I had an urge to use my skills right away, but I guess I had to hold back until we entered the dungeon.
I sat cross-legged on the floor, closing my eyes tightly to calm my excitement.
Whenever I close my eyes, I tend to focus on Yeon-hee.
Yeon-hee, snuggled up with a pillow, had fallen into a deep sleep.
I’ve gained good skills and abilities, but the more I acquired, the more other worries came to light.
Yeon-hee’s abilities were definitely higher than her former self from her past life.
But right now, it felt like Yeon-hee lacked the ability to change situations on her own.
Even when crises came, I just solved them myself, making her mental growth seem slow.
It would be better for her growth if she played the lead role without me… I often thought about this, but aside from raising her senses, I had no clear strategy.
And I wondered if thinking from the perspective of being a summoned creature was even right.
After all, I’m a summoned creature here to assist Yeon-hee, so why was I trying to stray from that?
Still, I had to keep pondering whether there was a better path.
‘Yeon-hee’s leveled up a lot, but the gaps with the other party members are bigger because of me… If I let Yeon-hee explore the dungeon with the others while I train somewhere else, that would be good.’
Efficiency would make that the best option, but leaving Yeon-hee behind in this unstable world was always a burden.
‘I need to help her complete her assigned hidden quest quickly… and if the summoning book I get as a reward produces something stronger than the Sword Dragon, I might be able to find another way to grow.’
Of course, I had no solid plan for how to find that, but if worse comes to worst, I could train in the Dark Space.
Looking at Yeon-hee’s condition today, it seemed difficult for her to wake up and do something else, so I activated [Mimicry] to check for any bad guys within my sensory range.
– As the guide Yoon Han-gyeol, using [Mimicry]…
‘Hmm… The closest thing on the mini-map is about 30km away.’
My movement speed had increased significantly lately, so if I focused, I could get there in 30 minutes.
But it seemed I couldn’t do that today.
‘Could that woman from before, who was spying on us with her shadow ability, be on their side…?’
Just next door, a bug had attached itself to a villa, observing us intently.
A mysterious hunter, suspected to be a part of Ilseom Guild’s shadow organization.
‘The difference in caliber from that woman last time is significant. Guess she’s around the C-rank upper tier? So they intend to keep an eye on us with a force of that level… what a joke.’
I couldn’t help but wonder what they would gain from watching us, but who knows? They might be preparing to bring us immense harm.
Suppressing that woman and forcing her to vow seemed like the first thing that came to mind.
Given her characteristics as an information-gathering type of hunter, it shouldn’t be too hard to subdue her if I attacked first.
‘Still, immediately cutting her off feels a bit excessive… With a group like that, they must be prepared for any pledges.’
Even if she agreed to the vow, there was a risk that releasing her could lead to an investigation into the vow. Sooner or later, they’d find out that we caught on.
In many ways, I felt the weight of exhaustion hanging over me.
‘We’re really tired today… It would have been nice if we could just get through today without a hitch. Sigh…’
Crack – crack –
I continued my thoughts while flicking two sharply honed daggers between my fingers.
‘Having encountered a Great Beast and coming across such a clumsy thing… It’s just so light. The weight of the prestige is bafflingly light.’
It was rather irritating that I wasn’t in a position to care about such trivial matters.
In a world that was crumbling, what kind of pointless antics were they up to?
‘Connected to Joong-gil, I guess I don’t have to hold back too much.’
I shifted my hesitating thoughts.
In a situation where someone was spying on me, no hunter would just sit idle.
Swoosh –
I activated Stealth and launched myself outside.
In the shadows of the adjacent building, I distinctly sensed the figure of a woman laying flat like a frog, observing us.
I could feel she had her eyes closed.
Even after I transformed into human form, she showed no significant reaction.
It seemed she lacked the ability to peer inside the house.
‘Definitely clumsy. If she hasn’t been properly trained, it would be easy to proceed with things.’
I flew toward the mysterious woman at the fastest speed I could muster.
– All attributes except senses decreased by 40.
Thanks to Yeon-hee, the drop in attributes from activating [Mimicry] was reduced from 50 to 40.
Even so, losing 40 points in every attribute wasn’t pleasant.
‘Attributes decreased, so I’ll go all out.’
The watching woman’s body sparkled with light, signaling that she was aware something was approaching, but my fist was already rising into her abdomen.
“Khak─!”
The woman, clutching her belly, tried to activate some power, but the “Stagnated Sneaky Drain” caught her, pushing her into a status abnormality and preventing her from properly using her skill.
Besides, tied up with [Chain of Flame] and afflicted with paralysis, the woman,
Vomited a handful of blood in horrific pain and gazed at me, who revealed myself, with a look of horror.
“What are you looking at?”
“Ugh…?!”
Seeing my human face, the woman’s eyes widened in shock.
Who the heck is this guy? Isn’t Yeon-hee all alone?
That was the kind of expression she wore.
Her expression was quite colorful for someone caught up in this world.
‘She’s really ill-suited for this kind of thing. Isn’t a poker face basic?’
Thud – thud –
I landed a few more “Stagnation” and “Paralysis” hits, rendering the woman dazed, then slung her over my shoulder and moved to the church.
The atmosphere inside the ruined church still carried a chilling vibe.
Not long ago, we had left clear footprints of Lizardman 1 on the floor while Yeon-hee was integrating Lizard Squad here.
