Until now, Ham Eun-young, who hadn’t said a word, whispered my name softly and slyly approached me.
“Ahem—”
As Eun-young came closer, Yeon-hee coughed lightly, casting a silent barrier. Baek Ah-rin and Ham Eun-young, who had hardly interacted with us, halted their advance.
‘Fortunately, they aren’t completely oblivious.’
Just when I was thinking that, I sensed the presence of those guys who had been trailing us earlier. Their footsteps were noticeably heavier than before, indicating they had engaged in a rather intense battle, unlike us.
“Here they come. It’s the same guys as before.”
I sensed their presence, and it seemed that Baek Ah-rin also heard their sounds shortly after. The Rabbit Beastman had exceptional hearing, capable of picking up the sound of a coin dropping hundreds of meters away.
Not to mention their quick legs—agile bodies and keen hearing, plus a much wider field of vision than humans.
‘Now that’s truly a cheat.’
Though their low stamina was a weakness, the advantages were so significant that individuals with awakened Rabbit Beastman traits were often evaluated higher than those with other beastman traits.
“Wait! Are those people all okay?”
“Uh… They seem a bit slower than before. Hmm? A few of them are missing… Did they get taken down by wolves?”
“Oh, really?”
“Joo-ah. But don’t underestimate them. There are a lot more spirit beings in D-rank dungeons than in E-rank ones.”
“Got it!”
Hunters who solely inhabit one dungeon are called life-sustaining hunters, commonly known as spirit beings. Since D-rank dungeons can provide decent earnings, there are many more of them compared to E-rank, and those hunters are seasoned enough not to be underestimated.
“Whew—! As expected from a rabbit! They’ve already taken care of it! Haha!”
“Let’s face them once later!! We’re confident we could go the distance!”
“Feeling tired; should we take a break together? Hahaha—”
‘Ugh, those nuisances. At least they’re still alive.’
All of our party members were independent and not affiliated with any guild, while those guys seemed to catch information like it was nothing. They likely acted more mischievously because they knew there would be no consequences.
“Isn’t this getting dangerous? Normally, they just tease a bit at the start and go their own way. The distance is shorter now. Do they really want something?”
“Ugh, it’s so annoying. Some of them are familiar faces; they’re a couple of guys I’ve crossed paths with before.”
“This is really bad… Maybe they think we’re tired since there are four of us?”
“If they’ve seen us survive with four, you’d think they’d have the common sense to realize we’re much stronger. Are they really that thick-headed?”
“Are they going to come at us right away?”
“Who knows? But the vibe is different from before.”
Baek Ah-rin seemed to ponder for a moment before resolutely speaking.
“Let’s just finish this. We can’t let them get away.”
“Should we? I mean, we don’t have much time left if we want to keep going. We should at least grab our runes…”
“Uh… Well, then…”
“Huh? Ah, Yeon-hee, don’t get me wrong. It’s not like we’re gonna kill anyone or anything, but if they stick with us, they won’t see anything good. I just want to have a talk about it.”
Of course, that wouldn’t just be a conversation.
Bae Joo-ah calmed Yeon-hee, who was looking at her worriedly, and then glanced at the forest to our left, where we were headed.
It seemed like they were planning to lure us deep into the forest or something. The Gray Mold would be annoying, but with Ham Eun-young there to deal with it, we should be able to gain the upper hand smoothly.
“Eun-young, please get ready.”
“…… Yes……”
“Yeon-hee, should Il-wol provoke them a bit with [Fireball]? If they see a fireball bursting nearby, it might excite them and lead them right in.”
“Huh? Ah, sure!”
Even though I was right next to her, Bae Joo-ah chose to speak to Yeon-hee, showing her thoughtfulness not to upset her.
Yeon-hee silently looked at me and circled her finger, and I quickly prepared the Fireball along with the two Skeleton Bombs I had made earlier.
I aimed for the heavily concentrated spot among the group walking about 30-40 meters away from us.
[Stealth]
I activated stealth in front of the large Lizardman 1 and dashed backward, closing in on the group from behind in no time.
‘Just provoke them, don’t kill… This is the harder spell. Just shows they’re still kids.’
I conjured the Fireball as usual and hurled it at the one who had been talking the most trash about 10 meters away. It was the one who kept blathering about Baek Ah-rin’s backside, as if reciting a spell.
‘This is for messing with our rabbit!’
I boldly exclaimed internally, but given that all the spells I had thrown recently had been utterly disastrous, I had little faith this one would hit either.
But then—
Boom—! Whoosh—!!
“ARGHHHH!!”
The Fireball hit perfectly on the face of that man standing at the center. It even triggered the status condition ‘Burn,’ enveloping his face in flames. That was bound to deal quite a blow.
‘Uh… This shouldn’t be hitting.’
I was planning to draw them into the forest and then surround them with summoned creatures to scare them off, but they were hit squarely instead. Why was that?
‘Is it just chance? I can’t make heads or tails of it. I should ask Joo-ah when the chance arises.’
“What’s going on, all of a sudden!!”
