There is No Such Thing as a Bad Hunter

e earned after receiving constant scrutiny, stuck.

Especially since that small piece of trust was from SS-rank hunter Joo Yiwon.

‘No wait.’

Jiho’s rising emotions suddenly braked.

“If you trust me, why did you disapprove?”

“Trust and worry are two different things.
If my precious Jiho gets even the slightest scratch on him, my heart will be ripped apart…”

Yiwon folded his hands over his chest and acted pitiful.
Jiho looked away from Yiwon, as it was a sight he couldn’t see. 

Let’s pretend he didn’t say all of that nonsense and just remember that he said Jiho wasn’t weak.

After picking through the words, Jiho’s heart found peace again.

“Ah, another staff is coming out.”

Jiho turned his focus back to the auction at Yiwon’s words.
Even though the item that just came out wasn’t the kind of item Jiho wanted, if he waits, at least one item he wants should appear.

His heart felt full after receiving 30B gold from his connections.

Still, because he wasn’t planning to squander away all of his gold at once, Jiho passed on all of the items he was on the fence about.
He wanted to find an object that he could use for a long time, even if it wasn’t forever.

As time continued to pass, right when Jiho was thinking that he might have to wait for the next chance…

An item caught his eyes.

Information

Staff of Tuia

Rank	SS
Explanation	A staff made out of fresh Tuia, a water tree.4 Increases MP by 20%. Increases power of skills by 10%. With the command [Store Mana], it can store as much mana as the holder’s max MP. When the holder runs out of mana, he can support himself with the saved mana.
Creator	Rayleigh Aeisha

This was it.

As soon as he saw it, Shin Jiho knew that he had to bid for it.
For Jiho, who can strengthen others with the mana he has, this equipment was perfect, like it was made for his skill.

But…

‘Rayleigh Aeisha?’

Jiho looked down at the glove he was wearing.

Information

Black Dragon Leather Glove

Rank	S
Explanation	A leather glove made out of black dragon leather and threads of mana. Increases the wearer’s MP and strength by 20%.
Creator	Rayleigh Aeisha

The creator of the glove that Joo Yiwon gave was also Rayleigh Aeisha.

If Tuia’s Staff had been an item created by someone on Earth, Jiho would have accepted it. 

But when he had pulled up the information on the glove before, it had said that the glove’s creator, ‘Rayleigh Aeisha,’ had been automatically translated into something that could be pronounced on Earth.
If the creator was someone from Earth, an explanation like that wouldn’t have been necessary.

That means both the glove and staff had to have been made by someone from another world but…

Was it possible that two items made by the same creator in a different world could appear in front of Shin Jiho by mere chance?

Although there have been times when items appeared with creators in the auction, there were never multiple items with the same name.
From the way it was pronounced, to the way it felt, each name was different.

Jiho subconsciously looked over at Yiwon.
Yiwon, who had been watching over the auction, felt Jiho’s gaze and asked “What?” in confusion.

“Jiho, that looks good.
If you’re a support hunter, you don’t really need to increase the power of your skills, but there’s not many items that will raise your mana like that.
You should try bidding for it.”

It doesn’t seem like Joo Yiwon knows anything either.

While he was lost in his thoughts, the price was still rising.
Jiho pushed aside his concerns for now and turned his focus back on to the auction.

For an SS-rank item, [Tuia’s Staff] had been appraised too low.

Increasing MP by 20% and power of skills by 10% were all good options, but the best option was how it could store and replenish mana.
However, it seemed that that hadn’t been taken in for evaluation.

“120B gold bid.
Ah, 130B gold bid now.”

The price was rising.
Jiho couldn’t continue to sit back and watch.
He jumped in.

The auction ended.

Jiho finally bought [Tuia’s Staff] for 180 billion.
After buying other useful things, his wallet was quite light.

After he refills the guild’s shared funds and puts aside money for future contracts, he’ll be back to being poor.
Checking the little gold left, Jiho sighed. 

“Should I have bought the stone for higher?”

“It’s fine.
I’ll figure it out myself.”

Jiho answered in a small voice as he pushed the visor of his cap further down.

Because he was stuck to Joo Yiwon the whole time, everybody recognized that he was Shin Jiho.
The gazes weren’t as hostile as before.
But the eyes full of curiosity didn’t make him feel very good either.

Should he try to slip out quietly?

While he was thinking, Yiwon suddenly grabbed Jiho’s hand.
Without another word, Yiwon started walking forward.

“Let’s go.”

“I’m going to go through the ba…”

“Why? It’s not like you did something wrong.”

“It’s not because I did something wrong…”

It’s because he feels self-conscious about the looks.

Receiving Yiwon’s stare, Jiho closed his mouth.

Although his stare looked calm, Jiho could see an irrational anger flare up in Yiwon’s eyes.

It had been a long time since he stopped feeling angry about people’s looks.
Instead of getting mad, he feels conscious of it but… Seeing Joo Yiwon get angry on his behalf made his nervousness melt away.

“I get it, so let go of my hand and go.”

“Should I carry you out?”

“Crazy bastard.”

Seeing Yiwon, who didn’t seem to care about how others looked at him, Jiho laughed and followed him.
With no choice but with his hand still caught.

 

Footnotes

1. This got slightly lost in translation.
It’s a play on words.
The word used here as flaunt, 돈지랄 (“don-ji-lal”) specifically refers to when someone wastes money on meaningless things simply to flaunt it.
Just 지랄 means something like “f*cking ridiculous.” So here, Jiho is saying that it wasn’t a 돈지랄 but rather a 지랄.
This is hard to explain ㅠㅠ.

2. Jiho calls Yiwon a 호구 (“ho-goo”) here, which means pushover.
Sounds harsh, but in these kinds of contexts, it’s usually pretty affectionate, like he’s showing concern.

3. This is both sweet and sad ㅠㅠ.
They care so much about him ㅠㅠ.

4. You may be wondering what a water tree is.
Me too.
Author-nim wrote this in hanja which was a struggle in and of itself.
From my limited research, I’m guessing this is made up.
I think it’s literally a tree that grows underwater.