“Rock Fist!!”
The moment Ah-rin completely wrapped her arms around my neck, Bae Joo-ah raised a fist-shaped rock and sent the men rushing towards Ah-rin flying far away. Thanks to that, I could easily pull my body away and safely set her down behind our party.
“Th… thank you…”
Nod—
I turned my head to observe the faces of the charging enemies. There were no magic users, and while there were a couple of archers, most were melee fighters.
But the two ranged attackers seemed distracted by the ‘Screaming Mushroom’ and kept firing arrows in all the wrong directions.
The mana packed into those arrows was definitely not something to underestimate, but just like how I couldn’t have fun with Fireball, if they don’t hit, they’re pointless.
“They’re not weaklings that can be dealt with just by summoned creatures, but they are heavily skewed to one side.”
Thinking about the summoned creatures led by the Lizardman, if we could take out the ranged attackers first, they would be the easiest type for us to deal with.
Leaving Ah-rin, who was still shaking from the recoil of casting a big spell, behind, I jumped into the battlefield where the summoned creatures and hunters were struggling.
A fierce battle that lasted about 10 minutes.
About half of the Lizard Squad took damage and was dismissed, but we managed to subdue 14 hunters without major injuries. To begin with, they were underpowered against us, and thanks to Baek Ah-rin’s 30 seconds of action, it became even easier to suppress them. Moreover, ‘Chehwa’ even survived until the end, showcasing the reputation of being the worst monster in ‘Nargul’s Dungeon.’
Seeing the Specter in action made me regret not summoning a few more.
“Bwaaaek—”
Zombie 1 and 2 were waiting to be dismissed, both with their legs cut off. With their horrific appearance and peculiar aura, the zombies had a psychologically demotivating power over the hunters that could easily be called the strongest among the summoned creatures. However, overall, they seem to fall short compared to ‘Chehwa.’
As I contemplated what to do with the subdued hunters, Ah-rin pulled out something from her inventory and said.
“With this, we can tie them up!”
“Isn’t that pretty expensive? When did you buy this?”
“I bought it just in case. Ahem—”
What Ah-rin had prepared was a rope imbued with mana control abilities. It was an item that temporarily restrained a hunter’s magic when their health was at rock bottom, costing about 400,000 to 500,000 won each. To have bought this many, I couldn’t help but suspect there was another purpose.
“I haven’t really used this before. This is my first time trying it!”
“No one said anything, but my feet were itching, okay?”
“Ugh—”
After binding them with the rope layered with blue mana, a conversation finally began.
“You guys seem to have fewer people than before. What’s the reason?”
Bae Joo-ah kicked the back of one man’s body and shot the first question, to which the man answered that those who had been heavily injured from attacks by wolves retreated towards the exit. Crying and pleading for their lives.
“You think this is funny? Did you guys even pretend to listen when we told you to stop?”
“Th-that was just a joke! We didn’t do anything—!”
Smack!
Bae Joo-ah slapped the mouth of the arrogant man to finally silence him and began stepping on the men with a pitying expression.
Bae Joo-ah, who was so docile when with Noh Ha-yoon, showed a tough side I didn’t expect. Her mannerisms and actions felt completely like a different person than what I saw before. Was she on social mode when handling the Vision Guild leader’s daughter?
“Ahh— finally able to breathe a little. It’s hot after moving. I could really go for a cool Americano right now… I should have put it in my inventory? Ugh, seriously! It’s all your fault! Ugh!”
“Cough—”
Baek Ah-rin, who had just gotten healed by Ham Eun-young and regained her breath, began to kick the men lying on the ground with full force alongside Bae Joo-ah.
“Yeon-hee! Come over here and join us! Yap!”
With a refreshing smile, Baek Ah-rin requested participation from Yeon-hee, who was fidgeting with her fingers.
“Um… I’m okay.”
Yeon-hee seemed reluctant to hit someone directly, so she declined Baek Ah-rin’s suggestion. However, there was one more person participating in the beating.
Thwack! Crack!
“Hehe… hehehe.”
It was Ham Eun-young.
She had been just breathing along with us as we walked, but she was now actively joining in on beating the fallen men.
Eun-young’s face was showing its first hint of color since entering the dungeon. She was kicking and occasionally hitting their heads with a hand mirror, and for some reason, the mirror didn’t break at all.
“…I just need them to mind their business, right?”
Let’s evaluate Ham Eun-young’s performance when the time comes for her to shine.
Smack!
“Hey, why did you all go quiet all of a sudden?”
With sweat beading on her forehead, Bae Joo-ah grabbed the hair of the strongest looking man among them and slapped him a few more times while asking. Honestly… it was kind of scary now.
“I… did wrong. Please forgive me.”
“It’s not I did wrong, it’s I was wrong. It’s not ‘forgive me’ but rather ‘could you forgive me?’ You should ask so politely.”
Bae Joo-ah, while taunting the men lying on the ground with their hands tied behind them, drilled down into why they started trouble with us in the first place, if it was planned before entering the dungeon, what organization they belonged to, what abilities they had, and so forth.
