Early dawn, Gang Jinsu came outside.
He walked for quite some time before turning his head to look around his surroundings.
After confirming that there was nothing, he entered a secluded alleyway.
“It’s been a while, Mr. Public Official.”
Two men appeared before Gang Jinsu, who had entered the alley; one was a hulking man, and the other had a youthful face.
The hulking man opened his mouth first.
His face was full of scars.
Already having a rough, fierce face, the scars made him look even more savage.
“Ah, Mr. Taehun. You arrived early?”
Gang Jinsu greeted the man in front of him with a slight smile. He also offered brief greetings to the one who had come with the man.
The scarred man’s name was Ji Taehun, and he was a Hunter.
The person he had brought with him was his beloved son.
Like his father, Ji Taehun, the son was also a Hunter.
“So what’s the sudden matter? Calling me so urgently like this.”
Once their greetings were finished, Ji Taehun immediately got to the main point.
This meeting had come about because Gang Jinsu had contacted him first.
“Judging by your expression, it doesn’t look like this is anything good either? Heh heh.”
Ji Taehun put emphasis on the word “either.” Revealing his yellowed teeth, he grinned widely for good measure.
He was currently active as a C-rank Hunter and belonged to a guild.
On the outside, he appeared to be a normal Hunter, but the reality was different.
For starters, the guild he belonged to was anything but normal.
The guild Ji Taehun belonged to was the Heukil Guild.
It was only called a guild; it was not an officially licensed place.
Nevertheless, the guild operated smoothly.
Because there were quite a few people who wanted the Heukil Guild.
It was doing work that helped people.
Of course, it wasn’t legal work.
It was a guild that handled jobs like a fixer, taking care of all sorts of dirty and unspeakable troubles on behalf of others.
Ji Taehun had entrusted himself and his son to such a guild.
He had lived a rough life even before the world changed like this.
Calling it a rough life was nothing more than having done work similar to what he did now, but that experience had put him in a position where he could make a name for himself in the Heukil Guild.
The world had already come to this pass, and strong people were not born special.
The one who survives is the strong person.
Taehun had lived remembering those words ever since the Cataclysm occurred.
But as time passed, he realized that surviving alone wasn’t everything.
It was the existence of his son.
He was guiding his son, who had been born when Taehun was already late in years, and building up his experience so that the boy could survive in the world to come.
And now.
“I don’t know what the job is this time, but it’s the same as always, right? Instead, for this one, I want something other than money. Is that possible?”
He hadn’t yet heard the details of the request, but fixer work was surprisingly predictable.
Saying so, Taehun brought his face close to Gang Jinsu and spoke in a low voice.
“My son is still stuck at F-rank. I’d like to have his rank raised to D-rank. Jinsu, someone of your standing should be able to manage that, shouldn’t you?”
It was a request to raise his son’s Hunter rank.
Ji Taehun’s son, Ji Seongmin, was an F-rank Hunter.
There was E-rank above F-rank, but Taehun had mentioned D-rank.
It was a request to raise him by two whole ranks.
In truth, E-rank didn’t mean much.
Freshmen who had just entered the Hunter Academy were immediately granted E-rank, so there was practically no difference between E and F.
But his son’s weak heart seemed to hold him back, and he repeatedly failed to promote to E-rank.
Only by becoming a D-rank Hunter would his son be recognized as a proper Hunter, so Taehun always worried about him.
That was why he was now making a request that was anything but.
If he completed the request successfully, he wanted his son promoted to D-rank.
It was a sort of deal.
D-rank was the minimum qualification to apply to become a public official Hunter.
At the very least, he wanted to set up a safety net so that when he was gone someday, his son could survive on his own.
That was why he asked.
No, it was closer to semi-extortion than a request.
Gang Jinsu was not unaware of this either.
“You know the kind of jobs I always ask for. Well, if this goes well, I’ll see what I can do.”
And the answer he wanted came from the other’s mouth.
From Gang Jinsu’s position, easily raising someone else’s Hunter rank was difficult. In fact, it was nearly impossible.
But for this matter, he had a reliable person behind him.
It was Kim Suho.
Who was Kim Suho?
Was he not the one destined to lead the Shinsung Guild, which would one day become the number one guild in the country?
Such a great man was his classmate from the academy.
And.
