Chapter 19: 19

The Journey

“Damn it.”

Kim Bongpal was headed northeast of Earth’s outpost. It was the direction Dreimoor resided in, according to Johan. After a brief conversation with the mage, Kim Bongpal immediately left the outpost.

It wasn’t a very fruitful conversation, and instead, it only amplified his questions. In any case, Lee Kang-chul asked Kim Bongpal if he would join the Iron corporation as they were also preparing a pursuit team. He refused because he was more comfortable being alone than with several people with whom he couldn’t get along.

Of course, there were hunters within the pursuit team who could search for directions or find a more convenient path. But nevertheless, Kim Bongpal chose to leave them alone. He had his own talents in pursuit and detection.

Nowadays, a hunting team of dozens is sent into the field. But decades ago, there was a time when a single hunter had to do it all alone. Moreover, Kim Bongpal had never been part of a group, so he learned how to excel at all tasks.

Gulp-

Kim Bongpal took out his drinking water and took a sip. He hadn’t refused all of Lee Kang-chul’s help and accepted a few things. Firstly, a mana injection through the Mana Stones. However, he only accepted the first one because he felt the injected mana didn’t mix well with the mana he originally had. He felt strange that the other hunters accepted this without any resistance.

It might be possible to have several times more mana through Mana Stones, but it would be useless to increase if he couldn’t wholly handle it. So instead, Kim Bongpal took a considerable amount of Mana Stones along with him. According to Johan, they replaced the need for other forms of currency here.

Other than that, he brought food and water needed for the journey, a subspace bag to store them, and a weapon. Instead of his favorite cheap sword, a sword that looked good at a glance took its place in Kim Bongpal’s waistband. It was forged with the bones of a 6-star monster now rare on earth, mixed with an unknown mineral. It was a top-tier weapon on Earth, to the point where Lee Kang-chul felt reluctant to hand it over.

Of course, it was Kim Bongpal. After swinging it once, he said, “It’s good, and I’ll take it with me.” In fact, it was more of a robbery.

Tap-!

After a brief rest, Kim Bongpal dashed forward.

Johan said Dreimoor was about 90 days away at the average march speed of an adult man, but at this rate, it would be closer to a few weeks. Of course, that was-

Squaaaack-!

-only if monsters didn’t appear along the way.

Step-

Kim Bongpal jumped into the air. The flat ground below him had turned into a monster’s mouth, a type he’d never seen before. From what he heard, there were quite a few species of monsters in the Shire that never appeared on Earth.

This monster’s mouth was full of pointed teeth, and its body was covered in scales. Actually, it looked just like a piranha. However, it was a piranha that could walk on land because it had limbs.

“It’s so fucking ugly.”

Kim Bongpal drew his sword and sent mana surging through the blade. Twisting in mid-air, he slashed down as he landed. The monster was cleaved apart.

Although they seemed similar, the monsters from other worlds differed from those on Earth. By Earth’s standards, its strength was somewhere between 3 and 4-star. However, the mana obtained by defeating monsters was slightly more than that. And what if you got an additional Mana Stone from this? It was understandable that other hunters on Earth were eager to explore this world.

‘…I don’t know if that’s necessarily a good thing.’

Still, unlike the mana obtained through Mana Stones, the mana obtained through monster hunting was easily mixed with his original mana. Anyway, the land piranha wasn’t a very strong monster. Lee Kang-chul clearly said before leaving the outpost that the Shire was a formidable place. Considering that, it was a too weak monster.

However.

“…Fuck.”

Kim Bongpal frowned as he realized why Lee Kang-chul smiled strangely to himself as he left. Beyond the carcass of the monster he slayed, he could see hundreds more appear.

 

* * *

 

His first day in the Shire was over. However, this was enough time for Kim Bongpal to evaluate the place.

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“It’s a damnable place.”

He’d collected the head of a thousand monsters. In that regard, Kim Bongpal could do nothing but praise himself for taking this sword from Lee Kang-chul. If it had been the cheap sword he usually carried, it wouldn’t have lasted for a few days no matter how hard he protected it with mana.

But what he disliked more about the Shire was that it was virtually impossible to procure food locally. All he could find were inedible monsters.

