Evolution Theory of the Hunter Chapter 15

Evolution Theory of the Hunter (ETH)
Volume 1 Chapter 15

“Huh…?

The manager looked at me incredulously. I yelled in helmet guys’ direction as I threw the boulder.

“Duck!”

Woosh!

Helmet crouched down without even looking back. The boulder just barely pa.s.sed over his head and landed on the two wolves in front of him.

Crash!

One wolf had its head crushed under the boulder while the other wolf had its crumpled under it. It was trapped.

“Wait! I will kill it!”

I yelled at helmet guy and ran to pick up my sword. As soon as I killed it, the familiar green number appeared.

Opposite of us, I saw Eum Hyunjoon killing the third wolf. The only monster left now was the goblin.

“Kwachi! Twak!”

“What the h.e.l.l is that thing saying now?”

The manager asked.

“He’s probably asking us to spare his life.”

I held my sword and slowly approached it. In its hand was a short whip – hardly something you could call a weapon. Seeing that he was a wolf trainer, he looked less dangerous than the usual breed.

As we started walking closer to it, it slowly began backing up before it finally was up against the cave wall.

“I will do it.”

“You don’t have to. If you’re trying so hard because of the contribution thing then you don’t have to worry. You’ve done more than enough.”

I shook my head at Eum Hyunjoon’s words.

“It’s not becauase of the contribution. I want to do it before the buff on the sword disappears.”

“Ahhhh!”

The b.l.o.o.d.ysword easily pierced through the goblin’s leathery hide and cut its inside.

[+150]

I guess they give a bit more for this guy.

As we waited for the monster to disappear, everyone took a break. I also sat down to rest on top of my backpack and closed my left eye.

[0,2,350]

Hey wait. Shouldn’t it be 850? Why is there 500 less than there should be. Ah. That’s right. It’s obvious where it went. I stood up and picked up my heavy backpack with one hand.

The 50kg backpack felt very easy and light to pick up.

“So that’s it…”

I was stronger. I’d have to experiment a bit later on to figure out just how much strength uses up how many points but…it feels like I’m at least 50 percent stronger. Was this a permanent buff or a temporary buff? I couldn’t be sure. But if this was permanent.

My heart began to race. This could be an even crazier skill than I could have ever hoped for!

“Isn’t that heavy?”

I had been lost in thought before the gla.s.ses girl interrupted me. I pushed the bag toward her.

“Want to try holding it?”

“No. I can tell just by looking at that thing that it’s real heavy.”

“Probably about 50kg.”

“Don’t lie. That means it’s heavier than me?”

“Uh…a porter can measure a person’s weight almost exactly just by looking.”

“So?”

“From Miss Bae Yeonkyoung’s height and body, your muscle structure…I can tell you are not lighter than this backpack. You’re probably around fifty…”

“Ahhh! Ok stop!”

Gla.s.ses girl began waving her arms about to shut me up.

“…Sure.”

I didn’t want to embarra.s.s her so I closed my mouth.

Gla.s.ses girl then took a deep breath and said.

“Truthfully, there was something I wanted to ask you.”

“Ask away.”

“Do you know how to use a bow and arrow?”

“Why would you think that?”

“From the way you evaded the first bow I shot out. No, you didn’t even evade it. It was as if you knew that the arrow would land right there. It wasn’t even as if the speed of the arrow was slow or anything. If you knew that much, then it would mean you’ve probably handled this type of weapon before.”

“I learned a bit for fun in college.”

“I knew it! I knew it!”

“But why did you want to know?”

She hesitated for a moment before sighing again and asking.

“Well…I’ve never had any proper training on how to use a bow before. So even though I practice a lot, I never really seem to improve.”

“If that’s the case then it would be better for you to ask the other archers.”

“I already asked them but they all said they learned it from purchasing a skill.”

“Hm. Then there’s nothing you can do.”

