The Dark Mage’s Return to Enlistment

Chapter 04: “Hunter Army Airfield-2”

“So what kind of image did you have of a hunter?”

“I was thinking of a cool hunter who uses awesome skills and levels up quickly by hunting monsters.”

“Ah.”

“Well, then going to Isgard would be perfect.”

Kim Min-joon chuckled and patted the shoulder of the trainee, telling them to hang in there.

“I’ll give a pass to the trainee who completes the course in under 30 minutes.”

Before departing, Lee Seung-ho had shaken a pass out of his pocket as if to encourage the trainees.

It was for boosting their morale.

And of course, since he owned the passes, he set almost impossible conditions.

“Ugh… He’s doing it again.”

“You can’t even bring Captain Africa to achieve that goal.”

The trainees trembled, wondering if they had fallen for it once or twice before.

Offering an impossible goal and waving a carrot in front of them.

But among them, only Kim Min-joon’s eyes shone.

“That one’s mine.”

It hadn’t been that long since he entered the training base, but he was already craving chicken.

As soon as the departure signal went off, Kim Min-joon began climbing the stairs at the front.

“If you go up so fast, you’ll get tired later!”

“You need to distribute your stamina well!”

His peers warned him that he would regret it later if he ran up the stairs, but Kim Min-joon had no thoughts.

“Chicken and Dungeon Fighter Online are waiting for me!”

“What the hell is that kid doing?”

Sergeant Lee Seung-ho was surprised to see Kim Min-jun already approaching the end of the stairs in less than 10 minutes.

Even when he was lifting the Red Stone, there was no sign of exhaustion while climbing the stairs with increasing steepness.

“Uh! Does that even make sense?”

“I can’t believe it even though I’m seeing it.”

While other trainees had to climb the stairs for over an hour, Kim Min-jun completed it in just 20 minutes.

Actually, he was taking it slowly and enjoying the exercise.

“You said you were going to give us a leave, didn’t you?”

“Huh? Uh… Here it is.”

Lee Seung-ho handed the leave to Kim Min-jun, who didn’t even sweat a drop, thinking, “This crazy guy. If he gets assigned to a unit after graduation… no, having good stamina doesn’t mean everything for a Hunter.”

What’s important for a Hunter is the ability to handle monsters.

Of course, the basic stats are essential.

“I’m still too early to judge, but I need to keep an eye on him.”

The overall physical training didn’t end until after 6 p.m.

The trainees were making faces as if they would collapse any moment, hobbling on their legs.

“My, my stats went up! My stamina went up by 1!”

“Wow… What was your stats before?”

One of them shouted that his stats went up.

Seeing them admire each other for one stat, Kim Min-jun thought that Hunters might not be as weak as he had thought, as his stats would increase by 10 units easily when he caught monsters in Iskard.

“No, it’s only my first day in the military. Don’t judge hastily.”

Kim Min-jun followed his colleagues to the restaurant, shaking his head.

“Well then, enjoy your meal, and afterwards you can take a break as you like.”

“Yes, understood!”

After giving a brief explanation of the training scheduled for the next day, Sergeant Lee Seung-ho left the room.

“Wow… this is crazy.”

Kim Min-jun opened his mouth wide, looking at the spread of food in front of him.

So this is why they call it “Hunter Army.”

Korean, Chinese, Western, and even desserts were available.

It was hard to imagine that such high-quality food could be found in the military.

Usually, when browsing the internet, people say that military food is the worst, even compared to prison food.

But if it’s the Hunter Army, the quality must be different.

“Can we eat all of this?”

“Yes, it’s buffet style.”

This is insane!

And it’s buffet style!

According to his colleagues, there were even some well-known chefs working here.

“Do regular soldiers get this kind of food too?”

“How could they? Only Hunter Army training centers have this. I heard that they’re having cod stew and spicy seafood noodles today.”

“Wow, that sounds awful.”

He wasn’t sure what those dishes were, but just hearing the names made him feel like they must be really disgusting.

Kim Min-jun thought that it was a good decision to join the Hunter Army.

“At first, I was even willing to go to the Magi if I didn’t like it here.”

After rolling around in Isgard like crazy, he returned to Earth and immediately joined the military.

Who would want to go?

But after experiencing the hellish training today, Kim Min-jun concluded that this place wasn’t so bad.

“They even make us exercise enough to keep our stamina up, and they give us good food. And they even give us plenty of money.”

And to top it off, they even have the 13th stage weapon in Dungeon Fighter Online!

If other men were to hear him, they would curse at him, but Kim Minjun actually enjoyed his time in the military.

“I got a pass to go out today. When are you going to use yours?”

“I’ve never seen anyone ask for a pass like you, Private Seung-ho Lee.”

As he enjoyed the delightful taste of military food, trainees naturally came up to him and sat down.

Kim Minjun chatted with them, smiling.

When he was a Dark Mage, the people of Isgard avoided him because they thought he was ominous.

“Training camp life… it’s not bad.”

As soon as he finished eating, Kim Minjun headed to a nearby game room.

Unlike the regular army, the Hunter Army Training Center was very open.

They had sporty short haircuts.

There were no formalities after work hours.

They didn’t even do evening roll calls.

He wondered if this was really the military.

“But there are many trainees who leave without completing their training in the middle.”

