Chapter 9

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Translator: 8uhl

Chapter: 9

Chapter Title: Hidden Gate

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Thud, boom!

Rumble, boom!

'Kobolds, huh.'

They were already maxed out on favorability toward her, so the monsters didn't attack Lee Ru-ri directly.

But getting hit by the bombs they threw would still chip away at her health.

She leaped high into the air.

With a cold expression, she gauged the positions of the kobolds milling about before extending her hand.

Fireballs of moderate size rained down, crushing the kobolds.

Confirming no more were moving, Lee Ru-ri bounced back down to the ground.

As she tried to swiftly pass the next spawn area, she spotted an unfamiliar glint amid the debris.

"What's that?"

Picking up the shining objects from the rubble revealed their forms, and their information activated.

'A cube?'

As she fiddled with the cube, a status window automatically popped up.

But it wasn't the system window provided by the Association.

The left side showed her information, and the right displayed details on the Stone Cube she held.

Her eyes widened.

"What kind of ridiculous ability is this...? The cube Han Seung-woo borrowed from the Association only restored about 0.7% mana at best, and what's up with this window anyway?"

She shifted her gaze to check her own info.

"These numbers are totally different from what I got at my last re-evaluation. Does that mean this is my real status? But what do Awakening and Title mean? And why is Senses maxed out?"

She stared at the status window for a good while, but no solid hypothesis came to mind.

Suddenly remembering she was here to find the in-gate shop, she tapped around the window.

She could only resize it—nothing else.

"Hmm, let's clear the monsters first and think later."

Gripping the Stone Cube tightly, Lee Ru-ri headed to the next spawn section.

'I feel a bit bad since I forced Choi Si-jin into this. Han Seung-woo hasn't woken up already and started tormenting him, has he?'

Imagining Choi Si-jin flustered made her hurry.

When she'd encountered Keres in the Tokyo Tower Gate, she'd definitely felt her abdominal organs ripped out intact.

Four healers poured heals into her, but her health bar kept dropping.

Han Seung-woo's pupils were dilating too. Deep down, she knew.

No matter how fast reinforcements arrived, Han Seung-woo's survival odds weren't great.

Finally, her health hit zero, and her heart stopped.

This is death, she'd thought.

Yet here she was, alive. Keres's gift had given her some inkling.

Their deaths were by Keres's hand, and the postponement of those deaths was also by Keres.

'If I could meet Keres... but tackling an upper gate solo would be suicide.'

SS-rank monster Keres.

Nothing was known about SS-rank monsters. That made them all the more terrifying.

'Full preparation. What I need now is to be strong enough never to die facing Keres.'

She'd become a hunter by chance.

For Lee Ru-ri, hunter life was just going with the flow—no dreams, no hopes.

But that day.

The day a heal accidentally hit a goblin, and she learned monsters could favor her.

Her life changed in an instant.

And the encounter with Keres changed it again.

Now, she finally felt the urge to truly live.

"Right, Keres. That thing definitely said it to me. If I really want to die, come find it alive. 'Don't treat your life so lightly'... It pissed me off pretty good."

Monsters spoke. Lee Ru-ri had conversed with Keres.

Keres's provocation.

"Yeah, I'll come find you. Wait for me."

The clearer the memory of meeting Keres, the more her motivation burned. Gritting her teeth, she quickened her pace.

"Achoo!"

Her nose suddenly itched.

"This has to be a moth, right? Wasn't this an F-rank gate? Kobolds were definitely F-rank earlier... This feels really dangerous. The gate rank must be unstable."

Lee Ru-ri leaped into the air again and unleashed Extinction on the moths.

Suddenly curious about the cube's performance, she paused Extinction and hammered the moths with full-power Heals.

Gripping the Stone Cube tight and using Heal triggered favorability alerts from the moths while simultaneously healing her own body, sending waves of warmth through her.

"This is a sensation I've never felt before. It's different from the cube Han Seung-woo gave me. What is it?"

Excitement welled up.

The feeling of incoming heals made her heart pound fiercely, pumping blood aggressively.

Whenever mana filled, she casually fired off Extinction, taking down the moths.

Trophies from the moths glimmered here and there on the ground.

After wiping them all out without mercy, she landed and looked around. Sure enough, silver glints caught her eye.

"Just like with the copper pieces."

She picked them up one by one.

"If E-rank Black Moths drop silver fragments, gold must come from the next rank up."

"Choi Si-jin."

"I'm sorry! Truly sorry! But Ru-ri made it so awkward for me, she just..."

