The Huntress, Your Knight Next Door

When Yoon-soo pressed the pad, the panel slowly approached Jin-hee.

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Jin-hee raised her mana moderately, thinking that the amount she exerted would be passable.
Hiding her mana wasn’t difficult for her, who was an outstanding knight and a swordmaster on her pinnacle.

With a buzzing noise, the panel ran through her five times in total.

“The grade is… Wow, it’s a C class!”

That’s just fine.

It was the highest grade that could be raised to a general talent, and the class was also nicknamed Elite in its own way.

“Since you have a sensibility from the beginning that matches the upper limit of the C class hopefully, you will quickly rise to the B level.
Congratulations!”

Yoon-soo said with a bright face, and Jin-hee replied with a small smile.

But she knew that it was just empty praise.
C-class, who couldn’t get up to B-class, were a dime in a dozen, and on the Internet, C-class was nicknamed “Bottleneck Level”.
This is because you can’t go up to B-class without great talent.

That’s why Jin-hee also wanted to get a C-class.

It’s just the right grade to be treated well without unwanted attention.

“Then, can I go now?”

“Oh, wait a minute.
I have to give you a confirmation of the evaluation…”

Yoon-soo later explained the Hunter’s certification.
Hunter cards will be mailed in about a week, and only after passing online education and gate field training can they be active as a hunter and so on.

“If you belong to a company, the field training will be handled there.”

“It’s just me, so I’ll take care of it.”

It’s not that she’s not interested in a Hunter’s company, but she doesn’t feel the need to join one.
She doesn’t want to be restricted since she’s comfortable doing everything alone.

After completely hearing the explanations, Jin-hee left the evaluation room.
As soon as she opened the door and was about to leave, she turned her head and peeked into the corner.
Her eyes met with the man who was still looking in her direction.

“······.”

He smiled as a greeting, but Jin-hee turned her head without any response and left the evaluation room without hesitation.

 

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“Oh, give me the trash.
I’ll throw it away on my way out.”

“Thank you.”

Yoon-soo accepted the empty snack bag from his senior, Shin Hyun-Sung.

“But please refrain from making such visits while on duty.
You’ll get in trouble if it’s known I hid you.”

“Let me catch my breath, too.
When I get back, I have to face all the reports again.”

Hyun-sung grumbled and yawned.
Their workplace had the worst working conditions.
He has been working all day and night for two days, and all he got is a pile of reports and nagging.

Yoon-Soo had an expression of understanding, but nevertheless, he did not help Hyun-Sung.

“No matter what, you can rest somewhere else.
Even the customer who just came would not have been able to concentrate because of the Senior.”

“Couldn’t concentrate? I don’t know about that.”

Hyun-sung, who smiled, stole the pad Yoon-soo was holding.

“Look at this.”

“What?”

He showed Yoon-soo the sensitivity test that was conducted five times in total.
Under the screen with the name Seo Jin-hee, the result value of Class C was written.

“What’s the problem? It’s class C, right?”

“I’m not asking you to see the results, but to see the number of times.
She’s done it five times, and the numbers are the same, right?”

“Yes, they are.”

“Normally, beginners have a big deviation when they use mana.
That’s why we always do five tests to see the highest output.”

Looking at the numbers of other testers, the difference was clear.
The inexperienced beginner hunters recorded values with deviations, but Jin-hee’s values were perfectly the same.

“Wow, now that you say it.”

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“To emit mana at a certain level, you must have excellent mana handling skills.
This is no skill for a beginner.
She was hiding her power.
It seems like she was intentionally trying to get a C class.”

“But she wasn’t a hunter even in high school, wasn’t it?”

“Right.
That’s why it’s interesting.”

It says that it hasn’t been long since she has awakened as a hunter; but the thing is, she was either a genius with an excellent ability to handle mana or a person who has been hiding her power for some reason.

It wasn’t uncommon that some of the hunters sometimes cheated on tests to lower their ratings, but he didn’t know that he would see it from a first-time Hunter.

“She’s a peculiar person.
Even if you only receive a B class, your treatment will be different…”

“She must have her reasons.”

It was illegal to forge a Hunter’s rating to have a high evaluation, but it is not illegal to induce it to receive a lower rating.
Hyun-Sung didn’t have to nitpick Jin-hee’s rating because he knew that.

“There are a lot of new hunters these days.”

“Yes.
This month alone, we got three B-levels, right? It’s a good harvest.”

Yoon-Soo said while recalling a number of new recruits who passed the assessment room.
This year, there were many outstanding new hunters.

After finishing the conversation saying he should also try his best, Yoon-Soo began to clean up the evaluation room, and Hyun-Sung looked at the door where Jin-hee left.

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There was quite a lot of training to go through to become a hunter.

Online training was only 12 hours, but the actual gate exploration takes place a total of 3 times.
And in the end, you have to complete one dungeon quest yourself to be recognized as an official hunter.

Regardless of the online training, it was a drag for her to go on an exploration with middle and high school students.
This is because she was the only one with common knowledge among these pretentious kids with Chuunibyu Syndrome.

(Note: Chuunibyu Syndrome or 8th Grade Syndrome – is a condition where people believe they have superpowers.)

