Chapter 7
It was an ordinary afternoon.
And just like any other day, Sae-Jin came to the Monster Store to unload the Monster materials when, out of the blue, the lady government official demanded to see his Hunter Licence.
"Here, please take this newly issued Hunter Licence."
After the official did this and that with the new card, he noticed that there were new and different words from before added to the front of it.
" The Heavenly Gifted Hunter… ? What is this?"
Sae-Jin asked, his head tilting slightly.
"Ah, that is what you call a Title…. It’s just a nice, simplified way to describe your current set of abilities."
"Eh?"
"Didn’t you bring in Monster carcasses worth 23 creatures within your first month as a Hunter, Mr. Kim Sae-Jin? Because you satisfied the conditions, a prefix was added to your job description. Overflowing with a great talent, that’s what the title Heavenly Gifted means. It’s really a rare and wonderful Title, you know. You can’t receive it if you’ve been a Hunter for over 6 months, and also, the Knights Orders actually do prefer this Title over the likes of The Seasoned Pro or The Distinguished Individual. " (The latter one was something called "관록있는" I’ve no idea what this is, and Google was no help either, so, I made stuff up. Oh well…)
The government official explained with ardent fervor and zeal, but Sae-Jin showed little interest as he lightly nodded his head. After all, this wasn’t a very helpful tale for someone like him who could only maintain his Human Form for 80 minutes a day.
"…Thanks, I guess."
"Ah….wait!!"
When Sae-Jin turned around to leave, the government official shot up from her seat and lightly held onto his sleeve. As he frowned and stared at the official with questioning eyes, she quickly pushed forward a paper at him while her cheeks reddened in a bashful manner.
"This… Please take a look at this!!"
"….Huh?"
A government official’s trying to sell me something? Even though Sae-Jin was slightly speechless, he ended up finding the shy female official twisting her body in embarrassment, objectively speaking, rather adorable in his eyes.
There was still… 66 minutes left.
"What am I reading here?"
He asked out aloud as he checked out the writings on the paper. The large words "Public Recruitment for Hunters by Pabaek Knights Order" were written on top, and below that were some fine prints detailing what’s what.
"Pabaek is a government-owned Knights Order with its headquarters located in our neck of the woods, and currently, they are looking to hire capable Hunters. Of course, it’s true that only the ranks of Mid Tier or higher can possibly apply, but…. I’m sure that Mr. Sae-Jin’s Title will receive a favourable consideration in this case! Besides, the plan was to upgrade your ranking to low Mid Tier or higher as soon as Mr. Sae-Jin satisfied the required amount of hunting experience, you see."
To clarify, the widely accepted definition for a low Mid Tier Hunter was "Can hunt a Low Tier Monster if three people with similar skill sets gather". And for a low Mid Tier Knight, it was the exact opposite - "Can deal with more than three Low Tier Monsters at the same time, alone."
That’s why Sae-Jin’s existence was a little, no, very special to the e
yes of this lady official. In most cases, Hunters formed parties of three or more when moving about, yet here was a man that always came in alone, and always left by himself as well.