Chapter 32

Chapter 32: I Ended Up with S-Rank Hunter Underlings
After finishing their meal, the Sword Saint’s group sat basking in the afterglow.
“I never realized the joy of eating food could be this great.”
“Seriously, old man. It’s been so long since I’ve felt full without being tormented by hunger.”
“That was the best…….”
Which made sense.
They had lived on nothing but weeds and tree roots for a month.
They looked absolutely dreadful from all the starvation.
I even prepared milk tea for dessert.
And so we talked over tea.
What should I begin with?
I thought it would be best to explain this Rift first.
When he heard me out, the Sword Saint’s eyes widened.
“Is that really true? The lady swordswoman came from another world?”
“Yes. It’s true.”
“Haha……. No wonder she used a language I’d never heard before, and no wonder the way she used power seemed different from that of Hunters. Then this fourth floor of the Rift really is an intersection connected to another world.”
“That’s right. Neither Ria nor I actually know how vast the fourth floor of this Rift is.”
I should have asked Bell’s mother before she left.
Then the Sword Saint said,
“Then just how were you able to come here, Seon-u? And alone, at that?”
Here it comes.
“As I understand it, Master Hwang is a man held in high esteem.”
“I simply value courtesy and spiritual discipline as a swordsman.”
“Can you promise to keep what I’m about to tell you confidential?”
“As long as it isn’t a crime that would cause public harm, I can.”
At the moment, the Sword Saint and I were speaking in Korean.
The other two, still satisfied from finally being full, were drinking tea without understanding our conversation.
“Then I’ll tell you. In truth, my country house and the back of this Rift house are connected by a Rift.”
“What? Is that true?”
“It is.”
There was one reason I had decided to tell him the truth so openly.
There was something I wanted to confirm.
“Please follow me for a moment. Your companions can stay here.”
“Understood.”
He told the others to sit quietly and drink their tea, then followed me.
I headed to the back of the house.
There was a small cave there, the one I used to go in and out of the Rift.
“Do you see anything inside?”
“No. I don’t.”
So my assumption had been correct.
This Rift was mine alone.
‘When Ria told me about Acresia, I already started to suspect it. Acresia had called me into this Rift.’
After that, I formed a hypothesis.
Acresia was very likely more than a simple Subspace Storage skill. It was probably a skill with the power to open and close Rifts.
I still wasn’t sure whether Archmage Yaike’s treasury and Acresia were the same thing, but the records did say that Yaike had plunged the world into chaos by opening Rifts.
According to his writings—
-The one who possesses my treasury shall become the master of Rifts.
The words he left behind seemed to imply an ability to open and close Rifts.
And Acresia appeared to possess similar potential.
If its rank rose further, it might gain the ability to open and close Rifts as well.
Perhaps I would even be able to open the passage I currently used from anywhere.
‘It’s only a hypothesis, but the possibility is there.’
Then I said to the Sword Saint,
“So you really can’t see the Rift. Give me a moment.”
I stepped out of the Rift and then came back in again.
That made the Sword Saint stare in astonishment.
“The instant you went out, the Rift became faintly visible for a moment, then disappeared again.”
“Yes. It seems it really is a private passage only I can use.”
“Ah…….”
He looked disappointed.
He had probably imagined going home.
“There will be another way. For example, I could find some means of reporting your survival and asking for a rescue team that includes S-Rank Hunters to be sent. Or Bell and I could search for the entrance to the third floor for you.”
“Oh! You’re remarkably quick-witted, Seon-u.”
“I’m pretty average.”
“You’re modest. Out of those options, I think the first sounds better. We already cleared the boss in the third-floor dungeon, so it should be easier for a later rescue team to come.”
“I agree. But you do remember which direction you moved after coming out of the third-floor dungeon into the fourth floor, right?”
“That would be…… east, probably. We decided to explore eastward at the start.”
Then that meant they had come from farther west than the place where I found them.
If a rescue party was eventually formed and sent, then starting about half a month from now, I could have Bell make regular trips westward.
There would be no need for me to scout personally. I could send Bell together with the S-Rank Hunters instead.
“Then please stay here until I find a solution.”
“Thank you. We’ll camp separately in the forest on the outer edge of your home. I think that would be more comfortable.”
“All right. Then I’ll set up a large tent for you.”
And so the three S-Rank Hunters settled into the outer forest around the Rift house.
After setting up the tent for them, I went to Ria and Rin’s room to soothe frightened Rin.
***
The next morning.
I stepped out to the country house and checked my phone.
There were four missed calls from yesterday.
They were all from Mr. Jang.
There was also a message asking me to call him back when I saw it.
So I did.
-You finally called back, Chef An.
“Sorry for calling so early in the morning, Mr. Jang. I only just saw it now. I’ve been rather busy. Did something happen?”
