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Chapter 1
“Hunter Lee Hee-su, you’re being placed on standby starting today.”
“Huh?”
I jerked my head up in shock.
The Guild Master simply repeated himself with a lazy expression.
“For the time being, step away from field operations and do paperwork at the guild.”
“……”
“Or why not take a vacation? Don’t you still have a lot of unused leave days?”
The words hit me like a truck.
“W-Wait a moment, Guild Master. The Namyangju Gate raid is next week. Our team was assigned to participate. As the team leader, I can’t just sit it out.”
“Ah, that.”
He waved a hand dismissively.
“Team 3 will take your place, so don’t worry about it.”
“…Guild Master!”
I protested sharply, but he didn’t budge.
Instead, he looked at me with a faint smile on his handsome face.
“Then let me ask you something. Hunter Lee Hee-su, can you even hold your Magic Bullet Gun in your current condition?”
I was about to answer immediately.
“I can hold it—ugh!”
Suddenly my hand was grabbed.
At the same time, a small amount of mana flowed into my body.
It was only a tiny amount, yet my vision spun and it felt as though my insides were being torn apart.
“Ugh—cough! Cough! Urgh!”
I covered my mouth as a violent coughing fit overtook me.
Above me came the Guild Master’s cold voice.
“My decision is final. Starting today, you’re leaving field work and transferring to a desk position.”
“……”
“Do you have a complaint?”
“…No.”
“Then we’re done here. You may leave.”
Click.
I closed the office door behind me and let out a long sigh.
As if she’d been waiting nearby, a junior hunter immediately rushed over.
“Senior! What did the Guild Master say? Why did he suddenly call you in?”
Her name was Kim Eun-bi.
She had been part of the Fifth Raid Team with me for years.
“I’m on standby starting today. They want me off the field.”
“Those crazy—! That shameless bastard of a Guild Master—mmph! Mmph!”
I quickly covered Eun-bi’s mouth.
What if someone heard her yelling insults about the Guild Master in the hallway?
After extracting a promise that she’d keep quiet, I finally let go.
She looked dejected.
“Does that even make sense?”
“Why wouldn’t it?”
“But… you’re one of the founding members! You know, practically a founding hero!”
She wasn’t wrong.
I had joined the guild because of the Guild Master and worked myself to the bone.
But…
“You know my body’s become useless.”
“…Senior!”
If I said I wasn’t disappointed, I’d be lying.
I awakened as a Hunter when I was seventeen years old.
My rank was E-Class.
The lowest possible rank.
Only slightly stronger than an ordinary person.
After working myself like a dog, I managed to climb to D-Class and joined the White Rock Guild.
Then I worked myself like a dog again and reached C-Class.
Eventually, I became the leader of the Fifth Raid Team.
For a mere C-Class hunter, becoming a team leader was practically unprecedented.
I considered it a personal triumph.
Unfortunately, my limit arrived sooner than expected.
The problem started only a few days ago.
I had been injured during our last Gate raid.
At first I thought I’d recover quickly.
But after undergoing tests, the diagnosis came back:
My mana circuits were damaged.
Severely damaged.
According to the doctor, there was no way to repair them.
I wanted to become someone who saved the world.
Even when people laughed at me for being weak, I endured because I wanted to save people.
And this…
This was how it ended.
“I think I’m going to quit the guild.”
“What? Why?! You can just get treatment and come back!”
“…Eun-bi.”
But both of us already knew.
There was no way to restore damaged mana circuits.
Even now, I could barely feel my right hand.
And whenever I tried to hold a gun, unbearable pain surged through my body.
The word “crippled” fit me perfectly.
I had tried to hide my symptoms, but apparently the Guild Master had already known.
There were plenty of people who believed a mere C-Class hunter shouldn’t have remained a team leader for so long anyway.
If I stayed in the guild like this, my teammates would lose opportunities to enter dungeons because of me.
So…
Rather than clinging to false hopes and blocking the path of my juniors, it was better to leave.
I’d be lying if I said I had no regrets.
But more than regret, I felt relieved.
I patted Eun-bi’s shoulder as she started tearing up.
Unfortunately, that only made things worse.
With watery eyes, she asked:
“Senior… what are you going to do after you leave?”
I already had an answer.
“I think I’ll move to the countryside.”
“…What?”
