There is No Such Thing as a Bad Hunter

Chapter 42

Korea’s Hunter Association is part of the Ministry of Extraordinary Powers–which was created after the fissures had erupted–under its Office of Awakened Ones as the Division of Hunter Management.1

The way the Hunter Association came to be and how it grew is actually an interesting story.

The person who originally created the Hunter Association is Joo Yiwon.

Back when he wasn’t in a guild yet, Joo Yiwon had rallied hunters in Korea to gather and exchange information with each other.

Hunters, who, at the time, didn’t know anything, all gathered around the Hunter Association. As the association began to show visible results, the hunters began to voluntarily submit information to it.

As for Joo Yiwon, once government intervention had grown to a certain point, he announced that he would work independently and took his hands off of the association.

Though Jiho heard that a lot of problems had erupted between the government, who wanted to hold onto an SS-rank hunter, and Joo Yiwon in the process…

In the end, they had no choice but to let Joo Yiwon, who receives countless love calls from all over the world, go.

With the condition that he completely steps down from the Hunter Association.

… Well, seeing how the association covered Yiwon’s return to Korea with a statement that Yiwon returned from Australia because of a fissure, it seems like he still has some influence there.

Though it is the association’s job to take care of it if they don’t want to create international disputes, even if Joo Yiwon doesn’t want to.

Because the Hunter Association was already well-known and not much has changed since Joo Yiwon left, people continue to refer to the division as the Hunter Association even though a formal title has been established. They even write the two names side-by-side these days. The title “Hunter Association,” which had been created privately, is now used to refer to the division as a whole.

The Office of Awakened Ones, which the Hunter Association is under, takes care of everything related to awakened ones.

Fitting of a nation that gives a resident registration number to and registers the fingerprints of all of its citizens, the Hunter Association requires all hunters above F-rank to take a ranking assessment exam after completing their hunter registration.

The ranking assessment usually ends with one, but Shin Jiho has taken it multiple times already. He’s been in and out of this place multiple times as well. He doesn’t even remember how many times this makes it now.

Jiho checked his status window again out of habit.

Even though he can see his MP stat over 1000 and the display of EX and SSS-rank skills, it was still hard to calm down.

It will definitely go well this time, but…

His hands were strangely cold. His hands were trembling weakly, just like when he used to be sick all the time. Jiho stood in front of the building, unable to bring himself to enter.

Then.

“Why aren’t you going in?”

He heard a calm voice he shouldn’t be hearing here. A warm hand gently wrapped itself around Jiho’s shoulder.

As expected, when Jiho turned his head, Joo Yiwon was standing there.

“… What are you doing here?”

“I came after finishing work, of course.”

“Already?”

“Eung. And Hwang Hye Lim opened up a portal for me.”

“Ah…”

“I don’t have to go see Hwang Hye Lim off. Since there’s no relationship between us.”

“Ah, is that so…”

Jiho answered emotionlessly. He hadn’t been thinking of anything this time. Rather, Yiwon’s guilty attitude made it all the more suspicious.

Hoo.

Jiho took a deep breath in. Still, thanks to Joo Yiwon’s sudden appearance, all of his anxiety disappeared. Maybe it’s because a familiar and very much real guy appeared.

His heart, which had been enveloped by a shapeless worry, was fully hardened.

Upon seeing Jiho’s deathly pale face return to its original tone, Yiwon smiled and grabbed Jiho’s hand.

“Let’s go, Jiho. It’ll be fine this time.”

“Eung.”

Jiho answered unconsciously. Though Jiho was going to tell Yiwon to let go of his hand, he stopped. The warmth from the strong and rough hand touching his own gloveless one was of great comfort today.2

The most basic part of the ranking reassessment is the status check. After he takes off all of the equipment on him, an Evaluator3 comes to measure his stats before they conduct a series of tests to check each value.

In other words, it’s similar to a physical fitness exam.

Jiho finished the test under the eyes of the Evaluator and a couple of association members.

“HP 70, MP 1400, Strength 50, and Agility 70. Everything has been checked. The MP passes S-rank level.”

Though they can’t check to the digit, they come pretty close. Jiho smiled as he thanked the Evaluator who was congratulating him.

Jiho secretly checked the Evaluator’s skill.

Information

Evaluate (Lv. 8)RankCDescriptionCan check others’ information. The higher the rank, the more information that can be checked. Because of the limits placed by the system, the full extent of this skill’s ability has not been revealed yet.

“Congrats, Jiho.”

Yiwon, who had been very comfortably observing the process the whole time as if he were at his own house, clapped.

For reference, Yiwon’s rank appears as “Unable to Estimate.” No one’s been able to see his exact values, and in all of the following tests, he scored past the max score of 3000.

