Chapter 22

“Hmm. I see. So, you actually enter the Fissures yourself,” Yoon-Hee commented, tightening her fist.

Only when the papers in Yoon-Hee’s hand were helplessly crumpled did Do-Jun realize he had made a mistake.

Seeing her stern expression, Do-Jun cleared his throat and said, “

Ehem,

shall we have breakfast?”

“So, what exactly do you do inside the Fissures, Father?”

During the preliminary assessment, Do-Jun’s result showed no values at all.

Kang-Hyun mentioned that the results might change if Do-Jun underwent physical enhancement, but for now, it meant he was just an ordinary person with no Abilities whatsoever as a Hunter. The fact that someone like him was entering a Fissure was an extremely dangerous act.

“Well...” Do-Jun knew he couldn’t evade the question any longer. He sighed and began explaining what his job entailed.

“I look around inside the Fissure, gather information on the monsters appearing in it, and assess the Fissure’s rank.”

Hearing this, Yoon-Hee bit her lip. Honestly, she wanted to ask him to change his job, but she knew she had no right to tell Do-Jun what to do and that it would only cause him trouble.

“But of course, I don’t go in alone. I go with the Hunters contracted with our department, so there’s no need to worry about safety. You don’t have to worry too much.”

Smack!

Yoon-Hee’s palm struck the mattress with force. “How can I not worry when my father just waltzes into Fissures!”

Do-Jun didn’t know what to say.

“You know what, Father, we’ve got to do something about this.”

“Do... what?”

“I’ll give you special training,” Yoon-Hee declared.

Those words left Do-Jun dumbfounded.

He pointed a finger at Yoon-Hee. “You.” Then he pointed at himself. “Training me?”

Yoon-Hee nodded resolutely.

“Father, let me remind you that I’m an aspiring Hunter. Let’s train together on the weekends. I’ll teach you the basics step by step. And next Monday, please go to the Hunter’s Bureau for a physical enhancement. That will help you accumulate some mana.”

Do-Jun wasn’t sure how to respond to Yoon-Hee.

“Father, are you listening?”

“Ah, yes.”

What would the martial artists of the Central Plains think if they heard this? They would probably joke about it in their taverns for decades, maybe even centuries.

Yoon-Hee approached Do-Jun and stared at him seriously. “I’m being serious, so please try to take it seriously yourself, Father.”

Despite sighing inwardly, Do-Jun nodded.

***

On a leisurely Saturday morning, Do-Jun and Yoon-Hee came to a nearby park where quite a few people were already out for a walk.

“Father, you know about the Status Window, right?”

“Yes.”

“Since the first Fissure appeared ten years ago, everyone gained a system that allowed them to see their stats objectively. Father, try saying ‘Status Window.’”

“Status Window...” Do-Jun called.

Name: Lee Do-Jun

Level: 999

Title: Heavenly Demon

Strength: 999

Agility: 999

Stamina: 999

Internal Energy: 999

Skills: Pocket Watch (SSS), Heavenly Demon Cultivation Art (SS), Indestructible (S), Poison Immunity (S), Formless Sword (S), Sword Summon (S), Qi Circulation (D), Qi Barrier (B), Telepathy (D), Samadhi Fire (B), Pressure Point (C), One with the Blade (A)

Do-Jun’s stats had converged to 999 some time back.

He didn’t know if the Status Window’s limit was 999, but the one thing he was sure of was that his actual stats far exceeded that number.

“There’s a hologram-like window in front of you, right? What does it say?” Yoon-Hee asked.

Do-Jun thought that he obviously couldn’t tell her the truth.

He needed to reduce the information, but to what extent? He decided to consider that Yoon-Hee was present when nothing showed up during his preliminary assessment at the Hunter’s Bureau.

“My level is 1. Strength is 10, Agility 6, Stamina 9. Internal Energy is 0. It says here that I don’t have any Skills,” Do-Jun said.

“Hold on. Your Strength, Agility, and Stamina combined is 25?” Yoon-Hee asked in shock.

If the sum of one’s Strength, Agility, and Stamina exceeded 20, and Mana was 1 or more, it would qualify them as an E-rank Hunter. Moreover, his Strength and Stamina stats were higher than her own.

Well, just looking at him, Father seems to be in good shape.

Even just estimating based on his appearance—his height was well over 180 cm, and his firm muscles were visible through his exercise clothes—it seemed plausible.

“But... did you say Internal Energy? There’s no such stat...” Yoon-Hee trailed off.

That’s when Do-Jun realized he had made a mistake.

Internal Energy was something that mana naturally transformed into as Do-Jun trained his Cultivation Arts in the Central Plains.

If mana was an energy mixed with unrefined, impure elements in the atmosphere, Internal Energy was qi in its purest concentrated form.

“Oops, I must have seen it wrong. It does say Mana,” Do-Jun corrected himself.

“I see, so your Mana is 0... Well, I guess there’s no surprise there.”

Unlike Yoon-Hee, who had a physical enhancement at the Hunter’s Bureau, Do-Jun had never gotten one. Since mana could only be absorbed through physical enhancement, it made sense that Do-Jun had 0 Mana.

“Whatever the case is, now that I know you’re going into Fissures, as your daughter, I can’t just stand by and do nothing.”

Yoon-Hee took out a book from her bag.

“Mana Application Techniques—The Basics of Infusion, Release, and Transmutation.”

It was a relatively thin book, about a hundred pages long, and quite worn, seemingly having been read many times.

Yoon-Hee handed the book to him.

“Hunters use three main techniques to manipulate mana. Infusion, which is imbuing mana into a weapon to attack enemies; Release, which is releasing mana; and finally, Transmutation, which is using one’s own mana to perform skills.”

