Chapter 43
Chapter 43
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 43
Chapter Title: How the Rank 1 Hero Protects the World
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Lee Woo-yeon stopped in his tracks before rushing to the collapsing Kang Ye-na. It was because he spotted a golden message floating in the air.
It was an announcement visible to all Hunters in the castle.
- Be careful not to arouse suspicion about your identity.
The message had appeared the moment he instinctively called out her name upon seeing her faint.
No further information appeared in the message, but it was obvious... It meant penalties would apply if his identity came under suspicion.
Lee Woo-yeon stood frozen in place, closing his eyes tightly before opening them again.
Even for him, it took a moment to sort out his priorities.
In other words, time to mentally prepare himself.
Since the person he possessed was the Castle Lord, rushing over to support her directly would likely invite suspicion from those around. Calling out the name "Kang Ye-na" in front of everyone was risky enough to begin with.
That left the question of what exactly was permitted, but now was not the time to test the limits out of curiosity.
He had used magic and wings when flying to aid Kang Ye-na against the Boss Monster, and no such message had appeared then.
So, using the abilities of the Hunter he possessed was fine, but direct communication between them was restricted.
It made sense. Completely restricting abilities would make the mission impossible from the start, and since this was a possession scenario, unrestricted conversation would be too unbalanced. They must have applied some balance patch.
It was always like that. Lee Woo-yeon curled the corner of his mouth in a wry smile. Hope torment, basically.
Lee Woo-yeon watched as the knights nearby caught Kang Ye-na just before she hit the ground. Thanks to the Castle Lord's memories, he could recall the names of the others beside her, but the name of the Knight Captain she possessed was blank.
This was quite the peculiar situation. With that thought, Lee Woo-yeon issued orders as the Castle Lord.
"The Captain seems to have overexerted herself. Take her back to the castle and let her rest. Lady May, I leave it to you."
"Your will be done."
Elisa May saluted and supported Kang Ye-na. She hadn't looked well to begin with, but now she appeared on the verge of death, as if her breath might stop at any moment.
Beside her, Damon O'Neill wore a pained expression.
"Captain, you must be badly hurt after all."
"It's not a serious injury. I'll recover with some rest."
"No need to comfort us, my lord."
Damon replied, clenching his fist tightly. Fortunately, no warning message appeared before Lee Woo-yeon's eyes about acting unbecoming of the Castle Lord.
"...If I had been stronger, the Captain wouldn't have had to charge in alone."
Well, it probably wasn't a matter of strength or lack thereof.
Lee Woo-yeon thought to himself.
He didn't know the original Knight Captain's personality, but he had a rough idea of Kang Ye-na's.
Of course, this was only the second time they had raided a dungeon together. The second time they had even met.
They weren't friends, let alone proper colleagues—it was embarrassing to even call it that.
But in life-or-death situations, anyone's true nature shows.
In that sense, Lee Woo-yeon had seen her true self twice now.
Even if Damon or Elisa had been stronger, the outcome would have been the same.
That was just who she was. She hated seeing others get hurt and tried to handle everything alone without looking back.
If she lacked the ability and pulled stunts like that, she'd learn her lesson the hard way or die trying. But Kang Ye-na had the skills and combat sense to actually pull it off, which was the problem.
It had been five years since the System and dungeons appeared on Earth.
He had no idea where she'd been until now, but she must have given those around her plenty of headaches.
"Ah, am I the one getting a taste of that feeling this time?"
Come to think of it, that seemed to be the case.
It didn't feel bad, but it was a strange sensation.
There had only been one reason he never had proper teammates.
Korea simply lacked people who could keep up with his pace in dungeon raids.
Sure, he had acquaintances from raids or people he shared info with, but they were mostly temporary.
"If things stay like this, she could be an ideal partner."
He didn't know her exact class, but it was definitely physical attack-based, and her anti-magic properties were perfect.
For pure dungeon raiding, she'd make a great partner.
The issue was that she had plenty of reasons to suspect him, but if they could clear dungeons, that was fine.
Only after watching the people carry the unconscious Kang Ye-na on a stretcher to the field hospital did Lee Woo-yeon turn away.
He hadn't seen exactly how she fought the SS-rank Monster, but she had come close to succeeding. Reaching that state meant it wasn't a conventional method.
He knew she didn't spare her body, but was there really any need to go that far?
Unless there was some reason...
- Lee Woo-yeon, what are you doing right now?
At that moment, a voice pierced directly into his mind, like a ringing in his brain. An utterly unpleasant sensation.
Lee Woo-yeon sighed once before focusing his mind.
- Skill: Telepathy used. Transmitting thoughts to designated target, Player Name: Lee Seon.
- Just thinking about something. Where are you right now, Hunter Lee Seon?
Telepathy, a skill sometimes manifested by mages. It allowed designation of up to three targets, changeable anytime as long as their Player Name was known.
Of course, it wasn't omnipotent—there were distance limits—but they were on the same field now, so no issue.
It couldn't transmit to more than three at once, and since it sent thoughts directly into the target's mind, it often caused headaches and wasn't used frequently.
Still, it was useful here, allowing quick situation assessment even when possessing near-unrelated characters.
- I've found five so far. They were imprisoned. Looking for the rest. We have wait time, so I'll search as much as possible.
- Understood.
The rookie Hunters had been imprisoned for suspicious behavior, just as Lee Woo-yeon and Lee Seon predicted.
A wasted six days.
It was regrettable.
If they had pushed with firepower early on, they might have restricted the Boss Monster's abilities and pulled it off somehow.
Well, what was done was done.
The silver lining was that Lee Seon possessed the highest-ranking jailer managing the castle's prison. He had more freedom of movement than Lee Woo-yeon and could easily slip out the imprisoned ones.
