EVS Chapter 113

“Seems like living like a shut-in isn’t an option either.”

Despite being an Awakened and thus having faster recovery, rehabilitation was quite an ordeal for Sa-yoon. Trying to move a body that had been bedridden for so long as he did when he was S-rank was challenging; neither his body nor his rank cooperated. The fact that his body felt heavy even without doing anything, compared to his excellent physical condition when he was S-rank, was also an issue.

It was thanks to the Night Rat executives who had made sure he ate and forced him to sleep while he was bedridden that it was only this bad. If he had spent that time starving and wide awake, he would have needed to spend ten days, not three, on rehabilitation in his room.

The mere thought made him shudder. Shaking his head, Sa-yoon stretched his body, which after three days of effort could now walk, run, and use skills without difficulty, and entered the shower. After washing and changing clothes, he gathered his weapons. A guild member approached to escort him to the gate entrance.

It would have been nice if Chanhee had guided him personally, but he was an executive, and the gate Sa-yoon was going to this time was D-rank. There was no need to bother Chanhee, who would be busy with gate duties, so Sa-yoon got into a car driven by a regular guild member and headed for the gate.

Since he had asked for a nearby location, they arrived at the gate area in less than 10 minutes after getting in the car.

“I’ll come to pick you up when you call after returning.”

The guild member bowed respectfully and retreated. Sa-yoon gripped Heris’s dagger and entered the gate. Light rushed in and then disappeared.

<To clear, you must achieve one of the following conditions:>

[Defeat 200 Slimes]

[Defeat 100 Twin Slimes]

[Defeat the Slime King]

The gate notification window, which he hadn’t seen in a long time, filled his vision. Sa-yoon waved his hand to dismiss the window without even looking at the clear conditions.

There was no need to check the clear conditions.

Sa-yoon intended to eliminate all the slimes in this dungeon, except for the newly respawning ones.

“These squishy creatures should be easy on the wrists.”

Observing the vast Slime Village spread out against the backdrop of a prairie, Sa-yoon kicked the ground as he looked at the blue-colored monsters that appeared gelatinous at a glance.

―Gyeek!

―Gwaek!

―Geek!

It seemed the gate’s name might need to be changed. From Slime Dungeon to Slime Graveyard.

The screams of slimes echoed like a funeral dirge from all around. Sa-yoon hunted the slimes, moving at the maximum speed possible at his current rank. After targeting and eliminating one’s vital point, he immediately aimed for the next. The interval was so short that although each slime only managed a single scream before dying, the consecutive deaths of many made it sound like some sort of song.

He was glad he had listened to Chanhee.

Although it lacked thrill, being a D-rank dungeon, it allowed him to raise his dulled combat senses without pressure. Moreover, he could measure the maximum power he could exert at his current rank without risk, and with the large number of slimes, he could try out various skills.

Being able to gauge the power of his downgraded skills was significant, so after cutting down the three hundred and eightieth slime, Sa-yoon leapt up as if bouncing, kicking off a tree. As his body rose, his gaze fell downward to confirm his target.

A giant slime wearing a crown on its head.

The Slime King.

As this was his final target, Sa-yoon used his frost skill. The scent of bitter cold gathered at the tip of Heris’s dagger. Sa-yoon’s ascent ended, and he began to fall.

Twisting his body in mid-air to change his trajectory, Sa-yoon gripped the dagger imbued with frost tightly and plunged down towards the slime.

At the moment of impact.

“Heris’s Repentance.”

Kwaaaaang!

He activated the explosion spell to maximize damage. The slime’s mucus, blown away by the explosion, froze solid due to the frost and fell to the ground. This was a measure to prevent it from regenerating.

With a significant amount of the mucus that formed the soft slime’s body falling away, the Slime King’s body became meager. Little remained except for the core, which was about the size of a human head. Thanks to this, Sa-yoon could easily slice the core, swinging his blade from horizontal to vertical.

Shwak!

The core was instantly sliced, satisfying the clear condition of defeating the Slime King. Having completed the dungeon conquest with an all-clear, Sa-yoon received a rather generous reward for a D-rank gate and exited, pulling out his phone. He was about to call the guild member from earlier when he turned on the screen and saw a message from Gyeongjin in the top bar.

[Hunter Lee Jaehee has returned.]

