Chapter 27 – Giant’s Canyon (5)

Sungjin sheathed the ‘Moon Specter’. Since the boss was slain, it was time to begin the search for the hidden pieces.

However, Sungjin was in a dilemma.

‘Assuming that the secret place and the hidden boss both exist... when would it be best to use the Treasure Hunter active skill?’

Sungjin did not know which would be more difficult to find, and therefore more ‘worth it’ to use it for. However, he was interrupted by Cain’s howling.

“Awooo~”

Cain was howling towards the direction of the canyon they had come from.

“What’s wrong, Cain?”

Sungjin asked the wolf. Cain flicked his ears as if he was listening to something in the distance. Sungjin stayed silent so that Cain could concentrate. Moments later, Cain looked up at Sungjin and yelped.

“Yip”

He started moving leading the way. Cain seemed to be in a hurry as if it was urgent. Sungjin chased after him quickly.

“What’s going on?”

Sungjin tilted his head in confusion.

‘Did he... spot a hidden piece?’

Just in case, Sungjin gave him the command.

“If you found something, go ahead and show me. You can run as fast as you can manage, I’ll keep up.”

At his command, Cain stopped holding back and bolted off, sprinting ahead.

“Awooo~”

He let out a long howl before running at full speed. Without question, Cain was much faster than Sungjin. In order to catch up with him,

“Swift Paw”

Sungjin used the power of his wolf claws to catch up.

*

Xian unsteadily stepped back. With the dagger still embedded in his abdomen, he swung his spear.

‘Bang’

His spear was blocked by Raj’s sturdy shield. Serin finally noticed that the men had begun to fight amongst themselves and glanced over.

“Excuse me, what’s going on?”

Santiago brandished his other Dagger.

‘Stab’

He stabbed Xian a second time. Serin had fought all this time not batting an eye while killing countless monsters, but once she saw teammates getting hurt, she covered her mouth and gasped.

“What the...”

Xian waved his spear wildly.

“Miss Serin... Run...”

He tried to warn her, but it became his last words. Raj smashed his club over his head, killing Xian.

Once Xian collapsed to the ground, a red light illuminated Raj and Santiago’s body for a moment, and a warning blared out from the cube.

[Allied hunters attacked. Entering ‘Troll’ state.]

[Hunters in ‘Troll’ state receive 10% penalty to Raid Rewards.]

[And in the event that the Troll is killed by other hunters,]

[It will not inflict the ‘Troll’ state on the attacker.]

“Eh? Is that so?”

Raj responded back to the cube’s announcement. But Santiago gave it no mind.

He was already charging towards Serin.

“Why...”

Serin panicked upon seeing Santiago charge towards her and readied the bow.

‘Pew~’

The arrow landed on his shoulder, but it did not faze him; Santiago continued to run with the arrow sticking out of his shoulders.

The distance between them rapidly decreased. Serin nocked and released another shot, but he was already within arm’s reach.

‘Pew~’

Santiago easily evaded the shot and attacked with his dagger; He aimed for her wrist holding the bow.

However, his dagger collided with her bow instead. Serin quickly retreated her arm, but her bow was knocked away from her.

Serin pulled out the dagger she kept on her back, but she was no match for Santiago in a knife fight. She aimed for Santiago’s chest and stabbed, but

“Clang!”

With one strike, he knocked the dagger out of her hands and grabbed her by the wrist. Serin tried to put up resistance by hitting Santiago with her bare fist, but it was futile.

Santiago took his dagger and stabbed Serin through the hand.

“Kyaa!”

Santiago followed through with the attack and embedded the dagger deep into the ground, pinning her hand. Once he prevented the use of both of her hands, his eyes betrayed the perverse intentions behind them as he licked his lips.

“Just kill me, you disgusting animal.”

Serin spat insults at him, but he paid her no mind.

Using the other dagger, Santiago nimbly ripped open Serin’s clothes; as if he was very familiar with the process.

“Let me go you bastard!”

Serin wriggled to try and free herself, but due to the dagger, it only caused her to bleed more. Raj stood from the back and spoke as if Serin belonged to him.

“Hey hey, don’t make too many scratches; I don’t like damage.”

Santiago finished up with Serin and began taking off his own clothes. Suddenly

“Roar!”

A wolf appeared out of nowhere and slammed into Santiago; he was caught completely unaware. Santiago was knocked far away by the body slam.

“What?”

Raj shouted out, alarmed. Meanwhile, someone spoke from behind him.

“Whoa whoa, what’s all this?”

Raj jumped up in surprise at the sound of the voice. He looked around. Behind him was the ‘Master Hunter’ Kei who went missing for the entire duration of the raid.

Kei looked at the red outline on Raj and Santiago and commented

“...Troll State?”

That was all he said. He saw Xian’s corpse, and at the now naked Serin on the ground.

