The Reincarnated Hunter Sweeps Up All Fortunes - Chapter 9

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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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Episode 9
9
Dungeons.
Within them lies danger — countless traps and monsters — yet also the chance to overturn a life’s trajectory.
Treasures that would take a lifetime of toil to accumulate (some Awakeners call it the random gacha lottery).
Hidden Pieces — concealed chambers (some call them the rooms you can’t escape without clearing the Hidden Piece).
And Skill Books too.
Now then.
Until now, I’d been in dungeons from my past life.
But this place — where am I?
The Medieval Martial Arts World.
“Divine martial arts, thousand-year-old spirit medicines, and perhaps even a peerless beauty… well, maybe not that far, but in any case — there ought to be treasure here.”
The dungeon is even named “Cheon Ri Sin Tu’s Third-Grade Hidden Chamber.”
Now, hold on.
Who is Cheon Ri Sin Tu?
A master of Light Skill who can cover roughly forty-five to fifty kilometers in the blink of an eye.
The greatest thief alive — able to steal anything he sets his mind to.
‘I’m not sure if third-grade is a high ranking or a low one, but…’
It’s a dungeon, so there’s bound to be something.
Moreover.
Ding!
[You have detected a “Fall” trap.]
[You have gained Experience Points and grown.]
[Proficiency in certain skills has increased.]
Ding!
[You have disarmed the “Fall” trap.]
[You have gained Experience Points and grown.]
[Proficiency in certain skills has increased.]
[You have acquired 1 Skill Point.]
[Your total Internal Energy has increased slightly.]
Through Trap Detection and Trap Disarming, I’ve been racking up experience and even leveling up.
Damn!
This is practically free rewards!
Though I suppose Cheon Ri Sin Tu must have had time on his hands too.
He built this Hidden Chamber well enough, but he sure did love his traps.
I’ve disarmed over a dozen of them by now.
The passage is a straight line.
I’ve even checked whether there might be any hidden doors he’d tucked away somewhere.
“Is there a door here?”
“No, there isn’t. Just a straight path.”
Though… I’m not entirely certain.
When you enter a dungeon, the inner magical energies interfere, reducing the range of Map Skill and preventing it from seeing through walls.
The sort of treasure-hunting I’d done wandering the streets was now off-limits.
I’m being as thorough as I can, but I haven’t discovered anything yet.
“It’s strange and unsettling that there are no monsters.”
In my past life’s dungeons…
Eighty percent of the time, monsters or traps were present the moment you entered.
And another eighty percent of the time, if you weren’t careful, your skull would get crushed right from the start.
In that sense, the Medieval Martial Arts World’s dungeons were remarkably peaceful.
Only the most elementary traps.
I haven’t entered any other dungeons yet, so I can’t average it out fairly.
You never know.
A monster might suddenly burst out — corpse demons, demons, that sort of thing.
To cut to the end, something did burst out.
“…But I can’t use my brain for this.”
A puzzle.
* * *
Cheon Ri Sin Tu.
Though he earned fame as the greatest thief of all ages, the real reason he became renowned was something else entirely.
It was his Hidden Chambers and their treasures.
Cheon Ri Sin Tu had roamed across Jung Won throughout his life, constructing Hidden Chambers wherever he went.
He installed all manner of traps and filled them with treasures that he had relocated—stolen—during his time, leaving them as rewards inside.
After that, what Cheon Ri Sin Tu did was simple.
“Take these! Treasure Maps!”
He scattered hundreds of Treasure Maps.
Thus began the age of great thieves… no, the age of great treasures.
Among them, the duplicates numbered five to ten per Hidden Chamber.
In other words, he had created at least fifty Hidden Chambers.
Someone might well ask.
Even if he was the greatest thief in all of history, how was that possible?
Well.
He’d even robbed the Imperial Palace.
The amount of money he had wasn’t suspiciously large—it was simply enormous.
But Cheon Ri Sin Tu suffered from one peculiar affliction.
The “I am different” disease.
