Chapter 15
D-rank Hunter Gu Daeseong had come to the Association again this year to have his rank assessed.
"Hey, Mr. Gu. Here again this year?"
The middle-aged man greeted him warmly. It was Team Leader Kim Do-han, with whom he'd worked on Gate mining teams several times.
"Long time no see."
"You really are a hard worker, Mr. Gu."
"Haha..."
At Team Leader Kim's words, Gu Daeseong gave an awkward laugh.
He was thirty-two this year. It had been over ten years since he awakened as a Hunter.
Those with talent usually awakened their mana in middle school and received a place at a Hunter academy.
But he had awakened at twenty-two. His assessed rank was D, and he had no unique skills.
"How about this year? Think your rank might go up?"
"Haha... I'll give it a shot."
Ten years. Gu Daeseong had been D-rank for ten years. They said C-rank was the limit for those without talent, but he wasn't even a perennial C-rank. He was a perennial D-rank.
"Why not join our team instead? Someone like you would be reliable, quiet, and good at the work. You'd be our ace in no time."
Not every Hunter who awakened mana worked in a combat role.
There were production and research jobs, and quite a few Hunters worked in traditional industries instead of hunting.
But most Hunters without much talent or anything particularly exceptional ended up as porters for raid teams or joining mining teams that extracted items just before a Gate was closed.
They could do the work because they were much stronger than ordinary people, but in the end, it was just backbreaking labor.
Gu Daeseong had been doing that kind of hard labor for ten years, but he still couldn't give up.
No matter how low his rank, a Hunter could make far more money in a dungeon than he could doing manual labor.
'I need to earn more money. Without a dungeon raid with good hazard pay, I can barely keep up with the interest.'
He had debts, an elderly mother to care for, and younger siblings to support. Without a Hunter's income, he simply couldn't manage it all.
But there was hope. Someday, he might awaken a unique skill of his own and become a member of a raid team, taking on high-rank Gates.
He pictured the future when he would finally shine as an Awakened.
But reality was harsh, and by now, even his faintest thread of hope was starting to disappear.
"I'll give it a shot."
Even as he said it, he didn't expect much. His goal had become more realistic: if he could somehow make C-rank and stop being a porter, he'd be grateful.
"Hmm? A young fellow's coming in."
Just then, someone entered the Association waiting room. It was unusual to see a blond man, so he was probably a foreigner.
"Do you think he's from Europe?"
"He looks like royalty."
The people in the lobby turned their eyes toward the blond man.
-Wow, he's handsome.
-Damn... He's ridiculously good-looking.
He certainly stood out.
His steady gaze, dazzling blond hair, and blue eyes. He had the refined air and bearing of a young nobleman.
Above all, a blond man was bound to draw attention in a place full of black-haired people.
"Is he a foreign laborer?"
"He's European, isn't he?"
"Come on, not everyone in Europe is rich. There must be poor countries, too."
Even after the Cataclysm, South Korea was still a fairly prosperous developed country.
Aside from rice, its food self-sufficiency rate was abysmal and it depended on imports for most of its food, but it wasn't a bad place for foreign workers to come looking for jobs.
"Hmm..."
For some reason, Kim's curiosity was piqued. He let his usual nosiness get the better of him and walked up to the blond man.
"Hey, young fellow. How are you?"
"Do not presume to speak to me, lowborn."
"......?"
"???"
For a moment, he wondered if he'd misheard. The insult was so vicious that he was left speechless after simply trying to say hello.
"Huh, you learned Korean kind of weirdly, didn't you?"
"Y-yeah, exactly."
Unable to think of anything to say, Kim turned away. Just then, the blond man's eyes met Gu Daeseong's.
"Hff..."
He couldn't breathe. The pressure in that gaze alone was suffocating, as if some immense presence were bearing down on him.
"Haa..."
The only reason Gu Daeseong managed to breathe again was that an Association employee called his number, 57.
"Number 57, Gu Daeseong!"
"Y-yes! Coming!"
Gu Daeseong hurried over to the Association employee. For some reason, the gaze he felt on his back was chilling.
* * * *
'They're a sorry lot, every one of them.'
Leon turned his gaze around the Association lobby and made a merciless assessment of the people gathered there.
Weak. At Leon's level, a mere glance was enough to see through a person and sense the energy within them.
