Jongryeo was following after the traces left behind by the raid team.
‘This is weird. Why can’t I find the traces of any monsters?’
In a regular dungeon, it was normal to find the corpses of monsters strewn about here and there, starting from somewhere near the entrance and all the way till the boss room.
But, no matter how hard he looked, he couldn’t see any dead monsters. Did the monsters gather in one place or something?
He thought like this and continued to walk forward, until….
…Huh?
He finally spotted corpses in the distance.
With just a small sprint, Jongryeo arrived at the area of the battle in the blink of an eye.
‘This is…’
All the corpses belonged to the High Orcs. It was easy to identify them because he fought one of these creatures before.
‘How did Son Kihoon’s team manage to defeat this many High Orcs?’
And, was that all? There was seemingly not one casualty, too. Of course, if there was a casualty, they would’ve retreated on their own accord, saving him the trouble of having to step foot inside here.
‘…Did I underestimate the A-rank and B-rank Hunters by too much?’
That could certainly be the case.
Surveying the area, he thought that the battle had to be a bit one-sided, as well.
However….
‘Wait, isn’t that….?‘
Jongryeo discovered something odd and crouched down to take a closer look at one of the corpses. And his eyes narrowed coldly. He stood back up and quickly began checking out each of the High Orc corpses.
‘This one, and this one, too….’
His suspicion gradually grew into certainty.
‘But, how….??’
How could something like this happen?
Almost all the High Orcs were left with injuries inflicted by short but incredibly sharp weapons.
‘They weren’t fatal enough to kill, but….’
But, he thought that these were definitely enough to hinder the movements of the High Orcs. This meant that other Hunters were simply dining on the table full of tasty dishes prepared by someone else.
It also meant that one Hunter managed to almost single-handedly massacre all 20 High Orcs.
Only two High Orcs were killed off in a different fashion from everyone else. One had its head ripped off by an incredible force, while the other one had died after something blunt hit it in the head.
‘Excluding those two, one person managed to drive all the other Orcs to the brink of death’
Could such a thing even be possible?
He was deeply confident of his own speed, but even then, he couldn’t be sure of achieving the same feat under the same given situation. And also, from what he knew, there was no Assassin-type Hunter wielding daggers or shortswords within Son Kihoon’s team.
….Shortswords?
It was then, that a certain scene flashed past his mind.
The man Jongryeo met days ago.
Sung Jin Woo was definitely holding short weapons in both of his hands.
‘Just what kind of Class did Sung Jin Woo receive during the Class Change event?’
When his thoughts arrived at this point, Jongryeo’s head snapped towards the deeper parts of the dungeon. And his expression rapidly hardened. He could sense this incredibly powerful magic energy wave, no, magic energy tremors, the kind he’d never experienced before, coming from there.
The air itself was trembling, hard.
If that magical energy belonged to the boss monster, then no one from Sohn Ki-Hoon’s team would be able to survive.
He began running towards the boss’s room with all his might.
______________
Jin woo’s expression brightened.
Finally, there were signs of fear in that bastard’s eyes.
While shaking like a leaf, the Shaman recalled the existence that could revive the dead into ‘shadows’. There could not possibly be two people possessing the exact same power. So, that human had to be ‘him’.
‘If that person is him, then….. Then, why are we here….?!’
However, the moment the Shaman thought about ‘itself’ and ‘we’, the inside of its brain blanked out and the relevant memories contained within were wiped out in an instant. The only emotion remaining there was fear.
Not knowing what happened, Jin woo formed a satisfied expression.
‘That’s right. Stay exactly like that.’
His plan of making the Shaman shudder in fear until the end was a resounding success. He turned his head while smiling like that, and then, spotted a certain familiar man standing by the entrance of the boss room.
Jin woo tilted his head.
‘Who was that?’
He seemed a bit too ‘distant’ to be totally familiar to him, however.
That was why he needed a bit of a moment to recall what his name was.
And he was none other than the Hunter currently affiliated with the Association, Park Jongryeo.
‘What is he doing here?’
Jin woo might have been somewhat surprised by his presence here, but then, Jongryeo’s own shock was far greater than his. His eyes coldly stared at Jin woo and his Shadow Soldiers.
The first thing Jongryeo thought of was summoning when he saw the Shadow Soldiers. However, there were simply too many of them to say that this was the result of summoning magic.
The thing was, the mage-type Hunters specializing in summoning magic could only control one, or two at a push.
If one could control two, then the treatment one received improved greatly, and he hadn’t yet heard of anyone capable of controlling three or more summon creatures.
However….
Just how many of them were here?
‘This makes no sense.’
One man summoned over 100 in one go. And, he didn’t even need a lot of time to summon them, too. No, he only needed a moment to summon dozens and dozens in one go.
‘I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see it with my own two eyes.’
He might be one of the top-ten-ranked Hunters in South Korea, but another Hunter’s ability had managed to leave him totally speechless now.
However….
This isn’t the time for me to stand around like this.
His cold gaze immediately shifted past the Shadow Soldiers and locked onto the raid team. Their complexions were not good at all. Some of them were squatting on the ground as if they no longer had any energy left.
For now, it didn’t matter what the identity of the man named Sung Jin Woo was, didn’t matter what kind of ability he possessed – Jongryeo’s priority lay with lending him aid by taking care of these High Orcs right away.
The results of his thought process might be simple, but he was incredibly quick to put them into action. Jongryeo tightened his grip on the weapon in his hands and took a step toward the High Orcs.
However, it happened then.
His eyes met Jin Woo’s. And his eyes were telling Jongryeo in no uncertain terms.
….That, it was not necessary; that he shouldn’t interfere.
