The SSS-Class Hunter’s Garden Log - Chapter 18

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 18

It wasn’t even a mission to deal with the Boss Monster, just to obtain rice seeds from the nest, so wouldn’t it be manageable?

“This one doesn’t seem to be that high of a grade either.”

Anyway, it was about time he needed new crops to put up on the Hunter Exchange, so this worked out well.

In his inverted field of vision, not far away, a massive light that appeared to be the Boss Monster’s nest was swaying distantly.

“The rice seeds should sell pretty well too, right?”

Hanging from the Boss Monster’s back and slicing through the air upside down, Hana spotted the nest’s light below his head.

“Over there!”

As if riding the wind’s direction, Hana used the Boss Monster’s violent thrashing to twist his wrist and adjust his position.

Then he slightly raised his body and, as if taking a running start, pushed off the Boss Monster’s back with his toes.

It was a fluid, graceful movement.

Hana’s body, floating in mid-air, spun once and landed very lightly on the nest.

“This… actually worked?”

With an expression of disbelief at what he had just accomplished, Hana kept blinking his eyes.

The Boss Monster, not noticing that Hana had already fallen away, was still spinning in circles of rage in the empty air.

“At least I caught a break.”

Hana brushed off the Boss Monster’s feathers that had stuck to his hands.

The nest was much larger than he had expected.

In the nest made of half-burned branches and feathers, massive Boss Monster eggs were lined up in a row.

He had expected it given the Boss Monster’s size, but the eggs were also incredibly large. They seemed to reach about up to Hana’s waist.

Moreover, whatever material they were made of, when he tapped the egg surface, it made a clanging sound.

It felt as if they were encased in steel.

And beneath those eggs, bright red-shelled rice seeds were thickly spread like cushioning.

As he approached closer, hot air currents brushed against his face.

“Are these those rice seeds?”

Perhaps because the eggs were large, the rice seeds were also different in size from what he normally saw.

Each grain was almost the size of a thumbnail.

The rice seed he picked up with his fingertips was infused with heat, like grain baked in a furnace.

Now that he looked at it, it was the same as the rice seeds that Popcon had been frantically eating earlier.

The smell was just like roasted sweet potatoes, making his mouth water just from holding it.

【SYSTEM】

【Surprise Mission Complete!】

【Special Note! This is ‘Grain mutated in a flame-attribute environment’!】

【Crop appraisal skill application complete!】

Hana nodded naturally.

“Good. This should sell well.”

Just as Hana was about to start collecting the rice seeds, the Boss Monster spotted Hana in the nest and let out a scream.

Perhaps because the eggs were nearby, the Boss Monster became even more violent and flapped toward Hana at an alarming speed.

【SYSTEM】

【Warning! The Boss Monster perceives that you are harming the eggs.】

【Boss Monsters never spare targets they recognize as natural enemies. Either escape the Gate or deal with the Boss Monster.】

No. Please tell me these things in advance, for crying out loud!

Hana reflexively waved his hand.

Then the slingshot he had summoned in the Simulation Room came wrapped around his hand perfectly with blue smoke.

“Whoa.”

After fitting the rice seed he was holding into the slingshot, Hana held his breath.

Then he closed one eye, aimed, and stretched the string before releasing it.

With a light twanging sound, the rice seed flew accurately toward the Boss Monster.

“Gurrk!”

The next moment, the Boss Monster flapped its wings in mid-air and staggered greatly.

“Did I hit it?”

Hana put his hand above his eyebrows and craned his neck forward.

It was too dark around to see clearly.

But seeing the Boss Monster scatter feathers as it lost balance and fell, it seemed like he had hit it.

Hana hurriedly began collecting rice seeds before the Boss Monster could attack again.

Just then, he heard whimpering sounds from inside his overall pocket.

“Squeak!”

Popcon, having caught the scent, jumped out and began stuffing rice seeds into its cheeks again.

This was something. It looked like a puppy but acted no different from a hamster.

But there was no time to stop it now.

Hana stuffed rice seeds into every pocket he had.

Meanwhile, the Boss Monster wobbled back up toward the nest.

Its right wing, hit by Hana’s slingshot, was almost half torn and couldn’t function properly.

It was unimaginable that it had been hit by a rice seed.

