Pew-!
Swish—
“Ugh..! My, my hand…!”
He sliced off the ankles and wrists of two men and burned the stumps with a fireball.
Then, he poured a potion over the severed ends. Their cleanly cut stumps shriveled like a wrist guard pulled from an arm.
“Nooooo!!! Khuuh…!”
The man, now doomed to live his life without arms and legs, wept, blood mixing with his tears.
‘Why does crying look so unpleasant?’
He grabbed the sobbing man’s shirt and hoisted him up, tossing him in front of the other man. They both took a moment to glance at their now stubby hands and feet before unleashing another round of wails.
– Ugh, seriously. Just kill them already, why be so noisy!
– You’re interrupting my fun… Huh? Why is he like that? Hahaha!
– No! Why are you dodging to the side? Are you an idiot? Heuk-a, do we have any popcorn left?
– Cheong, your kids ate it all… Look at them fighting while grabbing each other by the hair. Watching these losers fight is just too amusing! Haha!
‘Those guys seem pretty relaxed.’
One man looked like a giant mountain thief, larger than Lizardman 1, and the other had the appearance of a boy riding on his shoulder.
The two lounged about, enjoying the fight of the so-called “loser-level” hunters with glee.
‘The other two must be… those guys.’
It was easy to recognize them due to their similar clothing. Two men wearing modified hanbok-style robes in yellow and red. They had just finished dispatching their opponent and were tidying their weapons.
One wielded a chain, and the other had a sickle.
The sickle was indeed an unusual weapon…
It curved sharply like a crescent moon, and at first glance, it didn’t seem effective. However, judging by how completely covered in blood the red-clothed man was, he appeared quite skilled with it.
‘Tough customers, indeed.’
They were clearly a notch above the ones who just lost their limbs.
I easily subdued those Ilseom fools, so I could think they were nothing special, but that was not the case.
They were simply dim-witted enough not to use their full potential, but if they had, they could have pressured me significantly.
Had I not been on guard, that’d have been the case.
So, I shouldn’t get cocky just because I got a little stronger. Even if similarly ranked hunters enter a dungeon together, there will always be at least one or two strong ones like those guys in robes lurking around.
The four-member party, realizing I was staring at them, quickly zipped their mouths shut and began preparing for a possible attack.
– Skeleton… If the spatial separation is released… will I activate ‘Heuk’ right away?
– Heuk-a. That’s not the end of it. Look at the monsters walking over there. A few of them are not even that different from Hwang-a.
– Hmm… Could be tough… What are the odds of winning?
– Even if they call in ‘Saek’, it’s only 50%.
– … Who’s 50%?
– ……….
Definitely not the same kind of fools I just faced. They focused on maintaining their space and organizing their stance the moment they sensed any potential threat.
‘I don’t really want to fight those guys.’
But things have a way of going differently than I think, so it might be better to seek a fight…
“Phew— that’s refreshing!!”
Ah-rin wiped her hands clean and flashed a big smile. In stark contrast, the state of Heo Min-sol left behind was utterly gruesome. One side of her face was swollen twice its size, clearly from repeated hits to the same spot.
“That girl kept pointing at my earring on my head and treating me like a crazy person, and she only did it when no one was watching. So, I gave her a good whack on the head, hohoh!”
‘That’s quite the grand revenge…’
I shook my head, approaching the girl named Heo Min-sol.
“… Uh? I-Ilo, I made sure to teach her a lesson!”
Creeeak—
“Gahhhhh!! Hic…!”
‘That’s your thinking.’
I put Heo Min-sol in the same state as her proud colleagues. I didn’t forget to burn her hands and feet with a fireball.
Drip, drip, drip—
As I poured the potion, her severed ends rapidly healed. She gazed up at me in disbelief.
‘Why is this happening to me?’
Her swirling eyes seemed to ask me that.
If I had to give a reason, there were plenty, but honestly, it wouldn’t matter if there was no special reason.
Just because her nails looked unlucky could count as a reason in this world.
“……”
Baek Ah-rin alternated her gaze between Heo Min-sol’s severed hand and my back as if recalling something, then pulled out a flare from her inventory.
Whoosh, boom!
‘What a good kid. She’s managed to befriend Bae Joo-ah.’
If Bae Joo-ah’s disposition were situated between neutral and evil, Baek Ah-rin was the complete opposite.
Usually, people tend to stick to their own, yet here we were.
A green flare, indicating a call for help, flew high into the sky and burst into light. For now, due to the Mimic’s containment magic, they could only offer emergency first-aid, but it would prevent them from becoming someone else’s prey.
[Baek Ah-rin and 3 others – Victory against Lee Seung-jun and 3 others -]
The late victory message rang, and the spatial separation blocking us from the other party was dissolved. Of course, since only my senses perceived it, I was the only one to react immediately.
At this point, the only teams whose spatial separation had been lifted were us and that four-member party in modified hanbok.
‘If this really is a tournament format, I’ll have to face them… how tiring.’
