Chapter 11

Chapter 11. Put That Down and Let Me Cook for You

The next day, I arrived at the address near Suyu Station right on time.

When I got there, I saw a mountain of luggage piled up in front of a house in a residential neighborhood.

"Hyung! You're here?"

Party leader Kim Myeong-hun waved at me cheerfully as I parked and got out of the car.

I waved back and walked over to them.

"Is everyone's condition okay?"

"Yes! We're good!"

"What about you, Oppa? Isn't this your first Rift? Aren't you nervous?"

A question from Jeong Ye-rim, the sole woman in the party.

"Well, I'm more excited than nervous."

I wasn't completely free of nerves, but since I'd been coming and going from a place expected to be on the fourth floor as if it were my own home—a completely different league from the first and second floors—I wasn't particularly tense.

'Of course, the first and second floors would have far more monster spawns.'

Perhaps because I'd undergone my Second Awakening, I felt somewhat at ease.

"That's fortunate. First-timers get so nervous that some panic just from seeing a Lowest-Grade Monster."

"Right, Joel was like that."

"Ah, stop bringing that up!"

That might actually be the normal reaction.

After all, lives are at stake.

I soon loaded all the luggage into Acresia.

The party members gaped at the sight.

"Wow...! It really all fits in there."

"Amazing, so cool."

"Hyung-nim, you're the best! Thanks to you, this'll be a much more comfortable trip. But aren't you going to put that bag in too?"

I'd left one luggage bag out.

"I should carry at least one for conscience's sake. It'd be shameless for a porter to go without any luggage, right?"

I'd left one out to show I was in the porter position.

"Then let's go. Get in."

"Yes!"

"Nice! Saved on taxi fare."

"Nice car, it's a 2 Series, isn't it?"

And so we got in the car and headed for the Paju A Rift.

'One of the Rifts that attracts the most Hunters.'

It was said to have relatively easy paths and mainly featured easy-to-handle Monsters.

Also, being near Seoul, it attracted many Hunters, which kept the monster population low and made it safe.

'I heard the most common way Hunters die is when they're surrounded by an unmanageable number of monsters rushing in at once and can't escape.'

That's why Rifts that were hard to access could be very dangerous even on the first floor.

There's no winning against a mob, after all.

That's why the Paju A Rift dungeon could be considered a very safe route to the second floor.

"Hyung-nim, don't worry about meals! I made homemade jerky. I brought that and all kinds of beef stew soup packets too."

"I see..."

I could handle one meal of that, but I wasn't confident I could eat several meals of it without getting sick of it.

"Thanks to Hyung, we could bring plenty of supplies, so I packed some ramen too!"

"Ramen? Nice."

That was somewhat fortunate.

However, I didn't know at that time.

The terrible way Hunters ate their meals.

We talked about various things while driving, and before I knew it, we'd arrived near the Paju A Rift.

'A Rifts are right in the middle of urban areas.'

Where a Rift occurred, entry within a 200-meter radius was prohibited.

At the same time, multiple layers of fencing and watchtowers were installed, and if a monster emerged from the Rift, soldiers in the posts and drones immediately began responsive fire.

Usually Lowest-Grade Monsters were dealt with in this process, and if Low-Grade Monsters appeared, even artillery could be used.

If Mid-Grade Monsters or higher appeared, that's when the Rift Management Korean Hunters were deployed.

The Paju A Rift apparently caused great property damage to construction companies and residents when the neighborhood, which had been in the middle of redevelopment, was paralyzed by the Rift's appearance.

'Real estate around where Rifts appear doesn't just plummet—it crashes hard. It's truly unfortunate.'

Incidents like this happened countless times nationwide due to the Rift crisis.

We parked in the parking lot in front of the main gate checkpoint leading to the Rift and went through the inspection procedure.

"Please present your Rift Management Bureau entry permit QR code."

"Here."

When party leader Kim Myeong-hun pulled out and showed the QR code from his phone, the Rift Management Bureau staff member scanned it.

The connected link contained the Rift Management Bureau entry permit and the party members' roster.

