Evolution Theory of the Hunter

Evolution Theory of the Hunter (ETH)
Volume 1 Chapter 57

I was probably barely 3 meters away from the group of idiots. Close enough where if we just stretched out our arms toward eachother, we would be able to touch fingertips.

Right at the peak of it all…

"Yo. Who is this?"

A familiar face peeked out from among them.

Comically slanted eyes, a pointed chin, and a long face.

Just like a weasel.

"I was wondering if you were alive. I didn’t think I’d meet you someplace like this."

Both ends of his lips began to curl up.

"Uh….who are you?"

"….You’re saying you don’t remember me?"

"No. Your face is a bit familiar, but I can’t seem to quite place you."

"I’m SoulPredator Ban s.h.i.+hyung. Come on. We even did a raid in a dungeon together."

"Uh…I don’t remember such an embarra.s.sing name as that."

"Keuk…then do you remember this guy?"

He brought into view a magician holding a cane.

"Ah?"

"I guess you remember now huh?"

"Sorry. My mistake. I thought he reminded me of a friend."

"This b.a.s.t.a.r.d…."

Ban s.h.i.+hyung started grinding his teeth. I guess he was kind of annoyed.

Keukeu

I could hear Sooah and gla.s.ses girl trying to stifle their giggles behind me.

His face started to turn a bright red now. I guess it must have been pretty embarra.s.sing to put on such a grand entrance for naught.

Of course I remembered who he was. I just wanted to p.i.s.s him off a bit.

He was the partyhead I had raided a dungeon with before. He was the one who partnered with the magician to purposely retire a bunch of his own party members. That b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

He was someone I didn’t have any desire of acknowledging.

"Well, that’s fine. I was going to let it slide since we knew one another…but now."

"Ah! Now I remember! Yeah. You were the one who threw friendly fire at your party members right?"

"What?"

"I figured you wouldn’t live long since you did PK as casually as someone would eat food so I’d erased you from memory!"

"This…this b.a.s.t.a.r.d…shut that d.a.m.n mouth!"

Not only was his face red now, it looked like it would explode like those cartoon thermometers that get really really red at the top.

I had to keep myself from laughing.

"Hey. Head. Is that true?"

"What do you mean is that true! You think I would do something like that?"

"No….I never saw it myself…but I did hear some rumors…"

"Shut up! Don’t believe some nonsense coming from a youngster like that!"

After shutting up his little group, he walked over to me.

"I was about to ask you to join my group because I thought you had some skills but…"

"I’ll save you the trouble and say nahhhh."

"Keuk…"

I could hear him grinding his teeth again. Maybe I should stop now.

"I don’t know what kind of nerve you have with just the three of you…But you think you can win against all of us? Especially with those betches that look like they can’t do s.h.i.+t."

"I wonder. I don’t think you’re counting correctly."

Pat!

A golden light rose above their heads. It was manager Kim’s sleep magic.

"Euu….I’m tired…"

"….why am I…so…."

Drop. Drop.

His spell dropped five of them to sleep.

"What, what the h.e.l.l’s going on!"

Ban s.h.i.+hyung started jumping around in a circle to figure out what just happened. Then he saw behind him, about 20 meters away, a middle aged man holding up a cane.

And next to him stood Cho Youngoo, Han Joonseok, and Jong Sawon…all in a row.

Han Joonseok had his bow drawn and locked on the weasel already.

"Now, it looks like we’re a bit more even doesn’t it?"

Out of the total 15 (not the initial 12 I counted), 5 were now asleep. We had a total of 7.

It was fine though because Jong Sawon, Cho Youngoo, and I had level 3 equipment.

Ban s.h.i.+hyung was just a level 2 hunter if my memory serves correctly.

"Ahhhhhhk! s.h.i.+t! s.h.i.+t s.h.i.+t s.h.i.+t!"

He started to kick at the ground after seeing he couldn’t win.

"I’ll! Just watch! I’ll get you! Just watch!"

"Whatever."

I shrugged my shoulders as I watched them make

Han Joonseok said with a wooden face.

