The Dungeon-Type Gate
While waiting for our turn to enter the dungeon-type Gate, Gyuri asked with a worried expression, "Um, is it really okay to leave him like that?"
"What else should we do? Call the police?" I joked, but for some reason, Gyuri began to tremble.
If we were in the Other World, dealing with this would have been so much simpler. But since this was Earth, I had to worry about the law and public perception, which was incredibly annoying. Honestly, if we were back there, I would have thrown him straight to the monsters as feed.
"I-I know he doesn't have any visible wounds, but isn't that still assault...?" Ah-young pointed out.
"I suppose so. But you both know that fights between hunters are usually brushed off as mutual combat or self-defense, right?"
This was something they taught at the Academy. When hunters—or more accurately, Awakened individuals—fought each other, the legal process was strangely different. They said the laws applied to ordinary citizens couldn't be applied directly to them. Either way, most cases were ruled as self-defense.
The reason was simple: an Awakened's strength and skills were far too dangerous. A fight between hunters? There was a high probability that weapons or skills would be used, putting lives on the line. If the law tried to apply standard self-defense criteria under those conditions, it would basically be telling them to just stand there and die. In other words, since both parties were bound to feel their lives were in danger, excessive force was deemed unavoidable. On the flip side, what if they used that power against an ordinary citizen? They would face heavily aggravated charges.
"Self-defense..."
"Yep."
Hearing that, the two of them seemed to understand a bit better.
"Fights between Awakened, especially hunters, are almost always ruled as self-defense."
As long as you don't murder them or leave them permanently crippled, it's fine. Any minor injuries can easily be patched up by a healer. And since I was one of those healers... resolving things was even simpler.
"Anyway, let's get going."
"Yes."
They still looked a bit anxious, but once we stepped inside the Gate, they seemed to calm down. As soon as we entered, we switched on our flashlights to illuminate the dark surroundings.
"I'll be taking the lead today too."
"O-Oh, really?"
Perhaps because they had witnessed my skills yesterday, neither of them objected.
"Yeah. Let's aim for a three-hour clear today."
"Understood." Ah-young raised her shield and weapon with a determined look.
"Gyuri, make sure to manage your mana as efficiently as possible."
"Yes, ma'am."
Neither of them questioned my instructions. It seemed showing them what I could do had earned me their trust.
We pressed forward. I sliced through goblins using the shortsword I had borrowed from my sister...
Hmm...
I realized I definitely needed some armor. Not because I was taking damage, but because the blood and bits of flesh splattering onto me were incredibly unpleasant.
Ugh...
"I need to kill them more cleanly."
I swung the shortsword, flicking off the blood clinging to the blade.
"Y-You're amazing..."
Unlike yesterday, now that I was using a proper weapon, my goblin-slaying speed had skyrocketed. Slicing them with a sharp blade was a world away from bludgeoning them with a dull, chipped weapon.
"Come on, no time to rest."
I urged them forward, and the two of them scrambled to keep up with the frantic pace. Of course, with me there, nothing went seriously wrong. Even when they allowed an attack or fell into an ambush, I could just heal them instantly anyway.
About an hour passed like this.
"Nix!" Gyuri suddenly called out in a loud voice.
"What is it?"
"I don't think we should keep doing this."
"Oh...?"
Her face was full of discontent. Ah-young was fidgeting nervously beside her, glancing between us.
"What do you mean?" I decided to listen calmly first.
"We can't keep up with this pace. I-I'm sorry, but it's just too overwhelming for Ah-young and me to follow you."
Hmm...
"It might not be a problem right now because you're here to carry us, but if we keep going like this, we won't grow at all..." Gyuri finished, looking deeply frustrated.
Now that I thought about it, she was right. This wasn't doing them any favors.
A proper party leader was supposed to guide them while carefully scanning the surroundings, but I was just brute-forcing our way through. Ah-young wasn't even acting as a proper tank; she was merely using her taunt to briefly distract the goblins. Gyuri was killing them with magic, but most of the heavy lifting was done by me, leaving her to just land the finishing blows.
"Sorry, that was my mistake."
This was a party. If we were a party, we had to move forward together. Doing this was no different from treating them as dead weight. It defeated the entire purpose of party play.
"N-No, it's fine! It's just that we're lacking..." Ah-young blamed herself instead of blaming me.
"No, we are a party. I was only thinking about myself." I patted Ah-young on the shoulder.
