Chapter 6

༺ 𓆩  Chapter 6  𓆪 ༻

「Translator — Creator」

᠃ ⚘᠂ ⚘ ˚ ⚘ ᠂ ⚘ ᠃

Crunch—!!!

The zombie tore into the goblin's flesh with its teeth.

The goblin warrior, bitten on the thigh, screamed but still swung his blade, severing the zombie’s wrist in a spray of blood and gore.

It was chaos — pure, bloody chaos.

Yujin’s eyes flicked left and right as he read the rhythm of the battlefield.

“Answer my summons.”

The moment one zombie was destroyed, he immediately raised another from the nearby corpses. The maximum number he could maintain at once was twenty. Though they were outnumbered, Yujin sustained the frontline by replacing every fallen zombie with a fresh one.

“Kh’m Mausola Kalla!”

A totem, crowned with a skull, crashed into the earth amid the goblin ranks.

[The Totem of Valor stirs the goblins' morale.]

An eerie light spilled from their hollow pupils; the goblins’ eyes turned blood-red.

“Behold! The spirit of our brave gobli—”

Crunch—!!!

“What was that? Gobli-what?”

“You insolent human! You dare mock our honor?!”

The bone rod Yujin had hurled struck dead-on, shattering the totem's skull in an instant. Just like that, the totem was rendered useless.

“Sure, sure. I’m sure being an ‘honorable goblin’ must be very fulfilling.”

“Kill that human! Now!”

The goblin shaman’s neck bulged with rage, veins throbbing.

〔One can’t help but wonder if he'll collapse from high blood pressure at this rate.〕

'Maybe look after your Contractor first, Constellation.'

The most critical part of fighting a goblin shaman was dealing with their totems. They granted buffs to their guards and bombarded intruders with debuffs and hallucinations.

“As if I’d let you pile up more.”

Crack—!!! Crack—!!!

Every totem the shaman tried to raise was immediately shattered by the bone rods under Yujin’s command.

With the shaman’s magic rendered impotent, the number of goblins dwindled rapidly.

The goblin shaman’s face twisted in rage.

“Kirrk, Kirrrk!”

“What’s the matter? Having a bit of trouble?”

“O Avatar of Madness! Come forth!”

Whirl—!!!

The shaman’s staff abruptly wrenched itself free from his grasp and plunged into the ground.

Dark, ominous waves of magic began to pulse outward from it.

“Not happening.”

A bone rod sliced through the air — this one imbued with the essence of death, strengthened many times over compared to the original spell.

A force strong enough to pierce a boulder the size of a house.

The moment the elongated bone approached — Kang! — a violet aura flared, deflecting the projectile mid-air.

“So that staff’s your trump card?”

“My staff is not so frail as to break from some paltry assault.”

“Seems that way.”

“Heh heh heh. It is a bone staff forged by grinding the souls of goblins. Not something a mere human should dare to touch.”

The goblin shaman spoke with pride.

“You ground spirits into bone?”

“Yes. A staff imbued with hundreds of wrathful souls now yearns for yours.”

Kiiieeeee—!!!

The piercing wail emanating from the bone staff fractured the hunters’ focus.

“Struck dumb with fear, are you?”

“No. Just surprised at how easy you’re making this for me.”

Yujin let his mana ripple outward — long, focused strands of power.

Bone Control.

If it was made from the bones of the dead, and if he had enough mana, then he could control it freely.

‘Even if it’s a weapon or a totem wielded by the enemy!’

You let go of your staff?

You’re going to regret that.

Drrrrrk—!!!

The staff, once lodged in the earth, shot upward into the air. Driving out the curse power infused by the shaman and claiming dominion over the weapon was so trivial that Yujin nearly yawned.

“Y-You human!”

“Well, that made things much easier. Thanks for the assist.”

The goblin shaman’s hidden phase — something that would’ve overwhelmed most hunter parties or strike teams.

But not Yujin.

“Oh? This isn’t ordinary bone.”

Maybe it was because of the souls trapped within, but its responsiveness to Bone Control and sheer power far exceeded that of any normal bone. No wonder the shaman had kept it as a last resort.

“In that case, I’ll return it to you.”

