Chapter 69: The Path to a B-Rank Hunter (2)

「B-rank Dungeon. Tar Pit.」

Of the three requests, the first one I started working on was collecting materials from Black Slimes in the Tar Pit.

All three weren’t difficult enough to warrant a specific order, but if I had to pick one, collecting the Black Slime materials had the tightest deadline.

「10 Black Slime Cores

10 bottles of Black Slime Mucus」

After checking the first request’s details, engraved by magic inscription, I moved first towards the center of the Tar Pit.

‘Ppo-geul, ppo-geul….’

The suspiciously bubbling black pool, reminiscent of a witch’s cauldron, and paths made of black slime extending outwards from its surroundings.

I could easily discern that these were traces left by Black Slimes.

‘There it is.’

After confirming the closest Black Slime was munching on grass and twigs, I quietly approached it and prepared a fire spell.

‘Ignition, and Throw’

After synthesizing the simple spell, the resulting fireball shot straight towards it.

‘Peureut!’

Hit by my magic, the black fluid responded to my attack with a cute cry.

The Black Slime’s unique trait, Body Transformation. Before taking damage from the first attack, they transform their bodies into one of two forms.

Physical Resistance Form and Magic Resistance Form. These two transformations were the most troublesome reason when dealing with Black Slimes, so to counter such tricky traits, at least two B-rank Hunters were needed.

Cases of Multiple Awakenings were quite rare globally, and among them, cases of awakening two abilities with completely different characteristics-physical and magical attack abilities-were few and far between, literally countable on one’s fingers.

Therefore, when hunting Black Slimes, at least two Hunters needed to accompany each other, and requests that couldn’t be done alone naturally possessed elements that made them unpopular. After all, forming a pair just to catch ten Black Slimes wasn’t very efficient.

Furthermore, since Black Slime mucus spoils quickly, the Guild wouldn’t purchase it, making it difficult to profit from additional hunting. As a result, this request had been left untouched on the Guild board for nearly a year.

‘Peureureut!’

The Black Slime, having transformed into its Magic Resistance form after my attack, flew up to a height similar to mine with a cry.

It immediately extended a sharp tendril of mucus towards my neck, so despite its appearance, it was a creature that used quite a lethal attack. No matter how soft its appearance might seem, if I were hit directly by that attack, my neck would be pierced, leading to death.

‘Peureureuk!’

As soon as I swung the greatsword pulled from my subspace pocket, the Black Slime collapsed with a final shriek. The blade that passed through its body knocked the core out of its body, and the Black Slime died.

A monster’s core is not something that can be cut even with the sharpness of a greatsword, so it was natural that the Black Slime’s core, the only solid part of its fluid body, was knocked out. Still, since it wasn’t in its Physical Resistance form, the attack itself had landed effectively.

‘The list of materials to collect included not just the core, but also the mucus.’

As soon as I confirmed it had completely stopped moving, I took out the specially prepared material-gathering vials from my subspace pocket and filled them with the Black Slime’s body.

For reference, to collect this mucus intact, the monster had to be defeated not in its Physical Immunity state, but in its Magic Immunity state.

Although my swordsmanship level was higher, I could have used a decisive blow, but more importantly, if I had used fire magic for the final blow, this mucus part, not the core, could have been damaged.

One of the biggest drawbacks of magic attacks is that they excessively damage materials, so for me, who needed to collect the Black Slime’s mucus, it was an unnecessary method.

For the same reason, in the Grave of Ancient Trees, when Cha Yuri used wind magic to tear Treants or Woodrellos to shreds, I naturally felt it was a bit of a waste. Since they were materials from monsters basically shaped like trees, the lumber from Treants and Woodrellos usually sold for prices as high as their cores.

As about three-quarters of the slime’s body filled the vial, its capacity was reached. Finally, I collected the detached core as well and stored it in my subspace pocket.

With this, I had one Black Slime core and one portion of mucus.

