A Lucky Day
The world had become like something out of A Lucky Day, but that didn't mean every spot on your body took the same damage. Even if you wore chainmail with 100 defense, a 50-power strike to an unprotected throat would still punch right through. It was exactly why higher-ranked hunters increasingly favored full-body armor. Tankers, however, always pumped vitality first. With high enough health, the odds of dodging instant death rose dramatically. And Lee Yeong-cheol was a pure tanker through and through. Even with a dagger buried deep in his neck, if you didn't finish the job cleanly, the bastard might chug a potion and crawl back like a zombie.
Acid Spray
'Eat this too, you piece of trash.'
Chwaaaaak—
"Gaaaahhh!! Hiiieee!! Hot! It's hot!!"
People already jumped when someone tapped their shoulder while they were lost in thought. So imagine how shocked this bastard must have been—preparing to saw off a woman's leg only to get ambushed out of nowhere. Clang! It made perfect sense that he dropped the greatsword he was holding and couldn't even manage a proper counterattack.
I picked up the fallen blade. When you took equipment from someone who wasn't dead yet, you could only draw out about ten percent of its performance.
Bound weapon of another person. Performance will decrease by more than 90% upon use.
Hmm? 'Ah, no wonder it looked familiar. I used one of these for a while back then.'
It was a workshop sword I'd used during my E-grade days. Weapons crafted by alchemists converting monster cores into metal, then forged by blacksmith-class users. This one had excellent cost-performance, so many hunters favored it. The so-called mass-produced models were usually made with the lowest-grade cores.
◈ Quite sharp cutting power.
◈ Rated as a good weapon for low-grade hunters to use and discard.
◈ Attack Power +2(-19)
◈ Durability 23/55
Whoosh— Whoosh— A few practice swings and the old feeling came back, if only faintly.
"Gurgh… ugh…" Crackle— Splatter— True to his tanker role, Lee Yeong-cheol was still trying to crawl away like a lizard even with a dagger in his throat.
'Wow, he's already made it that far.' I wanted to ask what he was feeling right now.
Step. Step. Then I broke into a light run and slashed diagonally.
Shwaaack!!
"Kwaaaaaah—!! Hiiik!! My leg!! It hurts!! It hurts!!"
His leg had been severed cleanly below the knee. The idiot had gotten excited and thrown off his leg guard—tsk tsk. Something you should never do in a dungeon. Thanks to Irmana's Blessing and the Rune of Giant boosting my strength tremendously, I hadn't felt the slightest resistance when cutting through.
"Mom… Mom, save me… Sob…" 'Mom? What a load of bullshit.' Even his own parents would probably cut ties with a monster like him.
Lee Yeong-cheol wailed loud enough to shake the whole floor, but the Cognitive Impairment items he'd set up made it hard to see or hear anything. Unless someone was actively searching for us, they'd never find us here.
I turned toward Yeonhee, took a few steps, then paused. Something felt lacking. I walked back and looked down at Lee Yeong-cheol's face, which was horrifically melting from the acid. Not a shred of pity stirred in me. I smashed my fist into his twitching face again.
Thud!! Thud-thud-thud!!
"Aack! Spare meee, spare me!"
Maybe I should rip his tongue out. 'It won't even be one ten-thousandth of the pain you gave your victims, but take some more anyway.' Honestly, it was less about the victims and more about the fact that he'd dared to try something vile to Yeonhee.
After beating him thoroughly, I turned away again and carefully laid our party members—who were still collapsed in grotesque positions—down properly.
'They said the effect was short, but they're still like this.' It must have felt short by his standards while he was working. An item this effective had probably come from a fairly famous school of magic. Hmm. Anyway, all three were still paralyzed, eyes rolling around. Yeonhee called out to me with a slurred voice.
"I-Ilwoool…"
For some reason, all three of them had teary eyes as they stared at me intently. 'I get Yeonhee, but why are you two…'
I looked at Yeonhee, Helen, and Jin-gyeong for a moment, thinking. I'd left the finishing blow to them, but seeing their eyes, it was probably better if I handled it myself. This much should also make Yeonhee stay more alert inside dungeons from now on.
Skeleton Bomb
I pulled out one of the bombs I'd been storing and headed back toward him. He babbled something while looking at me, but I didn't even pretend to listen. 'You can lose everything else, but please drop the chainmail at least. You should do at least one good deed for the world before you go, right?'
Praying silently, I shoved the bomb into his mouth. Clatter-clatter-clatter— Lee Yeong-cheol's whole body shook like an aspen tree. The smell of piss down below was so strong even my weak sense of smell picked it up. I stepped back, then lightly smacked the top of his head—with the bomb still in his mouth—using the iron sword.
