CH 24

13. Trauma (1)

“Uh, why is this so slippery?”

The new hunters who entered the dungeon fell down without taking a step.

Thanks to the waterproof coating on the equipment while riding on the gate checker, Ye-Hyeon was able to walk on the high ground, but it was not easy to keep his balance because it went beyond slippery and even moved.

Ye-Hyeon was also wobbly and fell once on his butt.

It didn’t hurt much because Ye-Hyeon fell on the fluffy bushes.

“I’ll give you 15 minutes. Adjust to the point where you don’t fall even if you run around. After that, if you fall down, you’ll lose one point, and even if you can’t move properly during the battle, you’ll lose one point.”

Park Song-Ah operated the timer and notified it in a clerical manner.

The next 30 minutes were literally spectacular.

The new hunters struggled to adjust to the height by bumping and falling.

If it wasn’t for the waterproof coating, they would have been covered with mud from head to toe, so it wouldn’t have been possible to tell who was who.

Will they get mad if they knew there’s no disadvantage even if I get deducted? Veterans always pretend to deduct points only with words to motivate new hunters. Of course, it was good to work hard on anything because you could get connections if you caught the eyes of a veteran hunter.

Yeh-Hyeon avoided the collision and carefully wandered around the rainforest, which tightly surrounded the starting area.

Ye-Hyeon was already experiences, so he could walk around with his eyes closed from above.

As soon as the porter sprained his foot, all the swear words were eaten, so he had no choice but to increase his speed even if he didn’t like it.

“It’s been 15 minutes. Does anyone need more time? If not, I’ll leave you in the starting area. Prepare your weapons.”

They are new hunters who received a D grade from the beginning, they adapted well even in a new environment.

Outside the starting area, a vast height and dense forest unfolded.

The mossy old trees were intertwined like a maze, so the view was blocked.

Ye-Hyeon fixed his sword and tilted his head back.

Instead of the sky, Ye-Hyeon saw a ceiling covered with dark green leaves.

“What if I get lost?”

“It’s okay because if you go into a place that’s not the right route, you’ll be back in place.”

“When you meet a monster.”

“If you follow the instructions, that won’t happen.”

The new hunters felt nervous just by looking at the back.

The remaining monster sweep with a new hunter was assigned the safest route among the gate’s many routes.

For veteran hunters, new hunters will be more cautious than monsters.

Ye-Hyeon doesn’t know what kind of unexpected behavior he is supposed to do.

“First, I’ll show you a battle demonstration. Hunter Yoo Dong-Hyeon.”

“Yes, I’ll bring one.” Yoo Dong-Hyeon said

When Park Song-Ah winked, a veteran tanker strode through the dense trees.

“I saw your provocation skills earlier, but you must be a very talented tanker! It was several times more difficult to provoke one out of the group than to provoke all of them.”

Soon after, the veteran tanker brought in a two-meter-long Lizard.

“Cue, cue!” Lizadri fluttered his long tongue.

The sharply split tongue was almost the size of an adult’s forearm.

As Lizadri came into view, there was a terrible smell of water.

“Huh…”

“What’s this smell?”

A voice of embarrassment leaked out from the front.

There seemed to be quite a few newbies who saw Lizadri for the first time.

Facing a monster is different from watching a video.

In particular, the more familiar a monster was seen through the media like Lizadri, the greater the sense of separation was felt.

Some hunters even hesitated to step back, as if they felt pressured by Lizadri’s disgusting appearance and large size.

They must have felt a physiological rejection, and it was a natural reaction.

“Don’t relax! Stand by, ready to attack at any time!”

Park Song-Ah ran forward and whistled.

At the start of the battle signal, the tanker hit a Lizadri’s face with a shield to maintain the formation, and Seo Soo-Hee moved the shadow to grab it’s ankle and tail.

The veteran Hunter with a spear and Park Song-Ah with a sword rushed from both sides of Lizadri.

The two penetrated Lizadri’s chest and stomach almost at the same time

Park Song-Ah turned toward the new hunters without losing his breath.

He made a joint attack to show the new hunters. If they are a veteran like Park Song-Ah, they will be able to deal with 10 Lizadri alone.

The connection was as natural as water flowing, but it didn’t seem to have been planned or coordinated in advance.

It was something that came purely from experience.

“Wow,” an exclamation broke out among the new hunters.

“As I just showed, the tanker pulls the Agro first, the long-distance dealer puts in a CC flag or makes the first attack, and the nearest dealer hits a fatal blow.” Park Song-Ah explained.

After seeing the actual battle in front of them, the concentration of new hunters increased sharply.

Ye-Hyeon felt like he was the only one who felt distant.

