Re-evaluation

As I walk out of the dungeon and prepare to head home, I can't help but look at my stats.

⸢Strength: 247 Agility: 247 Sense: 242 Vitality: 260 Intelligence: 252⸥

My stats were high, yes, but like, what does 200 strength even mean?

Arriving home and having an actual bed to welcome me, it wasn't any surprise that I spend more than 24 hours just sleeping. When I woke up, I found Jinwoo was preparing to leave once again.

"You're already going back to the dungeon?" I grumble.

Shaking his head, Jinwoo states, "I'm heading to the Korean Hunter's Association to get a re-evaluation."

"So, we're finally revealing ourselves." I give a slight chuckle.

"Well, I was going to do it, you can do it another-"

Waving my hand, I stop him, "No, no, I'm coming with. Two is almost always better than one after all."

Heading out mere moments later, we enter the prefecture and find the two front desk employees staring at the television which was hosting Breaking News. Paying for our re-evaluation cost, we head into the backroom where we sat down with other potential hunters.

We got information from one of the men who was sitting down and got to witness the mental breakdown of a man before the next person was called inside. The man whose face was turning green gave the option for one of us to go in.

In response, the two of us stood up.

Staring at Jinwoo, I say, "We'll get the same result anyway, so why not just take the test together?"

Jinwoo goes to retort but finds that he can't.

"Alright, I'll test you once at a time."

Jinwoo was the first to step forward and caused the machine to generate an error. The man wat the front desk came waltzing in and looked at the monitor. His face then took on a mask of horror as he realized Jinwoo was South Korea's 10th S-Rank.

Doing the same thing as Jinwoo, the same kind of result ensued, and the front desk worker looked like he was going to have his soul leave his body. After all, to recognize the existence of not one but two S-Ranks is something serious.

"Uh… with our current detector… Hunter Sung Jinwoo's and Hunter Shiro Urokodaki's Magic power are currently immeasurable. I need permission from the higher-ups to use a more precise detector. Could the two of you visit us again after 3 days?"

As the two of us nod our heads and prepare to break our way through the guild recruiters, the split like the red sea with their eyes staring towards one man.

Standing in front of us, there was a lanky young man with red hair in a curtain hairstyle that is parted to the left side of his right eye. He also held an amicable smile and wore a red striped business suit. This was of course Choi Jong-In, an S-Rank Hunter and the Guild Master of the Hunters Guild.

"Haha…" Listening to the weary laugh from Jinwoo I can't help but want to copy him.

Striding up to us, he sticks out his hand.

"My name is Choi Jon-In, a representative from the Hunters Guild. Excuse me... It looks like the two of you just received your evaluation, but do you already have a guild in mind? If not, I would like to take some of your time to discuss that matter with the two of you."

Marching past him, Jinwoo replies for the two of us, "I'm sorry, but we decline."

Without ever looking back, the two of us return home and that very night, the two of us check up on his mother who's been placed in an eternal slumber. As Jinwoo sat there staring at her face, he explained to me the rewards that he received while inside of his dungeon. Hearing how easy he had it, I didn't hesitate to complain to him about all that I went through inside of my dungeon and how my Hidden Reward was still Hidden, unlike his.

Leaving the hospital room, we're approached by Woo Jinchul.

"That day… Were the two of you the ones who defeated the monsters from the Double Lair? Thanks to you, I was able to learn that my viewpoint wasn't accurate."

"We meet again, Mr. Woo." I smirk.

"Did you know that the monitoring division's primary goal is to deal with humans instead of monsters? In other words, we must monitor and punish the lawbreaking hunters." Woo informs us. "And our existence is the only shackle on the Hunters. Though… we do tend to be useless against S-Ranks… If you could spare a bit of your time, there's someone who wishes to meet the two of you. Hunter Association Chairman, Go Gunhee. He's waiting for the two of you in here."

Directing the two of us forward, a muscular old man with gray hair, greenish-gray eyes, and numerous scars on his body appears from the shadows.

"Hunter Sung Jinwoo and Hunter Shiro Urokodaki I presume? Nice to meet you. I'm Go Gunhee."

Walking into a waiting room, Mr. Go offers us a seat.

"I would first like to congratulate the two of you on becoming S-Rank Hunters. And before you tell me that there's still a re-examination left, it's completely meaningless. After all, a precise detector is to help us segment results. It's not a tool to help us measure outside the scoping range. Even if it was possible for us to measure past the current range, it would still be impossible to distinguish between S-Rank, SS-Rank or SSS-Rank."

"Then why?" Jinwoo asks.

"Simply put, it's to buy us time. …It's to buy time for us to meet with S-Rank Hunters such as the two of you before anyone else can. As you may already know, the Hunter Association doesn't have many talented hunters such as Chief Woo Jinchul. Since, who would want to join the Association when the top guilds can guarantee Hunters great fame and large salaries?" Mr. Go explains.

"There are people out there who can name every core member of the Top Guild's raid teams. But there aren't many that can name our chief, Woo Jinchul, despite him being a top class among the A-Rank. That's why we have created a little trick for us to meet with talented hunters. And now that I have the two of you here, I will invest the entirety of the Hunter Association's strength into helping the two of you flourish on a different path."

