In the end, the Orc Warrior was stuck at Dotti 2 since no additional summons were made.
Anyway, the summoned creatures’ power keeps growing, and clearing the dungeon shouldn’t be a problem, so it’s fine to think it through before making a choice.
But as time drags on, the experience point acquisition time decreases, so it’s not like I can just delay this forever. It does feel like we’re already a bit late, but since it’s her choice, I can’t interfere.
“Huh… Huh… Il-wol, d-did you see that?”
Nod-
“Show a bit more intense reaction! This is super tough! Come on!”
“Clap, clap, clap!!”
“Hehe, good.”
In less than a minute, Baek Ah-rin turned the Orc Warrior formation into a disaster.
There weren’t many monsters left for the finishing blow, but she had already inflicted a massive amount of damage, taking first place in contribution. She single-handedly had the Orcs on their knees, nearing twenty of them.
Just by looking at Ah-rin’s gasping figure, it was hard to tell who suffered more, but at least she hadn’t been sent flying like the Orcs.
After scanning the battlefield, I drew my dagger in an X shape a few times and dashed towards my target. I needed to finish this cleanly.
‘The skills will become familiar with observation.’
Right now, I was still awkwardly trying to use Lightning Step and got a rough idea by watching Ah-rin, so I didn’t feel rushed.
– Defeat enemies using daggers in Stealth. (119/10,000)
Thanks to Ah-rin, I was able to clear the quest easily by just landing the finishing blows. At this rate, I could probably reach over 300 for the dagger quest today without issue.
Shuffle-!
It didn’t take long for Ah-rin to separate the heads of the Orcs she took down from their bodies.
Also, while my summoned creatures were having a bit of a tough time holding off the Orcs one-on-one, we could quickly deal with them if we all jumped in together, including myself and the party members.
In the end, we were able to defeat all of them in less than ten minutes.
‘… Doing quest work here wouldn’t be too bad.’
Once I fought them, it turned out to be much easier than I thought. I felt like I could handle everything just fine with a Specter by my side.
Creak-
Soon, there was an amusing scene where we sat around, friendly with the summoned creatures, working on butchering the Orc corpses.
If I were to be recommended a class other than Hunter based on the experience I’ve accumulated, I would probably be at the top of the list for a Butcher.
“Ugh- Whew- I’m done. Il-wol, I successfully separated an arm!”
“Clap, clap, clap!”
Yeon-hee waved the blood-dripping arm and bone at me. With her looks, seeing her perform butchering made the job seem surprisingly decent.
“Hmm… Considering work like this, summoning Orcs is…”
Nod-
If I were thinking that far, summoning Orcs was indeed the correct choice.
Looking further ahead, there would be times when we wouldn’t just be fighting the Orc Legion, so considering the hands we’d need for those times, summoning Orcs would be most efficient. Carrying injured people or clearing rubble from fallen buildings, for example.
“Na-na~ Hmm- Hmm-”
‘Unidentified humming. She seems to be in a good mood.’
For some time now, Yeon-hee had been sticking close to me while I was butchering, making it a routine.
Sometimes she helped like earlier, but mostly she’d hum a tune or chat with me about what to have for dinner, completely on her own.
It would be nice to build bonds by talking with teammates during times like this. Of course, the other teammates weren’t exactly gathered for chit-chat, but it worried me that she seemed too attached to me.
And I also wished she wouldn’t fuss too much about this kind of grunt work.
Perhaps such feelings were instinctively held as a summoned creature.
‘Looks like a mess.’
The blood smeared on her cheek was quite bothersome.
After using Fireball to burn off the gunk on my hand and make it clean, I reached out to her.
Swipe-
“Ah…”
After gently wiping the blood off her cheek a few times and shaking it lightly to the ground, her face flushed instantaneously.
“Ugh…”
Quickly lowering her head, Yeon-hee pretended to be digging at the ground with the bone fragment. Then, remembering something, she slightly tilted her eyes up and asked me.
“So, what are you planning to transform into today?”
“Tap-”
Well…
“Oh, can I ask for my appearance today… I think that would be better…”
‘If she says ‘today’ like this, does it mean I should turn into my own form tomorrow as well? Rotate each day?’
“Clap, clap, clap.”
“Ugh…”
– Yay! Rune of Absorption!
– Here’s another one! I caught this one myself!
The rune obtained from defeating the Orc Warrior is the Rune of Absorption. I already had two Rune of Absorption equipped. And I gained another from the recent battle, but it was junk.
Speaking of which, among the runes I currently had equipped, one had a low stat.
– Rune of Absorption (Intermediate) +3 Magic Power recovery upon defeating an enemy
‘If I get a rune with better stats, I should replace this +3 one first. Thanks to the magic circuit, I can gain such effects.’
Magic recovery became easier, so I could switch back to the Rune of Giants and have more options to choose from.
Having gathered the bones of 40 Orcs, I felt reassured and started moving again.
