Chapter 7: S Rank

Months have past, I finally got enough authority to start up the Hunter Training Program, which is constantly training hunters in my workspace with the supervison of X.

Imust say, he became quite obedient once I was on a stable path...perhaps he truly was designed to be my assistant.

I've been raiding dungeons day and night, but my ability to completely raid a dungeon clean had sparked suspicions. They finally think that I'm no ordinary A Rank...

My business with Bokcheol-nim became a hit, he was regarded as a genius blacksmith, well, after I taught him what I know, and hunters have improved drastically in such a short time.

The First Gens were also given powerful equipments and weapons, which were, in all honesty, totally overkill.

Although they have all gotten strong, no one has beaten my raid record, and because of the uproar in the Hunter Association's supposedly 'rigged' tests, they implemented a dueling system, where any hunter may challenge another of any rank equal or higher than his/hers, as long as requirements are met. But for the past few months, no one...not a single one...has ever challenged me... Why? Am I that scary? My [Shadow Robe] does look scary, but it won't be enough to sway them, would it?

My family has also been doing great, and it seems they have caught up with the news...

"Oh my~, what a great son I have!"

"THAT'S MY SON!! HAHAHA!!"

"HYUUUUNG! PWEAZZ BWUY ME THWIS!"

Sigh, seriously...I really hate being such a great son...

But all in all, I can finally do something I couldn't back when I was still ordinary.

...

A few weeks after, Bokcheol-nim and Seolbok-nim founded the Blacksmiths Guild, a guild of devoted and passionate blacksmiths. Bokcheol-nim was the Head, Seolbok-nim was the Head Marketing Associate, and I was the Head Production Specialist... Sigh, they just had to include me, didn't they?

And a few days after that...finally! A challenge! Three rather! The challengers were a mage named Su Donghae, a swordsman named Son Haneul, and an archer named Han Sumin. Defeating them all at once made suspicions that I'm actually a higher ranked hunter... Ugh, I let my guard down... They even suspected that the Hunter Association is hiding S Rank hunters and recording them as A Ranks to manipulate them into raiding for them. This is getting worse... Soon, Seolbok-nim and I decided to end those suspicions and announce my true rank. And so, that ends the 'worst case scenario that came true'.

After all the fuss, I have been leveling up so much that [Authority] now lets me see a hunter or a monster's equipment, skills, and titles when I use [Appraisal]. And so far, there hasn't been a single monster able to land a scratch on me...seriously, why did that psychomaniac assistant of mine make me too powerful? Is there something very dangerous that I'm supposed to handle by myself?

Lately, I've been able to see parts of the answer when I ask X what Project Level Up truly is... But all I can understand is a short phrase, "Project Level Up is made by God to be-". Such a mind-boggling mystery.

...

Two months had passed, the Dungeon Closing Crusade has started in South Korea, we've been closing dungeons that are above B Rank. I've been disguising as an A Rank from the Hunter Association, everyone calls me 'Blue', and Jaewon and I have been investigating the dungeons for signs of boss monsters but have yet to find any.

Apart from boss monsters, I was also harvesting tons and tons of materials. Apparently, A Rank dungeons have quite a rich bounty of metals and crystals, and the only S Rank we've been through had a dragon, so I took good care of it...the materials, that is, Fufufu~

But about two weeks after, a guild from Japan had a request for the Crusaders. It was an S Rank dungeon that they were unable to close, let alone investigate. I had high hopes that that dungeon is the boss monster's.

But since it's abroad, only the First Gens and a handful of A Ranks, including me, were able to go. We took a plane, and it would be bad to talk to someone else when you're undercover, so I had to seclude myself the whole trip, except for Jaewon-nim who is the only one who knows.

On the way there, I felt something weird, it was as if there was an omnious presence near the plane. And I was right, below us was the city of Tokyo, where a dungeon break was taking place, and that presence I felt, it was an S Rank monster. Just you wait, boss monster! I'm coming for your head!

...

* 'A dungeon break is a phenomena where a dungeon that hasn't been closed nor had been raid in for a long time reaches its limit of the amount of mana it can withstand, and explodes as a mana surge that can paralyze or stigmatize a hunter, and let most of the monsters inside loose.' *

When we landed, we were met by a squad of soldiers, they escorted us to the frontline base, and there we made camp. Tomorrow was the start of the raid, but we'll have to break through the monster hordes first, so we had to take camp first to make a plan.

Unfortunately, I'm not patient at all, I went to check the monsters myself, so I had Jaewon-nim lookout for me. The sun's still up, so I didn't have trouble finding them. They were just a bunch of Helldogs, orcs, ogres, goblins, and a couple of dungeons, so they were just small fries. The S Rank monster is my target.

*WARNING SOUND*

"Ho? Is it starting? That was fast."

They already started, but there was no plan. They just went on blatantly, so confident in their abilities, I'd bet they haven't fought an S Rank monster or a horde of A Rank monsters.

I just stayed vigilant, I had to find the boss monster before it finds them.

...

Then a while later, after continuously fighting the horde of monsters...

*ROOOAAARRR*

"What was that?!"

"Where did that come from?!"

"Hmm..."

Now, what could that be? Nufufufufu...