The Regressed EX-Class Martial God Decided to Become a Thousand-Star Hunter - Chapter 46

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

Episode 46
46.
But before executing this plan, there was exactly one problem that needed solving.
Kim Han-yul’s excessive zeal.
Since when had it started?
‘Probably after that Jin Woo-sung incident.’
Kim Han-yul’s dungeon entries had increased.
Apart from the times she ran team operations with Ju Do-gyeom, she’d been going solo—venturing into dungeons alone.
He didn’t know why.
He’d simply let it go for now, assuming she had some purpose behind it.
‘This is getting excessive.’
She’d declared just today that she’d be pushing harder for a while again.
Yet when they met for the team dungeon run, Kim Han-yul’s clothes already bore the marks of someone who’d been rolling around somewhere.
Ju Do-gyeom’s brow furrowed as he asked.
“You’ve been to another dungeon already?”
Kim Han-yul, scratching her cheek in embarrassment, laughed loudly.
“Aha-ha! You said this dungeon could take several days, right? So I figured I’d loosen up a bit more—just a light warm-up before we go. A walk. Yeah.”
She nodded repeatedly.
Ju Do-gyeom couldn’t help but press further.
“What exactly are you thinking, Kim Han-yul?”
“Huh? What am I thinking…?”
“Are you in need of money? If that’s the case—”
“No, I don’t need it. I’ve got plenty.”
Kim Han-yul was adamant.
And truthfully, she did have quite a bit.
Before becoming a Hunter, she’d graduated from a prestigious university and worked for a foreign multinational corporation with a substantial salary. After awakening, she’d built up considerable wealth as a Super Rookie.
Her usual talk of wanting to be rich was nothing but idle jest.
The moment she met Ju Do-gyeom’s sharp gaze, her true feelings spilled out unbidden.
“I’m serious. In a world that could collapse anytime, I’ve got enough to spend until the day I die.”
“Then why are you being so greedy? What’s lacking?”
“Um… it’s… are you going to abandon me?”
“What kind of—”
“Aha, aha-ha!”
“Don’t laugh, Kim Han-yul. And even as a joke, I’ve never thought of abandoning you.”
If I had, I wouldn’t be investing in you like this.
“Sigh… I really don’t understand what you’re thinking.”
The sigh came heavy and deep.
“Aha-ha…”
Kim Han-yul laughed awkwardly at him again, twirling a dusty strand of her black hair around her index finger.
Her eyes couldn’t meet his, drifting this way and that instead.
It was a first for her.
Ju Do-gyeom speaking to her like this—it was unprecedented.
And understandably so: Ju Do-gyeom himself was hardly the type to live by others’ rules.
That’s why he respected others’ free will considerably.
As team leader, he worried and found it uncomfortable that she was pushing past boundaries, yet he’d let it slide without comment.
But not anymore.
This had crossed from worry into genuine danger.
She had overstepped by a considerable margin.
‘That’s why I let out that scolding, but…’
Maybe he’d been too harsh.
Especially at the end—he’d let his feelings get the better of him without meaning to.
Ju Do-gyeom spoke again.
“I apologize for the last thing I said. I didn’t need to go that far.”
“Huh? Oh? No, it’s fine… If anything, I should apologize. Sorry for worrying you like that. Aha-ha! I’m sorry, sorry. I’ll be more careful from now on.”
“I’ll trust you. You already know well enough that pushing yourself like this isn’t good.”
“…That doesn’t seem like something a team leader should say…”
“What do you mean?”
“No, no, never mind. Ha-ha…!”
“You’re misunderstanding. I’ve never overextended myself, Kim Han-yul. I only do what needs to be done.”
Silence followed.
Naturally, Ju Do-gyeom’s mind filled with things he wanted to say, but he suppressed them all.
He figured there was no point in childish bickering.
Instead, he released a different story from his lips.
“We’ll postpone the dungeon we were planning to enter today until three days from now. Go home and rest for now.”
“Huh? Just like this? But I feel terrible about it…….”
