020
Flash—!
The blinding wash of light slowly settled.
I took my time looking around.
The first thing that jumped out at me was the brilliant sunlight.
A dazzling glow had risen in the east and was spilling over the vast land.
I lowered my gaze and took in the surroundings.
What I saw was a stretch of earth made up of barren stone mountains. Trees were scarce, and the only vegetation was a scattering of scraggly little blades of grass that came up to my knees.
It was like a desolate desert made of rock.
And yet, even in that bleak landscape, I felt a strange sense of liberation.
“Finally, I get to fight somewhere bright and open. I was getting way too claustrophobic.”
Now that I’d emerged into a bright, wide-open space, I was reminded all over again just how miserable the floors I’d come through had been.
The lower floors of the tower had been nothing but caves and basements.
Every single one of them had been narrow, dark, damp, and musty.
I’d actually had it pretty good, all things considered.
When I threw out Fireball, it doubled as lighting, and because I mostly fought at range, there was less risk of ending up splattered in blood.
But the other hunters must have had it rough.
Swinging blades nonstop in dark, cramped places, getting their entire bodies soaked with blood...
No wonder they were under so much psychological pressure.
That had to be why the low-floor hunters were all half-mad.
That was enough sightseeing for now.
I turned around.
“Hyeji. Let’s get moving.”
“Yes, sir!”
My porter—S-rank—answered brightly and hoisted up her bag.
Her bag was even more stuffed than usual.
That was because we’d brought extra equipment for this raid.
“But do we really need four carts?”
“If we’re going to strip a goblin village clean, we’ll need at least that much.”
“...Just how much are they carrying down there?”
“I heard the weapon loot alone is seven hundred pieces, and there’s a few hundred kilos of leather and ingots too. We might even need sacks and extra bags on top of the carts.”
“Good grief... We can actually move all that? Sounds like a nightmare.”
Hyeji muttered it under her breath, looking thoroughly unconfident.
No matter how much of an S-rank porter she was, she was still just a low-floor normie at heart.
There was no way she had the confidence to haul several hundred kilos—maybe even a full ton—of loot from this rugged stone mountain all the way to the extraction point.
But who did she think I was?
I was the Extreme Lunatic Hell Mage Hunter.
A great being with far more brute strength than any low-floor scrub.
And, on top of that, I wielded the mystery of magic itself.
I already had a method in mind, so as long as we had the carts, moving everything should be no problem.
“Let’s go, then.”
“Ugh... okay...”
Na Hyeji’s face went dark at the thought of hauling heavy things all day, but there was no need to worry too much.
I’d be moving most of it.
Of course, she’d still have to suffer a bit.
Anyway, the two of us set off toward the summit.
It was where the large goblin settlement was located.
* * *
The peak of the stone mountain.
I looked steadily at the huge goblin settlement visible in the distance.
It was definitely much larger than the goblin village I’d seen on the previous Floor 4.
There were well over a hundred crude huts, and the watchtowers and fences looked sturdier too.
But so what?
Fireball.
They were nothing but flimsy structures that would blow apart with a single blast.
I prepared my magic without hesitation.
Wooooooom—!
I drew in a massive number of Blue Dots.
I loaded up Fireball.
One by one, the fireballs above my staff began to rise.
First one.
Then ten, twenty, forty, seventy, and beyond...
Exactly 100.
Fwoooosh!
A full hundred massive fireballs floated up and began to orbit me with a regal air.
Once I’d reached the 7th Floor of the tower, I’d become able to handle one hundred large fireballs at once.
That still wasn’t my maximum output, either.
Even after leaving myself a little reserve in case of emergency, I was throwing a hundred fireballs into the air.
At this point, it was honestly kind of terrifying.
Isn’t this basically army-level firepower?
Come to think of it, yeah, it really was.
A hundred bombs was enough force to go toe-to-toe with a company-sized unit, wasn’t it?
Anyway.
“Open up, customer’s here.”
I launched one of the loaded fireballs.
Whoooosh—!
Tracing a long red streak through the air, it pierced the sky and surged forward.
BOOOOOOM—!
When the fireball slammed into the watchtower, a violent explosion erupted.
The tall tower shattered with a thunderous crash and toppled over.
That was the doorbell.
“Kek?!”
“Kerrrrk! Kerk!”
“Keeeeeeek!”
From inside the village came the rising clamor of goblins.
They were thrown into chaos by the sudden explosion.
I tossed another fireball toward them.
BOOOOOOM—!
The blast went off, and dozens of goblins were blown to pieces.
Arms, legs, and chunks of flesh sprayed everywhere.
I started hurling fireballs wherever I thought goblins might be gathered in groups.
