Chapter 3

 

As he entered the gate, the surrounding landscape changed. Suho looked around inside the gate and muttered,

“Just as I expected.”

It was exactly as he had seen before. Thanks to this, Suho could truly feel that he had returned to the past.

He shifted his gaze to the goblin corpses strewn around.

Green-skinned goblin corpses.

They were typical goblins with lanky limbs and bulging bellies.

But those goblins that had been lying around the gate were now found dead inside.

Suho knew the reason.

In this place, special goblins, not the usual ones, reigned as predators.

Suho slowly started moving.

After a while.

Squish.

A sound that could only be heard when stepping carelessly on mud.

The terrain had changed.

The ground had turned from firm soil to a moist, sticky earth.

The humidity had also increased.

This was the kind of environment those creatures loved the most.

Then.

“Keekeeke…”

“Kii…”

Hearing eerie cries, he turned his head to see two red-skinned beasts approaching.

‘They’ve finally appeared.’

Suho knew who they were.

Their identity was none other than hobgoblins.

They looked similar to goblins, but with red skin, larger builds, and a more aggressive nature.

That’s why this gate was named GreenRed.

It was because of their skin color.

Seeing the hobgoblins, Suho immediately drew his sword.

And he started running straight towards them.

“Kiruk?”

“Kerk?”

The hobgoblins, noticing Suho, tilted their heads.

Although they locked eyes with him, they were momentarily stunned as he approached them.

But soon, they displayed aggression and raised their weapons.

‘Yeah, that’s what I wanted.’

He knew they wouldn’t flee and would charge at him directly.

Suho glanced at the levels displayed above their heads.

 

 

Unlike the single-digit level goblins, these hobgoblins had double-digit levels.

But so what?

Whether their level was in the single digits or double digits, they were just goblins.

Whether they were regular goblins or hobgoblins didn’t matter much.

To his eyes, they were all just pests.

Suho lunged at them.

Startled, the hobgoblins thrust their weapons forward.

It was a defensive reaction.

‘I knew it.’

As he lunged forward, Suho abruptly stretched his left foot forward, stopping his advance by planting it firmly on the ground.

Simultaneously, he pushed off with his right foot, stepping back to create a brief gap between him and the defending hobgoblins.

A feint.

Suho thrust his sword like a spear through the gap he had created.

The sword pierced perfectly into one of the hobgoblins’ eyes.

“Kerruk!!”

Without stopping, Suho twisted the sword around.

Due to the level difference, his sword might not have been able to cut through their hide.

That’s why he targeted the eye, which wasn’t affected by level differences.

Of course, if the level difference was very high or the beast’s characteristics were extraordinary, this attack wouldn’t have been possible.

‘To think a mere hobgoblin could…’

After a quick twist, Suho withdrew the sword.

“Keekeekee!!”

Twisting the blade inside the hobgoblin’s face had put it in a groggy state.

It didn’t die.

Scrambling the inside of its eye wouldn’t kill it that easily.

But thanks to that, the situation turned into a one-on-one fight.

The remaining hobgoblin, surprised, quickly retrieved its weapon and swung it at Suho again.

But.

‘Too slow.’

Suho dodged all the trajectories of the swinging weapon, watching it closely.

He didn’t attack.

Suho wanted something from the creature.

He dodged its attacks several times, then it happened.

 

 

Got it.

Finally, he had acquired one of the skills he wanted.

The Dodging skill allows the user to immediately evade nearby attacks upon activation.

Having acquired Dodging, Suho finally drew his sword.

He then stopped his evasive maneuvers and began deflecting the hobgoblin’s attacks with his sword.

“Kirik?!”

Despite putting strength into its attacks, its attack trajectory kept getting deflected.

It was puzzling.

The enraged hobgoblin swung its weapon even harder.

But the result was the same.

No matter how much it swung, Suho deflected the hobgoblin’s attacks effortlessly with a few simple moves.

After a while.

 

 

Parrying.

A skill that deflects an opponent’s attack.

Parrying was a skill with a long history, even having dedicated weapons for it.

It was one of the essential skills to acquire.

Parrying formed the basis for many other important skills.

Suho nodded, thinking,

‘This is enough for this creature.’

He had obtained two skills from the first hobgoblin he encountered.

But it seemed that was the limit.

The hobgoblin was exhausted.

So he decided to finish it off decisively.

“It was fun.”

Thrust!

Suho evaded the attacking hobgoblin’s blow and this time stabbed his sword into the side of its neck.

The concentrated attack power of the sword’s narrow point pierced through the hobgoblin’s neck, and Suho twisted the blade again to increase the damage.

