—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: JayM
—————————————————————–
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Woo Jae-hee felt a strange mix of emotions.
That newcomer who he found annoying for being strangely close to Yoo-hak had actually found a dungeon.
He had already lost the bet at that point, but it was still fine.
He just had to outperform him in the dungeon.
He didn’t think a weakling like that could contribute much in a dungeon.
That thought remained unshaken as he bravely charged alongside Cheon Yoo-hak, blocking the Man-Faced Trees.
‘Just as I thought.’
He thought he looked quite cool, using his shield and large build to keep the monsters from reaching the rear.
Lira was completely devoted to Yoo-hak, but did Mi-na and Yoon-ha have some feelings for him?
Having such foolish thoughts during battle was usually suicidal, but Woo Jae-hee overcame it with his innate talent.
However, it was also true that he had lost focus, and he forgot a basic fact: plant-type monsters often had their main bodies in their roots, not above ground, and they could use those roots to attack the rear.
And that was the moment his unwavering confidence wavered.
‘Uh…?’
‘Shit, I screwed up.’
The root of a Man-Faced Tree was reaching for the rear.
Since it was invisible, one of the three in the back would be hit.
Just as he was about to shout, thinking it was already too late…
“Be careful.”
That weakling blocked the root cleanly with a dagger.
‘What? How did that bastard see it?’
He had noticed it through the vibrations since he was in direct contact with the monsters, but there was no way that guy could feel the vibrations from that distance.
‘Could that guy actually… have something?’
Woo Jae-hee started feeling uneasy as he recalled their bet.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Damn it, that hurt. Seriously.
My arm felt like it was about to fall off after blocking the attacks of the Man-Faced Trees that the big guy missed, though it was only two times.
Yes.
Now that I had almost overcome the biggest weakness of my talent, which was innate Qi consumption, the only weakness of my Enhancement talent was that I couldn’t enhance multiple things at once.
Of course, the boundary was quite vague. While I could enhance an entire person or tool at once, I couldn’t focus on enhancing two or more specific areas at the same time.
Since I couldn’t enhance my strength while enhancing my eyesight, I had to rely on pure skill and physical strength, but since I lacked both, it was incredibly difficult for me.
On the other hand, Cheon Yoo-hak was practically flying.
“He’s really good at fighting.”
As if to prove the saying that he became stronger the more enemies he faced and the longer he fought, he was mowing down enemies with his overwhelming power.
He was probably stronger than Lilac when fighting large numbers of enemies like this.
“HAHAHAHA!!!”
But even he had a weakness, and judging by his state, it seemed like I had to stop him.
“Shouldn’t we stop him? He seems to be losing his mind.”
As I mentioned before, most talents had penalties, whether weak or strong.
The penalty of Cheon Yoo-hak’s Peerless Warrior was frenzy.
The more he fought, the more he became intoxicated by blood and slaughter, eventually losing his mind. It was a chuunibyou-like penalty that was a nuisance in actual combat, and the more enemies he faced and the faster he defeated them, the faster he succumbed to the penalty.
“What? How do you know…?”
Ah, shit, I wasn’t supposed to know that.
Joo-ri was looking at me with surprise.
“Seriously, how could I not know? He’s clearly not in his right mind.”
I made an excuse, and although she didn’t seem entirely convinced, she let it go, probably because of how urgent the situation was.
“
Oh, you were the type to shout the name of your skill?
The healer in Cheon Yoo-hak’s party, was her name Oh Yoon-ha?
Some people shouted while casting magic or praying, and some preferred silent casting. Unfortunately, she was the former.
It was common in this world, but I didn’t think I could hunt with her after this.
Well, it was better than those who chanted long, poetic incantations.
Anyway, as the healer cast a healing spell on Cheon Yoo-hak, the madness in his eyes subsided slightly.
“Ah, I got too excited. I apologize.”
As Cheon Yoo-hak regained his senses and swung his spear one last time, the remaining Man-Faced Trees were bisected, and our first battle in the dungeon ended.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“Not bad.”
