Chapter 82
“Wow, so this is the Nova Training Center.”
A super-massive training center beneath Nova headquarters on Teheran-ro. Whether for private hunters or corporate clients, it’s one of the top five facilities in East Asia.
It has far more features than the Wirye Training Center, which was previously opened to civilian hunters, or the measurement center in Yongsan.
We arrived after about a thirty-minute drive from Songpa-gu, where my home is. On the way, we also received the products Crown Guard had supplied after entering Korea.
“Eve, Ms. Ophelia. Welcome.”
“Hello!”
“Yep, shall we head in quickly?”
“Yep. Hehe.”
Doggo was on top of my head as usual, and today Minyum and Suri had also returned to their original forms. We’d gone down almost five floors underground, where something like a huge metal crate that looked incredibly heavy was stacked to one side.
“Oh, it’s Eve.”
“It’s Uncle Jongho.”
“You should call me older brother.”
“Ugh...”
“Sorry. Please don’t make that face.”
There was also Jongho ajusshi, a gallery regular with a fixed ID. It was lunchtime, so I wondered whether he’d already eaten. Seeing him hurry onto the elevator and head upstairs when we came in, he must’ve been standing guard here and missed lunch.
The metal crate was an extremely secure item that could only be opened by entering a password, and it seemed Ophelia had the password in a text message she’d received beforehand.
These technical details were sensitive enough as it was, and the sender was the famous Crown Guard. Even the Ministry of Trade and Industry, which inspects goods entering Korea, would hesitate to open it carelessly.
If they just tore it open and checked what was inside, it could cause some pretty serious problems. Chaerin told me Oseong Group’s tech team was practically drooling over it too, but too bad—this is ours.
“That’s incredible, really. I heard the news, Eve. You caught a terrorist in London?”
“Hehe, it kind of just happened...”
When Ophelia entered the 16-digit number into the password pad, with a hiss, the screws automatically loosened and the sides of the crate slowly began to lower.
Inside the crate, now opened on all sides, was one lidded cylinder containing about 4.54 liters of special blue liquid. There was also a bundle of string used for Crown Guard bows. And a bow limb..? A metal sample used to make bow staves.
And lastly, there was a strange silver-gray fabric rolled up like a scroll.
“Why’d they give me the oil in such an awkward amount?”
“It’s one British gallon.”
“Ah.”
Those bastards! Stop using weird units again!!
“Ms. Ophelia, what do you plan to do with that?”
“It may be difficult to use right now, but if the princess gets better at utilizing her skills in the future, it should be usable.”
“Waaah. So I still can’t use it yet?”
“Unfortunately, that’s right.”
I thought I’d gotten a lot stronger, but I still couldn’t use it. Then when on earth was I supposed to use it? I didn’t know about the other things, but couldn’t I just hand those metal-looking things over to Minyum?
I didn’t know the details, but they said it was an incredibly high-performance rare metal you couldn’t get on the civilian market. If I just gave it to Minyum...
“Mm, but the amount is too small.”
“A bow-stave metal sample? There’s too little of it. Was it 3 kg?”
The oil came in a pretty big container because it was one gallon, but metal needs to be in the dozens of kilos before it really feels like much. Of course, if you add it in spots that take a lot of force, it can still be reinforced, but that’d be boring, wouldn’t it?
“For now, I’ll take it home.”
“Whoa, isn’t that oil drum going to explode or something?”
“Crown Guard’s mana-reactive combustion agent is a highly stable product designed to withstand impact, so it’s fine.”
“I see.”
Thinking about it, hunters run around at superhuman speed and take a ridiculous amount of impact, so if the stability were low, they couldn’t use it. It’d be a problem if it suddenly went boom in the middle of a fight.
“Heeey, if I make clothes out of this and wear them, do I become invisible?”
“Unfortunately, no. Its purpose is to reduce mana leakage, so it was made as a countermeasure against certain gimmicks or monsters that react violently to human mana.”
“Then it’s not an invisibility cloak...”
It didn’t seem as amazing as I’d thought. Still, nice! Later, maybe I could make some ridiculously strong golem with this, get my rank remeasured as S-rank, and show off a little on the Active Hunters Gallery!
“Hmm.”
No, come to think of it, the Active Hunters Gallery didn’t seem that amazing either. After all, it was full of veteran hunters who’d all been active for over ten years. There’d probably be some reaction, but it wouldn’t be that fun.
'Maybe I should go to an overseas site.'
That’s the one Han Dohee works hard on too. It’s not just Korean hunters; it’s a gallery-like site used by hunters all over the world. Of course, that means I might run into an S-rank stronger than me, but they say there aren’t even 500 S-ranks in the world.
“For now, let’s head back home.”
“Ah, yes!”
I thought we were going to whip something up today and have Minyum supercharge it a lot, but that’s a shame.
We reset the crate to its original state, and with the box and everything inside it, it weighed nearly 15 kg, so Minyum carried it.
As expected, Minyum really is strong.
“Ah, Ms. Ophelia. Could you spare a moment?”
“What is it?”
“I have something I’d like to talk about for a moment. If you don’t have any other plans today...”
