“Pl-please! Save me! I-I did something wrong! Ahh-it’s hot! Let me go! Please!”
I glanced at the woman and the man for a moment, pondering which one might have more to devour.
‘Still, the one who looks like a leader probably knows a lot, right?’
Of course, there was a high possibility that these guys had some restrictions, but that couldn’t be helped.
Poof─!
“Ugh…! You bastard…!”
A great sword, piercing through the decent quality leather armor like tofu, penetrated the abdomen and smeared the outside world with blood once again.
The woman glared at Il-wol for a moment before her eyes began to lose their shine.
‘Ignition.’
Fwoosh─!
– You have obtained a Fragment of Corrupted Life Potion. (10/100)
‘Just three every time. It’s vague.’
After placing the woman’s body, now ablaze with the Chain of Flame, into the inventory, Il-wol watched his summoned beings fight for a moment.
‘Hmm. I’ll give the summoned creatures credit for their tenacity, but it’s just too much.’
A moment later, he faced Choi Seong-woong, who had risen after fending off the sandwich attack of the summoned creatures.
“Haah- haah- Damn this monster!!”
I thought it would take a while, but in that short moment, the man pushed away the frenzied summoned creatures.
The summoned beings, now free from their [Frenzy] and hit by the reflection damage from the man, were eventually dismissed.
‘Looks like he’s set up [Rune of Thorns]. The combination of [Provocative Thorn] and [Rune of Thorns]… It’s almost a waste to kill him.’
Having a tank with [Provocation] as the main rune and [Rune of Vitality] as the sub rune, accumulating ‘reflection’ damage was textbook play.
If he continued to grow like this, he would surely be a decent tank during the Orc Legion Commander’s assault.
‘Tsk- I don’t know. Damn.’
But he had touched someone he shouldn’t have. He would have to pay the price.
“Haah- I’ll tear you apart!”
Choi Seong-woong, feeling a bit bolstered after taking down the summoned creatures, spat out coarse words, not hiding his murderous aura.
But that was more a manifestation of his last desperate blaze rather than a determination to win.
Wobble-wobble—
Il-wol, casually brushing off the man’s confidence, wiggled his fingers to provoke him.
“Urgh?! You bastard!! War Cry-!”
GROOOAAAR──
The guy, evidently furious, activated skills that induced ‘Fear’ and ‘Confusion’ first.
But.
=====
Cold Calm
– Does not lose composure in any situation.
– Mental status abnormality resistance +52%
=====
The [Cold Calm] that always protected Il-wol effortlessly helped him evade such dangers.
‘Does he lack learning ability, or has he already forgotten that my provocation didn’t work earlier?’
A mental skill against skeletal undead? The efficiency couldn’t be good. Something must be rattling in that head.
Il-wol dashed straight at him and shot upwards into the sky with [Stealth] activated.
“Ugh?! What the hell?!”
WHOOSH──!
Choi Seong-woong’s warhammer swept across the place where Il-wol had just been, but it was far too late.
‘What the hell is this monster?! Why isn’t the barrier stone reacting?!’
Choi Seong-woong’s inner thoughts were pure chaos.
He purchased an expensive detection barrier stone a few months ago, embedded it in the handle of his warhammer, and had been using it effectively.
Neither stealth hunters nor monsters had gone undetected by him before.
But this monster couldn’t be sensed, and its movements were as quick as lightning, almost impossible to counter.
But that was, in a sense, to be expected.
The movement skills Il-wol employed from the ground total three, including the newly acquired [Lightning Step].
The combination of all skills unleashed simultaneously skyrocketed Il-wol’s speed to a level that a B-rank lower hunter couldn’t contend with.
‘I-I have to run. This isn’t someone I can handle.’
The state of not detecting the enemy brought extreme fear back to Choi Seong-woong, momentarily bolstered.
‘What the hell am I thinking?!’
Crack─!
“Ugh!”
For a moment, Choi Seong-woong staggered, and Il-wol, seizing the chance, landed a strong punch to his jaw.
‘I can’t kill him.’
Il-wol charged again towards the reeling man’s torso.
Il-wol’s powerful charging slammed into the man’s abdomen.
“Ugh…!”
Having thrown himself with all his might without considering a change of direction, the man was flung quite a distance away, his legs caught in the Wall of Flames as he bounced and cried out.
“Aaah! Ugh…!”
They say being burned is one of the greatest pains a person can feel. In that regard, flame was truly a useful attribute.
The guy, barely managing to extinguish the fire on his burning leg by grinding it into the ground with his magic, was now cornered to the point where he could hardly maintain his sanity, and his lower body was soaked with his heightened emotions.
POW-!
Il-wol, having just risen, delivered another satisfying kick to the staggering man’s chin.
“Kugh- Gah-”
He knelt from the blow to the chin, and Il-wol seized his head and delivered a strong knee strike to the face.
