Chapter 21

Informer (1)

There was a loud noise behind the closed door.

Bang! Crush!

It was the sound of a four-legged animal swiftly running around the room and gnawing furniture. There was also the sound of objects clattering to the floor. Then there was a sound of running away again, most likely to it being startled by a loud sound. I could roughly estimate so.

I felt as if my nervousness from the nightmare was sinking away. I laughed and suddenly opened the door. Then, I saw the little guy in my room. He was standing up with his hind feet on the ground, perhaps about to grab the edge of the table cloth with its front feet. The creature that resembled a tuxedo cat stopped moving, locking its eyes on me.

"Kyeoong!"

Iponia jumped into the air, its hair raising up as if it were startled. It turned itself upside down, making a U-shape in the air, and fell to the floor. Then, with a crackling noise, it hid under the bed. I closed the door before speaking.

"You must feel comfortable by now, huh?"

It tried to hide under the bed and keep silent. But then.

Swoosh!

His long black tail, several times the length of his body, came out of the bed and fluttered, sweeping the floor on both sides. It was no different from a birds' intelligence to think that they are completely hidden if others aren't visible in their own eyes.

'Well, it's still a baby.'

I laughed at its fluttering tail as if it were sweeping the floor.

"Cute."

I looked around the room. It must have regained its energy after being fed while I was gone, so it had roamed around and played. The table clock rolled on the floor, and there were scratches all over the furniture. I scanned for anything broken.

"···Oh!"

I picked up what was placed in the corner of the room. It was a crystal ball that had a vivid green color like the eyes of Iponia.

"You really must've been comfortable, no?"

Iponia must have vomited when I wasn't there. I looked inside. Mana danced in patterns inside. In some cases, several types were mixed together, but it seemed that this was only one type. I looked around to see if it had vomited something else up. I lowered my head and lifted the bed. I could see Iponia's quite chubby butt, crouching with its back facing me.

"I can increase the amount of food you eat."

It didn't look back, but one ear moved as if responding to my speech. I put the crystal on my desk.

Knock, knock.

At that point, I heard a knocking sound.

"Come on in."

Secretary Kim entered the room, immediately confused by what he saw inside.

"This···?"

He muttered as if asking me to explain.

"Did the high of amnesia already go away? Still, you didn't scratch furniture before."

I heard that in the past, Seo Jin-wook had many of his crazy episodes alone in his room.

"Relax. It's not me. The cat-like guy did this while I was sleeping."

His gaze landed on the elongated tail on the floor.

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. Please sit down."

As soon as he realized that it wasn't a big deal, he started the briefing. A hologram floated in the air as he touched the terminal on his wrist. I quickly read it and expressed some disappointment.

"There seems to be no information about Angelica, right?"

The interim report was about those who ambushed us while visiting the black market a few days ago. Faces were photographed, and their hair samples were collected before the snakes could eat the corpses.

"Yeah. Instead, they did a quite detailed investigation on the men. "

I read through the hologram.

"They haven't officially reported as a guild. Although nominally registered as freelance hunters, in reality, they have their organizational system, and they take charge of dirty quests from guilds and companies."

While listening to his explanation, I paid attention to the person's face on the hologram.

"This is the middle boss who is believed to have something to do with this job."

He was referring to the very man in the picture I was looking at. He had sharp eyes slit on both sides, a hawkish nose, and an exceptionally angular chin. He was the one I had recognized. And so, it was like that. These guys were involved. I hadn't been directly involved with them in my previous life, but I had a detailed grasp of what kind of guys they were.

"Ma Sang-Hyun, 47 years old. According to the information registered in the Hunter Management Department, he is a C-class hunter that doesn't belong to any guild."

Secretary Kim spoke while showing the place where Ma Sang-Hyun was photographed and the video that was secretly filmed.

"This is all of the information that has been obtained so far."

Secretary Kim looked as if he was waiting for the next set of instructions. I pretended to be thinking about something before speaking.

"I see. Please give me some time to think before deciding on the next step. Information may be updated in the meantime, so."

"Yes."

In fact, it was a lie to need time to think. The plan had already solidified in my mind. If I only had told Secretary Kim, he would likely be frightened and would oppose me. I pretended to be in serious contemplation, hiding my thoughts. Secretary Kim carefully spoke again.

"Do you still not have any plans to share this within the guild?"

"Yes."

"Okay. I won't ask you any more about that."

"Thank you very much."

"No. Team Leader, by the way..."

He then looked at the green crystal I put on my desk, as he had been glancing at it several times from a while ago.

"What is that? At first glance, it looks like an artifact."

Nevertheless, a hunter's wisdom did see things through. From what he had seen once, he realized that the crystal was made of a material not found in this world.

"Team Leader, perhaps!"

His eyes, looking at me, sparkling with anticipation and curiosity.

"Does that have something to do with your unique skill?!"

He must've been itching to ask, but it seemed that he had endured a lot until the report was over. When I saw that expression, I suddenly felt playful. I picked up the green crystal, gave it a little Mana, and threw it lightly at Secretary Kim.

"Touch it."

It drew a curved line in the air, and Secretary Kim comfortably grabbed it with one hand. And then...!

Hwaak!

"Ugh, what is this?!"

Suddenly, the light shuddered, and Secretary Kim panicked, but he knew that it wasn't threatening, so he kept his ground. That was also great. A poorly trained hunter would've rattled out of his seat like a spring at the moment the light flashed and went in a frenzy. Anyway, he seemed like he was about to cry as he looked at the object, where the light had disappeared.

"Oh, real funny, Team Leader! What is this?!"

