Chapter 9

F-Rank dungeon, ‘Krakto’s Domain’.

There are countless reasons why this dungeon is unpopular.

The emergence of Krakto, a flying-type magic beast.

Its high difficulty compared to other dungeons of the same rank.

The poor value of its byproducts relative to that difficulty.

And so forth.

Listing them all one by one would be endless, so I’ll skip the details.

Siyoon wouldn’t have come here either if he wasn’t a Gunner.

‘Though in reality, I’m an Enhancer, not a Gunner.’

Regardless.

A dungeon this unpopular naturally suffers from a severe lack of exploration data.

Which also means there’s a high probability of finding something hidden.

‘The only key location in this dungeon is the boss’s nest. I can’t search the entire area, so I’ll just check here and get out.’

Siyoon began climbing the peak.

Even though his wounds had healed, his body had still suffered severe injuries.

His stamina had dropped significantly, leaving him short of breath in no time.

-Kkiek!

-Kiak! Kkaek!

As evening fell, a few normal specimens flew toward the peak.

With fish skewered on their talons, they seemed to be a foraging party.

“Tsk, what a pain.”

Tang, taang.

Siyoon fired his pistol, shooting them down.

His stamina was depleted, but his finger strength remained.

‘Maybe it’s because I just fought the boss, but they look slower than usual.’

Before, he had to focus intently on his aim just to hit them.

But now, the bullets struck true the moment he aimed and fired.

Was it because of his increased stats and experience?

Feeling the change so immediately made becoming a hunter feel real all over again.

‘That’s a good thing.’

After firing the pistol a few more times, the surrounding sky was clear once more.

“I’ll have to give up on those.”

He holstered his pistol and cast his gaze downward.

The carcasses of the magic beasts shot dead had fallen far below.

It was too far down to bother collecting even their eyeballs.

“Phew!”

After several tens of minutes of climbing while alternating between grabbing trees and rocks,

he finally reached the summit.

Fortunately, it was a lower peak compared to the others.

Which allowed him to climb up relatively quickly.

“True to form for magic beasts, the nest is piled high with bones.”

The peak he had worked so hard to climb.

The boss Krakto’s nest was filled with pure white bones.

They varied in size, suggesting it primarily fed on animals and fish.

Jalgeureuk.

Suppressing his revulsion, Siyoon walked inside.

The nest’s area wasn’t very large.

Then again, this peak was smaller than the others to begin with.

“Seriously… does it just live in a nest with nothing but bones, without a single branch?”

It might be called a nest, but there was no sign of any actual structure it had built.

Don’t birds usually build their homes with twigs and fur?

Thinking about that, it made no sense.

It meant the creature simply sprawled out on the bones whether it was sleeping or eating.

“…Hmm?”

As Siyoon sifted through the piles of bones, a peculiar sensation washed over his senses.

It was an indescribable feeling.

As if something was grabbing him and pulling him forward.

Siyoon moved before that strange intuition could fade.

Every time he took a weighted step, eudeudeuk, the bones shattered beneath him.

But he didn’t care.

He had already killed the master of this place.

As for any approaching Kraktos, simply shooting them dead would be enough.

Siyoon had the ability to do just that.

Banjjak.

As he walked toward the center of the peak, something glinted among the bones.

It radiated a vivid green light that stood out even against the evening sunset.

Filled with a refreshing energy reminiscent of a fresh sprout, Siyoon instinctively reached out his hand.

“Is this… a stone?”

What he carefully picked up was a small stone.

It was an oval small enough to be hidden within a clenched fist.

But it was clearly no ordinary object; the moment he grasped it, he felt a strange current flowing from it.

It was the same energy used when activating ‘Enhancement’.

The moment he realized it was similar to mana, a message popped up.

[ You have acquired ‘Krakto’s Gemstone’. ]

“…Huh?”

Was it an illusion?

For a moment, he thought he had seen wrong.

For the System to pop up at a time like this.

Siyoon pinched his cheek, realizing that this was indeed reality.

“To think there really was a hidden item.”

Siyoon’s face lit up.

Not a single person on the community forums had ever mentioned finding an item in the nest.

Which meant Siyoon was the first to acquire it.

Climbing all the way up here was worth it.

Rejoicing, he checked the item’s information.

