Step, step, step.
Though there was still a considerable distance between him and the other person, the sound of approaching footsteps seemed to brush right past his ears.
Sssk.
Just before the man in question crossed the gate, the archmage swiftly completed his spell.
A true master often made the difficult look effortless—and this was no exception.
He cast four layers of magic at once, concealing the magic power within his body while simultaneously masking all sound, appearance, and scent. Having finished hiding himself without so much as a change in expression, he quickly held his breath.
‘Why am I in this dungeon?’
First of all, no matter how straightforward the tunnel layout might be, there was no reason he should end up running directly into Kang Changho here.
Cloaked beneath layer upon layer of magic, the alien had already become imperceptible by Earth’s standards. Trusting in his spells, Giryeo confidently began making his way back toward the entrance... but then—
‘No, that’s not the right question.’
A moment later, a familiar magical presence fully entered the dungeon.
And as the distance between hunter and prey steadily narrowed, another question rose to the surface.
‘Why is that inside the dungeon?’
Why was Kang Changho here?
Despite all his overwhelming wealth, Kang Changho wasn’t wearing a single stealth item. In other words, he had walked in openly, showing his face to the Association staff stationed at the entrance.
With an S-rank awakening level, he essentially had a free pass to enter virtually any gate he pleased, so logically speaking, there was nothing particularly strange about his presence here.
The problem was that Giryeo had never actually seen the man exercise that privilege.
Kang Changho had never entered a dungeon of his own accord before.
Whenever one of his contractors mentioned heading off somewhere on a raid, he would occasionally appear—solely for the purpose of protecting his “offering.”
That was the full extent of the third S-rank’s known activity.
“The Republic of Korea’s most notorious slacker personally showing up at a brand-new gate?”
Step. Step. Step.
From farther down the dark passage, the heavy footsteps of someone approaching could be heard.
This time, it wasn’t a hallucination.
After a moment, a familiar figure emerged through the faint glow of the magic stones.
Could it be that [Dragon’s Eye] enhanced night vision as well?
Despite entering the pitch-black cave, Kang Changho hadn’t brought out any external light source. Like a carnivorous beast whose eyes were adapted for the dark, his green pupils gleamed brightly as he silently surveyed the cave.
“...?”
“...?”
At last, the two raiders passed each other in silence.
As expected, with the inferior senses of an Earthling’s body, Kang Changho failed to perceive the archmage concealed by magic.
Just as the man who had broken the pact imposed by the cursed item quietly let out a breath of relief—
Whoosh.
Kang Changho suddenly turned his head.
“...?”
However, it wasn’t because he had sensed anyone’s presence.
From the moment his large frame stepped through the gate, he had repeatedly swept his gaze around as though he were on guard.
Even now, he wasn’t looking at the invisible Kim Gi-ryeo. His eyes were fixed instead on the small magic stone behind him.
“He’s not empty-handed, huh?”
Kang Changho was holding an unfamiliar object in his dominant hand.
Unlike the pain-inflicting dagger carried by a certain F-rank swindler, this was a rugged, high-tech object shaped like an actual stake.
And its function was...
‘So Earth has equipment like that too.’
The archmage cast a sidelong glance at the slender stake glowing blue in Kang Changho’s hand, then promptly looked away.
It was certainly an intriguing sight, but unfortunately, he no longer had the luxury of observing it.
With layer upon layer of magic woven around his body, his magic power was being consumed at an alarming rate.
If even one of his concealment spells failed now, that stake would surely end up buried in his body.
‘How could this possibly be a coincidence? If—by even the slightest chance—he came here because he knows I broke the contract... Oh, dear god.’
Tak, tak, tak.
He hurried his steps.
Hmm.
Meanwhile, the contractor’s muttering echoed through the cave, but the alien had no time to stop and listen carefully.
‘...Seoul would be a problem.’
***
Outside.
After escaping the gate, Giryeo immediately returned home and checked the dummy’s condition.
“Oh my.”
Contrary to his fears, however, the magic-disruption device intended to counter the dragon’s eyes was functioning perfectly.
[0 missed calls]
[0 missed texts]
Moreover, as far as he could tell, there were no problems anywhere else either.
That meant Kang Changho hadn’t entered the dungeon because he had discovered his contractor’s unauthorized excursion.
“Uhm?”
Yet that only made the situation stranger.
Several hours later, around dinnertime, there was still no response.
Normally, the violent ex-convict would never remain quiet after discovering that a clause of their contract had been ignored.
The other party’s continued silence was unsettling for precisely that reason, but at the very least, Giryeo had confirmed that his most dangerous secret remained intact.
“Huh.”
Despite holding the title of Hunter, Kang Changho was someone who almost never went out hunting.
Still, just in case, Giryeo opened the Hunter-exclusive app and checked the status of the gate in question.
