The Way of Life for a Terminal S-Class Hunter - C9
$09
***
When my parents saw me return, they cried and scolded me. I hugged them and repeatedly apologized. Now, just remembering them made me feel guilty.
What would have happened if Seo-heon hadn’t gone to watch the sunrise with me that day? Would I have never fallen in love?
I think I asked these questions many times, even knowing that such hypotheticals were pointless.
But now, going to watch the sunrise together again, I wanted to avoid it. I wasn’t confident I could watch the sunrise with Seo-heon again without recalling the moment I fell in love.
“Why suddenly watch the sunrise?”
“We didn’t get to see it properly last time we went together. You got lost, remember?”
Of course, after that commotion, by the time we returned to the base camp, the sun had already risen.
“It’s not even New Year’s like back then.”
“Don’t you want to go?”
“No, it’s not that I don’t want to…”
“If you don’t dislike it, let’s go together.”
I ended up nodding in agreement.
After driving for about an hour, we arrived at the foot of a mountain. Although it wasn’t the same place we had come to as children, to me, with little expertise in mountains, it felt similar.
“It’s pitch black because it’s night.”
It didn’t seem to be a hiking trail frequently used by people, as there were few signs of human presence. So naturally, there were no night lights. Instead of a light, I created fire with my hand. This much could be done easily just by using mana, even without a skill.
“Instead of a flashlight?”
Seo-heon laughed out loud looking at my hand, finding something amusing.
“So we don’t get lost.”
I said that, even though with our enhanced senses now, it was unlikely we’d get lost like before.
“Our Woo-hyun does have a history of getting lost often.”
Seo-heon seemed to be recalling old times too, and responded playfully.
“Do you want to hold my hand this time?”
“I’ll pass.”
I difficultly refused Seo-heon’s hand extended towards me and walked ahead first, stepping firmly.
“If you go that way, it’ll take a long time.”
Seo-heon grabbed my shoulder and turned my body to the side.
“Woo-hyun seems to have a habit of choosing bad paths.”
“What kind of habit is that? I just have bad intuition.”
It was a bit funny hearing this from Seo-heon, who was no different from the worst path I had chosen.
“That’s why I said to hold my hand.”
I suppressed the words that holding your hand would be the most dangerous.
The path to the summit was quite treacherous, but for me and Seo-heon, who had experienced far more dangerous dungeons, it wasn’t particularly problematic. It felt like we were just taking a leisurely walk.
“Looks like the sun will rise soon.”
Light began to seep into the dark sky. The damp woody scent was enveloped by warmth.
“Shall we hurry a bit?”
Seo-heon gently pushed my back.
“This time, we should watch from the summit.”
I hadn’t thought he would care about such things. Only then did I vaguely understand why he had suggested watching the sunrise. He probably wanted to do things we used to do together, and finish what we couldn’t properly complete in the past. Ironically, I didn’t have much attachment to the sunrise itself.
There’s no need to go this far.
Even while thinking this, I moved my feet quickly. I too wanted to see the sunrise from the summit this time.
“When we decide to walk fast, we arrive quickly.”
The summit we reached in no time was wide open, clearing the stuffiness in my chest. It’s not like I hadn’t seen such scenery while working for 10 years, but it had been a long time since I had purposely gone hiking.
“The sun rises over there.”
Yellow light broke through the blue sky somewhere at the boundary between earth and sky. As I was quietly watching the sky, I turned my head at a sudden feeling of being watched. My eyes met Seo-heon’s, who was staring at me. His face looked red because of the rising sun.
“Why are you looking at the wrong place instead of watching the sunrise?”
I asked gruffly, feeling embarrassed by his gaze. Seo-heon didn’t show any sign of being upset by my unfriendly words.
“I didn’t come to watch the sunrise. The sun rises every day, what’s so special about it?”
‘Who brought me all the way here? Anyone would think I begged to come!’, ‘How can you compare the sun that rises every day with coming out to see it on a mountain like this?’ – There were many things I wanted to say, but I was so dumbfounded that words didn’t come easily.
“Then why did you come all the way here?”
The question that finally came out was as weak as air leaking from a balloon.
“I came to see you watching the sunrise.”
Seo-heon’s expression as he said this was serious, without a trace of playfulness. I quickly turned my head to look at the sky. I had an ominous feeling that if I stayed like this, my emotions would deepen further. No. Maybe it was already too late.
“Do you like it?”
“I don’t know. Be quiet and just watch the sky.”
The sunrise I saw that day was as beautiful as the one I had seen in the past.
