#170
Dan Joo-hyuk moved while silently striking down the monsters that charged at him. His gaze quickly surveyed his current location.
This doesn’t seem to be inside a gate after all.
Grrrr……!
“Hoo.”
After slicing horizontally through a final monster as large as a two-story building, he pulled back. Since he had agreed to meet Yoon Pa-ran in the center of Seoul, he planned to move to join up with him.
From above his head, he continuously felt an ominous energy seemingly boring into his mind.
“……”
Even he thought taking on the mark in Yoon Pa-ran’s place was excessive. He knew that if he was going to act like this, he should have forcibly taken Yoon Pa-ran’s skill.
But despite the belated rebuke of reason, Dan Joo-hyuk simply continued swinging his sword silently. After purifying the item, only Yoon Pa-ran’s pale face floated through his mind as if justifying his actions.
Seeing that strained face, he just didn’t want to. Same with bearing the mark.
[Trainee’s Trial]
Meet the Disciple of the Sacred God before the mark’s energy penetrates your mind.
Reward for success: Survival
Penalty for failure: ■eath
>>Current [Sacred Energy S] absorption rate_____2%
The status window appeared again, cutting through such thoughts. Dan Joo-hyuk rarely frowned at the tedious word “trial.”
But soon, he tilted his eyebrows subtly.
“……”
While running between trees presumed to be gate interior vegetation, Dan Joo-hyuk saw anew the role of the status window that had assigned this “trial.” Surprisingly, it was indirectly informing him that the mark above his head could penetrate his mind.
It was also curious that it specifically showed the remaining percentage of [Sacred Energy] below. It probably meant that if he wanted to live, he should meet Yoon Pa-ran quickly and receive the skill. The more he thought about it, it was excessively friendly information.
Come to think of it, it had always been like that. Including when retrieving Yoon Pa-ran’s item.
“Hoo.”
Sighing, Dan Joo-hyuk put away this curious impression for now. After all, wasn’t it the god or the “trial” that had carved this mark above his head?
The more he thought about it, this status window sometimes performed contradictory actions. The same went for the entity known as the Sacred God.
……As if it were two entities.
Click! Click!
As if unwilling to let him catch his breath even for a moment, monsters relentlessly converged from all directions. While dealing with them, Dan Joo-hyuk gradually directed himself toward the center.
The Yongsan area was in shambles, as if it had been bombed. However, he could easily determine his location from the shape of the remaining roads and crumpled signs.
At this rate, he should be able to rendezvous with Yoon Pa-ran soon.
“……”
However, did even hopeful thoughts incur the wrath of the gods?
Dan Joo-hyuk suddenly stopped and swung his sword like lightning toward one side.
With a boom, dust shot up into the sky. Cutting through that hazy air, something rapidly rushed toward Dan Joo-hyuk.
That enormous object, many times larger than Dan Joo-hyuk, was concrete debris that had likely once been an apartment building.
“Dan Joo-hyuk!”
After that, strangely shaped trees came flying, uprooted from the ground. Appearing while tearing apart everything around her was Hunter Kim Min-ji.
“Fancy meeting you here.”
“You bastard…!”
Objects with significant mass continued to fly toward him. Deflecting or avoiding them wasn’t the problem, but gradually there was nowhere to step.
Calmly calculating trajectories, Dan Joo-hyuk looked ahead. Kim Min-ji, in a highly agitated state, was fully armed just as she had been when entering the gate.
From her hands, something like black heat haze continuously emanated. That distinctive skill of Kim Min-ji’s often showed formidable power, greater than wielding most weapons.
Reading the atmosphere that suggested a fight to the death, Dan Joo-hyuk narrowed his eyes. From afar, monsters were still approaching moment by moment, as if trying to choke the life out of him.
There’s no time, and of all people it has to be Kim Min-ji. How troublesome.
“How dare you, to my sister!”
He had thought the path to Yoon Pa-ran wouldn’t be too difficult, but he needed to rethink that. Kim Min-ji had appeared exuding energy similar to the [■■■ fragment].
The combination of monsters and Kim Min-ji was the worst for Dan Joo-hyuk to face. Especially in a place with so much debris to throw.
“Kuk.”
The ground repeatedly shook with booming sounds, screaming. Each time, Dan Joo-hyuk quickly dodged while trying to close the distance with Kim Min-ji.