What good was building Hidden Chambers diligently if every one shared the same concept?
Perhaps for this reason.
Every Hidden Chamber he created had a completely different concept.
The trouble was that these Hidden Chambers’ concepts centered on traps and puzzles.
“Ugh… concepts and all this bullshit—he’s made it damnably tedious.”
Im Gang was blocked by a puzzle wall and couldn’t advance.
For a full hour!
At first glance, it wasn’t even a particularly difficult puzzle.
It appeared completely filled, but in reality there were minute gaps—rearrange the puzzle pieces and a space would open up where you could fit in one additional small piece, that sort of thing.
Ordinarily with this type of puzzle, if you keep adjusting and fitting things.
Voilà, simple, isn’t it?
……would result, but if the puzzle had dozens of pieces, it was an entirely different matter.
‘Should I call it a day?’
It wasn’t as though he’d gained nothing getting this far.
Perhaps because Cheon Ri Sin Tu was a god, he’d left rewards each time Im Gang cleared a few traps.
Some were good; others were not.
First.
[Lock-Picking Key]
⌞
Durability: 93 / 100
Simply put, a lockpick.
It did nothing but actually pick locks—no additional options whatsoever.
Since it came from a thief, or rather, a god’s blessing, he tucked it away anyway.
Next.
[Homemade Lowest-Grade Wound Medicine]
⌞
Uses Remaining: 9 / 10
Additional Properties: Waterproof, Weak Regenerative Effect
Anyone who’s read even a single martial arts novel would recognize wound medicine.
It was ironic that even the lowest grade had waterproofing and regenerative properties.
But if it was homemade wound medicine gifted by a god—no less!—it couldn’t possibly be ordinary.
Im Gang’s response to this was.
“……This’ll fetch a price, won’t it?”
That was it.
Probably worth at least several silver coins.
Besides these, there were various sundries, but nothing particularly expensive or valuable.
He couldn’t sell the Lock-Picking Key or the Homemade Lowest-Grade Wound Medicine.
It would put his life in greater danger.
In any case.
He decided to try matching the puzzle one more time, and if it didn’t work, he’d lay down and rest for a bit.
And of course, he couldn’t make it fit.
“Ah. With my back exposed like this, I’ll catch cold if I fall asleep—perfect for it.”
So he rested for a while.
He’d brought a mat, but it couldn’t ward off the bitter chill.
I wonder if something like a chill-resistant mat will ever come around later?
Even so, as I practiced Internal Energy Circulation, my belly began to warm.
Around the time I was drifting in and out of sleep.
A flash of inspiration struck—one percent of it, anyway.
“……Isn’t that a trap too?”
So I went ahead and tried.
Beep!
[Your Trap Disarming skill level is insufficient.]
“……Oh. So I just need to raise the skill level.”
I used my points to raise the skill level and tried again.
The puzzle piece moved of its own accord and slid into place.
Click—thunk.
The door swung open, and a passage to the next chamber appeared.
The moment I set foot inside.
[You have cleared the Dungeon “Cheon Ri Sin Tu’s Third-Grade Hidden Chamber”.]
[You have grown by gaining Experience Points.]
[You have acquired 2 Skill Points.]
“……?”
Why is it already over……?
In a way, my first dungeon clear in this world felt anticlimactic.
It was kind of a letdown, honestly.
Walking through the newly opened passage for a bit, I reached the reward chamber.
A letdown?
Nope.
Not even close.
Pure gold.
Cheon Ri Sin Tu is a god, and this dungeon is unbeatable.
“Martial techniques and spirit medicine!”
The reward was a single book that looked like a martial technique manual and a small box containing spirit medicine.
Ding!
[This is the Theft Hands technique.]
“……Is this like baseball pitching?”
Im Gang let reality slip away for a moment.
The character for steal, combined with hand—the art of stealing.
In other words, pickpocketing.
Why on earth would someone leave pickpocketing techniques as a reward in a hidden chamber?
