Chapter 485. Temporary Alliance (3)

The Hunter of the Other World Who Is Being Misunderstood

Chapter 485. Temporary Alliance (3)

A civilian rescue that had begun with a mindset far removed from altruism. It was all well and good once I had a goal, but—

"Oh my."

After actually traveling together with the man named Oh Young-in, a number of unexpected inconveniences cropped up. First, Oh Young-in agreed for a while to my offer to help him escape this place. But the moment I actually tried to lead him out of the gate, this superpower-hater human subtly ignored the professional advice I was giving.

"My resolve to protect humans is already on the verge of breaking..."

In fact, the otherworldly realm we were in was designed so that monsters would only spawn once an intruder was detected.

"Hmm, this flow is similar to how black wolves spawned in that one EX-rank gate. Well, that's how most dungeons work."

And fortunately, the room where the kidnapping victim had been held was free of such special magic—but the passage the Archmage had secretly taken to get here was practically a minefield. That was why I had clearly explained the following plan to the human.

"Congressman, from here on, we shouldn't move backward. We need to push forward and break through the doors ahead instead."

"I came through a route with far too many hazards, so to keep you safe, it would be better to take the shorter path."

"This way is shorter?"

"Yes. It's less than half the distance compared to going back."

"Hm."

"And one more thing—even if monsters suddenly appear while we're moving forward, please don't panic. I should tell you in advance: this gate doesn't have creatures that attack first."

At this point, the warnings had been clearly conveyed.

"Aaaa!! Uwaaaah!"

But what was this human siren that erupted the moment we stepped into the next room?

"Small in stature, yet so loud."

Flutter~~.

This gate, once it sensed the warmth of a living being, would send out enemies that looked roughly like this. Delicately shaped orange wings were attached, and the body hidden inside was small, like a bumblebee. There were quite a few of them, so from a distance, their combined mass even looked bigger than it actually was.

Thud!

Provoked by the politician's scream, the monster bared its aggression, but I quickly struck it down with a water-attribute attack. However, the moment I turned my back after confirming the deaths of the pack—

I realized that the unawakened person next to me had taken off running on their own.

"Just how far could he have gotten in these few seconds?"

What made matters worse was that Congressman Oh Young-in was now ahead of me.

"Ah! No, you can't move like that!"

"Huh?"

"Don't step on any floor tile! Be careful—watch the tiles!"

Of course, Earth's gates weren't created by the Glumche I knew, but their internal structures still mostly followed rules similar to those from my Alphast days. This white, empty, corridor-style dungeon lacked the mechanisms normally required to open its doors. However, befitting a space marked as EX-rank, it was properly equipped with plenty of auxiliary attack traps.

"From now on, stay calm and step on the corridor tiles one by one—only in the directions I indicate!"

Glance. I hurriedly analyzed the nearby traps. The result wasn't encouraging. The gate we were escaping from seemed to be equipped with a trap where arrows would rain down like a storm from the walls.

"Congressman! First, step firmly on the rectangular tile on the left side of the floor and move from there. The left one!"

I mobilized every sense I had as an Archmage and gave instructions.

"Left?"

Tuk.

But the bespectacled human merely glanced around and asked belatedly.

"Uh... uh, Hunter Kim Gyeo, did you mean left from your perspective just now?"

Not at all, though.

"Oh my."

Sorry, but I had already explained everything from the victim's perspective, exercising full consideration. In other words, the tile that the politician had just stepped on would actually trigger a trap.

"If you're confused about directions, shouldn't you have asked before moving?"

From my perspective, it was only natural for frustration to arise.

A sharp sound rang out from somewhere in the wall. It was the signal that a trap had been activated. I drew on my physical abilities and leapt in front of the kidnapping victim.

"Ah!"

Then, using nothing but my body's baseline capabilities, I shielded the non-awakened civilian who had frozen in place.

I barely managed to keep them alive.

The arrows shot out from the wall were certainly threatening, but they weren't enough to pierce even an SS-rank Awakened.

If I had used [Telekinesis] magic to push the Congressman down, the rescue operation would've been much easier than this. But unfortunately, there were several circumstances preventing that right now.

He's the kind of person who'd say he'd die if even a single pro-Awakened article came out—so just imagine what he'd say if he got shoved around by a skill inside a dungeon.

Since I intended to properly torture him later with my own hands, I had to at least keep him alive for now. And because it would be troublesome if the police were to assume there was a personal grudge between us, I also had to treat this Congressman with exaggerated kindness in advance.

