Chapter 109
Chapter 109
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 109
Chapter Title: Manager Kim's All-Out Assault
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*Clang-!*
The man-faced spider lunged at Manager Kim, slashing down with its front paw armed with razor-sharp claws.
Manager Kim blocked it with his dagger.
He then tried to grab the man-faced spider's leg with his Ogre Power Gauntlet.
But he couldn't.
*"Chiiik-!"*
As Manager Kim reached for its front paw, the man-faced spider spat venom from its mouth.
It was such a vicious poison that the pitch-black liquid it spewed looked deadly just from a glance.
*"Eek!"*
It was obvious at a look—the stuff shooting from the man-faced spider's mouth was a deadly toxin.
Because of that, Manager Kim abandoned his attempt to grab the front paw and leaped straight back.
No sooner had he done so than he heard it.
*Fssshhhh-!*
The sound of something melting behind him.
Manager Kim flicked only his eyes to check.
There, he saw the tree that had just been hit by the black venom from the man-faced spider's mouth dissolving in an instant.
Seeing that, Manager Kim thought:
*'Just as the Leader said, if I hadn't dodged, I'd be in deep trouble.'*
The man-faced spider's poison showed an acidic potency that could melt anything it even grazed.
If it could dissolve a tree like that, what chance did a human body have?
Obviously, it would melt away in seconds.
So Manager Kim swallowed hard.
*'One slip-up, and it's over.'*
Around that time, the man-faced spider suddenly jumped.
*Whoosh-!*
It leaped back.
Was it trying to create distance?
But that wasn't all.
After jumping back, the man-faced spider suddenly twisted its hips toward Manager Kim.
A spider's rear.
He knew full well what organ that was.
*'Webs!'*
No sooner had Manager Kim thought that than the retreating man-faced spider fired its webs.
*Paaat-!*
A cluster of silvery webs gleamed as it sliced through the air.
Of course, with his stamina still plentiful, Manager Kim had no intention of getting hit by such a web toss.
He easily dodged the man-faced spider's webs.
But the man-faced spider didn't stop after one shot.
It kept firing poison and webs like it was playing a shooting game.
*"Damn it!"*
Manager Kim nimbly stepped side to side, dodging the streams of venom and webs the man-faced spider spat out.
When that wasn't enough, he even ducked behind a tree—but naturally, the venom melted right through it, forcing him to another tree.
The webs could be blocked by the trees and endured, but that didn't change the fact that the follow-up venom blasts still had to be dodged.
Spitting venom from its maw and webs from its rear—the man-faced spider.
Watching it, Manager Kim pondered:
*'I have to close in successfully to take it down...'*
After all, as a close-combat class, he needed to stick to it to land any attacks on the man-faced spider.
In that situation, as Manager Kim agonized over what to do...
*'What if I don't move sideways between trees?'*
Right now, he was fighting by shifting laterally between trees, limiting him to evasion paths.
An unavoidable measure to dodge its venom.
To get a bit closer to the man-faced spider, he'd have to go up and over the trees instead of behind them.
But that came with one problem.
*'I can't dodge while airborne...'*
Which meant he couldn't just charge in recklessly.
Lost in that thought, Manager Kim hesitated.
*'What should I do?'*
Even as he pondered, he kept dodging the man-faced spider's attacks—venom from its maw and webs from its rear.
That made him recall what Hae-jin had said.
*'If your stamina starts running low, run away.'*
If he kept fleeing like this, eventually his own stamina would lag behind the man-faced spider's.
So Manager Kim made a decision.
*'Yeah, dragging this out only disadvantages me. Time to commit. Let's bait it.'*
With that, Manager Kim picked up a large rock while dodging venom and webs by shifting between trees.
Then, he changed his movement path—not behind the trees, but over them.
At the same time, instead of waiting for the venom and webs to hit the trees, he started darting around wildly.
The man-faced spider panicked.
It was only natural, given this completely new movement pattern.
Seeing the flustered man-faced spider, Manager Kim grinned.
*'Yeah, a sudden speed change throws them off when they've adapted to the slower pace.'*
There were times when he'd deliberately slow down against a faster opponent.
It was to let them adapt to the reduced speed, then suddenly accelerate to throw them off-balance.
That lulled them into carelessness, creating an opening—the perfect combat tactic.
Right now, the man-faced spider was falling right for it.
But Manager Kim knew better.
*'If I just rush in, it'll react plenty fine.'*
From all the fighting he'd done so far, he knew that much.
Even if it was flustered now from his speed-up, charging straight in would just expose him mid-air for a counterattack.
That's why he'd grabbed the rock.
If it was panicking that hard, it'd have no choice but to react to anything charging straight at it.
With that in mind, as he dashed about, Manager Kim hurled the rock he'd picked up earlier hard toward the man-faced spider's rear.
*Shweeeek!*
The rock cut swiftly through the air.
*'Turn around.'*
Manager Kim hoped the man-faced spider would spot the incoming rock.