"Please show your Hunter licenses one at a time."

We soon finished the cross-verification process with our Hunter licenses.

"Confirmed."

After passing through three layers of fencing and entering, several groups who appeared to be Hunters were waiting.

How did I know they were Hunters? It was because of their equipment.

'They're quite different from our party.'

Our party essentially only had weapons; the only defensive gear was party Tank Han Joel's shield.

We were just wearing ordinary clothes.

However, the other parties were at least wearing leather-based equipment with steel plates attached at all vital points.

Han Joel whispered quietly to me from the side.

"Hyung, you understand, right? The reason we're trying to make a lot of money even if we have to push ourselves."

"Yeah, I think I understand a bit."

In the Hunter world, you're evaluated not just by rank, but also by the equipment you possess.

"It took four months just to pay off the loan for that shield and axe I bought."

"You even took out a loan? That must have been tough."

"Can't help it. Weapons that aren't well-forged don't work well on monsters and break quickly, so we have no choice but to use good products."

"That's true."

We stood in front of the Rift, cutting through the Hunters' murmuring about why our equipment looked like that.

'The Rift entrance is much bigger than the Rift in my hometown warehouse.'

It was a Rift almost four meters in size.

The Rift that opened in the warehouse cabinet was barely 1.9 meters at most.

"Then we're going in."

Kim Myeong-hun entered first, and we followed.

The place we entered was truly a cave-shaped dungeon.

Seeing there was no one but us inside, I immediately opened Acresia and equipped my spear.

"Hyung...?"

"Wow, what's that spear?"

"Looks expensive."

It is expensive.

It's a spear worth a whopping 180 million won.

The price of four of my cars.

Of course, I'd exchanged it for Drake byproducts.

"I emptied my pockets to buy it so I could protect myself and not be a burden to the party."

That was part of the reason, but honestly, since I'd never properly fought monsters before, I also wanted to know how strong I was.

"Hyung has a different mindset from other porter Hunters."

"Oppa, did you work at a company before becoming a Hunter?"

"I did, for close to ten years."

After finishing the two-year program at the CIA culinary school, I received a professor's recommendation and immediately started working as an intern at my American mentor's Michelin restaurant.

"Then let's go. Henry in the lead, Ye-rim on the second line, Hyung on the third line, and I'll guard the rear from the back."

And so we formed our formation and began to advance.

The dungeon was much wider than I'd thought, and also darker than expected.

Thankfully my eyes had become sharp from Awakening, otherwise an ordinary person would have to grope their way along.

At least unknown ore embedded in the walls was giving off light.

'I heard those kinds of ores give off light because they've absorbed radiation.'

Thinking about it that way was creepy.

After walking for about fifty minutes, we encountered our first Monster.

Three Small Goblins that apparently came from this cave.

"Hyung, stay back!"

Han Joel, holding his shield, blocked the creatures rushing with stone axes or elongated claws, then pushed them back.

Party leader Kim Myeong-hun, who'd been at the very rear, dashed forward and cut down the creatures with his sword.

'The party leader is quite fast and strong, probably because he's the party's only C-rank.'

His strength and agility seemed lower than mine, but he still fought quite well.

Then.

"Oppa! Watch out behind you!"

When I turned around, a Small Goblin with elongated claws was leaping toward me.

I swung the spear I was holding and precisely deflected the sharp claws the Small Goblin had been swinging.

Then the goblin's claws broke, and it was knocked into the wall and sprawled on the floor.

As it tried to get up again, I approached and thrust my spear into its chest.

Squelch!

The Small Goblin trembled and then stopped moving.

'Easier than I thought...?'

I won with one light swing and thrust.

There wasn't particularly any tension.

The Small Goblin's movements looked that slow and weak.

"Is this the level of Lowest-Grade Monsters?"

As I muttered to myself, Kim Myeong-hun, who'd finished dealing with the Small Goblins and approached, said:

"It is Lowest-Grade, but Small Goblins are the weakest even among those, and they only have a tiny Magic Stone fragment in their hearts. There's no benefit to catching them."

