Chapter 15

Chapter 15. Mercenary (1)

“Wow. How did you even find a Gate like this?”

“How'd you get the clearing rights?”

After entering the Gate, the party members questioned Choi Yoon-seo.

Gate clearing rights.

South Korea had limited territory, which meant fewer Gates appeared compared to larger countries.

Obtaining the right to clear one wasn't easy unless you belonged to a Guild.

That was why most Hunters joined Guilds.

As for the Hunters who couldn't...

“Who do you think I am? I'm Choi Yoon-seo. I used to be a team leader in the Baeksu Guild.”

They cleared free-access Gates periodically released by the Association.

Or they used private connections to buy clearing rights for less desirable Gates.

The risk was high.

But without having to give a share to a Guild, the profits could also be huge.

Anyone running an independent party needed at least this much ability.

“Oh, Yoon-seo. You finally did something useful. Usually you only bring us garbage Gates.”

“Garbage?!”

“It's true. You always brought Gates with high danger and terrible rewards. I was starting to think we should disband and find a Guild.”

“How the hell did you find a gold mine like this?”

The party looked around.

This Gate was different from the others.

Calling it a gold mine wasn't an exaggeration.

A C-Rank Gate.

The difficulty was manageable.

“The monsters are Orcs. Annoying, but manageable. And there aren't any major gimmicks.”

“More importantly...”

Now they understood why Choi Yoon-seo had even bothered hiring a porter.

“A mine.”

A mine.

Hunters earned money in several ways.

Clear rewards.

Rare items.

But the biggest source of income was mana stones.

Mana stones obtained from monsters.

The new energy source of this era.

But monsters weren't the only source.

“Aren't Gates with mana-stone mines usually something major Guilds fight over?”

Rarely, they could be mined directly from mana-stone deposits.

“I told you, I'm Choi Yoon-seo. Anyway, we hunt some monsters, collect mana stones, and leave. That's it.”

“Ohhh!”

Everyone's expression brightened.

“And... hey, porter!”

I looked over.

“Do you understand how lucky you are now?”

I was only D-Rank.

Normally, someone like me would never be able to enter a mine-type Gate.

Under normal circumstances, even the porter would receive a respectable amount of mana stones.

But...

Idiot doesn't even know what contribution distribution means.

Contribution inside a Gate ultimately meant killing monsters.

A D-Rank Hunter obviously couldn't fight Orcs.

He mustn't figure it out until the end. Otherwise he won't work hard collecting them.

Choi Yoon-seo looked toward Kim Si-hyeon.

But Kim Si-hyeon didn't seem impressed.

“Is that so?”

“...Is that so?”

“I've never really been lucky.”

What?

Choi Yoon-seo felt strangely irritated.

Why is a D-Rank this calm just because he's part of a group?

If he didn't even know what contribution distribution was, this was probably his first Gate.

Kim Si-hyeon's calm attitude annoyed him.

So Choi Yoon-seo tossed a spatial backpack at him.

“You'll start trembling the moment you see an Orc, so stop pretending to be tough. That bag's worth more than five hundred million won. Take care of it and get ready to fill it with mana stones.”

Until that moment, Choi Yoon-seo had absolutely no doubt that he could scam Kim Si-hyeon.

“One Orc coming your way!”

“Got it!”

“Chwiik!”

So that's an Orc.

Orcs were humanoid monsters with green skin.

Huge tusks.

Bulging muscles.

In a way, they were similar to Dark Elves.

“Urgh! This pig bastard's too strong!”

“Orcs have always had insane strength! Hold on! I'll help in a second!”

It was different from my first Gate.

Completely different from fighting the Dark Elves.

Most importantly...

“Haaaah!”

This was the first time in my life I had watched other Hunters fight monsters.

Choi Yoon-seo's party had six members besides me.

“Die! Die, you damn pig!”

Choi Yoon-seo fought with a sword.

Another Hunter carried a shield.

One man appeared to be an archer.

And finally...

“Is your skill ready yet?!”

“Fireball!”

A female Hunter stood at the back with me.

A mage.

So that's magic.

Scarlet flames swirled above both her hands.

Then shot toward the Orc.

BOOM!

The fire exploded.

I had never seen anything like it.

A strange flow.

Condensation.

Explosion.

But...

“Aaaah!”

“The Orc isn't dead yet!”

The destructive power was weaker than I expected.

If anything, the burning Orc seemed even angrier.

It charged straight toward the female mage.

“Stay away! Stay away!”

She screamed in fear.

That's dangerous.

I had seen countless people panic while fighting zombies.

If they stayed calm, they could survive.

But once panic took over, they often let zombies tear flesh from their bodies.

Worse, they could endanger everyone nearby.

So...

CLANG!

I drew my blade and struck the Orc's grotesque weapon.

Sparks flew.

“Chwieeeek!”

The Orc snorted in frustration, as though angry that its prey had escaped.

Then it tried to swing its weapon and cut me in half.

“Chwek?”

