A Tanker's Resolve
The blade sliced through with a sharp shing!
Choi Hyeonji’s sword carved across the orc’s abdomen. Though it couldn’t inflict a deep wound through the creature’s thick hide, the strike was more than enough to make the monster hunch forward.
Since the orc stood slightly taller than her, its neck was now perfectly aligned. Without hesitation, Hyeonji swung her sword and severed its head in one clean motion.
Splat!
The orc collapsed, spraying blood from its severed neck. Hyeonji quickly scanned the surrounding area for any other threats, then glanced down at the fallen monster before turning to her brother.
“Your turn now, oppa.”
Hyunseong’s turn meant the usual—gathering the byproducts and dismantling the corpse. The siblings were currently in the Hongcheon Field.
They could have cleared more D-rank dungeons, but after Hyeonji convinced their mother to allow an overnight trip, they had come to this vast hunting ground where battles occurred far more frequently.
Ever since they had introduced Silvia, their mother’s expression had brightened considerably. Not only did she finally have someone to talk to, but Silvia eagerly joined in on every household chore. A few quick instructions and she would master the task instantly.
She must have been so lonely. This is good for her.
Both Hyunseong and Hyeonji had spent a lot of time away from home. Their mother must have found the empty house difficult to bear.
I should have introduced Silvia sooner.
He had always known the day would come when he would need to summon her, but he regretted not doing it a little earlier.
“Hmm…”
At that moment, Hyeonji was wiping foreign matter off her sword and shield with a dissatisfied look on her face.
Hyunseong finished extracting what he needed from the orc, stood up, and asked, “Is something wrong?”
“Huh? No, it’s nothing…”
Even as she answered, her gaze remained fixed on the shield as she continued cleaning it. Watching her, Hyunseong thought, Maybe I should make her a new shield?
But contrary to his assumption, Hyeonji was wrestling with her own thoughts.
He even went out of his way to make this for me. I can’t just ignore how I feel.
Deep down, she wanted to throw the shield away and fight with a proper two-handed sword style.
The reason was simple. She pulled up her status window.
She had leveled up again today, reaching level 25. The stat points gained from leveling were seven in total—two each to Strength, Agility, and Stamina, and one to Intelligence.
When combined with the stats from the equipment Hyunseong had crafted for her, she was already quite strong among C-rank hunters.
Even so, she wasn’t satisfied. Facing thick-skinned monsters like orcs that resisted blades left her frustrated at having to chip away at them slowly.
That was why she had started wishing she could discard the shield and swing her sword with both hands.
As if reading her mind, Hyunseong suddenly asked, “Feeling frustrated?”
“Uh…”
She had already answered “no” earlier, so admitting it now felt like confirmation.
“I want to swing my sword freely against orcs, but the shield restricts my movement.”
“Yeah…”
Hyunseong had pinpointed exactly what was bothering her. It had always been like this—he seemed to understand her so easily.
“Did you see this in your dreams too, oppa?”
“That’s part of it, but it’s obvious. You’re essentially fighting alone. In most parties, tanks aren’t the ones who decide a monster’s fate.”
“But tanks still attack, right? Isn’t that wrong?”
“The attacks tanks make don’t have to land. Their role is aggro management and buying time. At a higher level, it’s about stealing the monster’s attack timing.”
Hyunseong explained the standard role of a tank in a proper party. However, that wasn’t what Hyeonji needed to learn right now.
“But you don’t need to act like a traditional tank. Besides, the Wandering Knight class has excellent balance and strong offensive power.”
Hyeonji nodded at his words, then cautiously asked, “Then… what if I don’t use a shield?”
“Do you want to die?”
In their current situation, abandoning the shield would mean getting killed by monsters long before Hyunseong could scold her.
“N-no, I’m not a tank, remember? I was just asking…”
“Using a shield doesn’t automatically make you a tank, and not using one doesn’t mean you aren’t. Don’t get too hung up on your equipment.”
“Okay.”
