The Tongue-Cutting Villain
Even with the same stealth ability, the difference was night and day.
"One of our operatives works freelance. Yesterday he saw what looked like a villain wipe out an entire five-man party and 'display' their bodies on a tree. That was already several weeks ago, and the bastard's been descending from the Orc Dungeon. The Management Bureau is using manpower shortages as an excuse to do nothing."
The dungeon boundaries are breaking down more and more... so the monsters are coming lower in search of easier prey.
"Y-yeah..."
"That's why everyone's obsessed with catching him. They say he doesn't leave a single trace."
Displaying corpses on trees... Is it that guy? The one who cuts out their tongues—
The name Oh Seung-je suddenly flashed through my mind. He had stuck in my memory because he possessed the same Stealth ability as me. On top of that, the bastard had one other annoying trick.
"Every corpse is found with only their tongue cut out. The rest of the damage looks like it came from normal combat. Disgusting piece of shit. What kind of fetish does he have for tongues?"
"Ugh..."
Yeon-hee must have worked up an appetite during the fight; she had been tearing into some jerky, but she set it down and scrunched her face in revulsion.
"Watch your mouth..."
"Huh?"
"Maybe that's exactly what it means. Cutting out someone's tongue has carried that implication since ancient times."
"Hmm... Watch your tongue..."
"It could be someone who suffered that kind of torment from others."
"If that's the case, we won't touch him. We're the kind of people who just do the job quietly."
Black Fang answered Red Fang's comment casually, but the truth had nothing to do with any tragic backstory. We exchanged a few simple hand signals in case the bastard showed up, then resumed our exploration.
"Let's skip the safe zone this time."
"Good idea."
We shaved down our time and cleared the boss fight cleanly. That day ended without any major trouble, and the next was the same. Now that we only passed through the safe zone once per run, our clearing speed kept climbing.
On the fourth day of working with the four-man team, we were resting in the final safe zone before the boss battle. It had just passed two o'clock. Forty more minutes and we'd be in position to fight the boss.
"How about we dissolve the temporary party after today? What do you think?"
The leader of the four-man team, Black Fang, asked Yeon-hee. She nodded without hesitation. She'd just heard that Arin had reached level 60 yesterday. No Hayun had already entered the Frog Folk dungeon with another party from the Bijeon Guild. The only ones left were Ham Eun-yeong and Bae Jua.
"Our own party members should be joining us soon."
"Perfect. We've got some work that came up, so we probably won't be able to enter dungeons for a while."
"Ah... nothing bad, I hope?"
"Actually, you could call it good news. Either way, thanks to you we've had an easy few days. Let's settle that spar next time when everyone's together."
"...... You're still not over that spar?"
"What are you talking about? My body's been itching for a fight all day."
"......"
After our own version of goodbyes, we left the safe zone and started moving toward the boss area.
......?!
Right then, a presence that had no business being in this dungeon rushed into the edge of my senses.
Something's wrong. The mana pool is massive, but the flow is horribly unstable. It's just like the people I saw in the underground factory—
On top of that, the number kept fluctuating rapidly from one to four. It had to be someone with that kind of ability.
Self-Replication... It's him. He's already strong enough to push this far down?
The villain who had turned the top-tier Orc Dungeon and everything below it into chaos on his way to the Dire Wolf Dungeon—Oh Seung-je. It was him.
He raced toward the boss area at terrifying speed and soon ran into a party.
...!
Without the slightest hesitation, he ambushed the five hunters and subdued them in an instant. The fact that they hadn't reacted at all until the moment he closed in suggested their detection abilities were either weak or nonexistent.
Or Oh Seung-je's Stealth is just that good.
"Clack clack clack clack!!"
"?!"
I triggered the signal I'd arranged two days earlier. Yeon-hee immediately relayed the situation to the four-man team.
"It's a villain! The one they said came to the Dire Wolf Dungeon!"
"What?! Where is he?"
"Still far—four kilometers out. But he's about to start massacring people."
"Four kilometers? How can you even detect—"
"No time! What are you going to do? I'm heading straight for him!"
Before she even heard their answer, I scooped Yeon-hee up and sprinted toward the villain.
Swooooosh—!
The Cannibal has entered the field.
"......!!"
The four-man team shouted in utter confusion as we suddenly broke formation, but they quickly started chasing after us. From their perspective, we must have looked like righteous hunters charging in without a second thought to stop a villain.
Stats. Stats! They're mine!
My mind was consumed by that single thought.
In my memories, Oh Seung-je had been difficult to catch thanks to his stealth and cloning, but he hadn't caused any society-shaking catastrophe. He had only become a brief issue for ruthlessly slaughtering many hunters in a short period. The timing had simply been moved forward; what he was doing now matched exactly.
There was no way a guy like him would grow into a 'great evil' on the level of Nam Yong-seok, so the stat rewards would probably be the limit. That much was certain.
And that bastard has nothing to do with tongues anyway!
The four-man team had spoken as if there might be some deeper story, but he was simply a cannibalistic lunatic. He just happened to particularly enjoy roasting and eating human tongues. The way his mana was raging in every direction suggested he was also on drugs.
The fastest solution for a psycho is to put him down quickly.
It was ridiculous that he had gone unchecked for over a week and made it this far, but that only proved how frequent incidents had become lately.
Dealing with trash like him is your job, isn't it?