‘Kim Suho also wants to step on Lee Ganghyeon after all this time.’
In short, there was no difference than having Kim Suho backing this matter.
If things went well, adjusting a rank would be easy.
“It’s the same kind of job as always. So, will you do it?”
When Gang Jinsu spoke confidently, Taehun finally grinned.
He hadn’t yet heard what the job was, but it was always more or less the same anyway.
“I like how straightforward you are. Alright, let’s hear the details.”
From now on, it was going to be a conversation between just the two of them.
* * *
Taehun headed to the dungeon with his son.
To carry out the request Gang Jinsu had told him about.
“By the way, the target is just a measly F-rank Hunter.”
Ji Taehun clicked his tongue.
The request to raise his son’s rank had been a shot in the dark.
He had expected to be told that it was impossible, and even Taehun himself thought so.
But from Gang Jinsu’s mouth came the answer that if he completed the job well, he would even raise his son’s rank.
Just how difficult a request would warrant such a reward?
That thought crossed his mind for a moment.
But when the details of the request were revealed, the target was merely an F-rank Hunter.
And they weren’t even asking to kill him.
The content was to inflict as much pain as possible, cutting off his arms and legs if need be, and bring him back alive.
They even said that if he contacted them after the job, they would handle the cleanup.
‘It’s this easy?’
He had even double-checked to make sure he had heard correctly.
At that, Gang Jinsu had nodded and asked him to film the target writhing in agony as well.
‘That bastard’s crazy too.’
Though he was in no position to talk, having accepted such a request, what kind of grudge could they hold to put in an order like this?
No, could an F-rank Hunter even do something worth holding a grudge over?
Of course, it wasn’t a difficult task, so he had naturally accepted.
Who would refuse when completing this job could raise his son’s rank?
‘He definitely said he was in the Orc Dungeon, right?’
Gang Jinsu, who had commissioned him, was a Hunter working at the Awakener Center.
Although he was a low-ranking official, he was a public official of sorts, which came with various advantages.
One of them was knowing where the target of the request was, as was the case now.
“Entering the dungeon so early in the morning. What a diligent fellow.”
He liked diligent fellows.
But this time, the target had the bad luck of crossing him.
He himself had accepted a request, so it couldn’t be helped, but inwardly he prayed for the target’s soul.
Entering the entrance of the dungeon, he checked his equipment once more.
First, he checked his son’s equipment, then checked all of his own as well.
While doing his final checks, Taehun cautioned his son.
“Seongmin, you have to stay right behind Dad, okay? You understand?”
“Yeah… A-ah, Dad….”
Ji Seongmin answered from behind in a faltering voice.
Finishing the checks, Ji Taehun entered the dungeon interior.
From now on, it was real combat.
Even while walking inside, he constantly checked to make sure his son was following well.
His son was extremely weak-hearted.
Still, he believed that if he kept bringing him along, his son would someday earn his keep as a Hunter.
He was bringing his son along like this now while waiting for that day.
Several minutes had passed since walking with his son.
He could spot another person’s figure in the distance.
Stopping at a slightly removed distance, Ji Taehun infused mana into his eyes.
Once infused with mana, targets at a distance appeared as though they were right before him.
‘.......’
The opponent’s name was Lee Ganghyeon.
He had heard he was an F-rank Hunter.
His class was Necromancer.
According to what he had heard from Gang Jinsu, he was supposedly accompanied by a Skeleton….
The target he was watching from afar also had something that looked like a summon walking beside him.
The summon was covered by a robe and mask, so it was impossible to tell exactly what it was.
Still, it didn’t matter.
‘It’s probably a Skeleton, just as I heard.’
Perhaps that man had dressed his summon in such things to hide his own lack of skill.
Necromancer wasn’t a class that garnered much attention.
It was a class that could summon and control an undead army.
It sounded truly amazing, but in reality, it was neglected.
Because even for a capable Necromancer, there was a clear limit to the undead he could summon.
Because as the rank of the undead grew higher, the number he could command soon reached its limit.
Currently, a Necromancer could only stably demonstrate his abilities with undead up to C-rank at best.
Going beyond that was too burdensome to maintain.
And there was another major problem.
Above all, the Necromancer himself was directly exposed to danger.
This was a chronic problem for all summoners; no matter how strong the summon was, it meant nothing if the summoner was eliminated.
