A S-Class Hunter With Great Agility - Chapter 2
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 2: Tutorial (1)
No matter how many times I blinked, the text didn’t change.
Like my bank account balance that never changed no matter how many rituals I performed, the status window just floated quietly in the air.
“Huh, let’s take a deep breath.”
Deep.
Breath.
In…
…As if that would work!
I brought my trembling hand to the status window. Could some strange spirit have possessed me, making me see illusions?
But with a whoosh—
A faint energy touched my fingertips, so fortunately it didn’t seem to be a dream.
“Then, should I be…?”
Happy about this?
Whether it was due to the influence of the ‘Mental Power 200’ marked in my stats, I quickly came to my senses.
Ah right, honestly this is a good thing. It’s amazing. How many people in Korea alone are desperate to awaken?
C-rank, no, even just floating around as D-rank would practically guarantee a stable life.
But the reason I couldn’t be completely happy was…
How many times
had I cursed hunters while shaking my bell—
How many times was it?
…
“…I’m sorry.”
I offered words of apology for my past behavior.
“Ugh, this is complicated. Mmph.”
Just because hunters had taken away my livelihood didn’t mean I’d ever really thought about wanting to become a hunter.
It’s not that I didn’t want to, but it wasn’t a profession you could get just by wanting it in the first place. Well, but if they’d just let me do it.
“What was a hunter’s annual salary again.”
At this unexpectedly arrived fortune, I began reading the text carefully with sparkling eyes.
Mm, I expected this.
There’s no way a shaman who sits and channels spirits would have high physical stats. Considering my thin arms and legs, it was natural.
But even so, isn’t the balance way too off? There was a 20-fold difference between the stats below and my physical stats.
Mana is… a word I think I’ve heard somewhere before.
“Something like spiritual power, wasn’t it.”
Then skills are…
Huh?
This squiggly writing looks familiar somehow.
My eyes, which had been staring at Chinese characters all day long, quickly scanned through the skill list.
The snake-like letter. S.
And there were…
Two of them.
“This is good. I should be happy. This is amazing. S-rank. This squiggly thing…”
Heh, heheh.
Grandfather. Our Shaman House didn’t fail, didn’t fail. Right? Did I finally become the greatest male shaman?
No.
I’m going to be a hunter.
…Kkeuk.
* * *
Do other S-rank awakeners ever faint while looking at their status windows?
If not, I’d really like to respect them. Are their mental power stats about five times mine?
I opened my eyes after just a few minutes.
A bright future was already unfolding in my head.
Of course, there was one thing that bothered me.
The skills show up as S, but…
Rank: ?? Rank
I scratched the back of my head.
From the context, there should be other squiggly letters written where only question marks were boldly displayed.
I have no clue at all.
Why does it show up like this? Do systems have errors too?
“When you don’t know something, you should ask.”
It was a simple train of thought.
I searched through my shaman robe sleeves. The old ways really are the best. There’s nothing that won’t fit. Maximum storage capacity.
I pulled out an old cell phone that was released about 5 years ago from inside my sleeve. It was obvious I wouldn’t get an answer just thinking about it alone.
The few regular customers’ numbers visible when I pressed contacts. I pressed the number that appeared at the top.
‘He’ll probably faint too when he hears this story.’
Ring ring—
[Hello?]
“Oh, it’s me.”
[Hae-dam! What’s the occasion?]
A young man’s voice came through the phone.
“I have something to ask you.”
[Yeah, what is it?]
To the person who casually asked back, I looked at my status window and asked a question.
“I awakened, you know?”
[….]
“But I can’t see my rank in the status window. My stats and skills show up though….”
My conversation partner, or rather.
My childhood friend, A-rank Hunter Choi Yu-il, was silent. For quite a while at that.
Because of my past when I treated all Hunters as enemies, I didn’t know any Hunters.
Choi Yu-il was practically the only one.
‘Well, to begin with, not just Hunters, but he’s my only friend in general.’
Anyway, my friend’s awakening seemed quite shocking as he couldn’t continue speaking, but I didn’t mind and kept explaining.
“Is this how it normally works? It’s my first time awakening so I don’t know much.”
[You, what are you….]
“What?”
[Why are you talking about awakening like you’re buying ramen at the mart….]
“Did I do that?”
‘Tsk, I did faint though.’
I suppose after being a shaman for 6 years, I don’t get too surprised by most things, and I recover quickly too. I was someone whose job was sticking talismans on ghosts’ foreheads, after all.
When I couldn’t get a meaningful answer from him, I stretched my hand forward. My immediate interest was in these S-rank skills.
‘Can I press this? Oh, it works.’
When my finger touched the skill section, its appearance changed.
Text I hadn’t seen before appeared in a flurry.
The description was short, so I tilted my head in confusion.
Spirit Summoning? It doesn’t seem much different from what I usually do with my bell and fan.
‘And these days, gods and ghosts have all disappeared, pushed out by dungeons and monsters. Will they come back if I use the skill?’
Even the voice I thought was a spirit turned out to be the status window. I turned my eyes to the last question mark.
