I Tamed the First Rank Chapter 16

“With me there?”

In Yoo-shin was puzzled.

“I don’t have any search or exploration skills, so how can I help?”

“It’s a baseless hunch, so you don’t have to do anything.”

“Aha.”

I guess he just wanted to say that to sound good. Convinced, In Yoo-shin nodded.

“Have you ever tried to raid a dungeon?”

“No. The first gate I went through was the one with Gyu-ha the other day.”

It was the first time I raided a dungeon, but it wasn’t scary. It was not an unknown dungeon but one that Hyeon Gyu-ha had owned and already explored. Besides, the first rank will be right next to me and protect me, so I’ll be safe as long as we don’t get unlucky, and the dungeon doesn’t go off track.

As long as I don’t give buffs in the dungeon, it will be alright. I even gave your “thing” a buff by mistake…… In Yoo-shin shook his head and quickly brushed off his thoughts.

“What about the environment in dungeons?”

“I don’t purposely search for and study them, but I learned a little about them because my friend, who is in the masters and doctorate courses, majored in gate studies.”

“Hm, that’s a relief, but it’ll be more overwhelming than what you have been told, so prepare your mind.”

Hyeon Gyu-ha raised one arm to his side. Yoo-shin looked at him, wondering what to do, and Gyu-ha gestured lightly.

“Come here so that you can enter the gate.”

Ah, it was the sea as soon as we entered.

In Yoo-shin was held to Hyeon Gyu-ha’s side, and in that manner they crossed a gate for the second time. A slight dizziness ran over my body, and the same view of the sea as before unfolded before my eyes.

In Yoo-shin looked at the sea with his arms raised. Everywhere I looked, there was only a vast horizon that touched the sky.

[Time remaining until dungeon reset: 18 hours 41 minutes 09 seconds]

“Do the monsters come up from the sea? Is this a naval battle or a place with pirates?”

“The word ‘pirate’ is pretty accurate. We need to go a little further to the west.”

The bodies of the two people floating in the air moved towards the western skies. Hunters without abilities like Hyeon Gyu-ha’s would have to bring a rubber boat to move around.

In Yoo-shin was a low-level awakener and he could not even graduate from college. He had never thought that he would be able to tour a dungeon because he was certain he had no chance of becoming a hunter or a gate researcher now. Because of that, the last time he came in, he wasn’t ready to look around properly, but this time the situation was different.

‘I should show off when I visit the temple orphanage later, once I’m done looking around as much as I want.’

Soon after, In Yoo-shin realized that his effort to explore the unknown world was absurdly superficial. And the reason why Hyeon Gyu-ha told me to prepare my mind.

「Sa-save me! Help!」

「They are non-believers who can’t even go to heaven anyway! Kill them all!」

His brain translated the unfamiliar languages instantly. A crowd of people, colorful enough to be fantasy and opaque enough to be real, were divided into two and chased after each other.

Karawka Kaerebelo, white men clad in sailor suits poured over the land, shooting, brandishing swords, thrusting spears, unleashing beasts, and spreading plagues. The indigenous people resisted by throwing stones and swinging clubs made of obsidian. It was a one-sided slaughter.

The white people brutally murdered and robbed the indigenous, cut off their wrists, and took them into slavery. Women of all ages were led away crying before the bodies of their fathers, husbands, sons, and brothers.

An unfamiliar symbol resembling one short and one long stick crossed over the bodies of the indigenous people. The white people laughed gleefully, splashing blood-red wine and gold on the symbol.

“Th-this……”

I was suffocated by the scene of brutal massacre unfolding beneath my feet. They were illusions. Although the air of slaughter may be frighteningly wafting at the tip of my nose, this was only an illusion of a disconnected world that was not real.

Although he knew it was an illusion, his voice trembled, and the inside of his throat was tight. Unknowingly, sweat broke out in his hand that was clutching Hyeon Gyu-ha’s arm. Hyeon Gyu-ha, who must have witnessed this scene many times, explained it indifferently.

“This is Christopher Columbus. At first, when I only saw the invasion of white people, I thought it was Vasco da Gama, but the people being killed were not Indians, but the Tainos.” (Da Gama was the first European explorer to sail to India, while Columbus was a European explorer credited for establishing European presence in the Americas. Both engaged in massacring natives; the Tainos were Caribbean natives.)

A dungeon is a disconnected world in which only a fleeting moment from the great flow of history has been cut and fixed. The illusion in the dungeon resets and repeats the time recorded in the flow of history.

This historic event belonged to the earth they lived on, but it also did not.

In Yoo-shin did not know the identity of the symbol that Columbus and his sailors revered.

“What the hell is that……? Why do you go so far as to kill people……”

“It’s a cross.”

Gyu-ha gave a further explanation to In Yoo-shin, who did not understand his words right away.

“It’s a symbol of Christianity.”

“Ah…… I had no idea.”

“There are only a few churches and cathedrals in downtown Seoul, so it’s natural to not know about them. Can you hear what the white people say?”

“Yes. They say they’re non-believers who’ll go to hell if left alone……”

“It’s religious fanaticism. They say it doesn’t matter if they kill them because they’re sincerely convinced that if they don’t believe in Christianity, they’ll fall into hell after death. It’s the same belief as slaughtering an animal. In those days, which was natural.”

Hyeon Gyu-ha explained the historical background, but In Yoo-shin was even more unable to understand. It was because his religious perspective did not dominate his common sense.

“Just because of religion?”

Religion can be a culture and a place of support for the heart, but it cannot force a lifestyle in general. That was the common sense of In Yoo-shin.

“It was just one of the reasons. Actually, the Columbus that Yoo-shin-ssi and I know about slaughtered and oppressed the indigenous people without any religious justification.”