Although the progress itself was fast, there was no time to relax. I still had two more requests to resolve by midnight tomorrow.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

「B-rank Dungeon. Necromancer’s Graveyard.」

The second dungeon I visited to complete a request was the Necromancer’s Graveyard.

As could be roughly guessed just by the name, this dungeon was the type where undead monsters primarily appeared.

The main inhabitants were Skeleton soldiers, a type of skeleton. Swordsmen, spearmen, archers-there were slight differences, but excluding Skeleton Mages, they were all pretty much the same.

Besides, the materials I needed to retrieve from here didn’t require specific types, as long as they were skeletons.

「30 Skeleton Femur Bones」

Whether the skeletons appearing before me swung swords or shot arrows, the shape of their femur bones was identical, so I could just kill any skeleton I saw without distinguishing between them.

Why this simple request became known as a ‘buried request’ is because of the peculiar nature of these Skeleton monsters.

As these guys are undead monsters, physical attacks are completely ineffective.

It’s not that some attacks don’t work; it’s more like they don’t work at all. No Hunter wants to face monsters that regenerate endlessly, no matter how many times they are cut down.

Of course, back in the prime of S-rank Hunter Kang Eunyoung, who was said to have reached the realm of Sword Master, it might have been possible, but honestly, a Sword Master of that caliber taking on a mere B-rank request doesn’t make any sense.

So, if these monsters are so troublesome, why does the Necromancer’s Graveyard, teeming with such difficult-to-catch monsters, qualify as a B-rank dungeon? It’s because they fall easily to magic attacks, unlike physical ones.

-Hwa-reureuk

‘Da-reuk….’

‘Da-geuk, da-geureuk….’

Upon touching the fiery fortress created by my hands, the bodies of three skeletons erupted in flames, burning their bones black, leaving only their cores behind before crumbling away.

And where the monsters had fallen, all that remained were their bodies, now ash, and the skeletons’ cores.

‘Just as I expected.’

Skeleton cores themselves were materials from B-rank monsters, so they had some value, but anyway, the reason I visited this dungeon today wasn’t ‘core collection’ but ‘femur bone collection’.

Hunting by burning their bodies with fire magic like this was meaningless.

How to easily defeat undead monsters while preserving their materials intact.

Fortunately, among the skills I possessed, there was one that was most efficient for this purpose.

『Recovery Lv. 2 → Recovery Lv. 3』

Using 200 of the approximately 300 remaining Awakening Points, after leveling up the Recovery skill to Level 3, I cast the 3rd Circle area-of-effect healing magic.

As soon as I chanted the healing spell, a thin cluster of light immediately spread out in a circle centered around my body.

‘Dal-gak-ga-ga-ga-ttal-gak-ga-ga-gak….’

Immediately after casting the spell, the group of skeletons hit by the holy magic couldn’t maintain their forms and collapsed, meaning the divine wave I cast had done its job.

They weren’t high-level undead monsters; they were simply monsters animated by residual thoughts clinging to their bone joints, forced to move like humans.

Even a healing spell with a tiny bit of divine power easily purified the skeletons, leaving behind only the piles of bones from dozens of fallen skeletons.

‘Now, from these, I just needed to collect the femur bones and cores and head back….’

Seeing the piles of bones scattered and piled up without order, a sigh naturally escaped me.

Among the pillar-shaped bones, the femur bone is the largest and heaviest, but finding just 30 femur bones amidst these piles of skeletons was no simple task.

Annoyed by having to sort the materials one by one, I decided to simplify the process.

「Skeleton Femur Bone」

「2 Skeleton Femur Bones」

「Skeleton Humerus Bone」

「Skeleton Tibia Bone」

「Skeleton Radius Bone」

「2 Skeleton Tibia Bones….」

I decided to just stuff all the long and large-looking bones into my subspace pocket and actively utilize the subspace pocket’s automatic counting feature.

「30 Skeleton Femur Bones」

Once the subspace pocket’s count reached the 30th femur bone, I collected only the remaining cores, casually discarded the rest, and left the dungeon.

Since there was still one last request to complete, I didn’t want to waste any more space in my subspace pocket.