Nine Hundred in Total Stats
I stared at the number in disbelief. Nine hundred in total stats? My mind raced through possible battle scenarios. 'Three tanks to absorb their main skills and counterattack. The ones in front definitely have crowd control like Taunt or Psychokinesis. The ones in the back are all damage dealers. At least one of them is a mage... and that woman who used a skill on me probably has more tricks up her sleeve. Fighting them would definitely be exhausting.'
Dealing with those bastards was one thing, but if I factored in potential support from Apex's allies and the strengthened orcs, now wasn't the time to act. I had to hold back.
"......"
When I snapped out of my thoughts, I felt the eyes of the other hunters watching us from behind. They were tense, silently praying we wouldn't fight. After seeing the condition of the previous group, who could blame them?
I hadn't done anything since pulling out the bomb. Instead, I stepped in front of Jua as she tried to move forward, signaling that further action was unnecessary.
"Tsk..."
Fortunately, she respected my wishes. The Apex bastards couldn't keep picking fights either. No matter how strong their ten-man coordinated party was, they couldn't afford to antagonize every hunter in the area. Though their anger hadn't fully subsided, they turned away with the attitude that they would save their strength for the upcoming boss fight.
It was absurd to see the ones who started the provocation acting like that, but I didn't bother saying anything more. It would only tire us out.
"Since Ilwol stopped me, does that mean those guys are hiding some kind of ability? They just look like a bunch of posers to me."
"I-I'm not sure either... but the woman in the back definitely has some unknown ability. I've been feeling her use invisible mana this whole time."
"Heh? Really~? I was too focused on the guys in front... I didn't notice anything?"
'So Yeonhee picked up on the Scout skill too. How does someone without any senses even detect that?'
Come to think of it, she had also sensed that Jeong Hyochan, the government official, possessed some kind of truth-detection ability. She truly had a natural talent for everything related to mana.
Anyway, once the distance between us and those bastards grew, Jua and Arin finally seemed to reflect on their actions. They turned to stare at me intently.
"He might not even be a summon."
"A mask, maybe..."
'......'
I deliberately ignored their gazes and carefully observed the Apex party, who had moved to the opposite side. They had cast a noise-blocking spell and were arguing heatedly. But their magic wasn't strong enough to block my sensory waves.
My domain slipped in far too easily, letting me hear their conversation crystal clear.
— Crazy! Are you sure?
The man with the snake tattoo on his face asked the woman who had used the skill on me again, as if he couldn't believe it.
— Total stats over nine hundred? Does that even make sense? Mine are in the eight hundreds?
'Eight hundreds... That's higher than he looks.'
— Ha... What do you want me to do? That's what came up when I used the skill. Go complain to the System...
— Junho-hyung. She said that's what the skill showed. Why are you getting so worked up?
— No, it's just way too high. Even if we assume they can use runes...
— Summoner wasn't even a class that existed before. How would we know if there's some monster hiding under it? You're just taking it out on her for no reason.
— Aww, look at him defending his girlfriend again.
— I'm not defending her. The skill showed nine hundred, and you're the one who doesn't believe it. So what, you're saying Seonjeong is lying?
— At least pretend to empathize a little. We're on the same team, no need to be so harsh.
— Fuck, I'm saying it's not true, so why the hell would I spout some lukewarm empathy bullshit? This isn't some plate-spinning contest.
— ...What? You pathetic thug who used to mug people. You wanna die?
— I've thought this for a while. You're cleaner than the guy who lived off stabbing women in the back.
— ...Let's talk after the dungeon. There's a bastard here who needs his mouth ripped open.
— Just do it now. Why drag it out?
— Everyone, stop—!
'What a shitshow. A thug or a backstabber—same difference. Tsk—'
I'd thought they were a somewhat decent team, but seeing inside revealed something else entirely. They weren't truly one team. Just a typical interest-driven group that fell apart the moment things got twisted.
Of course, our party wasn't all that different, but I believed personality differences would determine whether we collapsed easily or not.
Contrary to my wish that they would just fall apart like this, they began focusing on the present again.
— Well, whatever. Even if it's nine hundred, it's probably just barely scraping by. And monsters might have another hidden stat we don't know about. That's the downside of Scout—it only shows approximate total stats. Anyway, I think we should stick to the criteria we set beforehand.
My total stats, including the incomplete Irmana's Blessing, came to 978. So that man had been completely off from the start. Even without the sensory stat, I was over nine hundred. And right now, that achievement wasn't even active.
Once the battle started, Yeonhee, Jua, and I would all gain +20 to every stat. My total would easily surpass 1,100.
'Still, that guy got pretty close to the right answer.'
His prediction that there would be hidden stats other hunters didn't have was spot on. The ability to grasp total stats—Scout. Of course, that wasn't its only function, but now I understood why they had approached us, picked a fight, and tried to rattle us.
