Chapter 71

“Huh? My body?”

“It feels lighter.”

Then, having apparently seen Jaeha cast magic, one of the porters asked him.

“Did you cast magic on us?”

“Well, I’m a non-combatant anyway. And you all have been working hard.”

“Oh, thank you so much.”

Jaeha smiled and began walking forward alongside the porters. The porters moved quite far behind the front group. When he asked why, he learned that most of the porters were Lowest Rank hunters, so they stayed far back to avoid getting caught up in combat.

Of course, Jaeha could check everything happening up front from where the porters were, using his skills.

“So you don’t go into the Wave Room together?”

“No, we wait outside. Same for the Boss Room.”

“I see.”

They continued moving while he chatted about this and that, and before long, they came to a stop. Sensing that a battle had broken out up ahead, Jaeha immediately used his skill to observe the fight.

Up ahead, they were fighting about twenty to thirty fairies. The battle took longer than expected.

“It takes ten whole minutes just to deal with twenty of them?”

“That’s actually on the faster side.”

“……Is that so?”

“Yes. Normally it takes around thirty minutes. They’re using Enchanted Arrows without holding back, so that’s probably why it’s easier.”

Jaeha scratched his head at that.

‘Their level is much lower than I thought.’

To be precise, it was Jaeha’s level that was abnormally high, but still.

‘Either way, she seems to be trying to do things safely.’

Jaeha nodded as he watched Juinhwa at the very front, continuously giving orders to the others.

‘I suppose if lots of people died, that wouldn’t be much of a success.’

Jaeha thought that as he scanned the hunters up ahead. Not long after, the group began moving forward again.

Chapter 17

“Whoa. They’re getting hit by just that? Are they really S-Rank?”

Jaeha watched the battle of the people up ahead closely from a distance. The people weren’t nearly as strong as he’d expected. More precisely, their situational awareness seemed poor.

‘The power is there. But their judgment is bad.’

The fairies flew through the air, launching attacks similar to magic. They weren’t exactly magic—they gathered energy and fired it—but the attacks were on the faster side.

On top of that, the fairies would sometimes fly high into the sky to attack, so no matter how you looked at it, they couldn’t land their hits properly.

But from Jaeha’s perspective, they lacked judgment. When an attack came flying, all they had to do was dodge, and while dodging, use their skills to strike the fairies. The fairies’ attacks didn’t curve, so it wasn’t that difficult.

“If they fight like that, how are they going to survive the Wave Room later? Actually, will they even survive it at all?”

In the Wave Room, several hundred fairies would come out. And it was obvious that those several hundred fairies would each attack the party members—he doubted they could even dodge that.

“Well, they’ll figure it out. If it gets really bad, I’ll help.”

With that relaxed thought, Jaeha continued following the group.

About ten hours after entering the dungeon, the group finally reached the Wave Room.

“What’s so hard about a dungeon like this that it takes ten hours?”

As he said that, Jaeha looked at the battle up ahead. Seungho seemed to be thinking along the same lines.

“Not everyone is as amazing as you, Jaeha.”

“Still, if they’re S-Rank Hunters, called the pinnacle of hunters, they should be able to lead at least a little. They’re way too bad at this. I heard they’ve been S-Rank for nearly ten years, yet they’re worse than Seungho and Hajin, who’ve only been S-Rank for about a month.”

“Haha, if you said that to their faces, they’d get angry.”

“Let them. That’s just the excuse of the powerless.”

Jaeha said that and turned his gaze away. Over the past ten hours, he’d thought about turning back several times. But the reason he stayed was that going home would be too boring and dull.

In any case, the most dangerous parts were the Wave Room and the Boss Room. So he endured. And in the process, he’d gotten somewhat close with the porters and heard all sorts of stories.

So he was able to get a rough sense of how ordinary Hunters lived. And also how top-tier Hunters lived. Jaeha had cut himself off from TV for quite a while, so he didn’t know, but apparently A-Rank and above Hunters appeared on TV programs fairly often.

“Well, anyway, this seems like the last one.”

“So it’s the Wave Room next?”

“Seems that way.”

As Jaeha said, the group moved again, and before long the Wave Room came into view.

“I’ll be heading off now.”

“Thank you for your help.”

“Not at all. Well then……”

Moving along, Jaeha arrived at the front line. Once there, he quietly stayed at the back, and when the group began entering the Wave Room, he went in with them.

“Hey, where’d you go?”

“I told you I’d be at the back.”

Seungho, who’d spotted Jaeha, asked that, and at Jaeha’s answer, he nodded.

“Right, you did. So what’s the plan this time?”

“Well, either I float in the air or just stand still in the center. Something like that.”

At Jaeha’s words, a few Hunters sneered at him. But Jaeha didn’t really care what they said.

‘After all, the weak always find excuses.’

Then, once the group entered the Wave Room, they sorted out various supplies, distributed them, and moved toward the center.

“What was that stuff you handed out earlier?”

“Ah, this?”

“Yeah.”

“Potions and emergency rations and stuff. In case someone’s blood sugar drops mid-fight.”

