Ch.114. Free Trade Zone (3)

“A gift for me?”

At first glance, it sounded like she had come to buy me a present. Of course, the brutal landscape of that slum was far from such romance.

Yuri seemed to become aware of what she had just said. She quickly turned her head away from me and changed her words.

“…I phrased that strangely. Please don’t misunderstand. If either Arin or Donghyuk needs anything, I’ll personally take care of it. That’s the Guild Leader’s duty.”

But even so, it sounded like an excuse. Of course, I didn’t point that out.

“I understand. Then, to our destination shop…”

“I’ll guide you myself. I have the directions on my phone. Follow me.”

She began to lead the way, speaking in a cold tone. As always at Flame headquarters, she wore a white formal jacket and a tight mini-skirt.

It was an outfit more suited to a luxury department store than this slum. But Yuri didn’t seem to care.

‘Does she have no awareness of the danger?’

Anyone would think she was a rich young lady. In fact, Yuri actually was.

However, this area was full of outlaws living day to day. I don’t know about Parts 1 and 2 of the Academy series, but Part 3 of AcaHunter had quite a dark atmosphere.

So apocalyptic places like this weren’t uncommon. Well, it was a world where people were constantly dying at the hands of monsters and villains.

‘And in this Free Trade Zone, if you take a wrong turn, you might not even leave a corpse behind.’

That’s why during my Eins student days, I didn’t dare come here until I secured an item with stealth attributes. That’s how dangerous this place was.

But Yuri didn’t seem tense at all.

We entered the slum alleyways in earnest and walked for quite a while. However, we didn’t reach our destination as quickly as I thought we would.

‘Wait. Yuri is…’

I suddenly remembered something about Yuri that I had forgotten. That she was terribly bad with directions. I was able to win my first duel with her by taking advantage of that trait.

Eventually, Yuri stopped in her tracks with a confused expression. A navigation system would help, but GPS was useless in this maze-like slum.

She stared at her phone for a while. Perhaps because I was standing next to her, she spoke in an even more flustered voice.

“What’s going on? The shop should be right here…”

But the place where the two of us stood was just a dirty alley. There was no sign of any shop nearby.

“May I see your phone?”

Just as I was about to check the directions myself, I flinched.

‘Hostility?’

I couldn’t use mana yet, but my keen senses from graduation were still intact. No, they had actually doubled due to the Hong-ok, an S-class Ancient Gear that replaced my mana heart.

I instinctively scanned the surroundings. I could feel eyes on us.

‘Five people. We’re surrounded.’

And of course, it was an alley with the escape route blocked. That meant we couldn’t avoid a fight. Just then, I heard a sound cutting through the air.

‘A thrown weapon?’

My body reacted, but it was approaching faster than expected. It definitely contained mana. But I managed to dodge it.

‘Tch. Got a small cut.’

Still, since I couldn’t use mana, my movements were a bit sluggish. Blood trickled down from where the throwing knife had grazed my cheek.

Of course, despite the surprise attack, I reacted immediately. It was just a scratch-level wound.

Considering the insurmountable wall between ordinary people and awakened ones, I had actually performed something close to a miracle.

‘Maybe it’s because I’ve been rehabilitating diligently. At this rate, I shouldn’t have problems adapting to the field.’

Cha-cha-chang-

And simultaneously with that throwing knife, Yuri blocked all the radiating attacks, like a claymore, with her ice magic. So there was no problem.

Just as I was about to feel relieved, Yuri shouted.

“Blood… blood!! Minsu, are you okay?”

With a very startled voice, Yuri grabbed my shoulder, forgetting her formal speech. And I could feel the air around her rapidly cooling.

Her blue pupils were trembling.

***

‘Is it worse than I thought?’

I instinctively touched my cheek. Blood came off on my hand. But it wasn’t a serious wound. It was like when you forcibly remove a scab from a healed wound and a little blood flows out. That’s how minimal the bleeding was.

But Yuri’s reaction was intense. I could feel that she was so shocked that her body was trembling.

“I was… distracted by the directions… looking for the way… what have I done to you…”

Mana with ice attributes suddenly swirled around her.

