Mister Kim—no, Kim Tae-su’s rough hands were trembling faintly.
As if handling fragile glass, he carefully gripped the hilt of the sword lying on the workbench.
And that was the moment.
Wooooong—!
The instant the mister’s calloused palm touched the hilt of the newly restored D-rank longsword, the air inside the junk shop changed in a flash.
Fwoooosh—!
Oh? What’s this?
The rough mana pouring out of his body was sucked into the sword.
To be honest, I’d never seen Mister Tae-su use that thing before.
No, I’d never seen him fight at all.
The mana flowed along the blade, and soon burst from the tip of the sword as a dazzlingly sharp blue sword aura.
“……What? Sword aura?”
As if I wouldn’t know sword aura.
Wasn’t it the very thing every sword-wielding Hunter wanted and longed for?
But it was strange. Mister Tae-su shouldn’t have reached such a high level.
Then there was only one answer.
‘Because of the weapon?’
Just then, a new system window flashed into view in the corner of my sight.
Ding—!
[Confirming the hidden unique trait of the repaired item’s user.]
[Trait: Weapon Synchronization.]
[Description: When equipped with a dedicated weapon that perfectly matches the user’s mana wavelength, suppressed physical abilities and mana output are released by 200%.]
Huh? What kind of ability is this? This is possible?
Is it an ability that lets me see the abilities of people who use items I repaired?
I didn’t know what was going on, but the more abilities, the better.
I decided to look into this ability later and focused on Mister Tae-su’s condition for now.
A dedicated weapon?
“Ha!?”
Only then did I let out a hollow laugh and nod.
So that was it. The reason Mister Tae-su had been so obsessed with that sword.
Why this mister would get drunk at the drop of a hat and whine at me to fix this cheap E-rank sword.
Why he refused other good weapons and insisted on carrying this one around instead of throwing it away.
“Ohh!! This is it!! This is the one!!”
An exclamation burst from the mister’s mouth.
As if he couldn’t believe it, he looked down at his sword, which was rippling with blue sword aura.
Thick veins bulged along the forearm gripping the sword, and the pressure of the mana pouring out from him sent the dust piled on the junk shop floor swirling away.
“Kahahaha!! Daeseong!! You beautiful bastard!!!”
“Wow, it was a dedicated weapon? Just how good is that thing?”
“Want me to show you?”
“Don’t break my scrap metal. See the ground over there? The ground. Do it there.”
At that, the mister lightly swung the sword into the air.
Kwaaang—!
Even though it hadn’t touched anything directly, a sharp blast of sword wind fired from the tip of the sword and smashed the dry earth apart.
“Ha!?”
It was overwhelming destructive power, at least upper D-rank—no, close to C-rank.
After swinging the sword around like an excited child for quite a while, the mister turned back to me, breathing hard.
His bloodshot eyes were brimming with tears of emotion.
“Daeseong… you… how the hell did you do this? You said the materials were too damn expensive to get!”
“Well, I pulled a few strings.”
“No, forget it. I won’t ask! From today onward, you’re my lifesaver. No, you’re Brother Daeseong!”
A man over thirty was calling me, who was eight years younger than him, “brother,” and looked ready to perform a full bow at any second.
I chuckled and waved him off.
“What brother? Forget that and just pay me plenty for the repair.”
At that, Mister Tae-su’s expression plummeted sharply back to reality.
“R-repair fee…?”
“Did you think you were going to get it for free?”
“H-how much…?”
“That used two D-rank mana stones and twenty grams of mana gold. You should pay me at least five million.”
“F-five million…?”
The mister’s expression sank.
‘Hmm, was I too harsh on an unemployed bum?’
Still, he was a grateful regular who came by all the time, so just as I was about to lower the price a little, he suddenly grabbed my shoulders and shouted.
“Hey, do you think this sword’s value is only five million won?! Come to the Gate with me right now! I’ll cut down monsters today and shove every last won I earn straight into your hands!”
“Pardon?”
His eyes were half-rolled back, and he was completely serious.
“Let’s go to the Gate!! I’ll carry you!! Kahahahaha!!”
I calmly calculated the gains and losses.
‘Oh? That means I don’t have to go through the annoying hassle of finding a party.’
I had only just finished registering as a combatant.
Normally, if a new independent combat Hunter not affiliated with a guild wanted to enter a Gate, they had to find a party online and go through an interview—or, failing that, find people and pay them to enter a Gate together.
Find a tanker, find a healer, split the profits 1/N ways. Even then, newbies were often looked down on or used up as meat shields.
On top of that, there’s a lot of crime.
There are so many bastards targeting rookie Hunters.
But someone far beyond D-rank was offering to carry me for free—and even let me monopolize 100% of the profits?
There was no reason to refuse this.
“Oh? You mean it? I needed to enter a Gate anyway.”
“Yeah!? Perfect timing, then! Good! Today, I’ll show you what real combat is!”
I roughly put on the old leather jacket and gloves I had stashed under the workbench.
I was burning with excitement too, wondering just how much power my stats, which had skyrocketed insanely after absorbing the Dragon Heart, would display in actual combat.
“Let’s go. Let’s grill some beef with mana stones for dinner tonight.”
“Yeah!! It’s on me today!!”
***
The E-rank Gate located on the outskirts of Seoul, “Goblin Forest.”
We arrived in the mister’s old van in front of the Association’s control line.
At the entrance, Association agents were inspecting Awakened registration cards, and lower-rank Hunters were gathered in groups here and there, looking for parties.
“Oh, Mr. Kim Tae-su. Long time no see. Haven’t seen you around lately.”
