Chapter 10

Chapter 10

An EX-rank supporter skill really exists?

Break during the <​I Am a Hunter> shoot. Sitting on the sofa, I greeted Park Jin-ho first.

"Senior. Have you been well."

Even if I'm a ten-year hand in the industry, Park Jin-ho is an elder-class hunter who survived the age of the end. An enormous difference from me, who only briefly dipped a foot at the tail end of that era.

"Right. Si-u. I've been well. And you don't have to use honorifics that much."

A handsome middle-aged man of an easy impression, loved by the whole nation even in his mid-fifties. Park Jin-ho smiled.

There was a face between us, since I had joined <​I Am a Hunter> a few times as Kim Seol-yeon's partner.

"You moved guilds this time?"

"Yes. Thankfully, my luck was good."

Be humble, and humble again. Our strength does not exist for personal gain. A habit of the mouth of Park Jin-ho, a first-generation hunter who still holds the support of the whole nation.

So in front of him, you turn humble on your own.

"You worked hard for ten years. There's someone who recognizes that."

Suddenly the all kinds of contemptuous words I had been through at Deungcheon Guild came back. And with them, gratitude toward Lee Mi-seon, who had recognized me amid that.

Then the main PD's voice came.

"We'll resume the shoot!"

The shoot that followed ended without particular trouble. Partly because Kim Eun-ji wasn't that nervous, and she said odd things now and then, but.

"Thank you for your work."

"You worked hard."

Then, after greeting Park Jin-ho and the staff, we got in the compact and headed for the lodging.

"Director oppa."

"Yes."

"...Speak casually. We'll be going on gate clears together too, and polite speech is a luxury."

Certainly, in a situation where lives are on the line, you can't keep manners with polite speech.

"Right. You speak casually too. It's easier for both of us."

"I'll use polite speech usually."

"Do what's comfortable. I'll drop you at the lodging first. Rest a bit, and let's go train tomorrow morning."

Because of using Polarity yesterday, Kim Eun-ji's body was not yet normal. She had even done a shoot in that state, so fatigue would have piled up.

"Director oppa. Did you see the text from the guild master?"

"Hm?"

I was driving now, so I couldn't look at my phone. What text came, for her to be like that?

"You and oppa got too much attention, so she's worried about safety, and said to use the same lodging? She'll use my room, and she's gotten a new lodging."

"Uh..."

Even if I take the manager role too, a man and a woman using the same lodging won't do. The moment the Confucian thought inside me reared its head hard.

"You're not thinking something weird, right?"

"...Absolutely not."

"Then there's no reason to refuse."

Mm. Kim Eun-ji speaks better than I thought. As manager, I filled in one line of her information. More than that, if safety is the worry, is there a need to use the same room.

"Isn't the same building enough?"

"Didn't you see the news? That isn't enough."

Kidnapping a civilian office worker who has worked a long time with a high-rank hunter with money, and demanding money, is an old method too.

The best is, in the end, using the same room. Even the same building, kidnapping is possible whenever.

More than that.

"You know, right? My skill. Almost no chance of being kidnapped."

I was confident I could buy time until the police or a hunter arrived.

"Not you, Director oppa. Me. Without Polarity I'm an ordinary C-rank hunter. And I don't have a combat skill."

Mind's Eye (B). Acceleration (C). Her skills are these two. Originally a scouter or ranger type of hunter, and direct combat is on the weak side.

And if they aimed at Kim Eun-ji, holding the title of the world's first demon kill, they would prepare a force to match.

"Tsk..."

Thinking of her safety, using the same lodging was best in the end.

"Can't be helped."

"Yes!"

"Huh?"

She, who until a moment ago had been tossing words in an indifferent tone, suddenly put both hands together and shouted as if glad. At that I glanced at her with a questioning face.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Meeting eyes with her, returned to a blank face again, I had no choice but to let it pass. Kids these days, you can't get a read on them.

Talking like that and driving, we arrived at the familiar officetel.

"From when are they changing the lodging?"

"Now."

"Hm?"

Kim Eun-ji, who had finished texting the guild master while we moved, took my hand and went into the building.

No. The work is already done?

She was clumsy at answering calls, and this was incredibly fast.

-Ding.

