Chapter 53
In fact, Kim Mu-yeon hadn’t taken Do-woon’s bait at all.
He had gone on the offensive because he was sure he could win.
No matter how skilled Tae-cheon and Do-hee were, they each played the role of tank and healer. Against him, a melee damage dealer operating alone in an A-class gate, the difference in ability was obvious.
What’s more, with Do-woon thrown into the mix, someone even weaker than the others, the group would surely fall apart on its own, unable to move as they usually did.
But that judgment was Kim Mu-yeon’s single greatest mistake.
“Why, damn it, why!”
Kim Mu-yeon shouted as he swung his greatsword.
The blade was stopped by a massive silver shield large enough to hide an entire man behind it.
The way the shield smoothly bled off the impact only made the skill of the person holding it shine brighter as a tank.
Only, the one holding the shield wasn’t Lee Tae-cheon.
It was Do-woon.
With a face that said he couldn’t believe it, Kim Mu-yeon stared, and Tae-cheon grinned.
“I’m not the tank of Baekwooncheon, after all!”
“You know what that means?”
Do-woon asked with an irritating smile.
Blue mana wrapped around the shield, and it began to glow.
That blue mana made Kim Mu-yeon miserable.
It was impossible to believe it came from a B-class hunter, because the power behind it was absurd.
Bang!
A huge burst of energy exploded from the shield and crashed over Kim Mu-yeon’s body.
It felt like an A-class mage had unleashed a large-scale spell.
Without the A-class skill Ironclad Invincibility, which resisted both physical and magical attacks, he would have been in danger.
As Kim Mu-yeon looked ahead, his eyes widened.
A giant blue blade came into view.
“The dealer of Baekwooncheon is Tae-cheon to begin with!”
“......!!”
Arca swept horizontally, aiming for Kim Mu-yeon.
He ducked in alarm and barely avoided the strike.
As Do-woon had said, it was Lee Tae-cheon who had swung Arca.
Kim Mu-yeon, still crouched low, bit his lip and tried to press the attack.
No, he had tried to.
If Do-woon hadn’t rushed in barehanded after setting down the shield like he was tossing it away, he might have managed it.
“Hey, do you have any idea how much that shield costs?”
“Send me the repair bill!”
“What do you think you’re going to do with your bare hands?”
“A stone!”
“A stone?”
From Do-woon’s left hand, which had just spoken nonsense, a pebble shot out.
Kim Mu-yeon quickly twisted his greatsword sideways to block it.
Clang! Fssss…!
The force was so great it made a sound no one would have believed came from a pebble striking the flat of a greatsword.
The pebble couldn’t withstand the impact and shattered into dust that rained to the floor.
This was the opening!
Thinking that, Kim Mu-yeon swung his greatsword to cut down Do-woon’s neck, now within range.
But his attack was blocked once again by the silver shield.
Lee Tae-cheon, who had grabbed the shield Do-woon threw away and charged back in, stopped the strike.
“Lee Tae-cheon!”
“Shouldn’t you have bigger problems than worrying about me?”
“What so-urk!”
Just as his attention shifted to Tae-cheon, Do-woon’s right index finger pierced through his armor and sank into his flank.
He couldn’t understand how on earth just an index finger had managed to punch through his armor.
He couldn’t accept that it had also broken through the passive Ironclad Invincibility skill.
Kim Mu-yeon, suddenly in pain after so long, since obtaining Ironclad Invincibility, was thrown off balance.
A skill that could block the attacks of most A-class monsters had become utterly useless against a single finger of Baek Do-woon.
“Well, well, look at that. This ring is actually helping?”
“Hup!”
Suppressing the pain, Kim Mu-yeon hauled back on the greatsword.
He intended to cut down Do-woon’s neck now that the man had moved in close.
The rasp of the blade scraping across the surface of the silver shield rang out again and again.
The silver shield followed the greatsword.
It wasn’t Tae-cheon holding it.
At some point, it had been transferred into both of Do-woon’s hands.
Then where had Lee Tae-cheon gone…?
“Hah…!”
Tae-cheon was already drawing the longsword he had at his hip.
The blade thrust straight for Kim Mu-yeon’s throat.
He twisted his body hard, certain that if he stayed where he was, he might die.