"SoulPredator Ban s.h.i.+hyung…It’s a name I’ve heard before."

"I guess he’s pretty well known."

"Not really…there’s just word about him because he’s been going around with a group of 30 people."

"Looks like he has only 15 now including himself."

"Well, you know how rumors go. But is it ok to just let him leave like that? I’m sure he’ll try to exact some kind of petty revenge later."

Han Joonseok looked worried. I can’t say I wasn’t a little concerned myself.

I thought we should have handled it…but this wasn’t the place for it. Too many prying eyes.

"There are too many witnesses. It’s not like we could kill him. And if we took care to not kill them, we could end up getting unnecessarily hurt. Plus…he’s riled up. If he makes a move, he won’t do it with a calm and calculated mind."

"…You’re expecting him to strike back?"

"I’m just thinking worst case scenario."

Both sides knew fighting here would not do.

But we would be heading to the Yellow Sea road shortly.

That land had no governing laws. It was a land of monsters. It was a land where anything could happen and no one would bat an eye.

Ban s.h.i.+hyung…he was someone I could handle anytime.

After finis.h.i.+ng up, we all got into Cho Youngoo’s car and headed to the Yellow Sea road. This was only possible because it had 4 wheel drive. It was a land without any paved roads so the car b.u.mped the entire way.

Cho Youngoo said,

"I guess I’ll have to get it properly maintenanced later…"

"I’ll be sure to compensate you properly for that."

"No. That’s not necessary."

"We’re all using it together. I need to do at least that much."

If it wasn’t for his car, I would have had to purchase a car myself. It was only right to pay him for maintenance.

After riding for 10 minutes, we saw some monsters ahead in the distance.

They were in a groups of a little over 10. But they were just toddling around – they probably didn’t spot us yet.

We braked to look around and saw that there were parties already engaging in fights.

"Let’s get started too."

The sun was starting to set.

We fought against cave wolves, goblins, wedge moles, and water slimes all day.

We covered a distance of about 10 kilometers in that time – slower than walking speed.

"Whew…let’s call it a day."

We parked the car and made a fire so we could take a break.

Since monsters typically avoided fires, it had that added benefit.

Of course there were monsters that didn’t avoid fires, but it was better than being attacked in the dark.

All we needed to create a bonfire were some dry shrubs.

There weren’t any tall trees, but there were quite a few shrubs that came up to the waist.

There were even some animal that weren’t monsters.

This made me start to wonder if this was not land that rose from the sea.

"I think this is the most monsters I’ve seen since ever."

Jung Sooah commented while poking at the fire with a stick.

I agreed. We had probably killed about 150 monsters today. All of them were level 1s.

Thanks to that, we were able to collect over 70 ores. Save for a few I needed to use on Item Fusions, I put the rest towards upgrading.

Carrying them around would only make the car heavy. It was better to invest them into the upgrade.

But it was definitely alot of ores. Altogether, they probably had a market value of 90,000 dollars.

"It’s like a land of prosperity here."

Han Joonseok murmured.

Everyone nodded in agreement. And this was from covering only 10 kilometers of land bordering the Yellow Sea.

If it was like this here, just how many monsters would there be towards the center. I couldn’t even imagine how many ores and items we would be able to pick up there.

Everyone’s face was filled with excitement and hope.

"Let’s organize everything for now."

Three total dropped items. They weren’t really anything special – we did only kill level 1 monsters.

Longsword (1): Generic sword. Can give damage to level 1 monsters.

Agile Sword (1): Increase reflexes by 15%.

Backpack (1): Can carry 30% more items in the bag. Weight of the items are 30% lighter.

"All three items will be used by Sooah."

"Huh..? Really?"

Sooah said with a dumb look on her face.

"I’m using the same method as before. I will keep all the ores while we pa.s.s dropped items to those it is best suited for. Whatever is left over will be sold and distributed evenly per member. I hope everyone agrees with me on this."

"Well, I guess it’s easier to do it this way anyway. Plus items will keep dropping so it’s not a bad deal."

Han Joonseok responded. I nodded my head.

There would be plenty of items to go around.