Chapter 28

Chapter 28: Home and Family Really Are the Best
I stopped by the Hunter Association and applied for a rank reassessment.
After that came the usual procedures: stat measurement and a skill test.
When I cast Acresia large enough to fit two people inside, the examiner gave me a suspicious look.
“It is definitely larger than it was during your first evaluation, but according to the rumors, I heard it was even bigger than this.”
“Rumors tend to be exaggerated.”
“……Very well. Then the skill you listed as having obtained through your Second Awakening is Blessing of Dexterity, and you said it succeeds at a low probability when you cook. Is that correct?”
“That is correct.”
“But according to the rumors, every dish you make has been turning into a successful buff dish.”
“A rumor is only a rumor. Sometimes I simply get lucky and succeed several times in a row.”
“Hmm. All right.”
That should have been the end of the reassessment process.
It definitely should have been.
“Please proceed to the interview room.”
Another step awaited Awakened with questionable points in their evaluation: an interview.
And the man conducting mine was—
“Hello. I am Team Leader Shin Young-jun. We spoke on the phone once before, did we not? You did not answer after that.”
It was the very same team leader who had tried to put me into the S-Rank party.
So he must have been the one who had kept calling through the Hunter Association line afterward.
I ignored his remark and asked what I needed to know.
“Why exactly do I have to sit through an interview just to be reassessed?”
“It is only a formality. Your rank still takes time to process and your Hunter ID will not be issued immediately anyway, so I thought we might as well talk in the meantime. Officially, you had not even entered a Rift yet, so I was curious how you managed to undergo a Second Awakening.”
I had already expected this question before coming here.
“As far as I know, there have been quite a few cases around the world of people undergoing a Second Awakening not long after their first.”
“There have indeed been cases, but someone like you, Hunter An Seon-u, reaching a Second Awakening from E-Rank-level combat stats in such a short time without even officially entering a Rift is extremely rare. I would say the probability is comparable to winning first and second prize in the lottery one after another in a short period of time.”
“My combat-related stats were only E-Rank. My other stats were high to begin with. All I can say is that I was lucky.”
“Hmm.”
“Do you have any other questions?”
I did not like this man.
I even suspected he might have been the one leaking my personal information to various guilds.
The way he spoke and carried himself made him seem like some kind of broker, and it made me suspicious of him for no good reason.
Then Team Leader Shin Young-jun seemed to recall something.
“Ah, this has not been made public yet, but I will tell you, Hunter An Seon-u. Soon there will be reports that the entire S-Rank party that was trying to clear the third floor has gone missing.”
“What do you mean by that……?”
“It has been a month and a half since they entered the third floor, and there has still been no word at all. The golden window passed long ago, their supplies must have run out, and their chances of survival are slim. If only someone with a large-capacity subspace storage had accompanied them, perhaps their odds would have been better. A truly unfortunate situation.”
He was subtly trying to put their disappearance on me.
In other words, he was sneering at me for not accepting his request back then.
“From now on, I will not be involved in anything you do, Team Leader. If there are no more questions, I will be leaving.”
I walked out of the interview room.
I waited in the lobby in a foul mood, and eventually my new rank was announced.
“Hunter An Seon-u, you have been assigned B-Rank. Here is your newly issued Hunter ID.”
“Yes.”
I could not understand why I had received B-Rank instead of B+-Rank when the average of my Strength, Agility, and Stamina stats was over 65.
Still, B-Rank was enough to enter a Rift without a party, so rather than ask why I had been given a lower rank, I simply left the Hunter Association.
***
I headed straight for the Cheorwon B Rift.
After driving for quite a while, I arrived at the foot of the mountain where the Rift had opened.
I began climbing along the hiking trail, and once I passed the point where the Rift danger zone markers started appearing, I crossed boulders and a stream until the destination came into view.
‘An ordinary person would have trouble even getting close to this place.’
Eventually I arrived at the Rift entrance, guarded jointly by the military and the Rift Management Bureau.
‘The cold starts even near the entrance.’
Even though it was summer, the soldiers on duty were wearing heavy winter field jackets.
After presenting my Hunter ID and stepping inside the fenced area, I saw two separate groups already there.
I headed to a corner, took the cold-weather equipment I had brought out of my backpack, and prepared to enter the Rift.
At that point, a middle-aged Hunter who was drinking straight from a soju bottle called out to me.
“Hey, are you going in alone? If you go in with just that little cold-weather gear, you are asking to freeze to death!”
“It is all right. I used to live somewhere cold, so I handle it well. I am just going to try going in, and if I think I cannot endure it, I will come out quickly.”
