"….You are really having fun, aren't you?"
"I don't know what you mean by that, Mr. Hudson."
I glared lightly at Woo Jinchul, who was observing me through the glass while the staff around him worked on the various systems, preparing them for the upcoming test.
Standing beside him, Go Gunhee was also observing the test.
The old chairman is probably here to make sure that I don't cheat like I did last time.
With a sigh, I walked forward and placed my palm on the massive crystal at the center of the room, allowing it to draw my mana.
Honestly, I would rather not have my power and mana tested and have a License for entering Dungeons. The chances of this information leaking to the guilds of the country are too high for me to accept something like this.
My days of fighting are long since over, and I would rather not do so again.
Of course, it would be a different situation should I stumble across a scene where lives are at stake.
I could never look Solair in the eyes after I die, if I die, and meet him in the afterlife, if I ignored the plight of someone in danger because I did not want to fight.
However, that is not the case here.
"Don't worry, James. I will make sure that this test is as private as possible and will not leak your status to the guilds."
As if he read my mind, Gunhee gave me his word, slightly alleviating my heavy mood. But I know that his promise won't last for long.
No matter what organization, there will always be people who will sell out others for the sake of their own gain. As such, I do not doubt that someone in the Association will sell my information to the top guilds in Korea, increasing the already annoying attempts that they make to recruit me.
Unfortunately, I can't avoid this, especially if I want to be there for Jinwoo if something goes wrong.
Jinha was right in saying that we cannot afford another lawsuit leveled against us.
Despite my connections and full support from Gunhee, I still ended up paying several million dollars in fines to the International Hunters Association, which backed up the White Tiger Guild in their lawsuit against me for entering the Gate where Jinwoo was, the same gate that the White Tiger Guild had booked beforehand.
I knew that this was nothing more than an act of pettiness for how I publicly rejected the Guild Master, Baek Yoonho's, invitation to the guild, in front of a journalist who happened to be in the vicinity and recorded everything.
While Baek Yoonho enjoyed the momentary victory he got by wiping out all of my fortunes through that lawsuit, I had the last laugh when I explicitly banned the Auction House from selling any of my stuff to their High-level hunters, forcing their B-rank and A-rank hunters to make do with subpar equipment for more than a few months until they managed to get decent equipment from other suppliers.
Honestly, I can't understand how the White Tiger guild is still intact with such a reckless person as its Master.
Thankfully, that bullheaded bastard got the message and stopped messing with me after that and hasn't done anything out of line since then.
"James. Stop suppressing your mana. The systems are detecting that your flow of mana is too smooth for it to be natural."
Damned anti-False Ranker systems.
With annoyance, I stopped suppressing my power a little bit and made sure to make the mana flow as irregular as possible.
However, the damned systems picked up on it yet again.
"Still not giving it your all. The irregularities are obviously artificial. James, if you don't do the test properly, I'll have no choice but to proceed with a live fire exercise for the test, under the scrutiny of the entire Association. You know how that will go, don't you?"
"….Fine, you old bastard."
Finally, I really stopped suppressing my power and released it fully, causing the room to shake a little as the crystal started to glow with multi-colored light.
"There we go-what the??"
The shocked noise of the man never reached me as I lost myself in the feeling of my power, released in full for the first time in a long while.
It has always been like this. Whenever I release my full power, the knowledge, memories, and emotions of all the Lords and powerful foes I killed during my time in Lordran rise to the surface, making me relive those harrowing moments over and over again.
For the millionth time, I saw Gwyn's perspective on things, his emotions, and thoughts when he first rose to power, his plans, the establishment of Lordran, the Dark Mark, everything. And he was not the only one whose memories I saw, as one by one, I went through the memories and emotions of all the Lords.
However, with practiced ease, I suppressed these emotions and memories and re-centered myself, pulling my mind back to reality.
By the time I managed to pull myself together, the stone was a shattered mess on the floor as the staff and Jinchul stared at me with gaping mouths while Go Gunhee had a satisfied expression on his face.
"I guess congratulations are in order, James. You are Korea's first National-Rank hunter."
"…Fuck that."
I swiftly turned away and rapidly moved out of the room while Go Gunhee continued to laugh behind me.
"Don't worry, I'll send your renewed license to your home and make sure that this information is kept a secret."
I ignored the old man's words and swiftly left the association, heading towards the Auction house.
Damnit, I should have denied Jinah and Gunhee's words and refused to renew my license. Now, shit's hit the fan, and I can't do nothing about it.
