IEUST 02

Chapter 2

Clunk.

Lee Chae-ho picked up the lukewarm canned coffee that had dropped from the vending machine.

He plopped down onto an old faux-leather sofa tucked away in the corner of the Hunter Association branch’s rest area. On a weekend afternoon, the Association branch was bustling like a marketplace with hunters who had just returned from clearing dungeons.

Exaggerated tales of heroic exploits and boisterous laughter coming from every direction heated the stuffy air.

“Hey, I’m telling you, the orc suddenly started spinning its axe around like a whirlwind! If I hadn’t blocked it with my shield, you’d be lying in a private hospital room by now!”

“Hey, don’t try to make me pay for dinner just because you blocked one attack!”

Letting the conversation of another party at the table across from him wash over him, Chae-ho popped open the can.

A lukewarm, cloyingly sweet taste slid into his mouth.

At his feet, a cheap, scuffed shin guard and a blunt-edged iron dagger were sticking out of his bag and lying on the floor. They were the remnants of the fierce struggle he had just endured in the rear of a C-rank dungeon, where he had been rolling around covered in mud and monster blood.

Bzzz— Bzzz—.

His pocket began to vibrate.

The moment Chae-ho checked the caller’s name on the screen, his previously indifferent expression softened.

“Yes, Mom.”

—Son. Did you eat? You sound a little tired.

His mother’s voice was as gentle as always, but beneath it lay an unmistakable abundance of concern.

“I just finished a dungeon run and came to the Association. I’m about to eat. There weren’t that many monsters today, and the dungeon closed early, so it was really easy.”

—You didn’t get hurt, did you? I was watching the news lately, and every other day there was some story about monsters coming out of a Gate in the middle of Seoul. My heart was in my throat all day. Work is important, but what’s the point if you get hurt?

“Come on, the places I go aren’t that dangerous. Everyone’s an experienced hunter, so they rush ahead and wipe out all the monsters, and I just safely carry the luggage in the back. It’s really easy and safe. I don’t even get out of breath.”

Chae-ho smoothly piled one comforting lie on top of another.

The rear guard of a C-rank dungeon was by no means as safe as he made it sound. It was a harsh environment where half-crazed monsters knocked back from the front lines could suddenly come charging at him, intent on taking his life.

A world where the slightest lapse in attention or one wrong step could result in serious injury.

But there was no reason to tell his parents the whole truth and make them worry unnecessarily.

—Right. Your health comes before money. You know that, don’t you? Don’t push yourself trying to stand in front of everyone else. Be careful while you work. And don’t worry about fixing your dad’s old truck right away. Get yourself a sturdier set of armor first. Okay?

“Don’t worry. The party payout this month was pretty decent, so I’m going to the equipment district tomorrow. I’ll transfer the money for Dad’s truck repair this evening, so please make sure he goes to the auto shop.”

—Good grief. All right. Don’t just fill up on whatever’s convenient. Go buy yourself some meat and eat a proper meal.

After hanging up, Chae-ho stared absentmindedly at the black screen of his smartphone.

His reflection on the screen looked particularly haggard.

He had put on a show of confidence in front of his parents, but the reality of Hunter Lee Chae-ho was brutally harsh. He didn’t even need to open his banking app to know exactly how much money was in his account.

After subtracting next week’s medical bills, his monthly living expenses, and the repair costs for the truck that had broken down this time, he would have barely a hundred thousand won left.

He couldn’t even dream of buying new magic-resistant armor or a sharp weapon, both of which cost several million won. For a profession where he could lose his head at any moment, his income was painfully inadequate.

And even that income had been cut off as of today.

So I’ve been kicked out of the party.

Chae-ho leaned deeply against the backrest and let out a short sigh.

He didn’t resent Sang-min’s decision in the slightest. If anything, he was grateful that Sang-min had employed someone like him, a D-rank with not a single proper combat skill, as the dedicated porter for a C-rank elite party all this time.

The party was about to make its first serious foray into B-rank dungeons.

For a D-rank hunter with only average physical abilities to linger in the rear while working as a porter was practically suicide. In an environment where area-of-effect magic exploded everywhere and boss monsters launched surprise attacks, Chae-ho couldn’t even survive on his own.

But there was no way the other party members could break their formation just to protect a porter who contributed nothing to their combat strength.

I’ve been weeded out because I’m not good enough. Who am I supposed to blame?

If he had failed to understand his own limitations, stubbornly begged them to take him along just one more time, and made a scene, they would have only ended up embarrassed and uncomfortable around each other. Chae-ho knew his own limitations more objectively and coldly than anyone.

That didn’t mean he intended to quit being a hunter and return to an ordinary office job.

A regular salary was nowhere near enough to support his parents’ retirement and their steadily increasing medical expenses. Even if it meant risking his life every day, the only place where he could reliably make a large sum of money was still the bottom of a dungeon.

If his current skill level was the reason he’d been cast aside, the answer was simple.

He just had to find another porter position with a D-rank party suited to his level. He could work himself to the bone from there, fill in his shortcomings, take on all the dirty work other hunters hated, and gain experience. There were plenty of ways to make a living.