CRACK─!
“Uuugh! Wuuuuh-! Heeek…!”
Thud thud thud thud!!
As if that wasn’t enough, Il-wol kicked the man’s body several times.
“Gugh…”
Thud!
Eventually, grabbing the neck of the guy who lost consciousness and roughly tossing him into a corner, Il-wol deactivated [Wall of Fire] and hurried over to Yeon-hee.
“H-Heeek- Il-wol, heeek-”
Yeon-hee could hardly speak and was sobbing, her eyes desperately pointing at Cha Jin-hyuk.
‘Even in this situation, she’s worried about someone else. But what is this barrier? It feels protective of Yeon-hee.’
The barrier that blocked Yeon-hee and him.
First, I decided to check on Cha Jin-hyuk.
The sight that greeted Il-wol was truly horrific.
‘This… even if he recovers, the aftereffects will be severe.’
The injuries causing massive blood loss, even with potions and Irmana’s water, were catastrophic due to the right wrist, the last pathway for Cha Jin-hyuk’s abilities, being almost half severed and shredded.
‘At least it didn’t completely sever, but these are brutal creatures.’
“Huhhh- Jin-hyuk- h-huh-”
As the barrier surrounding Yeon-hee dissolved, she rushed over, starting to pour potions onto his body.
Her trembling hands looked very pitiful.
The only saving grace was that Il-wol had made arrangements through Gori as soon as he was summoned.
Glug glug—
The minion ‘Gori’ was diligently pouring Irmana’s lake water into Cha Jin-hyuk’s slightly parted mouth.
‘It’s fortunate that a debuffer has a sturdy body.’
Even at a glance, the amount of blood loss was staggering, but it was a miracle he was still alive.
Il-wol opened Cha Jin-hyuk’s mouth completely and poured both high-rank potions and Irmana’s water down his throat.
“Cough!”
Placing his hand on Cha Jin-hyuk’s body, Il-wol slowly unwound the tangled flow of magic.
‘Good. He shouldn’t die after all.’
Cha Jin-hyuk’s will to survive was surprisingly strong, even receiving the healing substances well without losing too much blood, even in an unconscious state.
“C-Can he survive?”
Nodding—
At Il-wol’s nod, Yeon-hee buried her face in her knees and wept for a while.
“Thank goodness… Thank goodness…”
‘I need to hear the whole story later. But it would be problematic if Yeon-hee gets depressed because of this.’
Thud—
As Il-wol examined Cha Jin-hyuk’s condition, Yeon-hee hugged him tightly.
“Thank you… Thank you… h-huh…”
Her repeated words of thanks sounded a bit awkward to Il-wol. It felt odd to hear such words when a summoned creature is supposed to serve their master.
Il-wol communicated his thoughts through Ran, who was wiping away Yeon-hee’s tears with the remaining feather.
‘Let’s go inside the building for now.’
“Uh, okay!”
*
With Yeon-hee’s emotions somewhat settled and Cha Jin-hyuk still dazed, I carried the trash named Choi Seong-woong up to the second floor of the rundown building.
“So, so… I-I just fell and followed…”
I began to explain the situation to Yeon-hee until the two men regained their wits.
With her sobbing, she recounted everything that had happened, and as I listened calmly, there were commendable, yet regrettable aspects to it.
‘I should have been more careful. My inexperience is showing here.’
What kind of beings are B-rank hunters?
They are those who have crossed the wall four times in a hunter’s world, where even a single rank-up is no small feat.
They are fundamentally at a level that should come equipped with talents others would envy.
I don’t know if it was because she was afraid of Tarantulas and chose not to participate in battle, but even the lowest B-rank hunters must never be underestimated.
‘Yeon-hee must know this too, but what’s the excessive reason?’
I could only speculate since it hadn’t been revealed yet. Still, I couldn’t scold her for trying to do something despite the risks.
‘Still, thanks to this, there might be some progress regarding the evolution stones.’
Especially since obtaining more Fragments of Corrupted Life Potion means pursuing another possibility.
‘Possibility, huh… I’m losing it too.’
I whipped myself momentarily for thinking of the result born from the children’s pain as a possibility and resumed my train of thought.
In fact, the root cause of this entire incident lay in the lengthy time required for my reincarnation after my death.
‘The reincarnation time… I need to bring that down to zero. Is there absolutely no way?’
I felt that the parts I strongly wished for were somewhat reflected, and I had no choice but to keep musing over it while looking for other possible methods.
Once Yeon-hee finished her story, she flopped down in front of me, lowering her head without saying a word.
‘I should set some action guidelines later. I didn’t expect her to act so boldly alone.’
I could tell just by her reaction that she would be careful moving forward, but it would be best to give her a good warning.
‘I want to give her as much freedom as possible, but we’re done for if something goes wrong.’
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