+

【 Krakto’s Gemstone 】

Rank: Rare

—A stone formed when a Krakto egg failed to hatch and underwent a morphological change.

It contains wind-attribute mana.

+

A Rare-Rank item, no less.

Furthermore, it even contained wind-attribute mana.

“…Jackpot.”

A shiver ran through the hand holding the stone.

It was an incredible object, enough to make the hair all over his body stand on end.

Items like this were usually used as materials for armaments or artifacts.

Because they inherently contained attribute mana.

Normally, imbuing something with a specific attribute required magical processing.

But by using a ‘Krakto’s Gemstone’, such magical processing became unnecessary.

Even from a cost-reduction perspective, it was an excellent material.

“Haha!”

Siyoon burst into laughter.

It was pure joy.

All the suffering and hardship he had endured while clearing the dungeon alone.

He felt as if all of it had been washed away in an instant.

He could sell this stone, but using it himself would be just as good.

Since Siyoon possessed ‘Enhancement’, experimenting with it wouldn’t be a bad idea.

Through this experience, Siyoon realized the need to better equip himself.

‘If it weren’t for the bullets enhanced to +2, it would have been much harder than this.’

The importance of equipment.

Especially for Siyoon.

Because he had to rely entirely on his ‘Enhancement’ skill for both offense and defense.

The weakness of his equipment was directly tied to his own survival.

‘I should pay more attention to my equipment and experiment a bit more with the Enhancement skill.’

Siyoon clenched his fist tightly.

Now it was time to consolidate his gains.

* * *

After exiting the dungeon.

He first focused on recovering his exhausted body.

Siyoon had pushed himself quite hard during this dungeon run.

Combat aside, he had been running around the forest all day.

His stamina had increased, but Siyoon’s base physical fitness was still abysmal.

Climbing up and down the uneven forest terrain and scaling a peak guaranteed he would come down with something.

Furthermore, he had fought battles and sustained severe injuries.

Even if he had recovered with potions, that fact remained unchanged.

So Siyoon headed straight to the hospital.

‘If I get sick, I’m the only one who loses out.’

He had seen cases where neglecting it led to much higher medical bills later.

Treating it before it got to that point was the best approach.

“You say your abdomen was pierced by a magic beast?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm… I’ve examined you, but I haven’t found any particular problems.”

The hospital gave him a clean bill of health.

The doctor examining the affected area was amazed.

“Did you use a potion?”

“Yes.”

He couldn’t reveal its rank.

The doctor seemed to have guessed as much.

He said with a smile.

“You must have used a quite good potion. It’s rare for a wound to heal this cleanly.”

“Haha.”

Siyoon smiled awkwardly at the doctor’s words.

Since he couldn’t exactly say he had used a lowest-rank potion.

However, that didn’t mean everything was completely normal.

“There are no abnormalities, but it would be best for you to rest for a while.”

“It looks like it’s fully healed, but do I still need to rest?”

“Yes. Everyone thinks using a potion is the end of it, but potions aren’t a cure-all. There are cases where healed wounds reopen from overexertion.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“Haha, it’s not something most people know.”

Perhaps because Siyoon was willing to listen.

The doctor shared a few more stories about potions.

To summarize his stories, potions were not a cure-all.

They healed wounds in emergencies, but that was it.

Hastily healed wounds could reopen.

To use a metaphor, it was like stitching a wound shut with thread.

The story changed with top-rank potions.

But since people like us would be lucky to see one once in our lifetimes, he told me to take care of my body.

‘He’s a good doctor.’

He had explained it in quite a bit of detail.

He was a talkative but deeply caring doctor.

Siyoon expressed his sincere gratitude.

“Thank you for telling me.”

“You must have lost a fair amount of blood, so drink water frequently and make sure to eat three nutritious meals a day.”

“Yes. I will make sure to do as you said.”

He was a rare, good doctor.

‘Since it’s sincere advice, I should probably listen to it.’

Leaving the hospital after the examination filled with the doctor’s advice.

Siyoon followed those words very well.

Separating rest from work was a long-standing habit of his.

‘But I can’t just rest the whole time. Even if I’m not hunting, I need to move.’

He had no intention of overdoing it.

But Siyoon still had a lot to do.

Because he had to deal with the byproducts.

