Episode 11. Griffin
A woman with short hair sat atop a massive golden griffin, looking down at him with a playful expression.
Shindae knew her well. He had seen her on the news more times than he could count.
‘How is that woman…’
Seeing Cha Yerin—one of the five S-Rank Awakened in the Republic of Korea—smiling slyly right in front of him, Shindae’s eyes widened.
“How did you get in here?”
“Well… a dungeon appeared, so…”
“Huh? If it’s blue, that means it’s already been cleared. Did you come to scavenge or something?”
Cha Yerin hopped down from where she sat, landing right in front of Shindae.
Shindae couldn’t help but gulp at the overwhelming pressure emanating from her.
‘So this is what an S-Rank is?’
She was nearing the level limit of S-Rank.
An existence that the current Shindae could not possibly contend with.
Moreover, seeing her interrogating expression—her eyes devoid of any smile—he quickly began racking his brain.
‘What should I do…’
“I asked how you got in. Huh, what’s this?”
Cha Yerin held up the butcher knife Shindae had on him.
Before he could even stop her, she had instantly taken the knife from his person, and Shindae could only watch with wide, surprised eyes.
“It looks like a normal kitchen knife… Are you a thug?”
A thuggish appearance with a kitchen knife.
In a situation where anyone would mistake him for a thug, Shindae muttered without even realizing it.
“I’m a college student…”
“A college student?”
Seeing her look at him as if she couldn’t believe him, Shindae pulled out his student ID and showed her.
Cha Yerin made a surprised expression upon seeing Shindae’s student ID.
“No way… You’re really a college student? Not to mention, Korea University?”
Why does everyone make that expression…?
Shindae fell into thought, recalling the officers from his military days who were first surprised to hear he was a college student and doubly surprised to hear he went to Korea University.
Cha Yerin returned his student ID and looked at him as if amused.
“You look nothing like your face. So why did you come here?”
At Cha Yerin’s question, Shindae could only sigh inwardly.
‘It’s still impossible to fool an S-Rank, isn’t it?’
Moreover, deceiving the keen eyes of someone who had hunted in dungeons for countless years was clearly almost impossible.
“My skill made me come…”
“Your skill made you?”
“Could you give me back my knife?”
Thinking it would be faster to show her rather than explain to her baffled look, Shindae received the butcher knife Cha Yerin handed back.
“What are you going to do with that?”
Under Cha Yerin’s curious gaze, Shindae simply knelt before the massive golden griffin.
As he slowly butchered the griffin, Cha Yerin watched him with an astonished expression.
‘H-He’s gathering from a 6-Star boss monster with an ordinary kitchen knife?’
Moreover, without a moment’s hesitation, he cut as if slicing through paper.
The man before her was accomplishing something that no collection team from her guild, ‘Ares,’ could do.
“Is your skill gathering?”
Since he had said it was because of his skill, Cha Yerin could only think the phenomenon before her was due to this man’s special skill.
Shindae smirked at her.
“No.”
Before she could even ask, ‘Then what kind?’ Cha Yerin’s expression stiffened at Shindae’s action.
‘Wh… what… what did he just do?’
She was someone who never got surprised by ordinary things.
She lost her words watching Shindae pop a piece of griffin meat into his mouth.
“Wh… why… why are you eating that?”
“This is my skill.”
Unlike Cha Yerin, who couldn’t hide her bewilderment, Shindae felt like dancing on the spot at the message that appeared before his eyes.
[Agility has increased by 32.]
[Tame] is reacting. You can tame the Griffin more easily.
“Is there something good about eating it?”
His Agility had increased by a whopping 32.
For Shindae, it was like winning the lottery while walking down the street, but Cha Yerin looked at him with an expression like she might vomit at any moment.
‘That’s the expression everyone makes…’
It was because of expressions like that that Shindae had never wanted to show this side of himself to others.
He formed a bitter smile and opened his mouth.
“I can’t help it because of my skill. It’s a Unique Grade skill, so there’s nothing I can do about it.”
Leaving out the fact that his stats increased, Shindae spoke as if he were being dragged around helplessly because it was a Unique Grade skill.
‘If she doesn’t believe me, I’ll have no choice but to prove that my stats increase…’
He looked at Cha Yerin blinking her eyes in surprise at his words, but only for a moment.
She let out a sigh and shook her head from side to side.
“Well, I guess that makes sense if it’s a Unique Grade skill. Sigh… We’re both suffering because of our skills.”
“You too, Ms. Cha Yerin?”
When the surprised Shindae asked if she also had a Unique Grade skill, she merely smirked.
“It’s a state secret. Do you want to know?”
In an era where the levels of Awakened were evaluated as the national power of each country, Shindae nodded, thinking that an S-Rank’s Unique Grade skill was worth hiding.
“That’s not it…”
“Anyway, that’s fascinating. If it’s Unique Grade, I acknowledge it. I’m convinced.”
Seeing her expression finally relax, Shindae let out a sigh of relief.
“Then I won’t say anything about you coming in here, so gather all the monsters here.”
“Huh?”
When Shindae asked again, thinking he had misheard, Cha Yerin merely smiled slyly.
