The Guildmaster was rubbing her face in bitter frustration when she suddenly froze. Huh? Why am I wiping away tears instead of getting impaled by a beast?
Turning her creaky neck, she finally realized the truth.
The loud crash she’d heard earlier was the sound of the iridescent Hoachin falling to its death. And beyond the settling dust stood a young man—his face calm, a branch lodged into the beast’s skull like a blade, one of its wings broken. Just moments ago, he had been far off in the distance. That same Hunter.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
Facing the neatly dressed, handsome young man smiling as if nothing urgent had happened, her two-year relationship suddenly felt as insignificant as a dried-up squid.
“Guildmasteeeeer!”
“Guildmaster Noona!”
“Unnie!”
The HG Guild members rushed toward their Guildmaster, hugging her with tears in their eyes. While they composed themselves, Kim Sibaek turned to inspect the beast. Compared to the other monsters in the area, this one was several levels stronger. Why had something so powerful shown up?
He briefly considered whether it was a sign—like the frenzied behavior of monsters before a Rift opens—but a closer look revealed otherwise.
The missing feathers on its lower belly… looks like signs of brooding. So the hatchlings have just emerged.
It had likely wandered far in search of food for its young.
As the Guildmaster and her members bowed repeatedly in gratitude, Sibaek remained silent.
“Thank you! Thank you so much! Even though we were acting like scavengers, you still saved us!”
“Scavengers?”
“We were harvesting manastones from the monsters you hunted. We thought they’d been abandoned. We’re really sorry!”
Bowing even deeper, the Guildmaster lifted the case holding the manastones with both hands.
“Oh, I really did abandon them. You’re welcome to keep the manastones.”
“We could never accept that after you saved our lives!”
What followed was a frenzied exchange that wasn’t quite an argument but came close, and eventually the chaos settled down. Only then were proper introductions exchanged.
It was around lunchtime anyway, so when invited, Kim Sibaek didn’t decline. He shared the packed meals the Guild members had brought, and naturally, the conversation stretched on. Unlike what he’d seen on TV or heard from Tae Woon, this was a vivid taste of the field—real and raw. He even picked up a useless but amusing bit of trivia: five years ago, thanks to mages, communication signals had been extended inside the Barrier.
[Death and Beauty speculates that magitech developed in a different direction from Mak Slechth.]
Sibaek nodded in agreement.
The Guild members were burning with curiosity about the bird perched motionless atop his head. But none of them dared to ask.
It just looks so savage… kinda scary.
The Guild members found the bird too intimidating to even ask about. The idea of being pecked bruised their pride a little, but they knew that trying to assert themselves in front of a high-ranking Hunter wasn’t courage—it was recklessness.
Sibaek, unfazed, asked the Guildmaster directly.
“Is that beast beside you tamed?”
“Yes! We’ve been together for five years now. Isn’t it adorable?”
Clearly raised with a human touch, the beast accepted Sibaek’s unfamiliar hand without resistance. As he stroked its soft, fluffy fur, one particular face came to mind.
“Would it be alright if I took a photo? I want to show it to a younger sibling who looks just like this little guy.”
“It would be an honor!”
After snapping a photo of the one-horned rabbit, Sibaek sent it through his ever-buzzing phone, his fingers tapping slowly like a foreigner just learning Hangul.
“By the way, with your skill level, Hunter-nim, you could go much deeper. Why are you hunting in the outskirts?”
“My goal is the act of hunting itself.”
As a descendant of the gods Heegu and Changje, his divine bloodline was inherently opposed to the chaos-born monstrosities. By offering a beast’s death to Biendeoé, the goddess of death, he could recover a portion of his Divine Power. The amount restored had no correlation with the beast’s threat level. In fact, low-tier monsters required less Divine Power to kill than what was regained by offering them. It was, in essence, a high-volume, low-cost strategy.
The Guild members interpreted this as a form of ongoing training. After a brief, hushed discussion among themselves, they came to a decision.
“Would it be alright if we helped drive the beasts toward you? We may not have combat abilities, but we can assist with the herding!”
“Hmm… Sounds like a good plan. To keep it simple, you can keep the corpses, and we’ll split the manastone sales fifty-fifty. I’ll leave the sales to you.”
“Gasp! We can’t possibly accept money!”
