Chapter 86
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 86
Chapter Title: I Refuse.
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"A group? I refuse."
The man looked dumbfounded, clearly not expecting to be rejected so flatly.
"Haha... Sir Black Scythe. You may not know this, but the boss is no easy opponent. See that bull-like creature over there?"
Where the group pointed, a Minotaur, looking formidable at a glance, was loitering.
"That's the boss we have to take down, and he's a tough one."
"How do you know? Did you fight it once?"
"That's right. Not us, but we saw another party try to take it on alone and get wiped out. That's when we realized. We need to cooperate, even between parties."
"You do it yourselves. Leave us out of it."
"But wouldn't it be better if we helped each other? We'll even give you the special privilege of landing the final blow. Please reconsider..."
Before answering, Ryu Min shot them a sharp glare.
"Don't make me say it a third time."
"Ah, understood. P-Pardon us..."
Overwhelmed by his charisma, the group shuddered and retreated.
They went back to where the other parties were, muttering amongst themselves.
"I tried to get Black Scythe to join us, but it's no use."
"Did you tell him we'd let him land the final blow?"
"I did, but he still refused. He told us to do it ourselves."
"Why? Black Scythe has to kill the boss too, right?"
"I don't know. Maybe he's scared of the boss, tsk tsk."
"Hmm, looks like we have no choice but to try it on our own."
"Well, we were going to do it ourselves even if Black Scythe refused."
The group nodded and finally prepared to hunt the Minotaur.
Thud— Thud— Thud— The hulking beast, so heavy its footsteps boomed, stood six meters tall.
The bipedal bull ambled about, holding an axe the size of its own head.
Five parties approached the Minotaur.
*Gulp—*
It hadn't seemed so big from a distance, but up close, it looked even larger than they'd thought.
"W-We can win, right?"
"O-Of course. There are twenty of us."
Despite his words, his expression lacked confidence.
"Kruung?"
Just then, the Minotaur sensed their presence and turned its head.
The players, who had been stealthily approaching, froze as if caught by the seeker in a game of hide-and-seek.
"Kwoooaaar!"
Excited by the sight of humans, the beast charged forward with heavy thuds.
"Shit! Attack!"
"Waaaaah—!"
Twenty players charged, fighting for their lives.
Ryu Min watched the situation with cold detachment.
'I wonder how many minutes it'll take them to kill it.'
He didn't think they would fail.
The Minotaur wasn't as difficult a boss as it appeared.
It wielded a ridiculously large axe, but its attacks lacked finesse and speed.
Its rather sluggish movements made it easy to predict and dodge.
'Even a beast like that won't be able to do much against twenty people.'
However, the Minotaur's strength was its hide, tougher than stone.
From its perspective, humans were nothing more than gnats.
'What's so scary about twenty gnats swarming you...?'
At the very least, they could distract it, and an occasional skill might hit a vital spot.
Out of dozens of attacks, wouldn't one of them land?
'Then even the Minotaur would be helpless.'
It would be a long battle, though.
Indeed, just as he expected.
"Th-This bastard is too tough!"
"Focus on dodging as much as possible!"
"Hey, over there! Watch out!"
Three minutes into the fight, there was still no sign of them finishing it off.
It was a waste of time, but Ryu Min decided to watch calmly anyway.
He needed to see the boss die to justify focusing solely on hunting.
Finally, after more than seven minutes had passed.
"Kwoooargh..."
With a mournful cry, the Minotaur slammed its head onto the ground.
*Kuuung—!*
"W-We got it!"
"We finally killed it!"
The party members rejoiced, but they hadn't escaped unscathed.
'Three out of the twenty died.'
There were no injuries. That was because even a graze meant death.
Still, taking down the boss without major losses was a praiseworthy achievement.
"Who got the last hit? I don't think it was our team."
"Our team! Our team got it! Hahaha!"
Amid the triumphant cheers, a pillar of light descended from the sky.
