The Gray Troll (2)
The gray troll shaman Ruze shouted something with a serious expression, completely ignoring the tears streaming down their faces. The moment her voice rang out, four enormous trolls—each two heads taller than her—burst through the forest from both sides.
“Master, Miss Shin Jiyeon! Stop fooling around and get ready for a real fight!”
“Grrrl. Trolls, strong. About as strong as the lizard lady.”
“I told you I’m not a lizard! Though… yeah, her mana capacity really is similar to mine. Must be because she’s a shaman.”
The three familiars quickly prepared for battle after seeing how much stronger Ruze looked than expected, along with the four subordinate trolls that had appeared beside her. While Serina was a knight with high single-target combat power who had also learned magic, the fact that this shaman’s mana was on par with a former boss like Serina meant she was genuinely powerful. After all, bosses tended to have higher combat strength than others of the same rank.
She looked quite formidable even for a mid-boss.
“She must be a named monster with the special trait of being a shaman,” Shin Jiyeon said, her expression now serious as she studied Ruze. “The shaman trait probably allowed her to accumulate more mana, which is why she evolved into a humanoid form despite being a mid-boss. Oh my… just look at those smooth gray abs. Haaah… haaah…”
…It seemed she still hadn’t fully come to her senses.
“Kura! Traja!”
“Kweeeek!”
“Kuuuuurgh!”
At Ruze’s command, she pointed at Park Jihun’s party. The four trolls immediately charged toward them.
“It’s fine. Four trolls should be manageable.”
With his insane debuff abilities and C-rank level combat power, Park Jihun was confident. He had three D-rank monsters on his side. And unlike Kar and Briana, who had evolved from E-rank, Serina had already been boss-tier even among D-ranks. She could handle two trolls by herself.
He was fully prepared to take them on with that level of confidence—until—
“Onsura, dubarada.”
A low hum—
Buff cast on the four trolls. Their movement speed has dramatically increased.
The four charging trolls suddenly began glowing. Then—
Whoosh!
“?!”
Their speed exploded. They slammed straight into Park Jihun’s party at that terrifying velocity.
Booom!
“Ugh?!”
Park Jihun, Kar, and Serina all grimaced at the unexpectedly heavy impact.
“It’s a buff…! She cast a strengthening spell on them since she’s a shaman!” Shin Jiyeon shouted from behind. “That means she probably has debuffs too! Be careful—she’ll be firing support magic from the back!”
A shaman. A mage specialized in weakening enemies with debuffs while strengthening allies with buffs. Of course, she could also use basic combat magic, so long-range harassment was obviously possible.
“Tusra, tabirada.”
Another low hum—
Slow Magic has been applied.
Speed reduced by 10%.
Curse Magic has been applied.
All stats reduced by 10%.
Just as expected, debuffs that lowered their stats and speed landed on them. It seemed to affect the entire party—Briana and Kar both wore unpleasant expressions.
“Tsk. I’ll handle the harassment,” Serina clicked her tongue and fell back, intending to restrain Ruze with magic.
“Kweeeek!”
As Serina retreated, one of the trolls reached out to chase after her.
“Not so fast!”
Swoosh!
Park Jihun swung his sword, aiming to sever the troll’s arm. He should have sliced through it like tofu, especially with aura wrapped around the blade. But because their stats had been lowered while the trolls’ had been raised, the cut only bit in slightly and failed to sever it completely.
And once a wound failed to cut all the way through, the troll’s already ridiculous regeneration—now further boosted by buffs—kicked in.
Schlurp—
The arm reattached in the blink of an eye.
“…Tsk!”
Park Jihun clicked his tongue and swung his sword rapidly. If one strike wasn’t enough, he’d just cut it two or three times. The stat gap still favored him, and he also had the Shrink effect that could lower their boosted stats again.
“Krrraaagh!”
Kar was holding off one troll while Briana somehow kept another in check, but he still had to deal with two at once. Every time he tried to hack one’s neck two or three times to kill it, the other would suddenly butt in and buy time for it to recover. The pattern kept repeating.
‘Kar and Briana are struggling because their stats dropped. I need to take these guys down quickly and join them.’
He could definitely defeat them. No matter how high their regeneration was, in front of Park Jihun they were ultimately just lumps of meat that would fall with enough time. But it really was a matter of time. It would take a while.
‘That pretty troll throwing magic around is also a problem.’
The shaman’s harassment magic from the rear was another issue. In fact, she was currently chanting another spell.
“…The humidity is a bit low, but it’ll do. Water Manipulation!”
Splash!
Serina, who had fallen back, activated her own magic. Streams of water rose behind her—the same ones she had used in their previous fight. However, they weren’t nearly as majestic this time. Maybe half the size? Unlike the swamp, the forest apparently didn’t have enough moisture.
“Franabo!”
“Water Blade!”
Ruze launched a fireball while Serina countered with blades of water.
Boom!
The fireball and water blades collided in midair and annihilated each other, leaving only a thick cloud of steam behind.
“Kihi… Ktuga!”
Ruze couldn’t see what was happening through the dense steam. She looked around in confusion and shouted something urgently. But at that exact moment—
Shaaak—
“Got you!”
Serina charged through the steam, wielding a sharp blade made of water.
“?!”
Just as her sword was about to reach Ruze—
Swooosh— Thud!
