Grumbling yet diligently working, I managed to recreate the 5 Skeleton Bombs I had used, just in time for Yeon-hee to tidy up the area.
Maybe it was due to my low skill level, but it took me a bit longer to craft each one.
“Fifty will be enough for any situation…”
First, I stuffed every goblin corpse I could see into my inventory, and we moved forward.
“It’s not as tough as I thought…”
Yeon-hee was quite tense since it was her first disaster response, but she seemed to be gradually relaxing.
Hmm…
I guess other hunters were thinking the same. Was that overconfidence what made the situation worse?
“I’ll find out when we get there.”
The path to the center was relatively pleasant, but bubbles rising from the bodies of the Lizardmen exposed to the toxic gas were a cause for concern.
Yeon-hee repeatedly summoned and dismissed the summoned creatures that were in bad shape, but she didn’t look particularly strained.
Gulp, gulp—
“Ugh— Use the antidote!”
Even while making a painful face, Yeon-hee was steadily downing her antidote.
And then there was the sound wave attack.
“Il-wol, these earplugs are great! The sound wave attack just sounds like a flute! But when did you prepare something like this?”
“Heh…”
Reflecting on Gu-chang-ro, I had secretly cut off a clump of Wang-wang’s fur and already fashioned it into earplugs. It was quite easy to make due to how soft it was like cotton.
People wouldn’t know that the earplugs made from Wang-wang’s fur were far superior to any other earplugs on sale.
“Isn’t it a privilege of the time traveler to know such little tips in advance?”
Not long after, we reached the center, and a large-scale battle was already taking place.
Now that they were completely within my sensory range, I was able to assess the size of both the enemy and our team accurately.
Swoosh!!
Kikiki—
Various weapons were cutting, tearing, and exploding monsters. Seeing the toxin concentration diminish, it seemed we had reduced the number of spore snails considerably.
The number of monsters was now less than 500, while there were still over 700 hunters, even as injured ones steadily retreated.
Considering it was a disaster alert in the middle of Seoul, the number might seem small, but for a localized area under a Level 1 alert, it was an impressive turnout.
Many hunters had already entered the dungeon or gone on expiditions to other areas.
“Is this the end?”
And from the gate located underground, no more monsters were coming up.
“Hmm…”
Of course, I was walking as slowly as I could.
“My instincts are still off…”
But the hunters pushing ahead in front of me exuded confidence even from behind. The C-ranks in particular were just giving orders without getting their hands dirty.
“That woman using the alias Helen? She’s here too. And is that Noh Ha-yoon from the Vision Guild? It’s been a while, haha…”
She was a woman I had briefly teamed up with in the goblin dungeon, and there were also Jin-kyeong, the woman with many words, and Hyeon-seok, the guy who had a lot to say. They were working hard despite their bickering.
And it was amusing to see the small version of Noh Ha-yoon, who would later become a named hunter.
On the other hand, there was also someone looking pathetic.
“Cough! Antidote!! I—I’ll go first!!”
Han Eul-min demanded an antidote from the hunter who had come to assist him as if it were something he owned.
His body was already covered in bubbles, yet ironically, the lower part of his face didn’t seem affected by the poison, and he kept babbling away.
But ignoring Han Eul-min’s demands, the man distributed masks and antidotes in order.
“Shit!! What are you doing?! Hurry up and give it to me!!”
“No, who do you think you are, suddenly speaking informally? Are you crazy?”
“Do you even know who I am?!”
“You could die covered in bugs, and no one would even know; let’s hear how great you really are. Go on, tell me, are you the president’s son or something?”
“Ugh… Ah, I understand, just give me the antidote!!”
“Get lost, idiot. Hey!! Just let that bastard suffer!!”
Han Eul-min was being stubborn and happened to catch the attention of a C-rank hunter, causing his turn to be delayed significantly.
I didn’t mean for him to be left to die, but I agreed that a guy like him should struggle a bit.
“Oh dear, that pathetic guy. He was bad even from his rookie days, tsk tsk. Guess he wasn’t one-armed back then?”
I had memories of dungeon crawling during my independent days.
Back then, he was still stuck at D-rank, missing one arm, and his character was equally low tier.
A lunatic with the absurd goal of finding an elixir to regenerate his arm.
In that moment, someone gave an antidote to Han Eul-min, who was banging his head into the ground and shaking with frustration.
“This is the antidote…”
It was our Yeon-hee.
“Ugh…”
Han Eul-min didn’t even say thank you and hurriedly gulped down the antidote. Then he asked Yeon-hee her name as she was about to leave.
“………”
Of course, Yeon-hee pretended she didn’t hear and kept on pouring the remaining antidote, spreading goodwill.
