75. A Tiger Leaves Its Hide When It Dies, And A Man… (1)

A mutant gate had appeared in Daegu. Two rifts had opened at almost identical coordinates and fused into a single one, an exceedingly rare phenomenon. Word that this so-called double gate had been cleared rode the airwaves and spread fast.

Shock! Arahan’s Supernova Has Set

Who Are the Scraps, the Driving Force Behind the Clear?

The Next Sword Saint Confesses: “I Was Incompetent.”

Who Is Cheon Yujin, the Hero of the Clear?

…

“The Supernova — that was, who was it again. Song Myeongseok, right?”
“Whoa. I even bought that Hunter’s photo book.”
“They said he was born with the exact same unique trait as China’s Martial King.”
“There was all that talk about whether we’d finally produce a Family of our own here too.”
“Turned out to be a whole lot of fuss over nothing. Tsk.”

News that the Arahan strike force had been wiped out struck hard, and not at the Hunter industry alone. Song Myeongseok was only the second Hunter ever to carry the Heavenly Bone trait, after the Martial King Chang Wufei, and in an age where a Hunter’s caliber is national power, his death was bitter news indeed.

“But — the Scraps? Who even are these kids.”
“They jointly closed a gate once on Arahan Guild’s direct commission, apparently.”
“The next Sword Saint admitted he was stronger than her.”
“Jang Miseon? Isn’t that the Hunter who beat Song Myeongseok in a duel recently?”
“Insane. How were Hunters like this not known about until now?”

The tragedy of the double-gate clear was quickly buried under another story entirely: the Scraps, a rookie team that had streaked onto the scene like a comet, not even attached to a guild. That Hunters who had never shown much prominence could suddenly burst into the spotlight left a great many people unable to contain their astonishment.

“Where on earth did Hunters like this even pop up from.”
“These days, the second a halfway-decent rookie shows up, a big guild snatches them.”
“Won’t Phoenix be the ones to recruit them?”
“Nah. With Song Myeongseok dead too, Arahan might loosen the purse strings.”
“Wasn’t that Supernova’s signing fee, like, five billion?”
“They cleared a gate where even the Supernova died, so more than that?!”
“That’s insane.”

An unforeseen incident had dragged a rookie Hunter team into the light. Word spread that Dawn Guild, one of the Big Three and not even a participant in the clear, was already angling to make contact with the Scraps. On top of that, several of the country’s prominent large guilds threw themselves into raising funds to recruit the standout newcomers.

“Whatever happens with the other Hunters, Cheon Yujin — this one, we absolutely have to bring to Mir.”
“It’s as good as having beaten Song Myeongseok. We have to recruit him while Arahan’s still hesitating.”
“Just by landing Hunter Cheon Yujin, wouldn’t our guild stand a real chance at the Big Three a few years down the line?”

The large guilds had, to some degree, guessed at the truth behind the partnership between Arahan and the Scraps. What happened inside a gate clear, only the Hunters who went in could ever truly know, but the disposal of the byproducts afterward was bound to leak to some degree. The double-gate incident turned the large guilds’ insider guesses into certainty.

“Start by pinning down the Scraps’ whereabouts.”
“Relatives, acquaintances — them too!”
“We have to make contact before any other guild, no matter what!”

A major commodity had been loosed onto the Hunter market. The Scraps’ exploits sent the domestic press and the large guilds alike into a frenzy.

“…and that’s how the clear was concluded.”

Jang Miseon reported on what had happened during the double-gate clear.

Mm-.

Letting out a hum whose meaning was anyone’s guess, Kim Yeongsu took a sip of his coffee.

“Ugh, that’s hot.”
“With your elemental resistance, Master? You’re going to make a fuss over that?”
“To savor coffee for what it truly is, you’ve got to endure it.”

Having spouted his nonsense and savored the coffee at his leisure, Kim Yeongsu parted his lips again.

“You said the gate’s structure, which had been two forking paths, changed?”
“It was different from the advance survey.”
“The Arahan strike force that entered first was ambushed. And they fought desperately until the rear guard could get into position, then died, was it.”

In the fighting, the entire Arahan strike force had died. By Jang Miseon’s account in particular, Song Myeongseok had been shredded by the werewolves’ claws, so not even his corpse could be recovered. Only the other bodies and Song Myeongseok’s gear had been barely salvaged and handed over to Arahan Guild.

“Thanks to that, officially, we’ve put Arahan in our debt.”
“Officially?”
“The unofficial version’s a little different, isn’t it.”

Kim Yeongsu wiped the smile from his lips and spoke in a grave tone.

“Let’s keep the story we send out for public consumption to just that much.”
“Was it obvious?”
“You always blink your left eye when you lie.”
“Ahaha. I’ll have to be more careful.”

