The Gardener in a Hunter World

Disclaimer: This is an edited MTL. Thus, I can’t guarantee that my editing to be proficient. But I hope you enjoy this story with me. If there are any corrections, it is highly encourage to leave a comment.

‘I don’t know if I should just wait here.’

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

“Come on, get in line!”

“If you don’t keep order, your entry time will increase!”

There were already a lot of Hunters in front of the Hunter Supplies Store, but today it was particularly crowded.

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

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

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

Hunters in winter clothes murmured as they passed.

“There have been a lot of 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 then?”

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

The new Hunter looked around the gate and murmured.

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

“The rankers are resting. It’s cold and there’s nothing inside, so what are they supposed to come here for? At the very least, newbies who wonder what a Polar dungeon is like are the ones who come.”

“Well, I guess so.”

Ji-Ha 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.

Viewing the situation in a positive light 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 been looking better quite a bit. Have you been eating anything good? Or are you dating?”

Jumi came over and smiled broadly and squeezed 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 and they’ve never seen her get angry.

In particular, she treated Yoo Ji-Ha more warmly like a family.

Yoo Ji-Ha was grateful for the times she visited and gave out a bag of side dishes every now and then.

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

“Why lucky?”

“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. Why didn’t you tell me yesterday?”

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

“What? When?”

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

“When you brought information about Polar dungeons.”

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

“Hey, do you think Yoo Ji-Ha hides things from you?”

SeongHo is embarrassed when Jumi slaps him on the forearm.

“No, it’s not that you’re keeping 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 knows 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 asked, she quickly picked up the book and spoke.

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

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

“Huh? Did we? My memory is 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 that, this noona…’

Resources and materials meant nothing to her.

Only ancient books written in the dungeon’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 dungeon language interpretation  was inferior to that of Yoo Ji-Ha.

He read a lot of books in that language, but if he didn’t know something, he skipped it.

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

“You guys, read books at home but focus on today. You came to dive a 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 of joy started ringing out.

The four shivered from the frigid cold in the ice field, even the winter clothes they brought 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 32% Cold Resistance buff 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, right?”

When Jumi gave him a compliment, he was embarrassed.

SeonYoung tapped Yoo Ji-Ha’s shoulder.

“Yoo Ji-Ha, isn’t this expensive? A 15% buff costs hundreds of thousands of won.”

“Yeah. If you sell this to Hunter Mania, will you get some money?”

“It’s okay, just drink.”

“But…”

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

“Anyway, the Cold Resistance potion is not very expensive because it is not used much. There are no resources in Polar dungeons.”

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

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

At least 1 million won can be profited, but they can understand Ji-Ha’s response.

Everyone opened the cork, consumed it, and checked their status window.

The three of them gaped their mouths wide.

“Wow…”

“So this is how it is. This is great, it’s awesome.”

“Our Ji-Ha made something really good.”

His words were not false.

Cold Resistance was buffed by 32% in the Elemental Resistance section of the status window.

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

SeongHo shrugged his shoulders and stepped forward.

“Come on, even if there’s no time limit, 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 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.

‘Still though, there’s really nothing here.’

Everywhere they look, there is only ice, ice and more ice.

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

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

But what’s 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.”

“Oh? There was no such thing in the briefing though? That’s strange.”

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

32% of Cold Resistance buff 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 nobody else had seen it, the group kept walking briskly, 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? There’s a golden shine.”

“Where?”

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

“A golden shine… Can’t we go see?”

Jumi urged, and SeongHo made the decision.

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

“I was lucky.”

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

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

The snowstorm, which had stopped for a while, came again, but strangely, the light was still clearly visible.

Something was 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 root that has the thickness of a building was protruding through the ice.

“Wow… It’s really big.”

“Books, books, books…”

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

woo woo woosh-

Can’t anybody 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.

“That won’t attack us, right?”

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

“Was just 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, then there’s 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 towards it rather than pressure. Do you think it’s dead?”

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

“Is this supposed to be something like a god of another dimension?”

SeonYoung, who had read a lot of ancient 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 he  heard the loud rumbling sound.

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: Theradrone Food. Symbolism Award】

‘Theradrones eat 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, even giving him a Hummingbell seed.

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 it in plastic.

The others that followed him were confused.

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

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

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

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

At first, everyone thought it was fireflies, 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.

【Symbiote¹

】

It means living together and helping each other.

Could these insects have a symbiotic relationship with the tree roots?

‘For now, let’s catch them.’

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

Then someone appeared from behind the root of the tree.

SeongHo’s body tensed and raised his 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 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.

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

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