Chapter 59

Just then, Beru poked his head out of Suho’s shadow and spoke to him. At the sight, the hunters clicked their tongues in unison and turned away from Suho.

“Oh, what the hell. He’s a summoner?”

“So he’s a summoner.”

“A summoner, huh.”

“...?”

Suho suddenly felt as though he’d been rejected before he’d even confessed his feelings.

Oblivious to how he felt, Beru flitted over and patted his shoulder.

[It is all right. You have me, Young Monarch.]

“This is your fault, you idiot.”

By now, Suho had acquired plenty of combat skills besides summoning. But thanks to Beru’s appearance, the others had immediately pegged him as a summoner, and their opinion of him had plummeted.

Even at C-rank, summoners were still an unpopular choice.

Suho let out a quiet sigh and looked around at the other hunters, who steadfastly avoided his gaze.

‘Never seen him before, so he must be new. And he’s a summoner?’

‘His summon looks weak as hell, too.’

‘If we let a summoner into the party, he’ll just take a cut without even pulling his weight, won’t he?’

Afraid he might ask to join their parties, they did their utmost not to meet his eyes.

Suho wasn’t the only one being shunned. Others stood here and there, mostly unproven newcomers or hunters notorious in the industry for having skills so poor that they couldn’t pull their weight.

Watching those hunters stand awkwardly with no party to join, the Baekho Guild members glanced at Baek Miho and asked, “Vice President, what should we do about them?”

It was a genuinely difficult situation. Forcing the excluded hunters into the other parties was bound to provoke resistance.

Dungeon raids were a matter of life and death. They couldn’t force anyone to accept an unwanted teammate.

“Hmm.”

After a moment’s thought, Baek Miho spoke.

“Let the remaining hunters form a party of their own.”

“What? That’s far too danger—”

“We’ll assign three B-rank hunters to that party instead.”

“Ah! That would work. We only need to keep this up until the villain is caught, anyway...”

The Baekho Guild members nodded at her decision.

Protecting the C-rank freelancers wasn’t the guild’s only reason for gathering them together.

An A-rank villain who could appear anywhere at any time posed an enormous threat not just to hunters, but to civilians as well. And this was the heart of bustling Seoul, no less.

‘If the villain is hunting hunters anyway, the most efficient approach is to stick close to his prey and wait.’

In fact, the C-rank hunters gathered there understood that they were effectively serving as bait. But when they might be attacked at any moment anyway, being bait under protection was the safer option.

Besides...

“Honestly, I hope the villain shows up where we are.”

“What? Are you insane?”

“Why? With this much firepower, we can just run if he shows up. And we can collect a reward just for reporting his location to the Association.”

“You... have never met an A-rank hunter, have you? Do you really think C-ranks like us could escape one unharmed?”

“No, but with two B-rank hunters...”

“Not running into him at all is our best bet. Period.”

The hunters who had formed parties with their acquaintances murmured and argued among themselves.

Meanwhile, following the Baekho Guild members’ directions, Suho joined the other outcasts who had failed to find a team.

[Sob! To think our Young Monarch would suffer such humiliating treatment! Your humble servant is outraged!]

“I’m telling you, it’s your fault.”

Come to think of it, Beru had a way of getting on his nerves while sounding utterly devoted.

That aside, Suho had willingly decided to accept the Baekho Guild’s protection.

‘I’ve been wondering how strong other hunters are. This works out nicely.’

Looking back, it hadn’t even been a month since he’d awakened. Yet so much had happened in that short time. He’d even encountered the traces of two dead Monarchs.

Rakan, King of Beasts and Monarch of Fangs.

Tarnak, King of Monstrous Humanoids and Monarch of the Iron Body.

Clearly, the path he was walking was different from that of ordinary hunters.

That only made him more curious. Just how different was he from other hunters now?

Suho’s eyes curved into narrow crescents as he watched them.

* * *

The Baekho Guild kindly opened up dungeons it had reserved in advance to the C-rank hunters.

Its members would receive a share of the profits since they were participating in the raids too, but even so, the guild would be taking a sizable loss.

‘So the Baekho Guild’s reputation really is well deserved. This is noblesse oblige in action.’

Impressed by the guild’s consideration, Suho headed straight to the assigned dungeon with his temporary party members.

The problem was that his teammates really were the unpopular picks.

[They truly have gathered nothing but incompetents.]

Beru’s assessment was merciless.

The party had ten members in all: three B-rank hunters from the Baekho Guild and seven C-ranks, including Suho.

Five of those seven were newcomers who had only recently awakened, like Suho. The two experienced hunters were summoners.

The more summoners a raid party had, the worse its reputation inevitably became. It meant there were that many fewer people actually taking part in combat.

“... Is this raid party really going to be okay?”

The fact that even a Baekho Guild member assigned to protect them muttered that with concern said it all.

But there was another problem. Wasn’t there one more thing hunters tried to avoid when choosing teammates?

A bad personality.

How could they judge someone’s personality just by looking at them on first meeting?

Simple. Most newly awakened rookies had bad attitudes.