In a nutshell, it’s the difference between facing opponents you can absolutely defeat and those against whom even the slightest chance of losing exists.
And it’s just now coming back to me, those guys are members of the assassination group ‘Veil.’
A group composed of individuals with assassin traits. Whether it was to save face or something else, they had never registered with a guild, at least from what I remembered.
“G-Good job, Il-wol…”
Before I knew it, Yeon-hee had come close and was awkwardly pawing at the ground, unsure of what to do.
Even though she had witnessed death, it felt absurd that she was suddenly averse to it, but keeping them alive could be perceived as even more horrific.
‘This might just be the beginning…’
I needed to gradually increase the intensity of the stimuli to prevent my body from freezing in a genuine crisis. Still, I had covered up most moments that could have been pivotal, but still…
“W-Well, let’s move over there and talk.”
Escaping the ongoing battlefield, we shifted to the outskirts.
Though we couldn’t involve ourselves in the fight, we were being pushed outwards due to the separated space. It felt like a giant balloon was saying, “You shouldn’t be here.”
Squish—
As we moved, the four-member party also widened the distance, heading toward the outskirts.
“Those people… don’t seem ordinary?”
“Are we going to have to fight them? They have some serious energy…”
“Gahhhhh… W-what a mirror…”
But the hunters are still hunters; Ah-rin had already resumed her usual self. Joo-ah gently patted her back, while Yeon-hee looked on, her eyes filled with concern, wondering if she was truly okay.
“I-I’m fine!”
While it was awkward, Ah-rin’s cheeks were flushed, suggesting she didn’t entirely dislike this atmosphere.
“W-Well! Forget what happened and let’s think about the future!”
What she must have considered a massive deal was being dismissed as she forced an act of nonchalance, which made me want to pat her on the head.
I hesitated for a moment; my hand almost went up, but a chilling sense made me quickly withdraw my gaze from Ah-rin’s head.
Grrr—
“…… Il-wol… did something just happen… or not?”
“Clap! Clap! Clap!”
It was a split-second, unconscious reaction, yet Yeon-hee seemed to have caught on to what I was about to do. How didn’t she notice me just staring at her?
Women’s intuition is quite remarkable.
“……Yeah.”
‘… Scary…’
My momentary feeling toward Yeon-hee was even more chilling than the death-like chill I had experienced. I made a silent vow to be cautious in front of her from now on.
“Hmm??”
Joo-ah and Ah-rin looked at us with puzzled expressions but soon approached the edge of the separated space and resumed their earlier conversation.
“I don’t know what’s going on right now, but let’s just focus on the current situation.”
Ah-rin, still collecting her wits, took a moment, and Joo-ah led the conversation.
“Thanks to Il-wol’s efforts, we won easily, but you know? Ilseom is a group that won’t just sit idly if we touch them.”
Right. Which guild wouldn’t be like that? Still, Ilseom was particularly intense about those tendencies. I guess, since they spend time together in the mountains as guild members, their camaraderie might be deeper.
“Um… Listening to the other people earlier, they said they wouldn’t retaliate because they’d be embarrassed or something… is that right?”
Yeon-hee’s once suspicious gaze turned to Joo-ah, who now appeared concerned, questioning whether that was truly the case.
“That’s a relief. Even if Il-wol didn’t consider it, if we all got involved as a team, it would have been incredibly exhausting.”
“I wouldn’t worry about me hitting Heo Min-sol. After all, she was part of Ilseom at one point, so what’s the harm in taking her down?”
Ah-rin raised her arms, signaling it was all okay.
‘In fact, since someone who was once a peer got involved, it could be a bigger issue. Two sons are one thing, but Hyun Joong-gil’s younger brother is the real problem…’
“Well, there were plenty of witnesses, so they probably won’t make a big deal out of it. Besides, didn’t Ah-rin mention that instructors stopped her when she tried to leave?”
“Yup! They said they’d go through disciplinary procedures against those who bullied me!”
“So, you should’ve seen them try to discipline those people before leaving, you idiot.”
“Ehhh… I didn’t expect it to play out like this once I got out…”
“… Enough. Also, it’s already common knowledge that Yeon-hee is set to join the White Knight Guild, so it won’t be easy for anyone to fault you. Still, those Ilseom guys aren’t some guild that conspires behind the scenes.”
‘That’s true. It’s just that some of the instructors are nutjobs.’
Listening to their conversation reminded me of a memory. Though I hadn’t experienced it personally, I had heard stories about some rather perverted instructors within the Ilseom guild. Whether it stemmed from their pursuit of the sword or not, if tales have spread that far, they can’t be ordinary.
‘How odd that Hyun Joong-gil seems alright, while his underlings… he really should step in to manage the guild.’
Hyun Joong-gil focused on honing his martial abilities, leaving the guild operations to his brother and two sons. So, I guess that’s why the ones squirming around down there are causing such a commotion.
“Hoo… Looks like we really need to watch out for that four-member party over there… and is that a party mixed with Bear Beastmen? Aren’t they the guys we encountered in Wolf’s Den?”
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