Monster Tamer NPC
Heo Yunji — Eclipse’s executive and the second strongest after Jeong Euijin — had been swamped from morning until afternoon processing an endless flood of alliance applications.
Communication Ear Cuffs should have been distributed faster! Or sold cheaper, at least!
If Communication Ear Cuffs had been widely available, she could have filtered out half of these pointless alliance requests with a single call instead of having to handle each one in person.
Things like the number of members, their levels, their skills and combat styles.
None of that would require a face-to-face meeting — just ask and answer over the phone, and there’d be no reason for the workload to pile up like this.
Honestly, two years ago when I had résumés stacked up and went through them one by one was so much better than this.
To think she’d ever miss emails and paperwork.
That bastard Jeong Euijin should be helping at a time like this — where the hell is he off wandering around, honestly.
Aside from the scheduled check-ins through the Communication Ear Cuffs, Jeong Euijin hadn’t shown his face since yesterday.
He was set to depart tomorrow to subjugate the Minotaur Lord, so he’d be back by tonight at the latest — but…
His eyes were pretty far gone.
Jeong Euijin’s eyes had gone off the deep end three times.
Once, when a message came in saying the Special Supply Station had been destroyed by the Minotaur Lord.
The second time, when he’d cut off the Minotaur Lord’s arm all on his own and was digging through the rubble of the Special Supply Station.
And the last time, when word came from the allied forces of Zone 3 that the ash of an NPC — a black residue — had been found at their Special Supply Station.
Immediately after that, without a word of explanation, Jeong Euijin had simply taken his pet and flown off.
Someone who was normally blunt to a fault, his gaze consistently emotionless — it was anything but normal for him to lose it three times in a single day. Knowing that, even when the scheduled check-ins came through, she couldn’t bring herself to demand where he was. All she could do was tell him to come back as soon as possible.
The moment she thought of Jeong Euijin, her head started throbbing again, so Heo Yunji glanced over at the young man acting as her secretary.
“Next.”
The young man, who immediately understood what she meant, opened his mouth right away. He had simply been waiting while she collected her thoughts, so the response came without much delay.
“It’s a small team with no faction name. Only five members.”
Heo Yunji made no effort to hide her displeasure as she picked up the plastic cup on the table. It was filled with a sports drink packed with ice.
“Five people? That’s too few. Levels?”
“One at level 38, two at level 35, one at level 30, and one at level 9.”
“Pfft— What?! Level 9?!”
Heo Yunji spat out a mouthful of blue sports drink, her expression completely dumbfounded.
“Did I just hear that wrong? Level 9?”
“You heard correctly.”
“Ha!”
She let out a loud, hollow laugh and immediately twisted her face.
“The team’s too small, the levels are mediocre, and on top of that there’s someone who isn’t even level 10?! Did they come here to be carried to their graves?!”
She snapped at full volume and waved her hand dismissively, as if there was nothing more worth considering.
“Forget it, tell them to leave. Or tell them to send the level 9 back and have the four of them interview alone.”
“The thing is… that level 9 Player apparently has a rather unique skill.”
Even with the young man’s additional comment, Heo Yunji only scoffed, still thoroughly unimpressed.
“Even with a unique skill, they’re still a single-digit level Player. With stats that pitiful, they’d die instantly from just catching a stray shard mid-combat. Forget it, tell them to go.”
The young man said he understood and left the room.
“This is exactly why we need communication devices. If they’d known ahead of time, that team would’ve sorted out their roster themselves before coming.”
Left alone, Heo Yunji shook her head and clicked her tongue.
And yet, part of her was curious about the identity of this level 9 Player.
Even if you only picked safe quests that didn’t involve killing monsters, you could still reach somewhere in the middle of level 10 over two years.
And they were still in the single digits?
I figured single-digit levels at this point in time would only apply to newborns, but I suppose the world is wide and full of lunatics.
Imagining how much the four teammates must have suffered protecting that gutless, reckless single-digit Player, she almost felt sorry for them.
As she clicked her tongue again, the young man who had just left came back. His face was visibly troubled.
“Um, Yunji. About that team just now.”
“What is it? Are they saying they’ll interview with just the four of them?”
“No, it’s not that… they’re asking you to step outside for a moment.”
“What?”
Were they planning to come argue with her face to face?
“The level 9 Player says they want to show you their skill, and is asking for just a moment of your time.”