“Kruk!”

The hobgoblin collapsed, unable to withstand the pain.

 

 

The system kindly confirmed the creature’s death.

Suho then approached the first hobgoblin, which he had not yet finished off.

Thrust!

 

 

There was no need to ponder further about it.

Suho thrust his sword into the back of the gasping hobgoblin’s neck. Then.

 

 

He leveled up again.

Suho allocated the bonus stat to magic power and moved forward.

No, he was about to move forward when he turned back and stabbed the hearts of the dead hobgoblins with his sword.

He felt something hard at the tip of his sword, and upon extracting it from the corpse, he found a small magic stone.

It was a D-rank magic stone.

‘Yeah, I must at least take this.’

Hunters made their living from the loot obtained from monsters, including magic stones.

Magic stones’ value is generally determined by their size, with thumb-sized stones usually considered D-rank.

‘Anything smaller would be E-rank.’

This size could fetch about 50,000 won each.

In the past, he might not have bothered to collect each magic stone, but now he had to.

He had returned to the past, and his past self had no money.

Of course, he deliberately didn’t collect the stones from the goblins outside.

Those goblins were low-grade, and their stones, even if they existed, were of little value.

Having collected two magic stones, Suho continued forward.

He encountered more hobgoblins and began wielding his sword against them.

 

***

 

Outside the gate.

There was chaos outside.

It was rare for an uncharted gate to appear right in the middle of a city.

Therefore, hunters from civilian guilds and government hunters had gathered to deal with the gate.

The monsters around the gate had all been dealt with, and now all that remained was to enter the gate and clear it.

But to their surprise, someone was already inside the gate clearing it.

Upon realizing this, one of the hunters frowned.

“Who just entered the gate without consulting anyone? Which guild do they belong to?”

“If they come out, we should beat them up.”

“We should make sure they never work in this field again.”

“If they die inside, it would be legendary.”

In the case of uncharted gates, unless there are special circumstances, they usually conduct on-site bidding and give priority to the hunters from the winning organization.

For hunters, gates were precious sources of income—in other words, it’s food on the table.

Therefore, the order of entry was very important to them.

As soon as even one person entered the gate first, it automatically closed, and if the gate was cleared, they would end up as dogs chasing chickens.

Then, at that moment.

“What? A healer went in there alone?”

“Yes, I saw it with my own eyes.”

A citizen reported.

But the report was strange.

A healer entered the gate alone?

However, the eyewitness firefighter not only testified that he saw it with his own eyes but also showed the arrow wound as evidence to support his claim.

“Are you sure there were no other hunters?”

“Yes, he killed a few goblins around him, healed my wound, and then just went in alone?”

“That doesn’t make any sense…”

Judging by the level of the monsters that had been dealt with, the gate itself didn’t seem too difficult. At most, green goblins?

But even so, a healer going in alone?

And he cut down goblins before going in?

Team leader Jeong Cheolmin, dispatched urgently from the Korean Hunter Association’s gate management team, furrowed his brows.

He then spoke to his subordinates.

“For now, wait here and report immediately if there are any changes in the gate. Report immediately if anyone comes out of the gate.”

“Yes, sir.”

His subordinates responded loudly.

Hearing this, Jeong Cheolmin put a cigarette in his mouth and thought,

“He must have gone in without knowing better. No crazy healer would go into a gate alone, right?”

Flick—

Jeong Cheolmin lit his cigarette.

Thinking there wouldn’t be any issues.

But if this isn’t just an ordinary event and the healer who went in alone really clears the gate…

‘Then I have to make sure, no matter what, to bring that person to our side.’

Jeong Cheolmin was serious.

The reason was simple. While it appeared that the state and private guilds were jointly maintaining national safety, in reality, the state was being swayed by private guilds.

The reason was simple.

To control the guilds, the state needed enough power…

In other words, excellent player talents, but unfortunately, the state couldn’t pay as much as private guilds.

Of course, compared to other government agencies, the state did pay quite a lot, but compared to private guilds with various benefits, the amount was ridiculously low.

Therefore, state-affiliated hunters were nicknamed ‘patriotic pay warriors’.

Of course, it was just a nickname, but the civil servant hunters, especially those in field positions, were mostly good people filled with patriotism and altruism.

Without that mindset, they wouldn’t work here.

So it was always difficult to recruit hunters into the association, but Jeong Cheolmin didn’t give up.

Despite everything, there were occasionally hunters who were recruited to the state’s side.

Jeong Cheolmin picked up his mobile phone and called someone.