CHAPTER 28
028- The Underground Temple
He didn't usually check his email, but it had never piled up like this.
The most he'd ever had was around 400 messages, but now his inbox had blown up in an instant.
Receiving over 500 emails in just a few days after returning from Tokyo was, frankly, incomprehensible.
After scrolling through his inbox for a long time, Jinwoo finally began to understand the situation.
"Okay, so they're not all the same kind of email."
If over 500 emails had all been for the same reason, that would have been truly unbelievable.
But after looking through them, he saw the purposes were all different.
The first category that caught his eye was this:


A flood of love calls poured in from guilds that specialized in dealing with Erosion.
Not all Hunters entered Gates. In the end, they were people too, and they weighed safety against profit to decide their own paths.
The most dangerous yet highest-paying path was entering a Gate. The next most dangerous was being a Hunter specializing in Erosion.
They would take on government requests to push back Erosion, or, even without requests, they would seek out Erosion zones to hunt the monsters inside.
It was a dangerous job that involved fighting dangerous monsters outside the safety of the cities, but it was still better than a Gate.
In a Gate, there was the risk of encountering other races, and entering a Gate as a guild required an enormous amount of Feathers of Connection.
In contrast, with Erosion, one only had to focus on the monsters, and you could enter with your guild members without Feathers of Connection, striking a good balance between safety and profit.
These days, there were actually more Hunters specializing in Erosion than active Hunters entering Gates.
"Erosion specialist, huh..."
...But he wasn't tempted.
It was true he had been resolving Erosions to gain abilities, but that was a means to an end, not the goal itself.

Among the emails, there were also invitations to enter a Gate together.
There were fewer of these than the love calls from Erosion guilds, but they were messages saying they wanted to test Jinwoo's abilities in a Gate and recruit him as a member.
Some messages were even from guilds in other countries, not just Seoul.
Just as Chartia had naturalized in Seoul, Hunter recruitment knew no borders.
But the fact that his name had spread to foreign countries was surprising. Why, though?
Still, it doesn't feel bad.
Having never received this kind of attention in his life, he didn't dislike it.
In the past, Jinwoo had to jostle with other men at the manpower office just to get a day's work. But now, he was in a position to receive these kinds of offers.
It was a deeply moving thought. Not that it made him want to join a guild, however.
And then there were emails with a completely different tone from the ones above.
- Thank you.
They were emails of gratitude.
Compared to the professionally translated messages from foreign guilds, these emails had a clumsy tone that was clearly run through a translation machine.
But that clumsiness made him smile. They felt much more human than the business emails discussing contract fees.
They must have found my email on the Seoul Bureau's website.
To go to the trouble of navigating a hard-to-find foreign website, looking up his email address, and even using a translator to send a message.
Jinwoo couldn't help but laugh at the thought that there were so many people with that much free time.
However, the emails that felt "human" weren't all positive.
—Die.
—What's your relationship with Ayaka-nim?
Conversely, there were many emails that exuded a darker side of humanity. It seemed Ayaka's popularity on social media was quite significant.
What in the world is this SNS thing anyway?
He went on the social media platform Ayaka used and searched her name. She had 140,000 followers.
Is this what they call a celebrity? It might not be on the level of a YouTuber with a million subscribers, but 140,000 was still a huge number.
He scrolled through the photos she had posted. From the day they cleared the Erosion and for the next four days, it was filled with pictures of her sightseeing with him and Chartia. It was practically a live broadcast.
But the post with the most views was the one about clearing the Erosion.
That post had an explosive number of views and comments.
No wonder the news spread so fast.
He thought he'd seen a column about it somewhere. Gossip on social media travels a thousand miles.
He now knew for sure where the cause of his overflowing inbox lay. Jinwoo closed the app and tossed his smartphone onto the pillow beside him.
I don't need to answer right away.
He still had no intention of joining a guild.
Entering a Gate with others might be relatively safer, but they could also become a risk factor, and the responsibility that came with it would be greater.
It would bring many constraints and responsibilities different from when he moved freely on his own.
He also recalled his encounters with Bulkar and Rona. Those interactions would have been difficult if someone else had been by his side.
I don't have the luxury for that yet.
Paradoxically, you need comrades to overcome overwhelming situations alone, but conversely, you need mental and physical leeway to even consider the variable of having comrades.
If you can't maintain your own center and control the variable that is a comrade, you ultimately end up entrusting your life to others.
One could think of using them as arrow fodder in a pinch, but the reverse could also be true.
You could be the one betrayed and used as arrow fodder.
Jinwoo didn't have the余裕 (leeway) to consider such variables yet.
Still, there was no reason to refuse them outright. Replying to each one with a rejection would be a chore.
He would put them on hold for now and look through them later if he ever became interested in a guild.
For now...
"When's the next Gate?"
The only thing he was interested in was the day the next Gate opened.