Something seemed wrong.

A thin horizontal line appeared across the Orc's neck.

Thud.

Its head fell.

The female mage's eyes widened.

“Yu-bin! Are you okay?”

Choi Yoon-seo rushed over after finishing off the remaining Orcs.

“Huh? Y-Yeah... thanks to...”

But the mage was looking at me.

“You're not hurt?”

“No.”

“Kim Si-hyeon, was it? Porter!”

If this had been the Special Division, this would've been the moment someone praised me.

Instead, Choi Yoon-seo said something completely unexpected.

“Who told you to interfere?”

“...?”

“Because of you, Yu-bin almost got hurt!”

I couldn't understand.

“If you're a porter, act like one and stay back. Stop showing off!”

The female mage had clearly been in danger.

Was I really supposed to do nothing?

“...But how did you kill that thing?”

Another party member approached and asked.

Before I could answer, Choi Yoon-seo snorted.

“We already wore it down. He just got lucky and hit it with a random swing. Don't you know how stupid Orcs are?”

“But the cut surface...”

“Enough. Let's move.”

Choi Yoon-seo didn't even look at the Orc I'd killed.

“We've pretty much cleared the Orcs near the mine...”

The party, now calmer, began moving.

“Time for the main course.”

Soon, we arrived at the entrance of a cave glowing with blue light.

I could feel several people looking at me.

The female mage.

And the party member who had mentioned the Orc's cut surface.

Why are they staring?

Both kept glancing at me.

The mage looked like she wanted to say something.

The other Hunter seemed suspicious that I was hiding something.

Doesn't matter. I'm only here to earn money.

Once this job ended, I would probably never see them again.

Whatever they thought about me was unimportant.

“Whoa... Damn, look at all these mana stones.”

Deep inside the cave, everyone grabbed pickaxes and began mining.

“Porter! What are you doing?”

“Where's my pickaxe?”

Choi Yoon-seo smiled at me like I'd asked something ridiculous.

“You think you can mine mana stones with your strength? You're D-Rank. What are you going to do? See those mana stones on the floor?”

The stones the party had mined were scattered across the ground.

“Put all of those into the backpack.”

“That's all?”

“What else can you do? Hurry up and pick them up.”

I see.

“All right.”

So that was all I had to do.

I was certain now.

He's a good person.

Choi Yoon-seo spoke a little roughly.

But he had still been kind enough to hire me when I was looking for work.

And all he wanted me to do was pick up stones from the floor.

His earlier warning after I killed the Orc was probably because he was worried a D-Rank like me might get hurt.

I should work hard.

The Special Division people were kind.

Choi Yoon-seo was kind.

This world really was filled with good people.

Rustle. Rustle.

I began filling the backpack with the mana stones scattered across the floor.

Every single one.

Some time passed.

Clang! Clang!

Pickaxes rang rhythmically through the cave.

I simply repeated the same task.

Pick up the mana stones.

Put them away.

“Whew! I'm dying. This place is insane. There are so many mana stones.”

Choi Yoon-seo threw his pickaxe down.

“By the way, is that bastard keeping up?”

He had been mining while facing forward.

Only now did he turn around.

“Agh! Fuck, you scared me!”

He fell backward after suddenly meeting my eyes from less than a step away.

“What the hell?! Why are you standing there?”

“...? Didn't you tell me to collect the mana stones?”

“No, I mean...!”

Choi Yoon-seo looked behind me.

“...There are no mana stones on the ground?”

The floor was perfectly clean.

“What? What's happening?”

The party members who had been farther ahead approached.

“The mana stones... they're gone.”

“What?”

“I said they're gone! All the mana stones we've been mining!”

“That can't be!”

Everyone raised their voices in confusion.

I stared at them, equally confused.

“If you're looking for the mana stones, they're here.”

“Huh?”

I turned the backpack upside down.

RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE!

Mana stones poured out endlessly.

“Oh, and...”

With a mountain of mana stones piled in front of us, I walked away for a moment and dragged something over.

Drag. Drag.

“Aaaah! An Orc...!”

“No, wait! That's...”

“A sack made from Orc hide?”

I showed them a green sack stuffed with mana stones.

“I collected every single one.”

They had been mining slowly.

At some point, the backpack had stopped accepting more.

So I skinned the Orc I'd killed earlier and quickly made an extra sack.

Why does everyone look so pale?

Was there some kind of problem?

“This is impossible...”

The female mage muttered.

“Impossible!”

“I'd appreciate it if you'd explain what the problem is.”

“You were carrying all of this like it was nothing? That's a spatial backpack... it doesn't reduce the weight!”

Ah.

She meant the fully loaded backpack.

“It was a little heavy.”

It had definitely been heavy.

But not unbearably so.

Actually, I'd been struggling lately to find enough weight to make my training effective.

This finally gave my muscles a little stimulation.

“Y-You're insane...”

Hmm.

For some reason, the way they were looking at me was starting to resemble the Special Division.