Chapter 23 – Solo Raid (４)

The instant he dodged their attack, the creatures were visibly flustered.

They looked as though the thought that something like this could happen had never even crossed their minds.

Of course it hadn’t.

Just a moment ago, the chieftains had felt it instinctively.

—That human punk’s terrified!

Through the minute tensing of his muscles, the sharpening of his breath, the flicker of his pupils — all of it.

That instinct couldn’t be wrong.

They were hunters, after all. Predators.

But in a single instant, the air shifted.

And worse — he’d perfectly dodged their attack.

Their shock was only natural.

But that didn’t mean the fight was over.

If anything, the chieftains were furious now.

And so their assault only grew fiercer.

They seemed sworn to tear apart the human who’d toyed with them.

Grrrr!

Kyaaaah!

With an even more ferocious roar, the chieftains moved.

They began pressing Gijun tighter than before, as if swearing never to let their guard down again.

Truly troublesome.

But Gijun had no intention of being an easy mark either.

‘First, I need to learn their patterns.’

Dodging and blocking their attacks, he worked to memorize their movements.

Quicker than ordinary Ralphs. Faster than the targets in the training yard.

And their coordinated strikes, switching directions from left, right, front, and back without warning, were so varied that even Gijun felt his wits scatter.

‘It’s okay.’

But Gijun didn’t give up.

‘I can do this.’

Even so, he never once entertained the thought of losing.

If anything, he was growing used to their movements, bit by bit.

Of course, Gijun wasn’t just dodging.

Boom! Kaboom-boom!

The instant a gap appeared, his Fireball slammed into them.

Kyaaah!

Grrrrrr!

Gijun’s Fireball was sharp.

It never let the tiniest opening slip by.

Before he knew it, their bodies were blackened with soot, their breaths growing ragged.

Now they couldn’t just charge at Gijun recklessly.

Gijun also put some distance between himself and them.

He needed time to catch his breath.

Steadying his breathing, he checked the time.

Already past the three-hour mark.

Seeing that, the corner of Gijun’s mouth curled up.

‘The second Achievement… I can definitely make it.’

Certainty swelled within him.

The record belonged to none other than Woo Jimin, the Guild Master of Hwarang.

To be precise: 3 hours, 30 minutes, and 25 seconds.

He could suddenly feel just how remarkable a person Woo Jimin was.

‘The dungeon she cleared was no pushover either.’

The solo Raid dungeon she had cleared was just as difficult as Ralph’s Plains.

‘What kind of person is she, really?’

Gijun had only come this far thanks to an absurd stroke of fortune, but Woo Jimin hadn’t.

She’d set that impossible record on talent and skill alone…

At that moment, Gijun decided to get greedy.

‘Then I’ll just have to break it even faster.’

If he could achieve the same record even with such abilities, he felt he wouldn’t be able to acknowledge himself.

Isn’t that the most coldly objective assessment?

He felt he could only accept himself if he cut the record by at least ten minutes.

Ten minutes is no small amount of time.

In reality, at the highest tiers of competition, rankings shift by units of ten seconds—hell, even one or two seconds can change everything.

Shaving off ten whole minutes from that might just be an Achievement that would never be overturned in a lifetime.

‘There’ll probably be chaos.’

There really would be chaos.

Even a record in the 3-hour-30-minute range would be enough to shake the world.

But a record ten minutes ahead of that… well, no need to spell it out.

So how could he not feel greedy?

He wanted to go beyond an Achievement—to set a record that was, literally, historical.

That was what it meant to leave his name on this world.

And yet—it felt possible.

This wasn’t baseless confidence.

If he could just dodge their movements perfectly, like he had a moment ago.

The clear time would have no choice but to plummet.

‘Normally, I’d have taken the strategy of attacking once, creating distance, then attacking again.’

The best approach a standard mage could take.

A strategy of exploiting the advantage of long range by keeping his distance.

But now—there was no need for that.

Even if he plunged right into the middle of them, he could still evade every attack flawlessly.

The moment that thought crystallized, a smile tugged at his lips.

His heart began to pound violently.

