Chapter 104
Chapter 104
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 104
Chapter Title: Chapter 21: Tomb Raiders (4)
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It felt like getting punched by a formless sound.
What else could that mean?
This wasn’t the noise from a mere dozen or tens of monsters.
‘Th-this has to be at least a hundred, right?’
An insane horde of monsters was charging in.
Thanks to his past experience, he could vividly picture that ridiculous scene.
Yang Tae-ho’s mind, gone pale from the sudden crisis, raced even faster.
In that split instant, a jumble of thoughts tangled up.
Was it really okay to leave this guy here all by himself?
‘No matter how strong he is.’
Could he seriously take on that many monsters solo?
‘Shouldn’t I help him out?’
Of course, Yang Tae-ho had no obligation to help the man.
The guy had even told him to get lost quick, straight from his own mouth.
Talking about mob hunting and all that—he’d probably brought this on himself.
So he could just prioritize his own safety and bail without any guilt.
That’s what his head kept telling him, so why couldn’t he tear his feet away? Why was he still hesitating?
“Urgh.”
Like he’d read the debate raging in Yang Tae-ho’s heart?
The man, who’d been staring at the direction of the rumbling ground, turned to look at him.
“Why?”
Then he let out a light chuckle.
“Planning to lend a hand?”
The man’s face, his voice, his gestures—even the way he stood was perfectly calm.
It was a stark contrast to the dark shadows starting to loom beyond his shoulder.
Monsters barreling toward them like they’d swallow everything whole, and this guy standing behind like he was out for a casual stroll.
Was he catching that absurd disconnect?
Even in this dire pinch, Yang Tae-ho’s heart settled into calm.
That’s how he managed to pivot on his toes and ask.
“You need any help?”
His body, which had been angled southeast like he was about to bolt any second, was now squared toward the man.
As if to say he was ready to jump in whenever.
“Not really.”
But the man shook his head without a shred of hesitation.
He even straightened up to face the monsters head-on again.
It felt like he was drawing a hard line: he didn’t need anyone else’s help.
Yang Tae-ho felt a little deflated. Had he stuck his neck out for nothing?
Forcing aid on someone who didn’t want it would just be selfish self-satisfaction.
He decided to drop any lingering attachment and leave.
“Well...”
But a hint of amusement in the man’s voice held him back.
“If you do help, it’ll wrap up quicker.”
It was like Yang Tae-ho had been waiting for those words—he gripped his shield tight right away.
“Whew.”
What a weird feeling.
Monsters swarming in behind the man in numbers too vast to take in at a glance.
Sure, there was tension, but no real sense of crisis.
It was exactly like flipping through a story where you already knew the ending.
That’s when Yang Tae-ho was racking his brain to make sense of this bizarre turn.
“Show me some real skills first.”
The man adjusted his grip on his spear and jabbed it toward the monsters.
No need to ask what he meant.
The guy even tilted his chin their way, like he was daring him to give it a shot.
‘He’s gonna judge me or something?’
The attitude was arrogant bordering on outright cocky.
Seeing this kid he’d never met before sizing him up stung his pride a touch.
But for some reason, Yang Tae-ho’s gut screamed that this was his chance.
Less a thought and more raw instinct, really.
Whatever. The reason didn’t matter at this point.
‘Too awkward to back out now anyway.’
Good thing he’d hastily chugged some potions for a mana boost—enough to pull off a defense spell.
Yang Tae-ho clicked his tongue but stepped forward anyway.
He passed the man and planted himself facing the monsters, clenching his attribute mana.
“Hup!”
Rock-element attribute mana magic: Barrier Stack.
Temoria players could snag one shop spell for free thanks to the East faction buff.
‘The spell I learned right after unlocking the attribute!’
He arranged his mana along the blueprint loaded into his head, and jagged rocks began thrusting up from where he stood.
‘With this many monsters, gotta spread it wide!’
Cover a broad area, but dense—no gaps between the rocks.
Make it sturdy so it wouldn’t crumble or budge on impact.
‘Nail all three, and then you can call yourself a tank anywhere.’
Yang Tae-ho gritted his teeth and scraped together every last drop of mana to manifest the spell.
Rocks several meters across kept stretching out to either side like a bird’s wings.
It looked like a shrunken-down giant barrier.
The shape and size weren’t perfectly even, but these were meters-thick slabs of rock.
The monsters charging straight at it couldn’t punch through—they slammed right into it.
Even the massive evolved ones rammed the wall one after another.
“Whu...?”
In that moment, Yang Tae-ho let out a dumb noise without thinking and craned his neck up.
Five human-torso-sized fireballs were sailing right over his head.
BOOM!
An unreal explosion roared out, followed by massive flames erupting beyond the wall.
He was standing there dumbfounded, entranced by the sight, when the man behind him—now in position—yanked three black short spears from his back and hurled them one by one.
CRUNCH, SPLAT!
Sounds of something shattering and pulping echoed out.
But that wasn’t the end. This time, instead of fireballs, the man himself scaled Yang Tae-ho’s barrier.
He dropped right into the midst of two writhing evolved monsters amid the roaring inferno.
“Th-that...!”
Yang Tae-ho gulped in panicked breath at the insanely risky move.
