Episode 7. Rune Stone and MT....
“Team Leader!”
What broke Bak Hyeonsik’s vacant musings was Bak Sindae’s urgent shout.
Bak Sindae was narrowly dodging the spear tip of a 3-star monster, cold sweat pouring down him.
‘It’s… it’s on a completely different level from 2-star ones…’
Bak Sindae was barely dodging attacks at a speed that outclassed the 2-star monsters he had hunted so effortlessly not long ago.
As if reacting to his urgent cry, attacks from Collection Team 1 began raining down behind the baby sea lion’s back.
In the midst of the barrage, Bak Sindae grabbed the wrist of the baby sea lion as it swung what seemed to be its final downward blow.
He felt as though his breath would stop from the pain traveling up through his palm.
‘Th… this is a 3-star monster!?’
To be exact, a sub-boss.
Collection Team 1 watched Bak Sindae in astonishment as he caught the attack of a 3-star boss monster with his bare hands.
The sight of Bak Sindae, sweating cold sweat as he held the baby sea lion’s wrist.
Every member of Collection Team 1 was staring at Bak Sindae with surprised eyes.
“H… how is he holding onto a 3-star monster?”
“Mr. Bak… wasn’t he F-rank?”
“Did he lie about his rank? Even E-ranks can’t do something like that…”
In the midst of everyone’s astonishment.
Bak Sindae let out a sigh of relief as he watched the baby sea lion, which had been glaring at him with eyes full of hatred, gradually collapse.
‘I… I survived…’
If he had grabbed the wrist during the final blow without having eaten the mother sea lion’s meat, wielding Strength of merely 100, the situation would surely have been dangerous.
Ironically, it was Bak Sindae who had survived thanks to his Strength rising by 30 after consuming the mother sea lion’s meat.
“Mr. Sindae, are you alright?”
As soon as the hunt was over, Bak Hyeonsik hurriedly ran over to Bak Sindae.
Bak Sindae showed him his swollen right hand.
“If you exclude my right hand, I’m fine.”
Bak Hyeonsik looked at Bak Sindae, who let out a short laugh, with a pitying gaze.
He hurriedly applied several ointments he had on hand to Bak Sindae.
“Oh my… A person with so much to do now shouldn’t get hurt here…”
“Excuse me?”
The very same Bak Hyeonsik who had initially schemed to humiliate him was now treating him while worrying about what would happen if Bak Sindae’s hand was injured.
Bak Sindae looked at him and let out a short laugh inwardly.
‘As expected, Father didn’t have a single wrong word.’
“No, let’s go to the hospital first. Ms. Areum, can you wrap things up here?”
“She has already gone to contact the guild.”
Bak Hyeonsik nodded as he saw the employee who had left to report the situation to the guild the moment the hunt ended.
He supported Bak Sindae and got up from his spot.
“You can stand, right?”
“Yes. But there’s no need to go all the way to the hospital…”
“No. No. You have a lot to do from now on. You can’t get injured anywhere. Since we’re going anyway, let’s get a health checkup too.”
When Bak Sindae made a troubled expression at Bak Hyeonsik’s suggestion to get a health checkup, he hurriedly continued.
“The guild will cover the costs anyway, so don’t worry and just get it done.”
“Sigh… There’s no need to go that far…”
At the mention of cost coverage, Bak Sindae’s troubled expression instantly vanished and he immediately grinned.
It was Bak Sindae, moving his steps to leave the dungeon following Bak Hyeonsik to go to the hospital.
***
“You should heal completely if you don’t overdo it for two days.”
Bak Sindae was returning home after receiving simple emergency treatment at the hospital and a health checkup just as Bak Hyeonsik had suggested.
He looked at the bandage wrapped around his right hand and let out a short laugh.
‘To think I blocked a 3-star monster…’
He hadn’t thought of it during the tense moments inside the dungeon, but it was an undeniable fact that he, an F-rank, had received a blow from a 3-star monster.
“I can become stronger…”
Only a month.
He had become this strong despite not hunting for a month and only eating meat.
Bak Sindae grinned at the thought of becoming stronger in the future too.
He put his hand in his pocket and felt the Rune Stone he had obtained recently.
‘Come to think of it, I had this…’
The Rune Stone obtained from a suddenly occurring 2-star dungeon.
Bak Sindae still didn’t know what skill it contained, as he hadn’t gotten it appraised yet.
“I should get it appraised before going in today.”
Bak Sindae moved his steps to the nearby Hunter Association to get it appraised.
As he entered the association building and approached the appraisal team where appraisers were seated, an employee welcomed him with a smile.
“Hello. What item have you come to get appraised?”
“Could you check what skill is inside this?”
Bak Sindae handed the Rune Stone to the employee.
The association employee looked at Bak Sindae with a slightly surprised expression.
‘Is he an Awakened with more skill than I thought?’
Bak Sindae’s appearance somehow reminded one of a Berserker from his looks alone.
On top of that, he had even brought a Rune Stone that could only be obtained in high-rank dungeons.
She looked at the Rune Stone Bak Sindae had brought with anticipation.
“The appraisal fee is 500,000 won.”
Before coming here, Bak Sindae had received 5 million won as consolation money from the ‘Osiris’ Guild for this incident.
He handed over 500,000 won without much burden, and the employee immediately began the appraisal.
The blue mana emanating from the employee’s hand covered the Rune Stone for a moment.
Soon, the employee opened her eyes, beads of sweat forming on her forehead.
“Uh… um…”
The employee pondered what to say upon opening her eyes.