Yujin pointed the end of the staff toward the goblin shaman.

Fwooosh—!!!

The staff flew through the air, slicing a path straight toward its former master.

The shaman flailed wildly, trying to bat it away, but the staff curved with uncanny grace, darting past his defenses and jabbing straight into his throat.

“Gghk, gghrrrk...”

“Seems like someone held quite the grudge against you. What do they call that? Poetic justice?”

Heh.

A crimson grin crept onto Yujin’s lips.

The goblin shaman, mortally wounded.

With the Sorcery of Madness broken and the goblins weakened by the backlash, their numbers dwindled rapidly.

“I… I can’t die like this…”

The goblin shaman thrashed weakly on the ground, limbs flailing.

“What’s wrong? Having trouble again?”

Yujin gave a subtle tug through Bone Control.

The Goblin Shaman, his throat half pierced, was lifted and flew towards him.

Placing his hand on the Shaman's forehead, he activated Life Drain.

"Kuugh..."

The Goblin Shaman groaned for a while before his head slumped down.

Crack—!!!

The shaman's life force, freshly absorbed, transformed his body.

Perhaps because it was a boss-rank monster, it yielded much more life force than ordinary goblins.

'This one gives a lot of mana, doesn't it?'

This was the moment his assumption was proven — that the stats increased and the range varied depending on the type of monster.

"Ahhh."

The medium that contained the most life force was blood.

He had been carelessly using Life Drain and almost completely drained the Goblin Shaman's blood.

He made a cut on the shaman's neck and pressed the PET bottle he had brought before entering the gate against it.

Gurgle—!!! Gurgle—!!!

He managed to collect the remaining blood and breathed a sigh of relief.

〔So this is what it means to break their will in battle.〕

'How belated. If you can't adapt, just close your eyes.'

〔Don't underestimate me, Contractor.〕

Yes, yes.

He was someone who even swallowed his own children to protect his throne, so he had to tolerate this much.

With the Goblin Shaman slain, the morale of the remaining goblins plummeted noticeably.

And what followed was a one-sided massacre.

The goblin corpses lay scattered throughout the silent village.

"I'll leave the finishing touches to you."

"Ah, yes. That's the deal, after all."

Kang Minho nodded several times with a pale face.

Just from a rough glance, there seemed to be at least a hundred.

'When will we ever finish collecting all the mana stones?'

Even though money was practically lying on the ground, Kang Minho couldn't bring himself to smile.

༺ ♰ ༻

Step—!!! Step—!!!

Yujin stepped out from the Gate.

Behind him, the fledgling team trudged along, their footsteps heavy.

“What the hell is he carrying?”

“Wait… are those mana stones?”

“Are you telling me just four of them killed all those monsters and harvested that many stones?”

“That’s insane. That can’t be real.”

Eyes turned to Yujin and the fledgling team, bombarding them with stares of shock, disbelief, and awe.

‘They’re surprised by just this?’

Yujin had seen those kinds of looks far too often. They no longer fazed him.

“What are you doing? Keep up.”

“Ah, yes! Coming!”

Startled by Yujin’s curt tone, the fledgling team quickly resumed their pace.

“Um… where are we headed?”

“Yongsan. It’s the fastest place to offload all this.”

“If you want the best price, you should shop around a bit. If you leave it to me…”

“You expect me to trust someone I just met today?”

Kang Minho was silenced, and Yujin let out a brief chuckle.

“Just kidding. Still, I’d rather save time where I can.”

There was no point getting stingy over small change. There were countless ways to grow the funds he already held in hand.

‘All I need is a modest bit of seed capital.’

Once inside the Yongsan Hunter Market, Yujin’s group swiftly offloaded everything they’d acquired from the Gate raid.

• Staff of Resentment (Rare)

• Krach’s Venom Dagger (Magic)

• One E-Grade Mana Stone

• 358 F-Grade Mana Stones

“That’s a pretty impressive number of mana stones.”

“Well, that’s because we hunted like madme — I mean, we hunted really hard.”

Lee Sungmin and Kang Minyoung chuckled awkwardly from behind.

‘My wrists are killing me.’