Pointless worry, though. The man effortlessly leaped over the evolved monster’s backhand swing.
And it wasn’t just evasion.
He stomped down on its arm with a crunch and thrust his spear.
The motion was so fast it left afterimages.
Each time, a blue flash erupted, followed by the evolved monster’s agonized screams.
Even more shocking: every swing and stab tore the evolved monster’s body apart or shredded it to chunks.
This was a beast a full five-man party would chip away at HP, pile on wounds, and barely finish with a fatal blow—and he was toying with it.
“Whoa...”
One second he’s planted on the ground, next he’s airborne, slamming his spear down into an evolved monster.
No sooner is he perched on one than he’s pierced its skull and leaped at the next.
Watching the man’s movements—so fast it was hard to track with the naked eye—Yang Tae-ho got it.
That wasn’t movement any East faction player could pull off.
‘Silver badge.’
The instant Yang Tae-ho realized it, the man fighting the evolved monsters landed lightly on the ground.
All that remained where he stood was scorched earth, flickering embers crackling away, and heaps of corpses belching acrid smoke.
Among them, one massive corpse especially caught the eye—its head impaled on a short spear.
Beyond the two evolved monsters he’d taken down personally, three more lay dead with black short spears buried in their eyes or foreheads.
No fluke or luck. That player could one-shot evolved monsters.
‘Their bones are so damn tough...’
You needed at least some concentration skill to even sever the bones.
Yet this guy pierced hide and bone alike with a single throw and dropped them dead.
It all made perfect sense now—why he’d flatly stated he didn’t need help.
He was still staring in a daze, wondering how the hell that was possible, when the man scanned the surroundings and muttered.
“Man, these small fry are such a pain.”
He extended his hand like he was putting on a show, and suddenly dust billowed as the ground thrust up in spikes.
Each one drew death rattles from the monsters skewered in the corpse piles.
Guess a few hadn’t quite died yet.
“Wh-what the...”
Yang Tae-ho, who’d witnessed the whole thing, muttered out loud without meaning to.
No wonder he was floored. In that fight, the man had wielded three elements.
He’d figured wind magic at first, then bam—fire magic, and on top of that, earth element control.
‘Stacking? Triple-stacking?’
Yang Tae-ho, seeing triple-stack elements for the first time, gulped hard. That’s when the man, having wrapped up the hunt, turned to him.
* * *
‘Was gonna cut him loose if he lacked the guts.’
He didn’t bolt at the sight of the monsters I’d lured—instead, he stepped up to help.
Sticking around to back me up meant he wasn’t like those other guys who bailed first.
‘Might not be the backstabbing type.’
I turned to the dazed tanker.
“What should I call you?”
I asked straight-up for his name, and the man startled like he’d snapped awake.
Then he blurted.
“Hey, name’s Yang Tae-ho... whoops!”
Hadn’t meant to give his real name?
Yang Tae-ho frantically clapped both hands over his mouth.
His eyes darted around in anxious pity.
A blunder for him, but not bad for me.
Knowing his real name meant I could run a background check if needed.
‘Not planning to right now, though.’
I’d saved him earlier because he had rock-element mana.
Heading underground? A guy with earth—and specifically rock-attribute mana?
Perfect insurance against getting buried alive.
That was the extent of it. No plans to get any more tangled up with Yang Tae-ho.
‘Still, just in case.’
I committed his real name to memory.
His dialect pegged him as from Honam, too—handy for any digging later.
I filed away the info and asked casually.
“What’s your code name?”
Pulling himself together, Yang Tae-ho popped open his status window.
The code name floating there: Pudding.
It had this weird charm that perfectly undercut his tough-guy build.
‘Body like a pro wrestler or sumo guy... code name Pudding.’
Probably a sweets fiend. Whatever, not worth dwelling on.
I had no intention of calling him by his code name anyway.
‘Pudding-nim? Pudding-ssi? All sound off.’
So I settled on skipping the name altogether and asked.
“You a mercenary?”
Not solo, not tied to a fixed party.
They hopped between groups, filled key roles, and took a cut of the loot—mercs, as the community called ’em.
“Uh, y-yeah.”
Just confirming, but sure enough, Yang Tae-ho nodded readily.
No surprise there; I’d figured as much.
His old party had ditched him and run at the first sign of trouble.
‘If they had any camaraderie, they wouldn’t all bail like that at once.’
One of them must’ve hesitated.
But not a single one of those four looked back.
That’s why I was dead certain he was a merc.
“Your party’s toast anyway...”
No reason to hold back on the pitch.
“It’s a one- or two-day gig. Up for tagging along?”
His eyes went wide like it hadn’t crossed his mind at all.
Mouth flapping open and shut like he was too shocked to speak.
Instead of waiting for him to collect himself, I pushed for an answer.
“I’ll give you 30% of the loot.”
Average merc cut ran 10-15% of combat hauls.
So I threw out a fat number to kill any refusal impulse.
“Call this advance pay.”
I tossed him a gold coin from the old Kairot Kingdom I’d picked up on the way.
He fumbled but snagged it, peeking past my shoulder to check it out.
His silence didn’t last.
“...Deal.”
And just like that, I’d picked up an unplanned companion.
Goddamned System