The Way of Life for a Terminal S-Class Hunter - C52
$52
Although my eyes were closed, I ended up not sleeping at all. Both Seo-heon and I knew the other wasn’t sleeping, but we passed the rest time without speaking to each other.
“We’re departing.”
As it came time to move, those who had been drowsy with sleep got up groggily, gathered their wits, and became tense. I too had to take a deep breath and focus only on what was right in front of me.
According to what dungeon experts outside had figured out, after passing through one more area, we would reach the boss monster’s room.
While I was mentally mapping things out, the others were doing final checks on their equipment. Unlike when dealing with monsters up to now, sturdy durability that wouldn’t dissolve in the slime’s mucus was more important than destructive power.
Since I mainly use just one weapon, I have nothing to organize and should just do some image training.
I continued my thoughts while fiddling with the two purification filters, unlike others who had just one. Seo-heon also didn’t really need maintenance, so he was going over key points.
“After passing the last peak area, if there are no problems, we’ll regroup and enter the boss monster’s room immediately.”
As he said, it was better to enter after warming up to some extent. If we rested and then entered, our keen senses for battle would dull.
“I’m sure you all know the process for dealing with slimes, but please review it once more.”
“Yes!”
The fully prepared people lightly dealt with about six B-rank monsters that appeared in the last area. There were no injuries or people with depleted stamina.
After walking through the passage for about 10 minutes, we arrived at a huge door made of green-tinted gold ore.
I checked the time out of habit. There was plenty of time, so there wouldn’t be any problems during combat.
“Entering.”
Seo-heon’s hand opened the door to the boss monster’s room. A creaking sound came from the heavy door, and a foul smell spread. On the floor of the vast room, the slime’s mucus was flowing like a green river.
“Wow… it’s spectacular.”
I heard Lee Hye-ssi’s voice from behind. It was indeed a mysterious and beautiful sight, if not for the stench.
Sizzle.
Seo-heon’s shoes, touching the leaking mucus inside, corroded a little. Even wearing A-rank protective equipment, it was quite difficult to enter.
“It seems we need to make a foothold first.”
Even for aerial combat, the difference between having a foothold or not was significant. Entering like this wouldn’t cause major injuries right away, but becoming sluggish was inevitable.
[Using A-rank skill, Rain of Fire. The blessing of flames imbues the rain you call forth.]
The fire spread quickly, using the mucus as fuel. Though the smoke made it more pungent, the mucus gradually disappeared.
“Be careful of the gas.”
I made people move far back in case they got poisoned. Soon after, the floor was covered in ice. It was Seo-heon’s ice path.
“You still freeze just the necessary amount.”
Seo-heon himself was the first to step on the ice path he made. It was sturdy and at an appropriate temperature.
“I’ll cover it with terrain just in case.”
Gangui-ssi, who specialized in terrain manipulation, took a deep breath and used his skill to cover the ice with a stone floor.
“Let’s go.”
All the hunters entered through the door. The green door that had been left open closed automatically with a bang.
[Boss monster, A-rank monster Giant Venomous Slime has appeared.]
Slimes basically have a round shape, but they can freely transform their bodies like liquid when needed. They can also divide their bodies like planaria, so in times before strategies were known, even strong hunters struggled.
“Attack!”
The slime spewed green poison indiscriminately. Unlike the mucus flowing on the floor, it was on a different level, rapidly corroding whatever it touched.
“Middle row, focus on defense!”
Lee-han shouted while his space distortion eliminated the rapidly approaching poisons. Instead of weapons, he launched items with defensive abilities to block attacks coming from all directions.
“Front line, forward!”
Taking advantage of the gap created, Seo-heon, who jumped out first, froze the giant slime.
“Ten seconds, the slime will start dividing! Make the defense more solid. Especially at 3 o’clock, it’ll break through in 10 seconds if left alone!”
Halo’s warning echoed in the room. After exchanging glances with Seo-heon, I ran towards the 3 o’clock direction. Exactly 10 seconds later, the slime that came out melting the ice sensed danger and divided into about thirty parts.
“Find the core!”
Among those, only one had the core of the main body.
[Using A-rank skill, Song of Flames. While the song continues, everything your hands touch will burn.]
