I partially covered my ears to make them look human-like and also altered my odd eyes to a light brown, but my senses picked up everything clearly. Long, pointed ears and mysterious green and amber eyes.
“Yoon Han-gyeol, you are the worst match for elves. If you meet them, don’t even turn back, just run away.”
Suddenly, I recalled the warning from my past life, Jo Gi-man. Come to think of it, that guy often meddled in my affairs, telling me to be careful of this and that.
‘Why the hell did you do that, you crazy bastard, when you were going to kill me?’
I shook off my fleeting thoughts due to the frantic gesture of the red-haired man.
Boom—!!
“Damn… as expected.”
The red-haired man waved his hand and dispelled all the [Corrupted Breath] I had activated the moment I saw the large group of orc warriors.
“Really, it’s a disgusting smell. Paralysis? Poison? It’s utterly crude. This skill is… Skeleton Soldier, is that you? Wait a minute… that’s not a Skeleton Soldier, is it? A mutant?”
“Clap, Clap!!”
“Huh? Can you understand me? By the way, this sticky aura is also your ability? What on earth are you?”
He even detected the waves of my senses.
“·······”
“Planning to keep your mouth shut? Then how about asking the kid connected to you next? A few fingernails? No, better yet, let’s thinly peel off that soft facial skin. Then you’ll probably cry and tell me everything you haven’t.”
…………
‘If you lay a finger on Yeon-hee, I swear I’ll kill you.’
I summoned a bomb made from ‘Teeth’ and prepared to charge at him immediately. Of course, I knew full well that this bomb wouldn’t leave even a scratch.
“Oh? What’s that? A bone bomb? I’ve never seen that ability in my long life. Heh heh heh—what a surprise, I found something entertaining I didn’t expect! What’s your name? Oh, you can’t talk? Hmm… I’m really curious, you know. The weather isn’t great. Such a pity.”
‘Hah… this bastard sure talks a lot…’
The chatterbox elf looked at me with a curious expression, seemingly contemplating what to do.
Jo Gi-man told me that elves are incredibly gifted in sensing. The problem is, their ability is so advanced that they can even sense my waves and [Stealth].
Jo Gi-man didn’t warn me for no reason.
Of course, they could sense me but couldn’t nullify my abilities. I discovered this fact when I encountered some nice(?) elves in a high-level dungeon just before Jo Gi-man died.
So, the fact that I was ahead in information-gathering and could use that to ambush was a distant dream against an elf.
‘But why is that guy just standing still? He could wipe out dozens of hunters here in a heartbeat if he wanted to.’
I only realized the reason when I saw lightning striking down around him with a delay.
‘It’s not that he isn’t doing anything, it’s that he can’t. Right, it’s obvious. An upper-tier elf in an E-rank dungeon? That shouldn’t be possible.’
But on the flip side, I was looking at an entity that somehow managed to achieve that impossibility.
In other words, a monster among monsters.
Kwoooorrr—!!
‘There are over a hundred orc warriors already. Damn it!’
For over a minute, I was stuck in a state where I couldn’t move.
“Hoo… this should be enough.”
The middle-aged man sitting behind the elf, muttering something to himself, stood up and said.
“You’re fast, damn it! But well, thanks for the show. I want to leave a mark on him, but I’m really reaching my limit now. Put your hand on me.”
The elf closed his eyes and chanted a spell when the middle-aged man and another man beside him placed a hand on his shoulder, summoning a small door barely big enough for three people to pass through.
As the elf opened the summoned door and began to walk through, he suddenly turned back and shouted at me.
“It’ll be tough, but if by any chance you survive today and meet me again! At this rate, you definitely won’t be able to protect that kid beside you, so think of a way! Hahaha!!”
Swoosh—
With a hearty laugh uncharacteristic of an elf, the mysterious red-haired elf and the two men who seemed to be blue-eyed officers disappeared beyond the door.
Though his words were light-hearted, the weight they left on me was heavy.
‘I know without you saying that it’s all your fault, you bastard! Argh…’
“They… disappeared…”
“Did they really vanish?”
Helen and Jin-kyeong stared blankly at the spot where they had disappeared, like rabbits in headlights. Of course, the others who were frozen in place felt the same.
…………
A brief silence.
Tap—tat-tap—ta-ta-ta-tap—
The silence didn’t last long.
As the super-strong enemy that I couldn’t even look at disappeared, the hunters gathered in the area began to turn and dash away one by one.
‘Hah— this is the most shocking day in the short life of a skeleton soldier.’
