Evolution Theory of the Hunter (ETH)
Volume 1 Chapter 28
After auctioning the ores, I finished up the contribution split. I gave Sooah a bit more from my share and sent her home with everyone else. No use in having her come along. Park Jungbeh glanced behind me and said in an almost disappointed voice.
“You didn’t bring that lady with you?”
“She said she had a previous engagement so I couldn’t do anything but let her go.”
“Hm. I guess nothing we can do. I wanted to compensate her well since that incident from last time and all..”
“I will let her know that you were sorry.”
“Nah. You don’t need to do that.”
I was used to gauging people. A person can cover up a lie with pretty words and how they acted but it was hard to lie with your eyes. I could tell from this guy’s eyes that he was telling the truth. He was probably being honest when he said that he was sorry.
But that didn’t mean shit. A man who beats his wife probably regrets it too after the fact. Killers are known to cry over what they have done too. But if they were put into the same position again, would they truly act differently?
Park Jungbeh was the type of person who could and would act on those same urges if given the opportunity. He might get hung up over it after he did it. But I’m sure after a couple days passes, he would feel just fine.
I just needed to remember one truth. That guy had tried to kill me. It might be just a small hiccup in his life, but it was a big deal to me.
Including me, the party was made up of five people. Park Jungbeh’s abilities were not too spectacular. He did have some high defense armour that was a level 2 but his weapon and skill were both level 1. The rest of his crew were pretty much the same.
After we entered the dungeon, I walked up to Park Jungbeh and asked him.
“Why did you decide to do a general party? If you just waited a little big longer, I’m sure they would have allowed leisure parties again.”
“What does it matter? A leisure party and a general party are the same thing.”
“I guesss…”
The difference between a general party and a leisure party was just the fact that one didn’t have to sign a waiver and the other did. If you didn’t want to sign the waiver, you had to prove that you had the skills and equipment to ensure you would be safe in the dungeon.
In the case that you don’t meet the requirements, you could also pay an additional fee to have them call on an extra person as security to help you through it safely. A general party didn’t have such restrictions. Since general parties sign the waivers, the dungeon operators don’t really pay too much attention to them – since they would not be held accountable for whatever happened.
On the one hand, if you were strong enough, then that meant you would be able to clear a dungeon safely even in a general party. The only problem was, there were always outliers.
The same applied for these guys. They were probably just thinking of me as a porter so they were assuming they could clear the dungeon with just a four person crew.
If nothing out of the ordinary happened, this would be true. Big if.
Three goblins appeared, signaling the start of our hunt. Park Jungbeh, a tanker, and two short range attackers rushed forward. The remaining guy was probably a magic user. This guy raised a staff and yelled out.
“Magic missile!”
A blue light shot out from the end of that staff. Seeing as there were three streaks, it was a level 1 magic missile.
Pow! Pow! Pow!
All three bursts hit their mark. Caught unawares, they were struck down by the fierce and quick attacks. This was our chance.
The cooltime for a magic missile was short – about 30 seconds. There was a reason why it was considered a top skill among the level 1 skills.
The battle went very smoothly from there. We had Park Jungbeh, who wore armor that was unpierceable by level 1 monsters, 2 close range attackers, and the mage who threw out the magic missile. The monsters of the Baekoonsa dungeon could not do anything against them.
We were resting after they had cleared the entire dungeon in less than 2 hours. I say 2 hours, but the time it actually took to kill all the monsters (not including the walking time) was about 20 minutes.
All I did was pick up the dropped ores and carry it in my bag.
“How many did we get?”
“21 in all.”
“Not bad.”
“If we were to auction it off, it would probably end up being about 20,000 dollars after all the fees. Since there were only four in the party, each person could end up with about 5,000 dollars each. This could be considered a pretty good haul. The danger level was pretty low and the return pretty high. This was exactly why hunter grade equipment and skills were so darn expensive.
I raised my head and stared up at the ceiling.
“But didn’t we kill all the monsters?”
“It seems so. Why?”
“The dungeon isn’t clearing.”
I raised a finger and pointed up. The dungeon was still dark.
“Ah….you’re right. What the…”
“Maybe…”
I trailed off. I could hear the blood draining from Park Jungbeh’s face.
“Hey. Get up right now!”
“What’s wrong?”
“Why? Let’s just rest a bit more.”
“Stop yammering and get up. Can’t you tell there’s something wrong right now?”
“What are you saying is wrong? Jeez.”
“The damn dungeon isn’t clearing right now! It’s an irregular!”
“What the hell are you saying. Wasn’t it you who said that this dungeon was safe. You said an irregular has never shown up here before. So why are you saying there’s an irregular now!”
“I don’t know. We just need to get the hell out of here!”
Park Jungbeh’s voice began to shake. He had faced an irregular before. It was understandable that he would be scared shitless unlike these other guys who have never crossed one’s path before.
***
During the 10 days that Sooah had been knocked out, there were some things I hypothesized.