Unaware of this, Hana, who was diligently collecting rice seeds, realized that all the moist and plump rice seeds were spread beneath the eggs.

But perhaps because they looked like they were encased in steel, the eggs were made of iron inside too, as they were impossibly heavy and couldn’t be lifted at all.

“Ugh, why won’t this lift?”

Eventually, Hana pushed the side of an egg with his shoulder, making only the bottom part tilt diagonally.

Then the moist and fresh rice seeds were revealed.

“Got it!”

As Hana, absorbed in harvesting, put more strength into his shoulder, the egg swayed like a roly-poly toy and tapped the other eggs beside it.

Then an egg at the corner of the nest tilted from the impact, and the eggs standing in a row toppled sideways like falling dominoes.

As a result, one egg on the outermost edge rolled outside and fell onto the head of the Boss Monster that had just arrived below the nest.

“Kieek!”

The Boss Monster, struck on the head by the egg, couldn’t withstand the weight and crashed to the ground at high speed.

Following that, a very dull impact sound echoed up to the nest with a crash!

“Huh?”

Hana, who had been collecting rice seeds with his head down, looked down below the nest at that sound and slightly covered his mouth.

Down there, the Boss Monster that had been struck on the head was writhing and sprawled on the ground.

“…Oh my.”

That, could it be because of me?

Hana looked over the toppled eggs with stunned eyes.

【SYSTEM】

【Boss Monster ‘Boss Monster’ has died.】

【Gate conquest completed. The Gate will close in 30 minutes.】

【Reward: 2,000pt experience points granted】

【Current experience: 2,520/2,500pt】

【Preparing to grant ‘A Fragment of Lost Memory’…】

“Right. It was because of me.”

Hana scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

Both pockets of his pants were already as bulging as Popcon’s cheeks.

“I wasn’t really trying to deal with it… but I guess it’s fine since the result is good?”

* * *

Meanwhile, at the same time.

Outside the Gate was nothing short of pandemonium.

Despite it being quite late, the residents of Yangpyeong Village who had rushed out as soon as the alarm sounded were huddled together, murmuring anxiously.

“Why is there a Gate at this hour…”

“Get the children evacuated outside the village first! Quickly!”

Anxious voices filled the night air.

The Yangpyeong Hunters who arrived late at the scene were sweating profusely trying to calm down the residents.

And standing in front of the Gate, Kwon habitually ran his hand over his chestnut-like head.

“Hey, Choi Kwon. This Gate’s Boss Monster is that one, right? The Screaming Bird that burned off your hair.”

“Yeah.”

Kwon rolled his wrists with a face full of venom.

Kwon ground his teeth furiously.

“That oversized Screaming Bird bastard. I’m going to catch it this time and turn it into a whole roast.”

His teammates grabbed Choi Kwon in alarm as he tried to charge straight into the Gate.

“Are you crazy? The Screaming Bird is a top-tier Monster even among A+ grades! Did you already forget you almost died back then?”

“Let’s request support from the Association first, so calm down a bit.”

But the faces of the Hunters fumbling for their communicators immediately turned ashen.

To subjugate a top-tier A+ grade Monster, they needed at least an S-rank or higher to be dispatched.

As if today was some cursed day, the response came back that everyone was deployed to other Gates.

“Should we try calling Hunter Seo Ganghyeon?”

But that was also a dead end.

Just in case, they contacted the production-type Hunter they had left at the branch, but the only response was that Seo Ganghyeon was still unconscious.

There was no choice.

If they weren’t going to leave the Gate alone until it burst, someone had to go in.

“…Let’s go in.”

“Right, we have to get revenge on the Screaming Bird that made our Choi Kwon’s head look like this!”

They deliberately giggled playfully, but their fearful expressions couldn’t be hidden.

The Hunters gripped their weapons tighter, their faces gloomy as if sensing their final moments.

In the heavy atmosphere, just as everyone was steeling themselves for their last resolve.

One of the residents suddenly raised their arm and pointed at the Gate entrance.

“Huh? Wait a minute! Something’s coming out over there!”

All eyes turned toward the entrance.

From the Gate, whose entrance had changed form, someone was indeed walking out.

Due to the rippling waves at the Gate entrance, it was impossible to tell whether it was a person or a Monster.

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