The Gardener in a Hunter World - Chapter 8

Cold Dungeon (1)
‘I don’t know if I should wait here.’

Yoo Ji-Ha is waiting for others in front of the witch’s cauldron hunter supplies store in Seoul’s district 7.

“Come on, get in line!”

“If you do not follow the order, your entry time will increase!”

There were originally many hunters in front of the Hunter Supplies Store, but today it was particularly crowded.

The blue-waving dungeon gate was sitting right in front of the store.

Hunters enter the dungeon through this gate and receive quests to proceed.

The main content of the quest was to annihilate the monsters inside, survive, etc., but there were cases where there were no such things like this dungeon.

Hunters in winter clothes murmured as they passed.

“There are many cases where there are no quests at all in places like polar or desert dungeons. The time limit is either very generous or nonexistent.”

“Ah, so survival itself is the goal, isn’t it?”

“Well, I don’t know about that… What is certain is that no one has broken the Polar Dungeon. Since there is no goal in the first place, no one knows what to do to break it.”

The new hunter looked around the gate and murmured.

“Aren’t there a lot of people here? I think they are newcomers like me.”

“The rankers are resting. It’s cold and there’s nothing inside, so what are they supposed to do? At the very least, newbies who wonder what a polar dungeon is are the one who comes.”

“Well, I guess so.”

He has experience entering the dungeon, so he has a rough idea of what a polar dungeon is like.

But hearing the stories of the hunters at the scene made him wonder why they came here.

Does SeongHo Hyung really think this dungeon will be helpful to him?

‘It’s a favor from my brother.’

He thought it wouldn’t hurt to have some experience.

Seeing the situation positively was one of his strengths.

After waiting for a while, SeongHo and Jumi appeared wearing special winter clothes.

“Damn, didn’t you wait long?”

“No.”

“I think our Yoo Ji-Ha has improved quite a bit. Do you eat anything good? Or are you dating?”

Jumi came over and smiled broadly and rubbed Yoo Ji-Ha’s cheeks with her hands.

She awakened the healer class as SeongHo’s wife.

According to the people around her, she has a gentle personality that they’ve never seen her get angry.

In particular, she was a person who treated Yoo Ji-Ha more warmly than family.

Yoo Ji-Ha was grateful when she come and hand out a bag of side dishes every now and then.

“I don’t have a woman, I’m kind of lucky these days.”

“What luck?”

“That is…”

Yoo Ji-Ha briefly explained about Category 0 dungeons.

Because HyeJin and CheolHeon know anyway.

SeongHo frowned slightly after hearing everything.

“It’s my first time hearing about it. It didn’t happen yesterday, did it?”

“I was going to tell Hyung, but you suddenly left because you were busy.”

“What? When?”

“When you brought information about polar dungeons.”

SeongHo’s hardened face melted like snow and became a confused face.

“Hahaha, so that’s what happened. Sorry, sorry. I had something to do then.”

“Hey, you think Yoo Ji-Ha is hiding things from you?”

SeongHo is embarrassed when Jumi slaps him on the forearm.

“No, it’s not that you’re hiding something from me… Uh, here comes SeonYoung, SeonYoung.”

Just in time, Hwang SeonYoung appeared through the crowd while reading a thick book. She looks like a thin scholarly girl with round glasses while carrying a large backpack, but she fell over.

“Gosh.”

“Be careful.”

“My book.”

To her, the book is more important than her falling.

SeonYoung is a serious type of book addict who also know Yoo Ji-Ha, and she was always reading books.

Thanks to her, people used to guess that he had awakened to the rarest class.

“Noona are you okay?”

When Yoo Ji-Ha asks, she quickly picked up the book and spoke.

“Yes, I’m fine. But it’s been a while since I saw you. It’s been about a month?”

“We went to the wholesale center together before, don’t you remember?”

“Huh? Did you? My memories are getting older.”

“What kind of memory is that at a very young age?”

When Jumi, who surpassed 30, said something, SeonYoung stuck out her tongue.

