CH 10

“Oh no, I can’t avoid it!”

While Team 1 was desperately struggling to run away, Team 2 moved without difficulty even after hearing the bear’s roar.

It rushed at them with an agility that belied its size.

“Those idiots triggered its aggro way too much.” Kang Soo-jung raised her knives menacingly.

The bear swiped her with a forepaw.

“Gah!” She crashed into a tree.

“Soo-jung!” Park Seo-ah wanted to run to the girl right away, but her situation was not ideal to do so.

Because this time, the bear was aiming for her.

It was then that Ahn Ji-yoo sprang into action for the first time. He raised his novice staff and poked its paw.

At the same time, Seo Eun-hee subtly blocked her body with her own.

Sizzle!

Sparks flew all over the bear’s body. It collapsed in one shot.

“Wow, so you really are a caster! I thought you were lying.” Kang Soo-jung limped towards them excitedly, running her hands over the fallen—almost certainly dead—Roaring Bear.

Kim Dae-hoon and the first team also crept closer.

“You.. were such an amazing caster? Why didn’t you say so…?”

Ahn Ji-yoo remained silent. Instead, he cut the bear’s ears off with a small knife and handed them to Seo-ah.

“You want me to take these?”

He nodded.

“Those are quite expensive,” Kim Dae-hoon murmured.

Seo-ah grabbed them right away and proceeded to heal the injured party members, as the main healer was also indisposed. She used ‘Recovery’ on all of them, one after another.

She also increased her scores for her mission.

[ Mission 1: Touch the Hunter (9/10) ]

“Was that the boss? That bear seemed a bit too strong for a mob monster. Its aura was white to me.”

If the level of a monster was lower than the person looking, its aura was yellow. If it was the same, it was white, and if it was a little higher, it was blue.

A monster detection item would be more accurate, but it was too expensive for Seo-ah to buy as of now.

In any case, this was an E-class gate, and Kang Soo-jung was an E-class hunter. It would be a problem if even the mobs had a white aura.

“I just didn’t expect it earlier, but it must be a mid-boss.”

“So there’s still a final boss? We’ll all die if we wander in as we did earlier.”

“You’ve been saying unlucky things since earlier, kid!” Choi Tae-hyun, a D-class tank being treated by Seo-ah, jumped up. “Hey, do you think we’ll take the insults of an E-class hunter just because we’re a little hurt?”

Park Seo-ah blocked him. “What are you doing to a young girl?”

“What else?”

“Hey, Choi Tae-hyun! Calm down!”

The hunter, who was about to raise his hand, belatedly realized their audience and stepped back.

“Sheesh.”

Now that their main healer was down, even an E-class healer was precious.

“Heh, she’s pretty cool, though. She’s more effective than expected.”

“I know, right? I feel even more powerful than before. And light.” Kim Dae-hoon stretched his neck and shoulders.

Seo-ah felt a little dizzy.

Did she overexert herself?

Still, she was happy, quickly opening her status window again.

[ Mission 1: Touch the Hunter (10/10)! ]

‘I’m done!’

[ Mission 1 – Clear! Please select your completion reward. You may choose two skills from the list. Once selected, the skill cannot be refunded…]

There was so much written in there that she had to put it away for the time being. It seemed too important to read in a rush.

She checked her status.

[ Life: 8↓/10. Mana: 5↓/12. Fatigue: 20↑/40. ]

She’d lost a lot of mana from doing the main healer’s share of healing, and she couldn’t use her skill again.

In addition, there was a new category: fatigue. It seemed to only appear once the figure rose above 0.

But she had to do something first.

“Come here, Soo-jung. You’re hurt too.”

Choi Tae-hyun yelled at her, “Hey, healer! Don’t waste your energy on her.”

“Yeah, you’re an E-class healer, so you must not have a lot of mana. Don’t use it on E-class damage dealers,” Lee So-ri, a ranged dealer from Team 1 who had been treated for a back wound, added.

Seo-ah glared at them and silently used ‘Recovery’ on Kang Soo-jung. She could still hear the grumbling from the first team, but she ignored it as best as she could.

“Eonnie, you may be angry, but they’re right. You must conserve your strength.”

“No, you are my priority.”

Kang Soo-jung stared at Seo-ah tearfully. It was the first time in her life that someone took care of her like that.

After the girl’s treatment, Park Seo-ah wiped the sweat from her forehead.

Someone handed her a bottle of blue liquid.

It was Ahn Ji-yoo, who opened his mouth at her stare, “Drink.”

“…Thank you.” Not knowing what sort of expression to make, she lowered her gaze and drank.

After she emptied the bottle, her mana levels returned to maximum. She was thankful, but she felt a little uncomfortable.

“No matter how much I think of it, I don’t know where the boss could be! Even though we’re in an open space, I can’t see anything,” Lee So-ri exclaimed.

Kim Dae-hoon, who was a melee damage dealer, stood up. “Well, we’ll have to split up and look for it, then,” he said stiffly. “Hong Jae-woo is hurt, so he should stay here. The rest of us will spread out and search. Whoever sees the boss must shoot a signal into the sky.

The party distributed firecracker-looking things amongst themselves.

“It’ll be dangerous to go alone, so I’ll go with you—”

Seo Hee-eun interrupted Soo-jung, “What will you do with an E-class dealer? She couldn’t even defeat the bear. I’ll go with you and make sure you’re safe from mobs.”

Ahn Ji-yoo also whispered, raising his eyebrows, “I’m the one who slew the bear, so I’m the one coming with you.”

“Eonnie, I called you first! You’re coming with me, aren’t you?”

“I mean, um…”

Park Seo-ah remained in the middle as the three squabbled.

Kim Dae-hoon barged in on the conversation. “Ms. Park, are you completely unable to defend yourself?”

“Indeed, I don’t have any attack skills.”

A bewildering look of disbelief. “Even healers know basic offense… Well, I suppose that’s why you’re E-class.”

Seo Hee-eun savagely countered the words, laughing mockingly. “Blaming healers for their lack of damage, typical scumbag behavior. Tell me, who was struggling without our E-class healer earlier?”

“Hey, Seo Hee-eun!”

“What? Do you want to try me?”

Kim Dae-hoon raised his weapon. Seo Hee-eun snorted and looked him up and down appraisingly.

She was a D-class tank, so it wasn’t totally a lost cause. However, for some reason, her eyes made him feel like shrinking.

It felt a lot like when he had encountered a B-class hunter before.

“Come at me. Why aren’t you moving?”

“Kim Dae-hoon, stop it. Let’s not fight here.” Lee So-ri grabbed him by the shoulder.

He put down his weapon, pretending like he hadn’t lost his composure all along.

Seo Hee-eun smiled widely and turned away as the two hunters from Team 1 whispered to each other.

“Kang Soo-jung and Park Seo-ah will head south together. Ahn Ji-yoo and Seo Hee-eun, to the northeast and northwest respectively. Go unless you want to be kicked out of the party.”

Ahn Ji-yoo and Seo Hee-eun looked displeased, but they closed their mouths for now.

As soon as they set off and were no longer within earshot, Park Seo-ah asked, “What happens if you get kicked out?”

“It’s literally just that. You have to leave without experience points or the items you’ve already collected. You won’t even be able to participate in the boss fight.”

“I see.”

It seemed like the two other members of their team didn’t care about any of that.

‘I wonder why they came all the way here.’