Chapter 27 – Conquering Rakios Dungeon (2)

I began the hunt in earnest.

Olivier, with her search abilities, joined me as my operator.

-Two giant ants, 300 meters ahead.

It felt like I had shrunk and entered a thicket.

I pushed through the dense undergrowth and drew Sword #1, the longsword.

I moved like a shadow, silencing my presence. As I drew near, the giant, human-sized ants stopped their work and looked at me.

The creatures, who had been carving a corpse into a cube to carry, hastily prepared to fight. But before they could, I threw two knives.

Thwack! Thwack!

The knives embedded themselves between their eyes, and the creatures twisted their necks. They didn’t seem to have taken much damage, however, as they opened their maws to bite me.

I slashed through the torso of the one in front, then spun halfway around and cut through the other.

Even with their bodies severed, they writhed on the ground.

-Continue straight ahead.

-In 100 meters, turn right.

-There’s a speed-bump-like tree branch 20 meters ahead.

This navigator is top-notch.

I have basic search skills myself, but having the support of Olivier, whose abilities are far superior, made moving around much easier.

It was like taking a shortcut with a strategy guide in hand.

-A beetle has spotted you and is approaching. Its carapace is tough, so I recommend Sword #2.

I released the longsword into the air. As a dark subspace swallowed it, I drew the two-handed sword with my right hand.

*Vmmmmm.*

The blade, powered by a mana stone, glowed with a faint blue light.

*Whoosh!*

Seeing the giant beetle flying toward me brought something to mind.

A flying tank.

That was my first impression.

Wow, can I even cut this thing?

It looks as hard as a golem.

-It’s a black-label-grade weapon. Its performance is more than sufficient. If you can’t cut it, it’s your own lack of skill, wouldn’t you say?

“Who asked you?”

Ignoring Olivier’s snarky remark, I gripped Sword #2 with both hands. Then, I swung it in a wide horizontal arc.

*Squelch!*

The beetle, spewing bodily fluids, tumbled to the ground, offering me its experience points as it was split in half.

It actually worked.

-You really are a monster. To think you could actually cut it.

“You’re the one who told me to.”

-To be honest, I didn’t think it would actually work.

“Are you kidding me?”

-With other types it might be possible, but the one you just killed was a Jewel Beetle. Its carapace is so tough, it’s often used to make armor.

I don’t know if I can trust her from now on.

She didn’t tell me beforehand and just told me to try it.

I know we live in an age where the ends justify the means…

…but this is just wrong.

About an hour had passed since I entered the dungeon.

I slaughtered everything in sight.

Thanks to that, my experience points steadily accumulated in the system, and I gained two levels.

“Out of juice in just an hour.”

Sword #1. The longsword no longer had any ether flowing through it.

It allowed me to crush enemies effortlessly, but it consumed ether rapidly.

-But your hunting speed increased just as much. You gained two levels in an hour.

Olivier chided.

Then again, considering the number of monsters I’d sliced through, I suppose it had lasted quite a while.

-This is unexpected.

Olivier spoke slowly.

-Someone found the boss before us.

“They’re aiming for first place. They can’t all be idiots.”

Someone had reached the boss before me.

Just as I’d expected, the Tushin Guild’s party was there.

“You really have to give it to Hasol for her tracking skills, you know?”

“She’s even better than Pathfinder, I swear.”

“Oh, come on, that’s an exaggeration. I was just lucky.”

The name sounded vaguely familiar.

The woman being modest was the one who had acted friendly toward me earlier. The prodigy from the interview who could speak five languages.

If she has search abilities, does that make her a supporter? To be compared to the nation’s best tracker, Pathfinder, her skills must be the real deal. Even if Olivier isn’t on-site, for her to find the boss a step ahead of her…

-I apologize. This is my first time as an operator, so there were some errors.

“No, you were plenty useful.”

-To be comforted by the likes of you. How humiliating.

What does this woman want from me?

“Fine, you’re damn useless. I had high hopes when you offered to be my operator, but you just let me fall behind the others.”

I taunted her openly.

-Hmph, you can only condemn me like that for now. Don’t think you can win my heart by treating me so poorly.

Is there a function to block communications?

As I fiddled with the system, the boss fight began.

“Chang-yeol and In-ho, front line! Haram, keep casting support magic as long as your mana holds! Hasol, you’re with me on offense!”

At the Tushin Guild raid leader’s command, they moved as one.

I didn’t want to admit it, but they were certainly worthy of being a top-ranking guild.

The deadweights on my old team could never move like that, no matter how experienced they were.

*Shhhhhhh.*

The boss, awakened from its slumber in the thicket, revealed itself.

The insects here were all gigantic.

The boss that had just appeared was especially enormous.

About three times the size of a person?

When a praying mantis, the insect kingdom’s ultimate hunter, was magnified to this size, it looked even more grotesque.

Its massive forelegs were raised, and its venomous eyes, fixed on its prey, were enough to make anyone’s knees buckle.

No, the party members’ bodies were actually frozen. With fear.

“C-Cure Light!”

As the woman playing the healer role uttered the words, a pre-registered skill pattern materialized in the air, and the system cast the spell.

A bright, warm light enveloped them from above, and they quickly regained their composure.

“That thing is ugly as hell!”

The man from the special forces unit who was at the interview with me. He stepped forward with a sword and shield. Beside him, Kim In-ho, wielding a spear, pressed in from the side.

“It’s coming!”

The boss tore through the undergrowth and charged forward.

The two men acting as tankers frantically closed in on the boss from both sides.

Taking advantage of the opening, the main dealers—the party leader and Go Ha-sol—began to unleash their attacks.