*Whoosh-.*
The man-faced spider turned its head slightly.
Seeing that, Manager Kim moved immediately.
*'Now!'*
Deeming this his chance, Manager Kim went all-in.
*'Shadow Walk.'*
[Skill! ‘Shadow Walk’ used.]
[Movement speed increased by 20%.]
[Footsteps silenced for a period.]
[Presence suppressed for a period.]
Shadow Walk.
One of the skills Manager Kim had gained upon advancing to the Assassin class line.
It allowed silent approach with footsteps like shadows, nullifying both presence and noise.
It even applied to leaping footsteps.
He knew the man-faced spider's speed meant it would whirl around the instant it sensed him, even if the rock distracted its eyes momentarily.
That's why he'd held it back until now.
For this one move.
As he closed in on the man-faced spider, Manager Kim activated more skills.
He was aiming for an all-out, decisive strike.
*'Poison Attack.'*
[Skill! ‘Poison Attack’ used.]
[Poison attack power added to weapon.]
*'Critical Attack.'*
[Skill! ‘Critical Attack’ used.]
[Next attack guaranteed as critical hit.]
[Critical hit damage reduced.]
[Critical damage +200% > Critical damage +100%.]
Originally, a critical hit dealt triple damage, but with the ‘Critical Attack’ skill, it guaranteed a critical at the cost of reducing triple damage to double.
However, Manager Kim had a skill to compensate for that.
*'Critical Shot.'*
[Skill! ‘Critical Shot’ used.]
[Next critical hit increases critical damage.]
[Critical damage value increased.]
[Critical damage +100% > Critical damage +500%.]
The ‘Critical Shot’ skill was an assassin's technique that boosted the next critical hit's damage multiplier from standard to five times.
And it didn't end there.
*'Final Blow.'*
[Skill! ‘Final Blow’ used.]
[Next attack guaranteed triple damage.]
[Attack power halved for 10 minutes after skill use.]
The ‘Final Blow’ skill was a double-edged sword: a last-ditch strike delivering triple damage, but if it failed to finish the job, you'd fight at half strength for 10 minutes.
In other words, a skill you absolutely shouldn't use without confidence in landing the killing blow.
But Manager Kim thought:
*'If this all-in shot fails anyway, running is my only option.'*
Hae-jin had said it.
If it seemed impossible to win against the man-faced spider, run without fail.
Recalling that, Manager Kim drove his dagger down with all his might onto the crown of the man-faced spider's head in a final attack.
His dagger reached the man-faced spider's crown.
*Clang-!*
Its skin was so tough it screeched like metal on metal.
However, his attack wasn't entirely meaningless.
He could see the dagger wedging into a crevice in that tough hide.
In the end, he couldn't one-shot it thanks to the sturdy skin, but the creature writhed in pain as its crown cracked open.
*"Kieeeek-!"*
There, Manager Kim hesitated.
Compared to what he'd envisioned, finishing the man-faced spider in one hit was, objectively, a failure.
By Hae-jin's advice, he should run.
But Manager Kim saw a glimmer of hope.
After all, its crown hadn't outright deflected his attack—it had visibly pierced to some degree.
So instead of fleeing, Manager Kim resolved to push harder.
He pressed down on the dagger with all his strength.
The man-faced spider thrashed wildly to shake him off.
It even coated its front claws in venom to kill the man clinging to its head.
*"Shishik-!"*
*Drip drip-!*
The man-faced spider's front paws seemed resistant to its own venom; the red claws merely turned black without melting.
It tried to stab at Manager Kim with those venom-coated claws.
Realistically, it was time to run.
But Manager Kim had no intention of letting this chance slip.
Then, something else occurred to him.
*'Right, the cooldown's up!'*
One of his usable skills had come off cooldown.
*'Ogre Power.'*
[Skill! ‘Ogre Power’ used.]
[Strength increased.]
With ‘Ogre Power’ boosting his strength, Manager Kim roared.
*"Dieee!"*
In the meantime, the man-faced spider began stabbing wildly at Manager Kim with its venom-coated front claws.
Manager Kim curled up as best he could to evade, but he couldn't dodge them all.
Sure enough.
*Pu-pu-puk-!*
*"Kuhk!"*
Manager Kim cried out in pain as the man-faced spider's claws struck him.
Even so, he refused to give up.
For his daughter's sake, he absolutely couldn't stop here—but he had a reason for this once-in-a-lifetime gamble.
*'Just kill it, just kill it!'*
With that thought, Manager Kim shoved the dagger lodged in the man-faced spider's crown with even more force.
*Puuuuk-!*
Once more, Manager Kim bellowed with all his might.
*"Diiiie!"*
As he did, the man-faced spider's body split from the crown down, ripping cleanly in half.
Afterward, Manager Kim hoped for just one system window.
[Level up!]
The hoped-for window appeared. Covered head to toe in the man-faced spider's fluids as he cleaved it in two, Manager Kim grinned.
*"Gotcha."*