WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Arsène

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◈ How an A-Rank Hunter Lives ◈

Chapter 62: A-Rank Hunter Baek Dam-bi - [1]

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There were people who worshipped nature.

According to them, nature was perfect and full of regenerative power on its own, while humans alone were unrestrained impurities that ruined all that harmony.

I thought they were wrong.

As you know, bacteria are basic organisms in nature. If you cultivate bacteria in a sealed container, they do not restrain themselves to conserve the limited air in their environment. They multiply without end, exhaust every available resource, then go extinct.

That showed that other living things did not preserve nature because they knew restraint. They simply lacked the ability to destroy nature, no matter how faithfully they followed their instincts.

Feral cats released onto remote islands destroy the islands' ecosystems. Give animals in nature enough power, and they too can destroy nature.

Sword World was proof of that fact.

Sword World's desolation was not the result of Soweol people overdeveloping nature.

The Monsters beyond the Gates... They were merely common animals, part of Soweol's natural world. Yet they faithfully followed their instincts to nourish their bodies and souls and survive as long as possible. They devoured everything that moved without restraint, then holed up inside the Gates without returning those nutrients to nature.

As time passed, Soweol's natural world lost its ability to recover. That was how its deserts and desolation came to be.

Having devastated their own world long ago, the Monsters of Soweol were doing the same thing on Earth.

You only had to look at elementals, nature itself.

* * *

“Ah, I'll be right back.”

We had not reached our destination yet, but I used Spatial Teleportation first.

There were people below who needed help.

After teleporting out of the helicopter, I looked down.

Bupyeong District was badly flooded. Water had risen over every road I could see.

When a city flooded like this, it was dangerous.

The rivers and the water on the ground became directly connected.

And through that water, all kinds of Water Elementals, including sea elementals and river elementals swarming in the ocean, could attack the surface.

Thanks to those damn elementals and marine Monsters, half the fish stocks had disappeared within three years of the Gates opening.

With less prey in the sea, Water Elementals tried to hunt intelligent creatures on the surface whenever they had the chance.

Waves crashed along the road.

They swept over passenger cars trapped at the roadside, unable to move. The cars with their windows tightly shut remained intact even after being hit by the waves, but these were no natural waves. They were full of intent to hunt the people inside.

The water that had crashed over the cars, that Water Elemental, did not flow away. It changed direction and surged toward those same cars again.

That elemental would keep crashing into them until their windows broke and the people holding their breath inside were exposed. Once they were, it would drown them and consume their souls.

It was one of the Water Elementals' hunting methods that the Association never taught us, but veteran Hunters did.

As I fell, I raised my hammer high.

Once my body had gained enough speed from gravity, I used Spatial Teleportation again.

“Incheon!”

The next moment, my hammer struck the wave that was about to engulf the cars again.

It was a hammer blow accelerated by gravity.

Since I had struck liquid, there was no loud bang. It did not feel particularly satisfying in my hand, either.

Still, there was a strange pleasure to it. The pleasure of breaking through an obstacle with enormous mass and finally reaching my destination...

“Long live Incheon!”

My hammer pierced through the immense mass of water and finally hit the concrete ground.

A shockwave spread from the hammer. The water forming the elemental scattered in every direction.

When I swung my hammer again, a strange thrill seeped into my mind. That was how I knew the elemental had died.

“Are you all right?”

When I approached the car and asked, the window opened slightly. The middle-aged man inside blinked at me.

“Uh... Hunter Kim Geuk?”

“Yes, I'm Hunter Kim Geuk. Get out. I'll get you somewhere safe.”

There were plenty of advantages to being famous for good reasons. If the order had come from some Hunter they had never heard of, they might have refused. That was not the case with me.

After going around the cars trapped in the water and shouting a few times, every passenger followed my instructions.

Nine people gathered in one place, staring anxiously at the sloshing water. I looked at them and said,

“Everyone's here, right? Good. Hold hands. Let's chant the spell. Long live Incheon!”

“Long live Incheon!”

Then I used Spatial Teleportation, taking the two people holding my hands and everyone holding hands with them.

In the past, my limit had been teleporting with two or three people. Not anymore. Repeated hunts had greatly increased the mass I could teleport with me.

I teleported all nine people into an empty building, somewhere the water would have trouble reaching. Only then did joy appear on their faces.

“We're saved, fuck!”

I gave them a broad grin and used Spatial Teleportation again, returning to the helicopter that had continued flying ahead.

Baek Dambi came into view again. Sitting across from her, I complained.

“My arm's killing me from the impact of that fall. It regenerated, but it still hurts like hell. Ugh... Seeing this, the world really is unfair.”

“What do you mean, the world is unfair?”

“My only combat ability is Body Enhancement, so my body hurts every time I fight, right? It would've been nice if I had a force-field exoskeleton on top of Body Enhancement, like that bastard Kim Seokhee. Why do I only have Body Enhancement?”

I trailed off and gave an awkward laugh.

I could see anger flickering in Baek Dambi's eyes behind her sunglasses. She must have thought I was bragging.

Luckily, my ring girl always wanted to maintain the image of a cool beauty who never got worked up. Her voice shook slightly, but none of Cyber Magneto's rage leaked through.

“Couldn't you be satisfied with two, including Spatial Teleportation...?”

