The Dark Mage’s Return to Enlistment

Chapter 14: Don’t touch it

“Kim Kwang-sik, don’t you feel bad about me doing this?”

“Not really. I lost the bet, and you won. Oh, but it’s because I have a cool personality. If it were another senior, I’d be in trouble. Your military life is messed up.”

Kim Kwang-sik replied as if it was nothing and closed his eyes.

“He’s a strange guy.”

And a cheerful guy.

“There was a guy with that kind of personality in Iskard.”

Kim Min-joon smirked and headed for the bathroom.

“Oh, don’t they have a gate or something here? I want to raise my rank.”

He thought monsters would pour out or a gate would appear since they were at the forefront, but it wasn’t that serious.

“Oh, I’ve been a private for two days. I want to be promoted to corporal now! Gate, come on!”

Other hunters would find it ridiculous if they heard him, but Kim Min-joon was serious.

-Beep beep beep!

“What? Is it real?”

As soon as he finished speaking, the emergency siren sounded.

“Is it real?”

Kim Min-joon hesitated for a moment.

-“On-duty officers report! Emergency situation has occurred! Emergency situation has occurred! All personnel, wake up!”

All hunters received orders to change into combat uniforms.

-“Middle Beta has appeared in the Petroleum High! I repeat, Middle Beta has appeared in the Petroleum High! Prepare to install mana shields quickly!”

Sometimes gates were created in the front lines.

If the monster was relatively easy to deal with, it would end with the support of five combat support planes.

But this time, it was serious enough that all the hunters had to wake up.

“That must be the Middle Beta.”

Midbet.

A bat-like monster with the size of a young child.

Its characteristic was shooting spherical fireballs from its mouth.

“If I mess this up, the whole unit might go down, right?”

If they were to cause an explosion near the fuel depot due to their attacks, the scale of damage would be enormous.

“If we’re near the fuel depot, we can’t fire weapons.”

Hunters find it difficult to exert their power without weapons like firearms.

At best, it would only divert the Midbet’s attention.

That would be lucky enough, but the current time is 1am.

It would be even more difficult to visually follow the movements of the monsters in the dark.

“We’re going to be late like this.”

Moreover, it takes at least 30 minutes to install a mana shield.

The Midbet wouldn’t wait for 30 minutes.

“Please don’t touch the others! All the Midbets are mine!”

Kim Min-joon opened the window and jumped towards the fuel depot.

He was supposed to wear equipment, including combat helmets, but every second was more important.

Because he had to eat them all and advance.

“Kikik!”

“Come here! Come this way!”

When he arrived at the fuel depot, he noticed two Southern Hunters who were on guard.

They were attracting the attention of the Midbets using things they were going to throw nearby.

“I have to aggro them towards me here.”

That aside, aren’t there too many of them?

Did something really big happen?

There were roughly 30 visible Midbets.

It was a level that could not be dealt with in a short period of time without using firearms.

“If I wasn’t here, the whole unit would have been torn to shreds, right?”

Kim Min-jun smiled with determination and opened his mouth.

“I’ll grab their attention!”

“What? Aren’t you a new recruit in the 2nd division? Get back now!”

“This guy! What does he think he’s doing without even wearing a combat helmet!”

Instead of answering, Kim Min-jun released a small amount of magic from his hand.

Sssss-

“Kiiii!”

“Kiiii!”

Then the mid-level monsters that were wandering around in the vicinity descended towards Kim Min-jun.

“These guys won’t run away.”

Perfect.

If he could just buy time here, other hunters would come and install mana shields in the area.

“And all these guys will be mine.”

Swish!

Mid-level monsters were agile.

One had to be at least a private to follow their movements with the eyes.

If the focus was solely on dodging, it would be difficult even for a sergeant.

“Why are the monsters suddenly acting like this?”

“Get inside the building! You’ll really die if you keep doing that!”

The monsters’ sudden actions.

The privates reported the current situation to the duty officer as instructed in the manual, while being astonished.

Ssssh! Ssssh!

Pshh! Pshh!

Along with the sound of the wind splitting in the darkness, the sound of something exploding was heard.

“Hey. What’s that?”

“Isn’t that Kim Min-jun?”

“What is he doing alone right now?”

In the meantime.

The hunters who arrived at the scene late with mana shields were astonished at the absurd situation.

“Crazy! How many Middlebets are there?!”

“There are too many! We can’t even fire near the fuel depot!”

With an enormous number of Middlebets, the hunters staggered back.

In fact, it was a big problem from the moment they had let the creatures into the camp.

“Shut up and set up the mana shields first! The sergeant line is responsible for dispersing the monsters!”

“Yes, sir! Understood!”

At Sergeant Lee Seung-ho’s command, the hunters regained their composure and ran to the fuel depot with their equipment.

“That crazy guy! He’s just wearing a combat uniform.”

Sergeant Lee Seung-ho took out his stun baton and ran towards where Kim Min-joon was.

“Huh? That crazy guy?”

While dealing with the Middlebets, Sergeant Lee Seung-ho appeared running from behind.

“Kim Min-joon! Get down!”

Getting down was useless.

“You stay out of this! All of them are mine! Don’t touch them!”

Instead of answering, Kim Min-joon used corruption on Sergeant Lee Seung-ho.

“Ugh… Why does my stomach hurt at a time like this…”

Feeling serious abdominal pain, Sergeant Lee Seung-ho had no choice but to back off.

“Sergeant Lee Seung-ho! I’ll use this!”

In the meantime.

