Chapter 02
I rarely ever left the house.
But now that I had awakened, I needed to get a Hunter license.
More importantly, I needed to find places where Rakis could enter without a license.
āOpen dungeons should work.ā
Open dungeons.
These were dungeons with no entry restrictions, so they didn’t require a separate license.
Even ordinary people could enter.
The entrances of open dungeons were usually safe zones, so many ordinary people entered simply to take a walk or look around.
I had visited a few myself.
For now, I planned to see how capable Rakis was in an open dungeon.
“Rakis.”
“Yes, Code One Rakis!”
“You said earlier that you were the chief knight of the Imperial Special Forces of the Aslan Empire, right? And you said ‘Code One’ meant you were the top-ranking knight.”
“Yes! That’s correct!”
“How strong are you?”
“I’m not particularly impressive! I can cut through about one cliff with my Aura Blade, but I can’t cut through a large rocky mountain!”
“…Isn’t that impressive too?”
I couldn’t tell whether he was being modest.
Or perhaps his standards were so high that he naturally downplayed himself despite possessing extraordinary abilities.
That’s why I wanted to see for myself.
Judging from his words, he seemed to possess strength beyond even the named Hunters who were renowned among swordsmen.
He didn’t just say he could split stones or boulders in half.
He said he could cut through a cliff.
He could even wield aura.
“Come with me for now. I want to see what you’re capable of.”
“Yes! Just give me the order at any time!”
He strode ahead.
I was planning to go to Anyang Station, which was near my house.
There was an open dungeon near the Central Market.
There was also a Hunter Market along the way, so I could buy useful items or cards for improving a summoner’s summon.
“…”
I thought back to the appraisal I’d performed earlier.
A seemingly worthless, ungraded walking stick had turned into an incredible staff with an unmeasurable grade.
What I had realized from that was simple.
Even if the appraisal result was disappointing, at the very least, I would break even.
And fundamentally, it would always give me something extra.
Failing an appraisal didn’t cause the item to disappear or become damaged.
So my conclusion was that whenever I had the opportunity, I should always appraise something.
On top of that, unlike in the game, appraising an item didn’t require me to spend a certain amount of time on the process.
The appraisal was completed the moment I attempted it, so from my perspective, it couldn’t have been more convenient.
On the way, I withdrew one million won.
It was money I’d earned by selling items in the game yesterday and converting the proceeds into cash, after setting aside this month’s utility bills.
The inheritance my parents had left me had already been placed into long-term investments, so I had no intention of touching it unless absolutely necessary.
As we headed toward the Hunter Market.
Perhaps because he found it strange to see a knight with flowing blond hair walking behind me while wearing gleaming armor.
An elderly woman looked at Rakis curiously and asked,
“Is this young man from America? He’s dressed up just like someone from a movie!”
“Greetings! I am a member of the Imperial Special Forces of the Aslan Empā”
“Just say hello.”
I immediately clamped a hand over Rakis’s mouth, putting an end to his excessive talking.
Then.
“…Hahaha. Hello, Grandma. He’s my American friend. He arrived in the country recently.”
I casually played along for the elderly woman.
“Oh! I see! What fine young men! You look like Hunters, so be careful! You always have to be careful!”
“Thank you, Grandma.”
Since she didn’t forget to give us some words of advice, I politely thanked her.
Even if it sounded like nagging, there was always a reason behind the things elderly people said.
Once the grandmother had walked far enough away.
I warned Rakis.
“You don’t need to reveal your affiliation to anyone except me. If someone asks, just say you’re my friend.”
“Should I say I’m Master’s friend?”
“Yeah. My name is ‘Iyeon,’ so you can say you’re Yeon’s friend or Iyeon’s friend.”
“Yes, understood! Publicly, I will be Yeon’s friend. Privately, I will call you Master!”
“Good. And when you call me Master, lower your voice a little. People are looking at us strangely.”
I could see several passersby whispering among themselves as they glanced our way.
If two men were going around calling each other Master and such, it was bound to look strange when taken out of context.
The summons controlled by Summoners didn’t speak.
They simply listened to their master’s commands and carried them out.
So there were many things about Rakis that would seem unnatural if I explained him to others as a summon.
“Just follow me quietly.”
“Yes, I shall do as you command.”
His voice became considerably quieter.
