Taehyung, once again, put his hood on and went outside.
Today’s purpose? Jogging.
Let’s get some exercise.
This resolution didn’t end up being a three-day commitment. Since his last attempt to go out after a long time, Taehyung hadn’t skipped jogging even once.
Honestly, he didn’t want to do it. It wasn’t easy to move his own heavy body, being full of lethargy from repetitive cycles of eating and sleeping at home for a long time.
Even dealing with sweaty clothes every day was quite a hassle. However, the increased appetite and food expenses due to a bit of exercise became convenient excuses.
“Oh, should I skip it?” or “How about taking a break today and doing it tomorrow?” such thoughts lingered.
But the desire to improve outweighed these thoughts. To be a proud Lord of the orcs who worked hard to reclaim their former glory, laziness had to be cast aside.
So, Taehyung jogged again today.
He had become quite accustomed to the outdoors, no longer wearing a mask. However, he still firmly pulled down his hood. Some things were just embarrassing.
After some light stretching, he ran lightly along the path by the stream.
Initially, he couldn’t even run for 5 minutes without getting out of breath, but now, it had improved. He could run for about 10 minutes without stopping, with steady and controlled breathing.
Clearly, he felt the increase in stamina throughout his body. Was that all? His body felt lighter than before.
In the past, he struggled to sleep easily at dawn and often had to force himself to open his eyes in the morning. Now, he slept like a baby.
After finishing jogging, he sat on a bench in the park, wiping off the refreshing sweat while catching his breath.
He drank water from the bottle he brought, and then laid back on the bench.
As he gazed at the spiderwebs hanging from the shed’s ceiling, he was suddenly tempted.
“Oh, it’s going to be tough. Should I do strength training?”
But soon, he shook his head.
Honestly, what was the point of doing strength training for someone like him, who was alone and disabled left hand? That was just an excuse.
When he searched on YouTube, he found stories of people who had lost one arm but still diligently exercised and built their bodies. Wasn’t there at least one person like that?
Moreover, among the hunters, there was a person who overcame disabilities and became famous. It was Hyunbaek, a one-armed inspector from the Central Dimension. He had been Taehyung’s role model for a while. But not anymore.
Anyway.
Compared to them, he was in a much better position. His arm wasn’t completely gone, right?
Maybe he could hope? There was a possibility of less than 0.1%, but better than an absolute 0%, wasn’t it?
“Let’s not make excuses and go do it.”
If he decided to do it, he had to. It was a promise to himself. If he broke it, then he couldn’t do anything in the future.
With that in mind, Taehyung got up and headed home.
With this body, he could certainly do strength training. Until he finished today’s quota, he wouldn’t do anything else.
“Oh, by the way, I wonder what my little slime is doing.”
The small slime, a member of the Primordial Slime race, a tiny slime with only a fist-sized body.
It was a slow and frustrating little thing, but it was cute because of its small size.
Though he received system messages about what it was doing, he hadn’t checked on him through the summoner’s eyes for a while now.
Taehyung thought he would check him later.
*
Grumbling, Taehyung, who had finished today’s strength training, immediately checked the status of his two summons.
Karim was in the midst of a large-scale monster extermination with his subordinates, and it was going quite successfully.
His army was currently exterminating a group of kobolds, and it was so overwhelming that Taehyung felt sorry for the kobolds.
The overwhelming strength played a role, but the Red Drake’s horn, given by Taehyung, also played a significant role.
Kobolds and goblins, though weak, were nimble and challenging to catch. However, the Red Drake’s horn intercepted their tricks.
Without a doubt, the orcs would manage well on their own.
Now, what Taehyung was curious about was the tiny slime.
Taehyung immediately linked with Ggolock. Ggolock was still in the meadow. With its resilient body, it was bouncing high up and down.
“Huh? Bouncing so high?”
Taehyung blinked and looked again. Gloki was bouncing as if it were a bouncing ball.
“Did you just… bounce?”
“I did! No, not that… How did that happen? You couldn’t talk before! And you couldn’t jump this high!”
