Chapter 61

61 The Demon Realm's Last Avoided Place

* * *

Kim Taehoon, a new employee at the Hunter Association, was wary of the office's gloomy atmosphere.

His mentor, sitting next to him, chuckled at this.

"Don't worry about it. The 150 Hunters who went to the Snowy Mountain for subjugation this time were hospitalized. That's why. It has nothing to do with our department, so you don't have to be so cautious."

The mentor paused and looked at Kim Taehoon.

"Come to think of it, you said you've been to the Snowy Mountain before, right? You were originally a D-Class Hunter."

"Yes. I was backstabbed by B-Class Hunters, surrounded by a Snow Rabbit mob, and almost died… I retired after that."

Kim Taehoon said, recalling his past memories.

When he thought he was going to die surrounded by Snow Rabbits, he was saved by someone who fell from the sky.

A strange person wearing only a Fur hide like a primitive.

"The person who saved you gave you a Return Stone, right?"

"That's right. He's a real benefactor. If it weren't for him, both my friend and I would have died. Especially since my friend was about to have his first child. He really saved a family."

It was a stroke of luck, no matter how he thought about it.

After that, he and his friend quit being Hunters, switched to office work, and were living a peaceful life.

"But about those 150 people. I heard that all the A-Class Hunters lost their abilities? What happened?"

"I don't know either. I heard that they tried to exploit a newly awakened kid and that's what happened."

The mentor lowered his voice and said.

"The chairman is furious about it. He can't stand injustice. He's making a fuss, asking what they were doing behind his back without his knowledge. The bad atmosphere in the office is because of that."

Lee Woon-su, the founding chairman of the Hunter Association.

He had dedicated his life to the safety of Hunters since the association was temporarily established.

Now that the chairman had heard that a young Hunter had been driven to death, it would be difficult to simply overlook the 150 people and the mastermind behind it.

"The atmosphere in the company will be grim for a while."

"That's right. It may not be related to our department, but let's be careful not to get caught in the crossfire."

Kim Taehoon nodded.

The office atmosphere was dark, but it was okay. Compared to the life of a Hunter risking his life crossing the Gate, this was nothing.

'Come to think of it, the Snowy Mountain reminds me of that person. Was his name Cheon Dowoon?'

Kim Taehoon recalled the person who had saved them on the Snowy Mountain.

'I wanted to contact him personally and thank him separately. But his name isn't on the A-Class Hunter list.'

Could he be an S-Class Hunter? Low-level office workers were not allowed to access information about S-Class.

But if he was that capable, his name should have spread by word of mouth, so it was strange.

"Ah. Maybe he didn't register with the association at all."

"What is it?"

"Oh, the benefactor who saved my friend and me. I want to find him and thank him, but there's no record of him in the association."

"Really? Then he must be a freelance Hunter. There are quite a few of them, you know."

If you don't register with the association, you won't be protected by the law if something goes wrong.

For this reason, most Hunters considered association registration a natural procedure, but those who were reluctant to have their abilities recorded sometimes worked as freelancers without registering.

'Is Cheon Dowoon one of those cases?'

If he was a freelance Hunter, there was no way to find him. Kim Taehoon, who wanted to meet him again and buy him a meal, looked disappointed.

'Well, if we're meant to be, we'll meet again someday.'

If that day comes, he would repay the debt of saving his life. Kim Taehoon thought with a smile.

* * *

Cheon Dowoon, having finished his business on the Snowy Mountain, returned home.

The house and the garden. The yard. The half-finished fence. Even though he had only been away for a short time, it felt welcoming.

"We'll go home for a bit too. If we leave it empty for too long, other monsters will come and take over,"

Yoo-beom said. Even though they lived like wanderers, they would return home from time to time to leave their mark.

As the siblings left, Cheon Dowoon looked around the yard.

"The fence is almost finished. Let's finish it today… There's quite a bit of Yellow Ore left, isn't there? Did I mine too much after all?"

At Cheon Dowoon's words, Kim Nari tugged at his sleeve.

"Mister. Let's make a fence on the trail too."

"On the trail?"

Cheon Dowoon looked at the path leading to the waterfall valley. It was a trail that had formed naturally as people continued to walk on it.

It was fine during the day, but at night it turned pitch black due to the shadows of the trees.

"That's not a bad idea. Considering the amount of ore left, we'll have to build it sparsely. It'll be like a signpost, quaint and nice."

At Cheon Dowoon's words, Kim Nari smiled brightly.

Kim Nari was now able to express her opinions without hesitation.

She was able to purely enjoy the joy of having her opinions accepted.

Once the use of the remaining ore was decided, the subsequent work was quick.

The fence was completed in no time as Cheon Dowoon and Kim Nari worked together.

It didn't take long as it was already more than half done.

"Mister. This looks cool."

Kim Nari looked around the yard with an admiring expression.

It was after sunset, so the fence with the Glowstone was showing its true value.

The golden pillars surrounding the house created a mysterious atmosphere.

The shadows cast on the house by the fence light were another matter.

The house with the sagging threads created an even more terrifying atmosphere with shadows everywhere.

"Good. Now that we've put up the fence, we need to prepare for winter."

"Prepare for winter? What should we do?"

"We need to chop firewood and store it. Should we pile it up behind the house?"

"Ooh, chopping firewood. I can do it. I'll help with that."

Kim Nari nodded as if she had been given an important mission.

"Food storage… Is that not necessary? We can go ice fishing in the waterfall valley. Nam Ki-seok will bring this and that, so we don't have to worry about it."

Cheon Dowoon looked around the house. Then the biggest problem was the preservation of the house.