"Hmph, useless fools. I thought that old man from Kurenai would be able to do it."
Clink. The ice cubes clinked in the whiskey glass held in David's hand.
The brown-haired man sitting across from him held an identical glass. They were in the VIP room of a club. A place that should have been filled with women was now occupied by only the two of them.
The brown-haired man, Johann, asked.
"Able to do what? Assassinate Chartia?"
"Yes. But he ignored me. I thought Tokyo was a friend to New York. Disappointing."
"They may be a friend to New York, but that doesn't mean they're a friend to you. You should have tried to be on better terms with them."
"Shut up, Johann. I'm not in the mood for your sarcasm."
Johann shrugged at his friend's harsh tone.
"That's your problem. Instead of petty things like assassination, why don't you go challenge her to a duel? It has been an excellent method of problem-solving for the noble since ancient times."
"You say 'duel' so easily. You know as well as I do that a fight between S-class Hunters is no simple matter. You're an S-class yourself."
"Well, that's true."
Johann had said it casually, but if he were told to fight another S-class to the death, he would absolutely refuse.
The power of an S-class Hunter couldn't be measured simply, so there was no telling what would happen in a fight. To put it metaphorically, they were asymmetrical forces to each other; you never knew what variable might get your head lopped off.
Conversely, that was precisely why Kurenai Masato had refused the request to assassinate Chartia.
"If a frontal duel is too much, how about a flanking maneuver? Kang Jinwoo, was it? Her new lover from Seoul."
"There are no reports of him being her lover. They're just close."
Johann snorted.
"Is there such a thing as 'just friends' between a man and a woman, David? Even if they are just friends, if that close male friend dies, she will surely be shaken."
"I suppose she would. But Kurenai Masato annihilated the Tsukikage Guild that attacked Kang Jinwoo. He tacitly protected him. What assassin in Tokyo would go after the kid now?"
"Why do you need Tokyo to take care of one E-class? I'll go myself. If I kill him cleanly inside a Gate, no one will ever know."
David looked at him quizzically.
When you enter a Gate, you are dropped in a random location, so you can't seek out a specific person. You have to rely on chance.
How on earth did he plan to find Kang Jinwoo in a Gate?
"See this?"
Johann held up the sword he wore at his waist. It was a mess of a sword, wrapped tightly in a thick iron chain without even a scabbard.
The blade was dull, likely from being scraped by the chain, and it hadn't been oiled. It looked anything but a normal sword.
"What is it?"
"An Ego Sword I acquired recently. It contains the soul of an elf skilled in tracking. It possesses magic specialized in tracking and identification, and it also has a knack for wind spirit arts."
"An elf's?"
David's eyes narrowed. He felt a physiological revulsion at the word "elf," but separate from that, it was an ability he desperately needed right now.
Elves were a race fundamentally skilled in tracking. On top of that, if this one could use tracking and identification magic, as well as wind spirits, it was a specialist when it came to finding things.
An Ego Sword containing such a soul made his confident words understandable.
"He's a black-haired earthling. I know his face, body type, and gender. That's enough information. It's just that the Original Forest is so vast, the chance of finding him is probably less than 10%. But if that kid moves on to the 2nd Floor..."
The 2nd Floor was small. Not only small, but its terrain made it almost impossible to escape.
"Then it's 100%."
On the 2nd Floor, there was no one this elf's Ego Sword couldn't track.

