Chapter 42

Alright, I get that these friends are dealers… no, assassins with some solid experience in this world.

But gates? This is their first time. So what happens next is obvious.

“Please follow me closely.”

Maid 2 said.

This one won’t dodge the gate’s traps, and I’ll end up taking the lead anyway.

“Then I’ll handle the rear.”

Maid 3’s heavy voice rang out. The rear guard will probably rely on eyes in the back of my head too.

“I’ll take care of any monsters on the flanks.”

Maid 1 claimed her spot. I don’t know why they’re not asking my opinion, but asking wouldn’t change a thing.

In the end, it’ll all fall to me.

Front, back, sides—all of it.

“Let’s move out.”

I gestured, ignoring the faintly visible future.

“Just follow us. We’ve been trained specifically for exploring unknown spaces like this, so rest assured.”

The three maids spoke in unison.

Now I see why Shin Jae-heon assigned C-ranks—they’re apparently pros at assassination and intel gathering.

But please, kids. I have one dying wish.

“I can take point.”

Will you let me lead?

“No, how could we let a noble guest like you go first?”

“Trust in us.”

Is this that infamous “Despair Edition” of hastily assembled hunter teams?

Normal newbies to gates just hang back until someone yells “Go!” and they burst out like Pokémon—that’s the helpful way!

Of course, if I let on that I’ve been here before, penalties would come chasing after me gleefully, so I had no choice but to watch the despair unfold.

In the end, I pulled out my trump card.

“Last time at the banquet, I fell into a gate, remember? That experience might come in handy.”

So, kids, can I take command?

The maids exchanged serious glances at my words before reaching a verdict.

“Then could you direct us from the center?”

“We’ll honor the master’s valuable experience.”

…They’re elegantly telling me to just stand in the middle and chill.

As the name suggested, it was a forest dungeon.

In a place like this, Shin Jae-heon could just swing a flaming sword and clear everything but the boss.

Unfortunately, none of us—me or the three maids—could pull off that kind of nationwide arson.

What that meant was…?

We had to find the path through the forest.

“You know the way?”

I asked Maid 2, who had insisted on leading.

Of course, I wasn’t expecting her to know the route in a forest she’d never seen before.

But luckily, we had tutorial-period hunters!

Invisible to my eyes, but surely visible to the maids: the light.

The kind, (pretend-)friendly system light guiding the path.

“…!”

Sure enough, I saw the maids freeze.

“This is…”

“A sparkling path.”

So they can see it?

That makes this a lot easier!

That was when I let my guard down.

“It looks like a trap.”

The three maids’ expressions turned deadly serious.

“No way it’d show the path so blatantly.”

No, kids! The system used to pretend to be nice once upon a time!

That time is now, kids!

“It’s surely a trick from whoever made this gate.”

No, it’s not! Trust the world a little?

“Doesn’t the glowing path mean someone’s guiding us?”

Like the system, maybe? I tossed in the suggestion casually.

“We can’t be sure if that someone’s an ally.”

“We should search the whole area first…”

Of course, it fell on deaf ears.

Search an entire C-rank dungeon? Planning to camp here for a month?

Our impatient little hunter team might explode first.

“In my opinion…”

I finally spoke up.

“Last time I got trapped in one like this, following the light led me to the exit. Maybe this is the same?”

Will you believe the veteran?

The maids exchanged looks at my words.

“At the end of the path, there was this huge monster, and killing it opened the way out. That’s how the gate vanished.”

Without system windows, they wouldn’t know about bosses, so this explanation worked best.

Finally, the maids nodded with resolute expressions.

“If that’s what happened…”

“We’ll follow the path for now.”

They still didn’t fully buy it.

That’s the answer, kids!

Believe me, kids!

“In an emergency, don’t worry about us—prioritize the master’s safety.”

With incredibly grave looks, the maids surrounded me and advanced.

—Shing! Clang!

In conclusion, if I graded Maids One-Two-Three, they’d score around 80.

They handled the monsters popping out unexpectedly better than expected.

Far better reactions than Korean hunters at their first gate opening.

Most hunters took forever just to realize they had the power to fight.

Like me, an S-rank, barely clearing an A-rank low dungeon back then.

Now I could probably smash one with a liquor bottle while drunk.

But back then, I didn’t know.

What power I’d gained.

So even with power, clearing dungeons was tough.

“Hah!”

Maid 2 charged with her sword drawn.

The tree-shaped monster in front of her split clean in two.

They were different from the hunters I’d seen.

Coming from a world used to fighting monsters, they clearly knew their own power levels.

Adapting to gates came quick.

And they quickly realized the guiding light was the right way.

“…It seems some magical force is leading us.”

Even Maids One-Two-Three, who’d doubted the light right up to the boss room, finally admitted it.

“Others call it the Oracle’s guidance…”

I shut my mouth smoothly mid-sentence.

Right, these are Shin Jae-heon’s people.

In other words, imperial folk. They wouldn’t say “Oracle’s will” no matter what.

Was that why they didn’t trust it?!

They’d heard the rumors, the gold light was obvious, and they doubted because of bad blood with the church?!

Put personal… no, political grudges aside in a place like this!

“Monster pack incoming!”

“Everyone, alert stance!”

Maid 1 seemed to hold subtle seniority among the three.

At her command, Maids Two and Three snapped into position seamlessly.

—Whoosh!

Then they vanished at blinding speed.

Even to my eyes, trained on afterimages, it was fast—speed skills near A-rank for sure.

—Clang! Clang! Clang!

All three leaped out in sync, swinging identical sword forms.

“Totally identical.”

It was impressive enough for admiration.

Like they’d copy-pasted the exact same pose and swing.

How do they… Oh.

“Is that a sword form too?”

But even mastering a sword form, could they sync that perfectly?

And to my eyes, every simultaneous strike sparked blue light.

That was a skill effect for bonus damage.

Do they have a passive that adds bonus damage for triple simultaneous strikes?

Of course, asking them wouldn’t help—they lack system windows too.

—Slash!

Watching their clean tree-slicing swords, I suddenly narrowed my eyes.

“Oh…”

Their uniform swings even carried mana.

I could tell because I infuse my own sword with mana.

Definitely something like Pollane’s First Sword Form—a skill-ified sword path.

They could swing differently, but for trash mobs, identical priority strikes made sense.

“Like a macro?”

Like a computer macro automating repeated actions—the moves themselves skill-ified.

“Oh…”

Could I do that?

If so, no need to activate afterimage skills one by one for multiples.

Remembered the sword tournament against Lady Luril—system windows popping everywhere, dodging her blade, total chaos.

Shortcutting those windows? Game-changer.

That was when I thought it.

“Master! Watch out!”

—Whoooosh!

Instinct kicked in at the shadow; I looked up to see a massive acorn plummeting toward me.

Not normal-sized.

Big enough to crush a person—or a building—like a siege weapon.

No time to think.

Before the next window even popped, I fired off Afterimage again.

The windows glitched in order as blue mana flowed along my blade.

Can’t bundle multiple skills?

That was when I thought it.

Monster’s incoming—that’s the priority!

Pardon?

What did you say?!

Before I could process, dozens of blue afterimages blanketed the sky.

Even my eyes struggled to track their speed.

The delayed windows popped up.

In short, ranking up boosts the bonuses further?

Separate from my awe at that fact.

—Pababababa-pow!

Watching the poor acorn, hit by multiple stacked SS+ skills, crumble to dust…

I got serious.

…I can rename this, right?