The Obsession That Loots the Dead
I grumbled to myself about the quest condition that didn’t have a single ounce of consideration—like some unpolished raw gemstone—as I slipped away from the scene. I’d wanted to claim the spoils from the fallen woman, but the moment she dropped, I spotted a man sprinting toward us, so I pulled back. Should I finish him too…? The thought flickered through my mind for a second. Still, even those criminals followed their own pre-set rules. It only seemed fair that I stick to my own and kill just the one woman.
Even so, those runes and mana stones are a damn shame—
……Huh? What the hell? Isn’t Obsession completely broken?
I’d thought the trait only gathered monster drops. Apparently it could loot human corpses too—even their mana stones. Had it rifled through her inventory? And I’d killed her then immediately left the area, putting several meters between us… The runes she carried weren’t particularly useful to me, but selling them would still bring in more than ten million won.
Money this easy is exactly why people fall for the temptation of hunting other hunters.
“Sunjeong-ah!!”
The man brushed past me, screaming the name of the woman who was rapidly growing cold. I watched his retreating back as he dropped to his knees before her, shoulders shaking violently. What must he be feeling right now? No matter what kind of villains they were, losing your lover in front of your eyes was a sorrow I couldn’t even begin to imagine. Staring at him, I felt my nonexistent heart sink like a stone. Yet whenever emotions like these surfaced, part of me thought it was a blessing. What if things had gone differently? What if I became completely numb, without the slightest regret or worry? At that point, what difference would there be between me and a monster?
“What the—why isn’t it here?”
While I was lost in thought, the man’s panicked voice cut through the air.
Hm? What is he looking for—
“The runes! Where are the runes? The mana stones are gone too! You stupid bitch, you couldn’t even guard one thing! Ha… Did some bastard snatch them all? What the fuck! Who did it? Who the hell was it! Come out!”
……
Watching the man’s bloodshot eyes as he screamed himself hoarse, I suddenly felt like an idiot for getting sentimental. I shook my head hard, completely cutting off my gaze from them, then shot toward Yeonhee like a bullet.
Everything that passed before my eyes was nothing but landscapes brimming with murderous intent.
- Krrgh! You bastards, what kind of power is this?!
- Stop popping potions in the middle of a fight, you brain-dead idiots! Throw them beforehand!
- Protect the mage! Even if an arm gets ripped off, the dealer must be kept alive—
CRASH—!
Several iron spears flew at once toward the man shouting to protect the mage. He raised a kite shield as tall as a person to block them, but a spear still pierced through and wounded him.
- Hyung! Damn it…!
- If we don’t take out the spear throwers first, we’re screwed! How many volleys has this been already?!
It wasn’t just one or two parties struggling.
They’re having a strangely hard time. I thought clearing the vanguard alone would make this fight manageable, but the orcs’ combat strength is higher than I expected…
Seeing the hunters’ dire state, I grew a little anxious and focused entirely on returning to Yeonhee’s side without launching any attacks.
The smell of blood…
A bitter metallic stench saturated the battlefield. The orcs’ blood reeked horribly, and mixed with the sweaty odor of combat, the whole field was turning into a foul miasma.
Tap— Tap-tap—!
I used one orc as a springboard and leaped high into the air, spreading my cloak.
There she is!
Finding Yeonhee in a battlefield that writhed like a single mass of green monsters should have been difficult. Yet something seemed to pull my gaze, and when I turned my head, she was exactly where I expected.
“N-no!! Chehwa is…!”
The moment I arrived, Yeonhee’s urgent cry rang out.
Shiiiing— Where her eyes were fixed, the Spectre was dissolving into smoke and vanishing. No matter how immune to physical attacks a Spectre might be, there was still an instant when it materialized to strike—and orcs possessed enough intelligence to exploit that exact moment.
I turned my head to the right. The defensive line the hunters had been holding so firmly was beginning to collapse from the center outward.
Watching the battlefield get pushed back without any clear plan, I couldn’t hide my confusion once again.
They shouldn’t be getting overwhelmed this badly…
The truth was, boss battles were always fights where the hunters held overwhelming superiority. Whether it was one thousand against one hundred, they only participated once they judged victory was possible. So their current struggle couldn’t be blamed solely on the monsters growing stronger.
Now that I think about it, why have so many people been scraping by with near-failures in boss raids lately?
Looking around, I saw a large number of hunters who couldn’t even handle three or four orcs at once. They were mid-to-low tier within D-grade—people who should have been grinding experience on wolves or harpies at their level. Yet here they were. Why risk everything?
…Am I the only one sensing this?
I used to think our party was simply unlucky and ran into strange events more often than most. But other hunters had ears too. Even without experiencing it firsthand, they would have noticed the world’s situation was far from normal.
The world was sliding toward destruction. Everyone was beginning to feel it. They needed to grow stronger—strong enough to at least protect themselves. Had that kind of thinking started to spread?
