The Hatchlings Claim Their Due
"Rock Fist!!"
The moment A-rin wrapped her arms completely around my neck, Bae Jua raised a boulder shaped like a fist and sent the men charging toward A-rin flying far into the distance. Thanks to her, I was able to pull free easily and safely set A-rin down in the rear where our party waited.
"Th-thank you..."
I nodded and turned my head to observe the approaching enemies. There were no mages among them, and while two archers were present, most were close-range warriors. Even the two ranged attackers kept loosing arrows in the wrong directions, their focus shattered by the Screaming Mushroom's relentless screeching. The mana-infused arrows carried considerable power, but like my own Fireballs, they meant nothing if they never hit their mark.
These aren't weak enough for the summons to handle alone, and their composition is far too skewed.
Considering the Lizardman-led summons, eliminating the ranged threats first would make them the easiest type for us to deal with. Leaving the still-trembling A-rin behind after her thirty-second burst of activity, I charged straight into the battlefield where summons and hunters were locked in a struggle of strength.
Ten minutes of fierce fighting later, roughly half the Lizardman unit had taken damage and been unsummoned, but we managed to capture all fourteen hunters without suffering major losses. They had been underpowered against us from the start, and Baek A-rin's brief display of skill made the subjugation even simpler. Moreover, Chehwa survived to the very end, living up to the Spectre's fearsome reputation as the worst monster in the Dungeon of Nargul.
Watching the Spectre in action made me regret not summoning more of them.
"Bweeeeh—"
Zombie No. 1 and No. 2 sat side by side with their legs severed, waiting to be unsummoned. Their grotesque appearance and eerie presence made them the most effective at psychologically intimidating hunters among all our summons. Still, overall, they fell far short of Chehwa.
While I pondered what to do with the captured hunters, A-rin pulled a large bundle of items from her inventory and spoke up.
"We can tie them up with these!"
"Aren't these pretty expensive? When did you buy them?"
"Just in case. Ahem—"
The items A-rin had prepared were ropes imbued with mana-suppression properties. They temporarily sealed the mana of hunters whose stamina had been completely drained. Each one cost four to five hundred thousand won, and she had bought this many? It was enough to make me wonder if she had some other purpose in mind.
"I've never actually used them before. This is my first time!"
"Nobody said anything, so why are you getting defensive?"
"Kugh—"
After binding the men with the blue mana-coated ropes, we finally began a proper conversation.
"You lot seem to have fewer people than before. What's the reason?"
Bae Jua kicked one man in the back as she asked the first question. He tearfully explained that those who had been badly injured by the wolves had retreated toward the exit, begging us to spare their lives.
"That's funny. Did you even pretend to listen when we told you to stop?"
"Th-that was just a joke. We really didn't do anything—!"
Smack—!
Bae Jua slapped the insolent man's cheek to shut him up, then began stomping on the others who wore pitiful expressions. The same Bae Jua who acted like a gentle lamb around No Hayun had a surprisingly tough side. Her speech and actions made her seem like an entirely different person from before. Perhaps she had been putting on her "working adult" mode when dealing with the daughter of the Bijeon Guild Leader.
"Aah— Now I feel alive again. Moving around made me hot. I could really go for an iced americano... I should've put one in my inventory. Seriously! This is all your fault! Hmph!"
"Kuhak—"
After receiving healing from Ham Eun-yeong and catching her breath, Baek A-rin joined Bae Jua in kicking the fallen men with all her strength.
"Yeonhee, come join us! Hyah!"
Baek A-rin flashed a refreshing smile while beating the men and wiggled her fingers at Yeonhee, inviting her to participate.
"Uh... I'm fine."
Yeonhee declined, clearly reluctant to strike people directly. However, there was one more person actively participating in the beating.
Thud! Thud! Crack—!
"Hee... heehee... heeheehee."
It was Ham Eun-yeong. The same girl who had merely walked alongside us like she was on a stroll now enthusiastically joined in pummeling the fallen men. Color had returned to Eun-yeong's face for the first time since entering the dungeon. She alternated between kicking them and occasionally striking their heads with her hand mirror, which somehow never broke no matter how hard she swung it.
...As long as she performs well when it matters, right?
I decided to reserve judgment on Ham Eun-yeong until the moment she needed to act.
Smack—!
"Hey, why did you all suddenly go quiet?"
With sweat beading on her forehead, Bae Jua grabbed the hair of the strongest-looking man among them and slapped him several more times while questioning him. Honestly... it was starting to get a little scary.
"......I'm sorry. Please let us go just this once."
"Not 'I'm sorry,' but 'I apologize.' Not 'let us go,' but 'could you please let us go.' You should ask politely like that."
With the men's hands bound behind their backs and them sprawled on the ground, Bae Jua interrogated them in detail—why they had picked a fight with us from the start, whether they had planned this before entering the dungeon, which guild they belonged to, and what abilities they possessed.
