Chapter 89 – Promotion Match (4)
“…Uh?”
Weird. The feeling was strange. My heart was pounding, and the hairs on my body stood on end. It seemed that someone was staring at me from somewhere, and that a huge monster was lurking inside this gate. My legs were shaking and I was short of breath.
Was I nervous like this? I looked at Ichie urgently. Ichie was also looking at me with a puzzled face. 5 minutes after entering the gate. Atop a pile of jungle cat corpses, we faced each other, relieving our anxiety.
“Supremacy. Are you okay?”
Ichie’s voice rarely trembled. She caught my hand, her big eyes quivering. I grabbed her hand and pulled Ichie into my arms. As she rubbed my back, she made sure my heart was beating like crazy. Her little shoulders were shaking in her wit.
“Supremacy. Aren’t you scared?”
“Are you okay. Are you okay.”
This wasn’t a street. I wanted to sit down and hide somewhere right now, but I wasn’t alone, and this wasn’t the street. There were people to protect, and there were people to wait for. I gritted my teeth to somehow clear my mind.
The vision was blurry, but then it went back to normal. Ichie grabbed her by the shoulder and kept shaking her body. She was trembling like she was holding a stray kitten. At the same time, she seemed to be struggling with her fears.
I desperately shook my head. Why are we suddenly afraid and trembling? In the encyclopedia I remember, there was no D-class monster with such a powerful mind control ability. It means that the cause is somewhere else, but I couldn’t quite figure out what it was.
[Why can’t you come to your senses?]
The voice of the Almighty rang in my chest. Before I could answer, a heavy force radiated from my chest and ran through my body. I felt my fear sink to the floor with a refreshing sensation as if I was coming out of a swamp. My body was languid because I was exhausted all the time, but just being able to wake up was a great achievement.
“Uh, how?”
[There is a curse attached to your body that makes your emotions fluctuate.]
“Where are you?”
[It is a hand.]
At the words of the Almighty, I looked at my hand. Nothing has changed. As I looked at my hand, I realized belatedly that the stamp the staff had put on it had been erased. The purple ink was spread over the color like watercolor, and the spider shape was nowhere to be found.
Ichie was still trembling as he hugged me tightly. I removed Ichie’s hand and found the seal. There was a spider-shaped seal in the same location as mine. I rummaged through Ichie’s backpack for a water bottle and scattered it on the back of my hand.
The paint that came into contact with water melted away in an instant.
“Ha… !”
Ichie let out a long sigh and looked at me. She, too, felt a sudden fading emotion and seemed a little taken aback. She said, still in my arms, looking around her.
“Uh, how did you do it?”
“Stamp. Painting was a problem.”
I looked at the gate in the distance. Should I go back like this? Since I erased the stamp, wouldn’t it be right to upgrade and leave? Looking at the location marker, the location of the boss was now directly ahead. The boss’ mana stone was flickering brighter and more vivid than ever.
“It makes sense. What would you like to do? Shall we go out for a while and come back later?”
“I’m fine. Contact headquarters. I have a walkie-talkie.”
After that, I received a walkie-talkie. I turned on the walkie-talkie to catch up on what was happening. It was far better to keep an eye on the situation than to go out on our own.
“Ah, our gate team. Gate team.”
Despite my message, no reply came back. On the other side of the walkie-talkie, he only spit out radio waves that were annoying to his ears, but he didn’t think about giving an answer. We met eyes again. Ichie’s face was right in front of my nose, so I could kiss him right away by sticking out my lips. Ichie said.
“Let’s go.”
“Are you okay?”
Ichie slipped out of my arms again. It took only a moment for her to see the weariness on her face, but her fighting spirit was alive in her extended blade posture. She said it again.
“Quickly get promoted and go back.”
If she was okay, I had no choice but to move on. I nodded and checked the equipment again. There were no items dropped earlier, and in the meantime, there were no monsters surrounding us. Thinking that it was fortunate in misfortune, we moved forward again.
The closer we got, the louder and louder the tracker announcing the boss’ location sounded. I could see the boss through the shadows of trees that were planted in a straight line like the border of a country. Ichie and I faced each other and nodded. After turning off the tracker, I lowered my posture and moved to check the appearance of the boss.
Setting up the plan was next.
We moved forward slowly, crushing the grass that grew to our waists. There was a smell of dirt somewhere. And along with the thick smell of blood, the distinctive fishy smell from the meat stung my nose. I heard the sound of insects flying.
