#8
It didn’t seem like Choi Do-jun would answer honestly even if asked.
“……”
Since he didn’t know everything about this world yet, he couldn’t say anything more.
Even if he recommended resting comfortably lying down, it didn’t seem like he would obediently follow, and Choi Do-jun was also an adult so he’d probably manage on his own. Seo Yi-young didn’t say anything more and headed toward the forest. Feeling the gaze following him, Seo Yi-young waved his hand and briefly explained. “Bathroom.”
Light comes from his hands when he uses his ability. To avoid showing that properly, he needed to get away to some extent. But he couldn’t go too far because of mob attacks either.
This should be enough. Seo Yi-young gauged the distance appropriately, took out his knife and stopped for a moment. Conflict arose over whether he really had to do this. Seo Yi-young hated pain. Of course, who among people in the world would like pain? Except for a few with unusual tastes. However, it was necessary to practice his ability.
Seo Yi-young closed his eyes and bit his left arm to prevent screams from leaking out. Then he stabbed his arm with the knife in his right hand. He barely managed to hold back the scream that was about to burst out, but because of that, there would definitely be considerable bite marks left on his left arm. Cold sweat immediately broke out from the vivid pain. In a state where it was hard to breathe properly, when he covered the wound area with his hand, light came from his palm and the pain completely disappeared after about 2 seconds.
Perhaps because the depth of the wound was different, recovery took a little time. Seo Yi-young tried it three times in different areas, then returned to the camp. If he stayed away too long, it might arouse unnecessary suspicion.
Choi Do-jun was sitting in exactly the same position as before. He thought he might say something, but fortunately that didn’t happen.
Seo Yi-young quietly lay down and closed his eyes. Perhaps thanks to practice, what had initially taken about 3 seconds became slightly faster. Even that small reward could serve as motivation to continue practicing.
*
Two days passed like that.
Seo Yi-young’s use of his ability had become considerably more skilled than at first.
Seo Yi-young looked at Choi Do-jun’s back as he was dealing with mobs ahead.
Seo Yi-young’s worries were really useless. Choi Do-jun moved as if the effects of little sleep had no impact on him at all.
Crack-!
The flash that extended from Choi Do-jun’s hand split the 3-meter tree mob blocking their path in half. That wasn’t the end. Choi Do-jun stretched his hand toward the mobs running away behind with fluid movements like water. You could see his determination not to let a single one escape.
Well, if he hadn’t done that, it would have been Seo Yi-young who got attacked by those mobs.
It did hurt his conscience to follow behind with Choi Do-jun in front, but there wasn’t anything Seo Yi-young or the others could do either. It would be fortunate if they didn’t become burdens by moving carelessly and getting attacked by mobs.
Seo Yi-young walked silently.
Keek……! Kieek!
The mobs were dealt with while making terrible sounds.
The mobs that appeared in dungeons were some kind of hybrid wearing the guise of plants. He thought you shouldn’t call something that pounced while baring sharp teeth a plant, but from the remains after Choi Do-jun dealt with them, tree bark would scatter and grass leaves would flutter.
It was an appearance that couldn’t be explained by common sense. However, since dungeons themselves were places where generally known knowledge couldn’t be applied, Seo Yi-young gave up thinking and decided to just accept it.
By the way, compared to when they first dealt with mobs and only ash remained, a lot more traces were left.
Had the mob grades risen that much?
When Seo Yi-young tilted his head, he could hear the hunters traveling together whispering.
“Hunter Choi Do-jun is really amazing.”
“He’s destroying just the cores right now. Wow…… To think such precise strikes are possible. This is no joke.”
“I really can’t believe I can see this with my own eyes.”
“No, this is my first time conquering so easily. It’s like we came out for a walk.”
Listening to the conversation, it seemed Choi Do-jun was doing something amazing.
“He crushed them really finely at the beginning of the dungeon.”