It felt like the euphoria of victory was already coiling through his entire body.

‘Let’s do this.’

A weapon had been placed in his hands—one that could end this fight for sure.

And not just that—it was also a weapon that could reliably secure a second Achievement.

Kuaaaah!

Then the Chieftains came surging in again.

‘Come on.’

Gijun smiled.

This time, he didn’t dodge the attack.

Instead, he began casting a spell.

Those massive bodies charged toward Gijun at tremendous speed.

Menacing.

If those giant claws struck him, Gijun’s body would be torn apart on the spot.

Of course—that wasn’t going to happen.

By now, he had their every move memorized.

And if that was the case, there was no reason he couldn’t dodge.

Chwaaak!

Once again, he nimbly sidestepped their attacks.

The Chieftains’ claws sliced through empty air.

Gijun moved even more boldly now.

To shave off more time.

It was clearly insane.

A mage, diving right into the thick of a Monster horde.

But Gijun felt not even a flicker of danger.

If anything, he was exhilarated.

Hwareuk!

Right in their midst, he unleashed his magic without hesitation.

Kwakwakwakwakwang!

The moment the Fireball exploded against their bodies, a Strong Wind wrapped around them, magnifying the blaze.

The flames, of course, never reached Gijun.

Because Gijun was controlling them that way.

Even tangled together in the melee, only the Chieftains took damage.

KRAOOOOGH!

They roared.

Through the searing pain, they fought with desperate ferocity.

They even tried to strike at Gijun’s blind spots.

No use.

CLANG!

By then, the wind barrier wrapped around Gijun’s body had already turned their attacks aside.

‘You think I’d dig into this place without a plan?’

He dodged what his eyes could track and what he could sidestep.

His blind spots, he covered with the barrier.

That was Gijun’s strategy now.

Offense, defense, and evasion flowed together in a seamless rhythm, toying with the five Ralph Chieftains.

A dazzling, high-speed battle no one would ever mistake for a mage’s duel.

But this wasn’t the end.

It was only the beginning.

The start of a hell-chain they could never break free from once they were caught in it.

Then the gusting Strong Wind fed the flames, igniting explosive new fury.

BOOM! BA-BA-BA-BAM!

‘…’

For a moment, a thought flashed through Gijun’s mind.

‘I can do this.’

Today, he would shatter Woo Jimin’s record and carve new history.

*

Outside, Hwarang’s Superhumans still lingered.

Most of them had gone back, sure.

They had their own work, and honestly, not many held high hopes for Gijun.

But their heads were already throbbing.

‘How the hell do we clean this up this time?’

‘The hyenas have already caught the scent. They’ll be swarming in any minute.’

‘What is the Guild Master even thinking?’

No way reporters hadn’t caught wind of a solo Raid happening in a guild as big as Hwarang.

And those who’d sniffed out that this wasn’t just some ordinary Superhuman were already descending like a swarm of bees.

Reporters were already burning through every connection they had, begging for even a scrap of intel.

“It’s already a circus out there.”

“My phone’s about to catch fire, too.”

WOOOOOSH!

Same for Woo Jimin.

‘…Hmph.’

Of course, she wasn’t answering a single call.

And it wasn’t just her.

Every Guild Member knew they weren’t to leak a single piece of information.

Especially this time.

‘We haven’t fully verified anything yet.’

One wrong move and the guild’s reputation could take a nosedive.

And just a little while ago, Ure had dropped a bombshell about one of their Superhumans.

A prodigy who’d mastered a 5-star Aura at just twenty-four.

At that rate, he was expected to hit a solid 7-star before he turned thirty.

You think Woo Jimin wasn’t bitter about that?

She’d thrown everything she had into recruiting that very Superhuman the moment he graduated from the Academy—but in the end, he’d chosen Ure.

He’d chosen the best.

‘That’s just how it is.’

She knew.

Hwarang fell short of Ure.

She wanted to tell herself ‘at least for now,’ but reality was reality.

So she had to be extra careful.

If she couldn’t even land a promising recruit, the last thing she needed was her guild getting a reputation for pulling stunts like gambling.

