The Rankings and Unwanted Pursuit
It wasn't anger, but even accounting for Kim Coffee's influence, a million views on a video uploaded less than half a day ago was remarkable. Of course, it wasn't solely due to interest in Lee Yeonhee's summoning arts. Based on information gathered from hunters, the creator had animated the summons' appearances and abilities in an engaging way, which made it possible. Since the visuals didn't differ much from Yeonhee's actual summons or the monsters exposed during dungeon breaks, it probably hadn't been too difficult to produce.
Anyway, last place was confirmed as the kobold, Ttungi. 'If we're being honest, Ttungi really is the least useful in combat. Still, the way he always draws aggro right next to Yeonhee puts my mind at ease. If people knew about the magic stones and weapons he occasionally hands over, the ranking might have changed.' I usually scolded the guy, but he'd been summoned early on and had been part of the team for a long time. I felt the urge to defend him a little.
Next, in sixth place, was the slime, Lime. There were rumors that Lee Yeonhee used the slime for defense, and Kim Coffee called it quite intriguing. He'd ranked it sixth under the assumption that the rumor was true, but ultimately judged that since it was only for defense, it couldn't elevate the team's overall level. Even so, because it contributed to raising Yeonhee's survival rate inside dungeons, he placed it above the kobold at sixth.
Fifth place went to the orcs we called Deonni. There was some merit to that. Deonni possessed the qualities of a ruling species, but still lacked far too much. They hadn't been summoned long, and the explanation in the video had been the shortest. Proper information must have been hard to obtain, and orcs were such well-known monsters anyway.
'The evaluation of Warrior's Howl is pretty harsh. This kind of problem arises because they haven't experienced large-scale armies.' Having personally witnessed Seoul reduced to rubble by an orc legion in my previous life, I felt a brief pang of bitterness at seeing such an incomplete assessment.
'Their intelligence is the highest after Ran, and once they pass level twenty, they'll probably evolve into something like orc warriors. That's when the real beginning starts.' Nodding to myself, I turned my gaze to the next subject.
Fourth place was the ironclad beetle, Ttakttaki. Its attack power and stamina were pathetic, but its high defense and taunt ability to draw enemy attention were extremely efficient, the video said. It even included an animation of a lizardman carrying the ironclad beetle around to pull aggro, exactly as I'd seen it in the dungeon.
'Pairing up with Lizardman No. 2 to spread taunts might not stand out, but the contribution is high. I'll give it that. The more I watch, the more entertaining it gets, heh.' In the closed-off nature of dungeons, limited information was inevitable, yet creating such a plausible video was quite a feat.
'Who's next? It won't be the lizardman, so is it Ran?'
And third place was...
'...What? I'm third? Me? Lower than Ran and that dim-witted No. 1? This has to be a joke.'
The skeleton soldier, called the weakest monster, was Lee Yeonhee's first summon. According to hunters who had witnessed their battles, it showed no signs of being pushed back even in one-on-one combat against lizardmen. If that was true, it was quite shocking, Kim Coffee remarked.
'Who the hell watched our fights? Did they actually see it properly?'
[Composure]
'Huu... I'm not the type to get worked up over something like this. But why did [Composure] activate? I don't feel anything at all!' Since I'd refrained from using Stealth and Bomb skills in crowded places as much as possible, I'd expected a low evaluation, but not to this extent.
'This is going according to plan, isn't it? It's a good thing, so...' Calming myself, I continued watching the video.
Second place went to the spirit, Ran. The term "spirit" hadn't existed before, but Kim Coffee explained it as something that gave off that kind of feeling. Judging by how much of the video was dedicated to Ran, he must have been quite interested.
'It's a race no one could see before, so it makes sense.' Kim Coffee had caught on that whenever Ran was summoned, Yeonhee's speed increased and the surrounding monsters' movements became more agile.
'During this lizardman champion incident, a lot of information seems to have leaked. Stealth and bombs will inevitably get exposed soon too. I need to prepare myself mentally.'
First place was, of course, the lizardman. No explanation needed. They originally possessed the strongest physique among low-tier monsters, and anyone who saw those aggressive lizardmen pressuring their opponents in formation would be left speechless, the video stated.
'Why evaluate everyone individually but only rate the lizardmen as a unit? Of course they'd take first then, tch...' I grumbled inwardly for no reason.
"Lee Yeonhee's current strength is more than enough to advance to D-rank..."
heehee— heeheehee— Yeonhee's lips were already curving upward toward the sky. If someone had said that to her face, she'd have bolted on the spot, but apparently having it become an issue like this felt good.
'She's really hard to figure out.'
"Yeonsu unni told me not to look at the comments... If she hadn't said that, I wouldn't have looked either!"
Yeonhee cautiously opened the comment section. Among the thousands of comments already posted, the most upvoted one read:
"Huh? Uh... um..."
'That's true.'
Over a hundred replies were attached below, arguing things like "She's pretty, but not to that extent," "No, I saw her, she's really pretty," and so on.
"Ilwol, am I... pretty?"
nod nod—
"Huh? Uh-huh... I, I sometimes look in the mirror and think I look decent enough, you know? Hehe—"
'Maybe because she's been through so many hardships in life, her self-perception seems a bit lacking.'
