I, Sortie
Four days later, another gate run was officially scheduled.
The party was the same as last time: Yoo Soomi, Kim Seohwa, and me—three members total.
In the meantime I kept up my running routine, pushing the intensity even higher. I made sure to hit a full 20km every single day without fail. Even then, it only took me about an hour.
Excellent workout pattern! This volume puts you in the top 10% among all Awakeners!
After running I added some strength training.
“Hnnnggggghhh…!!!”
I poured everything into the pull-up bar, letting out a battle cry with each rep. My pull-ups had improved too. I used to max out at three; now I could squeeze out five.
Once I got home, I showered off the sweat, tore open a bag of snacks, and spent the rest of the day lazing around while scrolling the gallery.
A random thought crossed my mind. If I ran 20km, did thirty minutes of strength training, and then spent the remaining twelve hours rotting in bed, was I living a healthy life… or just being lazy?
Time passed, and the day of our third gate run finally arrived.
This time Kim Seohwa brought her SUV. Just like she’d promised, Soomi and I rode together in the back seat.
“Here, Jiyoon. Say ah~”
“Yeees. Hehe.”
The entire ride, Soomi kept feeding me those squishy jelly snacks, and before I knew it my stomach was stuffed.
Seohwa kept stealing glances at us through the rear-view mirror. Her expression looked a little scary, like she was cooking up something mischievous in her head.
We soon reached the familiar gate. I slipped on the gloves Arin had bought me. With them equipped, I felt like I could take on any monster that came my way.
I stepped through the gate entrance brimming with confidence and professionalism.
“Shall we head straight for the mountain?” Soomi asked.
“Wait a second. Before that, can we look for a Mountain Bear? I want to test out my new skills.”
“Oh right. You learned two attack skills. Sure, let’s go find one.”
“Actually… could I try fighting it alone?”
“Huh? That’s a bit much. It’s dangerous.”
“Yeah, Jiyoon. That bear looks slow, but it can suddenly charge like crazy.”
Both of them immediately tried to stop me.
But I had solid proof I could handle it.
“It’ll be fine as long as I keep my barrier up. Remember how it held up against those trolls in the mountains for a long time?”
I had already verified exactly how strong the barrier was.
Soomi and Seohwa exchanged glances for a moment.
“All right, you can try. But if it gets dangerous we’re jumping in immediately, okay?”
“And if you get hurt and make your unnies worry again, you know what happens, right? We might just tie you up so you can’t do anything.”
“Don’t worry. I’m a Unique-grade for a reason.”
The three of us began searching the forest where Mountain Bears appeared.
It didn’t take long to find one. Once again I spotted it before either Soomi or Seohwa.
“Hold on. I hear a Mountain Bear’s footsteps up ahead.”
“…Huh? I don’t hear anything. Soomi, you hear it?”
“Nope. You didn’t know? Jiyoon’s hearing is insanely good. She can find hidden monsters and notice things twice as fast as the rest of us even from far away.”
“Whoa… she’s basically perfectly optimized for raid command.”
We followed the heavy, thudding footsteps and soon spotted a Mountain Bear in the distance.
I cast my barrier on myself first. A translucent membrane wrapped around my body before turning completely invisible. With this active, I temporarily gained durability on par with a proper tank holding a shield. If I refreshed it before it broke, I was essentially invincible.
Without a word I nocked an arrow.
Soomi and Seohwa quietly fell back and hid in the underbrush. They were trusting me.
Now it was time to repay that trust.
I activated my Concentration skill, slipping into that slowed-time sensation, and fired the first arrow.
Thwack—
“Grrrrraaaaaawr!!!”
It struck near the shoulder. The Mountain Bear let out a furious roar and finally spotted me.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
I kept firing arrows without pause. Even as it started to look like a pincushion, the bear charged at me like a mad bull.
Time for a proper attack skill.
I used Rapid Fire, a skill I had already grown fairly familiar with. Mana surged from my heart down my arm and swirled into the bow. The glove on my hand sped the whole process up just a little, but noticeably.
Bangbangbangbangbang—!!!
The high-speed barrage focused on the bear’s front legs. The creature tripped spectacularly and tumbled forward.
While it was still dazed on the ground, I kicked off the dirt and closed the distance. By the time it lifted its head, I already had five arrows drawn at once.
Boom—!
My Multi-Shot skill detonated. Five arrows ripped into its vitals at point-blank range. The Mountain Bear flipped backward and crashed to the ground with a heavy thud.
Just like that, my first solo hunt was a clean success.
I didn’t even turn around. I simply raised my bow high.