‘So please, Mr. Gijun. Please blow it out of the water. I’m begging you like this.’

Woo Jimin repeated that prayer in her head.

All she could do was hope that a man named Baek Gijun would show her something extraordinary.

Her reason screamed that it was impossible, but the world clearly held things that transcended logic.

People usually called that a miracle, didn’t they?

Yes, a miracle.

Woo Jimin believed in that miracle.

‘Three hours and twenty-one minutes now…’

Currently, Gijun had been inside for three hours and twenty-one minutes.

‘Please, just make it within four hours…’

But then.

“Huh?”

“What the—?”

Over there, the Superhumans began to stir.

‘Huh?’

Woo Jimin shifted her gaze too.

The Gate’s Portal had changed color.

From blue to white.

There was only one meaning.

The Dungeon had been cleared.

“Uh…?”

“What?”

As everyone buzzed with confusion, a man emerged from the Portal.

Woo Jimin checked the time again as if spellbound.

3 hours, 21 minutes, and 03 seconds.

‘…What am I even looking at?’

Woo Jimin couldn’t believe her own eyes.

“Is my watch broken?”

She blinked several times and checked her watch again.

“I don’t think so. Mine says the same thing.”

Beside her, the Vice Guild Master chimed in.

“Then why is he already out?”

“That’s what’s confusing me too.”

Woo Jimin couldn’t make sense of the situation at all.

No—she understood it, but her mind refused to accept it. That was the more accurate way to put it.

“…Really?”

Woo Jimin murmured.

“Really… is this for real?”

She couldn’t believe it.

But it was real.

The Dungeon Raid was genuinely over.

Then a shout came from the other side.

“Clean-up squad! M-move it!”

“Is that… is it really over?”

“The Portal’s white, isn’t it?”

“No, but… Hah, holy shit…”

Only then did the dazed Dungeon clean-up squad snap into action.

They were specialists who gathered byproducts from inside the Dungeon and analyzed the combat situation before the Gate closed.

Even they, who had been in and out of countless Dungeons, found the scene so shocking they could barely process it.

Then…

“Kyaaaaaah!”

Someone screamed.

It was Woo Jimin.

Her legs had already given out, and she thudded onto the ground.

In this overwhelmingly shocking moment, she had no room left to care about pride.

*

“……”

The moment he stepped out of the Dungeon, Gijun checked the time.

He was one minute later than he’d sworn he’d be.

He wasn’t the least bit disappointed.

If anything, the insane surge of elation made it hard to even breathe.

He wasn’t the only one stunned—Gijun himself was just as shocked.

‘…I…’

He’d set an absurd record.

He had pulled off a miracle, shaving a full nine minutes off Woo Jimin’s record.

It had only been a few days since he’d hunted a boss monster in a proper raid.

Yet now Gijun had soloed a boss monster in a Level-2 Dungeon and shattered the world record.

‘What happens to me now?’

Countless thoughts crashed through Gijun’s mind like waves he couldn’t stop.

He’d felt it building, but this moment—this moment made it certain: his life had just hit a complete turning point.

What he’d only dared to imagine before.

The chance to choose any guild he wanted.

And beyond that, the opportunity to rise as one of the world’s top Superhumans—now sitting right in his hands!

But that wasn’t all.

‘My God.’

Gijun stared at the messages flickering before his eyes and clenched his fist tight.

[Achievement Unlocked.]

[Achievement Reward Acquired.]

[Duplicate]

– Grade: Legendary

– Duplicates one skill you have used.

– MP Cost: 0

The reward for completing his second Achievement was a Legendary-Grade skill.

Its name was Duplicate.

‘Triple Casting is possible now.’

Literally.

The moment he got this skill, Gijun unlocked not Double Casting, but Triple Casting.

It meant he could fire three Fireballs at once.

Just breaking the record had sent tremors through him so intense he could barely compose himself.

And now he’d ascended to a Triple Caster—something unprecedented in human history.

It was absolutely insane.

No matter what achievements anyone earned in the real world, changes like this just didn’t happen.

‘At this point… even calling it a miracle doesn’t feel like enough.’