Go Ha-sol. Smart enough to speak five languages, and an excellent tracker.

But her archery skills were also exceptional.

Her accuracy was decent, and the skill she used to imbue her arrows with mana seemed to pack quite a punch.

It was an incredibly stable formation.

As they steadily chipped away at the boss’s health, the battle seemed overwhelmingly in the Tushin party’s favor.

“This is dangerous.”

-They’re going to fail.

Olivier and I were of the same opinion.

***

“Got it!”

Kim Chang-yeol, formerly of the special forces, grinned, baring his teeth. One of the mantis boss’s legs had been severed.

The meal was prepared; all that was left was to eat. Or so he thought.

*Something’s wrong.*

The Tushin party leader.

Baek Ju-hwan felt that something was off. The battle was clearly going in their favor.

One of the mantis’s legs was gone, and Go Ha-sol’s wind arrows were continuously landing critical hits.

*No way.*

Baek Ju-hwan finally realized why he’d felt that sense of unease.

“Fall back!”

Party leader Baek Ju-hwan’s shout echoed through the area.

But it was too late.

“Gah, cough!”

The confident special forces member, Kim Chang-yeol, was sent tumbling to the ground by the mantis boss’s counterattack.

His shield was shattered, and his power suit flickered with a faint light.

The mantis boss was still taking damage. But the creature showed no signs of pain. In fact, it was getting faster.

*Something’s gone wrong.*

He had thought it was a boss with no special traits. But the moment he considered that it might be hiding something, a chill ran down his spine.

“In-ho, get Chang-yeol out of here! Hasol, take the party and retreat, everyone!”

“What? B-But, Oppa!”

“No time!”

Baek Ju-hwan fed mana into an arrow.

The ether-infused arrow glowed brightly as it struck the mantis boss’s carapace.

*BOOM!*

It exploded, tearing through the carapace. A chunk of the creature’s flesh was blown off, spraying fluid everywhere, but it didn’t react at all.

On the contrary.

“Hah…”

Baek Ju-hwan stood there, momentarily stunned.

The mantis, which had been some distance away, leaped without a running start. And it flew.

“Oppa, look out!”

Anyone could see the danger. But knowing and being able to avoid it were two different things.

Baek Ju-hwan realized this was his end.

Was it because his life was flashing before his eyes?

The mantis’s sharp foreleg flew toward his torso.

*Thwack!*

Bodily fluid splattered.

It took him a moment to realize the fluid wasn’t his own.

A longsword, coated in a faint blue light, had severed the mantis’s foreleg.

The man who had swung the sword calmly flicked the fluid from his blade.

“Huh?”

The man looked familiar to Baek Ju-hwan, but Go Ha-sol, Kim Chang-yeol, and Kim In-ho knew him well.

“I can take it from here now, right?”

Baek Ju-hwan was at a loss for words as the man who had saved him turned and asked the question.

A monster whose bloodlust hadn’t diminished despite losing a foreleg was right in front of them. Yet this man was completely at ease.

“You have to dodge! It doesn’t take any damage even when it’s hit!”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s ridiculously tough.”

The mantis leaped.

*CRASH!*

A shockwave erupted from where the mantis boss landed, kicking up a cloud of dust and dirt.

“Everyone, retreat! Abort the raid!”

There were countless cases of parties being wiped out because of misplaced pride. Party leader Baek Ju-hwan believed he had made the right call.

By the time he came to his senses, they were already out of the mantis’s territory.

The man from before was nowhere to be seen.

*I definitely told him to run, that fool…!*

He was the man who had saved him. Seeing him slice off one of the boss’s arms by himself suggested his weapon was incredibly powerful. But this wasn’t a boss that could be defeated with sheer power alone.

“W-What do we do? That person I know is still…”

Go Ha-sol stammered, asking the party leader.

At her words, Baek Ju-hwan thought for a moment before shaking his head.

“He must have wanted the last hit on the boss. Can’t be helped. To risk his life on such foolish pride.”

*Thud. Thud.*

Behind them as they fled, the roaring sounds continued.

Baek Ju-hwan muttered that he would at least retrieve the man’s body when they regrouped and returned later.

After all, they were only able to escape without casualties thanks to the sacrifice.

“You go on ahead.”

“What?”

“I’m going back.”

“What are you talking about? Are you crazy?”

His teammate, Kim In-ho, handed the injured Kim Chang-yeol over to Baek Ju-hwan and turned back. He had seemed to have some kind of close relationship with the porter earlier.

He had been subtly trying to talk up the Hanul Guild’s porter.

“S-So, what should we do?”

“What do you mean, ‘what should we do’?”

The guild had been praising him lately, telling him how great he was. It seemed to have gone to his head.

He had given a clear order to retreat. If he died like this, it was because he chose death.

“Everyone retreat! We’ll raid with the other guilds!”

With that, the retreating Tushin party soon arrived where members of other guilds were hunting.

The other guild members looked startled to see the Tushin Guild arrive covered in blood.

It was a shame he couldn’t claim the boss reward for himself, but failing to clear the dungeon would be an even bigger blow to his pride.

If he could lead the other guilds and take down the boss, his own value wouldn’t be diminished.

“The boss is stronger than we expected. Is there anyone who would like to raid it together? The rewards will be distributed equally.”

Perhaps they saw Baek Ju-hwan’s words as an opportunity.

One after another, people expressed their willingness to join.

“We’ll take five more people. High-level ones only.”

Just as Baek Ju-hwan was recruiting people…

-The boss, Rakios, has been defeated.

“Huh?”

The Tushin Guild, especially Baek Ju-hwan, looked perplexed.

“How was the boss defeated? By who?”