Cheon Yoo-hak praised the party.
“Everyone fulfilled their roles and didn’t make any major mistakes. I might have handled almost everything myself because I got excited, but you would have been able to handle it even without me.”
The members’ faces brightened at his praise.
Yeah, but guys, that wasn’t true. He was the type to praise first and then point out flaws.
“But everyone, including myself, has room for improvement.”
It was amusing how the excited atmosphere instantly deflated.
They looked like puppies being scolded by their owner.
“First, Woo Jae-hee. Your monster control and stamina management were good, but your lack of focus put the rear in danger.”
“S-sorry, Yoo-hak.”
“On the other hand, the rear fulfilled their roles, but you relied too much on the vanguard and couldn’t respond on your own, didn’t you? I’m not saying trust is bad, but you should at least maintain the minimum amount of vigilance. The formation could have collapsed if Kang So-hyun hadn’t helped.”
“Yeah.”
“That’s right.”
“Joo-ri, you weren’t bad, but you were too focused on aggro management and neglected other aspects. That’s the support that Kang So-hyun should have provided, not you.”
“You’re right.”
“Lastly, I lost myself to the penalty of my talent and penetrated too deeply, disrupting the party’s balance. I need to control myself more.”
Cheon Yoo-hak, having finished his review, was about to leave to help Hui, the porter.
“Hey, what about me?”
“Hmm?”
Well, I hadn’t done much, so it was possible to not receive any feedback, but it was customary to include everyone in the evaluation, even if it was just a formality.
There was already one guy who was dissatisfied with me. It would be annoying if I was the only one excluded like this.
“You didn’t have any particular problems. Your battlefield awareness is quite broad. I also liked that you were the first to accurately notice my frenzy, and it was ideal that you protected the rear, even though it wasn’t your role. I didn’t expect such a satisfactory performance from you in your first battle. I’m pleasantly surprised.”
Um… wasn’t your evaluation of me a bit too generous, Yoo-hak…? The others might get jealous.
I wanted him to criticize me even if it was a bit forced, but he just looked at me with a proud expression.
However, contrary to my expectations, the party members, also seemingly meritocratic like Cheon Yoo-hak, were mostly looking at me favorably, except for one.
It didn’t seem like anger, but the big guy was glaring at me with a displeased expression.
He seemed to want to say something, but he couldn’t find anything to criticize, so his expression was quite unpleasant.
“Ah, wait, there’s one thing we should address. You acted like you knew about Yoo-hak’s penalty. How did you know?”
Oh, the purple cat hadn’t forgotten about that, huh?
But as I was about to make an excuse, Cheon Yoo-hak answered for me as if it wasn’t a big deal.
“Hmm, that’s not strange. It was quite a while ago, but I went berserk in front of Kang So-hyun, and he personally stopped me.”
Huh…?
Did that really happen?
Cheon Yoo-hak was arrogant, but he wasn’t a liar.
In other words, what he just said was probably true.
It seemed like I needed to find out what kind of relationship we had in the past.
“Ah, so that’s what it was. Why were you so flustered if that was all?”
The subtle suspicion in Joo-ri’s eyes disappeared, replaced by a hint of goodwill.
It seemed like I had been accepted as a party member.
“Guys, I’m done.”
And Chan-hui the porter, who had been searching the remains of the Man-Faced Trees, returned with perfect timing.
Ah, by the way, his last name was Chan, and his first name was Hui.
“How was it?”
“Not bad. The ones Yoo-hak dealt with were clean and can be used as materials, and some of them even had small fruits. Man-faced fruits are quite valuable.”
“Indeed, it’s a good dungeon for gaining practical experience and earning a decent profit.”
Yeah, no.
The Man-Faced Trees and the other mobs weren’t anything special, but the boss here was quite tricky to deal with.
“Now, since we’ve had enough rest, let’s move on once we’re done organizing the materials.”
“Okay.”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The party atmosphere remained generally pleasant.
