Chapter 14
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 14: Party
The Sungcheon Guild is a guild where avengers gathered.
Originally, it was no different from an ordinary guild, but it changed into a gathering of avengers when Baek Yeon lost her parents.
Therefore, the guild executives were also mostly people who had lost family members to monsters and harbored a desire for revenge in their hearts, and such executives no longer recognized Baek Yeon, who had survived by owing her life to a monster (Nidhogg), as the Guild Master.
It's not that Baek Yeon meekly stepped down from the Guild Master position with both eyes open.
Because she wanted to protect the guild her parents created, she appealed her situation—what she had heard about me—and her unchanging desire for revenge at the gathering of executives.
However, they did not properly listen to the words of her, whose appearance had changed so much she should now be called half-human, half-dragon.
At least they wouldn't be hostile since she saved the now former Guild Master Baek Yeon, but they would keep an eye on her future actions, and Baek Yeon was dismissed from the Guild Master position.
Thus, dismissed from the Guild Master position in just a week, Baek Yeon wandered with nowhere to go and ended up coming to our house.
I asked Baek Yeon, who suddenly visited late in the morning and delivered the absurd news.
"How did you know where we live?"
"Ah. After my body became like this, I became able to know where you are, Lord Nidhogg."
Is it the influence of subordination?
I also could know where she was, but I didn't know she could also know my location.
"Since you stepped down from the Guild Master position, what do you plan to do from now on?"
"At first, I thought about hunting monsters alone, but... if it's alright with you, I would like to form a party with Ms. Shin Su-ah."
"Me?"
Shin Su-ah panicked at suddenly being singled out.
From her perspective, since she planned to go around monopolizing hidden serendipitous encounters with me, it was actually troublesome if Baek Yeon interfered.
"I appreciate it, but I..."
"Ah. You may have all the things obtained from hunting or exploring, Ms. Shin Su-ah."
"I look forward to working with you."
She tried to refuse at first, but she changed her attitude at Baek Yeon's words and accepted the party without a moment's hesitation.
I wondered if this was right, but thinking she could climb to a higher place faster if the two of them worked together, I just let it be.
Thus, the two officially formed a party, and since we planned to run a Gate starting today, I asked what Baek Yeon was going to do.
"If Ms. Shin Su-ah, the party leader, is going, I will also follow. Since I couldn't hunt for a week because I was only arguing at the guild, my body aches too..."
"Don't you need to pack your gear separately?"
"Ah. Could you follow me for a moment?"
Following Baek Yeon, who took the lead out of the house, she immediately pressed the door lock number of the house right next door and opened the door.
"I ended up moving next door. I look forward to working with you."
Isn't she too full of drive?
What was she going to do if we didn't accept her into the party?
When I asked about it, an answer came back immediately.
"I planned to follow you around until you accepted me."
"What kind of stalker are you..."
"Of course, I planned to follow you secretly so I wouldn't get caught."
"You really are a stalker?!"
Within me, Baek Yeon's danger level, which hadn't risen even when she viewed me as a monster, rose by one stage.
Baek Yeon, who went inside the house and quickly came out packed with her gear, smiled softly and said.
"Let's depart."
Since we had also already packed all the necessary luggage, we came down the apartment and tried to at least catch a taxi, but this time too, Baek Yeon, taking out a car key from her luggage, guided us to her car.
I really don't know how far her preparedness goes.
Quite some time passed since we loaded our luggage into her car and departed, and the place we arrived at was a Gate located in Pyeongtaek, situated at the edge of Gyeonggi-do.
The Gate rank is B, and the mainly appearing monsters are Minotaurs.
An overwhelmingly easy Gate for Shin Su-ah, who has already received an A-rank evaluation, and Baek Yeon, who has even surpassed S-rank by receiving my power, to go to.
But naturally, there's a reason we came all the way here.
"It's a suitable Gate to warm up and coordinate our teamwork."
Since it was just Minotaurs that pushed forward purely with physical prowess, her words weren't particularly wrong, but...
"Let's go in first."
"Yes."
The three of us, having moved in front of the Gate, presented our Awakened registration cards to the Association employee guarding the surroundings of the Gate and controlling civilian access, and entered inside the Gate.
The inside of the Minotaur Gate looked similar to a cave that was spacious up, down, left, and right.
Because stones called luminous stones were embedded here and there, the inside was bright, so it wasn't uncomfortable to roam around.
-Moo-oar!!
The cry of a Minotaur heard from deep inside the cave.
However, there is no weakling here who would be scared of mere Minotaurs.
We took steps deep into the cave.
And not long after, we encountered three Minotaurs.
The head of a dark red cow and a muscular body. A double-edged axe held in their hands.