The trainee sitting next to him listened to his words and nodded, saying that there was a reason why they were good to him.

“They only make us do stupid training that pushes people to their limits. If they don’t give us some freedom, we’ll go crazy and leave.”

Stupid training.

Was he talking about carrying sandbags up the stairs earlier?

“Besides, I heard that the training intensity becomes unreasonably high in the last week, driving people crazy. But…”

The trainee who was speaking glanced at Kim Minjun’s monitor screen and got up from his seat.

It was Dungeon Fighter Online.

He played it without caring about the stares around him.

“Why? Are you playing DFO too?”

“Ah…no, I’m just going to rest there first.”

“People shouldn’t judge based on appearances. But when I saw how absorbed Kim Min-jun was in Dungeon Fighter Online, I thought I shouldn’t get too close to him.

“Just sleep for about an hour or so, it’s no big deal.”

That day.

After carefully depleting all his fatigue points in Dungeon Fighter Online, Kim Min-jun finally went to bed.

**

Last week of training.

The trainees endured rigorous physical training to improve their stats.

“What’s your name?”

6 a.m.

Instead of the wake-up call, the trainees were awakened by the refreshing voice of an idol.

“Turn it ooffff….”

“My back feels like it’s about to snap…ugh.”

Instead of cheap mattresses, the trainees complained about the soft beds.

“I feel this way every time I sleep. This mattress is killing me.”

Kim Min-jun slept for a whopping two hours and woke up feeling refreshed.

While in Iscarde, sleeping for an hour a day was considered a lot, but it seemed natural to feel lethargic when returning to his hometown.

“Kim Min-jun, you’re amazing.”

“You don’t look tired at all.”

After enduring grueling training, the trainees naturally became closer.

Especially after witnessing Kim Min-jun achieve overwhelming success in training, they became even more motivated.

“Yesterday, I leveled up in Dungeon Fighter Online ten times to max level.”

“That’s crazy….”

“Did you play games yesterday too? Yesterday’s training was so frustrating.”

I would be happy to translate the text for you!

“Even though he enjoys everything like that, to be the top in training…I wonder if that person is really human.

“Let’s go quickly. We have to do the Hunter Run.”

The other trainees also wanted to enjoy the amusement facilities, but it was like a distant dream.

After finishing training, they were too exhausted to do anything.

They began to huddle together and put on their combat uniforms.

They were doing the Hunter Run, which takes place for two hours starting from 6:10 a.m.

“How can we run 40 km in two hours?”

“This is crazy. Just kill me.”

“Hunters are also human!”

Even though the trainees were groaning, they headed to the infirmary.

In less than five minutes, the infirmary was filled with trainees.

“Line up by yourself and stretch for one minute. Begin!”

The officer who seemed to be a squad leader climbed onto the podium and announced that they would do the Hunter Run in one minute.

“Listen while you stretch. The purpose of our Hunter troops is to subdue as many monsters as possible. That doesn’t mean you should do the ceremonial movements carelessly! Do it properly!”

“Yes, sir!”

“Understood!”

“Hunter troops are also soldiers! Will you be sloppy even when you go to your unit?”

“No, sir!”

At the squad leader’s command, the trainees quickly moved and lined up.

“Trainees who can’t achieve 40 km in two hours won’t have breakfast.”

At the sudden bombshell announcement from the squad leader, the trainees all sighed.

“So if it doesn’t work, make it evil. Let’s go!”

At the squad leader’s signal, the trainees ran forward in a rush.

“Hmm. This class seems a bit uneasy.”

Meanwhile, the squad leader read each trainee’s evaluation sheet, contemplating whether to increase the intensity of their training.

In clearing dungeons safely, nothing was as important as stamina.

Dungeons with unknown monsters and terrain that could pop up at any time could quickly consume the trainees’ stamina.

“Hmm? This guy…”

As he read through the evaluation sheets one by one, he noticed a particularly noticeable evaluation.

“Kim Min-joon.”

Sergeant Lee Seung-ho had highlighted Kim Min-joon’s evaluation as a promising hunter.

“Come to think of it, this guy’s training performance is overwhelmingly good.”

He had never seen a trainee like this before.

“You shouldn’t send guys like this to the rear. That would be a loss.”

After watching the rest of the training, the squad leader decided to place Kim Min-joon at the forefront.

“58 minutes cut!”

“Water! Water please!”

“Heuk! Heuk!”

After the hunter sprint was over, the trainees lay on the ground, exhausted.

Kim Min-joon finished the run in just an hour and was taking a leisurely break.

“Open your mouth. I’ll give you water.”

He generously shared his water with his classmates.

For him, it was just a light morning jog.

“Hey, look at Kim Min-joon. He hasn’t even broken a sweat.”

“What? He ran 40 kilometers in just one hour? Does that even make sense?”

“He’s like a monster.”

“What? He doesn’t want to drink water?”

“He was boasting about his monstrous stamina, my friend.”

Kim Min-joon joked around with his peers, even throwing his entire water bottle at them.

As the time limit set by the squad leader ended, the late-arriving trainees hurriedly entered, looking upset.

“Oh no, we have Hunter Rian for breakfast today!”

“What’s Hunter Rian? Is it like Notdaria or something?”

“Don’t compare it to places like that. They say the chefs make a hamburger with expensive beef patties, double-stacked.”