The Bone Harvest
The picky summoner ultimately refrained from adding more Orc Warriors, leaving her at just Deonni No. 2. The summoned beasts' strength continued to grow anyway, and clearing the dungeon posed no real difficulty, so it was fine to take time choosing carefully. Still, every delay cut into experience gains, so she couldn't put it off forever. It already felt a little late, but the choice was hers—I couldn't interfere.
"Huuueeh... heeh... I-Ilwol, y-you saw that, right?"
Nod.
"G-give me a bigger reaction! That was really hard, you know!"
"Clack clack clack!!"
"Heheng, good."
In less than a minute, Baek A-rin had turned the Orc Warrior formation into a wreck. She only finished off a handful of monsters herself, yet her contribution was so massive that she had already claimed first place in damage dealt. Nearly twenty orcs lay kneeling because of her alone. Watching her pant, it was hard to tell who had taken the beating—except none of her limbs had gone flying like the orcs'.
After scanning the battlefield, I crossed my daggers into an X and charged toward the remaining targets. Might as well finish cleanly.
Skills become familiar the more you watch them.
She was already clumsily mimicking Lightning Step, and observing her had given me a rough feel for it, so there was no need to rush.
Thanks to A-rin, I could rack up the quest just by landing the final blows. At this rate, I should easily clear three hundred dagger kills today.
Shk-shk-shk—!
Separating the heads of the orcs A-rin had taken down didn't take long. The summons could barely hold one orc each in single combat, but with the rest of us joining in, the work went quickly. We finished off the entire group in under ten minutes.
...Doing quest work here wouldn't be a bad idea.
Now that I'd fought them, they were far easier to handle than expected. Even with just the Spectre at my side, I felt like I could clear the whole floor alone.
Crunch-crunch—
Soon the surreal sight of us sitting in a circle around the orc corpses, all of us busy dismembering bones together, unfolded. If the system ever recommended a second class based solely on my accumulated experience, Butcher would probably rank first.
"Nngh— phew— done. Ilwol, I managed to detach a whole arm!"
"Clack clack clack!"
Yeonhee waved the blood-dripping arm and bone at me. Seeing such a beautiful woman doing bone work made the task seem oddly respectable.
"Huuung... when I think about work like this, summoning orcs really is..."
Nod.
If we considered the long term, orcs were definitely the right answer. Fighting an orc legion wouldn't be limited to combat alone; having extra hands for carrying the wounded or clearing rubble would make orcs far more efficient.
"Nana~ hmm— hmm—"
Unidentified humming. She must be in a good mood again.
Whenever I worked on bones, Yeonhee had recently taken to sticking right beside me, fidgeting. Sometimes she helped, but mostly she just hummed or chatted about trivial things like what we should eat for dinner. It would have been nice if the team members talked among themselves to build rapport, yet no one else was really chatting either. Still, the way she clung only to me worried me a little. I also wished she wouldn't concern herself with this kind of menial labor. Perhaps that instinct came with being a summon.
It's on her.
The blood smeared on her cheek bothered me. After burning the filth off my hands with Fireball, I reached toward her.
Swish—
"Ah..."
After wiping the blood from her cheek a few times and flicking it onto the ground, her face flushed crimson in an instant.
"Ueut..."
Yeonhee quickly lowered her head and pretended to dig at the ground with bone fragments. Then, as if remembering something, she glanced up at me.
"What... are you transforming into today?"
"Clack—"
Who knows...
"O-oh, today I'd like you to use my appearance... now that I think about it, that would be better."
If she says "today," does that mean tomorrow she'll want her form again? Switching every day?
"Clack clack clack."
"Mm..."
— Yahoo! One Rune of Mana Absorption!
— Here's another! This one's mine!
The rune dropped by Orc Warriors was the Rune of Mana Absorption. I already had two equipped. The one I'd just obtained had terrible stats. Come to think of it, one of the runes I was currently wearing also had low values.
If a better one drops, I'll replace the +3 one first. Thanks to the mana circuit, I'm getting these effects too.
With mana supply becoming easier, I could even switch back to the Rune of Giant if I wanted. My options had increased.