One floor above the original lodging of Saebit Guild's hunters. Getting off the elevator, we stopped in front of a unit.

"Here?"

"Yes. The code is..."

-Beep

With the sound of the door lock opening, looking inside, an ordinary two-room unit entered my vision.

In the living room, my luggage had already been carried in.

"Eun-ji's things have to be moved too, so let's go down together."

For an instant the unidentified room I had seen yesterday came to mind. At least let it not be Kim Eun-ji's room. I made the offer with that heart, but.

"No? I can do it alone, so organize your things and rest."

With a firm refusal, she turned and stepped outside.

A feeling oddly regrettable, and also a relief.

Anyway, roughly organizing my things and showering, I claimed the big room first. Things like this, the one who takes the spot first has priority.

After, lying on the bed, a red-lit alarm was visible at one side of my vision.

"Huh?"

What. I raised a finger and touched the alarm. And.

[Please set the experience distribution ratio with the Polarity target (Kim Eun-ji).]

The second function of Polarity, which I had forgotten, came back. Come to think of it, this was here.

I have no thought of living like a sucker now, but I have no thought of living selfishly either.

"Half."

Even so, thanks to me she could kill a demon too, so taking at least half seemed reasonable.

-Ding!

[Confirm the experience distribution ratio at 50:50?]

"Yes."

[You have killed a demon-type monster. Distributing experience.]

Then, a level-up everyone else would have experienced, I got to do for the first time in ten years.

-Ding!

[level up!] x 10

[Congratulations. Reaching a certain level, Polarity's function expands.]

"Hm?"

I thought I was finally getting a new skill, but it was a strengthening of the existing skill. Well. This isn't bad either. Thanks to leveling up, the mana core expanded too.

First, basic combat ability had certainly grown.

[The effective time of the ungraded skill granted through Polarity increases. You can designate one more Polarity target.]

"Mm."

It wasn't hugely good. Thinking of Kim Seol-yeon's example, you use it when handling a boss monster anyway.

"Ah..."

Come to think of it, this was Saebit Guild. Hunters to support Kim Eun-ji, including me, were only three. I didn't know the other hunters' skills yet.

Then it was certainly an ability needed now.

"Tsk."

Even so, I had hoped for something more like a body-reinforcement skill. I wanted to stand at the front of a gate clear now too.

Seeing Kim Eun-ji kill a demon, my body itched for the first time in a while.

"I can level up now too."

Nothing for it but to look to next time.

**

"There's nothing wrong?"

Kim Seol-yeon was currently at the headquarters of one of the large guilds. Asterion. There, A-rank healer Lee Mi-yeon furrowed her eyes.

"If a skill disappeared or the status window changed, it would be curse-type. I don't see that. And looking at the gate rank you entered, it makes no sense that I can't detect it."

Lee Mi-yeon tilted her head as if it were strange and looked at Kim Seol-yeon.

"More than that, the thing itself doesn't make sense? How does a C-rank Freeze skill turn into White Night Ice Palace? And ungraded, at that? First I've heard of it. You have to tell the truth if I'm to help."

"I didn't lie."

At Kim Seol-yeon's expression, meeting her eyes straight, Lee Mi-yeon had no choice but to furrow her brow. It made no sense by her common sense.

Then some rumor flashed through Lee Mi-yeon's mind. A rumor about Lee Si-u she had snorted at, saying it was nonsense.

"Lee Si-u being a hunter is certain. The Association recognized him? And if you awaken, you always have a skill. Then Polarity? EX-rank. That must be real. That's the only way it explains?"

Watching Lee Mi-yeon muttering to herself, this time Kim Seol-yeon's expression twisted.

A lie made up to defend a self endlessly lacking compared to his girlfriend. That there was still someone swayed by a lie like that was absurd.

"We were together for ten years. Then why does he only have one skill? Looking at his mana, he didn't level up at all. We cleared gates how many times."

"The rumor is he gave you the experience gain too? So that's probably why. Anyway, as I see it, nothing's wrong with you."

"Ha..."

Watching Kim Seol-yeon open the door and leave, Lee Mi-yeon's expression twisted without mercy.

"No manners at all?"

