PVP (1)

Ding—

The card in his hand melted into a wisp of light and seeped into his body.

Woobin used the Skill Slot Expansion Ticket he had ripped from Min Juhee, then looked down at the floor.

Four items lay on the ground.

Ding—

The first item he examined was the demonic sword.

It was the kind of weapon that had been through everything—enhancement work and rune socketing both—until nothing more could be done to it. A finished product, the sort ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you only ever see at the very end of the line.

Damn, that's busted.

Demonic Sword: Gigantes was one of Elid's strongest items, spoken of in the same breath as the word legendary. True to its reputation, every single option on it was a jewel.

The magi attribute was counted among the highest tiers of all attributes.

Magi went beyond being a mere element—it carried additional debuff effects like illusions, confusion, and paralysis.

But the demonic sword's true brokenness lay elsewhere.

Ding—

The greatsword was so massive that its grip alone felt heavy in his hand.

Ding—

He fed a thread of mana into it, and with a smooth hiss the massive demonic sword shrank away, slurping down into his grip like a small dagger.

Ding—

This time the blade lengthened and the grip thickened, until it took on the shape of a long, slender sword.

Before he'd been locked away ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in the dungeon, Woobin had aspired to be a swordsman who wielded a longsword. Holding that grip again after so long felt somehow familiar and foreign all at once.

How much would this go for?

As a rule, S-grade items were rare enough that you could assume no duplicates ever surfaced on the market.

Demonic Sword: Gigantes was a hidden item that stood out even among those S-grades.

If he put it up for sale, the price would be whatever he named.

If not for Fist Strike, he would have made it his main weapon without a moment's hesitation.

But the Woobin of today had no need for it.

He had no swordsmanship skill cards to speak of, and if he stubbornly clung to the sword alone, he might never even create the opening to use Fist Strike when an unexpected situation arose. He needed to get comfortable fighting with his fists while he still had the luxury to do so.

Having finished ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with the demonic sword, Woobin moved on to the next item.

It was a special item granted by the wanted-poster system for taking down Do Minjun.

Is this any good?

Rune stones carried the effect of granting special powers to whatever item they were socketed into.

Even Demonic Sword: Gigantes had three of them embedded in it right now.

He really socketed nothing but the hardest ones to get.

The runes set into the demonic sword had been famous even back before Woobin was trapped in the dungeon.

Starting with the damage boost that every hunter considered essential for grinding, and running all the way through destruction attribute granting and cutting power enhancement.

Converted to runes alone, they would have blown well past ten million.

Yet the Rune Stone: Thunder Strike he had just obtained held an effect he was seeing for the first time in his life.

A powerful Heavenly Thunder Strike, it said. What exactly did that do?

I'll check it out later.

Since he had nothing worth socketing it into at the moment, Woobin shifted his gaze to the next item.

Only two items remained to examine.

They were nothing more than what had dropped at random from killing Do Minjun.

Ding—

The first item was, in a word, a dud.

Do Minjun had been a monster who'd handed over a whopping eighty million experience points.

His inventory must have been stuffed with items rivaling Demonic Sword: Gigantes, and yet what dropped was junk barely fit for crafting.

It was a shame—but the second item turned out to be something unexpected.

Ding—

"This is..."

It was the exact same item as the supply box that had been sitting in Min Juhee's inventory.

So why was it in Do Minjun's inventory? The answer wasn't hard to deduce.

He'd already taken everything from them.

Before Woobin arrived, he had robbed the rookie heroes of every last item they owned.

Still, I salvaged one.

Losing the three support boxes that had been his original targets stung, but the result was undeniably satisfying in its own way.

What kind of items would this box hold? Maybe because he'd already watched Min Juhee's box opening once, his anticipation was on another level entirely.

Gulp—

Woobin opened the box with a tense expression. No—he tried to open it.

Ding—

......

The box would not open.

What a thoroughly deflating message. Then again, it wasn't as though he couldn't open it at all.

Just as he was about to go ask Min Juhee for the favor—

Has it been thirty minutes already?

Far off in the distance, he spotted Choi Sooho coming to deliver his tribute of items.

Might as well loosen up for the first time in a while.

The aroma of perfectly roasted meat teased their nostrils.

A hunk of meat, juices streaming down its glistening surface, clung to the end of a long bone.

"Let's eat first."

Just as everyone was hesitantly eyeing one another, the first to break the silence was Min Juhee.

"Jia, here—try some."

Min Juhee picked up a piece of meat and held it out to Yoon Jia.

Yoon Jia shook her head from side to side without a word.

She hadn't managed a single meal since yesterday; she had to be starving. Yet she showed no will to eat at all. Then again, after suffering something that horrific, who could blame her.

If only I'd been a little faster.

If she had acted just a little sooner, could she have spared Jia from that horror? And then, unbidden, another thought surfaced.

