Bang! Bang! Bang!
‘What the hell is that speed!’
It was a crazy movement that rivaled 80% of my maximum speed using all my movement skills. They were just running? I’m losing my mind.
‘At least I managed to leave one mark.’
There was a Flame Mark resting on the creature’s shoulder. It seemed stacked by the thorns that extended behind it when I got attacked.
I obtained this ability during my job change, and now I could quickly confirm its meaningful effect.
I soared into the sky to avoid the creature.
No need to mingle with such a crazy monster on the ground.
Whoooosh—
Having ascended moderately, I began condensing a Fireball in my left hand and dropping bombs atop its head.
Boom! Boom! Boom—
But hitting the monster’s body with bombs thrown from a high position was no easy task.
Fireballs, moving slower than the bombs, would encounter the same problem.
‘I need to get closer. But if I get too close, I feel like I’ll get sliced.’
The creature lightly dodged the bomb attacks, gazing up at me, then suddenly began to bend its knees deeply.
Grrrrooooor—
Its thighs bulged, ready to burst.
Just as I thought, looking down at the thing, I couldn’t help but be amazed at its monstrous physical prowess as it jumped over a hundred meters in one go.
‘Hey, are you insane!’
Whoooosh—
Fortunately, I distanced myself using [High-speed Flight].
I had to calm my heart as I watched its claw-like fingers brush past me.
‘If I got hit by that, I’d be dead.’
Thankfully, it didn’t seem to have the ability to fly, crashing back down to the ground.
I rose higher, and only then did the creature take its eyes off me, darting back towards the village.
The ‘Residue of Chaos,’ now highly agitated, entered a frenzy state and began to rip apart the soldiers.
While flying, I continued to use my skills to distract its focus.
‘I can’t hit it. Not unless I reduce the distance.’
In a way, this was the critical weakness of long-range attacks.
A Physically-enhanced Hunter’s speed grows proportionally with their growth, but while the power of long-range skills gets stronger, the speed of projectiles doesn’t scale accordingly.
Of course, if it were a skill with [Guaranteed Hit], it would be a different story, but such abilities are exceedingly rare.
That’s why binding-type hunters are crucial, and still, my [Chain of Flame] lacked the strength to bind it tightly like I had experienced earlier.
‘How annoying! Did I just downgrade right after my job change? I know my level without this!’
I grumbled against the system and decided to at least make one more attempt in the little time I had left.
‘Hoo—’
I gathered all the magic power in my legs, combined it with [High-speed Flight], and pushed the air back forcefully.
Bang—!
Swoosh—
The sound nearly followed in a crazy blast of speed.
It was the maximum extent I could unfold.
The monster, briefly distracted by the soldiers, didn’t even realize I was approaching.
Landing on one of its protruding horns, I clung tightly and began to stab downwards with a Great Sword infused with [Flame Cut].
Thud—!
[Penetration]
I didn’t forget to feed it a Fireball that had been condensed from the sky for a long time.
Boom—!
The Fireball synergized with the battle type of [Flame Armor], creating an enormous inferno that painted our space crimson.
“Kwuuuuuur!!”
‘Thank goodness it’s feeling pain.’
Feeling pain causes its muscles to contract significantly, restricting its movement.
Seeing it flail about to extinguish the flames showed it had a survival instinct.
It wasn’t a creature beyond reason filled with no blood or tears, so I felt a bit of fear dissipate.
Whoom! Whoom! Whoom! Whoom! Whoom!—
I wanted to leave as many Flame Marks as I could, so I focused solely on stabbing it.
Puff—
‘Huh?!’
I thought I was out of its blind spot behind the horn, so I presumed I wouldn’t easily get hit, but suddenly, long appendages like a snail’s antennae rose from its body, wrapping around my limbs in no time.
‘Ah! Seriously, what the hell is this monster?!’
Compared to this thing, ‘Teeth’ seemed like child’s play.
Eventually, I was caught by its claw, mercilessly crumpled.
Crisp—Snap—
– Grrrrrrrr!
It crushed me heedlessly, letting out a wicked grin.
Even though the flames I had ignited climbed up its hands and arms, it seemed unfazed, sending chills down my spine.
Health: 11/349
‘Are you seriously laughing?! Take this!’
However, the stacked Flame Marks exceeded five.
[Flame Explosion]
With the explosion, black flames erupted from its body, shooting up into the sky.
‘Die! Die! Clear the quest all at once!’
The monster, struck by my ultimate finishing move, had its hand that gripped me turn to ash and scatter, and a massive portion of its body, nearly two-thirds, was blown away.
Especially the midpoint of its torso, where the flames began, was completely blasted away, giving anyone watching the impression of certain death.
‘Got it!’
Creeeek—
“Clap, clap?!”