Through the sudden pouring light, vision was blurry. A large corpse was lying on the floor. I also knew what that monster was. Gorbas. It was a D-class monster that lived mainly in the shady forest.
Gorbas was lying in the middle of the plain as a corpse. In spite of my reason, I looked around without realizing it. I also wondered if the gate instability had occurred. I said it doesn’t happen in regular gates, but then who’s going to kill the boss? The signal pointing to the boss was clearly pointing to Gorbas’ corpse.
Gorbas’ corpse was covered with dirt, and it looked as if he had died in a trap.
I looked at Ichie and asked.
“What do we do?”
“I don’t know.”
If you didn’t catch the boss, you couldn’t get promoted. Today’s gate exploration was meaningless. I clicked my tongue and got up from my seat. Ichie also got up after confirming that there was nothing around.
“Oh, I must come back.”
“Come back in the best condition.”
“I should. Ah, our office gate…”
I scratched my head and pulled out the walkie-talkie. At the same time, the dirt surrounding Gorbas’ corpse rose upward. I froze with my walkie-talkie on. Ichie was also shocked and took a step back. Piles of dirt rose through the air and flew towards me.
“Fuck!”
I threw myself narrowly to avoid the dirt flying at me. However, the radio in my hand was hit by a mound of dirt and shattered. Watching the radio disintegrate in midair was brutal.
“Stay still, you bastards.”
Mounds of dirt began to swarm over the body like a swarm of ants crawling. A man in a suit walked slowly out of the grass behind him. He had a cigarette in his mouth and was looking over at us with a sharp look. I knew who that man was.
He was a D-class hunter of the Diamond Club who looked after Kim Joo-sung.
Ichie also recognized the man and narrowed his eyes.
“What are you teasing about? Is this your first time seeing a D-class Hunter?”
Ichie didn’t answer. I also fixed my shield and spear and glared at him. The attack that was aimed at the radio just a moment ago and the image that it is showing now do not feel favorably. He said.
“I mean I hate bastards like you. Uh? Fuck you from the name of the fuck, huh? Why are you ruining other people’s business? Uh?”
“How about ‘1’?”
“Not you, bitch.”
When Ichie retorted, Hunter became irritated. Ichie took one look at me and then he called out again.
“I think it’s a cool nickname.”
“Oh yes. It’s fucking cool.”
The man raised his hand as he said that. The dirt gathered around the man rose in a thin layer like a curtain or blanket. I nodded at Ichie. The wide expanse of dirt coalesced into an awl-like shape and flew towards me. Ichie hid behind me and I pushed my shield forward and gritting my teeth.
Bang!
A heavy and sharp shock struck. The shield was pressed concavely, and my body was pushed back one step. Dirt was scattered in all directions. The man lowered his hand again, and the shattered bits of dirt fell straight to the floor.
Hunter clenched his fists in the air again. Dirt spilled on the floor hit our ankles like a noose and returned to the man.
“Wow!”
We lost our balance at the same time and fell to the floor. Hunter laughed and drew his sword from his waist. He was running with the momentum to cut us down.
The blade collided with my shield. Ichie jumped out from behind the shield and aimed for the Hunter’s head. As the man stirred his hand, the spilled dirt on the floor rose up and hit Ichie.
Ichie, who was floating in the air, was crushed by the soil and was helplessly pressed to the floor. As the man focused his gaze on Ichie, I gave a big spur on his foot and pushed the blade away from him. As his stance collapsed under the push of his shield, he thrust his spear through the gap. The shock had piled up a while ago, and the window was dimly shining.
Thud!
A recoil came to my arm with a heavy echo. The man was pushed all the way back, clutching his stomach. In front of his boat, a pile of dirt was piled up like a belly band. The cone-shaped, concave pile of dirt had collapsed, and the man’s suit could be seen torn. He saw that his suit was torn and looked back at me.
“This bastard…”
He scattered dirt again with a furious face. The soil that fell on the floor spread out thinly again and floated up. Hunter, who had been glaring at me, abruptly turned his gaze to the side and lowered himself, pushing up the dirt. The red trail narrowly penetrated the earth barrier and passed the Hunter’s head.
The Hunter, who was lying on the floor, looked at us in a cold sweat.
I hit the shield with my spear and said.
“Baby! Not easy!”
This fight was worth trying.
