“I’ve eliminated the nefarious group threatening the safety of this world!”
“Experience points are increasing!”
“The [Summoner’s Assistant] achievement is activated.”
“Random stat increases occur!”
“Oh? My strength went up again! Sweet, sweet!”
Strength: 107 (+3) Agility: 129
Health: 117 (+1) Wisdom: 105
Magic Power: 117 (+1) Resistance: 15
Sense: 49 (+1) Recovery: 45 (+2)
This was already the eighth stat increase. That means I sent eight guys to the grave. And all of this achieved in a short time before my party even arrived.
“The stats I gain from taking these guys down are absurd! With strength like mine, even if it’s one more point, it doesn’t matter about the Skeleton Bombardier’s strength cap!!”
Let’s see, how many Blue-eyed Deities are there now? When I died, there were more than a million, so maybe now there’s around 200-300 thousand?
Then let’s keep it simple: if I take down a thousand, that’s a thousand points! Ten thousand gives me ten thousand points! This is a real treasure trove.
Of course, the million count includes regular folks who haven’t awakened, but who knows? Maybe even non-hunters will boost my stats?
“Level up!”
“Finally…”
Having killed eight hunters, it’s only natural I gained a ton of experience points.
I reached level 40 even before taking down the Lizardman Champion.
“First, let’s wrap this up and take my time to inspect things. I need to head home to make a choice anyway.”
Shaking off the long message that popped into my head, I turned to the last foe.
Just by taking this one down, I’d score a free nine-point boost in my stats today.
At that moment, the last guy took off running without even looking back.
“Huh? Where do you think you’re going? Running away at a time like this?!”
“EEEEK!! Damn it! I said just give up when you saw Noh Ha-yoon! Idiotic Jeong Hyeong-sik!”
“See, you should’ve controlled your own life.”
Since he was the furthest away, the bomb attack missed him, and he took relatively less damage.
Even with one arm hanging limply, he was running super fast.
You don’t see many like that among the Blue-eyed Deities, huh—
I was about to charge at him when I felt something chillingly magical fly fast towards him.
SSSEEEEEEEKK—
THUD—!
An ice spear that flew from somewhere pierced his head and embedded itself deep in a tree trunk some distance away.
“Aw, crap. My stats!!”
Noh Ha-yoon came running over, blissfully unaware that she had just cost me one stat point.
“Aaargh! She thought she was helping or something, but now what can I say?”
When I shot her a glare, Noh Ha-yoon looked startled, as if she had read something from my eyes. Then she kept nodding her head toward me.
Given her mom, I wondered if this kind of lowering posture was necessary, but who cares? I soon lost interest.
Sighing a breath I couldn’t even force out, I started collecting the runes dropped from the bodies.
– You acquire a Rune of Giants (Low-Rank). +6
– You acquire a Rune of Vitality (Normal). +5
– You acquire a Rune of Thorns (Low-Rank). +7
…
…
One low-rank rune is worth at least 1.8 million won. This is what they mean when they say a pumpkin comes with its vine!
From the eight I killed, I collected a total of 39 runes. It’s a disappointing number relative to the number of people, but considering the probability of them disappearing, it’s a reasonable total.
“So… even with the commission, that’s roughly 80 million won? Hehe, that’s tasty.”
If someone saw me now, they’d surely notice the skeleton’s shoulders bouncing enthusiastically.
Most are low-rank runes, so only hunters above level 20 can equip them, but if I wanted to sell, it could happen in an instant.
Although there’s the hassle of not being able to list items like artifacts in the market and having to deal directly with buyers. But that doesn’t concern me; Yeon-hee will handle it just fine.
“Hmm—”
It’s quite astonishing that after killing eight people, I feel not a shred of negative emotion. It wasn’t like becoming a skeleton dulled my feelings. In fact, I’m feeling a bit better?
“Killing these bastards feels refreshing.”
While I was inwardly chuckling, a question suddenly struck me.
“But why are these Blue-eyed folks just handing me these awesome cloaks and not managing their runes? If they had just a few more runes, they wouldn’t have been wiped out so easily?”
Even the dropped runes were all low-value. I couldn’t help but ponder the management style of the Blue-eyed Organization.
“Tsk—there’s nothing useful for Yeon-hee, and should I distribute them to the Lizard Squad? Or do I give some to Lizardman 1 and Dotti first?”
Lost in thought, the party members who had rushed over looked completely baffled as if to say, “What the heck happened here?”
“Hehe.”
Seeing their surprised expressions was a surprisingly delightful moment. My little amusement.
As my party members, who were washing their faces dry while looking over the nine corpses, gazed at the bag full of runes I had pulled from my inventory, they momentarily went blank.
I knew from my past experiences that those expressions were to hide the greed bubbling up within them.