- An irregular and the 0 level skillbook…the two had some kind of correlation.
- An irregular appears when a specific condition is satisfied
I tried to think back on all three times an irregular appeared and compared them. Then I compared it to the time I hunted with Eum Hyunjoon’s party when an irregular didn’t appear. There were some similarities.
Level 0 skillbook. Fast clear time. 5 person party.
I wondered if an irregular would appear if the three conditions were satisfied again. Of course this was all just speculation at this point. I could probably just shake it off as coincidence. But it could also not be mere coincidence either.
I chose to believe the latter.
The next thing I had to think about was what to do next to get out of here. But we also needed to establish if there really was an irregular.
“Let’s start heading toward the entrance for now.”
I shouldered my backpack and got up. The rest of the group seemed like they still didn’t understand the gravity of the situation. That is…until they saw the wolf boss blocking our way out.
A wolf boss. Not bad. It could have been worse. We might have ended up facing the level 4 monster I faced when I made my first kill. I had been preparing myself for that.
“What is thiss? Isn’t that a cave wolf? But why the heck is it so big?”
“It’s a dungeon boss.”
At my response, everyone stared at me. If it were any other situation, they probably would have told me to shut up and just do my portering, but it seemed they were desperate to have something to rely on at this perilous situation.
“You’ve seen it before?”
Park Jungbeh asked.
“I did. Once.”
“Do you know how to kill it?”
“Not sure. All I could remember is running like hell away from it.”
“Shit. Useless.”
“What did you expect from a porter? Let’s start thinking of a plan to get out of here.”
“Can’t we just fight it?”
The mage asked.
“Against that? You might just be doing some spells behind us so you don’t care but we…”
“It’s impossible. Yeah we have armour…but it won’t last long against that thing.”
These guys have only fought against monsters smaller than themselves. They could not imagine fighting against a monster two times bigger and two times stronger than they were.
When the atmosphere seemed ripe enough, I jumped in.
“There is one option…”
Everyone’s face changed in an instant.
“What…what option is that?”
“It’s a little bit dangerous though..”
“Anything’s fine so come out with it.”
At Park Jungbeh’s words, I responded as if I had no choice but to say. This option would be the same one I had used that last time.
“Someone needs to lead the wolf into the left trail so the rest can run away…I don’t think it would be too difficult…”
As soon as Park Jungbeh responded, everyone decided to put in their two cents too.
“True…but who’s going to be the bait?”
“I’m slow so I can’t. Maybe if we were up against a goblin or a kobolt…but a wolf is way too fast.”
“You weren’t thinking of making a mage be the bait were you?”
“I can’t because my armor is way too heavy.”
Everyone naturally turned to look at me. Park Jungbeh made a big smile and said.
“Yeh. Didn’t you say that you ran away from this kind of monster once before? Why don’t you lead it away? We’ll call for help as soon as we get out.”
“Yeh, yeh. That seems like it would be best.”
“In trade, we’ll give you all the ores in that bag.”
Seeing a great opportunity to use me as a scapegoat, they all circled around me to try and persuade me to be the bait. I almost laughed aloud because they were acting exactly as I had imagined…no…hoped they would. Instead of answering, I stared at Park Jungbeh. He was holding my hand and saying with a soft voice.
“Please. You’re the only one we can trust with this task.”
“…but it’s too hard for me to bait that monster all by myself. I wouldn’t be able to run too far from it…and I won’t last even 10 seconds against it once it reaches me.”
I responded as if I were truly conflicted. I needed to play hard to get.
“Shit! Then what the hell do you want us to do! It’s not as if we can do it!”
Park Jungbeh yelled out as he jumped up angrily. I pretended to be surprised and placed my finger on his lips.
“Please be more quiet. What will you do if the wolf decides to come after us this instant.”
“Chet…”
He shut up with a frown at my words. These guys could die or live…and the choice was mine to make. Their lives were literally in the palm of my hand.
Park Jungbeh said with a gloomy expression.
“I’ll do whatever you want. Tell me. What is it that you need.”
Finally. What I was waiting for. I pretended to ponder of this for a bit and carefully said.
“To start. I need something to protect me against that monster’s attacks.”
I said this as I glanced briefly at Park Jungbeh’s armor. I could see his face immediately harden. That armor was probably about 500,000 dollars. I was curious. Would he give it to me?
“That’s…”
“I don’t want to die either.”
“This bastard! Do you know how much this is!…”
“Shh. The wolf might hear us.”
“Chet…”
He shut up again and sat down. I stared at Park Jungbeh as if I had all the time in the world.
***
Now. How much is your life worth to you. I wonder…hehe
-
someguy
·
Thanks for the chapter
mc is now selling lives -
Coco Sacarias
·
tanks
-
sfasf asf
·
Thanks for the chapter
-
Dave Nguyen
·
This MC… are you weed? HAHA
-
babywolf
·
thanks for the chapter woof!