“Tsk! You are the sort of young man who has to drink poison before he realizes it is poison. I guarantee you, if you last an hour, you will have lasted a long time. If it starts feeling like you are going to freeze to death, do not hesitate—get out fast. I have been here for two days already, and I have seen four people barely come out alive and get airlifted away with severe frostbite.”
“Thank you for the advice!”
He was not just being a nagging old man. He genuinely sounded concerned.
I put on not only my cold-weather gear but also crampons, then entered the Rift alone.
At once, an intense chill washed over me.
“This is no joke even at the entrance.”
Even Dome A in Antarctica, the coldest region on Earth, might not have been this freezing.
I was already wearing the ring and necklace, and I quickly took out the Frost Leopard fur cloak from Acresia and draped it over my shoulders.
Once my cold resistance reached 41%, it became bearable.
Since I had even undergone a Second Awakening, I felt I could endure it at this level.
‘I will drink the fruit wine once I start feeling my body temperature drop.’
I had brought a total of seven bottles, including the new batch I had made.
Still, at 3.5 million won a bottle, I intended to conserve them as much as possible.
With that, I opened the map guide and began to move forward.
‘Exploration rate: 26%.’
It was the latest updated map guide, published the week before and compiled from the records of Hunters.
Even so, the explored areas were still concentrated near the entrance.
The deepest marked route was the one taken by the party that had supposedly discovered the mushroom.
‘Then I will head that way.’
With my spear equipped, I began moving quickly.
The dungeon was quite rough.
There were many icy stretches and cliffs, so I had to watch my footing carefully.
If I had not brought crampons, this might have been much more difficult.
The Monsters I encountered, however, were not very threatening.
“Squeak!”
A Horn Rabbit charged at me angrily as soon as it saw me.
It was cute, but…… I could not let a Monster that attacked first go unpunished.
I killed the Horn Rabbit with a light thrust of my spear and extracted its Magic Stone.
‘Could Horn Rabbit meat be eaten?’
I thought it was probably inedible because it was poisonous.
Still, just in case, I decided to take it with me.
So after extracting the Magic Stone, I stored the Horn Rabbit’s corpse in Acresia as well.
‘I am starting to shiver.’
I should drink the fruit wine before I actually ended up with frostbite.
After enduring the cold for three hours, I finally took out a bottle and drank it.
“Urgh! Bitter.”
Strange. When I drank it with Ria, it had tasted nothing but sweet.
Once I finished the full 200-milliliter bottle, the buff activated.
My cold resistance became 71%.
On top of that, the alcohol warmed my body from within.
After continuing on and hunting more Horn Rabbits for another seven hours—
‘That smell.’
My sensitive nose picked up a scent unlike anything I had detected so far.
It smelled of both earth and wood.
When I had stayed in America, my mentor and I often went out gathering wild mushrooms on the restaurant’s days off.
Judging from that experience, this was almost certainly the scent of mushrooms.
‘If I follow the smell, I should find them.’
After only a few dozen steps, I found a white mushroom growing in a crack between rocks.
Its shape resembled a parasol mushroom or a pine mushroom.
Its aroma was somewhat similar to a black tiger milk mushroom.
Using my short knife, I harvested the mushroom and stored it in Acresia.
‘Even after storing it, the aroma is still lingering faintly. There must be more nearby.’
Following my sense of smell, I soon found another white mushroom with the same shape.
Unfortunately, they were growing one at a time.
It would have been nice if they had grown in clusters.
So I continued moving while marking my route on the map and picking mushrooms along the way.
For nearly two full days, without sleeping.
‘I must be pretty deep into the dungeon by now.’
Just as I began to worry about the journey back and considered stopping, a much stronger mushroom scent than before drew me onward.
And then—
“Jackpot……!”
At the center of a fairly large dungeon hall, I found a full colony of white mushrooms.
They were growing atop what looked like a mound of ice, and there had to be at least twenty clusters.
If counted by individual mushrooms instead of clusters, there had to be over a hundred.
At the same time, an intense cold washed over me.
Even with 71% cold resistance, I did not think I could endure it here for long.
Just as I started toward the mushroom colony—
RUMBLE!
The hall shook as though an earthquake had struck, and the mound of ice began to rise.
“A Monster……?”
What rose from it was a Monster resembling a gigantic turtle.
If I had to name it, I would call it an Ice Turtle.
Its entire body was covered in crystal-like ice formations.
“ROAR-!”
The Ice Turtle spotted me and bellowed.
This was only the first floor.
And this was not a boss room.
So it could not possibly be anything higher than a High-Grade Monster.
I thought it would be an easy kill.
That, however, turned out to be a careless assumption.
The creature stretched out its neck and opened its mouth toward the air. Around it, an enormous chill began to gather.
