CHAPTER 30
1
030 - Cheon Juhyeok

Having extinguished all the light in the stone chamber, Jinwoo pressed himself flat against the wall next to the entrance. He held his sword and waited for the person to arrive.
One... two... three...
As he slowly counted, the Blue Flame reached the front of the entrance. Now, he didn't need the flame; he could hear the footsteps with his own ears.
He thought the person might rush in at any moment, but his opponent was also cautious. They seemed a bit flustered upon seeing the blackout curtain covering the entrance.
The person slowly opened the curtain and shone a flashlight inside the stone chamber.
It was a flashlight made on Earth. That meant it wasn't an inhabitant of the Gate, at least.

'Now!'

The moment the flashlight's beam swung toward him, Jinwoo grabbed the man's arm and yanked him inside.
"Uwaaack!"
A young man's scream was followed by the sound of a flashlight clattering to the floor. Next to the rolling flashlight, Jinwoo slammed the man to the ground and pointed his sword at him.
"Who are you."
The flashlight's beam illuminated the man's face. He was an East Asian man with black hair, just like himself. From his face, he looked to be around the same age.
The man raised both hands, his face on the verge of tears.
"A-Are you a Hunter from Seoul!? Me too! I'm from Seoul!" the man pleaded in a trembling voice, an act of appealing to a fellow countryman for compassion.
Without lowering the sword aimed at the man's neck, Jinwoo calmly observed him.
The light from the fallen flashlight illuminated only the man, so from his perspective, Jinwoo was just a blurry figure in the darkness.
"A Hunter from Seoul? Name?"
"Cheon Juhyeok! Twenty-four years old, healthy, and I've completed my military service!"
An unnecessarily disciplined answer came back.
Judging by the sudden appeal to his military service, he must have been discharged recently. Looking closely, his hair was a short buzz cut.
It looked less like a discharged soldier's hair and more like a new recruit's...
Jinwoo lowered his sword slightly. He could hear Cheon Juhyeok let out a sigh of relief.
However, Jinwoo hadn't put away his sword because he had let down his guard. Taking a pair of chain handcuffs from his inventory, he bound Cheon Juhyeok's hands behind his back.
"H-Hey? Don't you think you're being a little too untrusting... Ah, of course. You can't trust a Hunter you suddenly meet in a Gate!"
Cheon Juhyeok, who had been protesting in a timid voice, saw the tip of Jinwoo's sword peek out and immediately changed his tune.
Only after the man was securely bound did Jinwoo state his own name.
"Kang Jinwoo. I'm twenty-six."

Cheon Juhyeok was a B-class Hunter. Normally, his rank was high enough to be active on the 3rd Floor, but he was still operating on the 2nd.
It was because he lacked self-confidence and couldn't bring himself to advance to the 3rd Floor.
Still, there were no monsters on the 2nd Floor that he found difficult, so he was wandering around building up his confidence, but that was proving to be harder than he thought.
The people he met on the 2nd Floor were all formidable. Just like Jinwoo, whom he had just met.

'What's with his eyes...'

He couldn't forget the look in Jinwoo's eyes just now—staring at him from the darkness, sword extended.
In that moment, what Cheon Juhyeok feared wasn't the sword pressed against his throat, but his eyes. Those eyes felt sharper than the blade, as if they could dissect any hidden thought.
"S-So, Hyung-nim, what's your rank?" Cheon Juhyeok, who had been banished to a corner of the chamber with his hands cuffed, mustered the courage to ask.
Jinwoo didn't ignore him. He had let him in with the intention of talking in the first place.
"I'm E-rank."
"E-rank!?"
At the answer, Cheon Juhyeok's face filled with disbelief.
Even if Jinwoo had been lying in ambush, he had subdued him, a B-ranker, in an instant. That level of skill was E-rank?
Cheon Juhyeok had naturally assumed his opponent was A-rank, or at the very least, a high B-rank Hunter.
As he was reeling from Jinwoo's rank, something suddenly occurred to him and he shouted.
"Ah! Could you be the Hunter Kang Jinwoo who recently resolved the Erosion in Tokyo...?"
"That's me."
Hearing Jinwoo's identity, Cheon Juhyeok finally understood.
The news of a supernova appearing in Seoul was already known worldwide. Naturally, he was especially famous in Seoul.
He knew that almost every top-tier guild had sent him a contract offer. The guild Cheon Juhyeok belonged to had also sent a rather groundbreaking proposal to recruit Kang Jinwoo.
The guild master had been so confident, calling it the best treatment in the country, but he had been dejected when no reply came.

"Ah... I see. So that's why you're so strong."
"What's your rank?"
"B-rank."
"You're B-rank and you're that weak?"
Cheon Juhyeok's face twisted at Jinwoo's blunt words. He mumbled a protest.
"I'm not that weak..."
"Hm? What was that?"
"Ah, nothing!"
However, he had spoken so softly that Jinwoo hadn't heard him. The sound had barely escaped his lips.
After they somehow finished their introductions, Jinwoo got to the point. Why was he here, and how did he find this place?
"I was looking for an altar. Exploring based on altars is the standard procedure on the 2nd Floor, isn't it?"
"I'm asking how you came straight here without getting lost."
"Ah, that's thanks to a blessing."
This was Cheon Juhyeok's story.
While exploring the labyrinth, he had found an altar exactly two days ago. There, he had received a blessing that allowed him to detect divinity within a certain radius.
The blessing could detect anything imbued with a god's power. It didn't distinguish between blessings and curses.
A god's altar was the object with the densest concentration of divinity in the labyrinth, so he had detected it and come here.
Hearing this, Jinwoo had only one thought.

'What a ridiculously overpowered blessing.'

