AWOST 01

Chapter 01

Twenty years had passed since the Age of Hunters began.

Countless people had awakened.

They enjoyed wealth amid a changed world and the opportunities it brought.

It was now an era in which there were more Hunters than non-Hunters.

Yet, for some reason, I had never awakened, nor had I even dreamed of becoming a Hunter.

I wasn’t particularly disappointed about it.

I was satisfied simply being known as the “Appraiser” player in the MMORPG I enjoyed.

I was twenty-nine this year.

Even after converting the gold I earned from appraisal fees in the game into cash, it was more than enough to cover my living expenses.

My parents, who had passed away when I was young, had left me a house and some assets, so I didn’t have to worry about things like utility bills for the time being.

Most of all, I was quite satisfied with my life as a homebody.

However, now that Hunters had entered their golden age, I had been starting to find my life of playing games every day a little boring.

“How much snow actually fell?”

I had gone outside for the first time in a while.

A massive snowfall that broke a sixty-year record had delayed my Maha Delivery package by a day due to circumstances on the delivery company’s end.

I had ordered groceries just in time for my supplies to run out, but since they hadn’t arrived, I had nothing to eat immediately.

So I had stopped by a nearby convenience store and bought some ramen and instant rice for today.

I was wearing slippers on my bare feet.

With a hastily thrown-on coat, I looked like nothing short of a beggar, but I didn’t really care.

Just then.

“Hmm…?”

The road was so icy that I was walking carefully with my eyes lowered when I noticed something.

It was an old card.

It didn’t look particularly impressive.

It was the kind of card that had been handled countless times and had become crumpled.

“Looks like a child drew this themselves. Did they use colored pencils and crayons too? How cute.”

The card was filled with such strong traces of childhood innocence that I reached for it without even realizing it.

Perhaps it hadn’t been long since it had left the child’s hands.

It wasn’t wet, nor had the drawing been smeared.

[Cool, Amazing, Incredible, Awesome Uncle Rakis Card]

[Strong and sturdy soldier uncle is always wif us!]

There were quite a few spelling mistakes.

But even those made the contents seem cute.

The person drawn on it looked exactly like a knight one might see in a medieval European movie or drama.

“The kid must be upset.”

Thinking about the child who had lost it made me feel sorry.

At the same time, I envied the pure heart capable of drawing something like that and filling it with such words.

For me, childhood innocence was something from more than twenty years ago.

The moment I touched the card without giving it much thought.

“…?”

My vision suddenly flashed.

[You have awakened as this world’s only ‘Appraiser’ Hunter!]

A message appeared.

It was an extremely straightforward message that anyone could recognize as an announcement that they had awakened as a Hunter.

But what caught my attention was this.

It wasn’t simply that I had awakened.

I had awakened as the world’s only Appraiser.

As far as I knew, there was no separate Appraiser class among the numerous Hunter classes.

That was why appraisal scrolls, which might sell only one or two copies a year in each country, were considered extremely precious.

But could I perform appraisals on my own without such a scroll?

The message didn’t end there.

[The seal of a ‘Legendary-grade’ summon has been detected!]

[Would you like to appraise the ‘Cool, Amazing, Incredible, Awesome Uncle Rakis Card’ and release its seal?]

“What is this?”

I completely forgot that I was standing on an icy road in the cold wind.

I was too distracted by the series of unexpected messages.

I understood that I had awakened as an Appraiser.

I also understood that I was the only one.

But the card was an appraisal target?

There was indeed a Summoner class among the Hunter classes that dealt with summons.

However, they captured summon-exclusive monsters that appeared in dungeons at low rates and turned them into subordinates.

There were cards that strengthened a summoner’s stats, but as far as I knew, there were no cards directly connected to the summons themselves.

At least, not that I knew of.

“Let’s go inside.”

My house was right in front of me, so I went inside.

As soon as I thought about appraisal, the memories related to conducting appraisals were already in my head, as if I had been appraising things for a long time.

[At your current level, you can perform ‘1’ appraisal per day.]

Up to level 19, once a day.

From level 20 to 29, twice a day.

From level 30 to 39, three times a day.

It worked in this manner.

If I wanted to increase the number of appraisals I could perform each day, I had no choice but to level up.

“A Legendary-grade summon… What could it be?”

I couldn’t even guess.

I held the card.

Then.

[Would you like to proceed with the appraisal?]

[Since it is sealed, the seal will be released immediately upon appraisal. A hidden option may also appear.]

A related status window appeared.

Even if it looked like an insignificant card drawn by a child, once it said Legendary-grade summon, there was no way I wouldn’t be curious.

I immediately proceeded with the appraisal.

Flash!

A red flash of light burst out.

[Appraisal complete!]

[The Legendary-grade summon ‘Rakis’ imprints the being who released him from his seal as his eternal master!]

[Rakis clearly recognizes what kind of being his master is and what kind of world his master belongs to.]

[Perfect synchronization with ‘Rakis’ has been achieved. From now on, Rakis’s achievements are the master’s achievements.]

[Appraising a Legendary-grade summon does not consume an appraisal attempt.]

“…This is crazy.”

Until yesterday.

In a space where there had been no warmth from anyone other than me, something living and breathing had begun to appear.

The summon’s name was exactly the same as the one written on the card earlier.

Moreover, the increasingly distinct appearance was exactly that of the medieval knight depicted on the card.

“I know Summoners’ summons have grades, but I’ve never heard of a Legendary grade.”

Unless they had intentionally kept it secret from the outside world, I truly had never heard of such a thing.

There were only grades from 9th grade to 1st grade.

