#10
“Is this some new trick?”
It did take some time, but it was still about 2 seconds. However, even that much seemed to fall far short of the original Seo Yi-young’s ability or Choi Do-jun’s standards. Choi Do-jun didn’t hide his irritated expression. It seemed the original Seo Yi-young could recover faster than this.
“What? No, I’m……”
I can’t use the same ability as before. Because I’m not the original Seo Yi-young but Seo Yi-young from another dimension.
He couldn’t say such things honestly.
“Poor, poor condition.”
Choi Do-jun’s eyes narrowed.
Perhaps because he felt guilty, he couldn’t properly meet his eyes. Meanwhile, Choi Do-jun sighed lightly once more.
“If you say so, I guess I’ll have to believe it.”
“……”
Even though it was clearly a sarcastic voice, given the situation, he felt sorry rather than annoyed. It was as if Choi Do-jun was handling this entire situation alone.
“At this rate, it would be better to just drink a potion.”
Choi Do-jun glanced down at his arm. Those words stung and smacked Seo Yi-young’s head.
“Forget it. I was planning to take this level of risk anyway.”
His face became hot and flushed as if on fire. There was no way Choi Do-jun could know that Seo Yi-young’s essence had changed. Yet saying such things meant he had been thinking unfavorably of Seo Yi-young’s existence from the beginning.
He wanted to ask for the reason, but he couldn’t even do that. Because Choi Do-jun, who had quickly finished speaking, sprang from his spot and rushed toward the boss mob.
What did he do? Choi Do-jun quickly ran up the boss mob’s body. He doubted his own eyes, wondering if there were wires attached to his body. But there was nothing like that at all. It was as if he had wings on his back.
All the mobs rushed at Choi Do-jun as he quickly climbed the boss mob. As if there were no other hunters here, as if only Choi Do-jun existed.
Is it aggro?
At this point, he wondered if Choi Do-jun had used some skill. Without that, this situation couldn’t be explained.
“Wow. As expected of Hunter Choi Do-jun……!”
“This is no joke, really.”
“……Amazing.”
He could hear admiration from the other hunters.
Right. Choi Do-jun was definitely amazing.
When he swung one arm, light arrows embedded in the mobs’ bodies like countless bullets flying, and they soon swelled up like balloons and burst with a pop. However, when one burst, two would rush in, and when two burst, four would rush in.
In such a scene, the way to find Choi Do-jun was simple. If you looked where mobs were bursting, he was there.
He dealt with them endlessly without showing any signs of fatigue.
The popping and bursting looked like fireworks.
Seo Yi-young, who was having absurd impressions while watching Choi Do-jun deal with mobs, soon frowned at the acrid and disgusting smell. If he could smell this at this distance, it would feel much worse for Choi Do-jun dealing with mobs at close range. Yet his complexion didn’t change at all. There was no way to know whether he had a strong stomach or was so absorbed in combat that he didn’t even care about such things.
“……Huh……”
Even in this chaos, the popping sound of mobs bursting didn’t stop. Seo Yi-young was purely amazed at the continuous explosion sounds.
Unbelievably, Choi Do-jun was hunting this many mobs alone. Even while poisoned. He made hunting mobs look so easy that Seo Yi-young even felt the strange confidence that he could do the same.
Then a mob jumped out nearby.
The mob making a hissing sound seemed to have avoided Choi Do-jun’s aggro and was looking straight at Seo Yi-young. He felt a chill down his back. He needed some means of attack.
Still, since it’s an A-grade mob, couldn’t he somehow fight it? Choi Do-jun was dealing with them so easily, so couldn’t he, who was the same S-grade, do it too? Even if he wasn’t a combat hunter.
Seo Yi-young gritted his teeth and took a stance. At least he couldn’t lose face by being defeated helplessly.
“Hunter Seo Yi-young!”
He could hear Kim A-rin’s scream-like cry.
Well, it would be confusing since a healer was trying to fight.
It’ll work out somehow. Somehow.
Seo Yi-young at least succeeded in grabbing the mob rushing toward him with his hands. He could feel the rough texture of the mob’s skin on his palm.
Is it okay to call this skin? Wouldn’t it feel like this if you grew shrimp or lobsters to human size? Is this really a plant?
Various peaceful questions inappropriate for the situation quickly passed through his head.
The hard outer shell couldn’t be broken even with force in his hands. He didn’t know how strong it was, but it was difficult to hold on and endure.
They said it was a plant.
Is it okay for a plant to be this strong?
Seo Yi-young, who was inwardly grumbling about the unreasonableness, clicked his tongue.
That Choi Do-jun had been dealing with mobs like this alone until now.
