Yeon-hee pretended to dispel my summoning, and I activated [Stealth] to erase my presence in response.
Then, Shin Young-ah silently nodded and signaled to set off again.
“Please take care of this, Azraelon.”
(Planning to wander off alone again? A summoned creature that keeps trying to distance itself from its master. I don’t get it.)
After giving Azraelon’s butt a light tap with an annoyed expression, I altered my route a bit deeper into where my companions were headed.
Currently, my sense value is 246.
I could maintain a distance of about 12 km from Yeon-hee.
It’s a distance that could be considered far or close, but unlike my companions moving counterclockwise, I was heading straight toward the center, so the risk is much higher.
“Let’s focus on the toughest ones among the regular soldiers first.”
This thought came to mind because the final contribution is ultimately determined by the quantity and quality of mana stones, but preemptively taking down opponents that the team of three hunters would struggle with will benefit our entire hunt team.
“That one looks good.”
There were too many Creeper Guards within the range of my senses, and it wasn’t easy to pick just one, but there was always a standout among them.
“Mergi!! Mergii!! Kihihihihik!”
“Impressive. I’d say it’s an elite soldier.”
A massive Creeper Guard that clearly reached the early A-rank.
It was sitting on a chair with other beings beneath its feet.
“A Creeper Guard with minions…”
The beings it stepped on were also Creeper Guards.
Maybe it lost a match and had two other guards curled up under its feet, serving as footrests.
It was quite a sight to see three Creeper Guards gathered in one place.
It was obvious they were powerful enemies that our party could struggle against alone, yet I didn’t feel much of a crisis even looking at them.
“From the ‘Living Statue’ dungeon I met, to ‘Rough Tooth’, to the Lizardman from the job change quest, and the queen of the ‘Blood Mosquito’ in a hidden dungeon.
None of them were weaker than those guys.”
“If they’re at that level, it doesn’t matter how many there are. It shouldn’t take long.”
I drew my great sword and charged in, closing the distance with them in an instant.
I unleashed all my movement skills simultaneously, causing a shockwave to erupt behind me.
[Wall of Fire]
[Fireball]
Boom—! Whoosh—
—?!
As I dashed in, turning their vicinity into a sea of flames.
[Air Slash: Flame Cut]
Swish—!
“?!!”
I zipped past the strongest one like the wind, lightly grazing its neck.
Fwoosh—!
Soon, the Creeper Guard’s head shot up, spraying green liquid into the sky.
Thud—
With a single swing, the head rolled, making the Creeper Guard kneel on the floor.
– You have defeated a Creeper Guard for the first time!
– Trait [Thievery] is activated!
– You have acquired Trait [Beginner Mana Circulation]!
– You have acquired the Skill [Root Chain]!
– Achievement [Pioneer] has been activated.
– All Attributes will increase by 2 points each.
“Wow… I stole traits and skills right off the bat. This is a good start.”
“Mergii!!”
“Kweeek?!”
The other two, caught beneath it, were already within the flame’s range and lost their bearings, so I charged at them again and severed their necks and bodies with two swift swings.
– You have defeated a Creeper Guard!
– You have defeated a Creeper Guard!
As my proficiency in Space Slash increased, the power of my ambush grew day by day.
As long as my stealth wasn’t detected, even beings of a much higher tier than me would fall in an instant.
“No matter how much I ambushed them, these guys seem to lack immediate response. Have they never fought Hunters before?”
Their physical abilities were good, but their experience was painfully evident.
– You have acquired the mana stone (large) of a Creeper Guard!
– You have acquired the mana stone (medium) of a Creeper Guard!
– You have acquired the mana stone (medium) of a Creeper Guard!
“The first one I defeated was certainly special, and the quality of the mana stones is different.”
Before I could even admire the dazzling green mana stones, my obsession quickly scooped them up, and the remains were instantly stored in my space.
“Let’s see. It doesn’t seem extraordinary.”
Time to check the newly acquired abilities.
[Beginner Mana Circulation]
– Rapidly circulates and absorbs dispersed magical power in the air as mana.
‘… Dispersed magical power? I see. This ability is better than I thought, huh?’
When using skills, I thought the mana I invested would be fully contained, but that’s not actually the case. The efficiency of mana handling reduces the wasted mana.
Regardless, the magical power unable to be used returned to the mana in the atmosphere over time.
However, the newly acquired [Beginner Mana Circulation] quickly circulates and absorbs the discarded magical power around me into mana, significantly enhancing my magic recovery rate.
“As I get closer to the main body of the Great Beast, my magical power recovery rate decreases… This will be a huge help.”
The more absusers of skills around, the higher efficiency it would be.
Lately, while I’ve been able to freely adapt the form of fire magic, my mana consumption has significantly increased, so it seems like a considerable aid.
– [Beginner Mana Circulation] is activated.
– Mana recovery speed has slightly increased.
This trait activates automatically, no need for me to think about it. Because I hadn’t used much mana, the increase was slight, but I was satisfied nonetheless.
And for the newly acquired skill.
[Root Chain]
– Extends part of the body like roots and hides underground.
“This is a skill that all Creeper Guards must possess. Isn’t this almost a race-specific ability? Awesome.”
I immediately attempted to activate [Root Chain].
As expected, bones stretched like snakes beneath my feet and dug into the ground in an instant.
Crack—!
Roots of bone, thick as my forearm, spread in all directions from my body.
The ends formed spheres the size of my fist, which I could manipulate into any form.
The roots, already extended in all directions, felt heavy enough that I could inflict considerable damage with a proper hit.
When I took a step to the side, the connection with the roots broke, but as soon as I placed my foot back on the ground, the fallen roots returned and clung to me again.
“Oh… This is fun.”