Yes, since we were going to be working together for a while, I needed to match their pace. I shouldn't drag them along by force. Otherwise, what was the point of rejecting Gyuri's suggestion to go to a higher-grade Gate yesterday?
After reflecting on my mistake, I cleared the dungeon with much more caution.
When a goblin appeared, Ah-young stepped up first, and Gyuri initiated with her magic. Then, I would cleanly finish off the disoriented goblin. Once we synchronized our movements...
Wait, isn't this actually cleaner than before?
Hmm...
"We did it...!" Ah-young looked highly satisfied with how that battle went.
"If we keep doing it like that, we'll be fine."
"Yes!"
For the first run, we focused on getting used to this cooperative combat style. After defeating the goblins, Ah-young diligently harvested the mana stones, and Gyuri helped her. I offered to help too, but they gasped in horror and insisted on doing it themselves. Seeing them act so differently from yesterday made me chuckle.
After defeating the boss and exiting the Gate, we took a short break. We reviewed the battle we had just fought and looked for areas to improve.
Eventually, the topic turned to...
"The real issue is your buffs, Nix."
"Yeah..."
"My buffs?"
"Yes. We need to be able to fight like that even without your buffs, but I'm not sure if we can..."
Listening to Gyuri, I understood her concern.
The buffs made their movements swifter and their magic stronger. But that wasn't their actual strength. Without the buffs, they wouldn't be able to replicate that performance.
"Hmm, then do you want to try the next run without any buffs?"
"Is that really okay?" The two of them looked at me tentatively.
"Of course. Aren't we a party?"
Since we were comrades, I could easily accommodate that much.
"I-In that case..."
"Let's try it without buffs."
I decided to respect their wishes.
Just as we were about to head back to the Gate...
Someone approached us.
"Y-You! How dare you do that to me!"
It was the man I had knocked down earlier. He approached us with a vicious scowl, looking incredibly threatening.
"Did you come back because you have a death wish?" I stood up and blocked his path.
He was on the taller side, but since I was over 170 centimeters tall myself, I didn't feel intimidated at all.
"You're dead!"
Unable to withstand the provocation, the man drew his weapon.
Well, this counts as self-defense, right?
I reached out, grabbing the wrist of the hand he was trying to swing to halt his movement, and aimed for his abdomen with my free hand.
"What?!"
He looked utterly shocked that his attack had been blocked. But he was too late.
Crack!!!
Without holding back, my fist plowed deep into his stomach. The man collapsed, folding in on himself in a bizarre posture.
"A nobody like you shouldn't act so tough."
The man gagged and dry-heaved, throwing up bile. Did I hit him too hard? I did infuse my fist with holy power to make it a healing punch, though...
"A-Are you okay?"
"You saw it. I subdued him in a single blow."
I kicked the arrogant man right in the face. With that, he went completely silent.
"Now then, shall we head back to the Gate?"
The two of them looked at the unconscious man with worried eyes once again.
"He drew a weapon first. It's self-defense."
"I guess that's true...?"
Exactly. I did nothing wrong.
"So let's just focus on our own business."
"Yeah, now that I look at him, he's just a crazy bastard." Gyuri smirked, looking down at the man.
Leaving the collapsed man behind, we headed toward the Gate.
Since we had decided to run the dungeon without my buffs this time, we proceeded with caution from the very beginning. My role was shifted to damage dealer, but to properly test Gyuri's capabilities, I stepped back a bit further to observe.
A few battles concluded. As expected, their synergy was quite good. I only stepped in to fill the gaps, and the results were decent.
Because we lacked my buffs, it took more time, but the run was still highly stable. In fact, because they were more cautious due to the lack of buffs, it might have been even safer.
"Looks like we'll finish with two runs today as well," I said, standing in front of the boss room.
"I-I'm sorry. If we had received your buffs, we could have gotten better results."
"No, it's fine."
In fact, seeing their performance made me realize my initial assessment might have been wrong. I had thought their growth potential was low, but that might not be the case.
If they could just resolve their skill-related issues, they had plenty of room to grow. Their caution, their attitude toward combat, their movements in actual battle... everything was excellent.
Unlike Gyuri, who already had a decent track record as a D-class, Ah-young was an E-class like me, and yesterday was her very first real battle. Yet, she showed no fear and maintained incredible focus. Her mental fortitude was exceptionally tough. Her psychological strengths were more than enough to make up for her physical shortcomings.
