“One of our organization members is active as a freelancer, and I heard that yesterday, a guy presumed to be a villain massacred a five-member party and hung them on a tree as an ‘exhibit.’
It seems that this has been happening for weeks, starting from the Orc Dungeon. The administration has been hands-off due to a lack of personnel.”
“The boundary of the dungeon is progressively breaking down… So, he’s moving downwards for easier prey.”
“Y-yeah…”
“So everyone is hell-bent on catching him, but he leaves no traces at all.”
“A villain who hangs corpses on trees… Is that guy the one who cuts out tongues?”
Suddenly, a guy named Oh Seung-jae popped into my head.
He was a fellow user of [Stealth], so I remembered him.
Moreover, he had another annoying ability.
“They say all the corpses are found with only their tongues cut out. The rest are just battle wounds. What a disgusting guy. Does he have some kind of fetish for tongues?”
“Eww…”
Yeon-hee, who seemed a bit hungry from all the fighting, was tearing into some jerky when she paused to wrinkle her forehead.
“Careful with your words…”
“Huh?”
“Doesn’t that have a specific meaning? Tongue cutting has been used in that sense throughout history.”
“Hmm… Mind your mouth…”
“He might be someone who has gone through that kind of torment.”
“If that’s the case, we won’t bother him. We’re just folks who get our work done quietly.”
Though Heuk-a nonchalantly replied to Jeok-a’s remarks, he was actually someone completely unrelated to that kind of thing.
To prepare for when the guy might appear, we exchanged simple hand signals and resumed our exploration.
“Let’s skip this safe zone.”
“Sure.”
We quickly cleared the boss battle without much trouble.
Yet again, we wrapped up our exploration smoothly that day, and the next day was the same.
Particularly, we would now pass through the safe zone just once, increasing our clearing speed.
On the fourth day of collaborating with the four-member party.
We were busy preparing in the last safe zone before the boss battle.
It was just past two o’clock.
After traveling for just 40 more minutes, we would be in a position to tackle the boss.
“What do you think about calling it quits for this temporary party today? What do you say?”
The leader of the four-member party, Heuk-a, asked Yeon-hee, and she nodded in agreement.
I just heard that Ah-rin had reached level 60 yesterday.
Noh Ha-yoon had already entered the ‘Frog Folk’ dungeon with another party from the Vision Guild, and only Ham Eun-young and Bae Joo-ah were left.
“Our party members should be coming up soon.”
“Good to hear. We have something going on, so we probably won’t be able to enter the dungeon for a while.”
“Ah… It’s not something bad, is it?”
“More like good news… you could say. Anyway, thanks to that, we’ve been able to take it easy for a few days. We can do our training when we regroup completely next time.”
“…… You haven’t given up on that training, huh?”
“What are you talking about? My body is itching to spar right now.”
“……”
Having exchanged our farewells, we left the safe zone to head for the boss battle.
‘……?!’
At that moment, a hunter with an aura that shouldn’t exist in this dungeon quickly entered my sensory range.
‘Something’s odd. The amount of magic power is overwhelming… but the flow is highly imbalanced. It feels like… it’s similar to the people from the underground factory—’
Moreover, the number of them seemed to fluctuate rapidly from one to four. It seemed he had a related ability.
‘[Self Duplication]… that must be him. Has he already made it this far?’
The villain Oh Seung-jae, who had wreaked havoc from the Orc Dungeon to the Dire Wolf Dungeon.
It was him.
He moved with incredible speed toward the location of the boss battle and soon encountered a party.
‘…!’
Without the slightest hesitation, he ambushed the five hunters and swiftly took them down.
Given that the hunters hadn’t been able to respond even moments before his approach, it’s likely they either had poor detection abilities or none at all.
‘Or maybe Oh Seung-jae’s [Stealth] is exceptionally good.’
“Clap, clap, clap!!”
“?!”
I triggered the pre-arranged signal from two days prior, and Yeon-hee alerted the four-member party about the situation.
“Villain! It’s the villain who came from the Dire Wolf Dungeon!”
“What?! Where is he?”
“Still far. Four kilometers away. But he’s trying to massacre people.”
“Four kilometers? How did you sense that—”
“We don’t have time! What will you do? I’m going to where the villain is!”
Yeon-hee said that, and without waiting to hear the four-member party’s response, I picked her up and dashed toward where he was.
Swoosh──!
“……!!”
The four-member party, seeing us suddenly break away from the team, yelled out in utter confusion but soon began to follow us.
To them, we must have seemed like righteous hunters rushing in to stop the villain without a second thought.
‘It’s the stats. The stats! They’re mine!’
That thought consumed my mind entirely.
From what I remember, Oh Seung-jae was a villain difficult to catch due to his Stealth and Clone skills, but he wasn’t someone who caused a huge stir in society.
Although he had made headlines for mercilessly slaughtering many hunters in a short span, he was merely continuing what he had been doing.
There was no way that guy could grow to the level of a ‘Great Evil One’ like Nam Yong-seok; it had to be manageable rewards for stats. I was sure of it.
‘And that bastard has nothing to do with tongues to begin with!’
The four-member party seemed to think there was something deeper, but he was just a madman who cannibalized people.
Especially, he simply loved to roast and eat human tongues, and judging by the erratic magic power, it felt like he had been using drugs.
‘The best option is to take down this psychopath quickly.’
It was absurd that he had made it down here without being stopped for over a week. That must mean that recent incidents had been occurring more frequently.
‘Are you guys saying to take care of scum like him yourselves?’
Since this matter had unfolded, I figured I might as well give it my all.