Casually handing the bag to Yeon-hee, I approached the nearest corpse and lifted the robe that resembled those of any other hunter, inspecting the lining.
“They’ve erased the patterns? Oh my, look at these cuties.”
It seemed they erased their trademark after the last incident where they got exposed while performing an offering underground.
“Hmm… did they already erase the patterns at this timing? My memories seem a bit off…”
It was a symbol of the deity they served. Erasing it wouldn’t have been an easy choice, so it was surprising they made such a quick decision.
I stripped away the upper clothing of the corpse, revealing a clear tattoo on its chest.
“Well, of course! You were just dying to show off your god or what?”
Looking at the others, they had a Blue-eyed mark on their back or arms, too.
“Yeon-hee, are these the same guys who killed hunters underground?”
“Yes, I saw it on the guild bulletin board. This symbol definitely matches. Um.”
…
As Noh Ha-yoon butted in casually to answer Helen’s question, we momentarily lost our sense of direction, but there was no one to shove her away either.
“…Can I join too? I did take down one, you know!”
Not that I had any ground to stand on with the eight I had killed, but counting who killed whom feels a bit… well, it’s whatever since they deserved it anyway.
As the Blue-eyed Deities’ activities were gradually surfacing across the country, there was no way we’d face repercussions for taking them down now.
“Should be fine, right? Since Noh Ha-yoon was involved, the ‘Witch’ will take care of it for sure… come to think of it, she’s quite a useful asset in that regard?”
As long as she doesn’t do anything that harms civilians, most incidents would probably be managed by her mom. Thus, finding a way to make good use of Noh Ha-yoon might benefit us in the future.
“Hmmm… Let’s think about that slowly.”
Thinking so, I gazed at Noh Ha-yoon, who was stepping closer to me like a thieving cat.
“But why are her eyes like that?”
They resembled cartoon-like swirling eyes…
The pupils rapidly expanding and contracting made me realize that human eyes could look just like that.
“Damn… this girl is trouble. Best to steer clear.”
As Noh Ha-yoon approached, I made a sly side step and escaped.
Now it was overtly obvious she was after me.
“What, if she gets close, will my stats go up or something?”
She was right within arm’s reach now, and Yeon-hee, unable to stand still any longer, finally put the brakes on Noh Ha-yoon.
“Uhm, excuse me? What do you think you’re doing?”
“Huh? Oh! Sorry! Why are there so many bugs? ARGH! Die, you bug!”
Incredibly, Noh Ha-yoon began pretending to squash bugs with her feet. Is this really how an adult should respond? It was clearly a clumsy excuse, but Yeon-hee issued another warning.
“If you approach my summoned creature at your leisure… I’ll have no choice but to intervene…”
Her voice held a firm, small will.
Hearing that, Noh Ha-yoon finally diverted her gaze from me and acknowledged Yeon-hee.
“Intervene… against me?”
Muttering that, her eyes were tangled with some complicated feelings. What on earth was she thinking right now? Il-wol genuinely wondered.
Under Yeon-hee’s intense gaze, Noh Ha-yoon quickly forgot about Yeon-hee’s provocation and got lost in other thoughts.
“Ugh… I envy you, Yeon-hee… how did you get wrapped up with such a mysterious being? Should I just ask bluntly? Or maybe take the chance to get a little close?”
In Noh Ha-yoon’s eyes, Yeon-hee was still a tier below her that she could easily dominate.
“It wouldn’t be hard to teach her a lesson… but, nah, I better not.”
Yet even now, she felt some strange energy enveloping her, emanating from the skeleton soldier next to her.
Was it the resolve that if she made even a slight misstep, she’d be split in two right there?
Chills ran down her spine.
“Ah… this feeling again… it’s scary, yet somehow… not unwelcome…”
Noh Ha-yoon thought back to when the skeleton had slammed her abdomen.
“Ugh… it hurt like hell, yet it was… intense…”
In fact, she’d almost been struck that way just moments before. She had used a skill to help the skeleton, but the skeleton didn’t seem to appreciate that. No, it looked utterly enraged.
That was a bond forged from taking a strong hit from the skeleton, leading to an achievement.
With that achievement in hand, her combat had leaped to an entirely different realm.
Always getting criticized for being reckless and instinctive, she was now evolving into the cold, precise battle form typical of a sorcerer who was fully aware of her capabilities.
Given that she had earned such achievements, she still followed the skeleton around, hoping to gain more fortunate encounters. But even she knew such luck didn’t come easy.
Still, she often couldn’t help but linger around the skeleton. She couldn’t quite articulate why. She instinctively just acted on her whims.
Stealing a glance with her eyes slightly turned, she stared at the fearsome skull-like face.
That jolt began to stir her senses all over again.
Feeling fear from someone was a new experience for Noh Ha-yoon. She had only felt such emotions from a single person throughout her life.
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