Yet the energy inside them was small and feeble across the board.
The people who came for rank assessments were generally perennial low-rank Hunters or those just getting their first Awakening test.
Unless they'd come from an academy, they were ignorant commoners in whom no 'talent' had ever been found.
But Leon hadn't come looking for the strong.
'How lamentable that I can't find even one fit to serve as a soldier.'
He hadn't come here to find knights. He'd come to recruit soldiers—men-at-arms who would follow and support his knights.
Naturally, the standards for knights and soldiers were very different. He wasn't looking for peasant levies or meat shields, so they still needed some talent, but not one person had even met that modest standard.
'There was one who looked useful, though.'
He didn't just look at the energy within them. He studied their faces, their scars, the traces of the lives they'd lived.
With Leon's experience, he could tell a person's measure just by looking at their face.
Most of them were adults who could barely fend for themselves, yet there wasn't a trace of hardship on their faces.
A few had the seasoned muscles of experienced laborers, but they'd be fit for little more than grunts—or even laborers.
'I can't expect to be satisfied right from the start.'
When his turn was called, Leon stood and headed for the interview room.
"Number 77, Leon... Dragonia Lionheart?"
The interviewers were Association employees. Of course, they knew Leon was a survivor. But they didn't know what he was like.
"Address me as Your Majesty, commoner."
"Uh..."
The Association employee hesitated, then nodded when the department head nudged him in the side.
"Um... Y-Your Majesty..."
Leon listened to the civil servants' respectful address with satisfaction. He knew his common sense differed from Earth's, but he had his reasons for insisting on his own sense of justice and etiquette all the same.
'A royal needn't concern himself with the laws of commoners.'
Though he was on Earth, he'd ruled as king for three hundred years. He was a knight of noble birth, with blue blood.
Royals weren't bound by the rules of those beneath them. Even if this was a cultural difference spanning worlds, he had no reason to accommodate them.
"Then, for the test, please place your hand on the measuring device here."
Hunter rank assessments had two stages.
First came the measuring device, which assessed unique skills and class aptitude.
Class aptitude usually followed a person's unique skill. Most were suited to classes like Warrior or Swordsman, while the Mage Tower was notified in the very rare cases where someone had an aptitude for magic.
After that, Hunters took a practical test in a Gate maintained by the Association, which determined their final rank.
The Association employees had heard that Leon was a particularly powerful survivor, so they were very curious about what unique skills he might have.
"You fools!"
"Pardon?"
But what came back was a sharp reprimand from Leon.
"How dare commoners test a knight's honor!"
Huh?
"W-We aren't the ones doing the measuring. It's a magical measuring device. It's quite accurate..."
"How could a mere machine measure a knight's worth? Only honorable knights and the gods can judge a knight."
"But..."
The Association employees were bewildered. They'd encountered all kinds of strange survivors, but this was the first time anyone had refused the test itself.
"Um, then... we can go straight to the next test... No. Since you've refused the test itself..."
Then why'd he come?
"I came to find soldiers worth recruiting, but even the examiners are such mediocrities."
'H-Head-hunting? Right out in the open?'
After all, many guilds, including the Top Ten Guilds, hired scouts to recruit skilled Hunters.
But he'd come to openly refuse the assessment and headhunt people?
"No one has caught my eye yet. What is the next test?"
"Um... there's a practical test in a Gate."
"Good. Skill comes from steady training and actual combat. I shall observe."
"But..."
You mean observe, not participate... right? But when the department head nudged him in the side again, the employee had no choice but to nod.
* * * *
Every Gate had its own theme.
Dungeon-type and field-type Gates were the two broadest categories, with various subcategories beneath them, such as quest-type and raid-type.
Usually, once a Gate had been cleared, it was closed and removed.
But some Gates were kept open on purpose, either by leaving the boss alive or not fulfilling the conditions for closure. The Seoul Station Gate was one such case.
"You're not feeling dizzy, are you? Some people get motion sickness when they pass through a Gate."
The Seoul Station Gate was a field-type Gate with a lush green meadow stretching out before them.
Gu Daeseong looked at the Seoul Station Gate and let out a quiet sigh. This was already his tenth visit.
This year's assessment hadn't been much different from last year's. He still had no unique skills, and none of his stats had improved.
He needed to perform well in this practical test if he wanted to turn the evaluation around.
