“But they also want you to reply as quickly as possible. Just because they really want to see you.”
“… That’s… just too weird. When did we become close enough to want to see each other?”
“Right? Did they go a bit crazy preparing for their promotion? But with their ability, they should breeze right through it…”
“Hmm…”
After analyzing Noh Ha-yoon’s intentions for about ten minutes of travel.
Swoosh—!
The characteristic roar of an orc echoed through the forest. A proud and rude, yet provocative roar.
It’s not too far from here.
‘415m… 40 of them.’
If we keep going like this, we’ll soon run into them.
If another four-person party encountered them, they might hesitate about whether to fight, but with Yeon-hee around, it felt more like a light warm-up.
However, there was one thing that made the orc squad we were about to meet different from the one we encountered in the Lizard Swamp.
‘There’s a spearman?’
There was indeed a spearman at the rear of their formation.
Unlike the orc spearman I had fought one-on-one before, these guys supported their close-combat warriors by throwing sharp, thin metal spears from afar.
As I spread my senses to observe them, I noticed one of the spearmen had an unusually swollen arm.
Their rate of fire and range may be lacking, but a spear thrown with that arm surpassed the destructive power of arrows shot by orc archers.
The summoned creature that could continue fighting after getting hit by that powerful spear… would currently be just me and the specter.
‘That said, I don’t plan on taking any hits.’
“Oh no, starting off with… and not just one type. There are two individuals with completely different strides. Is this a mutant?”
“From the very first battle… I’m honestly not even surprised anymore. Ah-rin, how many are there?”
“About 30-40 in total. At least ten of them have different strides.”
My sensing wave range increased, meaning I was now detecting enemies later than before, but Ah-rin’s hearing was still remarkably sharp.
Unless a particularly complex path appeared, I could leave the guiding role to her.
Suddenly, Ah-rin whipped her head toward me and with a slight smirk on one side of her mouth, said.
“Alright then. Il-wol, let’s focus on the rear together. This is the first time your master is giving a lesson, so I’ll show you Lightning Step.”
With a slightly excited tone, Ah-rin spoke while flapping her ears again, puffing out a bit.
She seemed a little red in the cheeks; it appeared she was still embarrassed to call herself a master.
I don’t know if teaching something to a skeleton was that exciting, but it was nice to see her full of energy again.
Thinking about it, out of the three dungeon explorations, Ah-rin had used Lightning Step only a handful of times, so I had to pay close attention during this opportunity.
“Lizard, Orc, Specter. Charge!”
As Ah-rin and I turned to the rear, Yeon-hee’s charge signal rang out with significant strength from behind.
Before her command could even finish, twenty summoned creatures began to rush towards the orc warriors all at once.
The reason we didn’t summon all of them was probably that we deemed this amount sufficient. It seemed like Yeon-hee had begun training to manage her magic after experiencing a harsh event in the ‘Abandoned School.’
While moving to the rear, I was also genuinely curious about the battle between our summoned creatures and the orcs.
Would our summons, evaluated to exceed D rank mid-levels, be able to gain an advantage over orc low-rank warriors?
“Meow! Watch closely! Don’t get distracted!”
“Clap, Clap, Clap!”
Like there were eyes in the back of my head, Ah-rin noticed I was spacing out and brought my attention back.
I was about to show off my ultimate skill, and I couldn’t let my student get distracted. This was on me.
Crackle— Crackle—
She started calling forth energy similar to lightning while rolling her feet a few times.
In truth, claiming her Lightning Step had lightning attributes was still far from the mark.
The small lightning sounds and distortions, reminiscent of small thunder strikes, produced the illusion born from compressing the process of breaking and exploding mana, but who cares what it looks like?
As long as she learns it, she could assign attributes later. Lightning attribute skills are rare and look cool, so I absolutely wanted to get it.
Crackle— Crackle—
Soon her footwork kicked off. I hadn’t seen this before, but looking closely, I realized she was releasing mana not just when stepping on the ground.
‘What the hell… She can do that.’
Ah-rin was releasing mana in quick succession while in the air, from her hands and toes.
Then, her wobbling body regained its balance and shot forward toward the target with tremendous speed, making me involuntarily curse in amazement.
Like when I saw her fighting at the cliff yesterday, Ah-rin’s sense of balance was unparalleled. Such an ability seems to be innate and hard to emulate.
I thought about how long it might take me to use it as freely as that… and suddenly questioned.
‘By the way, did the other guys from Ilseom Guild ever use Lightning Step properly?’
During the mimic event, everything was subdued so quickly that I passed it off, but remembering their behavior, I doubt anyone, even as capable as Ah-rin, could use it correctly. They probably just skimmed the surface.
Come to think of it, Ilseom Guild had been unusually quiet. I expected them to knock on our door immediately… so are they just letting it slide?
