Chapter 189: B-Rank Hunter (1)

The morning after having anal sex with Cha Yuri in the bathroom.

“…Achoo.”

“Ugh…”

As expected, both Cha Yuri and I woke up with colds.

It was only natural, considering we foolishly stayed soaking in the lukewarm bathwater for nearly two hours.

“…I swear I’ll never get in a bathroom with you again.”

“…”

It was only natural that she, who was supposed to go to work this afternoon, would be angry with me. I could only nod silently, expressing my apologies.

It wasn’t a severe cold bad enough to make moving difficult, but both Cha Yuri and I had a slight fever.

Considering Cha Yuri had to go to work this afternoon, we’d unfortunately have to skip the originally planned morning sex.

It was a bit disappointing to part ways without having the second round that Cha Yuri had suggested for once, but…

Instead, I could savor Cha Yuri much more deliciously in the bathroom, so I had no regrets.

“Can you make it to work this afternoon?”

“…More or less. Anyway, I was planning on casually clearing a B-Rank dungeon alone today, so this cold doesn’t really matter.”

The only relief was that I hadn’t messed up Cha Yuri’s schedule.

“What about you, Sungchul?”

“I’ll probably do some personal training. I’ll head to the Guild leisurely and just move enough to keep my body from cooling down.”

“You’re not taking the day off, even the day after your promotion.”

“I’m still a long way off from becoming an A-Rank like you, Yuri-ssi.”

Since I started my hunter life late, I knew the process would be tough, so I had to keep moving even during my breaks. The journey from trainee hunter to B-Rank hunter would be even tougher than becoming an A-Rank hunter from B-Rank.

“Once you become a B-Rank hunter, you said you’d move from the Guild to a company, right?”

“I don’t know if it’ll work out. First, I need to prove my activities under my alias, but one of my acquaintances is friendly with someone in the company, so I’ll have to try that route.”

“…You really know all sorts of people.”

Of course, this would only happen after persuading Eunyoung Noona to ask the company representative, Seo Ok-hee, or at least after I get a chance to meet Seo Ok-hee and make my case. Nothing was set in stone yet, but it was certainly a much better situation than a few months ago when I was just a measly trainee hunter.

“Alright, then… do your best.”

“Next time, I’ll greet you from the company, if possible.”

“…I won’t expect too much. But I’ll wait.”

After such a leisurely conversation, Cha Yuri and I left the love hotel and headed towards our respective next destinations. Hoping for the day when we could walk in the same direction even after leaving the hotel.

I arrived at the Guild on time in the afternoon, but I couldn’t even swing my sword for an hour before I had to rush out of the B-Rank dungeon. It might have been because it was right after my promotion, but I just couldn’t focus on slicing monsters, and the nagging slight fever, which was hard to ignore, also prevented me from concentrating fully on swinging my sword. The Recovery skill was meant to prevent physical damage, so unfortunately, it wasn’t very effective for treating illnesses. Just because it regenerates damaged parts of the body doesn’t mean the viruses already inside will disappear on their own. Next time I go to Hwayoung Sunbae’s pharmacy, I should ask if they sell cold medicine at the lakeside apothecary.

Anyway, unable to fully concentrate on training, I quickly changed my mind and headed to the C-Rank dungeon, ‘Grave of the Ancient Tree’, instead of the B-Rank dungeon. No matter what, D-Rank dungeons were too weak for me now, and I figured monsters from a C-Rank dungeon would be the perfect opponents to utilize my newly learned skills. Today, I planned to focus on increasing the number of skills I could handle rather than honing the ones I already possessed.

First, the total points I currently possess are 1105. In addition, I unlocked three new achievements through several days of sex, allowing me to accumulate a total of 1255 points.

『Relieving the sexual desire of a partner experiencing the ‘Alpha Female’ phenomenon.』

『Showing one’s sex in front of two or more hunters (or aspirants).』

『Assisting the partner’s masturbation to climax.』

The first two were achieved when I had sex with Han Min-ah in front of Jin-ah and Seon-ah. The last item must have been the result of the masturbation play I did with Cha Yuri in the bathroom. I hadn’t received rewards for achieving first-time achievements in a while, so experiencing the thrill of clearing small challenges like this felt quite enjoyable.

Since I had accumulated quite a few spare points, I decided to invest them in skill leveling for the first time in a while, rather than other things. First, the composition of skills I possessed up until now was roughly this:

『Swordsmanship lv. 6 : 0/600

Spear Arts lv. 1 : 0/100

Shield Arts lv. 3 : 0/300

Archery lv. 2 : 0/200

Fire Magic lv. 5 : 0/500

Cold Magic lv. 1 : 0/100

Recovery lv. 3 : 0/300』

Although the skill composition was somewhat focused on melee, the current setup, which included melee, ranged, magic, and support skills, wasn’t too bad. Still, for further development, I needed to invest points to achieve a certain level of balance. Unlike in the past when my goal was purely to pass the B-Rank hunter promotion test with Swordsmanship alone, now that I had already passed, there was no reason to postpone leveling up my skills.

Since I had accumulated plenty of points, I decided to invest generously and raised the levels of three skills. First, I raised the level of Recovery, the only support skill among the seven, from 3 to 4 (-300). Then, I raised Cold Magic, which, like Fire Magic, is useful in many ways, from 1 to 3 (-300). And finally, after raising Spear Arts from 1 to 3 (-300), I was left with a total of 355 points.