She then took out a revolver from her bag—the same mana gun she had used to take down a goblin when an unexpected Fissure had appeared in the grocery store they were shopping at.

“The easiest of these techniques is Transmutation. But since you don’t have any skills, you can’t use it... The next easiest and safest technique against monsters is Release, so I’ll teach you that from now on. You don’t have any mana yet, so you won’t be able to use it fully, but we can start with the theory.”

Yoon-Hee took a deep breath, and as she gripped the mana gun with both hands, the mana within her began to gradually flow into the gun. The mana gun absorbed the infused mana and started to emit a light.

Yoon-Hee then withdrew her mana.

“The process of storing mana in the mana gun is called charging. If you can do this, you’re already halfway there. Hmm... Would you like to give it a try, even if it’s just pretending? Even though it may not be displayed in the Status Window, everyone has a tiny amount of mana in their body.”

In fact, Yoon-Hee had succeeded in this charging process even before undergoing physical enhancement.

“Here you go,” she said, handing the mana gun to Do-Jun.

Do-Jun held the mana gun and stood still for a moment.

Yoon-Hee guided him, “First, close your eyes and try to sense the faint currents flowing inside your body.”

“Okay...”

Do-Jun closed his eyes as instructed and sensed the vast amount of Internal Energy writhing in his dantian.

“And now, try imagining that energy flowing into the mana gun.”

But he wasn’t going to do it.

No matter how much he tried to control it. If he infused even a tiny, minuscule amount of his Internal Energy into the gun, Yoon-Hee would immediately notice that something was off.

Instead, Do-Jun decided to take a different approach. He channeled a tiny portion of the mana floating in the atmosphere into the gun—an extremely minute amount, barely registering as 0.1 on the scale.

It required incredibly delicate control.

Humm.

The mana gun emitted a faint glow for a brief moment before fading.

Yoon-Hee saw this and was startled. She exclaimed, “H-how did you manage that on your first try...?”

Back when she tried to do the same thing, it took her a whole month, and considering that it usually took anywhere from three to six months to charge the gun, she was considered to be among the quicker ones.

In Yoon-Hee’s eyes, Do-Jun appeared to be a genius.

“Ah...” Should he have pretended to fail a few times? Do-Jun returned the mana gun to Yoon-Hee, feeling a bit of regret.

Still in disbelief, Yoon-Hee alternated her gaze between the gun and Do-Jun.

“Father.”

“Yeah?”

“You’re so talented!”

“T-thank you.”

“Oh, but I’m still against you becoming a Hunter,” Yoon-Hee said, drawing a clear line.

The reason? It was dangerous.

Her purpose in training Do-Jun was solely to ensure he could defend himself if it ever became necessary. Actually, hunting monsters was something she wanted him to avoid at all costs.

“I don’t plan on becoming one.” Do-Jun’s response made Yoon-Hee smile in satisfaction.

***

Monday morning.

Hyuk-Soo turned his head toward the constant sound of typing from beside him to find Do-Jun diligently writing something.

When he pulled his chair closer to take a look, he called out in a concerned tone, “Do-Jun...?”

[Physical Enhancement Result Report]

Do-Jun was editing the contents of a random person’s physical enhancement result report that he had found online.

The subject of the physical enhancement was himself, Lee Do-Jun, the mana stone used was F-rank, and the result was the acquisition of 1 Mana.

“What are you doing...?” Hyuk-Soo asked in disbelief.

Do-Jun was clearly forging a document. If done for personal gain, it would undoubtedly be considered a serious crime and result in criminal charges.

After copying and pasting the seal of the Chief of the Hunter’s Bureau onto the document, Do-Jun printed the document in color.

Hyuk-Soo was at a loss for words.

“Please keep this a secret,” Do-Jun requested him.

“Why... why would you do this?”

Do-Jun explained his situation to Hyuk-Soo via messenger.

His daughter, Yoon-Hee, had found out that he worked in the Fissure Management Division and had to enter Fissures as part of his job. She then demanded that he go to the Hunter’s Bureau for a physical enhancement.

However, it was forbidden for civil servants in the Fissure Management Division to receive physical enhancements, as there was a possibility that former Fissure Management civil servants could potentially commit corruption if they became Hunters.

After listening to Do-Jun’s detailed explanation in the break room, Hyuk-Soo nodded in understanding.

“You’re completely under her thumb, aren’t you?” he said to Do-Jun.

“Am I?”

“Yeah... very...” Hyuk-Soo chuckled as he recalled the frequent ringing of Do-Jun’s phone. “But you said your daughter is a student at the Academy, right? She just started, right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Then she’ll be coming on the field trip this time, won’t she?”

Do-Jun nodded in response.

Hyuk-Soo looked at Do-Jun with a worried expression and asked, “What are you going to do?”

“Sorry?”

“Didn’t you want to keep your daughter’s existence a secret? Chief is also coming with us. Won’t he find out?”

Do-Jun shook his head, as there was no reason to go to that extent to hide Yoon-Hee. Besides, he had already told the Chief of the Hunter’s Bureau and his entourage.

“Oh, right. You know we have another big thing coming up next week, right?” Hyuk-Soo reminded him.

The big thing he was referring to was the transfer of the management rights of a B-rank Great Fissure from the Hunter’s Bureau.

The Fissure Management Division was scheduled to conduct a joint inspection and test with the Bureau next Friday.

“Chief was transferred to our division from another one, so he’s far behind his peers in terms of promotions. He’s really looking forward to this, thinking that if he secures this, his promotion could come a year or two sooner.”

Do-Jun gulped and asked, “If we fail to secure the transfer... what happens then?”

“We’ll have to lay low for a while,” Hyuk-Soo said as he tossed his empty coffee cup into the trash.