Chapter 13
There were bystanders. Hyun-jun didn’t know where the Dungeon Out had started, but the only monster in sight was the orc shaman he’d just put down. More idiots had chosen to stop and watch, filming everything on their phones, than to run.
“I didn’t even see it move…”
At someone’s muttered remark, Hyun-jun let out a short sigh and shook his head. There was no way an ordinary person could follow the movements of a proper hunter. Besides, he was fast even by C-Class standards.
Hyun-jun swept his gaze over the area. The orc shaman’s body had vanished, leaving behind a magic stone that he examined with open curiosity.
“It looks like a Dungeon Out has occurred. Run.”
A few people seemed to inch away, but most of them still refused to leave their spectator mode. Dungeon Outs were rare enough that they hadn’t fully grasped how serious the situation was.
This should be enough.
Hyun-jun didn’t tell the civilians to run again. Evacuation wasn’t his territory, so a warning like that was enough. The rest was their fault if they stayed.
It should be about time now...
There was no way only one monster had appeared in the middle of the city. If a Dungeon Out had truly happened, then dozens more were bound to pour out soon enough.
“Aaah!”
The instant several bursts of mana presence rippled through the air, screams erupted. Just as he’d expected, there must have been a dungeon entrance nearby. Bloodied people were bursting out of an underground shopping arcade. Only then did the bystanders finally realize the situation was grave and begin to flee.
So the dungeon entrance is connected to the underground mall?
It was rare, but not unheard of. He vaguely remembered seeing on the news that cases like this led to severe casualties.
This is a mess.
He frowned. When a Dungeon Out or a raid occurred, hunters in the surrounding area were not free agents. They had to intervene somehow. And if they had to intervene no matter what...
Then I become a hero.
A vicious smile crept over Hyun-jun’s mouth. It was a thoroughly self-serving way to think and act. He gripped his spear and shield and hurled himself into the underground shopping arcade.
It was crowded even on weekdays. Since a Dungeon Out had occurred, he’d expected chaos, but no. It was dead silent. That wasn’t because everyone had fallen orderly quiet, either. There was simply no one to be seen.
That’s strange...
Hyun-jun read the ominous atmosphere hanging over the underground passage. For a moment, he wondered if they might all be gathered somewhere, but he immediately shook his head. This shopping arcade didn’t even have enough space to hold all its visitors.
“What the hell...”
Just as he was scanning the area with a suspicious look,
Hashashin’s sinister laughter warns you of danger. An evil plot is unfolding nearby.
Hashashin’s blessing had activated.
A plot?
Was someone saying they had deliberately triggered the Dungeon Out? It wasn’t impossible. In fact, when guild executive factions were stabbing each other in the back, Dungeon Outs were often used for exactly that. Honestly, Hyun-jun didn’t care about any of it. As long as it didn’t drag him in, it was someone else’s problem.
He kept walking. Monsters did appear from time to time, but the scale was too small to call it a real Dungeon Out.
“The suppression team should have been here by now...”
The words slipped out under his breath. It had been thirty minutes since he entered the underground shopping arcade. By now, the Dungeon Management Bureau’s suppression team should have arrived, but there was nothing. Something was wrong. As Hashashin’s blessing had warned, he had a bad feeling he’d been tangled up in some nasty scheme.
“Damn it...”
The curse flew out the moment he turned a corner. The thick reek of blood stabbed at his nose, and the cafe just ahead was packed with corpses. There were drag marks on the floor, as if someone had deliberately hauled them out of the way.
A human did this.
Hyun-jun was certain of it. It was vanishingly unlikely that monsters had moved the bodies. He carefully examined the corpses.
Just as I thought.
The assassin’s knowledge, engraved through Hashashin’s blessing, concluded that these were not deaths caused by monsters. Hyun-jun’s expression hardened as he looked around. His sharpened senses caught a presence.
“Hah, hah!”
The breathing was close enough that he could hear it clearly. He pressed himself against the wall, shield raised to hide his body, and timed his strike. The blade touched the neck of a man in a suit. Exactly at that moment, the man froze.
A hunter.
Not the reflexes of an ordinary person. Hyun-jun flicked his eyes over the man from head to toe. Now that he looked, the man was covered in blood and holding a dagger.
“You’re a hunter. I don’t know your rank, but you’d better run.”
The man spoke. He carefully raised both hands to show he had no intention of attacking.
Hashashin’s sinister laughter warns you of danger. Someone is aiming for your heart.
Hashashin’s blessing warned him again. Another presence had appeared. This time, there were a few more of them.
