Chapter 16 – Class E Gate (2)
The white frozen palm struck the beast’s head. The jungle cat, flying with its tiny head dangling, froze and fell to the ground the moment it bumped into Seong Ha-yeon’s hand. Seong Ha-yeon put a cigarette in her mouth and stepped on the frozen corpse to break it.
“Oh, I need to skin it.”
And she scratched her head. Scattered around her were pieces of ice that used to be Jungle Cat, like an uphill road to a sledding slope. Ichigaya Ichie sat on a rock a short distance away and clapped her hands while watching Seong Ha-yeon’s performance.
“Sugoi.”
Seong Ha-yeon nodded her head at her praise and said.
“Yes? Cool isn’t it This is the skill called Pacheongong that the Black Dragon Room is proud of.”
Wave perforation. It was a martial art independently developed by Choi Sun-hong, the king of the Black Dragon Ark, and it was a ‘martial art’ in which mana was condensed in the hand to strike the opponent. There were up to 5 chapters in total, and D-class hunters Seong Ha-yeon and Kim Yu-jeong could not learn beyond chapter 1. Ichie pointed to Seong Ha-yeon’s palm, which was still white, and said.
“Then can I use that ice?”
“No, this is my awakening ability, and you see me moving my body?”
Another jungle cat crawled out of the grass with her head sticking out. Seong Ha-yeon brushed off her hand and scattered her ice sheet. Her sharp claws flew swiftly, aiming at the nape of her holy ha-yeon’s neck. Feeling threatened, Seong Ha-yeon stood up from her seat, and Seong Ha-yeon lightly twisted her waist to avoid her blow. Her claws cut through the air, and her floating Jungle Cat’s gaze turned to Seong Ha-yeon.
Seong Ha-yeon’s hand pushed her soft abdomen hard.
“Queek!”
Jungle Cat vomited up a chunk of her red meat and rolled her eyes. Her stomach was compressed like it had been pressed on a press. Seong Ha-yeon said, kicking her body spread out on the floor with her foot.
“How is it? If you come in now, you can learn one of these.”
*******
“You are amazing.”
The punching hole that senior Yoo Jeong showed was a simple yet very powerful technique. The Jungle Cats touched by Yu-Jung’s hands and feet struggled like cockroaches and then collapsed and died. I had to skin the corpses killed by senior Yoo Jeong.
Jungle Cat. They were creatures that looked very cute just by hearing their name, but they were terrible creatures from the perspective of looking at them. Its head was the size of a cat, its eyes were twice as large, and its jaw joint always kept its mouth open when it ate. The body gave the impression that a gorilla and a cat were combined.
Seeing these guys spread their limbs wide apart, exposing their bellies like cockroaches, I felt bad even while skinning them. Senior Yoo-jeong came to my side as I hesitated with the knife. Then he squeezed my hand and said,
“Isn’t it hard? When I first saw Jungle Cat, I wondered how to skin them.”
“Oh, ok, it’s okay.”
I bluffed. Then she tried to get her hand away from her. However, senior Yoojung held my hand tightly and brought the knife closer to the jungle cat. I felt my heart beating loudly. Why is my heart beating? By skinning a creature for the first time? Or is it because senior Yoojung is by her side? I couldn’t figure out why. The moment Yujeong senior grabbed my wrist and swung the knife down once, I took a deep breath without even realizing it.
“You can’t go too deep. When the intestines burst, it smells bad. The magic stone is near the heart, so you can take it out while peeling the skin.”
“Yes.”
Skinned 3 animals. Fortunately, no one had burst intestines. Yoo-jung’s hands and mine were covered in red blood. Yu-jeong said while wiping my hands with his knife-cleaning towel.
“Isn’t it gross?”
I nodded, trying not to look at the corpses. I felt like I had to raise the wall a bit more to be able to face the corpse of the dead jungle cat. Yujeong looked around and said.
“Then, shall we look a little further and look back? Well, it’s not good to stay too long…”
I tried to nod. The smile slowly faded from Yujeong’s face as she looked at me. She could see her brow furrowed and her lips twisted. She saw her reach her hand to her surprised face. Yoojung senior running toward me shouted.
“Stomach… !”
And with a roar so strong that her head was devoured, my body floated up. Soaring high into the sky, I could see that the inside of this gate was all forest. The tops of the trees rose sharply, like thorny roads. The leather of the jungle cat that I had put in my bag was fluttering like a parachute.
The headless skins fluttered as if cheering for my flight.
My body plummeted to the floor. The dirt floor came crashing down on me, making my head go blank. Blinking my eyes, I tried to raise myself from the pile of dirt that buried half of my face. My whole body ached and my limbs trembled.
“Soohyun!!”
Surprised, senior Yoojung tried to run towards me. She didn’t stretch out her hand, but in a fit of surprise, she took a step back. I turned my head so I could barely see to the side. A wild boar-like monster was snorting and staring at us.
Senior Yoo-jeong was confronting the monster. She was getting ready to pull out her flares as she kept looking at me. The monster growled as it looked at Yu-jeong.
