CH 12

‘Wait, I haven’t even read through it properly yet!’

[ Inspiration, Love Yourself, Quiet Night, Gentle Sunshine, Land of Rest, Breakthrough… ]

The skill names passed by in front of her eyes, some of them too vague for her to know what they meant. Seo-ah reached out, but the system did not respond. Like a roulette wheel, it finally stopped at two skills.

[ Breakthrough ] [ Inspiration ]

[ Mission 1 completion reward has been given. Please check the status window for more details. ]

‘’Breakthrough’ and ‘Inspiration’?’

She couldn’t figure out what sort of skills those were.

The blue system window disappeared and everything became dark again. Seo-ah rapidly fell back into the unconscious world

***

“Eonnie, eonnie…!” Kang Soo-jung tearfully shook Park Seo-ah.

She’d beaten a D-class boss all alone, but she wasn’t happy at all.

It had been Ahn Ji-yoo who somehow ran fast enough to hug Seo-ah and save her from being hit by the stones.

But afterwards, she didn’t wake up.

Shortly after Ahn Ji-yoo, Seo Hee-eun arrived, smacking her lips. “Damn, we missed the boss.”

“Why are you so late!?” Soo-jung complained.

Seo Hee-eun frowned. There hadn’t even been a single firecracker signal. Additionally, she’d come straight from the northwest of the place, so it was practically like going from one end to the other.

But she shut up, perhaps feeling like anything she could have said would just be an excuse. After all, it could have been a real disaster.

“Was it different for you?” she spat out at Ahn Ji-yoo.

He slowly opened his mouth, “It was the same for me.”

“I was so sure that we were being sent away as far apart from them on purpose. I was going to pretend to walk on for a while and then come back.”

“Why on earth would you do that? Anyway, what about eonnie? Why isn’t she waking up? If she dies like this…”

“No, she just fainted because she ran out of mana,” Ahn Ji-yoo interrupted the ominous train of words.

Mana recovered slowly over time. If the person was awake, they could be fed mana potions, but there was nothing that could be done if they were unconscious.

Instead, Seo Hee-eun took out a brooch studded with blue magic stones from her inventory and placed it over Seo-ah’s heart. It was probably an item that increased the rate of mana recovery.

Such an item was extremely valuable and could not be obtained with just any amount.

Only then did Kang Soo-jung look at her strangely. “You… Who are you? Are you really a D-class hunter?”

But Seo Hee-eun didn’t answer. Instead, she observed the rubble that was once the Stone Knight, murmuring, “The two of them defeated it…”

Ahn Ji-yoo glanced at Kang Soo-jung. “Lucky.”

They might not have seen what had happened, but it was obvious that an E-class damage dealer and healer pair wouldn’t normally be able to beat a D-class boss. It could have been possible for a very experienced hunter, but Kang Soo-jung was only a rookie.

But it was possible even with those odds, after all.

Kang Soo-jung opened her status window, her mouth pursing. “Is this…?”

The values flickered.

[ Stats: Muscle Strength: 24/20. Agility: 22/20. Active Skills: Dual Wielding (Lv. 1→3), Punching (Lv. 1→2), Sprinting (Lv. 1). Passive Skills: Flying Legs, Attack Weaknesses. ]

“This is ridiculous… how are my muscle strength and agility both over 20?”

Seo Hee-eun sighed.

***

“I think it’s taking too long. Should we force-feed her a potion now?” came a worried voice.

“No, she’ll wake up soon,” went a calm, low voice.

“Eonnie…”

Seo-ah slowly opened her eyes, a ringing in her ears. She blinked away the blurriness and saw the faces of Seo Hee-eun, Ahn Ji-yoo, and Kang Soo-jung.

“Oh, eonnie woke up!”

“Phew. I was about to bring in our guild healer,” Seo Hee-eun said.

The only reason she’d waited until then was because her decision to join the team was her own and had nothing to do with the guild.

“But…” Seo-ah looked around with a puzzled expression.

Her arm was connected to an IV drip, and everywhere she looked there were white walls and curtains.

