Chapter 17: D-Rank Hunter, Yoschua Verdi

A hole that looked like a black hole, bleeding a deeper violet than the ones I’d seen before.

‘So this is a C-Rank Gate.’

The C-Rank Gate I hadn’t seen in a while was the biggest among the Gates I’d seen since my body changed.

The higher the rank of a Gate, the deeper its color and the larger its scale.

The biggest Gate I’d ever seen was probably bigger than the largest tower in the country, right?

Compared to that, this was small enough to be called a mouse hole, but since I’d taken a break from hunting for a while, it felt a bit unfamiliar.

“Whoa…”

On the other hand, Deneb next to me couldn’t close his mouth, probably because it was his first time seeing a Gate of this scale.

“All Hunters seeing a C-Rank Gate for the first time react like that.”

Mariano, who was walking ahead, said to me and Deneb.

From the way he stood at the center and brought us two along, it seemed Mariano was the leader of this party.

“But, you know, miss, you don’t seem all that surprised?”

“…”

I answered with a nod.

You idiots are the ones getting scared by this tiny-ass size.

I wanted to say that, but I couldn’t.

“Guess you’ve got guts. Hey! Everyone, let’s move!”

At Mariano’s gesture, the other party members followed behind, and we stood at the very back.

Then, the moment I stepped into the Gate.

‘Ugh…’

I felt my body float, and at the same time, pain washed over me.

It wasn’t severe, just a slightly unpleasant feeling.

I closed my eyes for a moment to endure the brief discomfort, and when I opened them, a new landscape unfolded.

Splash—

As I stepped onto the ground, a sound came out, so I looked down and saw a puddle of water.

“An underground aqueduct.”

The biggest man in the party said.

A dark passage with almost no light, puddles of standing water.

And finally, a musty smell.

As he said, this place was an underground aqueduct.

“Someone light us up?”

“Yes! O benevolent God of Light, illuminate the path we shall tread!”

At Mariano’s words, I was about to move my hand, but Deneb shouted first and chanted a spell.

Zing—

Light burst from the staff gripped in Deneb’s hand.

The light pushed back the darkness and lit the way we needed to go.

‘Ohh.’

That was the first time I saw Deneb use magic directly. Divine magic.

That kid used to not even know how to use magic, but I guess being an Awakened One like his brother does that.

“Sorry, but can you take the lead?”

“Yes.”

At Mariano’s words, Deneb answered and quickly stepped forward.

Hmm, at this rate, even if I wanted to protect him, I wouldn’t be able to.

‘Well, it’ll be fine.’

Besides me and Deneb, there were a few D-Rank Hunters in the party, and surprisingly, they didn’t seem flustered, as if they were used to this situation.

It seemed like all of Mariano’s party members had experience with C-Rank Gates.

Reliable. Even if I don’t step in, they’ll probably protect Deneb.

With Deneb leading the way, we carefully advanced through the underground aqueduct.

When about five minutes had passed.

Splash—

The sound of stepping in a puddle was heard.

“Halt…!”

Mariano raised his hand and shouted lowly at the same time.

Everyone’s movements stopped in an instant.

Splash!

The sound of stepping in a puddle continued.

It wasn’t us. There was another group besides us.

Their identity was—

“Demon Beasts…”

One of the party members muttered in a low voice.

Soon, what emerged from the darkness was a bipedal lizard human!

“Lizardmen!”

Lizardmen appeared in a group before us.

“Kee-ruk!”

They let out a strange roar as they appeared, armed with swords, shields, and bows.

“Everyone, prepare for battle!”

Mariano, the leader, shouted first. We each drew our weapons.

“Ugh…!”

Deneb, who was at the very front, also pointed his staff at the Lizardmen.

But the hand he bravely extended was trembling very badly.

‘That kid’s totally scared shitless.’

Well, still, he’s got people beside him to protect him, so it’ll be fine.

I pointed my Artifact at the Lizardman in front of me.

[ C-Rank Demon Beast, Lizardman Warrior ]

Nothing particularly special about this Demon Beast.

Doesn’t seem like there’s much to worry about.

I was just about to reach out my hand to summon a Mana Sword.

“You two, stay back. We’ll handle it.”

Mariano said that, then held out his hand to stop me and Deneb.

At Mariano’s words, I nodded. He hadn’t counted us as part of the fighting force from the start anyway.

At this point, I’m not sure why he even brought us along, but since he’s offering, maybe I’ll just enjoy the favor for once.

CLANG!

I stepped back and watched the fight between the mixed C-Rank and D-Rank party and the Lizardmen.

This party’s hunting method was extremely standard. Put the tank up front, clean up with magic and arrows from behind.

The Lizardmen’s intelligence was much better than goblins or kobolds, but Mariano’s party, probably having worked together for a long time, used their tight coordination to take down the Demon Beasts without much trouble.

Watching the party members hunt the Demon Beasts, I could understand why the leader had said “we’ll handle it ourselves” when he invited me to the party.

There was a sense of experience in them. They knew how to hunt Demon Beasts.

‘Their teamwork is incredible.’

Watching them hunt, I recalled the dead weight I’d partied with back when I was an E-Rank Hunter.

Guys who’d get pissy at the drop of a hat and openly show their selfishness.

Compared to them, this group was the ideal party itself.

We kept heading deeper into the underground aqueduct to find the Boss Room.

As we went further in, we kept running into groups of Lizardmen and were able to take them down without much trouble.

There wasn’t really anything for me and Deneb to do.

Deneb shone light from the front, and I just picked up the Magic Stones the Lizardmen dropped.

‘This is totally being a pack mule.’

I never once thought I’d end up as a pack mule, though. Guess there’s a first time for everything.

