Damn Hunter Life Chapter 32
* * *
A pond where goldfish swim. Lotus flowers blooming beside a round arched bridge. Reasonably decent ornamental rocks and saplings.
In the backyard garden filled with the Snake successor’s leisurely lifestyle as the homeowner…
“Ahhh, why me! Why me!”
A shriek echoed through the air.
On the screen of the Snake successor who was lying in the garden throwing a full-body tantrum, the face of his video call partner appeared. It was Yang Pyo, the Sheep successor. He was watching Sa Ye-ho with the calm composure of someone facing a natural disaster.
Sa Ye-ho lay flat on his back, kicking at the air. His modified hanbok skirt with an H-line and open sides fluttered wildly. The polka-dotted sleep pants he wore underneath cut through the air without restraint.
“Wow, seriously, Sae-geon hyung is so mean. How could hyung do that to me?”
If the status window had any physical form, it would have been smashed to pieces by Sa Ye-ho’s foot just now.
“Leaving only me out! Taking all the other kids and leaving just me behind! Am I being ostracized? Am I being bullied?”
Well, they needed to establish discipline with the newcomers, but if Sa Ye-ho got involved, the atmosphere would completely fall apart.
Therefore, Woo Sae-geon was wise. His decision to abandon Sa Ye-ho without a moment’s hesitation during the newcomer mid-evaluation was…
Yang Pyo didn’t have the confidence to say that fact outright. So he just broke out in a cold sweat watching Sa Ye-ho’s thrashing.
“I want to see Gyeon Gang-hyeon too!”
That made sense, since Sa Ye-ho was the type where even if you were seeing him for the first time, you’d know exactly what kind of person he was after watching him for about five minutes.
[“You could just go see him…? You could follow along to gate practice…”]
“That’s too much trouble! You want me to go hunt monsters for Gyeon Gang-hyeon?”
[“Then just meet up normally…”]
“Ugh, that doesn’t look good.”
The words “What am I supposed to do…” almost burst from his throat, but Yang Pyo held back. His eyes momentarily went to the call end button, but he stopped knowing that this snake hyung would throw an even bigger tantrum if he did that.
Unable to withstand Sa Ye-ho’s nagging, he diligently relayed the conversations from the mid-evaluation down to the minute.
[“The leader grabbed him by the collar, but the jeogori ties came undone so Gyeon Gang-hyeon’s upper body was exposed…”]
Sa Ye-ho rocked back and forth in his hammock without stopping, giggling. The sagging hammock flapped around like a caught fish. After laughing himself out, he eventually gasped for breath as if suffocating and wiped the tears from his eyes.
“Ah, I missed that? Sae-geon hyung didn’t panic at that? That hyung really…”
Wow. Sa Ye-ho made his mouth into an O shape in admiration.
His eyes, which had briefly relaxed from laughing, soon sharpened again with a glint.
“Gyeon Gang-hyeon is really too much too. That bastard stood me up twice!”
[“Which ones—?”]
“The Busan gate! And this too! If he was going to strip and put on a show, he should have told me in advance!”
[“…”]
Yang Pyo couldn’t keep up with his reactions and just sweated, when he suddenly found something that caught his attention in Sa Ye-ho’s words.
[“Wait, a show?”]
“Isn’t it obvious that bastard loosened it beforehand and staged his own show?”
[“Ah, I see…”]
Yang Pyo muttered blankly.
When Sa Ye-ho suddenly flopped down in the hammock, his head stuck out beyond it. His reddish short hair spilled toward the ground. He stared at the upside-down blue sky and garden while talking to himself.
“Ah, I want to do outdoor broadcasting here. The garden is fucking well-decorated.”
[“Huh? Outdoor broadcasting means—”]
“Outdoor broadcasting. Not lewd broadcasting, you bastard.”
Sa Ye-ho, who had been rambling about this and that distractedly, suddenly sat up straight and propped his chin on his hand.
“That Gyeon Gang-hyeon kid… his character overlaps with mine.”
Hearing that, Yang Pyo thought: There are two people like this in the world.
With an expression mixing something between pleasure and displeasure, Sa Ye-ho rolled around in the hammock. From within the swaying hammock, Yang Pyo heard his final muttered words.
“Should I give the newcomer my own test?”
* * *
South Korea is currently clamoring for the blessed successor Won Ha-ri and the successor from darkness Gyeon Gang-hyeon to be quickly put on official broadcasts or stages.
‘But there’s no way Woo Sae-geon, the Heungseon Daewongun of the successor world, would throw out bait so easily.’
So it was natural that Won Ha-ri and my gate practice was conducted in secrecy.
Even when entering this D-rank gate, we wore different clothes and covered our faces to look like regular hunters to the cameras.
My assigned mentor, who had similarly disguised himself as a regular hunter, stopped at a certain distance from me. When he took off his tightly pressed cap, a familiar face was revealed.
It was Ja Hyeong-woo.
This guy who usually only wore flowing hwarang clothes was wearing a baseball cap and denim jacket, which looked new… hell no, it was disgusting. Finding clothes that big to fit that frame.
Of course, me having shed my traditional clothes for a hoodie wasn’t exactly… beautiful either. In my case, it was so loose it looked awful.
“Why are you the one coming? Shouldn’t you be doing more attribute meditation in that time?”