Purchasing a skill meant you automatically absorbed the ability to do something without ever really training your body to learn the actual task/skill. So there was no way they could teach someone else. It would be like a person trying to teach someone else how to breath – it comes so naturally…how would you explain it probably into words?

Gla.s.ses girl stared at me with wide and hopeful eyes.

There was one advice I could give.

“Shoot slowly.”

“What?”

“Because you keep trying to shoot quickly even when your skill isn’t up to par, your accuracy never improves. Just think of it as having only one shot in a hunt and shoot with care….slowly.”

“But…”

“Do you remember what the party head said?”

“Yes. Don’t think of the contribution…”

Gla.s.ses girl had a very sad look on her face. She wasn’t able to shoot very well at all today. She probably shot out about 10 bows but missed almost every time. This could only be a psychological problem.

“Because your accuracy is so low, you’re too afraid of failing again and you end up hurting your performance.”

“I see…”

Gla.s.ses girl nodded her head. It is common for a person experiencing an issue to not realize the remedy, even though it may be staring them in the face, until pointed out by an outsider. This was such a case.

“Thank you for the advice. I’ll buy you food later.”

“It’s fine.”

“..You don’t want to eat food I buy you?”

How many people you think are on this earth you can say no in this kind of situation. I reluctantly agreed to let her buy me food. Gla.s.ses girl made a little hurrah with her fist, bowed quickly, and walked away.

“What does she see in the crazy b.a.s.t.a.r.d? Lord knows…”

The manager started muttering to himself. I shrugged my shoulders. Whatever.

“Good job everyone.”

As soon as we cleared the dungeon, the sunlight began streaming into the cave. The increase in strength was still there. It was still early because we didn’t leave the dungeon yet, but it’s been active for nearly three hours…very encouraging.

After calculating everything, today’s entire earnings were only 20,000 dollars. There was an area you could auction off the ores as soon as you left the dungeon so we could do the splits immediately. But that wasn’t all I got out of today. I also got some more of those reward points. I pretty much tried to rack them up every chance I got.

1350 points.

I was planning to do some tests with this. There was no way that the effort skill would be limited to just strength. If that was the case, the skill would have been called power up…or strength up…or whatever.

After we all took a bit of a break, we went to do the contribution split. As expected, the one who got the most was Eum Hyunjoon. The one who came in second was the manager guy.

“Wait. Mr. Kim Soongeun got second?”

Someone asked. He was one of the crossbow guys who really came in handy that day. I didn’t disagree with what he was asking. The contributions should be split based on results and not just the level of someone’s skill.

“Do you disagree?”

“Well…he messed up on the sleep magic a bunch of times and all he did was hide and complain during the actual fight.”

“What? When did I ever complain?”

Manager man stood up from his seat, super red in the face. He looked like he was just about ready to strangle someone. Eum Hyunjoon placated the angry man and had him take a seat before speaking carefully.

“That is true. I cannot disagree. But it is also true that his sleep magic was the most helpful during our raid. If it weren’t for him today, we wouldn’t have been able to clear over half of the dungeon today.”

“But it’s still hard for us to acknowledge him as number two. I would much prefer it if we named this man as number two for today.”

He pointed to me as he spoke.

“I don’t mind. Though the manager was a bit rough around the edges, he was quite helpful in today’s raid.”

I shook my hand as I responded to the indirect compliment. I did understand where Eum Hyunjoon was coming from, but mainly I wanted to support him.

As soon as I supported the manager as second, everyone else seemed to put away their reservations. The manager glanced my way for a second but whipped his head away when we locked eyes.

“Ok. Then is there anyone else who objects to this order?”

No one else answered. I was placed third, helmet man got fourth, and as predicted…gla.s.ses girl got last place. Since those who were most at risk or put themselves in danger to complete the raid were usually ranked higher, it was normal for there to be more short-range or close combat attackers at the top. The manager was the exception. But this was also normal because those who knew how to do sleep or confusion magic were considered very valuable in a level 1 dungeon. So there you have it.