19
Looking back, I had never hunted monsters alone.
In the first dungeon, Eungaye and Cheon Woojin took the lead, and the same went for subsequent training sessions with my classmates.
I simply relaxed in the back, letting loose arrows without the need to block or dodge.
Moreover, since my classmates handled most of the work, I didn’t feel inadequate.
But now, hunting alone, I keenly felt that gap.
Without someone to block or catch the monsters, I was directly exposed to their attacks, leading me to move my body more instinctively.
Thwack!
I grimaced as I pierced the throats of two charging Kobolds with arrows.
“It’s hard to catch them like this.”
While capturing them was easy, avoiding their attacks drained my stamina too quickly.
Furthermore, the amount of energy I possessed was meager.
Although assisting Han Seyeon the previous day had increased my energy reserves, I still appeared lacking in this draining situation.
Of course, I had Gram’s magic power and Icarus’s ring, but they were merely supplements.
“I need to distribute wisely.”
Roughly calculating, I could only catch around 30 monsters in the future. However, it was more efficient to hunt stronger foes than 30 weak ones.
“Haesol?”
“Leave me for a moment.”
I halted Sindonghoon, who was about to retrieve the dead Kobold’s body.
“The scent of blood will spread.”
“Yes, that’s why I said to leave it alone.”
The smell of blood attracts monster aggro.
However, not all monsters would rush in.
These creatures had a heightened sense of danger, so when they sensed a stronger being nearby, they would ghost away.
Ultimately, the probability of a strong creature approaching due to the scent of blood was high.
Waiting a few minutes using the Kobold’s corpse as bait, the bait finally lured the prey.
With sharp fangs, a long agile tail, and four legs planted firmly on the ground, it was a Grade 2 crocodilian monster, a Maws Elegay.
It seemed to have crawled from the swamp to here following the scent of blood.
But when Sindonghoon saw the Elegay, his expression suddenly turned grim.
“This doesn’t look good.”
“Why?”
“It seems like he’s excited by the smell of blood.”
And the excited Eligei sprays paralysis poison through tiny pores in his skin.
Sssssss…
Eligei’s paralysis poison spread rapidly, causing the vision to blur as if veiled in mist.
It was a situation where one had to retreat quickly to avoid the poison. Shindonghoon escaped, dodging the smoke. But I, on the contrary, moved forward.
“Haesol-nim! Moving forward is dangerous…”
Shindonghoon’s voice, which shouted in surprise, gradually faded and then abruptly stopped. He seemed frozen by the paralysis poison.
Even in this situation, I continued to advance until I reached near Eligei.
Surprised, Eligei belatedly focused his paralysis poison on me, but it didn’t have any effect.
[Eligei’s paralysis poison activates Intermediate Poison Immunity Lv.1.]
[Experience points for Intermediate Poison Immunity Lv.1 slightly increase.]
“Oh, this.”
I raised the corner of my mouth.
Eligei belonged to the group of monsters with extremely toxic venom even among Grade 2 demons.
I was casually accepting the poison from such a monster.
With this level of immunity, it meant I could withstand the venom of even a Grade 3 demon.
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As expected, the effect of Intermediate Poison Immunity Lv.1 was as I knew it.
Eligei, with sharp teeth ready to devour me, suddenly had Gram’s sword pierce through his forehead instead of his open mouth.
Pshh!
That was the end of it.
Apart from the paralysis poison, it was nothing special, so ironically, hunting Eligei was much easier than dealing with a group of kobolds.
After killing Eligei, as I looked back, I scratched my head.
“I guess I have to wait for that?”
Shindonghoon stood with his left leg raised, right arm extended in a ridiculous posture. His startled eyes were shaking.
I was fine due to my Intermediate Poison Immunity, but there was no way to cure Shindonghoon’s poisoning. I had to wait until the paralysis wore off.
Fortunately, with Eligei’s scent still lingering, there seemed to be no immediate threat of monsters lurking nearby.
“Ah, I’m exhausted.”
Feeling like I needed a break, I leaned against a tree.
After waiting for a while, Shindonghoon awkwardly spoke up.
“I-I’m b-better now.”
“It seems like you’re not fully recovered yet?”
“I-I’m f-fine.”
Although the paralysis seemed to have partially worn off, Shindonghoon proceeded to clean up the bodies of the kobolds and Eligei.
Since his body seemed to have fully recovered, I stood up from the tree where I had been leaning.
“Let’s go.”
“Aren’t you tired?”
“The swamp? Yes. Let’s go.”
I moved my feet in the exact opposite direction of where Eligei had come from.
As much as I wanted to eradicate all the alligators living in the swamp and skin them to sell, that was something that had to remain just a thought.
Unlike Oh Jin-hyuk from before, if there had been a bait to lead the way, I wouldn’t have felt confident to evade the alligators’ attacks alone in the swamp.
Just as a dog would retreat after being bitten in front of its own house, the alligators in the swamp were agile creatures, unlike those on land.
“Shall we call it a day here?”
Although the sun still had a long way to set, I decided to return to the dormitory since I hadn’t caught any alligators today; it wasn’t my lucky day.
“By the way, I was really surprised.”
