I Just Subscribed and It’s the Best Hunter of All Time - Chapter 61

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#Chapter 61.
“Is it really such a rare herb?”
The question came from Baek-seol.
As I held the Spirit Grass with a grin spreading across my face, she seemed to have grown curious.
“Yes. It’s extremely rare.”
I’d even asked the Association several times if it might be available at Earth’s auction house, but each time I received word that they had no stock.
With no information about it on TowerNet either, I’d been half-resigned to never finding it.
So when it suddenly fell into my lap like this, I couldn’t help but be delighted.
“First, I need to confirm where you found this. Where is that person, Lila?”
“She should be resting at the house over there!”
“Ah, is that so? Call her for me.”
“Yes!”
With that response, Baek-seol headed toward where the cottages were clustered.
I walked slowly in that direction, the Spirit Grass still in hand.
Before long, Baek-seol had called out Lila, who had been resting.
“You called for me?”
Lila was a girl with brown hair and striking freckles.
I nodded and spoke.
“Yes. I’d like to know where you found this Spirit Grass.”
“Ah, so that’s what it’s called. It looked unusual to me, so I brought it along.”
With that, Lila pointed toward the Forest and said.
“I found it deep in the Forest. Would you like me to show you the way?”
“Yes. Please do. Consider this a bonus.”
As I said this, I took out a small mana stone and handed it to Lila.
Receiving an unexpected bonus, Lila’s face brightened considerably, and she answered with enthusiasm.
“I’ll do my very best to guide you!”
“Good. Baek-seol, I’ll be back soon.”
“Yes!”
With that, I headed toward the Forest with eager steps, and Lila followed behind me with a smile.
The Forest was quite dense, something I’d noticed even when I first settled here.
Still, sunlight filtered through the gaps between the trees, so it wasn’t entirely dark.
As I walked alongside Lila, I posed a question to her.
“From a gatherer’s perspective, what do you think of this Forest?”
“It’s wonderful! Actually, forests with this abundance of herbs aren’t very common.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes! Gatherers typically call forests like this blessed forests. If you manage it well and harvest carefully, you could maintain a steady supply of high-quality herbs.”
“That’s good to hear.”
It seemed the ability I’d subscribed to back then had guided me here for more than just the mana stone mine.
I continued deeper into the Forest, following Lila.
After walking for quite some time, the surroundings gradually began to grow darker.
When I looked up, I noticed the branches and leaves were even denser than before—so thick that sunlight barely penetrated.
“You can find quite a few medicinal herbs even in shaded, damp places like this.”
“Seems like it. That one’s a fairly rare herb, isn’t it?”
Jung Han-sung said this while pointing to a specific spot.
Lila stopped in her tracks and looked where Jung Han-sung was pointing. There, a wildflower bloomed—unassuming at first glance.
“That one…?”
“Yeah? Right. It’s white peony, isn’t it? The herb that stops bleeding.”
Lila blinked and hesitated before speaking.
“I’ve, um, never heard of that herb before…. I’ve never seen it around where I lived. Do you have expertise in medicinal herbs?”
“Yeah. I do.”
Not originally, but I’m subscribed to Shen Nong’s channel now. Knowledge about herbs is overflowing.
At my response, Lila’s eyes sparkled as she spoke.
“Then, would you mind pointing out any other herbs you spot along the way? I’ll remember them well and use them as reference when gathering!”
“Yeah, sure. Why not.”
Pointing them out wasn’t particularly difficult.
Besides, if Lila’s knowledge of herbs deepened, it would benefit me as well.
After that, whenever I spotted a notable herb while walking, I immediately pointed it out.
“Do you know what that is?”
“Ah, that’s Pelonene! I know that one!”
“What about that one?”
“Um, I’m not sure?”
“That’s Clearsky Herb. When mixed with other ingredients, it purifies their essence even further.”
“That one….”
“And that one….”
Naturally enough, it wasn’t as though every herb I pointed out was one Lila didn’t know—she didn’t completely fumble through them.
Lila was, after all, a genuinely skilled herbalist.
Yet there were consistently herbs she didn’t recognize.
By ratio, about two or three out of every ten herbs were ones Lila didn’t know.
“Crimson Blossom, Clearsky Herb, White Peony….”
Lila collected them all and steadily repeated the names to herself.
