Chapter 1
“Hunter Lee Hee-soo, you’re on standby starting today.”
“…What?”
I looked up in shock. But the guild master only repeated himself with the same languid tone.
“You’ll be off the field for a while. Do some paperwork around the guild.”
“…”
“Or maybe take a vacation. You’ve got plenty of unused leave, don’t you?”
His words hit me like a punch to the chest.
“W–wait a second, Guild Master. The Namyangju Gate raid is next week! Our team’s scheduled to participate—how can the team leader just sit out?”
“Ah, that. Team Three will handle it instead, so don’t worry about it.”
“Guild Master!”
I protested loudly, but he didn’t budge. Instead, he gave me a faint smile and asked calmly,
“Tell me, Hunter Lee Hee-soo. In your current condition, can you even lift your magic revolver?”
I hurried to reply—
“Of course I ca—ugh!”
The moment he grabbed my hand, a thin thread of mana flowed into me. It was barely anything, yet my vision spun, and it felt like my insides were being torn apart.
“Cough, cough! Ugh!”
I covered my mouth, coughing violently. His cold voice came from above me.
“No room for negotiation. As of today, you’re off field duty and reassigned to desk work.”
“…”
“Any complaints?”
“…No, sir.”
“Then that’s all. You’re dismissed.”
Click.
I stepped out of the guild master’s office and let out a long sigh. My junior, who must’ve been waiting nearby, came rushing toward me.
“Senior! What did the guild master say? Why’d he call you in all of a sudden?”
Her name was Kim Eun-bi—a fellow hunter who’d been with me for years in Team 5.
“He put me on standby. Said I’m off field work starting today.”
“What?! That bastard— that shameless piece of—mmph!”
I quickly covered her mouth. If someone overheard her swearing about the guild master in the hallway, we’d both be doomed.
After she nodded for me to let go, she frowned and asked,
“That doesn’t make any sense, does it?”
“Why not?”
“Because you’re one of the founding members! You’ve been here since the beginning!”
Not wrong. I’d joined this guild because I believed in the guild master—and worked myself half to death for it. But…
“You know my body’s shot, Kim Eun-bi.”
“…Senior.”
It’d be a lie to say I wasn’t bitter.
I awakened as a hunter at seventeen—
Rank: E-Class.
Just barely above an average person.
After years of brutal work, I clawed my way up to D-Class, joined Baekam Guild, and eventually became a C-Class team leader.
For a C-Class hunter, that was a huge achievement—almost a miracle.
But limits come faster than you think.
The problem started a few days ago.
During the last gate raid, I got injured. I thought I’d recover quickly, but the doctor’s words crushed that hope:
“Your mana circuits are severely damaged. There’s nothing we can do.”
I wanted to be someone who saved the world.
Even when people mocked me for being weak, I pushed through—because I wanted to protect others.
But this… this was how it ended.
“I’m going to quit the guild.”
“What? Why! You can get treated and come back!”
“…Kim Eun-bi.”
We both knew the truth. There’s no way to repair destroyed mana circuits.
Even now, I could barely feel anything in my right hand.
And when I tried to grip a gun, unbearable pain shot through my body.
A crippled hunter—nothing more.
I tried to hide it, but the guild master must’ve known.
And honestly, keeping me—just a C-Class—on as team leader had always rubbed people the wrong way.
If I stayed, my team members might lose their shot at dungeon raids because of me.
So maybe it was time to stop being selfish.
Sure, it hurt. But deep down, it also felt like a relief.
I patted Kim Eun-bi’s shoulder as she started tearing up. Unfortunately, that only made her voice wobble more.
“Then what will you do now, Senior?”
I already had something in mind.
“Thinking of moving to the countryside.”
“…Huh?”
A few days later
17 Gyehwa-ro, Deokcheon-myeon, Dancheong gun.
Down a quiet country road that tourists rarely visited, a small rural village appeared.
Nestled between a mountain and a stream was Gyehwa Village, and deep within it—right by the stream—stood a modest house.
That was where I’d be living for now.
“Huh. It’s not half bad.”
The house was technically an inheritance—
Well, more like it was dumped on me.
A distant great-aunt had lived there until she passed, and nobody had taken care of it since.
“You’re young—why don’t you go look after the place for a while?”
“What?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll transfer the deed to your name.”
“…Wait—what?!”
That was a month ago.
Back then, I was too busy working to even consider it.
But after I turned in my resignation, things changed fast.
“Mr. Lee, you’ll need to vacate your room by tomorrow.”
“…What?”
“Don’t worry! I’ll give you a moving company’s number.”
“Wait, wait—!”
I’d been living in a guild dorm.
So yeah—once I quit, I got kicked out.
“Unbelievable…”
Years of work, and they tossed me out like trash.
Just when I thought I’d be homeless, I remembered—
“I do have a house… and it’s free.”
It was big, too.
Better than overpaying for a shoebox in the city.
And honestly, I wanted to go somewhere no one knew me—just rest.
When I finally arrived, I couldn’t help but whistle.
“Wow… this place is huge.”
The house had a main building and a guesthouse, both surrounding a courtyard. It looked big enough for a family of ten.
There was even a storage shed, water pump, and old-style firewood stove, like something straight out of a period drama.
And the garden? What they called a “small vegetable patch” was easily over 300 square meters.
“Do they call this a ‘small garden’ in the countryside?”
I had no idea—this was my first time living rural.
Not that I planned to become a full-time farmer.
“Farming’s not for everyone.”
There’d been a whole “back-to-the-land” craze once—hunters and civilians moving to rural areas because gates were rarer there.
Even the government encouraged it, offering subsidies. But most people just ended up in debt.
Some hunters even tried it because of those cheesy web novels—
“The Hidden Power Farmer Hunter?!”
Those stories ruined half the guilds out there.
Anyway—
I wasn’t looking to work myself to death again.
So why the countryside?
“Because I need a break.”
I just wanted peace.
A place with no gate alerts, no guild politics, and no endless missions—
A place to finally breathe.
But…
When I ran a finger along the wall, it came back black with dust.
“…Yeah. Before I can heal, I’d better clean first.”
After unpacking and scrubbing layers of grime off the walls and floors, it was already afternoon.
Growl.
My stomach roared. Right—I hadn’t eaten all day.
“Now then… what should I eat?”
Meanwhile
In the overgrown garden, hidden by weeds, lay an egg.
No one had noticed it—until now.
Crack—!
A faint light began to shine from within.
Tiny fissures spread across the fragile shell, and through the cracks, a pair of blue eyes peeked out.
The cracks widened—
Snap!
And at last, a small creature emerged into the world.
“Hey!”
[Mythic-Class Dimensional Dragon ‘Asphelorr’ has awakened.]
The newborn dragon had no memory of how long it had slept.
It only knew one thing—
“but… hungry…”
Something smelled delicious.
Could it be… there?
With wobbly steps, the little dragon began to toddle toward the nearby house.
