Gate Break (1)
“Mmm~ This is delicious, nya!”
Ren rested a hand against one cheek, her face pure bliss.
“After nothing but the tuna cans those cat ladies always give me, real raw tuna is a whole new world, nya!”
“Yeah… eat as much as you want….”
“You don’t even have to tell me, nya. But Master.”
“Hm?”
“Why have you been staring at empty air this whole time, nya?”
“It’s not empty air….”
How am I supposed to explain this….
“There’s something only I can see.”
“…Is Master a mental patient, nya?”
“…No, I’m not.”
This kid really has zero filter with her own master.
“It’s called a status window. Only Awakened can see it.”
“Ahh~ I know what that is, nya. You should’ve just said so from the start. I was already debating whether to have you committed, nya.”
“……”
Is this kid insane?
More importantly, how does she even know what a status window is?
I was dying to ask, but I already knew she’d just answer with something like I knew from the beginning, nya! so I only sighed and turned my eyes back to the status window.
◈ Ride the Lightning
◈ Railgun
◈ Thunderbolt
◈ Thunder Dragon's Heavenly Demise(NEW)
Thunder Dragon's Heavenly Demise….
What the hell kind of skill is that?
I’d been turning it over in my head for a while now, but no matter how hard I thought, I couldn’t figure out what it did.
Not like I can test it right now….
Even if my skills were weak, using them inside the house would trash the furniture for sure.
Hmm….
Well, stewing over it now wouldn’t get me anywhere. I’d just have to try it later at the Tower.
What mattered more was this.
Name:Kang Suho
Level:5
Trait:Thunderclad Execution (EX)
Distributable Stats:4
Hitting level 5 had given me this.
When I asked on HunGal, people said you invested the points into Strength, Agility, Stamina, and the like to power yourself up.
What should I upgrade?
Strength, right?
Thinking about how I’d dropped that sword earlier, it pretty much had to be Strength. Without a weapon I was basically a no-damage hunter.
Alright.
Then Strength it is—
Wait….
…Now that I thought about it, wouldn’t raising Agility improve my dynamic vision too?
Then I could use Ride the Lightning without shutting my eyes.
Which meant I could spam skills while moving.
Wasn’t that theoretically invincible?
No matter how weak my damage was, if I kept hitting something long enough it would die eventually.
And with my absurdly fast movement skill active, I wouldn’t take a single hit either.
Looking at it that way, Agility didn’t seem half bad.
Damn it, what do I do….
Strength so I wouldn’t drop my sword… or Agility so I could still see the enemy while moving….
“…What are you fretting over so hard, nya.”
“…Was it that obvious?”
“You’re raking your hands through your hair like a maniac. It’d be weirder not to notice, nya.”
“I was doing that?”
“Unconsciously, nya? Yeah, this is definitely a psych-ward case, nya.”
“…Would you stop with the psych-ward talk.”
Honestly. If your master was agonizing hard enough to do that without realizing, the normal response was to ask what the problem was—not start planning a hospital admission.
…Wait.
“Ren.”
“Nya?”
“Do you think I need Strength right now, or Agility?”
“Both, nya.”
“…If you had to pick just one.”
“Why do I have to pick just one, nya?”
“Well….”
…She had a point, didn’t she?
I could just split the points.
Why had I locked myself into the narrow idea that I had to dump everything into one stat?
“…Can I not raise Intelligence.”
“Study, nya.”
“……”
Her bone-deep fact check made something in my chest ache. I pressed the little “+” buttons next to Strength and Agility twice each.
…Did that work?
My body did feel a little lighter…?
And the muscle soreness from going wild with Ride the Lightning seemed to have vanished.
At this rate….
I could probably challenge the Tower’s third floor right now.
I felt better than I had when I’d woken up this morning. Sitting around doing nothing would be a waste.
The issue was Ren’s condition….
I snuck a glance her way. She was still vacuuming up tuna with a sunny expression.
Doesn’t look tired….
Maybe I should at least float the idea?
“Hey….”
Ding-dong—
…Of course it had to be right now.
“Master, were you about to say something, nya?”
“…Nothing. Just finish your tuna.”
“…?”
