I Became the EX-Rank Pet Maker Hunters Obsess Over - Chapter 52

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Haruto

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Became the EX-Rank Pet Maker Hunters Obsess Over ◈

Chapter 52: Jellykko's Country

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Thud.

Yoo Dusik landed on ground still scarred by destruction.

“Rodin, you've really gotten strong.”

“Hissss....”

Yoo Dusik had been shocked even when Boss Yoo Hyun told him Rodin's specs had nearly reached those of an S-rank magical beast, but he never imagined it would wield this much power.

‘...I only asked him to save Rodin, yet I received such an incredible fortuitous opportunity....’

Boss must have put in the effort so Rodin would never get beaten up anywhere. Why else would he do this much for us?

An E-rank Rune Turtle becoming an S-rank magical beast was practically a miracle.

“Boss Yoo Hyun is a god!!”

“Hissss....”

Faith in Yoo Hyun was steadily growing deep within Yoo Dusik's heart.

It wasn't enough that he had given an ordinary man who had only just become a B-rank Hunter the best family member imaginable. He had even turned Rodin into a Flying Turtle that fired Destruction Beams...!!

Was there anyone else like him in this world?

“Yoo-men.”

As he reverently picked up the artifacts scattered everywhere, one of the bodies thrown aside by the Destruction Beam let out a breath.

“Cough... Fuck.”

Russian Hunter Aleksei cursed upon seeing that the explosion had torn off their limbs.

Yoo Dusik looked at the writhing Aleksei with disgust.

“...You're still alive? Tough bastard. Is it because your equipment is good? It really is impressive enough to make you act so arrogant.”

“Y-you bastard... Killing a Hunter from another country... This could become an international incident...!! Do you understand that?!”

“Hah, look at these bastards. It's fine when you come to someone else's country and kill innocent Hunters?”

Before firing the Destruction Beam, he had confirmed there were other Hunters' bodies nearby. He had even caught them looting the corpses.

Judging by the circumstances, some of the rumors about Hunters disappearing inside the Treasure Island Gate were clearly their doing.

“Don't expect mercy. I'm a Hunter who makes a living in Gates where lives are on the line. Once I get involved, I always make sure to finish the job.”

Yoo Dusik pulled out his staff and aimed it at Aleksei.

“Fuck...!! Stop!!! Let's make a deal!!! We have artifacts our team collected outside!! I'll give you all of them, so just spare my life!! I swear I won't tell anyone what happened here!!! You came after us because of the artifacts too, didn't you?!”

Yoo Dusik tilted his head at Aleksei's desperate plea.

“You seem to be mistaken. You're dying because you touched my family. I'm collecting artifacts to repay my benefactor. This will hurt, so I'll make it quick. Goodbye.”

“W-wait, sto...”

Yoo Dusik fired a Fireball at Aleksei.

Boom!!

“AAAAARGH!!!!!”

Whoosh.

“Killing people leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but you lot don't count, right?”

No matter how large the island was, such a disturbance should have drawn attention.

Yet he could not sense anyone approaching.

Creep, creep.

That was because the mist that had settled over the area at some point concealed all the commotion.

[ Trait 》 Dreamlike Mist (S-rank) ]

“Rodin, let's finish farming quickly and go back.”

“Hissss....”

* * *

Clatter.

Yoo Dusik dumped a tableful of artifacts onto the table in Yoo Hyun's officetel.

“Boss...! This is my thanks for looking after Rodin...!! No matter how I look at it, what I gave you before wasn't enough!!”

“Oh... This is exactly what I needed. How did you know?”

What luck. I had been looking into auctions to buy artifacts for Energy Extraction, but Hunter Yoo Dusik had brought me a mountain of them.

“I'll keep bringing you more until the Treasure Island Gate closes!”

“Uh... I'd appreciate that, but aren't you going to make money?”

“Hahaha! I can make money later, but once the Treasure Island season ends, I won't be able to farm artifacts anymore! I'll gather as much as I can this time! Just trust Yoo Dusik and wait, Boss!”

