Heart-Pounding, Rumble-Tumble Gate Conquest Race!
Word was that the Mir Guild would be throwing in fifteen people as their first wave.
“This is a speed contest. Do we really need to run two separate assault teams?”
“If the max capacity is thirty, the gate’s interior is going to be huge.”
“Well, yeah.”
“And if it’s a cave type, moving a large force all at once is going to be a nightmare.”
Ah.
So packing too many people in at once would just tire everyone out. They’d rotate and grind it down in shifts.
“There’s also the pride of being one of the domestic top five on the line.”
“Pride?”
“It’d look like thirty of them ganging up on Hunter Park.”
Our support team counts as people too, you know?
Still, we only had five.
Five versus thirty.
Even if we won, it wouldn’t feel like much of a victory. And even if they split the force, that still left fifteen.
Not exactly something to swagger about either.
“Pleasure to meet you. I’m Deputy Im Gun-su.”
The Rift Management Bureau staffer standing before our group cleared his throat with a deliberate ahem.
“There are two rules for this conquest contest.”
① The side that clears the boss first wins.
② Directly harming members of the opposing guild is prohibited.
“Every action you take will be recorded on body cams.”
Meaning the footage would be used to check whether anyone had attacked the other side. And if someone thought they could just smash the body cam when things went south? If a cam was destroyed and a member of the other guild ended up dead, it would be treated as a serious crime.
Not perfect, but it was the law’s way of guaranteeing at least a minimal safety net in guild-versus-guild competitions.
Ninety percent of hunter deaths came from monsters. The remaining ten percent? Other people. That little joke had a nasty ring of truth to it.
Back in the Cave of Darkness, those Hwarang Guild rookies had pulled some real troll bullshit. Without Sir Isra, I would’ve been a corpse myself.
Yeah, not exactly glory I’m dying to understand either.
“The conquest contest will now begin.”
The Bureau staffer stepped aside.
“Who goes first?”
“We’ll yield to the side with the bigger numbers.”
I said it pointedly enough that the assault team leader’s face twisted just a fraction.
Hurt by something that wasn’t even a real provocation? What a soft, silk-hearted little flower.
“Allow us to show you the skill of your seniors.”
“I actually awakened earlier than you did, though?”
“….”
“I was stuck as a perennial E-rank.”
Huh. Is that how it comes across?
The eyes of the Mir Guild hunters turned sharp and ugly.
Let’s just call it a motivational pep talk for some nervous friends.
“We’ll go first.”
Clomp— clomp—
Confidence, competitive fire, and plain jealousy. The Mir Guild hunters carried all of it into the gate.
“Hyung-nim. We’ve made our own preparations.”
“This time we’ll support you for real!”
Our support team had their game faces on, discipline locked tight.
“Then I’ll be counting on you.”
One minute after the Mir Guild hunters disappeared, we stepped into the blue rift ourselves.
Inside the gate was exactly the earthen tunnel the briefing had described.
Roughly eight meters high. Wide enough that six people walking side by side would fill it completely.
Six standing shoulder to shoulder, that is. Factoring in the need for free arm movement in a real fight, the practical combat width was more like three people advancing abreast.
A tunnel without a single speck of light. Just like the Cave of Darkness where we’d once painted monster bones with luminous moss, this place should have been drowned in pitch black.
It should have been.
The path ahead blazed as if someone had cranked every LED floodlight to maximum. The source of that light was the Mir Guild hunters themselves.
So that’s what a Lighting mana pattern looks like.
But enchanting wasn’t cheap, was it?
“Even an E-rank spell costs at least five hundred if you want it carved into armor.”
“With that kind of range, you’re looking at a thousand easy.”
“Good grief. Top five domestic or not, they’re throwing money around like water.”
Our support team’s jaws hung open.
Yeah. It was pretty impressive.
They probably didn’t use gear like that every single day. Either the guild issued specialized equipment for sight-blocked gates like this one, or they had invested specifically for this contest. Either way, the fact that they were walking around coated in cash didn’t change.
Both of my summons piled on the criticism. Ingrid went a step further, not even trying to hide how absurd she found it.
Beats me. Maybe if we ask the Mir Guild nicely, they’ll explain.
While we were chatting and staring at the dazzling armor, the Mir Guild hunters were already butchering monsters.
“Shiiiiik!”
A beast the size of a bull. One Black Spider clinging to the ceiling kicked off the wall and leapt. The jumping power called raptors to mind. Given the angle, it looked ready to vault clean over the tank line in a single bound.
“Look over here!”
Taunting Shout
The Black Spider mid-leap spat a thread from its rear spinnerets, stuck it to the wall, and used the elastic snap to whip its entire body around in the opposite direction without losing momentum.
