Drake Hunt (2)
Cha Seong Hyeon sent a reply immediately.
And the reply contained plenty of news Seon Yul would like.
First of all, Jun Hyeok’s safety, the thing he had been most worried about, didn’t seem to be in danger.
The Woosung Group had withdrawn from the mana field zone and retreated all the way back to Jeju City. They had already expressed their intention to return the mining rights to the Drake Legion Gate if the Bureau granted permission, and even to pay the full penalty fee if necessary, and withdraw completely.
If that was the case, it seemed unlikely Jun Hyeok would reenter the mana field zone.
“That’s a relief. I won’t have to reveal myself in front of him.”
If it came down to it, Seon Yul had been prepared to at least reveal that he was AbsoluteSafetyFirst.
After that, he had considered it his responsibility to escort Jun Hyeok to a safe place.
But if they were withdrawing on their own like this, that was nothing but good news from Seon Yul’s perspective.
With Jun Hyeok’s issue settled, the only thing left was hunting drakes as requested by the Bureau.
“Elite drakes… How strong are they?”
Seon Yul had never hunted a drake before.
So he had looked up some information online and on community boards. From what he gathered, they were monsters somewhat stronger than ogres, made difficult to hunt because they could fly.
But this time, his target wasn’t just a drake… it was an elite drake.
So Seon Yul planned not to rush in recklessly, but to start from the outskirts and hunt them one at a time.
“First, I need to secure a position…”
There was no need to change his hunting method just because the monster type had changed.
Especially when the target could freely fly through the sky.
Still, it could be dangerous before he secured his position and opened an entrance to Absolute Space, so he put on a hard hat, wore a mask, and draped himself in a mithril stealth cloak to conceal himself as much as possible.
Then, carefully surveying his surroundings, he made his way toward Hallasan.
According to the information Cha Seong Hyeon had sent, the Drake Queen’s lair was located in Baengnokdam at the summit of Hallasan. To the east of Hallasan was the Hero Guild; to the west, the Hell Team.
So Seon Yul approached from the north, moving downward toward Hallasan.
Fortunately, the north had been where the Woosung Group had stationed itself before withdrawing, so there were no other users in sight.
Which meant the only thing he needed to be wary of was drakes.
After cautiously advancing for quite some time, Seon Yul secured a suitable location and opened an entrance to Absolute Space.
“If I get greedy and move further inward, it could be dangerous… I’ll start with a first round of hunting here.”
Before beginning in earnest, he intended to use this as a scouting hunt.
What exactly elite drakes were like.
How they should be hunted.
Whether a sniper rifle could take them down in a single shot—or not.
He needed to confirm all of that.
He climbed to the rooftop of an abandoned three-story building near the base of Hallasan, entered Absolute Space while leaving the entrance open, and used a high-powered telescope to continuously observe the surroundings, especially the sky.
The defining trait of drakes was flight.
Seon Yul planned to exploit his overwhelming advantage to hunt the drakes in the sky.
After spending about an hour doing nothing but scanning the skies, he finally spotted something.
He couldn’t see clearly with the naked eye, but through the telescope, it was unmistakable… a drake.
An elite-grade drake covered in horn-like protrusions across its body.
A Horn Drake.
Upon spotting it, Seon Yul immediately prepared for a snipe.
Considering the distance and flight speed, he judged the Barrett M82 would offer better accuracy.
He retrieved the Barrett, braced it at the entrance, lay down, and assumed a firing position.
Through the high-magnification scope mounted on the Barrett, he reacquired the target.
The Horn Drake was circling a single point in the air, scanning the ground below as if searching for prey.
“Even so, it’s an elite drake…”
Taking that into account, Seon Yul prepared special ammunition.
Armor-piercing rounds.
No matter how tough Drake’s hide and bones were, he believed this would penetrate.
Click. He inserted the magazine loaded with armor-piercing rounds into the Barrett.
“And on top of that…”
[Powerful Strike]
Tzzzt.
He infused it with mana.
Now, all that remained was to hit the target precisely.
“Distance is about 1,400 meters… Attacks enhanced with Powerful Strike have completely different ballistics…”
Through steady training, Seon Yul had greatly improved his shooting ability. His outstanding physical capabilities and super-regeneration were complemented by heightened senses, enough to surpass even Olympic gold medal-level marksmanship.
Calmly controlling his breathing, he aimed at the Horn Drake.
The moment it passed through the point he had anticipated…
He pulled the trigger.
Baaang!
Fwhoooosh—KRAAAK!
The Barrett roared, and the bullet tore through the air, embedding itself squarely into the Horn Drake’s head.
And it burrowed in with terrifying ease.
Armor-piercing rounds were designed to penetrate the armor of heavily plated vehicles. There was hardly anything better for piercing through a drake’s thick, tough hide.
On top of that, the bullet carried Powerful Strike, allowing it to drive even deeper into the Horn Drake’s head.
A bullet penetrated its skull.
What would happen next was obvious.
BOOOOM!
The Horn Drake’s head exploded.
The snipe was successful.
[You have defeated Horn Drake (Elite).]
[Calculating your contribution regarding Horn Drake (Elite).]
[Contribution 100%. All experience points and loot are awarded to you.]
[Bonus experience and loot from the Mark effect are awarded.]
……
……
“It works!!”
Seon Yul clenched his fist.
This success was a critical point.
If the snipe had failed, his drake hunt would likely have become significantly more difficult.
