Chapter 4 – The Age of Hunters (3)

Getting hurt during training is inevitable.

When I learned the sword in the other world, I got cut. When I learned joint locks, I broke bones.

Blondie is a regeneration-type Hunter. A minor fracture like this will heal in an instant.

“A theory lesson? Hunter Kim Tae-yang doesn’t exactly seem like the bookish type. Ah, my apologies. I don’t mean to be dismissive. Oh, you like studying…?”

This kid had gotten a little strange.

For the past few days, Blondie had been training with incredible passion. He’d come at me with gritted teeth, especially during sparring.

But today, he suddenly said he wanted a theory lesson.

‘Strange. He doesn’t seem like the type to enjoy theory.’

Then again, most Hunters recruited by guilds have at least a bachelor’s or master’s degree.

‘He likes to study and he likes to work out.’

Kids these days really are different.

I stroked my finger under my nose and smiled. It just goes to show you can learn something even from someone younger.

“How about some audio-visual education today, then?”

For some reason, Blondie’s face lit up. Just a moment ago, he’d been trembling like he was sick.

* * *

Two weeks passed in a flash.

“You’ve worked hard, Hunter Kim Tae-yang.”

“Yes, Coach….”

Blondie’s face was stiff.

The arrogance he’d shown at the beginning had been completely washed away.

The other trainers at the center gave a wry smile when they saw the change in him.

They say if you leave them with me, even a furious wolf will turn into a gentle lamb.

That’s not it. It’s just that my heartfelt instruction finally got through to him.

“And with that, our short training session comes to an end.”

“Short…? Right. It was short.”

He was just a fresh face in the working world who Awakened and started acting like the main character of his own life story, shoulders all puffed up.

But Blondie has now realized the harsh reality of society.

In that respect, I’m probably like a life mentor to him.

“You’re entering an instance dungeon tomorrow, right?”

“Yes, I’ll do my best, just as you’ve taught me.”

“Yes, yes. I have no doubt a Hunter like you will do just fine. The instance dungeon is assigned to the Anyang Resort area. You know where that is, right? Just be there around 9 AM.”

Blondie seemed to flinch at my words. Why?

“Um, excuse me, Coach….”

“Yes.”

“This is a long shot, but I was just wondering….”

“Yes.”

“What are you doing tomorrow…?”

I blinked at his question.

Why would he suddenly ask that? It’s obvious.

There are two reasons I train people so enthusiastically in the first place.

First, to get into a dungeon, you have to support a trainee. And second, money…. No, I don’t feel any greed for material things.

I just hope that the people I teach don’t die. Really. I wonder if Blondie knows what a good person I am?

“I’m going as Hunter Kim Tae-yang’s support tomorrow.”

“……”

“Ah, I didn’t realize you’d be so happy you’d cry.”

I felt my chest swell with pride. Sincerity always finds a way, after all.

* * *

The day of the challenge for Awakening—no, the day of Blondie’s first training run—had dawned.

As I was about to leave for work, my housemate, the lord from another world, spoke to me.

“Mister. You got paid, right?”

“Huh?”

It was true, I had gotten my paycheck.

How in the world did she know? Did she use one of her priestess abilities, like the Eye of Truth?

That couldn’t be.

I wasn’t the only one who lost their mana during the dimensional transfer.

Unless you have a contract with the System established here, you can’t use mana.

That’s the law of the land here.

“Don’t look down on me just because I’m from another world. I had basic modern knowledge uploaded into my brain when I was summoned, you know? So I know what’s what.”

“Know what’s what, my ass. What do you know besides eating?”

It hasn’t been long since I returned from the other world. Naturally, I have no savings, so living expenses are tight.

It was petty to nag her about food, but she eats way too much.

I mean, aren’t three packs of ramen a day enough?

Ah, well, you’d need a bowl of instant rice, of course.

But this girl eats over ten packs of ramen a day. And she always adds rice to the broth.

And the amount she eats keeps increasing.

