A Public Servant Hunter Who Exploits Skill Combinations – Chapter 34
Translated by: Hanzo
Chapter 34: Second Shedding (1)
<It’s happening... I’ve got the signal.>
‘What? Do you need to go to the bathroom too?’
<What do you take this sacred dragon for?! A bathroom? Please.>
‘Then what signal?’
<My second shedding...>
‘Oh, so we need to go to the ocean again?’
Snake shook its head as if to say no.
<This time, I must endure the cold.>
‘So, what, should I toss you into a furnace?’
<That sounds acceptable.>
“...”
It was a joke, but the snake took it seriously, leaving me flustered.
A furnace, huh...
The mention of a furnace brought a certain incident to mind.
Was it around this time?
I glanced at the calendar, thinking I could match the timing.
‘Snake.’
<What is it?>
‘Can you hold on for a week?’
<I can manage.>
‘Good. It’ll be tough, but hang in there for a bit longer.’
<Why?>
‘I’ve got somewhere we need to go.’
This might just be the perfect opportunity to use the furnace incident.
***
“Everyone’s prepping for finals, right?”
-Nope.
“Who said that? Stand up.”
Teacher Choi Jung-gang displayed his infamous Thorn Vine skill for the first time in a while.
“Oh? Blocking it now?”
After half a year had passed, the students had become adept at handling mana.
One student easily blocked Choi Jung-gang’s skill.
Seeing this, Choi seemed pleased and smiled as he spoke.
“You’re blocking well now. Sit back down.”
When finals were over, it was time for the break.
But breaks weren’t for relaxing. Each student was randomly assigned to intern at a guild.
It was like a mini-internship.
No matter how much you hone your skills at the academy, real-life experience was different. This program was disguised as a vacation but served as practical training.
However, students weren’t sent to dangerous gates.
They mostly observed hunting at low-grade gates.
Sometimes, they even participate in the hunt.
There were cases where students experienced explosive growth in just a month.
Some had a knack for real-world combat, and there was much to learn from life-and-death situations.
Luck also played a role if you were assigned a good mentor.
In my case, in the past, I was stuck with a lousy guild and an equally lousy mentor.
“This year’s finals will also be held in an artificial dungeon. As announced, you’ll face a water-attribute monster. In keeping with the final exam’s difficulty, the monster’s type won’t be revealed beforehand. The date hasn’t been finalized yet, but we’ll let you know soon. Get ready.”
A water attribute...
Wouldn’t lightning skills have the upper hand?
***
“How are things progressing?”
“As per your instructions, we’ve adjusted the monster type in this year’s finals to give Jung Tae-sung an advantage.”
Director of the Hunter Department Shin Myung-min nodded as he reviewed the documents Secretary Kim handed him.
“So, he’ll perform well again this time?”
“Yes, sir.”
Then, as if recalling an unresolved question from a past incident, Shin turned to Secretary Kim.
“Judging by that lightning incident last time, Tae-sung seems close to A-rank already, doesn’t he?”
“I looked into that incident. Apparently, Hunter Ma Jung-seok had already weakened the werewolves beforehand.”
“So, Tae-sung just delivered the final blow?”
“Yes.”
“Are you saying he was lucky?”
“That seems to be the case.”
“Who told you this?”
“His closest friend and roommate, Choi Jun-hyuk.”
“Is he trustworthy?”
“Yes. He’s a bit naive, but he’s not one to make things up or lie. He doesn’t even seem capable of scheming.”
“If you say so.”
Shin Myung-min swiveled his chair, gazing at the sunset outside the window as he murmured.
“Lucky, huh... What’s your take? Do you think it was just luck?”
Secretary Kim responded honestly.
“I’m not sure.”
“What about Ma Jung-seok’s perspective?”
“Ma Jung-seok said he was gathering mana for an all-out attack and had asked Tae-sung to hold the line briefly.”
Knowing Ma Jung-seok well, Shin nodded.
“His Mana Blade is devastating. Its downside is the time it takes to charge. If he said that, it’s not wrong to say he had prepared the situation.”
“That seems to be the case.”
“So, should we just focus on the fact that Tae-sung can use an area-of-effect skill?”
“That’s probably the most reasonable interpretation. Even though Tae-sung has the highest mana level recorded, he’s only been awakened for six months. The fact that he can even use an AOE skill is remarkable. Expecting massive destructive power at this stage seems like an overestimation.”
“Fair enough. What we need is a stellar performance anyway. That way, we can justify fast-tracking him for early graduation and recruiting him as a public servant hunter. That’ll boost the image of public service hunters, too.”
“Exactly.”
“Make sure everything’s prepared.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll finalize the date around this time.”
“Understood.”
***
The date for the finals was set.
But it clashed awkwardly with the time I had planned to visit the furnace.
I needed to be at the furnace on Sunday, but the exam was scheduled for Monday...
Would I make it in time?
Snake also seemed to be struggling to delay its shedding any longer.
<How much longer do I have to wait?>
‘By the way, when you said “cold,” do you mean a chilling energy as intense as the heat you emitted before?’
<That’s likely.>
The snake had previously emitted enough heat to warm an ocean.
Its cold energy would probably freeze even a furnace.
‘If that’s the case, just hang in there a little longer. While you’re releasing that cold, let’s do something useful.’
<Useful?>
‘Yeah.’
The long-awaited moment finally arrived.
I boarded a train heading to Pohang, where the blast furnace was located.
Although there were flights and buses, the train was the most convenient option and had the most reasonable travel time.
Even so, it still took over three hours.
Adding in the time to and from the station...
I either needed to get a driver's license soon or hope teleportation was developed quickly.
I had left after lunchtime, but now it was already approaching dinnertime.
