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* * *
Kim Minhyeok had never felt dissatisfied with his position as the collection specialist. Even when he made a life-or-death contract with Samin using an artifact under the condition that he wouldn’t unfairly embezzle magic stones and sales proceeds, he only felt burdened by receiving an equal share of payment while doing relatively less work.
Collection specialists meant odd-job workers in almost every guild except Yeoun Guild.
Collection specialists who didn’t actively participate in combat were mainly positioned in the rear. Because of this, they could view their colleagues’ battles most objectively. Those fighting looked cool and sometimes enviable, but he didn’t particularly want to squeeze into that gap.
At least Kim Minhyeok felt that way. However, he realized that other emotions were gradually creeping into his feelings about his position as collection specialist.
‘I want to join the combat too…’
He was unconsciously clenching his fist tightly.
The mid-boss ‘Guardian Spirit of the Vanished Blood Tree’ summoned more magical beasts the longer time was dragged out. Even pouring out skills usable from maximum distance, the mid-boss would cast summoning magic at least twice and drag it into a chaotic battle…
Kim Minhyeok looked at Doun. Standing on a pool made of bright red blood, he truly looked like the undisputed ranking 1st place that no one could diminish.
The mid-boss died before it could even cast summoning magic. Of course, it wasn’t killed by Doun’s power alone, but it was possible because he was at the forefront.
“What do you think the acquisition conditions for special immunity really are?”
Hong Chan’s quiet question nearby could be heard. Everyone was looking at Doun with curious faces.
Magnetic was the only hunter known to possess special immunity. However, the person himself said he had no idea how he acquired it.
‘I really can’t remember anything. I just suddenly got it…’
If someone else gave such an answer, it would generally be understood as meaning they didn’t want to share the skill with you. However, the other party was Lee Doun, who was so kind he was called a pushover. It really meant he didn’t know either.
‘Can it change this much just because the main dealer changed? Is that why Min hyung tried to bring Doun hyung?’
Until Doun joined, Yeoun Guild’s main dealer had been guild master Samin. Proceeding with conquests tailored to him who specialized in close combat had to be limited in strategy. If things went wrong, Samin approaching close to pierce magical beasts’ skulls could get swept up and seriously injured.
However, after Magnetic joined the guild, the main dealer among the now six attack-type hunters changed to Doun. Even though the conquest team that had always moved centered around him now moved according to someone else, Samin showed no signs of being upset. This was because Samin himself had proposed changing the policy.
‘I’ve thought about this for a long time and this is right.’
It was essentially the dismissal of the main dealer. The fact that both the decision-maker and dismissal target were the same person was peculiar, but Samin did it. It was possible because he wasn’t the type with a big ego wanting everything in the world to revolve around him.
If the main dealer had been someone other than Samin, it could have been a situation where feelings got quite hurt.
Most Yeoun guild members admired Magnetic or had personal fondness for him. However, that was an emotion they could have only because it didn’t cause fatal adverse effects to themselves.
But Yeoun Guild’s main dealer had always been Samin, and the person being replaced seemed unconcerned. So guild members could accept the main dealer replacement confirmation without major issues, based on the fondness they’d built watching Doun’s overwhelming ability difference and his gentle personality that contrasted with it.
This decision of Samin’s was effective. With the holder of the ‘special immunity’ skill that wasn’t damaged by magic skills cast by hunters standing at the front, the quality of conquest changed dramatically.
“We could have killed those before the magical beast summoning?”
Seo Subin muttered in a somehow deflated voice. He’d even skipped lunch just in case, thinking about treating guild members injured in large-scale chaotic battles, but this situation had occurred.
Kim Minhyeok could deeply understand the emotion Seo Subin was feeling right now. His own first time conquering Floor 45 with Doun had been even worse than this.
Doun, who joined the group leaving behind the magical beast buried in the dirt floor, smiled brightly without hiding his pride. When Hong Chan handed him a wet towel, the sight of him gratefully wiping his face looked even cooler today for some unknown reason.
“Don’t let your guard down and let’s keep moving.”