‘Thought I was gonna die working.’

Who would’ve thought that this would be harder than fighting monsters?

Yujin’s hunting pace was so relentless, the fledgling team — who’d been operating as standard hunters until now — struggled just to keep up.

“How much do you think all this will sell for?”

“If you let me handle it all, I can give you a clean six million won.”

Six million won.

Not a bad haul for a first hunt after Awakening.

Yujin had spent three years breaking his back to save three million.

And now he’d made twice that in a single day.

It was hard not to feel a jolt of perspective.

‘Not bad… but this is just the beginning.’

He had once stood at the pinnacle of the world’s hunters as a necromancer.

With everything he planned to accomplish from now on, this was nothing — just the first step.

And besides…

There were enemies yet to defeat.

“The venom dagger’s pretty popular — should fetch at least two million. But as for the staff…”

The merchant’s gaze drifted to the Staff of Resentment.

The tragic weapon once wielded by the goblin shaman — the very one that had turned on its master and severed his last breath.

“That staff won’t fetch much.”

“Why not?”

"You'll understand if you check the options yourself."

Kang Inho’s face twisted into a peculiar expression.

Yujin checked the properties of the bone staff.

“A mana-boosting item limited to priests? What’s the point of that?”

“If someone did want to buy it, what would it go for?”

“Seven hundred thousand, at most.”

Kang Minho gave a dry chuckle at the merchant’s answer, clearly disappointed. For a rare item from a boss raid, it wasn’t worth as much as he’d expected. Ironically, the venom dagger used by the goblin warrior was far more valuable.

“Heh.”

Yujin smiled too — but unlike Minho’s, his had a very different meaning.

‘This is a good find.’

A peculiar item.

Restricted to priests, yet boosting mana — a curious combination. But it posed no real problem for Yujin.

Soul Power was essentially the domain of magic-type hunters, and with [White Night] converting effects from mana to soul power, the bonuses would transfer seamlessly.

His fingers gripped the staff a little tighter, instinctively.

“You selling this too?”

“I’ll just subtract it from my share and keep it.”

Minho’s eyes narrowed with a hint of confusion.

“You’re keeping the Staff of Resentment?”

“If it’s only worth 700k, I’d rather make use of it myself.”

“Well, honestly, we wouldn’t have earned anything without you. We’ll just exclude it from the split altogether.”

Kang Minho turned to the others.

“What do you all think?”

“Let’s do what you said, hyung. It’s not like we’re losing anything.”

“All we did today was harvest mana stones. Whatever works best for you.”

Not bad.

They weren’t as sharp as Kang Minho, but the others had some awareness too.

〔Is that why you took them in?〕

‘Something like that.’

There was one unfamiliar face in the group, sure… but they were worth bringing along.

A premium stock, bound to multiply in value just by being around him — and it had walked in of its own accord.

Only a fool would let that slip through their fingers.

Among all the hunters he’d faced in his previous life, one had stuck out as a formidable rival.

If he could bring the Mirror Hunter to his side, it would massively bolster his future plans.

‘Not even future—this helps right now.’

As a lackey. And a laborer.

He already needed Hunters to support him for hunting in Gates anyway.

The fledgling team wasn’t exactly what you’d call a proper support unit, but they could serve as his hands and feet — slaves, no — teammates — to take care of the tedious work.

“You’re the fledgling team, right?”

“Yes, Mr. Yujin.”

“Stick with me, and your pockets are going to stay nice and full.”

Of the 53 million won they’d earned, Yujin’s share was 37 million. Even splitting the remaining 16 million three ways, each of them had earned over half a million won in a single day.

For a bunch of 1-star rookie hunters? That kind of payday was a pipe dream.

‘Hyung, what do we do?’

‘You decide, oppa. Don’t look at us.’

Hearing their whispers, Kang Minho stifled a sigh.

So dishonest.

But no one here was fool enough not to realize what a rare opportunity this was.

“We’re all thinking the same thing, aren’t we?”

The other two remained silent. And yet—

As if they’d rehearsed it in advance, the fledgling team met each other’s gaze and shouted in unison.

“Leave it to us!”

єη∂ σƒ ¢нαρƭєя