“Finally, I can live like a person.”
For a while, I had been continuing Irmana’s quest by repeatedly summoning and releasing summoned creatures in this cramped house, and just feeling it was cluttered was a distraction to my training.
I nodded satisfactorily and massaged Yeon-hee’s head, which was resting on my leg.
“Ahh… that feels good… a little bit harder…”
Yeon-hee, who kept asking for a harder massage, had already fallen asleep before I knew it.
These days, she would lose consciousness as soon as her head touched something, and considering it was the period when her abilities as a hunter were rapidly growing, it felt a bit excessive.
‘At this point, it’s basically narcolepsy… then again, Noh Ha-yoon also just sleeps on her days off.’
I figured it might be some kind of backlash from her immense talent blooming. Perhaps that’s why the early awakened ones are still under so many restrictions?
Anyway, Yeon-hee’s condition seemed fantastic, so I wasn’t particularly worried.
‘By the way, is this design too blatant?’
I pondered while looking at the large thorn I had pulled off my body, which I had polished into a bone.
‘I hope this doesn’t accidentally hurt my information gathering…?’
It was a product made of bone for use in deals with Noh Ha-yoon to satisfy certain desires.
It felt a bit odd to make it look just like my human form, so I tried to create it in a different shape.
Yet, as I referred to the mental image in my head while crafting, it ended up looking quite similar anyway.
‘Well, it shouldn’t matter much, I guess. Hmm… should I give it some spikes on the outside too?’
I added a slight variation based on something I’d seen before.
‘If this one object fills all the information required for camouflage, that would be pretty funny.’
While I felt a sense of pride after finishing, I also felt a wave of self-loathing creeping in, wondering what I was doing.
As I rested my chin on my hand, lost in thought, Yeon-hee’s phone vibrated violently, snapping me out of it.
Bzzz—aah—
“Ugh?! Gah—!”
Yeon-hee jolted awake with a strange sound and her ears turned red, perhaps thinking she looked ridiculous.
“I, I must have dozed off…”
She mumbled a bit shyly as she sneaked a glance at me.
‘You really fell into a deep sleep there…’
“Hello? Ah! Joo-ah! Yes, yes. Ah— you heard about it? Yes, it was handled well. Hehe…”
The person who called Yeon-hee was Bae Joo-ah.
She must have contacted her because of what Song Jin-kyeong and Ji-woo went through.
Hearing Joo-ah’s voice made me start worrying about how to move forward with our plans.
The gap between us and them was widening more and more.
‘Noh Ha-yoon’s fine. I saw her growth in my previous life. The problem is the other three… what should I do?’
Bae Joo-ah was a bit ambiguous, but Baek Ah-rin and Ham Eun-young were hunters that we needed to keep moving along by any means necessary.
If you think about how one S-rank hunter could deal with a few orcs led by an Orc Legion Commander, it was worth a shot.
‘As long as Yeon-hee and my growth doesn’t hinder each other, I have to do my best for our comrades’ growth too.’
I couldn’t let my party members slack off and waste their talent that could potentially elevate them to S-rank.
Yeon-hee chatted with Bae Joo-ah for a good while, sharing information, and I leaned closer to catch every word of their conversation.
– I’m sorry! We haven’t been able to record it yet… We’re trash… sniff…
“No, it’s okay. It’s tough in that section.”
– Still. Yeon-hee, you’ve already leveled up…
“……”
Our party members had spent some time apart from us and were in a dungeon with the D-rank party from the Vision Guild that Noh Ha-yoon had connected us with.
Unfortunately, they hadn’t reached level 60 yet.
‘Well… if they had gotten it in three days, we wouldn’t have needed to go to Cha Jin-hyuk.’
“Um… it should be, it should be soon. Don’t worry!”
Yeon-hee appeared a bit flustered by Joo-ah’s heartfelt self-reproach, but I could understand how Joo-ah felt.
‘She must be anxious. With monsters like Yeon-hee and Ha-yoon around, she probably thinks she’s just a mediocre talent.’
But what could she do? It was a problem she had to overcome herself.
From what I saw, Bae Joo-ah didn’t lack talent in terms of ability, but she had an issue with being too cautious.
‘Like when she fought the orcs in the canyon, she needs to be pushed to her limits to truly unleash her strength…’
Thinking about it, being with us might not always benefit her. It might not be bad for her to be a bit apart.
‘This is tricky. We need to find a tougher area to delve into. I wonder if there are any rolling spots.’
After finishing her call with Joo-ah, Yeon-hee contacted Baek Ah-rin and Ham Eun-young to talk with them in rapid succession.
After about an hour of deliberation, we concluded that until our party members could level up on their own, we would form separate teams to tackle the dungeon.
We would either join another party or create a temporary party to enter a C-rank dungeon.
“I can do it! I’m a C-rank hunter now.”
Even in a situation where Yeon-hee had to team up with strangers, she didn’t show much sign of tension.
‘She’s gained confidence.’
After all, she had been recognized by Maeng Seong-yong, so there was no reason for her to fear hunters of the same rank.
“Let’s clear the C-rank section quicker than the D-rank!”
“Clap, Clap, Clap!”
Although that would indeed be tough. As you moved higher, leveling up became slower, and ultimately the repetitive hunting periods would extend.
Still, we had to make the last dungeon the one for repetitive hunting.
Before that, we didn’t have dungeons worth trying multiple times, so we might as well take turns plundering the monsters’ skills and just gather hidden artifacts.
‘While I’m at it, I should also look for dimensional channels. Now that I think about it, there’s a lot to do.’
“Okay, first of all. The lowest ranked dungeon is here. Frog Folk Village.”
