Chapter 517 – 517. New Skill
517. New Skill
I glanced at Miryeong, who was sitting in the passenger seat as I drove. Dressed in shorts and a hoodie, she was gazing out the window.
Skyscrapers and countless cars speeding along the roads. It was a familiar sight for me, but for her, it must have been a novel and fascinating cityscape.
“Wait, hold on! Just a sec! Is that a hot dog they’re selling over there? I want a hot dog! Pull over for a second.”
To be precise, it wasn’t a hot dog, but a corn dog.
I pulled over as Miryeong requested. She got out of the car and quickly ran towards the corn dogs. She had hidden her tail and ears, so she looked like an ordinary person on the outside.
“I’ve always wanted to try one of these.”
She bought a total of five. They seemed to be different flavors.
“Give me one too.”
“……”
Miryeong pondered deeply before handing me a corn dog studded with potatoes. A big eater, she devoured the other four corn dogs in five minutes.
“Is there anywhere you want to go? I can take you to most places.”
“Huh? Really?”
“There’s no reason for me to lie about something like this.”
“There are so many places I want to go. Movie theaters, amusement parks, zoos, towers…. Oh, I also want to go abroad. Especially Europe!”
“Europe is a bit… it takes too long. Just going and coming back would take a few days.”
“That’s true. I also have to play games and watch dramas at home.”
“I can take you to a movie theater or an amusement park. Should we go tomorrow?”
“……”
Miryeong stared at me intently.
“What are you plotting?”
“Plotting? I just suggested it because I felt sorry for you being cooped up at home. Since I summoned you to this world, I want to at least let you enjoy it. You only have about 20 days left in this world, after all.”
“……”
With a complicated expression, she turned her head to look out the window.
The car arrived in front of the dungeon.
C-Rank Dungeon, Spring Garden.
It was an open-type dungeon where plant-type monsters appeared.
The entrance to the dungeon was controlled by the Association, and there were expensive foreign cars parked everywhere. The foreign cars parked there must have belonged to the hunters.
I felt my body tense up as I got out of the car, taking my gear with me. It wasn’t my first time entering a C-Rank dungeon. I had hunted in C-Rank dungeons a few times with C-Rank hunters I had temporarily partied up with online.
‘Going in alone… no, with two people is a first. If we’re careful, it shouldn’t be dangerous. This dungeon is considered one of the safer C-Rank dungeons, and my skills are above the average C-Rank hunter.’
Miryeong was looking around without any sign of tension. She seemed more fascinated by the cars and buildings around her than by the dungeon itself.
“Miryeong, are you going to be okay without any equipment?”
“Huh? I’m fine. All I’m doing is supporting you with magic anyway. Fighting on the front lines like the warriors isn’t my specialty.”
I had no intention of asking her to fight on the front lines either. I checked the equipment I had brought and grabbed my smartphone, which was the most important.
“Miryeong, you’re a D-Rank hunter. If the hunter staff asks for your name, say it’s Shin Miryeong. Got it?”
“I know. Stop nagging so much. I have a rough idea of how this world works now.”
Of course, it was a fake identity.
With the help of a broker, I was able to obtain a D-Rank hunter identity. The Association was lenient with hunters below C-Rank, or to put it bluntly, they didn’t care, so it wasn’t difficult to obtain.
‘It’s easy to get caught if an ordinary person impersonates a hunter. But Miryeong actually has abilities, so if we’re careful, we won’t get caught.’
Just as we were leaving the parking lot, five men approached us.
“Hello? Did you two come together?”
A man with short black hair and pale skin, who looked almost white, greeted us. He had an expression that seemed to openly mock people.
His gaze, along with the other men’s, was directed at Miryeong. I understood. Miryeong was an exceptionally beautiful woman. And there was something about her that stimulated men’s lust, even when she was just standing still.
“Yes. We came to hunt for a bit.”
I said, grabbing Miryeong’s shoulder. It was also a gesture to say that she was my woman, so don’t try anything. Miryeong’s eyes twitched slightly, but she didn’t push my arm away. She had a sense of the situation.
“Just the two of you? This is a C-Rank dungeon, even if it’s an open type. It’s going to be dangerous, are you sure you’ll be okay? Why don’t you join our party?”
“The leader is right. If you’re with us, you can hunt monsters quickly and safely.”
“This isn’t our first time hunting in this dungeon.”
They said. I shook my head.
“It’s okay. I can handle this kind of dungeon alone.”
“……You’re quite confident. Ah, looking closely, you’re the famous Sung Yujin. Is the person next to you… your girlfriend?”
“Haha. Yes, I’m Sung Yujin. She’s not my girlfriend. By the way, who are you?”
“I’m sorry for the late introduction. I’m Kim Jio, the leader of the Cool Raider party.”
Hunters below C-Rank usually get intimidated and back down when they hear my name. That’s because I’m known as the greatest genius in Korea. But Kim Jio didn’t back down even after recognizing me. Instead, he looked at me with a condescending gaze.
I knew instinctively. Something troublesome was going to happen today.
‘Sigh, trouble always arises when you’re with a beautiful woman.’
I couldn’t just stand there when he was looking at me with such disdain.
“I’ve never heard of that name. Which guild are you affiliated with?”
“……I haven’t joined a guild yet. You don’t belong to a guild either, do you, Sung Yujin?”
“I’m still considering it. I’ve received offers from the Suwol Guild, and the Jaun Guild also seems good…. Other guilds keep making me good offers, so it’s not easy to choose.”
“…That’s amazing.”
The atmosphere turned cold.
