IOERG 07

Chapter 7

He firmly tugged down the roughly torn sleeve of his coat.

The piece of cloth, covered in dirt dust, slid down his wrist and covered the cold black piece of iron. Still, as the bizarre shape at the edge was slightly exposed, Chan-ho roughly scooped up mud pooled on the floor and rubbed it coarsely over the surface.

At a glance, it looked like a crushed, cheap protector that had been rolling around on the dungeon floor.

‘This much shouldn’t draw attention.’

Picking up his worn backpack lying on the dirt floor, he moved his steps toward the collapsed passage.

Rolling his sleeves back up, Chan-ho lowered the output of the gauntlets and tapped the edge of the massive rock blocking the entrance several times. As the rock gradually crumbled, a gap barely wide enough for one person to pass through was created. Chan-ho pushed his backpack through first, squeezed his body out, and then pulled his sleeves back down to hide the equipment.

The open space connected to the exit was a scene of utter pandemonium. Corpses of lower-grade goblins and slimes were piled like a mountain on the floor, and the stench of rotten blood pierced his nose.

In the middle of it all, temporary party members were sprawled out, panting with their weapons used as walking sticks. It seemed they had barely fended off a monster wave that had suddenly erupted.

“Haah, crazy. Why the hell are monsters swarming out in herds in an F-rank dungeon!”

A man who appeared to be the party leader kicked the floor irritably.

Beside him, a regular hunter who was catching his breath turned his head and spotted Chan-ho walking out from the darkness.

“Huh?”

His eyes widened in shock.

“Hey. Over there.”

At his pointing finger, the gazes of the party leader, the other hunters, and even the porters huddled in the corner simultaneously focused on Chan-ho.

“What the… Is that bastard alive?”

Everyone had expressions as if they had seen a ghost. It was crystal clear that no one expected an FFF-rank hunter to survive in this chaotic mess. One of the porters spat on the ground in disbelief.

Chan-ho ignored their gazes and approached with nonchalant steps.

“Are you all safe?”

“You… How are you alive? Didn’t the terrain collapse inside?”

The party leader stammered, asking.

“I was lucky. When the ceiling collapsed, I was isolated in a gap between the rocks. The monsters couldn’t enter that way because the gap was too narrow.”

Chan-ho casually spat out the excuse he had prepared in advance.

“A gap between rocks? Tsk, a guy with disgustingly good luck. For someone who’s a hunter in name, your lifeline is certainly long.”

One of the regular hunters clicked his tongue and sneered. He seemed secretly displeased that a trash-tier had returned alive.

“By the way, what’s that on your arm?”

In an instant, Chan-ho’s eyes narrowed slightly. The party leader’s gaze was lingering on his left arm, which was smeared with mud.

“Ah, this?”

Chan-ho raised his left arm casually.

“It’s protective gear I usually wear. It got completely crushed after being caught under a rock.”

At the crude and filthy appearance, the party leader frowned deeply and turned his head away.

“Tsk, that’s what happens when you wear garbage like that. Even porters wouldn’t use that piece of scrap metal.”

Nobody could even imagine that the equipment was the one and only piece in the world that had just brought down the massive gatekeeper.

Chan-ho quietly swallowed a sigh of relief internally and withdrew to the outermost corner of the group.

After stepping out of the dungeon and naturally scattering from the group, Chan-ho immediately moved his feet.

The place he arrived at was the loot exchange located on the first floor of the Hunter Association building.

Inside the building, the air-conditioned breeze blew, making it quite pleasant. After pulling a queue ticket and waiting for his turn, he approached the counter when the chime signaled his number.

“Would you like an appraisal?”

Beyond the glass partition, the clerk asked with a businesslike smile.

Chan-ho took off the worn backpack slung over his shoulder. Reaching his hand deep inside, he subtly avoided the unidentified black metal piece and special crystal core he had set aside at the very bottom. Instead, he carefully pulled out only the three blue mana stones placed above them.

Clack.

The mana stones, emitting a brilliant light, rolled across the glass table.

“These three.”

The clerk’s eyes widened. Even to her eyes, having appraised hundreds of obvious low-grade mana stones every day, these were items of distinctly different quality.

“Oh my. The color is very vivid. Just a moment.”

The clerk brought exclusive appraisal equipment and began inspecting the mana stones thoroughly by shining light on them. Her hand holding the magnifying glass was trembling faintly.

“The mana purity is incredible. Something like this came out of an F-rank dungeon?”

She looked up at Chan-ho with a puzzled look.

“Yes. Monsters were fighting among themselves and died, so I just picked them up.”

Chan-ho retorted brazenly without dodging her gaze even once. Attributing it appropriately to luck so she wouldn’t pry deeply was the cleanest method.

“Ah, sometimes they do territorial fights among themselves inside dungeons. You were really lucky.”

The clerk nodded and tapped away on her keyboard.