Mr. Go then explained that he could give us authority no other person should have, but I turn him down.

"Mr. Go, I hope you can understand, but I didn't progress down the path of a Hunter for fame, fortune, or authority over others. I did it to protect those around me. I am blessed with unimaginable strength, and with it, I can defend those who cannot defend themselves. Much like I had done so many years ago. Plus, Guilds or even the Association, tend to hold people back."

Standing up, I give my farewell to Mr. Go and when Jinwoo arrives home with me, he immediately begins to search through the Hunter Auction. Even with the savings that I had added to, he still didn't have enough money to buy an item he had his eye on.

He wanted to sell one of his items, but he was going to wait until he was deemed an S-Rank since that would automatically give him authority, without the help of the Association. And so, in the three days before we would be given our S-Rank Licenses, the two of us decided to sign on for an A-Rank Gate Raid. Though, since we were still only E-Rank, we could only sign on as miners.

Arriving at the scene early in the morning, we were briefed by the head miner, and he gratefully accepted our help since not many people were ever interested in mining. Compared to the dungeons that we've experienced before, an A-Rank Gate was much larger and had a different aura about it.

Standing there boredly while waiting for the attack team to finish, it was soon called out that they were exiting, and Jinwoo and I stare in both awe and disappointment at the country's strongest attack force.

Lowering our heads as Choi Jong-In passes, we tilt our heads back upwards to look at the Vice Master of the Hunters Guild.

Staring at the pretty young woman with gray eyes and blonde hair in a bob cut, I recognized her as S-Rank Cha Hae-In.

As I'm just staring at her, I feel Jinwoo next to me ignite his fighting presence before then quickly snuffing it out and lowering his head. Moments later, our mining group heads into the dungeon and after getting a short tutorial on how to handle the gems when mining from the chief, the two start to get to work.

With a single swing of my pickaxe, the crystals pop out of their sockets, undamaged.

Mining an innumerable number of crystals, we're soon called out for lunch. Giving the excuse that we had already ate, Jinwoo and I rush off in the direction of the boss room. Arriving in the boss room, we find ourselves staring at a Giant-type boss stuck in the wall.

Without a moment of hesitation, I prepare to go and throw the pickaxe I still held.

"Wait, Shiro, I think that's a bad idea."

"Oh, please, as if you weren't just about to materialize your dagger and try to fight it." I retort.

"We-well…" Jinwoo stutters while trying to explain himself.

Planting my pickaxe in front of me and leaning on it while I listen to him struggle, we're suddenly called out to.

"What are you two doing over there?"

Jinwoo's head didn't move, but I stared at the person coming towards us and answered, "We got lost ma'am."

"Both of you got lost?" She huffs, clearly unimpressed by my excuse, "Are you two a part of the mining team? That's where the boss resides. Please step back."

Listening to the words of Cha Hae-In, the two of us walk back towards the group.

Only getting a few paces past her, she calls out, "Hey, hold on a second."

"Yes?"

Me being the closer of the two, she strides up to me and sniffs my chest.

Slowly turning my head over to Jinwoo, I mouth, 'What?', but only receive a shrug in response.

"Um, is there a problem?" I give a strained smile.

"Are you really a Hunter?" Cha Hae-In asks while grabbing my name card. Muttering it aloud, she eventually coughs into her hand and says, "…Never mind. Just be careful. The dungeon is huge after all."

Slightly sweating, I answer, "Yes, of course." before then continuing to walk back to the group with Sung Jinwoo.

Getting jealous remarks from our colleagues, we're then told that Hunter Cha can smell a certain smell from hunters that's apparently quite foul. This in turn would explain why she asked if I was a Hunter.

Leaving the dungeon after a 'hard' day of work, we're both handed pay and then given an offer to come to mine in the dungeons again tomorrow. Not hesitating to accept the offer, especially since it would be the B-Team of the Hunter Guild, Jinwoo is given a call by Jinho who wishes to meet with the two of us.

Saying that we would be available in the evening, the two of us then head to the A-Rank Dungeon the next morning and when the Raid Team arrives at the scene, they ask if someone from the mining team would work as the porter.

When the leader reaches his wits end in asking, both Jinwoo and I raise our hands.

""We'll go.""

"Ah, we only need one though." The leader gives a strained smile.

Giving the spot up to Jinwoo, I watch him disappear into the gate and feel as the presence of the gate grows more sinister as time progresses.

As I'm sitting around and waiting for Jinwoo to return from this dungeon raid, Hunter Cha comes strolling into the site. Upon seeing only, a portion of my face, she comes strutting up to me.

"Hunter Urokodaki I take it?"

"Yes ma'am."

She then glances around me and asks, "Where's the other one of you?"

Grunting, I answer, "He's a substitute porter for today, so he's inside the..."

My words cut off as I feel a huge fluctuation of magic come from the gate.

Giving a slight bow to Hunter Cha, I say, "Sorry to cut this short, but I'm going to make sure he didn't die."

Without another moment of hesitation, I stroll up to the portal and then run through it.