Ching-Ching─!
But that was all.
Fast as he was, he couldn’t match the battle-ready Lizardman.
The enthusiasm was high, but the attack was embarrassingly light.
Before the Lizardman’s eyes, the figure was fully revealed.
“Tap…!”
That little guy, arrogantly crossing swords and clashing teeth.
It was a pathetic skeleton soldier, nothing but bones, smaller than a goblin.
However, it was peculiar that in the empty eye sockets, there was a mix of purple and red, and the very tiny dagger held in his right hand seemed unusual.
The dagger was the same one that had severed the Lizardman’s finger, an artifact cherished in the early days by Il-wol. ‘The Guardian Dagger of Sage Argen,’ it looked just like that.
“Grrahh!!”
How could he be defeated by such a tiny dagger?
The Lizardman couldn’t help but chuckle.
Clatter—
Realizing the ambush had failed, the small skeleton tried to create some distance, only to realize it had become coiled up in a huge tail.
“Tap?!”
The little skeleton sensed death.
A tragic protagonist who vanished as soon as he was born.
Yet, he was wholly focused on how to land a hit on the one before him.
Before long, the skeleton instinctively realized it had a last resort.
“Tap-tap-tap-tap!!”
“Grrk?!”
With a vigorous clapping, an overwhelmingly bright light erupted from the small skeleton’s body.
Crashhhhh─!
The light formed a pillar, piercing through the cave ceiling and shooting into the sky.
It all happened so quickly that the Lizardman could only watch, wide-eyed.
A shiver ran down his spine─
The intent to die together was distinctly palpable.
The pillar of light didn’t last long.
Thud-thud-thud—
But in that brief moment, what transpired was astonishing.
The tail of the Lizardman that had coiled around the little skeleton had turned into little fleshy bits, scattered across the floor, and a significant part of his left arm and shoulder was lost to a severe injury.
“Brrkk…!”
That was some terrifying destructive force that nearly took his head clean off.
“Brrr─ Brrkh─”
The Lizardman exhaled roughly and hurriedly looked around.
Nobody was there. It had completely vanished.
The curiosity he initially felt for the toy had now transformed into fear.
He felt very displeased that he had experienced such feelings.
“Grawrhlahrlah!!!”
Crash!
The Lizardman smashed the stone columns of the cave chaotically, venting his unpleasant feelings.
He vowed that whoever came next, he’d chop to pieces in an instant.
“Grrahh-”
With a momentary glare at the cave, the Lizardman returned to the spot he had originally occupied.
* * *
A few days before Il-wol’s shattering.
In a clearly derelict building, dozens of people lay dead.
Among them, the only survivor crawled toward a woman, bleeding profusely.
“To… to Serin… to die is… an honor-”
Thwack──!
“Ghuuurgh…!”
“Oh wow, your face is pretty, but your lines are a bit clichéd.”
A dagger embedded deeper into the neck of a handsome man as a kick from the woman named Serin pushed it in further.
Spurt!
Haseirin looked down indifferently at the man collapsing with blood spraying like a fountain.
“… Phew- Pffft- Check out that shivering sight. It truly never gets old.”
Haseirin had killed 35 more since Il-wol first checked her information.
Her vile deeds showed no signs of stopping.
After finishing her sneaky hobby, Haseirin left the tidying-up to two A-rank Hunters enraptured by her allure and headed to her next appointment.
Glance—
Glance—
As she walked down the street, all the gazes of men were fixed on her.
With mid-length hair that suited her remarkably attractive and curvy figure, she thought,
‘Am I really not in the rankings? Do they look down on me just because I live in the provinces?’
The video titled ‘The Ranking of Summoned Creatures of Summoner Lee Yeon-hee’ had skyrocketed, buoyed by algorithms, from a million to tens of millions, gaining influencer status as ‘Kim Coffee.’
Haseirin was unhappy that she had no rank in Kim Coffee’s recent ranking of female Hunters’ appearances categorized by grades.
‘Should I go confront her? If she saw me in person, she’d think differently, right?’
But that seemed too pathetic of an act.
It struck her as funny that she was worrying about someone else’s appearance ranking in the first place, and she didn’t even know who Kim Coffee was or where he lived.
Still, the rising anger was unavoidable.
After all, she thought herself to be the most beautiful and charming among Hunters.
‘I must endure. I’ll head to Seoul after gathering more strength… The upper side has too many eyes, I can’t enjoy myself there.’
She was someone who knew how to be patient for her desires.
Thinking about it, Kim Coffee was quite the formidable figure.
He had posted many videos denigrating Hunters just to attract attention, and the fact that he had remained alive until now indicated that he either had abilities that concealed his identity or a solid backing.
Haseirin, fiddling nervously with her phone, arrived at her destination: a fortune-teller’s shop.
“Welcome- Huh-huh.”
It was just a plain tarot card shop set up on the roadside.
Haseirin approached the shabby-looking old woman without a greeting and spoke.
“The cursed crow does not cry.”
“Huh-huh…”
Upon hearing Haseirin’s words, the old woman’s eyes sparkled.
Then she pulled open the coin drawer of the old counter beside her.
Clink-clink—!
Suddenly, the right wall opened, revealing a staircase leading down.
‘······.’
Haseirin hesitated for a moment but then stepped down the stairs leading to the basement.
‘They said this place was reliable, why is it so shabby?’
She disliked this dark underground situation.
Haseirin soon reached the basement and opened the only white door.
She stepped into a room with an impressive luxurious interior.
At the end of the room, a young woman lay on a bed in a sultry pose, staring intently at her.
“Did I have an appointment today~?”