‘I’ll skip the daytime and go out at night to handle it.’

After his activities had been featured on the news once.

Siyoon’s actions had become much more cautious.

He planned to avoid the daytime when many people were out and about, and move at night instead.

* * *

‘Let’s move as inconspicuously as possible.’

Siyoon worked diligently over the course of several days.

He mainly sold Krakto’s eyeballs.

His sales channels were also diverse.

One time, the Hunter Association.

They had a separate department for purchasing byproducts, making it quite easy.

The next time, he visited a privately run purchasing shop.

This was to minimize tracking and traces.

‘Krakto is a magic beast that F-Rank hunters avoid. If I sell too many eyeballs at once, it might raise suspicions.’

Siyoon had nearly 90 pairs of Krakto’s eyeballs.

Along with feathers, talons, teeth, tongues, beaks, and more.

He had brought easily harvestable byproducts.

Just taking the eyeballs would have been a waste.

But he couldn’t strip them entirely.

So he took the parts that were profitable and easy to harvest.

There were many cases of F-Rank hunters coming to sell Krakto’s byproducts.

After all, Kraktos didn’t only appear in ‘Krakto’s Domain’.

But he wasn’t a group.

There were no cases of an individual selling 90 pairs at once.

Furthermore, the amount of other byproducts was by no means small.

Selling them all in one place could invite unnecessary suspicion.

‘If it were a popular magic beast, it might be different, but at least Krakto isn’t. So I have to be more careful’

That was why he split the sales across several places over multiple occasions.

This was also why he deliberately moved at night.

The darkness made it easy to hide his appearance.

Fortunately, there were many shops that purchased magic beast byproducts.

“Huh? These are the boss Krakto’s eyeballs, aren’t they? Catching this thing is impressive.”

“…”

“Seeing your unfamiliar face, you look like a rookie in this field. I’m looking forward to this. I’ll specially pay you a bit higher than the average market price.”

“Why?”

“It means you should come visit me again next time. If you don’t, oh well. It’s a small investment.”

“An investment…”

The last shop he visited among them.

The owner, recognizing the boss Krakto’s eyeballs, offered a warm smile.

The price he actually paid was also 20% higher than the market rate.

“Thank you.”

“It’s nothing. Make sure you survive and come back next time so my investment pays off.”

Siyoon simply offered his thanks and left the shop without another word.

‘Still, I managed to sell them all in the end.’

His heavy pockets had grown lighter.

By that much, Siyoon’s bank account had grown plumper.

[ Deposit – 20,000,000 won ]

[ Total Account Balance: 153,550,753 won ]

A satisfied smile naturally formed on his face as he checked the numbers on his smartphone.

Selling all the eyeballs, which fetched up to 50,000 won each, was quite profitable.

90 pairs brought in 70 million won.

The boss Krakto’s eyeball was worth 20 million won each.

On top of that, he also sold byproducts like feathers.

Adding all of that up resulted in a small fortune.

“To think I made this much.”

Siyoon marveled.

It was enough to make his head spin a little.

100 million.

Plus an additional 50 million, totaling 150 million.

For Siyoon, who used to drift between part-time jobs, it was a number hard to even imagine.

For just one run of an F-Rank dungeon, it was a substantial amount.

“With this, I can order delivery food without any burden.”

It was funny how delivery food was the first thing that came to mind.

But what else is there to life?

Eating delicious food and staying warm was enough.

Delivery food he would have agonized over before ordering.

Being able to order it so leisurely was a kind of happiness in itself.

Soon enough, he would be able to easily enjoy things much greater than this.

But this small happiness he could enjoy right now was still precious to him.

“Ah, I should stop by a convenience store before that.”

He planned to prepare a bit more thoroughly for his next dungeon run.

He intended to buy more items and attempt Enhancement with them this time.

* * *

On his way home, Siyoon bought various things at a convenience store.

From the drink he had before to over-the-counter medicine and simple protein bars.

All of this was to be used as materials for Enhancement.

Siyoon spent the next few days enhancing various objects.

As long as he didn’t engage in strenuous activity, he spent his daytime doing Enhancement.

“Phew, Enhancement is harder than I thought.”

Siyoon wiped his sweat.

The items he had created by squeezing out his mana.

The results of his Enhancement lay scattered around him.