Even though I spent my childhood not going to play games with friends, but sitting in the Shaman House dressed nicely in hanbok, I knew what a tutorial was.
It’s a kind explanation given when you first start, wasn’t it?
I quietly murmured.
“Tutorial….”
[Huh?]
“Accept for now.”
[Da, Dam! Hae-dam, don’t press that!]
Don’t
press
that!
That was the last I heard of Choi Yu-il’s voice.
My vision instantly turned black.
Ah, damn it. He should have told me earlier.
All Koreans press agree first!
* * *
Chirr—
I heard the sudden sound of insects. It was definitely daytime just moments ago, but now the surroundings were dark.
My small Shaman House was gone and I was standing alone in an unfamiliar place.
Goosebumps naturally rose on my shoulders.
‘The wind….’
Whoooosh—
Wind blew from somewhere. The flowing silk of my hanbok rustled as it touched together.
In both my hands were the bell and fan I had definitely put down.
“…Where exactly is this place?”
As if answering that murmur, the dark fog lifted and something became visible.
“That’s….”
It was an old tile-roofed house. So I was standing in the open space in front of that tile-roofed house.
…Wait a minute.
“This is a Village Shrine.”
A shrine that enshrines gods.
When I turned my head to the right, I saw a Sacred Tree decorated with golden Sacred Rope and colorful ornaments. I was certain.
“What am I supposed to do….”
Startled.
Startled.
I felt an unidentifiable energy from ahead. I immediately raised my head and looked forward. Though this was my first time experiencing such a situation, I tried to remain calm.
Strangely, I didn’t feel like I was about to faint like before. I had an instinctive feeling that if I passed out here, I might actually die.
Kwaaaaang—!
Just as I was beginning to grasp the situation, a thunderous roar erupted and a thick cloud of dust billowed up.
“Cough, cough.”
As my vision was obscured, I flapped my hanbok sleeves to clear away the dust. And immediately regretted it.
Ah, I should have just closed my eyes and bit my tongue instead.
Where the dust had cleared, something enormous appeared.
【Hissss…】
Bright red eyes flashed in the air. A massive body much larger than the tall Sacred Tree.
I couldn’t help but curse under my breath.
“What the hell…”
It was a snake. A pure white snake with an entirely white body.
Sharp fangs were clearly displaying hostility toward me.
【Hiss…】
The snake made an unpleasant sound as it blocked the front of the Village Shrine.
Goosebumps rose involuntarily at those red eyes coiled up and staring intently at me.
Simultaneously, text appeared before my eyes with a flourish.
Uh…
To interpret this.
“…Doesn’t this mean I can’t leave until I kill that thing?”
So, me, against that?
In my left hand was a bell, in my right hand was a fan.
That’s all I have…?
My eyes wavered with confusion.
The snake was still staring at me with threatening eyes.
Why, what. What are you looking at.
Kwaang—!
Displeased about something, the snake slammed down its long tail.
Fortunately it wasn’t an attack aimed at me, but it definitely seemed like a warning. To get serious.
I bit my lip hard.
So this is why Choi Yu-il told me not to press it.
“…Damn it.”
Just because I’m a shaman doesn’t mean I know nothing about Hunters.
Rather, know your enemy and know yourself, and you can fight a hundred battles. Since you need to know your enemy to fight them, I had studied quite a bit.
However, I hadn’t read academic papers about the Hunter awakening process. I was bound to lack knowledge about such detailed aspects.
‘If I had known this was what the tutorial was like, I never would have pressed it!’
“…Skill window.”
For now, I muttered that. At least I was fortunate to know how to call up windows… It was a bit embarrassing, but this wasn’t the time to worry about such things.
Soon after, skills appeared before my eyes.
I clicked on the first one, Spiritual Sight.
Whatever it was, it seemed like a term that could explain this damn situation.
Gaze, focus…
Focus.
See.
…Those familiar Chinese characters at the end.
It was definitely ‘Four Pillars’.
Ha, fortune-telling that you can only see after proper study appears all at once like that? As a shaman, I felt somewhat resentful.
So this Spiritual Sight seemed to tell me the opponent’s name, stats, and skills.
Since it said ‘essence’. Above all, it seemed to also reveal the Four Pillars, which are the essence of existence.
‘Living long enough to see a monster’s fortune.’
I gulped.
White Tiger Great Death.
Literally a death star meaning being devoured by a tiger.
I had a hunch about something.
I hid my nervous expression.
‘First, I need to survive.’
There was no time to just stand around trying to understand the situation. I didn’t want to be found as a corpse just 5 minutes after awakening. More importantly, if I died here, I probably wouldn’t even be found.
“…Spirit Summoning.”
This is do or die. I steadied my breathing and put strength into the hand holding the Spirit Bell.
Jingle.
Jingle.
Unable to abandon my shaman habits, I closed my eyes and fluttered the fan with my other hand.
I could feel spiritual energy filling the surroundings.
Jingle.
Jingle.
‘You snake bastard, you’re dead now.’
Six years as a shaman.
It had been a long time since I’d performed a proper Spirit Descent.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————