I watched her with satisfaction while sharing the knowledge engraved in my mind with her, one by one.
Knowledge from Shen Nong that was difficult to learn anywhere else.
As we continued moving and Lila’s personal tutoring progressed like this.
[Herbalist Lila has acquired vast knowledge of rare medicinal herbs]
[Herbalist Lila’s rank has increased]
[Lila ★ → Lila ☆☆]
“Huh?”
I widened my eyes upon seeing the message that appeared.
“What is it? Did you discover another herb?”
“No, it’s not that. Something just popped up.”
A rank increase.
I hadn’t anticipated this at all.
But after reading the message, I suddenly understood why my rank had risen.
‘Because I acquired knowledge of medicinal herbs.’
At first, I was bewildered.
I’d merely shared some knowledge about medicinal herbs that I’d obtained through subscription, yet my rank had increased.
But soon I grasped the reason myself.
‘Knowledge of herbalism itself is rare in this place, that’s why.’
Lila possesses the skill level of an average herbalist in this region.
However, the knowledge I’d just imparted to her was something no ordinary herbalist could ever know.
It was knowledge from Shen Nong himself, after all.
And since I’d generously shared such knowledge with her, from Lila’s perspective, it was as though she’d encountered a stroke of fortune.
Well, Lila’s rank was already quite low to begin with, so the requirements for a rank increase were modest.
In any case, the rank increase was welcome news.
[Your Reputation increases!]
Thanks to Lila’s rank increase, my reputation score rose immediately.
I wondered what this was about and examined it, soon understanding the reason.
‘When an employed person’s rank rises rapidly, rumors spread that they’re in a favorable environment. Something like that, I suppose.’
In real-world terms, it seemed similar to how academies with improving grades become popular.
Though such rumors hadn’t actually spread yet, the mere possibility of them had caused the score to rise slightly.
There was room for further growth in the long term.
However, since detailed explanations hadn’t been provided yet, I couldn’t clearly understand what benefits came from raising this rank.
‘I’ll have to ask when I return.’
I resolved this internally and continued teaching Lila about medicinal herbs.
After all, I couldn’t waste the opportunity to extract value from my subscription.
As I continued tutoring her, the surroundings gradually grew pitch black.
“It’s here!”
Lila stopped in a particularly damp and dark location.
I looked around and spoke.
“The environment itself is certainly ideal for ghost orchids to grow.”
“It does feel rather eerie.”
“Yes. Eerie and damp…”
Thick with death energy.
I deliberately didn’t voice that last part.
A dense concentration of death energy meant something had died in large quantities nearby.
‘This isn’t death energy that accumulated recently.’
Places with dense death energy typically include battlefields, cemeteries, and execution grounds.
All three are locations where undead naturally arise with high probability.
But even in places other than those, occasionally spots with dense death energy are discovered.
‘Likely something died in large numbers near here in the past.’
So what happens then?
Usually, nothing. The death energy naturally fades with time.
But there are exceptions.
When multiple coincidences overlap, the death energy doesn’t scatter—instead, it draws in the surrounding death energy and holds onto it.
From my perspective, this place was exactly that kind of location.
“There’s definitely a chill here.”
“Right. It’d be best not to come near this area in the future.”
“What? Why?”
“Places like this typically have adverse effects on the human body.”
It wasn’t just a scare tactic—it was genuinely true.
A couple of hours wouldn’t matter, but the longer you stayed, the higher the probability of harmful effects on your body.
If ordinary people had discovered a place like this, they would have immediately cut down the surrounding trees and attempted to purify it.
“Ah… but the ghost grass only grows around here, doesn’t it?”
“That’s true. But there’s a solution to that.”
I smiled slightly.
It was natural enough, but the moment I subscribed to Shen Nong’s channel and gained knowledge about ghost grass, I’d predicted the environment would be like this.
And there was no way I hadn’t made a plan for it.
“You said around here?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s take a good look around first.”
I examined the surroundings, centering on the spot where Lila had discovered the ghost grass.
In the process, I learned several things.
‘There’s more ghost grass than I expected?’
Perhaps it was because of the environment.
That supposedly rare ghost grass was scattered about like common weeds.
I stroked my chin.
“At this rate… I don’t need to overthink it.”
“Pardon?”
“Step back for a moment.”
I pulled Lila back first, then retrieved a pouch from my inventory.
