Raiding the Dwarf Elf Shrine
Dominant Species.
Ordinarily, a seal that filled the chest was enough to classify a being as a Supreme Species. But the seal now etched into Won-goo's body ran across his entire back and down past his hips. It was on an entirely different scale.
There was one source of unease: affinity. His compatibility with the seal might be the worst possible match.
Still, a Supreme Species' seal. At this size, it has to be one of the top-tier races. It might even be a Dominant Species……
Even with the worst affinity, a seal of this caliber was more than worth enduring. If it came to it, he was prepared to change the entire course of his life for it. The name of Supreme Species carried exactly that much weight.
"So that was the reward."
"That's right."
"The same thing I know about?"
"You know about it?"
"Back when the world first turned upside down. There were guys going around stamping strange marks on people's foreheads."
"Something like that."
"What does it do?"
"We'll find out now, won't we."
"Should we call the crew?"
"Call them. Jo Mu-sa."
"Yes, Director."
"Boil a pot of ramyeon. The kind with plenty of broth."
"Understood!"
"Actually, no—boil some for everyone. They can all eat it, right?"
"If they can't handle ramyeon, they should quit this life altogether."
"Exactly. Make enough for the headcount."
With that, Won-goo opened his drawer and shook several pills out into his palm. Enough to fill his hand completely. Most of them were painkillers. Even allowing for their strength, a dose that size would leave an ordinary person with serious complications. He simply wouldn't have been able to endure the pain otherwise.
But Won-goo was fine. His physical capabilities and recovery had long since left the human range behind. Because he wasn't a full enhancement-type like the Supremes, he lacked towering raw stats, but his stamina and regeneration rivaled any enhancement fighter's. On top of that, his poison resistance was heavily invested—an injury that would put a man flat on his back for a week would heal on its own before long.
The only reason he was flooding himself with pills was that the pain was excruciating.
"Must hurt quite a bit."
"Felt like someone was peeling the skin off my back."
"Can you drive?"
"I took the pills. I'm fine."
"Then back to the Shelter? Shouldn't you rest a while?"
"You have to conserve to survive—don't you know that? We've still got water, and food's plentiful. Heading back now would be a waste."
"Is that truly fine? That is the part I question."
"I'm telling you it's fine."
Hyun-sung returned with the crew. They'd just finished dealing with a giant snail on the way back—not a powerful enough monster to earn real money, but decent practice game.
"Eat your ramyeon."
"Hyeong-nim! Are you alright?!"
"I am. Slept properly for the first time in a while. Nobody needs to ask around—I'm perfectly fine. Good work, all of you. Eat your fill and we move out."
"Where are we headed, Hyeong-nim?"
"We're going hunting for Dwarf Elves."
At those words, every face in the crew went rigid.
Dwarf Elves. The name literally meant runt elves, but among survivors they were also called demon elves—and for good reason. Their temperament was nothing like an ordinary elf's.
Ordinary elves weren't particularly hostile toward humans. They weren't friendly either, but they had no instinct to kill every human on sight.
Dwarf Elves were different. They despised humankind. Any human who set foot in their territory had better make peace with dying.
They were called dwarf elves because they were far smaller than ordinary elves—average height around 150 centimeters. Smaller even than most humans. What they lacked in size they made up for in agility, and individual variance among them ran far wider than in most monsters, which made them dangerous targets no matter how you sliced it.
The one mercy was that, unlike other monsters, they didn't eat people. But not eating you didn't mean not killing you—the outcome was the same either way if you slipped up.
"Why there, of all places? Isn't that jumping the difficulty way too fast, that part of it?"
"It's fine."
"Still, Dwarf Elves are……"
"The formation's settled now, so it's fine. I have my reasons, so sit still. Hyun-sung and I were never meant to be sniping monkeys and snails at this level anyway. What's the point of hunting things that don't pay? We're barely scraping by on living expenses as it is."
"Even so, Dwarf Elves is too sudden. You don't even know what might come out of it."
"Enough. It's already decided, so our esteemed Mage will kindly keep quiet."
At the flat refusal, Mu Beob-sa shut his mouth.
"From now on, we split into an assault team and a defense team. You'll get the concept the moment you hear it. The assault team handles hunting and combat: me, Hyun-sung, Jo Mu-sa, and Su-won."
"What about me?"
"This old man isn't entirely incapable of magic, you know. And someone has to manage the place. Everyone not named in that list defends the Trailer without exception. Especially you, Hye-ji."
"Yes, sir."
"You're the key. The gun I gave you will punch through just about anything, so use it well. Cheol-su, you body-block so Hye-ji can keep shooting. Old man…… you do whatever it is you do. Point is, the defense team's objective is the Trailer. Period. You've all lived through it by now—the Trailer is our crew's beginning and end. Everything we own is inside it. So the question is: do we protect it, or don't we?"
"We protect it. Absolutely, Hyeong-nim!"
"Right. Absolutely. This is exactly why we've been sticking to low-tier hunting grounds all this time—we didn't have the manpower to defend the Trailer. And now? We do."
"Why are we going in during the morning?"
Jo Mu-sa asked. The crew was loaded down with enormous backpacks.
"You mean, if we're sneaking in, wouldn't dawn be better?"
"Yes."
"Su-won. You and me—how many times have we taken this road?"
"Th, that part I d, don't remember? But we c, came here a lot."
"Right. And every time we did, when was it?"
"It was, ah, morning."
"Listen up. Dwarf Elves—no, all elves—have sharp night vision. Not spectacularly so, just a bit better than a human's. Which means they're naturally active later into the day than we are."
"You mean they're heavy sleepers, is what you're saying?"
