Holy B-Class Life

#015

Only awakened hunters with status windows can enter gates.

This was one of the reasons why the hunter status became important when the gate phenomenon appeared. People who hadn’t awakened could see gates with their eyes but couldn’t enter them.

The existence of hunters who could solve the problem before gates burst and spewed out monsters was that important. One more of those absolute principles had been broken.

It really was a gate with many anomalies, wasn’t it?

It was like a situation where one of the foundation stones at the very bottom had crumbled. While everyone was in confusion, not knowing what to do, Dan Joo-hyuk alone remained calm.

His fingertips slowly moved along the handle of Yoon Pa-ran’s long sword.

Yoon Pa-ran’s skill that had transferred to him truly had a strange nature.

It was a kind of power that even Dan Joo-hyuk, who had entered all sorts of gates, had never seen before. It had a similar color to those with healing skills, but was subtly different.

Whiter, and much more powerful.

The fact that the monsters in the anomaly gate acted as if they had intelligence, that there was a big time difference between the hunters entering, and that civilians had inexplicably entered and died inside.

None of it caught Dan Joo-hyuk’s interest. He was completely captivated by Yoon Pa-ran’s strange skill.

Dan Joo-hyuk suddenly picked up the sword he had been fiddling with.

“…”

Originally, it wasn’t right to carelessly grab equipment of unknown origin like this. It wasn’t a matter of ethics, but of curses.

In a situation where the equipment’s grade was unknown, one was likely to be cursed with something unidentifiable. The same was true for other hunters’ equipment. There were plenty of bastards who carried their equipment without removing the curses, intending to prevent theft.

Among them, Yoon Pa-ran’s equipment was truly the worst.

“Ha.”

[Sword of a Cursed and Fallen Knight A]

Contains an unbreakable faith.

*The item has been exposed to death energy for a long period.

*A curse is embedded.

—The one who wields this sword shall meet death.

Literally, it was equipment you’d need two lives to even consider.

It was such a malicious curse with high dispelling costs that it wouldn’t even sell on the exchange. Yet, with its good grade and performance, dispelling it would consume a massive amount of blessing fragments.

A B-rank hunter enduring an A-rank curse, huh.

Equipment that even a real A-rank hunter would be reluctant to change due to uneasiness. He really had guts.

He had wondered how Yoon Pa-ran managed to keep up while breaking through the gate, but there were several reasons. All his equipment was A-rank, so the performance was decent. That hidden skill of his gave him several times more power in front of monsters.

“Ah.”

Come to think of it, there was another subtle point about this gate. The Gate Management Office hadn’t realized it yet, probably because they were busy with other matters.

Among the items dropped by monsters, there were noticeably some with weaker curses. Given that they were strong monsters, it was natural for the curses to be powerful and tricky.

Even the boss monster that Dan Joo-hyuk had defeated was the same.

If all the items with weak curses came from monsters that Yoon Pa-ran had faced…

“Interesting.”

Dan Joo-hyuk slowly got up and prepared to leave.

He had developed enough interest to want to move actively for once.

❖ ❖ ❖

As he headed to the place Dan Joo-hyuk had mentioned, Yoon Pa-ran let out a deep sigh. He couldn’t count how many times he had sighed already.

Strangely, it felt like he was walking to his death of his own accord. He even felt a dirty sensation as if he would be inescapably shackled the moment he set foot there.

It’s really strange to feel this uneasy.

Eventually, Yoon Pa-ran found his own intuition puzzling. Rationally judging, the current situation wasn’t the worst.

By now, he didn’t think Dan Joo-hyuk really intended to kill him. Considering the past incidents he had caused, he wasn’t the type to drag things out like this.

So he needed to have a conversation at least once. To find out exactly what he wanted, and how he should deal with it in the future.

Trying hard to shake his head, Yoon Pa-ran attempted to shake off the ominous feeling. Maybe he had become a bit sensitive after nearly dying inside the gate.

Is my body not fully recovered yet?

“Sigh…”

Yoon Pa-ran deliberately took big strides. Since he had time to spare, he was intentionally walking despite the somewhat long distance.

There was no need to rush to meet Dan Joo-hyuk by taking a car.

What would he talk about? It was obvious he would try to silence him about his ability. Yoon Pa-ran also wanted to shut his mouth if given the chance.

If they could agree not to reveal each other’s secrets, that would be ideal. However, he couldn’t imagine Dan Joo-hyuk agreeing so easily.