Insisting that they just wanted to repay the one who saved their lives, the Guildmaster flailed in embarrassment. Her sincerity was clear, and Sibaek gave a faint smile. Kindness returned with kindness was always appreciated.
After some back-and-forth, they finally agreed to a 70-30 split.
“I’ll draft the contract right away! It’s not a high-grade item, so it only carries a light curse, but…”
The Guildmaster produced a contract—a piece of magitech. Since Sibaek wasn’t particularly knowledgeable about magic, Death and Beauty analyzed it for him, eyes gleaming.
[Death and Beauty confirms it’s a contract written by infusing mana and engraving it with magic. Failure to fulfill it will likely trigger a curse.]
In Mak Slechth, contracts like these were usually guaranteed by the temples of the god of Injustice and Ignorance.
“There’s no need for a written contract. A verbal agreement is more than enough.”
Kim Sibaek, who couldn’t infuse magic, was incapable of drafting a magical contract anyway. That was all he meant. But the Guild members took it as a gesture of deep trust, and their eyes quickly filled with emotion.
“Your grace knows no bounds!”
“Haha, you’re quite the character.”
“We will risk our lives to herd the beasts for you!”
“No need to go that far. I’ll be counting on you.”
Kim Sibaek let the comment pass with a smile. Explaining the truth would only make him sound insane.
“Oh, right. If any of you have a spare blade, could I borrow it? Hunting monsters with a tree branch is a bit of a hassle.”
“Right here!”
And so, the massacre of low-tier field beasts began.
“Wait, isn’t that basically a lightsaber?”
“I say it’s sword energy.”
“Come on, sword energy isn’t real.”
“Maybe it’s a Trait that lets you use it!”
“Isn’t a Trait usually something like a double jump?”
Even while whispering back and forth about what Kim Sibaek’s Trait could be, the Guild members tirelessly herded monsters his way. Beasts split cleanly in two piled up all around, and manastones stacked higher with each passing moment.
The Guildmaster couldn’t stop smiling. Even with a 70-30 split, the profit from manastones far exceeded anything they could’ve made picking herbs or fruit. The day she could finally pay off her student loans no longer felt so far away.
If only every day could be like today!
Before long, the sun began to set. They hadn’t prepared for night operations, and there were hardly any monsters left nearby. For one final hunt, the Guildmaster and her members fanned out to scout the area.
“Guildmaster! Over there—four beasts—”
She didn’t even get the words out.
CRACK-KRAK-BOOM! A jet-black bolt of lightning, shaped like a jagged spear, shot down from the sky. Before the monsters could make a sound, they were dead, dropping to the ground instantly. And before the stunned Guild members could process that their prey had just been stolen, a towering man in a long black coat strode out from the smoke.
W-Wait… that’s the Seven Guildmaster?!
The Guild members were shell-shocked. What was Tae Woon doing here? With his level of power, he shouldn’t be bothering with a low-tier field or interrupting novice Hunters. He should be deep inside the core zone, hunting S-rank beasts.
While they stood frozen, Tae Woon walked straight toward them, scowling. Even though none of them had done anything wrong, their hearts dropped in unison.
“You. You. You. How old are you?”
Every Guild member he pointed at was male. No one dared take offense at his blunt tone—not even though it was their first time meeting. Caught off guard by the abrupt question, they stuttered out their ages. All of them were in their twenties.
“If any of you get within ten meters of him, I will kill you.”
“Y-Yes, understood!”
Having only heard rumors of his temper, the Guild members now experienced it firsthand—and stiffened with tension. They didn’t care why he was acting this way, nor did they want to know. The best way to deal with a mad dog was to steer clear.
Damn… It’s true. The Seven Guildmaster really is at his most charming when you’re not personally involved with him…
Even the female Guild members, who hadn’t been called out, hurriedly put distance between themselves and Tae Woon. United in silent prayer that he would ignore them too, they were all struck dumb by what happened next.
Just moments ago, Tae Woon had been storming ahead with a deep scowl—but suddenly, his expression lit up like sunshine.
“Hyung! I’m off work!”
A radiant, picture-perfect smile spread across his face. Like a puppy spotting its favorite person, he ran joyfully toward none other than Kim Sibaek.
Kim Sibaek, in contrast, looked more confused than anything.
“No wonder you weren’t replying to my texts… but how did you even know I was here?”
