The Reincarnated Hunter Sweeps Up All Fortunes - Chapter 21

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

Chapter 21
21
There’s something called a Set Item.
Back in my previous life, there was a famous joke that made the rounds among Hunters.
‘Set Items are the worst kind of chicken ribs.’
With just one piece, the options aren’t even worth a Magic-grade.
Assemble the full set, and you get options as powerful and magnificent as an Epic.
But can you actually collect them all?
It’s like finding a needle in a haystack.
It’s practically impossible, so it’s the worst chicken rib of all chicken ribs.
‘It would be nice if I had the full set.’
Anyway.
But this isn’t a Set Item, is it?
The moment I brought the Chamma Hyeol-gyeong Sword Manual and the sword close together, the perfect golden glow shifted to a slightly faded golden shade between Rare and Epic.
The instant I pulled them apart, it reverted to its full golden brilliance.
This definitely isn’t a Set Item……
Set Items are green from the start.
This one’s gold.
Bring them close, the light dims; separate them, it returns to normal.
I’d never seen anything like it in my previous life.
‘Has the world changed so much that even the system works differently?’
The murky Epic-grade color felt unsettling.
But if this counts as a set, would collecting more turn it completely Epic?
Or even higher — Legendary?
“……Hmm. No way of knowing.”
Besides, I have no idea if I can even get the rest of the set.
Worrying about it will only give me a headache.
For a Ronin, the rule is simple: take what you can get and move on.
Im Gang opened the Chamma Hyeol-gyeong Sword Manual.
Just like with the Daeryok Pae-gong, reading it alone registers it as a skill.
Understanding? Completely unnecessary. Long live the system!
It means I don’t need to grasp what the oral formulae even mean.
In truth, elevating one’s Sword Intent requires atoning for the karma of slaughter by cutting down demons—but that premise contradicts itself from the start.
“Well, I suppose the idea is that things work themselves out as long as I keep cutting down the wicked.”
Understanding can be left to the system anyway.
I turned the final page.
Ding!
[The superior technique Chamma Hyeol-gyeong Sword skill has been registered.]
“Long live the system.”
I offered a quiet prayer of thanks, tucked the manual safely into my robes, and picked up the sword.
“Appraise.”
Ding!
[Bokma Hyeolhyeol Sword]
⌞
Attack Power: 30 (+@)
Durability: 98 / 100
Other Options: When infused with Internal Energy, Sword Intent forms and increases slashing power; Attack power rises proportionally to the amount of Internal Energy injected; If the Chamma Hyeol-gyeong Sword has been mastered, additional effect Demon Subdual applies
“…….”
Im Gang clamped his mouth shut.
This time it wasn’t just emotion—his legs nearly gave way.
Why clap his mouth shut when his legs are trembling?
Because a cry of joy was about to burst out!
Bokma Hyeolhyeol Sword.
A blade that subdues demons and drinks their blood.
From its name alone, you’d believe it was a weapon from the Demonic Sect.
‘There’s a Demonic Sect spy! Seize him!’
……It might come to that.
But in reality, it’s nothing of the sort.
As befits a pair with the Chamma Hyeol-gyeong Sword, it’s firmly on the side of righteousness.
The scabbard looks worn and plain enough that no one would spare it a glance when I carry it around.
Ching!
The blade gleamed with a cool, muted radiance, but to the untrained eye it appeared as nothing more than an ordinary iron sword—humble, unadorned.
“Perfect.”
Carrying it drew no attention.
If this had been a brilliant blade, jeweled and ornate?
It wouldn’t just be ronins who’d come sniffing around.
Every swordsman in Hangju would turn their gaze upon him.
A ronin carrying a famous blade was branded a thief before anything else—and what followed after that was simple enough: the bite of steel.
In that sense, humble appearance scored three hundred points out of a hundred.
What truly mattered wasn’t form but function—the specs, in other words.
“But what’s Sword Intent, exactly?”
