The Huntress, your Knight next door - Chapter 6

“Park Jun is a strong hunter, isn’t he? He’s a hunter who had a high-speed promotion at Geumgang Group. He was born a Class B, but there are not many people who are as honest and strong at such a young age.”

“It looked like it.”

“His spear skills are also amazing.”

“Yes.”

“….”

Perhaps feeling that Jin-hee’s answer was insincere, the man paused for a moment and stared at her eyes. Jin-hee, who was staring blankly at the floor with her arms crossed, felt the man’s gaze and raised her head. Dry eyes looked back at him, showing that she was not interested in the least.

There was no need to talk in a roundabout way, so the man got to the point at once.

“But when I examined the bodies of the terrorists, they didn’t have a lot of spear wounds.”

“….”

“Attacks using mana can cause burns, clean cross-section cuts, or leave unique marks. Like a bullet wound.”

“….”

“But not only did the bodies show traces of mana, but also traces of a sword. It has a thickness of 20mm and a length of more than 5cm. A deep attack had 15cm of length. It’s a ‘stabbing’ print that you can’t make with a spear.”

‘Stabbing,’ I’ve probably trusted the sword in the skull of an enemy who used a crossbow.

Lastly, the man spoke to Jin-hee, with an interesting smile on his face.

“It just so happens that you’re the only one who used a sword on the scene, Jin-hee. Such a coincidence, isn’t it?”

“Name.”

“…What?”

“You knew my name.”

Jin-hee asked as if she suddenly remembered the fact. The man, who was about to frown because he was wondering what the hell she was talking about, replied in no time, while  thinking that Jin-hee might not know his name.

“I heard it in the evaluation room last time. Oh, my name is Shin Hyun-sung.”

“So, Shin Hyun-sung.”

“Yes.”

“Are you a cop?”

“…No.”

He’s exactly the kind of guy who works with the police, or the kind that manages Hunters.

It was obvious considering the fact that he was at the police station at this time or when he was at the state-run Hunter Center.

Jin-hee looked straight at the mana hole in Hyun-sung’s chest. The size of the mana hole was not directly related to skill, but it’s size was so huge that it was incomparable to Park Jun and Na Yoon-soo’s that she saw the other day. Even with her skills, she couldn’t tell the exact measure of it.

What a funny person, Jin-hee smiled.

“So there’s no reason for me to be questioned, right?”

“….”

This was clearly an interrogation. At the end of the day, his lines became more and more aggressive to say that he was just slightly testing her.

When he couldn’t find anything to answer, Jin-hee loosened her arms and knocked on the wall of the hallway a few times. The moment she made a knocking sound, Hyun-sung’s pupils trembled relentlessly.

This woman knows.

“You wouldn’t have to bother like this.”

“You knew, didn’t you?”

“About what? That you put a barrier on the corridor to keep people from coming here? Or did you come to me because you didn’t get a satisfactory answer even if you asked Park Jun?”

“Oh, my.”

Hyun-sung scratched his head and laughed. It wasn’t as sweet a smile as before. His lips twisted then he slowly spoke.

“If you were a master-level hunter, you should’ve said so from the beginning. I’m getting tired of beating around the bush.”

“I know right. It would have been better if you had honestly asked from the beginning.”

Thanks to him, I don’t feel so good. Jin-hee tapped the wall again with a smiling face, and pressed her finger.

Suddenly, the sound of fireworks rang out from the wall where there was a pounding sound. The barrier that Hyun-sung had set was shattered.

Although it was only a low-level magic, this barrier was weaved like a spider web. It was a barrier that even a high-level hunter could hardly recognize. It was a kind of magic trick that’ll make it difficult for ordinary people to enter, and for the people inside to go out without permission.

She forced her mana into the barrier and broke it in an ignorant way, walking briskly to the other side of the hallway.

“The next time you come, bring a gift. Who knows, if so, you might get the right answer.”

“…If you don’t explain it here, I’ll continue to suspect you.”

“Be my guest.”

Jin-hee walked, waving her hands over her shoulders.

“…What a cocky woman.”

Hyun-sung, who used mana to clean up the remains of the barrier, sighed as he heard Jin-hee open the exit door of the police station.

Of course, he knew she wasn’t involved with the terrorist group. It was hard to connect her back to terrorism because she even gave up her accomplishments to others.

However, it was necessary to determine how much power she was hiding.

“She’s definitely not B-Class.”

Among B-level hunters, even Park Jun, who was considered to be quite good-skilled in his own way, had a hard time with the terrorists. He doesn’t know what the situation was like, but if she’s at the level where she can defeat an enemy that can easily defeat a B-class hunter, he has to consider the possibility of her being an A-class.

In addition, she has the skills to instantly notice and destroy these types of barriers.

“…I’ll have to do some research.”

At that moment, with a fox-like impression, he disappeared from the police station as if he had put on a disguise.

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02

Combat Crows

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Jin-hee returned to her home and went out to look for a gate the next day.