As someone with the living conscience of this era, it was impossible for me to understand a thief.
“Oh, the spirit medicine is normal…….”
[Homemade Spirit Medicine from Crude Materials]
⌞
A homemade spirit medicine crafted by Zou Liang using materials commonly found on roadsides.
Increases Internal Energy by one year.
“……Or so it’s not.”
Anyway, these conscience-deficient thieves are all the same.
What’s certain is this:
The Third-Grade Hidden Chamber isn’t worth much except for fast leveling early on.
I’ve gained four levels since entering here.
And five levels from the Jeok Ryu Pa and Heuk Do Bang incidents.
Hmm?
Waaaait a minute?
Maybe this isn’t so bad after all?
* * *
Im Gang set down the log he’d brought from outside and kindled a fire.
“Huff—huff—!”
Did my ancestors give me the spark?
Not a chance.
I used that Fire-Starting Tool that pops up everywhere in martial arts novels.
Though they call it a Fire-Starting Tool here.
I’d thoughtlessly asked for it by the wrong name once and gotten nothing but mockery for it.
Whoosh.
As the flames grew, I stopped blowing air into them.
If we were outside, I couldn’t pull this off.
Smoke billowing like that would only announce that something suspicious is happening here.
The Dungeon truly is a god.
“…So should I learn this skill or not?”
This is the first time a dungeon has given such a ridiculous reward.
I roasted dried meat skewered on a dagger and mulled it over.
At first glance, someone might wonder what the problem is with pickpocketing skills in a place like Hang Zhou where murder runs rampant, but the flipside is that if you get caught attempting to pickpocket, you end up dead.
If you don’t get caught, that’s a different story, isn’t it?
Are you perhaps a genius?
I deliberated, but in truth the outcome had already been decided.
“I have to learn it anyway.”
How would I know when or where I’d need it?
I had no intention of picking the pockets of passersby.
To reiterate: I’m a living conscience of the modern age.
I had no plan to make money through illegal means (surprisingly, among the available contracts, killing people isn’t actually illegal!).
A few days passed, and I headed to a secluded spot under the bridge to get some fresh air.
The Dungeon—rather, the Hidden Chamber—is fine in every way except ventilation.
Though good ventilation would be a problem too.
While I was breathing in and out, a commotion erupted from somewhere.
The clang of metal, shouting, and the sound of running feet.
Im Gang instinctively crouched low.
“Grab that bastard!”
“I—I’m innocent!”
“You’re Deok Gu, a martial artist from the Chil Sa Bang who practices Illegal Loan Sharking!”
“I do practice Illegal Loan Sharking, I am from the Chil Sa Bang, and my name is Deok Gu, but I’m telling you I have no crime!”
“Under the Great Ming Code, you illegally charged excessive interest rates—”
“Just shut up and submit quietly, and at least your life will be spared—”
So the final crackdown on Illegal Loan Sharking really did happen.
It wasn’t just one or two people being dragged away.
Similar turmoil was erupting all around.
When I peeked up, I saw that those doing the dragging wore military uniforms.
I’d suspected someone important had been antagonized, but if soldiers were involved, someone really important had been rubbed the wrong way.
It wasn’t likely to be a high-ranking official—more probably some powerful figure’s favorite.
‘Whoever these crazy bastards are, I’m grateful.’
For Im Gang, this was good fortune.
Any entanglement with Illegal Loan Sharking had been completely buried.
Two days later, I returned to my rental room—if that’s what you call it.
“…Damn it, who the hell is this?”
I’d been planning to rest for a while, but that wasn’t going to happen.
* * *
Dae Bung, an ordinary third-rate vagrant of Hang Zhou, headed for the Geogan So early in the morning.
“You haven’t shown your face in a while—what’s going on…?”
“Damn it, don’t talk to me.”
“…What’s wrong with that guy?”
Intimidated by the murderous aura radiating from Im Gang, Dae Bung asked another vagrant.
“His place got robbed while he was away.”
“Ah…”
A pitiful tale indeed.

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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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