I made my displeasure obvious while raising my tone at the end.
“…It’s your first time.”
“What is?”
Rather than answer first, Ja Hyeong-woo took out his blue staff. He prepared to enter the forest inside the gate. Only then did his answer follow.
“It’s your first time going inside a gate.”
Even without looking in a mirror, I could tell my expression had soured.
The words “Why do you care that it’s my first time” rose to my throat and barely went back down. Meanwhile, Ja Hyeong-woo added one more thing.
“Were you expecting someone else?”
“Would there be?”
It was true that having someone I knew was much better than having some random guy like Yang Pyo show up and make things awkward.
Even so, I had hoped it wouldn’t be you.
“Having someone like me clean up after you won’t help you at all!”
Did that sound provocative enough?
After looking into my eyes for a while, Ja Hyeong-woo briefly communicated with Myo Cho-hui, who had gone in the opposite direction from the gate with Won Ha-ri.
“Departing with Gyeon Gang-hyeon. Estimated time to rendezvous point is 20 minutes.”
He ignored what I said. Without my consent, this guy had already started the newcomer practice course with Myo Cho-hui.
I couldn’t understand it.
Are you the type to follow along while receiving such cold treatment from me…
‘Do you find me that unreliable?’
The original protagonist’s humanitarian spirit was always amazing to witness.
‘Come to think of it, he doesn’t tell me to get my act together anymore either.’
That’s because I eventually succeeded in awakening, plus my relationship with Hae Mi-jun was discovered… but still.
The more I imagine Ja Hyeong-woo asking Hae Mi-jun about me, the more torturous it becomes. The image of me that comes from Hae Mi-jun’s mouth would be distorted into ‘kind and gentle and sometimes mischievous but fun and cool hyung!’
How absurd must Ja Hyeong-woo find that.
Unfamiliar leaves crunched under my feet. As the regular hunters who had scouted ahead and reported, this was a gate with non-venomous D-rank python monsters. The lowest grade among monsters reported to associations worldwide so far.
Of course, if it’s a boss monster python, we can’t let our guard down.
“Watch your step. Even if your shoes have special treatment, you can’t just step on anything.”
I was already watching where I walked, but this guy picked a fight.
“You watch where you’re going.”
The forest grew increasingly dense. While walking around large trees, we discovered the first monster.
‘Let’s catch that.’
About 25 meters away, a small python monster was writhing between the grass. I took an arrow from my quiver and nocked it on the bowstring. While I drew the bowstring, Ja Hyeong-woo naturally took cover around me.
‘This feels like poaching somehow.’
Just catching one small monster like this helps with gate conquest, even if only by a speck.
The fewer monsters there are, the weaker the boss monster – the final target of conquest – becomes. This is one of the most basic pieces of common knowledge taught in gate education.
Ping!
However, my first shot missed. The python teasingly writhed as it crawled between the bushes.
Since Ja Hyeong-woo was staring intently at where the arrow had landed, I blurted out defensively.
“Are you just going to freeload without doing anything?”
Unfazed, Ja Hyeong-woo shot back.
“I naturally thought you’d catch it.”
“How am I supposed to hit something that thin! It’s not like I added earth attribute for aim correction! Am I on the national team? I’ve only been learning archery for 2 weeks!”
“…Why didn’t you add attribute?”
Suddenly he approached. In an instant, my vision was filled up to the top of my head.
From his piercing gaze, it seemed like he might grab my arm, but instead of touching my body, Ja Hyeong-woo gently grasped my quiver that protruded in front of my thigh. Even just that made me feel firmly held.
“Are you not adding it because it strains your body?”
“What… no? I wanted to practice with plain arrows!”
It wasn’t a lie. Ever since Squeaky returned, I could imbue light earth energy without problems.
Hiss— At that moment, a python sound came from behind me.
Ja Hyeong-woo looked away from me and took out the gourd bottle, an item I was familiar with too. The snake that had been targeting my feet was easily sucked into the gourd.
Then Ja Hyeong-woo struck the gourd against a nearby tree without hesitation.
Crash! The bottle shattered into pieces from the strong force.
==
<Bottle that Contained Rice Wine (Water Attribute)>
==
Ja Hyeong-woo has many skills, to put it crudely. Why would a healer need attack skills and curse skills when healing skills should be enough?
Therefore, even as a healer, he can do basic attacks. In a low-level gate like this, he could easily pull his weight just with DPS.
‘He’s a hundred times better than me right now.’
There was a reason why Ja Hyeong-woo, despite being a healer, was put in charge of a dealer’s practice.
“Then your body is fine. I’ll trust you.”
Ja Hyeong-woo muttered with a face that showed no trust whatsoever.
Like when Ja Hyeong-woo asked me if I was okay in the training room a few days ago, and now too.
Thinking about it, Squeaky seems to have been reporting to him behind my back.
Fortunately, it seems the mouse familiar and Ja Hyeong-woo have made up…
“Do you always get reports from Squeaky?”
Ja Hyeong-woo was walking slightly ahead of me, cutting down all the protruding branches in the path with his sword. I leisurely followed behind while frowning.
“Squeaky, you mean the mouse familiar? What kind of reports?”
“About my body.”
Ja Hyeong-woo flinched.
Anyone could see it was a reaction of being caught.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
