Chapter 5

Chapter 5

* * *

[The conditions for using the skill, ‘Ruler’s Garden,’ have been met.]

[The skill, ‘Ruler’s Garden,’ is now active.]

[Status window is being updated.]

[Awakened Skill: Ruler’s Garden(?)]

▼

[Awakened Skill: Ruler’s Garden(S)]

<Skill Description>

Ruler’s Garden(S)

You are the ruler, and this world is the ruler’s garden.

Therefore, this place is your garden, and all beings dwelling in the garden must rightfully pledge their loyalty to the ruler. However, one who wears a crown must bear its weight. The power of a king who has not yet held a coronation cannot reach the weight of a thousand gold.

※The higher the intelligence and rank of a lifeform, the more difficult the domination condition becomes.

<Status Window>

Name / Age: Yoon Seohee / 27

Awakened: Y

Rank: EX

Awakened Skills:

―Ruler’s Garden(S)

└Skill Target: Yoon Juyeong (B → S)

―Mana * Star(C)

* * *

As far as I remember, there was light.

…Saying it like that makes me feel like I’m reciting scripture, but there really was light. The moment I shouted the skill’s name with a do-or-die mindset, the world around me was instantly engulfed in white light.

And that was it. The light that had spread across the world in an instant vanished just as quickly.

So in the end, what remained was the Chimera still shooting its tentacles at me, me standing there dumbfounded and blinking blankly, and Hunter Yoon Juyeong slowly rising to his feet, holding one of the Chimera’s tentacles in his hand.

‘What the hell is this…’

Whatever had happened, Hunter Yoon Juyeong, who slowly got up from his spot, had an abdomen completely clean without a single wound.

Could my skill really be a healing skill?

I thought about it while still dazed, then recalled the information that had poured into my mind the moment I used the skill. So, the description of my skill was definitely…

<Skill Description>

Ruler’s Garden(S)

You are the ruler, and this world is the ruler’s garden.

Therefore, this place is your garden, and all beings dwelling in the garden must rightfully pledge their loyalty to the ruler. However, one who wears a crown must bear its weight. The power of a king who has not yet held a coronation cannot reach the weight of a thousand gold.

※The higher the intelligence and rank of a lifeform, the more difficult the domination condition becomes.

As soon as I thought of it, the skill description appeared right before my eyes. Thanks to that, I read through the description of my skill again with trembling eyes. Ruler, garden, loyalty…

‘What is this.’

In the end, I lifted my head again, still dazed, and stared at Hunter Yoon Juyeong.

Hunter Yoon Juyeong was looking at the tentacle in his hand with his brows slightly furrowed, as if something displeased him. For a very brief moment, he tightened his lips as if pondering something. Then, not long after, he raised his head again to gaze upward.

Naturally, that was where the Chimera was, throwing a fit trying to pull back the tentacle caught in Hunter Yoon Juyeong’s grip.

“Master.”

Still fixing his gaze on the Chimera, Hunter Yoon Juyeong spoke in a low voice.

“I’ll go deal with that noisy thing first. Would you mind waiting a moment?”

“…Uh, yes? Yes… Ah, no, wait. You, you’re talking to me…?”

“I’ll take that as permission and go handle it quickly.”

Hunter Yoon Juyeong, who had still been staring at the Chimera through the narrow gap between the rocks, gave me a brief, quiet smile.

And then he vanished.

“Huh?”

Hunter Yoon Juyeong was gone, the tentacle that had been aimed at me was gone, and even the Chimera that had been staring at me with those disgusting eyes from above was gone. And then—

—Kyaaeeeek!!

“I told you, you’re noisy. If you’re a mere creature that can’t even take responsibility if you damage my master’s eardrums, then at least die quietly.”

An incomprehensible roar, a scream that was (probably) the Chimera’s, and Hunter Yoon Juyeong’s voice—which sounded like he had completely changed as a person—echoed from beyond the rocks.

“……”

Every single thing was a situation where I had no idea what was going on, but even so, the instinct that had saved my life several times now was shouting at me frantically.

Something was seriously fucked.

The Red Chimera was dead, and the dungeon gate reopened after a little while. And Hunter Yoon Juyeong and I had survived. All of this was because of my skill, “Ruler’s Garden,” which I’d used as a last-ditch gamble in that final moment.

Yeah, I’m not denying that. Clearly, if I hadn’t used that skill in that moment, Hunter Yoon Juyeong and I would have been found side by side as corpses inside the dungeon.

But even so, that doesn’t mean I can accept the current situation.

“Master.”

“Hey, Hunter Yoon Juyeong. Please, snap out of it. You want to call ‘Master’ to someone who’s just a C-Rank hunter, someone you’ve only seen a few times in your life…?”

