Chapter 102
"Ahhhhhhh-!”
A scream rang out, cracking the glass wall. Surprised, Hwang Ki-Chul began to trigger the Mana-Blocking skill. As he held his hands together in front of him, the fluctuating mana slightly calmed down.
‘Was there any Re-Awakened person who screamed in the original novel?’
Although taken aback, Choi Yu-Seong calmly organized his thoughts. There wasn’t anybody who came to mind. No matter how much he thought about it, there was no person who reacted the same way as Chae Ye-Ryeong just did.
Hwang Ki-Chul frowned. He stretched his hands forward, sweating profusely. "It's a little...dangerous."
"Pardon?"
“Even compared to the mana stones’ mana, the lady’s mana is extraordinary.”
"...Do we have to think of the worst case?" asked Yu-Seong.
"We don’t have to, not yet. It's just…”
At that moment, the mana emanating from Chae Ye-Ryeong began to pour out much more intensely.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh-!”
The following scream shook the entire wooden building, which threatened to collapse.
‘It's dangerous.’
This situation hadn’t occurred in the original novel so Yu-Seong turned to ask Hwang Ki-Chul. "What can I do to help?”
"Nothing. Just pray we are lucky enough that things don't get any worse than this."
Before Hwang Ki-Chul finished speaking, a sharp energy of the flickering red light pierced through the warehouse walls and flew through the air as if dancing. Terrified, Yu-Seong turned the Pharaoh’s Caprice into a spear and struck the red light that flew toward him.
Clang!
The spear rang loudly as Yu-Seong took several steps back. He confirmed that it was a dagger that shot through the air. He widened his eyes.
‘Even the dagger is very heavy.’
As expected, the person outside was quite a strong opponent, but the problem was that. three more beams of red light flew in after the first.
‘Oops…!’
Yu-Seong quickly ran forward and tried to use the Pharaoh’s Caprice, expanding it to the size and length of a spear to swing it.
Clang!
The shock of the dagger hitting the Pharaoh’s Caprice was so great that Yu-Seong rolled on the floor as the daggers rebounded into the air.
‘There’s one, two... Two?’
Just as Choi Yu-Seong confirmed the number of daggers and turned to look at Hwang Ki-Chul in surprise…
Thud-!
He heard the terrible sound of something piercing through flesh and bone.
***
It was ten minutes before Hwang Ki-Chul's death.
Geom-Gui hadn’t thought much differently from Medusa after encountering Jenny, the woman who had just appeared with a gun. He scoffed. “Do you think a foreign mercenary who only shoots guns can deal with me?”
“...”
Instead of answering, Jenny pulled the two handguns’ triggers in succession, blocking Geom-Gui from approaching her. In fact, guns were more effective when fighting against humans than monsters.
Monsters inside the dungeon were protected by the dungeon’s magic and were not harmed by firearms. In addition, even if a dungeon break occurred and the monsters ran outside the dungeon, bullets would bounce off the fat or leather of the large monsters. It was common knowledge that an ogre, which was a typical large monster, would have to be hit by at least a missile. Thus, it was safe to say that hunters rarely, if ever, used firearms.
For this reason, both Geom-Gui and Medusa saw Jenny as an ordinary foreign mercenary, rather than a hunter. Also, it was a fairly common story in the world that specially trained soldiers or mercenaries killed or knocked down hunters. That was why Geom-Gui snorted at Jenny so condescendingly.
‘Those hunters who die from ordinary mercenaries with special training are just idiots.’
Even globally, there had never been a hunter beyond the rank-A who had been shot by firearms.
‘She’s thinking of fighting against me with a method that only works for C-rank hunters?’
There was no need to drag out the fight. Geom-Gui pulled out two swords at the same time and began to cut or avoid the flying bullets. In an instant, the distance shortened, and the guns started to smoke.
Click, click.
Hearing the sound of an empty cartridge every time the trigger was pulled, Geom-Gui no longer wove and ducked but began to run straight ahead. Nevertheless, he did not let his guard down.
‘It could be a trap.’
The opponent might be trying to trick him with the last bullet. Therefore, Geom-Gui did not relax until he reached Jenny, who was trying to replace the magazine with a flustered expression.
When Jenny dropped the magazine to the floor by accident, a demon mask came close and cast a shadow on her face.
"It's over, my foreign friend," said Geom-Gui with a cold smile. His sword extended from the ground to the sky, aiming to cut Jenny’s arm.
Of her two pistols, Jenny held the one in her left hand upside down like a tonfa. She blocked the approaching sword.
‘Did she just block it?’
At this point, Geom-Gui felt a coolness on his skin. When Jenny pointed the pistol in her right hand to his forehead, his eyes naturally turned to the floor.
‘I'm sure the magazine was on the floor…’
In this world, it was possible that a bullet wasn’t necessarily needed to shoot.
"I do agree with you that it's over, Korean friend."
When a blue flame burst from the bullet-free pistol, Geom-Gui bent his back more than 90 degrees backward and avoided the fire. His limbs appeared to be dancing in the air.
‘The skill, the Sword’s Flower.’
Geom-Gui just unexpectedly revealed one of his skills. He wiped off his cold sweat.