“Since they’re judged as top-grade quality, the unit price will likely be set fairly high. Shall I settle it directly into your account after deducting the fee?”

“Yes. Please.”

A moment later.

Bzzzt.

A short vibration sounded inside his pocket. Chan-ho pulled out his smartphone as he left the counter.

A deposit notification displayed on the screen.

He swept his eyes over the digits of the number with a calm expression. It was a large sum of several million won, an amount he would have to toil for months as a porter or daily laborer hunter to touch.

For a moment, he almost let out an amazed gasp, but outwardly, he didn’t show the slightest sign of it.

Holding his smartphone tightly, Chan-ho stepped out of the building. The first thing he did was not go to eat an expensive meal or head to a bar.

Slumping down on a quiet bench in a corner of the street, Chan-ho turned his smartphone screen back on.

When he accessed his banking app, familiar account numbers that had been choking his breath filled the screen one after another.

Without hesitation, he pressed his mother’s account. He entered double the amount he usually sent and hit the transfer button.

Next, he scattered money into accounts for overdue hospital bills and loan interest one by one. Every time he flicked his finger a few times, hundreds of thousands of won vanished into thin air.

However, his expression was not that of someone who had lost money. Rather, a sense of relief—as if a thick iron chain that had weighed down his neck for years had suddenly snapped off—was spreading across his face.

Only after settling all the electricity and water bills that had piled up to his chin without any missed payments did he stuff the phone into his pocket.

His bank balance became thin again, but his shoulders felt lighter than ever.

“Haah.”

Chan-ho leaned deep against the backrest of the bench.

The tiresome days of always being ignored by porters and having to risk his life for small change. He felt like he had properly buttoned the first button to escape that cycle.

However, it was not time to get drunk on this much and lounge around. His gaze naturally turned to his left arm.

The black gauntlets holding their breath while hidden beneath his worn coat.

‘The destructive power is certain. The problem is that my body can’t handle the recoil.’

That horrific hitting sensation when he exploded the gatekeeper. While thrilling, it was accompanied by pain as if his joints were being ripped out entirely.

If the equipment hadn’t automatically restricted its output back then, his right arm certainly would have been torn off along with a spray of blood first, instead of blowing the creature away.

In the end, to properly handle this thing, there was no choice but to raise his basic physical strength and body durability. Furthermore, he urgently needed a means to at least slightly relieve the strain placed on his joints every time he used his strength.

The place where Chan-ho stopped his steps again was in front of an equipment supply store mainly used by hunters.

Beyond the glass window, brand-name weapons costing tens of millions of won and glowing magic armors were flamboyantly displayed. In the past, he would have passed by while swallowing his saliva, but now Chan-ho didn’t even give those a glance as he pushed open the door and stepped inside.

Jingle.

“Welcome.”

A middle-aged owner sitting at the counter greeted him nonchalantly.

“Do you have usable compression bandages for joint protection? Something with good elasticity and impact absorption.”

At Chan-ho’s first words, the owner pushed up the glasses that had slid down the bridge of his nose.

“What, you didn’t come to look at weapons. If it’s that kind of stuff, there’s plenty on the display rack over there. Made of special hunter fiber, it won’t break easily, but it’ll cost a bit.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

Chan-ho walked over to the display rack and examined the bandages. Rather than expensive equipment full of superficial vanity, what he desperately needed right now were practical consumables that would protect his bones and muscles in actual combat.

He picked up several black special bandages that appeared the toughest and most elastic. In addition, he generously filled his basket with hemostatics needed to endure inside dungeons and basic recovery potions.

“Please give me a pair of combat boots with good lower-body support, too. Non-slip soles.”

When he poured the items onto the counter, the owner tapped his calculator and smacked his lips.

“Looks like you roll around pretty roughly. Well, when doing bottom-tier work, not getting hurt is the best.”

“That’s right. If my body breaks down, I can’t even earn my daily wage.”

Chan-ho handed over his card nonchalantly.

He neatly packed the paid items into his sturdy backpack. The heavy weight of the bag slung on his back actually made his heart feel reassured.

Exiting the shop, Chan-ho stood on the street and looked up at the sky. Through the acrid city smog, the hazy sun was setting.

Tucking the gauntlets inside his sleeves tightly once more, he rubbed his chin.

The world still knew nothing about what kind of item he had gained in his hands. Not the porters who looked down on him like a bug, nor the party leader who drove him out as a shield for a few pennies. In their eyes, he was still wearing the shell of an eternal weakest link.

‘I’ll climb up properly like this.’

Unlocking the gauntlets’ hidden functions one by one and breaking through his physical limits. That was the only way to make this power entirely his own.

Chan-ho cracked his stiff neck lightly to loosen up. His body was still tired, but as he took a step forward toward the next hunting ground, there was a firm strength at the tips of his toes that had never been there before.