After maintenance was finished, Samin refreshed the atmosphere that had become giggly from the elation of quickly killing the mid-boss.
Compared to other floors, Floor 54 had relatively few conquest attempts. A moment of carelessness inevitably led to major injuries. Even if there were potions that could reattach severed limbs without scars, the terrible pain left aftereffects whether big or small.
Post-traumatic stress disorder. The term PTSD was easily misused among ordinary people, but hunters were often actually diagnosed with it. Quite many upper rankers had given up tower conquest and left the tower saying they’d live like before, never to return.
Restaurant owner Choi Seongbeom and photographer Hwang Eunseong, whom Samin had introduced to Doun, were also among those who gave up being hunters because they couldn’t endure the sensation of their minds breaking down.
Knowing better than anyone how close acquaintances suffered, Samin was on high alert every time he entered the tower. He especially watched carefully to see if Doun showed signs of struggling.
‘Mm, our honey seems fine.’
Doun standing at the end of Samin’s gaze looked healthier than ever. The vitality had returned to his face that had been withering, making it feel worthwhile to stick close by his side, taking care of him with various things to eat and taking him on walks.
When combat resumed, Samin kicked the jaw of a quadrupedal magical beast running toward him and summoned his artifact. Gripping tightly the handle of the sword that appeared with glittering green light, he swung toward the body of the magical beast tumbling backward.
Though the sword tip caught on blunt, hard vertebrae, they easily shattered when he put strength in his grip. The expression “cutting” didn’t fit. Samin’s swordwork was closer to crushing.
Swoosh―!
Blood from the magical beast whose body was split in two spurted up. Samin dodged his guild members’ attack skills raining from all directions while cutting the throats of magical beasts indiscriminately. Blood and flesh on the sharp blade barely fell off before another magical beast’s stuck to it.
“Whew…”
He inhaled while checking his surroundings. His eyes were calmer than ever. Though he became excited due to adrenaline secreted on its own when combat started, he always tried to maintain maximum composure.
Only he had the authority to give up tower conquest. Samin knew this fact well. He absolutely couldn’t allow a moment when he had to use that convenient yet wretched authority that had saved his companions’ lives multiple times, only to let a colleague’s life be lost because he too was rampaging with excitement.
‘Fuck, they’re pouring out like crazy. Really!’
Bone fragments and flesh from magical beasts shattered by Samin’s violent swordwork scattered in all directions like explosions.
Where the group was located was a section where strategies worthy of being called conquest methods didn’t work. The tightly closed castle gate wouldn’t open except by killing and killing again the magical beast horde pushing in for a set time.
Only after the tree roots surrounding the entire castle wall had absorbed enough magical beast blood could they enter the castle where the Floor 54 floor boss was located.
“How much is left?”
“1 minute 18 seconds!”
If they killed just a little more, time for brief maintenance would return. The moment Samin thought that, Kim Chansol, who had stepped wrong on the frost-covered stone floor due to Kim Siwon’s rapid-fire skills, let out a short shout.
“Doun-ssi! Behind you!”
It was a very urgent cry. Kim Chansol, who had been trying to balance his staggering body, dropped the axe in his hand.
It was an absurd mistake. Artifacts could only be unsummoned when in the caster’s hands. The axe blade flying rapidly toward Doun due to the recoil from his greatly swung hand was razor-sharp.
When Doun, who had been alone facing off against more than ten magical beasts, turned his head at the sound of his name being called, the axe blade had approached within arm’s reach.
“Ah.”
Doun sighed briefly.
* * *
Twelve magical beasts in front of him that needed immediate handling. Other guild members were also handling similar numbers. But suddenly an axe?
‘What?’
Separate from his confusion, he reflexively cast thought acceleration. He suppressed all questions about why the axe was flying toward him. First, he had to dodge that. If he took it head-on with his body here, the formation would collapse in an instant.
With even the collection specialist and healer engaged in combat, the main dealer withdrawing made no sense.
‘I have to move.’
The moment he thought that, his body moved instantly.