Rather than slowly withering away, they chose the path of rapid growth… High risk, high return. That’s the choice these people made…
Before the boss battle began, even while their hands trembled, their eyes had carried a strange resolve. If that resolve was a decision to look further ahead and carve out their own futures—
They may lack a bit in skill, but they have real initiative.
Just as I was reading too much meaning into the hunters’ movements, Yeonhee shouted at the top of her lungs.
“I-Ilwol—! Bombs!! Fireball! Anything, hurry!”
Her desperate cry snapped me out of my thoughts. I leaped high once more, spreading the gliding cloak wide.
Whiiiiiiish— Using High-Speed Flight, I dropped a massive quantity of bombs behind the orc horde that was pressing the hunters.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwaang—!
Kwa-kwa-kwaang—!
With the explosions, the largest axis of the formation the hundreds of orcs had spread out collapsed in an instant. A crack formed in the area that had only been getting pushed inward from the center. Quick-witted hunters immediately filled the empty space the orcs left behind. In the end, a single skillful turn corrected the distortion in the frontline.
But that was only the beginning. While soaring through the air, I dropped every bomb I had into the enemy camp, keeping only ten in reserve. The sensation of watching bombs rain down from above was truly… exhilarating. And if the orcs looked up with horrified expressions, that was the perfect finishing touch.
As expected, when it comes to pure fun, nothing beats bombs.
I still wasn’t completely used to High-Speed Flight, but since dropping bombs didn’t require pinpoint accuracy, there wasn’t much strain.
Defeat 10,000 enemies with attribute skills
Progress: 649 / 10,000
Just these few bombing runs had let me personally kill over a hundred orcs. For some reason the bombs also seemed more powerful than before, but no matter how I thought about it, I couldn’t pinpoint why. It felt like the change started after the mimic event…
Whatever. If it’s getting stronger, that’s good enough for me!
……
My tension had been soaring from the continuous explosions, but the way they kept butchering my name instantly killed the mood. Ha— who the hell is it? The bastard who turned me into a female.
I swallowed my irritation and observed the battle below from the air.
The only casualty… is the person whose head flew off at the start?
Thanks to the relentless barrage of bombs and fireballs, there had only been one death. Bae Jua, who had begged me to stay beside her and thrown a tantrum, still looked like she had mana to spare. Combat operation—including mana management—couldn’t be learned through thought alone. It came from repeated experience, reviewing mistakes, painful realizations, and regret. That was how one grew day by day.
In that sense, our party members were transforming beyond recognition with each passing day.
These are gems that have only just begun to be cut… It’ll be fun to see what kind of jewels they become.
Is this how parents feel when raising children?
Hoo… More importantly, where are they? The intermediate warriors… There.
In the exact center of the orc formation, several orcs stood tall, acting like leaders. Their outward appearance wasn’t much different from the lesser warriors, but their posture and the aura rolling off them made them instantly recognizable.
Whoosh— Riding the wave of gravity from the sky, I plunged straight down—High-Speed Flight.
The added momentum made the wind pressure tearing through the air far more violent.
“Krrk?!”
The creature instinctively sensed the anomaly above its head, but—
Too late, you bastard.
Skeleton Bomb + Flame Slash
Boom—! Shaaaack—!
“Krrgh!!”
An explosion erupted around the orc’s head as it looked upward, immediately followed by a dagger ripping through its thick skull like tearing paper. Crack!
Because the bomb had already dealt heavy damage, the bone split far more easily than expected. The downward force caused its bones to fracture and shatter into fragments. A long line extended all the way to its neck, and brain matter and blood gushed upward, splattering red across my stealth-covered body like paint on blank canvas.
Stealth released.
Thud!
You have defeated an Orc Intermediate Warrior!
Warrior’s Howl has leveled up!
Warrior’s Howl Lv.2
The warrior’s roar empowers nearby allies!
Strength +4 (+1)
Huh? I didn’t even use Warrior’s Howl, yet killing a monster that possesses the same skill still raises it?
If the system granted small amounts of skill experience just by killing monsters that had the skill, not only when using it at critical moments, then everything made sense.
Okay. If I stick around this dungeon, I might be able to raise Warrior’s Howl another level or two.
As a celebration for the level-up, I activated Warrior’s Howl once.
- Strength +4
That’s tiny. I wonder how many times it can stack. It worked up to three times when including Deonni No. 2.
Whirrr—!
While my mind wandered, a hand axe the length of a forearm flew straight at my head.
Whoa, that was close.
“Krrrk! Ptoo!”
When I lightly dodged the axe, the orc spat thick saliva onto the ground and retreated behind its subordinates once more.
Is that one an intermediate warrior too? It doesn’t seem all that different from the advanced warrior I saw last time…
Not all orcs were brainless. It was known that their intelligence rose with rank. Having seen me kill an orc of the same grade, it hadn’t dared to charge and instead watched carefully, throwing the axe the instant it spotted an opening.
Cunning little bastard.