I Knew It (2)
The ground shook with a heavy thud.
A massive foot slammed down. Bluish-green skin studded with embedded stones. It was a troll.
“How dare you… rebel against my kind!? Who!? Who did it!?”
Rumble rumble rumble rumble!
The moment the creature roared, the earth trembled as if the entire dungeon might collapse.
He was holding a massive club just like the previous troll warrior, but this one looked exactly like a wizard’s staff.
It wasn’t a coincidence.
‘This one’s gonna be the most annoying.’
Junil recognized it immediately. Among trolls, there were those who excelled at spirit magic. Unlike orcs, these guys were surprisingly in tune with nature and could command spirits quite well. The skilled ones could even handle mid-tier spirits.
When he thought about how the wind spirit Isilen had given him was still only low-tier, this was going to be a real pain.
“What the… there’s another one?”
“Was it you? The one who slaughtered my kin?”
“Well…”
Kang Hae-il rolled his neck, cracking it loudly.
Crack.
His body had already fully recovered.
“Yeah. It was me.”
He didn’t say Junil had done it. He declared that he had killed them.
“Insolent human! You dare oppose the power of nature!? Who did it!?”
“I just told you it was me. What do you mean ‘who’?”
“WHO DID ITTTTT!”
“Me!”
“Who did it! Who!?”
“Me!”
Junil finally couldn’t take it anymore and jumped in.
“Hyung. I think he’s just repeating his name. His name is literally WhoDidIt.”
“…How the hell is his name WhoDidIt?”
“Right?”
“Anyway, you’re all healed up now. I’ll take care of this one.”
Crack.
Kang Hae-il stepped forward.
It wasn’t just “swagger” like the Constellations were saying. Looking at the flow of mana, he really had fully recovered. If a normal Awakened had taken that homerun from the troll warrior earlier, they would’ve been crushed to pieces.
‘Lucky bastard…’
Junil was trying to conserve his mana as much as possible, but this guy could burn through it endlessly. That must be the power of someone chosen as a hero.
The largest vessel. The center of the world. That was what it meant to be the protagonist.
‘The Hero’s Sword… I miss it.’
The Hero’s Sword he had briefly borrowed still lingered in his mind, but there was nothing he could do. This wasn’t Archidia. Just holding it for a moment would probably cost an insane amount of coins.
Clack.
He gripped the Narrative Trick Hwando at his waist and glared at the troll.
‘This should be enough.’
Right now, the flashy Hero’s Sword wasn’t needed. The Hwando was perfect. To enemies it was completely invisible, while to higher beings like Constellations it simply looked like an ordinary sword. Even with this, he could easily take down a troll like this.
Only—
‘How do I make it look like I was the one who killed it?’
He needed to steal the contribution points. He needed a story that could explain it. Honestly, he hadn’t prepared anything up to this point. He’d have to improvise on the spot.
Was there anything from today’s events he could reuse?
“Here I come!”
BOOOOM!
Kang Hae-il charged forward like a bullet.
The Constellations were worried about another homerun.
“WHO DID ITTTTT!”
Whoosh!
WhoDidIt swung its staff. Even though it was a high-ranking troll using spirit magic, its physical strength was no joke. It was even stronger than normal, and on top of that it had spirit magic. Getting hit would be disastrous.
But—
Flash Step
Fwoosh!
Sparks flew as Kang Hae-il instantly appeared behind WhoDidIt.
“Wh-who!?”
BOOOOM!
Hae-il’s punch slammed into the troll’s back. A terrifying technique that ignited flames from the inside, melting its organs.
KABOOOOOM!
Flames erupted from WhoDidIt’s mouth as it screamed in agony.
Junil’s Constellations were disappointed. But Junil himself showed no reaction. He should’ve been the most disappointed, so why—
Sluuuuurp…!
WhoDidIt’s body suddenly crumbled into a pile of dirt.
‘An earth spirit.’
It was one of the techniques earth spirits used. They created a fake body out of dirt and swapped places with it. This was a mid-tier spirit or higher.
This guy really couldn’t be taken lightly.
“What? Did I use too much fire? It turned back into dirt?”