He was in a remarkably high mood. It seemed he was very pleased that Rodin had become a super Flying Turtle.

In any case, thanks to him...

[ Energy Held ]

[ Spiritual Energy ] : 742

“Oh... I made up for it. I was planning to gather samples by experimenting on other Rune Turtles anyway, so this works out well.”

Thanks to Guild Master Cheon Sanha of Cheonseong Guild, a usable research institute had already been prepared near Paju. I should start Cultivating them and experimenting right away.

Squish, squish.

I fed the artifacts Hunter Yoo Dusik had brought to Haengbok one by one when...

“Pant, pant....”

“Hmm...? You won't eat it? I don't think this is an artifact.”

Among the items Hunter Yoo Dusik had brought were things besides artifacts.

It was a metal rod short enough to hold in one hand.

Boing!

Amon bounced up using its jelly-like elasticity, took the rod from me, and inspected it from every angle.

[ Hmm, it seems they have unlocked metalworking technology. Try channeling mana into it. ]

The Jelly Dog handed me the rod.

Following Amon's instruction, I raised my mana.

Click! Whirr.

“Oh?”

The rod extended and transformed like a three-section staff. A crossguard formed, turning it into a sword, then it absorbed my mana and created a blade.

“Wow... What is this...?”

It looked like a portable laser melee weapon from a sci-fi movie.

It was clearly beyond the level of Hunter equipment technology that currently existed.

“This isn't an artifact?”

[ It reproduces Sword Aura through a mechanical device. Anyone with mana can wield Sword Aura without any enlightenment. It is more common than you think. ]

...Weren't there plenty of A-rank Hunters who could not create Sword Aura?

If someone could equip themselves with gear on this level, that would be no joke.

And if they could make something like a mana cartridge, ordinary people could use it too, couldn't they?

“Does that even make sense?”

[ And your magical beasts do? ]

...Hmm. I had no answer to that.

Still, this was supposedly ordinary equipment...

As if answering my question, Amon spoke.

[ It is common for Transcendents to pay causality to raise a civilization's technological level. If they have complete control over a faction, few methods are more cost-effective. ]

“Is that so...?”

Then where had this technology come from?

It definitely was not Korea.

I considered a few keywords.

Anomalous Gate... foreigners... the excessive number of artifacts Yoo Dusik had brought...

“Hmm, Russia, then. It looks like Hunter Yoo Dusik looted these from them.”

Well, he cherished Rodin that much. Yoo Dusik really knew how to hold a grudge.

“But in the end, there weren't any cursed artifacts.”

Hunter Yoo Dusik had brought a few backpacks' worth of items. If I had not found one, perhaps my guess had been wrong?

[ Khehehe... You are not wrong. It is simply not time yet. ]

“Not time yet?”

“Pant, pant...?”

[ To explain it in a way you can understand, Treasure Island is a massive incubator. It is meant to gather as many resources as possible and create the finest result. The causality contained in these artifacts was never that great to begin with. They were only made to look the part as bait. ]

That was true.

Amon's artifact, which had looked low-value, gave me 2,400 Dharma Power by itself. Meanwhile, dozens of Treasure Island artifacts had only given me around 700 Spiritual Energy.

Treasure Island was like a carnivorous plant luring Hunters in with the sweet scent of artifacts.

Heavy shadows fell across Amon's face as a chilling smile spread over it.

[ Blood and greed have begun to gather in one place. When humans kill one another and the ritual conditions are met, a disaster beyond anything you mortals can imagine will unfold. A life-form or weapon born of sorcery will ravage your homeland... Khehehe... I am already looking forward to it. ]

A ritual life-form...? That certainly...

“I'm looking forward to it.”

“Pant, pant....”

[ Do not look forward to it. ]

Amon frowned deeply.

* * *

Special Hunter Unit under the Russian Federal Security Service.

S-rank Hunter Irina Lebedeva, the unit's commander, skimmed through documents as she listened to her subordinate's report.