Well, unless one had a lot of money and invested heavily in one’s own equipment, the guy before his eyes was just a greenhorn.
‘His gear is subpar too, so there shouldn’t be any big problems.’
The opponent wasn’t exactly competent, and at most, he was an F-rank Hunter who only had one F-rank Skeleton with him.
There didn’t seem to be any major variables.
‘This is completely easy pickings.’
The wariness he had at first gradually faded.
He only had to decide how to handle that guy.
However, he couldn’t understand why an F-rank Hunter had come to a D-rank Orc Dungeon, but it wasn’t a big problem.
Because there were occasionally guys like that.
Hunters who went around picking up the byproducts of monsters others had hunted.
Perhaps that man was one of them too.
‘By the way, why are there so many Orc corpses?’
Orc corpses were strewn all over the dungeon.
‘Hmm.’
Even just the Orc corpses visible to the eye were tremendous in number.
Someone had probably come first and hunted them.
There was no way the F-rank Hunter before his eyes and the Skeleton he had summoned had hunted the Orcs.
It was unimaginable.
It seemed several parties had probably come through.
‘Let’s watch a bit longer.’
No matter how easy a job it was, there was no harm in being careful.
Ji Taehun continued to observe the target.
As expected, even after continued observation, nothing changed.
He couldn’t see the target hunting.
‘Well, of course he couldn’t hunt Orcs.’
Rather, he appeared relaxed, checking his smartphone.
‘What?’
He had entered a dungeon that didn’t match his rank and was far too relaxed.
And before long, he moved.
He exited the dungeon.
Taehun too gathered his son and chased after Lee Ganghyeon.
Shortly after, Lee Ganghyeon entered a dungeon.
‘A Skeleton Dungeon?’
It was even an F-rank dungeon.
A dungeon where only simple Skeletons appeared without any dangerous entities.
Had he finally come to a dungeon matching his rank?
Ji Taehun thought so, but also felt that an opportunity had arrived.
If it was an F-rank dungeon, he wouldn’t need to worry about surrounding monsters and could simply take care of his target.
Now was the time to execute the plan in earnest.
Taehun entered the dungeon openly with his son.
He intended to subdue the target immediately.
And.
The moment he entered the dungeon, Ji Taehun saw.
That the man before him, Lee Ganghyeon, was looking straight at him.
‘Huh?’
His bewilderment lasted only a moment.
A warning bell blared in his head: this was dangerous.
In the moment his body reacted and raised his weapon.
Thuk—
He felt pain in his side.
“D-dad…?”
And from behind, his son shouting in a startled voice.
Enduring the pain, Ji Taehun turned his head to the side.
There was a familiar-looking figure.
The summon of the man he had seen earlier.
The black robe and mask eerily suited it.
He could even see a sword emanating a black gleam.
“Hah….”
That sword had accurately pierced his side.
At the same time, blood was flowing out in streams.
Literally overflowing, as if the sword were thirsting for blood.
“Hey… listen to me.”
Ji Taehun raised his hand to the opponent.
The summon the opponent commanded was absolutely not a simple Skeleton.
Just by looking at this, he was definitely not an F-rank Hunter.
He couldn’t help but think he had been counter-ambushed.
But he had to say what needed to be said.
“I… had absolutely… no intention… kuh, of harming you….”
He barely managed to continue speaking while enduring the pain.
“I was just… following a request, really.”
Then he begged desperately.
“I… beg you like this. At least… save my son.”
He meant his son’s life.
The bleeding was too severe right now.
He needed treatment immediately, but he didn’t think the opponent would let him go.
Since he had no hope, he wanted to at least save his son.
And at his words, the man, Lee Ganghyeon, smiled.
At the same time, the sword piercing his side was pulled free.
“Kuh.”
The pain increased even more.
It was strange.
The pain was so great that he felt he might die at any moment.
He thought it would be a mercy if it ended here.
And at the same time.
The sound of the sword piercing something else was heard.
“?”
He wasn’t given the time to think about what that sound was.
“Kuaaaack!”
Because his son, Ji Seongmin, had begun screaming.
The sword that had stabbed him was now stabbing his son.
Ji Taehun’s body trembled as he turned around.
There, all that existed was the sight of his son with a sword thrust between his legs.