She had made time at S-rank Hunter Kwon Do-hyeok's request and looked herself, and the manners were too lacking.

Then the door opened again and Kwon Do-hyeok came in. An all-back swept neatly, and a fierce impression. Even a shirt of a flashy pattern.

The appearance of a superstar Korea boasts of.

"How is it?"

"How is what? Manners are garbage, and nothing's wrong."

"You don't know either?"

Kwon Do-hyeok stroked his chin and narrowed his eyes. As if suspecting Lee Mi-yeon.

"Hey! What's with the face like I lied?"

"...No. Then I wondered if the rumor was right. Polarity or whatever."

"Doesn't it not explain otherwise? I wish! Saying that is the same too. That girl who subjugated the demon."

The hunters of Team 1, boasting the top force even in Archecion Guild. Lee Mi-yeon and Kwon Do-hyeok met eyes and wore a meaningful expression.

"If it's real..."

"We drop Kim Seol-yeon right away. And you kneel to that girl and apologize."

"Do I have to?"

At Kwon Do-hyeok's attitude, Lee Mi-yeon pulled up only one corner of her mouth.

"She gets stronger than you with a mere C-rank skill, so if it's B-rank or above? You're a one-hit cut."

"Even so, it doesn't last three minutes. I can fight all day if I pace it. Who has the edge in a gate clear is clear. Even in a one-on-one, kill her before she recites the line, and that's that."

The higher a gate's rank, the longer the clear time. The reason Kim Seol-yeon cannot become S-rank.

With a mere three minutes, the role she can play is bound to be limited.

"...That's true too."

"I admit it's a usable skill, but that's all. Does it make sense for me to bow my head to a guy like that?"

**

"Aaaak!!"

Back home, Kim Seol-yeon threw furnishings and screamed.

"Why!!"

Clearly her life had been flowing smoothly. As if she had become a protagonist, everyone praised her.

And yet.

"What was that look! A mere A-rank!"

Both A-rank hunters, but Lee Mi-yeon and she are different. Kim Seol-yeon clearly thought so.

An A-rank who built a skill tree ordinarily, and Kim Seol-yeon, holding the only ungraded skill in the world, cannot be the same.

Until not long ago, it had been so.

"I wish!!!"

Originally, skill use outside a gate is extremely restricted, but to Kim Seol-yeon now, that didn't matter.

"I open the white night and raise the ice palace!"

Originally her mana should have changed sharply and altered the surroundings. At the same time, Kim Seol-yeon's hair should have dyed pure white.

"Not even death shall reach those who enter my palace!"

There was no change at all. Kim Seol-yeon furrowed her face and sank to the floor.

"Why, all of a sudden...!"

Introduced to Lee Mi-yeon through an S-rank hunter, and she said she didn't know either. Rather, she only talked groundless guesses.

"There's no way it's thanks to Lee Si-u!"

She had never even heard of an EX-rank skill. Gates cleared together numbered in the dozens. Not leveling up even once in that time, does that make sense.

Lee Si-u is not a hunter. A case clearly closed like that began to tighten around Kim Seol-yeon again.

-Ding.

Then an alarm came to Kim Seol-yeon's phone.

[Sender: Archecion Guild Hunter Support Team, Assistant Manager Shin Ju-yeon

Seol-yeon. Whoa. Look at this week's <​I Am a Hunter> video.]

One of the guild members she had come to know in passing. Originally a person in no position to readily text Kim Seol-yeon.

"Ha..."

Kim Seol-yeon now didn't even have the leisure to think of that.

"What is it?"

[The truth is, it happened because of a hunter with no ability who mistakes himself for talented.]

The hunter who had killed a demon not long ago. A beauty with a young face, just become an adult. Kim Seol-yeon nodded, watching the video. There was someone who overrated himself, like Lee Si-u.

[Thank you. For sending the director.]

"Director...?"

With the scene of the violet-eyed beauty raising one corner of her mouth, the man sitting beside her appeared on screen.

"Lee Si-u...?"

A video she had seen not long ago rose in Kim Seol-yeon's head. Strangely, a hunter who grows stronger reciting a signature line, like Kim Seol-yeon's White Night Ice Palace.

And the man at her side.

"No way..."

An EX-rank supporter skill really exists?