If Woobin hadn't been there, I would have...

If she hadn't happened to cross paths with Woobin in that forest, she too would have known a pain no different from Yoon Jia's.

Min Juhee sank into her thoughts as she watched Yoon Jia sit there trembling, doing nothing at all.

"Nothing gets you treated like a cripple here faster than being underestimated."

Woobin's words came back to her.

"The things you're handing over right now might be what saves your life. They might be rarities you'll never get to touch again."

He could have simply demanded the items. So why had he said all that?

"Hand over everything."

He was testing me.

Min Juhee understood now.

Woobin had been running an experiment—seeing how she would respond to an unreasonable demand.

Back then, she had been terrified. She'd been afraid of what would happen if she refused. But she had found her courage.

Because if those items were the only weapons that would keep her alive, she had to protect them somehow—even if only a little.

Nothing gets you treated like a cripple faster than being underestimated.

As if something had finally clicked, Min Juhee chewed over Woobin's words and took a huge bite of the meat.

Juices flooded her mouth, filling it to the brim. The balance of just the right saltiness and sweetness was exquisite.

The moment Min Juhee started eating, the two men who had been watching her intently began tearing into the meat as well.

"Not bad."

"Phew..."

They ate with distinctly aggrieved looks on their faces.

They must have had plenty weighing on their minds too.

Hadn't they been beaten down, unable to do anything, forced to do nothing but watch as their comrade was violated?

What must they have felt? A helplessness beyond the reach of words, most likely.

But as the delicious food worked on their palates, their tormented minds seemed to settle considerably.

"What are you going to do?"

The man with glasses—Jo Gihun—asked gingerly. Kim Hojun, who had been gnawing on meat beside him, answered.

"Do what, exactly?"

"I'm asking what we do from here."

"..."

Kim Hojun mulled the question over for a moment before speaking.

"So, this place we're in right now—it's not Earth, is it?"

"If what that woman said earlier was true, then I suppose not."

He clearly didn't buy Seo Heebin's story. Then again, being told to accept that this was some afterlife wasn't the kind of thing you just nodded along to.

But Min Juhee knew that woman's words were the plain truth.

"I'm thinking of following that bob-cut woman from earlier. She's ranked first, after all. And she seemed kind, too."

"I'd put my faith in the other one. She's the one who healed us, remember?"

Jo Gihun pointed at Seo Heebin; Kim Hojun pointed at Hwa Minseo.

"What about you, Juhee? Who looks good to you?"

At Jo Gihun's question, Min Juhee shifted her gaze.

Seo Heebin, with her bob cut and a skirt that swayed with every step. She looked barely into her twenties, but nothing about her words or manner was childish.

The persuasiveness with which she distilled tangled situations into tidy analogies, the appeal of a pitch that sang her group's praises. She was smooth enough to have you nodding along before you knew it.

The second person her eyes drifted toward was Hwa Minseo, a massive bow slung across her back.

They had never exchanged a word, but the very presence she radiated was on another level entirely.

How to put it—like a hero who had walked out of a war alive. She was so solid, so dependable, that simply looking at her set the mind at ease.

And yet the figure who had carved the deepest impression into Min Juhee's heart was someone else altogether.

"For me, it's that person."

Following her gaze, they found a man sitting off in a corner.

Tangled hair, armor crumbling to pieces, not even a shirt on his back—a man who looked for all the world like a beggar.

"Huh? That guy?"

Jo Gihun and Kim Hojun asked, dumbfounded.

They'd taken their beating with their eyes covered, so they apparently had no idea Woobin was the one who had saved them.

"He's the one who saved us."

"What? Him? He doesn't look it at all..."

How was she supposed to explain?

Would they believe her if she said he'd made those thugs burst apart and die with a single punch? Even she had watched it happen with her own eyes and still struggled to believe it.

Just as she was despairing of finding any way to put it into words—

"Oh? That's him, right? The one they said was in the same guild as Seo Heebin."

She saw a man making his way toward Woobin.

His expression had settled into something cold and hard, and the blade in his hand seemed to announce just how serious this was about to get.

"Something's not right here."

"Don't tell me they're going to fight again..."

The shouting match had been a mere ten minutes ago. He'd thought it had all been settled peacefully through talk—and now the man was charging in with a weapon drawn.

Gulp—

Just as a chill—the sure sense that something was about to happen—began to creep through the air—

"I'm sorry. I'm late, aren't I?"

Seo Heebin popped out of nowhere, bending at the waist with a beaming smile. Whatever the reason for her good mood, the grin refused to leave her face.

"The fun part of the match starts now."

"Huh?"

To the rookie heroes' bewilderment, Seo Heebin spoke with an expression brimming with confidence.

"Allow us to show you the power of Saber."