My Skill Book, My Way
Chapter 15
To become a Hunter, you had to register with the state.
Unregistered Hunters were prohibited from entering dungeons.
The government ranked registered Hunters and granted those B-Rank and above the authority to receive quests.
And to register as a Hunter, one had to visit this place—the Hunter Management Bureau.
Inside the bureau office.
A woman who appeared to be in her late twenties sat at her desk, looking over documents and muttering.
"Name's I Hwajin. Age, twenty-five. Hunter Rank is D? A D-Rank is applying for A-Rank? Existing skill is… Record? What kind of skill is this?"
On her desk, besides documents and writing supplies, there was a small headgear with goggles attached.
*Sigh.* "Why do they all not know their place and claim the assessment was wrong. We're just following the manual too."
The woman said so and looked toward the center of the room.
There was a metal doll and a belt there. The doll stood straight with its arms spread out, reminiscent of a scarecrow.
Shortly after, a knock was heard and the door opened.
The woman sized up the man who entered the room.
'Huh? What? He looks completely different from his photo.'
While the man in the photo on the document had a life-worn face, the man who entered the examination room had quite a handsome face.
'Plus, that slightly cold face is totally my type.'
Without realizing it, the woman brushed her hair back and spoke in a tone one octave higher than when she had been muttering to herself.
"I'm Ha Jeongyeon, in charge of your re-evaluation. Let me confirm once more. You're applying for the A-Rank test, not C or B, correct?"
"Yes."
"Understood. Then would you please stand in the center of the room? Next to that doll."
As the man went to the scarecrow, Jeongyeon put on the headgear and flipped the switch. Letters and numbers appeared in her vision.
"Huh?"
A puzzled sound came from Jeongyeon's mouth. The screen was filled with static.
'Is it broken?'
"Is something wrong?"
"One moment."
Jeongyeon took off the headgear and examined it. But she couldn't see anything wrong.
'Strange. Nothing like this has ever happened before…'
Fortunately, when she put the headgear back on, the screen returned to normal.
"It's working. From now on, please tell me if the stats I read match yours. HP 100, MP 30, Vitality 5, Strength 3, Magic 3, Mental Strength 4, Sense 3."
As Jeongyeon listed the stats, their average automatically popped into her head. An occupational hazard.
'Average stat 3.6. A value that falls short of an A-Rank Hunter's average.'
"They match."
Hearing the man's answer, Jeongyeon wrote his stats on the document while still wearing the headgear.
"Now I'll measure your skill's power. Please put on that belt over there and use your skill. If it's an attack skill, use it on the scarecrow."
The man put on the belt, took up his spear, and assumed a stance.
'His skill name was definitely Record, right? Is he trying to carve letters with his spear?'
Right when Jeongyeon, thinking he'd be D-Rank level anyway, was watching him with her chin propped on her hand and a bored expression—
"Flame Spear."
Fire ignited on the spear the man held.
'Huh!?'
Jeongyeon removed her hand from her chin and straightened her head.
*CRUNCH!*
The flame-wreathed spear effortlessly pierced the metal scarecrow's body.
Numbers appeared in Jeongyeon's vision through the headgear.
[1000pt]
Seeing the skill's power converted into numerical value, Jeongyeon opened her mouth.
"W-wait a moment. So your name is… Hwajin-ssi."
"Yes?"
Hwajin turned to look at Jeongyeon.
"Wasn't your Unique Skill [Record]?"
"Well… actually, I have several other skills as well."
"What??"
Jeongyeon made an expression of disbelief without realizing it, but fortunately, only her slightly open mouth was visible, hidden by the headgear.
"Wait, then does that mean you didn't show all your skills during your initial evaluation?"
"It just kind of happened, hahaha."
The man's laughter was extremely awkward. Jeongyeon got the feeling that Hwajin was hiding something.
"Understood. If you have any other skills, please use them all. We have to calculate your rank based on the total of your stats and skills."
"Yes. Let's do that."
Hwajin stood facing the scarecrow.
Liquefied metal stretched out from the hole in the doll like tentacles and clung to each other.
Jeongyeon recorded the power values converted into points each time Hwajin used a skill.
[Charge]……500pt
[One-Point Defense]……800pt
[Invisibility]……1200pt
[Recovery Spear]……600pt
[Fireball]……750pt
She couldn't close her mouth.
'What, how does he have so many skills?'
Adding up the points of the skills the man had shown so far, it came to 4850pt, which was more than triple the average of 1500pt for an A-Rank Hunter.
Jeongyeon checked the documents once more.
'How did someone like this get judged as D-Rank??'
Jeongyeon's heart pounded.
She had handled countless re-evaluations until now, but this was the first time encountering a case like this.
"Excuse me."
"Y-yes?"
She raised her head at the call.
"Is the total so far not enough?"
The man wore a slightly anxious expression. Jeongyeon, realizing her mistake, quickly smiled.
"Ah, no. It's more than enough. I'll calculate your stats and skill scores and inform you of the result, so please wait outside."
"Understood."