Yoo Ji-Ha also explained to her the Category 0 dungeon,

“A book, you didn’t have a book?”

‘After all, this noona…’

Resources and materials mean nothing to her.

Only ancient books written in the continent’s official language were important.

“Unfortunately, there were none.”

“I see… Next time you find one, you have to lend it to me, okay?”

“Okay.”

SeonYoung smiled and opened the book and asked about the interpretation of one part.

Even though she read so many books, her continent’s official language skills were inferior to those of Yoo Ji-Ha.

It seemed like it’s because he read a lot, so if he didn’t know something, he skipped it.

SeongHo sighed and grab the two of them by the shoulders.

“You guys, go home to read books but focus on today. You came to the polar dungeon. I need to do a briefing.”

The two put their books in and waited for SeongHo to speak like a good student.

 

[Difficulty: Category 1

Type: Polar

Goal: None

Time limit: none]

 

“Wow!”

“This is no joke!”

As soon as they entered the gate, screams started pouring in.

The four shivered from the frigid cold in the ice field, even the winter clothes were of no use.

“It’s minus 55 degrees.”

“Drink one potion. I’m going to freeze to death.”

It was so cold that even his breath almost froze.

SeongHo turned the potion bottle back and forth as if he couldn’t understand no matter how much he thought about it.

“God. This is a 32% cold resistance per bottle… I don’t think it makes sense.”

“I heard that Ji-ha tested it himself. And you’ll know when you drink it, won’t you?”

When Jumi gave him a compliment, he was embarrassed.

SeonYoung tapped the shoulder of Yoo Ji-Ha.

“Yoo Ji-Ha, isn’t this expensive? 15% costs of hundreds of thousands of won.”“Yeah. If I sell this to the Hunter Mania, will I get some money?”

“It’s okay, just drink.”

“No, though…”

Jumi tried to say something, but Yoo Ji-Ha shook her head.

“Anyway, the cold resistance potion is not very expensive because it is not used much. There are no resources here.”

“Yoo Ji-Ha is right. Because the price of a potion varies greatly depending on the usage… If there is no Polar Dungeon, the demand will be quite low.”

“Actually, everyone who was outside at the gate was a newcomer.”

Still, at least 1 million won will come out, but they can understand Yoo Ji-Ha response.

Everyone opens the lid, gulps, and checks their status window.

The three of them opened their mouths wide.

“Wow…”

“This is how it happens. It’s great, it’s awesome.”

“Our Yoo Ji-Ha made something really good.”

His words were not false.

Frost was changed to 32% in the element resistance section of the status window.

Even though he was wearing winter clothes, the feeling that his whole body was going to freeze was greatly alleviated, and he was able to somewhat endure it.

SeongHo shrugged his shoulders and stepped forward.

“Come on, there’s no time limit, but we can’t stay here long, so let’s go quickly.”

The three diligently followed SeongHo.

The briefing said it was nothing but a barren ice field, but monsters still appeared frequently.

If you want to return to the gate, use a compass.

The compass is an artifact that is frequently dropped in various dungeons, and it was an object that indicated the direction of the gate.

If it wasn’t for this, there would have been quite a few people who couldn’t get out of the dungeon.

‘By the way, there’s really nothing here.’

Everywhere they look, there is only ice and ice.

If he were to find the most desolate place in Antarctica, it would be like this.

The group set out to explore with Yoo Ji-Ha in the center.

But what is this?

Suddenly the temperature started to rise.

Jumi, who was walking with a thermometer, tilted her head repeatedly.

“SeongHo, the temperature keeps rising… It’s minus 40 degrees right now.”

“Ok? There was no such thing on the report? It’s strange.”

However, the higher the temperature, the easier it is to endure.

32% of cold resistance was added to the winter clothing, so it felt like minus 20 degrees.

Yoo Ji-Ha looked around and found something.

‘What is that?’

A golden light shone across the horizon.

As if no one else had seen it, they hurried their steps, saying it was much better when the temperature rose.

He walked a little faster and grabbed SeongHo’s arm.

