Chapter 209: Centipede (1)

TL: SHW

“Hey. Woo Hwijae.”

“...What?”

“What do you think is the first thing a Hunter should consider before entering a Dungeon for a Raid?”

Yoo Ji-eun sat on the sofa with a deep scowl. Her hair was tied back tightly, and she was wearing a short-sleeved athletic shirt and black joggers. Both had the Ability Management Agency's tacky logo stamped on them.

Yoo Ji-eun hated that logo even when she didn't show it. Considering she normally changed out of those clothes the moment she left the Agency, the fact that she'd come all the way to my house still wearing them...

“Hey.”

She was making it abundantly clear that she was in an absolutely rotten mood.

Yoo Ji-eun put her feet up on the low table in front of the sofa. She crossed her ankles and leaned back against the cushions... Actually, I didn't even need to look at her posture. It had been obvious from her voice. Looked like another Agency newbie had done something to piss her off.

“Hey. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey...”

“Get your feet off. They stink.”

I pulled my notebook out from under Yoo Ji-eun's feet. She bristled and shoved the sole of her foot toward my face. She wasn't even wearing socks.

“I washed my feet before I came here!”

“Like I care.”

“Ugh, you unlovable little brat. You used to be more... little and cute. Now you've just gotten freakishly tall.”

“Or maybe you're just short, noona?”

“Try acting a little cuter. Who knows? Your noona might even give you some spending money.”

“I've got plenty of spending money.”

“...Ha. What an obnoxious brat. This is why kids from rich families...”

Yoo Ji-eun clicked her tongue and lowered her feet. Not that it made much difference, since they were still on the table.

“......”

“......”

“...That's mine.”

“Don't go flaunting how rich you are. People are supposed to share.”

“Oh, quit with the rich-kid crap over one cup of coffee! It's instant coffee, so go make your own! The kitchen's full of it!!”

“Your noona's really tired today. Go make me one.”

“Stop drinking my coffee!!!”

In the end, Yoo Ji-eun drank all of my coffee.

Seriously, if someone had pissed her off, she could go torment the Hunter who'd done it. I had no idea why she had to come here and take it out on me.

Now Yoo Ji-eun had started taking an interest in my notebook too.

“What're you doing? Homework?”

“No.”

“Just mind your own business.”

“What's there to be embarrassed about? Why hide it from me? It's just me.”

“And what exactly are we?”

“Hey...”

Yoo Ji-eun gave me a pitying look. The way she was blatantly wiggling her toes made her unbelievably irritating.

“You don't say stuff like that to your girlfriend too, do you?”

“I told you to mind your own business.”

“Do you even have a girlfriend? Then again, what girlfriend would a kid who spends all his time holed up watching movies have...”

Seriously, why did she have to come here to vent?

I finally moved the notebook off to the side. Yoo Ji-eun was still wiggling her toes.

“What is it? What happened?”

“Ha. Hwijae...”

“Quit being so dramatic.”

“Don't tell your noona she's being dramatic.”

“Act like a noona and maybe I'll call you... I said get your feet off!!”

Yoo Ji-eun lowered her feet with a grin. Like master, like student. She even grinned exactly like her teacher.

“Hey, what do you think is the first thing a Hunter should consider before entering a Dungeon for a Raid?”

“Why are you asking me out of nowhere?”

“Answer me. You've got a license too.”

“...You're just going to get annoyed if I give you an answer you don't like.”

“Hey. You learned from Teacher, of all people. You'd better be able to answer.”

“I'm not a Hunter.”

No matter how many times I said that, Yoo Ji-eun always gave me the same answer.

“If you've got a license, you're a Hunter, Woo Hwijae-gun.”

“What kind of nonsense is that...”

“Now open your ears and listen carefully. This is advice from the Agency's ace that you couldn't pay to hear anywhere else.”

This time, however, Yoo Ji-eun didn't force me to answer. Normally, even if I got it wrong, she'd wait until I'd thought it through properly and tried again.