- What's your impression of the enemy forces?
- Not many mages. Lucky for us.
- With numbers like that, it's hardly just luck.
- We'll make do somehow.
- Got it. How's Ye-na?
This time, genuine worry colored the voice.
Kang Ye-na—no, the Knight Captain—had collapsed, causing quite a commotion right in front of the castle gates, but it seemed Lee Seon wasn't watching this side now.
- She's passed out.
- What?! Then shouldn't you at least heal her?
The voice in his head grew urgent.
His head throbbed.
Lee Woo-yeon grimaced, then met the eyes of Damon O'Neill and Miguel Boyle, who remained nearby.
Both wore deeply worried expressions.
"A-are you alright?"
"You must have overdone it. Using that much mana will strain your body."
Something about those words gave Lee Woo-yeon a sense of incongruity.
Mages were rare in this world, yet they spoke as if the Castle Lord had always wielded mana.
Was the Castle Lord originally a mage?
Possibly.
But he could only speculate.
He had inherited almost none of the Castle Lord's memories, so information was scarce. Compared to Lee Seon, even less had been passed on.
That meant the Castle Lord hadn't held crucial info, but it was useless in this situation anyway.
Lee Woo-yeon donned his silver mask again. Better than having every expression scrutinized.
"Don't worry about me. Instead, rally the soldiers on the walls and tend to the wounded."
"Understood!"
"Your will be done."
- I figured as much. She kept chugging potions earlier. She'll need some downtime.
Potions made with magic took effect immediately, but overdosing beyond what the body could handle caused side effects.
Vomiting, dizziness... severe cases even internal bleeding.
Since it was the body rejecting excess external mana, healing magic could make it worse.
In cases like this, someone like Jo Han-yul, an SS-rank designated by the government, was unavoidable, but he wished for someone like Pine Cone.
Too bad he couldn't bring her now.
In Lee Woo-yeon's view, Kang Ye-na was in no state for more potions. Rest was better.
- Just let her rest. She'll recover after a few hours of sleep.
The siege would last until the eighth day anyway, so giving her some rest made sense.
- Thanks to Kang Ye-na, the Boss Monster likely needs cooldown time too, and seems restricted. She thought the same.
- So the next phase is rest time for each camp's boss?
Lee Seon grasped it immediately.
Still a capable Hunter.
Lee Woo-yeon couldn't help chuckling dryly at the joking tone.
Well, it wasn't wrong. The kings of each camp were effectively on forced cooldown.
But the next phase would be up to just Lee Woo-yeon and Lee Seon.
- Next phase aside, what's our odds of beating the Boss Monster?
Regardless of his competence, Lee Woo-yeon had already informed him it was an SS-rank, so Lee Seon's voice darkened.
- Truth is, no one's faced one before, so hard to gauge...
Lee Woo-yeon hadn't fought an SS-rank either. In Korea, it had appeared only once, five years ago.
That dungeon was cleared not by killing the Boss Monster, but by survivors fulfilling a hidden clear condition.
- Still, we can't give up. If dungeon difficulty keeps rising, we'll face it eventually.
- True enough. Sigh, at least we have rankers.
Lee Seon clicked his tongue.
- Speaking of, this is some fantasy balance. Boss Monster's magic-based, so mages can't handle it. But clearing the prerequisite minions requires AoE from mages.
Exactly.
Shields weren't unbreakable against physical impacts, but the only mages in this dungeon were Lee Woo-yeon and Lee Seon.
With constant mana infusion, they could theoretically withstand normal physical attacks for hours.
However, near a magic-wielding Boss Monster, mana control became difficult.
Mages' shields would fail.
Victory or defeat hinged largely on whether mages could kill over 30% of the minions before the Boss emerged.
Otherwise, even if Kang Ye-na recovered, they couldn't take it down.
- If dungeons keep this pattern, magic Boss Monsters are practically impossible without Kang Ye-na.
- Korea does lack physical attackers among rankers. But what about Baek Sa-hyeon?
- He'd need Yang Tae-won with him. Baek Sa-hyeon babies his body.
- Woo-yeon, wanna see Tae-won die of frustration?
- What do I care if that guy lives or dies...
- ...Well, this is a sudden dungeon, so it'll vanish after clear. Too early to worry.
- Yeah. Bottom line: impossible without Kang Ye-na. Thoughts as a government Hunter?
- Maybe up the benefits for swordmaster graduates at the academy?
- Quite leisurely thinking. Will the System wait for Hunter training?
- You always make it sound like we're racing doom. I get it, though.
Lee Seon sounded exasperated, clicking his tongue.
As the strongest government mage from Professor Kim Sook-ja's group, he had his thoughts.
Lee Woo-yeon, a magic swordsman himself, acknowledged magic's overwhelming firepower, but monster affinities existed.
Swordmaster training was essential.
'Korea desperately needs more physical attack classes right now.'
Modern people lacked exercise, rarely suited for combat, and few unlocked body-risking classes in life-or-death fights. It was natural.
Kang Ye-na's presence here was a stroke of luck.
Wherever she came from, it didn't matter enough to dwell on.
Lee Seon probably felt the same.
- We really owe Ye-na big time. Gotta repay her.
- Everyone knows Hunter Lee Seon can't stand owing debts. What'll you do?
Teasing back, the response turned playful. For a government Hunter, Lee Seon got along decently with Lee Woo-yeon.
- Should I change my Player Name too? Then Ye-na might not bolt.
Hearing that, Lee Woo-yeon burst out laughing. Passersby stared oddly, but he couldn't help it.
Too funny.
So, Kang Ye-na.
You do plan to hide it, right?