<Why did you come so far?>
"There's going to be a gate opening here."
<A gate? Hmm... My condition isn’t great, so I can't sense it properly.>
"Looks like shedding your skin weakens your body."
<Reclaiming one's strength isn’t an easy feat. Once I shed my skin, I’ll be even stronger than I am now. Plus, this current skin doesn’t fit me anymore, so I can’t properly exert my strength.>
"Hang in there a little longer."
<Alright. Once I’ve shed my skin, I’ll personally fix your twisted mana pathways.>
"I feel like there’s a catch to that statement..."
<What do you mean?>
"I’m just getting the sense that the 'fixing' part isn’t going to be easy..."
<Kahaha. Of course not! Be prepared for it.>
"..."
Why does this sound terrifying?
<But why do we have to come this far for a monster? There are blast furnaces closer than this.>
"Yeah, there’s one within a two-hour distance."
<Then why...?>
"There’s a big steel mill here, and a tricky monster is going to appear."
<A tricky monster?>
"Yeah. It’s something we call the Iron Beast."
<Iron Beast?>
"It’s also known as the Iron Ogre."
<Iron Ogre? That hulking mass of iron?>
"Exactly. That thing caused a lot of damage by overturning a blast furnace back then. The city suffered for a while because of it."
<So you came to save the city?>
"Huh? What are you talking about? I’m here to grab the items it drops."
<?>
"It’s an A-rank monster that gets stronger with heat. But if we use your cold aura, it won’t be able to do anything, right?"
<...That does make sense.>
"Exactly. So, we’ll just catch it quickly and then head back for the final exam."
<But how did you know what monster would appear when the gate hasn’t even formed yet?>
"I have my secrets."
<...>
<But when is it going to show up?>
"Good question. I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be in the evening..."
***
It was already past 9 PM.
To avoid being late for tomorrow morning's final exam, I needed to wrap this up as quickly as possible.
But there wasn’t even a hint of a gate, let alone a monster.
"Well, the gate will show up eventually, so I might as well grab a bite."
It’s not like I can make the gate appear on command.
It’ll happen when it’s supposed to.
I stepped into a nearby sashimi restaurant and placed my order.
I’d once heard from a hunter from Pohang that the city’s famous for its mulhoe (cold raw fish soup) in addition to dried pollack.
"One bowl of mulhoe, please."
The scent of the sea filled the air in this coastal town, and eating mulhoe in such an atmosphere felt great.
But being here alone made it a little lonely.
I should’ve brought Jun-hyuk along.
I was sure it was supposed to be today...
Could my memory be wrong?
That couldn’t be.
Before the final exam.
On the weekend.
Sunday.
I remembered watching the news the next morning...
The restaurant’s TV was playing the news.
"Here’s tomorrow’s weather. It’ll be cloudy with lots of overcast skies..."
Ah!
A flash of memory crossed my mind from the news I had seen back then.
***
30 years ago, the day before the final exam.
"Tae-sung, wake up! It’s the day of the final exam!"
"Huh...? Is it morning already?"
"Yeah."
"Why are you up so early today?"
"I think I ate too much yesterday. My stomach hurt, so I woke up."
"Yeah, you did drink too much."
"What can I do? I can’t sleep sober."
"You’re probably the only one who gets wasted the day before an exam."
"Monsters are scary..."
"You’re scarier. Move your face away..."
Still groggy, Tae-sung grabbed the phone beside his bed to shake off the sleepiness.
He absentmindedly clicked on a news article on the main screen.
[Field gate opens at a steel mill in Pohang!
Workers on the night shift were caught on CCTV fleeing in panic after an unexpected gate opened.
The video captured the tense atmosphere of the scene, evoking sympathy.
In the dark footage, a glowing red blast furnace stood out.
A monster rampaged through the gate and destroyed the blast furnace in the factory.
Though local hunters on standby quickly responded, the area was already devastated.
The monster thrived on heat, making it difficult for hunters to deal with, and the damage was extensive.
The factory’s losses were estimated at over 50 billion won, and the downtime before resuming normal operations was projected to cost several hundred billion won more.
Meanwhile, a rare item dropped from the monster, drawing significant interest.
Hunter Park Jong-wook, who obtained the item, donated half of its proceeds to those affected, earning praise.]
"Wow, such a rare item must be worth at least 10 billion won... Donating half of that much is impressive."
What kind of item was it...?
The memory of searching for that item snapped Tae-sung awake.
**
Ah!
It was 4 AM.
The thick clouds made it unusually dark, so I’d mistaken it for night.
But 4 AM was cutting it too close...
It takes four hours to get back to the academy.
The exam starts at 8 AM.
Even if I catch the monster in one minute, I won’t make it in time.
Should I give up on the item and catch the last train back...?
<What’s troubling you?>
"Oh, I got the timing wrong. Looks like the gate won’t open until 4 AM."
<Waiting a few more hours is no problem.>
"That’s not the issue... I’m worried about being late. I can’t afford to miss tomorrow."
<If that’s the issue, I think I can solve it.>
"What? How?"
<By then, my shedding will be complete.>
I was shocked by what Snake said and asked again.
"What? That’s possible?"
<Why are you so surprised?>
"Are you really a dragon?"
<Still doubting me...?>
I can barely trust people; how could I trust an animal...?
Especially a snake...
A weird snake with legs.
Oh? Was it always a dragon?
If Snake’s method worked, I’d make it back on time.
Feeling relieved, I leisurely finished my meal and moved to the spot where the gate was supposed to appear.
Soon, cracks formed in the air, and the gate began to take shape.
"Snake, I’ll give you a prettier name later."
<Should I even be grateful for that...?>
"It’s time to shed your skin."
....
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