First Hunt (1)
Dark Cave. Some men were hammering hard there, wearing gas masks and headlamps.
And one man stands out among them. He was mechanically striking something with a large hammer.
Pak! Pak! Pak!
After several hammer strikes, a wriggling, almost colorless lump of liquid exploded.
Slime’s bodily fluid that emits an invisible, intangible energy and shatters.
Part of the bodily fluid clung to the hem of the man striking the hammer.
Chiiik- A bodily fluid that sticks together with a sound. Fortunately, there was no hole in the clothes, probably protective clothing, and it was only slightly worn.
But that wasn’t the end. As the slime died, there was an acrid gas that rose. The poison gas made the stale air in the cave even more turbid.
However, the man’s gas mask couldn’t be penetrated by the poison gas, so the man didn’t care and pointed the metal hose in his left hand toward the shattered body fluids of the slime.
Shu Shu Shuk –
Slime’s bodily fluid being sucked in through a metal hose with a suction sound. The inhaled bodily fluids piled up one by one in the huge reservoir the man carried on his back.
The man kept repeating the action.
How much time had passed like that?
When the slime bin was full, the man stepped out of the cave. When he reached the entrance of the cave and passed through the colorfully shining portal, the place where the man was was changed from the cave to a concrete building in an instant.
The building was a guard post surrounding a glowing portal.
Soldiers standing guard at the entrance spotted the man and put their guns on alert.
“Don’t move. Identify yourself.”
“I’m Jeong Sang-woo, an F-class hunter.”
“I am Jung Sang-woo Hunter.”
The noncommissioned officer, who briefly checked the list at the guard’s report, sent a “pass” sign.
Soldiers off guard.
Sangwoo No. 1 followed the soldiers’ guidance and completed a simple scan. And as he passed the soldiers, one of the soldiers standing guard shook his head.
“Are you Hunter Jeong Sang-woo again? Aren’t you tired?”
“Say that. Working hard in an unpopular dungeon.”
“I heard that poison gas can’t be filtered out even with that gas mask? Shouldn’t it dry?”
“Leave it. I will take care of it.”
Only your identity is registered on the security guard entry list, but it is not known what skills you have.
Because of this, it was an incident that happened because they did not know that Sang-woo had the ability to clone himself.
Leaving those whispers behind, Number 1 went to the locker on one side of the guardhouse.
As if familiar, when I opened the lock password of the storage box, I saw storage bins piled up one by one.
No. 1 put the storage container he was carrying into the storage box and carried a new storage container.
Then, No. 1 heads to the portal again.
As he approaches the dungeon entrance again, the guarded soldiers sigh.
“Hunter. You’ve been collecting slime for almost 20 hours, how about you die soon?”
At one soldier’s words, No. 1 looked at the soldier for a moment.
“If you hunt for too long, it’s not good because of the gas. Hunter.”
Despite the soldier’s dissuade, No. 1 just waited patiently, as if urging permission to enter.
In the end, the guard chief gave permission.
When the barricade blocking his way was cleared, No. 1 entered the portal as if he were used to it.
‘Aren’t these people sleepy?’
The guards, including the head of the guard, all looked like they had both their hands and feet raised.
But, until then, they didn’t know.
To think that the 20-hour hunt for No. 1 would continue for over 48 hours.
* * *
A shabby shop in the back alley of Namdaemun Market.
Kang Jun-mo was quietly looking at the scale with the store owner.
[12 kg]
“Exactly 12 kg. The storage tank weighs 2 kilos. Let’s see… The current market price for slime bodily fluid is 19,000 won per kilogram, so it’s 190,000 won per bottle.”
There were eight such barrels around.
“Since there are 8 boxes, the total is 1.52 million won.”
“Ah, Mr. Go, how many years have we been dealing with, are you being mean? Please don’t do that and give it 155.”
“No, President Kang, is it because I have something left?”
“So, are you going to the store next door?”
