Chapter 17
It was an attack with an amount of force that should have punctured a hole straight through a normal person’s body. However, Do-Jun’s body remained unscathed.
He had a legendary level of Indestructable[1], where even sharp blades and extreme cold or heat couldn’t leave a mark, and he had even wrapped himself in Barrier right before the attack.
The only visible damage was the tear in his clothes, created by his exaggerated rolling. Even though he was perfectly fine, he decided to pretend to have been knocked unconscious.
“Mr. Administrator…!” Ye-Ji shouted as she ran to Do-Jun.
She lifted his upper body, which was sprawled on the ground.
It should have been suspicious enough that Do-Jun had no visible wounds after the massive bombardment that had hit him directly, but what mattered to her at this moment was the fact that he was unconscious.
“Mr. Ad…ministrator?”
He wasn’t breathing.
Ye-Ji’s hands, holding Do-Jun, began to tremble, and her lips quivered, unable to form words.
“Ye-Ji! Monsters are coming!” Choi Ho-Jun shouted as he looked back.
The approaching aura was significantly different from the trolls they had fought up to this point. The party could tell that the approaching monster was at least a champion or higher—it could even be a boss monster.
Why is all this happening? We’re not even halfway through the Fissure! Choi Ho-Jun thought in despair.
As before, Choi Ho-Jun planted his steel shield into the ground and activated Shield Howling, but amidst all this commotion, Ye-Ji couldn’t hear his shout. Do-Jun was right in front of her, lying unconscious, and that was the only thing that mattered.
“Come to think of it, we haven’t properly introduced ourselves yet. I’m Lee Do-Jun.”
Their first meeting, which felt awkward then, flashed through her mind.
And the first Fissure they had entered together.
“Enough daydreaming. This is not a drill.”
Ever since she saw him easily dodge the goblin’s attacks, she had thought that, secretly, he might be strong.
“Mr. Administrator… are you hiding your power?”
He was, in fact, not hiding his power. No, perhaps it was obvious from the start. There was no reason for him to.
“Right now, you are the only Hunter for me.”
Tears flowed endlessly from Ye-Ji’s eyes.
Her reason for becoming a Hunter in the first place was simple: she wanted to change her weak self and be recognized and loved by someone.
Money and fame didn’t matter to her.
“I thought… I had finally found my place…”
[You have met the conditions to acquire a new skill.]
[Vow (Skill) has been acquired.]
“Ye-Ji! What are you doing? Get a grip!” Choi Ho-Jun shouted at the top of his lungs.
Energy was concentrated in the mouths of the three-headed troll, and Choi Ho-Jun was designated as the target due to the effect of Shield Howling.
Tap!
Park Sung-Min took aim, and a target formed on each of the troll’s heads. He rapidly shot arrows, but the troll blasted out energy from all of its three mouths at the same time.
Boom!
The arrows melted away powerlessly; then, the blast struck Choi Ho-Jun’s shield. With a deafening noise, the shield shattered, and Choi Ho-Jun was flung backward from the impact.
“Wait… what is this…?” Ye-Ji mumbled in surprise.
[Vow]
Rank: S
Category: Passive
Effect: Swear loyalty by designating a chosen target as your Lord. When the Lord is within a five-hundred-meter radius, Blessing of the Vow is applied. However, a severe penalty is applied to the user if the designated Lord dies due to an enemy attack.
(Blessing of the Vow: All stats increase by 100%, damage received from enemies reduced by 50%, immunity to all status effects)
(Penalty: Level and Skills reset)
Lord: None
Ye-Ji extended her hand toward Do-Jun as if she were possessed by something.
[Are you sure you want to designate Lee Do-Jun as your Lord? This choice cannot be changed.]
A moment later, a light shimmered on Ye-Ji’s and Do-Jun’s wrists, engraved a small sword symbol, and disappeared.
[The Lord has been designated.]
[The Lord is within a five-hundred-meter radius.]
[Blessing of the Vow is applied.]
Suddenly, her body felt lighter as mana within her stirred and invigorated her entire body. But that wasn’t what mattered to Ye-Ji.
“He’s alive,” she muttered to herself.
If the skill description was accurate, the activation meant that Do-Jun was still alive.
Ye-Ji carefully laid Do-Jun down again. She picked up her dropped sword, gripped it tightly, and walked toward the troll that had attacked Do-Jun.
***
What was that just now? Do-Jun thought.
[Cha Ye-Ji has designated you as her Lord.]
With the status message, he sensed an increase in Ye-Ji’s mana. Though it was a minor change in his eyes, the amount had exactly doubled.
Do-Jun opened his eyes slightly to assess the situation.
“Kwooooh!”
The three-headed troll was engaged in fierce combat with Ye-Ji. Choi Ho-Jun was being healed by Kang Tae-Sung as his shield lay shattered with its fragments scattered around. Only Park Sung-Min intermittently shot arrows to support Ye-Ji, but the tide of battle was definitely shifting in their favor.
The troll couldn’t keep up with Ye-Ji’s movements, which were leaving large and small wounds on its body.
Do-Jun quietly stood up, trying to avoid being noticed by the party to prevent distracting them. Noticing his tattered suit, he decided to buy a new one at the department store before going home.
It’ll be a headache if I go home like this.
Surely, Yoon-Hee would question him upon seeing the condition of his clothes.
A moment later, the troll fell before Ye-Ji with its green blood dripping from her sword.
She then turned around, and her eyes widened upon realizing what had happened during her battle. She immediately dropped her sword and ran toward Do-Jun for an embrace.
“Ye-Ji…?”