She’s getting stronger by the second, like some alien race that goes around collecting balls with stars on them. Even at this very moment.

“Unhide folder. In the ‘New Research’ folder, there’s a ‘Crane’ folder, and inside that, ‘Quail’ and ‘Sparrow’ folders.”

Huh?

“Need I say more? Lord of the Semi-Basement, Shin-chan Can’t Stop His Body…”

“Shut up.”

I swear, I didn’t download those videos of my own free will. I was just downloading some movies I’d missed.

And by chance. Purely by chance, they happened to be in the folder.

Unfortunately, while I have no greed for material things, I do have a collector’s impulse, so I started gathering them one by one. Really. That’s all there is to it.

I quietly slid an external hard drive that Katrinne didn’t know about into a drawer.

Thank god she hasn’t seen this one.

There’s nothing amazing on it. Just some animal documentaries. Really. The kind where they aren’t wearing any fur coats.

“I heard that in this world, when you get paid, you’re supposed to buy people long underwear and treat them to delicious food.”

“Be quiet before I treat your forehead to my fist.”

I warned the shameless freeloader not to eye my assets.

“Come on, on a day like this, you have to treat someone, don’t you know?”

“I’m getting ready for work.”

“Hey, Mister. Think about it. Back in our world, when you were homeless, don’t you remember my family feeding you and giving you a place to sleep?”

Katrinne’s eyes grew serious.

Her half-baked knowledge of the modern world was incredibly annoying.

“At the very least, you should buy me a cup of noodles, right? Huh?”

Katrinne held up one finger. Then, as if feeling that number was too small, she held up three fingers.

“……”

Noticing my expression, Katrinne tentatively folded one finger down.

“Right? Am I wrong?”

I let out a small sigh.

‘Cup noodles again.’

I quietly called a Chinese restaurant. I ordered a large jjajangmyeon and a small sweet and sour pork.

Thinking back, I really had fed her nothing but ramen. All because I had no money.

A day like this had to happen at least once.

“You’re about to taste a dish from the heavens.”

At my words, Katrinne’s eyes sparkled with anticipation.

Having splurged on jjajangmyeon for Katrinne, I left the house.

To be honest, feeding a high-class meal like jjajangmyeon to that useless glutton was nothing short of a gamble.

Still, there was a reason I had decided to splurge and spend a small fortune.

Half a year had already passed since I returned to the modern world.

The fact that I hadn’t been able to provide her with a single proper meal in all that time weighed on my conscience a little.

When I thought about it, thanks to Katrinne, I never had to worry about food in the other world.

‘With this, we’re even.’

Of course, there won’t be a next time.

* * *

I almost didn’t make it into the dungeon.

To think Blondie would suddenly fall ill.

Worried, I went all the way to his house.

For me, this was a dungeon exploration I’d been waiting weeks for.

To Awaken quickly, I need frequent contact with dungeons.

The only way for a regular trainer like me to enter a dungeon was as a porter.

When I got there, Blondie was groaning in bed with a fever-reducing patch on his forehead.

“Are you sick?”

“Yes, Coach. I’m sorry….”

“Can’t be helped. You’re sick, after all.”

I thought I saw the corner of Blondie’s mouth twitch upward slightly. Must have been my imagination, right?

“They say exercise makes the man.”

*Click.*

I locked the door.

“If we can’t go to the dungeon, then so be it. It might be meaningless for a Hunter who’s weak enough to catch a cold anyway. How about you and I just train together for the rest of our lives? Your house is nice and big, Hunter Kim Tae-yang. You must have been born with a silver spoon, huh? Because of the blonde hair? Haha, why aren’t you laughing? It was a joke.”

Our Blondie is a regeneration type. He’d just claimed to be sick, but suddenly, his cold vanished in a matter of minutes.

Regeneration types really are something else. So convenient. Surely he wasn’t faking it, right?

* * *

The Anyang Resort used to be a place teeming with people.