‘It’s a bit boring doing nothing, though.’

Just watching and picking up Magic Stones is making me antsy.

Still, they said the profit split would be even, so maybe I’ll just bear with it.

Besides, it’s no fun having to hold back my strength against a bunch of shitty Demon Beasts anyway.

‘Huaaah… Hm?’

Just as I was about to let out a yawn from the boredom.

I saw a pair of eyes moving stealthily in the darkness.

The eyes quickly darted out of the shadows. A Lizardman.

Its target wasn’t me, but the big man standing next to me.

The big man was looking the other way. He didn’t seem to know he was being targeted.

‘Where do you think you’re going.’

Of course, I wasn’t about to just watch a Lizardman assassination attempt happen.

[ Mana Sword Lv.3 Set ]

I immediately created a Mana Sword and threw it at the Lizardman.

Thunk!

The Mana Sword pierced straight through the Demon Beast’s heart. With a thud, the Lizardman that had been running along the wall fell weakly to the ground.

“Wha, what?”

Startled by the sound, the big man stared at me with a flustered expression, so I pointed a finger at the Lizardman’s corpse.

A Lizardman in a black robe lay on the floor, a cold corpse.

“Wh-when did that happen?”

The big man looked back and forth between me and the Lizardman’s corpse with a bewildered face.

[ C-Rank Demon Beast, Lizardman Assassin ]

“You…”

Feeling a bit smug at the man who couldn’t close his mouth, I answered by slightly raising the corner of my lips.

As if nothing had happened, I calmly walked up to the Lizardman’s corpse, dispelled the Mana Sword that had pierced it, and collected the Magic Stone.

All the while, that man still couldn’t take his eyes off me.

How should I put it, he looked more surprised by me than by the Lizardman Assassin that was about to ambush him.

I only killed one measly mob Demon Beast, is that really something to make such a fuss over?

‘No, I guess it makes sense.’

A D-Rank Hunter noticing the stealth of a C-Rank Demon Beast, a Lizardman Assassin, and instantly killing it with a thrown Mana Sword — I figured that was probably worth the reaction.

I should be careful not to stand out next time. Maybe I should act like I barely manage to block their attacks instead of killing them.

“Let’s go.”

“Huh? Oh, yeah.”

The other party members were moving ahead, but he showed no sign of budging, so I called out to him. Only then, as if coming to his senses, did the big man start following quickly.

Our party continued advancing through the underground aqueduct, subjugating the Lizardmen that appeared in that manner.

And finally, we found it.

“That’s…! I found it!”

The door to the Boss Room.

“The Boss Room door!”

Deneb, who had spotted it first, shouted in an excited voice.

‘He’s just thrilled at the thought of going home.’

Seeing Deneb grinning like a carefree child beside the Boss Room door almost made me laugh, but I wasn’t any different from him.

Once we took down the boss, this damn party hunt would be over.

The profits would be decent, sure, but I didn’t want to play pack mule again.

Hunting weak-ass Demon Beasts was boring enough, but I realized being a porter was even worse.

“Let’s regroup once before heading in.”

Mariano said to everyone. We took about five minutes to rest and re-equip, then formed up again when the time came.

“Alright, let’s go.”

The Boss Room door began to open slowly.

It was just as all the party members had entered.

*THUD!*

The Boss Room door slammed shut with a loud noise.

From now on, no one could leave the Boss Room until the boss was defeated.

The only way out was to wait for someone outside to open the locked door.

Well, that wasn’t going to happen.

“Heh heh heh…”

That was when I heard a sinister sneer from behind.

Did I mishear that? I turned my head.

‘What the hell?’

It wasn’t my imagination. Mariano was smirking at us with a nasty grin.

“They won’t be able to get here.”

“…?”

Just as I was puzzling over his words.

Mariano moved his hand as if giving a signal, and his party members surrounded me and Deneb.

At first, I wondered why they were suddenly acting like this, but I quickly understood their behavior.

‘These bastards are Bandits.’

The kind of scum who kill Hunters and steal their belongings and wealth.

Now I knew why that pig had been staring at me like that earlier.

The pig wasn’t surprised by the Lizardman Assassin — he was surprised by me killing the Lizardman Assassin.

He was scared that their target might be stronger than them.

Anyway, Bandits… been a while.

I’d run into them a few times before, but I hadn’t seen any since becoming a High-Rank Hunter.

I mean, once you’re a High-Rank Hunter, everyone knows each other through connections, and unless you cause some huge incident, you’re usually in a guild — how would they dare touch you?

Touching a guild-affiliated Hunter is practically making an enemy of the entire guild. And guild members have connections, don’t they?

So Bandits were something you didn’t see once your rank got high enough.

‘Never thought I’d see them here.’

The moment I party up with C-Rank Hunters — the last line before Low-Rank — this happens.

“H-Hey, what are you doing? The boss is over there…”

Deneb asked Mariano’s gang surrounding him in a frightened voice.

Unlike me, who had already figured out what they were, Deneb still seemed unable to grasp the situation.

“Hah, why the hell would we take down the boss with you?”

Unsurprisingly, the answer was ice-cold.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

Even after hearing Mariano’s reply, Deneb asked back stupidly.

Was that idiot still not getting it?

No, maybe he just didn’t want to.

From Deneb’s perspective, knowing nothing, this situation must have looked utterly hopeless.

“Think about it logically. What kind of moron would risk his life to promise equal rewards to someone weaker than him, you dimwit!”

“Puhahaha!”

“What naive little brats!”

Starting with Mariano shouting in a voice brimming with ecstasy, as if he’d been holding it in, his party members began mocking us.

Their weapons were no longer aimed at Demon Beasts.

But at fellow humans.

Their target had been us from the very beginning.