A separate classification called Legendary was completely unheard of.

Just then.

Rakis’s figure, which had looked like an illusion, became completely tangible.

Clank!

At the same time, the heavy weight of Rakis’s full armor could be felt through the sound.

Soon, Rakis met my gaze directly.

I hesitated, wondering what I should say first.

“Greetings, Master!”

Rakis spoke first.

It was the first time in my life I had ever heard someone address me that way.

Master.

It felt strange.

Long blond hair with natural curls, and deep-set eyes characteristic of a Westerner.

At 185 centimeters, I was fairly tall myself, and our eyes were exactly level.

His physique, however, looked overwhelmingly better than mine.

“You’re… my summon?”

I asked because it still didn’t feel real.

Of course it didn’t.

When I had dragged my slippers to the convenience store, I hadn’t even been a Hunter.

I had been a homebody who had never once imagined having a summon.

Yet my life had suddenly changed on the way home.

Not only had I awakened as the unique class, ‘Appraiser,’ but I had also gained a Legendary-grade summon that existed outside the normal standards.

Unlike my dazed expression, Rakis was smiling brightly.

Then he straightened his posture and gave me a crisp first salute.

“Rakis, Code One, the top knight of the year and a member of the Imperial Special Forces of the Aslan Empire!”

“……”

“Effective today, I have been ordered to serve alongside you as your loyal servant! Everything I have belongs to you!”

“Who… ordered you?”

“Excuse me?”

“Was there someone who gave you the order beforehand?”

“Well… I was told by the one who created this Hunter world, sir?”

“Why do you talk like that?”

It was a manner of speaking that was gradually disappearing from the military in my country.

Apparently, that wasn’t the case in Rakis’s Aslan Empire.

When I appraised the card earlier.

The message had said that Rakis clearly recognized what kind of being his master was and what kind of world his master belonged to.

If so, he must have known before being summoned that this was a world of Hunters and that I, his master, was a Hunter.

Even without asking him about every little detail.

It seemed reasonable to assume that he had already been given an understanding of how the Hunter world worked and what its structure was like.

Still, there were things I needed to confirm.

“Let’s talk for a while first.”

My summon had suddenly appeared.

I felt like I needed some time to get closer to him.

At first, everything felt bewildering.

But after talking with Rakis and calmly going over the newly imprinted memories regarding my abilities, many things became clear.

First, I was the world’s only Appraiser Hunter.

I could unlock hidden options contained within items, or unlock hidden skills within skill books through appraisal.

I could also release the seals on sealed items or summon cards and activate the original power hidden within them.

It seemed that I could utilize my abilities in various other fields as well.

Second, Rakis was a being summoned from another dimension, and he had already died in that dimension.

However, for an unknown reason, he had been revived, and the transcendent being who brought him back to life had ordered him to live for his new master.

It was absolute obedience.

The knowledge that had been implanted into him was knowledge of this world—in other words, the Hunter world—so he didn’t need to learn it anew.

Apparently, he had even learned Korean beforehand.

A thought suddenly occurred to me.

If Rakis’s growth was equivalent to my own growth.

Did I really need to diligently visit dungeons to level up myself?

Think about it.

These days, the trend in mobile games was convenient, convenient ‘auto-hunting.’

If only the rule requiring a summon to remain within a certain distance of its Summoner in order to continue operating disappeared.

Couldn’t Rakis level up and bring back loot for me while I stayed at home?

Of course, it was impossible in reality, so I was merely letting my imagination run wild.

Clink.

Swoosh.

Rakis took something out of his clothes.

Perhaps because he was still fully armored.

A series of clattering sounds continued as he pulled the object out.

What Rakis eventually held out to me was a rather old-looking walking stick that seemed to have been made a long time ago.

“He told me, sir. He said that if you appraised this insignificant walking stick, the world would change!”

“He specifically told you to give it to me?”

“To be precise, he told me to give it to the one who summoned me into this world! Therefore, that would be you, Master.”

I examined the walking stick I had received.

[Faded Walking Stick]

Grade: None

A wooden walking stick that has no use whatsoever other than assisting with walking.

Since this is an ungraded item, it does not consume an appraisal attempt.

“Oh, so ungraded items don’t reduce the number of attempts either?”

I only had one appraisal opportunity per day.

But since ungraded items were exceptions, just like Legendary-grade summons, I could appraise them without worrying.

What could this walking stick, which the ‘one’ had sent to me, contain?

Judging from its pre-appraisal state, it was nothing more than a walking stick used by elderly people.

I appraised it immediately.

There was no reason to hesitate.

The next moment.

[Appraisal complete!]

Papapapat! Papapat!

Messages poured out without pause.

The contents of the messages, which had seemed to spill out in complete disorder, quickly merged together.

Soon, they appeared as neatly organized sentences.

[Staff of Omnipotence]

Grade: Unmeasurable

Regardless of the environment, up to ‘5’ summons can maintain a ‘Soul Bond.’ The distance restriction that must be maintained between the owner and summons is removed.

All experience gained by the summons becomes bound to the master and accumulates.

While bonded, the summons enter the state of ‘Blessing of Omnipotence,’ which continuously restores their mana at an extremely high speed.

“…! What is this?”

Its grade was impossible to determine.

The staff prevented summons from losing their power entirely even if they became infinitely far away from their master.

It was the ability that turned the image of auto-hunting I had imagined earlier into reality.

Tremble.

My fingertips shook.

I was frightened because I had no idea what was going on.

Then… had the card lying on the roadside not belonged to a child after all?

Who had left it there?

Regardless, one thing was certain now.