-It’s just that…….
Why was he dragging it out? What was it?
-I was calling to tell you that all the fruit wine sold out! Hahaha!
“Already? That’s incredible!”
Excluding the five bottles I had taken with me to the Ice Rift,
that meant all thirty bottles had sold.
And it had only been four days since sales began.
-Yes. I uploaded a video to my Mutube channel, and little by little Hunter customers started dropping by and bought fifteen bottles. Then the eleventh-ranked Azure Sky Guild bought the remaining fifteen all at once.
“Ah, right, you did run a Mutube channel. That must have helped it sell quickly. I’ll stop by soon with another full batch.”
-Merci beaucoup. Thanks to you, Chef An, I think I’ll be able to pay off the loan I took out to open the shop very quickly.
“I should be the one thanking you. I wouldn’t even have been able to make it without you, Mr. Jang.”
Thanks to him, I had earned over ninety million won myself.
After the call ended, I entered the Rift again.
‘I wonder if the Hunters slept well.’
I headed into the forest at about the five o’clock direction.
Less than a hundred steps into the woods, I reached the S-Rank Hunters’ campsite.
The Hunters were outside their tent, stretching their bodies.
“You’re here. Good morning.”
The Sword Saint greeted me when he saw me.
Behind him, Adel and Santos lifted their hands in greeting.
I returned the greeting.
“Good morning. Did you sleep comfortably?”
“Comfortably? Too comfortably, if anything. For the first time in ages, we slept soundly without worrying about being attacked by Monsters. That’s thanks to Bell.”
Last night, while setting up the tent, I had explained Bell’s Monster-detection ability to them.
“Yes. While you’re here, you can relax.”
Just then, Adel began tying his face covering again and said to the Sword Saint,
“Old man, let’s spar.”
“You brat, can’t you see I’m speaking with our benefactor?”
“Still, what has to be done has to be done.”
So they sparred every morning.
Truly, not just anyone could become an S-Rank Hunter.
“I don’t mind. I’d actually like to watch.”
“If you say so, then all right.”
A spar between S-Rank Hunters.
This was the kind of thing people would struggle to see even if they paid for it.
And not with wooden practice swords, either.
This was a live-blade spar.
We moved to a patch of forest a short distance away from the tent, and the two of them took their positions facing one another.
“Old man, I’m starting.”
“Come.”
In that instant, Adel’s figure vanished.
‘What? A Stealth Skill?’
The Sword Saint immediately swung his sword toward the left.
Clang!
The sound of blades colliding rang out.
At the same time, bits of bark burst from nearby tree trunks.
‘Did he step on the trees as footholds?’
The clang, clang, clang of weapons colliding echoed through the forest.
Soon dirt and grass were flying up from the ground as well.
It must have been where the hidden Adel was stepping.
‘He’s fast……!’
No matter how hard I tried to track the places where dirt and bark were bursting up, I simply couldn’t keep up with them visually.
That was how fast Adel was moving as he attacked the Sword Saint from all directions.
And yet, astonishingly, the Sword Saint didn’t miss a single one of those invisible movements. He blocked every attack.
‘He really is on another level.’
I had thought I had grown quite strong myself, but the wall of S-Rank was still high.
That was how refined their exchange was.
Then the Sword Saint cut in sharply.
“You brat, and you call yourself an assassin? Your steps are still too much like a tiger rampaging about and nowhere near light enough to be catlike! If you leave claw marks all over the place like that, your movements are obvious!”
Then the Sword Saint twisted the sword in his right hand, deflecting Adel’s attack, and thrust out his left hand toward empty air.
Something seemed to twist like a shadow in his grasp.
Then he slammed it into the ground.
Thud!
With a heavy impact, the identity of what he had thrown to the ground was revealed.
It was Adel, his stealth undone.
The Sword Saint wasn’t just good at swordsmanship.
He seemed pretty good at grappling too.
“Urgh……! Old man, go easy on me. My back’s wrecked.”
No kidding. That had to hurt.
“That’s what you get for going wild with Stealth and a Swiftness Skill first thing in the morning.”
Ah, so that speed had come from a Swiftness Skill.
That sounded like a very good skill.
Then Rani Santos forcibly rolled Adel onto his stomach and used a skill on his back.
‘A heal?’
Rani Santos was famous not only for his durability but also for being a sort of holy knight-like Tank who could heal.
His specialty was enduring attacks while healing himself.
A Tank-Healer hybrid all on his own.
“Hoo! That’s better. Thanks, Rani.”
“…….”
And just like that, I got a firsthand look at the might of S-Rank Hunters.
‘The Sword Saint, especially, is a level above Adel.’
There was a reason people said that if he truly wanted to, he could stand at the top among Korea’s four S-Rank Hunters.
