A Hidden Pitfall Beneath Tyrum

Chapter 8

It wasn't working.

"Damn it!"

Monsters had weak points too. With rabbits, the weak spots were obvious, so if he aimed there, the critical hit rate went up.

The problem was that his Luck was so absurdly high that even when he deliberately aimed somewhere other than the weak point, a critical still popped.

"I'll try first."

"Yeah. Yeah, you'd better."

Tae-hyun stood beside Ji-su. She would shoot first, and then he would take down any rabbit that came at her.

Close combat really wasn't her thing, but Ji-su was surprisingly skilled.

Most of the time, she finished the rabbits off before they could even get close.

She's seriously good. Is she some kind of real-life archery prodigy or something?

Tae-hyun had eyes, after all. He knew skill like this wasn't common.

"W-why are you looking at me like that?"

"Because you're good."

Ji-su flushed red and lowered her head.

Seeing that, Tae-hyun smacked her on the back.

"Don't act like that with a pretty-boy face. It's making me jealous."

"I-I'm not a pretty b—"

"Making that shy face with a face like yours? What, are you managing your image already? Huh? Planning to debut as an idol later and reel in a bunch of noona fans?"

"N-no I'm not!"

Up to Level 10, things were smooth enough. Once you knew how to hunt, leveling was easy.

Status window.

Ji-su's stats were ordinary. If she was aiming for an archer-type class, it was a textbook allocation.

Tae-hyun's stats, on the other hand, were the absolute pinnacle of degeneracy.

Level 18, still not class-changed, and his Luck was creeping toward 500.

"Um, what's a Rabbit Foot?"

"Hm? It raises Luck. Take it."

"If it raises Luck, then I should give it to opp— no, Hyung. You've helped me so much."

"Quit being dumb and use it yourself. I didn't help you because I wanted payment. Ah, but don't just scarf it down raw. Make sure you cook it first."

"...!"

Ji-su stared at him with shining eyes, and Tae-hyun felt a little burdened.

What's with this guy? Why is he looking at me like his eyes are sparkling?

Now that I think about it, he ditched his friends and insisted on partying with me too... This guy doesn't have that kind of taste, does he?

Ji-su was pretty enough to put most girls to shame, but Tae-hyun liked women, no matter what.

"Alright. We're done preparing, so let's go hunt wolves. They probably won't kill us right away."

"Do you think it'll be okay?"

Ji-su, who had died over and over to rabbits, still didn't seem completely over her fear.

"If you're Level 10, it should be fine. August probably wouldn't give a quest that hard right off the bat. Besides, you need to class-change too, and if you level too much before doing it, things get annoying. Once you've decided, it's best to class-change as fast as possible. The higher your level gets, the harder leveling becomes, and then you miss out on skills you could've gotten."

"Yes!"

As they climbed into the mountains, the surroundings quickly turned dim.

Even though it was still midday, the forest was so thick that very little ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠light got through.

Ji-su swallowed nervously.

Things like this really made it feel like a hyper-realistic game.

"A-aren't you scared?"

"Well, if we die, we can just try again. It's a game."

"That's true, but still..."

The moment they heard a whoosh, Tae-hyun grabbed Ji-su and shoved her backward.

In the direction opposite the sound.

His movement was so sharp it was hard to believe he'd been chatting casually just a second ago.

And then he swung his sword.

Clang!

The wolf's fangs caught the blade.

Tae-hyun shouted in disbelief.

"That bastard August told us to kill twenty of these?!"

Tae-hyun might have looked like he was strolling carelessly, but he wasn't.

He'd been keeping perfect watch on his surroundings.

So if something suddenly jumped out from the side, that meant the wolf had been hiding with some kind of stealth skill.

And they were supposed to kill twenty wolves with that kind of ability.

Tyrum City of the Salz Kingdom really was Tyrum City. There was a reason it got cursed out on the forums.

"Hah!"

Ji-su immediately drew an arrow and fired.

The arrow pierced the wolf cleanly through the leg.

"Nice one!"

Tae-hyun twisted his wrist and whipped his sword around.

The blade slipped free from the wolf's mouth and smashed straight into the bridge of its nose.

Yelp! Yelpyelp!

The wolf let out a cry like some mutt from a back alley.

Its eyes glowed red, and it lunged straight for Tae-hyun's shoulder.

Of course, there was no way Tae-hyun was getting hit by that.

He had already read the wolf's movement the moment he attacked.

Dodge!

He slipped away by the narrowest margin, exposing the wolf's belly.

Tae-hyun immediately drove his sword in.

Did criticals always trigger this easily?

Tae-hyun found it strange, but his body kept moving.

The wolf must have taken heavy damage, because instead of fleeing, it staggered.

Thunk!

"Check the quest window."

Since they had no way to spot the wolves first, they'd have to keep roaming around and deal with things physically.

Tae-hyun scratched his head and fell into thought.

This is gonna be a pain if she gets attacked first...

Ji-su was a good shot, sure, but that was only because Tae-hyun was blocking for her. If things turned into close combat, she was finished.

"Guess we'll have to use a trick."

"A trick?"

"Yeah. Looks like ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the wolves have some kind of stealth skill, and with what we've got right now, we're not finding them..."

"I'm pretty good at Magic Eye, though."

