Chapter 15 – Class E Gate (1)
Field practice. It was his first mission as a Hunter, his heart pounding just from that name. I suppressed my pounding chest and took a deep breath. Next to me, Ichie was rechecking my equipment with an indifferent face. I asked.
“Aren’t you nervous? Why?”
“Nervous? Little bit.”
Ichie nodded and said. However, unlike her remarks, she didn’t look nervous at all. We were now in front of the E-level gate where the mission was actually going on, not the academy. Several people were checking the stability of the gate, and D-class hunters were preparing at a distance.
She was uniquely a woman with silver hair. For a D-Class Hunter, she had a strikingly striking appearance, as she gulped down her cigar, looking down at her gate with a confused expression. I walked over to her with her wit to say hello to her.
Hunter frowned upon seeing us and forced a grin even as he frowned at her.
“Hello! Jeong Su-hyeon, who came as an apprentice hunter today, and this one…”
Ichie spoke directly as I put her end to silence.
“Ichigaya Ichiae. Yoroshiku.”
“Seong Ha-yeon.”
She answered briefly, then nodded her head. After going through our gear, I approached Ichie and adjusted her belt and gear a bit. Ichie was watching her actions, blinking her eyes.
“Uh, huh?”
And a voice came from behind. It was a familiar voice. Startled, I turned her head away. Senior Yoojung was looking at me with an awkward expression. She looked at me with the corners of her mouth quivering, then opened her eyes wide and said:
“Are you going with Su-hyeon? That’s interesting. There is such a coincidence.”
Seong Ha-yeon Hunter listened to senior Yoo-jeong’s remarks, lifted the corner of her mouth slightly, and extinguished her cigarette, which burned her filter, with her bare hands and threw it away. Smoke rose from where the cigarette touched his hand. She said.
“Oh, do you two know each other?”
“Ah, your sister. These are the kids I’m mentoring this time.”
Hunter Seong Ha-yeon and senior Yoo-jeong seemed to know each other very well. They were having a casual conversation. Seong Ha-yeon Hunter said.
“Both? It’s a coincidence. Nice to meet you. I am also a member of the Black Dragon Room.”
I was very curious about the nickname since it was called the Black Dragon Room. However, I couldn’t ask such a question at the point where I didn’t even reveal my nickname. I bowed my head again and said hello.
“I look forward to.”
“Is it so. Yoo Jeong-ah. You too go and get your gear quickly. The two tighten up the equipment a bit more. It is effective as a protective gear when it is tight enough to make you wonder if blood is not flowing through it.”
Ichie and I nodded and went back to check the gear. Ichie looked at me as she tried to tighten the gear straps on the back of her thighs, and she said.
“Help.”
She pointed to the strap on the back of her thigh. I carefully tightened the ends on the tight-fitting pants. As the strap tightened, I could feel my sturdy thighs swell slightly. She asked me to turn around again and then tightened my leg in the same way.
Hunter was a very good job.
After the equipment check was over, senior Yoo Jeong and Hunter Seong Ha-yeon were already waiting in front of the gate. Seong Ha-yeon Hunter was talking with senior Yoo-jeong in a low voice, winking at him, but neither of them looked so good. Are you scolding?
“Come on. Then we’ll start the mission briefing.”
Seong Ha-yeon Hunter, as we came back, she glanced over her whole body once and nodded her head. And she opened her pad and started her mission briefing. Prior to full-scale gate input, the senior hunter had to conduct her mission briefing.
“Today’s E-class gate mission is the ore inside ‘Eldio’ and the E-class monster jungle cat’s skin. It’s good for the pay to get as much as possible. Make sure you pack as much as you can during the gate insertion. Eldio is an ore that looks like this. If you go around the forest and see them, you can dig them up or dig them up.”
A picture of Eldio Ore was uploaded on my pad. The ore, which looked like quartz, emitted a brilliant purple light. Ichie was looking at the Eldio ore with her eyes sparkling. She asked Hunter Seong Ha-yeon, raising her finger over her pad.
“Gore, can I take it?”
“Uh… About one?”
She said and signaled her gate entry. All the people walking around had fallen out, and only four hunters remained in front of the gate. Hunter Seong Ha-yeon and senior Yoo-jeong jumped into the gate first, leaving us behind. I stopped Ichie from jumping in with my hand.
I explained as Ichie looked at me and tilted her head.
“First, go in and check the situation.”
Ichie nodded her head. Seong Ha-yeon Hunter took one look around, stamped her bottom a few times, then looked at us and nodded. I quickly packed my bag and luggage and rushed inside the gate with Ichie, as the senior in the army called.
Upon entering the gate, the air was damp and damp. Ichie trembled in surprise, but she didn’t react. After carrying each of her bags, Seong Ha-yeon Hunter said.