A little while later.
“Ugh! There’s nothing special. Their relationships are weak. They just came to know each other by coming back and forth here, and by coincidence it was time for them to set off together and mess with us… what a trivial story.”
“At least that’s a relief.”
“Indeed…”
Seeing that it wasn’t a planned approach made the party members all let out a huge sigh of relief. Lately, with the chaos caused by the blue-eyed ones, it seemed they had raised their guard.
“Hey, Joo-ah…”
“Yeah? Eun-young, what is it?”
“Then… how should we deal with them…”
“Well, what they did was offensive, but they really didn’t do anything. Shouldn’t we just let them go?”
Ham Eun-young chewed on her thumbnail and then whispered softly to Bae Joo-ah again.
“Wouldn’t it be better to… just kill them?”
“Hmm… even if they’re hunters, if we just do that to this level…”
“D-do we have to kill them…?”
Bae Joo-ah and Yeon-hee immediately expressed their negative views, and even Baek Ah-rin, who had taken the most hits, hesitated, saying ‘there’s no need to.’
Then Ham Eun-young murmured, ‘Can we not…?’ and ultimately nodded in surrender.
I could understand Ham Eun-young’s opinion too. These people could be seeds of future unrest; once we pass this situation, we might have trouble sleeping because of a lingering unease.
Once you go through such an experience, your choices in similar situations later can change.
But our party of four may still be relatively new to all this, let them figure it out on their own.
“Hey. You guys, bring out your three most valuable runes.”
“Please not that! We have to return too! Please let us off.”
“Money! If we get out, I’ll give you all money!”
As Bae Joo-ah demanded runes as compensation for mental damage, those who had been taking hits until now seemed like they were about to rise up en masse in protest. At that moment, Bae Joo-ah’s face turned cold as ice, and with a voice that felt as frozen, she asked again.
“Then… would you rather be buried somewhere here as wolf food? I can mark where you died with a rock.”
“Ugh…”
A rock Bae Joo-ah conjured hovered precariously above one man’s head. The moment Bae Joo-ah cut the thread of magic, a rock the size of a human body would hit the man’s face. The man, currently under mana control, knew exactly what the outcomes would be.
“Dammit…”
The man shuddered as he looked up at the rock hovering over his head, grinding his teeth.
“Wow— we’re only taking three because it’s us. If it were someone else, we might have considered killing and hoping for gear drops—”
“Okay, okay… Just loosen the ropes a bit so we can use some potions.”
Joo-ah looked at Yeon-hee with her eyes, and Yeon-hee nodded. After all, the hunters were surrounded by twenty summoned creatures, so they wouldn’t be able to think of anything else.
Ultimately, they obediently spat out exactly 42 runes and walked away towards the exit, leaving it behind. Since they lost 30% of their runes, the road would be quite thrilling for them. Those who had been chasing us would now be chased by wolves.
“Right now, they’re in such a scared state even just making eye contact. Do you think they’ll try to mess with us again later?”
“It depends on what they experience on the way out. If they slip out safely, they might harbor fewer grudges against us. One thing’s for sure, they won’t reflect on their actions.”
“That’s true… Ah, Yeon-hee. You know, right? In dungeons, if problems arise between hunters, you shouldn’t take more than half their runes unless you kill them.”
Bae Joo-ah winked at Yeon-hee and said.
“I’ve heard of that unwritten rule.”
Yeon-hee also nodded slightly, as if she had also heard that story.
Once the limping men were no longer visible, everyone’s eyes shifted to the runes they had acquired.
“Hehe…”
“Phuhuhuh—”
“Hehehe…”
It was an unexpected harvest. Of course, it was a reward with future risks, but for now, everyone’s eyes widened as they hurried to check the rune values.
Even Baek Ah-rin, who had likely experienced this before, hadn’t seen this many runes taken at once and had a grin stretching from ear to ear.
We settled near a forest slightly off the main route where the hunters moved and divided the runes.
Yeon-hee received 11 out of the 42 runes, Baek Ah-rin also got 11, while the other two only received 10 each.
Given how strongly Bae Joo-ah had asserted dominance, there were also a few valuable runes with high values.
Among those, the runes of Swiftness, which dropped when killing the Lesser Dire Wolf, made up an overwhelmingly high proportion.
– Rune of Swiftness (Intermediate) Movement Speed +17
– Rune of Swiftness (Intermediate) Movement Speed +15
– Rune of Swiftness (Intermediate) Movement Speed +14
It’s known that the moving speed increases by about 0.5% for each point of the Rune of Swiftness. If you equip ten Runes at the maximum of +20, you could see your movement speed double.
Since an increase in mobility is something that’s directly felt more than any other stat, the first time you equip this rune, it feels like experiencing an entirely different world. Thus, the Rune of Swiftness is quite popular among hunters.
‘Other than these three, there isn’t much worth using.’
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.
