Transferred to an SSS-rank Production Class

The arrow, wrapped in a white glow, flew without hesitation.

[You have disrupted the mana circuits of ‘Agal’ and ‘Samdugumy’. You recover mana equal to 30% of the damage dealt to the enemy.]

As the message confirming the hit appeared, there was a sound like a blown fuse. At the same instant, Agal’s tails, which had been battling Lee Kang-to, shattered like a broken necklace. The body, left standing alone, collapsed limply.

All that remained was the head in front of me.

“One day, I will surely chew you all up, bit by bit!”

After spitting out this line worthy of a third-rate villain, Agal’s head disappeared into the valley. As Lee Kang-to quickly moved to chase after it, I held up my palm to stop him.

“Let’s give up on pursuing it.”

“But the stronger the yokai, the bigger the bead… Isn’t it a waste?”

“If we get greedy, we might end up losing even what we have.”

Our original goal wasn’t to defeat that thing, was it? We’ve already wasted time on this unexpected incident; from now on, we need to focus on collecting beads even more diligently.

“We should also check on Hunter Chae Seong-a’s condition, so let’s take a short break.”

“Well, I…”

“I’ll take care of this, so could I ask you to collect the remains?”

Lee Kang-to promptly skipped away, humming a strange tune. The bouncing green back of his head looked just like a pea rolling merrily along. Seeing that, I couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle, feeling inexplicably cheerful myself.

“I guess I should do my part too.”

“Ugh…”

I knelt down beside Chae Seong-a, who was groaning.

Seeing blood not only on her nose but also around her mouth, it seemed she had suffered internal injuries. Mana depletion was also a concern.

After resting Chae Seong-a’s upper body on my knee, I mixed two types of potions and fed them to her. I also applied potion to her legs, which had been scraped when she fainted.

“Is Mr. Kim alright? You usually live off potions, don’t you?”

“It’s not that bad.”

“Eh, Sori thinks it looks that bad!”

To be fair, this would usually be the time I’d drink a mana potion. Stroking the goblin dangling from my belt, I replied.

“I’m fine today. The effect of a mana-recovering skill is currently active.”

“Hiya, as expected, Mr. Kim has many talents!”

Due to the effect of ‘Rising Moon’, magical power continuously flowed into the center of my mana circuit. Given that it’s proportional to the damage dealt to the enemy, that last hit must have been quite effective. The heat spreading from around my heart warmed my entire body.

It was a while later that I realized something was wrong.

“Ugh, why won’t it stop?”

I covered my mouth as nausea welled up. My body temperature had also risen abnormally. Even standing became difficult, and I slumped to the ground.

“What’s wrong, what’s wrong! Mr. Kim, are you in pain?”

“H-Hunter Yun Gaho! What’s happening?”

Even though there was no more space to absorb it, magical power kept forcing its way in. The magical power that squeezed in stirred up my mana circuit like water overflowing from a full cup. As they say, too much of a good thing… The effect that should have been beneficial to me was now tormenting me.

The indescribable nausea grew worse and worse. Thinking I might actually vomit, I waved my hand at Lee Kang-to and the goblin, telling them to stay back.

This didn’t happen when I absorbed the Kraken’s magical power. As I pondered, the system message I had just seen flashed through my memory. There was definitely something else besides Agal, wasn’t there?

‘Is that Samdugumy the culprit? Where on earth was that yokai drawing power from?’

Even as I thought hazily, magical power continued to pour into my mana circuit. At this rate, it wouldn’t be surprising if my body just exploded.

But what could I do? Is there even a way to cancel a skill that’s already been activated? The more I thought about it, the worse the nausea became.

– Kyu!

Now I’m even hearing things; I must have a high fever. I pressed my hand against my scorching forehead and squeezed my eyes shut. But the unidentified sound continued.

– Kyuuu, kyu!

At the same time, I felt as if the temperature on the back of my hand was dropping. I thought it might be an illusion, but the cool sensation soon traveled from the back of my hand to my wrist, and then up to my elbow.

Wait, could it be… I slowly opened my eyes and looked down at the back of my hand.

“Was it you?”

I let out a weak laugh as I saw the flower petal pattern swaying on the back of my hand. As if happy to be recognized, a more cheerful cry rang out.

– Kyukyu!

Once I became aware of it, I could clearly feel the magical power being sucked into the pattern.

“It’s a good thing you’re not a picky eater.”

– Kyu!

I sat cross-legged and manipulated my mana circuit to allow the chimera to absorb the magical power more quickly. The magical power poured out at a frightening speed, but this small glutton tirelessly continued to devour it.

When my condition had somewhat improved, a system message popped up.

[The hatching of Chimera ‘Haerang’ is imminent! (Current hatching progress: 95.0%)]

At the same time, the chimera’s voice, which had been crying incessantly while absorbing magical power, gradually faded away. Even after eating all this magical power, it’s still not enough to hatch. I couldn’t begin to guess what kind of creature would be born.

Rubbing the pattern on the back of my hand, I muttered.

“Still, thank you for helping.”

◆◇◆◇◆

“You’re going to give all of this to us? There might be consequences…”

“I’ll worry about that later. If it weren’t for you two, I would have been finished right there. Compared to the value of my life, these beads are nothing.”

“Th-thank goodness. With this, we’ll definitely be in first place!”

