Chapter 23
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 23
Chapter Title: Rift─1-7 (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Miyazaki Rena.
A Japanese hunter, which was rare in this place, Tartaros.
She was the second clone I'd chosen.
"Yes, we have with us 'Laming,' the hunter Miyazaki Rena, who once again pulled off a successful raid in the 27-1 Rift! What an incredible performance!"
"Yesss~! How have you been, reporter? Hehe, Rena gave it her all today!"
It had taken a full half-year to create my first clone of Cheon Da-eun.
And that was for something far from ordinary—it was an artistic endeavor that demanded tremendous mental effort.
Under normal circumstances, finishing a new clone before the looming Straggler Reorganization Exam deadline would've been utterly impossible.
But after visiting Doris Finch's workshop, everything changed 180 degrees.
'Precision human body models.'
From child-sized ones to adult female torsos, arms, legs, and other parts.
I could now easily obtain a variety of precision components.
And the person I'd selected was Miyazaki Rena.
"Hehe, am I looking a bit sexy today? My fans always tease me for being so tiny~ But Rena's a full-grown adult, you know!"
Her trademark was her slime-like, translucent lime-green bob haircut and the swimsuit-style costume that always clung tightly to her body.
Thanks to her main skill, 'Slimeform,' she could freely reshape her body, and she wore the swimsuit as battle gear to maximize mobility.
No matter how you looked at her, she didn't fit in this dank cave at all.
"To be honest, I did think about picking a more skilled, proven veteran hunter."
Still, there were strategic reasons for choosing Miyazaki Rena.
First, her 'Slimeform' ability could neutralize variables in the mock rift.
"Rena, take out all those acid slimes. Wrap around me and protect my body."
"Understood."
The soulless Rena responded mechanically to my command.
Part of her body instantly lost its shape, transforming into a translucent lime-green slime.
The sticky yet flexible slime flowed around me, enveloping me like a thin protective membrane.
Pssshhh!
At the same time, tendrils of her slime body shot out like tentacles toward the acid slimes ahead. The blue liquid spewed by the acid slimes touched Rena's slime membrane but couldn't inflict any damage—it was simply absorbed.
"...Phew."
The acid slimes writhed in confusion for a moment before being sucked into the larger mass of Rena's slime. Like water soaking into a sponge.
The struggling smaller slimes gradually slowed.
Gloop... gloop...
Within seconds, every acid slime blocking the passage had been fully absorbed into her body. Her slime temporarily became blotchy from the blue tint of the acid slimes but soon returned to its original color.
"Processing complete."
Rena reverted to human form and reported. Her lime-green bob swayed.
The original goal had been to guard against potential waves of digestive juices, but this served a similar purpose.
"Knew you'd be useful. Good job, Rena."
"......"
No response.
I scratched the back of my head with an awkward smile.
This was the second reason I'd chosen Miyazaki Rena.
To overcome a fatal flaw in the precision human body models.
The models drastically shortened production time, but they had one critical drawback.
The clones made from them didn't resemble the original.
The figure that popped up when I first completed the basic form from the model.
"Hmm..."
Considering that the Cheon Da-eun I'd painstakingly made had 80% combat power, this was pathetically less than half.
"The face isn't quite right, huh? Need to shave it down more..."
That's why I'd picked the high-profile Miyazaki Rena.
TV appearances, pictorials, even fan cams—there was endless reference material online for her appearance and movements.
After pouring in three or four days, I barely broke 30%.
She still couldn't maintain consciousness, but with my current abilities, this was the best I could do.
"Eh, this'll do. Skills are what matter anyway."
Like with Cheon Da-eun, a active hunter of Miyazaki Rena's caliber could overpower me even at 30% combat power.
Right then, my senses picked up a shift in the surrounding mana flow. More beasts. A good number heading this way.
'Perfect.'
If I left those beasts behind on purpose, they wouldn't dare head to the third floor anymore.
In that state, they couldn't even handle trash mobs, let alone the mid-boss.
"Rena, let's keep moving. Ignore those."
"Understood."
Rena shifted back to slime form.
This time, instead of wrapping me, she spread out across the floor, creating a slick path. I glided forward over her slime like skating.
Trash mobs blocked the way, but Rena's tendrils slowed them, or my ice shards pinned their feet momentarily, letting us slip past quickly.
No need to fight each one. We cleared the rest of the second floor in a flash.
'Alright, we're here!'
The air changed the moment we entered the third floor.
The previous damp, musty feel vanished. Bright light beams leaked through cracks in the ceiling, like sunlight, illuminating the cave brightly.
The walls were relatively dry, and the air felt fresh. Though we were still inside a massive beast's gut, of course.
"Wonder how far Team 2's gotten through their entrance."
Not everyone was obsessed with loot.
Either way, the points for conquering the third floor first far outweighed any loot bonus.