-
Kryzin
·
Thxs for the chapter.
-
Ozan Ride
·
thank you =)
-
mendrax
·
suspect the mc may have multiple skills soon
-
vonkaiser
·
thanks for the chapter… ^^
-
Drehon
·
Thanks for the chapter
-
chris Mackie
·
thanks for the chapter
-
Micheal Lee
·
Please don’t throw me into that briar patch.
-
rhorho
·
You know.. I am somewhat happy when he say
Now. How much is your life worth to you. I wonder…hehe -
NotValkyrie
·
Thank you !
-
Stan Lee Stanley
·
chapter? chapter
thank you bruhhhss now hit me with that cra—-caffei…..cafebux!!!!!!!
-
nekosama9x
·
ty for your hard work =w=
-
oddmoonlight
·
Just one small thing, you wrote the name of the dungeon as baekoonsa while in previous chapters you spelt it with a capital B. Now one piece of gear from each of them would go too far? XD
-
Leo Sam
·
thanks for the chapter!
-
KiwiCaramelo
·
Thanks for the chappie, Barista
-
VJ
·
Thank you for the chapter.
-
copy331
·
Thx
-
eliot h
·
The farmer strikes again!
-
·
Made an account just to read this in advance hopefully in the future. Ty
-
Haniwa
·
nice play MC. Now how much he can extort out of this situation haha
-
fr0zen422
·
thanks for the chapter!
-
amja
·
Thanks. Hope MC will learn his 2nd skill. ^_^
-
criticalmind
·
Thanks for the chapter
-
ApexAstral
·
Haha he’s gonna get some armor and another skill book maybe? This is awesome i can’t wait! Thank you for the translation
-
Dlorej Mil
·
Thnx for chapter
-
Alex
·
Thanks for the chapter.
-
ChopChopKillKill
·
I like how this is a smart MC trying to swindle jerks instead trying to kill them off. ^^
-
mantas rinkevicius
·
hahaha this MC has some nice plan to get revange, rlly liking this novel. P.S. thanks for the chapter
-
matiasld
·
Thanks for the chapter.
-
Proteus
·
Thanks for the chapter I wonder though even if the other guy gives him the armor he can always take it back after the dungeon ends
-
heartreader
·
I have my own conjectures it is that one needs to kill an irregular without having a skill equipped to get a rank zero skill drop and the day when irregulars spawned all over the world was the chance given to the whole world. Furthermore in the future only an irregular that is killed by a rank zero skill holder will they spawn further rank zero skills. Can’t wait to see how off/on the mark my conjecture is.
-
LightNovelBarista
·
what. mind blown. lol
-
·
maybe you should write a spin off LOL
-
·
I do not have it in me to ruin an excellent novel with one that is sub par in quality. Either way I believe our protagonist will need to keep using his head as time goes on after all the novel does have ‘Evolution Theory in the title.:D
-
-
-
Glayus
·
Thanks for the chapter
-
inbetweenaction
·
God extortion. wounder if he can make them sign a contract that lets him keep the armor beforehand, other vice they will just say that they lended it to him…
Thanks for the chapter ^^
-
·
Now, i wounder, will this to drop a lv 0? and if it does, what is it and what does it do. And whom will use it? i assume archer girl, but she doesn’t want anything non range related…
Anyone have any ide about what kind of lv zero skill would be good with archery?
-
·
Something to do with sight( as in foresight) would be great.That way she can shoot down targets as soon as they even make come into position.
-
·
but if we go with the team, it can’t be foresight since that sounds more like a ranked skill to me. Possibly Hope or Chance or something else as wage as the other rank 0 has been….
-
-
-
-
Yago Santos
·
Thanks for the chapter
-
babygiant4xl
·
thanks for the chapter
-
·
ty for your chapter :3
-
Simon C
·
THE SCHEME, THE REVENGE, MUSIC TO MY EARS!!!!!
-
stb2132
·
Nice chapter
-
Max Müller
·
thanks for the chapter
also somehow he reminds of of Weed from LMS -
Jurei Tekozuru
·
I’m loving this MC. Nice revenge plan. Thanks for doing this series, found it at weekend and already decided to donate to read it faster, can’t wait for more
-
·
Hey Jurei! Thanks so much for your generosity! I also wanted to let you know that we have lots of ways to earn free CafeBux too! Every time you comment, you get 2 CafeBux and you get to earn 2 CafeBux one time if you visit the site every day. 🙂 Donations are what helps me to get out chapters daily so I want to say THank you thank you!
-
·
*bows before the great donor-sama*
-
-
Time 939
·
Thanks!!!!!!
-
Grandyna
·
thank you for the chapter
-
vinz zenada
·
Thanks
-
victor tiilikainen
·
Thank you for the chapter!!!!!
-
benwu82608260
·
thanks for the chapter
-
Derand Demaj
·
thnx
Leave a ReplyYour email is safe with us.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
73 Comments
Leave your reply.