Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The massive stone doors opened with a ponderous groan. The magical energy pouring from the boss room at the dungeon's deepest point was on an entirely different level from the ordinary gnolls they had faced thus far. A raw, bloody stench mixed with the foul reek unique to beasts stabbed at their noses.

Thick veins bulged on the back of Park Cheolsu's shield hand. Lee Hyeonseok, standing beside him, was also trembling faintly in the hand gripping his staff. The pressure of facing a C-rank dungeon boss was no light matter, even for active hunters.

BOOOOM—!

A massive shadow slowly emerged from the darkness. A frame twice the size of an ordinary gnoll, stiff crimson fur covering its entire body. The [Red Mane Gnoll Chieftain] snorted hot breath and flashed its damp, gleaming eyes. The massive iron mace it gripped was the size of a human torso.

"I-It's here! Everyone, focus! Cheolsu, throw a taunt right now!"

Lee Hyeonseok shouted, his voice nearly a scream.

At the moment the party's tension peaked, Somyeong, standing at the very rear, quietly set his cargo bag on the ground. He rolled his neck lazily from side to side and swallowed a yawn.

'All this trembling over one mangy mutt.'

In his murim days, a demonic beast of this caliber was beneath even mountain wildlife. Through the Heavenly Demon's eyes, the gnoll chieftain was nothing more than a target that happened to have a lot of fur. But right now, he was an F-rank porter who could not afford to stand out. Somyeong quickly hunched his shoulders and put on a terrified expression.

"Eek! Wh-what is that?! It's way too big!"

Somyeong hid himself near the wall and began his trembling act. The picture of a perfect porter. Jina, seemingly worried about her brother, glanced back briefly and called out.

"Oppa, stay right there! Don't you dare come out!"

"O-okay! Be careful, Jina!"

The battle erupted the instant Jina turned back.

***

CRASH—!

The gnoll chieftain's iron mace slammed into Park Cheolsu's shield. The tremendous impact sent his body skidding five meters backward.

"Ngh! What kind of strength is this?!"

"Fireball! Fireball!"

Lee Hyeonseok launched spell after spell, but the gnoll chieftain's thick hide came away with nothing but scorch marks. The boss only seemed to grow angrier, roaring as it swung the iron mace even harder.

The party's formation crumbled in an instant. With the tanker—who was supposed to hold the front—knocked back, the boss's attacks shifted directly to Jina, the dealer.

Jina nimbly threw herself aside to dodge the blow, aiming for the boss's flank. Her sword traced an arc, brimming with blue magical energy.

CLANG—!

But it lacked the power to pierce the boss's hide. Instead, the boss's iron mace batted her sword aside, throwing her off balance.

"Aagh!"

Jina's wrist twisted and the tip of her sword drooped. With every clash against the iron mace, the shock left her complexion paler. C-rank boss or not, this chieftain possessed monstrous strength that ranked at the very top of C-rank.

"Damn it! Do we need to run?!"

Lee Hyeonseok backed away in terror. That was when it happened. The gnoll chieftain threw its head back toward the ceiling and let out a grotesque howl.

"KREEEEEE—!"

It was no mere sound. It was an area-of-effect stun skill infused with magical energy.

The air vibrated in an instant, gnawing at the party members' consciousness. Park Cheolsu and Lee Hyeonseok clapped their hands over their ears and dropped to their knees. The resonating wave of magical energy had rattled their brains.

Jina, too, staggered and barely held her ground, using her sword as a crutch. But the boss did not let the opening slip. It raised the massive iron mace high and prepared to bring it crashing down on the defenseless Jina's head.

'That one's real.'

Behind the wall, the trembling vanished from Somyeong's eyes as they sank into cold stillness. The act was over. He could not let a chunk of iron be brought down on his sister's head.

Somyeong lightly stepped forward with his right foot, pretending to gather his cargo bag.

An application of the Heavenly Demon's Sovereign Stride.

The tip of Somyeong's foot grazed the ground. To any onlooker, it appeared as though he had simply extended his foot to steady himself, but from that toe, a pure seismic pulse traveled through the earth, becoming an invisible wave.

The wave cut beneath the ground in an instant, burrowing directly under the floor where the gnoll chieftain stood.

CRACK—!

Just before the iron mace could reach Jina's head, a dull rupturing sound came from the boss's right knee joint. The energy Somyeong had sent had twisted the creature's kneecap apart from the inside.

"Keh—?"