When Seo Yi-young, who had been listening to their talk, spoke, Nam Jun-seok nodded repeatedly and opened his mouth.
“Yes. Exactly. The early mobs don’t have cores, but if you leave them above a certain size, there’s a high probability they’ll regenerate and increase in number. So normally you’d have a really hard time, but we’re conquering really comfortably right now thanks to Hunter Choi Do-jun. Wow…… This is why people say Hunter Choi Do-jun, Hunter Choi Do-jun.”
At the enthusiastic voice, the two unconsciously nodded and agreed. Reading the mood of the other hunters, Seo Yi-young also nodded.
So that’s how it was. As he understood, he unconsciously glanced toward Choi Do-jun once.
Well, it was amazing if you called it amazing.
He was handling all combat alone without other combat hunters, and was doing forced marches without sleeping properly at night. But rather than precise strikes……
Seo Yi-young looked toward Choi Do-jun once more.
Isn’t he getting a bit on edge?
It’s literally a forced march. He didn’t know how amazing S-grade hunters were, but spending several days like this without sleeping and escorting other people wouldn’t be easy.
The other hunters with them only talked about how amazing Choi Do-jun was, and weren’t actually worried or concerned about that aspect. Seo Yi-young found that puzzling.
After being together 24 hours a day for several days, he had become close with the hunters except Choi Do-jun, but he didn’t bring that up. There was no need to voice every thought.
That evening.
They ate dinner with hunter dungeon rations taken from Jo Yeon-woo’s bag, but Choi Do-jun barely ate.
After confirming everyone was asleep, Seo Yi-young approached Choi Do-jun who was sitting a little apart.
“Hey.”
“……”
He couldn’t hear any response from Choi Do-jun who had his eyes closed, but he could tell he wasn’t asleep. However, he didn’t feel as annoying as usual. He knew how much sleep deprivation could wear a person down.
“Go sleep. I’ll stand night watch.”
And while I’m at it, I can practice comfortably.
“What are you scheming?”
At Seo Yi-young’s suggestion, Choi Do-jun finally opened his mouth.
He really doesn’t accept things nicely at once. Seo Yi-young looked down at Choi Do-jun and continued speaking.
“What scheme? You must be having a hard time staying up without sleeping. How tough that is. I’ll stand night watch, so go sleep.”
Seo Yi-young finished speaking but Choi Do-jun didn’t answer immediately.
“Hurry up. I’ll wake you if anything happens.”
“Strange.”
“What? What is.”
He asked thinking he was going to nitpick about something again, but Choi Do-jun had no intention of saying more and kept his mouth tightly shut. They weren’t on such friendly terms to ask what he meant by that, so he decided to just let it pass.
He couldn’t tell if Choi Do-jun had fallen asleep or not, but since Seo Yi-young had said what he said, he positioned himself nearby and sat down. Sitting quietly, he could hear the sound of wind but realized he couldn’t hear insects.
Well, if he could hear insect sounds, that would have been scarier. The insects wouldn’t just be insects but mobs.
Quietly, he just shifted his gaze and looked at Choi Do-jun with his eyes closed.
Even knowing that he was a different person from the Choi Do-jun of the previous dimension, looking at the same face made it hard to think of them as completely separate. It’s not like this dimension’s Choi Do-jun did anything wrong.
……Well, he does speak rather rudely and act snippy and sulky.
“……”
Somehow it seemed like there were sufficient reasons to dislike him, so Seo Yi-young shook his head and stopped thinking.
Now isn’t the time for this. He needed to practice.
You could guess without saying how skilled this dimension’s Seo Yi-young, who had been active as an S-grade healer, would be. Even if not to that level, he should at least be similar. That’s what he decided.
But really, he didn’t get used to pain. Far from getting used to it, he grew to hate it more and more to the point of getting sick of it. He hated it more because it was pain he knew about. Still, to test his ability, he needed to be injured, so he had to create it artificially.