“I'm a little greedy. I saw a guy with three abilities the other day, and it made me want to awaken one more. Just in case, I'm asking, but I do have two abilities, right? Not three?”

I had not asked to show off. I genuinely wanted to check again, but Baek Dambi looked as if she suspected I had a history of posting on Naver Cafe.

“It looks like you have two. Unfortunately...”

Baek Dambi spoke in a voice that sounded like she wanted to hit me, but I answered shamelessly.

“What a sad thing.”

I had no intention of reading her mood.

She was the woman on Huntweb who called herself an icehead and talked herself down. If I chose my words based on her being a weak ice ability user, she would probably feel even worse about herself.

Icehead or not, my own judgment was that I should not pity her. I should treat her as an equal ability user.

Fortunately, my ring girl did not seem too upset. She only sighed softly and continued the conversation.

“If you're going to awaken a new ability, wouldn't force-field blades be better? You'd become the strongest assassin, teleporting around and cutting through anything...”

“Force-field blades wouldn't be bad, but there's one guy who'd have a fit if I awakened those, so I can't. I can't say who directly, but his surname is Kang and his name is Jun-chi...”

The helicopter stopped. The radio announced that we had arrived at our destination, ending our small talk.

I grabbed Baek Dambi's wrist.

“Ready?”

“Yes...!”

Baek Dambi quickly took off her sunglasses and set them beside her.

Then I used Spatial Teleportation with her.

Down below, toward the flooded subway tracks.

After teleporting, I saw the submerged subway train and railway.

The train had stopped and was half underwater.

Part of one car's wall had been cut away as cleanly as if by a sharp blade. Bloody water flowed from the hole.

The meaning was obvious.

People had died.

My blood began to race. I let go of Baek Dambi's hand and charged forward.

Inside the subway car, I saw seven corpses submerged in water. Blood flowed from them.

Too late, fuck.

Then I saw the Water Elemental that had killed them.

Its form was not fixed, but I could not tell whether it was much bigger than the one I had killed earlier.

The elemental seemed to be trying to break through the tightly shut train door. A jet of water shooting from its body had already cut halfway through it...

Then the Water Elemental seemed to notice me.

As an elemental, it could tell I was an awakened person. In other words, that I too was a hunter like itself.

“Fu...”

Before I could fully approach, it attacked first.

A stream of water fired from its body without any warning.

The reason I normally dealt with bullets was not because of pure reaction speed. It was because I had deliberately trained myself to react to bullets.

And while the water jet was not as fast as a bullet, it was fast enough that I could not avoid it perfectly with my reflexes alone.

Cold water pierced through my cheek and exited the other side.

It was a high-pressure water jet that could penetrate even the tough body of someone with Body Enhancement. If it had hit wrong, it would have punched through my brain.

Adrenaline surged through me in response to the danger, letting me ignore the throbbing pain.

I bit my lip and struck back. When I brought my raised hammer down, part of the elemental scattered.

But it did not all scatter. Maybe because the area was already soaked in water, I had not even dealt it a proper blow.

The Water Elemental restored its damaged body. Watching it pull in the overflowing water around it and instantly fill in the missing parts gave me the answer.

Ah, I can't kill this one alone.

I shouted so my ring girl, whom I had brought for exactly this situation, could hear me.

“Dambi!”

I had never seen Baek Dambi use her ability at full power, so I did not know exactly how strong she was. Still, the blizzard I saw when she killed the Flame Elemental had been massive.

After that, she had hunted Flame Elementals and Rock Elementals with us and absorbed their souls, so she had to be even stronger now.

That was why I had brought her here. I expected that if she could freeze part of the Water Elemental's body with that ability, she would be useful enough.

But what happened when she used her power went beyond my expectations.

My reaction at that moment was simple.

“Huh?”

It happened in an instant.

All the water around us froze.

The water inside the subway car, which had risen to below my knees, froze solid.

Looking through the windows, I saw that it was the same outside the train. Even the water covering the tracks had frozen all the way into the darkness.

It did not seem as if only the surface had frozen. It had frozen deep down. I weighed about four times as much as an ordinary person, but it looked solid enough for me to skate on safely.

The Water Elemental rampaging in front of me froze along with the surrounding water.

Its entire body of water had frozen, fixing its shape in place and letting me guess what kind of sea creature it had originally been. It was probably a cephalopod. It must have awakened without realizing it while swimming through the sea. The water tentacles extending from its body made that clear.

Ah, of course, they were ice tentacles now. I supposed I should call it an Ice Elemental.

And as far as I knew, Ice Elementals were the easiest kind of elemental to kill.

When I brought down my hammer, the ice forming its body shattered, scattering ice dust everywhere.

After two more hammer blows, the frozen Water Elemental completely lost its shape and scattered apart, meeting its death. Feeling the thrill seep into my mind and confirming it, I quickly opened my mouth.

“Dambi? If your ability was this powerful, you could've told me in advance...”

As I spoke, I turned toward Baek Dambi and shut my mouth.

I had planned to tease her for hiding her strength to fit her cool persona, but seeing her expression told me there was no need.

Baek Dambi's eyes, already large to begin with, were even wider now, and her mouth hung open.

I had worked with her for over half a year and had never seen that reaction once. It was obvious that Baek Dambi was even more shocked than I was by what she had done.

Footnotes:

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