Lee Kang-to, receiving the basket from Chae Seong-a, cheered.

After chasing away Agal, we had diligently collected beads, but time was short. We were sure to be in the top ranks, but whether we’d be first was uncertain.

As we anxiously watched other participants weighing their beads, Chae Seong-a stepped forward, willingly offering her beads. Her smiling face, saying she was glad to have gotten rid of a troublesome burden, was quite different from when we first met.

“Thank you. I won’t forget the help you’ve given us.”

“I won’t forget either.”

“Could we perhaps exchange contact information?”

Though Chae Seong-a said it was fine, I couldn’t shake off my worry. Knowing how persistent those two were made me even more concerned. I wasn’t sure how much help I could be, but if I just left things as they were, I knew I’d have trouble sleeping at night.

‘It might be a bit better if I at least try to help.’

After a moment’s hesitation, Chae Seong-a held out her Hunter Watch. As I was about to respond, Lee Kang-to suddenly interjected. Judging by how he thrust out the wrist with his Hunter Watch, it seemed he wanted to exchange contacts too.

“Um, well… Me too!”

“Pardon?”

“Th-there’s someone who would really like Hunter Chae Seong-a. Ah, not a weird person! It’s our guild master. So, about our guild…”

Watching Lee Kang-to ramble incoherently and Chae Seong-a averting her gaze uncomfortably, I shook my head. Their compatibility was as bad as that between Lee Kang-to and Agal.

Unable to bear watching any longer, I stepped between the two.

“May I explain on his behalf?”

“Please do!”

“Hunter Chae Seong-a, are you familiar with the guild called ‘Holding the End of This Night’?”

Chae Seong-a blinked for a moment, seemingly unable to recall, then clapped her hands.

“Ah, you mean White Night? It’s been so long since I heard that name, I forgot for a second.”

“I understand. Lee Kang-to Hunter is a member there, and it seems he wants to introduce you to Guild Master Gyeon Ji-woon. Is that right?”

“Yes! That’s it!”

Chae Seong-a looked dumbfounded at the offer to be introduced to the guild master of White Night, one of the top five guilds in South Korea. As a fellow wizard-type hunter, she might have a special appreciation for this.

I signaled with my eyes that it would be alright and continued to translate Lee Kang-to’s words.

“He says your performance today was impressive. He hopes you can make time to meet.”

“I didn’t do much. I just tried not to be a burden…”

“No! You were ex-excellent! You might not know, but our guild has many wizards. If you learn from them, you’ll surely become more beaut— I mean, excellent!”

Perhaps Lee Kang-to’s desperate persuasion worked, as Chae Seong-a soon nodded.

‘I wonder if they have some need for a mental wizard?’

For him to be this insistent. It seemed White Night had some circumstances I was unaware of. Well, it would still be several times better than where she is now.

This eased my worries too. If she joined White Night, those two wouldn’t be able to mess with Chae Seong-a so easily. The White Night guild members, famous for each being eccentric in their own way, were known for their exceptionally strong solidarity. If Chae Seong-a became one of them, they would surely protect her.

“Thirteenth team, step forward!”

Our turn had come. Lee Kang-to and I each took a basket and stepped forward. The other hunters let out sighs seeing our baskets filled to the brim. As if to drive the point home, even the administrator muttered in a dispassionate voice.

“Today’s first place has been decided.”

With just the beads we had collected ourselves, we could have aimed for the top ranks. Add to that the beads Chae Seong-a and her companions had gathered, and no team could match us. It was a first place that didn’t even need measuring.

Still, we had to follow procedure, so we hung our basket on one end of the scale. On the other end hung the basket of the team that had been holding first place until now. The scale beam seemed to balance for a moment, but as soon as Lee Kang-to hung another basket, it tilted decisively.

Though the result was expected, seeing it with my own eyes filled me with a sense of satisfaction. I smiled back at Chae Seong-a, who was waving from a distance.

“The thirteenth team has been proven to be this week’s top contributor.”

The administrator said that the other teams should go receive their rewards over there. The hunters, who had been murmuring among themselves, dispersed to where he pointed.

After confirming that they had all scattered, the administrator handed me a round wooden tag.

“Come to Yeongwol Palace with this tag in one shichen.”

Then he disappeared without any further explanation.

“Isn’t that neglecting his duties?”

“Well, he told us everything we needed to know.”

He must have been really eager to clock out. I shrugged as I watched the administrator’s rapidly retreating figure. Chae Seong-a approached us and offered her congratulations.

“It’s all thanks to your help.”

“Yes, there’s nothing good about staying in this level for long.”

“We’ll escort you to the gate.”

After sending Lee Kang-to ahead, saying he was tired, I walked with Chae Seong-a to the gate. As we talked about Kim Cheol-yeong and Kwon Si-hyeong, our only common topic, a question suddenly occurred to me.

“By the way, what made you think of coming here? They say the rewards are good, but those people don’t seem like the type to readily jump into dangerous situations…”

“Ah, well. We received a request from someone.”

“Pardon? A request?”

As she continued, I learned that there was someone who offered to pay them if they participated in the Guardian of Dawn quest. Kwon Si-hyeong had quickly accepted, seeing it as killing two birds with one stone—the quest reward plus extra money.

“I heard in passing that there were other hunters who participated because of this request, besides us.”

As I thought, there were unwelcome intruders tangled up in this hidden quest.