Returnee's S-Rank Management Guide

Fragments of the Past (1)

"The number of gates currently identified is twenty-five."

The contents of the briefing at the Association were extremely succinct.

"It's hard to determine exactly which of those gates will be dangerous. This situation happened so abruptly that we haven't finished a proper analysis yet."

Therefore, as soon as the gates opened, hunters from the Association were scheduled to be dispatched to block the monsters pouring out from the gates.

At least closing the gates themselves was not such a difficult task.

Gates that occur inside dungeons.

Unless they were called 'rifts', closing gates themselves wasn't particularly hard.

A gate would go into an overload state for a certain amount of time after spewing out a set number of monsters.

Right at that point, if five or fewer hunters gathered their magic power, it was possible to forcibly seal the gate.

"We're going to block the gates in Seogwipo."

Hunter Oh Ji-hwan, who was very familiar with the geography of Jeju Island, was in charge of guiding Shin Ah-yeon and her party.

The number of gates that had appeared in Seogwipo City was ten.

Considering that there were currently thirty-two gates open on Jeju Island, a considerable number had erupted in Seogwipo.

"Shin Ah-yeon-nim, that's quite a lot; are we okay with this number of people?"

"Huh? Ah, well... it should be fine."

"Well, that's true. After all, we've got S-rank Hunter Shin Ah-yeon-nim, and even three A-rank hunters here."

Oh Ji-hwan smiled brightly, making Shin Ah-yeon give an awkward laugh.

'Those bastards are more troublesome than the monsters, though.'

Since they had to close as many as ten gates, Shin Ah-yeon's party members were quite a luxurious lineup.

Even leaving out herself, the S-rank hunter, there were three A-rank hunters. The rest were six B-rank hunters.

'Among them are three hunters from JM Management.'

Two A-rank and one B-rank hunter were affiliated with JM.

Honestly, they weren't a significant threat on their own, but while dealing with monsters pouring out of the gates, there was always a chance of a gap forming.

Moreover, there was no guarantee that those were the only hunters JM had sent to Jeju.

There could be other hunters lurking apart from those here.

"For now, since there are ten gates in Seogwipo, let's split up and move to each gate."

As Shin Ah-yeon was thinking this, Hong Byung-hun, a hunter from JM, spoke up.

Other hunters frowned at the sudden suggestion.

"You want us to split up and move in this situation?"

"Shouldn't we check the status of the gates first? That way, we can allocate people accordingly."

"Ah, well, that's true."

Normally, there would have been advance gate observation forecasts, so there was no need to check in person.

However, due to the multiple gate incidents, the observation devices weren't functioning properly now.

Thus, it was definitely right to go check them directly.

"Motherfu— I mean, kind words, kind words."

Of course, from Shin Ah-yeon's perspective, the intentions behind his suggestion were blatantly obvious.

"Huh? Shin Ah-yeon-nim, did you say something just now?"

"Oh, no. It was nothing."

Shin Ah-yeon, who had nearly cursed reflexively, tapped her lips with her hand and smiled awkwardly.

Since it wasn't just JM's hunters here, she needed to manage her image.

"Then, since we're short on time, let's hurry and—"

"Wait a minute. The point is, we need to find out which gates are dangerous, right?"

"Excuse me?"

"Why bother going in person?"

"...... Otherwise, how would we be able to tell which gates are dangerous?"

At Shin Ah-yeon's indifferent tone, Hong Byung-hun's face twisted with displeasure.

'Does this woman know my intentions?'

There was no way.

The suggestion he'd just made was, given the current circumstances, the most logical approach.

'Unless she was suspicious of us from the start...'

If one didn't know that JM was involved in this incident, there would be no reason for suspicion.

Then, was there really another way?

"I can check with magic."

"Excuse me?"

Magic like that actually existed?

Hong Byung-hun was a warrior-type hunter and didn't know much about magic.

But he at least knew that modern magic was developed based on elemental magic, and he'd never heard of a spell for detecting gates.

"The point is, as long as we can check the status of the gates, right?"

