When I Returned to Farming, National-level Big Juniors Flock - Chapter 76



Only Krnovel

76. The Fourth Super-National Hunter

“The weather is nice for once.”

I’m just staring blankly at the sky.

Oh Hyun-seong is living a peaceful life as usual.

Although the air was cold, there was no annoying cold wind blowing, and the sky was exceptionally clear and refreshing.

In the past, pillars of fire would rise from the sky, and black fog would engulf several cities.

Even when others were making a fuss, I used to react indifferently, saying that the background was just the background, but seeing that I feel happy just by looking at this shows that I have changed a lot.

Surely it’s not because I’m getting older.

“Come to think of it, I remember there used to be a lot of fine dust. But that’s not the case these days.”

He said that when he was young, around 2020, fine dust was a serious social problem.

I remember there was a lot of talk about whether or not the cause of the situation was external factors, since all you could see was cloudy skies.

Well, Oh Hyun-seong doesn’t know the exact cause or answer either.

There was only one outcome.

After the Queen and the special species appeared and the northern part of China was completely wiped out, the fine dust phenomenon in the country also disappeared.

‘Of course, even if the fine dust problem disappears, the sky in the city will be clouded by the yellow dust phenomenon that occurs as the gates continue to be created and destroyed. However, at least areas with low population density can see clear skies.’

Living in the city for a year, there were only a few days with clear skies.

It was hard to go over ten times without exaggeration, and on very bad days, there was even a strong smog phenomenon that was like that seen during the Industrial Revolution.

When I was on the Chinese front lines, where a huge number of gates were pouring in, the entire sky was covered in black in broad daylight, and I still can’t forget that sight.

So maybe we can be more grateful for the sight of clear clouds flowing overhead.

Toouk.

“Oh, you’re here?”

Albert, who usually swims in the reservoir, climbed up onto his thigh and wrapped his body around it.

Oh Hyun-seong tapping the soft and fluffy body of the guy.

The other two spirits noticed the sight of that guy and slowly approached him, then took their place while striking him.

Blea wrapped her arms around his tail, and Melts crawled up to his head.

“It’s heavy there, you little punk.”

“Eww.”

Although it is the smallest in terms of external appearance, it is the one that weighs the most, as if it were an earth spirit.

Anyway, the three spirits, each having taken their places, were purring beside him.

Otter, puppy, fox.

But this is only a visual representation.

The sight of these superior spirits, each with different attributes, sitting together so quietly was something you could never see anywhere else.

Even in their home world, the spirit world, they are said to be isolated from each other and have little opportunity to communicate.

Sigh.

A smile appeared on Oh Hyun-seong’s lips.

Guys I thought I’d never see again.

I was satisfied just being able to be together like this.

But on the other hand, there was something that made him feel uneasy.

Yet, not everyone has returned to his side.

“He still hasn’t shown up?”

Blea, the only one who spoke human language, opened her mouth.

A guy who speaks while wagging his tail seductively.

Blea always had eyes that seemed to see into people’s hearts, but Oh Hyun-seong never got caught up in her pace like usual.

If it were your true self, I wouldn’t know.

Even if you look at it like that, it’s just a cute fox’s trick.

I always kept that a secret from myself.

“Are you worried about Priya too?”

“Why should I worry about that guy!”

“You spoke as if you were worried.”

“It would be nice if there was firewood for the fire to burn. That’s why I asked.”

“You’re good at talking. But when we’re actually together, you can’t even say a word.”

“What, what…! What nonsense are you talking about!”

Blea, who had her backside stabbed, screamed.

A guy who turns his head as if he’s been stabbed.

But even in all this, its soft tail is still wrapped tightly around your arm.

‘Priya… Of course I have to bring that guy too.’

Priya, the supreme spirit of life.

In general, fire would have an advantage in that attribute, but that compatibility didn’t work well between Priya and Blea.

Priya’s rank was so high that the compatibility between attributes was ignored.

The first spirit to make a contract with Oh Hyeonseong, and the most powerful and highest-ranking being.

But even as other higher spirits began to appear one by one, there was no word about her.

‘The reason I couldn’t summon them again even though the spirits weren’t completely destroyed was because my body wasn’t able to recover enough to contain that many beings.’

As he ate the spirit crops, his turbid energy was neutralized, and his aftereffects were recovered, his physical condition quickly improved.

Whenever his body became strong enough, he would open the magical cores that had been sealed within his body one by one and reunite with the spirits.

It has been like that so far, and I thought that if I went through this process in the future, it would naturally reach Priya as well.

The answer has already been found, so it is a problem that only time will solve.

‘but…’

Things weren’t resolved that easily.

‘The fatal aftereffects that remained on my leg have long since disappeared, and the other minor aftereffects have also completely disappeared. This means that most of the remaining toxic energy in my body has been eliminated. But… why hasn’t my physical condition completely recovered?’

The effects of crops that had matured sufficiently were powerful, and even a significant number of the fine toxic substances that were stuck to the body like cancer cells were swept away.

But at some point, Oh Hyeon-seong’s body reached a standstill.

This is the opposite of what it was like when I recovered at an incredible rate without doing any training at all.

‘If the blank period is long, the body’s ability to perform will often drop completely and it will not be able to find its previous peak, but if that were the case, the magical power would have decreased as well. However, the magical power itself in my body remains intact.’