That made me wonder if the newbie had screwed up pretty badly this time, so I stopped arguing. Yoo Ji-eun would ramble as much as she pleased, and once she'd cheered herself up, she'd shove some spending money into my hand and leave. That was just how she was. In the strangest ways, she was like the old man. Maybe that was what came of being his student...

“Knowing yourself.”

Yoo Ji-eun said it with a pout. I nodded uncertainly.

“Well... sure. You have to choose a Dungeon that matches your abilities.”

“No. That's the bare minimum. If you can't even do that, you should turn in your license.”

Yoo Ji-eun took a sip of my coffee before continuing.

“Hunters aren't affected by Type Matchups nearly as much as mages are, but everyone still has something they're better at. Maybe they're good at taking down big ones, or maybe they're better against tiny ones...”

“What are you trying to say?”

“But there's something even more important than that.”

“Just spit it out and get lost already.”

“Knowing what you can't kill.”

Yoo Ji-eun set down the empty cup. It was a mug the old man had brought home because the Agency apparently had extras. Just like Yoo Ji-eun's clothes, it had the Agency's tacky logo crudely printed on it.

“Hunters are still human. There's always going to be something they can't stand.”

“Sure.”

“For example... yeah. There might be a Hunter who hates bugs.”

Ah. I was starting to see where Yoo Ji-eun was going with this.

Another newbie whining about not being able to kill bugs. It was always the same story.

“I get it. Well, actually, I don't understand why they can't kill them, but I can at least pretend I do. A bug the size of a little kid flying around could be... yeah, pretty disgusting.”

“I guess.”

“That's why I ask every newbie who comes in. Can you kill bugs? Have you ever killed a humanoid Monster? Even if a Monster looked cute, like a puppy or a kitten, could you still kill it?”

The old man had drilled the same thing into me over and over.

Skill aside, what mattered was knowing what kinds of Monsters you couldn't bring yourself to kill. Why did Raids on Dungeons containing Insect-type Monsters so often run into trouble? Hunters were human too, and not many people could overcome that kind of visceral revulsion. On top of that, the bugs... the Insect-type Monsters that appeared in Dungeons were often huge. Not just big, either. Enormous. Like Yoo Ji-eun had said, ones the size of children were common enough, and Monsters larger than a full-grown adult weren't particularly rare either.

Even among the most renowned Hunters, plenty hated bugs enough to avoid Dungeons containing Insect-type Monsters altogether.

“It's not like I yell at them if they say they can't do it! I'm asking so I can keep them off Raids on those kinds of Dungeons!”

“What happened this time? Did someone puke and cause a scene like last time?”

“The newbie says I'm bullying them and is threatening to report me to the Labor Office.”

“Oh...”

They'd hired quite the spirited newbie. Now I understood why Yoo Ji-eun was sitting there like this.

Yoo Ji-eun started tearing at her hair.

“I asked! I asked them! And they said they could do it!! I even put together audiovisual training materials because of that bastard who puked, passed out, and caused a whole damn scene!”

“Technically, I was the one who made that.”

“The newbie bragged there wasn't a single Monster they couldn't kill! Ah, not that I believe anything newbies say. That's why even after we entered the Dungeon, I killed one Monster first and checked again. I told anyone who couldn't handle it to get out.”

“Maybe they thought leaving would count against them.”

“I even gave them examples! Hey, you know Hunter Lee Mi-seon can't kill bugs either, right?”

“...Lee Mi-seon? That woman from Daseon?”

“Yeah!”

This was going to take a while. I shook my head and checked my phone, hoping I could come up with some excuse to escape.

Yoo Ji-eun spent a good while huffing and swearing at thin air.

Then, all of a sudden, she collapsed across the sofa like a puppet with its strings cut.

“Hey. Woo Hwijae.”

“You're going to wear my name out. Stop saying it.”

