While Suji was away, the people in Daphne’s living space were conducting a new experiment.

They were trying to figure out the conditions under which the ‘Great Beings’ would take interest in a hunter’s actions.

However, even when they went to a nearby dungeon and completed the same weed-pulling quest up to level 4, nothing happened to them. They only earned some pocket change for nothing.

“Is it because I’m just some measly S-rank hunter that it’s not working?”

“There must have been some special condition…”

“Could it be just because it was Lady Daphne?”

“That possibility certainly seems likely. If someone with that level of ability was just digging in the ground, I’d be curious too.”

“But Lady Daphne, about pulling weeds. You only needed to pull them near the house, right?”

Noisy voices could be heard from afar.

Suji, who was just returning home, burst out laughing after hearing the last few words.

No one would know how precious the people around her were now, compared to those who were so desperate to use their abilities.

As Suji approached the group, they stopped their chattering and turned to look at her.

“Did you receive the emotion well?”

Elaine greeted her politely, while Peace and Saint waved with bright smiles. Yeonju also made eye contact with Suji.

“Aunt, why do you look so dazed?”

“Well… Because of what I heard while you were gone.”

“What you heard? Ah… About that weed quest?”

“Two ‘Great Beings’ appeared? Is that true?”

It seemed she had been dying to talk about this.

Suji chuckled, amused by Yeonju’s eagerness to speak.

“Yes, that’s right. But isn’t it a bit strange? I wonder if they might be fake.”

“Fake? What fake? What are you talking about, Suji?”

Yeonju continued urgently.

“Of course, not one but two does seem unbelievable. The more I think about it, the less sense it makes. But… for you, it seems possible. This is really an extraordinary event, you know?”

Suji listened quietly to Yeonju’s praise and smiled faintly.

No matter how much she thought about it, Suji couldn’t easily understand why people thought so highly of the ‘Great Beings’.

From her experience, it just felt unpleasantly like having stalkers watching all the time. And two of them at that!

While the items were certainly of high quality and tempting, observing their behavior just made her feel uneasy, like receiving a message that doesn’t state its purpose after saying hello.

“Ah… It’s not because I’m special, it just seemed like a whim. There have been cases of ‘Great Beings’ paying attention to hunters before, right? In fact, in those cases, they always appeared at some crucial moment… In my case, I received such a message while pulling weeds. They didn’t show even a shadow when I was working my bones off. Isn’t that funny?”

“…Now that you say it, it does seem that way, but still, they are beings beyond our understanding.”

Just then, Suji noticed her status window being pushed up. She rolled her eyes to look at the status window while continuing the conversation.

[νόμος is interested in your actions.] [Νύμφη expresses dissatisfaction with your words and behavior.]

They say when you talk about ghosts, they hover around thinking you’re talking about them? Really, she thought only ghosts were attention seekers, but the ‘Great Beings’ were definitely attention seekers too.

Popping up when talking about them.

‘What dissatisfaction.’

Suji shook her head with a snort.

Yeonju, who had no way of knowing what Suji was looking at, assumed that she too was troubled by the ‘Great Beings’.

“Should we ask Seunghwan… I mean, Knight? Maybe there’s an important reason for this event… The ‘Great Beings’ might have some intention.”

Knight?

Suji’s eyes widened at the sudden mention of one of her top superiors in her comfortable resting space.

Knight is the director of the Gate Stabilization Department.

Strictly speaking, he was a very high-ranking person to Daphne, but having seen him often since childhood, he was like a fairly close uncle to her.

Of course, he wasn’t as comfortable and familiar as Yeonju, but Knight’s experienced judgments, having once reached SS-rank, were often quite helpful and reliable.

He was one of only three people in the world who had testified to being directly noticed by the ‘Great Beings’.

So if they were to consult about issues related to them, he would be the most suitable person.

But she couldn’t readily nod her head.

Once, when they met alone without Yeonju, she had casually asked about the ‘Great Beings’. In what situation did he encounter them?

At that time, Knight couldn’t answer readily.

And even after that, no, until now, she hadn’t received an answer. Suji didn’t ask twice either.

‘…He seemed reluctant to talk about it.’

And contacting executives of the Gate Stabilization Department while having fun like this didn’t seem quite appealing.

It felt like calling the homeroom teacher while doing nothing and playing during vacation…

Suji hesitated and then shook her head.

“It’s not an urgent matter anyway. The ‘Great Beings’ or whatever, if they need something, they’ll contact me on their own. If it’s just a prank, it’ll stop on its own.”

Yeonju was surprised by Suji’s bold words.

If it were someone else saying this, she would think it was bravado, but Suji never spoke in an exaggerated or boastful manner.

So knowing these words were truly sincere made it even more surprising.

Among hunters, the ‘Great Beings’ were objects of tremendous respect and worship.

Naturally so.

With the advent of the A.W., or post-Wave generation, everyone pursued strength.

Even though the start of the Wave didn’t immediately sever human life, the popularity of professions other than hunters decreased to a strange degree.

This was perhaps similar to the psychology of people in countries where gun ownership is legal, acquiring firearms not for attack but for self-protection.

To protect oneself from monsters, and to protect oneself from hunters who had become unreasonably powerful.

Everyone sought strong power.

In such a situation, people couldn’t help but be excited about beings that could extraordinarily boost their power.

But for Suji to treat such ‘Great Beings’ in this way.

She too would want stronger power.

No, rather, it was because she desired strength more than anyone that she could stand here now.

In fact, isn’t she the one who has tasted the utility of strength the most while running the Tower?

Her response shows how mentally strong Suji is.

‘…Peneios. Your daughter has grown up as wonderfully as you. Really… the way she knows how to stay centered in any situation, she’s just like you.’

Yeonju thought to herself as she firmly grasped Suji’s hand.

“Right. For now, let’s not think about that and rest.”

Suji nodded, then suddenly seemed to remember something and asked Elaine and Yeonju.

“By the way, have you ever seen a monster with a ‘status effect’ attached when it pops out of a gate? I mean… not in dungeons or towers. In regular Waves?”

At Suji’s sudden question, Yeonju and Elaine shook their heads in unison.

“Coming out with a ‘status effect’ attached?”

“Yes. The one I saw was excited.”

“That would make it even harder to predict, it’s terrible just thinking about it.”

“I haven’t seen it either.”

Suji tilted her head puzzlingly.

She held down her long purple hair that was fluttering in the wind, and although she tried to consider it an exceptional case, it still felt strange.

“I encountered a Wave while I was out… The point of occurrence measurement was quite off. And it seems like it was because of that ‘status effect’… Well, it’s probably just this one time, right?”

Generally, the margin of error for Wave occurrence point measurements is extremely narrow.

If these measurements aren’t done properly, it would be impossible for ordinary citizens to live normally, so they were being carried out more meticulously than anything else.

But for Suji to mention such a large error.

Yeonju’s expression stiffened slightly, but she patted Suji’s shoulder as if to reassure her.

“Come on, it was probably just a rare mistake. It’ll be corrected soon. You know how good our country’s measurement team is.”

“That’s true.”

Suji gently pushed aside the doubts she had been worried about at Yeonju’s words.

[This is the timeline separator]

For the next three days, while the five hunters were cultivating the area near Daphne’s nest and having heated discussions about “What form should the pet take to be most efficient?”, there was also a heated debate on the hunter bulletin board.

This time too, the subject of the debate was ‘Daphne’.

People’s views are usually difficult to converge, and when a consensus forms, there tend to be people who rebel against it.

As apologies to Daphne suddenly began to flood in, perhaps as a reaction, posts criticizing Daphne also poured out to a strange degree.