After securing forty orc bones, I resumed moving with a satisfied heart.
"The boss fight should be manageable too, right? Considering how your summons didn't lose ground at all."
"Yes. As long as nothing unexpected happens..."
"Those kinds of things have been happening a lot lately."
"You're right. I've heard dungeon breaks are becoming more frequent... and they say it's already hard to launch boats near ports on the sea side."
Just as Yeonhee said, ever since gates appeared, the ocean had become an extremely dangerous place. Dungeons didn't only form on land, so underwater dungeons needed managing too, but that was realistically impossible. Even hunters had no way to dive into the deep sea. As a result, the seas were now completely overrun by marine monsters led by creatures called mermaids.
At least the skies were in better shape. Although flying monsters sometimes interfered, their numbers were far fewer than those in the ocean, and defending against their attacks was relatively easier. Therefore, reaching nearby places like Jeju Island or Japan was still possible if one accepted a bit of risk. The real problem was transporting supplies. Exchanging goods by plane was far less efficient than by ship. Thanks to mages' research, the Magical Global Trade Network had been developed, enabling intercontinental trade, but it consumed a considerable amount of magic stones, so it wasn't easy either.
Ideally, hunters would enter the underwater dungeons, slay all the monsters, and close them, but with land already barely holding on, that remained a distant goal. With sea transport restricted, movements toward self-sufficiency—such as "the answer is farming"—naturally emerged. Expectations placed on hunters grew daily, because plants and fruits obtained from dungeons were known to be highly nutritious and fast-growing. A single high-quality seed from inside a dungeon could change someone's life, so the number of lower-ranked hunters turning their eyes away from monster hunting was steadily increasing. Ironically, that only added to the monster burden the remaining hunters had to bear.
The children of the future will have a hard time surviving...
No one spoke of it, but the world was already walking the path to ruin step by step. Yet humans tended to think "it won't happen in my lifetime," so preparations were slow. Even if the entire world cooperated closely, it might still be possible—but if the world were ending tomorrow, that cooperation would never happen.
...Even if I manage to kill Jo Giman, could Yeonhee and I still live happily?
It was far too early to worry about that now, so I forced the thought away.
"Twelve kilometers to the target point. If we don't hurry, it'll be hard to attempt the challenge."
"Yes, let's move quickly."
"If it looks like we'll run out of time after trying today... I'll have Ilwol stop the bone harvesting for a day."
"Hmm... would that be all right?"
"The team comes first."
Yeonhee is thinking about a lot of things too.
After that, we continued exploring without any notable events. Encounters were more frequent than reported, but we never met anything that threatened the party. The smooth progress actually made us uneasy, yet no one voiced it—much like how no one in an emergency room would say "it's quiet today."
"Kuiiik!!"
"Kya— look at those plump hind legs!"
This dungeon was also home to many Grown Big Boars, so we hunted every one we saw and stored them in our inventories. The hind leg meat of Big Boars was nutritious and delicious, fetching a decent price. However, I had no intention of selling them. Food stored in the inventory never spoiled, so I wanted to stock up in preparation for longer, higher-grade dungeons.
Contrary to how smoothly things felt for us, the other hunter parties we occasionally passed looked ragged. The number and quality of orcs must have been far higher than the known information suggested.
"Hello."
"Ah, hello."
"Well then, good work."
"Yes. Be careful."
After exchanging awkward greetings, we continued on our way. Yet the hunters walking away kept glancing back at us. A few of them looked at us with eyes full of envy. Seeing our party completely unscathed even when the sun was directly overhead, their thoughts were obvious.
There were a few inaccuracies in what they said, but none worth correcting. It seemed I wasn't the only one who had heard their conversation. A-rin deliberately changed the subject toward Yeonhee.
"Hahang— Yeonhee, maybe we should just scout the boss today and not push ourselves too hard? We also have to visit that store Helen runs after we're done."
"Ah...? Ah, yes yes!"
"...You didn't forget, did you?"
"Ah, no I didn't!"
"... Inhale."
She had forgotten. She must have been too focused on me yesterday.