Chapter 16 - Assassin (2)
Assassin (2)
Volcano.
A guild ranked 7th in South Korea.
From the guild master to the upper executives, all of them were relatives—
a corporate-scale organization so successful that some speculated it might one day replace the Association itself.
Choi Eun-ha was an employee there, sent out to inspect whether anything abnormal was happening in a dungeon owned by the guild.
And yet—
“Are you saying the team members suddenly disappeared?”
“Yes……”
Choi Eun-ha nodded.
Lee Jeon-seok fell into thought for a moment.
Let’s organize what she said.
The place Choi Eun-ha belonged to was a Hunter Raid Team.
And not just any team—
the lowest-tier one, composed entirely of D-rank members.
Originally, her team had been scheduled to clear an E-rank dungeon, but—
‘She said the schedule was suddenly changed from a raid to an investigation by orders from above.’
The dungeon under investigation was an F-rank, Paradise of the Cannibals.
The very place Lee Jeon-seok was in right now.
However—
‘The team members who came to investigate suddenly went missing……’
As if realizing something, Lee Jeon-seok asked,
“By any chance… are you the guild master’s daughter?”
“Eh? Ah, yes. I’m the youngest, but……”
At her hesitant answer, Lee Jeon-seok nodded as if to say ‘as expected.’
‘I think I understand what’s going on.’
Choi Eun-ha.
She was the youngest daughter of the guild master.
A position of the highest status within Volcano.
Yet despite that, she was working as a manager of the lowest-tier team.
Especially the fact that she was a non-awakened, combined with the sudden schedule change—
‘A power struggle.’
That was the only plausible explanation.
She didn’t seem to realize it yet, but—
‘The team members are all dead.’
Regrettable, but unavoidable.
Power struggles in large corporations were usually brutal.
They wouldn’t hesitate to kill to leave no evidence.
Especially in guilds composed of awakened individuals—
that tendency was even stronger.
‘I’ve gotten tangled in something troublesome.’
Should he not have saved her?
No.
Lee Jeon-seok changed his mind.
A succession struggle within a major guild.
A pitiful woman caught in the middle.
And more importantly—
‘The fact that my Good Karma didn’t increase means the danger hasn’t passed yet.’
Someone was still targeting Choi Eun-ha.
A threat far larger than expected.
If he saved her in this situation, his Good Karma would surely rise even further.
Above all—
this dungeon was the very place he had come to because there were no villains or dungeon outbreaks at the moment.
From Lee Jeon-seok’s perspective, it wasn’t such a bad situation.
“Let’s get out of the dungeon first.”
Lee Jeon-seok helped Choi Eun-ha to her feet.
Either way, this place wasn’t safe.
Inside a dungeon, an ambush could happen at any time.
That was why he decided to leave the dungeon first.
But for some reason—
There was nothing where the gate should have been.
The exit had vanished without a trace.
“Huh? Th-the gate……?”
Choi Eun-ha panicked.
That was when—
‘Hm……?’
Before Lee Jeon-seok’s eyes—
Ding—.
With a clear notification sound, a strange window suddenly appeared.
[Choi Eun-ha has reached her first crossroads of fate.]
[Twist the ‘death-bound fate’ assigned to her.]
[Reward – ???]
‘What is this now?’
Lee Jeon-seok narrowed his eyes in confusion.
It looked exactly like a game quest.
The more he read it, the more bewildered he became.
‘Death-bound fate.’
He stared at the word.
Death.
Of all times, it appeared now.
There was no way it had appeared without reason.
As expected—
He sensed a presence nearby.
“He should be around here……”
“Quiet.”
Lee Jeon-seok raised a hand to stop her.
Choi Eun-ha immediately closed her mouth.
Silence flowed between the two, carried by the air.
“……”
Lee Jeon-seok swung his Red Short Blade.
Kang—!
A sharp metallic sound rang out.
A sword suddenly appeared in midair—
and was knocked away by the Red Short Blade.
“I didn’t expect you to block that.”
Then—
a voice rang out.
The air shimmered like heat haze.
From within it, a man holding a longsword revealed himself.