Testing it out, as long as I didn’t move more than thirty meters at a time, they would continually follow me.
Scrape—!
“Ugh… The noise.”
However, it couldn’t be helped that I could hear the sound of the ground being scraped as it came to attach itself to me.
“I’ve gained another strange ability.”
I played around with the hidden bones for a while.
Though there were more than ten roots, controlling them felt strangely familiar.
It must be because I had already had the sensation of using the bone’s tail, right?
After releasing bone thorns from my body and creating a giant tail that injects paralysis poison, now I was making dozens of roots from my feet… Where on earth am I headed?
“I don’t even know anymore.”
I thought as long as I got stronger, that was what mattered, and I flew towards the next target.
“Mergii… Hwaah-”
The next one had arms that were absurdly long compared to its body.
Would such a shape even be able to fight properly? But based on my experience, those with such mutated forms were often more troublesome than they seemed, so I shouldn’t let my guard down.
“Hmm… I just want to shoot its head off from a distance.”
I formed a telescope with my fingers and captured its head within. I just needed to take that head off.
“I need a skill that’s more specialized in ranged combat. While I can refine my swordsmanship for close combat, I would love to have a ranged attack like a gun.”
The S-rank Hunter, nicknamed “Sniper Patrick,” who aimed his gun at me when I met the leader of the ‘Do’ faction.
I wanted a ranged skill that could strike a single point, just like him.
I had been visualizing such abilities in fire magic for quite some time, but it was still in the testing phase.
“If I could obtain a skill with a similar feel, it would greatly aid in enhancing my abilities. Hmm…”
I shook off the thoughts and launched myself at the creature.
Suddenly, at an astonishing speed, something like a whip swung, disappearing from my field of vision in an instant.
“Huh?!”
As I quickly dodged into the sky, I internally frowned.
“What the… Did it teleport its arm?!”
An attack swung from a distance I could never reach, hit the ground behind me, aimed at my back.
No wonder I felt uneasy—such a crazy ability?!
[Skeleton Bomb]
Boom──!
– You have defeated a Creeper Guard!
Fortunately, that extraordinary ability was all it had.
However, knowing that such remarkable mutations could exist even among the Creeper Guards, predominantly physical enhancers, brought me a suitable level of tension.
“Be cautious, but let’s gather as many mana stones as we can.”
Since regular soldiers no longer posed a threat to me, I decided to pick up the pace.
*
Five hours had passed since the hunt for Creeper Guards began.
It was only after dinner that Yeon-hee called for me, and I hurried back to where my comrades were.
“Ahhhh- Summon- Summon- Il-wol, come to me-”
Yeon-hee was awkwardly reciting the summoning spell, and I revealed myself by releasing [Stealth] in accordance with her incantation.
“Huh? Why didn’t you come out through the door today?”
“Ahh, well, I don’t always come out through the door… hehe…”
“Oh? Is that so?”
Fortunately, no one suspected that I had just been summoned. Of course, my companions wouldn’t mind, but Shin Young-ah was the issue.
“Nyam- Hmmm-”
Luckily, Shin Young-ah showed no interest in me and was simply chewing on jerky while staring intently at her phone.
“Was Il-wol a bit bored today?”
*Clap, Clap, Clap…*
Joo-ah approached me with a concerned face. As she got closer, her face flushed with colors, and her magic recovery rate surged, causing her to tremble sharply.
“Uh…”
While watching Joo-ah moan with excitement, Yeon-hee’s brow slightly furrowed, but she eventually closed her eyes, pretending not to notice.
She was trying to understand at least to this extent.
‘I wasn’t bored at all… I’ve actually been busier today than ever.’
Maintaining some distance from our party while searching for and taking down Creeper Guards so that the other three teams wouldn’t notice was a pretty labor-intensive job.
I even had to retrieve the bodies of the Creeper Guards we had defeated, so even if I had two bodies, it wouldn’t be enough.
While retrieving defeated monster corpses could be left to the follow-up team, I didn’t expect them to tally up honestly, so it was less of a hassle for me to take care of it myself.
‘The harder I worked, the more I reaped.’
Having entered the 80 level range, the level that hadn’t risen much before went up a notch, and I was able to gather almost 40 mana stones from the Creeper Guards.
I hadn’t been able to steal other skills or traits with [Thievery], and they hadn’t dropped any runes.
Yet, the number of residents I had directly and indirectly gathered had already exceeded three thousand, so it was a pretty fulfilling day in its own right.
*Clap!*
“Then, it might be a bit early, but shall we summarize today’s results?”
“Today is just the first day, and since the patterns of the enemies were unfamiliar, it was a bit slow, but it improved as we went along, right?”
“Yeah, yeah. Since Il-wol wasn’t there… identifying enemies took a bit longer, and I was a bit tight on mana, but it was no problem.”
Fortunately, my comrades seemed to feel they had a satisfying hunt.
After I left, the leader Shin Young-ah hadn’t tested her comrades. Instead, she focused entirely on the original goal of rescuing the residents.
‘I know Shin Young-ah’s binding abilities well. She can hold back Creeper Guards for several minutes. It’s unfortunate that the cooldown is a bit long, though.’
Unless there were unexpected variables, like encountering mutated ones or three appearing at once, I suspected we would clear the mission without significant risk, just as originally expected.
“Today, we collected a whopping 42 mana stones! I doubt we’re behind Hwa-ryeon’s team!”
“I hope so. Imagining that b*tch bowing her head to the ground makes the jerky taste that much better.”
’42 stones… That’s not bad.’
I had no intention of undervaluing them simply because there wasn’t a significant difference in the number of mana stones I had obtained.
They must have spent a considerable amount of time searching for the path.
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