Chapter 48

“Those would probably be the party members who abandoned Cho-i the hunter and ran away, right?”

“If they’re those kinds of guys, they’d do something like that. For now…”

Suui Kim scratched her head. Her black hair became messy and disheveled.

“I think we’ll have to teach her from scratch. Starting with trusting her party members.”

“It’s difficult.”

“It is difficult.”

Suui Kim and Namsu Kang exchanged words. They looked troubled at the back of Cho-i Hyeon, who was walking with light, skipping steps. The five of them walked for a long time. They encountered a total of fifteen monsters. They weren’t clustered together, but appeared in groups of three or four, so they weren’t a big threat. However, what was concerning was that they were too widely and thinly distributed in this area. The experienced Suui Kim looked around.

“It’s highly likely they’re stragglers from a large group. We need to be vigilant.”

“Understood.”

“More importantly, how big do you think the group is?”

When Namsu Kang asked, Suui Kim said with a serious expression,

“Quite.”

Cho-i gave a look that said, ‘Quite, but how much is that exactly?’ but she soon learned something. She learned that if Suui Kim expressed something as ‘quite,’ it should be taken as ‘fucking a lot’ from now on. As they passed the rocks and walked a few hundred meters, a large cave appeared. And they could see monsters crawling out of that cave in droves.

“Wow, holy shit, there are too many!”

Cho-i was astonished, looking at the monsters far away. It looked like a giant hornet’s nest. She glanced at the others. There must be something in there.

“I think it would be better to lure them out and hunt them.”

“It looks like we wouldn’t be able to fight for three days and nights.”

“I’ve never heard any information about so many monsters gathered together.”

“Really?”

Cho-i Hyeon reacted.

“If there were this many, they would have definitely told us beforehand.”

Suui Kim scratched her head as if something was strange. Cho-i thought, ‘There’s really something in there.’ Cho-i’s eyes sparkled, and she blinked them adorably. Then she grinned at Suui Kim. Seeing that face, Suui Kim immediately reached out, and Cho-i swiftly dodged it and started running forward.

“Hey!! Cho-i Hyeon!!”

“Let’s go!”

Cho-i Hyeon suddenly let out a shout. It was a fiercer and louder cry than usual. Suui Kim involuntarily covered her ears at the shriek. Many monsters looked at Cho-i Hyeon. Cho-i Hyeon grinned, her mouth splitting wide. Her instincts were telling her that there was definitely something in there, where the monsters were gathered. She lunged her sword at a monster that had approached within striking distance. *Splat!* The monster, cut in half instantly, gushed blood and fell to both sides, and Cho-i continued to cut down the next monster and the one after that, heading deeper inside. She intended to go into the center of the monsters. The Entity that Suui Kim had told her not to.

‘But I can’t let myself die, can I?’

She had a plan of sorts. What she meant was that if she went into the center and smashed everything, it would be fine. If she died, she died! After dying, she would just kill the guy who killed her again! It was a plan of that magnitude. It was even ambiguous to call it a plan, but anyway, it existed.

“Take good care of yourselves!”

“Why are you always all or nothing?!”

Cho-i’s cackling laughter could be heard. Cho-i left her party members behind and started heading further inside. She felt black and white hands tearing at her, but she didn’t stop moving forward.

“Ah, seriously, you’re so persistent!”

Cho-i began to cut down the monsters that were grabbing her with her sword. When she cut a wrist, the cross-section of the wrist was visible. Bones, muscles, fibers, and flesh. It had the exact same structure as a human wrist. Cho-i found the Entity fascinating. But before she could marvel at it, hundreds of hands assailed her. She tore and cut the large eyeball and flesh of a monster that was right in front of her with her sword, then briefly looked back. She saw her party members, who had no choice but to attack from the periphery as she charged in. She thought she shouldn’t get too far away since she also needed to hold the aggro. -!! She let out another shout, then.

“Ugh!”

She roughly ripped out the hand that had pierced her stomach.

“You damn son of a bitch!”

Then she reversed her grip on the sword and began to hack at the monster that had impaled her. Blood splattered everywhere, covering the monsters with blood and flesh. She grinned despite the surging pain and stomped on the monster that had fallen at her feet. After bursting an eyeball, the area around her foot was soaked with pus. The battle continued. Meanwhile, the party members on the outside couldn’t hide their worry at Cho-i’s impulsive actions.

“Why is she doing that…”

Suui Kim said, cutting down a monster that had turned its back on her due to Cho-i’s shout. Namsu Kang repeatedly burst the back of a fleshy mass with eyeballs and shook her head.

“From the start, it doesn’t seem like we can control her.”

“I don’t know what she learned or how in her previous party.”