"Really? No wonder it was too easy."

"Still, you caught it too easily, didn't you? I was startled."

Jeong Ye-rim added her comment too.

"Right, Oppa. Since it was an ambush, I thought you'd at least get injured, but your reaction was incredibly fast. Are you really E-rank?"

"The Hunter Association decided that, so it must be right."

I didn't lie.

"I'll help with combat while protecting the Healer for experience too."

"Got it!"

Party leader Kim Myeong-hun accepted.

We began advancing again.

This time, not Small Goblins but three slightly larger regular Goblins attacked.

I took on one too.

'The spear is nice.'

The long reach meant I could extend my arm and stab distant opponents.

When they got close, I could swing and deflect them.

'Should I test the skill attached to the spear?'

Spatial Thrust, a skill that lets you stab stronger and deeper than the spear's normal stabbing range.

I used Spatial Thrust on a goblin that was keeping its distance warily.

A wind-like Mana aura wrapped around the spear, and when I thrust it forward, that aura extended out, penetrating the goblin's torso across a distance farther than the spear's reach.

Squelch!

The goblin fell with a spear-sized hole pierced through its chest.

'This is good.'

It definitely lived up to its price.

A skill that suited my safety-conscious personality of not wanting close combat.

The party members who'd already dealt with the other two goblins admired my spear's skill.

"Wow, Hyung's spear has a skill attached too."

"Weapons with skills basically cost over 100 million won and are hard to find even with money! No wonder the spear looked different from the start."

"I'm jealous...!"

"I emptied everything I had, so there's nothing to be jealous about. Let's extract the Magic Stones."

I recalled how Ria had done it and split open the goblins' hearts to extract the Magic Stones.

There was nothing else to obtain from the goblin corpses.

We encountered goblins one more time and I became familiar with using the spear and skill.

'Six Lowest-Grade Magic Stones in five hours.'

Converted to money, that's about 1.8 million won.

For the Paju A Rift dungeon with few monsters, the income wasn't bad.

Is this why people risk their lives living as Hunters?

"We'll rest here, eat, and then move on. Joel, keep watch first."

"Got it."

We stopped at a dead end, and Joel kept watch for approaching monsters.

And so we had our first break after four hours.

Party leader Kim Myeong-hun sat down and examined the map.

"Where's our location?"

When I asked, Kim Myeong-hun pointed with his finger.

"Here."

The Paju A Rift dungeon's exploration rate exceeded 70%.

Our location on the map was roughly one-sixth of the way along the route to the second floor.

"The dungeon really is big."

"The Paju A dungeon is on the small side. As shown on the map, since Hunters have left markers at every junction, the paths are relatively easy to find and you rarely get lost wandering around."

"Do you often get lost in other dungeons?"

"Yes. We once got lost in the Dongducheon Rift dungeon and wandered for days until our food ran out and we almost died. We were lucky to find the way again."

So it wasn't just monsters that were dangerous.

Finding your way well was also very important.

"I'll make soup! Take out the supplies, Oppa Seon-u."

"Okay."

When I took out the bag with food supplies from Acresia, Jeong Ye-rim pulled out jerky, soup powder, and water bottles.

'Fire...?'

I wondered inwardly.

And was soon shocked.

Jeong Ye-rim poured soup powder into a water bottle and shook it.

"Um, Ye-rim. Are you planning to eat the soup without boiling it?"

"Yes! If you eat this with jerky, it's surprisingly edible. If we boil it, monsters might smell it and come, and it's also bothersome."

"...Are you planning to eat the ramen you brought as raw ramen without boiling it too?"

"Yes, of course!"

I grabbed the back of my neck.

What Jeong Ye-rim said wasn't wrong at all.

In fact, it was very correct.

However, even if we were inside a Rift, as a chef I absolutely could not allow them to eat food that wasn't food-like.

"Put that down. I'll cook for you."

Even if monsters approached because of the smell, we'd just catch them.

Since I'd boldly cooked and eaten with Ria even on the third floor and above, I wasn't afraid at all on the first floor.

Plus, there was a way to minimize the smell.