I was talking about guilds. The top ten guilds wanted me. I was saying that I was on a different level from guys like them who hadn’t even joined a guild.
If they had any sense, they would understand what I meant.
“……Sung Yujin. Are you really not going to join us? Even for you, isn’t it a bit much to enter a dungeon with just two people?”
Kim Jio was being persistent.
He was hiding his anger towards me and clinging to my sleeve. Well, he wasn’t actually clinging.
‘He’s planning to betray me at the right time after entering the dungeon with me.’
It was obvious without even looking.
And they kept glancing at Miryeong without tiring. Her beautiful face, full breasts, and childbearing hips. The fact that they couldn’t easily look away was probably because of Miryeong next to me.
On the other hand, Miryeong didn’t seem interested in the current situation at all. She was focused on reading a webtoon on her smartphone.
“As I said before, I can handle this kind of dungeon alone.”
“I understand. We’re all busy, so I can’t keep you here. We’ll be going then. Good luck.”
The Cool Raider party entered the dungeon ahead of us.
“I bet they’re setting up a trap in the dungeon. This world is protected by law, but not in dungeons, right?”
Miryeong said, sounding bored. The [Ascension of Light] world was more competitive than any other world. It was a place where people would backstab without hesitation if they had the chance, and abandon their own families to run away if they felt it was dangerous. Compared to that world, this world was heaven.
“I agree. There are guys like that in every world.”
I was a C-Rank hunter. My experience was short, but I had experienced everything I needed to. I had even entered low-rank dungeons alone a few times.
There were quite a few hunters like Kim Jio who were jealous of me and tried to bother me with their despicable actions.
But I usually avoided troublesome situations. This was reality, after all. There was no need for me to endure any damage.
But if those guys were targeting my woman, it was a different story.
‘It’s a dungeon, after all. It’s an easy place to commit a perfect crime.’
And I wasn’t alone.
“Those guys are going to set up a trap. Can you help me out?”
“I agreed to cooperate with you. And I don’t like those guys either. They were looking at me with those weird eyes, not knowing their place…. If this was my world, I would have cut off their limbs and absorbed their life force until they withered away.”
Miryeong smiled coldly, more so than ever before.
“But how long are you going to keep your hand on my shoulder?”
“Ah, sorry. You didn’t like it.”
I took my hand away and waited for her scolding. But even after a beat, she didn’t scold me.
She glanced at me for a moment and said.
“It’s just that I’m not used to it. It’s not that I dislike it.”
“……”
My lips curled up. The plan was going smoothly.
***
We entered the dungeon. The warm spring weather was palpable, and the surroundings were full of grass, trees, and flowers. Depending on one’s perspective, this place could be called a forest, or a garden.
To me, it looked like a forest.
“It’s a nice garden. I can feel the life force of nature. My mother would have liked it if she saw it.”
Miryeong saw this place as a garden. I was curious about her mother, but I held back.
She was going to be my woman, so I would see her mother someday.
“Can you find those guys? They couldn’t have ambushed us at the dungeon entrance, so they’re probably setting up a trap somewhere.”
“Wait a minute.”
White fox ears appeared on Miryeong’s head and twitched, and two fox tails popped out from her tailbone.
She closed her eyes and muttered something softly. I had no idea what it meant. But what was certain was that she was using some kind of magic.
I felt her energy spread out through the ground in all directions.
“I found them. They’re a little northeast of here. They’re fighting a giant plant. They don’t seem to be setting up a trap for us right now.”
“……”
This was a bit unexpected. I thought one of the Cool Raider party members would be watching us and use the trap they had prepared on us. That was the basic tactic of hunter bandits.
‘Was I being too sensitive? Maybe those guys were decent after all.’
“What do you want to do? Are you going to chase them and kill them?”
She asked.
The guys were annoying, but that wasn’t enough reason to chase them and kill them.
‘This is reality, and even though those guys looked at my woman with bad intentions, nothing actually happened.’
If this was the [Baekhwan] world, that alone would be enough reason to kill them.
“Can you monitor them?”
“I can. But I can’t maintain it for long. Maybe about three hours at most? And if we get too far away, the magic will break.”
“Monitor them. If they don’t do anything, nothing will happen.”
“Hmph. If that’s what you want.”
She didn’t argue and followed my instructions.
Miryeong used five leaves to create a bird with magic. The sparrow made of leaves flew towards the northeast.
“It’s done.”
“Good. Let’s go hunting. You can also tell where the monsters are, right?”
“Yeah. I’ve got it figured out. If we walk to the left for about three minutes, we’ll run into a monster.”
As Miryeong said, we encountered a monster in three minutes.
A Mana-Absorbing Bamboo.
It was a plant-type monster that was rooted in the ground and absorbed the mana and blood of people. A round eye opened in the center of the bamboo. The eye looked directly at me and Miryeong. The eye curved as if it was smiling.
Immediately after, the plants around us rushed towards me and Miryeong. It was one of the Mana-Absorbing Bamboo’s abilities. It could control the surrounding plants and steal the energy of anyone who came into its sight.
“Crimson Wind!”
Miryeong used magic. A red wind blew, cutting and blowing away the surrounding plants. A path opened towards the monster. I didn’t miss the opportunity and charged forward, raising my sword.
The Mana-Absorbing Bamboo abandoned its roots and floated into the air. It was planning to escape with telekinesis.
“You think you can get away just by floating up.”
I kicked off the surrounding trees and chased after the Mana-Absorbing Bamboo, swinging my sword that was rippling with sword energy. The corpse of the Mana-Absorbing Bamboo, split in half, fell to the ground. I retrieved the magic stone and the monster’s eye from inside the bamboo.
