A Public Servant Hunter Who Exploits Skill Combinations – Chapter 15
Translated by: Hanzo
Chapter 15: Egg Hunt (2)
I momentarily forgot one of the key traits of the octopus monster:
Its ability to camouflage itself by changing color to match its surroundings.
Where the octopus had been sitting appeared to be nothing more than a rock shaped like a leg—something anyone could mistake.
The cunning creature was clinging to the ceiling, blending in by changing the color of its legs to match the surface.
Its head pressed against the stone, I had mistaken its form for a regular octopus.
“Damn. This thing’s fake-out game is insane.”
I didn’t have time to think further.
Its eight legs were relentlessly attacking me without pause.
Although my skills enhanced my attack power, my evasive abilities hadn’t improved.
There was only so much dodging I could do.
If I kept evading like this, sooner or later I’d be caught.
I had to find a way to cut off its legs.
Despite the brief tension, I quickly regained my composure while dodging its strikes.
After all, my ten years of combat experience weren’t for nothing.
With my stronger-than-expected attack power, if I could just manage to land a hit, I felt I could turn things around...
But the creature’s attack speed was too fast for me to focus on anything other than dodging.
I had already used my shadow-binding skill once...
I needed time before I could use it again.
Besides, with the way it was moving, landing the shadow-binding skill would be difficult.
Dodging its relentless attacks, I ducked my head just as one of its legs came fiercely at my lower half.
It felt like fighting eight spear-wielding warriors all by myself.
My back bent like a bow as I avoided the incessant stabs of its legs.
Using the recoil, I sprang upward and pushed off the ground with force.
That momentum caused my body to spin, and my sword, now in motion, managed to wound one of its legs, cutting off about half of it.
It might have seemed like pure luck, but it was all calculated.
“Yeah. This is it! Come on, hit me again.”
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The massive Black Octopus King charged at incredible speed.
Taking advantage of its severed leg, I quickly closed the distance.
Because from afar, I couldn’t cut it down.
If I were at S-rank, I could probably slice it up with the energy emanating from my sword, but I wasn’t at that level yet.
I had to get in close and cut it manually.
Sensing danger, the octopus thrust one of its legs directly toward me.
I wanted to slash it, but with attacks coming from both sides, I didn’t have time to swing my sword.
If I swung now, I’d leave myself open.
The creature was fast enough to exploit that opening. If I tried, I’d end up getting struck by one of its legs.
It was a situation where I couldn’t afford to attack recklessly.
This fight had to end without me taking a single hit.
As I stepped back to avoid one of its legs, I felt something under my foot.
The ground was sticky from the creature’s slime.
Wait a second… the ground?
That moisture...
Its legs were sticking to the ground right now.
And this dungeon was full of moisture.
Wasn’t there a small puddle behind where the octopus had been?
I sprinted toward the puddle and positioned myself near it.
Dodging the octopus’s charging attack with my whole body, I watched it fall into the puddle with a splash.
Though the water was far from clean, I didn’t care.
In fact, I was grateful it splashed onto me.
“Now you’re dead meat.”
The water-soaked floor and the drenched black octopus gave me an idea.
I stabbed my sword, charged with the power of lightning, into the ground.
Crack!
Blue sparks crackled, spreading across the slime on the ground.
Zap! Crackle! Zap!
Electricity coursed through the octopus, stunning it.
Bzzt! Bzzzt!
“Graaaah!”
The octopus slowed down, momentarily paralyzed by the shock.
This was my chance!
Using my Lighning Slash skill, I swiftly slashed its legs in a crossing motion.
Slash! Slash! Slash!
Its severed legs fell to the ground one after another.
It was like slicing up octopus for sashimi.
Now it had five legs left.
Sensing danger, the octopus began to panic. Its attacks became sloppy.
Dodging became easier,
and I could see clear attack openings.
As its legs came at me, I welcomed the opportunity.
Its speed had slowed so much that attacking became much simpler for me.
Slash!
I severed the fourth leg.
I ignored the remaining legs and charged at its head.
If I didn’t strike its head after cutting off four legs, it would start spraying ink.
In a confined space like this, getting caught in its ink would leave no room to escape.
Contact with its ink would gradually stiffen my body, so I had to be cautious.
