Of course, it wasn’t just Yeon-hee who had that decision-making disorder.
– Ah… everything looks fine, but I’ll take a look and get back to you!! Yeon-hee, please take a look and send me your candidates too! If possible, I would prefer them to be male!
“Yes? Ah, uh, I’ll take a look and get back to you. Yes, yes…”
Helen’s request for a male wasn’t because she was into men, but because if it was just a party of women going around, they would likely be targeted by hunters. Moreover, both Helen and Jin-kyung had above-average looks, and with Yeon-hee added to the mix, it was even more likely.
“A man… a man…”
Yeon-hee perused the list of applicants for a while before pointing her finger at someone.
“What about this guy? He looks the kindest!”
‘……’
When Yeon-hee opened the profile of the man she selected, it was evident just from his face that he was a model student. He had a reasonably plump build and a neat image, sporting glasses; there was also a photo of him without glasses, but his features seemed quite vague. He had an ordinary face that you could see on the street.
Looking at his history, he appeared impressive for this segment. He had already experienced Lizard Swamp more than ten times and had a record of over 200 defeats in low-level dungeons—he was a veteran.
“He must be really strong. With over 200 dungeon runs and a face this clean.”
It was a simple thought, but it was true.
‘Yeon-hee is surprisingly sharp… This guy would probably rank in the mid-tier even at D rank?’
I already knew this man.
Lee Young-chul.
A future serial killer.
It was an unexpected encounter, but I didn’t hesitate at all.
‘Hmm—should I kill him now?’
I nodded casually and Yeon-hee immediately sent the man’s profile to Helen.
There are hunters that are colloquially called villains.
People who suddenly gained uncontrollable power and let out the sinister desires they had been keeping inside. Of course, everyone has their own story of becoming a villain, but what’s the point if it brings innocent people into suffering?
Among them, Lee Young-chul was a villain who released his twisted desires within dungeons. In a way, he was a pure evil.
At the moment the dungeon raid was about to end, he would wait for the moment when people were most unguarded to strike down and satisfy his desires—a piece of trash.
In his lifetime, he had admitted to killing over 100 women to fulfill his urges.
‘At this point… he must already be killing.’
Targeting a party of only women already seemed to be a settled state for him at this time.
In a moment where I felt my fists clenching as I shook my head, Yeon-hee declared that the preparations for tomorrow were complete. It looked like Helen agreed to the man Yeon-hee had chosen.
“What’s up! I feel kinda like a veteran hunter right now! Right, Il-wol?”
“Clap, Clap, Clap…”
“Hehehe-”
I wasn’t sure where the point of feeling like a veteran was, but as long as she was self-satisfied, that was fine.
Yeon-hee seemed happy for some reason and grinned at me for a long time, then took Wang-wang and went into her room.
‘Hmm…’
But I had no time to rest. I still had unfinished business with the goblins, kobolds, and big boar corpses aside from the hobgoblins.
Creak?
As I was about to enter the bathroom, I spoke to Lizardman 1, who was busy flexing his muscles with the orc in the corner without doing any training.
(Why not try working out? Then you guys could really bulk up!)
-!!
(Exercise… what’s that?)
(Creak???)
I demonstrated push-ups to Lizardman 1 and Dotti, who were looking at me like Ddung-i.
I instructed them to perform 20 reps as one set and do it for five sets while firmly sticking their bones to the floor.
(20 reps? One set?)
(Ah… just do it until you feel like you can’t anymore.)
I wondered if they would actually do it because I told them to, but maybe motivated by the thought of getting bigger, both eagerly started doing push-ups.
Considering their massive sizes, the floor felt completely occupied as they positioned themselves.
‘Maybe moving to a house would be better. I can’t stay with these beasts.’
Shaking my head, I began to butcher the monsters.
Splat! Splurt! Sizzle—
I briefly pondered who was truly the beast in the place where blood was splattering all around but soon shook my head again.
About 30 minutes passed.
(Skeleton!!)
Hearing Lizardman 1’s jubilant voice, I turned around to see two monsters standing there, flexing their bulging biceps.
(Skeleton… I grew as you said… I will repay you someday!)
(Me too! I grew! Skeleton is our master!)
‘These madmen… does doing just a few make them pump up like that?’
Are naturally born warriors able to become like this just from a bit of effort? If that’s the case, it’s an incredibly unfair world.
After all, I didn’t even have muscles.
Thinking about it, it was ridiculous that I even had a strength stat.
(Hey, did your strength stat go up too?)
(Muscles…?)
(No, strength!)
(Creak? It didn’t rise.)
As expected. I had suspected that summoned creatures operated on a different mechanism from hunters, but it appeared I was wrong.
If a simple thing like exercise could raise ability stats, then every hunter in the world would have already become high-rank hunters. However, ever since the gates opened, the only way Awakened Ones could grow stronger was through battles against monsters. It seemed like the same applied to our summoned creatures too.
Clink-clank—
Since there wasn’t much left to butcher, it didn’t take long to finish up.
