Chapter 1 (Please Teach Me Tutor)
Episode 1: You want me to tutor after losing my hunter qualification? (Revised)
Kim Si-woo a graduate from Korea Hunter Academy. He was topper of his session. Holds various records, like clearing A-class dungeon in shortest time.
A talented hunter with good prospects in his career. He was often called to be someone who would lead Korean Hunter Community.
He worked under the alias ‘Shadow Mask’. But….
[As of today, Shadow Mask is stripped of all his title as Hunter.]
Because of this one judgement, Kim Si-woo lose everything. All his achievements, his career as Hunter ended.
And the reason was simple: A conflict with Daesung Group.
Daesung Group- Strongest Hunter Organization of Korea. Owner of Strongest Guild of Korea. Owner by the one of the strongest hunters on Earth.
The reason behind his suspension was that, he helped handful of guilds, who went out of their way to change the hierarchy within the Hunter Community.
Before he knew it, he became most trending person of Korea. All media, covered about him, framed him as criminal.
– Korean Hunter Academy record breaker, top graduate Shadow Mask, arrested and indicted on charges of hunting fellow hunters within a dungeon.
– Testimony of Shadow Mask’s former colleague ‘He always abandoned his allies when they got in his way.’
– The shocking bare face of the Hunter, a symbol of sincerity and justice.
They made me a criminal with ridiculous lies.
They brought out my former colleague whom he had bad relationship with as a witness, and pressured Kim Si-woo, with bribes given to the police and other investigative agencies.
They created evidence that did not exist, and he was at a disadvantage.
On the day of the trial, a Daesung official came to visit. He offered, “If you quit being a hunter and don’t make any comments about the guild, we will also stop taking legal action against Mr. Kim Si-woo.”
Not left with any option, Kim Si-woo chose to accept the deal.
That’s how the situation was set up.
Si-woo asked for help from the second largest guild, after Daesung, but they were already fighting among themselves, so there was no way they would help him.
From the beginning, he was the public enemy of the large guild.
A public enemy who tried to harm their interests.
His life as a hunter ended there. While, the biggest guild became hostile to him.
****
“Can’t you continue your life as hunter, after losing certificate?” this is common question among the common folk.
“You are too naïve. Of course, you can continue, but only if you want stigma of ‘VIllAIN’.”
If you do that once, you’ll just become a villain.
Kim Si-woo didn’t want that kind of life. He didn’t want to spend rest of life living in hiding, being chased by police.
“Can’t you restart career abroad?”
Well, about that.
There a joint agreement among the absolutes (strongest being) of each region, they gathered together and made a global joint agreement.
It was because of the joint agreement that hunter criminals and villains of one region were criminals in other regions too.
Of course, Kim Si-woo was not declared as villain. But he was a hunter whose qualifications were suspended.
Coincidentally, the person who proposed that joint agreement was Choi Woo-sung, the first chairman of Daesung, who was an absolute of Korea.
If Daesung, who could exert power in international agreements, wanted to, he could pressure me at any time even if I will be in the United States.
That was the reason that stopped Kim Si-woo from going abroad.
****
‘I was too stupid’, Kim Si-woo mocked himself.
He regret helping those ungrateful bastards.
‘I forget what kind of community was that.’
‘A world, where Hunters prey among each other. A society where survival of fittest is core ideology.’
Kim Si-woo didn’t regret for the effort he spent on being a hunter. Because if he didn’t he would have died long ago. Especially when dungeons and villains can be encountered anywhere.
*Sigh*
Thankfully, Kim Si-woo have skill, that greatly helped him in adapting to his new life. He found a job, to use his skill safely.
“Hey, Mr. Kim, you have a guest.”
“I’m coming.”
After quitting his job as a hunter, Kim Si-woo got a job as an ‘Appraiser’.
His job was simple.
He just had to check the items that the hunters brought and determined their value. It was one of the many skills he had.
The country doesn’t really care about using skills. There are so many non-hunter awakened people who make a living with their own skills they received upon awakening.
If you’re going to continue your career in Hunter Community, just don’t go into dungeons and don’t do anything related to crime.
Then they won’t arrest you and call you a villain.
[Kim Si-woo]
He checked the status window that appeared before his eyes.
15 years ago.
A gate opened in the world and monsters poured out. Yes, that’s right. A gate that often appears in many fictional works. Firearms often worked on monsters, but that was only true for weak monsters.
Strong monsters that wouldn’t be affected by those weapons, and they started to appear everywhere.
And then, those who were awakened appeared. Those who could at the status window, who could use mana and had their own abilities.
Humanity called them the Awakened.
With the combined power of the Awakens who appeared like comets, humanity was able to drive away the threat known as the Gate.
Five years passed.
Humanity needed to make these Awakens, the Hunters, even more powerful in preparation for the greater threats that would come in the future.
