The Dark Mage’s Return to Enlistment

Chapter 3: “Hunter Army Airfield-1”

“Hey you sons of bitches! Do you want to move like snails? Stand up straight and move quickly!”

The instructors suddenly raised their voices.

The newly enlisted soldiers were confused and hesitated.

“Well, at least they don’t seem to have any intention of physically hitting us.”

Kim Min-jun watched the instructors yelling with veins bulging in their necks and thought they were actually quite kind. After all, they did tell them what to do.

“Stay close to each other! Push the guy in front of you with the intention of killing him if necessary!”

“Why aren’t you shouting out loud?”

“Ah, get closer!”

Under the instructors’ pressure, the soldiers closed the gap between them and the person in front of them.

They stood there without chairs for a while.

Then the battalion commander climbed onto the podium.

“Before we start the training, I have a talent as a hunter, but I couldn’t apply to the Hunter Army. Raise your hand if you want to join now!”

The battalion commander announced that they could join the Hunter Army immediately if they wanted to.

“But keep in mind that the treatment of the Hunter Army is different from that of regular soldiers.”

The battalion commander listed the many benefits of being in the Hunter Army.

“Even if you become a sergeant, you won’t earn as much as 700,000 won. If you join the Hunter Army, your basic pay as a private starts at 3 million won.”

Although he said so, the soldiers only gazed at the officers.

Not everyone had the potential to be a hunter, and if they did, they would have applied to the Hunter Army.

“Well, anyone?”

It was a formal question asked every time new trainees arrived.

The battalion commander didn’t even wait for three minutes before heading down to the platform.

“Commander, there’s someone over there.”

“What?”

Upon the assistant’s words, the battalion commander’s gaze turned to the corner.

“The guy who just raised his hand, come forward now. Hurry up!”

The soldiers’ attention was drawn to one side by the assistant’s words.

The person who raised his hand was, of course, Kim Min-jun.

“Yes!”

As the battalion commander instructed, he jumped up onto the platform with force in his feet.

“Uh, uh!”

“Crazy!”

Crack!

The wooden floor broke and one of the soldiers shot up into the air.

The soldiers looked at Kim Min-jun floating in the air with their mouths agape.

“……”

And the same was true for the assistant and the battalion commander.

The battalion commander coughed at the sight of Kim Min-jun approaching him in an instant.

It was right to call him quickly, but who could have known he would fly up like that?

“Why did you apply for the regular army when you have the talent of a hunter?”

The battalion commander’s attitude towards Kim Min-jun softened slightly.

If a talented soldier with hunter skills were to emerge from the regular army, it would be a plus for future promotions.

“I missed the application period.”

“I see. Follow me.”

“Yes.”

Kim Min-joon followed the battalion commander and went outside the auditorium.

Other soldiers looked at them enviously.

“Turn your heads!”

“Focus on the front!”

“Stay close to the front!”

Of course, before long, the adjutant punished them.

****

Kim Min-joon entered the battalion commander’s office located within the training camp.

“If you wait here, a soldier from the Hunter Corps will come.”

“Yes, I understand.”

The battalion commander smiled softly and poured two cups of mixed coffee.

“You must have read the recruitment notice well. There will be a lot of trouble if you go to the Hunter Corps.”

Then, he handed a cup to Kim Min-joon.

“Thank you.”

He never thought he would be drinking the coffee that the battalion commander was drinking on his first day of enlistment.

About 10 minutes passed.

“At ease! Is this the trainee with potential for the Hunter Corps?”

A soldier in military uniform walked into the battalion commander’s office.

He was over 2 meters tall and had a bulky figure.

The soldier, Lee Seung-ho, who had the rank of sergeant, lightly saluted the battalion commander.

Did the colonel raise his voice to a sergeant?

Although he had heard that the Hunter Corps had a different rank system than the regular military, it was a fresh scene to see it in person.

“I heard you have potential for the Hunter Corps. Open your status window and call out each stat.”

Those who became awakened as Hunters could call up a status window that objectively showed their own power.

At best, it only quantified simple items such as strength and agility with numbers.

It didn’t show anything like levels or jobs like a game.

To put it simply, on Earth, the Hunters felt like enhanced humans like Captain Africa.

“Yes.”

Kim Min-joon immediately called up the status window from his seat.

Come to think of it, there was also a status window in Isgard, but I wonder how it’s here.

[ERROR]

“…It says error.”

Strength, agility, stamina.

And the job skills and magic that only oneself has.

I couldn’t read any of it properly.

Could it be because I returned using only my own magic, not the power of the Holy Maiden?

The system was full of errors.

“Are you messing with me?”

At the response of “error,” Lee Seung-ho glared at Kim Min-joon as if he were going to kill him.

A status window error.

I had never heard of such a phenomenon in over three years of military service.

“There were soldiers trying to enter the Hunter Corps every year despite not having the talent for it.”

Lee Seung-ho began to suspect Kim Min-joon.

Some people occasionally try to take advantage of the benefits of the Hunter Corps by exploiting the loophole that others cannot read their status windows.

Of course, that lasted no more than a week at best.

“Wait a minute, I saw it with my own two eyes. That soldier jumped over five meters and landed right in front of the stage.”

Feeling the situation becoming serious, the battalion commander quickly intervened.

“…You saw it with your own eyes, sir. I’ll report it to the higher-ups first.”

As Corporal Lee Seung-ho made a report to the Hunter Corps,

The battalion commander trembled uncontrollably.