At that moment—
Ria emerged from the forest.
Then, using Sigil of Wisdom, she said,
“That was splendid swordsmanship, sir.”
“So you were watching. It’s a meager level of skill.”
“Meager? It was extremely precise and without flaw.”
“Thank you for praising my inadequate swordsmanship so highly. It’s a style that combines kendo with practical swordsmanship.”
“How interesting. Please spar with me sometime.”
“It would be an honor to cross blades with someone as strong as you, miss. Please call on me whenever you like.”
Just then—
“Me too……!”
Adel stepped forward.
At once, Ria’s eyes sharpened.
Because of what happened yesterday, no doubt.
‘Ria, don’t!’
Adel continued.
“I want to spar too!”
“…….”
Ria stared at him.
Adel flinched, but he didn’t look away.
‘Should I stop this……?’
Just as I was considering it, Ria’s expression changed, and she smiled.
What was this……? Ria? Why do I have a bad feeling about this?
Surely she wasn’t thinking of tearing all his limbs apart.
Fortunately, that wasn’t it.
“I’ll spar with you right now. But you won’t be able to handle me alone, so you and Mr. Rani Santos can face me two against one.”
“What……?”
“……?”
Rani Santos looked deeply wronged.
A clear Why am I involved in this? kind of look.
Ria continued,
“And I want to make the terms clear. The loser becomes the winner’s subordinate for one month. A subordinate who does anything they’re told. What do you say? Do you accept?”
“Urgh……!”
“…….”
Adel trembled, then shouted,
“I accept!”
Ria…… had you just wanted laborers?
She had baited a trap using Adel’s hotheaded nature, and Adel had stomped right into it.
And so the two-against-one spar was set.
Ria said she didn’t want the forest near the house damaged, so they moved out into the open.
There, in the meadow, the three of them faced off.
“Who do you think will win?”
The Sword Saint, standing beside me at a distance, asked while we watched.
The answer was obvious.
“Ria.”
“Why? No matter what, there are still two S-Rank Hunters against her. And the two of them work quite well together.”
“Ria is strong enough that she could have faced the Named Doppelganger that the three of you fought. Alone. So if you joined in as well and it became three against one, then I couldn’t predict the result. But at two against one, Ria wins. Without question.”
“Is Ria truly that strong……?”
“Yes. She is. Just watch.”
The spar began.
And Ria came out hard from the very start, without giving them any room.
Boom! Boom!!
Rani Santos tried to hold his ground using his Iron Wall skill, but he was driven backward as the devastating Aura crashed into him, gouging furrows into the earth beneath his feet.
At the same time, Adel struck repeatedly at her flanks and the back of her head, but every attack was blocked.
Unable to endure it any longer, Santos drove his shield into the earth to brace himself, his legs already buried up to the thighs from being forced back.
Heat shimmered around his entire body. He looked close to his limit.
Then Ria ignored Santos, who had already lost the will to fight, and turned her attention to Adel, who kept darting around and stinging at her like a mosquito.
“Good heavens…… She made Santos, the Shield of Lament, surrender in less than two minutes. And she’s striking at Adel in stealth as though she can see him clearly.”
“Ria’s Presence Detection through Mana is exceptionally sharp.”
In the end, it didn’t take long before Adel was sprawled on the ground, his stealth broken.
Ria had her sword planted beside his neck.
Looking closely, I could see that there was a small cut on his neck.
Was that her way of getting revenge for the cut he’d left on mine?
‘Surely not.’
In any case, it was a complete victory for Ria.
And just like that, she acquired laborers.
“She’s strong. There truly is always another sky above the sky.”
“Yeah. She is.”
As someone who sparred with her every day, I probably understood the depth of her strength better than anyone.
Then I turned to the Sword Saint and asked,
“Now that your morning exercise is done, would you like to place an order for breakfast?”
“Haha! If you’re willing to serve us, then gladly.”
“If you want to grow stronger, I recommend a dish that raises stats.”
“A stat dish……? Does such a thing really exist?”
“Yes. It does. By any chance, Master Sword Saint, do you have any Highest-Grade Magic Stones?”
“I do. Two of them. One from defeating the boss on the third floor, and one from taking down a Highest-Grade Monster on the fourth.”
“By any chance, is one of them an ice-attribute one……?”
Please let there be one.
Even during the brief moment I waited for his answer, my heart pounded hard.
According to Ria, if an ice-attribute Highest-Grade Magic Stone that emitted cold was placed together with Ice Crystals, the two would resonate and the chill in the Ice Crystals would not weaken.
If that were true, then I could begin seriously attempting Glace Mushroom cultivation.
And if I could mass-produce Glace Mushrooms, then I would be able to neutralize the poison not only in edible Monster meats like Drake, but also in poisonous Monster meats like Horn Rabbit.