“Ah... well, I guess something like this is inevitable.”

Kei spoke to himself and grabbed his extremely shabby looking Katana handle.

“Hmm... It doesn’t suit me to act like a knight in shining armor, but I also don’t want to run into trolls like you later down the line.”

Anyone who is not an ally is an enemy. Raj quickly made up his mind and attacked Sungjin. Since Kei was a ‘mage’, Raj wanted to take the initiative before Kei had a chance to cast a spell.

“Die!”

He swung his club at Kei. It should have been easy to take down a mage with brute force. It should have. But.

‘Woosh’

Raj’s arm was cut off with a single lazy swing by Kei.

“Ahhh!”

Raj grabbed his arm by the elbow and backed off. He held up his 600 coins worth Shield and retreated backward.

Despite losing one arm, he kept on concentrating. He had tanked for four chapters now.

‘Endure it. I will drink potions and outlast him...’

But interrupting his thoughts, Kei ran towards Raj. Raj hastily activated a skill.

“Iron Wall of Anvil!”

Raj’s shield grew in size and covered him. But

“What is going on?”

Kei cut the Shield in half with a single strike.

Once his trusty shield was cut down so effortlessly, Raj instinctively backed off as he began stuttering.

“You...Mage...You...”

Kei’s sword knew no mercy. He walked up and cut Raj with his sword.

Raj was wearing an intricate chain mail armor, but the Katana cut through all as if they didn’t exist.

‘Chi-chi-chi-chang!’

Along with the chains being cut apart, his skin and bones were cut away as well.

“AHHHHHHHH!”

Raj let out a loud cry of pain. It was only one blow, but

[Warning! HP is below 10%]

The Operator rang out with a warning. Raj opened his eyes wide in disbelief as he continued to step back.

“My hp is almost 10,000...”

Kei couldn’t help but grin.

“So what? I probably have almost 20,000. Isn’t that right, Operator?”

[Your maximum HP is 17,100.]

Raj’s eyes grew wide even further. The specs were incomparably different. Raj continued to stare, unable to act. Kei spun his katana around.

“I don’t like seeing human blood... but it looks like you guys killed that Chinese guy. You understand that you guys spilt human blood, right?

Kei was about to finish off Raj with his Katana, but

‘Pew~’

An arrow came and pierced through Raj’s skull between his brows. Raj died before he even realized he was hit.

*

Sungjin lowered his katana and looked behind him. Serin was holding her bow, with a pitiful, pathetic expression on her face.

“Why would you anger a scary lady...?”

Sungjin complained as he took a look around. There was one other troll. But, he was nowhere to be found.

‘Where...?’

A bit further Cain stood, waiting for him. He had ambushed the other troll earlier but was alone for some reason.

Sungjin approached him and asked

“Cain, where did he go?”

But Cain did not answer. Instead, he faced somewhere off in the distance and growled.

“Grrrr”

Something was wrong. Sungjin inspected Cain’s body. When he looked closer, he saw that there were small cuts around his neck. The wound was not red, but a strange hue of purple.

“Paralysis poison.”

Sungjin got up in anger and looked around. But there was no trace of the troll. He must have poisoned Cain with Paralysis and ran away.

Cain was stuck, unable to move and deeply in pain. Sungjin whispered into Cain’s ears,

“You did well Cain. Go rest at the Inn. I’ll catch up.”

And standing up, he uttered a command.

“Unsummon.”

Cain returned to the form of a small wooden figurine. Sungjin placed the figurine back in his pocket and approached Serin.

Serin was trying to cover herself with the remainder of her clothes while crying. Although she didn’t make any noise, hot tears streamed endlessly down her cheeks.

‘Even though you act strong, I guess a woman is a woman after all.’

Sungjin returned the Katana to the sheath and asked her

“Are you okay?”

Serin wordlessly glared at Sungjin as if to declare that all men were the same. Sungjin raised his hands to show he meant no harm.

“Ah, I have no interest in you. But... I have to go searching for something, so I have to leave this place... That guy got away, that Assassin guy. So leaving you alone here is a little...”

Once Sungjin mentioned ‘Assassin’, her eyes instantly teared up. It was inevitable; just moments ago, he had almost managed to rape her. Sungjin scratched his head and continued.

“Well... yeah... To make the long story short, I’m going to go and look for something so I can’t stay here. If you want to follow, I will protect you. You should come with me if it’s not too much to ask.”

Sungjin headed back towards the canyon. Few steps away, he looked back.

Serin wrapped herself with a ripped shirt and was wordlessly following him. Seeing her, Sungjin thought to himself.

‘The consequence of exceptional beauty... Probably... she didn’t manage to make it last time because...’

You cannot survive to the end with just skill; this is how the “Raid” works.

Concluding his thoughts, Sungjin resumed his footsteps; to search for the ‘Hidden Pieces’