Mana rippled from the soles of his feet touching the ground.
Crack. The ground distorted as the agile body that shot up to the sky was as natural as if it had anticipated this happening.
The slowly flowing air current sped up. Thought acceleration ended and surroundings began moving at commonly known speeds. When he looked down, blood was spattering.
Clang!
The rapidly spinning axe was stuck in a magical beast’s face, swaying. If he’d been even slightly late, it would have been buried in Doun’s abdomen. Doun glanced at Kim Chansol’s relieved face and stared down at where he’d been standing moments before.
‘I’ll run low on mana, but…’
Despite repeated practice, the time Doun could stay airborne was at most around 7 seconds. Doun implemented the best conclusion he’d derived himself, which he didn’t much like.
‘Can’t be helped.’
Mana condensed at the tip of the staff in his hand. Doun precisely designated the magical beasts and, judging it insufficient, pulled even spare mana to cast the skill.
After joining Yeoun Guild, he believed he was now managing mana entirely for his own skill usage. However, he belatedly realized he’d unconsciously always moved so that mana never disappeared below a certain amount.
That was hunter Magnetic’s resolve. He never wanted to helplessly watch colleagues die from magical beast attacks before his eyes again. So in preparation for any unforeseen circumstances, he always kept enough that wouldn’t cause mana shock but could kill a few magical beasts.
It was compulsive mana accumulation arbitrarily created by a mindset marked by thousands and tens of thousands of times of self-reproach and regret.
‘I knew I’d do this. Hyung, like last time, you said you had a lot of mana left. If you habitually drink mana potions, you’re just wasting money. Reconsider your mana distribution. It’ll be hard since it’s a habit. And don’t try to shoulder everything alone. Trust Samin a little.’
If Samin hadn’t advised him to reconsider mana distribution, Doun would never have noticed.
The tragedy that occurred on Floor 44. The reason Doun habitually kept mana in reserve also stemmed from that day. For self-defense, he tried to forcibly ignore related things and erase them from memory, but Doun still occasionally suffered from nightmares.
Though the still-vivid screams for help sometimes suddenly surfaced, Doun was busy not thinking deeply and turning his attention elsewhere. If he didn’t do that, he felt like he’d go crazy.
However, after meeting Samin who gave him emotional stability and fixing his inefficient mana distribution, Magnetic was repeatedly surpassing the limits he’d arbitrarily set for himself.
The skill ‘Stigma’, which Doun had arbitrarily believed had a limit of applying to eight entities, grew by feeding on that mana the moment the caster recognized the existence of mana he’d been defensively suppressing.
Whirr―!
A large amount of mana rippled from Doun’s body.
‘Twelve is a first.’
It was a 12-fold skill casting he’d never attempted. In the overwhelming sensation of mana disappearing as if evaporating, he briefly had the illusion of his vision turning pure white. However, Doun was confident in the skill’s success.
‘About 4 seconds left until I fall to the ground. The marks aren’t ready yet?’
As soon as his sharp gaze seeking to confirm death touched them, the magical beasts’ single screams burst out.
Kek!
The marks carved on the leather covering the magical beasts’ bodies were clear. It was when Doun inhaled to land on the hill formed by collapsed bodies.
Groooooowl―!
One magical beast roared long. It seemed unable to endure its kin’s deaths any longer. Its tail with thorn-like scales bristling struck the ground hard, then charged straight at Doun.
“…!”
Movement in midair had clear limits. Doun hastily leaned his upper body backward. However, his side was pierced by the tail densely covered with scales sharpened to carve out the intruder’s flesh.
“Kugh!”
The tail that penetrated deeply through even solid armor stirred his internal organs. Doun gritted his teeth and pushed the magical beast’s body away with the tip of his staff. As the tail that had pierced his body was pulled out, crushing flesh and organs.
A bright red notification window appeared over his blurred vision.
[Notification: Special skill ‘Oath of Trust (S)’ has been activated. All accumulated physical damage after entry will be transferred to the applicable target.
Applicable target: ‘Slope’ of Republic of Korea on Earth]
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