What I pulled from the pouch were bone fragments.
I scattered a handful of them on the ground and chanted an incantation.
“…Rise!”
Immediately after, undead creatures were summoned from the scattered bone fragments on the ground.
“Eek!”
Lila stepped back at the sight, but I reassured her.
“It’s fine. They’re creatures I command.”
“I, I see.”
“By the way, do you have a negative impression of undead?”
“Well… I don’t have a good impression, but… there are many dark mages among the Territory’s leaders, so everyone would be surprised, but… they’ll understand.”
Despite speaking so casually, her complexion looked considerably pale, though she showed no signs of attempting to flee.
In truth, I had partly drawn it out to gauge her reaction.
It seemed that while she harbored some resistance, she could understand it to a manageable degree, just as I’d said.
“Good to hear.”
Nodding, I held up the ghost orchid to the undead and spoke.
“Now, you all need to find and harvest these. Lila, show them how to harvest it once.”
“Ah, yes!”
Lila immediately demonstrated to the undead how to harvest the ghost orchid.
“Good. Now move out.”
Clack, clack—!
The undead stared intently at the demonstration, and once it concluded, they received my further instructions before scattering in all directions to begin harvesting.
At that moment, Lila asked carefully.
“Will the undead be able to do the work properly?”
“That’s something you’ll need to keep teaching them from now on.”
“Me?”
“They should understand commands well enough if you give them. Point out what’s wrong, tell them to do it this way or that way, and so on. Oh, and I’ll give you additional compensation.”
“I’ll do my best!”
Lila’s eyes immediately gleamed brightly as she spoke.
Originally, I had planned to take the undead one by one and train them individually, but after confirming there were a tremendous number of ghost orchids, I changed my approach.
I judged that accepting some loss and saving time would be the better choice at this scale.
While the undead went off to search for ghost orchids, I wandered the surroundings, checking for other rare medicinal herbs.
“Oh, there’s this too.”
And I found several additional herbs—all of them valuable to dark mages.
I carefully collected them, intending to have the undead remember them later and harvest them as well.
As time passed, the undead began returning one by one.
“Go ahead and check them, Lila.”
“Ah, understood.”
Lila trembled slightly as she inspected the herbs the undead brought.
“Ah, wait—the roots here are damaged….”
Tilt?
The undead tilted its head in confusion.
Lila spoke again.
“Here. Look at this side. All the fine roots are gone. When you harvest like this, the value drops dramatically.”
Despite trembling, she said everything she needed to say, and as time went on, her trembling decreased.
“Who harvests herbs like this! These are precious plants!”
Tap, tap….
Rather, as time went on, the undead seemed to grow dejected.
In any case, watching her work, she seemed to be teaching better than expected, so I nodded and spoke.
“Then I’ll ask you to continue training the undead from now on. Leave places like this to them alone.”
“Ah, yes! Understood!”
During the process of training the undead, I had already harvested over twenty Ghost Grass plants, so I decided it was time to head back.
‘Besides Ghost Grass, I’ve found about nine other varieties.’
Jung Han-sung decided to select two of the undead he had summoned today who showed considerable talent for herb gathering and assign them to Lila as assistants.
Maintaining a steady supply of dark magic herbs was important, after all.
“Good work.”
“Thank you for your hard work!”
After returning to the village, Jung Han-sung sought out the other village members one by one.
He assigned undead assistants to each of them.
“Eek!”
While everyone was startled at first, once he mentioned providing additional compensation, they all warmly welcomed their new assistants.
“The workforce has really expanded.”
Jung Han-sung gazed at the dramatically transformed village with a satisfied expression.
Of the undead I had procured from the cemetery, I assigned half as assistants to the villagers and positioned the other half to guard the village—and the sight alone filled me with contentment.
“Wow, there are so many undead.”
Baek-seol’s expression was somewhat uneasy.
Jung Han-sung smiled and spoke to her.
“With this many, we shouldn’t have any trouble with ordinary monsters, right?”
“Yes… I don’t think even moderately strong monsters would dare approach.”
“Good. Then I’ll be heading out for a bit.”
“Are you going to climb The Tower?”
“No.”
Jung Han-sung lifted a pouch containing the herbs he had set aside to sell and spoke.
“I’m going to the Neutral Zone to sell these.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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