“That’s precisely why I’m sending you away.”
Kim Han-yul’s shoulders drooped, her face falling.
She asked him.
“……Where were you planning to go?”
“The Eroding Grassland.”
Kim Han-yul tilted her head in confusion.
“The Eroding Grassland? Isn’t that a C-rank Dungeon? Even if we went right now…….”
“It won’t be what you’re thinking. So for now, go back and rest.”
“……I’m starting to feel even worse about this…….”
“I’ve said it before — that’s why I’m sending you home. And from now on, you’re forbidden from entering dungeons alone for a while. That’s an order from your team leader.”
“……A while? How long?”
Ju Do-gyeom gazed at Kim Han-yul without a word.
“Roger that. Understood! I’ll obey.”
Seeing her salute, Ju Do-gyeom swallowed a sigh that threatened to escape and rose from his seat.
“Before you go, eat something.”
“……Is that okay?”
“Managing team morale includes the team leader’s share of responsibility too.”
“Hehe…… Thanks, team leader!”
Ju Do-gyeom, shaking his head with a wry smile, opened the refrigerator.
* * *
Three days later, Ju Do-gyeom and Kim Han-yul faced each other again.
Seeing her in pristine condition — better than pristine, in fact, her energy at its peak — Ju Do-gyeom held out a scroll.
Eve’s Gift
The user’s held inventory slots expand without limit.
“What? This!? You’re giving this to me?”
“Talking as if I’ve never looked after you.”
“No, that’s not what I meant…… You haven’t said anything for months, so I thought you’d already used it…… Or maybe…… you’d just forgotten about it?”
Ju Do-gyeom didn’t answer Kim Han-yul’s words and looked away.
“……Not that, huh? Though given your personality, it’d be strange if you had forgotten.”
“…….”
In truth, he had forgotten.
Things had been flowing so smoothly that Eve’s Gift wasn’t even necessary.
He’d actually thought things were working out fine without it.
“You’re doing perfectly well as you are, Han-yul.”
It was something that could actually help ease whatever anxiety she felt, while also carrying the weight of a word from him.
“Team leader…….”
Indeed, Han-yul’s eyes filled with emotion.
For some reason, she looked as though she might truly burst into tears.
“Why would you cry over something like this…….”
“No, no, I’m not crying. Just something got in my eye, that’s all. Maybe I developed a dust allergy?”
And with that, she dashed over to the dining table, pulled a tissue, and blew her nose.
Just as Ju Do-gyeom shook his head without thinking, Han-yul returned and held Eve’s Gift forward again.
“So I’m using this then. I won’t hold back and just take it, right?”
“Use it quickly. You’re being loud.”
“Here goes!”
Will you use Eve’s Gift? Y/N
“Yes!”
The moment she answered, a faint shimmer like heat haze flowed from Eve’s Gift and was drawn into Kim Han-yul’s body.
Afterward, Eve’s Gift scattered like burnt ash, dispersing into the air.
The sensation of using it felt hollow, but the effect was unmistakable.
“Oh, the slots really did expand!”
“Of course. So what’s filling those new slots now?”
Kim Han-yul answered.
“So from the Mark Two onwards…….”
Submachine Gun, Toxic Grenades, Medium Bunker, Wire Hook, two Motorcycles, Flamethrower, Scrap Metal Golem, and so on.
Of course, Ju Do-gyeom wasn’t the only one who’d grown stronger over the past time.
If anything, Kim Han-yul—who’d pushed herself harder in the dungeons over the past few months—had made slightly more progress in such a short span.
As a result, her stat minimums now stood at C-, despite having already surpassed Ju Do-gyeom in raw ability at their first meeting.
Her highest stat, magical power, had even climbed to C.
On top of that, she’d wrapped herself in the items Ju Do-gyeom had provided.
Even if not quite to Ju Do-gyeom’s level, Kim Han-yul was a Hunter with high efficiency in stat utilization.