He still had other sniping methods he could try, but this was the easiest and most convenient one.
Its success meant that hunting drakes… no, elite drakes, might be easier than he had expected.
Click.
He set the Barrett down and stood up.
“Now that I’ve confirmed it, I should open entrances in both directions.”
One of Absolute Space’s drawbacks was that vision was only secured in the direction the entrance was opened.
So Seon Yul planned to open two entrances facing opposite directions, securing sightlines on both sides.
If he alternated between watching both sides, that would be enough.
***
Even if two monsters possessed the same raw strength, whether or not they could fly could easily result in a difference of more than one rank.
Naturally, users did not particularly like flying monsters.
Even among users who could fly through various methods, most did not enjoy fighting monsters with flight ability.
Unless one possessed two or more awakening abilities, users with flight typically couldn’t perform at full combat capability while airborne.
The only ones who somewhat preferred flying monsters were ranged-damage dealers. But even they preferred monsters that were frail but ranked high purely due to flight, not monsters like drakes, which were both sturdy and capable of flight.
Putting it all together, Drakes should not have been monsters users liked.
But reality was the opposite.
And everyone knew why.
The overwhelming rewards for defeating them completely outweighed the inconvenience and difficulty.
And yet…
In Jeju right now, even though the rewards had increased significantly…
Users were fleeing instead.
The reason was simple.
No matter how good the rewards were, if you couldn’t defeat them or if the casualties were too severe, then it was meaningless.
So the only ones remaining in Jeju were those capable of defeating elite drakes without suffering major losses.
And among them, the one hunting most comfortably at the moment was Seon Yul.
With a laptop open beside him, casually browsing the internet, he alternated between watching both entrances.
Completely at ease.
While others struggled greatly to deal with drakes in the sky, Seon Yul simply searched, aimed, and pulled the trigger.
A so-called ‘click-hunting’ style.
Of course, this seemingly easy process was the result of his own efforts… but still, he was hunting with remarkable ease.
Naturally, other users could not hunt elite drakes this easily.
At present, there were only two forces in Jeju that were hunting drakes relatively well.
The Hero Guild and the Hell Raid Team.
But even they were not defeating elite drakes effortlessly, and thus were not venturing deep into Hallasan.
The leader of the Hell Raid Team, Dan dan, was commonly referred to as the Tenth Sky, a Noblesse-class user.
In truth, he didn’t particularly like titles such as ‘Tenth Sky’ or ‘Ten Heavenly Ones.’
He hadn’t given himself that nickname. Someone else had intentionally attached it to him.
Dan dan believed that someone was in the Bureau.
More specifically, he believed the somewhat childish naming conventions like ‘Ten Heavenly Ones’ or ‘Seven Stars’ were the result of deliberate branding by the global Gate Management authorities.
He thought this naming strategy was part of a larger plan to make users appear like game or comic-book characters in the eyes of non-awakened civilians.
And in reality, it worked.
Perhaps because of these nicknames, ordinary people watched awakened users’ exploits from a distance as if they were watching a movie or anime.
And they cheered.
The childish names were easy to remember, so people quickly memorized hyper-rankers’ titles and IDs… and naturally became fans.
Dan dan, by nature rebellious, hated this intentional framing.
As a result, he was not on particularly good terms with the Bureau.
Of course, in this era, leading a raid team meant one couldn’t outright antagonize the Bureau, so he endured most things and left negotiations to his vice captain.
Still, disliking them was disliking them.
So he was casually ignoring the Bureau’s recent request.
“They want us to cooperate in subjugating the lair? Why should I?”
Dan dan tilted his head, looking at his vice captain.
“W-Well… for future mining rights, maintaining some kind of relationship would be beneficial…”
The vice captain looked troubled.
Negotiations with the Bureau were always his responsibility, so Dan dan’s attitude constantly made things difficult.
“We just need to pretend to cooperate, don’t we?”
“Ah…”
“Tell the Bureau we’ll cooperate. Whether we actually cooperate or not is up to us. We can just push the front line toward Hallasan a bit and hunt elite drakes along the way.”
“How far do you intend to push forward?”
“If we advance to about halfway up Hallasan, won’t the Bureau think we’re making an effort?”
“That should be sufficient. I’ll inform them we’re cooperating.”
“Good. Gather the team in an hour. Let’s hold a proper strategy meeting and then push the front line.”
“Understood.”
“The Bureau can handle the lair raid themselves. Let’s just focus on killing as many elite drakes as we can.”
Dan dan… no, the Hell Raid Team had little interest in world order or safety.
They didn’t believe, like NEU, that the world should be ruled by users.
But neither did they believe users should sacrifice themselves for ordinary people.
They were firmly neutral.
And those who stood in such neutrality often pursued personal wealth and strength above all else.
There were many mana users inside the gate now.
And most of them shared similar thoughts to the Hell Raid Team.
Especially since this wasn’t a mandatory event like a raid event or invasion event, there was no forced clear condition.
These tendencies became even more extreme.
This was precisely why the Republic of Korea Gate Management Bureau viewed the Jeju situation as more serious than usual.
The Bureau had made various efforts to prevent such scenarios.
But as time passed, as the number of mana users increased, and as their power grew stronger…
These situations occurred more frequently and at greater scale.
And that was exactly why every national-level Gate Management Bureau around the world was researching ways to fight gates without relying solely on mana users.
But that research had not yet reached completion.
So for now…
They had no choice but to rely on the power of mana users.
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