After the man left the examination room, Jeongyeon took her pen to the pass/fail section at the bottom of the document and vigorously checked the 'Pass' box.
'He's not someone who will end at A-Rank. I need to keep an eye on him.'
Feeling as if she had discovered a treasure no one else had found, Jeongyeon's heart fluttered.
***
"Ah, Oppa. How did it go?"
As soon as I returned home, Jinhui asked.
"If it's Hyung, of course he passed, right?"
Seono said from the side with a confident face.
When I showed him my certificate yesterday and told him my rank, Seono's surprised face asking if I was really D-Rank and saying he couldn't believe it came to mind, and I laughed.
"Yeah. I passed the first round. They said the second evaluation will be in a few days, so I have to come out again then."
"Waaah!"
Jinhui shouted and clapped, and Seono made an expression as if to say, "See?"
"See, Noona? I told you Hyung would definitely make it. Didn't I say so?"
"Oh my, look at him. So it's like I said Oppa would fail or something."
Jinhui pinched Seono's side.
"Ouch!"
Watching Seono scream as if he were dying, I smirked.
***
Two days later, I headed to City Hall again.
The second evaluation was to check whether one could actually clear a dungeon.
There hadn't been such a process when I first received my evaluation and was judged D-Rank. However, to acquire A-Rank, one had to clear a 4-star dungeon with a party.
Which dungeon we'd go to was to be kept secret until the day of.
"You are the members who will enter today's dungeon together."
The government employee named Ha Jeongyeon, who had been in charge of my first evaluation, gathered me and two other Hunters in front of the dungeon.
She added an explanation that she combined the skills and stats of those waiting for evaluation to test them in groups of three.
"Please take care of me. I'm I Hwajin."
I greeted the two Hunters standing before me.
"Ah, hello. Please take care of me today. Ah, my name is Jeon Hyeri."
The one who answered in an extremely nervous voice was a woman who appeared to be in her early twenties.
The short-haired woman wearing glasses had a short staff about the length of her arm tucked at her waist.
She wasn't very tall and had a slender build; at a glance, she was clearly not the type of Hunter who fought directly.
"I'm Kim Gangil. Let's all do well on today's test."
The one who said that had a build that could be called the exact opposite of the woman from before.
The uncle, who looked to be in his forties, was covered in muscles and carried a huge axe on his back.
It was so large that one had to wonder if he could really swing it.
"I have two close-range attack skills. What about you, miss?"
The uncle looked at the glasses girl.
"Ah, I have three support skills. Strength Enhancement, Enemy Slow, and Mana Recovery Enhancement."
"Ooh, three of them. That's reassuring. What about you?"
The uncle looked at me this time. I thought about my skills for a moment before speaking.
"One close-range attack skill, one long-range attack skill, one defense skill, and several support skills."
To be exact, I had more close-range attack skills like [Shatter] and [One Flash], but I excluded [Shatter] because I couldn't use it while holding a spear, and [One Flash] because once I used it, I couldn't use other skills.
"Hey, you don't need to bluff like that. A Hunter who has attack, defense, and support skills, plus that many skills—why would they be taking an A-Rank test——"
"It's true."
The one who said that was the government employee lady.
"This person has six or more skills. It's not a bluff."
When the government employee said that, the uncle's expression, which had held a hint of laughter, stiffened.
"Hoo. But why would someone like that be taking an A-Rank test……"
"There are circumstances."
It was a long story, and they wouldn't believe me if I said my Unique Skill had changed, so I vaguely glossed over it.
"I will also accompany you into the dungeon as an examiner. Let's depart."
Once the introductions and greetings were roughly finished, the government employee opened her mouth.
"I'll explain the rules on the way. If your HP drops below 10% or you become unable to fight, you fail individually. If the clear becomes impossible, the entire party fails."
"If I'm the only one left and clear the dungeon, do I pass?"
The uncle holding the axe asked the government employee.
"Of course. However, if you deliberately put another Hunter in danger, points will be deducted. Sometimes people use other Hunters as scapegoats to escape monster attacks."
The glasses girl standing beside me flinched.
She was probably imagining herself becoming a shield.
"Wait a moment."
I stopped the government employee. There was something bothering me.
"That you'll follow us into the dungeon… are you perhaps a Hunter too?"
"Yes, I am a Hunter. I didn't mention that. Everyone in charge of A-Rank or higher evaluations is a Hunter."
The government employee stood looking at us.
"Of course, I won't participate in combat. And if you want to give up midway, tell me right away since I have a Return Stone. However, you'll be billed for it later."
*Tch, nothing's free.*
***
The place the government employee took us was a dungeon about 30 minutes away by bus from City Hall.
[You have entered Seoul Jung-gu Dungeon No. 3.]
[This dungeon is a 4-Star Dungeon.]
[Overflow: 3470/10000]
[Monsters have been generated.]
It was my first time entering a 4-star dungeon.
If I couldn't become an A-Rank Hunter today, I wouldn't be able to enter one in the future either.
"Well then, shall we go?"
The uncle took the lead with his axe. I followed behind with the glasses girl.