“Ber and Aqua, it’s been a while.”
However, when Shin Jimin smiled brightly and waved her right hand, Aqua shyly raised her right hand and waved back.
It was nice to see a human acting so warmly. After all, they had received help before.
“The line to get to hyung is really long, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it really is.”
Lee Hajun whispered softly into Roy’s ear.
It was exactly as he said. Roy slowly blinked and looked at the long line stretching out before him.
“One person, two people, three people… Starting from Shin Jimin, he counted the people lined up one by one, but stopped once it passed a hundred. Beyond that point, he could barely see anyone’s heads anymore.”
“Is everyone in line properly?”
“Yes!”
When Kim Hanbom asked, the fans answered in unison.
Their faces were filled with excitement at the prospect of undertaking missions together with the participants they supported.
“Then, from now on, the Level Up Mission will begin!”
With colorful fireworks shooting up onto the stage, the mission commenced.
“Roy-nim! I’ll buff you!”
The fans ranged in age.
The production team requested everyone to address each other with the honorific ‘nim’ after their names to keep things uniform.
“Thank you.”
Roy smiled gratefully, and the fans covered their faces with their hands and screamed in excitement.
“This is exactly why I love being a buffer.”
Among all the fans, the majority were either ordinary people or hunters with other jobs rather than buffers.
But when they were buffers, they had many chances to grow alongside the Hunter Idol, so the proportion of buffers among the Hunter Idol’s fans was noticeably higher.
“Piiiee!” (Full of energy!)
Ber blew flames from his small beak, incinerating the monsters around them into ashes.
“Por!” (Could you keep a bit of dignity as the Spirit King?)
Unlike Ber, who flew chaotically in every direction, Aqua sat elegantly on Roy’s shoulder, summoning a swirling ice vortex.
“Soon, I’ll be able to summon Solum and Ris too.”
Roy gazed at the ability window that appeared before him, wearing an expectant expression.
The Spirit Kings were all Roy’s family, friends, and companions.
Each had their own distinct personality according to the elemental power they wielded, so when they gathered, there was never a dull moment.
“Roy-nim, you’re almost at Level 100, right?”
“Yes. Just two more times to level up.”
Roy’s current level was 98.
It was a true level explosion. Jigu had quietly told him that once he reached Level 100, Spiritus and Solum would be summoned simultaneously.
“I think we’re faster than the other teams.”
Shin Jimin smiled proudly.
She felt happy that Roy, whom she supported, was doing well.
Although he didn’t have the most fans, the number was still among the highest, and on average, his fans’ levels were quite high.
“Then, let’s push just a bit more and clear Stage 1!”
At present, Shin Jimin was managing Roy’s fan club.
The show ‘Please Choose Your Hunter Idol!’ had aired to great popularity, increasing interest in the participants.
All 30 remaining participants now had their own fan clubs.
Shin Jimin was the first to establish Roy’s fan club.
Thanks to this, all new fans of Roy were joining Shin Jimin’s fan club, which explained why she was acting like the leader among the fans.
“Porur.” (It’s hot, everyone.)
The dungeon where Roy and his party currently were was a desert field under a scorching sun hot enough to burn the skin.
Although the fans were generally higher level than Roy and thus less affected by the heat, it was still uncomfortably warm.
Aqua flicked her tail with a haughty air and summoned a cool drizzle to comfort the fans.
“I really want to pinch her cheek just once.”
Roy’s rising popularity wasn’t just due to his appearance or rapid growth in ability, but also thanks to his adorable spirits.
The fans blushed and cheered wildly at Aqua’s prim and proper demeanor.
“Pii?” (Then me too!)
“No, Ber-nim!”
“Ber, stop.”
As the fans’ attention focused on Aqua, Ber’s eyes widened, and he tried to soar high into the sky.
Fortunately, Jigu and Roy’s intervention stopped him.
Frustrated that he couldn’t do anything for the fans, Ber vented his pent-up power on the remaining monsters with an explosive burst of energy.
As Ber’s flames turned dozens of monsters to ashes, Roy’s level finally reached 100.
This time, it felt distinctly different from previous level-ups.
Roy finally felt like he could use at least a tenth of his true power on the Continent of As.
Without hesitation, Roy chose ‘Yes’.
Whoosh—
“Where did this wind come from all of a sudden?”
“Ugh. Sand got in my eyes.”
Between Spiritus and Solum, Solum was summoned first.
“Solum.”
At Roy’s low voice, the fierce wind that had been clawing at the sand dunes suddenly softened into a gentle breeze.
“Hmm.” (Contractor…)
As the wind calmed, a massive leopard suddenly appeared.
Its reddish-brown eyes, as if sculpted from earth, met Roy’s gaze and tears began to fall.