Im Gang tilted his head in confusion.
Still.
Master the Chamma Hyeol-gyeong Sword, and there was an additional effect: Demon Subdual.
Wasn’t this essentially a Set Item effect?
This was the level of concealed weapon that even those just below the Nine Major Sects and One would treasure.
“I can’t claim to know much about sword forms.”
Half a lifetime wielding a saber as a ronin had left him with little distinction between blade and saber—
Whether the edge ran on one side or both, that was about it.
Though… it had to be better than the Poonga Sword Technique.
The Poonga Sword Technique was eight stars, but it differed little from simply flailing around wildly.
Among ten ronins, eight wielded the Poonga Sword Technique.
That was its level.
To compare them wasn’t an insult to the Poonga Sword Technique—it was an insult to the Chamma Hyeol-gyeong Sword.
“Good.”
Im Gang secured the Bokma Hyeolhyeol Sword to his right hip and rose to his feet. The return journey was far swifter than the arrival, now that the traps had been dismantled.
Soon he reached the wall where the Talisman—the lynchpin of the Formation Array—was affixed.
He paused, studying the Talisman on the stone.
Durability: 2.
The moment he removed it, the cave would collapse in fifteen minutes.
“Hello.”
He offered a farewell.
There was no answer.
Of course there wasn’t.
A Talisman couldn’t very well talk back.
“Goodbye.”
Scritch.
He said his parting and tore the Talisman away.
The moment the Talisman left the stone, a faint tremor ran through the earth beneath his feet.
The countdown had begun.
As the Formation Array dissolved, the air within the cave shifted subtly.
Most likely.
The invisible false passages and walls faded, revealing the cave’s true, original form.
No one would ever see that sight.
They were all dead.
Im Gang unleashed the Hwanryu Speed Technique and bolted toward the entrance. His posture remained awkward, ungainly, not yet fully corrected—but his velocity was sufficient.
With the traps deactivated, he could run at full speed without hesitation.
Soon light poured through the cave mouth, and he saw it drawing near.
“Haa!”
He burst from the cave and exhaled sharply.
Cool air flooded his lungs.
The work was concluded cleanly, and he felt quite invigorated by it.
He stayed where he was, keeping his distance, waiting a moment longer to be certain.
And not long after.
Boom-boom-boom-boom!
With a tremendous roar, the cave collapsed.
The entrance imploded inward, dust and stone shards billowing outward.
Im Gang stood motionless, staring at the ruined cave. The corpses of the Tamon School fighters, the corpses of the ronins, the Formation Array itself—all evidence was now entombed within.
Complete and utter destruction of the trail.
“Well. What now.”
There was no time to indulge in reflection—practical concerns came crashing down.
He’d survived alone.
What would he say when he returned? All the Tamon School martial artists and ronin who’d undertaken the commission with him were dead. Only he’d walked out. They wouldn’t openly suspect him of treachery.
The cave had collapsed—there’d be no evidence.
But still.
‘This looks plenty suspicious.’
Im Gang scratched his jaw in thought.
He’d survived alone.
And in perfect condition, no less.
In ronin circles, such a thing was interpreted two ways.
One: the man had demonically good luck. Two: he’d sold out his comrades and lived.
The first earned envy and resentment. The second? In extreme cases, a blade through the ribs.
‘The Broker House will keep quiet if I do the same—but Tamon School is the problem.’
All the martial artists they’d sent had died—or rather, perished in that unfortunate collapse(?), buried alive(?) when the cave fell in. There was no way Tamon wouldn’t investigate.
The whole thing was strange to worry about, really. The collapse wasn’t his fault. They’d blundered in rashly, without proper preparation.
Right. That’s right. I’m not to blame. I didn’t kill anyone, did I?
Yet his heart grew heavy at the thought of reporting this.
Was this what they called the responsibility of a survivor?
‘May the departed find peace in the afterlife.’
Just as he was wrestling with what to tell Tamon, he felt it.
The presence of many approaching at once.