With that, Shin Ah-yeon flicked her fingers lightly.

Several glowing spheres of light appeared in midair.

"W-what is that?"

"Uh... It's magic. With this, I can roughly get all kinds of information."

"There's really such a spell?"

"Well, you did use some unusual magic during the dungeon expeditions before."

The hunters who specialized in magic couldn't hide their shock at Shin Ah-yeon's spell, looking at her with keen interest.

If not for the situation, they would probably have bombarded her with more questions.

"Ahem. Then, let me check first."

The spell Shin Ah-yeon used was a 3rd Circle magic called "Search Eye."

It was a low-circle, easy-to-use spell.

As just described, it sent out spheres of light to gather various information, such as the surrounding field of vision or the detection of magic power.

Along with tracking spells, it was a magic Shin Ah-yeon often used to keep tabs on Park Jung-woo's movements.

'Ah, right. I should've used it in advance again this time.'

However, Seogwipo and Ae-wol—where Park Jung-woo would be—were too far apart to use Search Eye effectively.

Shin Ah-yeon let out a soft sigh of regret but focused on investigating the gates near Seogwipo.

"Tsk."

While the other hunters were amazed, the JM hunters clicked their tongues quietly.

'Trying to pull something, are you?'

That reaction made it even clearer that they had some motive.

And that motive was likely herself.

'If we split up, it'll be much easier for them to target me.'

There was also the possibility that hidden hunters were ambushing somewhere else.

At any rate, it was best to avoid separating from the rest and moving alone.

Dealing with them wasn't the problem, but with the priority being closing the gates, she didn't need to waste time on them.

"I've more or less confirmed things. Can I assign the groups myself?"

"Of course. Shin Ah-yeon-nim, you're an S-rank hunter to begin with. There's no need to even ask."

"Ah, okay."

With the hunters responding enthusiastically, Shin Ah-yeon felt unnecessarily pressured and replied in a small voice.

Clearly, these kinds of things weren't to her taste.

Normally, if it wasn't for the JM hunters, she wouldn't have bothered to take charge.

'Damn it!'

JM's hunters, seeing Shin Ah-yeon's approach, realized things had just gotten more bothersome.

Especially Hong Byung-hun, who clicked his tongue and fidgeted with the artifact on his wrist.

'I really didn't want to do anything too conspicuous...'

He'd planned to get everyone to split up and then ambush her when there were fewer witnesses, but now that seemed impossible.

'Can't be helped. I guess I'll have to contact him.'

He'd hoped not to involve that party and to wrap things up himself.

But in the end, this multi-gate situation was nothing but a setup to prepare Shin Ah-yeon as the host.

Since they couldn't cause such an incident again, they had to accomplish their objective no matter what.

***

This is weirdly going too smoothly.

Shin Ah-yeon mused as she looked around.

Following the assessment through Search Eye, she had divided the ten people into three teams.

She, together with one A-rank hunter and two B-rank hunters, tackled the most dangerous gates.

The remaining six were divided into two teams, each led by an A-rank, with three members each.

Of course, those two team leaders were the A-rank hunters from JM.

By making them team leaders, it would also be more difficult for them to act independently, and any funny business would be easier to catch.

'Since there's been no suspicious radio chatter, it looks like they're behaving.'

If either of those A-rank hunters did anything odd, the other B-rank members would have contacted her already—since she'd told them to immediately if anything happened.

"It really is going smoothly. We've closed two B-rank gates now, right?"

"It's a relief there aren't any A-rank gates."

"Indeed."

The other hunters chatted calmly.

Just as they said, though there were many gates, no truly dangerous A-rank gates had appeared.

'If what Park Jung-woo oppa said is true and these were artificially created simultaneous gates, does that mean there aren't any high-level ones as a result?'

In a normal simultaneous eruption, sometimes even S-rank gates could appear.

That's why it was classified as a national disaster.

But the gates Shin Ah-yeon had checked turned out mostly to be C-rank, with the most dangerous only being B-rank.

Of course, B-rank gates were dangerous too, but for such a high-rank party, they were trivial.