Kim Min-joon snatched the stun baton that Sergeant Lee Seung-ho had been holding.

Although he could have easily handled it with his bare hands, he did it just for fun.

Creak!

“Oh, this is pretty good, isn’t it?”

It wasn’t an ordinary stun baton, but a high-voltage baton that delivered a strong electric current.

Kim Min-joon skillfully hit the middle bats one by one and dealt with them.

“Kiiiiik!”

As time passed, the bodies of the middle bats piled up on the floor.

Suddenly, the remaining bat became angry and opened its mouth wide.

It was going to shoot a fireball up close.

“Don’t let it shoot that thing!”

“Block it!”

The hunters watched the scene and threw themselves at each other.

If a fuel tank exploded, most of the hunters here would be injured.

“Don’t do it! I’ll handle it!”

Kim Min-joon jumped towards the middle bat.

“Hey, middle bat!”

Take this!

In an instant, Kim Min-joon reached the bat and shoved the voltage baton into its mouth before pressing the button.

Zzzzzzt!

“Kiiiiiiik!”

And thus, he took care of the last monster.

“Ah, it was perfect.”

Exactly 30 of them.

Could it be any neater than this?

“I wonder if they’ll promote me now.”

When he turned his head, he saw the senior hunters activating mana shields at the fuel tanks.

The situation was over.

“I returned the voltage rod to Lee Seung-ho.”

“What are you?” All the other hunters, including Lee Seung-ho, focused their gazes on Kim Min-jun.

Their expressions were asking if this made any sense.

“Well, I’m a dark wizard who returned from another world.”

Kim Min-jun raised the corners of his mouth towards them.

**

As soon as the duty officer confirmed that the situation had ended, he rushed to the scene.

A sudden gate opening, and of all things, an aerial monster appearing.

“If the fuel depot had exploded, it would have been chaos. Sheesh.” Frontline areas like this frequently have these kinds of incidents.

That’s why a special radar was installed to detect monsters.

The problem was that sometimes monsters that flew in the air couldn’t be detected.

“If our unit had been penetrated, monsters would have poured in one after another. It could have been really bad… I almost had to take off my military uniform. Dammit, damn it. My heart.” The duty officer calmed his pounding chest and arrived at the fuel depot.

“Hey. Smell that gunpowder. Who roasted these so well? But, why are there so many of these guys? How many are there in total?”

A charred body and a body with a blown-off head.

“The ones that are burned probably used the voltage rod, and the ones with blown-off heads… How did they do that?”

As he was wondering about this, one hunter answered,

“There are thirty of them.”

“… There were so many? I only saw about four.”

The duty officer started counting the bodies with a shocked expression.

“It was 30. Where did all these come from? They didn’t even show up on the radar.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Oh, Seung-ho! Give me a status report.”

The duty officer spoke to Seung-ho, who was holding a stun baton.

“Did you take care of all the ones that were cooked by electricity? You caught a bunch of them. It’s not like they would have been easy to see in the early morning, either.”

“No, sir.”

“What? Then who did?”

At this, multiple people, including Sergeant Kim Min-jun, turned to look in one direction.

There stood Kim Min-jun with a calm expression.

“Did you do it? I’m not in the mood for jokes. Tell me the truth.”

“When I arrived, Private Kim Min-jun was already engaged with the middle-bets.”

“What?”

The duty officer was bewildered.

And to top it off, Kim Min-jun was the first one to arrive.

From the look of his body, he hadn’t even properly equipped himself.

“When I arrived within three minutes, Private Kim Min-jun had already taken care of the middle-bets.”

“Kim Min-jun.”

“Private Kim Min-jun!”

“Explain in detail. What happened?”

“I was awake in the early morning, so I was able to respond quickly!”

Originally, they were supposed to wear equipment, but they said that since every second counted, they moved their body first.

“So you killed all 30 of them? How did you aggro them when you didn’t have any weapons?”

“As soon as those guys saw me, they suddenly rushed at me!”

Judging by the reactions of those around them, it didn’t seem like a lie.

“Seung-ho isn’t the type to joke around. But still, 30 monsters is too much, isn’t it?”

The duty officer checked Kim Min-jun’s body with a dazed expression.

They had been attacked by 30 monsters, but there wasn’t a scratch on them.

It was even more unbelievable.

Could a private really accomplish something like this?

“That guy took care of the last one. They handled my stun rod well.”

At Seung-ho’s words, the duty officer raised their hand and rubbed their forehead.

“It’s impossible for an average hunter to have that kind of ability. That’s the kind of level that can only be achieved with an excellent officer.”

Coping with monster attacks without using firearms?

It’s almost impossible for a private to do that.

No, it’s impossible.

Since that guy had only been stationed in the unit for a few days.

“I have to report to the battalion commander…but can I trust this?”

Saying that a private solved a situation that could have resulted in a major loss of life.

The duty officer hugged Kim Min-jun’s shoulders with all their might.

“Hey, you bastard! Anyway, you did well!”

“Private! Kim Min-jun! Thank you!”

The smell of cigarettes emanated from the duty officer’s body.

Kim Min-joon felt uneasy, but he decided to hold back for a moment.

**

Kim Min-joon and Lee Seung-ho sat facing each other in the duty officer’s office.

The duty officer had left his seat for a moment.

“Kim Min-joon.”

“Yes, Corporal! Kim Min-joon.”

“Be honest with me. Did you re-enlist?”

“No, I didn’t!”

“Then did you do something like regression therapy?”

“No, I didn’t!”

Lee Seung-ho looked at Kim Min-joon with a puzzled expression.