From Today, I'm a Player

Chapter 59: Hyeon-Mu Pt. 2

Lee Jun-Kyeong was utterly bored to death. If he hadn’t realized it before he had arrived, he realized it after what had happened a little while ago, when he had decided to show an illusion with Merlin’s necklace.

‘They actually cried for their parents. Even now, it seems as though they’re still scared of their parents.’

He was speaking about the Hunters who had cried for their mother and father, and as stated earlier, they were the ones who would enter the gate with Lee Jun-Kyeong.

"Wow..."

They had only just become Hunters, and were basically children who had barely reached adulthood. Since they would be rated together, it meant that the gate they were to enter was graded low.

‘F-Grade.’

In fact, they were going to the Goblin Village. The Association and the Underdog were basically holding an event in the name of hunting, capitalizing on the current public opinion of the Underdog that was rising day after day. It was meant to be done together with people who would be perfect for raising the rumors.

'To think this is the first mission Asgard had planned for me.’

He couldn’t help but sigh. Still, while there were some that stood admiring the surroundings of the first gate they had entered and others that blustered about the landscape, there were some Hunters that didn’t look half bad.

“We’ll be moving on just the way you learned. Don’t ever let yourself relax here,” Lee Jun-Kyeong said as he lurched forward and walked away from the door.

“All you have to do is move forward slowly.”

Either way, they had entered the gate alongside Association staff. The Association didn’t send these newbie Hunters in to hunt.

Flicker.

Instead, they were all here to display the power held by a Hero-Rank Hunter. The flames in Lee Jun-Kyeong’s hand shot forward.

‘Reign of Fire has gotten much better.’

Both the temperature and heat retention were better than before, and it seemed as though Reign of Fire had risen in level.

A newbie Hunter gasped, "Wow..."

"Will we be able to learn that skill too?" asked another.

“I mean, our Guild Master should be at that level too?”

"Don't say stupid shit.”

Lee Jun-Kyeong felt as though he had utterly become a clown. He would have rather been back in the Catalyon Mountain Gate and been a clown there.

‘At least back there, I was able to become a spectator eventually.’

But, if he repeated what he had done at the Catalyon Mountain Gate now, the new Hunters would surely die. There was no reason, nor did he have any intentions, of doing anything of that sort here. So, Lee Jun-Kyeong just diligently continued his work.

‘Next is…’

Swish!

He moved like the wind. His stats had been temporarily diminished following the events at the Catalyon Mountain Gate, but, as time passed, they had gradually begun to return to their original values. Now, they had risen to a higher value than they originally had been. Although they weren’t at their new, maximum possible values, his body was still much lighter and more alert than before.

‘It’s faster.’

Lee Jun-Kyeong pulled out Muspel's Spear, but he soon put it back into his inventory.

“...”

An unpleasant memory arose from looking at it. Until he was able to have Park Jae-Hyun inspect it, he thought that he should refrain from using the spear. In its place, he began to make a move.

“Keeeeeh.”

“Keeughk!”

Thud! Thud!

He punched the goblins that had set out the arsonists who had set fires. Their weapons were never able to reach Lee Jun-Kyeong, and he hunted them all down, occasionally using his fire to kill them. Although he was here, playing a clown for the new Hunters, he was still earning some experience.

Of course, it was only a very minute amount, so minuscule to the point where it barely left a mark.

‘Is this how Heracles feels?’

Lee Jun-Kyeong felt as though he could finally understand what Heracles thought at all times, having to fight as if he was playing with countless weak beings.

‘It's a little…’

If he had to repeat this sort of fight every time, even he would begin to want to take some risks. And he was someone who prioritized safety over all else! After a few minutes passed…

[The gate has been cleared.]

[<The Sky of the Apocalypse> sponsors you a small amount of stats in honor of your clown persona.]

Well, at least the endeavor wasn’t without any income.

***

Lee Jun-Kyeong had finished the first mission he had been given by Asgard. Without even taking the time to ask Odin for compensation, he headed toward a gate.

"Are you raiding another gate?" someone asked.

There was a B-Grade Gate that had appeared nearby. It had appeared so suddenly that no one had reserved it yet.

‘It’s moderate enough.’

It was a gate that wasn’t ranked so highly that he wouldn’t be able to run away in case of some sudden situation. He was pretty confident that he would be able to clear alone. Therefore, Lee Jun-Kyeong went straight to the gate without a break.

“Clearing something of that level didn’t take any strength,” Lee Jun-Kyeong responded. He felt zero fatigue after finishing the F-Grade gate. As the gate raid had been successful and he had obtained more than adequate verification of his skills, he felt as though he should try a real gate now.

"I'll be back."

There were reasons why he had decided to head to the gate immediately, even though he wasn’t able to use Muspel’s Spear, and he had many other things to do.

[You have entered the Graveyard of the Dead.]

The first reason was that the gate that had appeared nearby was an undead type.

"Hyeon-Mu,” he called.

The second reason was that Hyeon-Mu had woken up.

"Go ahead."

The third reason was that Hyeon-Mu had a new ability.

When a Familiar was said to be sleeping, it didn’t mean death or the sleep that most people would think of. Rather, it was a stepping stone for growth. Typically, a Familiar would grow through sponsorship or by coincidence.

‘It looks like it’s reached the level.’

Lee Jun-Kyeong’s special ability was the Player. Furthermore, his Familiar, Hyeon-Mu, was an exception to other Familiars. A Familiar would inherit some of the characteristics of their owner. That was why Hyeon-Mu was also able to raise its level by hunting monsters and had now reached the required level for growth.

–I have received your orders.

But, as if its personality was still the same as before, it answered reliably and began to fly around.

