Female Hunter (3)
The forest stretched on endlessly. Jihun wiped the sweat from his brow and muttered under his breath.
“...We’ve come pretty far, right? Why aren’t there any monsters?”
“Now that you mention it...”
Come to think of it, he was right. After that first battle, they had walked quite a distance. At this point they should have run into two or three more goblin packs by now. Yet they hadn’t encountered a single one.
Why are there so few monsters?
Information hunters sometimes cleared out monsters while gathering data, but that was usually only a handful at most. They never hunted enough to affect the entire gate. Besides, the moment a party left a gate, it reset completely. Unless they had killed the boss and closed it, the gate would keep resetting and the monster count would return to normal.
In other words, this gate—Goblin’s Small Forest—was naturally this sparse.
“...This could be dangerous.”
The instructors began to tense up. The reason was simple: there were far too few monsters. One might think fewer monsters would be a good thing, but anyone who understood how gates worked knew better.
Gates contained a fixed amount of mana. Within that limit, the number of monsters, the boss, the environment, facilities, and traps were all determined. So if there were unusually few trash mobs...
“...It means the boss is absurdly strong, or there are dangerous traps that don’t match the gate’s rank.”
If that was true, they were in serious trouble. Experienced hunters might be fine, but everyone here was a rookie stepping into their first gate. The instructor quickly decided to end the practical training and called out to the new hunters.
“Everyone, stop! There’s something wrong with the gate! We’re heading back right—”
“Huh? What?”
But Kang Sigyeong, who hadn’t quite caught the instructor’s words, stepped forward at that exact moment.
Flash—!
Suddenly the ground beneath their feet began to glow.
“...Huh?”
“What the...?”
The rookies who didn’t understand what was happening simply tilted their heads in confusion. But the instructors who recognized the glowing floor turned pale.
“...Fuck, we’re screwed—!!”
They tried to shout a warning, but the next instant, every single person on the spot vanished.
Gates contained countless traps. Pitfalls, nets, arrows, swinging logs. In addition to the booby traps set by intelligent monsters, the gate itself could generate magical hazards. One classic example was a magic circle that teleported anyone standing on it to random locations, splitting the party apart.
“...Fuck. We’re completely fucked.”
The scenery was still forest, but it was unmistakably different from where they had been. The instructor’s face drained of all color. The bright flash had sent him somewhere else entirely. And he was alone.
That meant the others had been scattered the same way.
“Shit, shit…!”
The instructor was so flustered he could barely speak. He scrambled to his feet and scanned his surroundings.
It’s only an F-rank dungeon, so the map can’t be that big. I need to start moving.
The other instructor who had come with them was probably thinking the same thing. Two people searching would find the rookies faster than one. That small comfort helped him calm down a little.
Kang Sigyeong can rot for all I care… I just hope we find the others first.
E-rank hunters Shin Jeonghun and Lee Mina. F-rank hunter Park Jihun. Logically, the weakest one—Park Jihun—should be the top priority for rescue. But for some reason, the instructor felt like that guy would be fine.
No, no. They’re all rookies. We have to find everyone before something goes wrong.
Shaking the thought away, he hurried through the forest.
“Is anyone there?! Please answer me!”
Goblins might come running at the noise, but as a C-rank veteran, a few goblins were nothing to him. Besides, judging by the gate’s strange lack of monsters so far, there probably weren’t many on the field anyway.
I guess that’s one silver lining…
He shouted for several minutes while combing through the woods. Then—
“H-here! I’m over here!”
A woman’s urgent voice rang out.
“Lee Mina!”
Relieved to have found someone, the instructor sprinted toward the voice. There he found Lee Mina, the owner of that voice.
“What about the others…”
“......”
She shook her head at his question. The fact that she was still sitting in the same spot suggested she hadn’t moved since arriving.
“Let’s find the rest first.”
It didn’t take long. As the instructor had predicted, the field wasn’t very large, so no one had been sent too far. Everyone regrouped quickly. No one was injured. Kang Sigyeong and the other instructor had run into some goblins, but they had handled them without any real trouble.
Everything seemed fine.
Except for one extremely critical problem.
“Where the hell is Park Jihun?”
“Sigh… We’ve been calling for him but there’s no answer.”