The green crystal that I threw disappeared without a trace and only dense black hairs grew on the palm of Secretary Kim's hands where it had been. From my point of view, it appeared like he was holding black yarn. Looking at that, with an expression of half-embarrassment and half-annoyance, he looked at me, and his face stiffened as he came to a conclusion.

"Team Leader, no way...is this the Team Leader's unique skill? Tossing a crystal and growing hair wherever it lands?"

Mumbling as if he found it all absurd, he concentrated Mana in his palm and burned away all the hair roots and hair.

Crackle!

He couldn't control Mana neatly yet. After all, the more I witnessed it, the more I noticed that his skill wasn't of a normal level. He grumbled, looking at his smooth hands.

"Man, should we name this Hair Ball or Hair Growth Ball? Wow, whatever it is, it's really useless...!"

I think he was really disappointed. At that point, I corrected the misunderstanding.

"The guy that resembles a cat vomited several of those during the night."

In fact, I had only found one, but I spoke as if I found several and tried experimenting with others beforehand. This was Iponia's unique ability. If you fed it a skill card, it would occasionally vomit that, and if you broke it, the effect of the skill would be reproduced as it was, even if you didn't use any Mana.

It wasn't that if you fed one piece, it would vomit one tablet, but the number of crystals stamina, and nutrition. I think it vomited this time because there was a [Hair Growth Stimulation] card among the skill cards I fed it last time. After hearing the explanation, Secretary Kim's eyebrows raised.

"You have to break it? But I didn't break the crystal right now? The crystal must be fragile, right?"

I deliberately let some mana flow so that it would break after a few seconds. After hearing that, Secretary Kim's eyes widened.

"I mean, Team Leader, didn't you Awaken yesterday ?"

"That's right."

"That high level of Mana control is possible after at least a few years of experience, though?"

He muttered as if he couldn't believe it.

"Well, I was suspicious of you already when you made a needle hole through a human head. Hey, Team Leader, what is your potential Mana?"

There was no need to hide this. After hearing my answer of 70,000, Secretary Kim opened his mouth wide enough to fear that his jawbone would pop out.

"Se...se...se...se!"

"Yes, seventy thousand."

Secretary Kim exhaled a fierce breath, making an expression on the verge of fainting.

"Oh, my God!"

His pupils were shaking.

"I expected it from before Awakening, but it's really beyond imagination. Once you go on a Mana rampage, we did say among ourselves that the ability and the personality don't always go along..."

Secretary Kim did not hold back his words. He muttered "seventy thousand... seventy thousand" and suddenly turned to me.

"Is the Guild Master planning to reveal this to the public?"

"I don't know."

Seo Gyu-cheol seemed to think that training came first in the current state. In the future, he would see the pace at which I grew and decide.

"Then..."

Secretary Kim seemed shocked as if he wanted to ask me what my unique skill was, but he refrained as he must've thought that I wouldn't tell easily. Instead, he came up with some unexpected news.

"About this, if the unknown people who tried to compete with the Team Leader get to know of this, it may be more chaotic. There is something that I heard yesterday just before leaving work."

Secretary Kim paused, then continued his explanation.

"I couldn't see it myself because I was away, but right after the Team Leader awakened, I heard that the people of the Constitution Department called the Guild Master for a while to talk?"

They certainly did. I didn't know what kind of conversation was going on outside, but I saw that Seo Gyu-cheol looked very bothered. It was as if he heard something that he shouldn't have. It seemed that Secretary Kim had figured out the reason.

"About that..."

His expression became serious.

"A report came into the Hunter Management department. About a week ago, about you, Team Leader."

"A report? about me?"

"It's an anonymous informant, but the content is really..."

He shook his head as if he found it all absurd.

"It was said that a situation in our guild that violated the 'Youth Special Protection Act related to the Hunter Awakening Condition' was observed."

"···"

Would you look at that? A picture was drawn faintly in my head.

"It was an accusation that our guild set up a situation for Park Chang-hee to deliberately attack the Team Leader, who was a non-Awakened at the time, with mana and try to Awaken you forcefully, and that it was successful."

Of the two ways to become a Hunter, it was an option that was rarely used now, but it was the only way in the past — to be put on the verge of death. However, of course, it was something that the Celestial Dragon Guild would protest since it was nonsense. They had prepared the Awakening Stone in advance. On what ground would they do otherwise? I mean, did it make sense to the common eyes? To do something like that because they couldn't wait for a week?

"I could have legally Awakened in just a week anyway. Why would we do such a thing?"

"The Constitutional Office also thought so, so instead of seizing and searching at the time of the report, it was said to wait until the day the Team Leader Awakened as a Hunter. If you put your hand on the Awakening Stone after a week anyway, they would know whether it happened in advance or not...but technically, you shouldn't do that. They found a neutral ground, looking at the Guild Master's reputation."

I put my hand on my chin and thought about it.

"If they had just enforced it according to the law..."

"They would've arrested the Team Leader. To avoid accidental Awakening while performing tests, they would have several tests, including one with the Awakening Stone. If the result came in that you had Awakened, you could never do anything related to the Celestial Dragon Guild. Of course, it's a meaningless assumption that the results will come out that way."

To make such a report in the first place, you must have a solid conviction about the informant. About that, one was convinced that I, Seo Jin-wook, had surely Awakened just a week before my 19th birthday. It seemed that the informant had such a belief.

It was a report with no meaning, one without believing that it would reveal that I had Awakened early once the Constitutional Department inspected it. And the purpose of the report...

"It seems that the purpose was to exclude me from the Celestial Dragon Guild permanently."

Anyway, it was all fishy.