Time was short.
A normal party would've likely reached the third floor already. I needed to claim the mid-boss first.
"Rena, keep going. As fast as possible!"
"Understood."
Rena carried me again, racing through the third-floor passages. Being held by a girl in a swimsuit felt oddly surreal, but there was no faster way.
We advanced by freezing feet with ice and neutralizing or absorbing with slime. Finally, the view opened into a vast space.
The wide cavern where the third-floor mid-boss would spawn. Light poured from the ceiling like stage spotlights, brightly illuminating the center.
But two shadows already stood near the center.
'Damn, Team 2?'
I'd figured as much.
After wasting so much time.
But it didn't matter. No beast corpse meant they hadn't killed the mid-boss yet.
No point hiding now after barreling in with the slime making all that noise.
I signaled Rena to wait behind, then cautiously approached them.
"......"
"......"
Both regarded me calmly, without surprise.
Up close, their features sharpened. A well-built male student with sharp eyes, and beside him a female student standing with a haughty expression.
Not familiar, but I vaguely knew who they were.
They'd taken first and fourth in the first evaluation.
Jo Jaehyuk and Kim Gayoung, I think.
Their voices were eerily calm, almost emotionless.
"Kang Ihyeon, huh."
"Seems like it. Instructor Seraphina mentioned you."
"What?"
Seraphina?
"You two are both Seraphina's students?"
I probed to gauge their intentions, but they didn't answer. Instead, Jo Jaehyuk ignored me like I was invisible and turned to Kim Gayoung.
"Didn't you say you contacted Sophia earlier? Where's Sophia? Why's it just Kang Ihyeon?"
"Lured them to the loot successfully, but she fell behind during the beast hunt. Probably retired."
"...Couldn't even hold an ankle. Pathetic. Useless."
Jo Jaehyuk clicked his tongue in contempt.
My head spun. What the hell were they talking about?
Sophia helped them? Tried to tie me down?
And why say it so casually in front of me?
"You messing with me? Why say that right in front of me?"
"Hm? Do we need an ulterior motive to speak?"
But Jo Jaehyuk furrowed his brow slightly, as if I'd asked something weird, replying indifferently.
Were they toying with me?
I sensed no guilt or hesitation from them. Kim Gayoung even looked at me puzzled.
As if you were the fool for not knowing Seraphina's intentions.
"Still haven't pieced it together? Whatever. Doesn't matter if we tell the truth."
"Yeah. He's the one Seraphina's got her eye on for this exam. No harm in him knowing early."
"What?"
"Everything's by Seraphina's will. You're just caught up in it."
"......"
I squeezed my eyes shut.
The reason Sophia assigned me leader from the start.
Why she said grabbing loot was better than the mid-boss.
'Not just greed for cash. It was all Seraphina.'
Sabotaging other teams to maximize her students' scores.
The other two in Team 2 were probably forced to retire by these two. Sophia handled Team 1.
She just hadn't expected Sophia to retire first.
"Loot points alone would've cleared the pass line easily, but coming here anyway... Seraphina will surely take note."
"So, what now? Gonna attack us?"
Jo Jaehyuk got to the point.
He pointed to the center of the cavern, where space faintly vibrated. The mid-boss spawn point.
"Why not hunt together? Team up, Seraphina'd be pleased, and we'd score higher. Sounds reasonable, right?"
I clenched my fists tight.
'Reasonable my ass.'
It pissed me off how casually they acted after this insanity. No, it was beyond excessive.
This level of malice wasn't just instructor rivalry.
If villains this vile were in the main story, I'd have known.
But I'd never heard of Seraphina before.
That was the moment my confused thoughts deepened.
Shiiik—!
A sharp whoosh passed my cheek, followed by burning pain and the metallic scent of blood.
"Ugh!"
I turned to see gleaming daggers in both their hands. Their eyes now gleamed with killing intent, unlike before. Kim Gayoung had thrown the one that grazed me.
"Taking too long to think, Kang Ihyeon."
Jo Jaehyuk said in a low voice. His gaze pierced coldly.
"No time. What's it gonna be? Fight back, or wisely join us?"
"Remember, your answer decides a lot."
I scoffed.
'Fellow stragglers acting all high and mighty.'
They strutted like active hunters. Laughable.
"Wisely?"
I scoffed again.
Their brows twitched.
"Get lost."
Jo Jaehyuk and Kim Gayoung's brows furrowed simultaneously. Their daggers glinted ominously.
"Foolish choice."
"You'll regret spurning Seraphina's favor."
No more talk needed. I surged mana and shouted.
"Rena!"
Rena rushed to my side from behind.
"Th-that's...!"
They'd know the famous hunter. Kim Gayoung couldn't hide her shock.
But Jo Jaehyuk narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing Rena. His sharp gaze caught the subtle differences from the real thing. Limits of a model-made clone.