******
“What is it?”
Ichie asked. Seong Ha-yeon threw her cigarette on the floor and stood up again. A large pit had been dug in front of them, as if a meteorite had fallen. A monster resembling a wild boar lifted its head while harming the dust in the pit. He had the head of a wild boar, but he did not walk on quadrupeds. Only two unbearably huge legs supported his head.
Seong Ha-yeon said.
“Strong bore. They’re usually the ones you see at the D-level gate, but they’re such assholes.”
“Chew?”
“Uh… Bad guy.”
“Ah-. All right.”
“Stay away. If you entrust this to an apprentice hunter, you will be cursed at.”
“Isn’t it dangerous?”
Seong Ha-yeon laughed at those words and put on her gloves.
“Hey, other guys might not know it, but to me, it’s fucking rice.”
“Fuck food?”
“It means a very easy opponent. Got it?”
“Ah-. All right.”
Strong Boar screamed. I saw the jungle cats running away at the sound of the ringing. Seong Ha-yeon, unable to find any of her skin, clicked her tongue with a face full of regret. She quietly hid behind a rock some distance from Ichie. Seong Ha-yeon thought she handled her crisis well.
“Uuuuu!”
Strong Boar ran madly at Seong Ha-yeon. She stumbled and tilted her body as if she were about to fall, then grabbed her ground with her split feet and slammed her head into the ground as if she were her hammer. A hole as big as the crater mark from earlier was formed, and a huge wild boar monster raised its head from the dust again.
Seong Ha-yeon was taunting Strong Boar, stomping her feet behind her a little more than her pit.
“Come on! Come on!”
Strong Boar snorted at her as if he understood her words, then jumped at Seong Ha-yeon, shaking her feet again. Throwing her head back, she prepared to hammer her head into the ground once more like her hammer. Seong Ha-yeon did not retreat behind her, but rather ran towards her.
“Uuuuu!”
At the same time as Seong Ha-yeon rushed at her, he shot her head toward the floor with a strong bore.
“Uh, uh!”
Ichie screamed in surprise. The dust was blooming. Intermittently, I could hear the snort that beasts usually make. She cautiously drew her sword and prepared to fight. After the smoke cleared, it was clear that Strong Boar’s next target would be Ichie.
“Koo-up! Queuuuuu!”
As the dust cleared, a shadow appeared. Strong Boar was rolling on the floor and struggling. In the fog, a soft blue light began to bloom. Ichie could hear Seong Ha-yeon’s voice in it.
“It makes sense. Strong Boars are bastards who can’t do anything except hit the ground with their heads. If you get between your legs, you won’t be able to cope. Besides, they stand on their two legs, so if you smash their leg joints, they won’t be able to get up.”
The dust was lifted. Strongboar was struggling to get up, struggling with his legs. However, the monster’s joints were frozen blue, and Seong Ha-yeon’s fingertips were covered with ice. Sung Ha-yeon smiled at her ichie once and then trampled her frozen knee joint as hard as she could.
“Kwaeeeeek!”
Both of Strong Boar’s legs were smashed to pieces like pieces of marble. It was now impossible for him to continue the battle. She said, reaping the blue light that radiated from her hands and hair.
“It makes sense. At times like this, you can say ‘Sister is dope’ in Korean. Sleep.”
“Your sister is sick.”
Ichie raised her thumb. Seong Ha-yeon nodded her head with her proud face, then turned her head in the direction where Kim Yoo-jung was. She spoke easily, but Strong Boar was a very difficult opponent. If she didn’t have a shot that could break her joints, she wouldn’t be easy to take down, and if she didn’t have strong physical abilities, she wouldn’t be able to repel them like Seong Ha-yeon did the way she just showed.
Seong Ha-yeon said.
“This is all because we performed the wave punching that has been handed down in our guild and became this strong. How is it? Don’t you just want to enter our Black Dragon room?”
Ichie shook his head. Seong Ha-yeon said.
“Why? Pacheongong is cool. Huh? Besides, if you come in this time, they will let you change your nickname to ‘Musashi’, not that Miya or something.”
Ichie shook his head even more strongly. Seong Ha-yeon thought she was lucky because she didn’t come into the Black Dragon’s room. Even if she only thought of cancer, it was because she wasn’t the type to hang out with the Black Dragon Room. So she decided to give up her recruitment at this point. It was because there seemed to be no possibility for Ichie to come in unless the Black Dragon Ark broke his bizarre insistence on ‘Musashi’.
“Shall we talk for a minute? Did you say you were Japanese?”
Ichie nodded. Seong Ha-yeon sat down next to her reason. As she struggled with Strong Boar, she tumbled into a crater she had created. She was looking at him curiously. She asked His Holiness Hayeon.
“What were your family members doing?”
“Father. I work in the construction industry.”
“Construction?”
Ichie nodded her head. While Seong Ha-yeon was talking, she glanced at the direction Kim Yu-jung was moving. It was because she had to run right away if the signal flare sounded.
