A S-Class Hunter With Great Agility - Chapter 1
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Prologue
「I am a shaman.」
Crimson flames scorched the sleeves of blue silk.
“Left side! It’s open, don’t miss it—!”
I screamed until the veins bulged in my neck, suppressing the burning pain.
Bang, the thunderous sound of something colliding and exploding echoed endlessly in my ears.
Gray, thick smoke brought on a splitting headache.
「But why am I doing this?」
Someone who heard my shout fired an arrow. The rapidly shot light pierced through the gaps in the monster’s solid armor.
Seizing that gap as an opportunity, a Fist Power immediately flew in and shattered the red hide.
Kieek—
Kieek—
Once again, a bone-chilling cry split the air.
The monster’s body swayed, but it hadn’t fallen yet. Scorching heat filled all directions.
Huff, gasp. My breath rose up to my chin.
Could I keep going? Was it possible? I didn’t know.
“…Ugh.”
「For an explanation…」
I could feel everything running out. It was hard to hold onto my blurring vision.
My head drooped and my hands pressed against my knees. But I couldn’t let my strength give out like this.
Even if everything was running out, I couldn’t give up on everything.
I lifted the drooping dagger I had been gripping in my right hand.
At the base of the dagger’s blade hung a golden bell.
Jingle.
Jingle.
A golden wind swept into the terrible battlefield.
“…Everyone, stay back.”
My eyes were dyed golden.
「I need to return to a certain day.」
I pulled up the corners of my mouth and smiled.
Chapter 1: Divine Favor’s Gone, Awakening’s Here
That day was a day when Divine Favor wasn’t working for shit.
Life was already tough enough to make ends meet, and I had to sit there dumbfounded in front of a fortune vending machine… no, a customer who had come after so long.
Ding, jingle.
“…So, you have one daughter?”
“I’m unmarried.”
The middle-aged customer sitting in front of me frowned with a suspicious expression. A twenty-year-old young man shaking bells probably didn’t look very trustworthy.
I pretended to contemplate as much as possible and asked another question.
Jingle, ding.
“Ah, you’re worried about a marriage partner!”
“I’m choosing to stay single.”
Why doesn’t anyone get married these days…
At the answer that was despairing in many ways, I buried my face in my hands.
The more this happened, the more the customer in front of me showed signs of wanting to leave this place.
‘That can’t happen.’
This was an opportunity that had come after so long, I couldn’t let it slip away like this.
Ever since that damn thing called ‘Hunters’ appeared, the days with bookings in a month could be counted on three fingers.
This customer was a savior who had appeared to barely fill those three fingers. I had to hold onto them.
Think about it.
Hunters appeared and dungeons were created. Things you’d only see in novels became reality, and events that couldn’t be explained by science began to occur.
Naturally, various types of ability users awakened too.
Among them, surely… wouldn’t there be foresight?
“Young Master Hae-dam? I should probably go now…”
“No, no, sit down. Just a moment, I feel like something’s coming!”
‘Damn it. If you’re Hunters, go into dungeons instead of being desperate to mess with shamans who are living just fine!’
Well, even if I shouted that… humans were inherently a species that didn’t want to risk danger.
As time passed and casualties increased, and the dangers of dungeons became known, those with low ranks often became ‘Livelihood Hunters.’
Delivery drivers frequently lost their jobs to E-rank Combat Hunters, and nurses to D-rank Healing Hunters.
If the number of Hunters hadn’t been extremely small, ordinary people would probably have all become unemployed.
I was also a victim of those ‘Livelihood Hunters.’
Prophet Hunters who had gained mediocre foresight were opening fortune telling shops and kicking out shamans in a trend.
It made me want to curse.
‘We need to establish a Shaman Damage Compensation Committee. We absolutely must.’
I blinked rapidly and stared at the customer. The customer shrank back even more.
Hey, hey, don’t leave.
‘Even if I look like this, I’m really not a fraud.’
I even picked up my fan.
I don’t know. It’s do or die now.
“The Divine Spirit is— coming….”
Jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle.
The density of the air changes.
Something of an indescribable dignity seemed to slip past me.
My eyes squeezed shut and my hand shook the bell frantically.
‘Right, it hasn’t even been two years since I graduated from being a child disciple, so my divine favor can’t have faded already.’
A laugh escaped me. Even if the customer was terrified, all I had to do was read their fortune well.
Ring jingle ring ring.
Something began to appear in a hazy form.
“It’s here!”
“Ooh…!”
Whether it seemed like I was doing something amazing, or my appearance that looked impressive no matter what I did played a part, the customer clasped their hands together.
Hey, hey, praying is forbidden in a shaman house.
I stopped shaking the bell and opened my eyes with a flash.
“You….”
“….”
“Your puppy is sick, isn’t it?”
“H-how did you know?!”
It was the correct answer that came after a full 98 bell shakes.
Ah, I should have just asked why they came in the first place.
* * *
The customer safely paid the fortune fee and left.
I barely got it right at the end, but I got it so wrong that I really felt like I had become a fraud.
It’s already been 6 years since I received my god, but this damn divine favor keeps getting weaker day by day.
Moreover, the number of customers visiting also hit rock bottom day by day.
“This is all— because of Grandfather.”
He definitely said that becoming a shaman would guarantee a hundred-million-won salary! That receiving a god would cure all illnesses! That I could become famous! I was completely deceived.