“… that’s true. okay 155 notes. That person was weak.”
So Kang Jun-mo sold the slime body fluid for 1.55 million won. Of this, 20%, or 310,000 won, belonged to Kang Jun-mo.
He handed 50,000 won to the delivery driver of an 8-ton truck that had brought the storage tank.
“thank you. president. Please call me again.”
“Yes, I will contact you.”
He has 260,000 won left. This was a profit made in two days.
‘I wonder if the rental fee for the large storage box at the Dobongsan Slime Dungeon guardhouse was 500,000 won…. I need to change it to a large one right away.’
Two days ago, Kang Jun-mo took Jeong Sang-woo to a slime dungeon hunting ground located in Dobongsan.
Before going, he rented simple basic equipment from a company he knew, and made Jung Sang-woo familiarize himself with the slime hunting manual throughout the trip.
In fact, slime hunting wasn’t that difficult, so training was enough in words.
The only problem is poison gas.
“Up to six hours. Just hunt that much and come out. If you want to do more, you can take a break for an hour or two and come back. If you think you have more than a gas mask or protective clothing, get out immediately. I rented a small storage box here to keep the slime storage container, so you can replace it here.”
“all right.”
“Please contact me when the hunt is all over.”
Kang Jun-mo, who left the mountain to hunt like that, came down the mountain. And he spent a busy day recruiting and managing other hunters. He completely forgot the existence of Jung Sang-woo.
Then, two days later, Jeong Sang-woo contacted me.
The storage box is full, so the hunt is over and it looks like it needs to be retrieved.
‘You filled the reservoir in two days? Nonsense.’
Considering the slime’s tenacious vitality and small size, it is difficult to fill a storage tank a day. However, Kang Jun-mo couldn’t believe that he filled all 8 storage containers in the small storage box.
However, it wasn’t until he personally visited the dungeon and opened the security locker that he came to believe it.
‘Did you say Hunter Jeong Sang-woo’s skill was self-immolation?’
Looking at the reservoirs filled with slime bodily fluids, Kang Jun-mo realized that he was misjudged.
He had preconceived notions about clone magic skills like everyone else.
I was mistaken that the alter ego was an illusion.
‘It makes sense if the alter ego is not an illusion. The alter ego can exercise physical force… Did you hunt slime with the alter ego?’
Otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to collect this much slime bodily fluid.
Anyway, with this incident, Kang Jun-mo realized that it was more fortunate than he thought to sign a contract with Jung Sang-woo, an F-rank hunter.
At this rate of slime hunting, it would bring in a big profit even excluding the cost of renting equipment such as protective clothing and gas masks.
‘If it’s a hunter who summons an alter ego with physical power… it’s not a simple F-class hunter. The potential for growth is enormous. I need to give you intensive care. And I need to check the skill in detail.’
In terms of skill alone, there is a possibility of looking beyond F-rank to E-rank… and beyond.
With such hope, Kang Jun-mo sent a text message to Jeong Sang-woo about the proceeds.
* * *
[Balance: 7032100 won]
About a week since I started hunting as a hunter. In Sang-woo’s bank account, there was a bank account balance of 7 million won. This was true even though 3.5 million won had already been paid for tuition.
‘Hehe, am I going to get rich soon?’
While looking at his bank account balance on his smartphone, Sang-woo was stunned.
Jang Ha-yeon, who was solving a problem by her side, looked at Sang-woo to see if that bothered him.
“What are you looking at?”
“Oh just. not a big deal.”
“Did you see anything dirty?”
“no it’s not? What do you see people as? Have you solved all the problems?”
“Have you solved everything? It’s okay to see you’re angry.”
“Hmmmm… look at what you solved.”
Sang-woo turned off his smartphone and tried to distract himself while grading Ha-yeon’s question paper.
It was a mock test for the language area, and out of a total of 10 questions, Ha-yeon got 6 correct answers.