That he should just observe from the sidelines.
Jongryeo couldn’t understand why.
‘How come….?’
He could easily tell that Sung Jin Woo was capable of controlling countless summons. However, there were just as many High Orcs standing, and there was also the boss possessing greater power, too.
Because he had to summon that many creatures, and he had to maintain them constantly too, his magic energy reserve should be running empty by now.
Yet….
What is he trying to do on his own?
He was puzzled, sure, but in the end, Jongryeo lowered his weapon. He became more curious about what the Hunter named Sung Jin Woo would do against the army of High Orcs, instead.
Expectations.
His cool-headed reasoning and his expectation fought in his mind, and the latter achieved a resounding victory. For some reason, Jongryeo’s heart began palpitating faster now.
‘Whew, that’s a relief.’
Jin Woo inwardly breathed a sigh of relief after seeing Jongryeo’s response. Seriously, the real thing was about to begin, so it wouldn’t do for some interference to suddenly pop out, now would it?
Heck, he even had to let the poor Son Kihoon go through that crap until the very last moment humanly possible, just for a chance to monopolize all the monsters in here.
‘Well, he’s the kind of a guy who’d try to fight alongside if he has some energy left still.’
That was why he only acted the moment Son Kihoon let go of his sword. Even though he had to suppress his urge to rush forward and kick the head of that damn Shaman.
It was all for this moment.
Jin-Woo turned his attention back to his front while a deep smile formed on his face.
“Shadows!”
Jin Woo loud yell reverberating within the boss room prompted the shadows to take the battle stance all at once, not one of them deviating from the formation ever so slightly.
Clack!!
Only a moment later, an eerie silence filled up the chamber.
The thing that broke this silence was the single word Jin Woo threw out while pointing at the High Orc Shaman.
“Go.”
With that, over a hundred Shadow Soldiers rushed towards the cowering group of High Orc warriors.
RUMBLE-!!!
The black soldiers and their controlled march shook the ground, the cavern, and even the eyes of all those witnessing this scene.
___________
Woo Jinchul was running breathlessly.
“Pant, pant, pant….”
He ran so hard that he now tasted sweetness in his mouth.
He bent over and tried to catch his breaths, before raising his torso up – only to spot a man standing near the entrance of the boss room. He immediately recognised who he was.
‘Park Jongryeo….’
Where would you find an unranked Hunter possessing an aura like his?
‘….However, why is he standing still like that?’
Woo Jinchul found it strange that he didn’t try to participate in the battle and simply stood by, so he quickly walked up next to him.
And it was at that point he got to see clearly the situation inside the boss room.
“This…. What is this?”
Soldiers wearing jet-black armour were one-sidedly massacring the supposedly-powerful monsters, also known as High Orc warriors.
…
“K-kuwaaahk!!”
“Kiiahk!”
“Kueehhk!!”
The pitiful screams of the High Orcs even managed to deafen Woo Jinchul’s hearing.
Also, he might have been less shocked if there were only human-shaped soldiers present. But then again, just what were those nonsensically huge black bears with smoke coming out of them, as well as High Orcs kitted out in various black-coloured armours?
“Been a while, Chief Woo Jinchul.”
“Ah, yes, Chief Park Jongryeo. It’s been a while… but, what are they? They don’t seem to be simple monsters….”
“They are summons that man called out.”
Jongryeo greeted Woo Jinchul first before pointing at Jin Woo in the distance.
Woo Jinchul quickly took his sunglasses off and stared at Jin Woo, now standing in the middle of the battlefield. While wielding two shortswords that looked like daggers, he was busy destroying the formation of the High Orcs.
‘No matter how I see it, doesn’t he look like a top-ranked melee-type Hunter?’
…
However, he could even use summoning magic, too?
And, sure enough…
When Jin Woo’s lips moved a little, dozens more summons rose up from the ground.
“What the-!”
Woo Jinchul’s jaw fell to the floor.
Just how many summons could that man control?!
‘This… this is the true ability of Hunter Sung Jin Woo….’
He couldn’t close shut his slack jaw at all.
Could the Association President Go Gunhee have recognised the skill set of Hunter Sung Jin Woo already? If so, then his sky-high interest in Hunter Sung Jin Woo made plenty of sense.
Jongryeo couldn’t rip his eyes away from Jin Woo for a long time, but he belatedly did manage that and asked Woo Jinchul.
“By the way, why are you here, Chief Woo? Was the call made to the Monitoring Division already?”
When Jongryeo causally asked him that question, Woo Jinchul somehow managed to regain control over his emotions and replied.
“No, that’s not it. We were in the neighbourhood, just passing by. But, it was a coincidence that we discovered the Gate’s abnormal condition, and we came here to help facilitate the evacuation of the raid team, but well….”
Woo Jinchul stopped talking there and stared at Jin Woo again.
“However, looks like that won’t be necessary.”
This would be his first time witnessing Hunter Sung Jin Woo’s true skill. And that just so happened to be the spectacle of him clearing a rank A dungeon with his own power.
It didn’t look like other’s help was necessary.
“Yes. I think standing still is the right call to make here.”
Jongryeo agreed with that assessment. That man’s battle didn’t leave any gaps for him to butt in at all.
“Do you know who that man is?”
Jongryeo asked.
Woo Jinchul was clearly wary on Sung Jin Woo’s skills. Also, he was an agent of the Association which did block Jin Woo’s information from leaking out, too.
‘So maybe, Woo Jinchul might know who that man is.’
His hunch was on the money.
“Yes, a little bit.”
“That man… just who is he?”
Woo Jinchul put his sunglasses back on and replied.
“I can’t reveal that information.”
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