Ever since the moment “Ruler’s Garden” was activated, Hunter Yoon Juyeong had been treating me literally as his “Master.”

Honestly, at first I clung to a vague hope, desperately thinking it must be because my skill’s effect was still ongoing, but…

The dungeon gate opened, we got checked and examined by the doctors waiting at the entrance, then we were bombarded with all kinds of questions from the Dungeon Management Committee, and even now, heading home, it was still going on. At this point, my hope had been completely crushed for a long time.

‘No way, someone who awakened to S-Rank can’t shake off a single skill from a C-Rank hunter?’

No matter how high-rank a skill is, if the user’s own rank is low, it can’t fully exert its effect—that’s common sense in the hunter industry.

In that sense, even if my “Ruler’s Garden” was an S-Rank skill, the fact that it affected Hunter Yoon Juyeong, who had awakened to S-Rank, was an extremely special case. No, honestly, it’s more accurate to say it should be impossible.

For a hunter, rank is an infinitely high and thick wall. Even just having a single + attached or not makes a massive difference, so the gap between C-Rank and S-Rank goes without saying.

Yeah, so. Under normal circumstances, there’s no way Hunter Yoon Juyeong should have been caught by my skill. Even if he was, it should have only applied right then, during that combat situation. But…

“What are you saying… ‘Just a C-Rank hunter’? Master is not someone to be belittled with such words.”

“That’s not what’s important right now, okay? Hey, Hunter Yoon Juyeong. You seem to not understand what’s going on because it’s so sudden, but you’re an S-Rank hunter.”

As I spoke, I glanced at my status window.

<Status Window>

Name / Age: Yoon Seohee / 27

Awakened: Y

Rank: EX

Awakened Skills:

―Ruler’s Garden (S)

└Skill Target: Yoon Juyeong (S)

―Mana * Star (C)

‘Yoon Juyeong… S.’

As a rule, in every awakener’s status window, what’s inside the parentheses is either a Chinese character or definitely a rank.

Even the ones with Chinese characters are only in the Eastern sphere. In the West, or places without a Chinese character culture, or even for people without Chinese-character names, the parentheses in their status windows exist solely for ranks.

So, what that S next to the name Yoon Juyeong means is clear.

S-Rank. The precious, oh-so-precious S-Rank hunters that barely number fewer than ten fingers even in Korea alone.

‘I’ve heard stories of hunters who undergo a rank awakening after a life-threatening crisis… but I never thought it would be Hunter Yoon Juyeong’s story.’

Generally, when people think of “awakening,” they think of the “first awakening.” The first awakening is exactly what it sounds like. The first awakening. In other words, becoming an “awakener.”

Scholars babble on about all sorts of things regarding this—whether it’s a transformation into a new human race, a borrowing of a game system, or that the administrator clearly lacks creativity—but honestly, that part doesn’t matter to me.

Anyway, what’s important is that the rank received during the first awakening rarely changes. You can add a + or even a ++ through blood, sweat, and tears, but actually rising to a higher rank is extremely rare.

However, such rank changes are “rare,” not “nonexistent.” It’s a truly rare case, and honestly, you could say it’s practically impossible, but there are clearly people in the world who have changed the rank they first received.

For example, in the United States, there’s a hunter who was assigned A-Rank during their first awakening but achieved a rank awakening to S-Rank through arduous effort and some special trigger. And right here in Korea, there’s one hunter who went from A+ to S-Rank.

But if you look at all these stories, you’ll notice there’s no case of a B-Rank hunter becoming an S-Rank hunter in one go.

A-Rank to S-Rank, B-Rank to A-Rank. All the cases so far have been people rising one rank above, but Hunter Yoon Juyeong is different.

He had leaped up a full two ranks in one go, achieving the highest rank among all hunters — S-Rank.

“Surely, becoming an S-Rank hunter would have given you some resistance… There’s no way you’d fall for a C-Rank hunter’s mental domination skill. If you’d just come to your senses, that is.”

Mental domination skills are weak enough as it is. It’s not easy to fully control a sentient being in the first place, and even if you do manage it, the effect only lasts about five to six minutes at most. Some people can hold it for as long as ten minutes, but those are mostly S-Rank hunters.

Right. So, no matter how I thought about it, it was strange that Hunter Yoon Juyeong, who had awakened to S-Rank, would fall for the skill of a mere C-Rank hunter like me.

“So—”

“Master.”

Hunter Yoon Juyeong murmured in a low voice. I forgot what I was about to say and just stared up at him blankly.

Beneath the pitch-black night sky, the serious face of a handsome young man, lit by the dim glow of a streetlamp, was quietly gazing at me.

“This is just speculation, but… it was none other than you, Master, who made me an S-Rank hunter.”

“…Huh?”

Hunter Yoon Juyeong’s face remained serious, without a trace of a smile.