Booom—!!
Thud-thud-thud—
'Wow, that was powerful.'
Whoosh— The iron sword turned to smoke and vanished the moment it struck.
You have defeated a powerful enemy!
Experience increases significantly!
Level has risen. Please select three stats to increase.
Level has risen. Please select three stats to increase.
You have acquired Vitality Rune (Low-grade).
You have acquired Vitality Rune (Low-grade).
You have acquired Magic Power Rune (Low-grade).
You have acquired Thorn Rune (Common).
You have acquired Vitality Rune (Common).
You have acquired Swiftness Rune (Common).
'Whoaaa… Was this guy a golden goblin or something? How many runes is that?'
Six runes had dropped. Considering the ones that had evaporated, he must have been wearing at least seven or eight. 'What a disgusting guy, seriously.'
Everything above Lee Yeong-cheol's collarbone had been blown away cleanly. I once again felt the power of the Skeleton Bomb that had detonated right at his neck. Praying silently, I looked at the chainmail.
'I've been living nicely, so please don't disappear!! Aaaah!!' 3, 2, 1… '……? Ohhh!! It worked!!'
This bastard had been nothing but a lucky charm for me. The iron sword that vanished was unfortunate, but the Chainmail of the Iron Silkworm was the lowest grade of its kind and still easily worth tens of millions of won.
◈ Defense +51
◈ Durability 112/150
Compared to my previous Big Boar Leather Armor, this had 39 more defense and nearly double the durability. 'Hehehe—talk about a windfall. Anything else?'
I watched the rest of Lee Yeong-cheol's equipment disappear in a wisp of smoke, licking my lips, when I started hearing the others stirring.
"Ugh, my head…" "Y-Yeonhee, are you okay?" "Yes… I'm fine…"
Helen still had a thick tongue, but they could communicate well enough. 'Guess we'll have to stay put until the Cognitive Impairment items wear off. Reaching the deepest part today might be too much.'
I left Lee Yeong-cheol's corpse behind and moved to their side.
"Ugh…" The moment Yeonhee saw me, something seemed to well up inside her. She sucked her lips in tightly and pressed them together firmly. I sat between her and Helen and gently took Yeonhee's hand. The moment I did, the emotions she'd been holding back burst forth. As Yeonhee began to cry, Helen and Jin-gyeong started sobbing too.
'Aigoo, it's not like you've only been a hunter for a day or two…' I knew very well how overwhelming the terror must have been in that brief moment. Plenty of people quit being hunters after experiences like this. Of course, this wasn't her first time. She'd been attacked by three men back in the Goblin Dungeon too. But the situation now was completely different from then. The person she herself had chosen had betrayed her. Would Yeonhee be able to trust anyone enough to turn her back to them in a party again?
Five minutes later.
"Having a summon hold your hand is pretty nice, Summoner…" "I'm a bit jealous of that too, sis." "Ah… t-this is…"
Though they were still staggering, the three of them who had gotten to their feet tried hard to keep the conversation bright.
"What should we do about that Lee Yeong-cheol?" "Just leave him? He'll get eaten by monsters anyway." "Should we… show this and tell the truth?"
Yeonhee, who had recovered a little faster than the Helen duo, held up four small sticks engraved with Cognitive Impairment magic and spoke.
"Yeah, people need to know what kind of bastard he was." "Sigh… If his family comes bothering us again it'll be such a pain. Wouldn't it be easier to just say he died to monsters?" "Mmm…"
'One vote for Jin-gyeong's opinion.' Revealing the truth would only drag things out unnecessarily. Saying he died fighting monsters would let them gloss over the missing corpse. Accidents like this happened all the time in dungeons. Plus this was the opposite side of the dungeon from where Jeong Hyochan had been, so there was no fear of the lie being caught.
"Let's do that then."
In the end, we agreed to say he was dragged away by a sudden swarm of lizardmen.
"Then what should we do? By normal standards, we're already below minimum party size, so we should return immediately." … "Yeonhee, from what I saw, as long as we don't go any deeper, combat should be manageable. Your summons are incredibly strong. What do you think? Want to keep going a bit more?"
The fact that she could recover this quickly after what just happened proved she really was a hunter. And she probably wanted to explore more of the Lizardman Swamp, a place still difficult for people at their level. Yeonhee didn't agonize long before agreeing with Helen's suggestion. We decided to continue hunting as we moved toward the entrance.