“Those bastards for sure. There’s no one else around but them!!”
“Those damn bastards… we were just trying to play around with you!”
“We just wanted to chat!”
“The first one to catch them takes all. Hehe—”
Our party was visibly distanced from them, but they seemed convinced that it was our party members who attacked them. They even reacted like it was a good thing.
Even though they claimed they didn’t want to do anything, they had pulled the trigger themselves; hence they deserved to face the consequences, armed with that ridiculous reasoning, they began forming ranks, charging toward our position.
It was uncertain, but if I hadn’t attacked first, maybe everything would have passed without incident until the dungeon extermination ended…
But what’s done is done. What could be done?
‘First, let’s throw the rest and run.’
I threw the two bombs I had prepared near the two most unlucky-looking ones.
Boom—!! Punk!!
“Whoaah—!!”
Ignoring the cries of the startled hunters behind the explosives, I activated [Reckless Charge] and dashed forward quickly.
While running, I thought: had they done something bad enough to deserve death?
‘Not really… But I need to teach them a lesson.’
I figured I would try talking once. If it didn’t work, then it was a different story.
‘The problem lies with us though.’
As I glanced back at the group of hunters rushing toward us, I could see the eyes of Baek Ah-rin and Bae Joo-ah burning with intensity.
I thought they might cool it, but it seemed they had been rather stressed in the meantime. It didn’t look like they intended to resolve things through dialogue.
“Everyone move back! These guys are dead meat!”
With a tone that contrasted starkly with her cute voice, Baek Ah-rin, with her nose snorting like a passive-aggressive character, pushed us back.
‘Looks like she’s about to show something.’
As far as I knew, the Ilseom Guild’s swordsmanship specialized in one-on-one confrontations aimed at instant kills. But they were in a situation where they had to face numbers, so I was curious to see how they would respond.
The distance to the enemies had shrunk to ten meters, and with her fluffy white ear perked up, Baek Ah-rin took a determined step forward.
Whack—!
As she stomped her foot, blue sparks erupted from her heels.
[Ilseom – Lightning Step]
How many steps did she take? Suddenly, her speed skyrocketed, and she began moving so fast it was hard to follow her with the eyes.
‘Lightning Step already? That grandfather said that technique was hard to learn!’
From my fleeting acquaintance with the Ilseom Guild, I was knowledgeable about a few of their signature techniques.
She used her unique footwork to move like lightning. Every place she passed sent echoes of shockwaves among the hunters, and after about thirty seconds had passed…
“Heeek— Hah— Hah—”
Surprisingly, her stamina was depleted.
She couldn’t even stand steadily; she had stabbed a sword that didn’t seem like it was even 60cm long into the ground to brace herself.
Yet, during that brief moment, the faces of over ten hunters showed signs of terror. They’d need to know where to attack before they could even counterattack; all they knew was the refreshing breeze that followed her.
Given their expressions, it was certain they had never faced a monster like Baek Ah-rin before. At least for those thirty seconds, even I had no other option than to focus on defense and endure her onslaught.
‘Extraordinary, but that duration is way too short, right? And it seems to have a hefty backlash…’
If Bae Joo-ah wanted to hide anything from us, this might be a point for concern. Everyone knew that those who had gained Rabbit Beastman traits had low stamina, but Arin seemed to be doing quite poorly in that regard.
The stamina provided by the Rune of Vitality was basically akin to life force, but what she needed now was a burst of energy.
As of now, there’s no known rune that boosts stamina. I do remember some artifacts that replenish stamina, but those were only found in C-rank dungeons. Of course, even if you did find them, there was no guarantee they’d be given to you.
Ultimately, you’d have to either exercise regularly or improve the ability to convert magic power into energy; however, there would likely be limits with the Rabbit Beastman traits. Usually, beastmen specialized in physical traits had poor handling of magic.
Anyway, thanks to Baek Ah-rin, who showcased nearly C-rank Hunter-level movements for thirty seconds, all the hunters were several of whom falling into incapacitated states with varying injuries.
The fact that they had already battled wolves would’ve had an effect, but mentally, they were likely bearing a more significant shock.
And the guy who had taken a Fireball to the face was having it rough even up to this point. Baek Ah-rin had snatched some of his nose right at that moment before leaving him troubled.
“Ugh, you damn bitch!!”
Of course, he was furious all the way to the top, gushing blood like a fountain from his nose, with his eyes bulging red as he charged toward Bae Joo-ah wielding a mace.
Crack—!!
“What the hell is this rock!!”
However, a rock barrier towering over 2 meters blocked his path, created by Bae Joo-ah, who turned around and said,
“We’ll help too. I was just watching to see if he’d improved at all since he was originally slow, but looks like he hasn’t changed a bit.”
By that point, I had already moved past her and reached the wobbling Baek Ah-rin, who was barely holding herself up.
As soon as she spotted my face, she let out a short scream.
Her lovely rabbit ears drooped down, and her body shook as if her phone was vibrating, but soon she wore an expression of resignation and draped her arm over my shoulder.
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