“It’s a mission to dig up ore, so I think it’s a little more efficient to go around in groups of two. Because Eldio ore is scattered all over the place. With Jungle Cat, me and Yoojung can easily deal with it. Let’s split up and find out.”
Let’s split up and look for it? Wasn’t it an advantage to go together unconditionally? Even in the training video, the hunters were wiped out at the E-class gate while doing individual actions? But my doubts did not come out of my mouth. It was because Seong Ha-yeon Hunter had a higher rank than me and had more experience. Ichie asked.
“Isn’t it dangerous?”
“It’s not dangerous. Don’t worry.”
Seong Ha-yeon Hunter dismissed Ichie’s concerns in one word. And before further questions could be raised, she held Ichie’s hand and pointed in one direction.
“We’re going this way, and if anything happens, we’ll shoot a red flare, so we have to join right away? Okay?”
“Yes. If we are in danger, we will send you a signal right away.”
“All right. Then see you later. If you want to return with a full bag, shoot blue.”
“Yes.”
Seong Ha-yeon and Ichie disappeared beyond the shade of the forest. In other words, it meant that only me and senior Yoo-jeong were left here. She glanced at me, then turned her head and said.
“Then, shall we go?”
“Ah yes.”
What is this awkward feeling? I thought I was quite close with senior Yoojung, but strangely, I felt awkward when we were alone. Senior Yoo-jung seemed to be the same. We were walking in the woods inside the gate, but we were overcome with a strange feeling as if we were walking in an empty park.
“Miss Ichie. She was a beauty.”
Senior Yoo-jeong brought up such a story while walking down the street. I was feeling her glancing at me. I shook my head and said.
“I think senior Yoojung is also beautiful.”
“Am I? Me, really?”
Senior Yoojeong cautiously asked me a question. I didn’t know how to answer here. How should I say it? What rhetoric should I add? It wasn’t cool to just say ‘yes’, and it didn’t feel sincere. I said.
“Ever since I first met you, I always thought that way. Yoojung sunbaenim is really beautiful. I do.”
“I am embarrassed to hear that. I don’t think she has a pretty face, but what about our Hayeon unnie? She’s a beauty too, right? Her hair is silver, and her personality is cool.”
Senior Yu-jeong kept talking about her about other women, not about herself. I said.
“I thought she was a good person.”
“Is that so. That’s right. Hayeon unnie is a good person.”
“I think senior Yoojung is also a good person. She always helps me and that… She is personally very appreciative. Even though I have such a strange nickname, you look after me without prejudice. Thank you so much.”
Senior Yoojung was a really nice person. She was one of the first people to buy food if the Hunter subsidy came out. Senior Yoojeong made a strange expression at my words, then turned her head and said,
“I am not such a nice person. Mr. Suhyun. I am actually a very bad person.”
“But it is true that you have been good to me. Senior Yoojung is a really good person to me, and he is someone I want to keep close to.”
At those words, senior Yoo-jeong shook her shoulders slightly. Did this go too far? I said, shrinking her body.
“Senior Yoo-jeong?”
“Ah. How long have you been talking?”
I tried to talk about this again, but I kept my mouth shut. In the meantime, senior Yoojeong pointed to the ore next to the rock and said,
“Ah! Hey, it’s Eldio ore!”
“Really. Senior, I’ll count it.”
Like the collectible ore that appears in the game, the Eldio ore emits a brilliant light and emits a presence from the gap between the stones. Senior Yoojung asked with a worried face.
“Can you?”
“I saw it a few times on the Internet. Can I break the root and bring it?”
“Yes yes. That’s right. Suhyeon, you studied hard.”
With a smile on her face, Yu-jeong said that. When I saw her smile, I felt more strength in her body. Hearing her cheers, I started scraping the ore. I felt like a scaling expert grinding tartar. The crunching sound made me feel strange.
No matter how much time passed, I was clumsy and had some foreign substances on it, but I succeeded in mining ore for the first time in my life. Senior Yoojeong took the ore from me and passed it by my fingertips. My body trembled as if electricity were going through it. She glanced over the ore, oblivious to my reaction.
“Well, I guess I just need to brush it off a little more. I did very well for the first time.”
And she put the ore in my bag. I felt her shoulders lift as I heard her praise.
“Churrr… !”
And a growl was heard from beyond the bushes. Senior Yoo-jeong, who smiled and closed the zipper of her bag, gently pushed me back and said,
“Would you like to step aside for a moment?”
“Ah, me too…”
“You don’t have much practical experience. Please stay away.”
And senior Yoojung bent her knees slightly and took a deep breath. She said.
“At Black Dragon Room, trainees are taught a technique called ‘Pacheongong’. I will show you a little bit.”