“Won’t the boss battle go smoothly? Considering Yeon-hee’s summoned creatures held their ground just fine.”
“Yes. As long as nothing unusual happens…”
“Those unusual things happen a lot nowadays.”
“That’s true. They say dungeon breaks have been frequent lately… and it’s gotten to the point where it’s hard to set sail from ports close to the sea.”
As Yeon-hee said, since the gates started appearing, the seas have indeed become a perilous place. Dungeons do not only spawn on land; we have to manage those that occur beneath the sea, but it’s practically impossible in reality.
Even for Hunters, there’s no way to dive into the deep sea.
So currently, it was completely overrun by sea monsters led by those known as mermaids.
At least the sky routes were somewhat better off.
Of course, we still face interference from flying monsters, but they pose a fraction of the number and it’s relatively easier to defend against their attacks.
So, somewhere like Jeju Island or even Japan is reachable with a bit of risk involved.
The problem, however, is the transport of goods. Using airplanes to transport materials is just inefficient compared to using ships.
Luckily, due to the research of sorcerers, the Magical Global Trade (MGT) network has made it possible to exchange goods between continents, but that also consumes a significant amount of mana stones, so it’s not easy.
Ultimately, while ideally, Hunters would enter underwater dungeons, kill all the monsters, and close them off, the reality was that we were barely able to hold back the threats on land.
With the movement of goods by sea restricted, the natural flow towards ‘self-sufficiency. Let’s farm.’ emerged.
So the expectations on Hunters grew increasingly.
This was because it had been revealed that the plants and fruits from the other world found in the dungeons are highly nutritious and grow quickly.
Just finding a single seed of a good strain in a dungeon could turn one’s life around, so the number of lower Hunters turning their focus towards that, rather than battling monsters, was naturally increasing.
Ironically, however, this meant that the number of monsters those other Hunters had to deal with was also rising.
‘The future children might struggle to survive…’
No one was talking about it, but this world was slowly moving toward destruction.
Yet, the human animal seemed to think it didn’t matter as long as such a time didn’t come during their lives, so preparations were taking their sweet time.
While coordinating closely across the globe might make it feasible, well… even if the world were to end tomorrow, that would be impossible.
‘… If I were to defeat Jo Gi-man, could I live happily with Yeon-hee?’
It felt far too early to be worrying about this, so I shook off those thoughts.
“We’re 12 km from our target point. If we don’t hurry, even attempting it might be tough.”
“Yes, let’s hurry.”
“For now, let’s give it a shot, and if it feels too rushed afterward… I’ll stop the monster butchering work for a day.”
“Um… Would that be okay?”
“Because the team comes first.”
‘Yeon-hee is also thinking a lot about various things.’
After that, we continued the dungeon exploration without any significant events.
Although we encountered more fights than expected, the enemies we faced were not threatening to our party.
In fact, it felt too smooth for comfort, yet our party members didn’t say anything about it.
It was akin to not saying “Today’s ER is quite empty.”
“Squeek!!”
“Wow, look at that plump hind leg meat!”
Since this dungeon is home to many ‘grown Big Boars,’ we were beating them up left and right, stockpiling them in our inventory. The hind leg meat of Big Boar is highly nutritious and tasty, selling for a decent price.
However, I had no intention of selling it. The food stored in the inventory doesn’t spoil, so I wanted to prepare in advance for mid-level dungeons that last a long time.
As we breezed through things, the occasional other parties we ran into were a sorry sight. That was likely because the numbers or qualities of the Orcs were significantly higher than on record.
“Hello there.”
“Oh, hi!”
“Yes, take care.”
“Yeah. Stay safe.”
After exchanging awkward greetings, we continued on our way. However, those who were moving away from us kept glancing back at us. Some looked at us with envy-filled eyes.
Considering that we hadn’t taken any damage while the sun was directly overhead, their thoughts were pretty clear.
– Lee Yeon-hee… I have to apply to the party when it opens next time.
– I heard they have strict standards. Just look at their members. They say they won’t accept men at all.
– Damn… So that’s how it is? But why not accept men? Did something bad happen in the dungeon?
– I don’t know for sure, but usually, it’s to prevent those kinds of things.
– Just because a woman does, doesn’t mean they accept everyone. I heard that rabbit beastman and the girl next to her are from the Sales Academy.
– Sales? Wow~ They were the elite group.
– So wake up and get your gear in shape, you fool!
While their conversation had a few inaccuracies, I didn’t find it necessary to correct them.
And it seemed I was not the only one overhearing their chatter. Ah-rin casually shifted the topic to Yeon-hee.
“Haha- Yeon-hee, don’t you think we should just take our time and not overdo it for the boss battle? We need to go to the shop where Helen works, after all.”
“Oh…? Y-yeah!”
“… You didn’t forget, did you?”
“Oh, no!”
“… Sigh.”
‘I forgot, didn’t I? Was I so preoccupied with her yesterday?’
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