The F-rank Hunter Who Turned Into a Golem Is Overpowered Chapter 12

Chapter 12

[Quest Cleared.]

Step, step.

‘It’s still glowing.’

Swoosh.

Do-jae picked up the shattered mana stone. Despite being broken into dozens of pieces, each fragment still held a glimmer of light.

Typically, once a mana stone is broken, it loses its stability and disperses the stored mana rapidly into the air. Mana isn’t like an element or an electron, so it can’t be contained when it quickly spreads.

However, for some reason, this shattered mana stone still retained its power. Was it naturally like this, or was there some other cause?

‘Huh?’

Bzzzzz-.

The pieces of the mana stone that Do-jae had lifted began to vibrate between the cracks in the earth.

Crackle- crackle-

The fragments slowly shifted, moving little by little as if worms were wriggling. Each shard was moving steadily in a specific direction.

Then suddenly—.

Flash!

“Ah!” Do-jae grimaced as the mana stone reassembled itself on the back of his hand, now glowing brightly.

“My… my hand…”

Do-jae clutched his hand and collapsed. It felt as though his hand was burning in flames. No, it was as if it were being torn apart by knives.

Was this what it would feel like if you sprinkled salt and red pepper on an open wound?

The pain was so unbearable that he tried to scratch his hand with his fingers, but the mana stone wouldn’t budge.

Pop!

The mana stone on his hand burst out with light, engulfing the area. By the time Do-jae opened his eyes, the pain had completely disappeared.

“What the hell just happened…? Is this the quest reward?”

The mana stone, now an emerald color, was embedded above the golem armor on his body. Normally, the golem’s core would be hidden when the armor was equipped, but this one looked as though it had always been there.

“Dismiss.”

Thud-thud-.

As soon as Do-jae withdrew the mana flowing into the golem armor, the stone on the back of his hand gradually faded away and scattered like dust. The dust trailed up Do-jae’s forearm, past his shoulder, and disappeared near his chest.

“Huh. Feels like a magic trick.”

Feeling a change within himself, Do-jae quickly opened his skill information to check for details.

[Skill Information]

Skill Name: Golem Armor
Level: 4
Type: Active
Description: Forms golem armor using the golem’s core as its nucleus. The effectiveness of the armor is influenced by the user’s stats and skill level.
Mana Consumption: 4 + a
Resistance: Sonic (50%)
Orb: Sealed Memory of the Right Hand

“Sealed Memory of the Right Hand?”

The golem armor skill had leveled up, and just like when it gained resistance previously, another line was added. However, this new addition was more difficult to understand.

‘Memory of the right hand? What’s sealed? Is it the hand or the memory that’s sealed?’

The ambiguous sentence only made things more confusing.

But one thing was clear: the amount of mana he felt within his body had dramatically increased. Do-jae could sense much more mana than when he fought King Graydon.

To verify his growth, he opened his status screen.

[Information]

Name: Lee Do-jae
Level: 35
Title: Golem Summoner
Health: 5,500 / Mana: 17,780

[Stats]

Strength: 40 / Endurance: 40 / Agility: 70 / Spirit: 10 / Resistance: 40
(Points available: 25)

[Skills]

Passive: Golem’s Core Lv. Max / Subspace Lv. Max
Active: Golem Summon Lv. 2 / Golem Armor Lv. 4

“My level increased by five… and look at this mana!”

Do-jae was astonished by the massive boost in his mana capacity. Compared to his health, his mana had tripled. The mana consumption for maintaining the golem armor was already quite significant, but with this much mana, he wouldn’t have to worry about running out anytime soon.

‘Now, let’s gather the loot.’

Unfortunately, King Graydon didn’t automatically drop loot, probably because he was a beast-type monster. Additionally, there was no new title granted, unlike with Cerberus, suggesting that titles required certain conditions—likely related to quests.

“Well, this should be rewarding.”

Whistle!

With a light whistle, Do-jae began to dismantle and collect the boss’s loot.

************

Outside the dungeon.

Several cars were parked.

“You’ve arrived, sir!”

A young man bowed toward a man getting out of the car. The man, squinting under the glaring sunlight, extended one leg out of the car and spoke.

“Who are you?”

The young man, surprised by the sudden question, stammered.

“Sorry, sir?”

“I asked, who are you?”

Caught off guard, the young man snapped to attention and replied hastily.

“I’m the new hunter, Kim Jung-tae! It’s an honor to work with you, sir!”

“Is that all?”

“Sorry?”

“I asked if that’s all.”

“Yes…? Uh, is there something you need…?”

Shhh-.

The man, having fully exited the car, opened a large black umbrella. Even though it was a clear, sunny day, he stood holding the umbrella.

“Why are you here?”

“Oh, I was told to wait for the team leader…”

Poke, poke.

The man poked the young man’s chest with a gloved hand. Dressed in long sleeves and gloves, the man seemed determined not to let a single ray of sunlight touch his skin.

“If I’m here, you should be briefing me on the situation.”

“I was about to, but…”

“If you were going to, then do it.”

Each word felt like a stab, causing the young man to retreat step by step.

“I’m sorry!”

Finally, after shouting an apology, the man stopped his actions.

The man said one last thing and then turned toward the dungeon.

“I’ll look around on my own, so you do whatever you need to do.”

The young man stood there, watching the man enter the dungeon, and only then did he let out a deep sigh.

“Sigh… I really want to quit this job…”

***********

The man who entered the dungeon was named Jin Hee-su.

