The Regressed EX-Class Martial God Decided to Become a Thousand-Star Hunter - Chapter 15

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

Episode 15
Episode 15.
‘User Ju Do-gyeom. In the dungeon, the broken Military Munitions Factory, you demonstrated exceptional play.’
‘Succeeded in hunting all monsters without destroying the core.’
‘Party play in progress. Measuring contribution rate. 100%’
‘Overwhelming.’
‘Mana Rank increased: E ⇒ E+’
‘Clear reward Mana Stone will be awarded in significantly increased amount.’
‘Return to Earth? Y/N’
This message log had appeared to Ju Do-gyeom the instant he struck the crevice of death manifesting on the Boss Monster.
To be honest, even Ju Do-gyeom was surprised.
‘I never expected a Hidden Piece like this.’
A Hidden Piece wasn’t necessarily something that only counted as such when the system officially designated it.
Any additional rewards earned through unrevealed strategies constituted a Hidden Piece.
At least among modern hunters, that was the accepted definition.
So Ju Do-gyeom’s mood had improved considerably.
He hadn’t used future knowledge—he’d simply grown tired of hunting down cores one by one and handled them all with a finishing blow instead, yet the Hidden Piece had triggered, granting exceptional play results.
The rewards were somewhat modest compared to his previous exploits, perhaps because the difficulty had been lower (?), but it was far better than a standard clear.
More than anything, this dungeon had seemed to offer nothing except his colleague Kim Han-yul, so his satisfaction was all the greater.
* * *
In any case, from that day forward, Kim Han-yul was fully integrated into Ju Do-gyeom’s team.
The two exchanged numbers and finally learned each other’s age.
Ju Do-gyeom was twenty-six.
Kim Han-yul was twenty-seven.
Kim Han-yul was a year older, but they’d decided against using formal speech with each other.
Both preferred it that way, and there was also the matter of their titles—team lead and team member.
At home, Ju Do-gyeom was processing Mana Stones when he picked up his smartphone to check his email.
‘Still unread.’
How troubling that was.
Since he’d anticipated it, he closed his phone without hesitation.
‘I’ll see it someday.’
Rather, meeting Kim Han-yul at this particular moment had been unexpected.
In terms of results, it wasn’t bad.
No—it was actually good.
With Kim Han-yul as a colleague, there was far more he could accomplish now.
But what should he prioritize?
What would be most efficient?
‘Which path should I take…….’
Would the same cycle repeat as before the regression?
Ju Do-gyeom, his eyes coldly fixed, was lost in thought when it happened.
A message came through from Kim Han-yul.
Kim Han-yul – By the way, team lead. How are you deciding on positions?
To reiterate, the standard dungeon party maxes out at three members.
And each member has a position.
To put it simply, first comes the Damage Dealer.
This refers to the dealer who primarily excels in hunting Boss Monsters.
They’re strong in individual combat but weak in large-scale battles—that’s the defining characteristic of this job class or skill set.
Next is the Cleaner.
This one’s the opposite.
Strong in large-scale battles but weak in one-on-one combat.
Since most hunter-class abilities divided that way, the dealer role had been split out of necessity.
Finally, there’s the Supporter.
As the name suggests, they’re responsible for maintaining the party’s operations.
Hunters specialized in support and healing typically took on this role.
However, in Ju Do-gyeom’s party, there was little need to be bound by these conventional position divisions.
The reason was simple: first and second.
Ju Do-gyeom could handle both the Damage Dealer and Cleaner roles alone.
When he eventually faced truly powerful Boss Monsters, things might change somewhat, but for now, there was no question there’d be no problems.
The same went for Kim Han-yul.
She was skilled as a Cleaner and equally excellent as a Supporter.
Still, it was clear they needed to decide where to concentrate their efforts.
Materialization Art had a fixed inventory slot, and what they filled it with would make all the difference.
Thinking it through, the answer came simply enough.
Ju Do-gyeom sent a message.
Ju Do-gyeom – You’re the Supporter.
Kim Han-yul – So you’re the Damage Dealer? Wait, you can do Mob Handler too?
Ju Do-gyeom – That’s right.