Han Eul-min shouted out to her several times, but she simply ignored him.
“You three lying down, remember that woman when we get outside. Got it?”
The three men lying nearby also glared at Han Eul-min, rolling their eyes.
“Not answering? You bastards! Do I need to tell my father about this?”
“Uh… understood…”
“Something must’ve happened.”
The looks they were giving him were quite fierce—seemed Han Eul-min had done something to his comrades.
I guessed that the mask he was wearing was either stolen from his team or he had pulled something selfish in a crisis.
The result was them lying down together.
“Use them as earplugs…”
Yeon-hee returned having distributed all the antidotes outside our share, looking very satisfied.
“Hehe…”
“I don’t get it…”
Helping others and feeling joy…
It was an emotion I had never felt in my life.
I had only lived to satisfy my own desires and had done quite well for myself. Then everything changed thanks to a woman who saved my life.
Now reborn, I feel joy while helping her.
As a skeleton.
She approached me with an expectant expression, and while I patted Yeon-hee’s head, I didn’t let my guard down.
And not long after, something unfamiliar that hadn’t been detected until then was sensed within the 20m radius of my sensory domain.
“Something… is there…”
A two-legged creature that had jumped up from underground was moving quickly, appearing hazy.
There was only one type that my senses detected hazily.
“Stealth-type…!”
Boom—
Something leapt out from the monster hidden in the toxic gas, swallowing whole the heads of isolated people.
Crunch—
Hunters who had lost their heads were falling one by one, but the lingering toxic gas was preventing other hunters from detecting it.
“Fast and strong.”
With equipment providing defense and a level elevated to far surpass the physical capabilities of an average human, it snatched up hunters’ heads in one go?
It was an insane monster.
A monster that needed at least 2-3 C-rank hunters to hold it off, even to scratch it a bit.
It was not something we could face right now.
I had no information about such a monster even in my past life.
Though we were still somewhat distant, considering the monster’s speed, we would make contact in an instant.
I gripped Yeon-hee’s hand tightly.
“Let’s run!!”
Having never held on like this before, my intent was surely understood.
Feeling my grip, she looked at me in shock as pain shot through her hand, and then her expression quickly darkened.
“Run?!”
“Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap!!!!”
I shook my head violently and banged my teeth together.
Only then did she turn to look around and realize that something was going wrong.
Several hunters, with heightened senses, were gradually moving away from the center.
But when I tried to embrace her, Yeon-hee shook her head vehemently and said,
“Il-wol, let’s fight!! If we don’t catch it here, we’ll let it escape outside!”
I didn’t need to hear the rest.
“Fighting is for opponents who can exchange blows at least, and Yeon-hee… this is a massacre!”
Before she could finish her sentence, Yeon-hee pulled out a black whistle from her inventory and blew it with all her strength.
Wheeeeeee—
The most dreaded signal among the hunters echoed throughout the area.
Signal four.
The meaning was clear.
“—If you don’t want to die, run away.”
Fortunately, Yeon-hee didn’t recklessly charge at the monster.
“Get out of here immediately—!!”
ㅡ!!!
The hunters didn’t ask why or for what reason they had to run.
The signal for the fourth whistle was promised only to be used in absolute crisis; if blown as a joke, one could end up rotting in jail for life.
If this sound was heard, one had to get away.
Hunters scattered in all directions.
And rather than just hunting isolated hunters, the mysterious monster began to devour fleeing individuals at will.
Kikikikiki—
Was it true that misfortunes come in clusters? Another new monster was now launching a sound wave attack.
– Ughhhhh!
– Run, run! You bastard!! Run!!
– Aaaah!! My arm!!
– That idiot got what he deserved.
There was chaos throughout the area, but since the hunters scattered, large-scale casualties were avoided.
Yet still trapped in the toxic gas were hundreds of Low-Rank Hunters, hindered in movement, and five C-rank hunters who couldn’t abandon them.
Those five hunters drew out their most powerful cards. Their weapons shimmered with powerful magic.
“Sword, spear, hammer, rapier, cards? The card player might be useful, but what a poorly balanced selection.”
Unfortunately, of the five remaining hunters, four were melee fighters. The lone card player also depended on physical attacks from afar, making it hard to exert significant power if he couldn’t target a specific monster.
“These five are doomed to C-rank. Damn it!”
Even with the altruistic intention to help others, from my perspective, they were laughable.
“What use is someone who can’t protect their own life?”
Yeon-hee was included in that category, yet strangely, I didn’t feel any resentment towards her.
“I’m the crazy one, huh…”
[Calm]
Calming down my excitement, I calculated coldly. The way to survive.
“…Alright. That method might keep us alive.”
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