"No, something's off. Similar, but not quite."
"Don't be fooled. It's a shoddy doll he made! Forgot he's a Maker Hunter?"
Calling it out right in my face. I seethed inwardly but held back.
And ordered.
"Subdue them."
With my cold command, Rena moved first.
She melted away, her body instantly becoming a lime-green slime mass. It spread across the floor like a living swamp, surging toward them. Dozens of sticky tentacles writhed up from its surface.
Jo Jaehyuk and Kim Gayoung swiftly retreated, gripping their daggers reverse-style in combat stance.
But Rena's floor slime writhed, spewing dozens of tentacles.
"Tch!"
"Looks like a doll, but tricky to handle!"
They dodged the rising tentacles with flashy steps, as if rehearsed. They snapped their wrists, hurling sharp daggers.
Shh-shh-shick!
The daggers hit tentacles dead-on, but no damage. Rena's slime body barely registered physical impacts. The gelatinous surface swallowed the daggers like a bog, absorbing them instantly.
Their faces darkened noticeably. Rena's slime intensified, the massive floor mass crashing toward them like a living wave.
Whip! Splash!
Jo Jaehyuk leaped back high, blue mana condensing on his dagger.
"Shatter Slash! I'll handle this one—target Kang Ihyeon!"
The mana-infused sword qi slashed the slime surface. It split, but the wound healed in a blink.
While Jo Jaehyuk drew Rena's attention, Kim Gayoung lowered her stance and hurled her remaining daggers at me in rapid succession.
'Talking then attacking? What kind of etiquette is that?'
I summoned an ice wall without hesitation, blocking the daggers.
As the sharp blades shattered deep in the ice, a tentacle whipped like a lash through the gap. Lightning-fast, it snagged Kim Gayoung's ankle perfectly.
"Ah!"
She yelped, tumbling off-balance. Rena mercilessly dragged the fallen girl across the floor toward her main body for absorption. Sticky slime coiled up from her legs.
"Gayoung! Damn it!"
Jo Jaehyuk shouted urgently.
He abandoned checking Rena and dove into the slime to rescue her.
But the moment his feet touched, tentacles sprang up, wrapping his ankles and torso tight.
Both were helplessly bound in Rena's slime swamp in seconds. Tentacles coiled like snakes, squeezing. The sticky, cold slime clung to clothes and skin, sealing movement perfectly.
The more they thrashed to escape, the tighter it gripped, mockingly so.
The fight ended in a flash. Even at 30% combat power, an active hunter's prowess overwhelmed them.
"Stay put like that for a bit."
"Kieek..."
Thud.
The goblin chieftain, the mid-boss, went down without a fight.
Whether it suffocated in Rena's slime or my ice picks pierced vitals—it was over too fast to tell.
'Way more annoying were these two.'
I glanced at the goblin corpse sprawled on the floor, then back to the pair trapped in the slime mass.
Rena had kept them pinned per orders while I handled the boss. Their faint struggles inside had gone still.
Too quiet.
"Hey, wake up. I know you're faking."
A slight twitch came from within the slime at my words.
Sure enough.
Realizing I'd caught on, they both opened their eyes almost simultaneously. Still bound, but their gazes shifted from panic or anger to wariness and cold calculation.
"......"
"......"
No need to drag it out. I approached the slime and cut straight to it.
"Is Seraphina with the Black Line, or the Ashen Group? Which are you two with?"
Their pupils shook wildly at my question. Unforeseen, or a secret they shouldn't have exposed.
One or the other, definitely.
Figuring out their affiliation was simple.
In the main story, only two lunatic villain groups from Nocturn Town infiltrated the academy with dark beasts.
"No idea what you're talking about."
"If you're fishing, drop it. We won't say a word."
Stone-faced denials.
I sighed.
"Tch, cut the crap. Think I don't know how your world works? Born and raised in Paradise, Nocturn Town's red-light district. Seen scum like you plenty."
Their eyes widened further.
Their reactions confirmed it.
They weren't just academy students—they were villain group grunts.
"You... from the red-light district?"
"Figured you weren't a normal straggler."
A flicker of relief in their eyes, like you're one of us. Their tones softened subtly.
Damn.
So which side, you frustrating bastards?
Suppressing my boiling irritation, I ordered Rena.
"Rena, release them."
"Yes."
Rena contracted her body, freeing them. They brushed off the sticky residue from their clothes in disgust and stood.
Jo Jaehyuk rubbed his face dry, sighed deeply, and looked at me with resignation.
"Hoo, no helping it. We'll tell you. We're with the Ashen Group."
"If you're from Paradise like you say, and already got Seraphina's offer, you'll understand our position."
No, I don't get any of it.
"Better explain why I shouldn't beat you both to death right here."
The stick's always been the best medicine.