Which meant the current Kim Han-yul was more than capable of dismissing lower-tier B-rank Hunters outright.
Feeling this shift in her, Ju Do-gyeom spoke.
“This should be enough to do ‘that’ safely.”
Kim Han-yul tilted her head, confused. “That?”
“That?”
A chill traced down her spine.
“…What are you trying to do?”
“You’ll understand once we’re inside. Let’s go.”
Ju Do-gyeom extended his hand.
Kim Han-yul considered asking more, but simply took his hand instead.
‘I’ll find out once we enter anyway.’
No point worrying about it.
She couldn’t avoid this, and she didn’t want to.
And so the party was naturally formed.
Ju Do-gyeom spoke next.
“Dungeon entry, destination designated: Eroding Grassland.”
* * *
The moment the darkened vision brightened, a vast grassland stretched before them.
The two were suspended in the air.
More precisely, they were slowly descending from the sky under the influence of Levitation Magic.
On the ground below lay a grassland dense with golden grass and scattered Beasts waiting to ambush them.
What was peculiar was that looking up, one could see other Hunters descending alongside them in the distance.
The reason was simple.
The publicly recognized C-rank Dungeon: Eroding Grassland.
Unlike an Instanced Form where only designated parties entered, this was an open Open World Dungeon like Zombie Burst.
Its popularity was no less than Zombie Burst—in fact, even greater.
While you couldn’t obtain modern dungeon equipment here like in Zombie Burst, the monsters dropped Magic Stones instead.
This was remarkable.
In most dungeons, Magic Stones were distributed as a reward after clearing.
But in Eroding Grassland, monsters directly dropped Magic Stones.
From intermediate grade at minimum to upper-intermediate at maximum.
Even for a C-rank dungeon, the Magic Stones here were exceptionally high-tier.
Furthermore, as one could see with their own eyes, monsters were scattered everywhere.
These monsters had a distinctive trait: strong attack power but slow movement, and weak defense.
Because of this, the Hunter community had even coined a phrase.
—Once you go to Eroding Grassland, it feels like playing those old hack-and-slash games on a computer. That feeling of just sweeping everything clean and farming? It’s really up my alley.
—Completely agree. Even without dungeon clear rewards, the profit is way higher, and honestly if you’re just looking at pure money, there’s nowhere better than here below A-rank.
—Like those devil-slaying games, right? I used to have so much fun with those as a kid. ㅋㅋ
Since there was no clear condition, the way to escape the dungeon was to pass through the Blue Light Exit Gates scattered throughout.
There was only one thing to watch out for.
The Magical Erosion that crept inward like the tide flooding into tidal flats as time passed.
—That said, once Magical Erosion happens, you really have to run fast. If you’re unlucky enough to get caught in it, you have to escape the erosion zone within ten minutes.
—What happens if you can’t escape?
—You turn into a Beast.
—…For real?
—Yeah. They say a beast is better off than a person, but you literally become a beast;;—
—But once you’re caught, unless you’re at the entrance, it’s not easy to get out within ten minutes.
—For real. If grassland monsters turn into Beasts, they get crazy strong. It feels like fighting B-rank or higher dungeon monsters.
—How would Namkoong know that?
—…ㅋ I’m not a B-rank Hunter, I’m just going by feel.
—A B-rank Hunter I know said he wouldn’t even trust his whole team going in there alive.
—Which makes sense; the monsters are B-rank level, and factoring in the erosion effect, they’re practically A-rank tier.
—Too scary for words;;—
As Kim Han-yul fell from the sky toward the earth, she recalled these typical evaluations from the Hunter community, and suddenly arrived at a realization.
Before entry.
The chill that had crept up her spine when she heard Ju Do-gyeom speak — now she understood what it meant.
“Team leader, you’re not actually planning to enter the Magical Erosion zone…….”
“That’s right.”
A terse reply.
Kim Han-yul broke into a wide smile.
“Don’t you dare tell me not to push myself from here on out.”
…….
Ju Do-gyeom ignored her words.

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