Taehyung scrutinized Ggolock.
Come to think of it, when he first saw it, it was even smaller than it is now. It was about the size of a clenched fist.
And now, it seemed larger than that.
Moreover, there was a glossy feeling to its elastic body…
“It looks like you’re in good shape. Just like someone who ate well and lived comfortably.”
Yes, that was it. It looked like that.
“I absorbed the jumping ability of the muscular rabbit. Now I can jump around. I also absorbed the telepathic communication ability of the giant battle ant. Now I can communicate with you.”
Although the message was cut and dry, Taehyung could roughly grasp what Gloki had done.
“So, you absorbed the abilities of animals to become like this?”
“Yes, that’s right. Now Gloki is not slow and can communicate. Did I do well?”
Gloki bounced even higher.
“Did I do well?”
Taehyung didn’t respond, so it bounced even higher.
“Did I do well?”
“Oh, okay. You did well. Impressive.”
“Haha.”
It seemed like Gloki was pleased. Taehyung then summoned it back to the house and gently swept its elastic body with his hand.
“Gloki!”
Gloki let out a sound.
Taehyung thought it sounded like a cat purring when it was in a good mood.
He pressed down on its body with his hands, and it sank in deeply. It felt like playing with a slime toy.
“Wow, this is insane. I’m getting addicted to this feeling.”
He understood why slime content did so well on kids’ YouTube.
“Gloki I’m sorry. I’ve been neglecting you.”
Taehyung expressed his sincere feelings.
He had been disappointed that the little one was slow and unresponsive. Consequently, he had focused on Karim, neglecting Kkorogi as if telling it to take care of itself.
But this creature was also his summon, just like Karim. Discrimination should not be tolerated.
“Gloki don’t understand. The meaning of negligence, I don’t get it.”
“So, I mean I didn’t pay enough attention to you.”
“If that’s what it means, it’s okay. The master has his own affairs, and Gloki has its own things to do. It’s about performing each other’s roles.”
“Yeah, thanks for saying that.”
The little Gloki, smaller than the palm of his hand, sounded quite mature.
Or was it just indifference?
Anyway, Taehyung found some comfort in Gloki’s words.
“This little one might be better than me.”
Indeed, the person who needed the most effort was himself. He needed to step up.
Thinking this, Taehyung looked down at Gloki in his hand.
When he first saw it, Gloki couldn’t communicate, while he was so focused on how slow Gloki was that he didn’t see its true potential.
‘Maybe getting Gloki was a big win for me.’
Its skill set was truly unique.
Right now, it was just a bouncy slime, but he wondered if it would grow into a tremendous presence later.
“Yeah. First, Gloki. You…”
Although it was convenient to have the little one smaller and easy to carry, it couldn’t grow that way.
“You need to get stronger.”
“Get stronger?”
“Yeah. I mean strong enough that no one in this summoning world can surpass you.”
Since Karim would dominate the Afroxia dimension, maybe Gloki could dominate the Abyssal Chronicles Dimension?
Taehyung silently drew such a big picture.
“Understand?”
“Understood. The master’s command is engraved.”
“Good.”
Taehyung nodded satisfactorily.
Taehyung turned on the computer and began searching the internet for information about the summoning world. Since Gloki’s main stage was the Abyssal Chronicles Dimension, Taehyung needed to know about it to help it grow.
He tried various methods to find information but didn’t find it easily.
Taehyung felt the limitations of information search.
“As expected, I might have to take the Hunter exam.”
HunterNet, the largest hunter community, was like a treasure trove of information. Unfortunately, only licensed hunters could access that information.
Although Taehyung had studied hunters and the system to some extent, that knowledge was still superficial.
However, becoming an official hunter would grant him full access to HunterNet and make it easier to find advanced information.
Until now, fear of the outside world had kept him from taking the exam, but not anymore.
“I have to do what needs to be done.”
Thinking that he would have to go out soon, he turned off the computer.
“Still, I’m not without income.”
Kim Gyujong, a famous hunter known for summoning the top-level creature Pheonix, had mentioned in his YouTube video that the Abyssal Chronicles Dimension consisted of five kings.