At the same time, he swung his greatsword with everything he had.
“Aaaah!”
Maybe it was the monstrous strength of someone fighting for his life.
Kim Mu-yeon knocked aside the shield Do-woon held, and then deflected Tae-cheon’s attack as well.
He had survived by the skin of his teeth.
But the battle was already tilted beyond recovery, and there was no path left for him to live.
He was barely managing to block the attacks of the two men, let alone strike back.
And all the while Do-hee hadn’t even joined in, simply watching from above in the sky.
If she had joined the fight with a simple restraint spell, or even just cast a buff on the two of them, this battle would have been over long ago.
“Damn it, damn it all…!”
Kim Mu-yeon spat curses and glared at the two men before him.
By then, the two of them weren’t even paying attention to him anymore.
They were too busy poking at each other and bickering.
But to Kim Mu-yeon, that didn’t look like a chance to survive.
They looked like hunters toying with prey they’d already got cornered.
“Ah, Baek Do-woon! What are you doing not holding the line properly?”
“What are you talking about? I was holding just fine. That bastard’s just stupidly strong!”
“Then you should’ve spread your arm and bled off the force! Spread it out! You don’t know that?”
“I did, and it still turned out like this!”
“Don’t make me laugh. If you’d done it right, there’s no way you’d have been thrown off. Give it here. I’ll show you properly.”
“Oh, get lost. Bring Arca over here!”
“No, that thing’s heavy.”
“Heavy?”
“Yeah. How do you even carry that around? I’d rather lug around Gui-su Mountain.”
That seemed to catch Do-woon off guard. He stopped and stared at Tae-cheon.
Tae-cheon casually snatched the shield from the dazed Do-woon’s hands.
Then, as if he intended to prove his point, he slapped the shield a few times and demanded something absurd of Kim Mu-yeon.
“Hey! Attack me. Full power, like before.”
“You lifted Arca with brute strength? Wow, you’re really just a bastard who lives by strength alone.”
“The world’s always been a place where, if you’re weak, your brain has to do the suffering.”
“What the hell are you even talking about, you lunatic?”
“So keep coming to PT. Don’t waste your time thinking up clever tricks.”
Watching the two of them chatter, Kim Mu-yeon felt a crushing despair for the first time in his life.
And that despair pushed him into doing something he should never have done.
He shifted the greatsword to his left hand and poured silver mana into his right.
Tae-cheon lifted the shield and banged it against his palm.
“Oh, good. Good thinking. Over here, over here!”
“Tae-cheon, wait.”
“Why?”
“Something’s off about that.”
“Off, my ass—!”
Kim Mu-yeon stabbed his own heart.
“......”
It seemed Kim Mu-yeon had decided there was no way for him to live.
Judging by the fact that he’d used Heart Break.
The silver mana pouring from his body blazed as if it were on fire.
His physical abilities would probably rise by at least three times and at most six.
That said, it was absolutely not something I could recommend.
It was a one-use trick.
The end of it was either becoming a body that couldn’t use mana, or death.
“B-Baek Do-woon!”
“That bastard…”
Crk.
Grinding his teeth, Tae-cheon glared at Kim Mu-yeon as the man called my name.
Heart Break.
It was something I’d used before, when I’d been trying to save Do-hee and Tae-cheon.
Do-hee, up in the sky, didn’t look any better than Tae-cheon did.
Her lower lip was bitten so hard it looked like it might bleed.
It must have reminded her of me from two years ago, looking at Kim Mu-yeon now.
“Hoo, so this is all on me, then.”
I picked up Arca, which I’d dropped behind me, the blue blade having vanished from it.
While I was doing that, Kim Mu-yeon stood still.
He had to. Mana was gushing from his entire body.
The power he had already possessed had multiplied several times over.
He needed time to adapt to it and gather it in.
I’d been the same when I used it.
“Tae-cheon. This is where it gets serious, so stay sharp.”
“Haa!”
Kaang!
Instead of answering, Tae-cheon let out a rough breath and slammed his longsword against the shield.
He was steadying himself.
I did the same, gripping Arca tightly in both hands.
Then I shouted to Do-hee above us.
“Do-hee, buff!”
Do-hee was already chanting before I even said it.
As expected of my little sister.
World Tree Sprout warns of danger!
