to look on the bright side. If I continued advancing little by little, perhaps one day I would even be able to heal my lungs.

—♩♪~ ♬~

About three minutes into that pleasant daydream, the phone I had left connected to the charger began to ring.

“Kim Kiryeo doesn’t even have any numbers saved in his contacts. Where do all these calls keep coming from?”

Was it another illegal loan advertisement?

I was already annoyed before I even answered. But then I saw the name displayed on the screen.

[Kang Changho]

I stared at the phone, hesitated for a moment, and finally pressed the answer button.

“Yes. This is Kim Kiryeo.”

A voice came through the speaker.

***

The people of Earth differed greatly in the way they communicated.

There were people like Seonwoo Yeon, who simply stated their business and ended the conversation. Naturally, there were also people who did the exact opposite.

—Yes. Hunter Kim Kiryeo, have you been well this past week?

The S-Class Awakener, Kang Changho.

The call with him lasted far longer than I had expected. To avoid dwelling on every detail, I’ll summarize the essential points.

‘What?’

Kang Changho had called to “apologize” to me.

‘Apologize?’

More precisely, he apologized for abruptly preventing me from participating in the Red Gate raid. He admitted that he had not been considerate enough and suggested that, from now on, we should coordinate with each other and maintain a healthier contractual relationship.

“Huh.”

And that wasn’t the end of the surprises.

As a gesture of goodwill, Kang Changho offered to compensate me for unilaterally restricting my activities as a hunter.

“You secured a gate?”

What I found hardest to believe was that he had personally invited me to enter it with him.

‘Does Kang Changho think I genuinely enjoy working as a hunter...?’

I recalled what the S-Class had told me.

He had already secured access to a gate with an unusually high item-drop rate and proposed that we clear it together. He could handle the actual攻略 on his own, but if he wanted to collect everything inside, he would need his “backpack” to accompany him.

There appeared to be no downside to the offer.

After considering it for a while, I decided to accept his apology.

‘Though it still seems suspicious.’

In any case, I couldn’t avoid that S-Class forever.

***

[Dimensional Treasure Vault]

[Grade: B]

[Description: Artifacts have a high probability of appearing inside the treasure chests scattered throughout the dungeon. However, beware of the numerous traps.]

We soon arrived at a gate in Gyeonggi-do.

I had heard that the Dimensional Treasure Vault was famous for its exceptional rewards. Even small and medium-sized guilds fought fiercely for a single opportunity to enter it.

“Then let’s go in.”

“Ah, yes.”

Listening to the gate’s low, buzzing hum, I stepped forward.

The scene that unfolded before my eyes was...

‘Oh.’

A labyrinth so vast and imposing that it seemed to have been drawn straight from mythology.

‘There’s no ceiling, but the walls are too high to even consider climbing.’

And so, our first joint Blue Gate raid began.

What followed, however, could hardly be called the work of a hunter.

For me, it was little more than a long sequence of exhausting chores.

.

.

.

Crack!

A sound rang out somewhere nearby, like a ripe watermelon being split apart.

What I saw was not much different.

A monster had just taken a direct punch from an S-Class hunter and exploded into pieces, spraying red fluid in every direction.

‘You certainly need a strong stomach for this kind of work.’

With that thought in mind, I approached the remains of the shrieking monster. As always, Kang Changho extracted the magic stone from the corpse, making it easier for me to collect.

‘Oh!’

Watch him hunt, then put the magic stone into the bag.

It sounded like a tedious and repetitive task, so why was I enjoying it so much?

‘This one is as big as my forearm!’

Smiling, I placed the magic stone inside the bag.

Now I understood why the Dimensional Treasure Vault was so popular. The chance of obtaining a mana stone from its monsters was close to one hundred percent.

Hadn’t the very first treasure chest contained an item worth more than my entire fortune?

The profits here were simply incomparable to those of an ordinary dungeon.

‘If I sell all of this, won’t I make a fortune?’

Before we had even finished collecting the valuable parts from the monster we had just defeated, we came across another treasure chest.

There was hardly time to catch my breath.

“I’ll remove the claws myself. You go open the chest.”

I nodded at Kang Changho’s instruction and headed toward the corner of the passage.

Come to think of it, I had heard there was a small chance that a dungeon treasure chest might actually be a monster known as a Mimic.

But that posed no problem for an exceptional appraiser like me.

‘I can tell whether something is alive just by looking at it.’

Tap.

Once I was certain the chest was safe, I slipped a finger into the gap beneath its lid.

That was when it happened.

“Hmm?”

Crack.

It began with a faint sound, one that could easily have gone unnoticed.

Then the entire dungeon started to shake violently.

Rumble! Crack!

A deafening roar followed, so loud it felt as though it might tear my eardrums apart. I flinched, but refrained from moving carelessly.