With her age-defying, white hair, the young woman turned slightly in bed, lazily gazing at Haseirin with bleary eyes.
‘Albino…’
It wasn’t just her hair that was white.
“Huh- A customer younger than me after a long time~”
Despite having finally accomplished the meeting after a long wait, the sorceress’s demeanor was overwhelmingly negligent.
Still lying sideways, the sorceress asked Haseirin her name.
“Haseirin.”
Annoyance flared in Haseirin as she spat her name out like it was trash.
The sorceress lying on bed responded with a smile.
“Ahh- I remember. A promising A-rank Hunter, right? Heh, when you’re here, the sense of time gets blurred, so I almost forgot.”
The sorceress lazily raised her upper body.
Of course, she didn’t get out of bed, but Haseirin was eager to hear her answer quickly.
“So, you were curious if you’re being affected by sorcery, right?”
“Right, but how long are you going to stay lying down?”
“Huhuhuh, you’re in quite a hurry.”
The sorceress yawned broadly, then used her magic power to envelop Haseirin.
‘I heard she’s one of the top sorceresses in our country… She seems capable.’
While Haseirin felt uneasy about the sticky aura surrounding her, she thought the skill was definitely there.
A little while later.
“The one who cast magic on you is…”
“······.”
“…nobody.”
“Ha…”
That was the answer she wanted to hear.
One of the two bodyguards Haseirin had, possessed an exceptional ability to block external gazes, but even so, she always felt uneasy that someone might specifically harbor hatred or ill will against her.
Haseirin wanted to continue her hobby for a long time, and she continuously invested a significant portion of her income into these verification tasks.
This is why she had bought derelict buildings in secluded places with the money she earned as a Hunter.
“But there seems to be something interesting faintly visible.”
“…What? Interesting? What do you mean by that?”
Haseirin’s moment of relief was brief; the sorceress added an afterthought, opening a new development.
Haseirin wanted to know what it was about but the sorceress formed a circle with her thumb and forefinger.
“Ugh…”
She had already spent a whopping 5 billion on this one meeting, and now the sorceress wanted more? Seriously?
No matter how good Haseirin’s income was, there were still market rates.
She struggled to contain her boiling rage, but the sorceress was indeed a formidable figure.
Finally managing to stifle her fury, Haseirin nodded.
“Alright. Let’s take a look.”
Fortunately, the sorceress didn’t immediately demand a deposit. If she had, Haseirin might have lost it right then and there but she held back her line remarkably well.
A few minutes later, the sorceress opened her mouth again.
“Let’s see. So… interesting. I can see a faint flickering dot in your mind.”
“A dot? What’s that… Speak more understandably.”
“Just a flickering dot, that’s all. I can only see it hazily, not clearly.”
“……”
Despite Haseirin clearly being younger, the sorceress showed no hint of discomfort at the informal speech.
Instead, her gaze wandered over Haseirin with great curiosity.
“This is a phenomenon I’ve never seen before. But I do remember a few similar types of magic.”
Upon seeing the shining white eyes of the sorceress, Haseirin felt an involuntary chill run down her spine, and without her needing to say any more, one thought sprang to her mind.
“Could it be… someone is targeting me? Like a sniper?”
“Oooh- Close enough.”
“Oh no… shit…”
Could it be that what needed to come finally arrived? Who could it be? Was it really the Hunter Management Bureau?
It was known that many Hunters with unique abilities, including sorcerers, belonged to the special division of the Hunter Management Bureau, which was also why Haseirin had spent a fortune to confirm these suspicions.
“Is there any way to block it? Can you undo it?”
“Hmmm… Unraveling… that’s not possible.”
“What?! Why? Is it a money issue? How much would it be?”
“It’s not a money issue. It’s something I can’t do. Because it’s not a curse wrought by sorcery.”
Haseirin’s head spun momentarily.
If it wasn’t a curse, how did that sorceress recognize it?
“… Are you messing with me?”
Haseirin’s hair shot into the air as her magic spooled violently.
While she had persuasion-type skills, her Hunter abilities were for the close-range dealer position like Baek Ah-rin.
In the blink of an eye, she could blitz and split the sorceress’s head.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa- Calm down. I’m as confused as you right now. I didn’t even know my abilities had developed to this extent.”
“You better come up with a solution…”
Despite Haseirin’s chilling voice, the sorceress stayed unfazed.
Suddenly springing up, the sorceress came closer, starting her careful examination of Haseirin.
‘She’s not ordinary. I’d best be careful not to make this unpleasant.’
Even exuding a threatening aura, the sorceress was undeterred, and Haseirin felt a strange sense of trust emerging.
“Hmmm… Traditionally, magic connects the target to the subject. That’s basically all there is to it.
And what has been cast upon you is certainly not magic, but the ability to connect in that manner. So it makes sense that I can sense it, however faintly.”
“Because it connects the target to the subject…?”
“Precisely. It’s likely some ability like… [Coordinate Targeting]. Connecting you to someone.”
“Coordinate… coordinates? You’re saying my location data is leaking?”
“It’s highly probable.”
Haseirin fell into contemplation.
Her information was leaking to someone.
Who could it be? What kind of power did they possess? When was the coordinate documented? What was their purpose?
Thoughts spiraled upon thoughts.
‘Damn… Who’s going to end up dead here?’
One thing was clear: it wasn’t someone overwhelmingly stronger than her.
If that were the case, they would’ve come directly instead of messing about with this petty coordinate targeting.
“Huhuhuh- I hope to see you again…”
Without wasting any time, Haseirin exited the building.
From that moment on, she began to take risks, targeting Hunters stronger than herself.
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