‘That looks dangerous……?’
As I hesitated over how to dodge it—
“ROAR-!”
The Ice Turtle expelled the cold it had gathered straight into the ground.
And then—
CRACK!
The ground froze solid in an instant, right up to the very earth beneath my feet.
“Urgh!”
At the same time, an overwhelming cold spread upward from beneath my feet and through my entire body.
If my cold resistance had been any lower, I felt as though I would have frozen solid from head to toe.
If it had fired at me in a straight line, I would have opened Acresia and absorbed it.
But against a nova-type attack that spread up from the ground, I had no way to block it.
‘If I take that attack twice, I will be in real danger.’
One more hit, and it felt as though my body would truly freeze.
I immediately opened Acresia and counterattacked.
Boom!
A steel ball struck the Ice Turtle near the head.
But—
CLANG!
Only the crystal-like ice around its head shattered away. It failed to inflict any real wound.
Worse, the crystal-like ice began restoring itself almost immediately.
Still, the impact must have been strong enough, because the creature pulled its head and legs back into its shell.
Then the icy crystals covered even the openings where its head and legs had retracted.
‘So that is your plan. You are going to turtle up and endure it.’
I understood why.
The cold that had seeped into my body was growing stronger and stronger.
Soon, the kind of status ailment message that only appeared under severe conditions popped up.
[Your movement speed has been reduced by 50% due to intense cold.]
It seemed the Ice Turtle intended to wait until I was completely weakened by the cold.
“So this is a contest between spear and shield.”
I fired steel ball after steel ball at the crystal covering the opening for its head.
I kept up the barrage faster than the crystals could regenerate.
And the instant the crystals shattered completely and the opening for its head was exposed—
I launched my 180-million-won spear from Acresia straight into it.
CRUNCH-!!
The spear flew through the air with a shriek and drove deep into the opening where its head had been.
Then I used absorption on the spear, and the spear was pulled back out together with the Ice Turtle’s head.
Its head had been pierced clean through, and it was dead.
In the contest between spear and shield, the spear had won.
“That was a little dangerous.”
No, not was.
It still was.
Before the cold could completely overtake my body, I hurriedly took out a burner, a pot, and some water, then boiled one of the white mushrooms.
According to the survivors, they had eaten it raw and recovered from frostbite.
But I felt uneasy about eating it as-is, so I decided to blanch it first.
‘Since I am boiling it anyway, I might as well add some vegetables. And some meat too.’
So I tossed in one white mushroom and made a rough stew.
And Blessing of Dexterity activated.
[Master’s Glace Mushroom Hot Pot]
[Blessing of Dexterity effect: Recovers abnormal statuses such as freezing and poisoning. High injury recovery effect.]
So the mushroom’s name was a Glace Mushroom.
Just as the rumor had suggested, the effect really was related to recovery.
“Then how does it taste?”
The taste was not bad either.
It had something of the flavor of a black tiger milk mushroom, but also a bit of a coral mushroom taste.
Soon, warmth began to return to my body.
Once I had recovered somewhat and finished my simple meal—
I reached out and touched the icy crystals on the Ice Turtle’s shell.
At once, an intense chill surged into me.
Even with 71% cold resistance and gloves on, my fingers felt as though they were about to freeze, so I pulled my hand back.
‘It is colder than dry ice.’
It did not feel like ordinary ice.
It felt more like a hard mineral.
It might be useful for something.
For now, I absorbed the Ice Turtle into Acresia.
‘I will harvest the mushrooms growing on its shell later.’
It looked as though it would take quite a while to gather them properly right now.
At that moment—
[Acresia wishes to devour the High-Grade Monster it has absorbed.]
Acresia coveted the Monster.
“No. I need to harvest the mushrooms and the ice crystals attached to its shell first.”
Perhaps it sensed my intent, because Acresia left the Ice Turtle alone.
It had not even spared a glance for the Groove Bear, yet it coveted the Ice Turtle.
Apparently the Ice Turtle was some sort of rare Monster.
***
I came out of the Cheorwon B Rift three days after entering it.
I had not slept a wink the entire time.
‘The moment I get home, I am taking a nap.’
Of course, by home I meant the house inside the Rift.
That place felt more comfortable now.
After descending the mountain and driving for another three hours, I arrived home and entered the Rift.
“……!”
A tiny figure came running toward me in a hurry the moment I stepped inside.
It was Rin.
She rushed over and wrapped her arms tightly around my ankle.
“Rin, you must have missed me a lot.”
The cold in my body and in my heart began to melt away.
Then Ria, who must have been training, waved from atop the hill and called my name.
Bell wagged its tail and ran circles around me as well.
Home and family really are the best.