Seo Yi-young quietly breathed in and looked down at his arm. When he closed his eyes and cut deeply, he grimaced at the burning sensation. He quickly brought his hand over and used his ability.
He didn’t know if the speed was getting faster, but using the ability had become much easier. This should be enough for now.
He sighed and looked up at the sky.
Even though he knew it was dangerous because they were inside a dungeon and didn’t know when mobs might appear, he had to admit the scenery was pretty. Seo Yi-young, who had been quietly watching shooting stars crossing the night sky, sighed deeply.
Just a week ago, he never dreamed such things would happen to him. Who could have imagined it? To move dimensions and become someone who was himself yet not himself. Life really is unpredictable.
Seo Yi-young quietly reflected on the past.
There were hardly any good memories.
The only dream he had in life was just to have a room where he could rest comfortably, to have his own home.
In this dimension, he had gotten a house incomparably larger than that single room. Although the danger level had increased considerably, wasn’t it similar in the previous dimension anyway? If it’s like that, he’d rather make a lot of money. Come to think of it, there must be a lot of money that Seo Yi-young earned in this dimension too, so what should he do with that? He thought absent-mindedly.
How many days would he rest after entering a dungeon once and coming out?
He became curious whether there were basic labor laws. Surely they wouldn’t tell him to enter another dungeon right after coming out. If he got out safely, he’d rest a bit, check how much money he’d made, and do some shopping. Not looking at price tags when buying things was one of his bucket list items, and it seemed like he could achieve it.
Time passed quickly while having such various thoughts.
He thought standing night watch would be hard, but it was more bearable than expected. He was just a bit tired from work, never to the level of being hard to endure like staying up all night. Did this also have something to do with being S-grade? He thought that if it was like this, he could have taken turns standing night watch with Choi Do-jun from the beginning.
He couldn’t deal with mobs when they appeared, but he could still stand guard instead.
How far had they gone into the dungeon like this?
How wide was the interior? How much further did they need to go? With such questions, he silently continued walking.
Then at some point.
Choi Do-jun, who had been advancing at the front, stopped walking.
He quietly clenched his hand raised in the air.
At that gesture, the hunters became busy.
Seo Yi-young could instinctively tell.
It’s the boss.
He felt like the surrounding air was rippling.
Something fell to the ground with a thud, and the vibration was so large it shook their bodies. He thought it might be a ball about the size of a person, but it began cracking and swelling up.
“……Good heavens.”
It grew to the size of a 4-story building in an instant.
It seemed to have had long limbs folded up small. It had really good storage capacity. It was like a transformation toy he used to play with as a child.
Seo Yi-young, who had been having such peaceful observations, felt his heart sink when his eyes met with it.
Just looking at it, there was a clear difference from regular mobs.
“New-type dungeon boss, S-grade!”
Someone shouted urgently.
If it was just one, it would be fine. Choi Do-jun was also S-grade and Seo Yi-young was also S-grade. If they joined forces, they could definitely deal with it easily.
Seo Yi-young swallowed his dry saliva.
“Kiiiiek!”
The boss mob cried out making a sound like scraping a blackboard with metal.
Then powder flew from its head part like flower pollen spreading. He thought it might attack by inhalation, but that wasn’t it. All that powder turned into mobs and landed on the ground.
“A-grade mobs!”
Even roughly estimating, there were over ten of them.
There was no way Choi Do-jun could handle all of that alone like before. He didn’t know how strong A-grade was, but it would definitely be difficult to hunt while facing an S-grade boss mob. The fact that Choi Do-jun was currently the only combat hunter was concerning, but there should still be things they could do. There was no way they wouldn’t have considered such things when organizing hunters to deploy in dungeons.
So it’s okay. Even though there are many mobs, if they first reorganize their formation and attack cooperatively, somehow……!
It was when Seo Yi-young looked back toward the other hunters.
Jo Yeon-woo was taking something out of his backpack.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