Not only did I meet an elf in a place like this, but the biggest shock was realizing that the orc legion commander and the blue-eyed organization were on the same side.
‘What the hell is going on here!!’
[Calmness]
[Calmness]
But the mental chaos soon settled thanks to the great trait that was passively active, and the storm of emotions began to transform into something else.
‘I was offering sacrifices… to summon the orcs. Hah… haha…’
…………
‘I see now…’
So it was those bastards who killed Yeon-hee…
Hoo—
I let out a long breath. Of course, I didn’t manage to expel any air from my body, but it was a sigh filled with diluted emotions like anger, guilt, despair, and regret.
‘I’ll kill them all.’
It wasn’t something to think about, and I wanted to do it. It was a chance to repay my life debt, which had become a significant turning point in my past life.
But the elf had vanished, and how I should act right now was a matter to consider carefully.
Because the situation was quite critical. Imagine facing hundreds of D-rank opponents. It would be odd not to run away immediately.
And even now, their numbers were continuously increasing. Now it had exceeded 200.
It was time to think about how to save Yeon-hee rather than letting my anger take over.
In fact, the easiest thing to do would be to grab Yeon-hee and just dash towards the exit.
Then at least Yeon-hee could save her life.
But I was worried about Helen and Jin-kyeong. This is typical Korean behavior, damn that compassion…
‘And Yeon-hee wouldn’t want that anyway…’
The only way I knew to close a gate that was spewing out monsters was to kill all the monsters coming through it until it naturally disappeared.
It seems there should be at least one person in this world with a skill to close gates, but no hunter with such an ability came to my memory.
Usually, by observing the speed of monsters coming out of a gate, you can roughly estimate the total number that will emerge.
During this brief moment, after closely watching, I realized the minimum number of orc warriors that would emerge from that gate would exceed a thousand.
Damn it, fight against 1000 D-ranks? It might be better to just commit suicide.
‘With the numbers so high, guerilla tactics won’t work before they reach the exit anyway.’
Once they reach the exit, can they then go outside? If so, that would be quite dangerous.
Though the Lizard Swamp dungeon is somewhat distanced from the city center, it’s a popular dungeon, so the surrounding area has developed commerce. The resident population is nearly ten thousand, and during this time the active populace could be several times that.
So a sudden dungeon break would be enough to turn the neighborhood upside down.
The casualties would likely be at least several times greater than the orc bastards.
‘Damn… I’m worrying about others in the middle of this. I sure am fortunate, huh?’
Rumble—
The orcs that had emerged commenced their [Warrior’s Roar]. It felt like they were telling me to mind my own business, and I nodded while examining my current condition.
Stored Bombs: 41/62
Magic Power: 111/117
I had sufficient magic, with 41 bombs stored.
With so many of them, the bombs had to be used as efficiently as possible. And I was currently busy making more.
“What are you waiting for? Why aren’t you running away!!”
I snapped out of my thoughts at Jin-kyeong’s desperate shout.
She was waving her palms at Yeon-hee and me, gesturing for us to come quickly.
It wasn’t just her running away. The more than 30 hunters who had been hiding with the blue-eyed deities and the additional 40 hunters who had just arrived were all retreating in unison.
It was a purely natural response. They were of a much higher rank and outnumbered us, and the blue-eyed deities weren’t completely dead either. The ones that survived were sneering at us. Those bastards looked like they wanted to punch them all.
‘Hmm, well, it’s not the worst-case scenario, is it?’
Fortunately, the fleeing hunters seemed to have some sense, avoiding the mistake of moving along the shortest path to the exit.
Some even launched flares immediately to warn other hunters sprawled everywhere.
Seeing dozens of people splitting off to escape in every direction, Yeon-hee and I exchanged glances for a moment.
‘The Lizard Squad besides 1 and 2 won’t last a second after coming out. Their numbers and individual abilities don’t stand a chance.’
I conveyed this through my eyes, but she was already in a state of fighting spirit. Surely she felt the duty to protect them.
She must have a longing to see how far she can go by fully deploying her ability and clashing with them once.
Her choice, which was different from usual, must be related to Noh Ha-yoon, the one who pushes her forward.
From my perspective, that was a welcome occurrence.
‘Noh Ha-yoon does have some use. Even if it’s annoying.’
Though it was an absurdly reckless and immature choice, if she wanted it badly, I should support her.
‘Even if the outcome is obvious, she should have the experience of feeling the gap in strength and growing from it.’
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