On the other hand, Jenny widened the distance to avoid Geom-Gui’s skill and smacked her lips. "I could have finished him."
Inducing the opponent to be careless and then ending their life was a technique mainly used by Jenny, who had a similar tendency as Jin Yu-Ri. However, in this case, Geom-Gui’s speed, ability, and fighting sense were excessively good.
"You have a Projection skill.”
Even more, Geom-Gui was pretty smart. With just one attack from Jenny, he immediately found out what her specialized skill was.
"But how do you use the Projection skill through a gun? I've never heard of that type of hunter..." Geom-Gui made an assumption.
A typical mana Projection skill usually required one prerequisite, which was a preliminary action or an invoking word. Through this prerequisite, most Physical type hunters could predict and avoid attacks by Psychic type hunters with Projection skill. From this assumption, Jenny's movement before using Projection skill could be seen as pulling the gun’s trigger.
‘If my guess is right... Even though I don’t know the power, the speed of her Projection skill is in the world's top ranks.’
Jin Yu-Ri herself was unexpectedly fast and strong, but this woman was also formidable.
‘How did the ninth child of the Comet Group gather such talented people? It’s said that he's improved a little recently, but I’ve been completely fooled. He’s a dragon hiding under the sea.’
Geom-Gui felt that his lips were dry and his saliva was particularly bitter.
‘The calculation was wrong. I should have refused even if he said he would give us 15 billion won instead of 7 billion won.’
The request Geom-Gui had accepted thoughtlessly proved to be more difficult than he thought.
Tense, he fully focused on Jenny's fingers, which were on the trigger.
"Are you curious?" Jenny had been silent until now, but she spoke as she pointed her pistol at Geom-Gui. The mana’s flame erupted at a high speed.
Geom-Gui asked while tilting his head to the side to avoid Jenny’s attack, "Are you going to tell me?"
"I'm willing to answer if you give me your life."
Geom-Gui placed his saw-edged sword into the scabbard. He said, "You're a good speaker. From now on, I won’t go easy on you.”
"But that won’t change the outcome..."
Out of sight, Geom-Gui reached into his inner pocket and pulled out a dagger. It flew across Jenny’s cheek, drawing blood from her fair skin. He then made a comment. "For your information, my specialized skill is Secret Warehouse."
The reason why Geom-Gui had confidently revealed his specialized skills was simple. It was difficult to accurately grasp the ability’s capacity just by its name alone.
"What…?"
Because of that, Jenny’s thoughts went elsewhere for a moment.
There was no reason to miss such an opportunity. Geom-Gui instantly narrowed the distance, kicking the ground like the Physical type hunter that he was.
Jenny, who had lost focus for a moment, frowned. She fired mana one after another through her two pistols.
Swinging his sword to cut the bullet, Geom-Gui then used his Secret warehouse skill, one that could bring up stuff that was put in the subspace with a tattoo on the arm. He took out a dagger and retaliated.
However, it was a problem for Geom-Gui that Jenny also had more than one skill. Jenny continued to pull the trigger by using Moonwalk, a skill that could widen the distance faster than the Acceleration skill.
Geom-Gui tried to close the distance, and Jenny kept trying to move away. The more this battle continued, the more nervous Geom-Gui became. Although there had not yet been a fatal move to determine the battle’s outcome, the battle was going at the perfect pace for Jenny.
‘This will be no good if I keep getting drawn into her tempo.’
Suddenly the wooden warehouse came into Geom-Gui’s view.
‘Come to think of it, since earlier…’
Both Jin Yu-Ri, who was fighting Medusa, and Jenny tried to secretly widen their distance from the wooden warehouse.
‘If I think about it, the employer's target is the woman in the wooden warehouse, right?’
Geom-Gui’s eyes flashed. He turned his back to Jenny and started running toward the wooden warehouse.
“...?!”
Jenny quickly followed with a surprised expression.
‘As expected!’
Sensing Jenny’s movement, Geom-Gui smiled brightly. Knowing the opponent’s weakness made them much easier to deal with. He taunted Jenny as he threw the dagger he had obtained through his skill Secret Warehouse at the wooden warehouse.
"Hey, foreign friend. If you're late, all your friends in that warehouse will die."
"No, Jenny! You must block it!" shouted Yu-Ri urgently after she cut dozens of strands of Medusa's hair.
Jenny and Yu-Ri could no longer pretend to keep calm to hide their inner thoughts. It was too dangerous for a mana explosion to occur during Chae Ye-Ryeong's Re-Awakening.
Geom-Gui chuckled and threw the dagger again, and Jenny's bullet hurriedly shot it away. He commented, "Wow...! You are indeed good at shooting!"
It was getting closer. Geom-Gui’s eyes shone sharply as he sought a chance to kill them at once. Then, his senses clearly felt the mana emanating from inside the wooden warehouse.
‘What the…?’
It was a dangerous sensation that made chills run down Geom-Gui’s back. He didn’t know what was happening inside the wooden warehouse, but he felt it was not a good thing.
[Ahhhhhhhh-!]
Subsequently, a scream erupted from inside the warehouse.