"Like hell that's going to help! Are you kidding me? Instead of finding them, it'd be better to just lure them in."

At this point, Ji-su was comfortable enough with Tae-hyun to joke around a little.

Tae-hyun walked over to the wolf corpse.

"Huh?"

A wolf carrying a Tyrum Hunter's Steel Dagger. That meant...

"Let's not think too hard about it. It could've just picked up something someone dropped, right? It's not like there's any proof the wolf killed a Tyrum Hunter and took it..."

"What kind of quest is that?"

"A random quest. Hm. Raising group affinity isn't exactly easy..."

A quest that popped up when you killed certain monsters in certain regions.

Judging by the reward, it was worth clearing.

I was just going to raise affinity a bit and go back to farming rabbits, but...

"Um, if it's a hassle, I can do it by myself!"

Ji-su said that while trying to read his mood, and Tae-hyun reached out, ruffling her hair as he patted her head.

"You've got weirdly good instincts. It's fine. We'll do it together. If our affinity with the Tyrum Hunters goes up, things should get easier here. But first we need to kill all the wolves..."

Tae-hyun approached the wolf corpse and started carving it up with his dagger.

Butchering was the skill used to extract materials from monsters.

It was definitely a skill worth leveling too.

There were items you simply couldn't obtain if your skill level was too low.

Of course, his skill was still too low to have much effect right now.

Even so, Tae-hyun skillfully separated out the meat.

At the sight of the wolf meat dripping blood, Ji-su recoiled in disgust.

"Why are you cutting that up?"

"To use it as bait. If it smells like blood, something's bound to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠come."

Tae-hyun looked around as he moved.

"Alright. This should do it."

"Um, but..."

"What?"

"If you spread the smell of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠blood around, won't a lot of monsters come?"

"Don't worry. In Fantasy Online 2, low-level monsters are low-intelligence too. They won't gather in a big pack. And we won't just stand still. We'll keep moving, so at most maybe two or three."

But Tae-hyun had forgotten one thing.

This was Tyrum.

And Tyrum was a place where the balance had gone horribly wrong.

"Uh..."

"What? I told you there's nothing to worry about."

"No, over there... aren't those wolves?"

Far away, in a clearing between the trees, red dots glimmered.

The wolves' eyes.

There had to be dozens of them.

They were coming far too fast.

Only then did Tae-hyun realize he'd completely misjudged the area's difficulty.

"Goddammit."

"W-what do we do?!"

"Better to retreat than fight. If we get out of the forest and head downhill, we can get help from the hunters inside Tyrum."

He had already prepared an escape route, just in case.

Fortunately, there was still some distance between them.

"You said maybe one or two!"

"Normally low-level monsters don't chase this fast. Just what kind of lunatic tuned this place...?"

Tae-hyun swore to himself that from now on, he would rate every monster around Tyrum at least one level higher than it looked.

"Precise Shot!"

"...!"

She turned around while running and shot an arrow backward, piercing a wolf's leg.

Tae-hyun clicked his tongue in admiration.

"Hey. You're seriously accurate."

"Hehe..."

"But now's the time to run. Move!"

Tae-hyun frowned when he heard a few wolves howling.

"This..."

"Why are they howling?"

"Feels like they're sending a signal."

If they got out of the forest and down the mountain, they could run straight to the city gate.

The wolves seemed to know that too.

"Tch."

If the wolves blocked the front, they'd be surrounded.

Tae-hyun clicked his tongue.

Even if they died, there'd be no penalty anyway.

He hadn't class-changed yet, and his level was still low.

That was why he'd acted a little too casually...

But no matter how he thought about it, the difficulty of the monsters around Tyrum was ridiculous.

"Did you predict even this?"

"I didn't think it'd get this messy, but if the escape route got blocked, I was planning to cut out through that side path."

"That path?"

Ji-su looked over where Tae-hyun was pointing, wearing a horrified expression.

Calling it a path was generous. It was basically a steep cliffside.

"Yeah. Then the monsters can't block it, right? And if that gets blocked too, we just die and respawn in the city."

At this point, if there was something horrible waiting down that path too, it wouldn't even be surprising.

Ji-su nodded with a tense face.

Better to keep moving while dealing with the ones that get too close.

Not all the wolves were moving at the same speed.

Tae-hyun sharply changed direction and aimed for the eyes of the one in front.

It was a chaotic situation, but his well-trained body stayed calm as he targeted the wolf's weak point.

"That's what I'm talking about!"

If crits weren't going to trigger in a situation like this, what was even the point of stacking Luck?

Tae-hyun immediately kicked the wolf up under the jaw.

"That too?!"

That one had just been a simple interrupting attack.

The wolf collapsed, blood spraying everywhere.

Seeing the wolves charging from behind, Tae-hyun immediately started pulling away.

Luckily, there was still enough distance that if they curved around and ran, they could probably make it down the mountain safely.

Crk—

"...?"

Tae-hyun and Ji-su looked at each other.

The ground beneath their feet had suddenly caved in.

"Aaaaaaah!"

Screaming, Ji-su threw her arms around Tae-hyun.

As they fell, Tae-hyun clicked his tongue.

Fall damage... Think we'll be okay?

If they were unlucky, they might die the instant they hit the bottom.