THPUD 09

THPUD

Posted by Zoe, Released on November 1, 2025

Chapter 09 …

“Village head! From now on, your suffering is over and your happiness begins.”

“What are you blabbering about all of a sudden? You eaten something bad? No? Didn’t take your medicine? What am I to do. You’ve got to eat three square meals, you hear me.”

I sat down beside the village head with a playful face and rubbed his shoulders.

“Oh my, your shoulders are really tense. You’re not young anymore — take it easy with the work.”

“Ah, that feels good. That’s the spot. Oh my, your hands are skilled — something about you is different, huh?”

Rub, rub.

“So what happiness are you talking about? You got something to say to me?”

“How about you come with Auntie and move to Seoul to live with us?”

“What on earth are you saying now?”

“I’ll give you regular massages like this, buy you a house, buy you a car — I’ll let you live doing whatever you want. And you can stop the hard farm work.”

I go into F‑rank dungeons every day to get stronger,

sell C‑rank mana stones and monster corpses for money,

Ruth is getting healthier day by day,

and only good things keep happening —

only one thing,

we live so deep in the countryside that travel time eats up too much of our day.

After discussing it with Ruth, we decided to move, and I asked the village head to come with us.

Of course I assumed he’d be happy about it, but—

“Don’t worry about me — you all focus on living well! This is my hometown. Where would I even go?”

He refused without a second thought.

“…But why? Farming is getting harder for you.”

“Oh, Gwang, if you go into dungeons and leave your wife there, what are we two supposed to do in that strange place? Are we just gonna sit and suck our toes?”

The village head actually pretended to suck his toe.

“…You can travel and eat good food and have fun,” I said.

“Travel’s nice once or twice, sure. But it’s tough on the body; it gets awful. If a person does nothing but play, their body will get ruined quick.”

“…”

“Gwang…”

“Yes…”

“Don’t worry about me. I’ve got three grown kids. Gwang, you find a decent woman and get married.”

“…”

**

We lay on the bench watching the stars, flipping through maps and thinking.

Ruth was lying on my stomach, happily sucking a nutrient churu.

“Ruth, shall we go to Gangnam?”

[Gangnam’s house prices are outrageously expensive. I don’t get what’s so good about it. With that money, how many churus could you buy?]

“Honestly, I don’t know either. I only know Gangnam by name.”

A countryside kid who’d lived his whole life at the Hunter Academy and a divine dragon from another world — what would either of us know about Gangnam? I’d assumed it was good because people said so, but I still didn’t see the appeal.

[From my perspective, one more churu would make me happiest right now.]

“…Eat then. Eat a lot. I bought different kinds already. Your favorite beef intestines are also in my inventory.”

[Gwanghui…]

Ruth looked at me with eyes full of gratitude.

[I want tuna churu.]

“…”

I tore off a piece of tuna churu and put it into Ruth’s mouth.

She chewed and sucked the adorable little mouth.

[Delicious. This tastes better than anything I’ve ever had.]

“Is it because I bought it for you?”

[Yes. Food you buy feels warmed by your heart.]

“Really? How’d you know I love you, Ruth?”

I pinched and patted her belly.

Swoosh!

A yellow light burst out of Ruth like a fountain.

“Huh? What is this?”

[Your companion Ruth’s illness has been completely cured.]

“What?”

Bang!

At the sound, the aura surrounding Ruth exploded.

It was so dazzling I couldn’t look straight at it.

“Ruth! What’s happening?”

Swoosh.

The light from Ruth’s explosion covered the whole village and kept expanding.

Mountains, trees, buildings — everything turned yellow, as if the world had been painted gold.

“Wow…”

A world full of light.

Darkness pushed back by light.

Swoosh!

“Uh—Ruth…?”

Ruth’s body, shining brilliantly in the golden light, was growing larger.

“Ruth?”

She grew to my height, then past it quickly — easily over four meters.

Her skin became covered in steel‑like scales that glittered.

‘Is this Ruth’s true form?’

Maybe this was how the gold dragon in the novels looked.

When Ruth spread her wings behind her back, they spanned over ten meters.

Words like “cool” or “beautiful” weren’t enough — she was breathtaking.

[Insignificant human. Bow your head and show respect before the envoy of the gods.]

A cavernous, resonant bass voice.

Ruth’s eyes shone with a different light.

An aura of dignity that made her mere existence feel on another level.

I finally understood why Ruth looked down on humans.

I could see why one would need to bow before her.

Right now, I felt like dropping to my knees immediately.

[Bring me a tuna churu, Gwanghui. My companion.]

“…”

I snorted.

I prostrated myself before Ruth and, with my rear high in the air, offered one tuna churu.

[Your sincerity has been seen. Raise your head.]

“Many thanks for your grace.”

[Good. Now you know your place. Come closer and you may embrace me.]

I jumped up and hugged Ruth’s neck tightly.

Under the hard scales I could feel solid muscles.

“You’re really healthy now. Ruth, congratulations on your full recovery.”

[Thank you, Gwanghui. It’s all thanks to you… no, we did this together.]

“Yeah… we did it.”