“Who fights until their blood sugar drops?”

“Don’t judge the whole world by your own standards.”

“Hmph. I’ll try.”

Saying that, Jaeha stood at the exact center. Once he was positioned in the middle, people began surrounding him from all sides.

Someone without knowledge of this sort of thing might say they were forming a formation to protect Jaeha, but it wasn’t that they were trying to protect him—they were just forming the formation best suited for the Wave Room.

In the Wave Room, monsters were summoned from the walls and advanced toward the center. From all 360 degrees, no less. That was why this kind of formation was standard. And then the battle began, and Jaeha stood still, watching the fight.

A battle that looked terrible from a distance wasn’t going to look any better up close. If anything, the problems were even more visible. Jaeha stood quietly, surveying his surroundings. And he thought to himself.

‘A spot’s probably going to collapse soon.’

The number of fairies summoned around them had already started exceeding 200 to 300. And since more were coming out than were being taken down, the numbers kept growing.

“We should clear them out before they multiply further.”

“My thoughts exactly!”

Whether he’d heard Jaeha or not, Seungho cast magic at the fairies in front. Jaeha shook his head and spoke.

“Song Hana, Kim Sena. Haven’t you been practicing properly?”

“Ugh, don’t talk to us.”

“We said we’d work hard……”

And so they dodged the attacks pouring in from the front.

“Tsk, tsk. Can’t even spare the breath to chat while dodging attacks like those.”

Of course, in Song Hana’s case, she was a healer, so that was understandable. But Jaeha hadn’t raised them to be that weak.

“Right side.”

At that, Hana, the moment she registered Jaeha’s words, immediately twisted her body to the left. Just then, a fairy’s attack passed right in front of her eyes.

“Oppa. Thanks.”

“Focus.”

“Damn. Who does he think he is.”

At Jaeha’s words, the other Hunters each muttered something under their breath, but Jaeha truly let it go in one ear and out the other.

And before long, the Hunters began getting pushed back, and in less than 30 minutes of that, they’d been driven all the way to right in front of Jaeha.

Of course, even in the midst of that, Seungho and Hajin were taking down fairies at a fairly rapid pace, but there was a limit to their speed.

That was when Juinhwa spoke to Jaeha, who was glancing around.

“Help us.”

“If I help, Chairman Ju probably won’t provide support.”

“We need to survive right now to have a future at all. And we can always try again next time.”

At her words, Jaeha nodded. Then he spoke.

“Seungho, Hajin-hyung! Come here.”

The moment Jaeha spoke, the two returned at a rapid pace. Jaeha slowly surveyed his surroundings while deploying a shield spell. Then he muttered.

“Looks like the summoning’s done.”

And immediately began casting. As soon as the casting finished, he used the magic.

“Tempest.”

The magic Jaeha used was an 8th-circle wind-type spell. If it were purely about lethality, fire-type or lightning-type magic would be considered the best, but using those would damage most of the byproducts, so he deliberately used wind-type magic instead.

‘If I use fire-type magic, the wings and antennae will all burn up.’

That was why Jaeha had used wind-type magic. Once the gales that had been recklessly churning the area subsided, there weren’t many fairies left alive.

“You can handle the rest yourselves, right?”

At that, they nodded. Jaeha, watching them, turned to Juinhwa and spoke.

“Give up on the boss.”

“We will.”

“I’ll be on my way then.”

With the work done, Jaeha left the dungeon with those words.

* * *

Coming out of the dungeon, Jaeha looked at the sky, which was beginning to brighten considerably. After checking the time, he headed straight home.

Upon arriving home, Jaeha went straight down to the sparring ground. Then he spoke to Gersia, who was up ahead.

“Are you done?”

“Almost.”

“Good timing, then.”

Saying that, Jaeha approached him. After waiting for a while, he eventually began working on the calculations together with him to speed things up.

It was only after about six hours that Jaeha and Gersia were able to complete the calculations.

“You said you were almost done?”

“Six hours is practically instantaneous, I’d say.”

“…….”

At that, Jaeha once again felt the reality of how dragons perceive time.

“Anyway.”

“Explain it to me.”

With that reply, he began his explanation. It went on for quite a while. By the time his explanation ended, Jaeha nodded.

“So in the end, the seven spells are each dimensional coordinates.”

“Correct. The summoning magic you use can be said to be connected to seven dimensions in total.”

“Then it’s done. Since we know the coordinates.”

“Indeed. Now all that’s left is to confirm which of the seven coordinates is Fantasia.”

“That’s not hard.”

“Of course.”

Finishing the conversation, Jaeha looked at him and spoke.

“Then organize it and get ready right away.”

“Understood.”

With that, Jaeha rose from his seat. Meanwhile, Gersia began gathering the papers scattered all around and burning them.

“Those are some pretty important pieces of information. Why burn them?”

“Now that you and I both know them, there’s no need to leave behind anything documented. If someone in your world were to get their hands on these and invade our dimension or any other, that wouldn’t do.”

“……Well, fine. Do as you like.”

With that, Jaeha left the sparring ground.