BOOOOOOM—!
BOOM—!
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOOOM—!
Fences were smashed apart, and huts burst into flame and debris.
Wherever goblins clustered together, a fireball inevitably came crashing down on them.
Explosion after explosion.
Rumbling blasts and shaking shockwaves that made the whole world tremble.
A merciless storm of fireball detonations swept over the goblin village.
By the time I’d fired roughly fifty rounds, I thought, “That should be about enough. Time to go in.”
Step, step, step.
I slowly moved forward and entered the goblin village.
In that brief span of time, the place had been completely devastated.
The crude huts had all been smashed to bits.
Gore and chunks of viscera were splattered everywhere.
Of course, not every goblin in the village had died.
Some had been on the outskirts and luckily escaped the blast radius.
Others had been caught in the explosions but lost limbs and were still clinging to life.
Plenty of goblins remained alive inside the village.
Of course, cleaning them up was absurdly easy.
Bangbangbangbangbangbang!
All I had to do was fire Air Bullet through their heads.
I put a round into the back of the skull of every goblin sprinting away in panic.
With holes punched clean through their heads, the goblin pack crumpled one after another.
Swishhhhk!
In the narrow alleyways, I made aggressive use of Wind Cutter.
The moment the sharp blade of compressed air swept past, more than ten fleeing goblins were sliced in half and dropped to the ground.
I roamed through the inner village and slaughtered them wherever I found them.
How long had I been fighting like that?
At some point—
...
Silence settled over the village.
The only sounds left were the crash of collapsing hut fragments and the cool whistle of the wind.
Even when I heightened my senses, no living thing remained in motion.
Ten minutes.
In just ten minutes, I had completely annihilated a large goblin settlement.
But... I hadn’t wiped them out perfectly.
I clicked my tongue.
“Looks like about fifty of them got away. Can’t be helped. This place is open all around, unlike a cave.”
Roughly fifty goblins had fled out of the village.
I wasn’t too disappointed.
Six hundred and fifty was still plenty to make a good profit.
I called out to Hyeji, who was waiting far off in the distance.
“Hyeji! It’s safe now! Come collect the loot!”
“...”
Clack, clack, clack.
She came out from behind a rock and muttered as she walked.
“Good grief... You really just wrecked an entire goblin village all by yourself in no time. Isn’t magic way too busted?”
“Mages are the classic broken class. You should ditch the porter job already and reroll into a mage too, Hyeji.”
“Honestly, if I could, I would...”
Clack. Clack. Clack.
As Hyeji entered the village, she skillfully assembled the carts with practiced hands and began collecting loot.
“Ugh... gross...”
With sturdy tongs in hand, Na Hyeji moved through the village ruins, picking up loot one piece at a time.
She wasn’t wearing a gas mask.
Well, in an open place like this, the smell of blood wasn’t too strong anyway.
There wasn’t any need for one.
I got to work too.
“I need to make a path to haul the loot out...”
I glanced north.
The summit of the stone mountain was where we were now, and the extraction portal was to the north, so we’d have to make our way down that northern slope.
Problem was, the terrain was a nightmare.
It was all jagged rock and uneven stone, with plenty of places that were hard to step on.
Taking heavy bags back and forth over that kind of terrain would be exhausting and miserable.
So, to make a gentler road for the carts, the method was simple.
“Earth Manipulation.”
Road construction, one-click style, with Earth Manipulation.
Because Earth Manipulation made use of the surrounding terrain, it didn’t consume that many Blue Dots.
Making a temporary road over a long stretch was more than possible.
Crack-crunch-crunch!
I began to descend the mountain slowly while using Earth Manipulation.
I ruled the earth around me, shifting rock and stone as I went.
The uneven mountain trail was transformed into a smooth downhill road.
This should be more than enough to pull carts over.
As I was busy building the road, though...
...I came into the tower and ended up building roads. Something about this feels off.
I started to think maybe something had gone wrong somewhere.
While everyone else was gambling their lives fighting in the tower, I was over here laying down roads.
How should I put it...
It felt less like battle and more like labor.
“No, wait. It actually is labor!”
At this rate, I wasn’t some noble, mighty Extreme Lunatic Hell Mage Hunter.
I was just one of those top-performing workhorse soldiers the quartermaster loved to death.
I made up my mind.
I’m definitely buying a Subspace Pocket when I make a ton of money!
A Subspace Pocket.
An insanely expensive artifact with a price tag of at least ten billion won.
With just one of those, I’d never have to do this kind of absurd bullshit again.
Anyway.
Hyeji and I divided up the work and busied ourselves transporting the loot.
“There should be ingots and leather in the village too. Please look for those and load them onto the carts as well.”
