Chapter 58
Chapter 58
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 58
Chapter Title: Dungeon Practical Training (2)
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I opened my eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling.
"Ugh, it's cold."
I pushed myself up from the frigid cave floor. Right beside me, Baek A-young was writhing and groaning.
Baek A-young seemed to regain her senses as well, sitting up and scanning our surroundings.
"W-What the... Indiscriminate transfer? This level of rampage is utterly insane..."
Kuuung-
The dungeon itself had expanded in scale, and the mana density had thickened.
Naturally, the monsters spawning here would be a bit stronger too.
"A-young, calm down for now."
I locked eyes with Baek A-young, who was trembling like a drenched puppy gripped by anxiety.
"Y-Yeah. I'm here, so don't worry, Ho-yeon."
"You can't fight, A-young."
"T-That's true, but...! I can heal you just fine!"
Baek A-young couldn't hide her shaking. Fair enough—even I'd feel lost if I got stuck in a dungeon with just one cadet.
Especially since she had zero combat ability. It had to be even more terrifying for her.
"Let's move for now. I might not look it, but I'm pretty strong. You saw the news about me taking down that demon, right?"
"Of course. You even got an award for it. But wouldn't it be safer to stay put here instead of wandering? It could be dangerous."
Staying still was the best way to quietly ride out this rampage.
I knew rescue teams would arrive in two days.
But before that, I needed to take Baek A-young's virginity. To create the right situation, wandering around was better.
"We don't have time to wait for rescue. It'd be smarter to link up with other cadets or a healer team."
"Mm... Okay. Let's do it your way."
Baek A-young looked reluctant, but she went along with my suggestion.
I was the one with the muscle, so she respected my call.
Still, she couldn't mask the unease etched on her face. She didn't fully trust my strength.
Maybe she didn't trust me as a person. Honestly, while Baek A-young from the game felt familiar to me, the real one in front of me hadn't known me that long.
First things first, I needed to build some trust with Baek A-young.
I took point while she watched our rear, and we began cautiously exploring the dungeon.
"Hold up a sec."
"Okay."
Choo-choo-choo!
Crackle!
It wasn't long before an enormous fluttering sound echoed from up ahead in the passage.
"That sounds like... a swarm of cave bats. Fall back for now."
"It's a straight shot down this tunnel—no escaping. I'll just handle them."
"We need to run. Sounds like more than twenty."
"It's fine, really. Just watch."
I calmed Baek A-young, who was fretting because she didn't know my true power.
I drew out a bit of mana and formed a fireball, sending it drifting slowly forward.
Fwoosh!
The weak flame advanced, illuminating our path, until it collided with an immense swarm of bats and dispersed into mana.
Twenty? Try over fifty!
"Th-That's way more than I thought! Run!"
Krrrng! Choo-choo-choo!
The cave bats were now entering our line of sight.
Their numbers were surprisingly massive. Burning them all would be inefficient.
No choice. Gotta go all out.
The only one watching was Baek A-young anyway, so it should be fine.
Maybe this was my chance to boost her trust in me.
"Hoo, guess I have no choice."
"Ho-yeon! I'll hold them off—run!"
Baek A-young stepped in front of me, arms spread wide in an X, eyes squeezed shut.
What the hell was she doing all of a sudden?
The bats charged straight at us.
At the same moment, I generated a whirlwind from my hand.
A small storm shot forward from my palm.
The airborne bats couldn't slow down and got sucked into the vortex.
Roarrr-!
With my other hand, I conjured a dozen fireballs and shoved them into the whirlwind.
Double Casting.
The bats caught in the twister ignited into one massive blaze.
Any stragglers that slipped through got skewered by flame spears and dealt with.
"Wh...?"
Baek A-young, who had been shielding me with her arms outstretched, opened her eyes wide.
Her willingness to take the hits for me was admirable, but the bats hadn't even come close—they all burned up.
But what shocked her wasn't the bats' demise; it was my magic.
The world knew me as a fire-attribute mage. I'd deliberately only used fire magic until now.
On top of that, Double Casting was the dream spell every mage coveted—a high-level technique so advanced that many active mages hadn't mastered it.
These were secrets I'd kept from everyone.
Well, just a tiny fraction of them, but to Baek A-young, it must've felt huge.
No wonder she was rattled to suddenly learn all this.
If I were a real bastard, I might've killed her to silence her.
Of course, I'd never do that.
"A-young, I told you to trust me, right?"
I flashed a smile at the stunned, speechless Baek A-young.
She finally relaxed and spoke up.
"Ho-yeon, you...! We can definitely make it out with this!"
Realizing I was stronger than she thought, Baek A-young smiled with newfound hope.
Perfect. She'd pinned her hopes on me now.
In other words, she trusted me more.
"A-young, please keep what you just saw to yourself outside."
I hardened my expression as I looked at her.
Honestly, this level of secret getting out wouldn't be a big deal. It wasn't like I'd be revealing I could use all attributes—just two, which wasn't that rare.
Double Casting was riskier, but Im Sol could cover for me if needed.
Still, sharing a hunter's secrets wasn't something to take lightly.
Unique skills, innate abilities, and such.
Things that could become weaknesses if known weren't shared among ability users.
You never knew when they'd stab you in the back. You had to hide a bit of your power.
And now Baek A-young knew my secret.
"I trust you, A-young. I haven't known you long, but you feel like a good person."