Jo Mu-sa chimed in. The crew was making its way through a silent forest.
"Exactly. It's the one window when the foul-tempered Dwarf Elves turn almost docile. From here on, it's your show."
With that, Su-won and Won-goo swapped places. Su-won threaded through the woods with practiced ease.
The rest of the crew could only follow in silence, because every direction looked exactly the same. The forest was so damn uniform that there was no telling one path from another, and the Dwarf Elf territory was the worst of the lot. That was precisely why survivors rarely came here. Even pathfinders with the Ttangkkun Gift routinely lost their way in Dwarf Elf country.
Su-won was different. He had no gift for blazing new trails, but any road he had walked once, he remembered perfectly—and could use.
"Haven't we come too deep?"
Jo Mu-sa asked, startled. The reason was that, after following Su-won for a long while, a statue had come into view.
A statue of the god the Dwarf Elves worshipped. Roughly three meters tall, shaped like a Dwarf Elf. Apart from eerily long, pointed ears and a small frame, the face was no different from a human's—if anything, by human standards it was beautiful.
"What are you talking about? This is what we came for."
Won-goo pulled out his warhammer.
"Keep watch around us."
He hammered at the statue. Not even hard—just tapping, the way you'd test its density. After a long stretch of knocking, he drew the knife at his waist.
"Hyun-sung. Give me a lift."
"Yes, Hyeong-nim!"
Lee Hyun-sung bent forward at once, and Won-goo stepped up onto his back.
"Hold still."
"Not a muscle will move, Hyeong-nim."
"Jo Mu-sa. Maknae. Catch the statue when it splits."
Tap, tap—he knocked the knife against the statue's crown, and hairline fractures began to spider across the stone. With the faintest crackling sound, the statue split in two. Jo Mu-sa and Su-won carefully caught each half and lowered them to the ground.
Inside was a treasure trove.
"We can't take it all anyway. It'd be useless if we did. Grab only that."
"This book?"
"Yeah. That book. That's the most valuable thing here."
It looked perfectly ordinary—a plain book, in relatively clean condition.
"The rest looks pretty good too?"
"Then stuff as much as you can into the bags."
Jo Mu-sa and Lee Hyun-sung crammed treasure after treasure into their backpacks.
"Maknae."
"Yes."
"Straight to the Trailer from here. Lead the way."
"Forget that—everyone run."
He hadn't said it for nothing. Arrows were coming in—arrows flying with murderous intent.
"Dwarf Elves. If they catch you, they won't eat you…… but they will put you on display. If you don't want your head hanging from a post, run like hell."
Won-goo only started running after he'd watched the crew take off, which was exactly the wrong move—the arrows shifted toward him, the man at the very rear.
And that was when his true skill showed. Astonishingly, he gauged the distance from nothing but the hiss of incoming arrows, turned at precisely the right moment, and swung the warhammer behind him. The shafts glanced off it, nearly all of them knocked wide.
One got through, burying itself in his thigh.
But Won-goo's expression didn't change in the slightest.
Poison.
The punctured flesh throbbed as though it had been doused in vinegar. Poison, then. Without breaking stride, Won-goo carved the wound out with his knife—scooped a full handful of flesh from his thigh along with the arrowhead. It was an extremely dangerous thing to do, but better than letting an unknown venom spread. For a man with his poison resistance to feel pain at all meant this stuff was seriously potent.
Blood ran down Won-goo's leg. Naturally—it was a fistful of meat he'd gouged out. Even so, he lost no speed at all catching up with the crew.
Crack!
A Dwarf Elf lunging at Won-goo's warhammer took the blow to the head and staggered. Even so, it only wobbled for a moment before charging again, twin daggers bared in both hands.
Slam!
Hyun-sung stepped in to finish it, kicking the Dwarf Elf in the gut as if punting a football.
"Good work."
"Yes, Hyeong-nim!"
The crew climbed back up the slope—and then large monsters came hurtling toward them at terrifying speed.
These were no ordinary Dwarf Elves. These were Dwarf Elves riding giant beetles, closing on the party as fast as if the beetles themselves had caught a fever.
Won-goo shouted.
"Jeon Hye-ji! Throw me the gun!"
Hye-ji, still green in combat, heard the order but couldn't move fast enough—so Mu Beob-sa darted over, snatched the gun from her hands, and hurled it himself. Hyun-sung leapt into the air to catch it and immediately tossed it to Won-goo.
"Hyun-sung!"
"Yes, Hyeong-nim!"
"Hold them for exactly ten seconds."
"Yes sir! I'll hold them!"
Meanwhile Won-goo was rapidly reconfiguring the shotgun he'd caught. Hyun-sung planted himself in front of him.
The beetle riders hit Hyun-sung first. Their long lances thrust at him—and he caught the lances barehanded, turning them aside.
Screech!
Hyun-sung poured his strength into not being driven back. The ground scraped beneath his boots as he was dragged up the slope.
"That's enough. You can move."
Won-goo's voice was low. The shotgun had shifted into a slightly different shape.
"Bugs are best served roasted."
A massive wave of flame erupted without warning. Nobody could say how a gun that had been a shotgun seconds ago was suddenly breathing fire.
But the fire was devastatingly effective. The instant two beetle riders were engulfed in the towering blaze and began to scream, the Dwarf Elves vanished into the forest.
It took a heartbeat. They seemed to flee even faster than they'd chased.
The moment the elves were gone, Won-goo shifted the gun back to its original form and tossed it to Jeon Hye-ji. The whole crew was staring at him, wide-eyed.
"We've seen a spaceship, and this is what surprises you? Everybody eat up. We might be cutting it close making it to the Shelter."