Among them, one of the five kings was the Flame King Phoenix.
“So, if I’m careful around the territories ruled by those five kings, the risk of encountering unexpected dangers will significantly decrease.”
Taehyung conveyed the information he had gathered to Kkorogi, hoping it would be helpful.
In a hut in the central area of Kaizen Great Forest.
“Ugh!”
The man groaned repeatedly with a pale face.
“How dare those inferior orcs do such a thing to my familiar!”
Last time, his owl familiar he sent to scout the orc tribe died, dealing a significant blow to the Dark Mage.
The death of a familiar was a fatal blow to a mage, even for him, a Dark Mage.
Nevertheless, he had been nursing himself without making a fuss, and now his body was almost fully recovered.
“I can’t understand. How could orcs like them discover my familiar?”
His familiar was protected by magic—transparent and distortion spells. Yet, it died at the hands of orcs.
It was truly an unbelievable occurrence. Under normal circumstances, it should have been impossible to be discovered. It would take an elite knight with exceptional senses to achieve such a feat.
Mana manipulation was something that even orcs who couldn’t handle magic couldn’t do.
The man naturally thought.
There’s a mastermind. Someone is behind those inferior orcs. Someone who controls them.
“That orc acted as if it knew.”
It definitely seemed that way. The orc stared directly at the hovering owl in the air and accurately killed it with an axe.
Seeing such precision was shocking, considering it was hidden.
“There’s no way an orc could have done that.”
There’s a mastermind. Someone behind those inferior orcs.
“Anyway, I need to sweep away all those inferior orc fellows.”
He had tried to avoid causing a disturbance until now.
This couldn’t be helped. Unpredictable enemies had to be eliminated to have peace of mind.
He reached out his hand. A murky aura swirled ominously from his outstretched hand.
“I’ll definitely sweep them away.”
The Dark Mage laughed ominously. There was no thoughts of failing in his mind.
Those ignorant and foolish orcs could not possibly defeat him.
Taehyung, once again, put his hood on and went outside.
Today’s purpose? Jogging.
Let’s get some exercise.
This resolution didn’t end up being a three-day commitment. Since his last attempt to go out after a long time, Taehyung hadn’t skipped jogging even once.
Honestly, he didn’t want to do it. It wasn’t easy to move his own heavy body, being full of lethargy from repetitive cycles of eating and sleeping at home for a long time.
Even dealing with sweaty clothes every day was quite a hassle. However, the increased appetite and food expenses due to a bit of exercise became convenient excuses.
“Oh, should I skip it?” or “How about taking a break today and doing it tomorrow?” such thoughts lingered.
But the desire to improve outweighed these thoughts. To be a proud Lord of the orcs who worked hard to reclaim their former glory, laziness had to be cast aside.
So, Taehyung jogged again today.
He had become quite accustomed to the outdoors, no longer wearing a mask. However, he still firmly pulled down his hood. Some things were just embarrassing.
After some light stretching, he ran lightly along the path by the stream.
Initially, he couldn’t even run for 5 minutes without getting out of breath, but now, it had improved. He could run for about 10 minutes without stopping, with steady and controlled breathing.
Clearly, he felt the increase in stamina throughout his body. Was that all? His body felt lighter than before.
In the past, he struggled to sleep easily at dawn and often had to force himself to open his eyes in the morning. Now, he slept like a baby.
After finishing jogging, he sat on a bench in the park, wiping off the refreshing sweat while catching his breath.
He drank water from the bottle he brought, and then laid back on the bench.
As he gazed at the spiderwebs hanging from the shed’s ceiling, he was suddenly tempted.
“Oh, it’s going to be tough. Should I do strength training?”
But soon, he shook his head.
Honestly, what was the point of doing strength training for someone like him, who was alone and disabled left hand? That was just an excuse.
When he searched on YouTube, he found stories of people who had lost one arm but still diligently exercised and built their bodies. Wasn’t there at least one person like that?