* * *
17 Gyehwa-ro, Deokcheon-myeon, Dancheong County
Driving down a quiet road rarely visited by tourists, a small rural village came into view.
A valley lay in front of it.
Mountains rose behind it.
This was Gyehwa Village.
And tucked away in the deepest part of the village, near the valley, stood a modest house.
This would be my home for the foreseeable future.
“It’s actually in pretty good shape.”
The house had been inherited from a relative.
Or, more accurately, dumped on me.
A distant elderly relative had lived here until a few years ago.
After she passed away, nobody maintained the property.
<You’re young. Go take care of it.>
<What?>
<Don’t worry. I’ll transfer ownership to your name.>
<Wait—hold on a second!>
That conversation with my uncle—the same uncle who almost never contacted me—had happened only a month ago.
At the time, I had no way of managing a remote country house while working nonstop without even weekends off.
So I put the matter aside.
Then everything changed after I submitted my resignation.
<Mr. Lee Hee-su, you’ll need to vacate your room by tomorrow.>
<What?>
<Don’t worry. I’ll recommend a moving company.>
<Wait—hold on a second!>
I had been living in guild housing provided by White Rock Guild.
Which meant…
The moment I quit, they kicked me out.
“Cheap bastards.”
I’d worked there for years, and this was how they treated me?
Just when I was about to become homeless, I remembered my uncle’s offer.
A house… right?
A free house.
And a big one, too.
It seemed far better than scrambling to find an expensive tiny apartment.
Besides, I wanted to rest somewhere nobody knew me.
But now that I’d arrived…
“This place is incredible…”
The property was centered around a large courtyard.
There was a main house and a separate annex.
It was large enough for an entire extended family.
Beside the annex stood a storage shed, a water pump, and even an old wood-burning stove.
The place looked like something straight out of a historical TV drama.
And then there was the field.
It had supposedly been a “small vegetable garden.”
Yet at a glance it looked well over 100 pyeong (roughly 330 square meters).
“Is this considered small in the countryside?”
I had no idea.
This was my first time living in a rural area.
Of course, I wasn’t planning to become a full-time farmer.
Farming wasn’t something just anyone could do.
There had once been a huge back-to-the-land movement in Korea.
Since Gates appeared less frequently in sparsely populated rural regions, many people had tried farming.
The government even provided loans to encourage it.
Most of those people ended up buried in debt and eventually left.
Even among Hunters, there were quite a few.
After all, a wildly popular web novel had convinced everyone that:
“What if I’m secretly an overpowered Hunter living as a farmer?!”
Countless Hunters rushed into the countryside chasing that fantasy.
“Hunter web novels are ruining Hunters, seriously.”
Oops.
That sounded awfully old-fashioned.
Anyway.
Farming required a tremendous amount of work and attention.
I had just retired from being a Hunter.
I wasn’t interested in living another hectic life.
Then why come all the way out here?
Because…
“I wanted to rest.”
I needed healing.
A place where I could stop worrying about endless Gate raids, nonstop Gate Monitoring Alerts, and guild politics.
A place where I could finally spend time for myself.
But…
I ran a finger along the wall.
A thick layer of black dust coated my hand.
“Ugh… looks like I’ll need to clean before I can start healing.”
After unpacking my belongings and cleaning years of dust from the floors and walls, the afternoon had already arrived.
Grrr…
My empty stomach growled loudly.
Come to think of it, I hadn’t eaten anything all day.
“I should eat something first…”
But what?
* * *
In the overgrown vegetable garden hidden behind thick weeds…
An egg lay unnoticed.
Time passed.
Then—
Crack!
A soft light suddenly began shining from within the egg.
The shell started splitting apart.
Tiny cracks spread across its surface.
And through those cracks, a pair of blue eyes peeked outside.
The cracks widened.
And finally—
Crash!
A tiny creature broke free from the egg and took its first step into the world.
“Pyaa!”
[The Mythical Dimensional Dragon ‘Ashpelor’ has opened its eyes.]
The young dragon had no memory of how long it had slept there.
There was only one thing it knew.
“Pyaa… hungry…”
A delicious smell drifted through the air.
Maybe it was coming from over there.
Wobbling unsteadily on its tiny legs, the newborn dragon began toddling toward the house in front of it.
[End of Chapter 1]