He was one of the team leaders of ‘Eujin’, one of Seoul’s top five guilds.

He had just returned to the guild’s 35-story building in Cheong-nyang-ni after a long time, and not even 30 minutes had passed before he was sent out on a support mission like this.

‘It’s about time I stopped being the association’s lapdog.’

‘Eujin Guild’ was well-known for being friendly with the Hunter Association.

The reason Eujin managed to be one of the top five guilds was due to the help they received by diligently supporting the association.

As a result, Eujin was still handling the association’s clean-up jobs.

To think they would send an A-rank hunter, a key asset of the guild, to waste his valuable time in a dungeon like this.

Jin Hee-su thought the guild master had completely lost it.

‘Damn, should I just quit while I can?’

The truth was, Jin Hee-su had been thinking about leaving the guild for quite some time.

But it wasn’t an easy decision.

That was because he was notorious for causing trouble.

‘All my attempts in the U.S. failed, and the situation in Europe is the same. At least I got a call from France…’

Maybe it was because he had gained immense power from a young age.

He went through most of Korea’s prestigious guilds, only to be kicked out of each one, until he barely managed to settle in Eujin.

At the time, Eujin was recruiting hunters aggressively in an effort to grow their influence, and Jin Hee-su was lucky enough to join.

But even in Eujin, his habit of causing incidents and accidents had eventually led him to this low-priority mission.

He had tried contacting foreign guilds, but rumors about him had spread far and wide, making his situation no better abroad.

France was desperate enough to call him because they were in need of D-rank hunters, but Jin Hee-su had no interest in going.

‘How could I go to a place like that? Not only would I not get proper treatment, but their infrastructure is in shambles.’

Step, step.

Having arrived late, Jin Hee-su didn’t bother meeting up with his team and wandered through the dungeon.

It was a win-win situation for both Jin Hee-su and his team.

Jin Hee-su, being the lone wolf he was, preferred doing things his way. As for the team members?

It was a headache for them to deal with him, having to cater to his moods and prevent him from causing any trouble.

“Hmm? Isn’t this supposed to be a D-rank dungeon?”

As Jin Hee-su explored the dungeon, he came across something interesting.

The strong recognize the strong, and Jin Hee-su found the monster corpses intriguing.

“Goblin corpses are one thing, but a Greydon taken out in one shot?”

There were no signs of resistance from the monsters.

In a D-rank dungeon, it would take at least four people to put up a fight against a Greydon.

But there was only one set of footprints.

What piqued his curiosity even more were the rough, non-human footprints scattered all over the place.

‘Who cares.’

He quickly lost interest.

Whoever it was, they were far below him.

And hunters running D-rank dungeons like this were bound to be mediocre.

Not to mention, Jin Hee-su wasn’t the type to care about things that didn’t concern him.

‘Some weird guy must’ve passed through.’

Following the tracks, he eventually reached the boss room, thinking that whoever left those footprints made the raid a lot easier for his team.

“Where’s the boss?”

“We arrived to find that the dungeon had already been fully cleared.”

“Damn, a wasted trip.”

“I’m sorry! I told the rookie to inform you that you didn’t need to come…”

“What? Who hired that idiot?”

Everyone fell silent.

At that moment, the silence was broken as one of the team members stepped out of the boss room.

“Team leader, there’s something I need to report.”

“Yeah, what is it?”

This man was the deputy team leader, the one who practically ran the team in place of Jin Hee-su.

Most of the team trusted and followed him more than Jin Hee-su.

“As you probably saw on the way here, anything of value has already been taken. The boss is dead, but the only thing left is garbage.”

“What? So, no extra cash for us?”

“Erm, about that… But, according to the report, the raid leader sustained damage from the boss and immediately ordered the raid to be called off and all members to retreat. This part is rather odd.”

“Ugh, who cares. That’s not our problem. What a waste of time. I’m out of here.”

One of Jin Hee-su’s small pleasures was looting the spoils of battle.

But now that even that was gone, his mood soured, and he left in a huff.

The remaining team members looked at him and thought to themselves:

‘Ugh, how is he even a team leader?’

‘He hogs everything for himself and then throws a tantrum at us.’

‘The deputy leader must be a saint to deal with him.’

With that, the team began preparing to leave the dungeon, while the deputy leader stared into the boss room, still puzzled.

**************

[Balance: 1,630,000 won]

“Wow… That’s all I have left?”

Do-jae stared at his bank account balance.

He had burned through the large sum of money he first earned, and now his balance was nearly empty.

He had bought an urgent sale dungeon, prepaid his brother’s hospital bills, signed a house contract, and purchased various appliances, furniture, and household necessities.

There was no way his money would last.

But it wasn’t like Do-jae had been reckless with his spending.

All of it had been necessary, and he still had some extra resources.

It just wasn’t cash.

“Hehe, this isn’t bad at all compared to how things used to be.”

Do-jae chuckled as he looked at his subspace inventory list.

He had steadily collected loot.

Some people might wonder if he could even buy a house by hoarding this stuff, but the truth was, he already had one.

Plus, compared to before, the quality of the monsters he hunted had increased, which meant his earnings had risen significantly.

Just selling a small portion of the items from the list would easily cover his living expenses.

‘It’s been a while. I should go see the boss.’

Do-jae opened his smartphone’s contact list.

After typing in a search term, dozens of numbers appeared.

He pressed the number of the business he frequented the most.

“Yes, is this the moving service?”

************