Moreover, among the hunters, there was a person who overcame disabilities and became famous. It was Hyunbaek, a one-armed inspector from the Central Dimension. He had been Taehyung’s role model for a while. But not anymore.
Anyway.
Compared to them, he was in a much better position. His arm wasn’t completely gone, right?
Maybe he could hope? There was a possibility of less than 0.1%, but better than an absolute 0%, wasn’t it?
“Let’s not make excuses and go do it.”
If he decided to do it, he had to. It was a promise to himself. If he broke it, then he couldn’t do anything in the future.
With that in mind, Taehyung got up and headed home.
With this body, he could certainly do strength training. Until he finished today’s quota, he wouldn’t do anything else.
“Oh, by the way, I wonder what my little slime is doing.”
The small slime, a member of the Primordial Slime race, a tiny slime with only a fist-sized body.
It was a slow and frustrating little thing, but it was cute because of its small size.
Though he received system messages about what it was doing, he hadn’t checked on him through the summoner’s eyes for a while now.
Taehyung thought he would check him later.
*
Grumbling, Taehyung, who had finished today’s strength training, immediately checked the status of his two summons.
Karim was in the midst of a large-scale monster extermination with his subordinates, and it was going quite successfully.
His army was currently exterminating a group of kobolds, and it was so overwhelming that Taehyung felt sorry for the kobolds.
The overwhelming strength played a role, but the Red Drake’s horn, given by Taehyung, also played a significant role.
Kobolds and goblins, though weak, were nimble and challenging to catch. However, the Red Drake’s horn intercepted their tricks.
Without a doubt, the orcs would manage well on their own.
Now, what Taehyung was curious about was the tiny slime.
Taehyung immediately linked with Ggolock. Ggolock was still in the meadow. With its resilient body, it was bouncing high up and down.
“Huh? Bouncing so high?”
Taehyung blinked and looked again. Gloki was bouncing as if it were a bouncing ball.
“Did you just… bounce?”
“I did! No, not that… How did that happen? You couldn’t talk before! And you couldn’t jump this high!”
Taehyung scrutinized Ggolock.
Come to think of it, when he first saw it, it was even smaller than it is now. It was about the size of a clenched fist.
And now, it seemed larger than that.
Moreover, there was a glossy feeling to its elastic body…
“It looks like you’re in good shape. Just like someone who ate well and lived comfortably.”
Yes, that was it. It looked like that.
“I absorbed the jumping ability of the muscular rabbit. Now I can jump around. I also absorbed the telepathic communication ability of the giant battle ant. Now I can communicate with you.”
Although the message was cut and dry, Taehyung could roughly grasp what Gloki had done.
“So, you absorbed the abilities of animals to become like this?”
“Yes, that’s right. Now Gloki is not slow and can communicate. Did I do well?”
Gloki bounced even higher.
“Did I do well?”
Taehyung didn’t respond, so it bounced even higher.
“Did I do well?”
“Oh, okay. You did well. Impressive.”
“Haha.”
It seemed like Gloki was pleased. Taehyung then summoned it back to the house and gently swept its elastic body with his hand.
“Gloki!”
Gloki let out a sound.
Taehyung thought it sounded like a cat purring when it was in a good mood.
He pressed down on its body with his hands, and it sank in deeply. It felt like playing with a slime toy.
“Wow, this is insane. I’m getting addicted to this feeling.”
He understood why slime content did so well on kids’ YouTube.
“Gloki I’m sorry. I’ve been neglecting you.”
Taehyung expressed his sincere feelings.
He had been disappointed that the little one was slow and unresponsive. Consequently, he had focused on Karim, neglecting Kkorogi as if telling it to take care of itself.
But this creature was also his summon, just like Karim. Discrimination should not be tolerated.
“Gloki don’t understand. The meaning of negligence, I don’t get it.”
“So, I mean I didn’t pay enough attention to you.”
“If that’s what it means, it’s okay. The master has his own affairs, and Gloki has its own things to do. It’s about performing each other’s roles.”
“Yeah, thanks for saying that.”
The little Gloki, smaller than the palm of his hand, sounded quite mature.
