The Dance of Dual Blades
Yeonwoo slowly raised both hands. The weapon in her grip was the iron sword.
"Yeah. Can't fight without this."
She grasped the sword's hilt with both hands and yanked it vigorously to either side.
Shing!
The weapon's form shifted, and now a dagger rested in each of Yeonwoo's hands. One was the wolf's third claw. The other, its fifth claw.
The newly acquired passive trait was [Dual Weapons]. In other words, dual wielding.
For a typical hunter, holding two weapons would be the end of it. But for Yeonwoo, who synthesized weapons into one powerful blade, this trait was especially valuable.
-Grrrrr!
-Gah, yelp!
Just as her awe at the new trait was peaking, a pack of wolves burst out as if on cue.
"How long are they gonna keep coming?"
A flicker of doubt crossed her mind. And now there were a whopping seven wolves.
Yeonwoo didn't mind. But for whoever had discovered this event, it was surely an intimidating number.
"It's an event, after all."
Events weren't merciless. Thanks to the stabilized gate's safeguards, death meant ejection outside instead—and even the pain was dulled. For Yeonwoo, who had Pain of Loss to further numb agony, it felt like a casual stroll.
"It's been a while. This cool sensation."
Back in her days as a veteran hunter surviving by any means, Yeonwoo had tried every possibility. Naturally, she'd fought with weapons in both hands at times.
But wielding weapons dual-handed was far more difficult than it looked. Most used one hand as dominant, the other as support. And the slightest misstep could mean slicing your own arm.
Yet the old Yeonwoo had been a Weapon Expert. Those memories and sensations remained vivid.
Whoosh.
She lightly shook both hands. The two daggers floated up, spun half a turn, and...
Click. Yeonwoo gripped them again.
The stance and method differed entirely from using a single blade. Holding both daggers in reverse grips, she lowered her body and charged at the wolves.
-Grrr!
The wolves poured in from all sides. Yeonwoo calmly chose the middle path.
Stab!
-Ghk...!
She slammed down into a wolf's maw.
'Power's intact.'
Splitting it didn't halve the performance. It lacked two-handed bonuses, making it weaker than a dedicated dual-hand weapon, but that was fine. The mid-tier cutting power, mid-tier penetration, and low-tier options meshed instantly.
A mere stab with the dagger unleashed 191.6% efficiency. That sharpness pierced the wolf's jaws without resistance.
Of course, this was many-against-one. No matter how mighty the weapons, stabbing a dagger into one wolf wasn't ideal.
-Grrrr!
-Kyaa—!
A wolf lunged at the opening.
'As expected.'
But Yeonwoo's instincts saw it coming. Her other hand pierced the wolf's belly—not the charging one, but the one already impaled through the mouth.
Stab.
Twist.
Twisting the claw-shaped curved dagger hooked the blade on the wolf's ribs.
-Grrrrrr...!
As the wolf frothed in unbearable pain, Yeonwoo wrenched her entire body.
Naturally, the pinned wolf's body followed.
Crack! Thud. Boom.
She literally swung the wolf like a weapon. The charging wolf's fangs speared its kin.
In that instant, Yeonwoo yanked both daggers free and...
Krunch! Kicked the corpse hard.
-Grk!
-Grrrrr...!
The pack's formation crumbled. The balance of multiple wolves ganging up on one, and their spacing, fell into chaos.
Now it was one-against-many's turn.
Yeonwoo crouched and dashed. Slash. Slash. Dash and slash. Stab. Flip over, slash-slash-slash. Stab, pull, disrupt, forward again. Slash.
She isolated and defeated them one by one. Only then did she pause, extending both arms sideways.
"Hoo."
With a short breath, as the last wolf charged...
Schwing— Her crossed gathering slash from both hands met it.
Squelch.
The charging wolf's head tumbled off.
"As I thought."
Yeonwoo lifted her dagger hands for inspection. Amid the wolf corpses, she curled her lips in a sly, pitiful smile.
"The utility's on another level."
For lightweight weapons like daggers—especially ones where one hand barely filled the grip—using just one was a waste.
Particularly for Yeonwoo, once a Weapon Expert.
"Hold up."
Suddenly, a spark flashed in her mind.
Two weapons. And if special options applied to both?
Her smile vanished, expression turning deadly serious. She flicked her wrists, extended both arms, and spun in place.
Pop. Bubble bubble.
'Soap bubbles' bloomed along the daggers' arcs. The output? A full double.
"It works. It works."
Click click click click.
She madly pressed the 'switches' that appeared on the daggers with both hands. Yeonwoo shook her body gleefully amid the bubbles.
And since she was alone in this space, there was no holding back.
"Events rock!"
Embarrassing as it was, surviving as a veteran hunter meant enduring all sorts of humiliations—including moments where you had to bow to others. Sometimes you needed to hype yourself up.
Social life demanded it. So she could pull off some popular dances.