Recovery and Cold Magic are one thing, but why did I needlessly raise Spear Arts to level 3? Naturally, it was to use the ‘Javelin Throw’ skill, which can be used starting from C-Rank Spear Arts. I picked up a long branch lying around anywhere in the Grave of the Ancient Tree and threw it with all my might towards a nearby C-Rank monster, a Treant.

‘Crack!!’

The Treant, hit by my ‘Javelin Throw’, was impaled right through its body by my wooden branch and perished. The power that wasn’t present when I threw it after raising Spear Arts to level 2 as a test. It was the destructive power of the ‘Javelin Throw’ skill obtained by definitely raising it to level 3, and this ranged suppression tool was exactly what I wanted. Unlike magic-type skills, which inevitably consume a lot of mana to use spells with a certain amount of power, when using ranged skills, not magic-type ones, I could use attacks of similar or even greater power with much less mana. The reason I rapidly depleted my mana during the monster wave at the summer resort was also because I consumed more mana than necessary on Fire Magic, my only ranged suppression tool.

Of course, there were fundamental differences between physical and magical attacks, so I couldn’t say this ‘Javelin Throw’ skill was a perfect upper-tier replacement for magic skills. At the very least, it meant I had one more trump card that could display powerful force using less mana. The reason I chose to raise Spear Arts to level 3 instead of Archery, which was already level 2, was because Spear Arts required relatively fewer preparations to use. Bows are expensive and delicate weapons, so they take quite a long time to learn. While skills could handle the power output without much issue, setting that aside, a bow itself is a sensitive weapon that requires proper maintenance. String tension, bow limb strength, maintenance methods, etc. Compared to a greatsword, which could just be tossed into an Aether Pocket without issue, there were many more points to consider.

Conversely, if I learned Spear Arts, there was no need to buy a spear just to use Javelin Throw. The greatest advantage of this Spear Arts skill was that it could be activated with just a long stick-like object. I stored about 30 long wooden sticks, usable as disposable javelins, in my Aether Pocket. Preparation for any contingency was never too much.

Besides that, I confirmed the power of Icicle and Frostbite, 2nd Circle Cold Magic, and verified that I could use Frost Storm and Avalanche, 3rd Circle Cold Magic. Just as I thought this was a sufficiently meaningful achievement, a certain technique suddenly came to mind. Elemental attacks, often used as a combo between magic-type and ranged-type hunters. Simply put, it means adding magic attacks and mana to ranged attacks, which are merely physical force combined with ki. For example, if Fire Magic is overlaid onto a flying Spear Arts user’s spear and thrown, it becomes a fire spear. Similarly, if Cold Magic is overlaid onto an archer’s arrow, it becomes an ice arrow. I suddenly wondered if I, who could perform both ranged and magic attacks, could use elemental attacks alone.

Dual Awakening, or Multi-Awakening as it’s called, which seems versatile at first glance, actually has several limitations. One of them is that Multi-Awakened individuals cannot use completely unrelated awakening abilities. Naturally. Awakening abilities are bound to be created based on the attributes of the user’s mana. I, with my colorless mana, am just a special case; generally, everyone’s body only has either ki or mana flowing through it. Excluding recovery-type awakened individuals who have holy power. Occasionally, there were cases where mana with a color between ki and mana flowed, but usually, these awakened individuals handled a mediocre power that was neither physical nor magical. Among the people I know, Eunbyul probably falls into the category of using this mediocre power.

Therefore, the awakening abilities of Multi-Awakened individuals were, when you think about it, merely handling abilities within the same category. Like a melee-type awakened individual who awakened Swordsmanship being able to handle Spear Arts through Dual Awakening. Or a magic-type awakened individual who could handle Wind Magic being able to use Cold Magic or Arcane Magic. This was the so-called limit of abilities possessed by known Multi-Awakened individuals. Therefore, elemental attacks, which require mixing other categories into magic, should normally be created by the synergy of at least two people’s awakening abilities. This wouldn’t apply to me, who could awaken abilities without category restrictions. Rather, it was as if I myself was using two skills at once, so I wouldn’t have to struggle coordinating like other hunters using elemental attacks.

It was my personality to act immediately on an idea that popped into my head. I grabbed a suitable wooden stick from the ground for Spear Arts, aimed at the distant body of a Woodrello, and then… Simultaneously with the javelin throw, I imbued the flying spear with Cold Magic, granting it the cold attribute. At first, there was no significant change in appearance, making me wonder if I had failed, but as soon as the javelin hit the Woodrello’s body, I was convinced I had worried for nothing.

‘Crackle. Crackle.’

The trail of ice that started from my javelin, which had half-penetrated the Woodrello’s body, soon covered its entire form. A moment later, the B-Rank monster died, its body splitting apart due to the elemental magic resulting from the linkage of two C-Rank skills.

“It works.”

The power was sufficient to confirm that it could be used at all, making it a skill I could utilize anytime if needed. I tried a fire spear instead of an ice spear as a test, but this didn’t yield quite the same good results.

“Ah.”

Since the material for the javelin was wood, the fire spear would just burn up and crumble before even flying 10 meters. I’ll need to use a spear made of a different material when attempting a fire spear.