“It must have been all or nothing.”

Yeonwoo Han said. Everyone turned to look at him.

“Either she blocked attacks with her whole body or she became a decoy and charged into the monsters.”

It was an excellent misconception. And there was no one to correct it. Everyone fell silent for a moment at that remark. The party members, who had completely misunderstood Cho-i’s bad habit for that reason, pressed their lips together and bit them.

“Just let me meet those bastards….”

As I said before, those bastards are all dead.

“Anyway, we need to get Hunter Cho-i out quickly. How long can she last in there alone?”

She could last a very long time.

“She’s a lunatic, but why does she have such a pitiful side to her?”

She’s just a lunatic. They didn’t stop their attacks from the outskirts to rescue Cho-i. Cho-i wasn’t visible, but she wasn’t too far away, as a shout would occasionally erupt, giving them a rough idea of her location.

“She seems to have gone almost to the center.”

“What is she thinking?”

“Judging by her continuous use of skills, she must be holding up well.”

“She wasn’t thoughtless after all.”

“Is that not thoughtless? Then what is it?”

Suui Kim grumbled, cutting down a monster in one go, and looked into the distance, searching for Cho-i. Unfortunately, not a single strand of her hair was visible.

***

Monsters were constantly pouring out of the cave, but their numbers were steadily decreasing. This was because Namsu Kang and his companions were relentlessly attacking, and Cho-i was in the middle, sacrificing her life to hack away at the monsters. The entrance to the cave was narrower than expected, limiting the number of monsters that could emerge at once. As the monsters, swirling like the eye of a typhoon, gradually fell and gathered only near the cave entrance, the party members’ mana and stamina were almost depleted. If Ganansu hadn’t occasionally appeared to provide potions, they would have collapsed long ago. Hundreds of monsters fell, and Cho-i Hyeon, standing amidst their corpses, was covered in blood. With monster blood and her own blood mixed, making her entirely red, she looked like a person made of blood.

…Cho-i Hyeon.

Suui Kim called her name. She, who had single-handedly dealt with the monsters from the center, was covered in blood, yet not a single arm or leg was missing. She turned around and smiled. Only her white teeth shone brightly. She looked like a madwoman. And in reality, she was a madwoman. Suui Kim, dumbfounded by her appearance, laughed, “Ha ha.”

“You crazy bastard….”

He covered his eyes with one hand. Yeonwoo Han and Namsu Kang also felt relieved seeing Cho-i standing firmly on both feet. Cho-i returned, treading on the corpses of the monsters. Cho-i was standing close to the cave, and monsters were still slowly crawling out of it. Suui Kim, uneasy about the Entity, shouted at Cho-i.

“Get out of there and come here quickly! Let’s conserve our energy and come back!”

“Alright then~”

Fortunately, Cho-i seemed to intend to listen to Suui Kim this time. Thud. If it weren’t for the hand that grabbed her foot, she surely would have. Perhaps there was a monster among those on the ground that wasn’t dead yet, and it grabbed Cho-i’s ankle. Having let her guard down for a moment, she stumbled forward, and then…

“Cho-i Hyeon!”

As the monster reached out its hand towards the cave, the monsters emerging from within instantly intertwined and clasped hands. Then, they began to drag Cho-i into the cave.

“Huh?”

Cho-i was being dragged, momentarily puzzled. Why are they doing this? Cho-i held her sword and fell into thought for a moment. It seemed certain that there was something inside the cave, but she had no idea what it was.

‘Is there a hidden dungeon or something?’

Even if it was a hidden dungeon, each dungeon had different characteristics, so Cho-i couldn’t accurately grasp it. Last time, in the dungeon with Mantises, her heart pounded, but this time she felt no such sensation. It seemed likely that even if it was a hidden dungeon, it was unrelated to Mantises.

“Cho-i Hyeon, what are you doing! Cut its wrist!”

“Oh, right.”

She raised her sword and brought it down on the wrist of the monster holding her ankle. The wrist was half-severed, revealing bone. But another wrist quickly grabbed her ankle again. It was an action that showed a clear will to drag her in no matter what.

‘Well, I guess there’s no choice.’

Cho-i thought she had no choice but to investigate inside the cave and was about to be dragged in. But someone had approached and grabbed her hand. It was Suui Kim.

“Namsu Kang! Fire!”

“I am!”

While Suui Kim held Cho-i’s hand and resisted, Namsu Kang covered them by firing around. However, with so many monsters pulling Cho-i, Suui Kim was also gradually being dragged in.

‘At this rate, both of us are going to be out.’

After thinking that, she looked up at Suui Kim and grinned. Suui Kim’s face turned pale when he saw her expression.

“Hey, no. Don’t do that.”