“You rude little shit... You're good at killing bugs, right?”

“Do you mean Monsters, or regular bugs?”

“Both.”

“Never had a problem with either.”

“Have you ever been in a Dungeon with bugs?”

“I went into one during my Rank Renewal. You know, the place with those mosquito-looking things.”

“Ah. Right. You did.”

Yoo Ji-eun fell silent again for quite a while.

Was she finally done?

Just as I was about to relax, Yoo Ji-eun muttered,

“Don't let your guard down just because flying bugs don't bother you... Crawling ones are different.”

“What is that, some kind of curse?”

“Even I get a little... creeped out by the ones with lots of legs sometimes, you know? You should think about it too.”

“Give me a break...”

I shook my head. Still, she seemed to be saying it because she was genuinely worried about me, so I gave her a vague answer that amounted to, Yeah, got it.

“Aren't there any Monsters you have trouble killing? You liked cats when you were little.”

“Shut up.”

“There are four-legged Monsters that look like cats too... You're fine with those?”

“No problem, except the small ones are awkward to deal with using a Spear.”

“Is that so... Well, aren't you brave. I wish our newbie were even half as much like you.”

“If the newbie were even half as much like me, they wouldn't report you to the Labor Office. They'd tip off a reporter instead. Something like, ‘Vicious Hazing at the Ability Management Agency’.”

“You're insane...”

Yoo Ji-eun glared at me, practically trembling with rage. I grinned back. That was what she got for stealing my coffee.

Either way, Yoo Ji-eun had calmed down considerably. I gathered up the papers scattered across the table. I'd told her they weren't homework, though there actually was some homework mixed in. Either way, it looked like I was done writing for today...

“What about you, noona? Any Dungeons you hate?”

“Dungeons I hate?”

“Bugs with lots of legs?”

“Ah. They're gross, but... I can kill them. What I hate more is getting their fluids all over me after I kill them. It's a pain to wash off.”

“You're such a neat freak.”

“You're just filthy. This is why guys are hopeless...”

Yoo Ji-eun started grumbling again. Still, it looked like she was completely over her bad mood now.

Half sprawled across the sofa, Yoo Ji-eun scratched at her head. Her hair was already a mess from all the pulling she'd done earlier. Apparently it started bothering her, because she eventually untied it completely. She ran her fingers through it to smooth it down, then mussed it up again, over and over.

Had she finally lost it? Poor old man. His precious student had gone insane. How was I supposed to break this tragic news to him?

“You're thinking something rude again, aren't you?”

“No.”

“Don't get smart with me.”

Yoo Ji-eun clicked her tongue lightly, then spoke.

“For me, it's not bugs so much as...”

“Not bugs so much as what?”

“......”

Yoo Ji-eun gave me a conflicted smile.

***

Faced with a Centipede the size of an adult human, I found myself thinking back to that conversation with Yoo Ji-eun.

Back then, I'd thought she was making too much of it. What difference could there possibly be between bugs that flew and bugs that crawled? If they were Monsters, the fact remained that they had to be exterminated no matter what they looked like.

Besides, I'd already seen a giant Centipede before. Granted, that one had been dead.

“......”

But how should I put this? A Centipede bigger than most buildings was at least so absurdly huge that it didn't even feel real. A roughly two-meter-long Centipede, about the size of a person, was just realistic enough that the sight of it stirred up a visceral revulsion.

I looked at Yoo Ji-eun's Sword. Too short. If I wanted to kill the Centipede with this, I'd have to get close.

“......”

Should I take out the Spear? Just so I could keep a little more distance?

No. I couldn't wimp out now. I'd bragged to Yoo Ji-eun that I could kill them.

I set my face in a look of firm resolve and turned to Hong Seok-young.

“I'll destroy the Dungeon Core.”

“Hmm?”

“I'll be right back!”

“Wait, Hwijae-gun!”

Can't hear you, can't hear you.

***

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