I scanned the slimes with my eyes while burning the poisons they spat out with fire.
“There’s no core in the clones visible now. We need to find where the main body is hiding.”
Halo shouted, touching his head. It seemed he had used foresight quite far ahead.
Then where is it?
“Team A focus on combat, Team B fall back and concentrate on finding the main body.”
Following Seo-heon’s order, Team B including me formed the defensive axis and fell back. We climbed up stone stairs created by Gangui-ssi’s ability and chased the slimes from midair.
“The clones will multiply soon. Find the main body before that. All the ones being attacked now are just clones.”
With Halo’s shout, our eyes became busier. And soon we found the main body that had changed its body like liquid to become almost the same color as the wall. Fortunately, we could see the shining core due to its thinned body.
“Over here!”
[Using B-rank skill, Speed of Wind. A tailwind pushes your back.]
I threw my body to the ground while using a movement skill to gain speed, and stood in front of the main body we found. The slime, seeming to sense danger, wriggled and tried to gather its clones.
Not a chance.
[Using A-rank skill, Wind of Fire. The wind creates a wall of fire at your request.]
I created a wall of fire to trap the slime inside. I could have burned it directly, but there had been incidents where burning a slime with the core whole caused an explosion, so I waited for support.
“First immobilize it, then aim precisely for the core!”
The slime, lacking the power it had as a whole, helplessly froze under Seo-heon’s attack. Following that, a spear flew and struck, shattering the main body along with the core.
[You have defeated the boss monster. As rewards, you receive A-rank item Salamander’s Blood, B-rank Poison Resistance item, B-rank item… (See more)]
Reward items came out one after another. At a glance, there were even items that don’t usually come from dungeons like this.
“It was almost disappointingly easy.”
Seokju-ssi muttered while checking the rewards. Juhee-ssi standing beside nodded.
“And it was A-rank.”
“Is this thanks to the prophet’s ability? I barely did anything.”
Lee Hye-ssi joked while praising Halo’s ability.
The others are right.
Considering recent events, it felt almost deflating how tense I had been, expecting a strong monster to appear as an anomaly in the dungeon this time too. I relaxed my shoulders that had been stiffly raised. Lee-han strode over to me. His expression was more relaxed like the others.
“Good work, hyung. It ended without us doing much in the back.”
“Yeah. Still, it was good to see how Halo coordinated and get a general idea of the team members’ fighting styles. They’re all a bit different from my memory.”
As we talked and looked around, I saw Halo chatting with Lee Hye-ssi in the back, having become friendly at some point. Having successfully completed a task together, people quickly became cheerful.
“Seo-heon?”
Seo-heon was far from the crowd, collecting cores from the defeated monster’s corpse. It was strange that he was doing a role that other guild members would usually handle.
“Not enough.”
“Guild Master, what’s not enough?”
Juhee-ssi, who was nearby, asked in response to Seo-heon’s muttering.
“Even at best, the cores are only about two-thirds the size of normal cores.”
As he said, the core fragments Seo-heon was holding were smaller than usual. The expressions of people who had been laughing and encouraging each other slowly but surely sank.
***
It was a troubling day. After returning from the dungeon, Seo-heon and I went to see Mi-yeon-ssi first. Mi-yeon-ssi frowned after checking the cores handed to her.
“The cores are definitely partially lost.”
“Organize what I asked you to investigate faster. Within two days, even if it’s just a preliminary organization.”
From what I heard, Seo-heon had already requested an organization of dungeon data for nearly 3 months after we returned from the contaminated area. He asked for a focus on anomalous dungeons, but information from small and medium-sized guilds without video records was quite difficult to obtain.
“Please send it to me too. Even if it’s unprocessed, I’d like to request it now.”
“Understood.”
After returning home and washing up, I read the materials sent by the information team.
“The number of anomalous dungeons has definitely increased.”
Although I had only read scattered cases, the overall symptoms were similar.
“The cores are either reduced or enlarged. In cases where they’re enlarged, boss monsters of higher rank than the dungeon sometimes appear.”
Though not certain, if that was the case, a rough explanation was possible. As I checked the frequency and locations of these dungeons appearing by date, trying to find any particular pattern, dawn broke. I stretched my body that had been curled up for a long time.