They had suddenly awakened superhuman powers one day, without paying any price for them. They had simply won the lottery.

Those powers would let them earn staggering amounts of money, too. What else could you call it but winning the lottery?

At precisely that stage, hunters developed a nouveau-riche mentality.

In short, all bluster and swagger.

“Seriously. Why the hell should I have to put up with this treatment?”

On the way to the dungeon the Baekho Guild had arranged for them, rookie hunter Gu Dongjae suddenly voiced his discontent with a belligerent look.

He was the biggest of the ten hunters—even bigger than the B-rank Baekho Guild members. One look was enough to tell he was a powerful tank.

Gu Dongjae was a freshly awakened person with only a week under his belt, at the very height of his confidence in his newfound superhuman strength.

And his abilities really were worthy of a high appraisal, provided he had the experience to back them up. With a few dungeon runs under his belt, he could eventually be scouted by a good guild.

‘But the problem is, this is the stage when they’re the biggest ticking bombs.’

A brat so drunk on his own power that he feared nothing in the world. That was how the Baekho Guild members had sized him up the instant they saw him.

“Hey. Apart from our friends from Baekho, I’m obviously the strongest here, so I’ll be the raid leader. Sound good?”

“What? Who gave you the right to decide?”

Naturally, the hunters were taken aback by Gu Dongjae’s sudden attempt to throw his weight around.

“Gu Dongjae, didn’t you say you only awakened a week ago? What do you know about leading a party?”

“You’re no different, are you? Everyone here’s a rookie with less than a month of experience anyway. Wouldn’t it be safer to have the toughest person lead?”

“Still, wouldn’t one of the Baekho Guild members be better than us...?”

“Didn’t you hear our Baekho friends say from the start that they wouldn’t get involved in running the party?”

“When did you decide you could talk down to me? How old are you?”

“What? What are you going to do about it?”

The hulking Gu Dongjae abruptly stepped forward, forcing the hunter arguing with him to falter. Up close, the pressure he exuded was no joke.

Those muscles packed over his entire body certainly hadn’t been built in a gym. Could that brawny physique itself be his skill?

Meanwhile, Suho was merely watching the dispute from a distance when Beru tilted his head on his shoulder.

[Young Monarch, why not simply let the strongest ones lead?]

He was pointing at the Baekho Guild members.

Suho shrugged.

“That wouldn’t look very good.”

[Look good?]

In terms of both experience and rank, the Baekho Guild members were naturally the right people to lead the raid party in this situation.

But what if the guild gathered a crowd of freelancers under the pretext of an emergency, then promptly claimed the leadership for itself?

“That would be outright tyranny by a major guild. It would look like they’d forced the freelancers to band together under them. Besides...”

Suho glanced at the Baekho Guild members. All this time, their attention had been focused entirely on sensing any signs of activity around them.

With an A-rank villain liable to appear at any moment, concerning themselves with C-ranks squabbling over who would lead was a complete waste of mental energy.

Just then, apparently irritated by the sound of Suho and Beru’s conversation, Gu Dongjae turned a displeased look toward Suho.

“What? You guys want to be the leader too?”

“Oh, n-no. We’re summoners, so our role isn’t really suited to leading...”

It wasn’t Suho who hastily answered and backed away, but the other summoners.

Ironically, the two summoners besides Suho were his seniors in the hunter industry, with over a year of experience each. But that made them all the more aware of where they stood.

There were two types of raid leader: the vanguard commander who led the party from the front, and the balancing type who managed the entire party’s health from the rear.

Naturally, only a healer could fill the latter role. A summoner could do neither.

Gu Dongjae looked satisfied when the summoners stepped back without protest.

‘Good. The momentum’s completely on my side now.’

Raid leaders had priority when it came to dividing the profits. Not only did they receive a slightly larger share, but more importantly, they had first claim on any good items found in the dungeon.

Besides, once someone had experience as a raid leader, they were more likely to keep getting the role throughout their hunter career.

‘What’s with that guy, though?’

Gu Dongjae glared menacingly at the one summoner out of the three who had stayed put.

Suho.

He was chatting with Beru without paying Gu Dongjae any attention.

Gu Dongjae strode over, his shadow falling across Suho.

“What? Interested in being the leader too?”

“No. I’m not interested. If you want to do it, go ahead.”

“Haha. Right?”

Gu Dongjae’s expression brightened at Suho’s answer.

He laughed heartily, thumping Suho on the back with a hand the size of a pot lid.

“Come to think of it, you said you only awakened recently, like me, right? Must be a real letdown, ending up a summoner of all things. Don’t worry. Just trust me and stick close behind—”

Suddenly, Gu Dongjae’s expression shifted subtly. He looked at his stinging palm.

Something was wrong.

Usually, when he patted someone on the back, they went stumbling forward with a pained grunt.

But Suho was different. Lightly though he’d hit him, Suho’s slender(?) body had effortlessly withstood his strength without budging an inch.

It had even felt as though he were striking a solid, massive tree...

“On one condition.”

That was when Suho added, “I’ll be fighting separately.”

“What?”