Kim Han-yul – In that case, we should fill most of the Materialization Art with support items.
Ju Do-gyeom – Good thinking. But keep the Boss Monster active. It’ll be useful for a while yet.
Kim Han-yul – I was planning to anyway. But there’s a problem—the Boss Monster takes up 2 slots.
Ju Do-gyeom – I didn’t know that. Is it an issue?
Kim Han-yul – Not exactly. Just that if you want a lot of things, the space gets tight.
Ju Do-gyeom – How many slots are left right now?
Kim Han-yul – Excluding the Omnipotent Chef, I have 5 slots total. We jumped up two ranks this time, so.
Ju Do-gyeom paused his messages and fell silent, lost in thought.
‘Five slots.’
What they needed immediately were transport and protection for non-combat situations.
Ju Do-gyeom – If we made a temporary Steel Bunker, would that take up a lot of slots?
Kim Han-yul – No idea. Never tried it before. Hold on.
Fifteen minutes later.
As Ju Do-gyeom was about to taste his finished Mana Stone braised dish, a message came through again.
Kim Han-yul – That takes 2 slots too. Three left now.
It was like an inventory system.
Bulky items consumed more slots, regardless of function.
High-ranked items like the Boss Monster were no exception.
‘Come to think of it, the future Kim Han-yul used ten instances of Materialization Art, but her actual slot usage must have been much higher.’
Musing this over, he took a bite of the food.
Delicious.
Mana filled him.
He could feel his cooking skill improving.
The recent Omnipotent Chef series skills.
That is, the Chef’s knife technique, the culinary blade proficiency, and the Mana Stone braising had all risen to level 3.
‘I should try braising a corpse giant’s Mana Stone tomorrow.’
He thought it would be nice to unlock other cooking methods too.
Eating only braised food was starting to feel monotonous.
Though this was a worry he’d never had before in his life.
‘Right, this isn’t the time for that.’
Ju Do-gyeom, pausing his meal, sent another message.
Ju Do-gyeom – For now, let’s fill the remaining three with Deadly Poison, the Water Purifier, and Iron Chain.
Kim Han-yul – Deadly Poison? I’ve never made that before.
Ju Do-gyeom – You can do it. Oh, and the water purifier isn’t just any purifier. I’ll send you the specs via message—check the item. It’s a Magical Engineering Water Purifier, so the materialization difficulty is quite high.
Kim Han-yul – Are you serious? At this point, do you think I’m some kind of magical vending machine?
Ju Do-gyeom – Well, there is a similarity.
Kim Han-yul – You know you’re an annoying person, right?
Ju Do-gyeom couldn’t muster a reply.
While checking his message and eating his braised dish.
『Mana Grade: E+ ⇒ D-』
A system notification rang out.
He’d felt it rising steadily anyway, but this time his grade had actually changed.
And this was despite having just advanced his grade not long ago at the Military Munitions Factory.
“This is wonderful.”
The Omnipotent Chef.
The greatest profession.
That was what Ju Do-gyeom thought at that moment.
His phone rang once more.
Kim Han-yul – Made the Deadly Poison.
Ju Do-gyeom – Well done. I knew you could.
Kim Han-yul – But what are you going to do with it?
Ju Do-gyeom – I’m thinking of entering a B- rated dungeon next.
After that, there was a long silence.
Ju Do-gyeom finished his meal and stood to clear the table.
Then his phone rang.
This time it wasn’t a message—an actual call.
Naturally, it was Kim Han-yul.
Ju Do-gyeom picked up.
“What’s—”
He didn’t get the words out.
-Boss, let me just ask straight. A B-Rank dungeon. You’re not seriously suggesting the two of us go alone, are you?
“What if I am?”
-Are you out of your mind!?
Kim Han-yul’s voice rose sharply.
Ju Do-gyeom pulled the phone away from his ear and switched to speaker.
“My ears hurt. Stop yelling.”
-I can’t help yelling! You’re asking us to tackle a B-Rank dungeon with just the two of us?
Just as Hunters had ability rankings,
so too did dungeons.
The Zombie Burst, for instance, was D-Rank.
The broken Military Munitions Factory was D+.