Of the four teams, the one that landed the final blow was enveloped in a translucent pillar.
"Looks like our team survived!"
"The quest progress window says 'Success'!"
"Alright!"
"Aish, we just did all the work for someone else."
The people trapped in the pillar were happy, and those who didn't get the kill grumbled, but only for a moment.
"But... do we have to stay here like this until the time runs out?"
"We have to be trapped like this for over five hours?"
"Looks like it."
"It's nice to rest early, but I feel like we're losing out on something..."
Killing the boss first was a good thing, but being trapped in a pillar of light for the remaining time felt unsettling.
"Hoo, well then, let's go find other parties. We'll probably need reinforcements."
"Let's do that."
The remaining parties glanced at Black Scythe but soon shook their heads and left.
They knew he wouldn't cooperate even if they asked.
Regardless, Ryu Min muttered his thoughts on the battle.
"That's a relief. If we'd killed the boss early, we would've been forced to waste the remaining time."
"Y-You're right. It's just as you predicted, Sir Black Scythe."
"So the right answer was to hunt like we are now and kill it as late as possible."
With an unchanged expression, Ryu Min nodded and spoke to his party.
"We've rested enough. Let's go."
'Try to keep up.'
Once again, the party members started running.
***
While Ryu Min was hunting Centaurs.
The other teams were working together, focusing on hunting the boss.
"Are we the fiftieth?"
"It doesn't show our rank, so I don't know."
"Who cares! We killed the boss, so we survived, right?"
"Let's just lie down and rest for the remaining time."
The players in the pillar of light flopped onto their backs.
Although they were trapped, they were safe from monsters inside.
Even if a Minotaur came, it couldn't touch them.
No, it was as if they couldn't be perceived at all; the monsters treated them like they were invisible.
"Huh? Look, over there."
Just then, a player spotted Black Scythe moving about, scythe in hand.
And behind him, four party members followed without rest.
*Swish— Thud! Swish— Thud!*
Every time the scythe swung, a Centaur's head fell.
"Isn't that Black Scythe?"
"He's killing them in one hit?"
"Hah, as expected of a level 40."
Seeing him kill Centaurs in a single blow was surprising, but they weren't envious.
After all, they were the victors who had already killed the boss and were now resting.
In fact, they couldn't understand Black Scythe's actions.
"Why is he only hunting Centaurs and not the boss?"
"Isn't it better to kill the boss quickly and rest?"
"No. Even if he kills it now, he'll be ranked below 50th. He's probably given up on a high rank and decided to just hunt."
"Ahh! I see."
"That's a shame. I thought he'd get first place this time too."
"Even for Black Scythe, he can't be number one forever."
"Still, his judgment is good. At least he's trying to gain some experience points."
They thought they were superior to Black Scythe for having already killed the boss, but they didn't know yet.
That their record of 11 minutes and 30 seconds to kill the boss was the longest, placing them at the bottom.
*Tatadadadat— Swish—!*
*Tatadadadat— Swish—!*
Ryu Min, who had been relentlessly running and focusing only on hunting mobs.
'Hmm?'
He had to stop as if he'd slammed on the brakes when a message suddenly appeared.
[Target 'Centaur' cannot be located.]
It was a welcome message, indicating there were no more to be found.
'Looks like I've finally killed them all.'
Ryu Min checked his kill count and the time limit.
[Current Kills: 1,920/100]
[Time Remaining Until Round End: 00:20:43]
'So I killed 1,920 of them in about 5 hours and 40 minutes.'
There were 2,000 in total, but it seemed other players had killed the rest.
'This is much faster than I expected.'
Just then, hearing panting from behind, Ryu Min turned his head.
"Haa, haah, Sir Black Scythe. Is it finally time for a break?"
"Yes. The hunt is over."
"Ah, the hunt is... over?"
"I used the Tracking skill. It says there are no Centaurs left on the field."
"Ah..."
Only then did the party check the time limit.