Leaving Ren tilting her head in confusion, I headed for the front door.
Creeeak….
“Who is—”
“Hunter!”
…She nearly gave me a heart attack.
Sora stood there drenched in sweat, breathing hard.
Did she run here?
But… why was she back again?
“There’s an emergency!”
“…Excuse me?”
“No time to explain! Hurry!”
She grabbed my hand and started hauling me down the stairs at a run.
…Okay, what the hell was going on.
“So… you’re saying a Gate Break is about to happen at a nearby B-rank Gate… is that correct?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
From the driver’s seat, she answered with a tight, anxious look.
A Gate Break, huh….
I’d never seen one myself, but I’d heard of them. If a Gate wasn’t cleared within the time limit, it shattered, and every monster inside poured out into the real world.
“Is that serious enough to abandon tuna sashimi for, nya?”
At some point Ren had followed us; she lobbed the question from the back seat.
“Of course it is. Last Gate Break alone left hundreds dead or wounded. And that was only a C-rank Gate.”
Ah—I’d heard about that incident too.
Rookie hunters had walked into a C-rank Gate like it was nothing, failed to clear it, and triggered the Break.
From what I’d seen on HunGal, civilians weren’t the only casualties—hunters had died as well.
But if it was that dangerous and important, why specifically me….
“Normally we wouldn’t send an S-rank to handle a B-rank Gate, but….”
As if she’d read my mind, she started explaining.
“This time, between the clock and the fact that Hunter Kang Suho was the only hunter nearby… we had to come get you in a hurry.”
“Ah….”
Right. I was S-rank.
I’d been so busy getting carried through the Tower’s second floor by my pet that I’d completely forgotten that little detail.
Hang on—am I screwed?
How was I supposed to clear a B-rank Gate?
Under normal circumstances I could’ve bounced around with Ride the Lightning and spam-fired Railgun for hours until it somehow cleared, but….
There was a time limit now. That strategy was off the table.
The one silver lining was that Ren had come along….
Whether she could actually fight B-rank monsters was still a big question mark.
Shit… what do I do.
“We’ve arrived.”
We got there before I could even invent a solution.
“That’s the Gate.”
I followed her pointing finger and saw a circle swirling with pink and purple light.
“Time remaining is… one hour.”
“…What?”
Excuse me?
That was way shorter than I’d expected.
I’d seen posts on HunGal saying three B-rank hunters needed about three hours to clear a single B-rank Gate….
And I was supposed to solo this thing in one?
“I know it’s hard, but… fighting!”
No, “fighting” was not the word for this situation….
“Come on, go! The clock’s still ticking while we stand here!”
“…Yes.”
I had no choice. I opened the door and stepped out of the car.
“Ren, let’s go.”
“Okey-dokey, nya.”
“…You’re taking that child with you?”
“Yeah… well….”
Without her, the odds of clearing this thing were zero from the start.
“…She can protect a little kid and still clear a Gate…. S-ranks really are different.”
“……”
There she went, inventing some grand misunderstanding again.
But even if I told her the truth she wouldn’t believe me, and we were out of time.
I just ignored it and walked toward the Gate.
“Whew….”
I was nervous.
Up until now I’d been so laser-focused on how to clear it that I hadn’t felt much of anything—but standing right in front of the thing, my heart was hammering.
If I failed, hundreds of people would die….
That was one hell of a weight to carry.
“Master.”
“Huh?”
“You’re nervous right now, nya?”
“…Yeah.”
“Hmm~.”
Ren half-lidded her eyes and studied me with open interest.
“Well, I get it, nya. Hundreds of lives are basically riding on those hands of yours.”
“……”
“But… you don’t need to worry, nya. I’m not so weak that I can’t clear something like this.”
“…Ren.”
“Take this, nya.”
She tossed a sword at me.
“This is….”
“I brought it just in case, nya. With that, even Master should be able to pull your own weight. Ah—and don’t use that weird movement skill, nya. I can already see the future where you drop the sword and flail around again, nya.”
“…Okay.”
“Then… let’s go, nya.”
She reached a hand toward the Gate.
“…Yeah.”
I stretched my hand out after her.
Fwaash—
“…Where is this….”