“……”

It was a brief message that got straight to the point. He seemed to have informed Sa-yoon because Lee Jaehee had been the target when Sa-yoon was carrying out the high-level Awakened elimination quest.

“Come to think of it, I never got to use the Genius’s Eye back then.”

Both his identity and skills were highly suspicious, so Sa-yoon had intended to use it, but too many things happened at once, and he ended up missing the chance. He thought it would just remain a regret, but with Lee Jaehee returning to the hunter world, things changed.

The return of someone who seemed to have hidden their abilities could be seen as a declaration that they would no longer conceal them. If he had checked the status window back then, he might have been able to guess vaguely why he returned, but with no information about the status window now, he could only make rough guesses.

Did he finish his business in the gate he said he visited periodically?

That was the most plausible thought that came to mind, causing Sa-yoon’s eyes to narrow. If that was the case, it meant Lee Jaehee had an important reason for conquering the gate, even going so far as to retire as a hunter, and had achieved his goal there, so it was worth knowing about.

If there was a high-grade item that tempted even an S-rank Lee Jaehee to risk retirement, it would have been a rather painful oversight. It could have been Sa-yoon who obtained it instead.

For now, Sa-yoon hinted at Gyeongjin to look into it, then called the guild member as originally planned to order a pickup.

According to the schedule, he had intended to return immediately, but he finished the conquest earlier than expected and was in good condition, so he received the location of another D-rank gate he could enter right away. Since they hadn’t set a specific date in advance, this one was quite far, requiring about a 30-minute drive.

-You must return after clearing just that one. I won’t allow any schedule changes like clearing one more because you feel fine.

“Who are you to allow or disallow anything, Chanhee?”

-Guild Master!

Ow. That hurts my ears.

Chanhee was good in many ways, but his inflexibility and straightforwardness were problematic. It seemed that insisting on going to one more place would be more trouble than it was worth, so Sa-yoon placated the angry man by agreeing and hung up. He then cleared the additional D-rank gate “Forest of Alluring Butterflies” that he had arrived at.

While he had all-cleared the previous D-rank dungeon in three hours, this time he significantly reduced the clear time by achieving an all-clear in just one hour. Conquering gates twice in a row had definitely sharpened his senses. It would have been good to conquer one more place to remember the feel when he was in top form like now, but Chanhee had firmly said no, so it was regrettable.

Clicking his tongue, Sa-yoon called for the guild member to pick him up.

While waiting for the guild member to arrive, he checked if the item that interfered with facial recognition was working properly, then headed to a nearby café. He ordered an Americano and sat in a chair, passing time by tapping his foot. As he was going to receive the coffee he had ordered:

The distance between tables was subtly narrow, so he bumped into someone trying to pass by his side. As a result, the coffee the man was holding spilled on both Sa-yoon’s and the man’s clothes, soaking them. Fortunately, it was iced coffee; if it had been a hot drink, he might have been exposed as a hunter.

Ordinary people were always interested in hunters one way or another. Once it was revealed that he was a hunter, he would definitely attract attention, so Sa-yoon sighed, relieved that the worst situation had been avoided, and raised his head while dusting off his clothes.

Wondering who had recklessly come towards him without even looking at the space between tables, he checked the face. Looking into the other person’s eyes through the sunglasses he habitually wore, Sa-yoon suddenly stopped breathing and stared at the person who had bumped into him.

Why the fuck is this bastard here?

The protagonist of the recent uproar that had heated up internet communities and dominated the main pages of various portal sites.

S-rank Hunter Lee Jaehee, who had retired and then returned.

It was the guy he had fought on that moonlit night.

Although he was wearing a hat and had his eyes covered with sunglasses just like Sa-yoon, he could be certain. His instincts from the fight that night told him so. Surprised, Sa-yoon wondered if he had shown his shock too obviously, so he slowly lowered his gaze and wiped the coffee stains on his clothes with a tissue.

He still hadn’t raised his lowered rank. If they fought now, he would lose a hundred times out of a hundred, so he had to avoid a fight.

In the first place, since he was wearing an artifact, it wouldn’t be easy for the other to recognize him as the attacker from that time. Even so, there was no need to raise suspicion by picking an unnecessary fight, so he was about to pass by, saying his clothes were fine.

“Mr. Assassin?”

A small, uncertain voice came from above, causing Sa-yoon’s shoulders to stiffen. His head raised again, and their eyes met. Their gazes locked through each other’s sunglasses.