Some of them who came to do the operation were even obnoxious bastards.

She doesn’t hate children, but she thinks that she’s going to hate them because of this incident.
Jin-hee blocked the kakaotalk profile of the same group member.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

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She looked up and examined the party.

She was in front of the Level 5 gate near Gangnam Station.
There were a total of five people in the party, and the goal was to break through the dungeon called “Herbal Garden”.

“I introduced myself earlier, but I’ll do it again because there’s a newcomer.
Hello, I’m Kim Yu-jin, the party leader for this Herbal Garden party.
I’m a D-Class Wizard.”

Kim Yu-Jin was a typical D-class hunter.
It is a hunter who does not challenge dungeons of level 3 or higher because they are dangerous and goes in and out of safe dungeons of level 5 or lower for the purpose of making a living.

It’s probably the most popular lifestyle among hunters.

When entering the Herbal Garden dungeon, it literally falls in the middle of a huge herbal field.

Unlike dungeons where the boss is set, herb field dungeons are always open dungeons, and there are no clearing specifications.
Its main mission was just to go in there, dig out the necessary herbs, and eradicate wild animals and low-quality monsters that would occasionally attack.

The various herbs from the dungeon were equal to earning a bunch of money just by grabbing a handful of them, so this dungeon was characterized by a part-time entry to refrain from drying out the herbs.

For example, if a party went in last week, there was a rule that no party could enter until a week passed.

Although there was no punishment for violating it, nor guards in the gate, it was a pretty important issue for the livelihood of the hunters around here.

“As I will tell you again, all you have to do is escort me and my friend while we are digging medicinal herbs, do not touch the medicinal herbs.”

Even digging for herbs has been restricted.
You can’t dig up herbs in the dungeon unless you’re a so-called herbal hunter.
The rest of the Hunters were allowed to enter the dungeon only for escort purposes, and there was no system such as performance-based bonuses, so they could only receive a certain amount of compensation from the party leader.

It was a kind of hidden rule made by the hunters around here.

However, since such a simple mission is considered as a complete dungeon quest, there were quite a few people who came just to complete the Hunter’s official certification like what Jin-hee is doing now.

You don’t need to do anything else, and it’s nice to quickly come and go as it’s located in Seoul.

Of course, the pay was very stingy, but since there are not many tasks to do, it can also be considered as a good pastime.
Herbal hunters were also very pleased that the newcomers participated just because of that.
That’s what Kim Yu-Jin also thought.

But not this time.

“Uh…”

None of the five Hunters were friendly.

First of all, even if Kim Yu-Jin and one of her associates were a fixed party, the remaining three of them seemed to have no interest in listening to Kim Yu-Jin’s words.
When she asked everyone to introduce themselves, they only said their name and kept their mouths shut.

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The party was organized like this.
Kim Yu-jin, the party leader and wizard, and Kim Dong-Soo, her associate and alchemist.

New Hunter Seo Jin-Hee.

Likewise, new Hunter Lee Si-Young.

And Hunter, Park Jun, who is always stuck behind Lee Si Young.

Both of the fixed parties; Kim Yu-Jin and Kim Dong-Soo, were rated D, but Jin-hee and Lee Si-young were new, but C-class.
Besides, Park Joon is a whopping B-class.
It was a strange situation where the party leader was D-class, and the party members were higher in rank.

Kim Yu-Jin, who already had a fixed party for a long time, has a general idea of the situation.

‘The person named Seo Jin-hee is a soloist who just came to get the official certification.’

She’s not sure why she, who seems to be an adult, is only now becoming a hunter, but she knows that her purpose is simply to accomplish the mission.

And Lee Si-young, the same new hunter, had a similar situation with Jin-hee, but… His case was a little different.

‘Look at the cuteness.’

Unlike Jin-Hee, who came out wearing free equipment rented by the state for the new hunters, Lee Si-Young had expensive artifacts wrapped around his body.

His appearance is also like that of a prince.
Matured-looking wavy hair parted on one side, smooth skin, and big round eyes.
He seems to be 170 centimeters tall, but his face still looks so young.
And there’s even a B-class hunter named Park Joon following him.

It was obvious.
Lee Si-Young is a son from a rich family.
The precious child of the house came out to be certified as a Hunter, and the escort was a B-class Hunter.

‘It’s overkill for a B-Class hunter to come to a Level 5 dungeon…’

Even a B-Class hunter’s breath for an hour could be compared to the price of Kim Yu-Jin’s digging of herbs for a full day.
The difference between Grade B and Grade D was huge.
It’s obvious why B-Class like them were behind C-levels.

“W-Well, then let’s go in~ Everyone turned on their smartwatches, right?”

“Yes.”

The answer came only from Jin-Hee.
When Kim Yu-Jin broke out in cold sweats, Kim Dong-Soo, who was next to her, tapped her shoulder to just let it go.

One of Hunter’s basic equipment, SmartWatch, is a device that draws signals directly from inside the dungeon and is an essential piece of equipment that records each other’s location and the coordinates of the entrance.

Jin-Hee and Park Jun were wearing them, but Lee Si-Young was not wearing his equipment.
Kids these days.
Kim Yu-Jin swallowed a sigh.