"There are only 20 minutes left?"
The last time they'd checked was three hours ago; they hadn't realized so much time had passed.
They'd been too busy keeping up to even check.
"Gasp? E-Everyone, check your levels."
"Why? Huh?"
At Ahn Sang-chul's words, the party members opened their status windows and were stunned.
"M-My level is..."
"It went up this much..."
Honestly, they had been so exhausted from chasing him that they hadn't had the presence of mind to open their status windows.
After all, Ryu Min had hunted with almost no breaks.
Of course, they had occasionally seen messages about leveling up.
They just hadn't been able to count them one by one.
Eventually, they were so preoccupied with keeping up that they couldn't even pay attention to the messages, so their surprise was natural.
"How much did it go up?"
"I-I was level 20 at the start, but now I'm 34."
"M-Me too."
Ahn Sang-chul and Seo Ah-rin had gone from 20 to 34.
"What about Democracy?"
"I went from 21 to 35."
"I-I was 23, but now I'm 36..."
After Heo Tae-seok's answer, Ryu Min nodded.
They had all gained 13 to 14 levels.
'Well, their level's first digit changed from 2 to 3, so it's understandable they're surprised.'
Ryu Min's first digit had also changed.
His level, which had been 40, was now 54.
It was thanks to the 3x experience round buff and the 1.5x experience title.
Having killed over 1,900 monsters, he had also acquired many items.
19 magic stones, 9 normal-grade equipment items, various other junk items, and...
'Even a material needed for a God-grade combination.'
Ryu Min checked the item information again.
[Lustrous Horsetail]
-Classification: Belonging
-Description: A horsetail that is, as the name suggests, exceptionally lustrous. A faint magical energy can be felt from it.
'This is the key, more than anything else.'
Ultimately, the God-grade combination material was the main prize.
Perhaps because he had obtained his target material, the corners of Ryu Min's mouth lifted automatically.
The hardship had been worth it.
'Now I just need to find two more materials...'
Just then, another gasp of astonishment escaped from the team members.
"Everyone, check! I-I've collected a huge amount of gold."
"M-Me too."
"115,000 gold..."
Most of them probably had a similar amount.
As they were in a party, the gold was distributed equally.
'Though there's probably some difference depending on the Luck stat.'
Unlike the other team members, Ryu Min had received 150,000 gold.
With a Luck stat over 350, his chances of getting extra gold were high.
"W-What should I do with this?"
"It's a bit overwhelming to suddenly have so much money, haha..."
Since his team members didn't know what to spend it on, Ryu Min offered some advice.
"If you have nothing to spend it on, buy common skills from the shop. Make sure to get Presence Detection, Enhanced Kinetic Vision, and Basic Resistance. Save the rest of the gold and buy anything you need from the 'Today's Item' corner if you see it."
"Ah..."
"It would certainly be best to do as you say, Sir Black Scythe."
"Understood."
The party members nodded, accepting Ryu Min's advice.
There was no reason not to listen to him, an experienced player with high insight.
While his team members were engrossed in their unexpected shopping spree, Ryu Min opened the quest progress window.
[Current Area C-ESKS007]
└Participants: 1,010
└Completers: 455/505
Looking at the number of completers, 50 people were left.
'That means there are only 10 Minotaurs left.'
He immediately used Tracking to find a Minotaur.
[Target 'Minotaur' location has been identified.]
[Currently 198m away.]
Seeing it was quite close, Ryu Min took the lead.
"Follow me. We need to kill the final boss."
"Ah, yes sir!"
After running for a short while, the Minotaur came into view.
However, three teams were already waiting nearby.
"Oh, it's Sir Black Scythe."
"Sir Black Scythe! Please party with us!"
"Let's kill it together!"
Without a moment's hesitation, Ryu Min shook his head.
"No. I have no intention of sharing the contribution with you."
"What? Then..."
Ryu Min said indifferently.
"I'll kill the boss alone."