<Episode 76>
The closer I looked, the more he resembled a scruffy young boy in a dirt-covered hoodie. Had he just turned twenty? With a desperate expression, the youthful-looking boy reached toward Hunter Lee Hyunwoo as though begging for help. But…
“It would be better if you didn’t come any closer.”
Lee Hyunwoo Hunter’s sharp blade hovered dangerously beneath the boy’s chin. Even if this was supposedly a safe-grade gate, it was difficult to trust a hunter who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
“Hunter Haneul, please stand behind me.”
Once he confirmed that Hanyang and I had moved behind Lee Hyunwoo, he coldly asked,
“There weren’t any other applicants registered to enter this gate before we came in.”
“I-I didn’t come through this gate! My teammates and I were doing endurance training when suddenly a crack opened in the ground and swallowed us whole….”
As the boy spoke, the memories of what had happened inside the gate must have resurfaced, because his pale face stiffened and his mouth clamped shut. Lee Hyunwoo Hunter tightened his grip on the sword hilt as if urging him to continue, and the boy muttered with terror-filled eyes,
“It was an Arachne habitat. And there was even… a mother specimen that had recently laid eggs….”
“Bad luck.”
At those words, Lee Hyunwoo Hunter clicked his tongue lightly. Monsters that had given birth were extremely sensitive. And Arachne was a high-grade monster that even someone practically civilian-level like me knew about. Hunters who fell in unprepared would never have been able to respond properly.
‘The Arachne must have deliberately opened the crack to stockpile food for its hatchlings. If that’s the case, then the other team members are already….’
Sensing the anxiety from our silence, the boy hurriedly waved his hands.
“Everyone’s still alive!! I saw them wrapping them up tightly in webs! Arachne prefers live prey, right? So they wouldn’t kill them immediately, right? Right?!”
The boy asked desperately, as though begging for our agreement. Lee Hyunwoo Hunter let out a low sigh and lowered his sword.
“They do have that tendency, but we can’t be certain.”
“Hic, sob… I told them I’d definitely come back to save them, so just hold on a little longer. They all have to still be alive. Please….”
Terrified, the boy burst into loud sobs, tears, and snot pouring down his face. His cheeks and body were covered in scratches from what looked like a brutal struggle, and his eyes were swollen red from crying so much.
“Hic… all my teammates got captured… and I cowardly ran away alone….”
The fear radiating from him, along with the self-loathing directed at himself, strangely reminded me of the moment I lost my parents. In the end, I gently tapped Lee Hyunwoo Hunter on the back.
“Um, Hunter. Just in case… shouldn’t we at least check the situation?”
After thinking for a moment about my words, Lee Hyunwoo Hunter nodded.
“I’ll go alone just in case. If there really is an Arachne inside, it’ll be dangerous for Hunter Haneul.”
He was right. Since I was F-rank, I wouldn’t be any help in combat. But I also didn’t want to return home alone without even knowing what was happening. Carefully, I tugged on his sleeve.
“I wasn’t planning to follow you all the way to where the monsters are. Just to somewhere nearby that’s as safe as possible… would even that be difficult?”
“But there are hardly any safe places inside a gate–”
“I’ll wait quietly. Please?”
Faced with my pleading gaze, Lee Hyunwoo Hunter finally surrendered and raised both hands.
“Haa… understood. I’ll request backup from the Management Bureau first, then we’ll move immediately.”
***
“It doesn’t look easy.”
After finishing the support request, Lee Hyunwoo Hunter shook his head. Since they didn’t know the location of the gate containing the Arachne, dispatching a support team immediately was difficult.
“For now, we’ll have to move first and transmit the location through a watch afterward.”
The trapped teammates apparently weren’t in any condition to request help, and the boy’s hunter watch had already shattered while he was escaping. In the end, we decided to enter the gate ourselves without waiting for reinforcements.
“Lead the way.”
The boy nodded and pushed through the bushes ahead of us. In preparation for any unexpected situation, Hanyang and I walked in the middle while Lee Hyunwoo Hunter followed behind, monitoring our surroundings.
“This is where I came out.”
