I Became a Hunter with the Heavenly Slaughter Star Trait. - Chapter 3

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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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Episode 3

Episode 3

One month in.

It doesn’t feel like there’s been much change.

Just that my posture has improved a bit, maybe?

I still haven’t gotten used to hand-to-hand combat at all.

I never even went to a common taekwondo dojo as a kid.

Same goes for swordsmanship.

I had no strength in my hands, so I kept dropping the sword.

So what I focused on was memorizing monster weak points.

You see as much as you know.

Studying made the vague fear disappear.

The fact that even the strongest-looking monsters have clear ‘weaknesses’ was comforting to me.

Maybe it’s because I had some experience drawing.

It was easy to understand bone and muscle movement, so I became skilled at targeting weak points.

Two months in.

Finally, noticeable changes appeared.

I could feel my stamina had improved significantly.

Not just from training, but regular living and stable nutrition seemed to help a lot.

According to the instructors, even though I don’t have a body type that builds muscle easily, I was keeping up well.

Unlike others, since I trained without complaint, the instructors took good care of me.

One instructor even started joking that I shouldn’t die.

And finally.

Three months in.

I’d gotten quite used to hand-to-hand combat, and dropping my sword was a thing of the past.

I’d gotten stronger in my own way.

Of course, this was still only at civilian level.

By Hunter standards, I was still hopeless.

I was told that against a goblin, if I was lucky, maybe I could win?

“Finally, tomorrow is tutorial entry day.”

After finishing the last training session, the Combat Instructor looked at me with a bitter smile.

“Thank you for everything.”

“I was just doing my job. If anything, I should thank you. It’s been so long since someone trained this diligently…”

“Everyone was trying to help me, so I had to work hard.”

I bowed my head.

“Make sure you come back safely, and let’s have pork belly with soju.”

“Yes!”

Pork belly and soju.

Maybe because I haven’t touched alcohol since coming here.

It does sound appealing.

But that’s only if we all return safely.

That night I ate dinner just once and went to sleep after a light walk.

The cook was disappointed, asking why I wasn’t eating more.

It was a choice to keep my body light.

Whatever happens.

It would be good to survive, wouldn’t it?

* * *

Tutorial entry day arrived.

Since tutorial entry dates are set according to climber registration dates, there are five tutorial entrants total, including me.

Two are people I’ve never spoken to.

One is the guy who picked fights with me every time we met in the Dining Hall.

And the remaining one is the “you know” Man who acted like he knew how to handle a sword.

We headed to the Tutorial Entry Point.

The end of the Education Facility Corridor.

The door that was always tightly shut opens.

‘Finally…’

A pure white room like a laboratory greets us.

Plush chairs were prepared in the center, and across from the chairs was a wall made of mirrors.

Beyond those mirrors, employees of the Babel Tower Climber Management Bureau would be observing us.

Who would return alive.

They’re probably coldly evaluating us along with the data they’ve gathered.

-Gulp.

Even trying not to be nervous, the atmosphere makes it impossible not to be.

-Welcome, aspiring Babel Tower climbers.

A dry, mechanical voice that sounds pre-recorded comes through.

-Please take your seats in the chairs with your respective names.

I sat in the middle chair with my name on it.

Then,

-Click.

My wrists and ankles were secured to the chair.

-We are securing your bodies as a precaution against accidents.

Simultaneously, holograms of various articles appeared on the mirror.

When exiting dungeons, you might lose balance from the sensation of being ejected.

If you’re unlucky, you could fall backward after finishing the tutorial and die from a concussion on the way back.

This chair, which looked like a massage chair, was made soft to prevent such accidents.

Even though it did restrain hands and feet.

“Damn, this is uncomfortable…”

Someone grumbles from the left.

It’s the Man from the dining hall.

“I didn’t commit any crime, so why do I have to sit in this kind of chair…”

The one muttering curses on the right is the “you know” Man.

Why did it have to be these two?

-Your tutorial entry will now begin.

-Please say “Enter Babel Tower” aloud, then answer “Yes.”

-We wish you the best of luck.

The dry mechanical voice cuts off abruptly.

“Enter Babel Tower.”

As soon as I spoke aloud, my vision brightened and a translucent window appeared.

The moment you say “Enter Babel Tower,” you enter Babel Tower.

But just once, in the tutorial, it really asks whether you want to enter.

Like a final chance.

Just as I was about to say “Yes.”

“I, I can’t do it…!”

“Cancel! I want to cancel! I can’t do it after all!”

Voices filled with terror came from both sides.

-Refusal to climb is impossible.

Once again, a dry mechanical voice echoes.

Refusal to climb is impossible.

Of course. We’re here under contract in the first place.

Minor crime pardons, debt forgiveness – these things aren’t given for free, right?

-You are all talents who have already completed training to enter the tutorial.

This time it’s not a mechanical voice, but a human voice as dry as the mechanical one.

Probably someone behind the mirror is speaking.

Though they called us ‘talents’, it’s a voice with virtually no expectations.

The tone suggests this happens quite frequently – they seem used to it.

-So please, challenge it bravely.

“Brave my ass!”

“You do it, you bastard!”