“The whereabouts of the Seventh Team dispatched to Korea are unknown. Their regular reports have stopped as well. It seems something happened to them inside the Anomalous Gate.”

“According to the report, no monsters were found, and the Gate was not even ranked. Did they fall to other Hunters?”

But the Seventh Team was an elite unit made entirely of A-rank Hunters.

The documents stated that there had been no S-rank Hunters inside the Gate.

“As I recall, the Seventh Team was equipped with Tier 3 gear. Is that correct?”

“They had full sets of new Tier 3 weapons, armor, potions, and more.”

“...Hmm. Outfit the Thirteenth Team with the newly developed Tier 4 equipment and deploy them. Oh, and tell Director Igor to provide them with an S-rank magical beast as well.”

Her subordinate's expression became awkward at Irina's words.

“...The Thirteenth Team? Boris is too dangerous to send to another country. His self-control is far too poor.”

“Have them enter illegally, then cut them loose if a problem arises.”

Every member of the Thirteenth Team was a Hunter with a serious criminal record, chosen solely for their talent.

‘The higher-ups ordered us to gather artifacts by any means necessary, so there is no helping it.’

The subordinate nodded and left the room.

“...Understood.”

After the subordinate left, Irina stared out the window and muttered.

“Boris is more cunning than he looks, so he will not leave behind traces despite the concern.”

With his ability, he was close to an S-rank Hunter when equipped with Tier 4 gear.

“Perhaps I have unleashed a disaster on Korea.”

Irina sighed and slowly shook her head.

* * *

A few days later.

Shinan Treasure Island Gate.

Even with rumors that Hunters were disappearing, countless Hunters still came here.

Hunters entering Gates and never coming back was far too common in the first place, and the artifacts Treasure Island offered were simply too tempting.

Artifacts kept appearing without running dry, so even Hunters who had only been watching from the sidelines began heading to Shinan. More Hunters than ever flocked to Treasure Island.

In one corner of Treasure Island.

Crunch!!

Boris split a Hunter in two with his axe, wiped away the blood, and laughed heartily.

“Khahahaha!! This place is the best!!! The island swallows the corpses, so there are no traces left behind!!!!!”

A teammate searching through the dead Hunter's backpack found a Hunter ID and spoke.

“...There are more foreign Hunters than I expected. Chinese and Japanese... Americans... Brazilians? Huh....”

Boris had no interest in that.

He only wanted to feel more of the thrill that came from splitting humans apart.

He suddenly turned and flared his nostrils.

“...I smell something.”

“It looks like someone has set up camp nearby. I can see smoke over there. We should search the area and slowly ambush...”

Flash!!

Before the teammate could finish, Boris rushed out.

‘I just need to kill everything I see...!!!’

No one in this place could stop him.

Tap, tap, tap, tap!

In the distance, Hunters could be seen gathered closely together among the trees.

“They are gathered perfectly.”

Bzzzzz!!!

The Tier 4 axe enhanced with Russia's new technology began to shine as immense power condensed within it.

The blade of mana rising from the axe head began to slip out of control, trembling madly as if it could explode at any moment.

On top of that, the trait Merciless Butcher, which caused explosive temporary increases to his stats after killing, was active. The power gathered in the axe was enough to make even Boris shudder.

Wanting to unleash that rampaging power immediately, Boris leaped high into the air and brought the axe down on the Hunters' camp with all his strength.

BOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The enormous impact nearly shattered both arms holding the axe.

It had more than enough force to turn the camping Hunters into chunks of meat, but...

“...?”

For some reason, the surrounding land had been overturned as if bombarded, while only the place where the Hunters stood remained unharmed.

The axe had not even reached them. Something had stopped it in midair.

‘Did they put up a barrier...? No, but it withstood this much power?’

Then a deep shadow fell over Boris.

“Hissss....”

“What the fuck?”

As he stepped back from the abnormally huge turtle, one of the Hunters who had been camping walked toward him and spoke.

“Just by camping, artifacts come rolling in on their own?”