He needed to hide information about his skill as much as possible. More precisely, he planned to insist that Dan Joo-hyuk’s hidden secret was bigger, tipping the scales.

But isn’t a skill that seems to absorb others’ abilities more dangerous without even having to insist? Maybe Dan Joo-hyuk was thinking of bribing Yoon Pa-ran to keep quiet.

If he offers money, that wouldn’t be bad.

He was overwhelmed just organizing the things the bastard might say. While he was uncharacteristically lost in thought, he heard a small honk from the road beside him.

He immediately turned his head. Come to think of it, something black had been flickering in his vision for a while, and now a car was moving slowly, matching Yoon Pa-ran’s pace.

What’s this guy doing? It was crazy behavior even if the road was empty.

Wondering if he was picking a fight, Yoon Pa-ran raised an eyebrow crookedly. Then the passenger window rolled down, revealing the person inside.

“Get in.”

Surprisingly, it was a madman Yoon Pa-ran knew.

His steps came to a halt. After needlessly looking at the piercingly blue sky once, Yoon Pa-ran opened the passenger door.

Right. There’s no point in running away anymore.

“Are you feeling alright?”

“…More or less.”

As soon as he got in, Dan Joo-hyuk asked quite caringly. Yoon Pa-ran answered with a frown at the ticklish tone.

Then he remembered the potion that the bastard had supposedly left.

“Well, thanks for the potion.”

Surely he wouldn’t ask to be paid back in money, right? If so, I’ll just thank him again and deny it.

He sent a narrow-eyed, scrutinizing gaze. He was dressed to enter a gate today as well.

Soon, Dan Joo-hyuk spoke in a voice tinged with amusement.

“Ah. It wasn’t particularly effective… Well, I guess it suited Hunter Yoon Pa-ran well.”

“…”

What an utterly unpleasant remark. Any grateful feelings completely disappeared.

The car was an ordinary sedan with no particular characteristics. It didn’t seem like the car Dan Joo-hyuk usually brought to gates, but he wasn’t sure since he hadn’t paid much attention.

Anyway, it was fortunate that it wouldn’t catch other people’s eyes.

The car moved forward without hesitation. Yoon Pa-ran frowned as he saw them passing the address Dan Joo-hyuk had mentioned earlier.

He had thought they might go somewhere else, but it made him uneasy.

“Where are we going?”

He glanced sideways at Dan Joo-hyuk’s profile as he drove with a slight frown. His voice was full of wariness as he asked.

As if he had been waiting, Dan Joo-hyuk answered lightly.

“To a sufficiently secluded place.”

“…”

The nuance was incredibly ominous. Needlessly rubbing the back of his neck once, Yoon Pa-ran now openly stared at Dan Joo-hyuk.

He wanted to hit those slightly upturned corners of the bastard’s eyes.

His hands kept feeling empty. Even though they weren’t in a gate, he felt unnecessarily tense without a sword in his grip.

Just in case, he had worn spare armor, but it was a shame he didn’t have a usable sword.

“What about my equipment?”

“Ah, I forgot. I was distracted by other things.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

Forgot, my ass. It was a pathetic act after even mentioning the equipment in his text message.

So the equipment is basically a hostage, huh.

The car eventually headed to a truly deserted and secluded place. Before crossing the Han River bridge, it turned onto an overgrown side road and headed towards an increasingly strange path.

Finally, the car stopped at a riverside spot overlooking the river.

“…”

Right above their heads, the noise of cars crossing the bridge could be heard.

He craned his neck a bit to look up, but couldn’t even see the bridge there. The trees between were quite large, enveloping this place like a canopy.

Right. It was quite a secluded atmosphere. But isn’t it too outdoors for an important conversation?

Dan Joo-hyuk got out of the car first without saying anything. Yoon Pa-ran, frowning, followed him.

“You want to talk here?”

“Yes. It’s quiet and nice, isn’t it?”

After looking around uneasily, Yoon Pa-ran eventually had to accept that this was the best option.

The conversation they were about to have would be uncomfortable no matter which closed room they went to. It’s not like they were going to each other’s homes in a friendly manner.

After getting out first, Dan Joo-hyuk sat on the car’s hood, looking down at the river. Yoon Pa-ran stood silently two steps away, habitually checking for paths he could move on foot.

“Hunter Yoon Pa-ran.”

“What?”

Dan Joo-hyuk, who had been silent for a while, suddenly called him.

With a tense expression, Yoon Pa-ran took another step back.

The presence naturally emanating from the bastard always gave the feeling of facing a vicious monster.

“What kind of skill is that?”