“I haven’t contacted the guild yet. It’s a pain to contact them, so you do it. I’ll let your trespassing slide.”
“……”
There were roughly over a hundred griffins outside.
Even for Shindae, it was impossible to do alone in a short time.
‘I have to refuse!’
“If you don’t want to, I guess it can’t be helped. The guild members will come, and I’ll have no choice but to reveal your existence…”
“May I start right now?”
At Cha Yerin’s words, Shindae quickly began butchering the golden griffins.
***
“Huh? What’s this?”
Shindae, who had been butchering the griffins.
Midway through butchering, he frowned at an egg that came out of the griffin’s body.
‘An egg came out?’
“Oh, that’s a monster egg?”
Cha Yerin had been watching in surprise from beside him at the magic stones, hides, and occasional items produced from Shindae’s butchering.
Her eyes widened when she saw Shindae pull out an egg about the size of an ostrich egg.
“A monster egg?”
“Collection teams sometimes find one or two a year…”
Cha Yerin looked at the griffin egg with fascination, her eyes sparkling as if it were her first time seeing one.
“Is this something amazing?”
When Shindae asked as if wondering what a monster egg could be used for, Cha Yerin shrugged her shoulders.
“Well, there are people with weird hobbies now and then.”
It seemed to be traded at high prices among people with peculiar tastes, similar to those who bought monster meat.
As Shindae held the egg and looked it over this way and that, he felt it squirming on its own through his hands.
‘This thing is still alive?’
Shindae’s surprise was short-lived. At the message that appeared before his eyes, his eyes widened.
[Would you like to use Tame?]
Shindae hadn’t even thought about using Tame on the egg.
However, he was astonished at the fact that he could use Tame on it.
“I don’t need that, so you take it.”
“C-Can I really take it?”
When Shindae asked in surprise at being given the griffin egg, Cha Yerin merely smirked.
“Think of it as today’s wages. If you do well on Hunter Job, you could get maybe ten million won? Twenty million won? Around that much.”
Shindae thought, ‘As expected of an S-Rank, she’s generous.’
He grinned and carefully placed the griffin egg inside his bag.
‘A griffin… a griffin…’
Shindae imagined the sight of himself riding a griffin.
Cha Yerin looked at him curiously as he smiled at the thought of hurrying home to use Tame.
“Is something good going on?”
“How could I not be happy when you’ve given me something so good?”
Cha Yerin smirked as she looked at Shindae, who spoke with a mischievous smile.
“You’ll have a lot of work from now on; shouldn’t I at least do this much?”
“A lot of work?”
Shindae had a bad feeling about this.
To him, Cha Yerin smiled as if it were nothing significant.
“I’d like it if you could help me out occasionally. Ah! Don’t worry, I’ll only call you when collecting monsters.”
Having decided to keep a closer eye on him due to the incredible gathering ability he had shown, Cha Yerin was already set on observing him further.
“I have a schedule…”
As Shindae was about to refuse because it seemed like a hassle, Cha Yerin looked at him with firm eyes, forcing him to let out a dry cough.
“W-Well… I have a daily life too, so I can’t come every day…”
“Don’t worry, don’t worry. I’ll call you when our guild members are busy.”
“If that’s all…”
Her guild, ‘Ares.’
Shindae nodded, thinking that the collection team of a guild competing for first or second place in Korea wouldn’t have much free time, and Cha Yerin smiled pleasantly.
‘Wait, if I think about it… isn’t this an incredibly sweet deal for me?’
The dungeons she entered were definitely at least 5-Star grade or higher.
The mere thought of the meat he would gain while helping with collection in such dungeons made the corners of his mouth rise on their own.
“Anyway, you have to come when I call next time, got it?”
Shindae nodded to her sly smile.
Soon after, he was able to exit the dungeon by punching his number into the phone she handed him.
***
“You called the collection team, right?”
Cha Yerin sat in the dungeon, thinking about Shindae.
She spotted a familiar face—the collection team leader, O Yeongsik—and smiled slyly.
“It’s Uncle Yeongsik today?”
“It just happened that way. But did you do all the gathering, Ms. Cha Yerin?”
6-Star magic stones and griffin hides were gathered in one place.
Not to mention several alchemy materials that had a certain drop rate from griffins.
As O Yeongsik watched with surprised eyes, she merely smiled slyly.
“Uncle Yeongsik, what would you think if I said one person did all this gathering?”
O Yeongsik had been looking through the cleanly processed monster corpses and was about to ask what she meant at Cha Yerin’s words.
However, seeing the serious look in her eyes, he stroked his chin.
“Hmm… If such a person existed… I’d have them work a six-month probation and immediately promote them to team leader.”
“Really?”
A collection team leader of one of Korea’s four major guilds.
Considering the stature of that position and a base salary exceeding twenty million won, it was an astonishing statement.
“It wouldn’t be a waste even then. If the Guild Master permits, I’d be willing to offer even better conditions.”
“As expected…”
Cha Yerin smiled slyly at O Yeongsik’s words.
She recalled Shindae’s appearance and smiled with her eyes.
‘I found an interesting Awakened…’