Chapter 63
The short words of gratitude from the spirit of a former top-class A-rank Hunter carried something heavy.
The trust of a craftsman entrusting someone with his lifelong dream.
And sincere gratitude toward a younger Hunter who had understood him.
Cha Gang-il handed Hong Man-gi the translucent parchment recipe he had taken out earlier.
"This recipe belongs to you now. Every bit of knowledge and experience I possessed is contained within it. Please... fulfill my final dream."
After saying those words, Cha Gang-il's spirit slowly sank into Hong Man-gi's shadow.
"Huh...?"
Hong Man-gi felt as though his shadow had become slightly darker and heavier than before.
The next morning, the Full Moon Restaurant was busy from early hours.
But instead of the usual smell of food, the restaurant was filled with tense silence and signs of deep thought.
A sign on the door read, "Closed Today, We Apologize."
Disappointed customers turned away while peeking curiously through the windows.
Hong Man-gi and Lee Yu-han sat with their heads together over Cha Gang-il's incomplete recipe spread across the table.
"He went inside your shadow...? Has anything like that happened before?"
Hong Man-gi answered.
"No. This is the first time. I think he wants to stay beside me until the recipe is completed and personally witness it. Maybe he intends to help us until then."
"If he can help, couldn't he just tell us the ingredients directly and decipher everything for us?"
"It seems like he can't. He's already dead, and this recipe has changed slightly from the one he originally knew."
"So the contents changed... Well, he did fail once...."
Lee Yu-han nodded at Hong Man-gi's explanation, but he could not shake the chill running through him.
Having the spirit of a legendary A-rank Hunter beside them was reassuring.
At the same time, it made the responsibility feel even heavier.
"Then... this sounds incredibly difficult. Hunter, can we really do it?"
Lee Yu-han sighed while staring at the complicated transmutation formations and incomprehensible ancient characters on the parchment.
Hong Man-gi had already told him Cha Gang-il's story and final request.
Still, seeing the real recipe in front of him made the difficulty feel far greater than anything he had imagined.
"It'll be difficult. Very difficult. But we have to do it."
Hong Man-gi rested his chin on one hand and stared at the parchment.
"The problem is this blank section. It looks like we need two more core materials besides the Heart of Chaos, but unless we decipher these ancient characters, we have no way of knowing what they are."
The two of them spent a long time staring at the parchment and struggling to make sense of it.
Then something suddenly came to Hong Man-gi's mind.
"Oh, right. We have her."
Hong Man-gi summoned Poming.
"Puwaaaang! Poming has arrived! Chef! Mr. Lee Yu-han! Good morning! What delicious food are we starting the day with? Boom-cha-boom!"
As energetic as always, Poming appeared brightly.
But when she saw the serious atmosphere and unfamiliar parchment on the table, she tilted her head.
"Huh? What's this? A treasure map? Sniff, sniff. It smells like metal... and sadness."
"What kind of smell is sadness? Come here and take a closer look at this."
Poming flew over the parchment.
Hong Man-gi asked,
"Poming, can you read these letters?"
Poming narrowed her eyes as though putting on invisible glasses and carefully studied the ancient writing.
A moment later, her eyes widened.
"Oh! Chef! These symbols! These letters! Poming saw them a long time ago in the books of another summoner I served!"
"R... really? You recognize them? What are they?"
"These are Dwarven alchemy symbols!"
"Dwarven alchemy symbols?"
Hong Man-gi and Lee Yu-han shouted at the same time.
"Yes! That's right! One of Poming's former masters was both a chef and an alchemist! So Poming learned a little by watching from the side! Let's see. Hmm... this one means fire... this one means essence... aha! Found them!"
Poming pointed her tiny paw toward two empty sections of the parchment.
"You were wondering about the two missing ingredients, right? This one is the Flame Lizard's Tear, and this one is the Little Giant's Breath!"
"Flame Lizard's Tear? Little Giant's Breath?"
Hong Man-gi tilted his head at the unfamiliar ingredient names.
Lee Yu-han, however, suddenly turned pale.
"Hunter, I know those ingredients."
"You do?"
"Yes. But officially, trading them is forbidden!"
"Forbidden?"
"Yes! After the Shadow Market Collapse Incident a few years ago, the Association began directly managing certain rare materials that only appear in extremely dangerous dungeons. Their circulation is tightly controlled."
Lee Yu-han continued quickly.
"The Flame Lizard's Tear and the Little Giant's Breath are among the hardest top-tier materials to obtain. If an individual is caught possessing or trading them without permission, they could lose their Hunter license and even be punished for a serious crime!"
Hong Man-gi frowned deeply.
In other words, there was no official route to obtain them.
That meant only one option remained.
The illegal route known as the Shadow Market.
While Hong Man-gi was lost in thought, Lee Yu-han cautiously continued.
"Hunter... something else just occurred to me. Shouldn't we investigate Hunter Cha Gang-il's death more closely too?"
"What do you mean?"
"He said the Association gave him a secret mission, but sending him into an S-rank dungeon alone is strange from the start. I can't help thinking there might be another reason behind it...."
"You're right. I thought the same thing."
Lee Yu-han had a point.
No matter how legendary an A-rank Hunter Cha Gang-il had been, sending him alone into an S-rank dungeon without support was outside common sense.
There might have been something hidden behind his death that he had never mentioned.
Perhaps even something Cha Gang-il himself had not known.
Investigating that mystery could also help them complete the recipe and forge the weapon.
"You're right. We should go to the Association first."
The two of them immediately began planning.