Hyeonji accepted his advice and equipped her shield again, swinging it experimentally in different directions.
Whoosh—whoosh—
Watching her, Hyunseong said, “If you really want to ditch the shield, find a reliable tank. Someone you can trust.”
“It’s fine. I’ll try a little harder.”
With that, Hyeonji regained her spirit.
The two of them finished hunting in the field and were on their way out. They were still renting a field-use jeep, but a 1.5 billion won vehicle they had ordered would arrive in a few days.
It was a far superior model to the rented jeep. Hyunseong had also ordered a sports car for himself. Of course, the license he had gotten at nineteen had been sitting unused in a drawer for thousands of years, so he had never actually driven.
Still, I can’t give up on that dream.
He was lost in the fantasy of blasting exciting music while speeding along a coastal road in a sports car.
At that moment, Hyeonji spoke up. “Thinking about it the way you said makes it feel a little better.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I think until now I’ve been relying on the fact that you’re always there, so I didn’t feel like I was truly alone.”
“That can happen.”
Following Hyunseong’s advice, Hyeonji began practicing movements that broke away from traditional tanking. Once she changed her mindset while fighting orcs in the Hongcheon area, she adapted surprisingly quickly and was soon fighting well on her own.
The difference was visible even to Hyunseong.
She’s starting to understand the concept of parrying.
He hadn’t explained it directly, hoping she would realize it herself. However, from the moment he had crafted her equipment, he had designed everything with her high Agility stat in mind.
Among the evenly distributed stats of a Wandering Knight, emphasizing Agility was naturally for the sake of parrying. The technique of deflecting an enemy’s attack with a shield while simultaneously disrupting their balance or throwing them off guard was essential for someone who fought alone like Hyeonji.
And the most important factor in parrying was precise timing.
Which is obviously influenced by Agility.
The more agile you were, the better you could match timing. Thanks to that, Hyeonji was now able to deflect the orcs’ attacks and immediately follow up with her own strikes.
Once she understood the process, dealing with one or two orcs became trivial.
“That’s a relief.”
“What is?”
“I was worried you’d keep throwing a tantrum about not wanting to use the shield.”
“Hey, I’m not some seven-year-old kid. Why would I throw a tantrum over something like that?”
At her words, Hyunseong gave her a meaningful look. Feeling his gaze, Hyeonji immediately flared up.
“You really thought that?!”
Looking at her incredulous face, Hyunseong turned away and said, “Still, what I said earlier stands. We’ll be entering C-rank dungeons soon. If you find a good tank, I’ll let you drop the shield. No matter what, that would definitely be much more comfortable for you.”
“For real?”
Seeing her get excited over such a small thing, Hyunseong nodded and gazed out the window at the crumbling roads and scenery rushing by.
I don’t feel it today.
The presence that had been watching them last time was completely absent today.
Maybe it really was just a coincidence.
Just as he thought that—
“W-what the—!!!”
Screeeech!
Hyeonji slammed on the brakes. Hyunseong looked forward in surprise.
What had suddenly appeared in front of their vehicle could easily be mistaken for a zombie at first glance…
“A person?”
It was a human.
Myeong Dahoon was a C-rank hunter who had only recently been promoted.
He frequently used the Hunters app and had confirmed that most C-rank hunters leveled up in D-rank dungeons and fields. So he immediately applied to join a party heading to a nearby field.
“Myeong Dahoon, right? You’re the tank?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
The party leader was an experienced close-range dealer. There were three other hunters: one supporter and two ranged dealers.
“But you don’t have a sword?”
“No. I’m a hard tank. I can handle aggro management and covering the team very well.”
The party leader looked him up and down a few times, then smiled and said, “Then it should be fine. Once the porters arrive, we’ll head in together.”
“Thank you.”
His enthusiastic greeting had lifted the party’s mood, and Dahoon found himself looking forward to the hunt a few hours later.
Once the porters arrived, they entered the field using three one-ton trucks modified for field use.