Or was it just indifference?
Anyway, Taehyung found some comfort in Gloki’s words.
“This little one might be better than me.”
Indeed, the person who needed the most effort was himself. He needed to step up.
Thinking this, Taehyung looked down at Gloki in his hand.
When he first saw it, Gloki couldn’t communicate, while he was so focused on how slow Gloki was that he didn’t see its true potential.
‘Maybe getting Gloki was a big win for me.’
Its skill set was truly unique.
Right now, it was just a bouncy slime, but he wondered if it would grow into a tremendous presence later.
“Yeah. First, Gloki. You…”
Although it was convenient to have the little one smaller and easy to carry, it couldn’t grow that way.
“You need to get stronger.”
“Get stronger?”
“Yeah. I mean strong enough that no one in this summoning world can surpass you.”
Since Karim would dominate the Afroxia dimension, maybe Gloki could dominate the Abyssal Chronicles Dimension?
Taehyung silently drew such a big picture.
“Understand?”
“Understood. The master’s command is engraved.”
“Good.”
Taehyung nodded satisfactorily.
Taehyung turned on the computer and began searching the internet for information about the summoning world. Since Gloki’s main stage was the Abyssal Chronicles Dimension, Taehyung needed to know about it to help it grow.
He tried various methods to find information but didn’t find it easily.
Taehyung felt the limitations of information search.
“As expected, I might have to take the Hunter exam.”
HunterNet, the largest hunter community, was like a treasure trove of information. Unfortunately, only licensed hunters could access that information.
Although Taehyung had studied hunters and the system to some extent, that knowledge was still superficial.
However, becoming an official hunter would grant him full access to HunterNet and make it easier to find advanced information.
Until now, fear of the outside world had kept him from taking the exam, but not anymore.
“I have to do what needs to be done.”
Thinking that he would have to go out soon, he turned off the computer.
“Still, I’m not without income.”
Kim Gyujong, a famous hunter known for summoning the top-level creature Pheonix, had mentioned in his YouTube video that the Abyssal Chronicles Dimension consisted of five kings.
Among them, one of the five kings was the Flame King Phoenix.
“So, if I’m careful around the territories ruled by those five kings, the risk of encountering unexpected dangers will significantly decrease.”
Taehyung conveyed the information he had gathered to Kkorogi, hoping it would be helpful.
In a hut in the central area of Kaizen Great Forest.
“Ugh!”
The man groaned repeatedly with a pale face.
“How dare those inferior orcs do such a thing to my familiar!”
Last time, his owl familiar he sent to scout the orc tribe died, dealing a significant blow to the Dark Mage.
The death of a familiar was a fatal blow to a mage, even for him, a Dark Mage.
Nevertheless, he had been nursing himself without making a fuss, and now his body was almost fully recovered.
“I can’t understand. How could orcs like them discover my familiar?”
His familiar was protected by magic—transparent and distortion spells. Yet, it died at the hands of orcs.
It was truly an unbelievable occurrence. Under normal circumstances, it should have been impossible to be discovered. It would take an elite knight with exceptional senses to achieve such a feat.
Mana manipulation was something that even orcs who couldn’t handle magic couldn’t do.
The man naturally thought.
There’s a mastermind. Someone is behind those inferior orcs. Someone who controls them.
“That orc acted as if it knew.”
It definitely seemed that way. The orc stared directly at the hovering owl in the air and accurately killed it with an axe.
Seeing such precision was shocking, considering it was hidden.
“There’s no way an orc could have done that.”
There’s a mastermind. Someone behind those inferior orcs.
“Anyway, I need to sweep away all those inferior orc fellows.”
He had tried to avoid causing a disturbance until now.
This couldn’t be helped. Unpredictable enemies had to be eliminated to have peace of mind.
He reached out his hand. A murky aura swirled ominously from his outstretched hand.
“I’ll definitely sweep them away.”
The Dark Mage laughed ominously. There was no thoughts of failing in his mind.
Those ignorant and foolish orcs could not possibly defeat him.