Something suddenly fell from the sky with a heavy crash. Serina’s sword stabbed into whatever had dropped from above.
“Kreeeegh!”
The one screaming in agony with a hole through its chest was, of course, a troll.
“There was another one…?!”
Serina looked shocked by the sudden appearance of the extra troll.
‘That shout earlier wasn’t to call the four in front… it was to summon this one from behind…!’
She realized it too late and tried to retreat, but—
“Tura.”
A slip spell made the ground slick. Normally Serina would have retreated without issue, but because she was flustered, she stepped on the slippery ground and fell backward.
“Kwooooor…”
The troll with a mana blade through its heart collapsed. Behind it, Ruze walked forward with a sinister grin. In her hand was a sharp blade of wind she had summoned.
“Tch…”
Serina hurriedly tried to get up and dodge, but Ruze was faster.
“Carta!”
Just as the sharp wind blade was about to fly toward Serina—
“Where do you think you’re going!”
Thud!
“Khuk?!”
Park Jihun suddenly appeared and delivered a powerful kick to Ruze’s side, sending her flying.
Crash! Roll roll—
Ruze tumbled across the ground, unable to properly activate her spell.
“Cough…”
She looked at Park Jihun with an expression that seemed to ask how did he get here so fast?
“These trolls? They’re fucking nothing.”
Park Jihun grinned and slightly opened his subspace.
“…As expected of Master. Truly impressive.”
Serina instantly understood what he had done and let out a sigh of admiration. He had used subspace in combat. Taking advantage of the fact that he could enter and exit it anytime, anywhere, he had slipped into subspace while in close range with the trolls. The confused trolls lost track of their enemy, and he had reappeared in the exact same spot he had entered from, slicing apart the defenseless trolls.
“It looked like it was going to take too long, so I made it quick.”
He couldn’t come out anywhere except where he had entered, but against low-intelligence monsters, this tactic worked perfectly.
“Trdo… arsu.”
Ruze muttered something that sounded like that’s impossible… Park Jihun grinned and approached her as she clutched the side he had just kicked.
“Enough talk. First, let’s have you surrender in defeat.”
Thump!
Right after that, Ruze’s vision went black.
“Master. We’ve received a report.”
“A report? From where?”
The world’s greatest prison, located in Pennsylvania, USA. Or more precisely, the world’s strongest prison that only detained hunter criminals—the Justice Guild Prison. This place possessed such immense power and authority that it could even arrest S-rank hunters from any country.
A tip had arrived there.
“It’s from China.”
“China again? I’m getting sick of them.”
A middle-aged man grimaced at the word “China.” The large man with a stylish brown beard was the S-rank hunter known as Hunter Ben, one of the top five in America. He was also the guild master who had founded and operated the Justice Guild Prison.
“Last month we already arrested three Chinese hunters causing trouble in other countries. They were from the Black Society. If it’s the Black Society again this time, I’d rather eat the herring pie my wife makes.”
The Justice Guild Prison already held quite a few Chinese hunters from the Black Society. They frequently caused trouble abroad and got caught often. Since Ben really didn’t want to go to China again, he complained to his secretary Rain, whose British wife was infamous for her terrible cooking.
“Hahaha, I’ll be sure to invite you when things calm down.”
“……”
In other words, it was the Black Society again.
“However, the scale this time is rather different.”
“What?”
At the mention of a different scale, Ben’s expression turned serious. If the Black Society was operating on a different scale, then perhaps—
“As you expected, the report is about the Black Society’s guild master, Lung Xiao.”
“……”
Lung Xiao. The founder of the Black Society and China’s undisputed number one hunter. According to the Chinese, he was even stronger than America’s Eagol, who was known as the world’s strongest hunter.
“The content of the report is quite substantial. It’s almost at the level of a 200-year sentence.”
“Well… when we investigated them separately, it was like that too, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. We just didn’t have any evidence.”
The Justice Guild had also conducted its own investigation into the Black Society. It was enormous. International murder, drugs, illegal weapons import and export. They were practically no different from a mafia criminal organization. No, they were even worse because they wielded the powerful strength of hunters.
But it was all circumstantial. They had hidden the physical evidence thoroughly so that international organizations, the Hunter Association, or the Justice Guild couldn’t move against them. On top of that, everyone was too afraid of Lung Xiao to properly report or testify against him.
But this time, they had received solid material.
“The data that was sent over looks highly credible. It seems to have come from one of his closest aides.”
It was practically enough to be used as physical evidence. At this level, even if they couldn’t arrest him immediately, they could at least detain him for a few days for investigation.
‘If we investigate, something will definitely come up. Then we can extend the detention period, secure testimony and evidence, and lock him away.’
Of course, it wasn’t as easy as it sounded. If it were, someone would have already reported Lung Xiao. He had probably already prepared to destroy all the evidence. And if he was eventually released due to lack of evidence, he would hunt down whoever had reported him and make them pay. That fear was why no one had dared to report him until now.
‘Speed is key. We need to strike fast.’
Having made up his mind, Ben nodded and stood up.
“…Alright. We’re going to China. For someone like Lung Xiao, I should go personally, right? The herring pie can wait.”
“Understood, Master. I’ll prepare for departure.”
And so, thanks to an anonymous tip, the Justice Guild’s strongest force—S-rank hunter Hunter Ben—set out for China. He was going to hunt the Black Society’s guild master, Lung Xiao.