“Last time I had four, but this time I got six. see Because you can do it.”
“Actually, it’s because I don’t use my brain, but I’m rather smart.”
Ha-yeon doesn’t care about Sang-woo’s empty words to encourage him. Sang-woo looked at her as if he was dumbfounded.
“Tsk tsk. Don’t rot your parents by using that good hair right away. What did you do without studying?”
“I was going to become a Hunter…”
“Hunter? did you wake up?”
“yes. I also have the ability.”
Ha Yeon spread her hand. Then, an orb of magical power was formed above the hand.
“see. Isn’t it nice?”
“Wow, that’s true. What ability is this?”
“The skill name is Energy Ball. It’s a sphere of magical power that can be thrown and attacked.”
“Does it sound like a good ability just by looking at it? But why didn’t you Hunter?”
“I also got a license to do so, but I was afraid to go hunting alone…” It
was only then that Sang-woo realized that Ha-yeon was still a minor.
“You just do well on the test. Then I’ll take you to the hunting grounds.”
“really?”
“Yes, there is a hunting ground I know. It’s safe and easy there, so it’s pretty good.”
“all right. Then I promise you.”
Hayeon held out her little finger to Sangwoo. Sang-woo smiled and put out his pinky finger, intertwined it, and pressed his thumbs together.
“I promised you this. Don’t say anything else later!”
“okay. okay. you just do it like this Then you can go to Kyungkook University.”
“all right. I will trust you.”
Sang-woo and Ha-yeon looked at each other and smiled.
* * *
Two weeks passed like that.
Today is the opening day of Kyungkook University.
Sang-woo stepped on the Kyungkook University campus after a long time.
He was on his way to the classroom for his major subject, the first period class, and he ran into freshman juniors he knew everywhere, but no one said hello to him.
Sang-woo, a sophomore, felt embarrassed.
‘I must have been a senior without authority.’
After struggling for a while, I arrived at the lecture hall.
A familiar face as soon as you enter.
It was Kim Kyung-do, a close friend.
This semester, since I registered for classes with Gyeonggi, my class hours were exactly the same as him.
Sang-woo went to the seat next to Gyeong-do and sat down.
“Shark Hi.”
“It’s nice to draw.”
Then the students around me hum.
“What is Sangwoo senior?”
“Is that your brother?”
“Sangwoo hyung was fat.”
It was only then that the first-year juniors who had been close to each other approached Sang-woo.
“Hello Sangwoo hyung. I didn’t know and couldn’t say goodbye.”
“No, it’s okay. How are you?”
“Hey bro. During vacation, I went on a strict diet. Where did you exercise?”
“No, at home…”
“I think you’re a bit taller.”
“that’s right. You were the same height as me.”
In an instant, Sang-woo’s surroundings became noisy.
In fact, Sang-woo, who was 175 cm tall, has grown by about 3 cm since he got his alter ego.
Although he was 21 years old, his growth plates were not yet closed, and his body, stimulated by steady exercise, was growing.
Although he had succeeded in losing weight through No. 1’s performance, Sang-woo was showing off his slender proportions as he covered his height.
Of course, I was still a bit flabbergasted.
“Hey, are you getting some clothes now?”
Kwon Chan-woo put his hand on Sang-woo’s shoulder and said. Sang-woo’s classmate and flat-footed, he was one of the playful students.
“Chanwooss, it’s been a while. What are the clothes?”
“Like this, Com Gong and Ace have increased by one more. nice You are the next meeting starter.”
“Meeting?”
“Hey Kwon Chan-woo, I won’t do it.”
“You have a girlfriend. Sangwoo, you should free up some time this Friday. I’ll set up a meeting with the broadcasting students.”
“No, I am.”
From the first day of class, Sang-woo suffered from his friends.
Of course, I didn’t feel bad about being a celebrity.
* * *
Meanwhile at that time.
Dobongsan Slime Dungeon.
Something huge began to move in the dark cave.