“Jiho! Can you clear out these fragments over here? They’re too heavy for me to lift!”
“They’re disgustingly heavy...”
I made the road, pulled the carts, and cleared away debris.
Hyeji gathered the loot scattered throughout the ruined village and loaded it onto the carts.
And after a full six hours of labor...
[Baek Jiho (Republic of Korea: Floor 7)]
[You have cleared Floor 7 of the tower.]
[You have killed 371 Goblin(s).]
[You have killed 183 Goblin Archer(s).]
[You have killed 94 Goblin Warrior(s).]
[Points are being calculated.]
[Floor 8 of the tower has been unlocked.]
[Returning.]
We were finally able to drag four carts and throw ourselves into the return portal.
It had been a disgustingly hard day.
* * *
“Uuuuuugh...”
Thud.
Na Hyeji collapsed limply onto the floor of our living room.
“Haaah...”
Plop.
I sank down beside her too.
Both Hyeji and I were on the verge of collapse.
That was how brutal this raid had been.
Hyeji had spent hours rummaging through ruined buildings, picking up loot.
And I’d been making roads, dragging carts, and running back and forth through the village more times than I could count.
Of course we were exhausted.
It felt strange.
Even with the body of an Extreme Lunatic Hell Hunter, labor this intense can still wear you out, huh.
My body had never once felt the lack of stamina or strength since becoming a hunter.
But at last, under this cruel labor, it had reached its limit.
Still, it made sense.
The weight of the loot we’d hauled today...
Altogether, it came to more than 960 kilograms.
We had transported nearly a full ton of goods relying purely on manpower.
It struck me all over again.
Yeah, the pyramids really were built by humans...!
The potential of humanity truly was boundless.
To think we’d gone and hauled this insane amount of loot by hand, cutting our way down a mountain and dragging it all the way back...
It was hard to believe I’d actually done it myself.
I looked at Na Hyeji.
“Hyeji. You okay?”
“I... can’t get up. My legs gave out. Can you help me up?”
“Too much trouble.”
“Hey, that’s mean! I really did work hard, you know...!”
She was sprawled on the living room floor, whining pitifully, but I watched her with a satisfied look.
She really had worked her butt off today.
Even when she was complaining like usual, I couldn’t help but find her oddly admirable.
At this rate, I’d say she deserves an SS-rank porter rating.
I bumped her rank in my heart up to SS.
To think she’d stubbornly followed me through that grueling labor no matter what.
I really had picked a good porter.
And she was unpaid, too.
I should buy her something tasty later.
As I sat there dazed, my gaze fell on the mountain of loot taking up half the narrow living room.
Four carts packed to the brim.
Two leather backpacks bulging so much they looked ready to burst.
And sacks that looked just as heavy...
Just thinking about all of it as money made me feel proud.
I should brag, right?
I was too tired, but there was no way I could not brag about this.
Click!
I took a picture of the loot pile and quickly wrote a post.
└ This lunatic is at it again today too.
└ This concept-chasing bastard always babbles about goblin massacres, so I could let that slide, but what is this “I transported a ton of loot” bit? Fresh stuff, I guess.
└ And it wasn’t even a short haul. He says he dragged it all the way down the stone mountain to the extraction point lol what, are you a freelance Sherpa now?
└ A low-floor scrub really doesn’t know his place, whining about a Subspace Pocket smh. And what’s this? He killed 650 goblins in ten minutes? Every time I see that, I can’t help but laugh...
└ More than that, I’m amazed every time at how he keeps getting these photos lol is he actually a high-floor hunter doing concept play?
└└ As if.
└└ High-floor hunters go to HunterNet to interact with each other. They don’t bother coming into this dump of a board, yeah.
...
└ HunterNet: Please check your messages.
└└ Wait, for real?
└└ HunterNet is seriously dead if they’re sending invites to someone who is obviously not a hunter and just roleplaying for clout.
└└ So even the country is falling apart, and HunterNet too!
...
Comments kept pouring in.
Normally, I would’ve just snickered and muttered something about “foolish peasants,” but I didn’t even have the energy to read them anymore, so I shut the forum off.
I wanted to lie down and sleep right this second.
I glanced over at Na Hyeji, who was sprawled on the living room floor.
“...You can really sleep on the floor like that.”
I’d been wondering why the person whining about being unable to get up had gone so quiet, and it looked like she’d passed out sometime in the meantime.
Only the sound of her steady breathing filled the room.
I couldn’t be bothered to wake her.
Just let her stay there.
I staggered into my room and flopped onto my bed.
It had been a hard day, but a rewarding one.
Tomorrow would be the 8th Floor. Hunting grounds.
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