The Skill Maker

<Acknowledgement #2>

Edited By: Sebas Tian

“Good eye, newbie!”

“Huh?”

When he heard that, Hyun-Soo started looking around.

Because his body was feeling off all of a sudden, he missed everything that happened within that short period of time.

Hyun-Soo saw how the other hunters started moving.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Splat!

The sound of vines being cut and remains falling to the ground filled the area.

‘Huh?’

But the parts that were being cut off were the same parts that Hyun-Soo was attacking, which was the monster’s weakness. It felt really odd.

‘So that’s what they meant earlier.’

As A ranked hunters, they had a lot of experience with hunting in portals, so they noticed how Hyun-Soo was attacking the same area twice.

Since they were continuously checking the Energy Field, when Hyun-Soo successfully attacked, they confirmed that the field decreased a lot and decided to go along with it.

‘That’s why they’re A rank hunters…’

They weren’t surprised by the unexpected situation and instead, calmly analyzed the situation.

When thinking about how they analyzed Hyun-Soo’s actions, despite of him still lacking a lot, there was definitely a difference between the rank.

“Let’s finish it!”

Originally, while the long-distance attackers are attacking the roots and part of the body, the close-range attackers would attack most of the body.

But now they’ve switched.

The close-range attackers took care of the roots while the long-distance attackers took care of the body.

No one suggested on doing this, but they naturally switched the attacking points.

And results showed.

There weren’t that many spores left and due to the pain, the Blasting Spore’s movement slowed down.

In order to make sure that the hunt was over, a hunter pierced the monster’s body with a sharp ice lance.

Fwoosh!

Crack!

It sounded like a piece of fabric was being torn apart and the monster’s body fell forward.

If they were alive, they would’ve reacted to it in some way.

‘It’s done.’

The Blasting Spore didn’t have any reaction.

They were completely dead.

“Good job.”

“Well done.”

“This one was kind of different.”

“You’re right. But, it was still fun, right?”

Once the hunt was officially over, the hunters started talking amongst themselves.

‘So this is how my first hunt ended.’

Sigh.

He let out a long sigh, but it was difficult to tell whether it was a sigh of relief.

Someone complimented him for his hard work and raised their hand towards him.

Hyun-Soo followed and raised his hand up as well and they high-fived him.

Hyun-Soo was confused by their action, which made them laugh.

“Hey, newbie. Congratulations on your debut!”

With that, the others started complimenting him.

They thought he would’ve frozen on the spot, but they were wrong.

They acknowledged him for having guts.

They noticed that Hyun-Soo was quick on his feet and was witty.

They all made friendly comments.

Hyun-Soo was surprised and just nodded his head as he heard them.

Thump.

Thump, thump.

As Hyun-Soo was standing there with a blank expression, his heart started beating rapidly.

A feeling that he did it.

A sense of accomplishment.

Those were the feelings that filled within him as his heart raced.

On top of that, the hunters started acting differently.

Up to this point, it was a process to have them treat him fairly, but with the completion of this hunt, that process was completely gone.

The awkward feeling completely went away.

It felt like they acknowledged him by saying that this was enough to accept him into the group.

“Why are you spacing out like that?”

Someone lightly tapped his shoulder.

“It’s just hard for me to believe.”

They say that people tend to space out when they’re overflowing with joy.

It felt like he became dumb because the senses that allowed him to feel reached its limits.

“Ha ha. This isn’t your first time hunting a green portal monster, so why are you acting like that?”

“Because there’s an issue. It felt like I made a mistake towards the end.”

“A mistake?”

Eugene asked out of confusion.

“My body suddenly…”

If the hunt didn’t end there, then it could’ve turned into a huge mistake.

Thankfully, the healer casted a healing spell and the hunt ended, so it was a relief.

“It sounds like you’ve reached the limits of your power. That happens to us too from time to time. But if you keep hunting, you’ll get an idea of your limits. And there are healers during emergencies. That’s what teammates are for.”

Eugene comforted Hyun-Soo by saying that it’ll naturally resolve itself once he gains more experience.

“Don’t worry too much. You’ll have to go through an internal meeting, but in the current situation, I think it’ll work out just fine. Don’t you think the others changed a bit?”

“I do agree with you.”

Even the ones that hesitated because of their pride confirmed that Hyun-Soo wasn’t such a terrible hunter that will ruin the clan’s honor.

The mental barrier disappeared as well.

Even though he wasn’t an A rank, he showed everyone that he had potential.

Of course this was just a test and the level of the hunt was lower than their usual hunt.

But even when taking those things into consideration.

‘The potential I saw then, it was real.’

Eugene believed that he understood Kim Yoo-Na’s reason for enforcing it, despite of knowing that the members were against it.

Eugene was one of the members that helped with that and he was satisfied with his hunch and eye for talent.

A C rank hunter that didn’t know their place and was mooching off of Kim Yoo-Na.

That was how everyone looked at Hyun-Soo when he was first introduced to the clan.

Even though Eugene, Katrina and even Brad witnessed his power despite of being a C rank, they understood why the other members were distancing themselves from Hyun-Soo, so they did their best to mediate.

It was a lie to say that it wasn’t bothersome.

But despite of that, Eugene looked forward to the day when everyone would acknowledge the shining gemstone that he saw.

He wasn’t sure how Hyun-Soo was going to grow from today on, but witnessing it himself was going to be pretty fun.