‘Stealth?’
Lee Jeon-seok identified it instantly.
And the badge pinned to the man’s left chest—
identical to that of the Gatekeeper Hunters.
It meant the man belonged to Volcano.
‘Given the sudden ambush… this must be the work of another successor who wants Choi Eun-ha dead.’
Which meant—
he was an enemy.
Step—!
There was no hesitation.
Lee Jeon-seok kicked off the ground and charged.
His body slid forward like flowing water.
Kang—!
Blades collided once again.
Two swords clashed midair, pushing against each other.
“I didn’t hear anything about her having a bodyguard……”
The man clicked his tongue in displeasure.
“Well, even so—before Volcano……”
He continued confidently, but—
“……Huh?!”
Suddenly—
Lee Jeon-seok smashed his leg into the man’s abdomen.
The man blocked with his arm, sliding back before stopping.
“You bastard……”
He glared fiercely at Lee Jeon-seok.
But Lee Jeon-seok didn’t care.
He closed the distance again—
and slashed upward with the Red Short Blade.
The man barely managed to block it—
‘Damn it…!’
—but he failed to notice the other hand.
Lee Jeon-seok’s left hand, thrust toward the man’s face.
From it, flames began to bloom—
KWAANG—!
A massive explosion erupted.
The air shook with a deafening roar.
“Ghk……!”
The man rolled across the ground, gritting his teeth.
A deep burn was carved into one side of his face.
Not a simple wound, but a curse—
it wouldn’t fade easily.
Just like the one etched into Lee Jeon-seok’s right hand.
Clench—.
Lee Jeon-seok retied the bandage that had started to loosen.
Then he opened and closed his left hand.
‘Works well.’
That explosion—
wasn’t Ignition’s direct effect.
It was an application.
By deliberately misfiring mana, he caused an explosion.
A technique that exploited gaps in the system.
And its instantaneous power far surpassed simple flames.
Splash—!
The man pulled out a red potion from his pocket and splashed it onto his face.
Yet the pain didn’t fade.
Grinding his teeth, he glared at Lee Jeon-seok.
“What did you do to me……?!”
Lee Jeon-seok didn’t answer.
He simply sneered.
“Talkative for an assassin.”
Immediately after—
he hurled the Red Short Blade like a throwing knife.
It flew in a straight line.
The man raised his sword to block.
But—
‘Idiot.’
The Red Short Blade had drunk so much blood that it was incomparably sharper than weapons of the same tier.
This was no attack that an ordinary iron sword or item could block.
“What the—?!”
As expected—
the blade cleaved through the iron sword like tofu and pierced into the man’s shoulder.
“Aaagh!”
The man screamed and staggered.
Lee Jeon-seok didn’t miss the opening.
In an instant, he closed the distance.
He grabbed the Red Short Blade still embedded in the man’s shoulder.
Once again—
there was no hesitation.
Slash—.
Lee Jeon-seok twisted the blade and severed the man’s arm.
Thud—
Splash—!
The arm fell away far too easily.
Blood gushed from the severed stump.
Lee Jeon-seok swung the blade again, aiming for the man’s neck.
But then—
“……Hmph.”
Suddenly, the man vanished.
The Red Short Blade sliced through empty air.
The same trait he had used to ambush them.
As expected—
the man had erased himself and fled far away.
‘Damn it… I wasn’t told there’d be a monster like that guarding her……!’
Coughing up blood, the man trembled.
Fear seized him.
Those pitch-black eyes resurfaced in his mind—
empty, inorganic, the gaze of a predator that devoured souls.
‘Even if I abandon the mission, running is the only way to survive.’
The man injected mana into his necklace.
Immediately—
the gate reappeared.
A phenomenon similar to how he had vanished and reappeared.
Translucent smoke coiled around the gate.
As he was about to cross through—
“Indeed.”
A voice spoke.
“Using an item to apply your trait to the gate, huh.”
Right behind him—
Lee Jeon-seok was standing there.
The man turned around with trembling eyes.
Confusion. Shock.
And terror swallowed him whole.