His eyes looked at the unfamiliar illusion again. The use of the cross, a sacred symbol of religion, as a justification for greed and slaughter was considered extremely disrespectful, even if it was an illusion.

“Anyway, it’s good sense to pay attention to the cross. I’ve seen five dungeons, including national ones, where the time of  Columbus trampling indigenous people from Hispaniola was preserved, and among them, the cross stood out in three.”

Hyeon Gyu-ha’s explanation ended there.

“I need to prepare for the upcoming fight.”

[The dungeon has detected your presence.]

The illusion of those slaughtering and being slaughtered began to ripple.

Hyeon Gyu-ha, descending to the ground, put down In Yoo-shin and took out a rod from his inventory. Four translucent rods reaching up to In Yoo-shin’s chest were inserted into the ground on his front, left, and right sides.

“What’s this?”

“A force shield smelt only from adamantium. Made by Kwon Seong-gil.”

Hyeon Gyu-ha replied and placed the bottom of his hand on one of the rods. He injected mana, and a transparent barrier unfolded from the rods, enveloping In Yoo-shin who stood in the center.

“Does Gyu-ha-ssi use it for hunting?”

“.......”

“You couldn’t have bought it for me?”

In the end, it was a defense gear that was prepared for In Yoo-shin. Adamantium is a rare ore that can only be mined in dungeons, but since this was a force shield made of 100% purity, he couldn’t even imagine how expensive it was.

Hyeon Gyu-ha’s voice was indifferent, whether or not he knew In Yoo-shin’s feelings.

“Since it has a concealment function, you’ll be safe unless I lose mana and die.”

While he was getting ready to protect in Yoo-shin, the illusions were melting together like slime, creating monsters using the mana of the dungeon as a core.

The distorted monsters, which resembled creatures on Earth but were not exactly the same, spat ferocious cries. Fur sprouted on their skins. In Yoo-shin remembered the disgusting fishy smell from the beasts’ snouts, yellow fangs, and sticky saliva.

Also, I almost thought I should have died then.

〈Of all people, why you!? Why did you survive!?〉

Raising my head from the wails that tore at my chest and cursed us, I saw a broad back before me. The length of a back that didn’t feel any tension. A black leather jacket with a subtle sheen. A slender, tightly stretched, muscular body.

After some time, I got used to that back before I even knew it.

In Yoo-shin murmured softly.

“Good luck.”

Hearing his awkward cheering, Hyeon Gyu-ha seemed to smile.

“I’ll show you that a well-bred pet rodent is better than a pet dog or cat.”

“I’ve never had a dog or a cat……”

“Don’t raise them in the future. There’s already Henry Raymond Charles Francois VI-Noona, and even if that’s the case, I don’t think I’ll be able to stand it if I get younger siblings.”

Why did this remind me that when a younger sibling is born, the oldest may experience separation anxiety? For the sake of protecting Seoul, I shouldn’t adopt more hamsters.

The thought itself meant that In Yoo-shin was not aware of the danger. Hyeon Gyu-ha, who stood in front of the tyrannical beasts, took out his weapons from his inventory.

In general, a hunter’s weapon is a cold weapon coated or infused with mana. Firearms can also inflict damage, but witches have some degree of defense due to crystal stones that replace their hearts. There’s a limit to the ability of individual hunters to subdue with firearms alone, unless they push forward with overwhelming firepower like the military.

Of course, if you use the worst cost-effective skill that infused mana into a gun and coated countless bullets with mana, it’s possible to hunt monsters with only a gun. And Hyeon Gyu-ha’s mana was an EX-class that could not be measured.

It was only for a moment that he was surprised by the absurdity of holding an assault rifle with  only one hand.

A monster, which looked as if it had been cut from a bear and a crocodile and then mashed together like clay, rushed forward, and leaped through several meters of space. The moment In Yoo-shin blinked, a bullet from the rifle held in Hyeon Gyu-ha’s right hand pierced its head—it died instantly.

The gun in his left hand exploded the body of a huge six-winged falcon that had slammed down from above. Then, sparks flew from his right hand. The loud rattling sound of the assault rifle filled the air, tearing apart the monster’s roars.

In the middle of a group of monsters radiating murderous intent solely to crush intruders, Hyeon Gyu-ha didn’t budge an inch. When his gun ran out of bullets, it got replaced with a new gun from the inventory in an instant.

It was as though he were at the center of a circle with a two-meter radius, a line dividing the spaces of life and death. The constantly raging monsters screamed in agony outside the line, in the space of death. The absolute proposition of strong and weak, predator and prey, was overturned.

[There are 2 surviving monsters in the dungeon.]

[There is only 1 surviving monster in the dungeon.]

[The dungeon’s monsters have been annihilated.]

It usually took ten minutes for other hunters to set up an advance base and annihilate the monsters in the dungeon that they were raiding.

In Yoo-shin remembered one of Hyeon Gyu-ha’s nicknames.

The One-Man Army.

One who countered the monsters alone. Although he did not belong anywhere, he was a self-reliant man who could not be touched by anyone.

It was too unreasonable to tie Hyeon Gyu-ha to me by the ridiculous means of taming.

In Yoo-shin recalled a belated question.

“We’ve cleaned up the minor mobs.”

He asked Hyeon Gyu-ha, who brushed his hands off and turned around with a nonchalant expression.

PA: This chapter is really cute, Gyu-ha never missed a bit to flirt….. Anyway, One Man Army is so cool.

Editor M: Gyu-ha keeps hyping himself up as the best pet in the world, lol. He’s already jealous of other pets that aren’t even here yet.

------

Credits:

Translator: Hoshi Miya

Editor/Proofreader: Editor M

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