Could there be a better blessing on this 2nd Floor?
Finding other altars was great, but more importantly, it could find items imbued with a god's blessing or curse.
Considering that the 2nd Floor was a place people came to find items, it was a blessing worth 120 points out of 100.
"So, then... since we met like this, it must be fate. Would you like to travel together for a while? We'll split the profits, of course."
"Really? You'll split the profits in half?"
"Huh? I didn't say half... Ah, no! Let's do half! Let's go with a clean 50-50 split!"
Jinwoo had said "half" so naturally that he had tried to deny it, but thinking about it, he wasn't in a position to refuse. His hands were still in handcuffs.
"Alright. I'm glad to have gained a reliable companion with such a great blessing. To commemorate, alcohol might be a bit much, but how about some warm tea?"
Jinwoo took out a thermos and poured a cup of hot tea.
"I'd love to drink it, but my hands..."
"Ah, you can't drink in that state, can you."
When Cheon Juhyeok gestured with his bound arms, Jinwoo nodded and solved the problem.
He placed the cup on the floor and stuck a straw in it. It was a bent straw.

'Is this really how you treat a companion...' Cheon Juhyeok pursed his lips into a pout and sipped the tea through the straw.
Jinwoo poured another cup and placed it on the altar. Since the god was present as a witness to their new partnership, he offered it a cup as well.
[The God of the Ice Valley is in pain. It whimpers, as if it might burn its tongue.]
"Oh my, a cat's tongue, are you?"
Enjoying temperature contrasts was one way to enjoy food. That's why he offered hot tea to go with the cold shaved ice, but it seemed the god couldn't drink it.
Fortunately, he also had a cold drink, which he offered instead.
[The God of the Ice Valley is satisfied.]
This time, it was satisfied. There was no blessing, but just hearing that it was satisfied was enough for Jinwoo. As the host, it felt good just to see someone enjoy your offering.
Jinwoo also began to drink his tea, feeling the warmth of the cup with both hands, while Cheon Juhyeok had been bent over, sucking on the straw for a while now.
The atmosphere wasn't bad, but it was a very strange scene.

Night fell before they knew it.
The underground labyrinth was equally dark day and night, but the digital watch he brought showed 10:00 PM.
Jinwoo and Cheon Juhyeok spread their blankets on opposite ends of the room and lay down. Of course, Cheon Juhyeok's hands were still cuffed.

'Ugh.'

Because his hands were tied behind his back and not in front, his sleeping position was terrible.
He normally slept on his back, but he was forced to curl up on his side.
Crackle—
The embers of the campfire crackled softly. The fire was almost out, so the room was very dark.
There was the cold flame burning 24/7 next to the altar, but that had already been covered tightly with the blackout curtain.
It was partly because it was distracting for sleep, and partly a measure to prevent light from leaking outside and giving away their position.
Jinwoo slept, his breathing quiet and even. His chest rose and fell rhythmically, indicating he was in a deep sleep.

Cheon Juhyeok was also half-asleep. His mind was groggy, filled with nonsensical thoughts like flying cats and upside-down buildings.
A voice jolted him awake.
-Arise.
Cheon Juhyeok's eyes opened. It was not a command from his body or will, but from his soul.
Chrr-rrk.
He heard the sound of chains. Not the thin chains of the handcuffs on his wrists. He heard the sound of thicker chains, chains that bound his very soul.

'D-Damn it...'

His teeth chattered.
As he feared, he hadn't escaped.
He had thought it strange that the infamous warlock had let him go so easily. Now he realized he hadn't been let go; he had been caught in the man's spell all along.
The S-class Hunter he had the misfortune of running into two days ago.
The one particularly notorious among S-class Hunters for his wickedness, the warlock of New York, Johann!
Since when? No, from what point to what point had his will been his own?
Without even knowing that, his body awakened.
He wanted to just sleep like this, to fall into the world of dreams without a care, but no matter how much he screamed, his soul was not released.
A person's body, mind, and soul are three parts of a whole, but the body and mind can never defy the soul's command.
It was said that a body or mind trained to the point of transcending the limits of its species could achieve a status equal to the soul, but that didn't apply to Cheon Juhyeok, who was a mere B-class.
That is why warlocks who bind the soul enjoy toying with the weak who have not reached mastery.
It was Cheon Juhyeok's misfortune to have run into such a warlock.
To be more specific, the reason was likely that he had the same black hair and was of the same race as Jinwoo.
He had been caught in the net of Johann, who was searching for a black-haired East Asian man.

'P-Please...'

His consciousness was fading. Not peacefully like falling asleep, but a feeling like being forcibly shoved into deep water, like being waterboarded.
Meanwhile, his physical body rose completely, shattering the handcuffs that bound his hands. Then, he drew a dagger and approached the sleeping Jinwoo.

'S-Stop...'

He told himself to stop countless times, but his body wouldn't listen. His soul approached Jinwoo and raised the dagger.
And then.
CLANG—!
Jinwoo, whose eyes had snapped open as if he were a ghost, knocked the dagger away and grabbed Cheon Juhyeok by the collar. Just like when they first met, he slammed him to the ground and pressed his sword against him.

'Ah.'

Cheon Juhyeok despaired. What would a third party say about this situation?
A man who had agreed to be his companion got up secretly in the middle of the night and raised a knife. And he had been about to bring it down.
Anyone would see him as a traitor. No, not a traitor; they would think he had approached with the intent to rob him from the very beginning.

'I'm going to die.'

He could easily imagine the next scene. An enraged Kang Jinwoo's sword would pierce his neck, and he would lose his life.
He wanted to make an excuse, but his dominated mouth wouldn't move, and only despair and helplessness piled up.
And then.
"Who are you."
Jinwoo didn't thrust the sword.
At the sight of him questioning not his heart, but his very soul, Cheon Juhyeok gasped.