Ruth’s brilliant eyes stared deeply into mine.

“Is this really your original form? You look amazing.”

[It is. But my smaller form is still me.]

“You’re as magnificent as always.”

Ruth stretched her long neck and looked up at the sky.

[Gwanghui. My aura covers this world. I can see the paths we must take.]

What was that now…

[We must go to the center of this country.]

“The center of the country…?”

[Yes. You and I will now travel through the skies.]

**

Hunter community.

Title: Why did the F‑rank guildmaster go to Chungju?

hunter1030: Something’s fishy. What would someone be going to Chungju for besides a low‑grade dungeon? It’s weird that they keep coming out alive from C‑rank dungeons, too. Something’s off. I think there’s an accomplice. At least A‑rank, I guess.

└ I think so too. Definitely an accomplice. 100%.

└ Do you know how much an A‑rank hunter’s daily rate is?

└ So why did he go to Chungju? The post is all over the place.

└ Looks like the OP is just asking because they’re curious.

└ My sister saw the F‑rank guildmaster fighting in a C‑rank dungeon and the monsters just stood there. Even when she swung an axe, they didn’t attack.

└ Maybe it’s a binding skill? But even then, an F‑rank hunter can’t pierce C‑rank monster skin — how could she even cut with an axe?

└ A senior I know tried to follow the F‑rank guildmaster and said he couldn’t move at all. Sounds like a paralysis debuff.

└ What’s the ability then?

└ Hey guys — what if the F‑rank guildmaster wasn’t F‑rank from the start? What if the ranking was wrong? That would explain everything, right?

Oh ho. These keyboard warriors.

They even noticed I might have an accomplice.

And that the initial assessment could have been wrong.

It’s impressive how they deduce things from their rooms.

[ Gwanghui. A filthy human approaches. ]

“A filthy human?”

[Literally a filthy human is coming here now. Stay away. I don’t want to deal with them.]

Who would come all the way to Chungju?

Bang!

Someone kicked the office door open and came in.

“Well, long time no see. You remember who I am, right? Hard to forget a face like mine.”

“…”

A face from my memory.

A junior from the Hunter Academy—

He glanced around my office and then looked at Ruth lying in my arms.

“Is this the guild office or a cat cafe? No guild members, just living alone, slacking off.”

He spat curses, flopped down on the sofa, and put his shoes up on the table.

From the moment he entered, I was speechless.

There’s nowhere more hierarchical than the Hunter Academy.

Even when I couldn’t awaken, younger students might have subtly disrespected me, but there had never been a junior brazen enough to be this direct.

“…Junior. Has the Academy lost all respect for seniors lately?”

“You dropped out of the Hunter school, didn’t you? Do people treat dropouts like seniors?”

“…”

I didn’t know.

I’m the first Hunter Academy dropout.

“So why did you come all this way?”

“Be honest. Who helped you? I think I know who it was.”

[ Gwanghui. I’ve fully recovered. I don’t need to hide my presence anymore. No one is a threat to me now. ]

“You were helped by Iruna, right? You were close when you were kids.”

My heart leapt — I was really startled.

“How could you say that…?”

I didn’t want to reveal Ruth’s existence to people yet.

If hunters found out Ruth was a monster, they might persecute him.

I wanted to tell the world about Ruth only once I was strong enough — strong enough to beat S‑rank hunters if needed.

I assumed we’d be safe after becoming powerful enough, but Ruth blurted it out in front of the junior.

“See, Iruna helped you, didn’t she? But what if I tell everyone? What then, huh?”

??

…What was that.

The junior in front of me behaved as if he hadn’t heard Ruth and kept talking.

[ Gwanghui, I spoke so only you could hear me. ]

“…You could do something like that?”

[Of course. I am not the weak body I used to be.]

“…”

“Why — did you think I couldn’t?”

Huh?

Oh — so the junior and I are talking. How far did the conversation get? Something about Iruna, I think.

“If you don’t want your secret exposed and to be embarrassed, disband the guild and hide. Even A‑rank hunters are hesitant to take the guild leader seat, but here you are, an F‑rank messing things up. Know your place.”

Was that what he wanted to say…?

“By the way, what’s your name again? I don’t actually know you well.”

“…What?”

“I had a lot of juniors. I wasn’t at the school for only a short time like you.”

The only reason I remembered his face at all was that he must have been competent.

“…You don’t know me? …”

Maybe he was offended I didn’t know his name. He narrowed his eyes and muttered low.

“You bastard. You think you’re so great? You’re not a genius anymore. What do you have to be so cocky about when you’ve got no skill? Do you think hunters will just leave you be if you stay guildmaster?”

“…”

“Or should I just kill you? I wanted to kill you back when you, some kid, acted like my senior.”

He sounded like he had a personal grudge.

[ Gwanghui. This filthy human should be killed here. ]

“…Is that necessary?”

[If we let him go back, he’ll follow into the dungeon…]

“Kukukuk… You say you go into F‑rank dungeons? Go try it. That’ll be the day of your funeral—.”

Whoosh!

Thunk!

Bang!!

Crash.

The junior was flung into the office wall.