The boss's body, mid-strike, tilted sharply to the right. With its leg suddenly giving out, it could not bear the weight of the iron mace and toppled sideways in an ungainly heap.

To everyone else, it simply looked as though the boss had lost control of its own momentum and tripped over its own feet.

***

This was the opening.

Somyeong did not let this moment slip. He called out in a voice feigning terror, yet laced with enough internal energy that it rang in Jina's ears clearer than anything she had ever heard.

"Jina! Now! Go for the nape!"

Jina's mind, still hazy from the stun's aftereffects, snapped awake with that single shout. It was a sensation as sharp and clear as if someone had shouted directly into her ear.

Jina launched herself forward on instinct. The fallen boss's nape was left wide open.

Her sword cut through the air. At that moment, Somyeong lightly flicked his finger, layering a sliver of sword energy onto Jina's blade. It was destructive power that would turn the boss's hide—utterly impenetrable to an ordinary C-rank hunter's magical energy—into paper.

SHHHK—!

A sensation like slicing through a ripe radish. Jina's sword passed clean through the boss's thick neck hide and severed its spine in one stroke.

"Kh, hrgh......"

The gnoll chieftain collapsed to the floor without even managing a final scream. Its massive body crashed down in a cloud of dust, and soon after, black smoke rose from its corpse as a dungeon clear message appeared floating in the air.

***

Silence fell.

Park Cheolsu and Lee Hyeonseok, who had been knocked unconscious, came to their senses and rubbed their eyes. Before them lay the boss, dead with its neck half severed, and standing over it was Jina, breathing hard.

"Wh......? You got it? Jina, you took that thing down by yourself?"

Lee Hyeonseok's jaw dropped in disbelief. Park Cheolsu, equally dazed, gathered up his shield.

"Wow! Incredible! Jina, what was that just now? Did you unlock some hidden potential or something? Cutting through that thick hide in a single stroke!"

"That was truly amazing! Only an A-rank dealer could pull that off!"

Cheers poured from her comrades, but Jina showed no sign of joy, looking down at her own hand instead. The sensation lingering in the palm that gripped her sword was utterly unfamiliar.

'No. I didn't cut through that with my own strength.'

Right before the blade had touched, the boss's hide had parted limply, as if it had already been torn open. And strangest of all were the boss's legs.

Jina shifted her gaze to the floor where the boss had been standing. There, in the shape of massive footprints, the stone floor had been pulverized beyond recognition into fine dust.

'There's no way the boss tripping was a coincidence. And Oppa's voice earlier......'

Jina's gaze slowly turned toward the rear. There sat Somyeong on the floor, patting his chest in relief.

"Wow! Our Jina's the absolute best! I was so scared I nearly wet myself! What was that just now? That was straight out of a movie!"

Somyeong was clapping his hands, looking no different from usual—the same slightly pathetic, clueless unemployed brother as always. But Jina did not miss the incongruity lurking behind that smile.

Every miraculous occurrence since they had entered the dungeon. The trap triggered early, the assassin gnoll dying on a nail, and now the boss tripping over its own feet.

Jina walked up slowly and stood before Somyeong.

"Oppa."

"Hm? What? Afraid your brother's going to ask you to buy him meat?"

"......What did you just say to me?"

Jina's eyes shone sharply. Somyeong feigned ignorance, tilting his head.

"What do you mean, 'what did I say'? I just told you to be careful because it was dangerous. But seriously, you were amazing. Where'd you learn that swordsmanship?"

"Don't lie to me. You yelled at me to go for the nape. My body moved on its own the second I heard it."

"Come on, me? I was just screaming because I was scared. We got lucky, that's all."

Somyeong answered breezily and shouldered his cargo bag. Then he hurried toward the exit. Jina stared holes into his broad back.

'Once is luck, but three times is skill.'

Jina checked the pulverized floor where the boss had stood one more time. It was not a mark left by the boss's brute strength. It was a mark 'crushed' by an overwhelming pressure bearing down from above.

Jina's eyes wavered. Her brother, returned after a year. To believe he was the same ordinary brother from her memories—the traces of the time he had spent away were far too deep and vast.

'Oppa, what on earth happened to you inside that Gate?'

Jina followed after her brother, fists clenched tight. Somyeong was humming a tune and strolling out of the dungeon as if he didn't know a thing.

Beyond the dungeon entrance, where the shadows of the two stretched long, a crimson sunset was settling over the horizon.

"Let's hurry, Jina. Mom will be waiting."