Bak Sindae let out a sigh inwardly at the employee’s demeanor.
‘It seems like a bad Rune Stone…’
After all, since a Rune Stone that supposedly only appeared in 5-star dungeons or higher had come from a 2-star dungeon, he hadn’t expected a high-level skill, but now that it was actually happening, a sigh escaped him from disappointment.
“What kind of skill is it?”
“It’s… uh… Tame. Have you heard of it?”
“Tame?”
If it was Tame, it was definitely a skill used to tame animals or monsters.
At first glance, it sounded like a high-rank skill, but in reality, it was a skill with absolutely no value in use.
“Yes… It’s a skill that can tame animals or monsters, but you must have higher stats or levels than the target for it to succeed. Also, it doesn’t work on Epic monsters like boss monsters.”
Bak Sindae nodded at the employee’s explanation.
The reason Tame was not used lay precisely in its difficult conditions.
The fact that you could only tame monsters with lower stats or levels than the user.
On top of that, the success rate wasn’t high either, so if things went wrong, there was a high possibility of falling into danger while casting the skill.
“The association still purchases these kinds of Rune Stones. It’s 200,000 won each, but…”
At 200,000 won, he couldn’t even recover the 500,000 won appraisal fee.
Bak Sindae let out a sigh, then suddenly thought of something.
‘Wait… lower stats than me…’
Bak Sindae thought of his [Gluttony] skill.
To him, who could infinitely raise his stats by eating monster meat, Tame would definitely show good synergy.
“You’ll sell it to the association, right? If you’re selling, I’ll help you with the procedures right away.”
Bak Sindae grinned at the employee who was looking at him with a pitiful expression.
“I’ll just take this with me.”
Bak Sindae held the Rune Stone in his hand.
He smiled widely at the thought of utilizing Tame.
‘A more interesting Rune Stone than I thought came in…’
Bak Sindae left the association and shattered the Rune Stone.
As soon as he shattered the Rune Stone, a pleasant message appeared before his eyes saying he had acquired a skill.
[You have acquired Tame.]
[Tame.]
[Normal-grade Skill.]
[You can tame monsters of a lower rank than the caster.]
[The number of monsters you can tame is determined in proportion to your mana.]
[Currently tamable monsters: 10.]
‘Ten…’
Bak Sindae’s current Mana stat was 70.
It was an astonishing figure for someone not even from the Mage class, having raised it solely by eating meat.
“I’ll have to pay attention to Mana from now on too.”
Bak Sindae, who had only cared about Strength, Agility, and Stamina until now, resolved to take an interest in Mana as well.
***
“U-um… Senior Bak Sindae… Thank you for last time.”
Bak Sindae, who had come to school because he couldn’t do collection work for the time being.
He looked at Bak Hyeyeon, who approached him and handed him a drink, and let out a short laugh.
“It doesn’t hurt anymore, right?”
“Ah… yes… I-I’m fine.”
Seeing that she wasn’t crying or fainting this time, Bak Sindae let out a sigh of relief.
“By the way, what was it that you said you would tell me?”
“Ah! Um… You haven’t told us whether you’re attending this MT yet. You’re going, right?”
“Our department’s MT?”
“You didn’t know? I posted it in the group chat last month…?”
About to ask if there even was a group chat, Bak Sindae sighed inwardly at himself, feeling miserable.
“I think it might be difficult for me—”
“Oh right, this time the entire department has to attend, so if you don’t go, you’ll probably be the only one left alone at school… The professors said they won’t give major grades of C or higher to students who don’t go.”
‘I… I have to go to the MT?’
Bak Sindae recalled that during his freshman MT, he had spent more time facing the wall than talking and laughing with his classmates.
A bitter memory came to mind, but he sighed as if it couldn’t be helped.
‘What am I going to do when all the classes I’m taking are major classes…’
“When is the MT?”
At Bak Sindae’s words, Bak Hyeyeon smiled widely with a relieved expression.
“It’s next month! Senior, you should check the schedule again in the group chat!”
Watching Bak Hyeyeon return to her friends after hearing Bak Sindae say he would attend, Bak Sindae let out a sigh.
“Invite me to the group chat first…”
It was Bak Sindae, smiling bitterly as he looked at his KakaoTalk chat room that had no one in it but Mom, Dad, and Hyeonu.
***
‘My stats are over 100 now, excluding Mana.’
Bak Sindae looked at his stats, and a short laugh escaped him.
Who could look at these stats and call him F-rank!
Strength: 132
Agility: 109
Stamina: 104
Mana: 70
Bak Sindae looked at himself, wondering if it was because his stats had risen, but his physique seemed to be changing gradually.
He thought that at this level, he could finally enter dungeons.
‘First, I want to clear a few 2-star dungeons and then move on to 3-star ones…’
Having experienced a 3-star monster last time, Bak Sindae was currently thinking that hunting 3-star monsters alone was still too much for him.
“It would be good to clear 2-star dungeons while helping Collection Team 1 with their work.”
Raising his stats and levels alone while clearing dungeons was good, but Bak Sindae had no intention of giving up the high-grade meat that came from Collection Team 1.
‘First, a 2-star dungeon…’
Bak Sindae clicked his tongue as he looked at dungeons with basic entry fees exceeding 1 million won.
With the majority being sold for new guild members of various guilds, it was difficult for Bak Sindae alone to enter a 2-star dungeon.
“What should I do about this…”
It was Bak Sindae, stroking his chin as he looked at Hunter Job.