She'd been under thirty when she regressed, after all.
But now? New powers thrilled her. Her name still shone in the gold zone of the heavenly system window—top of the list, no less.
No need to suck up anymore.
'Give me weapons, and it's a different story.'
Anyway, she could indulge in pure, selfish joy. Maybe she was adapting to this new body.
Especially this flexibility. The thrill of moving freely at will was exquisite.
As Yeonwoo shook her arms in delight...
Pop.
Without warning, her body vanished from the space. The first phase had ended.
* * *
Outside the gate. On one flank of Bukhansan, far from the entrance, Special Mobile Team's Kang Cheolhan and Lee Seongsim kept watch.
Normally, only Lee Seongsim—the connecting officer for gate events—would stay. But the red pillar of light nagged at them, so Kang Cheolhan stuck around too.
-The site's a bit off, huh.
Jeong Eunhye, the on-duty officer, chimed in via radio. She was at the Center but monitoring the gate vicinity through field screens.
"Yeah. Why'd they come out so soon?"
Kang Cheolhan narrowed his eyes at the gate. Just as Jeong Eunhye said.
Shortly after the gate's red glow faded, hunters started spilling out. More precisely, from the house-like structure covering the entrance.
"Not that weird, but still weird."
He scratched his stubbly chin, tilting his head.
Events and dropouts were par for the course. But this early in the event?
Hunters were being ejected nonstop. The number had already surpassed dozens.
-What's your take, Captain Kang?
-Ever seen an event like this before?
"Hmm. Not unheard of, but why's the Eve Sanctuary being so stingy? No idea."
Events varied wildly. Some even started with a hunter trivia quiz right away. Half the discoverers—633 hunters—failed and dropped out instantly.
Kang Cheolhan remembered the exact number because he'd been one of them. That's how he learned stigmas weren't limited to one per hunter.
But this event felt off.
"Injuries are piling up. Should we request more support from Eden?"
As Lee Seongsim said, the ejected hunters were wounded. No life threats, but some bled heavily or could barely stand.
One reason for injuries: fighting and losing. Nothing else.
But combat this fast? Pace differed from other events.
-High priest support's already arranged for that.
"Mikael, that priest? Eden let him go easy?"
-His own strong will.
"Impressive as ever. The saintess."
Mikael had hit Tier III right after the Ant Nest. Eden wouldn't release an ace like that lightly—clearly thanks to the Ant Nest saintess.
Still, injured hunters kept pouring out. Unnaturally fast.
"At this rate, everyone's coming out."
"Events always boot everyone but the final few at the end."
"Too quick. And that house... it's weird."
Kang Cheolhan pointed at the structure over the gate entrance.
"...Huh."
His hunch hit. Once ejections crossed a threshold, the simple house-shaped translucent structure inflated.
Its size doubled instantly.
-It's pushing out!
Jeong Eunhye shouted. The expansion widened the gate's enforced zone.
Ejected hunters were booted beyond the gate's area, scaled to the house's size. Dropouts were forcibly shoved accordingly.
No issue there. Enforced zones just expanded without physical force.
But the humans caught in it? Sturdy hunter bodies smashed trees, shoved cars, wrecked parking fixtures and walls.
"Aigoo!"
Ironic, but with so many ejected, the unharmed dragged the hurt away from the zone fast.
Those in the chaos flailed in panic, but from afar, it looked comically tragicomic.
"What kind of event is this red one anyway."
"Hold on. Connecting complete."
Lee Seongsim raised a hand, eyes widening. Her pupils lost focus.
Connecting was a national Center exclusive—linking to the gate to peek inside.
"What's the red mean? What do you see?"
But only fragments visible. They coped with special situations from scraps.
"Rankings. Looks like it."
Lee Seongsim's view via connecting: a leaderboard split into three zones.
"That why the mass exodus? Have people on standby to escort to safe zones ASAP."
-Any chance you can share the rankings?
"Mm."
Her eyes scanned the air. She read from the gold zone's top.
"Yeonwoo."
-Ahh!
Jeong Eunhye sighed. Certain now: the Ant Nest saintess was Yeonwoo. The Gate Liberator too.
Greatest joy? Gratitude she'd resumed activity after that blank period.
But the next name split cheers and jeers.
"Shin Gaon."
"No, that psycho bitch?"
This time, Kang Cheolhan responded, face twisting.
Gender aside, utter disgust for the human.
And the next.
"Nade Man."
-What?!
"Huh?"
Both reacted simultaneously.
"Fortress sent him."
Company Fortress. One of the mega-corps. Nade Man had been a promising rookie there.
Until the Hunter Center gold badge boot camp fiasco.
-They're probably grinding their teeth.
"Bet. Heard he grinded tiers hard... Remember that hero-grade weapon listing recently?"
-No way.
"Yup. 'Real Combat Compression No.4'. Fortress bought it."
In short, Nade Man entered the event seething with rage.