“Then we will now test your skills.”

“Yes.”

For skills, the person taking the test first submits a document with the skills they’ve received. They test and check according to the skills written on that document.

Jiho didn’t reveal all of his skills to the association. Most hunters hide one or two skills as their trump card like that.

Jiho wrote down six skills.

Blessing of the Star, The First Baptism, Absorption of the Celestial Sphere, Water Attribute Increase, Guidance of Cassiopeia, and Magic Resistance.4

[Blessing of the Star] and [Absorption of the Celestial Sphere] are both skills he’s used in front of a lot of people already. For [The First Baptism], it seemed more advantageous to reveal it. He revealed [Magic Resistance] without much concern since its rank is low, and he wrote [Guide of Cassiopeia] down as an unconfirmed skill since he hasn’t met its requirements yet.

It was best not to reveal [Understand], and he also hid [The Happy Prince] because he felt nothing good would come from revealing it. As for [Ipeulis’s Protection], he naturally hid that as well since he doesn’t know much about it.

Though the skills he revealed aren’t many, it’ll most likely be fine since [Blessing of the Star] is strong.

Jiho had debated on whether he should include [Water Attribute Increase] or not. It’s kinda just there, is it not? It’s not like he has any water-related skills; Jiho has no idea why he has it.

“We brought a person to help check your [Water Attribute Increase] skill. He had to take care of something elsewhere, so… please wait a few minutes.”

“I could always do it.”

The Evaluator smiled awkwardly at Yiwon’s words.

“There might be a problem regarding credibility…”

“Well, I guess it wouldn’t be right for a couple to help each other with the evaluation.”

Yiwon laughed. It was only after Jiho glared at him that Yiwon quieted down.

They sat on a chair while waiting for the person to come. The door to the examination room opened.

The person who entered was a person Jiho didn’t expect at all.

“It has been a while, Hunter Joo Yiwon-nim. And I am glad to meet you for the first time, Hunter Shin Jiho-nim. I am Kim Tae Yong.”

Kim Tae Yong, one of the four S-rank hunters living in Korea.

Even though he’s only 20 this year, he’s a hunter with strong water and lightning related skills. He’s famous in many different ways.

Tae Yong was dressed in a hanbok and his dark blue hair that reached his waist was tightly tied up into a high ponytail like one of those scholars that appear in Korean historical dramas. Although his appearance looks out-of-place, it fits him well thanks to his young and lovely face.

All S-rank hunters are a little unique in some way, but Kim Tae Yong stands out the most based on appearance.

“Hello, it is nice to meet you.”

Because Tae Yong was so polite, not only Jiho, but everyone else as well, exchanged very polite greetings with him. After the greetings finished, Kim Tae Yong stood in front of Jiho.

“You may already know this, but I can share my inherent skill with another person for a brief moment. This is the skill I will share with you.”

A small drop of water about as big as the tip of the pinky appeared above Kim Tae Yong’s hand.

“Creating water is my inherent ability. I can also control how much power I share. So I will pass onto Hunter Shin Jiho-nim this much of my skill.”

“Yes, I understand.”

In front of Kim Tae Yong, who speaks excessively politely, Jiho, too, was somewhat respectful.

“The command will be [Small Water Droplet]. It will be triggered once you say it, so you will be able to use it right away.”

The Hunter Association checked that Kim Tae Yong didn’t pass that much mana over to Jiho. It seems that the association has gotten more precise, as they didn’t have this kind of evaluation check before.

As soon as Tae Yong’s hand touched his, a small wave of cold air passed through Jiho. It was a weird sensation, as if a snowflake had entered his body. Jiho knew that this was the skill Tae Yong passed onto him.

His [Water Attribute Increase] skill is SSS-rank; how much bigger will it make Tae Yong’s skill?

Because Jiho’s never used the skill before, he had not a single clue. Though he wondered if it would increase the skill greatly since his skill is an SSS-rank skill, Jiho was also worried that the result would be too pitiful since the power passed onto him was rather small.

To be fair, it’s not like this is his main combat skill.

Jiho stretched his hand out without hesitation.

“May I use it?”

“Yes, you may.”

[Small Water Droplet].

As soon as Jiho uttered the command, the small water droplet that Tae Yong had passed onto him appeared on top of Jiho’s hand for only a split second.

An SSS-rank strengthening skill.

Its effect far exceeded Jiho’s expectations.

Since Jiho hadn’t been controlling the skill, it expanded on its own.

The water droplet that was once but the size of a finger nail grew in an instant. One blink later, it was enough to overwhelm Jiho and the people around him. Two blinks later, and it filled the entire examination room.

The examination room turned into a tank in an instant.