“Are they your friends?”
“I’d like them to be.”
The instant Hyun-jun lowered the blade from the man’s neck, black-clad figures emerged from both sides of the underground passage. At a glance, they looked exactly like people who would do illegal work.
“Which executive branch are you from?”
Keeping himself behind the shield, he tossed out the question. Unless they belonged to a guild’s executive branch, there were very few lunatics bold enough to carry out something like this.
“As if we’d tell you that...”
“They’re from the Echo Guild’s executive branch. I’m certain of it.”
The man spoke. Whether that was true or not, the eyes of the executive hunter standing before him twitched. His face was hidden by a mask, making it impossible to read his expression, but Hyun-jun figured it wouldn’t matter much either way.
“No choice, then. I was going to let you go peacefully, but now I have no choice but to kill you.”
That was a lie. He had intended to kill him from the start. Hyun-jun raised his sword.
“You want to fight?”
“Yeah. Your guys talking is getting on my nerves.”
“You’re all mouth.”
Hyun-jun gave them the first move. There were three executive hunters in front and two behind him. But perhaps because they thought their captain would win, none of them moved. It wasn’t baseless confidence. The captain’s sword was already wrapped in an Aura Blade.
He uses aura?
The executive hunter in front of him was B-Class. Definitely not A-Class.
Carthago’s righteous shield protects you. So long as the great guardian stands with you, nothing can threaten you.
Carthago’s blessing began. Since hunters’ weapons and armor were already coated in mana by default, they could respond to aura to some extent, but to truly face it, one had to use aura as well.
“What the hell? An Aura Shield?”
The captain’s sword slammed into the shield. The collision of aura sent fragments of mana scattering in every direction. He clearly hadn’t expected Hyun-jun to be an aura user.
“Shit!”
“Too late.”
He tried to retreat in a panic, but Hyun-jun was a step faster. Using Carthago’s shield technique, he deflected the captain’s sword. He didn’t merely send it aside; he threw off the man’s balance entirely, shattering his stance.
“W-what the hell kind of bullshit is this...!”
The difference in combat experience was crushing. The captain had plenty of real combat under his belt, but he was nowhere near comparable to Hyun-jun, who had survived thousands of battles.
“Aghhh!”
The sword thrust forward and sank into the captain’s abdomen.
“Captain!”
“No way!”
The other executive hunters finally sprang into action. But by the time they raised their weapons, the captain’s head had already hit the cold floor, spilling blood everywhere.
“At least B-Class!”
“Go in together! Surround him!”
The executive hunters moved.
B-Class for one, C-Class for the other three?
Hyun-jun sized them up with Hashashin’s ability. Fortunately, only one of them was B-Class. They closed the distance in an instant, swords swinging.
Crash!
Shield bash!
“Aghhh!”
The executive hunter smashed by an aura-empowered shield screamed as he flew backward. Every bone in his body had shattered, twisting him into a grotesque shape.
“A monst... monster...”
Another executive hunter, who had been rushing in, backed away with fear in his face. A fine target. Hyun-jun didn’t refuse the meal already laid out before him. He sprinted at the man and swung his sword.
“Guhk!”
He slashed his throat. A red spray burst into the air. The executive hunter swayed weakly, then lost his life. The others were no different. They rushed him together, but against Hyun-jun they held out only a moment before becoming corpses as well.
Wiped out.
“No way... are you an A-Class hunter?”
“Does that matter?”
At Hyun-jun’s reply, the man gave a faint smile and shook his head.
“Of course not.”
“Let’s deal with the Dungeon Out first.”
“No need. The Echo Guild did try to interfere, but by now the official assault team will have arrived at that dungeon.”
Come to think of it, the monsters had stopped appearing at some point.
“First off, nice to meet you. I’m Kim Tae-min, head of the Wraith Guild’s executive branch. I’m B-Class.”
Hyun-jun remembered reading posts about the Wraith Guild on the hunter community boards. It was apparently a small guild even among the Bronze-tier guilds.
“I’m Kang Hyun-jun, a C-Class hunter.”
“Pleasure to meet you, Kang Hyun-jun.”
He seemed a little surprised by the mention of C-Class, but soon smiled and offered his hand. The two men clasped hands.
“This is my contact information. Soon, I’ll repay you for saving my life.”
Hyun-jun wanted to continue the conversation, but a strange voice interrupted.
Ripper, the blood-soaked killer, has begun watching you. Astonished by your string of murders, he has opened his eyes. If you can satisfy him, he will grant you power.
Another one had awakened.