Suddenly, Shin Dong-hoon, who seemed to have regained his speech, looked at me with eyes full of surprise.
“The poison from the alligators doesn’t affect the disciples of Eternity, right?”
“Not all of them, I guess.”
Despite their strength, there were quite a few disciples who weren’t immune to poison.
Chun Woo-jin would probably be fine, right? Amelia could probably detoxify with magic. Nicola or Eun-ga-ye would most likely be unharmed while using their powers to protect their bodies. Han Se-yeon, needless to say.
Oh, speaking of which, there’s no one here who’s unharmed.
Once again, I realized how absurd the lair of these monstrous creatures in Eternity was as I shook my head.
“Hmm?”
Shin Dong-hoon suddenly stopped in his tracks and looked ahead, so I followed his gaze.
“Oh.”
Beyond the forest, five armed men and women were guarding the path leading out.
The moment I saw the familiar mercenaries among them, I recognized who they were.
“From the Sasaeng Guild.”
Did they call in reinforcements?
Anyway, the thugs’ behavior was despicable.
At that moment, a mercenary who locked eyes with me suddenly pointed at me in astonishment.
“It’s him! He tried to kill me!”
“Huh?”
Who’s trying to kill whom?
For a moment, I thought my ears were playing tricks on me. But fortunately, it seemed not. The mercenary who locked eyes with me had a smirk on his face.
“Well, son of a b-“
I’ve had my chin checked, but I never tried to kill anyone. I was more worried about hitting my head on a rock and adjusted my angle to kindly knock them out… but was that self-harm that I had only heard of in words?
As I stood there dumbfounded by the miraculous transformation from fainting to attempted murder, they rushed towards us, surrounding us so we couldn’t escape. Their dominance was quite intimidating.
But by now, rumors must have spread that Eternity disciples had entered Bukhansan… Was there no communication?
They didn’t even seem to suspect that I might be a disciple of Eternity.
If that were the case, I wouldn’t have come out so recklessly.
Even if that weren’t the case, I could have easily brushed it off by just showing the signs of being a disciple, so my attempt to quietly resolve the situation had a strange twist in my expression.
[Sudden Quest! Encountered mercenaries from Bukhansan. Drive them away! (0/5)]
[Reward: 100 SP]
[Time Limit 5:00]
A sudden quest was triggered by the encounter with the mercenaries.
“I guess I have to.”
Though it was a bothersome quest with a meager reward, from my standpoint, where SP was scarce, if it only gave SP, I would have to endure even if I had to cut water with a sword.
“It doesn’t seem like a tough one anyway.”
The situation was surrounded by mercenaries, yet strangely, there was no sense of crisis at all. I knew the reason all too well.
It was rather odd to feel a sense of crisis from those who roamed around in packs hunting monsters.
If anything, the kobolds seemed more dangerous. They were the type to keep charging even if they lost a limb.
In short, they and I were on different levels.
But we only had 5 minutes to sort it out. Was it a minute per person?
“Ugh.”
It’s damn hard to earn 100 SP.
“We’re running out of time, so let’s finish this quickly.”
“This darn fool…”
One of the mercenaries, looking puzzled by my seemingly indifferent attitude, stepped forward and promptly collapsed.
“What, what’s happening?!”
“What on earth is going on?”
The startled mercenaries exclaimed in confusion.
Of course. They had no way of knowing how their comrade had fallen.
“It’s a morale thing.”
I released my morale and crumpled the face of the mercenary who was approaching me.
Even mercenaries who went around hunting monsters had no idea about morale, something the instructors at Eternity couldn’t feel.
Looking back, I was quite a morale-based character. The other stats were trash.
At that moment, the only female mercenary among them looked at me with surprise. Why was I acting like this?
“Wait, could it be that the Eternity member who entered Mount Bukhan…”
Ah, she finally caught on.
“Yes, that’s correct.”
Since there was no need to hide it, I nodded. The mercenaries’ mouths hung open.
The mercenary who used to provoke me and engage in self-harm spoke in a bewildered tone.
“If you had shown the Eternity card, we would have just let you through, why…”
Hmm, I had actually forgotten I could pass like that.
Anyway.
“But you’re not attacking?”
“P-Please, just pass through.”
As I watched the mercenaries, who were now clearing the path as if they were Mount Bukhan guides, I activated my morale.
Pwack! Pwack!
One by one, the mercenaries fell as if possessed by ghosts.
The remaining mercenary’s face turned pale.
“P-Please spare me! I’ll give you everything I have!”
Seeing a mercenary who would give up all his valuables and beg for mercy by banging his head on the ground, I felt a bit soft-hearted.
[Sudden Quest! Encountered mercenaries in Mount Bukhan. Drive away the mercenaries! (4/5)]
Nevertheless, the quest had to be completed.
Pwack!
The mercenary who had been hit on the back of the head collapsed.
[Quest Complete: Drive away the mercenaries! (5/5)]
[You will be awarded 100 SP as a reward.]
Watching the fainted mercenaries, I suddenly had a thought and asked, “Donghoon, if we hand over the mercenaries who occupied the hunting grounds to the Association, we should get a decent reward, right?”
“···Yes? Ah, yes. Since there’s a bounty, I suppose so.”