At the same time, the pure white ring on her right middle finger resonated and emitted light.

“That’s definitely an Ancient Gear! Jackpot! We’ve hit the motherlode!”

“Kill them all! With that gear, we can end our back-alley life!”

“Wait! Keep the woman alive! She’s gorgeous… heheh.”

And the five attackers all rushed at Yuri and me. There was the scent of mana unique to awakened ones, and the unpleasant smell of drug addicts.

I tried to move, but Yuri wouldn’t let go of me.

Even though she was a woman, an awakened one’s strength far exceeded that of an ordinary adult male. Yuri pulled me into her arms as if to protect me.

Then her eyes met those of the attackers rushing toward us.

“…Trash.”

After anger beyond limits, it was an extremely cold voice. At the same time, her ring shone, and the attackers’ limbs froze.

“Wh-what’s happening to my arm?”

“Ugh… I can’t move like this?”

But that level of confusion was nothing.

Pa-pa-pang-

The ice that had frozen the attackers’ limbs exploded in an instant.

“Argh!!! My… my leg!!!”

“Aaaah!! S-save me!!”

The attackers who had been rushing toward us with momentum became disabled in that instant. But that wasn’t the end.

Yuri’s Ancient Gear, Nivis, emitted mana again, just like my Hong-ok, which was also an S-class gear. Five ice spears were summoned in the air.

“Aah… I-I remember now… Th-that woman!! Snow Woman… Snow Woman Yuri Tarkovskaya!!”

“F-fuck… If she’s the Snow Woman… she’s an S-class hunter!!! We messed with the wrong person… P-please spare us!”

But the resonance of Nivis didn’t stop. And just as the tips of the ice spears were precisely aimed at their heads.

I calmed Yuri down. I gently patted her back as she held me.

“Guild Leader. I’m fine. Let’s stop now.”

“But those pieces of trash hurt you… I mean, hurt you, Minsu-ssi…”

“I’m really okay. Let’s just go.”

She looked ready to kill all five of them right then.

But when I insisted, Yuri obediently withdrew her mana. Considering how savage she had been just moments ago, she was like a gentle lamb.

‘Well, and it will be more painful for those guys to stay alive anyway.’

Those guys were drug addicts and such small fry that they couldn’t even recognize Yuri, an S-class hunter, right away.

In this rough slum, becoming disabled without arms and legs… at least, a hellish life would unfold where being alive would be far more torturous. There was no need to show mercy by killing them.

“Then let’s quickly get out of this alley…”

And belatedly realizing that she had been holding me tightly, Yuri was startled.

“I-I’m sorry! L-let’s get out of here, Lee Minsu-ssi.”

For someone known as the Snow Woman who had just disabled five awakened ones, she was acting too shy, which made me chuckle involuntarily.

And in the end, I decided to find the way.

“I usually find my way well… I think Team Leader Seo’s directions must be strange.”

Yuri said that as if making an excuse, but the directions were fine and very detailed. If we had followed them correctly, we would never have ended up in such an alley.

‘This is why her attention was compromised.’

Especially with me by her side, knowing her weakness of being directionally challenged and having exploited it well before, she must have been more flustered.

Normally, she wouldn’t have been surrounded by such awakened ones.

And I bought a cheap hat and sunglasses from a nearby general store and put them on her.

“Guild Leader, your appearance stands out too much.”

“…I see. I’ll be more careful from now on.”

So she ended up looking ridiculous with items that didn’t match her elegant attire, but it helped conceal her beauty a bit.

And a little while later, we finally reached our destination. Only then did I understand why Yuri had specifically come to a shop in this slum.

“This is a mana stone. But it’s not properly purified, is it?”

“Young man, that’s our shop’s selling point. Because of that mana… what’s it called… MCI rises slightly… and it gives you that feeling of being high, you know?”

The elderly shop owner whispered in my ear with a sly voice.

“It’s especially good when spending the night with your girlfriend. Young man, your girlfriend seems to be quite a beauty.”