“Mm.”
Ophelia hesitated for a moment, then looked at me and said.
“Princess. Would you like to head home early?”
“I’m fine! If you have something to do, Ophelia, you can go ahead.”
“Is that so. Then, Hunter Yoo Chaerin, if possible, could you prepare a training room for the princess to use?”
“Of course.”
“Waaah.”
Why are you making me train again?
* * * * *
“Then I’ll go play for a bit!”
“Understood.”
Against her adamant protests, we sent Eve not to the training room, but to the kids’ zone playroom for hunters with children. The shrunken Suri and Minyum, plus Doggo, which was back to its original size but still just a tiny pup, went with her.
“Hunter Yoo Chaerin. As for the matter I wanted to discuss...”
“Ah... should we go upstairs first and talk somewhere quiet?”
“Understood.”
Ophelia rode the private elevator with Yoo Chaerin and went up to the floor where the quiet reception room was. Inside were luxurious sofas and a low, long rectangular table, set up so they could sit facing each other and talk.
“Would you like some tea?”
“I’m fine.”
“I heard the move finished smoothly, but I’ve been too busy lately to stop by.”
“That’s fine. Thank you for being considerate.”
“Hehe, not at all.”
This house had originally been intended for one of Nova Guild’s employees. Thanks to Yoo Chaerin’s recommendation, Ophelia took that spot, but after her two-year contract ended, she planned to move to another house.
“By any chance, do you know about Silence Laboratory?”
“I do. It’s a dungeon structure owned by the Orders Guild.”
“That’s right. The Orders Guild is almost on the brink of bankruptcy these days. Silence... I’ll just call it Sarab for short. Everyone calls it that.”
“As you wish.”
“Yes. Before long, Sarab will be going up for public auction, and it seems the people at Oseong Group want Nova Guild to take it.”
“I see.”
“Bringing it in is fine. Because the Orders Guild borrowed money from the World Hunter Association to keep itself afloat, other countries might come in too... but we’re trying to make contact first and secure a certain share. We want priority before the auction.”
Yoo Chaerin kept explaining after that. To sum up the long story, the bottom line was this.
“Ms. Ophelia. How long can Minyum’s output, the one you showed at Desert Mausoleum, be sustained? The Orders Guild’s main assault team wasn’t weak by any means.”
“You mean Minyum’s output?”
“Yes. We can’t really afford to attack Sarab while accepting casualties, but it looks like the higher-ups want to seize this chance for sure.”
With Orders gone, Korea’s four-guild power structure dropped to three. If the Orders Guild were then completely dissolved, the contracts of hunters registered under Orders but not actually active would also expire.
If capable hunters from Orders flowed into other guilds, Nova’s position could become unstable.
Of course, it wasn’t enough to shake Nova’s solid reputation easily. But with the current friction against a giant Chinese guild, the reality was that we couldn’t easily bring in reinforcements.
“So you’re asking me to back the Sarab raid team.”
“Mm... not exactly a request, more like a proposal. Oseong Group’s defense industry division has also been putting real weight behind hunter-related equipment development lately. It would be nice if we could help each other.”
Even the engine Minyum was using now had been brought in under Yoo Chaerin’s name—a next-generation fighter jet engine. It was just a hair shy of the very best in the world, but Oseong Group’s technology left nothing to be desired.
Ophelia closed her eyes for a moment, thinking over Yoo Chaerin’s words, then nodded.
“You were asking how long the output Minyum showed at Desert Mausoleum could be sustained?”
“Yes. Tower-type dungeon structures are a battle of endurance, after all, and Minyum’s output looks almost S-rank. I was curious how long it could last.”
“I see.”
With a slight smile, Ophelia answered Yoo Chaerin’s question.
“The output Minyum showed back then would be nothing to the princess now.”
“Nothing, as in...”
“It means it can be maintained indefinitely. Perhaps several times that, or even several dozen times over.”
* * * * *
“...There shouldn’t be anyone around, right?”
ㅡBeep..!
“Minyum, is it gone?”
ㅡClack..!
I’m in that life-or-death kind of situation right now. I don’t really know what it is, but anyway...
“N-now! Run!”
ㅡBeep-beep-beep!!!
“Hyaaah!!”
ㅡBoing
I jumped straight into the ball pit that said, “Absolutely do not run around like a madman and dive from high up!” Watching carefully for the guard—or boss-monster-like big sis—whenever she wandered off somewhere else, I finally succeeded.
ㅡSplash!
“Haaah, this is fun... huh.”
“Now then, little lady? Big sis saw everything.”
After flopping into the ball pit and wriggling back up, I found myself staring at the guard lady who was basically the boss monster of the kids’ zone.
“Here’s your punishment. No ball pit for 10 minutes.”
“Whaaa!!!!”
My life is over.
“That one did it too!”
“Hm? Who?”
“Minyum and the doggo.”
ㅡBeep, beep-beep..!!!
ㅡClack! Clack!!
“Hmm... a toy..?”
I can’t be the only one who dies!!
ㅡSqueak....
I feel like I can hear Suri sighing from somewhere.