That’s what the Academy is for.
There are many conditions to enter the Academy, but the most basic of these is this status window.
The power that divides between an ordinary human and an awakened person.
Isn’t this status window that appears before his eyes an example of a world that has completely changed?
[Owned Skill]
[Passive: Appraisal (SS)]
[You can appraise the target you touch. Limit Level (SS)]
[Passive: Growth Assist (SSS)]
– Strength Growth
[Status – Helps with Strength growth. Max Grade (A) – Linked: Kim Si-woo 1/4]
– Abundant Mana
[Status – Helps with Mana growth. Max Grade (A) – Linked: Kim Si-woo 1/4]
– Young Mind
[Status – Helps with Intelligence growth. Max Grade (A) – Linked: Kim Si-woo 1/4]
– Super Recovery
[Status – Helps with Stamina growth. Max Grade (A) – Linked: Kim Si-woo 1/4]
– Quick Stride
[Status – Helps with Agility growth. Max Grade (A) – Link Boost: Kim Si-woo 1/4]
– Heart of the Monarch
[Status – Helps with Charisma. Max Grade (SS) – Linked: Kim Si-woo 1/2]
[Additional Effect: Helps you make cool-headed decisions in times of crisis.]
These were all his skills.
At least SS-grade Appraisal skills and SSS-grade growth assistance skills.
If someone else had seen this, they would have all opened their mouths and shouted, “This is a crazy skill.”
But are his ratings as hunter crazy?
No.
-How come you don’t have any active skills!
Skills that are rated as active skills, or in other words, as used skills, are treated one to two levels higher than passive skills.
This means that one A-grade active skill is higher than at least an S-grade passive skill and up to an SS-grade passive skill.
The reason was simple.
In order to kill monsters who are unaffected by firearms, you needed strong damage, and many active skills were the best for dealing that strong damage.
‘Passive is treated like a rip-off.’
It’s just nice to have, but it’s not a shame not to have it.
On the surface, they look great as SS-class and SSS-class, but in reality, their effectiveness is between A-class and S-class.
In fact, both of them are not helpful in direct combat.
Because of this, Kim Si-woo almost failed to get into the academy. He was ignored until he became topper of his class.
It was all thanks to these skills. They may not help in combat, but certainly boosted his strength. Accelerated his growth.
Thanks to these skills, he was able to get 1st place with his stats going crazy.
[Kim Si-woo]
-Strength: A
-Mana: A
-Intelligence: A
-Stamina: A
-Agility: A
-Charisma: SS
If we talk about the rating given to hunter. If a hunter had any single stat rated as A, he would get A-class Hunter Certification.
By that logic, Kim Si-woo should also be SS-class hunter, but he chose to hid it. Reason behind his action was simple too, it’s because he didn’t have any active skills. His SS-level stat is not strength or agility, but charisma.
Currently, on earth, there are only 5 known hunters with stats higher than SS-level, excluding me.
The Saintess in Europe, Mr. America in America, the strongest martial artist in China, Mayamoto, the ruler of the Japanese archipelago, and lastly, Choi Woo-sung, the first president of Daesung in Korea.
Unlike those who have the title of absolute leader in each region and the strongest in the world, Kim Si-woo wasn’t not the strongest, now he even lost his qualification as Hunter.
‘I still don’t know what effect this stat has.’
Five major abilities. Strength, intelligence, stamina, mana, and agility.
These are the five stats that are usually known to be possessed by hunters.
However, he had one more other than those five.
Charisma.
A stat that was never used in his hunter life.
Along with Mana which he had, it din’t grant him any active skills and thus it’s of no use, it was a stat that was useless for him.
It didn’t help in combat.
It was helpful when surviving with cool judgment, but it was of little use in direct combat.
So he hid it. So that it would only be seen as a slightly special prospect.
Still, it helped. He graduated with the highest grades.
Thanks to his overwhelming stats compared to other peer’s, he was able to fight better than those with active skills even though he didn’t have any.
But even that had its limits.
‘I haven’t grown beyond A-class.’
A-class engraved with a limiter.
No matter how much he trained, he can’t grow beyond this.
That was the limit of this ability.
‘If only I had just one active skill….’
At least he wouldn’t have been kicked out just because he was on bad terms with Daesung. At least the association would have accepted him.
Basically, the only information that could be appraised by the association was the skill name and level.
The skill content and stat information were not open to the public unless the person disclosed it. But what kind of crazy person would reveal such information to others?
They say that 30% of the martial arts world’s power is hidden.
So he didn’t bother to tell anyone about his abilities.
Thanks to that, he ended up saying goodbye to Hunter.
“It’s all in the past.”
Kim Si-woo thought he was over with it, but it seems he didn’t. He still thinks about it, with regret.
“Is it because I remember being so determined to graduate at the top of my class?”