‘That can’t be.’
Whoosh—!
“Grrrak—”
While I didn’t take my eyes off her movements, I slashed through the nearby orcs easily. The orcs were responding to my movements with a noticeable delay.
‘It’s definitely a different dimension compared to fighting in the gorge.’
Now I could gauge how much I had leveled up, and it felt a bit exhilarating.
With the dagger passing through, blood gushed from the orc’s neck, briefly obscuring the sky.
– Use daggers during stealth mode to defeat enemies. (107/10,000)
Since there was no one around to watch me, I decided to focus intensively on the stealth-dagger quest.
The attribute quest, which I thought would be the hardest, was progressing surprisingly fast, so it was time to match the pace of the other quests.
“Clap, Clap, Clap!!”
“Spear!”
Although we were the first to attack from the rear, we couldn’t simultaneously take down all the spearmen protected by the orcs.
Of course, using Skeleton Bomb would make it possible, but growing on my own isn’t the only answer.
And just to be safe, it would be wise to conserve the bombs.
The spearmen remaining in the back pulled their arms back and then shot forward, launching their spears like rubber bands.
Then, the finely sharpened spearheads shot through the air at incredible speed toward our summoned creatures in front.
Whoooosh—!
Thud!
Four Lizardmen were instantly speared and sent flying back. It was indeed a tremendous force.
‘Certainly, throwing techniques aren’t so bad. Maybe I could make a spear out of those bones too.’
Of course, the ones that got hit were low-ranking in the Lizard Squad, but I still couldn’t guarantee that my Bone Armor would block all damage if I were hit by one of those spears.
Unfortunately, the Lizardmen hit by the spears didn’t die in one shot, but they became incapacitated.
They looked pitiful, trying to stand up with spears piercing their bodies.
They could have avoided it if they wanted.
They all jumped to block the spears aimed at Yeon-hee and Joo-ah.
“… Good job.”
Yeon-hee expressed her gratitude for their sacrifice with a swift flick of her hand.
Saharalalak—
Then, the wounded summoned creatures dissipated into gray smoke.
Yeon-hee nodded to me as if it were no big deal and then re-summoned them.
“Now, get back to work.”
“Chewing?!”
… Yeon-hee was gradually becoming more skilled in managing her summoned creatures. Though she still had a long way to go compared to the charismatic figure I remembered, glimpses of that demeanor were starting to show.
“Chuwraaaaaah!!”
“Krkk?!”
When the Lizardmen they had killed roared again as if nothing had happened, the orcs displayed noticeable confusion.
What troubled the orcs even more was the provocation skill drawing aggro and the stone fists erupting from the ground obstructing their movements.
The orcs rushed to eliminate Bae Joo-ah and the Screaming Mushroom, the source of that irritating ability, but before long, the Specter swooped down causing some chaotic turmoil that left them flabbergasted.
– Chewing—!
– Cha-ha-ack!!
On one side, Lizardman 1 and Dotti 1 were engaged in one-on-one combat with one orc warrior each.
After evolving, Lizardman 1’s growth accelerated drastically. He had stood out since the Wolf Den and now didn’t falter in battle against the orc warrior.
Of course, he couldn’t defeat it alone yet, but just holding on was a big help for us. After all, the main advantage of summoned creatures was to buy time for hunters to take down monsters.
Then, Dotti 1 and Dotti 2 faced their respective low-rank orcs. They took a bit longer, but they handled it with ease.
In other words, it was a clear display that our main squad’s leaders were at least D rank mid-levels.
Of course, this only applied to the leaders; the lower-ranked ones still visibly struggled against orc warriors, but it was still a promising sign.
Swoosh—
While watching the summoned creatures fight, I saw Yeon-hee deep in thought.
‘Is Yeon-hee still pondering?’
She had mentioned while riding in the taxi with me that she was contemplating the six summon papers stacked together, especially expressing regret about the Specter.
It seemed she was quite fond of its insane passive immunity to physical attacks and drain energy for a similar debuff effect.
She also found it cuter the more she looked at it. Hmm… I can’t agree with that, but still, I shared her sentiments about the Specter’s abilities being disappointing. It’d be great to mix orcs and specters at a 2:1 ratio.
Of course, while the Specter was extremely weak to magical damage, considering that, it was still a very appealing summoned creature.
‘If Yeon-hee desires it that much, there’s a chance that its abilities might manifest…’
She had already created odd materials that didn’t even exist before. It wouldn’t be surprising if she managed to control the ability to fix probabilities as she pleased.
‘I didn’t see her using the Specter in her previous life… But I guess she might not have been able to summon one back then.’
She still hadn’t chosen a monster to fix with more than 90% probability. Once she made a decision, she wouldn’t be able to make another choice until the next grade’s summoning paper came out, so she needed to be cautious.
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