VSP 30

Sejun sighed, wondering what kind of pathetic thing he was doing. The system sometimes teased him, sometimes made snide remarks, but in the end, the system was a being bound to him like Hoya, so it was not out of any true malice.

This being existed only for Sejun, and only cared for Sejun.

…Right?

When he recalled how sometimes it bombarded him with facts to the point he could not tell whose side it was on, Sejun wore a doubtful face, but then realized it was foolish to question the system’s intent. He sighed again and stood up.

So what if he had been half-forced to be cursed at in the original? The novel was already finished, he was free of that compulsion. From now on, he just had to eat well and live well.

No matter what anyone said, he was an S-rank hunter. Countless hunters without natural-born talent would think, no matter how much he was cursed out, that they wanted to be like Sejun.

Good looks, good body, S-rank hunter, earns good money.

Thinking about it that way, it really was a blessed life.

A life anyone would envy. Hunter ranks went down to F-rank, and F-rank hunters were basically just healthy ordinary people. To them, high-ranked hunters were nothing but enviable.

Of course, that envy turned into jealousy, and Sejun was the perfect target for it.

That was why he got cursed out more, but Sejun was the type to think that if you had something, you had something to lose too, so he didn’t dwell on it.

He was already stuffed full of curses, a few more added didn’t make fresh wounds.

“Isn’t this Sejun-nim a super cool S-rank hunter? Pitying me is ridiculous. This world is full of low-rank hunters and ordinary people who envy not even S-rank but B-rank hunters!”

With that spirited declaration, Sejun moved his body, thinking he might as well work out.

He didn’t especially like working out, but there were things he had to do for body maintenance, and working out was one of them.

In his house, he had set up a small home gym. Sejun stretched, preparing to work out, when the system mumbled faintly.

[…That’s your greatest strength, Sejun-nim.]

Sejun pretended not to hear.

After about two hours of training, he showered off his sweat, then lay down in bed feeling refreshed. Just as he was drifting into sleep, a strange voice whispered in his ear.

Sejun, I’m sorry, I’ll really make you happy from now on!

Since he heard it half-asleep, he couldn’t be sure, but the voice sounded similar to that female voice he had once heard, the one he believed belonged to the original author. But he was not certain, and too sleepy to care.

He forgot that he even heard it and fell asleep.

•••

「Hunter Sejun-nim, the summoning beast-related item you applied to borrow has been approved. When will you come pick it up?」

It came.

A few days later, Sejun jumped at the text from the Association. Since his mana had increased, he had been curious how much Hoya could now fight, so he had applied to borrow an item from the Hunter Association. Now it was finally approved.

Sejun rushed straight to the Association.

Summoner-type hunters were rare worldwide, and naturally items related to them were extremely few.

What did exist had often been broken by hunters in dungeons or had already ended up in other hunters’ hands, so Sejun had almost no summoning-related items of his own.

So he had no choice but to file requests with the Association, but since hunters had increasingly borrowed indefinitely and treated them like personal property until breaking them, the Association had slashed lending periods and imposed long reapplication bans.

For that reason, the approval for the summoner’s bond-strengthening item he had borrowed once before had only just now come through.

After receiving a bit of scolding from the staff at the Association’s lending office–Sejun was infamous for breaking things–he took the item and headed straight to the training grounds in the basement.

As an S-rank hunter, if he didn’t monopolize it, there were always personal training rooms available by quick application, and fortunately no one was using one now.

Who even bothered to train anymore with the world so peaceful lately?

Thanks to that, Sejun had the best training room all to himself. Inside the enclosed space, he pulled out the item he had borrowed from the association.

[Ring of Bond

Category: Special Item / Summoner Only

Grade: A

Effect: Stabilizes the link with summon, raises resonance synchronization, temporarily enhances summon’s abilities]

Sejun slipped the ring onto his finger. There was no dramatic effect, but the system never lied, so something was definitely working.

“Hoya.”

Sejun called the name of his only summon. Normally, a summoner-type hunter could control multiple summons at once, but Sejun had only Hoya.

That wasn’t because Sejun lacked ability in that area, but because Hoya was too powerful.

“Come out.”

[Summon ‘Hoya’ is being summoned.]

As Sejun activated the summoning skill, a huge blue-glowing tiger jumped out of the air.

The tiger’s translucent glowing fur and sparkling body proved it was no ordinary tiger. That giant tiger’s name was Hoya.

Sejun’s treasure, praised as the strongest summon in the world.

But because his owner lacked ability, Hoya was an unlucky being whose power was buried, unable to use even a quarter of his strength.

「Grr.」

The tiger appeared in the air and was summoned a little distance from Sejun, growling.

It wasn’t a voice that held any fondness.

This prickly tiger had never once shown affection toward Sejun.

If anything, he looked down on Sejun as pathetic for owning him yet failing to use him properly.

On top of that, Hoya rarely followed orders, Sejun never had enough mana to give proper commands anyway. Once summoned, Hoya judged the situation himself and acted in the best way.

…Because of that, there had been many times people said the real body was Hoya, not Sejun.

Well, my Hoya is smart, Sejun thought, forcing himself to stay positive.

“Hoya, listen. My mana increased a lot.”

Sejun started off boasting.

This smart summon understood human speech perfectly, he just didn’t answer in words.

Of course, even if he could talk, his temperament was such that he would ignore him anyway…

“So if I drink a mana potion now, cough!”

Sejun coughed lightly. His body was sending warning signs of mana shortage.

Even though his mana had risen to 150, just summoning Hoya drained 100 at once, and as long as Hoya remained out, his mana kept dropping in proportion to the time. Hoya was practically a mana-devouring monster.

Before he spat blood, Sejun gulped down a mana potion.

Before, when his mana had only been 120, a mid-grade potion that normally restored around 200 mana had been largely wasted since it overshot his max. It was still inefficient, but with his maximum raised, at least the potion worked better now.

“So today I borrowed this item, and I’m going to test how much you can, ahem, move!”

「……」

Hoya didn’t answer. He just flicked his front paw lazily like some giant cat.

[He looks like he’s just ignoring you.]

“Ugh.”

An extra 30 mana didn’t suddenly make Sejun an EX-rank hunter. He was still just Sejun with 30 more mana. Even so, how could a summon be so consistent in ignoring its master?

Sejun clapped his hands. He wanted to catch Hoya’s attention, but of course, Hoya gave him none.

Sejun refused to give up and shouted.

“Hoya! You see that rock over there? Ram it with your body!”

It was a good chance to test how much Hoya could move and how strong he was.

“Hoya!”

But Hoya didn’t move.

Instead, he yawned, lazy!

“Hoya, please!”

Sejun remembered a cartoon he used to watch as a kid. In it, one hot-tempered Po**mon never listened to the protagonist’s orders, leaving the hero terribly frustrated.

Back then Sejun had only felt more frustrated than the protagonist, thinking, “If it were me, I’d make him listen and become friends!” He had thought, “Why act so stupid?”

Sorry, Ash. This is really hard…

Muttering a quick apology to that cartoon hero from his childhood, Sejun shouted in desperation.

“Hoya, listen to my order! Just once, follow my order and I’ll give you something tasty. A snack? Want a snack? Or should I give you meat?”

Sejun worked hard, trying to coax Hoya. But Hoya only yawned again.