Sprout advises the Manager to retreat!
Sprout’s judgment was right.
An A-class hunter had burned his own life force to become several times stronger.
Besides, Kim Mu-yeon wasn’t just any A-class hunter.
He was a ranked fighter in the top fifty in our country.
At this point, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say he was operating at S-class level.
Even with Do-hee and Tae-cheon here, I couldn’t be sure we could beat him cleanly.
Sprout once again advises the Manager to retreat!
But Sprout’s judgment was also wrong.
Could we really run away safely?
“Baek Do-woon, Baek Do-woon…!”
From a bastard who kept repeating my name with relentless enthusiasm like that?
Even if I fled from here, he’d keep chasing me until his life ran out.
Then where could I possibly run in Seoul?
There was no question that a man who’d thrown everything away would end up creating innocent casualties.
To keep people from getting hurt, Kim Mu-yeon had to be stopped here.
Sprout acknowledges the Manager’s judgment as correct!
“Baek Do-woon!”
After gathering all his mana, Kim Mu-yeon screamed my name at the top of his lungs.
The sound was so loud it felt like my eardrums might burst.
He gripped the greatsword with both hands and raised it high.
What came after was too fast for me to follow.
Bang!
Tae-cheon had already charged in front of me and intercepted Kim Mu-yeon.
“What happened to the guy who said to stay sharp!”
“I was luring him in! Luring him!”
“As if I’d believe that—”
“Move, Lee Tae-cheon!”
Kim Mu-yeon kicked Tae-cheon’s shield.
Blocked by the shield, Tae-cheon’s body was shoved back a little.
And every time Kim Mu-yeon rushed straight for me, Tae-cheon stepped in to stop him.
Sprout has measured Kim Mu-yeon’s mana consumption time.
It reports that if he holds out for one more hour, all of his mana will be exhausted.
An hour?
That was worthy of an A-class hunter, all right.
Two years ago, I couldn’t have kept that state up for even ten minutes.
Come to think of it, it had been my mistake to think he was on the same level as a D-class hunter.
“One hour! We only need to hold him for that long!”
“What? How do you know th-!”
“I said move!”
Kim Mu-yeon kicked Tae-cheon’s shield again with a loud thud.
The greatsword in his right hand wasn’t being used at all, probably because he was saving it for when he could cut my throat.
In that opening, I fired pebbles from my inventory as fast as I could.
Unfortunately, the pebbles were easily caught.
He crushed them in his fist and glared at me.
Great, that just seemed to have made him even angrier.
“I said move, didn’t I!”
“Oh? Oho?”
Tae-cheon, who had blocked Kim Mu-yeon’s hammering kicks several times, let out a startled noise.
I was surprised too.
Tae-cheon could block the foreclaws of a D-class monster called a drake without breaking a sweat.
And yet he was being shoved back by a human’s kick.
This was what an A-class hunter looked like when he used Heart Break.
Clicking his tongue, the bastard drew his foot back.
“If you won’t move, I’ll kill you first!”
“Good. That’s how you should come at it!”
“Lee Tae-cheeeen!”
Just as Tae-cheon and Kim Mu-yeon were about to collide, the night receded.
Warm light fell down and wrapped around our bodies.
The world brightened as if the sun had risen, but it was still night.
This was it.
The single biggest reason Baekwooncheon had been able to become an A-class guild with so few people.
A wide-area buff that raised the abilities of anyone recognized as an ally by roughly two times.
A wide-area debuff that lowered the abilities of anyone recognized as an enemy by roughly two times.
Do-hee’s skill, Sanctuary of Light.
“My power, my power is…?”
Kim Mu-yeon looked down at his own body.
He was thrown off by the power loss caused by the debuff.
Even so, I could still feel terrifying strength radiating from him.
Manager Baek Do-woon has entered Sanctuary of Light.
Abundant light continues to gather into the World Tree Sprout.
...97%, 98%, 99%, 100%.
Huh?
All of the sprout’s leaves have been filled with light.
Accordingly, a new S-grade skill, Photosynthesis Mode, has been unlocked for Baek Do-woon.
Would you like to use Photosynthesis Mode now? (YES/NO)
※Warning! A penalty will occur after use.
Photosynthesis Mode?
What the hell was that now?