Prologue
Bloodshot eyes flashed between the densely packed tree trunks.
Stiff navy-colored fur bristled over dark grayish-brown skin that resembled ancient rock. The musty stench of rotting, waterlogged wood saturated the air.
The monkey-like monster was so imposingly large it looked ready to crush the towering pine tree standing beside it.
“It’s a Mokgwang.”
Facing this house-sized monster were only two men, and the taller one spoke in a dismissive tone, as if he’d just spotted a common weed by the roadside.
His brown hair glowed red whenever it caught the sunlight, making it stand out prominently. As if he’d dyed it and then completely forgotten about it, his neatly trimmed semi-two-block cut had already faded to black at the part and crown.
In an atmosphere so oppressive that ordinary criminals would collapse where they stood, the reddish-brown haired man—Choi Dohyuk—maintained his indifferent expression as he pulled leather gloves from his battle uniform’s inner pocket and slipped them on. Despite his cool, expressionless face, he somehow looked oddly pleased, like an office worker counting down the minutes until quitting time.
“So you’re leaving it all to me?”
At Dohyuk’s words, the fierce-looking man beside him—the one with sharply upturned eyes—retorted irritably as he stepped forward. As he closed the distance between himself and the monster, the damp ground trembled slightly with a low rumble.
The surroundings darkened. The monster had summoned rain clouds. Unlike normal clouds, these abnormal dark masses obscured vision like smog, causing any prey that encountered a Mokgwang to lose their sense of direction and wander endlessly within its territory.
An eerie, humid moisture settled over the area. Breathing became as difficult as being submerged in deep water.
Squelch—the ground, saturated with moisture, made a sickening sound as it opened its mud-caked maw in rhythm with the man’s footsteps.
“You pulled the same thing four years ago in that dungeon with the man-eating dogs, didn’t you? Just dumping everything on me.”
“…How long are you going to hold that over my head? I didn’t dump anything on you.”
“You think I don’t know you held back because you said they looked like puppies? So what about this Mokgwang? Don’t tell me you think this one’s too cute to attack, too?”
As the man frowned, his already sharp features—which suggested sensitivity and stubbornness even at rest—became even fiercer.
At his comment, Dohyuk raised his gaze to look at the Mokgwang with an expression of pure disbelief.
This thing? Cute?
“No, this one really…”
Though he felt bad saying it so bluntly, every part of the Mokgwang—from its long, drooping grayish-brown ears to its gleaming predatory eyes—looked incomparably more revolting than the man-eating dogs had. Yet here this guy was, comparing the Mokgwang and those man-eating dogs as if they were equivalent.
Sure, the man-eating dogs had been pretty worked up at the time, snarling like they’d tear someone apart at any moment. But their yellowish bodies and spiky fur had resembled the stray dogs often seen near headquarters.
Even if they were man-eating dogs, still. The image of those creatures he’d secretly fed a few times flashed briefly through his mind, and he just hadn’t wanted to cut them down.
Of course, if the man-eating dogs had been truly dangerous monsters, or if the situation had been urgent enough to require Dohyuk’s support, he never would have acted so casually. But those creatures had been mere C-class monsters—nothing special except for the fact they attacked in packs.
In fact, the man currently railing against him had monopolized all the byproducts from that dungeon thanks to Dohyuk’s passive participation, which must have earned him a considerable side income.
The image of that broadly grinning face was still vivid, yet now he was acting like nothing had ever happened. Dohyuk blinked, his head tilted skeptically.
“Have you gotten more spoiled when I wasn’t looking? It’s a B-class monster—a Mokgwang that’s vulnerable to light. Do you really need my help?”
At Dohyuk’s calm words, spoken despite the agitated Mokgwang before them, Park Seungmin—an A-class light ability Esper—frowned again after having just relaxed his expression.
Dohyuk grinned at Seungmin’s face, which openly showed his lingering dissatisfaction. He’d figured out what Seungmin wanted.
Seungmin always insisted on verbal confirmation, even for obvious things.
Like right now.
“I won’t touch your byproducts.”
He was especially like this about money matters, firmly believing that financial issues should be handled cleanly even between parent and child, let alone between friends.
Sure enough, once he heard the words he’d been waiting for, Seungmin’s face broke into a bright smile, as if he’d never been frowning at all.
“Then I’ll handle it myself, dear customer!”
Just as Seungmin responded in a playful, lilting tone and took another step toward the Mokgwang, the agitated monster suddenly opened its maw wide.