Oh Hyun-seong caressed his lower abdomen.

The enormous amount of magical power he had wielded in the past is still dormant.

If you take out all the sealed cores, the amount of magical power seems to increase rather than decrease.

It is said that he reached a period of stagnation even though his body itself did not decline.

“Hmm… I don’t know what the problem is, but I guess it means we can’t continue doing things the way we’ve been doing them so far.”

****

From that day on, Oh Hyun-seong began training.

Although it is not easy to undergo harsh special training after living a lazy life where you have completely abandoned training for a while.

In Oh Hyun-seong’s case, even if he rested for just a few months or weeks, the time he had spent over the past dozen years would not go anywhere.

If I had reached a plateau just by eating, I thought that if I also did this kind of training, I would see sufficient physical achievements.

But a few days passed like that.

He was faced with a completely unexpected situation.

“Why… is the magical power increasing?”

Oh Hyun-seong, who had been training his strength while hanging weight bags, sat down on his seat.

Surprisingly, there was no progress in the physical aspect, and instead, only magical power increased.

That’s why I was wondering.

Why does my magical power increase when I am training my body?

“Probably because of the rice.”

Han Su-yeon, who had appeared outside, spoke to him.

“Because of the rice?”

“I’m experiencing a similar phenomenon to yours, senior. My magical power is suddenly increasing.”

“Your magical power has also increased? But I’m sure there’s never been an instance where eating spirit crops had that effect before?”

“Because the crops we’ve been eating so far haven’t been given enough time to grow. After watching closely for the past few days, I’ve noticed that whenever I eat the ‘sufficiently ripened crops’ that my senior mentioned, there’s a fluctuation in magical power.”

The amazing words of Han Soo-yeon.

However, not all crops matured.

When they first ate the fully ripened apples, there was no noticeable change in magical power, and even Han Su-yeon, who was sensitive to magical power, only realized it later.

The difference here was simple.

Even if the harvest obtained through general seeds has sufficient ripeness, it only has excellent taste and neutralizing effects of turbidity.

The effect of increasing or decreasing the amount of horsepower was extremely minimal.

But recently, they had eaten fully matured ‘rice grown from original seeds’.

It had not been that long since the original seeds were brought in from the seed vault in the North Korean region, and the full-scale expansion of the field was even later, so it was difficult to allow sufficient maturation.

But what they were eating now was rice grown from the same seeds that had been stolen from trucks that were being used for black market trading.

Of the original seeds, the one I first cultivated and ate was rice.

Thanks to this, we were able to confirm that crops grown from original seeds have a very distinct difference in effect when they are allowed to mature over a sufficient growing period.

“They must have built a new, large field anyway. They ate all the rice that was left in the old field, but I didn’t know it would have this effect…”

Oh Hyun-seong, who heard everything she said, let out a hollow laugh.

It’s not some incredibly valuable relic or elixir, but it’s just food that increases a hunter’s magical power by this much just by consuming it.

This is something that completely breaks common sense.

It’s just that they can easily accept it because they have personally experienced that a lot of things that go beyond common sense are already happening in this field.

“Then… have the other guys seen this effect by now?”

“Maybe so? I didn’t eat the meal separately.”

Their gazes turned around at the same time.

But inside the empty house.

Choi Jeong-il was not in this village at the time.

****

Choi Jeong-il went to the hospital to get a health checkup.

After being hospitalized for eye problems last time, I asked him to come and get tested, but he kept putting it off and finally went to Seoul to make a formality.

The test results were as clean as expected.

Since he had decided not to let any company work come up to him for the time being, he could return to Changyeong-ri right away.

But he turned his steps to another part of Seoul.

“He suddenly came and asked to borrow a measuring device…”

Baek Ji-soo muttered with her arms crossed.

The ‘Hunter Grade Meter’ that was released on the civilian market can officially only measure up to Grade 11.

Even if you only consider the cutoff line of 11th grade, there are only about 30 people in the entire country of hunters, Korea.

From the 12th rank onwards, they were national level hunters, and even if you searched the entire country, there were only a very small number of them.

Even if we measure it that far, it will only lead to a rapid increase in costs without any meaningful utility.

It was natural for manufacturers to exclude meaningless ranges.

Therefore, only measuring instruments owned by government agencies could measure levels higher than that.

The government has to identify and secure such top-tier talent, no matter how much it costs, so it has such equipment.

Of course, the cost involved was enormous, so the number of devices was not large.

The Korean government has only one device that can measure the full range without limitation.

The rest were just a few pieces of equipment that could measure up to level 12.

But today, one of those measuring devices was horribly damaged.

“Congratulations, you’re officially the fourth 13th rank Hunter.”

Baek Ji-soo said, looking at the remains of the broken measuring instrument.

The term ‘national-level hunter’, which is equivalent to the power of a small country in itself, begins to be applied to hunters starting from rank 12.

But one step above that.

A 13th-grade realm where a single human being can match the power of an entire regional powerhouse.

With this, the number of 13-rank Hunters officially held by Korea would be adjusted to four.

It is twice as large as the European continent and is tied with the United States for the largest population in the world for a single country.

“…”

Choi Jeong-il, the mastermind behind it, looked down at his fist in silence.

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