Chapter 3
A Monster’s remains could be either useful or useless for several purposes.
If a monster’s bones were sturdy and its skin tough, then they could be recycled as base materials for making weapons to fight against other Monsters, and if the Mana accumulated into the heart and became a Mana Stone, then that Monster’s carcass would be used up as the basis for creating magic and miracles. Miracles, because scientifically-unexplainable magical effects could be given to people and items they wield by the so-called "enchanting" effect.
The one tasked with the disposal of the Monster remains was the Government. This arrangement came about because those in power wanted to correctly gauge the situation within the Monster territory and to provide the adequate response if needed; and also to prevent the greedy and money-craving private entities from potentially defrauding the Knights or the Hunters.
But the "The Monster Remains Disposal Through Public Enterprises Act" couldn’t be found anywhere else except only in South Korea. That was why this country was called a Heaven for people making a living off Monster remains and consequently, there was a higher ratio of Knights, Mercenaries and Hunters among the Korean population.
"Two Brown Wolves. Here’s the government reimbursement of $880 as well as your new Low Tier Hunter licence. Congratulations on your promotion of rank, sir."
Currently, Sae-Jin was inside the government-run "Monster Store" where the remains were disposed off. This was the place where the remains could be sold, the various equipment bought and at the same time, get the administrative works done.
And that was to determine the ranking of the Hunters. This was directly tied to his or her current results, while the said results could be calculated via the number of Monsters hunted down and killed. So, the Hunter’s union handed over the full responsibility of assigning the hunter’s rank to the Monster Store a long time ago.
"The rest of the remuneration amount should be deposited into the account number you have provided us with, after the final calculations are carried out. Anyways, isn’t your dismantling skill really great? And the achievements you have piled up so far is also amazing…. It’s scarcely imaginable that you’ve been a Hunter for only a month now."
The female government worker smiled as she spoke up to here.
"….Is that right. Wasn’t aware of it."
Maintaining his expressionless face, Sae-Jin just grabbed his new Hunter licence and turned on his heels to leave.
Sae-Jin received the title of Lowest Tier Hunter around 30 days ago. The registering process was really simple and easy. All he had to do was to catch a single Monster and bring it in, thus becoming a Hunter from then onwards.
After becoming a registered Hunter, Sae-Jin decided to sell around 2~3 portions of Monster materials every 4 days or so. More than that, it’d be too eye-catching and he might be seen as someone suspicious, and due to his current condition, he’d rather avoid such kind of attention with all his might.
Obviously, Sae-Jin wasn’t the only person in the entire world to possess a Trait but, nobody in their right minds would believe the crazy talk of ‘a Trait changing a person from a Human to a Monster.’ It’d be more believable, instead, to claim that a Monster was posing as a human. Actually, there was an incident like that not too long ago, and the new term Monster Man was coined from that very incident.
‘…40 minutes left.’
This Store was the closest to the Monster Field but to someone like S
ae-Jin whose very life was directly linked to the ticking clock, he still had to leave quickly.