But the body that had been obliterated began to slowly rise again after a brief pause, restoring to its original form.
‘Is there really such a crazy monster?!’
BANG—!
And that was the last memory of my challenge to the job change quest.
*
“Clap, clap!!”
‘Agh! Seriously!’
After lying down and regaining consciousness, I lost it.
While I could overlook the unwanted challenge, the regeneration ability?
‘I distinctly obliterated the core! Does it have a separate core like me?’
Or maybe it was a life form with a structure entirely different from what I imagined.
‘If there is no critical point like a core, I’ll have to wipe out its entire body with one attack or reduce its maximum health with a Flame Explosion to kill it.’
It’s much tougher than I thought.
First and foremost, the biggest issue is that hitting it with skills is hard due to its vastly superior physical capabilities.
I need to either strengthen my binding ability, expand the range of my Flame Explosion, or obtain [Provocation] to distract it.
‘Hmm… This is quite the headache.’
I staggered forward while getting lost in thought.
Suddenly a thought struck me, and I asked the system.
‘Hey! You proceed with the quest as you like! Shouldn’t there be some kind of reward?’
It felt like a reasonable request.
For reasons unknown, it was quite a tyrannical act for the system to arbitrarily seize my choice.
‘If I take down that Residue of Chaos or whatever, will I get a reward or something—’
Before I finished speaking, a message popped up, as if to say it understood me and wanted me to stop.
– By defeating the interdimensional ‘Residue of Chaos’ via channel, you will receive one reward and one positive effect.
‘Oh! Two things?!’
I had just asked casually, but it seemed rewards were already prepared.
– One reward is the trait [100] Recovery.
‘Hmm…? Does that mean you’ll recover my 94 lives?!’
– Currently, among the innate abilities of [Crimson Flame Blademaster] Il-wol, the possibility concerning death is minimal, allowing recovery of only one life.
‘Whaaat! Really?!’
I unknowingly hunched over and clenched my fist.
Though I still had 94 lives left, since they were used as fuel for the ability called [Blast of Madness], having more lives is always better.
– However, the maximum number of lives you can recover cannot exceed 100.
‘Hmm— Well, initially, the ability name was 100, so I get it. It’s all good!’
Then another curiosity arose.
‘So if I raised the possibility concerning death, would rewards increase to two or three?’
– The concept of possibility is variable, so I can’t be certain. However, the likelihood does increase significantly.
‘Oh, nice, nice. So, what’s the other reward then?’
– The interdimensional channel you opened is largely a world consumed by the Evil God. Lowering the Evil God’s dominance will boost your reputation.
‘…… Wait a minute. This feels a bit off.’
I paused, stroking my chin, then asked again.
‘So… lowering the Evil God’s dominance won’t that give away my presence to the Evil God?’
– There is a high possibility of that.
‘Then… that Evil God will come to dislike me?’
– …….
‘Hey! What’s good about that?! I might die from that mistake!’
I suddenly raised my voice in frustration, only to find another question arising.
‘But what would reducing the Evil God’s dominance in that world even do? It’s not like it relates to our world, right? By the way, I don’t want to involve myself with creatures from other dimensions at all. I’m overwhelmed as it is here.’
– The Evil God’s power originates from the dark emotions of beings containing mana. Lowering dominance means that power diminishes. It isn’t unrelated to your objectives.
‘?!’
I felt like I had been hit with a hammer in the head.
I see. It’s not unrelated to our world.
‘Then the places I visited are dimensions affected by the Blue-eyed or the Seven-headed Dragon.’
But after that, I couldn’t hear the system’s response.
Step— Step—
Even while trapped in thought, I didn’t forget to expand my senses to observe the surroundings.
As I wandered in a somewhat calmer state, I discovered something.
‘Huh? There you are.’
I quickly ran over and found the bodies of Joo Ye-seul and Nam Yong-seok lying there.
Blood pooled heavily on the ground a short distance away, likely from other monsters that had been there.
‘Whether a monster or a person, it seems all living creatures gather around here. There’s no need to gather them.’
With nothing to be done for now, I nodded and set off again.
‘Is the flow of time different here?’
It seemed the time spent challenging the quest didn’t reflect in reality.
With the resurrect time for this job change reduced to three hours, I had nearly two hours remaining until my resurrection.
I gradually recovered my mental state and started searching by zipping around with Lightning Step.
Not long after, I stumbled upon something else.
‘This is a bit unexpected. Why is there a tree here…’
A tiny tree, barely knee-height, stood by itself.
Unfortunately, the sparse leaves indicated the tree wasn’t in good condition.
‘What is this, seriously.’
I cautiously approached and reached out to the tree.
Then, at that moment.
(…… Hello?)
“Da-da-da-da-dak!!”
‘Whoa, that startled me!’
Suddenly, the tree greeted me.
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