-…Let me say this once more.

-The restraints will not be released until you enter the tutorial.

-Please think carefully about what this means.

There’s nothing to think carefully about.

Either enter the tutorial,

or stay restrained in this chair pissing and shitting yourself.

Maybe not now, but in three days – no, even two days – I’d end up saying “yes” myself.

Better to leave this place quickly before seeing such a disgusting sight.

“Yes.”

I answered briefly and firmly.

And simultaneously, I felt like I was passing through some massive wall…

If I had to describe it, it was like passing through an air curtain at an entrance.

It also felt like riding an elevator in a skyscraper.

Or like being on a plummeting roller coaster.

“Huk!”

When I came to my senses again.

The surroundings had completely changed.

Gone were the laboratory-like white space, the mirrored walls, and the chair that had restrained me.

The surroundings were pitch black.

So dark I couldn’t see my own feet even when looking down.

Among the tutorials, numbers 5, 9, 13, 20, and 21 – a total of five – are dark and require caution.

And this place is…

“Damn.”

I muttered a quiet curse upon seeing a faint green light flickering and disappearing not far away.

The thing emitting green light was none other than night moss.

People call it luminescent lichen.

Which meant this was Tutorial 9.

Tutorial 9.

Underground Dungeon survival battle.

A tutorial where you must survive until the designated time in maze-like caves that branch in multiple directions.

They call it a survival battle, but the maze-like interior makes it several times harder to survive.

Thanks to that, Tutorial 9’s survival rate is 0.5%.

Extreme. And extremely brutal.

In short, I’m as good as dead already.

I’ve never thought of myself as lucky in life.

But.

Just this once, couldn’t I have gotten the ordinary Tutorial 1?

As I was clutching my head in overwhelming despair.

That’s right.

Trait.

They said I’d get a trait as soon as I entered the tutorial.

There’s still a chance.

If a decent trait appears…!

Hm?

Thousand Deaths?

Thanks to participating earnestly in education, I already knew that entering the tutorial would grant traits and skills.

I also knew that traits and skills are related.

But what the hell is this…

Thousand Deaths.

.

Heaven sky. Kill live. Star star.

A killer sent by heaven.

An existence chosen by heaven to wash the world in blood.

This often appears in martial arts novels…

Isn’t this a martial arts psychopath?

Setting aside all the “sent by heaven” and “chosen by heaven” stuff.

Isn’t this just a murderer?

And what’s this Killing Talent?

What kind of chuunibyou skill is this…

It’s even really vague, isn’t it?

Since I trained assuming ordinary talents and skills would appear, this is incredibly confusing.

-Kiiit!!

That’s when it happened.

A sharp cry.

Not a sound a human or ordinary animal could make.

“…!”

When I turned my head, there stood a bipedal rat about 1 meter tall.

Holding a knife, no less.

‘Ratman!’

One of the species that appears in Tutorial 9.

It has virtually no eyesight, but sensitive smell and hearing, and moves very quickly.

A ratman’s front teeth are incredibly powerful – if you get bitten once, it’s easier to just consider that body part gone.

‘What should I do?’

The answer is predetermined.

Tutorial 9 is ultimately a ‘survival battle’.

Unlike extermination battles where you must kill all monsters, you just need to stay alive until the designated time.

‘Then, let’s run away for now.’

That’s safer.

The training instructors always said that fighting isn’t always the answer.

Ratmen have poor eyesight.

Plus right now there’s quite a distance between me and it.

So if I move carefully…

-Crack!

Right.

Right now, I was also receiving the vision debuff.

I had only taken a single step when something broke with a sound.

-Kiiiiit!!!!

The ratman lunged toward me.

The rat bastard aimed precisely at where the sound came from, charging while swinging its blade.

If I got hit even once by that sword strike.

I would die.

I have to dodge!

-Crack!!!

However, my body moved in the complete opposite direction.

Far from running desperately in the opposite direction.

My fist shot out in an instant to avoid the blade strike, smashing into the ratman’s jaw.

-Ki, kit…!

The ratman’s body staggered from the sudden counter.

I didn’t miss that opening.

-Thwack!!!

I kicked its fluffy belly.

The ratman couldn’t even scream and collapsed on the spot.

-Thud!

Along with the sound of the ratman’s body falling to the damp cave floor.

-Crack!!!

I stepped on the ratman’s neck and broke it.

Instant death.

The ratman’s life was extinguished in an instant.

“…”

What the hell just happened?

I’m completely dumbfounded.

-Thump.

-Thump.

My heart was beating like crazy.

Because I was afraid of this situation?

No…

Rather, I’m excited.

‘Excited?’

Am I insane? Why the hell am I excited in this situation?

‘Could it be…’

Because of Thousand Deaths?

Still in a daze, I took the blade from the dead ratman’s hand.

It’s incredibly worn out but…

Still better than having nothing.

As I lightly gripped the blade, my heart began beating even faster.

A feeling like I could kill everything.

Should I call it confidence?

No.

It’s different.

Natural like breathing…

-Kiiiiiiik!

-Kiiiiii!!

Before I could define what this sensation was.

From the distance, I heard the sound of ratmen running toward me.

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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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