Caught by the taunt, it had spun itself around.
“Damn. The way it moves is art.”
Just looking at that one maneuver made it painfully clear why the Black Spider Cave had remained uncleared for so long.
The tank who had used the taunt skill. The assault captain swung his sword at the Black Spider as it corrected its trajectory.
Mana Release
Critical Slash
The reinforced strike carved straight through the bull-sized monster. Sparks and a sharp metallic ring exploded at the moment of impact. The carapace looked like it had serious durability, yet he had sheared through it in a single blow.
“I heard Black Spider carapace is as hard as iron.”
“Didn’t expect him to drop one in a single hit.”
“That’s the new blood Mir is pushing. The level really is high.”
Hard as iron and flexible on top of it—Black Spider carapace was apparently quite popular on the byproduct market.
Ooh. Could be useful for undead crafting too.
“What’s your take, Sir?”
The scathing verdict came without a single moment’s hesitation.
Okay, stop. Min Taesu’s life is already at zero!
Both of my summons clearly found the Mir assault team thoroughly unimpressive.
“The domestic top five really are something else.”
“Look how cleanly their combos land.”
“The gear’s one thing, but the timing on their skill activations is pure art.”
Our support team saw the exact opposite picture, of course.
And me? Fifty-fifty.
Among every assault team I’d watched over the past five years, they were definitely the best. But when I looked at them through the lens of Heavenly Martial Body, Spirit Eye, and Origin of Magic, something about their technique still felt clumsy.
Still, no getting cocky.
My two summons had each reached the absolute peak of their respective fields. All I had received was their talent.
For an assault team to move as one and drive the enemy back, an ocean of sweat and effort had to sit underneath it all.
Even so…
“We can do this.”
The confidence that rose up was impossible to suppress.
It wasn’t that I was looking down on those guys. We had come here to compete, after all.
“Shiiii…”
The last Black Spider collapsed with a wet thud. Min Taesu shook the blood from his blade and approached our group.
“They made decent warm-up partners.”
Why. What. What answer are you fishing for here.
“So, feeling loosened up?”
“Yes. The hand-feel was satisfactory.”
Min Taesu pointed deeper into the darkness-swallowed cave.
“Shouldn’t Hunter Park loosen up a little as well?”
“Sounds good. Then clear us a path.”
“As you wish.”
The Mir assault members pressed themselves against both walls, opening a corridor just wide enough for one or two people. As I strolled past at a leisurely pace, a whole cocktail of emotions rolled off them.
Minsu, the leader of our support team, stuck close behind me.
“Will you be all right, hyung-nim?”
“They’re trying to get a look at our strength?”
“Yes. It puts us in a position where we have to reveal our cards.”
“And if they figure it out, what are they going to do about it?”
Power assessment? Go right ahead.
The combat power of Sir Isra and Ingrid was off the scale. Looking with those eyes of theirs wouldn’t let them measure abilities that simply refused to be measured.
I passed the Mir assault team and took the lead.
Death Space
4/10 → 2/10
For now I only summoned Sir Isra and Ingrid. Draco I held in reserve.
I was confident I could put on a performance that wouldn’t lose to the Mir Guild even without emptying my entire hand.
“Speak.”
“Do as you like.”
It wasn’t even grand enough to call a formal request.
“You’re only saying it because you’re confident.”
“Then go wild.”
Time to knock that high-nosed fellow down a peg.
“Of course.”
Your performance… I’m looking forward to it.
“Shiiit!”
The two summons exchanged a brief word, then charged straight into the Black Spiders lurking beyond the darkness.
Even as Minho stepped forward, Min Taesu couldn’t quite wipe the smirk from the corner of his mouth.
Look at him tensing up after seeing my power.
The Gui-dong Necromancer? Laughable. Was taking down a single C-rank variant really that big a deal? Same with what happened to Jang Min-seok. If you lost because you got careless, you ought to be ashamed.
What? Be careful of that guy?
Classic advice from a loser.
Black Spiders were nasty monsters. When Minho opened his Death Space and pulled out his undead, Min Taesu let out a snort of laughter.
One Skeleton Mage and one Zombie Warrior. Barely D-rank undead. Could those precious teeth of theirs even scratch a Black Spider’s carapace?
Let’s see how long until he raises the white flag.
These were monsters that even C-rank hunters found troublesome. Low-grade undead would more likely end up as the prey. The idiot was clearly holding back his forces out of pride. He’d be begging for help soon enough.
Min Taesu stood in the rear with his arms crossed, watching at his leisure—
Screeech!
KWAANG!
—and the moment he saw a Black Spider lose every single one of its legs and slam into the ground within a matter of seconds, the smile vanished from his lips.