Park Jun had called her, and said it would be better if she went into hiding for a while, but she thought it would be okay to go out in a cap and mask on, so she took the sword and went out.

‘I’m going to have to change my sword.’

She had only used it for a while, but the blade has already cracked in some places. It was a fight between blades, and the ready-made rental sword couldn’t make it because they didn’t manage it properly. There was even dry old blood on it. Even yesterday’s doll enemy weapons were much better than her sword.

So she thought that she’d have to make some money.

Even if Park Jun said he would send her some compensation, she doesn’t know when that would happen, and the salary she received at the company she worked for a short time started to wither.

The place she came to was Sillim Station.

Still, she tried her best to fulfill Park Jun’s request.

There were a lot of people just like Jin-hee. In other words, it is a checkpoint for people who do not want their identity to be revealed.

“…There are a lot of people.”

Jin-hee muttered as she raised her black mask up to the tip of her nose. If you cross the bridge at Sillim Station and go into the corner, you will find an alley where there were many Chinese shops in the past.

This place where a lot of foreigners lived has become a place where the general public hardly lives due to frequent opening of gates.

There were not many high-grade gates, but this was due to the frequent apparition of ‘special-managed’ dungeons where monsters occasionally pop out of the gates.

There are three main types of dungeons: ‘normal’, ‘specially-managed,’ and ‘unmanaged.’

Among them, the specially-managed type refers to a very dangerous type in which the creatures inside the gate occasionally pops out to Earth, and there were many gates like this in Sillim.

Naturally, the general population decreased, but on the contrary, the influx of hunters increased. Unlike other safe dungeons, the risk was high, but because there were many gates, there was not much competition between hunters.

Hunters entering and leaving Sillim often called this place ‘gold mine.’ A place where the supply (dungeon) and demand (hunter) matched quite well with the absurd number of gates making the country unable to manage.

And above all, the reason why it is so popular with certain hunters.

‘It’s a real lawless area.’

This is because this is the top hotspot for “uncertified hunting ground” in Seoul, that even large corporations and the government have given up.

A country’s official hunter can only be a person with no criminal record. Becoming an official hunter means that the hunter’s welfare, equipment rental, and job hunting are possible at the same time as tax is properly being paid, and of course, he is treated with respect externally.

However, most of those who have a criminal record or do not want to pay taxes, and those who do things behind the law, did not receive official Hunter certification, nor did they want to receive it.

Those who have the Hunter qualifications will be subject to disciplinary action and their qualifications can be revoked if they commit a criminal offense similar to a previous conviction. And it was here, in Sillim, where such people gathered.

In the past, restaurant stalls did illegal business without paying taxes, but in modern times, uncertified hunters are doing just the same here in Sillim.

“Come on, I’m selling Giant Mantis leg shells! There is nothing like shell equipment!”

“Replica mana recovery potion only 200,000 won! The effect is 50% of the potion level of the Hat Witch!”

“I’m looking for a party! Class C wizards~ Those who hunt in shifts from night to morning~”

It was really like a market. All kinds of monster corpses and illegal weapons were being sold in stores that sold Chinese food, and people who covered their faces like Jin-hee were clamoring to find a party.

For uncertified hunters, Sillim was a place of life.

It wasn’t like this at first either. Just as gates were popping up one after another, people flocked to it, and eventually gangsters, ex-convicts, and illegal immigrants gathered here, and eventually the land became a difficult place for the state to manage.

As a group of people who did not understand common sense nor justice gradually gathered, those who were ‘real hunters’ steadily left this place. Because they didn’t want to explore the dungeons among dangerous people who might betray them.

For this reason, Sillim became a place called a lawless zone, hunting ground for uncertified hunters, and black market.

Originally, Jin-hee thought to go to the gate where an official hunter could enter, but suddenly this place came to mind and she moved on.

If you’re going to move while hiding your identity, this kind of place was perfect, and it’s not like it’s happened only once or twice in her previous life.

She casually crossed the market and entered the gate alley.

Gates marked with road signs or traffic lights were seen in every corner of the alley.

While she was contemplating where to go in, she found a sign with the words [Caution: Regenerate often].

Regeneration refers to the level at which monsters are created, and the frequent regeneration means that monsters in the dungeon are constantly being created.

Grade 4th. It seemed perfect for warming up. She walked into the gate.

“Wow, it’s hot.”

Unlike Sillim, which has the spring weather, inside the gate was muggy. It was a jungle. There are many trees that seem to be able to reach 10m, and it was difficult to even walk on the floor with all kinds of weeds around.

The temperature was around summer level and even the moisture was suffocating. She wondered if she had come in for nothing, but wanted to see more of what the place had to offer, so she went further in and moved on.

What kind of prey do we have here? It should be enough to train her skills like the last doll enemies and make some money while she was at it.

She was looking around with that thought when,

“…?”

She felt someone’s presence. To be exact, many.

As she sensed the presence and stopped her steps, a man stepped out of the huge tree across from her. Not just from that tree, there were five people walking out from all over the place.

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