–I don't see any suitable materials, but...

"Hmm..."

Lee Jun-Kyeong wondered if that meant that it had its own tastes. He eventually took a step forward, moving for the sake of raiding the gate. Unlike the F-Grade Gate, which couldn’t even make him properly use even ten percent of his power, let alone require a strategy, the Graveyard of the Dead was a decent hunting ground.

Squelch!

He muttered to himself, “It feels pretty nice to hit.”

It was also a good place for him to gauge his level of stats and physical condition. The Graveyard of the Dead was filled with skeletons, ghouls, and dullahans.

‘The undead are high-level monsters.’

Although there were those who thought that the undead would be low-grade monsters due to preconceptions formed from movies and such, most of the various undead were actually high-grade monsters, with the exception of zombies. They were monsters that didn’t die easily, and were basically an immortal legion that would live forever unless a Hunter had a specific skill or a weapon.

"Is this what they call death mana?"

When he looked at his surroundings through the mana stream, he saw that the gate was full of an energy that he had never seen before. It wasn’t mana, nor was it the demonic mana that he had seen at the Catalyon Mountain Gate. It was a little more murky and insidious. Some said that there was another type of corrupted mana in the habitat of the undead, death mana or death energy. That energy would constantly accumulate, damaging and fatiguing a Hunter.

He cocked his head to the side. “It looks like I’m fine…?”

Even though Lee Jun-Kyeong had confirmed the existence of death energy, for some reason, he couldn't feel the burden death energy gave at all. He wondered if the rumor was wrong.

‘No, that’s not it.’

It wouldn’t have been just a rumor. Regardless of their level, many hunters had suffered the effects of death energy.

He grinned. “As expected, it looks like I have the same constitution as the Demon King."

That was also a part of why he had come. Just to check the possibility that he could have been like the Demon King. The Demon King was a special person, a man whose existence itself was unaffected by death energy.

‘That was how he must have led his undead corps.’

But the Demon King’s ability was neither from a sponsorship nor his special ability, so Lee Jun-Kyeong just thought it was something the Demon King had been born with. He had assumed it wouldn’t have been the same for him.

‘What the hell is this body...?’

At that moment, the questions he had been holding back suddenly bubbled forth again, but he had to swallow them back down.

–I found it, master.

He would have to think about them later. Lee Jun-Kyeong then turned his head towards Hyeon-Mu.

–Would you please take down that gang of skeletons?

At Hyeon-Mu’s courteous request, Lee Jun-Kyeong hit the ground running.

"Of course."

***

Rattle. Rattle.

He could hear grotesque sounds all around him. He ignored them and closed his eyes. Once the monsters had been dealt with to some extent, the mana of the gate, which had been chaotic, began to restore itself.

Both death energy and demonic mana were floating around the gate, seemingly mixing into one another and repelling away at the same time.

Rattle. Rattle.

Lee Jun-Kyeong then found something that surprised him.

“Haa..."

Lee Jun-Kyeong breathed in deeply. Then, the death energy that was rampant through the gate entered into his mouth and traveled toward his neck.

Cough.

He felt pain in his throat. He had forcefully swallowed the death energy using his mana stream, and it was absorbed by the black bead in his neck, almost as if it had been sucked in. After a while, the black bead spit back out the death energy it couldn’t swallow.

[Purification will be used.]

The passive skill, Purification, was activated, and the death energy that started to spread throughout his body began to dissipate. All that was left were the black beads, seemingly charged with death energy. But he still didn’t understand how to use them.

“Cough, cough, cough!”

He vomited blood as he tried to force the black beads to move. He could feel it, and he knew he would have to find someone who could uncover what these black beads were as soon as possible.

‘It won’t be easy, though…’

Of course, he had considered asking Merlin for help, but soon decided against it. Merlin wasn’t an ally. They were just working together in a temporary alliance after their negotiations.

Rattle! Rattle!

Lee Jun-Kyeong called the source of the continuous distracting sounds that wouldn’t end.

"Hyeon-Mu."

–My apologies. It was because I haven’t found everything that was to my liking yet…

Hyeon-Mu apologized, but the noises still continued for quite a while, and finally, the sounds stopped.

–It is complete.

Lee Jun-Kyeong looked over to the side.

“…”

–What is the matter, Master?

"Is that... is that all?” he asked.

–Yes, but... It seems as though Master must not be satisfied with my appearance.

There, a skeleton stood, oddly, with a tiny head. Hyeon-Mu had always been floating in the air, but it had informed him that this newfound growth had given it the power to form a body. That was why Lee Jun-Kyeong had entered the undead type-gate, and here was where Hyeon-Mu had begun to make its body.

Lee Jun-Kyeong scratched his head. "Isn’t your head too small?"

–I see.

However, it seemed as though Hyeon-Mu had made a mistake, but eventually, it tried again.

–How is this one?

"This time it's too big….”

–I see…

They stood in that manner, repeating their conversation over and over again for a long time before Lee Jun-Kyeong stopped complaining. Finally, he approved of the skull’s choice.

“You sort of look like one now.”

Hyeon-Mu had become strikingly similar to the skeletons they had hunted within the dungeon. But, its pose was different from the rest. One of its eyes emitted a bluish glow that gradually turned murky and dark. Eventually, the light in its eye settled with a dark blue tinge.

“...”

"Now, show me. Your strengthed ability."

Lee Jun-Kyeong knew that the growth in Hyeon-Mu wasn’t just limited to the ability to construct a body. The skeleton bowed at the order as if it was a chauffeur and began to move.

–I have received your orders.

Rattle, rattle.

The dark blue glow in its eye deepened, and the skeletons that Hyeon-Mu had collected to construct its body began to rise.