After regrouping, they split into teams and searched the forest for nearly thirty minutes, but he was nowhere to be found. Even if he had died in an accident, they should have at least discovered his body.
“Then…”
The instructor came up with one possible explanation.
“Don’t tell me he got dropped straight into the boss room…?”
“What?”
“Is that even possible…?”
If the random teleport had sent him alone into the boss room, it would explain why they couldn’t find any trace of him no matter how thoroughly they searched the forest.
“We haven’t checked the boss room yet, right?”
“No… We didn’t want to risk starting a fight with the boss and clearing the gate by accident.”
The other instructor nodded. If someone engaged the boss and killed it, the gate would be cleared. Then it would begin to close. If they didn’t find Jihun before it shut, he would be trapped inside and die.
That was why they had located the boss room but deliberately left it untouched.
But if Park Jihun was already inside…
“...We don’t have a choice. We have to go.”
If he was in there, there was no way an F-rank rookie on his very first gate run could defeat the boss alone. He was probably already dead.
If he wasn’t in the boss room, then—
“I’ll buy as much time as I can. Keep searching outside. If that doesn’t work…”
The instructor swallowed the rest of the sentence. We’ll have to abandon him and clear it.
There was nothing they could do. Gates were places where anything could happen. If a hunter went missing and died during practical training, it was simply an unfortunate accident. The fact that they still couldn’t find him after searching this thoroughly meant the teleport had done something bizarre—he might have been buried alive underground, or teleported into a tree and torn apart. Either way, it wasn’t going to be a pleasant end.
At least the one who died was the lowest-ranked F-rank. That was something.
…Still, he had potential.
The instructor clicked his tongue in disappointment.
But at that exact moment—
You have cleared the F-rank Gate Goblin’s Small Forest.
One of your party members has achieved an accomplishment.
Boss subjugated through submission rather than defeat.
The accomplisher’s stats will increase.
“...Huh?”
“What?”
“Eh…?”
Meanwhile, in a completely different location—
“Ugh… where the hell am I…”
Park Jihun opened his eyes as his vision slowly returned after the blinding flash of light. Something was off. Instead of the forest, he was standing inside an enormous cave large enough to comfortably fit twenty people.
What the—did I get teleported?
Confused, he looked around. It wasn’t just the scenery that had changed. The other people were gone too. Or more accurately, they had all been scattered to different places.
I’ve heard gates can have traps like this… but in an F-rank gate…?
And of all times, it had to happen during his very first practical training run. Talk about terrible luck.
“Gruk.”
At that moment, something appeared in front of him.
“Hm?”
Inside the dark cave, he could faintly make out a silhouette that looked almost human. It was a bit short, but it was clearly the shape of a woman. And quite a curvaceous one at that.
Is that Lee Mina?
When he thought of a female hunter, the only person who came to mind was his classmate Lee Mina. But she definitely hadn’t been wearing anything that revealing.
Wait, did her clothes get ripped off during the teleport?!
The sudden surge of hope was cut short by a sharp chime.
Ding!
This wasn’t the usual cheerful notification sound. It was a heavy, urgent tone that screamed danger.
You have entered the Boss Room.
The Boss Monster will now appear!
“...Fuck. We’re screwed.”
There was no one else in the room. No other hunters. That meant Park Jihun had to face the boss alone. He cursed his rotten luck once again.
Wait a second… The boss? That female silhouette? Hold on…
A wild thought suddenly flashed through his mind. Could this situation possibly be—?
And as if to prove his suspicion correct, bright light erupted throughout the boss room as the luminous stones embedded in the walls flared to life. The boss monster’s true form was finally revealed.
Boss Monster — Goblin Female Warrior Briana has appeared!
She had short, slightly silver-tinted hair. Sharp, golden-green eyes. Pointed ears. Her outfit was incredibly provocative—barely covering the most important parts. A single tug would reveal everything. Smooth, pale-green skin. Voluptuous breasts and hips that looked like they would bounce hypnotically with every movement. And as if that wasn’t enough, she was holding a whip made of thorny vines, like some kind of dominatrix queen.
Yes… that appearance…
“Holy fucking shit, jackpot!!!”
Park Jihun’s long-awaited dream had come true. A beautiful female monster in the flesh.
“Who the hell said I had bad luck?!”
His earlier pessimism vanished. Right now, he felt like the luckiest man in the world.