The ground surrounding me was collapsing.

‘Ugh!’

Beneath the shattered floor stretched an endless expanse of pitch-black darkness.

But the fact that I couldn’t see anything didn’t mean there was nothing down there.

—Krrrrk. Krrrk.

For an instant, eight glowing red eyes flashed in the darkness.

‘Oh dear.’

Webs stretched out in every direction around the treasure chest.

Below them lurked an enormous underground monster.

It was a trap.

And the reason that trap had suddenly activated was...

“Hunter Kang Changho?”

I turned toward Kang Changho.

He stood on the other side of the collapsed floor, calmly shrugging with one hand pressed against the wall of the labyrinth.

‘Was that the switch that activated the trap?’

I carefully rose from the narrow foothold, barely a metre wide, that remained beneath my feet.

—Krrrrr!

The underground creature reacted immediately.

It appeared to be sensitive to vibrations.

“What are you doing?”

At my question, Kang Changho answered without hesitation.

“You don’t look particularly surprised.”

“Because I expected something like this.”

“You expected it?”

“Kang Changho, you suddenly called to apologize. How could I possibly have trusted that without question? Naturally, I assumed you were planning something.”

And so, separated by the collapsed floor, we continued our conversation.

“You followed me even though you knew you might be walking into danger?”

Well, yes.

I had assumed from the beginning that something would eventually go wrong inside this gate.

This man...

Even so, I had pretended not to suspect anything and entered the gate with him.

If that S-Class monster intended to harm me, he would make his move sooner or later regardless.

‘Hmm.’

I was still unfamiliar with Earth.

In other words, I had no idea what methods these aliens might use against me. That being the case, I had decided it would be better to accept his invitation and face him at a place and time where an attack would be easier to anticipate.

However...

“This is quite different from what I imagined.”

I tilted my head, glancing down at the broken ground beneath me.

“I never expected you to activate a trap that wasn’t instantly lethal and even came with a monster as an added bonus.”

Yes, this was genuinely unexpected.

If Kang Changho intended to attack me, I had assumed he would either confront me directly or use a truly deadly trap.

—Krrrrr.

Because of that miscalculation, I now found myself trapped with no safe way to escape.

“If that spider eats me... wouldn’t that cause problems for you as well?”

I asked out of genuine curiosity.

His answer came from the opposite side of the chasm.

“It’s fine. It’s gentler than it looks. Its venom only paralyzes its prey. It doesn’t cause much permanent harm.”

What a remarkably casual tone.

“Besides, I hadn’t originally planned to do this.”

Kang Changho proceeded to offer a brief explanation.

“But our dear Hunter Kim Kiryeo simply refuses to stop provoking people...”

“Me?”

“What were you doing last week?”

He fixed me with a sharp stare.

“It seems there’s no limit to what you’ll get up to when no one is watching.”

“Pardon?”

“While you were banned from participating in the Red Gate raid, didn’t you quietly go around terrorizing gangsters? And not just ordinary gangsters—a whole den of drug addicts carrying firearms.”

“Ah.”

“Honestly...”

Several emotions passed across his face in quick succession.

Bewilderment.

Suspicion.

Amusement.

“I suppose you never considered what would happen to me if you kept involving yourself in such dangerous situations.”

But his laughter did not last long.

A moment later, he released his hideous magical power as casually as if it were nothing.

Thud.

The spider demon’s eerie footsteps echoed through the darkness.

I lowered my voice.

“So what? Are you saying you intend to kill me here over something like that?”

Kang Changho replied.

“I’m prepared to do whatever is necessary. With that monster’s paralytic venom, I can determine your true rank and neutralize any potential threat you might pose.”

It seemed Kang Changho had been deeply troubled by my involvement in the Rakshasa investigation.

That was probably why he had resorted to this.

From his perspective, it might have seemed safer to kill the sacrifice here than to risk losing his abilities for no reason.

‘The warehouse investigation only came up that same day. I simply forgot to contact him.’

I touched the bridge of my nose and considered the situation.

‘And somehow, he even found out what happened in that mountain valley...’

Once I had attracted the attention of an S-Class hunter—an overwhelming force by Earth’s standards—something like this could have happened at any moment.

But it was fine.

I now had a way to respond.

“Hmm.”

Keeping my expression perfectly blank, I closed my eyes and calmly undid the top button of my shirt without otherwise changing my posture.

Click.

A thin gold necklace was revealed beneath the fabric, gleaming with a clear, brilliant light.

[Pyromancer Necklace (Rare)]

The moment Kang Changho noticed it, confusion crossed his face.

Without saying a word, I gripped the necklace and activated its power.

“Hmm? Why are you suddenly holding a necklace...?”

The spell I had prepared was a small-scale fiery explosion.

“...!?”

And its coordinates were set inside my own skull.