[Nameless Cave]
[Grade: B]
[Current Status: Clear]
[Raid Participants: Kang Changho (S)]
Just like that, the gate had been marked as cleared.
Kang Changho had gone through the proper procedures with the Hunter Association and officially cleared it.
‘Am I seeing this right?’
Then Giryeo remembered the final words he had heard the man mutter inside the cave.
‘...Seoul would be a problem.’
He wanted to ask immediately.
“Why did you go into that dungeon? What did you mean by that last comment?”
But he couldn’t.
Giryeo himself had secretly entered the dungeon without his contractor’s permission, so there was no conceivable way he could bring it up.
Logically speaking, he wasn’t even supposed to know that Kang Changho had gone there.
From now on, if the topic of [Nameless Cave] ever came up, he would have to pretend he knew nothing about it.
No matter what.
“Haa...”
But seriously.
That had scared the life out of him.
Kim Giryeo pressed a hand to his forehead, trying to steady the breathing that had only now begun to grow ragged.
Thank goodness he had figured out the cause of the possession phenomenon in that monster nest—whatever that stolen item had been called—before it was too late.
If he had ventured even a little deeper into the dungeon, his stealth spell might have collapsed halfway through, unable to withstand the enormous amount of magic power required to maintain it.
‘If a new presence had suddenly appeared in that cave, Kang Changho’s sharp eyes would have locked onto the source immediately.’
Just imagining it sent a chill down his spine.
Giryeo definitely had no desire to experience such a threatening situation again.
And so he silently swore to himself that, no matter how resistant he might be to the curse’s effects, he would never again break a promise so recklessly...
‘Hmm.’
Amid all this, another realization suddenly struck him.
If merely seeing the face of some primitive sorcerer was enough to make him this tense, perhaps he wasn’t quite ready to meet his end after all.
If he truly believed that dying carelessly didn’t matter, he should have remained calm and indifferent even in such a dangerous situation.
‘Wow. Even after living for so long, I still have a survival instinct...’
The dry, withered eyes of the corpse slowly began to recover the refinement and wit they had lost.
Indeed, he had endured countless hardships before successfully reincarnating.
Now that he had obtained a young body, wouldn’t it be a waste not to use it to the fullest?
Throwing away his life over a single failure would be terribly wasteful and inefficient.
‘How crude.’
Giryeo rose from his seat and, for the first time in quite a while, began tidying up.
A round soda-lime glass bottle lay rolling across the floor of the studio apartment.
It was cheap soju from a discount mart, purchased by the alien who had taken over the Earthling’s body.
Even though he had undergone awakening himself, such a small quantity had been nowhere near enough to make him drunk. Still, it had satisfied one of his curiosities.
Specifically, it had finally explained why the memories remaining in the body owner’s brain contained no recollection of ever getting drunk.
The moment he took a sip of the liquid called soju, another tiny fragment of information—one that had yet to resurface until then—returned to him.
‘Huh? What is this—Kim Giryeo, you’ve had this before, haven’t you?’
After becoming an adult, Kim Giryeo had once bought soju from a convenience store out of curiosity.
But when he actually tasted it, he had been startled to discover that it smelled and tasted like the alcohol from a laboratory burner. He had grimaced after a single sip—
‘I gave up drinking it. And the body still remembers using the leftover soju as a refrigerator deodorizer.’
Even now, the cheap liquor tasted unpleasant on this body’s tongue.
That was right.
He still hadn’t fully analyzed even this insignificant Earth creature called Kim Giryeo.
And just as with that Act, there might still be some clue capable of solving everything hidden among the synaptic connections severed by depression.
‘Right. What kind of pathetic behavior is this, coming from me?’
Clatter.
The blond man thought to himself as he neatly gathered the discarded objects scattered around the room and stuffed them into a trash bag.
‘After all, a scholar should be doing research.’
It was the moment his original motivation returned.
Like a starving organism, he would diligently consume and absorb this planet’s knowledge.
Then, using the strength he gained from it, he would eventually secure complete safety for himself.
This time, he swore, he would live happily.
Having finished making that resolution, he stood up with the trash-filled bag in both hands.
Arrogance was this wizard’s persistent flaw, but his twisted personality, like that of any other creature, had its advantages as well.
For one thing, he was exceptionally quick at pulling himself out of despair.
***
20 hours later. Clear day.
[Me: Yoonsung-ah]
[Me: Did you say the exact closing time today is 1 O’clock?]
[Me: I made a reservation for 2 O’clock at the restaurant. That means we won’t be short on time to change clothes, right?]
[Ahn Yoonsung: Yes, yes! It’s 1 O’clock, Hyung-nim! I’ll report back as soon as I get out of the gate!!!]
By the way, today was just an ordinary weekday, with nothing particularly important on my schedule.