Rakis followed closely behind me like a bodyguard.
Once I entered the Hunter Market, I looked around at the various items.
I’d often seen this place while passing by in the past, but I’d never had any reason to enter.
Now, there were plenty of things that caught my curiosity.
Among them.
The ones that caught my eye were the ‘Summon Cards.’
Naturally, this was a category that only Hunters specializing in summons would be interested in.
Cards dropped from dungeons.
The drop rate was so ridiculously low that it could be called atrocious.
If you had to put a number on it, apparently it was around 0.1%.
That meant one card would drop after clearing a thousand dungeons.
These Summon Cards were useful for permanently improving a summoner’s stats, so demand far exceeded supply.
Once a card was absorbed, there was no possibility of the summon’s stats decreasing again.
Since they were the only means of strengthening summons, even seemingly insignificant cards tended to sell for high prices.
As expected.
[Seed of Great Nature]
Health Regeneration +0.01%
Selling Price: 1,000,000 won
Compared to the value of the option I saw after touching the card displayed on the stall, the price was expensive.
It only increased health recovery by a measly 0.01%.
And they wanted me to burn one million won on it?
Even if I had money to spare, I wasn’t sure I’d buy such a pathetic option.
Perhaps because of that, no one showed any interest in it, and the seller didn’t seem particularly eager to sell it either.
But.
āIt’s glowing.ā
When I looked at it more closely, the Summon Card looked different from before.
At that moment.
āThat means it has a hidden option that will change or be added through appraisal.ā
The knowledge naturally implanted in me when I awakened as an Appraiser allowed me to understand what the glow meant.
Then there must have been a distinct glow when I appraised Rakis’s Summon Card and the Staff of Omnipotence as well…
At the time, I had been so overwhelmed that I must have thought everything in my field of vision was glowing.
Regardless, although the seller didn’t know it, a card with considerable potential value was shining brightly before my eyes.
If I bought it with only that visible option, the buyer would be the fool.
But if there was a hidden option, then the seller would be the fool.
“Excuse me.”
“Yes?”
“I’ll buy this card.”
“You really want to buy it?”
The fact that the seller was actually asking whether I really intended to buy it made me flinch for a moment.
How should I put it?
It seemed like my years of being cooped up at home were showing.
Even normal communication felt somewhat awkward.
I decided to keep the conversation short.
“Give it to me. I’ll give you one million won.”
“You must have plenty of money. Well, I’m happy if you’re buying it! Wait a moment! I’ll remove the wire securing it against theft.”
He grinned as though he’d just stumbled upon free money.
I was simply grateful that he’d misunderstood the situation so thoroughly and was willing to sell it.
It would’ve been troublesome if he’d suddenly decided not to sell.
Besides, this was the only place around here that sold Summon Cards, and there was only one card available.
So if I wanted to try my luck with a Summon Card right away, I had no choice but to buy this one.
I paid for the card and bought it.
Then I sat on a bench outside the market, where I could avoid people’s attention, and began the appraisal.
[Appraisal complete!]
The appraisal ended instantly.
Additional messages appeared.
[You have discovered a hidden option and unlocked a new power within the card!]
[The card’s name has changed!]
The original card had been called Seed of Great Nature.
Perhaps it meant something like becoming a small seed that contributed to something greater.
But now, its name had changed.
[* Abundance of Great Nature ā Summon Card]
- Every minute, recovers a total of 50% of maximum health. The recovery rate remains constant at every moment.
“…This is insane.”
“Is this truly real? Master, if you absorb this card, you can fully recover your health in just two minutes!”
“It’s not just a slight improvement, is it?”
I was completely dumbfounded.
If converted into monetary value, even if I estimated conservatively, this option should be worth at least ten billion won.
No, I could probably ask for tens of billions of won.
I opened the online Hunter Market app on my smartphone.
Then I entered the option.
I checked whether there were any transaction records for Summon Cards with an option similar to Abundance of Great Nature and what their estimated prices were.
[No cards with the same option exist.]
Even offline transactions left official records, so their options and selling prices were shared.
The fact that there were no cards with the same option meant that.
A card like Abundance of Great Nature had never once been sold on the market.
That’s how precious it was.
I searched again with a slightly weaker option.
I searched for 10% health recovery.
Then.