With that headache dominating my mind, I drove towards the Korean Hunters Auction House.
---------------------------------------------------------------
"Hmm, Werewolf fangs, Knight's armor fragments, weapon fragments, Skeletal monster bones, Earth Golem cores, why are all the monster ingredients so varied? Is this haul from multiple dungeon raids?"
Kang Jiwon smiled at my words.
"You are correct, Mr. Hudson. These materials were gathered by the Hunter Guild after they cleared several D-rank and C-rank dungeons for the training of their new members, while the main force cleared the A-rank dungeon to gain the high-ranking materials."
I continued inspecting the monster materials for some time before nodding at the woman.
"Alright. The quality is pretty good, so I'll take it."
"Great! How much do you want to reserve?"
"I'll take half of the materials and your full stock of Mana crystals, along with half of the Essence Stones."
The visible joy on the woman's face was very cute as she quickly headed to the back room to process my order.
It is not really a surprise that she would be so happy with my order since she would gain a sizable chunk of the profit as a bonus for the sale. Her manager would be even happier since such a large order from me means that he can gain a lot of money from the sale as well.
While the mana crystals are all in the D and C-Rank and are of not much use to me, they are extremely valuable to the rest of the world and the Hunters Association. It is the reason why Go Gunhee had me take every scrap of the material and paid more than the market price to have me deliver it to him.
Ever since the emergence of the Gates, many industries and sectors of technology and life have undergone severe upheaval. One such sector is the Energy sector.
Gone are the days of coal, hydroelectric, nuclear, and other kinds of energy generation systems. Mana Crystals are the new norm for producing power for all the countries across the world.
Mana crystals are a source of clean energy and are extremely energy-dense compared to anything Humanity has known to this day. As such, even the lowest quality of Mana crystals sells for extremely high prices.
This is why the Hunters Association and the various other organizations of Hunters across the world use these mana crystals as a secondary source of their income. Their primary source is the Essence Stones and Rune Stones, which are highly sought after by high-ranking Hunters who spend billions of dollars on these things, money that is far beyond the scope of some countries' GDP, once again showing how much a powerful hunter earns.
Soon, Jiwon returned from the back with the receipt for the purchase and a card reader for the transaction.
Swiftly paying for the stuff, I took the receipt and placed it in my storage space with the rest of its kind.
….i really need to start cleaning out my storage space since it has become more of a junkyard in the past few years for me.
"The transaction has been confirmed. Thank you for the business, Mr. Hudson."
"See you later, Ms. Jiwon."
I waved goodbye to the woman and started heading out of the Auction house, intent on going back home to rest for a bit when Jinah called me.
"Yes, Jinah?"
"Hey, Old Man, did you hear anything about when Jinwoo will return today? I wanted to have him bring big sis Joohee over since he has been spending all of his time in the Dungeons recently."
"…Are you sure it is because you want your brother to relax and not because you can use the excuse of Joohee's visit to eat unhealthy food?"
"Damn it! Old man! Just tell me if you know or not!"
I chuckled at her irritated words.
It is so fun to mess with this little girl that I can't help but tease her every chance I get.
"Fine, fine. I don't know when he will be back, but it shouldn't take too long. I heard from his party leader, Song Chi-Yul, that they are going to a D-Rank dungeon, so it should not take them long. I'll see if I can't get in touch with Jinwoo and tell him about your idea."
"Fine. And don't come to pick me up today!!"
"Why? Are you embarrassed that your uncle comes to pick you up from school?"
"The weird looks you get whenever you come to school and the questions that my classmates ask me are more embarrassing than anything else. So, don't make life difficult for me like that!"
"Haha! Fine. Fine. I'll see you at home then."
I disconnected the call and tried to reach the Association's mining team that usually accompanies Jinwoo's group to low-level dungeons to mine the mana crystals.
Strangely enough, no one answered me, which never happens.
While I felt a slight worry at this, I shrugged at left it at that, knowing that it was meaningless to call Jinwoo since electricity and modern technology in general do not work inside a Dungeon.
Jinha once said that I should stop being a helicopter parent and acting too overprotective over them since they were not kids anymore. Maybe it is about time I did as she asked.
Jinwoo is already an adult, and Jinah is not far off from that age either. Perhaps it is time I let them make their own decisions without giving my input.
Shaking my head, I started driving back home.
That night, we waited for a long time, but Jinwoo did not come back home.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Author Notes: Read 5 chapters ahead on Patreon: patreon.com/Ruijard1