As soon as the Minotaurs saw us, they held their axes high and charged.
Thump, thump!
-Moo-oar!!
"What should we do?"
"This is perfect. I haven't been able to properly use my strength since my body became like this... I will handle this."
Baek Yeon pulled out her spear and stepped forward.
Seeing that she brought a spear almost identical to the one that broke while attacking me last time, she must have either made it again or has many similar spears.
Baek Yeon, holding her spear, lowered her stance.
The tip of the spear aimed at the Minotaur charging from the front, and magical energy explosively spewed out from her body.
Baek Yeon kicked off the ground and instantly charged right under the Minotaur's nose.
That speed had distinctly changed from when I saw her in the last Gate.
Even back then, she was in a stronger state than usual, being corrupted by death energy, but it's even more than that now.
Pop!!
Baek Yeon's spear, which blew off the Minotaur's head in a single strike as if a balloon popped, didn't stop and consecutively pierced through the heads of the remaining two as well.
"Phew..."
Baek Yeon, having blown off the heads of three Minotaurs with a single leap, lightly flicked her spear.
"Wow. I couldn't even see it properly."
"I intended to stop at just making a hole, but because my overall physical abilities increased, I ended up bursting its head. I think I'll need time to adapt to my increased physical abilities for a while."
Even though she slaughtered three Minotaurs in an instant, Baek Yeon didn't seem satisfied with having failed to control her strength.
"Well. You'll gradually adapt to it as you kill some monsters."
We, having collected only the magic stones from the corpses of the dead Minotaurs, went deep into the cave again.
The deeper we went into the cave, the more Minotaurs appeared.
Whenever we encountered Minotaurs moving in groups of as few as 2 to as many as 7, Shin Su-ah and Baek Yeon took turns facing them.
Since Minotaurs were no match for either of them, they dispatched them in an instant, and it didn't take long to reach the deepest part of the cave.
What was at the deepest part of the cave was a giant Minotaur that could be called the boss monster of this Gate.
The guy, about two heads taller compared to the other Minotaurs, was holding two bright red axes, one in each hand.
-Moo-oar!!!
"Let's coordinate our teamwork this time. I'll take the vanguard."
"Understood. If you create an opening, I will cut off its breath."
Shin Su-ah, having equipped the standard Valkyrie armor and stepped forward, stood facing the Minotaur Boss.
The Minotaur Boss, perhaps displeased with Shin Su-ah standing calmly even after seeing it, raised its two axes high and struck down in an X shape, and Shin Su-ah raised her sword horizontally and blocked the striking axes.
Clang!
-Moo?
"I am confident in my strength too, you know!"
The Minotaur Boss was flustered by its axe strike being easily blocked compared to its confident strike.
Shin Su-ah swung her sword to deflect the two axes and aimed and slashed at the two knees of the Minotaur Boss.
-Moo-oar!!
Behind the Minotaur Boss screaming at the pain of its knees being slashed, Baek Yeon, who had approached at some point, appeared and aimed her spear tip at its heart.
Squellch!
The spear, going deep without resistance, pierced through the Minotaur Boss's heart, and Baek Yeon twisted and pulled out the spear.
Splaash!
-Gurgle!
The Minotaur Boss, frothing blood as its heart and lungs were pulverized, couldn't hold on any longer and collapsed forward.
"The coordination was good, but the monster was so weak there wasn't even a chance to coordinate further."
"We should look for a higher-ranking Gate next time."
"Since it's a party with an A-rank and an S-rank, there will be no problem up to an A-rank Gate."
"Yes. Then I'll look for an A-rank Gate next time."
The two, having swept away most of the monsters inside the Gate at super high speed, were amicable with each other.
But the real deal starts now.
Because the reason Shin Su-ah and I chose this Gate is that something worthy of being called a serendipitous encounter is hidden here.
Moreover, that serendipitous encounter exists right here, inside the boss room at the very end of the cave.
It's good that we came this far, but I sigh at the sight of Shin Su-ah walking on eggshells with an expression of not knowing how on earth to discover this naturally without arousing any suspicion.
It was then.
"Hmm?"
"Wh-what's wrong?"
"A moment. A strange aura from over there..."
Perhaps having sensed something, Baek Yeon approached one wall of the boss room and felt the wall with her palm.
Without stopping there, thump, thump- she knocked on the wall, then soon clenched her fist and struck the wall hard.
Baaang!
The wall shattered explosively, scattering fragments and dust.
And when the dust settled.
There was a dark passageway, not a wall, there.
[You have discovered Arachne's Hideout.]
A message that appeared before my eyes as soon as the passageway was discovered.
Baek Yeon had discovered the serendipitous encounter on her own.