But then a Gate opened at the resort’s entrance.

Because they failed to close the Gate in time, the area was eroded by otherworldly energy and transformed into a dungeon.

The land, now flowing with demonic energy, became uninhabitable for humans, and neither plants nor animals could grow.

The only things that took root here were rare creatures never before seen by modern man.

The street food stalls that once lined the front of the resort were gone.

In their place were weapon workshops, a market for buying magic stones, and an entire economy that revolved around Hunters.

“Buying scratched weapons and armor!”

“Step right up, it’s not every day you see a deal like this! Now, this potion here….”

At the edge of the demonic territory, there are merchants.

Despite not knowing when a monster might emerge from the dungeon or what effects the demonic boundary might have on their bodies, many people opened shops here to make a living.

“Hwarang Guild, two people for an instance dungeon training run, confirmed. Is there a high-rank Hunter accompanying you? If not, you can only go up to the first floor.”

“Yes, the first floor is fine.”

The guard at the dungeon entrance checked Blondie’s Hunter license.

I also had an identification form issued by the gym.

The guards are soldiers employed by the government.

Their role is to assist rookie Hunters who call for rescue or to arrest Hunters who commit crimes.

In other words, they’re armed police.

“Good hunting.”

With a farewell from the guard, we stepped into the dungeon.

“Coach, this feels weird.”

Blondie muttered, looking at the blue veil hanging at the dungeon’s entrance.

The dungeon entrance is made of mana.

“Just think of it as stepping into water. Of course, you can breathe once you’re inside, so don’t worry. Ah, the oxygen concentration will be a bit different, though. It contains mana.”

With that, I stepped through the dungeon entrance first. As my body passed through the veil, it shimmered like ripples on water.

Blondie soon followed behind me.

With every inhalation, fresh air filled my lungs.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I could feel the cells all over my body awakening.

“How is it, Hunter Kim Tae-yang? Fresh air, isn’t it?”

“Ah, yes…. Though it smells a bit metallic.”

The air inside a dungeon purifies itself quickly.

So, the lingering smell of blood meant someone had been doing some butchering nearby.

The source of the smell wasn’t far.

Just then, someone was walking toward the entrance.

He looked as if he had showered in blood.

“Oh, Coach Hyunbin. Here for a training run?”

“Looks like you’ve been painting the town red, Hunter Kim Cheol-su. Was the haul any good?”

“Painting the town red? Ah. Hehehe. I’m still not used to the sword, so I keep getting drenched in blood. Made a decent amount today, so I’m heading out. Coach, wanna grab a drink later?”

“It’ll be difficult today. It’s the first day of training. Ah, and like I said before, Hunter Kim Cheol-su, you’re good with a sword, but your angles are bad. That’s why it splatters everywhere. It’s because you lack basic training. You need to swing the same way every time. You should come by the center. We could fix that with just a little training.”

Hearing me say this with a smile, Kim Cheol-su’s pupils trembled as if an earthquake had struck.

Blondie wore an expression that said he understood exactly how Kim Cheol-su felt.

Why? What is it? Is there something I don’t know?

“No, no. One can’t just be taught everything from A to Z. I’ll get the hang of it soon enough. Ah, look at the time! Well, next time, then! Oh, and our vice guild master said to be sure to call the number on that business card I gave you if you Awaken! Yes, well, see you!”

With that, Kim Cheol-su quickly made his exit.

I felt a little disappointed and smacked my lips.

If he signed up for a training package, I’d get a commission. It’s more profitable than just training him.

Of course, I have no greed for material things.

If I train someone, I can participate as their support. In other words, it means more chances to Awaken.

If a peerless powerhouse from another world like me Awakens, I could, without a word of a lie, close pretty much any dungeon.

Literally, I could bring peace to the people and security to the nation. I definitely don’t want to Awaken for things like popularity, money, or women.

So let’s just Awaken already. I have a good feeling about today.

-Connected to the System.

Huh?