Unbelievable.
Here she was at level 55, and a measly level 9 Player had the nerve to tell her they’d show off their skill.
Every Player had their own unique skill, but the effects ultimately scaled with level and stats.
She’d heard rumors about skills so unusual they could override that — but how common were those cases really?
In the end, she chalked it up to empty bravado from a low-level Player with nothing to show.
“Do I look like I have time to spare? What do you mean come here, go there — I’m swamped to death. I don’t need it, just tell them to leave.”
“She says you’ll definitely regret it if you don’t come.”
“Wow — they’ve got some nerve.”
Now she was curious, she had to admit.
What kind of nerve did a single-digit level Player — one she had no idea how they’d even survived this long — have, to pull this kind of stunt on an Eclipse executive?
The cocky provocation of a low-level Player, and just a tiny twinge of curiosity.
Those two things were quietly poking at Heo Yunji’s nerves.
Heo Yunji downed the rest of her sports drink in one go, then crunched through the remaining ice with a satisfying crackle. She curled one corner of her mouth into a smirk and stood up.
“Fine. Let’s go see what kind of person this is.”
***
I already knew Jeong Euijin wasn’t at Eclipse’s hideout.
I confirmed it on the way here using Trait: Myriad View.
Thanks to Trait: Myriad View, which let me see through to the interior of buildings, I had been able to check who was currently processing alliance applications.
The one conducting interviews with each applicant one by one was a young woman with her hair tied up high. Since she was among the highest-level Players not just in Eclipse but in all of Zone 2, there was no way I — having scanned Trait: Myriad View every day — wouldn’t recognize her.
Heo Yunji. Eclipse’s executive, and acting leader.
Handling all command duties in place of a leader who never showed their face, she was one of the central pillars that practically ran Eclipse.
From what I had observed, Heo Yunji’s personality was cold and pragmatic.
The type to prioritize numbers and efficiency over feelings or backstory, and cut without hesitation once she deemed something unnecessary.
Despite that, perhaps owing to her age, she had a weakness for subtle provocation. Not outright challenges — but specifically the kind that said you’ll be the one losing out if you don’t.
As expected, it seemed Heo Yunji had taken the bait on a completely transparent piece of provocation. She stepped out of the interview room and walked all the way to the villa entrance where we were waiting.
Standing before us, Heo Yunji crossed her arms and gave a crooked smile.
“I don’t know what it is, but make it quick.”
As she said that, Heo Yunji caught sight of the little white dragon dangling from my head, and her eyes gave a faint flinch. Her pupils shifted ever so slightly and she bit her lip just a little. It was almost identical to the reaction Jeong Iseul showed whenever she desperately wanted to touch Alt.
I pretended not to notice and walked ahead.
“I’ll be right back.”
“Should I come along?”
Seo Wonil asked, glancing briefly at Heo Yunji. There was no missing what that look meant.
“Don’t worry. I’ll just confirm the skill and bring them back safe and sound.”
Heo Yunji let out a scoff and shot Seo Wonil a sharp look.
“Now I get why they’re still level 9.”
It was said under her breath, but all of us heard it perfectly well. It seemed Heo Yunji had mistaken the other four members for having been overprotecting me all this time.
Well, if she thinks we’re a long-standing team, that works in my favor.
Better than her finding out the suspicious truth that we’d only been a team for a single day.
I handed Alt off to Jeong Iseul and walked away from the villa with Heo Yunji, just the two of us.
When we had gone far enough that the villa was just a distant shape behind us —
Heo Yunji, now wearing an expression that said this was becoming a nuisance, looked around and reached for the dagger at her hip.
“Hey, how far are we going? There’ll be monsters ahead.”
“I know.”
“You do actually know, right? There are monsters above level 30 all over this area.”
Without answering, I changed direction. Not back toward the villa — I veered off to the side. Into an alley thick with an oddly eerie air.
“Wait! That way is dangerous!”
Heo Yunji rushed after me, hastily drawing both of her daggers. She seemed to already know what was lurking in this alley.
“It’s fine.”
I turned to face Heo Yunji with my back to the rippling, shifting something before me. The two eyes looking back at me went wide as saucers.
“This one won’t hurt me.”
Behind me, a skeleton dressed in a worn robe and clutching a menacingly designed staff slowly rose to its feet.