Kang Hae-il had no idea what had just happened.
“Hyung! Below! There’s something under you!”
Junil shouted.
“Below?”
The moment Kang Hae-il looked down—
Glurp—
The entire floor rippled like water and began sucking everything inward like a giant antlion pit. Inside, WhoDidIt was waiting with open arms.
“!”
Flash Step
Swish!
If Hae-il hadn’t seen it first and used Flash Step, it would’ve been fatal.
KABOOOOOM!
The spot where Hae-il had just been standing was completely pulverized.
“Haa… th-thanks for saving me.”
He was making good use of the Flash Step skill Junil had given him.
“Looks like it’s using earth-attribute skills.”
Junil gave clear instructions to the still-confused Hae-il.
“Really?”
“Yes. Send heat flowing into the ground. It’ll come out.”
“Got it.”
Rumble rumble rumble!
Like a shark fin cutting through water, WhoDidIt’s presence slowly rose toward the surface. Kang Hae-il rushed over and shoved massive amounts of heat into the ground.
“Into here—”
Fwoooooosh!
Trolls were weak to heat. They preferred damp, cold places.
“Haaaa! Hot! Who! Who set the fire!? Who did it!”
Boom!
WhoDidIt burst out of the ground in a completely unexpected spot.
“So it was over there.”
It was like playing whack-a-mole. The ability was truly bizarre.
“WHO DID ITTTTT!”
Not missing the chance, Kang Hae-il launched himself upward with powerful flames. It wasn’t as fast as Flash Step, but he closed the distance at considerable speed.
“It was me!”
From the air, he slammed his fist down on WhoDidIt.
BOOM!
Finally, the first clean hit. WhoDidIt’s body burned bright red.
WhoDidIt’s body recovered quickly, as expected of a troll. But the heat didn’t fade so easily.
“Haa!? Hot…! Who!?”
It was clearly weak to heat. With this kind of matchup, it looked like Hae-il could win by himself.
Hae-il thought so too.
‘Good. If I keep pushing like this…’
But then something strange entered his vision.
Grrrr…!
“Another troll?”
Another troll was waiting where Hae-il landed, already in a perfect batting stance.
‘Damn it.’
By the time he noticed, it was already too late. The bat had already connected with his left side.
The troll sent Hae-il flying out of the park.
CRAAAAACK!
Hae-il flew far into the distance and slammed into the wall. Junil screamed at the sight. The very person who had revived the troll to hit a homerun was now—
“Noooooooo!”
Sad BGM
“Cough!”
Kang Hae-il, who had flown far away and collapsed, spat out blood.
“What the… the troll warrior came back to life?”
It was hard to believe.
Junil ran over and quickly explained.
“The orc came back to life earlier too, remember? It must be a feature of this gate.”
“Crazy… that’s right.”
The callback to the earlier foreshadowing. Combined with Hae-il getting hit in the head again, it became surprisingly convincing. It was an improvised story he had come up with on the spot while thinking about how to steal the contribution points.
Kang Hae-il weakly reached out and put a hand on Junil’s shoulder.
“Porter… this might be too much.”
“What?”
“I didn’t expect there to suddenly be two trolls.”
With the troll warrior joining in, he judged that fighting alone would be too difficult.
“You should leave first.”
“Hyung, no. How can I…”
“Just go. I’ll be fine. I can recover. Hurry and leave.”
“How can I…”
“Go.”
Sad BGM
BGM OFF
Junil turned off the annoying music and shouted.
“No, damn it… how am I supposed to leave!? Hyung! We can’t clear the one-star so we can’t get out!”
“…Ah.”
“Uahahaha!? The vengeful spirits of my kin! They have come to curse you!”
Even WhoDidIt didn’t know why the troll warrior had come back to life, but it was delighted that its ally had increased and strode forward.
At that moment, Junil said something strange.
“Hyung, you take care of WhoDidIt. I’ll try to persuade the one that came back to life.”
“What? Persuade a troll? Is that even possible?”
“You managed to persuade one. Trolls are easy.”
“……?”
He felt like he had just heard something very weird.