Typically, monsters of this grade required at least two or three people to defeat them.
If each person took charge of two legs, the battle would be over quickly. But since I was doing it alone, it was tougher than I expected.
When it had just one leg left, I finally had a moment to catch my breath.
“Whew.”
I easily managed to cut off the remaining legs one by one.
As its last leg fell, the short stumps of its severed limbs twitched.
The octopus, now reduced to just its body, let out a desperate scream.
“See? If you had just gone quietly in the first place, things would’ve been easier. You didn’t have to make me work so hard.”
I used my Cross Slash to divide its body into four parts.
If you don’t precisely quarter an octopus when finishing it off, it will spray ink as a last resort.
I took out its ink sac.
‘The corpse is too messed up to sell. At least the ink sac is useful.’
I extracted a mana stone from its body.
And retrieved the egg.
‘So this is the egg worth 3 billion…’
But something shiny caught my eye between the cracks of the rock I had mistaken for a leg earlier.
‘Huh? What’s that…?’
Another egg lay there, gleaming with a mysterious blue hue and no markings.
***
I changed into the spare clothes I had packed and exited the gate.
There was no avoiding monster fluids when hunting.
In the future, combat suits would be developed, but that was still a long way off.
Sigh.
I headed to the nearest laundromat.
I couldn’t take these clothes home like this.
Since I’d have to keep hunting monsters from time to time, maybe I should invest in some armor made from monster leather...
But since I was still a student and planned to secretly hunt even after becoming a government-registered hunter, flashy outfits weren’t ideal.
It’s not like I was going to advertise, “Hey, I’m a hunter.”
Simple zip-up hoodies seemed like a better choice.
‘Come to think of it, life in the future really was convenient.’
Now that I couldn’t use the things I had taken for granted in the future, I felt a strong sense of regret.
Initially, I wouldn’t have known, but once you’ve experienced such convenience and can no longer use it?
It’s like going from using only a broom to suddenly having a vacuum cleaner and then being forced to go back to using only a broom.
‘Should I just wait patiently?’
Starting with gate-tracking satellites, gate radars, gate watches, combat suits, gate drones, pet robots, etc.
But how could any of that happen now when they don’t even exist yet...
Suddenly, I remembered an article I had read online in the past.
***
"Ah, well done today, me. Take a rest!"
I lay down on my bed after returning home.
Seven years into my life as a hunter.
Hunting had long since become second nature to me.
Tomorrow is my once-a-week day off.
Ha, while everyone else gets to relax on Sundays, I’m stuck with Tuesdays off.
Because of that, meeting friends comfortably wasn’t easy either.
I lay down, thinking I might as well sleep, and scrolled through the news on my phone.
— Sirius Electronics to begin developing hunter-related goods within the year.
‘Hunter-related goods?’
Drawn by the title, I clicked on the article.
Sirius Electronics (referred to as SIU Electronics) was the largest corporation in South Korea.
It was once so influential that people jokingly called the country the Sirius Republic.
In the early days following the opening of the gates, Siu Electronics struggled to cope and was in a slump.
But a conglomerate with that much clout wasn’t about to crumble just because of one stumble.
Relying on their technological prowess, they succeeded in developing a new form of energy using mana stones harvested from the gates.
And they did it in just five years.
The first five years after the gates opened were purely about survival.
But after the new energy was developed, the term hunter began to take hold, and industries related to hunters started emerging.
Mana stone energy led to advancements far faster than previous technologies.
That technology was exported worldwide, bringing in vast sums of money for SIU Electronics.
It was all thanks to the late Dr. Choi Yong-han.
‘That guy really was something...’
Dr. Choi Yong-han was often called a genius among geniuses.
By the age of four, he was fluent in four languages, and by six, he could solve calculus problems with ease.
He was a schoolmate of the current CEO of SIU Electronics, which led him to become the company’s chief research scientist.
However, seven years ago, he lost his life due to a gate-related incident.
The news of his death deeply saddened the nation.
But recently, SIU Electronics claimed to have discovered new research documents left by the late Dr. Choi Yong-han.
These documents reportedly contained groundbreaking research beyond anyone’s imagination.
It took three years just to find them, and another four years to decipher the contents.
Thus, it was only after seven years that they could begin development.