***
Three days later, Seo-heon’s eccentricity, which I thought had ended, flared up again.
“Kang Seo-heon.”
“Why are you calling, Woo-hyun?”
His ticklish tone eroded the fighting spirit I had barely mustered.
“Why is the guild leader following along for the education of newly awakened hunters, are you really not busy?”
I spoke with a tone that even I felt was softer than before. In fact, my intention to get angry had also softened, but I had to say what needed to be said.
It was absurd for two S-rank hunters, including the guild leader, to come to a C-rank dungeon to educate newly awakened A-rank hunters. One safety personnel like me was more than enough. If anything, the nervous rookie hunters might make mistakes because of Seo-heon’s presence.
“You came too.”
“I came because I need to select new recruits, so I made an excuse to kill two birds with one stone! I occasionally did this as a form of service, and I need to quickly spot promising kids. You never used to participate in things like this.”
“If you stay in our guild, we don’t need to recruit more. Why did you say you’d come in person, wasting time? It makes me sad, as if you’re trying to recruit your replacement.”
“They’re newly awakened kids, what replacement?”
I held my throbbing head with my hand.
So Seo-heon hadn’t come to help me, but to interfere and be obstructive. Despite seeing my deeply furrowed expression, Seo-heon acted shamelessly. He even went ahead with light steps, putting his hands in his pockets.
Let’s put aside personal feelings for now since we’re here to work.
I turned my eyes away from Seo-heon and approached the excited trainees.
“Hunter Baek Woo-hyun. Are all dungeons shaped like caves like this?”
A student named Kim Ji-soo, who had reportedly awakened last week, threw a question as if she had been waiting for me to come. I heard she had received an A-rank assessment despite not having graduated high school yet. Perhaps that’s why she was quite proactive.
“Dungeons C-rank and below all look similar. The internal shape and the monsters that appear are different, but there’s nothing particularly distinctive. However, when you get to A-rank and above, dungeons become very unique, and some have structures that don’t look like dungeons at all. So for higher-ranking dungeons, you shouldn’t judge based on appearance alone.”
I chose my words carefully to make them as easy to understand as possible. I was cautious, having almost no experience teaching others.
“Me! I have a question too. When did you start conquering dungeons, Hunter Baek Woo-hyun?”
“From age 20.”
“Wow!”
The kids reacted in various ways, saying things like “That’s amazing,” “Did you start young? Is that normal?” I didn’t bother to add that my start was being thrown into A-rank dungeon conquests, skipping the lower dungeons. Perhaps because they were all young, they seemed to know nothing about my past.
“Now we’re going to enter the dungeon in earnest. I’ll step back, and you should move as you were taught in the training center. As you already know, the basics of dealing with monsters are two things: avoid contact as much as possible, and quickly identify what type of attribute the monster has and think of countermeasures.”
“Yes!”
The children who entered the dungeon moved in an orderly manner. There were many unnecessary actions and they were trying to look cool, but considering it was their first time actually entering a dungeon, it was passable.
“When did they teach all that for them to use?”
Unlike me, Seo-heon turned his head with an expression of having seen something unpleasant. The thought of wanting to sweep away all the monsters in front of us at once was almost tangible.
“We started like that too.”
“You were never that clueless.”
I tried to make excuses on behalf of the learning children, but it didn’t work on Seo-heon.
“Well, I joined your guild two years after I started conquering dungeons.”
“I’ve seen all the videos of you entering dungeons.”
Hearing that, I had nothing to say. Seo-heon was right; back then, I was desperate and knew I would die immediately if I acted clumsily.
BANG!
Our pointless conversation ended abruptly due to a loud noise and screams.
“Ahhh! S-save me!”
What appeared before us was a giant centipede, a B-rank monster. Very rarely, monsters with power above the dungeon’s rank would appear. It was unfortunate for the children who came for training today.
The giant centipede instantly recognized the children as weak and began to rampage.
Tap tap tap tap!
The centipede began to threaten by crawling its massive body across the ceiling and floor.
“D-don’t just run away, try attacking!”
At someone’s shout, the children hurriedly raised their weapons, but it was futile. The giant centipede’s exoskeleton was famously hard, making it impossible to pierce with the dull attacks of beginners.
Instead, apart from its sharp legs and swift movements, its attack power wasn’t particularly outstanding. It was a monster that required some skill to conquer.
“G-get away! Don’t come here!”
The children’s complexions, which had been confident when defeating small monsters, darkened instantly. Their movements slowed dramatically due to fear, to the point where they couldn’t keep up with the centipede’s attack speed.