Evolution Theory of the Hunter - Chapter 93

Evolution Theory of the Hunter (ETH)
Volume 1 Chapter 93

“I heard that the ores being sold to the hunter market are being handled by the police. If you can hand over some of those ores to us, we would be more than happy to join the mission.”

-[As I said before, our budget is limited. We wouldn’t be able to do so even if we wanted to.]

“That’s fine. I’ll put up the money as long as you can pass along as much of the ores we need.”

-[…Is that it?]

“More than enough for me.”

***

Stuck between a rock and a hard place, I knew she would take this to her superiors. And they, in turn, will most likely go along with my offer.

And if that happens, I would finally have access to the alanite ores so that I could perform fusions to my heart’s desire.

This was huge. And this would allow us to be well armed for a fight against the Chinese hunters – if it came to that.

“I have one more thing to ask of you.”

-[Which is?]

“I want to request that we be the only hunters that you move with for this task.”

-[Hm…I guess since our budget it limited, that would have been the case anyway. Is there any reason why you are requesting this?]

“You’ll see when the time comes. And…you cannot reveal what you see about us to anyone else.”

-[If it isn’t totally illegal then…ok.]

If we were to go on this task with her, for the good or bad, she will be privy to Team Delta’s secret. Dead bodies will evaporate…we wouldn’t be able to hide her from that fact.

Immediately after I hung up, I called Park Hanbum, Bae Yeonkyoung, and Manager Kim and asked them to return.

-[Come by tomorrow? Is there some kind of emergency we don’t know about?]

“Yes, we will have to go into the forested area.”

-[Hm…do we have to?]

“I will explain in detail once you are back.”

I felt a bit bad for giving them 3 days off and then asking them to return only after one, but the situation warranted it. I couldn’t do anything about it. Manager Kim let out a sigh and said.

-[I’m sure I won’t hear the end of it from the wife. I was hoping to go on a family trip this time around.]

“I’m really sorry.”

-[No, it’s fine. Then I’ll see you tomorrow.]

I had worried the most over Manager Kim’s response, but he was really understanding about the whole thing. Surprisingly.

And the remaining two members said they would be right back without any other objections.

***

The next day, the entire Team Delta met up and headed towards the market. The forest was full of dangers.

We needed to purchase some equipment so that we can strengthen ourselves against those dangers. Since each person had at least 3 million dollars each, we would be able to equip ourselves with level 4 gear.

And if one were to purchase a no name equipment, they could even buy a level 5.

“I’m Lieutenant Sohn Aram. A pleasure to meet you all.”

“What kind of armor is that?”

“Haha…it’s a bit…um…”

She was donned with a level 2 leather armor that hugged her body. It looked like standard issue armor for the police.

“It looks too cheap.”

“I can’t do anything about it. Even this is something I had to pretty much beg for.”

If they were creating a special mission, shouldn’t they have at least taken care of their own so that they would be safe? But then again, even that armor was probably worth close to 300k. It seems my standard on money, value, and equipment has gone way up from even just a few months ago.

“Then will we be able to purchase some ores as we were promised?”

“I did get the approval from upstairs. You just need to come with me.”

I left the party members to continue searching the market for equipment to upgrade their gear while I followed Sohn Aram to purchase the alanites.

Unfortunately, I was only able to get my hands on 9, which was enough to fuse and create just 3 level 4 items.

This wasn’t unexpected since drop probability of the rare alanites from level 1 and level 2 monsters was very low.

I took the level 3 Valladolid bow that Yeonkyoung had as well as some other items worth 500k each to fuse together for the Athena’s bow.

“Is it ok even though the bow has the option of not being able to hurt humans?”

Yeonkyoung asked me shyly. This was because we had to fight more than just monsters very soon.

The Athena’s bow could not harm another human.

But there is a loophole.

“If you need to hit a person, you can enchant an arrow and shoot it.”

“Ah. Is that so?”

Yeonkyoung nodded her head with a serious face. The Athena’s bow can attack without the need for any arrows. But if you arm the bow with you own arrow and shoot it, the option for not harming humans is cancelled. This was a well known fact even at the market.

I pondered for a moment where I should use the rest of the alanites before deciding to just create two more Athena’s bows and selling them on the market.

Just from those sales, we had earned close to 1.3 million dollars. Not bad.

I now had a total of 11.5 million dollars in my account.

Starting from level 6, the item prices jump up tremendously.

The average price was usually about 7-8 million each.

If you were to purchase something on the expensive side, they could go for even 10 million dollars.

After wondering if I should buy two level 5 items or just 1 level 6 item, I decided to go with the latter and chose to purchase the level 6 black plate armor.

The entire armor was all black and shined as if it had imbibed oil. While its defensive abilities were at an even keel of level 6, it came with an extremely attractive option.

***

Black Plate Armor (6): Can create a shadow whose offensive abilities is half of the wearers’ power. Should the shadow be shot, it will disappear. Cooltime per use is 1 minute.

***

Put simply, it was like adding an extra member to the party. Though it disappears after a hit, even as a shadow, it would be able to deal damage to an enemy…and with half my strength at that.

Since it was like creating another version of me, this was a super cheat option.

And the price was ridiculous too.

“10 million dollars.”

“So damn expensive.”

“I’m sorry?”

“No, nothing. It was nothing.”

I hurriedly shook my head and purchased the armor. This was the first time I had spent this kind of money at the market.

My account now only had 1.3 million dollars remaining.

Though this was still a good amount of money, I somehow had the feeling that I’ve become oh so very poor in the blink of an eye.

Human beings are funny that way. Even just a few months ago, I was worried about my rent and electricity bill…and now I was thinking I was poor even with 1.3 million dollars in my account.

I put away the level 3 no name armor into my storage. I made a note in my head to keep it for Kelby to eat instead of selling it at the market.

It seemed that everyone else had also done the same and used pretty much all of their earnings in purchasing quality equipment. Those lacking in defense purchased some armor while those who lacked in offensive ability purchased weapons.

Finally, there was one more thing we had to buy.

And this was none other than a translating hat.

“For Chinese, it will be 100k.”

“Yes, but is this the only design you have?”

I asked the employee with a pained voice as I looked at the North Korean style army cap with a red star stitched smack dab in the middle.

“Yes, we only have this design for the Chinese transla….”

“I guess there’s nothing we can do then.”

It was expensive but, seeing that we would be fighting against Chinese hunters one way or another, this was something we would need.

Now I only had 300k left.

I decided to think it was lucky that I even had that left.

In addition to all this, we even purchased the ATV and another truck. We decided to have Park Hanbum and Manager Kim take turns driving the second truck.

After we finished getting ready, we started our 10 hour drive towards the forest and finally arrived at the bridge.

And there, our way was blocked by something we did not factor in.