Since things had already come to this, I might as well give it my all.
"Let's go together!! He's estimated to be at least mid-rank B-grade or higher! It's too dangerous alone!"
Just judging by rank alone, he's strong. I can't afford to be careless. Still, Black Fang is pretty fast. I'm already accelerating and he's keeping up.
The four-man team chased us at full power, trying to make us stop, but I had no intention of slowing down. Before long, the villain's figure came into view.
A man as tall and thin as a lamppost. In his hand was a thick, meaty tongue. A nameless woman clutching her mouth and writhing in agony.
Having already subdued everyone, he was in the middle of his work.
Incredibly bold. Even inside a dungeon, he's pulling this shit on the official route? What a crazy bastard.
Besides the woman whose tongue had been cut out, the other hunters seemed paralyzed. They lay spread-eagled on the ground, eyes wide with terror.
The moment I spotted him I activated Stealth. A moment later, he noticed Yeon-hee standing there in plain sight.
......?!
When their eyes met, Yeon-hee sucked in a sharp breath and screamed at the top of her lungs.
"Stop right now!! You evil piece of trash!!"
......
Surprisingly, the villain didn't flinch at her shout. Instead, his face gradually lit up with delight as he looked at her.
A wide grin spread across his face.
Jackpot. I could clearly see his lips form the words.
I set Yeon-hee down and closed in at the fastest speed I could manage.
How dare you look at Yeon-hee with those filthy eyes—
With his attention stolen, I unleashed five rapid strikes at his vital points.
Flame Mark ×2 Applied
Only two of the slashes landed, carving his shoulder and wrist. At that instant, two flaming marks bloomed above the wounds. The other three strikes were absorbed by clones that split off the moment the first blow connected. All three clones vanished instantly.
Tsk—! Now that I've felt it myself, that clone ability really is tempting!
Of course the utility of Self-Replication wouldn't end there, but the automatic splitting to take damage in the main body's place was already enough to qualify as a unique skill.
Even without the clones, his reaction speed in dodging my attack was astonishing. It clearly wasn't just his raw stats. When I had approached, his necklace had glowed brightly. It was obviously an accessory embedded with a detection-type barrier stone, which had let him react faster.
"Urgh!"
He realized something invisible had attacked him, but having little experience against someone with the same ability, panic was written all over his face. He immediately activated Stealth and retreated. When I—whose own stealth had dropped during the attack—showed no reaction to the direction he'd moved, he stopped fleeing and began observing the situation quietly.
Huff... Huff...
Despite his clear shock at my bizarre appearance, Oh Seung-je was steadying his breathing and looking for a way to turn the situation around.
Cunning bastard. He's waiting for an opening.
Fwoosh—
Since I could clearly sense the flame mark burning above his shoulder, I could judge the situation more calmly. I reactivated Stealth to hide myself again and fell into thought.
He's gone all-in on agility. His reaction speed exceeds his grade, and his movement speed is impressive too. Those shoes... the energy coming off them screams artifact. What was the effect again?
They were probably the ancient boots that massively boosted movement speed for a limited time—an artifact with a low drop rate from C-grade or higher dungeon bosses. Whether he'd obtained it himself or bought it on the market, the equipment suited his abilities perfectly.
Oh Seung-je was a high-mid tier fighter even among B-grade hunters. The people rushing here were fledglings who had only just reached C-grade. On top of that, he had gear that would let him escape if things went south. That was why he hadn't fled even after his stealth was exposed. He was confident he could handle me in stealth plus the four-man team coming as backup.
That confidence probably came from the fact that Stealth abilities usually had short durations and many restrictions, such as limited uses.
But for me, it's permanent as long as I have mana.
He clearly wasn't even considering the existence of someone like me. After entering stealth, he put some distance between us and even leisurely observed the four-man team chasing behind. He stayed on guard, waiting for me—the one whose stealth would inevitably drop—to reveal myself.
...Strange. Even if he believes he can subdue us and escape if necessary, he's far too calm.
After being attacked and marked with something he'd never seen before, any hunter with common sense would have retreated immediately. His mana was still raging wildly, yet he showed no significant change from earlier.
Don't tell me... he can't see the mark?
The Chaos Residue had reacted instinctively to the mark, and Maeng Seong-yong had recognized its existence. I'd assumed any high-ranking hunter would be able to see it, but Oh Seung-je's reaction suggested otherwise.
This... If we assume that even with a large rank gap, people with poor detection simply can't perceive it, then the utility becomes even greater.
The fact that this held true even though he wore a detection stone only made the implication heavier.
Ugh... Memories, please come back. I need to mark more of these villains. Why do only a few names come to mind?
At least I could worry less about future villains getting scared by the mark and hiding deeper in the shadows. The real problem was that my memories remained incomplete.
Since I wasn't confident I could catch him if he ran, I searched for a way to subdue him without provoking him first.
Ran, tell Yeon-hee the bastard is waiting by that tree trunk over there.
I sent the message to Ran, who was a short distance away. While sharing information with me, Yeon-hee was feeding the tongue-cut victim a potion and Irmana's water. Oh Seung-je remained deathly still, clearly waiting for the moment we lowered our guard after the four-man team arrived.
Not a chance, you bastard. The one who's dropped their guard is you.
Maintaining Stealth, I circled around behind him once more.
The moment someone prepares to attack is when they're most vulnerable.
That was exactly the moment I would strike.