While the shop owner was talking nonsense like a typical slum dweller,

I understood Yuri’s intention in buying this item. The two of us bought the mana stone and left the shop. I guided the way back as well, and we returned quickly.

Back in the car, Yuri said,

“There’s an Association internship program scheduled for intern employees to visit the Association. That’s why we need this mana stone. Especially for you, Minsu-ssi.”

This mana stone was necessary because of my peculiar constitution with an MCI of 0.

If I only carried out Flame’s missions, there would be no problem thanks to Team Leader Seo, who was skilled at manipulating information. But if I went to the Association, they might find it strange that I had no MCI or limit line.

“Team Leader Seo and Executive Maria said that with unclear purity like this mana stone, it naturally affects MCI measuring equipment. You don’t need to wear it all the time, but make sure to wear it during the upcoming Association mission.”

“I understand.”

I nodded obediently. That was enough to understand today’s errand.

‘But…’

However, such low-purity, unpurified mana stones aren’t that rare. I suddenly recalled.

The mana stone Yuri bought for me today was the same crescent shape as the one I had given her as a gift. And generally, mana stones are very difficult to shape.

Such uniquely shaped mana stones required legwork to find.

‘A gift, huh.’

Just as I was trying not to think too deeply about this thought that suddenly occurred to me, we stopped at a traffic light.

At that moment, Yuri said to me,

“Um, could you look this way for a moment?”

Then Yuri took out a band-aid from the car’s glove box and put it on the wound I had received earlier. When our eyes met, she hurriedly turned her head away.

“So it doesn’t leave a scar. Make sure to apply ointment when we get back.”

And the two of us didn’t say anything else during the return to Flame.

***

Second week since joining.

Unlike the first week when I just waited at headquarters without much happening, there was one fairly important schedule in the second week.

“Are you having any trouble finding your way, Donghyuk-ssi?”

“I’ve been to the Southeast Contaminated Zone many times with my previous guild. I can manage, Team Leader Seo.”

“That’s reassuring.”

Uncle Donghyuk answered. I was now sitting in a 9-seater van, the vehicle used by Flame’s field team when moving around.

The two were leaving Seoul, heading toward the dungeon cluster zone in the southeastern region.

Uncle Donghyuk was driving, and Team Leader Seo Duho was sitting in the passenger seat. I was right behind the driver’s seat.

That seat had a terminal installed for operators or the information team to use, which is why I was assigned there.

It had the same OS as the terminal I had already used at Flame’s office, so there was no inconvenience in using it.

“Minsu-ssi. The dungeon you’ll be participating in through the Association’s intern program isn’t difficult to clear, but since this is the first time with this team composition, please check the preliminary tactics you submitted yesterday once more.”

“Yes, Team Leader.”

As he said, the field team’s intern employees were participating in their first mission. Of course, befitting newly hired interns, it wasn’t a mission directly managed by Flame.

‘A dungeon for the intern program…’

Since the Association’s intern system was designed to help new hunters adapt and increase their survival rate, it probably wouldn’t be a dangerous dungeon.

‘It’s just right for adapting to the field.’

Above all, to use mana again someday, there was no better place than dungeons to quickly regain that sense. It was a good opportunity.

“Senior, aren’t you feeling stiff from sitting in the car so long? Should I massage your shoulders?”

And Arin was sitting behind me. She poked her head out from behind toward me.

“We’re on the highway, so stay in your seat. It’s dangerous if there’s an accident.”

“Oh, that won’t happen…”

“And I’m busy right now.”

“Yes, I understand. I shouldn’t disturb you.”

Arin went back with a dejected voice. And Soso, who was sitting to my right, glanced at her.

Soso was still in her peculiar outfit, even when going to the field.

‘I should start talking to Soso soon.’

Unlike Yuri, with whom I had started talking somewhat, though not as much as during Eins,

I hadn’t had any personal conversations with Soso since the incident in the supply closet. I glanced at the monitor of the terminal.

It displayed Soso’s limit line and the graph of changes since joining Flame. Just as I was about to think about its meaning once more,

Soso, sitting next to me, suddenly spoke.

“Lee Minsu. This lady has something she wants to ask you.”