“Tsk.”

Kim Bongpal clicked his tongue. He brought a lot of groceries, but the types of food he could bring were limited. The backpack he carried was called a subspace bag, but it wasn’t a bag with a subspace inside. It was nothing more than a processed item of a monster’s mouth, which inexplicably expanded in volume when opened.

Today was the first day, so he had a decent dinner, but that wouldn’t be the case soon. Therefore, the most considerable portion of Kim Bongpal’s bag now was combat food for hunting. He chose combat food mixed with pound cake, which made it more edible. Of course, the word edible isn’t synonymous with delicious, and Kim Bongpal, having tried them before, knew it well.

Anyway, now Kim Bongpal was getting ready to sleep outside. At least his bed would still be comfortable. While rations hadn’t improved much, hunting equipment such as sleeping bags had grown quite advanced. They even had alarm functions that monitored a 1km radius.

“…That shit gaze.”

Kim Bongpal, lying in his sleeping bag, recalled his previous meeting with Johan. He didn’t like the man’s gaze. But, well, it wasn’t really about Johan. What Kim Bongpal thought about now went beyond Johan to the mysterious gaze he felt in the void where there should be nothing. Something that Lee Kang-chul didn’t notice even though they were in the same space.

That was what Kim Bongpal was concerned about. Johan didn’t just want to examine his body; he tried scanning it with his mana. And that attempt failed. In return, Johan handed the elixir and a token to Kim Bongpal.

However, Johan’s attempts hadn’t stopped there. Johan was secretly summoning a pair of eyes while pretending to talk about something else. Summon? Thinking about it, it felt like he was borrowing from someone rather than summoning. So, what the hell was that?

‘If I could, I would like to join your journey, Mr. Kim Bongpal. But the person I serve has a bad personality. It’s a shame. It’s truly a shame.’

It was the words that Johan said to Kim Bongpal as he was leaving the outpost. Perhaps the person Johan mentioned was the owner of that gaze. Since he was a Black Wizard, the first thing that came to mind was the Demon King…did he borrow the Demon King’s eyes to look into him?

Well, the Demon King…it was a very unrealistic thing for Kim Bongpal to accept.

His thoughts kept deepening. However, nothing could be concluded. The unknown stretched ahead.

Even Lee Kang-chul somehow didn’t even notice the gaze. Therefore, Kim Bongpal also pretended not to feel it. For some reason, he had a hunch that he should pretend.

“…”

Kim Bongpal thought again that the Shire was truly a damnable place.

Another day passed in this weird new world.

 

* * *

 

A few more days passed. In the meantime, Kim Bongpal cut down monsters as his resentment for this place grew. At this point, he thought it would be okay to give Hayeon a good flick on the head once he found her. If Seo Ha-yeon had known, she would have freaked out, saying, “How dare you hit a grown-up lady?”

Anyway, Kim Bongpal continued toward Dreimoor. To find the direction, he borrowed the power of the token given by Johan, and Johan cast some spells on it, saying he was doing him a favor. They were various spells such as interpretation and pathfinding magic. And according to it, Kim Bongpal had already made it about a third of the way to Dreimoor.

It was faster than expected from Dreimoor to the Evil Alliance’s territory and from there to the Celestial Demon Cult. Since the streets were similar, three months should be enough to reach the Celestial Demon Cult’s territory if nothing happened.

Hence, Kim Bongpal had set the plan for this interworld trip to a maximum of eight months. During that time, he would find Seo Hayeon’s whereabouts, bring her back to Earth if she was alive, or take revenge if she wasn’t.

There was smoke in the distance, bringing Kim Bongpal from his reverie. It wasn’t a group of monsters making a campfire, but he pondered for a moment whether to go toward the smoke or not.

If he did, there was a high probability he would encounter an Otherworlder, and the first Otherworlder Kim Bongpal encountered left the worst impression on him. That was the reason why he was worried now.

After a moment’s contemplation, Kim Bongpal headed toward the direction of the smoke. Now, his body was covered in blood and bodily fluids from all monsters. He changed his clothes a few times but eventually stopped after the fifth time, finding it pointless.

The scent of blood hung heavy over him as he approached the fire.

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