Chapter-4 Family

    The house wasn’t too big the house only had one bedroom, one living room, one kitchen, and washroom. The size of the house was too small and the condition of the house was very poor.

    When they entered the living room, he could see there was someone sitting on the sofa and watching tv.

    “Look who is back honey” said his mother while clutching onto Kang-ho’s hand afraid that he would disappear at any moment.

    “Who is it?” Said Yi Man-Young while turning back.

    “Sh-..shh…son!” Yi Man-young couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He got up of the chair and rad towards Kang-ho he wanted to confirm that it was his son who came back. He stood in front of Kang-Ho and he confirmed it was his son, then he gave Kang-Ho a hug.

    Kang-Ho hugged back too. After a little hug they separated. After, the hug Yi Man-Young stared at it son with mixed emotion, on one hand he was happy his son was finally back, but on the other hand he was angry at him for disappearing 2 years ago, without a word.

   “Where did you run away to? Why does your hair and beard look messy why didn’t you save? Do you know how worried we were when we couldn’t find you? Couldn’t you have told us about where you were going to?” shouted Yi Man-young.

    “I-” Kang-Ho didn’t know where to start.

    “I got stuck in a dungeon I couldn’t get out there were monster outside so I hid in a cave” Kang-ho said. He didn’t want his parents to think that he would run away again. He couldn’t have said the truth it would worry them too much.

    After hearing him his parents were horrified specially his mother.

    -GASP-

     “Are you alright nothing happened to you right?” Ha-Neul asked while crying again.

    “I was alright I got a safe place to hide” he said.

    They obviously didn’t believe it but didn’t ask anything anymore they knew their son wouldn’t say anything even if they asked anymore so they let him be. They thought he would tell them the truth when he is ready.

    “Thank god you are alright” Ha-Nuel said with a sigh.

    “Mom what happened to your hand” asked Kang-Ho e was very bothered to see her hand like that

    “Oh, this I had a little accident while cooking in our restaurant” said his mom.

    “Restaurant?” Kang-Ho asked.

    “Yes, your father and I started a restaurant after we moved here” she said.

    “Father what did Jo-Ji-Dak do?” asked Kang-Ho he couldn’t bother to call that man uncle he didn’t deserve that much of respect.

    “Don’t go to him he is a dangerous man. He is a level 50 hunter now. I don’t want you to get hurt” said his father with a grave expression.

    Kang-Ho didn’t reply anything but you could easily see the killing intent in his eyes he couldn’t let that person go who hurt his parents.

    Yi Man-Young wanted to say something more but before he could say anything, they saw someone peeking from the door of the living room. Someone was peeking at them with big, cute eyes. When Kang-Ho looked at that direction she hid behind the doo. He knew it was his sister.

    “Yi Hwa-young come here brother is back” said his mother.

    “Big brother?” said the little girl peeking through the door again but this time she had shiny eyes.

    “Yes, come here” said his mother.

    This time she came out of the door and made her way to her mom in light steps, she was still confused who this man was with beard and hair so long.

    She came behind her mom and hid behind her and peeked at Kang-Ho

     “Go to your brother” said her mother.

    “You are big brother?” asked the little girl. Still peeking from behind her mom’s leg.

    “Yes, come here I will bring you candy when I go out again.” Said Kang-Ho.

    “Bro-ther” shouted the little girl and jumped unto his arms

    “Why did you disappear all these days brother” asked the little girl.

    “Brother went to do some work” said her mom.

    “You have to but me a lot of candies now that you are back” said the little girl.

     “Alright brother will buy you a lot of candies” he said while he kissed her chubby little cheek.

    They chatted for a while and came to know about how they were doing after the dungeons started appearing. They weren’t doing so well, they had hard time getting three meals a day but still they were working very hard to live through.

    After knowing this Kang-ho thought he has to visit the tutorial dungeon and make some money so that his parents could live a comfortable life. And at the same time to get some weapons and get familiar to this new world where the hunters reign supreme. He fought entire life for just this day to come so he could not think of a better way than being a hunter to support his family, and at the same time he had some people he had to kill, so he should get familiar to these things called dungeon.

    The family chatted for a while happily then mom went to cook. After the meal was ready, they sat to have the meal.

    “Dad Mom.” Said kang-ho

    “Yes?” asked his dad.

    “I want to be a hunter” said kang-ho

    “No, you cannot, being hunter is very dangerous you would have to risk your life whenever you go inside that dungeon” said his mother. She was very anxious about the topic she didn’t want her child to disappear again. Her concerns were valid she heard from others that the people who goes inside a dungeon only has 50% chance of returning.

    “Don’t worry mom nothing will happen to me please trust me” said kang-ho

    His father wanted to say something but then he saw kang-ho’s eyes he knew whatever he said won’t change his mind so all he could do was sigh.

    Yi Man-young placed his hands-on Yi Ha-Neul and shook his head indicating that nothing they said would change their son’s mind. All they could do was pray for his safe return.

    “Alright, but you must be careful out there, monsters are not the only creatures that can kill you out there, people can also kill you if you are not careful enough” said his father.

    “Alright, I will be careful when I am out there.” Said kang-ho.

    The family enjoyed their meal, chatted a little bit, now it was late at night so they made their way to bet he slept in sofa. his parents and sister slept in the bedroom.

    After turning off the lights he started to make plans about tomorrow what he should do next he planned to visit the tutorial dungeon and knowing more about hunters and dungeons. He decided to visit barber to cut his hair and beard. This was really bothering him now, even his sister couldn’t recognize him at first glance.

    Everything was still like dream to him, but he was happy nonetheless he was he was back to his family after 400 years of constant struggle and fights everything paid off at the end.