Not only had he created the new energy, but now they were poised to produce something else entirely?
“Wow, even after death, this guy leaves behind achievements.”
***
At the time, I had thought about it in a simple way.
I was just curious about what new products might emerge.
If he had created the new energy, what else could he possibly come up with?
But the things that were developed afterward turned out to be incredibly practical, didn’t they?
Even though he wasn’t an awakener, how could he understand the gate ecosystem and the properties of mana so well?
On top of that, he managed to combine it all with modern science...
Wait. Didn’t Dr. Choi Yong-han die a year from now?
What incident caused his death again?
I vaguely recalled that it was a major event.
What if I could save Dr. Choi?
Would that let me wear a combat suit sooner?
Maybe I should buy some shares in SIU Electronics while I’m at it.
Perhaps even more remarkable things could be developed.
If I were to save Dr. Choi, what kind of benefits could I gain?
Would saving him become a good memory or a bad one for me?
Profit or loss?
My mind had already started calculating the possibilities.
Ding-ding-ding.
Before I knew it, I heard the notification that the laundry was done.
***
“I’m home.”
“You’re late. Did you meet your friend?”
“Huh? You didn’t go to sleep yet?”
“I was going to sleep after seeing you come home.”
I should tell her next time that if I’m going to be late, I’ll just head straight to the dorm.
I felt bad, thinking I’d kept Mom up because of me.
“I met up with a friend I hadn’t seen in a while, so it got a bit late.”
“You didn’t drink?”
“Of course not. I didn’t have time for that.”
How could I think about drinking when I had 3 billion won right in front of me?
“These days, it feels like my son’s changed a bit.”
“...Huh? How so?”
“You seem more mature somehow...”
“Haha... I’m still the same.”
Mom responded playfully to my awkward laugh.
“Did you meet a girl or something?”
“Ah, I told you, I don’t have a girlfriend!”
Ah, Yoo Chae-ah.
I could already see how much Mom was going to tease me about this in the future.
“No, it’s just that you call me more often these days, and you listen well. It doesn’t feel like my usual son.”
“Was I really that bad of a son?”
“Yeah...”
I narrowed my eyes and glared at her.
“Fine, I won’t call anymore.”
“I’m just kidding, son.”
“I was joking too. Get some sleep—it’s late.”
Since Dad hadn’t come out, it seemed like he was already asleep.
“Are you heading back to the dorm once you wake up?”
“Yes, I’m doing fine, so don’t worry.”
“Okay. Get some sleep, too. I’ll order something tasty for breakfast.”
Mom smiled faintly and headed to her room.
Returning to my room, I checked the egg in my inventory.
The egg I got after defeating the octopus was indeed one that would hatch an octopus pet...
But the egg from inside the rock was something I had never seen before.
I opened an app on my phone to search for the type of egg, but nothing similar came up.
‘I have no idea what this egg is.’
Why were there two eggs, anyway?
I recalled a message saying the seal had been broken when I shattered the rock.
At the time, I had thought it meant that the boss monster—the octopus—had awakened...
Well, since I have two, maybe I could keep one for myself...
On Sunday, I went out to eat with my family before heading straight back to the dorm.
Starting Monday, I’d be back in training.
Even though it was dinner time, there was a large crowd gathered at the academy’s main gate.
Judging by all the cameras, they were clearly reporters.
‘Reporters, huh...’
I saw a familiar back in the crowd.
“Choi Jun-hyuk!”
“Huh? Tae-sung! Did you get back home safely? Just got back now?”
That one sentence stirred up the crowd around us.
—Tae-sung?
—Jung Tae-sung? That’s him!
—It’s the angel, Jung Tae-sung!
In an instant, reporters surrounded us, holding up cameras and smartphones, shoving microphones in my face.
“Mr. Jung Tae-sung, right? I’m Kim Jin-woo from KBN! Is it true that your mana test result was a staggering 1,004?”
“They say it’s a new record—can you confirm it?”
“Was there any malfunction with the machine?”
“Are you really ranked number one in the country?”
With an awkward smile, I replied, “That fact...”
....
I just made a Patreon account, feel free to support me and get access to 5 or 10 chapters in advance: patreon.com/Hanzo123
Comments
Post a Comment