There was one guy who kept making clumsy mistakes, probably because he was dissatisfied with the situation, but it wasn’t serious enough to be a problem, so it was smooth sailing.
“Hmm, having such a large, obvious door makes me suspicious.”
“Yeah, I understand that, but according to the information, this is the boss room.”
“Alright, if you say so. Is there anything we should be careful about?”
“The boss is a rather troublesome tree monster. But I have something prepared, so it shouldn’t be too difficult.”
“Really? Then Jae-hee will enter first, and Lira will guard the rear. We’ll slowly open the door and enter.”
Yes, I didn’t lie.
The moment the door opened and they saw the monster inside, the confident expressions of the party members turned pale.
“…Huh.”
Only Cheon Yoo-hak remained calm, but even he wasn’t unfazed.
“That crazy bastard… that crazy bastard sent us to our deaths!”
Oh, seriously, even if you were surprised, you shouldn’t shout like that when you’re the vanguard.
-…?
See? It was a chance for a surprise attack, but the boss noticed us because of that.
“Woo Jae-hee, what are you doing? Get back in position and shut up.”
Cheon Yoo-hak glared at the big guy irritably for losing the element of surprise, but he shook his head.
“You’re planning to fight…!? Yoo-hak! We can’t win this, we have to run!”
Even Joo-ri, usually so devoted to Cheon Yoo-hak, seemed to be contemplating, and the other party members seemed to agree with the big guy.
Well, the boss would be scary if you were a mere student used to dealing with low-level monsters and were suddenly faced with something like that.
An Ent.
A low-level upper-class tree monster.
The king of the forest, a being that thousands of Man-Faced Trees couldn’t defeat, was looking at us, its massive form a testament to its power.
Upper-class.
A single one could devastate a city, it was a true monster that would instantly grant you A-rank hero status if you could defeat it alone.
“Everyone, get into formation. Ents are slow compared to their destructive power, and they’re relatively easy to defeat among the upper-class monsters! As long as you don’t underestimate them because of their name, we can do this!”
It wasn’t entirely wrong.
Seriously, if Cheon Yoo-hak’s party calmly dealt with it, they weren’t completely incapable of defeating a single Ent.
But it was a different story if they were consumed by fear.
-Graaaaaaaaa!!!
The moment the Ent roared, the big guy and the healer collapsed.
“…Ugh…!”
“This is all your fault! We’re all going to die because of you!”
And what was I, the one who could be considered the cause of this chaos, doing?
“Seriously, you guys are so noisy.”
Everyone was looking at me like I was crazy as I calmly operated a device. Of course, I had a way to deal with this.
The expensive magic bomb I bought lit up.
“What are you going to do with a bomb like that…?!”
Yeah, it was expensive, but it wasn’t powerful enough to instantly kill an upper-class monster.
But Cheon Yoo-hak seemed to have immediately understood my intention and shouted,
“Close the door as soon as he throws the bomb!”
The Ent was approaching us.
“Yes, that’s it.”
As a mysterious light enveloped the bomb, the other party members nodded as if hypnotized.
Enhancement.
The high-grade magic bomb (fire attribute, retail price 15.6 million won excluding tax) imbued with my all-purpose ability was thrown towards the Ent.
“Everyone, cover your ears…!”
Just as Cheon Yoo-hak shouted and closed the boss room door…
BOOM…!
A massive explosion reverberated throughout the dungeon.
Cowardly?
Call it efficient.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
T/N – Dang, the original So-hyun stopped Yoo-hak’s frenzy once upon a time? He may have been weak, but he definitely wasn’t a pushover then. Also, bombs ftw! Boss room doors are usually indestructible in these sorts of stories, so enhancing a bomb and throwing it in is a pretty good idea.
Also, I initially got confused with the Lira bit since the last chapter, but it seems to be Joo-ri’s name. Maybe a nickname?
If you find any mistakes, feel free to point them out in the comments.
Lmao bro enhanced the OP bomb.