“……!”
“……sir!”
Tap-tap-tap-tap!
Voices came first, then the sound of running feet.
Im Gang spun around in alarm, extending his senses outward.
People were emerging from the brush and trees surrounding the cave.
A dozen or more.
His hand moved instinctively toward his sword—a habit born from years as a ronin. But before his palm even touched the hilt, his body went rigid.
He felt it.
The most overwhelming presence he’d ever encountered from any martial artist.
“……the aura……!”
“The cave……?”
Tamon School warriors emerged between the trees and brush. Im Gang’s eyes drifted past them. Behind that contingent, a man parted the vegetation and stepped through.
The aura pouring from his body made Im Gang swallow hard.
‘A master.’
His chest constricted as though clamped in a vise.
Breathing became nearly impossible.
His heart hammered as if being wrung out.
He hadn’t even shown his true strength, yet he was overwhelmed by sheer presence alone.
Im Gang clenched his teeth. As the man drew near, he recognized him—Ho Muk, Deputy Sect Leader of Tamon School.
He was known to have reached the 1st-class realm, and in a way, was even more dismissive of ronin than the heterodox sects.
Though truthfully, it was strange for any 1st-class martial artist to respect ronin at all.
‘So… this is what a 1st-class master looks like?’
He’d fought 2nd-class martial artists several times before. But this man operated on a different plane entirely.
The gap between 2nd-class and 1st-class was said to be vast—but this wasn’t a wall. It was a cliff.
A cliff so dizzingly high that nothing of you would remain if you fell.
“Hmm.”
Ho Muk regarded Im Gang, then shifted his gaze toward the collapsed cave.
The sword and saber at his waist were peculiar, but judging by the tattered rags caked in dust that passed for clothing, he was undoubtedly a ronin.
“You’re a ronin?”
“……Yes. I am.”
Im Gang was tensing every muscle to respond when—
“An answer isn’t necessary.”
“……What?”
Bewilderment drew a foolish sound from his throat.
“Dust-covered rags, a torn shirt, a filthy face, and a pair of worthless blades hanging at both sides—if one cannot deduce you are a ronin from such an appearance, one might as well be blind. One would be wasting breath expecting me, Ho Muk, to give ear to the words of some mere ronin who has recently scraped into the 2nd-class realm by blind fortune alone.”
Ho Muk’s brow furrowed, his disdain plain and unguarded.
In that moment, Im Gang understood.
Why Ho Muk’s epithet was Unmoved by Desire.
Heartless — a mind devoid of humanity.
Soliloquy — speaking only to oneself.
It meant he ignored anyone who wasn’t his equal or superior, muttering alone to himself.
True to his epithet indeed.
Ho Muk answered his own questions despite Im Gang’s vacant stare.
“The cave appears completely collapsed. The interior’s given way entirely, it seems? Doesn’t look like explosives were used. Either something triggered the mechanisms inside, or there was combat with Demonic Sect members and the impact…….”
“……Demonic Sect?!”
The name alone snapped Im Gang out of his stupor.
Ho Muk, predictably, ignored him.
“Ever seen some mysterious freak? Even if you had, you’ve got no eyes, so you wouldn’t know if they were Demonic Sect or not. Which means Lord Im and his disciples must be dead. Tsk. Of all things, a Demonic Sect member wandering this way. Rotten luck all around. Lucky they’re such trash, I suppose.”
“…….”
Well…….
He didn’t understand all the details, but it seemed the Demonic Sect had inadvertently cleared his name.
“Now get out of here, you worthless ronin.”
Ah…… Yes…….
His mood was sour, but objectively speaking, things had turned out well.
* * *
Im Gang shuffled back toward Hangju after Ho Muk’s dismissal.
Ding!
[Promotion: Your profession has changed from 3rd-class Ronin to 2nd-class Ronin.]
“……?”
The sudden notification left him feeling peculiar.
Why had he only just become a 2nd-class Ronin now……?

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