Just because it looked easy didn’t mean it really was easy. It looked easy because Choi Do-jun’s skills were overwhelming.
“……Ugh, kuk……!”
He didn’t want to embarrassingly ask for help, but it was really the limit.
The hunters watching Seo Yi-young from inside the barrier came into view.
Even though Seo Yi-young was S-grade, weren’t they just watching too much? Instead of just watching like that, help him. If four of them attacked together, they could still deal with it. It was when such resentful thoughts arose.
Whoosh.
Pop……!
A light arrow flew over and blew off the head of the mob Seo Yi-young was dealing with. Mob bodily fluid splashed on his face and he reflexively squeezed his eyes shut. His body naturally trembled as something squishy and sticky touched his skin. The smell was so terrible it was indescribable. However, he couldn’t complain about such things.
He could immediately tell who had helped. It was Choi Do-jun. Even while fighting dozens and hundreds of mobs, somehow his attention had reached here.
He was killing all these many mobs one by one without leaving a single one. Even seeing it with his own eyes, he couldn’t believe it.
Choi Do-jun raised one hand.
“Gasp. Crazy.”
“To actually see that.”
He heard admiration like people watching a movie. Suppressed gasps of admiration. All of that combined made it really seem unreal.
Seo Yi-young also had doubts. Is what I’m seeing right now really reality?
To say so, the things unfolding before his eyes were too surreal.
Light gathered in Choi Do-jun’s hand and looked like a spear. And he swung it and drove it into the boss mob’s head like driving a stake without hesitation.
Whoooosh-!
There was a sound like a huge bomb exploding.
Grooooan-……
The sound of air vibrating was like a crying sound. When the boss mob with its huge body fell to the ground, the earth shook.
Seo Yi-young doubted whether what he saw was real.
What kind of laser beam comes out of hands?
The beams that shot out not only from hands but also from thin air attacked many surrounding mobs like small missiles and annihilated them all without a single miss.
The boss mob began to slowly turn to ash and crumble as if burning in flames.
As the boss mob’s body was large, there was a lot of ash flying, but those black dust particles didn’t accumulate on the ground and seemed to flow away on the wind before disappearing.
Clank.
There was a sound of something falling.
Where the sound came from, there was a mysteriously colored stone about half the size of a child’s palm.
As soon as he saw it, Seo Yi-young could tell. That was the neo-core.
“Hunter Seo Yi-young.”
Only after confirming that nearby mobs were gone and it was safe did Hunter Kim A-rin run over. The barrier that had been protecting them had disappeared, perhaps removed.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
It was a tone like asking someone who had fallen to the ground.
“Yes, I’m fine.”
Even while answering Kim A-rin that he was fine, he was confused by emotions he couldn’t shake off.
Moving when safety was secured was reasonable. Since they weren’t even combat types, they would have been even more cautious.
However, unlike his head that was trying to understand and accept such thinking, he couldn’t help but feel they were cold-hearted. It was a problem before considering what was right or wrong or how rational it was.
He had no choice but to accept it as unavoidable and move on.
Hypotheticals like “I wouldn’t do that” weren’t necessary. How you’d actually act when faced with that situation was something you’d only know when the time came.
Even knowing that.
“……”
To divert his attention, Seo Yi-young got up and looked around to see where the other hunters were. The other two were running toward the neo-core without delay. They didn’t even check Choi Do-jun’s condition.
“Neo-core confirmed. Collecting for equal distribution according to each affiliation’s participation.”
Hearing that, Seo Yi-young couldn’t hide his bewilderment.
Equal distribution?
Without Choi Do-jun, they wouldn’t have been able to conquer this dungeon, and the others just watched?
Isn’t this not equal but just blatantly getting carried and taking it easily?
He expected Choi Do-jun to object, but he said nothing. He just glanced at them. As if he had expected this situation all along.
Seo Yi-young tried to approach Choi Do-jun to say something, but Jo Yeon-woo spoke to him first.
“Hunter Seo Yi-young, good work. It was an honor to be able to conquer the dungeon together.”
Jo Yeon-woo, who had said it would be fine since Seo Yi-young was S-grade, smiled and greeted him.
Not knowing what expression to look at them with, Seo Yi-young blinked several times and nodded ambiguously. Their attitude of speaking so naturally made him wonder if this strangeness and irrationality he was feeling was what was strange.
Nam Jun-seok reported the situation in a calm voice.
“Dungeon conquest clear. 30 seconds remaining until dungeon deletion. Moving outside.”
They’re going back right away like this?
Turning his head in bewilderment, he saw that a door that hadn’t been there before had appeared. It was a door similar to when they entered, seeming to be covered with a transparent membrane. Through the rippling membrane, the world outside the dungeon was visible.