– Let’s go together!! That bastard is estimated to be at least mid-level even in B-class monsters! It’ll be tough alone!
‘Judging solely by levels, he is strong. I can’t let my guard down. By the way, Heuk-a sure is fast? I’m picking up speed and running too.’
The four-member party was doing their best to catch up and tried to call us back, but I had no intention of stopping.
Soon after, I caught sight of his form.
A tall, gaunt man looming over.
In his hand, he held a thick tongue.
By the side, a nameless woman struggling in pain, clutching her mouth.
Having subdued everyone, he was already in the middle of his work.
‘What audacity. Even inside a dungeon, he’s causing that kind of ruckus? What a crazy bastard.’
Besides the woman with her tongue cut off, the other hunters lay flat on the ground, seemingly paralyzed, with nothing but terror in their eyes.
The moment I spotted him, I activated [Stealth], but he soon noticed Yeon-hee standing there, clueless.
– ……?!
As our eyes met, Yeon-hee took a deep breath and shouted at the top of her lungs.
“Stop it!! You bad man!!”
– ……
To my surprise, he didn’t flinch at her shout.
Instead, his demeanor grew more pleased as he watched her.
Grinning—
– What a delicious treat this is.
I could almost see the smirk on his lips.
I placed Yeon-hee down and used all the speed I could muster to close the gap with him.
‘Don’t look at Yeon-hee with those filthy eyes—’
I slashed swiftly toward his vitals five times as his focus was drawn away.
─────── Chkkk!
But only two out of those attacks grazed his shoulder and wrist, and at that moment, two Flame Marks appeared.
The remaining three strikes were replaced by clones that had burst out at the first hit and evaporated in an instant.
‘Tch—! Experiencing it firsthand, clones really are a desirable skill!’
Of course, the usefulness of [Self Duplication] went beyond this. Though just seeing the main body take damage and automatically splitting to absorb the hit was enough to qualify as a unique skill.
Moreover, even without Clone skills, his reaction speed in dodging my attacks was astonishing.
It quickly became clear that it wasn’t just due to stats.
When I approached him, his necklace had glowed brilliantly, indicating it was a detection-type magic stone, enabling him to react quicker than usual.
“Ugh!”
He recognized that something invisible was attacking him, yet he appeared flustered, as he likely had little experience facing someone with the same ability.
He immediately activated [Stealth] and evaded. As I, too, was revealed, he unexpectedly halted his escape and began observing the situation intently.
– Huff… huff…
Despite having been startled by my abnormal appearance, Oh Seung-jae took a moment to gather himself, showing he was trying to strategize.
‘Sharp guy. He’s looking for an opportunity.’
With the Flame Marks clear on his shoulders, I was able to stay calmer and assess the situation.
Activating [Stealth] again and vanishing, I fell deep into thought.
‘He appears to be maxed out on agility. His reaction speed surpasses standard levels, and his movement speed is quite fast. Those shoes… the aura emanating from them feels like an artifact… what effects did they have again?’
It must be a pair of ancient boots with an option that greatly boosts movement speed for a set time.
Artifacts that have a low drop rate when clearing bosses from C-class dungeons and above—whether he obtained them himself or purchased them, it was gear well-suited to his abilities.
Oh Seung-jae was a strong contender even in B-class.
The hunters rushing here, on the other hand, were fresh out of C-class, just fledglings.
Moreover, since he had the equipment to make a getaway if need be, he wasn’t inclined to escape even if he detected me in Stealth.
He seemed confident that he could handle me and the incoming four-member party.
This confidence likely stemmed from the fact that [Stealth] typically doesn’t last long and has many restrictions on the number of uses.
‘I can maintain it indefinitely as long as I have magic power.’
He was probably unaware that someone like me could exist.
After entering Stealth, he widened the distance and casually watched the approaching four-member party.
While remaining vigilant, he awaited the moment my stealth would wear off.
‘… This is strange. Even considering he possesses the strength to overpower us and the assurance that he could escape if need be, he’s too calm, isn’t he?’
If he had obtained a mark that he had never seen before on his body, basic hunter knowledge would dictate that he should avoid the area.
His magic power was still fluctuating, but he didn’t appear remarkably different from before.
‘Could it be… that he can’t see the marks?’
‘Residue of Chaos’ had reacted instinctively to the mark, and Maeng Seong-yong had recognized its presence.
I thought it would be obvious for a High-Rank Hunter to see it.
But judging by Oh Seung-jae’s reaction, that didn’t seem to be the case.
‘If this assumption holds, then even if the gap in ranks is vast, those with diminished recognition ability might not perceive it. That would increase its usefulness even more.’
The fact that he had a detection-stone-embedded piece of jewelry yet still didn’t notice meant something significant.
‘Ugh… Come back, memory. I need to leave marks on those villain bastards. Why can I only remember a few?’
For now, it seemed I could ease my worries that the future villains marked would be spooked and retreat further into the shadows. The problem remained that my memory was incomplete.
Since I lacked confidence in catching him if he fled, I searched for a means to suppress him without provoking him.
‘Ran, relay to Yeon-hee that he’s waiting by that tree trunk over there.’
I communicated my intentions to Ran, who was positioned a bit farther away.
Yeon-hee was sharing information while administering a potion and offering some of Irmana’s water to the injured victim with a severed tongue.
Still, Oh Seung-jae remained as silent as a mouse, likely waiting for an opportunity when the four-member party arrived.
‘Not a chance, you bastard. You’re the one being overconfident.’
While maintaining [Stealth], I began to sneak around behind him.
‘The moment he attempts to attack is when he’s at his most vulnerable.’
That will be the moment I strike.
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