I silently complained about the quest conditions that had no semblance of justice and left the scene.
I wanted to loot the fallen woman’s belongings, but since I saw a man rushing over here after she collapsed, I decided to back off.
Should I just take care of that guy… I suddenly pondered.
However, since those criminals also stick to their own set of rules, it felt right to adhere to my intention of taking down just one woman.
‘Still, it would be a shame to miss out on the runes and mana stones…’
– Trait [Obsession] makes me frantically search through the corpse for loot!
– Acquired Rune of Vitality x1, Rune of Swiftness x1, Rune of Absorption x1!
– Acquired Intermediate Mana Stone x 23!
‘…… Huh? What the heck! [Obsession] is pretty awesome!’
This trait must not only collect items dropped by monsters. It even snatched mana stones. Did I just rummage through a dead person’s inventory? That’s surprising!
Moreover, since I killed the woman and quickly left, I was already a few meters away…
While there wasn’t anything useful among the fallen woman’s runes, they could easily sell for over ten million won.
‘This is why people fall into the temptation of hunting hunters so easily.’
“Seon Jeong-ah!!”
I watched the man rush past me, desperately calling out the name of the now-cold woman.
He kneeled in front of the fallen woman, his shoulders shaking violently.
What emotions must he be feeling right now?
If they are villains or whatever, losing a loved one right before their eyes brings a level of sadness that’s unimaginable.
As I watched him, I felt a chill wash over my chest where my nonexistent heart would be.
But while experiencing these feelings, I also felt a sense of relief.
What if it were like this, what if it had been different, even if I had become numb without a single regret or worry. How would I be any different from a monster?
“What the hell! Why, why isn’t it here?”
While I was momentarily lost in thought, the man shouted in panic.
‘Hmm? What is he looking for-‘
“Runes! There are none! No mana stones either! That stupid girl couldn’t even keep watch over that! Ha… did that guy take everything? What a damn! Who was it? Who was it? Come out!”
‘……’
Seeing the man glaring with wide eyes and shouting like crazy made me feel foolish for having indulged in my thoughts for a moment.
I shook my head vigorously and completely averted my gaze from them, darting back to where Yeon-hee was like a bullet.
As I passed by, the only thing flooding my vision was a landscape brimming with malice, all aimed at taking down the opponent.
– Ugh! What the hell is this strength?!
– Don’t talk about potions while fighting! Just throw them in beforehand, you useless idiots!
– Protect the sorcerer! Even if one arm gets ripped off, the dealer must be protected-
Boom-!
One man shouting to protect the sorcerer was met with several iron bars flying toward him at once. He raised a kite shield about the height of a person in defense, but he got injured by a spear that pierced through the shield.
– Bro! Damn…!
– If we can’t deal with the spear throwers first, it’s gonna be tough! How many throws has it been already?!
It wasn’t just one party struggling.
‘They seem to be having an unusually hard time. I thought if I just cleaned up the advance team, it would be manageable, but the combat power of these orcs seems higher than I expected…’
Seeing the hunters, I started feeling a little anxious and focused solely on returning to Yeon-hee, putting aside any thoughts of offense.
‘The smell of blood…’
The acrid smell of iron filled the battlefield. Orc blood has a horrific smell, and mixed with the heat of the battle, the scent of sweat started to transform into an increasingly nasty stench.
Thudd- Tadoom-!
Using one orc as a springboard, I leaped high into the sky, spreading my cloak.
‘There’s over there!’
Finding Yeon-hee in the chaotic battlefield, where green monsters seemed to be writhing as one, was no easy task normally. But as if drawn by something, I turned my head and there she was, without fail.
“Oh, no!! Chehwa…!”
When I arrived, Yeon-hee’s gasp was just about to escape her lips.
Swoosh–
Where her gaze landed was a specter disappearing in a swirl of smoke. Even a specter, immune to physical attacks, has moments of materialization when it attacks, and orcs are an intelligent enough species to exploit such openings.
I turned my head to the right.
The defensive line the hunters had firmly set began to crumble from the center.
Looking once more at the battlefield, which was being pushed without a plan, I couldn’t help but feel puzzled.
‘It shouldn’t be this easy to push us back…’
In fact, boss battles are usually fights where the hunters dominate. Whether it’s 1000 vs 100 or something, they join because they believe they can win.
So, it’s not entirely the monsters becoming stronger that causes them to struggle.
‘Come to think of it, why are there so many idiots trying to take on boss battles lately?’
As I looked around, I noticed a considerable number of hunters who didn’t have the ability to face off against 3-4 orcs simultaneously. Hunters ranked between D and mid-lower echelon.
Normally, they should be grinding experience against wolves or harpies at their level, yet they were willing to go all in like this. Why?
‘… Was it not just me feeling this way?’
I thought we had just been unlucky as a party, encountering strange situations often. But other hunters must have ears and can sense that the world isn’t right, even if they haven’t directly experienced it.
The world was heading down the path of destruction. Everyone was starting to feel it.
I had to grow stronger quickly. Strong enough to at least protect myself. Was this thought beginning to spread?