Fffwing—

At that moment, a sound slicing through the air reached Shin Ah-yeon's ears.

A piercing sound, like an arrow leaving the string.

BOOOM!!

"W-what was that?!"

The hunters' blood ran cold at the sight of sparkling ice fragments falling.

Something had come flying from somewhere, only to shatter completely against a transparent barrier.

"T-thank you. You saved me."

A hunter thanked Shin Ah-yeon, who had protected him with a transparent barrier—but she didn't even spare him a glance. It was too soon to relax; she hadn't identified the enemy yet.

'It came from a distance outside my detection.'

The spell Shin Ah-yeon had just blocked was a spear made of ice.

Commonly known as an Ice Spear—a freezing element attack.

Fortunately, she had detected it mid-flight and blocked it in time, or someone would definitely have died.

'To shoot from outside my magic detection range...'

No ordinary mage could do that.

Although her current magic power level was a far cry from her prime, learning circle magic had greatly enhanced her ability to control magic.

Her range for sensing magic had grown, yet the attack had come from beyond even that.

"As expected of a great mage, your reaction is quick."

"!!"

A strange voice came from the exact opposite direction where the Ice Spear had flown.

The hunters turned as one to see a blond man applauding lightly.

"...... Who are you?"

He was clearly an awakened, judging by his magical presence.

The hunters tensed up, wary of the strange foreigner who had suddenly appeared.

Above all, he wasn't even Korean.

However, Shin Ah-yeon recalled seeing his face somewhere.

Yes, she'd definitely seen it in some documents Lee Soo-ah had given her.

'Definitely...'

The night before going to Jeju.

At Shin Ah-yeon's mansion, Lee Soo-ah had been sprawled on the living room couch, poring over a stack of documents.

Shin Ah-yeon, who had just returned from a raid in high spirits, had grabbed one of the files that Lee Soo-ah was reading.

"What's this?"

"Ugh, you know, unni, since I was made the ambassador for preventing awakened crimes, right?"

"Yeah, I know that."

"They told me I'd better memorize the info on awakened criminals whose identities are known and who are involved in recent incidents."

For the record, it wasn't a request from the Bureau of Awakener Crime Investigation.

Park Jung-woo had said that it would be helpful to memorize them and prepared the files for her.

"This is..."

"Oh, that's info on 'UnderStellar', who's an S-rank criminal organization. Apparently, a few of them were spotted in Korea recently? Do you know them, unni?"

Shin Ah-yeon frowned and nodded slowly at Lee Soo-ah's words.

"I've heard of them. But this is the first time I've seen their photo."

"Really? Well, it's good to be aware. Especially these two—they were reportedly seen in Korea. One's said to have been in contact with JM."

A person suspected of delivering the ultimate magic stone to JM.

That criminal's photo was attached to the file Shin Ah-yeon was holding.

"Hmm... Really?"

Shin Ah-yeon skimmed through it.

Blond, with a gentle appearance—not someone who looked like a criminal.

And the name was...

"Ivan Hunt".

"Oh, you know me?"

Shin Ah-yeon absentmindedly muttered the name of the blond man standing before her.

His face was exactly the same as in the photograph, and he spoke fluent Korean.

He was the one who had delivered the ultimate magic stone to JM.

'The worst mage in history.'

In truth, Shin Ah-yeon already knew him.

Ivan Hunt was a very famous figure in the world of magic.

'The only one ever stripped of the title of great mage.'

Who would have thought that accidentally looking at Lee Soo-ah's files would be such a help?

Otherwise, she wouldn't have recognized Ivan's face now.

But it was no wonder—'Ivan Hunt', as she knew him, looked nothing like the man in front of her.

'... He's way too young.'

The Ivan Hunt she knew was an elderly man over a hundred years old.

Awakener age much more slowly as they grow stronger.

But she had never seen anyone become so visibly younger as Ivan had.

Shin Ah-yeon realized he was now far stronger than what she remembered.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
Boss fight!
「٩(๑•̀o•́๑)و」