Sitting at my desk, I checked the messages I had exchanged with an A-rank Hunter, then switched to another screen on my phone.
“Oh my, my shoulder.”
About 20 hours ago, I had once again resolved to make the most of my second life.
But life had a way of feeling far more difficult from the bottom than it ever had from the top.
Perhaps because I had once been a high-level sorcerer in my previous life, I couldn’t help feeling a brief wave of discouragement at my present circumstances, trapped as I was in this lowly body.
‘The body of an F-rank Hunter, huh.’
Still, when I thought about it again, surviving in Kim Giryeo’s body wasn’t actually impossible.
There were magical items, for one thing.
And after what had happened with the soul, it was clear that certain extraordinary tools possessed more than enough potential to contend even with S-rank Hunters.
In other words, if I could obtain the right Legendary item, I might even be able to stop Kang Changho from taking my life once our contract expired.
‘Hmm.’
The problem, however...
Every single Legendary currently known to exist on Earth already had a formidable owner.
The Book of Annihilation in the U.S.
Jung Haeseong’s Sword of Sunset.
And the mysterious ash-gray greatsword from the Kagoshima Raid.
To be fair, that Legendary greatsword from Japan might eventually be put up for sale.
But even if it was, it wasn’t something an F-rank like me could wield in the first place.
So that option was out.
‘Besides, in about two years, my lie will have been completely exposed, and my relationship with Jung Haeseong will probably have fallen apart by then. So borrowing a fully charged Sword of Sunset doesn’t exactly sound realistic either.’
Hahaha.
Anyway, what was I supposed to do about this?
I sat in my chair with one leg propped awkwardly over the opposite thigh, continuing to think.
There was still plenty I needed to do to clean up all the ridiculous messes I had created with my earlier pretenses.
Just thinking about it made me want to laugh in disbelief.
But problems like these only became worse if you kept putting them off simply because you didn’t want to deal with them.
‘The top priority is collecting magical tools again. For now, I need to increase my strength if I want to accomplish anything at all.’
After sketching out a rough plan, I rose from my seat.
And today, as a small celebration of having regained my motivation, I decided to give myself a modest reward.
‘I should go grill some salchisal.’
Unfortunately, most Korean BBQ restaurants tended not to welcome customers dining alone.
So the previous night, I had quickly made plans with a fellow Earthling to go to the restaurant together.
Calling that A-rank again, huh?
Was Yoonsung really that easy to call up?
Well, yes.
Honestly, who else was I supposed to spend time with?
Someone ranked number 1, a cursed sorcerer, or a man with two assault charges?
‘I have no choice.’
Seonwoo Yeon was B-rank and the lowest-ranked among them, but because she was subject to the Public Servants’ Bribery Prevention Act, I couldn’t even treat her to a meal costing more than 50,000 won.
Anyway, if I wanted to enjoy some beef, I needed the help of that defensive sorcerer.
I briefly lost myself in thought, but soon got dressed and headed outside.
The current time was 12:30 PM.
Yoonsung, that poor office worker (guild member), had already gone to work in accordance with his employment contract.
The dungeon he had entered that morning wasn’t expected to be cleared for quite some time yet, but for some reason, I was unusually hungry today.
Jingle, jangle.
“Welcome~”
“Heuk, it’s Hunter Kim Giryeo.”
“Where?”
So, in order to survive until my restaurant reservation at 2 O’clock, I decided to stop by a nearby cafe and put something in my stomach.
“One vanilla latte, please. No shot, and I’ll be drinking it here.”
“A shot? Shot?”
“Yes.”
“Then the drink, uh... it’s just steamed milk with vanilla powder.”
“Yes, yes.”
“Ah.”
Kim Gi-ryeo’s body, being that of an awakened person, had a high basal metabolic rate, so having a drink like this before a meal wouldn’t be a problem.
Normally, I kept my body temperature slightly lower to minimize unnecessary energy consumption.
But today was supposed to be a reward.
It was meant to lift my spirits.
Surely indulging in a little high-calorie intake for once wouldn’t hurt.
‘Now that my body has fully recovered... Maybe because Kim Giryeo used to do manual labor fairly often, his body retained a decent amount of ordinary muscle mass.’
Come to think of it, Kim Giryeo really did have quite a few good points, didn’t he?
Slurp.
I took a sip of the Earth-style drink that had been brought to me and enjoyed a brief moment of relaxation.
After finishing the latte, I left the cafe and wandered along the nearby street, mentally listing the strengths of my body one by one.
In many ways, it was a peaceful moment.
“...”
But it shouldn’t have been this peaceful.
This quiet.
“Hmm.”
Just as I arrived at the final advantage of my body—its good eyesight—I made use of that particular trait of Kim Giryeo’s and looked at the screen of the phone I had pulled from my pocket.
[1:13 PM]