The agent guarding the control line greeted Mister Kim warmly.
He lightly tapped the hilt of the D-rank famed sword at his waist and tossed my Hunter license and his own to the agent.
“I’m here to hunt today. The two of us are going in as a party, so process the entry paperwork.”
“The two of you?”
The agent searched my registration card, then looked troubled.
“Ah, damn… This guy’s a first-timer too. Why are you like this? You know how exhausting it is when someone dies…”
Clicking his tongue, the agent hesitated to issue the entry permit.
“Hey, I’m originally a D-rank Hunter. I only came in and out of here for part-time gigs teaching rookies. Hurry up and process it.”
“Being D-rank doesn’t mean you can’t die in an E-rank Gate, you know?”
“Damn it, I’m not gonna die!”
“I’m not responsible, seriously. I warned you, okay?”
“I got it!”
Since the mister handled all the annoying entry procedures and aggro-drawing situations on his own, I was able to pass through the control line comfortably with my hands behind my back.
“Daeseong, even if they’re goblins, don’t rush in carelessly. Got it? They’re still monsters, so stick close behind me!”
“Yes, Mister.”
“Hey, start calling me hyung now.”
“What kind of hyung is eight years older than me?”
“Isn’t that a little too harsh? Eight years definitely makes me your hyung. Now, I’ll go in first, so follow me carefully.”
And so, I took a step into the portal-like space where blue light shimmered.
Then I felt dizzy.
Wooooong—
‘Ohh, fascinating.’
After chatting like that and crossing the Gate’s rippling portal, a damp, acrid stench of blood stabbed into my nose.
The sight of a forest covered in thick gray fog. We had crossed over into a space of another dimension.
It was a little disappointing that my first Gate entry passed by so haphazardly, but even that was a new experience for me.
“Ohh…!”
It’s pretty cool, isn’t it?
“Welcome! Congratulations on entering your first Gate. Kahaha.”
“It doesn’t look any different from Earth.”
“That’s not exactly true. There are tons of bugs and plants you don’t recognize. Don’t touch just anything, got it? Just follow me and nothing will happen!”
After boasting like that, Mister Tae-su strode forward confidently.
Less than three minutes after we crossed the portal, five goblins with murky green skin leaped out from the fog.
“Kirik! Kiriririk!”
Filthy monsters drooling while holding rusty daggers and clubs.
I got a little scared at the sight.
Wow, there really is a huge difference between seeing them in person and seeing them on a screen….
“Mister, isn’t this kind of dangerous? There are five of them.”
At that, Mister Tae-su laughed heartily.
“What’s there to worry about over a measly five! Kahaha, watch closely. I’ll show you how I beat those bastards down!”
Mister Kim laughed boldly and shot forward.
And a one-sided massacre began immediately.
Slice—!
Crack!
“Kereuk!!”
“Keeek!”
Every time the blue sword aura bursting from the mister’s sword flashed, the goblins’ heads and limbs fell away.
It was a bit hard to watch, but maybe because I’d been trained by games, it wasn’t that revolting.
If anything, my heart started pounding.
Blood sprayed and entrails spilled out, but there wasn’t an ounce of hesitation in the mister’s movements.
‘Wow. I’m seeing him in a new light.’
I stood some distance away and leisurely watched the scene.
My only job was to pick up the thumb-sized E-rank mana stones left behind where the goblins died and put them in my bag.
It felt like picking up money off the ground.
Three hundred thousand won each.
Maybe we were lucky, because two mana stones had already dropped from four goblins.
“Daeseong! I’ve still got it, right?! Back in the day, when I was flying around on the front lines, you know…!”
“Look in front of you. In front. There’s one still alive.”
At that, the mister stopped attacking and rested the sword on his shoulder.
“I left it alive on purpose. Since you came all the way to a Gate, you should try catching a goblin too.”
“Oh, really? I can try already?”
“Yeah. If things get dicey, I’ll help you, so try taking it down.”
Oh, coming to the Gate with the mister was a good call.
Normally, you’d have to pay millions of won in private lesson fees to get carried like this.
See? Good deeds always come back to you.
All right, let’s give it a shot.
I stood in front of the goblin like that.
Then the thing looked at me and screamed as if it were terrified.
“Kieeeeeek!!”
Damn it, you scared me. Why’s it acting like that….
When I was watching from behind, it looked really easy.
But now that I was up close, it was really disgusting and kind of… yeah… not great.
“So, what do I do?”
All I had in my hand was a sturdy iron pipe I’d brought from the junk shop.
“Even with an iron pipe like that, you can take it down easily enough. You have mana, right? Mana. Just think of wrapping it around the iron pipe, then smash its head! Like you’re going to burst it.”
I spoke to the mister as if I were dumbfounded.
“You think a beginner can do that? Wrap mana around an iron pipe?”
“Hm? Why? You can’t? That’s how I learned too.”
Most people can’t, you know.
But I can. Why? Because my mana road had already been blasted wide open through my body.
‘Hmm, yeah. If I circulate mana through this mana road and connect it to the iron pipe like this, then wrap it around…?’
Woooong—
“Oh? It worked?”
Blue mana rippled around the iron pipe, enveloping it.
Seeing that, Mister Tae-su clapped from the side.
“That’s it, you’re doing great!! Now bring it down with that!”
And so, I smashed the iron pipe down on the goblin’s head.
Then.
Boom—!
Splatter—
“???”
“???”
The entire body of the goblin in front of me burst and vanished without a trace, turning into blood that splashed all over me and Mister Tae-su.
“U-uweeek!!!”
“Damn it!! Hey!! I just got this back from the cleaners two days ago!!”