Firmly steeling his resolve, Chae-ho pulled the large bag he had set on the floor toward him.

He unzipped it and reached his hand between bloodstained pieces of cloth and miscellaneous junk. His fingertips brushed against something rough and papery.

What he carefully pulled out was a thin booklet bound in old parchment.

It was the severance pay Oh Sang-min had secretly pressed into his hands, filled with a heavy sense of apology.

A one-time random skill book that had not gone through the Association’s appraisal process.

“I hope at least one useful thing comes out of this.”

Chae-ho murmured as he ran his thumb over the worn cover of the parchment booklet.

He didn’t expect some incredible ability to come out of such a cheap random skill book. If he was lucky, he might get some common support skill around E- or D-rank at best.

A slight increase in basic physical strength.

An additional two meters of vision in darkness.

A passive skill that made the weight of the luggage he carried feel five percent lighter.

A tracking skill that allowed him to identify monster footprints.

Even some small, insignificant utility skill like that would make an excellent line on his résumé when he went looking for another porter position.

Then again, his luck could be so terrible that he might get a debuff that produced a foul odor within a one-meter radius, or a negative skill that made him snore violently every time he slept.

But Chae-ho wasn’t in a position to be picky.

With his life at rock bottom, even the smallest bit of help was desperately needed.

Chae-ho placed the empty coffee can in the corner of the table and firmly clasped the skill book in both hands.

For a moment, the noise around him seemed to fade into the distance.

He gently closed his eyes and drew up the tiniest trace of mana from his lower abdomen. The faint blue mana flowing through his veins slowly began to seep through his fingertips and into the old parchment.

Flash.

In an instant, the entire booklet emitted a brilliant white light so dazzling that he could barely keep his eyes open.

“Huh?”

Chae-ho furrowed his brows in surprise and was just about to pull his hands back.

The skill book lost its form and shattered into tens of thousands of particles of light, scattering through the air.

Then those radiant motes of light changed direction as though they were living creatures and poured straight toward Chae-ho’s chest all at once.

The light passed through his clothes and sank directly into his skin.

Along with a heavy sensation pressing down on the center of his chest, a wave of heat violently swept through his heart once.

Ding.

The moment a cheerful mechanical sound struck his ears, a translucent system window appeared across his entire field of vision.

Chae-ho flinched and looked around.

Neither the hunters still chatting across from him nor the Association employees passing by seemed able to perceive the glowing window floating before his eyes.

It was a message visible only on the retinas of the person who had absorbed the skill book.

Chae-ho swallowed dryly once and slowly read through the lines of text displayed before him.

[The One-Time Random Skill Book has been used.]

[Analyzing the user’s mana wavelength and mental image data to randomly extract a skill.]

[……Extraction complete.]

Chae-ho clenched his fists.

He desperately prayed that something practical would appear. Even an ordinary D-rank strength enhancement skill would be fine.

But the sentence that appeared next took a bizarre form that Chae-ho had never once imagined.

[An extremely rare condition with a probability of 0.000000000001% has been fulfilled.]

[Applying the System’s Exception Regulations.]

[Skill awakening will now begin.]

Chae-ho stared blankly at the string of numbers filling his field of vision.

He tried to count the endless string of zeros after the decimal point, but before his eyes could even follow them, the next system window covered his vision.

[You have acquired a new skill.]

[Skill Name: Time Deceleration]

[Rank: EX]

[The skill will permanently settle into the user’s soul and body.]

Chae-ho’s lips parted slightly.

His breath caught in his throat.

His heartbeat thundered abnormally loudly in his ears.

“EX-rank……?”

The two letters turned his mind completely white, as though he had been struck in the head with a blunt weapon.

The official ranking system for hunters in South Korea—or rather, for hunters across the entire world—ended at S-rank. EX-rank, representing something beyond that, existed only as a theoretical concept within the System or as an unknown realm spoken about as barroom gossip.

It was a fantastical rank that not even a major guild or a high-ranking Association official had ever seen.

And yet, a skill beyond all conventional standards had pierced through an absurdly low probability and lodged itself in the chest of a D-rank hunter who had barely managed to make ends meet with his ordinary abilities.

Moreover, even the name Time Deceleration was anything but ordinary.

It was on an entirely different level from simple physical attacks like releasing energy from a sword or firing a ball of flame. As for what principle governed the manipulation of time or what kind of performance it would demonstrate in actual combat, Chae-ho had absolutely no idea.

It was simply an incomprehensible, absolute imprint.

The letters EX floated in the air in crimson text, ominously yet brilliantly flashing, their glow reflected clearly in Chae-ho’s trembling eyes.

Chae-ho instinctively staggered backward, and his elbow struck the edge of the table.

The empty coffee can crumpled with a metallic sound and rolled across the floor, but he didn’t even think to bend down and pick it up.

Staring blankly at the translucent system window floating in the air, Chae-ho let out a breathless murmur.

“What…… the hell is this?”