Once the actual hunt was over, the crew’s reaction changed a bit.

Even though Hyun-Soo wasn’t an A rank, they gave him a lot of points for working well with them.

He thought that as long as he wasn’t a burden and they didn’t have to come rescue him, it would be fine, but Hyun-Soo was able to fight beside them without any issues.

Even though he was in a groggy state because he used up his powers without knowing his limits, that actually worked in his favor.

‘It would be a problem if it happened often though…’

That was something he would have to get used to by sensing his limits.

Eugene and the other hunters took that as him giving it his all during the hunt.

It was better than him not doing his part.

‘And even though he’s a C rank hunter, he did his part, which made it seem like he wasn’t a C rank.’

When they were hunting in a blue portal in Korea, he didn’t show all of his powers.

Hyun-Soo had the skill and potential that Eugene desired back then, but now, he’s grown even stronger.

Even though the Gruppa and the Blasting Spore belonged in the same colored portal, there was a big difference in the level between the two monsters.

With that thought in mind, Eugene looked at Hyun-Soo with a satisfied expression, but Hyun-Soo felt something odd.

It was definitely a compliment, but he wasn’t sure why Eugene was looking at him like that.

“That’s why you should push your worries away and rest. Since you just debuted, we won’t ask you to wrap up things here, so you can go out first and rest. Oh yeah, I’m sure you’re tired, so I’ll take you out of the party preparations.”

“That’s good to hear.”

Eugene was being thoughtful by telling Hyun-Soo that he didn’t have to join the party preparations.

Even though it felt like he was fishing for compliments, Hyun-Soo honestly felt relieved about it.

‘My overall condition hasn’t recovered yet.’

His stamina has gotten better after he got healed, but he still had a long way to go until his energy level recovered.

It felt like he went over his limits.

‘This is how it must feel to be burned out.’

“Good job everyone. Let’s wrap things up here quickly and go rest.”

Kim Yoo-Na announced the official completion of the hunt.

The hunters started wrapping up one by one.

He felt bad about just standing there, so he approached them to help, but a couple of the hunters told him to rest and declined his help.

They strongly expressed that he needed to rest, so there was nothing he could do.

‘Right. I have the rice ball cake.’

During the hunt, Hyun-Soo didn’t have the time to think about something else and it was only after the hunt that he remembered the rice ball cake.

He himself said that it was better to eat it when one’s tired.

‘They say that one can’t scratch their own back.’

It described the currently situation perfectly.

Hyun-Soo took out the rice ball cake from his pocket and poured it all into his mouth.

Chew, chew.

Since he was chewing all of them at once, the effects of the sweetness and the Levshila powder started spreading throughout his body.

‘It’d be nice if the effects repeated or overlapped.’

The fact that it didn’t was unfortunate.

Hyun-Soo pushed that thought away and took out another package.

Besides the fact that it increased the stats, he felt better by eating something sweet.

“So that’s why it should be eaten when you’re tired.”

The hunters that finished wrapping up saw Hyun-Soo eating the rice ball cake, so they quietly approached him and one by one, they unwrapped the bag.

Even though no one asked, they commented on it.

“You’re right. It was delicious before, but it tastes even better now. It even feels like the tiredness in my body is fading away. Hey, do you have more?”

Hyun-Soo took out the rice ball cake without replying.

So people do become close over food.

The mental barrier was decreasing and they were becoming more friendly.

On top of that, they had food to eat.

Even though there were packages that contained the monster’s body parts, it felt like they were in some sort of café.

“You’re Hyon-Ssoo, right? I heard Katrina call your name out a lot. I’m David. I know my introduction is late, but I hope you’ll still accept it.”

“I’m Ismael. Are you really a C rank?”

That didn’t seem like the case.

Ismael asked while eating the rice ball cake.

“I am.”

For now.

There was a word that he omitted, but he wasn’t lying.

Hyun-Soo nervously answered, but they just nodded in acknowledgement.

They weren’t hostile towards him like before.

‘Why are they acting more friendly when I’m only a C rank?’

They only asked once to confirm, but after that, it was as if they didn’t care about his rank anymore.

‘….!’

That’s when Hyun-Soo realized it.

The fact that he was accepted into the clan.

And the fact that he was acknowledged.

***

“From the meeting, everyone approved, so I’ll introduce him again. His name is Kim Hyun-Soo and he’s now officially part of our clan.”

Cough.

Hyun-Soo coughed due to nervousness.

Whew.

After letting out a long sigh, he walked up to Kim Yoo-Na.

Click, clack.

Everyone’s eyes were on him.

Before, they were disinterested and made him an outcast, but now, it was different.

“Nice to meet you. I’ll officially introduce myself. My name is Kim Hyun-Soo and I’m a C rank hunter that has officially joined the clan. I hope you’ll take care of me.”

After he finished his introduction, people started reacting.

The atmosphere was definitely different from before.

All the bad feeling they had towards him disappeared after he showed his skill in the portal.

It wasn’t the most perfect hunt, but when considering his rank, they probably would’ve given him more points because of that.

‘So this is what it’s like.’

Hyun-Soo was able to feel it.

He understood the reason why people try to put themselves out there to get acknowledged by others.

Being a part of the group that acknowledged you provided a sense of pride and satisfaction.

‘Same group. Different feeling.’

<Acknowledgement #2>