“What? You thought I wouldn’t be able to find you just because you erased your appearance?”
Lee Jeon-seok laughed.
A chilling laugh.
Goosebumps spread across the man’s body.
A sense of alienation, as if his soul were being pierced.
Seeing that figure, the man thought—
A ghost.
Yes.
A ghost.
“Ahh……”
A ghost had come to claim him.
Slash—.
Lee Jeon-seok swung the Red Short Blade.
The man’s eyes widened in horror.
Black pupils spun.
Then—
his head fell to the ground.
Thump—.
The headless body collapsed limply.
[You have claimed a life.]
[A random trait will be acquired.]
[You have obtained ‘Stealth (A)’!]
※ ※ ※
Before the beheaded corpse—
Lee Jeon-seok checked the effect of the newly acquired trait.
━
Stealth
Grade: A
Effect: Erases your existence from the world. Duration increases based on mana consumption.
━
Seeing the effect, Lee Jeon-seok let out a scoff.
‘That trait was wasted on him.’
A trait that completely erased one’s presence.
Yet even when the man disappeared, faint distortions still lingered in the air.
He also failed to completely erase his presence.
That was why Lee Jeon-seok could find him.
Having such a good trait and still using it so poorly—it was almost absurd.
Still—
‘I can’t use it properly yet either.’
His total mana pool was far too small.
Currently, his mana was only 10.
He had just 1 mana remaining.
Summoning a skeleton alone consumed a fixed 5 mana.
He minimized mana consumption by using Ignition sparingly—
but if he added Stealth on top of that?
None of his three traits would be usable properly.
‘……Should I start raising Mana now?’
Lee Jeon-seok briefly opened his status window.
The single level gained from killing a goblin.
One stat point available.
Even so—
‘Not enough.’
Hopelessly insufficient.
Just 1 point wouldn’t solve anything.
In his previous life, he gained mana-related traits by killing innocent people—
but in this life, that was impossible.
And it wasn’t just mana.
His senses, physical abilities—
everything related to combat was lacking.
Lee Jeon-seok’s fighting style was overwhelming force through traits and numbers.
He was a warrior, not a knight.
He didn’t know refined combat techniques.
The assassin who ambushed Choi Eun-ha—
he had been able to kill him only because the man was careless.
He crushed him with momentum and never let him draw out his full strength.
That was why the fight had been relatively easy.
If the man had been cautious from the start—
(even though Lee Jeon-seok would still have won)
—it would have been a much harder battle.
That was why Lee Jeon-seok thought—
I’m lacking.
This wasn’t his past life.
Right now—
he was absurdly weak.
If he met a truly strong opponent—
the one losing his head would be Lee Jeon-seok himself.
Yet indiscriminately killing people for traits was no longer an option.
Perhaps that was why—
Lee Jeon-seok felt thirst.
A desire born from the inability to obtain traits.
A craving for strength.
━ Won’t you become my disciple?
‘A disciple…….’
Lee Jeon-seok recalled Yeon Seon-hwa’s words.
It wasn’t a bad offer.
Pride?
That didn’t matter.
What mattered was whether becoming her disciple would truly make him stronger.
‘I’ll think about that later…….’
Lee Jeon-seok approached the headless corpse.
A necklace lay on the ground beside the body.
He picked it up lightly.
[Replication Necklace (B)]
An item.
Its effect was as expected.
Applying one’s trait to another object or living being.
However—
Crack—.
The necklace crumbled into dust and vanished.
‘Single-use?’
Lee Jeon-seok clicked his tongue in regret.
If such an ability were reusable, its item grade would have been S-rank at the very least.
“E-Excuse me…!”
Suddenly—
Choi Eun-ha’s voice came from behind.
“Thank you for saving me!”
She bowed deeply, nearly ninety degrees.
Was it just his imagination—
or did she overlap with how she looked at Bukhansan?
Despite her clumsy personality, she seemed very polite.
And at that moment—
[You have twisted the ‘death-bound fate’ assigned to Choi Eun-ha.]
[You will receive ‘???’ as a reward.]
Another reward window appeared before his eyes.