‘Instead of slowly withering away, they opted for a quicker route to growth… high risk, high reward. Those who made that choice…’
Before the boss battle started, their eyes gleamed with a strange sense of determination, despite their trembling hands. If it was indeed a choice driven by foresight and the desire to carve out their own futures…
‘They may be a little short on skills, but they show initiative.’
As I started attributing meaning to the actions of the hunters, Yeon-hee shouted loudly.
“Yil-wol―! Bomb!! Fireball! Anything quickly!”
Yeon-hee’s urgent call snapped me out of my thoughts, and I leaped high into the sky again.
Spreading my gliding cloak.
Whiiiiiii–!
I used [High-speed Flight] to quickly drop a load of bombs onto the group of orcs putting pressure on the hunters.
Boom, boom boom! KABOOM―! BOOM―!
I could see the formation created by hundreds of orcs get destroyed in an instant with the explosions.
A void opened up in the central area which had been pushed inward sharply. Quick-witted hunters filled the empty space left by the retreating orcs, ultimately adjusting the battle line with just one skill turn.
But this was just the beginning. While flying in the air, I dropped all the bombs except for the ten I needed to keep on hand in case of any emergencies.
The feeling of dropping bombs from the sky was absolutely… an exhilarating experience. Especially if the orcs showed horrified expressions while witnessing the falling bombs, that was the icing on the cake.
‘After all, if we’re talking about fun, bombs are the best.’
I wasn’t yet accustomed to using [High-speed Flight], but since precise adjustments weren’t needed for dropping bombs, I had no trouble.
– Eliminate 10,000 enemies with a skill of the specified attribute. (649/10,000)
With just these few bomb attacks, I had directly taken out over a hundred orcs.
And for some reason, it felt like the attack power of the bombs had increased more than before, but I couldn’t figure out why.
It seemed to start after the mimic event…
‘Who cares, anything that rises is good!’
– Lee Yeon-hee’s Skeleton Soldier!
– Irola!! Grim Reaper Irola!
– Explosion! Explosions are art!
– The path in the center has opened! Let’s all push forward!
‘…… ‘
With each bomb explosion raising my spirits, my mood quickly soured when someone bizarrely referred to my name. Ugh, really, who was the guy that turned me into a female?
As I vented my frustration, I surveyed the battlefield below from the air.
‘The only one dead… was the one whose head got blown off at the beginning, right?’
Was it worth the effort of hurling bombs and fireballs that only one person had died? Bae Joo-ah, despite whining and asking me to stay by her side, still looked to have excess magical power.
Managing magical energy and fighting isn’t something just done with thoughts. It’s only through a lot of experience, learning from mistakes, and painfully realizing it. Regrets and such come naturally as you grow day by day.
In that regard, our party was growing unnoticed on a daily basis.
‘Now that we’ve started refining rough stones… I can’t wait to see what kind of gems will come out.’
I wondered if raising a child felt something like this.
‘Phew… but where is he? Intermediate Warrior, Intermediate Warrior… Found him.’
Standing right in the center of the orc formation, there was a guy posing as the leader.
He didn’t look much different from the other low-rank warriors, but just by the way he stood and the aura he exuded, it was easy to distinguish him.
Whoosh-
Following the gravitational wave from the sky, I dove straight down――
[High-speed Flight]
Adding skills to the falling speed intensified the force of the air cutting around me.
“Krk?!”
The orc instinctively sensed the bizarre event happening above his head.
‘Too late now, buddy.’
[Skeleton Bomb]
[Flame Cut]
Boom-!
Swoosh―!
An explosion erupted centered around the orc staring up at the sky, soon followed by a dagger piercing through his thick skull.
Zzzt!
Perhaps because he was already heavily damaged from the bomb, it was surprisingly easy to slice through the bone.
The force I used to make the cut shattered his bones into fine fragments.
In the end, a long line was drawn leading to his neck, and brain and blood sprayed out as a result, staining my previously concealed body with red spots like spilled paint.
‘Stealth released.’
Thud!
– You have defeated the Orc Intermediate Warrior!
– [Warrior’s Roar] level has increased!
Warrior’s Roar Lv.2
– The roar of the warrior invigorates allies!
– Strength +4 (+1)
‘Oh? I didn’t use Warrior’s Roar, but I still gained points for killing a monster with the same skill?’
It seemed that the structure allowed for gaining skill experience gradually when killing a monster that possesses the same skill, rather than only receiving experience when using a skill at meaningful moments in a battle.
‘Okay. If I linger in this dungeon, I might level up Warrior’s Roar by another level or two.’
As a commemoration for my level-up, I decided to use Warrior’s Roar once.
– Strength +4
‘That’s neat. I wonder how many times this can stack. So far, I’ve stacked it three times with Dotti 2 though.’
Whoosh-!
While I was lost in thought for a moment, a hand axe the size of my arm flew toward me.
‘Whoa, that was close.’
“Krkrk! Spit!”
As I easily dodged the axe, the orc let out a thick spit onto the ground and disappeared behind their minions.
‘Is that guy also an Intermediate? He doesn’t seem markedly different from the Advanced Warrior I saw before…’
Not all orcs are stupid. It’s known that the intelligence of orcs improves with their rank.
He must have decided he couldn’t take me on after I killed someone on his level and watched cautiously for an opening before throwing that. A smart little bugger.
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