And until Yeon-hee came out, I kept opening and closing my inventory while making bombs.
‘I’ll keep my sense stats extended as much as possible… if I practice feeling the inventory space open and close, maybe something will come of it one day.’
And the next day.
Summoned to the Lizard Swamp dungeon, I was able to meet Helen and Jin-kyung again, whom I had seen briefly during the dungeon break.
“Hello!”
“It’s been a while, hehe.”
Glancing—glancing—
Oh… she’s really something.
Helen still caught the attention of other hunters in her oddly tight outfit, while Jin-kyung also dressed lightly, true to her thief position.
What kind of psychology is it to pick a male while dressing like that to guard against male hunters? It’s one of those mysteries of female hearts.
‘Is Helen still using just her sword? She could adjust her balance a bit more toward defense. On the other hand, Jin-kyung seems to have lowered her center of gravity compared to before. Looks like she’s been putting in some effort. Still, both are much better than when I first saw them.’
It’s basic to closely examine the lineup of party members. Soon after, the newly joined murderer, Lee Young-chul, also made his appearance.
“Hello, I’m Lee Young-chul. Nice to meet you.”
A polite greeting from a seemingly diligent man in his late 20s. He had an image that anyone would have to welcome. At the very least, he didn’t have a look of someone who would cause trouble.
“Oh my—your physique is better than your profile. You’re a front liner, right?”
“Yes, correct. We discussed focusing on defense yesterday, and that’s still applicable, right?”
“Yes, yes, just do that.”
Lee Young-chul wore a massive kite shield that could cover his body and was equipped with a chainmail of a higher quality than the big boar leather armor I wore.
‘Chainmail made from Iron Silkworm…’
Iron Silkworms, a monster in the shape of a snake, create cocoons like silkworms to protect themselves when they are about to die.
Using the wire-like material it exudes to create chainmail results in exceedingly excellent armor. Like orcs, they are widely spread throughout dungeons and are categorized in levels, but they’re quite a challenge to catch.
‘Just looking at his gear shows he’s raided a bunch of kids. Tsk, tsk—’
According to official documents, he was still E-rank, meaning he couldn’t have entered a dungeon that would require someone of D-rank to take down an Iron Silkworm directly.
He probably ambushed a D-rank hunter who came to the Lizard Swamp for leisurely experience points and stole it away.
Whooo—
I could feel his magic power neatly contained. As expected, he was a skilled individual who would likely rank around waist-level at D-rank.
“Nice to meet you…”
“Oh! Summoner! I’m a big fan!”
As Yeon-hee greeted him, Lee Young-chul stepped forward and bowed eagerly.
“……”
Of course, Yeon-hee didn’t respond and pulled her robe a bit deeper, but Lee Young-chul didn’t seem to mind.
“I was so excited yesterday that I couldn’t sleep. Hehe, you’re even more beautiful than the rumors!”
‘What a load of crap. Ha… should I just kill him right now…’
“Yes, yes—let’s keep Young-chul’s fanboying down to a minimum and focus on our work, shall we?”
“Oh! I’m sorry! I promise I won’t get distracted during the battle, so don’t worry!”
“Getting some weird vibes from Hyun-seok~”
“Hey, didn’t you tell Jin-kyung to shut her mouth?”
“Yes, yes—”
Yeon-hee began to move, maintaining as much distance as possible from Lee Young-chul.
This morning.
Before heading into the dungeon, I told Yeon-hee one thing as she was about to put me into Dark Space.
(Tell them I won’t be using stealth as much in the swamp today.)
The spirit Ran acted as the interpreter. I wasn’t sure if she would convey it correctly, but there was no way I could write it out.
(Master! The skeleton guy says he doesn’t want to use stealth!)
‘That bastard…’
“Huh? Why? Are you feeling unwell?”
Heh—
There’s no way a summoned creature has any condition…
(Tell her that the stealth effect wears off in the swamp.)
Ran nodded again and conveyed my words to Yeon-hee.
(They’re asking if you didn’t know the stealth effect wears off in the swamp.)
‘Something feels off about how that’s being communicated…’
“Uh, um… I think it’s starting to come back to me! Just a sec, let me search a bit…”
After hearing that, Yeon-hee searched and then seemed to nod when she found some similar information.
“It’s true… Could it be that Il-wol can remember everything I’ve overheard? Either way, I definitely remember hearing about it! But it’s not just this, is it? Is it because you don’t want to let other people know you’re using stealth?”
“Tap…”
“Hehe, I guessed it right!”
Anyway, because of that, we ended up fighting without stealth. Admittedly, I had my reasons for being reluctant to publicly display my stealth, but today, there was an even bigger reason.
After moving for about five minutes to enter the actual swamp…
“Wait a sec… let me call my summoned creatures and I’ll get started.”
“Oooo……”
Just a few minutes ago, Lee Young-chul had said he wouldn’t get distracted, and now his eyes went wide as he stared intently at Yeon-hee. Helen, who had previously rebuked him, didn’t say anything either. It was such an extraordinary sight.
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