[1 transaction has been found within the past week.]
[Actual Transaction Price: 10.3095 billion won]
“If mine has five times that option and the price is 10.3 billion…”
Calculating backward was easy.
A Summon Card worth one million won had instantly become a card worth 50 billion won.
However.
āThey said that options changed or newly unlocked through appraisal only apply to the Appraiser and their subordinates.ā
Selling it to someone else would therefore be meaningless.
Not only was the Appraiser class unique.
The portions newly unlocked through appraisal were also exclusive to the Appraiser and their subordinates, meaning only I could benefit from them.
The benefits and rights of appraisal were mine alone.
Other people wouldn’t even know that such privileges existed.
“This really is cheating.”
I had no idea appraisal could be this incredible.
At this level, it was practically capable of changing the fate of an appraised item.
[Remaining Appraisal Attempts: 0]
I could see that my appraisal count had been reduced to zero.
There were two ways to recover it.
Either midnight would arrive and my appraisal attempts would be replenished.
Or I could level up and increase the total number of appraisal attempts.
It was only just becoming evening.
Midnight wasn’t too far away.
I entered the open dungeon near Anyang Central Market.
Since it didn’t require a license and was open to ordinary people, there wasn’t even a security screening procedure.
Once I entered.
[Recommended Level: 150]
The recommended level appeared immediately.
This was information that could be seen in any dungeon.
Considering my current level, this was a place I absolutely shouldn’t have come.
But I trusted Rakis.
The area near the entrance had been completely flattened, making it a convenient place for ordinary people to look around as well.
As soon as we entered, Rakis closed both eyes as if sensing something.
Then he spoke to me.
“There is less of a wild scent here, Master. There is no need for you to trouble yourself by moving around unnecessarily. Would you wait here for a moment?”
“What are you going to do?”
“I shall demonstrate my abilities! Is that not what you were curious about?”
“That’s true, but…”
Even if I separated from Rakis, I could still know what he was doing.
āSoul Bond.ā
It meant that I could share my vision and senses with my summon whenever I wanted.
In other words, even if he went far away.
As long as I wished, I could see what Rakis was looking at and understand the situation through his five senses.
“Then can you kill the Orc King that’s supposedly in this dungeon?”
The Orc King.
It was known as the strongest monster confirmed to exist inside the dungeon.
To fight it one-on-one.
You needed to be at least a level 200 combat-type Hunter.
Whether a swordsman or a mage, it didn’t matter.
It wasn’t so much because of its offensive power.
Rather, its skin was naturally incredibly tough, making it notorious for its extraordinary durability.
As a level 1 Appraiser, it was an opponent I couldn’t even dream of scratching.
“Of course! I shall be right back!”
Clank, clank!
The moment he finished speaking, Rakis left.
I thought he would head toward the open field, where many people were gathered.
But he chose the exact opposite direction.
Toward a canyon.
It looked gloomy and sinister at a glance.
About fifteen minutes passed.
As I watched through Rakis’s eyes as he ventured deep into the canyon, I began worrying about what might happen in case something went wrong.
It was a place that looked dangerous to anyone.
But Rakis didn’t seem to care.
He even hummed as he walked along.
Then.
“…”
Rakis’s gaze, which had been fixed straight ahead, suddenly moved upward.
At the same time, I saw it.
Something was falling.
It was a large, heavily built male Hunter holding an axe, descending with enough force to split Rakis in half.
It was obviously an ambush!
He was clearly a vicious bastard who preyed on Hunters passing near the canyon.
But at that very moment.
Ka-ching!
Rakis, who hadn’t drawn his sword even once during the entire journey, unsheathed it in the blink of an eye.
And.
“…Huh?”
I saw it.
At the exact same moment he drew his sword, the axe-wielding Hunter fell like a block of tofu sliced cleanly in half, without even having a chance to resist.
It was over as soon as it started.
It wasn’t even fair to call it a single strike.
The bastard had died from nothing more than the preparatory movement before the attack itself.
āThere was a petty thief on the way, so I dealt with him! I shall search his body and take anything useful with me!
Rakis’s words that followed were even more astonishing.
Rather than acting as though he’d done something impressive.
He sounded completely indifferent, as if the incident wasn’t even significant enough to count as an accomplishment.
Rakis.
My summon was strange.