“I heard that the Hunter Corps and the regular army have different classes, but…”

I never thought it would be this much.

“I have to join the Hunter Corps no matter what.”

Kim Min-joon waited patiently until Lee Seung-ho finished his report with a calm mind.

“The decision has been made by the headquarters. Because you are a special case, I will personally test whether you have the potential to become a hunter.”

He warned that if he had been called here despite having no potential, he would face severe punishment.

“Yes, I understand.”

Kim Min-joon felt the urge to slap the rough-looking sergeant, but he held back.

If he entered the Hunter Corps and just advanced in rank, he could do that anytime.

“Well then, carry on with your duty, loyal to the end!”

“Loyal to the end!”

Sergeant Lee Seung-ho exchanged salutes with the battalion commander and left the office.

Kim Min-joon followed Sergeant Lee to the Hunter Corps base.

“I’ve been in the military for a few years, but I’ve never seen a trainee with that kind of physical ability before.”

A soldier who hasn’t gone through training jumping over 5 meters….

“That guy is something else. I’m sure of what I saw.”

The battalion commander smiled with satisfaction as he looked out the window at Kim Min-joon.

****

After driving for about an hour on a mountain road in a military vehicle, Kim Min-joon arrived at the Hunter Army training camp.

“This is crazy,” 

he thought, as the appearance of the camp was completely different from the one he had just left.

It was clear that a huge amount of taxes had been spent on the state-of-the-art facilities.

“Do you see that?”

 As soon as they got out of the car, Lee Seung-ho pointed to a small rock placed in the middle of a training field.

“Yes.”

“If you move that even a little bit, you pass.”

“Is that all?”

“I don’t know what kind of confidence you have, but that’s it. You have 10 minutes.”

Although the rock looked like it weighed about 100kg, it was actually made of Redstone, a byproduct of dungeons, and weighed over 500kg. Typically, trainees had to exert themselves to the point of exhaustion just to move it a little bit.

“Error in the status bar. This is ridiculous.”

Lee Seung-ho decided that if he couldn’t move the Redstone, he would immediately pass him over to the guards.

“This should be easy for me, right?”

Meanwhile, Kim Min-joon tried to lift the rock with one hand but hesitated for a moment.

“My hand is a bit unstable, I should use both hands.”

He remembered being told in the military that it was not good to stand out too much.

“Wait, when did you put up the stars by being so careful like that?”

Kim Min-jun raised the Red Stone high.

“Ugh….”

Upon seeing this, Lee Seung-ho was so surprised that he fell back.

No trainee had ever held the Red Stone with both hands and raised it like that before.

Even though he was watching it directly, he couldn’t believe it.

“Stop, stop moving! Stop coming closer! It’s dangerous, so stop!”

“Yes? Okay.”

As he approached with the Red Stone in hand, Lee Seung-ho quickly gestured with his hand and told him to stop and put it down.

“Did you really say there was a status window error?”

It was a look as if he had seen something he couldn’t see.

With his facial expression.

“Yes, it’s not a lie.”

“…Okay. From today, you can train with other trainees.”

Kim Min-jun had a brief conversation with Lee Seung-ho and headed into the training camp.

“That’s weird. The Red Stone is fine.”

Lee Seung-ho pushed the Red Stone.

The Red Stone was in normal condition.

He should at least be a sergeant himself to push it so easily.

Did a trainee who hadn’t undergone any training just lift that up?

“A crazy monster has come in.”

****

One hour passed.

As the training ended, the trainees began to gather inside the barracks, their bodies covered in sweat from the intense training.

“Everyone, sit down comfortably.”

Sergeant Lee Seung-ho went up to the podium and briefly introduced Kim Min-jun as the new trainee.

‘He was a teaching assistant.’

He was wearing a red hat this time, unlike before.

“Alright, stand up again, and let’s move on to the next training. The new guy doesn’t know anything, so take good care of him.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Understood!”

In less than five minutes, the trainees moved to another training ground as per Lee Seung-ho’s instruction.

“For the next four weeks, it’s going to be hell. Let’s endure it well.”

“Let’s do our best.”

The Hunter Corps trainees, now comrades, briefly greeted each other and explained the training they were about to receive.

“Since the Hunter Corps goes straight into battle after the training period ends, we only receive intensive training for four weeks.”

“It feels like we’re just being pushed until we die.”

“But we get to be free on the weekends. We’ll make sure to give you plenty of time to relax after working hard during the week.”

To Kim Min-jun, the hellish training was just a normal exercise level. He had faced the brink of death several times in Ishgard, after all.

“Is there a PC room here?”

“Are you kidding me? Of course, we have one of those.”

With his comrade’s response, a smile formed on Kim Min-jun’s lips.

It’s perfect since the Burning event in Dungeon Fighter Online starts this weekend.

“Attention, everyone!”

After about 30 minutes of hiking up the mountain trail, Lee Seung-ho stopped in front of the stairs.

“From now on, you will climb these stairs to the end with a sandbag in hand.”

There were 6,000 stairs to climb, and the sandbag weighed about 80kg.

It was a training intensity that was almost impossible for an average person, but for soldiers with hunter-like qualities, it was within the realm of possibility.

“Understood!”

“Is that all the louder you can shout?”

“YES, SIR!”

The trainees looked at the endless stairs, feeling their minds grow numb.

“Ha… you have to undergo insane training like this just to raise your stats a bit. It’s so different from what I imagined a hunter would be like.”

One of the trainees grumbled to Kim Min-jun.