They were smarter than I'd thought—accurately gauging an opponent's strength before deciding whether to fight. They seemed far better than those idiots from the Ilseom Guild. This made it hard to believe Ilseom's loss to Apex was simply due to their subordinates' mistakes.
'So it was already falling apart from then... Anyway, eight hundreds aren't opponents to take lightly.'
Judging opponents by total stats wasn't always accurate. The result varied wildly depending on what runes they wore. Assuming they used a normal Rune of Giant, the average total stats for a level 50 hunter fell in the early-to-mid 700s. Considering the major growth every 20 levels, someone in the early-to-mid 800s would be considered useful enough for a guild to value highly. Reaching the 900s would mean they had both talent and luck on their side.
'I hadn't really thought about it, but my stats have risen quite a bit. From the weakest to upper-tier.'
The gains from my class change, achievements, and the minor increases from beating up bad guys had all accumulated to create this difference.
— Ahem. To summarize. The criteria the man set beforehand was surprisingly simple.
— Avoid if there's even one person with over 900 stats?
— That's for five or more people. For four, we decided to avoid fighting if there are two people with over 900.
— That's right. Seonjeong, you can't check the others' stats right now, can you?
— The cooldown is still a while away.
— From what I saw, Baek Arin. That bitch is probably close to 900 too. Lightning Step would be impossible for the tanks to handle.
— Plus, besides that monster, the other summons don't look easy either.
— Then it's decided. We'll focus only on the boss fight this time. Okay?
— Ugh— We could've just taken them. Why even start a fight then? Now we're just getting dirty looks from everyone.
— Don't complain. If we were just going to do whatever we wanted, there'd be no point in setting criteria and roles.
— No, but if we copy those guys, it looks like we'd easily make hundreds of millions... Ugh...
— Enough. We're going by the rules. Everyone focus on the battle.
'The bastards are backing off after making things awkward.'
Anyway, I was satisfied and started to withdraw my senses from the noise-blocking area. But then, a sentence I couldn't ignore slipped from one of the men's mouths.
— Then are we just leaving that rabbit bitch alone? You said to deal with her if we could. Heo Minsol or whatever put a huge bounty on her, right?
— Hmm... I said do it if the chance comes. It's not like we were ordered to handle it inside the dungeon.
'...What the hell is this nonsense?'
— Then don't take requests from those rookies in the first place. Looking at how our guild handles things...
— You're spitting on your own face. Show some self-control. We just take the money and do the job.
— Nyeeh nyeeh.
— Still, thanks to that rookie Heo Minsol, our guild's reputation has gone up a lot. A woman's jealousy really is terrifying.
— Well, we'll handle it after we're done then?
— Yeah. We'll follow them once we're finished.
— That sounds good. When the cooldown is up, I'll cast Scout again.
When I'd heard about how Arin was expelled from her guild, I'd roughly guessed it. So it really had been a setup with the Apex bastards beforehand.
I glanced over at Arin. She was slightly excited, staring at the hill that would soon become a bloodbath.
'A bounty... follow after we're done... This could be dangerous.'
Heo Minsol, the bitch whose arms and legs I'd severed, had gone and put a bounty on her. From their relaxed attitude, it didn't seem like there was a time limit.
'Should I have just killed her...? I didn't think she had the resources to put out a bounty.'
No. If I'd killed her, another problem would have arisen. This bounty was likely Heo Minsol's final desperate struggle.
Even if Arin avoided danger by staying with us for tonight's dinner, she could be in trouble again starting tomorrow. Since I couldn't say I had no responsibility in this matter, it bothered me.
The Ilseom Guild hadn't made any notable moves as I'd intended, but a bounty... I hadn't expected that. The biggest problem was that the order had come from their superiors. For Apex, who would do anything for money, there was no reason to hesitate.
Even if I dealt with these guys, others would come. How much time had passed? For them to give orders to this many people, the bounty was probably at least a billion won.
'I need to cut off the money pipeline. The cleanest way is to get rid of Heo Minsol.'
But I didn't know where she lived, and I didn't have the ability to go that far. The restrictions placed on me felt particularly annoying at times like this. I was gradually becoming freer, but I still lived in bondage.
Of course, living bound to Yeonhee was so happy that just thinking about it made me smile. But the path to get there felt incredibly rough.
'...No choice. Let's finish the boss fight first. I'll have to talk to her once we're out.'
By now, Yeonhee and the other party members had probably realized I was approaching some boundary between monster and human. So I'd tell Yeonhee first and have her warn Arin. Then she and Jua could figure something out together. Wasn't that about as much as I could do...? I was taking a risk by giving them this information too.
"This is Master's first time giving a lesson, so I'll specially show you Lightning Step."
Arin's flushed face as she said that during the day suddenly came to mind. Master... I'd used an unnecessary title.
'Hmm... As her master, should I take care of that Scout user?'