Ye-Ji hugged Do-Jun so tightly that it seemed she would crush him, sobbing all the while as Do-Jun felt the gazes of Choi Ho-Jun’s party staring blankly at him from a distance.
Well, it was understandable, as they must have thought he was surely dead.
As he tried to think of a way to explain how he didn’t die, Ye-Ji spoke up, “Mr. Administrator.”
“Yes.”
“Mr. Administrator.”
“Yes, Ye-Ji.”
Ye-Ji burrowed into his chest, rubbing her face against him. Tears, snot, and makeup smeared onto his white dress shirt.
Well, I guess it doesn’t matter.
He was planning on buying a new one anyway. Do-Jun patted Ye-Ji’s head comfortingly.
Seeing this, Choi Ho-Jun’s party approached cautiously.
“H-how are you alive?” Choi Ho-Jun asked with a dumbfounded expression.
Do-Jun decided to be evasive. He simply answered, “I don’t know.”
“Huh…?”
Kang Tae-Sung slumped down on the spot with a sigh of relief. “Fuuucking hell, I really thought we were all dead. Man, I feel like that took a hundred years off my life.”
“But are you really okay? That noise was something else. Tae-Sung, heal him,” Park Sung-Min said.
Kang Tae-Sung stood up immediately and pointed his staff at Do-Jun.
“Huh…?” he grunted in surprise. Something was off. The healing skill was not working on Do-Jun.
He tried again but to no avail.
“This is strange,” Kang Tae-Sung said.
“What’s wrong?”
“My heal isn’t working on him.”
There was only one possible explanation for this: Do-Jun was at full health and didn't need healing.
“Supervisor Lee, are you hurt anywhere?” Kang Tae-Sung asked, and Do-Jun simply shook his head.
At that moment, Ye-Ji pulled away from Do-Jun, looked up at him, then asked, “Are you really okay...?”
“Yes. I don’t know how, but I’m perfectly fine.”
“That’s a relief. Really, thank goodness…” Ye-Ji burst into tears again.
Choi Ho-Jun watched her, rubbing his eyes and smiling awkwardly.
“Hah, it feels like I’m watching one of those long-lost family reunions,” he joked.
“By the way, Ho-Jun, what are we going to do? Do you think we can keep hunting?”
Everyone was mentally exhausted from coming back from the brink of death, and on top of that, Choi Ho-Jun couldn’t be their tank anymore with his iron shield shattered.
Continuing to hunt was out of the question.
“I think it’s best to stop here. What do you think, Supervisor Lee?”
“Yes, I think that’s a good idea.”
Ye-Ji didn’t seem to be in great shape either. After all, this was her first time hunting a B-rank monster, and she even had to fight a champion troll, which had put them through quite a lot, to say the least.
“How should we divide the mana stones and corpse value?”
“There are four of you, so I think you should each take a quarter. We’ll leave the calculations and the payments to you, Ye-Ji.”
Choi Ho-Jun was hesitant to accept Do-Jun’s offer.
Even though Do-Jun hadn’t directly participated in the battle, he had been with them for hours and even provided indirect assistance by indicating the trolls’ locations.
“Ah, it’s illegal for me to receive money here,” Do-Jun reassured Choi Ho-Jun after noticing his dilemma.
“Oh, I see. By the way, that application seems really useful. Is it only for civil servants?”
Choi Ho-Jun believed that the Fissure Management System application Do-Jun was using indicated the monsters’ positions. This was natural since no one would expect a seemingly ordinary person like Do-Jun to know the trolls’ locations.
“In a way, yes. Ah, in exchange for not receiving any payment myself, I’d like to ask for a favor,” Do-Jun said as he pointed to where the troll’s body lay.
“Favor? What kind of…”
A sword was gleaming atop the troll’s body. It was the extra reward that was given to those who defeated champions or boss monsters.
“I’d like to ask you to let our Hunter have that extra reward for taking down the troll.”
“Oh, that…”
Choi Ho-Jun’s party exchanged glances and smiled.
“Please take it. It’s yours.”
Do-Jun was somewhat surprised by their easy reaction.
It was human nature to be greedy for valuables, especially for something like a B-rank or higher weapon. So, how were they giving it away so easily?
“Without Ye-Ji, we wouldn’t have been able to kill it,” Choi Ho-Jun remarked. “The mana stones and corpses alone are worth more than enough money for us. Don’t worry about it.”
“Wow, isn’t this heartwarming? Guys, just be honest. This is a bribe, isn’t it? Thank you.” Do-Jun joked.
He walked over to the troll’s body and picked up the sword. It was a B-rank sword and had fairly good options, clearly much better than the Skeleton Soldier’s Sword that Ye-Ji was using.
“Take it, Ye-Ji.”
“Thank you, Mr. Administrator.” Ye-Ji wiped her tears and sniffled.
In moments like this, she really just looked like a twenty-one-year-old girl.
Suddenly, Do-Jun sensed two powerful presences approaching rapidly.
They aren’t monsters.
Hunters, and quite skilled ones.
Just as Do-Jun expected, two Hunters with faces familiar to Do-Jun approached and stopped before them—Min-Hyuk and Min-Ji ranked seventh and tenth among Hunters.
“Huh?”
Choi Ho-Jun’s party was shocked to see them.
Two S-rank Hunters, a rarity in South Korea, had appeared before them out of nowhere.
Min-Hyuk seemed surprised to see Ye-Ji. His eyes sparkled, and the corners of his mouth lifted. He turned abruptly to look at Do-Jun.
“It’s been a while, Supervisor Lee.”
1. This is one of Do-Jun’s skills and was introduced in Chapter 1. ☜
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