“Piiit?” (What? Why is he in his original form?)
Solum was about the size of an adult male that could easily be subdued by one paw.
Ber buzzed anxiously around Solum, flapping his sharp wings.
Whack—
“Piiiee!” (You bastard!)
A giant paw promptly punished Ber, who had been interrupting Roy’s reunion.
Solum gracefully swung his paw and buried Ber in the sand.
Ber, now covered in sand, spat it out of his beak and narrowed his eyes sharply.
“Porur.” (Stay still for a bit. You’ve never had any tact.)
Aqua stopped Ber from charging at Solum again.
Solum was summoned after both Ber and Aqua.
When Solum disappeared suddenly into the spirit world, Aqua recalled how shocked she had been.
Everyone was despondent after being forcibly recalled to the spirit world, unable to protect Roy to the end. There was nothing they could do.
“Mulkiber disappeared!”
But then something unexpected happened—Ber was suddenly summoned.
Not on the Continent of As, but in another dimension.
***
After that, when the others tried to follow Ber, including Aqua, they were bounced back by an invisible barrier.
Moreover, after Ber, Aqua herself was summoned to Roy.
From Solum and Spiritus’ perspective, it must have been maddening.
“Por!” (Follow me! Let’s finish off the rest of the monsters.)
It was only natural that Ber appeared childish while blocking Roy’s reunion with Solum.
Aqua grabbed the feather on Ber’s forehead and led him toward the group of monsters.
“Solum, it’s really been a while.”
Roy knelt down on both knees in front of Solum and spread his arms wide to embrace the leopard’s neck.
Although Solum took the form of a leopard, his essence was earth.
The scent of a forest seemed to fill the air around them.
Solum stuck out his tongue and licked Roy’s neck and cheek.
Since his tongue was about half the size of Roy’s face, Roy squirmed at the tickling and laughed, scrunching his nose.
“Did everyone take pictures?”
“Yeah. Videos too.”
The production team specially allowed filming inside the dungeon.
The filming crew was also inside the dungeon to upload fan cam versions to YouTube.
“Pii—.” (Contractor.)
Roy’s eyes widened at the lively voice ringing in his head during his reunion with Solum.
“Ris!”
Roy’s last summon—the Spirit King of Wind, Spiritus.
Spiritus crawled out of the sandy field, dragging wings attached to his turtle shell back.
His jet-black eyes sparkled like stars in the night sky when they met Roy’s gaze.
Ris fluttered the wings on his shell.
Though a small movement, sand flew up in every direction.
“Roy-nim!”
The fans watching the touching reunion between Roy and the spirits screamed.
The wind was even fiercer than when Solum appeared.
“Come here. I’ll calm the wind.”
Roy stretched out his palm toward Ris.
Although the Spirit King of Wind controlled the air, Ris did not fly but instead crawled slowly into Roy’s palm, curling up quietly.
“Only Solum kept his size. That’s odd.”
Solum wagged his tail happily as Roy scratched under his chin.
“Shall we head outside now?”
The first stage mission was to hunt inside the dungeon until the participants reached Level 100.
They had all been at the dungeon since morning, hunting steadily.
Watching the situation, the production team quietly suggested heading outside.
Everyone was covered head to toe in sand.
The first participant to reach Level 100 would take a rest until the others completed the first stage mission.
“Everyone, great work today.”
Roy stood up abruptly and bowed deeply toward the fans and the production team.
Especially to the fans, he bowed so long that he barely straightened up for a while.
The fans reciprocated by bowing deeply to Roy, creating a scene that made the production team pinch their foreheads.
***
“This kind of thing is really unprecedented!”
Lee Hajun beamed, hugging a bow nearly as tall as himself.
The bow had a white base with gold geometric patterns.
“It’s a legendary-grade artifact!”
Legendary-grade artifacts were the highest tier, so rare that even large guilds might only possess one or two.
“Apparently, the rumor has already leaked outside, and it’s chaos out there. After we came out, major guilds rushed into the dungeon one after another.”
Not only Lee Hajun was excited.
Han Jihoo smiled contentedly as he polished a healer’s stick embedded with a fist-sized blue gem.
“What on earth is going on? Are we just unbelievably lucky?”
Kim Chan caressed his armor with a red gem and tilted his head in wonder.
“Did he just blink?”
Then Lee Doha’s sword, which had an eye embedded in it, blinked. Startled, he clung to Roy’s arm beside him.
{Ahem.}
Usually, when a participant reaches Level 100, they receive a weapon appropriate to their class from monsters they hunted.
It didn’t matter which monster was hunted.
Like gaining a skill at Level 10, they obtained a proper weapon.
Luck played a significant role here.
While higher hunter ranks tended to get better weapons, it was not guaranteed.