When Jang Miseon let out a hearty laugh, Kim Yeongsu heaved a heavy sigh. Arahan’s Hunters had thrown away their own lives to shield the rear guard? Even setting aside her tell, it was an unbelievable story.

“The double gate — the whole thing was a trap.”

Jang Miseon laid out the truth of the clear in full, holding nothing back. How the gate’s structure had transformed. How Arahan, with the monsters under its command, had fallen on the group. And, last of all, Yujin’s part in it.

“Was that first gate-clear report a cover, to bury your friend’s exploits?”
“Mm. If it hadn’t been for Master Yujin, we’d have died there.”

Publicly, Yujin passed for a Priest. The tale of how he’d healed the Seongcheon Enterprise’s youngest daughter was no secret among the large guilds, and word of his summon Fafnir’s exploits had spread by mouth as well. Hadn’t Jang Miseon herself caught that story and gone barreling off to the Paju workshop?

“Completely wrong information, it seems.”

Kim Yeongsu held his tongue and swallowed a low groan. A Priest who commanded corpses? Was the man even a Priest at all? He half-wondered whether this wasn’t instead that magic-line class named in the documents dug out of the gates: a ‘Necromancer.’

“Miseon. If what you say is true, the Hunter industry is laboring under an enormous misconception.”
“What misconception?”
“Arahan had been investigating that man since two months ago.”

If Daegu’s double gate had been Arahan’s trap, then by the time Phoenix recruited Yujin’s group, they’d already have shored up their forces on the strength of what they’d dug up.

“So they’d have grasped all of Master Yujin’s abilities and prepared accordingly?”
“They would have.”
“Wow. Insane. To deceive Arahan with full intent.”

Yujin had buried his Necromancer abilities deep all through his public activity. Only in the immediate wake of his regression, clearing the Garden of Antiquity and the Forgotten Shrine, had he openly commanded the undead. After that he’d shown his true skill only in the borderlands and at Ground Zero, beyond the reach of prying eyes.

Kim Yeongsu could know nothing of the events that had come before, yet one thing he grasped for certain.

“Hunter Cheon Yujin may well have foreseen that a situation like this would come.”

— Gulp.

Jang Miseon swallowed hard.

“He’s a frightening person.”
“It’s all just conjecture, mind you.”
“After this incident he’ll have become irreparably estranged from Arahan Guild. Should I try recruiting him?”
“That man is a vessel no guild can contain. Better not to touch him.”
“Wow — so this is that famous instinct of yours I’ve only heard rumors about?”
“What rumors are even going around, honestly.”

Kim Yeongsu grumbled, but he didn’t entirely deny it, and gave a nod.

“The Phoenix instinct.”

The phrase made the rounds throughout the Hunter industry. Phoenix had clawed its way to a seat among Korea’s three great guilds on the back of Kim Yeongsu’s discernment: he recruited capable Hunters, then lavished fitting support and training on them. The guild ran smaller than Arahan or Dawn, yet thanks to that ‘instinct’ for spotting talent, its real fighting strength never came up short in the slightest.

“There’s also the nickname ‘the Midas Touch.’ Should I call you by that one?”
“Keep that up and you’ll get a scolding.”
“Pfft.”

Jang Miseon pressed her lips together. Kim Yeongsu looked at the guild’s promising young prospect, near enough a niece in age, and let out a soft laugh.

“Miseon. Do me one favor.”
“I’ll hear it first and then decide whether to do it.”
“Could you keep up an exchange with Hunter Cheon Yujin from time to time?”
“You said guild recruitment would be difficult.”
“I’m not telling you to bring him to Phoenix. I’m telling you to get close to him.”

A question mark floated over Jang Miseon’s head.

“That, and this — aren’t they the same thing?”
“Just because someone hasn’t come into my arms doesn’t mean they’re bound to become an enemy.”

A Hunter whose talent matched, or outstripped, that of Jang Miseon and Song Myeongseok. More than that, he had the wisdom to hide his strength by design and the nerve to bare it the instant the moment called for it.

Even if the man couldn’t be made an ally, why not a partner, so long as their interests ran the same way?

“Hmm. Even so, putting Master Yujin on the same level as the Phoenix Guildmaster is a bit…”
“It’s investing in advance, on the strength of his potential.”

If a company’s good fortune were guaranteed a hundred percent, wouldn’t you have to buy its stock even if it meant emptying out your whole fortune to do it?

“Right now is the perfect low point.”

If a thing couldn’t be brought into his grasp, the most he could do was stay on good terms. Kim Yeongsu smiled softly, an inexplicable flutter rising in him at the appearance of a new prospect.

After wrapping up the clear, Yujin’s group returned to the Paju workshop.

“Business partner! This is an alchemy workshop. It is not a sitting room!”
“You’re a director of the Black Company, in name and all. Don’t be so stiff about it.”
“A-augh. That’s not a line for you to be saying!”