A short six-minute video. But with just this one video, the attention on her in dungeons would rise significantly. She'd already done several interviews as a unique class, so she had more fame than her rank suggested.
'There are pros and cons. I just hope no one picks a fight for no reason. One No Hayun is enough.'
"We'll have to keep living in the Lizardman Swamp for a while, right?"
nod—
"Until then, let's stick with Helen and Jingyeong unni. Ah! Don't misunderstand. It's not like they just wanted to; we've all grown a lot since the beginning, so now everyone can pull their own weight. That's why we decided this. Got it?"
"Clack clack!"
"Yeah! The problem is deciding who to fill that one spot with..."
As expected, Yeonhee didn't seem to have any intention of teaming up with No Hayun either.
"Actually, No Hayun keeps texting me even now. Look, over a hundred messages have piled up. It's starting to get a little scary?"
When I checked Yeonhee's phone screen, there were 107 messages from No Hayun. Ah, and now one more had arrived, making it 108.
'Creepy... Just seeing this confirms we should cut her off. But what on earth is she thinking?'
If she'd approached us to observe Yeonhee and me, she should have already obtained her results. Was there really something she needed help with, like she'd claimed?
'What could it be? What kind of help would No Hayun need from us?'
But no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't figure it out.
'Damn... Could it be?'
That she had feelings for our Yeonhee? Suddenly, I recalled a woman from my past life who had been obsessed with Kang Yeonsu.
'If that's the case, we need to keep her even farther away.'
I pointed at No Hayun's chat window and made a slicing motion across my neck.
"Huh? Kill No Hayun?"
"Clack clack..."
'My thoughts are a bit extreme, huh, ahem...' I just meant to delete her from contacts.
"Anyway, I can just not reply. But she won't come into the dungeon tomorrow, right?"
"Clack—"
"...Even if it's a different team, their movement routes would be different. She wouldn't actually try to follow us..."
'Given her personality, she probably would...'
The next day, at the dungeon entrance.
"Hello?! We meet again like this!"
"······."
"······."
We had formed a four-person party with a hunter named Lee Jiu, who was Helen's acquaintance, and entered the dungeon, only to immediately encounter No Hayun waiting at the entrance.
'Huu······ This won't be easy to shake off.'
Three hunters stood beside No Hayun. I vaguely remembered seeing them before. They were probably hunters affiliated with the Bijeon Guild. Let's just call them Extra 1, 2, and 3.
'So it came to this after all.'
If they were hunters under her command, they probably wouldn't complain much about following us around. Still, they couldn't keep entering dungeons far below their level indefinitely. There would be guild standards to follow. At most, they could manage today and maybe one more run.
"Whoa, that person... scary..."
"Is that the person unni mentioned yesterday?"
"Yeah, don't make eye contact, Jiu-ya."
While Helen's trio of three now whispered among themselves, Hayun had already sidled right up to us.
"Yeonhee-ssi... Did your phone break or something?"
"Ah··· well, I was busy yesterday······ so I didn't check······."
Yeonhee looked visibly flustered. She must not have expected Hayun to actually follow us. Reality always exceeds imagination, doesn't it, Yeonhee?
If I had to find a silver lining, as we moved to higher-tier dungeons, parties often teamed up to clear them together. So this experience might not be entirely bad.
'Whether she follows us or not is her own choice, but the moment she interferes in our fights and steals experience, she's getting ten punches to the stomach, No Hayun.'
I glared at No Hayun as if I wanted to kill her. Hayun flinched for a moment, then smiled brightly.
'Damn it!... Intimidation doesn't work on her either. What the hell are you?!'
Thanks to that, Ilwol had no way of knowing that No Hayun had achieved a unique accomplishment. No Hayun's ultimate goal was to reach the pinnacle of ice magic. Getting beaten a few times to obtain an achievement would be something she'd welcome with open arms. But after thinking about how to spend more time with Ilwol, the only idea that came to mind was sticking to them like a stalker.
"Shall we have a quick meeting among ourselves?"
After Helen moved the party away from No Hayun, she spoke again.
"What should we do? Honestly, if they're just following, it's hard to say anything. Given her personality, I doubt she'd listen even if we talked to her."
As Helen pressed her forehead in frustration, Yeonhee pursed her lips and said,
"Let's just do what we normally do. I don't think that person will interfere with our fights anyway."
"She won't suddenly go crazy and attack again, right?"
"Um... I, I think it'll be fine."
"Huu— Alright, I understand for now. Jiu-ya? You memorized the sound of their footsteps, right?"
"Yep!"
Lee Jiu, whose hearing was well-developed, answered energetically, and we set off right away. If nothing went wrong, we'd be running with this composition for about ten days. The first battle would be important.
And thirty minutes later, we safely completed our first battle.
"Haha, that was nothing. Now this is manageable!"
Jingyeong expressed her greatly boosted confidence. When we'd first met, she'd struggled against even a single lizardman, but now she was showing growth by taking down two at once.
As for me, I focused on combat while paying attention to what effect my newly acquired trait would have.
'Penetration... I still don't know what kind of effect it has. Maybe it'll show up more in places with rocks.'