Chapter 104 – Training with Cute Monsters

“It is fine, Hee-na. If it were a scene that was cruel to look at, I would have covered your eyes first.”

His firm voice carried trust.

‘…Is that so?’

Indeed, Kang Jin-hyun was not the kind of person to carelessly show Hee-na anything horrible.

She narrowed her eyes and glanced down at her feet. For a place where such a brutal sound had resounded, the scene was clean without a single drop of blood.

Instead, a lump of squashed mud was sitting there. The fluffy downy fur was nowhere to be found.

Hee-na asked doubtfully.

“Is this that rabbit?”

“Yes. It is a low-grade monster that lowers the opponent’s guard with its small and cute appearance and then attacks them unexpectedly.”

“You should have told me that sooner then.”

“You were the one distracted by the pack of rabbits and didn’t listen to me, Hee-na.”

“…”

She tried to grumble in a sullen voice, but she had nothing to say to the immediate retort, so she shut her mouth tight.

That was true. It was Hee-na who had missed Kang Jin-hyun’s explanation because she was spaced out by the sight she saw as soon as she entered the dungeon.

But Hee-na had her reasons.

‘It felt like heaven, not a dungeon!’

It was a sight like fairy tale land.

Who on earth wouldn’t be distracted by the clover hills stretching before their eyes and the charming groups of rabbits?

At least, it was so for Hee-na, who adored small and fluffy things!

‘But to suddenly catch a rabbit, throw it down, and tell me to hit it because it’s a monster! How surprised do you think I’d be!’

Hee-na gave a slight glare to the man standing next to her.

He was staring at Baduk-i with his arms crossed as it frolicked on the clover hill.

Baduk-i was rolling on the grass in excitement, as if glad to be on a walk after a long time.

*Groooo!*

…Then it suddenly got slapped by a mud monster that popped out from a rabbit’s split head.

“Gasp.”

At the shocking sight, Hee-na was startled and took a step back.

‘So the outer shell really was just a rabbit, and the inside was a monster!’

Meanwhile, Kang Jin-hyun kindly explained the situation, perhaps thinking Hee-na was worried about Baduk-i.

“It is fine. The rank is low, so it won’t be able to do much harm to Baduk-i.”

“I-Is that so?”

“Yes. It is one of the lowest-ranked and safest dungeons in the country. At this level, you should be able to clear your quest easily, Hee-na. And…”

He seemed to hesitate for a moment before continuing.

“I chose this place because the scenery is clean and beautiful, and I thought you would like it, Hee-na.”

Hee-na opened her eyes wide and looked at him.

“Because you thought I would like it?”

“Yes. Since you really liked the open plain we visited last time.”

He seemed to remember how happy Hee-na had been when looking at the dungeon they visited during Baduk-i’s last walk quest.

“Ah, I didn’t expect you to think of even that…”

Hee-na looked at Kang Jin-hyun’s profile as if anew. It was a blunt face without a single change in expression.

But Hee-na, who faced Kang Jin-hyun every day, could now read his thoughts at least a little.

‘He must be embarrassed.’

Somehow, his earlobes seemed a bit redder than usual.

“…In any case, it seems there is no place more suitable than here to proceed with your quest, Hee-na. Let’s leave Baduk-i as it is and try catching the monsters.”

Glancing at Baduk-i, it was slinging slaps back in return, as if feeling aggrieved at being hit by the rabbit-shaped mud monster.

However, the monster dodged here and there perfectly between the spinning leaves.

“It will take quite some time to fill the quota of 50 monsters for the quest. There are also your stamina and strength issues, Hee-na.”

Kang Jin-hyun snatched a passing rabbit like an eagle.

The rabbit, caught by its ears, flailed its feet. Soon, realizing it couldn’t easily escape his hand, it revealed its true form.

This time, the belly skin split open and a mud monster popped out…

*Thwack!*

…but with a single flick of Kang Jin-hyun’s finger, it reverted to the rabbit shape and fell flat on its back, knocked out.

He shook the unconscious rabbit back and forth carelessly.

“I will first train your sense of hitting and then teach you how to move and attack yourself.”

It seemed he had a curriculum of his own laid out in his head.

“Do not be deceived by what you see, and take it seriously.”

Before she knew it, Kang Jin-hyun had turned into a strict instructor and gave advice.

“Yes, yes. Understood!”

Hee-na quickly gripped the SSS-rank Useful Newspaper.

The greatest Hunter was teaching her how to fight, so she couldn’t listen to it half-heartedly.

* * *

“I’m exhausted!”

Today too, as soon as she entered the foyer, Hee-na lay spread-eagled.

“Lying on the bare floor is not good for your body, Hee-na.”

Kang Jin-hyun picked up Hee-na like a scrap of waste paper and put her on the sofa.

Before she knew it, she had also grown used to receiving Kang Jin-hyun’s touch like this.

“Urrgh.”

Hee-na draped over the sofa like wet laundry.

It was already the seventh day since she started receiving Kang Jin-hyun’s special training.

The training, which had started with striking the knocked-out rabbit monsters, had also raised in intensity before she knew it.

Now, she was actually learning how to hit a moving object from an efficient direction.

Before she knew it, the quest of catching monsters had become somewhat secondary.

Of course, since he caught a few monsters near the end of training to let her deal the final blows, it wasn’t that he had completely forgotten Hee-na’s quest.