But he had no regrets.
He hid his SS-class charisma.
He resisted Daesung.
Because he moved according to his will.
Kim Si-woo headed to his workbench, muttering to himself in a grumbling tone. Now it’s time to do his job as an appraiser.
If a guest comes to him, he just had to do his best for him. It’s already been 6 months since he joined this company. He had started to get used to this work.
The work is simple.
When a hunter brings an item, just appraise it and that’s it.
If you appraise accurately and receive compensation for it, that’s how much you earn that day.
That’s why there are a few appraisers who intentionally lie about appraisals, but because of those guys, hunters started to cross-check the items.
What happens if you get caught lying?
It’s a beggar’s hand that’s going to fly off1.
The rule is that if you mess around, your hand is going to fly off.
The job was really simple.
All you had to do was appraise it.
Accuracy of Appraisal information is guaranteed.
SS-class [Appraisal] are no joke.
So, within 6 months of joining the company, he became the company’s ace appraiser.
It would have been easy to get to the top, if he had just used the alias he received and achievement when he used to work as a hunter.
But, he was kicked out for opposing Daesung. All his records of the Academy and Hunters had been deleted.
So, he had no choice but to show use skill to earn money.
Anyway, he’d finally found his place, but not satisfied.
Whenever he sits still and thinks about it, he often thinks of the time when he was a hunter and his hands twitch.
But he had to control himself. There’s nothing he can do.
Of course, that feeling of being a Hunter hasn’t completely disappeared…… .
“I don’t know. If would ever have a comeback, would I be able to climb tower…. I shouldn’t look at it anymore.”
Unless I chose to be a villain.
Kim Si-woo took a deep breath and went to the office.
“You are here?”
A welcoming face was waiting for him. But, not necessarily a welcoming one.
“It’s been a while, senior.”
“Hey, why are you being so stiff?”
He was an impressive man with a rough beard.
In particular, his short hair, thick eyebrows like cicadas, and his glaring eyes and thick nose showed his unique personality. He was my senior at the academy by two years, Jeong Bong-sik, who had quit his job as a hunter and was now running a business.
“Now that we’ve both quit being hunters, are you still going to call me senior?”
“We aren’t that close.”
“That’s too much. I thought we were once blood brothers who fought on the same battlefield.”
“What do you mean brothers? Wasn’t that a relationship were one side, where one unilaterally relies on the other?”
“It was a positive symbiotic relationship. Hehe.”
“From my perspective, you were an inconvenient parasite.”
“Calling me a parasite, your senior? That’s too much.”
Si-woo suffered too much, to save this human in the dungeon.
“The items I lost because of my senior will be worth at least 1 billion.”
“Even if we had them, the guild would have taken them all anyway.”
“That’s true.”
Si-woo quit guilds because he thought the system was so bad.
“Anyway, what’s going on?”
“I came here to give the appraisal to the appraiser. What else do you need?”
Jeong Bong-sik took out a small dagger.
It was a precious-looking weapon with a jewel set into the end of the dagger handle.
Si-woo picked up the sword and stroked it gently. He held the handle and lightly touched the jewel, then pulled out the blade and stroked its handle. The blade was sharp and not an ordinary thing.
“Hoo.”
After examining all the items, he couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration.
[Rephila’s Tooth – Estimated Grade: S ~ S+]
[A dagger made from the legendary snake, Rephila’s tooth. Its outstanding, cutting power is impressive. When applied with poison, the poison’s lethality increases by 4 times.]
“It’s at least an S-class dagger. If used correctly, it could probably get it to S+.”
“Haha, this guy’s skills aren’t dead yet.”
“Did you know that?”
“That’s right.”
It’s a test.
Si-woo felt bad, but there must be a reason. Even if a person looks easygoing, Bong-shik wasn’t the type to do something frivolous.
“Is it really necessary to do this?”
“Si-woo, you. How long are you going to do this?”
“Yes?”
“Didn’t I say I’m going to start a business before?”
“You did. What, you said it was a quick sale? Is that where you got it?”
“No. Thats old story. I folded that quick sale business too.”
“Folded it?”
“I started an education business a while ago.”
Something feels uneasy.
“No matter how much I think about it, you have a better vision. That’s why I want to work with you. What do you think?”
“What does that have to do with Appraisal?”
“Of course. If you’re going to teach kids, you need to know what kind of state they’re in. If you use your Appraisal skills to check their current state and future potential, you can teach the kids who have good potential. What do you think?”
“Are you going to set up a separate academy?”
“No.”
Jeong Bong-sik opened his mouth with shining eyes.
“Tutoring. I am asking you to give tutoring.”
Notes:
- From what I found, it is referring to going viral.
If we use that as reference, narrator is referring to becoming infamous in Hunter community because of fraud.
T.N.
Is MC too smart or too cautious.