"Do you still have enough stamina?"
"Yes! Since this is the last one, I'll give it everything I've got."
Ah-young sprang up, took her stance, and pushed open the door to the boss room.
As the door swung open, what we saw inside was...
"A rare variant!" I shouted upon seeing the Hobgoblin.
Of all times, we had to run into a rare boss now. Talk about bad luck.
For now, we stuck to the plan. Ah-young moved to lure the minions away, while Gyuri and I positioned ourselves to target the boss.
However...
Despite being hit by magic, the boss ignored us and charged straight toward Ah-young.
"What?!"
"Huh?"
Both Gyuri and I were taken aback. To think it would prioritize a lone target over the ones who actually attacked it... As a slightly higher-tier species, it possessed a decent brain. It knew that dealing with a single target was much easier than facing two.
"Tsk... No choice then."
I stopped holding back my strength. I dashed after the goblins while shouting instructions to Gyuri.
"I'll handle the boss! Focus on the minions first!"
"A-Ah? Yes!"
Gyuri seemed flustered, but she quickly snapped out of it and followed my orders.
Taking advantage of that brief window, I closed the distance, slipped behind the boss, and swung my sword.
Sensing my approach, the Hobgoblin naturally dodged the strike. But that was exactly what I wanted.
From the seemingly off-balance posture of my sword swing, I snapped my waist back and kicked upward, my toe connecting squarely with the Hobgoblin's chin.
Crack!
The impact froze the Hobgoblin in its tracks, and I used that split second to regain my stance.
What followed was a thrust...
The Hobgoblin blocked the thrust with its massive club. Harnessing my monstrous strength, I wrenched the Hobgoblin's weapon away along with my shortsword and tossed them both aside.
Now empty-handed, we faced off.
Thinking it had the advantage, the Hobgoblin spread its arms wide and lunged at me.
Its posture was so full of openings that I actually had to contemplate which way to counter.
I took half a step to the side, anchoring my weight. As the Hobgoblin closed in, I slipped past its attack with a fluid motion.
And right into its wide-open flank...
"Take this, you bastard! Holy Light!"
Holy Light
I thrust my fist, imbued with the divine magic Holy Light, straight into its side.
A brilliant flash of sacred light erupted, searing the Hobgoblin's flank as my fist sank deep into its flesh.
Whether from the sheer agony or because it sensed the danger, the Hobgoblin twisted its body in a desperate attempt to minimize the damage. But...
Explode!
I detonated the holy power gathered in my hand, amplifying the destructive force of Holy Light.
With a sharp pop, a third of the Hobgoblin's flank was blown away, its internal organs instantly incinerated.
"Heh..."
Seeing the Hobgoblin's face contorted in agony brought a smile to my lips. Yes, this was it... the sight of a monster writhing in pain. Watching them suffer always cleared my mind and made me feel so refreshed.
The Hobgoblin stumbled backward, its eyes filled with unmistakable terror. The sight was so satisfying that I began to approach it slowly. But then...
A spell struck the Hobgoblin from behind. It was a Fire Arrow...
"I told you to focus on the minions first..."
Even though they hadn't finished off all the small fry, Gyuri had tried to support me. I was about to praise her for her sweet gesture, but then I caught sight of the Hobgoblin's face, and my mood instantly soured. It was screeching something, blood spraying from its mouth. What if that filthy blood got on me?
"Keep your dirty mouth shut."
I delivered a swift uppercut to the Hobgoblin's chin. The punch was so blindingly fast that the Hobgoblin couldn't even react.
Following up, I planted my feet and rained a barrage of punches onto its face. Since my fists were still imbued with Holy Light, each strike scorched and seared the Hobgoblin's flesh with blinding radiance.
"Let's end this."
After a few more hits, it stopped fighting back or even reacting, and my interest completely evaporated. As expected, a mere Hobgoblin couldn't provide any real entertainment. You needed at least an Ogre with high regenerative abilities to get a satisfying sense of impact.
I pulled my right hand back, gathering my strength. I precisely coordinated every muscle in my body to channel the force. Then, like an arrow released from a bow, I drove my right hand forward in a straight punch.
Splat!
The Hobgoblin's head was cleanly torn off and sent flying.
"Done!"
I relaxed my stance and admired my handiwork. Well, that head certainly flew off beautifully.