Shin Junseok jabbed a finger toward the outside, his face full of fury. Beyond the fence the crowd swarmed, more than double, no, more than triple the size of the one that had turned out for the Mid-grade Potion investment venture, packed in tight in front of the workshop.

“The Scraps are here, aren’t they?”
“Hunter Cheon Yujin!!! You played a huge part in this gate clear, didn’t you!”
“We’re from YNN. Please, a word!”
“We’re from Mir Gui—…”
“Korea University, class of ‘40, Kang Minho! I’m a senior, class of ’38, Kim—!”

A traditional market would have been quieter than this. Yujin snickered.

“There’s a whiff of people living their lives here. It’s nice.”
“If it’s nice twice over, somebody’s going to end up dead. Don’t stop me.”
“Sure. I absolutely won’t stop you.”

At Yujin’s way with words, never once ceding an inch, Shin Junseok flared his nostrils and huffed.

Behind him, Kang Minho darted cautious glances around, then carefully ventured.

“Boss. With us here, won’t we be a nuisance to the alchemist?”

He’d asked it gingerly, but Yujin only countered.

“Then shall we head to the Necropolis, or to Ground Zero?”

At that, Kang Minho couldn’t get an answer out right away. His eyes wavered with hesitation. Even so, he steeled himself and made to speak up anyway.

“Ack-.”
“Bro. We like it here too.”

Kang Minyeong had pinched her twin brother, snuffing out the nonsense at its source.

“Right. My dear business partner.”
“What is it. Mister ‘I-love-the-whiff-of-people.’”
“The Lump of Iron Steeped in Obsession. You remember the ratio we boiled last time?”
“Who do you take me for. Of course I do.”
“Set me up just ten kilos. I’ve got a use for it.”
“For free?”

This guy’s grown a short tongue while I wasn’t looking.

I was just thinking I’d pass down a new piece of alchemy too. Good timing.

“How’s the Blood Golem research coming — any results?”
“I’ve understood the rough mechanism.”
“Good. That much is plenty.”
“Which means…?”
“Once this business is done, I’ll pass the Golem Synthesis skill down to you.”

The irritation that had clouded Shin Junseok’s face vanished without a trace, and he beamed bright as a child who’d just been handed a Christmas present.

A bearded older man doing that is a little…

“Just wait a moment. I’ll be right back!”

Shin Junseok strode into the workshop with a step so light he looked ready to take flight.

Shall I get started on this end, too.

Yeah. It’d be a problem if anyone else laid eyes on it, so there’s nowhere better than the Paju workshop.

Yujin swept his eyes over his surroundings, then drew out the corpse he’d stowed in the Ring of Black Darkness. To the public, Song Myeongseok had met his end torn to shreds by monsters. In truth, but for the large hole bored clean through his neck, there wasn’t a single notable wound on him; the body was perfectly intact.

A corpse with the aptitude of an eighth Rank. How could I ever pass this up?

You ought to work on your eye for people a bit.

Heh heh heh.

Yujin’s lips split into a wide grin.

First, with Flesh Control, he stripped the dead man of every scrap of muscle and flesh, down to the very skin.

He poured spirit-power into the bare-boned corpse to raise it as a Skeleton Warrior, then breathed in the soul of the one he’d subjugated as a wraith back in the gate.

— Zzzt!

As the dead flesh and the living soul fused into one, a fierce resistance reared up and shoved Yujin’s power back. The repulsion ran several times worse than working Unison on the Red Spider officers, all because Song Myeongseok’s soul carried a far stronger wavelength than the two he’d raised before.

No matter how you hold out.

The wraith crafted through Dark Calling answered to Yujin. He bled off part of his spirit-power and wrung Song Myeongseok’s soul dry.

“Kraaaaaagh!!!”

An anguished scream tore loose, and the resistance that had risen during the fusion thinned out markedly as well.

“Ge-gel?”

The Skeleton Warrior wrought from Song Myeongseok’s body came out, in raw physical terms, a notch below the Choi Hyeongtae he’d crafted at the Necropolis.

I don’t do that sort of thing.

Choi Hyeongtae had been 5th Rank at the moment of his death. By current specs alone, then, Song Myeongseok was bound to come up short. It owed purely to his being a low-grade undead; raised instead as a mid-grade undead, Choi Hyeongtae would have been stronger.¹

What matters is engraving the potential of the future into this body.

A top-tier unique trait by Association standards, one that should never be able to exist in a Skeleton Warrior, sat there in Song Myeongseok. Without the fusion, that ability too would have winked out.

“Preparations are done!”

Shin Junseok arrived with impeccable timing.

Thanks to him, I can carry on the work without breaking the flow.

The talent you took such pride in. I’ll see to it that it doesn’t fly off to waste.

With greedy eyes, Yujin looked over Song Myeongseok’s bare-boned body.