Everything that fulfilled those promises wasn’t shamans, but hunters.
Right, maybe it really was like that in Grandfather’s generation. In an era without hunters, everyone was anxious about the uncertain future.
Whether their children would get into college or not, whether they were compatible with their lovers or not—everyone came to shamans with fortune fees, filling up reservations for months.
However, those words didn’t apply to me at all, currently working as a shaman under the name Young Master Hae-dam.
These days, it’s completely a hunter’s world.
“Sigh. Such is my fate.”
At the fresh age of twenty, when I should be hanging around campus chasing after famous hunters.
I lay sprawled in front of the folding screen in the shaman house, making sounds like an old man.
“God.”
….
“Divine Spirit.”
….
“Ah, Divine Spirit or whatever! Come out!”
I flew into a rage while still lying down, but no answer came.
The fuming smoke coming from my ears apparently wasn’t visible to God.
“…Really, did they leave….”
Did even my god leave me. Like Grandfather.
‘Well, whatever.’
Actually, even though I complained about not receiving divine favor, it was natural in a way.
When I was young and became a child disciple without knowing anything, showing incredible divine favor was fine, but my spiritual power was scattering as time passed.
‘It was particularly bad today, but anyway.’
It wasn’t just me, but other shamans were the same.
After dungeons appeared, for some reason most shamans’ divine favor was weakening.
To make matters worse, now I couldn’t even see evil spirits.
‘This is troublesome.’
Hunters’ ‘awakening’ based on individual characteristics like occupation or personality. The more unique the characteristic, the higher the awakening probability, they say.
According to this theory, prophet hunters and such—shamans should be dominating that field.
But with spiritual power decreasing and divine favor dropping, that was no longer a characteristic. So awakening was impossible too.
Really, the existence called shamans has terrible compatibility with the world’s flow.
How many years has it been like this.
20 years. Exactly 20 years.
The year monsters were born at the same time I was born.
It started from then.
“I’m the one who has to perform the exorcism ritual….”
No Divine Favor, no money, a ruined Shaman House.
The Hunter Association should be grateful that shamans weren’t immediately taking to the streets with bells and fans in protest.
Others who had their jobs stolen by Livelihood Hunters were tying headbands and going out to protest. But this side was full of old-fashioned Shamanic Practitioners.
‘Should I go shake my bell too? Guarantee our jobs!’
“As if that would work.”
I grabbed the table and pulled myself up.
“Ugh, so annoying. My livelihood.”
Lamenting wouldn’t change reality. A truth I’d barely realized at this age.
“How did it come to this, really….”
I picked up the bell and shook it once for no reason.
Since no god came even when I shook it, it seemed like a toy now.
Jingle.
Nice sound. Once more.
Jingle.
Again….
Ding—
Ding—
Huh?
…I haven’t shaken it yet though?
I heard a strange sound from somewhere.
Six years as a shaman, I’d stopped being surprised by most things, but the sound I just heard was different.
It wasn’t the bell, and obviously not the fan either.
‘…An Evil Spirit after several years?’
Or….
[Awakening conditions achieved!]
“No way.”
It’s a god!
“Wow, Divine Spirit. What am I supposed to do if you come now? The customer just left!”
A clear voice echoed throughout the room.
A voice difficult to distinguish by gender reached my ears distinctly.
The only other being that could exist in this cramped room was my Divine Spirit. I was certain of it.
“This is crazy. I was just rambling complete nonsense. I thought I really had to retire.”
I covered my face and let out words of relief.
What was it, conditions? Achievement? It was a strange arrangement of words, but anyway a voice was a voice. A god was a god.
I could accept it again with a generous heart, thinking they must have been temporarily out of their mind.
“Since you’re here after so long. Let me hear what you have to say. Why haven’t you been appearing lately? At this rate your disciple will starve to death!”
If you’ve really returned. Riding this momentum, I could take down all those damn Prophet Hunters….
‘…Huh?’
I removed my hands from my face and turned around with an excited heart. Even if faintly, I thought I might be able to see my returned source of income…. No, my god.
“God?”
But the scene before me was completely different from what I expected.
[Awakening conditions achieved!]
That voice from before rang out once more as if urging me, and before my eyes floated a square, translucent window.
“Whoa!”
‘Wh-what is this?’
I reflexively pulled my upper body back. A new type of ghost? But it didn’t resemble a person no matter how I looked at it.
‘This couldn’t be….’
The text changed quickly.
[Status Window activating.]
[Recognizing system user….]
I calmed my surprised heart and started reading. Like a computer loading, something round was spinning inside the rectangle.
[Recognition complete.]
[Calculating Awakened ability scores….]
Awakened.
In this world, Awakened meant Hunter.
I swallowed. If my thoughts weren’t wrong, this was definitely….
The Status Window that only Hunters could see.
[Calculation complete.]
Ding. The cheerful sound effect rang out once again.
I was nervous.
[Status Window]
Name: Eun Hae-dam
Grade: ?? Grade
[Stats]
Health: 10 Strength: 10 Agility: 10
Mental Power | 200 Mana | 200
[Skills]
Spiritual Sight (P) lv.1
Spirit Summoning (S) lv.1
Divine Descent Ritual (S) lv.1
“What the hell is this?”
…Why is the balance like this?
It was the moment of my awakening and class change.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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