It’s the same as before and now he is still excluded from the battle.

It’s natural that Ye-Hyeon didn’t have the skills to be involved in combat, but he couldn’t hide his bitterness.

” Hunter Yoo Dong-Hyeon, please give me one more. As we discussed earlier, we’ll start the battle from Group 1. If you make a mistake or in danger, I will help you, so attack with confidence. You know we have healers at our party, right?”

Thirteen pairs of eyes were briefly hooked on Ye-Hyeon.

Until the new hunters got used to it, they dragged Lizadri one by one and repeated the battle.

“Get the tempo right! I told you you’re not fighting alone!” Park Song-Ah exclaimed.

It is necessary to catch a regular mob, but the most important goal was to get rid of the boss and the middle boss to clear the dungeon.

Cooperation was essential against a powerful single monster.

Seo Soo-Hee caught the blind attack on her teammate, and Park Song-Ah helped the attack if she felt burdened.

The new hunters only squeaked at first, but gradually began to work together over time.

Thanks to this, Ye-Hyeon was able to get out of the starting area and advance little by little into the dungeon…

‘This is how you learn to fight!’ Ye-Hyeon thought.

The F-class Hunter camp did not teach him how to catch monsters.

All Ye-Hyeon learned there was how to run away from monsters and survive somehow.

Once labeled as F-class, it was difficult to get out of it.

It was a near-impossible dream for an F-class hunter to even get promoted to E-class.

“Aren’t you scared?” Seo Soo-Hee asked

“No. Not yet. I think it’s because the monster is far away.”

Seo Soo-Hee talked to Ye-Hyeon while she had time waiting for them to bring the next monster.

Ye-Hyeon fiddled with his earlobes and checked the status window.

“To level up, I have to attack, too…” Ye-Hyeon muttered.

As expected, Ye-Hyeon didn’t budge from zero.

Ye-Hyeon seemed to be able to gain experience only by participating in the battle as before his return.

However, a healer could not directly attack the monster.

Ye-Hyeon was thinking about how to level up, but suddenly there was a sound of water from behind, and the underfoot fluctuated slightly.

Sensing danger intuitively, Ye-Hyeon jumped sideways.

“Underground…!” Park Song-Ah shouted.

A Lizadri rose from the flat floor even before Park Song-Ah could warn Ye-Hyeon.

It was Lizadri, who looked one and a half times bigger than the others.

“Argh!” Park Song-Ah saw a sharp toenail in front of Ye-Hyeon, which was stuck on the surface of a high place.

If the judgment was just 0.1 seconds late, the head would have burst with a huge claw.

A cold sweat ran down Ye-Hyeon’s spine.

“Quuuuuuuuu!” Lizadri’s mouth wide open toward Ye-Hyeon felt everything is in slow motion.

Ye-Hyeon has been in a situation where his life is at stake as if he’s hanging on the edge of a cliff dozens of hundreds of times.

‘Run, run…!’ Ye-Hyeon thought.

Ye-Hyeon knew the strange sensation.

It was scary.

“I’m scared.” Ye-Hyeon’s white face was the face of a man who knew death.

It was a miracle that Ye-Hyeon lasted three years in the dungeon!

In the dungeon, people died from time to time.

There was no way to explain except that it was a miracle that Ye-Hyeon, who had no ability, survived while following into the top gate.

Ye-Hyeon’s life was always closer to death than life.

Ironically, he was a presence who could not dare to resist the super-large boss or one of the low-level monsters who had far-reaching power.

Only a second or so felt like eternity.

The Lizadri rushed as if it would swallow Ye-Hyeon at once.

Ye-Hyeon’s limbs trembled.

The Lizadri’s glittering eyes reflected Ye-Hyeon’s weak lying face down.

The way Ye-Hyeon trembled with fear was devastating.

Ye-Hyeon, who saw the scene, clenched his fist with his eyes flaring.

‘In a place like this, I can’t die in a place like this! I didn’t live here to die helplessly. I wanted to live because I was upset. I wanted to survive.’ Ye-Hyeon thought.

The field of vision became red as if the veins had burst.

It was when Ye-Hyeon barely raised his head buried in the mud.

“Be careful!”

A new shadow stretching out from behind took advantage of Ye-Hyeon.

Then his field of vision is dimmed.

“Hyuk, huh…!”

The pitch-black darkness reminded Ye-Hyeon of the slowly stretching death.

Suddenly, Ye-Hyeon couldn’t breathe as if an invisible hand was strangling him.

“Ah, ah, ah, ah…” Ye-Hyeon scratched his neck without hesitation.

Ye-Hyeon’s vision darkened just before he lost his breath.

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