“Clap, Clap, Clap!”
The first C-rank dungeon is ‘Frogfolk Village.’
It’s named for their habit of having webbed hands and a long sticky tongue to snag prey, but they actually don’t resemble frogs at all.
The huge eyes that take up half their faces resemble those of a dragonfly, giving an empty feeling, and long protruding fangs sit just below a degenerated nose, with very tiny teeth jutting out like thorns in between.
With this combination, even the ugly kobolds and goblins would take a backseat to their appearance.
Moreover, the lengths and numbers of their limbs are a jumbled mess, reminiscent of mutated insects contaminated by radiation.
‘I remember having quite a hard time in this dungeon.’
Faint memories began sparking in my mind.
Their main weapon, the tongue, can also be modified to become sharp like a dagger, easily piercing the prey’s torso, and once pierced, you have to be really careful, as you might end up losing your bodily fluids.
Furthermore, there’s a small duct in the center of their tongue through which they can fire poison darts, making it very annoying with its decent range.
Basically, they spend their lives in swamps, which means just touching them exposes you to paralysis and poison, making them particularly tricky.
‘They even have camouflage. Well, most monsters in that dungeon do, anyway.’
“This area’s terrain is a trap. The entire dungeon is a swamp, right? You have to walk on slabs floating above the swamp… that sounds exhausting.”
‘Exactly. And the monsters that take advantage of that are really irritating.’
Aside from Frogfolk, Boggle and Nixie Sirens appear, and particularly the Nixie Siren becomes a barrier for many C-rank hunters as they tire out heavily if their resistance isn’t above a certain level.
These monsters all aim to trap hunters in the swamp to overpower them.
Thus, effort is required to stay off the supports.
But in truth, Yeon-hee and I had no major worries about this.
‘As long as we can stay airborne.’
Yet, that would diminish the meaning of battling in the dungeon.
Yeon-hee knew this too, so she seemed to have no intention of relying on my help. She even said she would refrain from riding the Sword Dragon, so her will to grow was firm.
“Then shall we look for a party?”
Connecting to the hunter community after a long time, Yeon-hee quickly dived into the temporary party tab to check for any suitable teams.
Honestly, they all looked the same to me, but Yeon-hee was carefully reviewing the posts.
“Hmm… should I just create my own party? There aren’t any suitable teams.”
I thought a few of the teams were worth contacting, but it seemed she was still feeling uneasy about teams with a high percentage of male hunters.
‘Where did that brave demeanor go just a moment ago… people really don’t change easily.’
In the end, Yeon-hee wrote a party recruitment post, and within less than thirty minutes of posting it, we were inundated with responses.
Ding—Ding—Ding—
Yeon-hee’s phone rang non-stop, and we looked through the comments together.
“This one isn’t right, and this one isn’t either. Hmm… huh?”
Suddenly, she spotted an unexpected name.
‘Isn’t this guy from the Veil?’
It was a supporter with the username ‘Ahh of the Dark Veil,’ and I had a memory of one of the bulky members from the assassination group who was known as Cheong-a.
‘They’re not even hiding the fact they’re an assassination group. How peculiar.’
“Ah? This person. I looked through recent records, and it seems it’s the same group.”
Nod—
“Wow… I verified their skills last time, so I’m sure, but is it okay…? They wouldn’t just start a fight out of the blue, right?”
Even though Yeon-hee was worried, she was already checking his info tab.
‘I guess she feels it’s better than unknown unfamiliar guys? That’s an interesting judgment.’
After pondering for a moment, she clicked the accept button.
A short while later, she received a call from someone whose voice I recognized.
– It’s a little weird greeting you over the phone, right? You remember us?
“I remember. Is the reason you applied because you genuinely wanted a temporary party?”
I had definitely called Cheong-a, but the voice on the other end was that of a young boy named Heuk-a.
– That’s right. To be honest, we stumbled upon it without really thinking about it, so we were surprised too. Where did that bunny ear go? Looking for a temporary party, huh?
His sly inquiry about Baek Ah-rin’s whereabouts was rather endearing.
It wasn’t necessary to talk long with him.
It was just a matter of deciding whether to do it or not since our interests aligned.
‘This is great. They’re exceptional enough to keep pace with us while still having room for growth, and unlike their origins, they’re also keeping their etiquette intact.’
We finally agreed to enter the dungeon with them tomorrow and set the time until our party members level up.
“It feels like a long period for a temporary party, doesn’t it?”
Nod—
For them, this must feel like a huge opportunity.
They would likely strive to stay close and foster growth together.
The next day, we woke up faster than ever to begin the first day of exploring the C-rank dungeon.
In front of the gate to the ‘Frogfolk’ dungeon, we met our four-member team.
“…… Who are you? The guy next to you doesn’t make sense either. What on earth happened during this time?”
From the very first meeting, the short-statured Heuk-a shot out that question directly.
He was still rubbing his eyes while perched on Cheong-a’s shoulder, looking at Yeon-hee in disbelief.
“How could… in such a short time, you’ve gained that kind of power—”
His reaction didn’t stem from trying to put us on guard but was genuinely born out of pure curiosity.
And if he could, he would probably like to learn some tricks from her.
“I struggled a bit over the past few days…”
Yeon-hee simply stated that, and Heuk-a suddenly burst out with a loud clap, nodding as if he understood.
“You experienced overcoming death? We know quite a lot about that technique.”
“Uh… I guess you could say that.”
Heuk-a’s guess was somewhat accurate, and she accepted it without resistance.
‘…… They know about overcoming death… I wonder if they have a method for that? Should I casually ask later?’
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