'Next, let's try the 2nd Floor.'
After much thought, Jinwoo made his decision.
As an E-class, he had only been to the Gate twice. Anyone would be surprised to hear a rookie like him was already going to the 2nd Floor, but for the current Jinwoo, it was doable.
'I should look up information on the 2nd Floor.'
Before heading into a Gate, information gathering always came first.
Jinwoo not only scoured the internet and the library but also contacted Chartia to ask about the 2nd Floor.
He also asked Ma Doo-sik and even used a translator to ask Ayaka. If he could, he would have liked to ask that old man Masato, but unfortunately, he didn't have his contact information.
He researched the 2nd Floor and stockpiled various tools and food.
And he practiced his swordsmanship.
A calm training routine while waiting for the Gate to open. He honed the sword theory Rona had taught him, awakening his own senses and instincts.
'The ability I got from clearing the Tokyo Erosion.'
—That sword shall become even greater.
He focused on that ability, putting his all into every single swing.
To be honest, he didn't know what this "greater" ability was. Nothing had concretely changed.
It didn't seem to be an active skill like the Shadow Sword or Rock Sword; it felt more like a passive ability that was always active, like his increased speed.
But even though he swung his sword every day, he couldn't tell what exactly had changed.
'Something must have changed.'
He didn't just brush it off. He thought and pondered with every swing during his daily training.
He had no epiphany yet. But he believed it would come one day.
Rona had said that training the sword was a process of endlessly posing questions and seeking answers. In that sense, what Jinwoo was doing now was an excellent part of his training.
And finally, the day the next Gate opened arrived.

[1st Floor: Original Forest]
[Find the blue portal. If you want to return home.]
Anyone who enters a Gate starts on the 1st Floor. To ascend to the 2nd Floor, you had to find a red portal.
'The 1st Floor isn't that scary anymore.'
He wasn't careless, but he wasn't trembling in fear like his first time either. The 1st Floor had become that familiar to him.
He had fought a boss monster that ruled an entire area and had been chased by a group of Dark Elves.
And after training daily with an S-class level Elven swordswoman, the 1st Floor felt almost like his own backyard.
'Right, if I'm going to bring comrades, I need to have at least this much leeway.'
If this trip had been just to explore the 1st Floor again, he might have looked for companions.
But Jinwoo had his sights set on the 2nd Floor, and in the first place, not many Hunters would use a Feather of Connection just to explore the 1st Floor.
He would put off comrades and guilds until he felt this level of comfort on the 2nd Floor.
'Found it. Lucky.'
Fortunately, he found the red portal in just one day.
After taking several deep breaths in front of the portal, Jinwoo leaped inside.
[2nd Floor: 13 Gods' Underground Temple]
The surrounding forest scenery abruptly darkened, and the air became narrow and musty.
In the pitch-black darkness, Jinwoo turned on the lantern he had prepared.
The environment of the 2nd Floor was an underground temple. A subterranean labyrinth dotted with the altars of 13 gods that grant special buffs.
In this labyrinth, which spread out like an ant colony, even Jinwoo couldn't feel at ease. No matter how well he could sense opponents with his Blue Flame, the passages were straight lines.
To pass through a corridor, he had to get past whatever was blocking it.
Whether it was a monster, a Hunter, or another race.
Every passage in the underground temple was like a single-log bridge; you could never ignore an opponent you happened to encounter.
Didn't someone on HunterNet Blind say it? If the Original Forest is a field of exploration, the Underground Temple is a field of duels.