“Hyung. Do you see that over there? It shining gold.”

“Where?”

Everyone stopped and looked in the direction Yoo Ji-Ha was pointing and found it.

“Shining in gold… Can’t we go, see?”

Jumi urged, and SeongHo made the decision.

“We should go. It’s important to find anything here. Yoo Ji-Ha, well done. You have good eyes even when you wear glasses.”

“I was lucky.”

SeonYoung, who was wearing glasses, smiled and stroked Yoo Ji-Ha’s head.

The group went on foot and walked in search of the golden light.

The snowstorm, which had stopped for a while, came again, but strangely, the light was very clear.

But something is strange.

After the snowstorm stopped, what the group discovered was not a golden light, but a huge tree root.

Everyone was overwhelmed by the hugeness and visuals and forgot what to say.

Each tree roots had thickness of a building protruding through the ice.

“Wow… It’s really big.”

“Books, books, books…”

SeonYoung was busy looking for a book, and Yoo Ji-Ha who was silent for a while, was staring at the root of the tree.

woo woo woosh-

Can’t anyone else hear this?

The air from the root of the tree continued to bother him.

It was as if he was being guided somewhere.

SeongHo’s loud voice intervened.

“This won’t hit us, will it?”

“Stop talking nonsense. Do you know where this tree comes from.”

“No, that’s not what I’m saying. Anyway, it’s very warm here. How’s the temperature?”

“Oh my goodness. The device says it’s 20 degrees.”

“Something’s a little weird. If the root of this tree was this close to the gate, there is no way other hunters could not find it.”

When SeonYoung pointed this out, everyone nodded.

There was definitely something odd about this tree root.

“Because the tree root is so big… Somehow, I feel pity rather than pressure. Do you think it’s dead?”

“If it’s a tree this big, I don’t think it will die at all… The body must be somewhere else.”

“Isn’t this supposed to be something like a god of another dimension?”

SeonYoung, who had read a lot of old books, made an absurd comment and everyone laughed.

“Hey, what kind of god…”

Yoo Ji-Ha left behind the discussion of the party and walked to the place where a loud rumbling sound was heard.

SeongHo called him, but he did not hear him.

Not long after walking, he noticed something green forming between the roots of the tree.

 

[Sap Jelly: Food of Theradrone. Symbolism Award]

 

‘Theradrone eats this?’

If so, have they been starving until now?

The starving Theradrones came to Yoo Ji-Ha’s mind.

They didn’t look cute, but they were quite affectionate, giving him a hummingbell seeds.

When he touched it with his hand, it was like jelly.

The symbolism probably indicates how much the Theradrones like this.

Yoo Ji-Ha got down on one knee, took out a tool, and put the sap jelly in a plastic.

The group that followed him was confused.

“What is it? Is that used for alchemy?”

“I don’t know yet, but I think the answer will come if I refine it.”

“At least, I’m glad Yoo Ji-Ha got something here.”

At that time, insects gathered around Yoo Ji-Ha.

At first, everyone thought it was a firefly, but the shape was different.

When Jumi saw the brightly glowing insect, she was startled and hugged SeongHo’s arm.

“Whoa.”

While SeonYoung opened her mouth, insects began to fly around Yoo Ji-Ha.

It felt like a curtain of light.

 

[Symbiote]

 

It means living together and helping each other.

Could these insects have a symbiotic relationship with tree roots?

‘For now, let’s catch it.’

He doesn’t know what it is, but he thought it had something to do with the forest of his dreams, so he diligently collected insects.

Then someone appeared from behind the root of the tree.

SeongHo tensed the muscles of his body and raised the wooden shield, while SeonYoung made a sound.

The person who appeared in front of the group was none other than Seo HyeJin.

But as soon as she appeared, the dungeon quest was updated.

 

[Difficulty: Category 3

Type: Polar

Objective: Kill the Frost Trolls in the Northwest Valley.

Time limit: 2 hours]

 

All of their expressions changed drastically.

While Seo HyeJin who just arrived, did not understand why they had such faces because her quest window did not change.