Still—did taking revenge on nothing more than a peddler of false articles really have to be this difficult?

'-_-'

The already murky Sambagae of this body seemed especially clouded today. After dealing with the trap in such a blunt, almost crude way, I fell into thought.

"Phew."

Still, for a brief moment, I did feel a small sense of satisfaction at having saved a human life...

"I'm starting to get suspicious."

Surprisingly, any positive feelings hadn't even lasted three minutes.

"At this rate, maybe he'll deliberately providing me just to get some news they can spread outside."

A new challenge followed just a few seconds later. Even though I had repeatedly warned them not to scream in front of monsters, the moment a small feather fell through the air, Oh Young-in reflexively let out a scream.

On top of that, as I hurriedly dealt with the monsters that had been drawn by that scream, the person who had been cowering in the corner like a drowning mouse shouted my name again, like some wild animal.

"Hey! Hey, hey, Kim Gi-ryeol Look, there's another monster over there! Go catch it, quick!"

"Yes."

"Phew, f*ck! You're scaring me!"

It's sad. Even though I was genuinely doing my best to move quickly, I still had to endure all kinds of cheap curses right up close.

"Oh Ty, he appeared very polite, but in reality, he sure has a coarse mouth."

Still, when a creature gets scared, it's natural to temporarily forget social manners.

"First, let's endure it. Just endure it."

I've been living on this planet for several years now. So I was already quite familiar with Earth's social customs.

[If serious incidents like assault or kidnapping occur, the police check whether the victim had any prior grudges or enemies.]

For that reason, I'd been laughing it off this whole time, gently brushing aside all the petty behavior of that insignificant mammal.

Hatred. Or irritation. There was little to be gained from openly venting such emotions in front of a weak species anyway. And I had already formed a plan to seize the other party and properly torture him later. So, with my magic reserves currently low, it was more efficient to show him even greater kindness than usual for now—and save things for another day.

"If I want to get revenge on that spreader of false rumors, I may have to lure him to a secluded place. So for now, I should lower his guard as much as possible."

When the Archmage humbled himself and bent over backward, Congressman Oh Young-in only grew bolder, like a fish that had finally found water, and started to exert even bigger problems. Still, for the sake of the blood-soaked revenge that would come later, I maintained the act like an impregnable fortress.

"Haha a. Congressman—you've stepped on yet another trap."

"Eek!"

Thinking that I might finally be able to vent all the stress I'd accumulated from dealing with humanity for so long, I found myself smiling without even trying anymore.

"Maybe this is for the best. I've held myself back for no reason all this time—taking this opportunity to thoroughly discipline a mammal so it never dares to overstep again doesn't sound so bad."

And just as I was proceeding with the dungeon raid, genuinely enjoying myself for once. We finally reached the very end of the gate.

"Oh, this is the last door...."

"Ah, I'm thirsty!"

At this point, it seemed my companion's tension had completely melted away as well, because the target named Oh Young-in suddenly began voicing his desires outright.

"Are you thirsty?"

After all, I was an Awakened well known for my affinity with water type abilities. So this request didn't seem particularly hard to grant.

"Then please hold your palms together like this, facing upward for a moment."

I spoke to my companion, intending to use magic.

"_ _"

"_ _"

But the reaction I got was this. The politician rolled his eyes around in silence for a while, then finally organized his thoughts and spoke more plainly.

"Do you happen to have any potions on you instead of that?"

I do. Being a Hunter myself, I naturally carry basic healing items, but I paused for a moment at his request.

"This guy's insane..."

This political figure—was he really asking for a drink that costs at least a million won just because he didn't like water summoned with some suspicious magical substance? And in the middle of a bizarre occurrence like this.

"Or maybe he just wanted to try one of those expensive potions that only Hunters usually get."

I let my sambagae eyes flicker briefly as I considered it. The creature in front of me hastily added an explanation, as if to justify itself. In fact, he wasn't refusing magically summoned water because it was suspicious—he had recently been diagnosed as pre-diabetic during a health check-up, so he needed to watch his blood sugar. That's why he had no choice but to make such a request.

"I kind of want to just let him die of thirst."

Well, potions infused with magical energy do have more calories than a non-magic user might expect...

But this brat refuses to give outside and just shamelessly asks for the potion.