A piercing shriek erupted from the gaping mouth, scraping against human nerves like nails on a chalkboard. The Mokgwang, its fur bristling even more stiffly, snapped the pine tree beside it with a thunderous crack. This was likely hunter’s instinct—blocking the enemy’s line of sight with an obstacle, then quickly following up with an attack.
Dohyuk lightly dodged the tree falling in his direction and widened the distance between himself and the Mokgwang.
He counted silently for about two seconds. At precisely the right moment, Dohyuk turned away from the Mokgwang.
Flash!
The instant Dohyuk moved, a brilliant light flared like a catastrophe. It was so intense that the darkness-soaked forest turned completely white in an instant.
The Mokgwang—a monster that made its home in the lightless depths of lake bottoms—easily lost its vision when exposed to strong light. Not missing the moment the monster staggered, Seungmin, who had successfully closed the distance, severed the Mokgwang’s head in one clean stroke.
Thanks to the intense heat generated by the sword formed from pure light, not even the monster’s bodily fluids leaked from the cleanly cauterized cross-section.
As soon as the severed head rolled across the ground, the massive body collapsed with a heavy thud. Unlike the corpse now covered in mud from rolling on the filthy ground, Seungmin turned around looking completely pristine. The brilliantly glowing sword had already vanished.
“Well, if you’d helped, there wouldn’t be any intact byproducts left anyway, so this is better.”
Watching Seungmin joke with a slight smile and peaceful expression—as if he’d just returned from a casual stroll—Dohyuk clenched and unclenched his fist a couple of times.
In the darkness without a speck of light, his pitch-black eyes held a deep glimmer of amusement.
“True. Wouldn’t it be better if it actually left something behind when it died?”
The stiff leather covering his hands showed no signs of softening.
Dohyuk began helping Seungmin move the dead Mokgwang’s body.
Chapter 1
Recently, Choi Dohyuk had been so busy he wouldn’t have time to pick up a 50,000 won bill even if it were lying on the street.
After being assigned to the Yeongnam region—where dungeon gate occurrence frequency had increased and the danger level had been raised from level 1 to level 2—he’d been running himself ragged for two straight years.
Just when he thought he was finally getting the hang of things and the work was becoming more manageable, diplomatic issues arose with Japan, and he was transferred to the Busan branch of the Korean Ability Management Authority six months ago.
For a grand total of two and a half years, he’d been worked like a machine, his life nothing but an endless cycle of dormitory and dungeon.
He was so busy that once, on his day off, at the exact moment he was about to put grilled meat in his mouth, he received an emergency call and had to deploy to Taejongdae.
When Dohyuk returned after completing that mission, he found the Korean beef hadn’t just fully cooked—it had dried out and shriveled up completely. Being the diligent person he was, he saved it and added it to doenjang jjigae the next day. It was delicious. He really hadn’t wanted to discover that beef doenjang jjigae could taste that good, but now he knew.
Beep, beep, beep.
When the alarm signaling that thirty minutes had passed went off, Soyeon—an A-class government-affiliated Guide who had been holding Dohyuk’s arm and focusing on the guiding—slowly removed her hand. She nodded toward Dohyuk.
“Esper Choi Dohyuk, good work!”
After the First Transformation, humans who awakened as ability users began appearing one by one. Awakening was closer to human evolution—a means of survival against the monsters that had suddenly appeared. Ability users who wielded superhuman powers incomparable to ordinary people. They could conjure intense flames from thin air and demolish buildings with their bare hands. Add to that their tremendous regenerative abilities. People named these beings—who shared nothing with ordinary humans except their appearance—Espers.
Of course, even Espers, who seemed like perfect new humans, had their weaknesses. Using superpowers consumed the Espers’ minds. Guiding was the act of mentally connecting with these Espers to provide them with stability. In the end, Espers were imperfect beings who could only find stability through guiding performed by Guides—who were also ability users.
“The hard work was all yours, Guide-nim. The guiding must have been exhausting.”
Although guiding efficiency increased with higher Guide rank and matching rate, Dohyuk had never encountered a Guide with a high matching rate with him. As a result, Guides found guiding sessions with Dohyuk particularly draining. While other Espers would absorb 10 units of energy when given 10—or in some cases even 12—giving Dohyuk 10 units required pouring in at least 25, which naturally made it exhausting work.
“Oh, it’s what I do every day—it’s not that hard. By the way, today’s the last time we’ll see each other.”
But Soyeon had never avoided Dohyuk. She always maintained a warm smile, treating him with genuine kindness and affection.