Baek A-young listened quietly to my words.
"I'll do everything to get us out. So... let's survive together."
"Yeah. Don't worry. I'll give it my all too."
Baek A-young gazed at me with bright, sparkling eyes. She seemed to trust me a little more than before.
*
How long had we been walking? We'd explored for quite a while, but we hadn't seen another soul, let alone an exit.
Shit, is this how it's supposed to be?
I only knew I'd been transferred due to the terrorist attack—nothing more—so I felt a twinge of unease. But no monsters here could threaten me, so I pressed on.
"Hoo... Hoo..."
Baek A-young's breathing grew heavier behind me.
Healers had weak stamina by nature. I stopped in a clearing to rest.
"A-young, you look beat. Mind if we take a break here?"
"Yeah, thanks. Haa..."
"No problem. I'm worn out too."
I settled in the middle of the clearing and began meditating.
A few skirmishes on the way here had drained quite a bit of my mana.
Kekeke... Krrrk...
The moment meditation ended, goblins approached the clearing as if on cue.
"Just filled my mana, and now I'll burn it all again."
Kwaboom!
The goblins didn't even get close before turning to ash.
"Ho-yeon, you okay? You're not pushing too hard, are you?"
"Yeah, I'm good."
The dungeon had gotten tougher, but nothing here threatened me.
And that was the problem.
Baek A-young's tastes were unique.
It had to be a severely wounded "man" she'd personally healed, so exhausted from the treatment that he couldn't lift a finger, overpowering her.
Even better if, despite her healing, he couldn't hold back his surging lust and acted on instinct.
Setting aside the mental hurdles, there were physical ones.
I needed injuries bad enough to force her to pour everything into healing me.
That meant most of my organs ruptured or something.
Good thing her stamina had worn down from walking—maybe one big wound would do it. But getting hit by bats I could've incinerated with one spell felt off. Needed to think this through.
"How did it come to this...?"
Baek A-young muttered gloomily, hugging her knees.
I knew rescue was coming in two days at most, but from her perspective, it was understandably terrifying.
We had no food either—we'd starve.
I'd meant to pack some, but the gear check prevented it.
"It's fine. You've got the future archmage right here. We'll survive somehow."
"...Heh. Yeah. I'll trust in you. Sorry for acting so childish."
"Nah. I'd be freaking out alone too. Thanks to you, I don't feel lonely."
Baek A-young still looked winded, struggling to catch her breath.
But I couldn't let her fully recover here.
She needed to heal me and collapse from exhaustion.
To make that happen, I had to wear her down a bit more.
"Ready to head out? No clock, so I don't know the time, but we should hurry. Monsters are starting to show up here too."
"Yeah. Let's go."
Baek A-young stood without showing her fatigue.
We started walking again.
The further we went, the same cave walls stared back at us.
We'd been at it for hours, probably, and hadn't run into anyone? Something was wrong.
Either the dungeon had ballooned in size, or there was something I didn't know. Who could say.
Our occasional chatter died out.
The cave enforced that much silence on us.
Just as only our breathing echoed...
"Gaaahhh!"
A human scream pierced the distance.
I exchanged a glance with Baek A-young and bolted toward it.
"Gaaah! Aaaahhh!"
Splurt! Crunch!
A gruesome scream mingled with the sound of something being crushed.
"Gaaahhh!"
Soon after, the horrific cries stopped.
But a new sound came.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
My ears picked up massive footsteps approaching. The steady rhythm suggested a humanoid monster.
It was coming straight at us, closing in fast.
Baek A-young must've heard it too—she stuck right behind me.
"Kuooh-!"
"I-It’s an ogre!"
An ugly, hulking brute filled my vision.
Dim-witted, but boasting immense strength and vitality—an upper-tier monster.
In one hand, it clutched a cadet's bisected corpse. Gruesome as it was, my mentality held firm.
"Grrr-!"
The ogre unleashed a wave of raw killing intent at me.
Swoosh!
It hurled the cadet's body at me.
'Cotton Guard.'
I blocked the filthy corpse and glanced back at Baek A-young.
"H-Ho-yeon. You okay?"
As a pro hunter herself, she wasn't fazed by the body.
She was worried about my mental state.
But my mind had never been clearer.
Thump.
A familiar sensation.
Thump.
My Combat Sense was filling my body, warning me: the ogre ahead was ridiculously strong.
Thump. Thump.
It burned hotter than even against Felix—more than that.
This ogre outclassed the two-horned demon Felix.
The game always hyped ogres weirdly. A dumb brute with brute strength—how strong could it be? But facing one for real, it was a nightmare.
Its massive frame and menacing face exuded insane pressure.
No joke—one hit, and I'd be pancake city.
Shit. Why set it so strong and make it tough? Just make it weak.
"H-Ho-yeon. We really need to run this time. For real!"
"Can we survive by running?"
"I'll hold it off. You run. Even one more year of life for you young ones matters!"
"Enough. It's not that big an age gap."
She really wanted to seem mature. She wasn't even that much older.
I shoved Baek A-young behind me and stepped forward.
"H-Ho-yeon...!"
No idea why this freak was in this dungeon.
Probably the higher mana density spawning stronger mobs.
Couldn't abandon Baek A-young anyway.
If a heroine like her died, Main Quest failure meant my death.
So, fight it was.
"Wait here a moment. I'll finish it quick."
Thump.
'Clairvoyance.'
I surged mana through my entire body.