Both were known to have difficulty ratings that exceeded their rank classification.
Especially Zombie Burst—if it included the corpse giant, saying it could reach C-Rank difficulty wouldn’t be an exaggeration.
For Ju Do-gyeom, who had cleared it, growing confident wasn’t strange.
Kim Han-yul had thought the same way.
But a B-Rank dungeon?
That wasn’t just one rank higher.
It was a different dimension entirely.
-At the very least, you’d need at least one more party member of comparable strength….
“Two is enough.”
-No, I—Boss…I understand your confidence, believe me—but…what exactly are you banking on?
“What do you think? I’m counting on my team.”
-…….
Silence stretched between them.
Then, after a moment,
Kim Han-yul’s voice came through, as if she were raking her hands wildly through her hair.
It sounded like she’d buried her face somewhere and was letting out a frustrated cry.
Ju Do-gyeom’s hearing was sharp enough to catch it all.
Or rather, she was wound up enough
that even across the network, he could read her completely.
-Whew. Boss.
“Feeling better?”
-I’m putting all my faith in you. Understand? If I die, you’re responsible.
The absurdity of it made Ju Do-gyeom laugh despite himself.
“If there’s a way to take responsibility for a dead person, I’ll figure it out.”
-Promise me.
“I promise.”
-Really…why did I even agree to join your team. Sigh….
Kim Han-yul sighed before continuing.
-…Alright. Let’s do this.
“Good. Send me that water purifier specs we talked about over message, would you? I’ll review it and call you back.”
-Yeah, boss.
The call ended.
Ju Do-gyeom stood before the sink, ready to wash up.
Once more, unbidden, he found himself smiling.
“Hah….”
Take responsibility for a dead person, she’d said.
‘Do I need to master Necromancy for that?’
The thought came with the smile.
* * *
On her bed,
Kim Han-yul hung up with her newly found boss and let out a hollow laugh.
“Huh, heh heh, heheheh…B-Rank. Right. B-Rank, he says.”
It looks like I’m going to end up entering a dungeon I’ve never seen before.
And with just one other person, no less.
From what I’ve heard, the team leader still has most of his stats at D-Rank or lower.
I’m certain of it now.
‘He’s insane.’
Both the fact that he fights impossibly well at that rank, and the part about challenging B-Rank.
Nothing about him is normal.
That’s why when he first called, I was determined to stop him unconditionally.
I even planned to threaten him — to demand he release me from the team instead.
It didn’t matter how short my employment had been; I couldn’t back down from that stance.
‘I haven’t even officially stamped the contract yet. Better that than death.’
Even a dunghill is better than the afterlife.
Kim Han-yul held that principle close.
But.
This time, I relented.
A few words from Ju Do-gyeom shook her to her core.
That she could do this.
The tone of voice that trusted his team.
A promise that he’d take responsibility for her, even in death.
‘Is that last part even possible? Does he plan to study Necromancy or something?’
It was genuinely ridiculous — utterly absurd.
And yet she found herself nodding along.
As if bewitched.
Kim Han-yul had never been that sort of woman before.
She was the type who repeatedly emphasized how truly precious her own life was.
More pragmatic than anyone else she knew.
“But why?”
Why did Ju Do-gyeom—
why did it feel like her heart gave way whenever that man soothed her with his emotionless voice?
A terrible suspicion flickered through her mind, but she quickly shook her head.
“He’s good-looking, I’ll grant him that. But he’s not my type.”
More than anything, his personality was atrocious.
Kim Han-yul was adamant about this.
“There’s absolutely no way this develops into anything romantic.”
Not in a million years.
* * *
The construction of the water purifier was proving quite difficult, that much was certain.
Kim Han-yul had requested a full week just to complete it.
Of course, that included time to gather materials and make other preparations.
‘It’s within my projected timeframe, so there’s no problem.’
Ju Do-gyeom extracted the Mana Stone from the corpse giant he’d just finished and consumed it.
He hadn’t held high expectations.
Given his explosive growth lately, he’d thought it unreasonable to expect satisfying gains even from a corpse giant’s Mana Stone.
And yet.
‘……This is unexpected.’

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