"It'll collapse during the winter if we leave it like this."

"Why? It seems to be built sturdy. Why would it collapse?"

"The Demon Realm's Eye has components that corrode plants. Because of that, the forest area in winter turns into a hellish landscape."

All the trees are stripped bare. All the trees in the area are transformed as if they had been dissolved in hydrochloric acid.

Hunters often referred to the forest area in winter as a part of hell.

"Then in spring, it regenerates in an instant and blooms. That's the forest area's one-year cycle."

Cheon Dowoon looked at the log cabin.

"The house is also made of wood. If we leave it like this, it'll melt and break down here and there."

"Ah… Th, then what should we do?"

"There are two countermeasures."

The first was to erect stone pillars around the house and place huge rocks on them like dolmens.

"We're making a roof out of stone. The disadvantage is that the sunlight is completely blocked. In the spring, we have to remove it again, and in the winter, we have to put the rocks back on. It's a hassle to repeat that process. And if the pillars that can't withstand the load collapse, the house will collapse too."

There were too many disadvantages for a method chosen to protect the house.

"Th, then what's the second method?"

Kim Nari asked with a worried expression at the thought that the house might disappear.

"It's to paint the surface of the house with a substance that blocks acidic components."

"Ooh…! That's a good idea. That way, the sunlight will still come in well. There's nothing to do separately in spring or winter…."

Kim Nari was about to speak with an excited expression, but then stopped. If there were only advantages, there would be no reason not to adopt it immediately.

"Does that have disadvantages too?"

"It does. You have to go into the cave area to get that substance."

The Hunter Association's statistics on the Demon Realm's most avoided places: Top Three. High mountain areas, volcanic areas, and cave areas.

All of them were dangerous areas where Magical energy was highly concentrated.

"Is it a dangerous place that even Mister can't go to?"

"That's not true. If you only consider the density of Magical energy, the cave area is the weakest of the three. Even a B+-Class ability user can somehow enter."

"Then why is it avoided?"

"The terrain itself."

The cave area had a maze-like path.

Every year, Hunters lost their way and died.

"Gates don't open well in the cave area. On average, it opens once for every 120 Return Stones broken. There's no option to open a Gate and escape when you get lost."

A special wavelength created by the terrain. That was what the Hunter Association had discovered was preventing the Gate from opening.

The association also investigated and announced the probability of the Gate opening after breaking thousands of Return Stones.

"That's why it's in the top three of the most avoided places."

"A cave… I see. It's dark. That's why people get lost easily."

"That's not true. All the sunlight comes in."

"A cave where light comes in?"

"It's called a cave, but when you actually go there, it's not really a cave. It's just that the terrain is… It's hard to explain. It feels like a cave. You have to see it to know."

Kim Nari pondered for a moment and then clapped her hands.

"Mister can pull threads from his fingers. If you stretch it out from the entrance, you won't get lost."

Cheon Dowoon smiled. He didn't have to go through such a troublesome process. Cheon Dowoon didn't have to worry about getting lost there.

He had been there several times in the past.

Instead of explaining that, he looked to his side. There, Root, the leader, was sleeping, leaning against Cheon Dowoon.

"You see that?"

Cheon Dowoon pointed to a beaker placed near Root. It was a beaker containing soil from the Snowy Mountain.

Cheon Dowoon had also poured a lot of Mana into the soil.

But Root didn't go in. Even when Cheon Dowoon buried it in the soil, it would sneak out and follow Cheon Dowoon.

As it followed him, it would try to self-moisturize with the moisture cream that Kim, the manager gave him when its surface dried out.

"This guy is the problem. For some reason, it doesn't go into the soil and only follows me. It'll definitely try to follow me to the cave area too."

If he left it here, it might set out on its own to find his traces.

If that happened, it would get lost somewhere in the forest area.

"The cave area is a pretty dry area. It's not as bad as the volcanic area, but it's a poisonous place for plant-based monsters."

"But this Root wants to be with Mister."

"That's right. That's why it's a problem."

Kim Nari thought for a moment and then went into the house. What she brought out was the moisture cream container she had received from Kim, the manager.

"I have this. You can take it with you and apply it from time to time."

"It's possible, but… I think it'll develop strange habits if I take it around like that."

Even now, Root was refusing to go into the ground and was trying to stay next to Cheon Dowoon.

If he took it around while applying moisture cream, it might become a Mandragora that depended on it and walked on the ground 24 hours a day.

"Is it not possible?"

"Well. Plant-based monsters are originally species that live in the ground. I don't know what kind of impact it'll have if it lives on the ground like this."

It was a valid concern. Kim Nari rolled her eyes and pointed to the moisture cream.

"Kim, the manager is a great person who can even make things like this."

"Great… Well, yeah. So?"

"Kim, the manager will do something about it. That manager is omnipotent."

Cheon Dowoon smiled at the innocent words. In fact, no matter how much he thought about it, there was no other option but to take it with him.

He could have left it with the siblings, but Root would have thought that it had been abandoned.

He didn't want to because it would be obvious that it would be squeezing plant juice from its eyes until he came to pick it up.

"Okay. Let's take it."

Cheon Dowoon nodded.

"Because we have Kim, the manager. Since we have a doctor, he'll do something about it."

"A doctor? Is Kim, the manager a doctor?"

"Yeah. He's a doctor."

Cheon Dowoon nodded.

If you're aiming to be an S-Class Alchemist, you should be able to be a Mandragora's doctor. That's right. Cheon Dowoon opened his mouth with a nonchalant expression.

"He's a doctor from today."

Kim, the manager became a doctor.