And his party members mattered, too. Gu Daeseong looked over the people who'd joined him for this test.
"Wow~ So this is a Gate. Oppa, this place is totally a hot spot."
"Jinmi, let's turn off your phone for now."
'Two complete rookies...'
And then there was the blond man. He was the foreign laborer Gu Daeseong had seen in the waiting room.
'Sigh...'
Someone that age coming in for a rank assessment was probably a late awakener. Academy graduates took their tests separately.
Three out of the five people in his party were complete novices... Gu Daeseong turned to his last hope, only to find a cheerful-looking old man.
"Heh heh, the air's lovely."
The man looked old enough to be over sixty. He might have awakened during the Cataclysm thirty years ago, but all the strong Hunters from that first generation had made names for themselves.
Which meant the old man, like Gu Daeseong himself, was probably just an unremarkable C- or D-rank Hunter.
'I wasn't expecting much, but...'
After all, the people who came in specifically for rank assessments were either rookies or perennial D-ranks. It couldn't be helped.
"All right, Hunters. Even if anything dangerous happens, I'm a B-rank Hunter, so I'll step in. Don't worry—feel free to clear the Gate."
Leaving the Association employee who'd announced he would only observe behind, Gu Daeseong stepped forward.
"Then... let's introduce ourselves and figure out our positions first."
Even in a situation like this, he needed to act as party leader and boost his evaluation score.
"I'm Gu Daeseong. I've been a Hunter for ten years, and my class is Warrior. I'm the main damage dealer."
"I'm Shin Taehoon. I awakened this year, and I use a shield and spear.
"I'm his younger sister, Shin Nayeon~ I mainly use daggers, and I've been learning archery lately~"
That meant they were beginners who hadn't even found their aptitudes yet. Gu Daeseong asked cautiously,
"Have either of you attended a training center?"
People who were too old for Hunter academy usually went to training centers run by veteran Hunters.
They weren't as systematic as academies, but they were more or less like private tutoring academies.
"My sister and I attended a training center for three months."
They were complete rookies. Since he hadn't expected much, Gu Daeseong turned to the old man.
"Sir, what about you...? Have you..."
"This old man is in his fifth year, and my name is Oh Kangtae. I awakened, but I'd been working at a company until I was recently forced into early retirement."
His weapon was a pair of gauntlets. He didn't have much experience for his age, either.
And gauntlets... Even if he had a martial artist class, it would be hard to overcome their shorter reach compared to swords or spears.
"Whew... Then last, you there, foreign worker? Can you speak Korean?"
"......"
The blond man—Leon—stared at Gu Daeseong for a while without answering.
"I do not fight."
"Uh... You fight well? Did you learn Korean backwards?"
"One doesn't use a dragon-slaying sword to kill a chicken."
He really had learned Korean strangely. Gu Daeseong scratched his head awkwardly and settled on their positions.
"Then... Taehoon, take the front as our tank, and the old man and I will be the main damage dealers. Nayeon, you can provide ranged damage with your bow. And you, foreigner... Wait, why don't you have a weapon?"
Unlike the other Hunters who'd entered the Gate with their weapons, Leon didn't have a single one.
"Um... young foreigner, didn't you bring a weapon?"
That was strange. The Association should at least have lent him one.
"Hey, handsome! Want me to lend you a weapon?"
Just then, Shin Nayeon, who had a dagger and bow, cautiously offered. Her eyes sparkled as she looked at Leon, whose air seemed almost beyond human.
"Would you rather use the dagger or the bow? Oh, I mainly use daggers, so... want to try the bow? Do you know how to shoot?"
Shin Nayeon handed him the bow. It was a popular new smart bow, complete with automatic targeting and adjustable draw weight.
"You expect this king to use it?"
"Yup~ Just give it back when you're done."
Leon stared at the bow he'd been given, as if he'd heard something unbelievable.
Then he frowned as though he'd been insulted and flung it to the ground.
"Aah! My bow!"
"W-what are you doing?!"
Shin Taehoon was furious when his sister's bow was thrown to the ground. The Knight King was just as angry at being insulted.
Of course, ordinary commoners could never understand the reason for his anger.
"Knights don't use cowardly ranged weapons."
This was driving him crazy.
Gu Daeseong pressed a hand to his forehead.