The place the boy guided us to was behind some bushes near the edge of the forest. There, we saw a dark crimson crack shimmering like a heat haze.
“Huh? The entrance got a lot smaller than when I came out.”
“It’s a forcibly connected dimensional crack. If it determines there’s no more prey nearby, it’ll close.”
After carefully examining the crack, Lee Hyunwoo Hunter turned toward me.
“I can definitely sense a powerful magical presence from inside. It could be dangerous, so I’ll go in first.”
At Lee Hyunwoo Hunter’s words, the boy hurriedly raised his hand.
“I-I want to go too!”
“You’ll only get in the way of combat. Wait here.”
Then he pressed a sharp dagger into my hand. Why this…?
“If something happens, stab with it. And if that doesn’t work, throw the gun you’re carrying. The item itself has an auto-aim function, so it’ll be easy to hit your intended target.”
Beside me, I could feel the boy staring back and forth between me and the dagger in my hand in horror. After entrusting my safety to Hanyang one last time, Lee Hyunwoo Hunter leaped straight into the crack.
“…You’re not going to stab me, right?”
“As long as you don’t do anything weird.”
The boy gloomily nodded. He seemed worried about the teammates inside. Sitting down on the ground, I asked him,
“By the way, what’s your name?”
“Ah, I’m Seo Hangyeol. D-rank.”
He scratched the back of his head shyly, saying he had just turned twenty.
“To be honest, it’s only been six months since I awakened. I’ve only had training, no real combat experience, so the older hyungs and noonas helped me a lot. That’s why we started endurance training in the first place… I never imagined something like this would happen.”
Hangyeol sniffled loudly and wiped under his nose with his sleeve.
‘He really is young, now that I think about it.’
I could vividly imagine how panicked Hangyeol must have been when he fell into the gate through the crack. That was probably why his teammates prioritized saving him first.
“Don’t worry too much. Lee Hyunwoo Hunter is an S-rank hunter. He’ll take care of all the monsters and rescue your teammates safely.”
He quietly nodded.
“…I’m really glad I met you and Hyung.”
Perhaps he had calmed down a little, because Hangyeol gave a small smile.
That was when it happened, while we were sitting near the crack entrance waiting for Lee Hyunwoo Hunter.
“Huh? Oh no! The crack got even smaller!”
The crack, which hadn’t been very large to begin with, had now shrunk to the point where only one person could barely squeeze through while crouching. Hangyeol anxiously bit his nails.
“What do we do if it closes completely?”
I didn’t know enough about it to answer easily. I couldn’t tell whether we should go inside through the crack before it closed or continue waiting here.
At that moment, Hanyang suddenly jumped down from my arms.
“Waiting around isn’t this body’s style, nya.”
“Hanyang, wait!”
Before I could stop him, Hanyang slipped through the crack. I hurriedly followed him toward the entrance.
‘Ugh, that rotten smell.’
The moment I entered, a foul odor assaulted me. Unexpectedly, the temperature inside was quite high… perhaps the monster had chosen a warm place suitable for raising its hatchlings.
Looking around, I saw a narrow, dark cave covered in sticky, opaque spiderwebs.
“Noona, get behind me. I’ll protect you.”
Hangyeol had followed me inside at some point and stood in front of me with trembling arms spread wide. Somehow, I felt like Hangyeol, and I probably had pretty similar combat power, but I didn’t bother saying that out loud.
“You came in for nothing, nya. This place reeks of disgusting stench, nya.”
Grumbling, Hanyang leapt onto my shoulder. I hurriedly warned him,
“You can’t talk so loudly! This place is dangerous.”
“Hmph, dangerous, my paw. Look ahead, nya.”
At Hanyang’s words, I raised my head and looked deeper into the cave. There lay a massive Arachne collapsed on its back, belly exposed.
“…Huh?”
Another one behind it. Two more besides that. The farther inward we walked, the more Arachne corpses we found sprawled in bizarre directions. And at the very end…
“…Hunter Haneul?”
There stood Lee Hyunwoo Hunter with his sword in hand. Behind him was an Arachne twice the size of any we had seen so far, sliced apart and dead.
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