His picky survival instincts—hating superhumans and dungeons, yet refusing nothing that's a healthy magical restorative—he struck me as strangely exasperating. Still, it was fine. After all, I also kept a separate item box stocked with "fake body recovery potions" meant purely for show in front of Earthlings.

"Here."

I handed him a dungeon crystal bottle filled with an orange-flavored drink.

"Ooh!"

The moment he took it, he laughed heartily and drank the beverage with obvious delight.

"Since it's not a zero-sugar product, it should actually be okay for his pre-diabetic condition..."

With his physiological needs safely addressed, all that remained was to get out of the dungeon as quickly as possible.

"Wow, what is this? Maybe it's expensive or something, but it really works! I've never had this before—this is an amazing potion!"

While the naive human chattered away in the distance, I activated the spell form that would cleave open the door before us, and while it took shape, I organized my plans in my head.

"Once we're out, should I torture that man the Earth way? Or the binary-star-system way?"

The thoughts that followed were nothing but brutal ones. Ignoring an expert's advice and repeatedly blundering into a deadly trap, then causing all of that trouble and even bigger problems. Still, for the sake of my magic reserves being latent and as little as abroad annoying.

But the wrongdoing committed by the human accompanying me hardly ended at a little level. He was a politician who had gone so far as to hire someone to fail and deliberately smear my name. And inside this dungeon, he had even brazenly tried to pass off a dangerous artifact—an act I could not possibly overlook.

"A bastard like this would only come to his senses after having the area under his little toenail stabbed with an awl about ten million times."

So I didn't change my mind at all, right up until the moment we were about to leave the dungeon. I'd get him safe and sound, and I had already formed a plan to seize the other party and properly torture him. I'd make sure that man paid—principal and interest—for every single mistake he'd committed.

This was the plan a stressed Archmage had arrived at after long deliberation.

"Oh Young-in? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"No, it's just..."

"I'm just checking regularly to make sure you're safe, that's all. So please don't be too tense."

"Hmm."

"The door dismantling is almost finished, so just hang in there a little longer."

No matter how kindly I treated him, he still couldn't completely let his guard down—probably because of this damned sambagae of mine.

Still, I made sure to protect the civilian so that not even a hair on his head was harmed, while also fully understanding the state of mind of a victim who had no choice but to be anxious after being kidnapped. I had behaved in every way like a model hunter, so I had nothing at all to feel guilty about once we got outside.

With that, I broke through the final barrier of this gate without hesitation.

"As expected, my remaining mana is really cutting it close..."

Since this place was an EX-rank gate that was practically a mass of errors, it seemed the reward system wasn't functioning properly.

I went through all that hell, and it's not even giving me a single artifact?!

But anyway, I decided to be grateful that the objective had been accomplished.

"Huh? Could that be the exit?"

"That's right."

"Ah! Oh, thank you. Seriously, what a hassle this was. Once I get outside, I really need to put that awakened b*stard on the wanted list or find something!"

As you can see, the Earthling was with a burning desire for revenge against the kidnapper.

"Yeah. If you ever find that savage, give me a call too. Honestly, I'm curious myself how they managed to shove you into a sealed dungeon like this."

As for his extremist faction that had caused such a massive incident by kidnapping a politician... Of course, I planned to set aside time later to investigate them as well. But before that, I intended to punish the person who had slandered this Archmage.

As I tore his mindset apart so he'd never spread false rumors again, I'd naturally end up learning the kidnappers' appearances anyway.

"Let's get out of here."

Somehow, more work had piled up again. Still, I decided to be satisfied with the fact that I'd managed to get my hands on the ability-hating instigator who'd been the source of my recent stress. And with that, I stepped outside the gate.

The sight that greeted us the moment we emerged was the landscape of a particular mountain, densely packed with trees. Up to that point, everything was as expected—nothing out of the ordinary.

***

But if things were going to unfold like this, it would be a problem.

About four hours later. After completing the civilian rescue, I finished the basic follow-up procedures and was lying at home. For reference, those "follow up procedures" I just mentioned consisted roughly of the following steps.

Escorting the politician—who claimed he had been beaten badly enough to be covered in bruises by his kidnappers—to a medical facility, and then after confirming all the circumstances of the incident to the administrative officials and police who arrived afterward.

Anyway, I sent the weakened Congressman Oh off with a kindly face and returned to my usual seaside villa.

"Maybe the water temperature isn't quite right."

At the moment, I was floating atop my private pool, finally taking a long overdue rest.