A moment later.
"Tch! They're nothing special. Their relationships with each other are weak too. They just ran into each other while frequently visiting this place, happened to leave at the same time as us, and decided to mess with us for fun. What a pathetic story."
"Still, that's a relief."
"It is a relief..."
Once it was confirmed they hadn't approached us with a premeditated plan, everyone in the party let out a deep sigh of relief. With all the recent incidents involving the Blue Eyes, their guard had been up.
"Um, Jua..."
"Hm? What is it, Eun-yeong unni?"
"Well... what should we do with these people...?"
"What they did was annoying, but they didn't actually go through with anything. We should probably just let them go, right?"
Ham Eun-yeong chewed on her thumbnail before whispering softly to Bae Jua again.
"Wouldn't it be... better to just kill them...?"
"Hmm... Even as hunters, if we go that far over something like this, it'll just turn into endless killing..."
"W-we don't need to kill them..."
Bae Jua and Yeonhee immediately expressed their opposition, and even Baek A-rin, who had taken the most attacks, looked reluctant, saying there was no need. Ham Eun-yeong muttered "I guess not..." and eventually nodded, giving up.
Honestly, I understood Ham Eun-yeong's opinion. These people could become seeds of future trouble, and after experiencing something like this, the aftertaste might leave us unable to sleep properly. One such experience could change the choices we make in similar situations later. But in a way, the four members of our party were still hatchlings. It would be best to let them experience it themselves and decide.
"Hey. Hand over your three best runes each."
"Please, not those! We still need to make it back. Please spare us."
"Money! We'll give you money when we get out!"
When Bae Jua demanded runes as compensation for emotional damage, the men who had been taking the beating without resistance suddenly flared up in protest. Bae Jua's expression turned ice-cold as she asked again in a frigid voice.
"Then... would you rather be buried somewhere around here and become wolf food? I'll mark the spot with a rock for you."
"Kugh..."
A massive boulder floated precariously above one man's head, conjured by Bae Jua. The moment she severed the mana thread, a rock the size of a human torso would crash down onto his face. Since the man's mana was currently suppressed, the outcome was obvious.
"Damn it..."
Staring at the boulder hovering above his head, the man trembled violently and ground his teeth.
"Wow— We're only taking three each because it's us. If it were anyone else, they'd have killed you and gone for your equipment drops too—"
"Fine... Fine, so... at least loosen the ropes so we can use potions."
Bae Jua looked at Yeonhee for confirmation, and Yeonhee nodded. With twenty summons surrounding the hunters anyway, they wouldn't be able to try anything. In the end, they coughed up exactly forty-two runes and trudged dejectedly toward the entrance. Having lost 30% of their runes, their journey ahead would be quite thrilling. The ones who had been chasing us would now be the ones being chased by wolves.
"They're still terrified just from making eye contact right now. Do you think they'll come after us again later?"
"Depends on what happens on their way out. If they make it out safely, they'll probably hold less of a grudge against us. What I can say for certain is that they won't reflect on anything."
"Probably... Ah, Yeonhee. You know this, right? When hunters cause trouble like this inside a dungeon, unless you kill them, you're not supposed to take more than half their runes."
Bae Jua winked at Yeonhee as she spoke.
"I've heard it's an unspoken rule."
Yeonhee nodded slightly, apparently having heard the same thing.
Once the limping men were no longer visible, everyone's attention turned to the runes whose ownership had been transferred.
"Heehee..."
"Puhuh..."
"Hehehe..."
It was an unexpected harvest. Of course, it came with future risks, but for now, everyone's eyes were wide with excitement as they checked the rune values. Even Baek A-rin, who had likely experienced this kind of thing before, had never taken this many runes at once, and the corners of her mouth curled upward.
We moved to a spot near the forest slightly away from the hunters' main route and began distributing the runes. Yeonhee received eleven out of the forty-two. Baek A-rin, who had exerted herself, also got eleven, while the remaining two each received ten. Perhaps because Bae Jua had enforced discipline so harshly, several of the runes had high values and were quite usable. Among them, the Rune of Swiftness dropped from Lesser Dire Wolves made up the overwhelming majority.
- Rune of Swiftness (Intermediate) Movement Speed +17
- Rune of Swiftness (Intermediate) Movement Speed +15
- Rune of Swiftness (Intermediate) Movement Speed +14
It was known that each point on a Rune of Swiftness increased movement speed by approximately 0.5%. If someone equipped ten Intermediate runes at the maximum value of +20, they would see their movement speed double. Since increased movement speed was more immediately noticeable than any other stat, equipping these runes for the first time felt like experiencing an entirely different world. That was why the Rune of Swiftness was so popular among hunters.
Aside from these three, there's nothing particularly useful.