"Choi Si-jin."

"N-no! It's all my fault. Should I... bang my head on the floor...?"

"Ha... Ru-ri's not in a normal state right now, my leg's like this so I can't go help, but you sent her there alone? You, the most able-bodied one? You're here, and Ru-ri's in the gate by herself?"

"Ah, so that's my mistake. I have no face left... But she threatened me, said she had to go alone no matter what... I'm wronged too!"

"You've got plenty to be wronged about. How much time's passed?"

"About three hours."

"No clear signature yet?"

"Yeah. She said she'd be back as fast as possible... Said it'd take less than 30 minutes, but it's taking a bit."

Han Seung-woo pressed his temples with his index finger.

Choi Si-jin trembled at the danger signal of intense anger, waiting silently for orders.

"Who's managing this gate?"

"No gate subjugation requests right now, so I'm handling it. The Chairman and Vice Chairman are flying back on the seven o'clock flight. Soon as they arrive, they'll sort the Japan dispatch team, so manpower should fill up quick."

"Even they're heading back early. Choi Si-jin, send some folks from HQ. Feels like she might do something crazy while I'm stuck here."

"I already contacted our people since those two seemed in a rush, which was weird. Word is, they're finally pushing the guild system."

"Damn money-grubbers. How many upper-rank Association hunters we got?"

"Including Chairman and Vice Chairman, five S-ranks. Eleven A-ranks including the Director."

"Eun-woo didn't promote this time?"

"Yeah. Gear issues kept his DPS below A-rank threshold, so close..."

"Ah, right, Han Gyeol skimmed off Eun-woo's materials midway."

"Everyone's up in arms about that, gave me a headache."

"Eun-woo'll come straight here, right?"

"Yes. Probably already en route. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Director and Eun-woo hyung will handle things here for a bit."

"When's your promotion exam, Choi Si-jin?"

"Next month. Pull it forward?"

"Yeah, good idea. Once that sly old fox opens the guild system, we launch as planned."

"We're a bit short on numbers, though?"

"Came up at the meeting. Guild creation threshold's twenty members, so how many short?"

"Go Jun-ki hasn't committed yet. If he joins us, we're just one short."

"Yang Go-jun. His S-rank promo's coming up soon, right?"

"Yeah. Probably why he's waffling."

"He'll come to us eventually. One spot left..."

"H-how about Ru-ri?"

"I was thinking that too. For now, let's watch."

Beep.

"Oh? Looks like Ru-ri cleared it!"

"Check it."

"Be right back!"

Choi Si-jin dashed to the gate control room, eyes on his status window.

Lee Ru-ri spoke in a voice thick with irritation.

"This is so damn annoying."

Two hours earlier.

Up until reaching the third monster, Lee Ru-ri hadn't anticipated what was coming.

She figured at worst a new E-rank would show, so she strolled along swinging her shopping bag.

After walking quite a ways, she arrived at the third monster's area and froze for a moment.

There was an ogre just like the one she'd fought with Cheon Ye-jong, rolling stones around playfully with a baby ogre.

"Crazy."

Tense as hell, she approached the two ogres.

"Favorability isn't maxed yet, so using an attack skill now might get me killed in a blink."

The ogres, having a bit of favor from last time, ignored her for now.

But using a skill would change that.

To gain monster skills, she needed to max favorability first; otherwise, attack skills triggered merciless assaults.

Blind attacks weren't an option right now.

Backing off to put some distance, she squatted and pondered.

With the insanely powerful Stone Cube, should she go for it and bail if things went south?

Or give up here?

She opened her skill window to review.

Her frequent Leap skill. It let her jump about twice an ogre's height.

An ogre leaping and swinging its club would be dangerous.

But it wasn't all doom and gloom.

She had that amazing cube in hand.

"Alright, let's try. I can always bail if it doesn't work."

Steel resolve. She steadied her muscles with deep breaths.

The mother ogre would go wilder to protect her young.

"Gotta focus even harder than usual."

Lee Ru-ri narrowed her eyes, psyching herself up for what was to come.

No potions left. Max mana would bottom out, and until Heal kicked in, not even a hair's breadth could graze her from ogre attacks.

Lee Ru-ri shouted at the top of her lungs.

The instant the mother ogre thrashed for an attack, she slammed in a Heal.

The Healed ogres turned utterly docile.

But another attack skill would plunge them back into deadly mode.

A split-second off-timing meant game over.

She steadied her breathing slowly, then the moment mana topped off, she yelled.