Since it was his first time in a field, Dahoon sat in the back of the truck, eyes sparkling as he took in the surrounding environment.
Before long, the vehicles stopped.
“We’re lucky today. We found a monster encampment right away.”
Dahoon, who was riding in the vehicle driven by the party leader, immediately tensed up and got out of the truck.
He pulled out a shield as large as his own body and asked, “W-where is it?”
He had heard they found an encampment, but he didn’t know which direction, so he looked around in confusion.
At that moment, the party leader got out of the driver’s seat and patted him on the shoulder.
“Don’t be too nervous. We have to go a little deeper into the forest.”
“Ah, I see. I’m sorry. It’s my first time in a field.”
“It’s a bit more relaxed than a dungeon. Though once we reach the encampment, that changes.”
“Y-yes.”
The five of them, including the flustered Dahoon, entered the forest. What they found was a goblin encampment.
“There are hobgoblins too. They’re a bit stronger than regular goblins, so be careful.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Then, once the ranged dealers receive their buffs and launch the first attack, we’ll charge in and disrupt their formation. Go ahead and start.”
The supporter cast buffs on the two ranged dealers. It was a simple stat-increasing buff. The ranged dealers then began their assault.
Whoosh!
One created five baseball-sized fireballs and launched them, while the other used a crossbow.
Swish!
The crossbow bolt flew and blew off a goblin’s head. At the same time, the fireballs engulfed the goblins.
They didn’t die in one hit, but the burning goblins ran around in panic, spreading the flames. The encampment quickly turned into chaos.
In that state, the party leader said to Dahoon, “Let’s go!”
“Yes!”
Dahoon wasn’t clumsy at a moment like this. He adjusted his grip on his shield, moved ahead of the party leader, and slammed into a goblin that was shrieking at the entrance of the encampment.
Thud!
The small, frail goblin was sent flying several meters, clearing a path. The party leader slipped through the gap and began cutting down the panicked, burning goblins one by one.
At that moment, Dahoon spotted a hobgoblin aiming for the party leader, who was swinging his sword frantically. He activated his skill.
Cover Move.
His body seemed to almost vanish, then reappeared right where the hobgoblin stood.
Clang!!
He blocked the hobgoblin’s club and shouted, “Now!”
“Nice cover!”
The party leader swung his sword at the hobgoblin, whose balance had been thrown off by Dahoon’s sudden appearance.
Splat!
The hobgoblin’s head was severed in a single stroke. The remaining goblins fell into complete panic.
After that, it was straightforward. The ranged dealers and the party leader cleaned up the rest of the goblins, turning an encampment that had housed over a hundred into a wasteland.
They brought the porters to the ruins to collect the byproducts, then got back into the vehicles.
“You did well, Dahoon.”
“Haha, thank you.”
The party leader praised him for performing when it counted and started driving again.
Dahoon’s happiness circuit was running at full capacity. He thought they would safely finish the field hunt like this.
The problem began when they encountered an unexpected monster.
“Another encampment ahead.”
The hunter using the crossbow had spotted it with his eyes. Being a ranged dealer, he seemed to have related skills.
They were about to head out again when…
The vehicle in front suddenly became noisy. Because the road was narrow and blocked by the lead truck, they couldn’t see what was happening ahead.
“I’ll go check,” the party leader said, preparing to get out.
At that moment—
Boom!!
The truck in front suddenly flipped over.
Startled, the party leader tried to get back into the vehicle, but—
Kwaaaang!!
Something heavy struck the truck Dahoon was riding in. The vehicle was sent flying into the forest.
Dahoon inside it suffered the same fate.
“Ugh…”
Fortunately, a hunter’s vitality was tenacious. He didn’t die. One could even say the truck had saved his life.
Dahoon kicked open the crumpled door and quickly looked toward the road. Blood from a head wound blurred his vision.
Even so, he could clearly make out what it was.
“T-troll…”
It was a troll, a monster that appeared in B-rank dungeons.
And not just one…
“T-two of them.”