Seo Hee-eun sniffled. “My heart ached at how fragile you are. I asked them to give you the best nutritional supplements, my darling.”

“Ah, yes… Thank you.”

Seo-ah sifted through her vague memories.

Kang Soo-jung had finally knocked down the Stone Knight when a large stone and a few small ones flew at her.

But she was alive now, which meant someone had saved her.

She looked at Ahn Ji-yoo and Seo Hee-eun alternately, making a sullen expression. “Well, isn’t it about time? For both of you?”

“You noticed? How did you know?” Hee-eun asked awkwardly, pulling at the skin of her ‘face’.

Ahn Ji-yoo calmly did the same.

As expected, they were Baek Eun-hee and Yoo Ji-an, respectively.

“With your fake names? It was painfully obvious.”

It seemed that even S-class hunters didn’t have a good sense for naming.

Even so, it was when she had shaken their hands that she was able to confirm their identities. Unlike when she’d touched Soo-jung, her mission points didn’t increase at all, which meant that this was not the first time they’d had contact.

“Hey, who are you? S-class… That…” Kang Soo-jung pursed her lips.

“What even is that? You both looked so different.”

“It’s a face-changing mask for hunters.”

“So why…”

It was a mask that changed one’s features the moment it was put on, a rare object that was only collected in gates. Aside from how expensive it was, it was also only fit for one use. Most hunters wouldn’t even think of using it for something so simple as following someone.

Baek Eun-hee carefully examined Seo-ah’s face. “Darling, are you mad? I didn’t mean anything else, I was just…”

“…”

“Worried,” she mumbled with a troubled face.

Yoo Ji-an, who was leaning against a nearby wall, said nothing but continued to observe Seo-ah.

“Haha…” Seo-ah smiled.

Who else in the world received such attention from high-ranked hunters? Of course, it was more like an act of necessity on their part rather than unconditional favor, but their interest was not particularly distasteful.

She sat up, looking at them, and slowly lowered her head. “There’s no way that I’m angry. In fact, I should be thanking you both for saving my life.”

In hindsight, she really had been reckless, applying for a team when she was so inexperienced and ignorant. In the end, she got into an accident.

Honestly, she wouldn’t have survived without them.

Her sincere gratitude made the two S-class hunters momentarily speechless.

“I didn’t mean to be so late. I tried to follow you right away, but they were trying to persuade me,” Yoo Ji-an murmured.

Seo-ah paused, pondering over the words, and soon understood that he was referring to Team 1. “Right, now that we’re on the subject, do you know what happened to them?”

“Gates are dangerous places. Even if they’re low-ranked, accidents can happen at any time,” Baek Eun-hee smirked, the curve of her lips a little cruel.

“Uh, so…”

Yoo Ji-an added an explanation firmly, “It means that the gate has become their grave.”

“Oh! You mean… You killed them?”

He nodded slightly. She gulped.

But although their calm admissions were surreal to her, she felt like it would be wrong to criticize them immediately. Even though they were S-class hunters, she didn’t believe they would kill indiscriminately for no reason.

“I’d like to hear what happened.”

Baek Eun-hee sighed in relief. “Yoo Ji-an and I went in the directions we were told to, but you were going the opposite way so I only went northwest for a little bit.”

Apparently, the first team had returned to their reference point, where Hong Jae-woo was, and on her way to follow Seo-ah, she met them. From the beginning, it seemed that their intention was to guard the roads so that the members of the second team could not join the other two in the south.

Also, the injured healer had been healthier than expected.

“In my case, Kim Dae-hoon and Choi Tae-hyun suggested that I let you two die first and then defeat the boss together and divide the rewards by the number of people left,” Yoo Ji-an added.

Baek Eun-hee replied, “I didn’t hear anything like that from them. Lee So-ri and that healer just didn’t let me go. Soon enough, they tried to kill me.”

“I guess I looked more useful than you,” he pointed out.

She snorted. “I’m not envious of being recognized by trash.”

Yoo Ji-an frowned instead of responding.