I released [Chain of Flame] the moment we approached the church, but still grabbed the woman’s hair, which was writhing in pain from the burning agony.
“Ugh!”
“The only way you can stay alive is to vow… make it.”
“… You think I’d do such a thing?!”
“Then you should die.”
“Ugh…”
Despite the bravado in her words, her heart was racing fiercely.
She had pale skin and a very petite build, she could almost be mistaken for an elementary school student at first glance.
But I was a gruesome skeleton, and I wouldn’t hold back against a frail woman.
Thud – thud –
“I don’t just kill people. I can slice away pieces of flesh and heal you… and induce pain for years.”
“……Ugh…”
“Or…”
I roughly tore apart her tight top.
“AAAAH!”
The woman revealed her considerably ample breasts for her frame and hurried to cover her exposed skin with pursed lips.
The quivering of her lips indicated that one more hit would surely make her burst into tears.
“Hmm, that’s a pretty decent reaction. You know… there are more ways to inflict pain than just what I mentioned earlier, right?”
I blurted out a line to scare her, and I suddenly realized I was smoothly talking.
‘Oh… this feels like growth or something.’
The feeling of being able to articulate my thoughts so fluently was exhilarating.
I paused my intimidation of her temporarily to relish the joy.
However, perhaps due to my shaking, her fear seemed to spike, and she started to sob softly.
“Hwaah…”
I gripped her hair again and locked eyes with her.
“···.”
“···.”
Seeing my emotionless gaze, she genuinely seemed to think I was about to commit an evil act, and her underwear began to soak through with urine.
I found her reaction more than I expected and was somewhat flustered.
‘… What’s with this situation?’
It was clear that they had hastily thrown in some nobody since no proper personnel were available.
I didn’t know whether it was Joong-gil’s sister or someone else, but it was evident how little they regarded us.
“You must have family or at least someone precious. If you don’t vow… you may never see them again. No, they’ll likely witness your broken form that can’t be restored.”
“Hwaah…”
“All you have to do is vow. Just answer a few of my queries with your eyes.”
“……”
She chewed on her lips, contemplating, and shortly thereafter, nodded slightly.
I retrieved the vow document from my space and wrote down a few clauses to hand over.
The portions about reporting our information should remain within boundaries of the ordinary levels.
Don’t disclose any information about me to anyone – after writing a few details in the vow document, she eagerly signed.
It seemed she was desperate to escape this intimidating situation.
‘Is she really a newbie or something?’
I barely contained a laugh from surfacing and then asked her several questions.
“If my question is correct, just blink once.”
“Okay…”
The woman seemed so drained.
Although she had shed quite a bit of blood from her mouth, I hadn’t hit her face, so I felt no guilt whatsoever.
“You are part of the hidden organization that Hyun Joong-seob is concealing. Am I right?”
She flinched!
The woman’s eyes went wide, unable to blink.
A conflict of vows.
‘Of course, you’d be too. They probably vowed not to speak of the organization.’
The deity of the vow had formidable power, but it wasn’t omnipotent.
I constrained her solely to the blinking of her eyes.
Current vows focused on just that, so it wasn’t capable of entirely limiting her heart or bodily movements.
If she were someone completely oblivious, there wouldn’t be much to extract through interrogation, but I was different.
From her reaction, I could tell she was linked to Hyun Joong-seob.
“Did Hyun Joong-seob give the orders directly?”
“……”
“No? Then who could it be? Hmmm… I’ve heard the rumors that the instructors from that guild aren’t in their right minds. Could it be those guys?”
“……”
“Oh, are they not either?”
In that case, only the second generation of the Hyun family was left for consideration.
Why would they?
“Hyun Il-hwan, Hyun Yi-hwan.”
“……”
“Not them, huh? Then how about Hyun Tae-seok, Hyun Jeong-seok, Hyun Woo-seok?”
A flinch.
“…… No way… it’s not Hyun Woo-seok, right?”
She trembled.
“Wait, for real? It’s Hyun Woo-seok? Why?”
I couldn’t help but elevate my tone in astonishment.
Hyun Woo-seok was a swordsman with talents rivaling Hyun Il-hwan, the highest output of Hyun Joong-gil.
Among the sons of Hyun Joong-seob, he was remembered as the one with decent qualities. Why would he be involved?
“Hmmm…”
I wracked my brains.
Even thinking about it again, the only thing we did to belittle Ilseom Guild was with Heo Min-sol.
“Heo Min-sol… Heo Min-sol…”
“……”
“Could it be Hyun Woo-seok is dating Heo Min-sol?”
At that, the woman completely averted her gaze, staring holes into the floor.
“Hah, how absurd… what would Hyun Woo-seok find appealing about someone like Heo Min-sol? Sure, her looks are okay, but a guy like him could definitely pick a better girlfriend.”
Having heard various stories from Baek Ah-rin about Heo Min-sol’s misdeeds, I couldn’t understand this.
“Anyway, thanks to you, I’ve solved my doubts. The dull story was that he held a grudge because Heo Min-sol lost her arms and went to prison.”
“Th-That’s not…!”
“Is that not it? Hmm… must be. But judging by the cautious surveillance, it seems the exact target hasn’t been decided yet, right?”
“……”
The woman watched, horrified, as I rapidly pieced together the puzzle in a short span of time.
From the moment I directly questioned her about the shadow organization of Hyun Joong-seob, it was clear the outcome had been determined.
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