Evolution Theory of the Hunter

An Aegis shield and a run of the mill longsword. Respectively they should have been priced at 200,000 and 100,000 dollars. Even Eum Hyunjoon who rarely shows any emotion had surprise etched on his face.

“Thanks to everyone’s efforts, we were able to see amazing results. The only unfortunate bit of news is that the value of level 1 items have dropped to almost half their normal price, so it will be hard for me to estimate just how much we can sell them for.”

“We’re fine as long as you pay us something!”

“HAHAHA!”

Everyone still had a relatively unconcerned look at Eum Hyunjoon’s words. There was no one among us who didn’t know the situation, and it seemed everyone was content with the results nonetheless. Above all, the most important thing was that no one had sustained any serious injury.

“Now we will announce the contribution rankings by teams.”

The rankings went as follows: Mercenary team #1 and our team #2. Who really cares how everyone else ranked right?

“Oh. We got 2nd place!”

“Of course we did. Do you know how hard I worked?”

Manager Kim said.

“If we’re ranking by teams, then how are individuals going to be paid out?”

“That will be done by the party or team head.”

I responded to Han Joonseok’s question. Everyone swallowed with anticipation in their faces. Except Manager Kim. His smile was so big that they were almost touching his ears. Though his job is to use his skill just one time and let everyone else do the dirty work, if we were to look at the results as a whole, it was only right to give him number two since he was only one of two magicians in the whole raid group.

“Fourth place…”

Glasses girl had her head down and was squirming.

“Don’t be too disappointed. Someday your ability will improve even more!”

“No, that’s that’s not it. It’s because this is the first time I wasn’t last place.”

“Is that right?”

“Yes. I’m sorry to Youngoo Oppa but I’m honestly a little happy. It’s all thanks to you, party head.”

The way she stared up at me, she reminded me of a small puppy, so I patted her head.

“You did well. Keep doing what you’re doing.”

“I will!”

“SunbehOppa. How about me?”

“You didn’t even do anything.”

“But I’m the team mascot. Hello?”

“You mean giant?”

Smack.

Hm. But it’s true.

Soon it was time to auction off the items. It was just formality because, as we expected, no one bought it. We were, however, able to sell it to the dungeon operating team for 200,000 for both items. It was more money than I had expected them to sell for. After this and that, our team was able to collect a total of 40,000 dollars.

“Holy-crap!”

Jung Sooah yelled out a big whoop as she saw the 4,000 dollars transferred into her account. I was able to collect 12,000 dollars – her money was more like pocket change compared to mine. To think that I could collect 12,000 dollars in one raid. You could say it was because we were lucky enough to come across two dropped items, but this was still a lot of money.

Everyone in all the other teams had ecstatic looks on their faces too. Manager Kim was all riled up saying he would make reservations at a top steakhouse and buy everyone dinner. Of course he would probably change his tune in about 10 minutes so I hurriedly made my own reservations at a porkbelly house.

Eum Hyunjoon walked to where I was standing.

“Thank you so much. We were able to complete the raid successfully without any major hiccups thanks to you.”

“It was thanks to you, I’m certain.”

“Honestly I didn’t walk over here to say empty compliments. I actually came here to ask a favor of you. Would you be available to join us on another raid?”

“When did you have in mind?”

“Within 3 days’ time.”

“So soon?”

If it were only a 5 person party, you could plan something as soon as the next day and move quickly. But judging from Eum Hyunjoon’s demeanor, it felt like he wanted to do another raid on a similar scale as the one from just today. To pull of something like this with so many people in just three days…that was almost preposterous.

“Yes. We might even move faster than that even.”

“I would need to ask my party members, but I’m sure they would all be up for it.”

“Great. And one more thing…”

Eum Hyunjoon said as he lowered his voice.

“Can you please keep today’s events a secret?”

“Why?”

In one round, two items had dropped. This could not be coincidence.

“I thought it might be because of the number of people.”

“Hm. You have a point. But if it’s something as simple as that, everyone will eventually realize it too.”

“So that’s why I want to reap the benefits as many times as possible before that happens. So I’ll trust that you’ll keep this on the down low.”

Eum Hyunjoon finished what he had to say and went to each party head one by one to make the same request. It seemed as if everyone agreed to it.

***

We again embarked on the Baeksapyoung dungeon with the mercenary guild every three days. In one month of doing this, we were able to come up with a total of 15 dropped items. On average, that was about 1.5 items for every time we did a raid. That was a lot of money in the course of a month.

We were able to deduce certiain things while doing our raids and taking stock of the different item drops.

There was no way this would remain a secret for long. We don’t know if someone leaked it or if other people figured it out on their own but the number of level 1 items put up on the hunter market went up like crazy.

After checking the forums a bit, I closed the window. Man. Whoever that is sucks. I mean, we were asked to keep it on the downlow and I guess he’s sort of doing that…but why the hell would he even hint at a possible tip like that? I’m sure whoever it is is also going on separate raids to milk it for all it was worth. Shameless. But good thing we went on all those raids first. It was a smart move.

Because soon, the special condition we had where parties in excess of 10 people had free admission…was not just limited to the mercenary guild any more. It was now available to the general public.

It wasn’t long before level 1 items were less than half their normal value. It didn’t look like it would go back up any time soon.

I closed my left eye and checked my stats.

[0,15,3350]

Over the last month, I had accumulated over 10,000 reward points. With that, I split it up to raise all of my abilities. I’m a well rounded boy don’t you know? That was why I only had about 3,000 left now. Strength, endurance, reflexes, focus, defense…I had raised all of them one time for a total of 7,500 reward points.

With this much, it would now be possible to take my party members into a level 2 dungeon all on my own now. I felt like if I took into account Jung Sooah’s buffer skill, I might even be able to kill a level 2 monster with my bare hands.

What was even better was that everyone on my team had a low level average so we would have higher chances for item drops.

Eum Hyunjoon seemed very disappointed that we chose to leave his team. But the level 1 items were quickly dropping in value by each passing day and now I was strong enough to clear a level 2 dungeon all on my own that there seemed little point in me sticking with that team any longer.

“I’m a bit sad that today will be your last day.”

“I wish you guys only the best of luck.”

Honestly I was a bit sad too. I felt like there was still a lot I could learn from Eum Hyunjoon.

The raids were now moving forward just as fast as they had been the last month. No, it was actually now moving even faster. I felt a bit worried and said.

“Party head. Aren’t the raids moving a bit too fast lately?”

“Is there a problem?”

“No. Not really a problem…just”

I couldn’t really tell him that if he cleared the raids too quickly that an irregular might appear. Because it wasn’t a 5 person party. Maybe I was making a big deal out of nothing. But I couldn’t stop from still feeling a bit iffy.

And soon my worries were affirmed.

“What is that…?”

“Was there a monster like that?”

“Party head?”

Everyone was staring at a humongous monster in the distance.

“Sun…sunbehOppa?”

Jung Sooah’s voice was rattling almost violently.

It was the monster that I had once slain long ago. The level 4 monster was standing in the distance.