And said nothing.
Because that’s what a real man does.
“Ooooh! Ooooooooooh!!!”
From behind me came Soomi’s cheers and applause.
I guess this proved my combat sense had reached a decent level. No matter how strong your awakening powers are, combat sense is an entirely separate matter. Without it you can’t fight properly no matter how good your abilities are.
But me? I moved nimbly and intelligently, taking down a Mountain Bear solo in one smooth sequence. I hadn’t even needed the barrier.
“Jiyoon, you’ve become a real hunter now. If you officially started working today, every guild out there would be throwing recruitment offers at you.”
“Seriously. I’m so proud. The kid who used to hide behind us and only throw out tiny heals on our first gate run has come this far.”
Soomi and Seohwa couldn’t stop praising me.
I answered them with dignified confidence.
“It wasn’t as hard as I thought. We can head toward the mountain now.”
“Okay! Let’s go farm some money!”
Everyone was riding the highest high as we cheerfully made our way toward the mountain.
Whenever trash mobs blocked the path I took them out cleanly with my bow. A Rock Golem appeared once, but no matter how many arrows I pumped into it the thing wouldn’t budge. In the end Soomi and Seohwa had to finish it off.
My raw destructive power still seemed to be lacking. Maybe I should learn that huge mana arrow skill that Arin showed me.
We finally reached the base of the mountain.
“I’ll cast barriers on us first.”
I applied the shield to myself, Soomi, and Seohwa.
With these active, surprise attacks wouldn’t be able to hurt us badly. Plus, since Soomi was a close-combat fighter, she could completely ignore defense and dodging to go full berserker. Her survivability and damage output would both skyrocket. Seohwa, whose defense was weak, no longer had to worry about her back or sides and could focus purely on attacking.
This was exactly why the barrier was considered a higher-tier skill than simple healing.
“Let’s go!”
“Hell yeah. It’s been forever since I could just swing my sword like this while getting this much support. The monsters are all dead meat.”
“How does adding one little Jiyoon turn a three-man party without a tank into something that actually works? This is actually insane.”
We were all pumped and ready to start hunting when—
Grrrrraaaaaawr—!!!
A roar shook the entire mountain.
Goosebumps instantly shot across my skin.
“……”
Soomi and Seohwa stared toward the sound with tense eyes.
A short distance away, five or six people came tumbling down the slope in a chaotic heap. They were covered in cuts and bruises of all sizes, leaves stuck all over their bodies from crashing through the underbrush. They looked like a total mess.
“Get out of the way!!”
The tank holding a shield shouted at the top of his lungs.
For a brief moment every party in the area froze at the ominous warning.
BOOM—
An enormous monster burst through, smashing rocks and trees aside as it appeared.
“A Minotaur…?” Soomi muttered.
I had seen the gate map, so I knew too. The highest-difficulty monster in this gate lived deep in the mountains above us. A Minotaur. And judging by the four horns on its head, this was a boss-grade specimen far stronger than the normal two-horned ones.
But why was it all the way down here?
The mountain was a high-difficulty zone. The plains below were low-difficulty. The average party strength between the two areas was vastly different. The parties down here only had maybe one B-rank at best; most were all C-rank. There was no way they could handle a boss Minotaur.
“Those idiots. They must have poked the boss, couldn’t beat it, and dragged it all the way down here,” Seohwa spat.
In other words, they didn’t have the skill but got greedy for the loot, aggroed the boss, and then fled down the mountain when it got dangerous. The parties on the plains started screaming and running in every direction.
If things continued like this, there would definitely be casualties. This went beyond being a nuisance—it was practically terrorism.
“Soomi-unnie! Seohwa-unnie!”
I shouted and cast buffs on both of them.
“Okay. Let’s see what we can do about that thing.”
Soomi shot forward like a cannonball while Seohwa condensed countless flaming arrows. I immediately thrust my hand forward.
The man felt utterly wronged.
He had warned the party countless times that with their current strength they could never take down a boss-grade Minotaur.
But the guy who called himself the party leader and loved acting all high and mighty had gone ahead and ordered an attack on the boss anyway… and now this disaster had happened.
They had been running for their lives for about ten minutes. Even then, the idiot leader kept fleeing down the mountain, saying they just had to survive somehow.
As if he didn’t know what would happen if they dragged a boss all the way down to the low-difficulty plains.
“Ugh!”
When his foot caught on the uneven ground and he fell, the man felt pure despair. When the giant shadow raised its axe overhead, he accepted death.
But—
Clang—!!!
The falling axe was easily stopped by a translucent barrier.