Then, in a situation where there was no longer anywhere to step, Dan Joo-hyuk put strength into both arms and struck down a massive flying tree. Despite appearances, a clear metallic clanging sound rang out.
From the body of the enraged Kim Min-ji, an awful energy continued to bubble up. The mark above Dan Joo-hyuk’s head vibrated slightly as if responding to her.
“I’ll kill you too!”
“……”
She was so wild that Dan Joo-hyuk wondered if Kim Min-ji was also being controlled by that energy. However, he realized the situation was worse than he had thought.
As the distance shortened, Kim Min-ji’s state, different from Heo Sang-yeon’s, became clearly visible. In Kim Min-ji’s eyes, clear rationality was evident, much like Lee Tae-jung’s.
This is getting really annoying.
What followed was an intense exchange between one trying to close the distance and one trying to maintain it. Though Dan Joo-hyuk had the upper hand in the exchange itself, his expression wasn’t very bright.
The cries of monsters closing in from all directions were completely drowned out by the thunderous sounds of their clashing skills. The ground, already flattened by the major gate’s aftermath, now became as bumpy as the surface of the moon.
Finally, when he caught up to Kim Min-ji at a one-step distance:
Kim Min-ji, who had been frowning as if troubled, suddenly crossed her arms in front of her face with an expressionless look.
A tremendous explosion erupted between the two.
“Kuk.”
Dan Joo-hyuk’s body floated up into the air. He barely blocked the colorless vibrations that rushed at him as if to tear him apart by surrounding himself with flames.
He knew she had been hiding a move, but it had to be this skill. The distance he had worked hard to close inevitably widened again. Moreover, that skill of Kim Min-ji’s, which was telekinetic in nature, seemed to increase in power the closer the distance.
It was the optimal quality for a ranged attacker. On the other hand, from the perspective of facing it, there couldn’t be a more annoying skill.
“Hoo……”
The distance widened again. Given time, victory would be Dan Joo-hyuk’s, but it was precisely that time that was lacking.
The debris of a building that had not yet fully collapsed flowed down to the ground once more like a waterfall. After the enormous force that shook the area like an earthquake subsided, the two faced each other again from quite a distance apart.
“Cough.”
But the one who coughed and suddenly vomited blood wasn’t Dan Joo-hyuk.
“……”
Dan Joo-hyuk had known well that Kim Min-ji had many hidden moves. That’s why, the moment his body was blown backward, he had thrust his sword powerfully and activated his skill.
One of Kim Min-ji’s arms had been damaged by Dan Joo-hyuk’s flames, melting her clothes. From her shoulder joint to her nape where the flames ended, a short stab wound remained.
“To think my sister died at the hands of someone like you…!”
Even while spouting blood profusely from that wound, Kim Min-ji stood straight and vented her resentment.
However, Dan Joo-hyuk’s eyebrows crumpled mercilessly upon hearing the content.
“I spared your life thinking you were stupidly being controlled, and this is the ungrateful noise you make?”
At his mocking words, Kim Min-ji’s body, which had been preparing to fling more debris, abruptly stopped.
“What did you say…?”
“It’s your own explosion, did your ears get damaged?”
“Don’t lie.”
Kim Min-ji fiercely gritted her teeth again and gathered power in both hands.
“Whatever.”
Dan Joo-hyuk answered dismissively and raised his sword again. He had no intention of kindly explaining the situation.
Kim Min-ji, who had been making everything around her shake and move, suddenly stopped her movements again.
“…Is it true?”
Her voice trembled uncontrollably. While Dan Joo-hyuk was about to ignore her regardless, Yoon Pa-ran’s white face suddenly flickered before his eyes.
“……”
Then, realizing this was a way to save time, he suppressed his temperament.
Silently lowering his sword, he took out the mobile phone that had been inside his breastplate. Despite being protected by S-rank equipment, the screen was cracked.
Fortunately, the call somehow connected. Although the signal was quite unstable, perhaps due to the ominous sky.
“Hey, Hunter Dan. Finally need my help?”
Despite his injuries not yet fully healed, Heo Sang-yeon’s voice was incomparably cheerful. Annoyed by this, Dan Joo-hyuk hung up abruptly.
Though they were at a distance, it was a sound that would be audible like thunder to an S-rank hunter. Indeed, Kim Min-ji’s pupils trembled uncontrollably as she clearly recognized the voice’s owner.
“Sister…! H-how… Those bastards clearly said she was dead……”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
