"Raise the shield higher! Secure your side vision!"
A rough shout cut through the damp dungeon air.
Choi Min-seok blocked an orc's club with his massive shield and shouted with veins bulging on his forehead.
As the frontline held firm, flames from the mage's fire spell erupted from behind.
With a thunderous blast, one of the orcs collapsed while foaming at the mouth.
Taking advantage of that opening, another orc pushed into the right blind spot of the formation.
Its thick arm violently cut through the air.
At that moment.
"Keugh!"
Along with a short battle cry, an old iron sword slipped into the trajectory.
Clang!
A metallic sound rang out as the orc's club slid sideways.
It was a clean deflection that did not meet force with force, only slightly twisting the angle of the attack.
The orc that had missed its attack lost balance and staggered.
Another frontline fighter waiting nearby immediately thrust his spear forward and finished it off.
The orc collapsed with a heavy sound.
"Whoo."
Chae-ho lightly shook his sword and returned to his original position.
His face remained calm, without even a hint of disturbed breathing.
Watching him from the side, Choi Min-seok clicked his tongue internally.
'Crazy. How is that guy only Grade D?'
Chae-ho's movements were simple.
They were the result of hundreds of repetitions inside E Grade dungeons, where he had shaved away his evasion routes.
The monsters inside a Grade C dungeon were fast and powerful.
But to Chae-ho's eyes, they were merely straightforward trajectories.
His position was frontline support.
A role where he only needed to fill the party's blind spots and deflect incoming attacks.
Chae-ho faithfully performed exactly that role.
He did not step forward and try to cut down monsters himself.
He simply cleared away obstacles so that the frontline fighters could attack safely.
"Lee Chae-ho, nice timing."
The frontline fighter holding a shield raised his thumb.
"I was just lucky. It happened to come over that way."
Chae-ho answered dryly and looked around again.
***
The deeper they went into the dungeon, the larger the orcs became.
During their break, while the party members sat on the floor catching their breath, the mage handed Chae-ho a water bottle and spoke.
"Chae-ho, I heard you only worked as a porter for a long time. Looking at you earlier, you're basically a veteran."
"I spent some time rolling around alone in E Grade dungeons. Since I only watched from behind, I guess I just became better at noticing things."
Chae-ho casually brushed it off while taking a sip of lukewarm water.
"That isn't movement you get from just having good instincts. You were more reliable than our own frontline fighters."
The mage added with a laugh.
Choi Min-seok was also watching Chae-ho from a distance.
When he first saw Chae-ho's resume at the cafe, he had been doubtful.
He wondered what a Grade D former porter could possibly do inside a Grade C dungeon.
But once they actually entered the dungeon, the situation was different.
Chae-ho did not waste unnecessary stamina.
He only intervened at the exact necessary moments and disrupted the monsters' balance.
There was a heavy sense of stability, as if he could see through both the party members' coordination and the monsters' patterns at a glance.
'Why was someone like that only working as a porter until now?'
Choi Min-seok tilted his head in confusion before standing up.
"Alright, everyone get up. We're almost there. Once we clear the boss, today's schedule is over."
***
About ten minutes after forming their formation and moving forward.
When they reached an open area filled with large stone pillars, rough breathing could be heard.
Three Grade C orc warriors wearing red leather ornaments blocked their path.
They were a full head taller than ordinary orcs.
"Tanks, move in! Rear line, prepare your casting!"
Choi Min-seok gave his orders and charged forward.
The battle began.
The shields rang as if they would be crushed under the orc warriors' brute-force axe swings.
Chae-ho stood on the right flank between the frontline fighters and the mage, reading the flow of battle.
Their strength was beyond what Chae-ho, a Grade D Hunter, could withstand head-on.
The shield warriors pushed and pulled, forcing the creatures toward a corner.
"Now! Finish your casting!"
At Choi Min-seok's shout, the mage in the rear raised his staff.
Mana gathered, and the air grew hot.
That was when it happened.
An orc warrior that had been pushed into the corner near a stone pillar by the frontline pressure let out a strange roar.
"Chwiik!"
With bloodshot eyes, the creature sensed something and stomped on the shield of the frontline fighter blocking its way before leaping into the air.
The explosive power was tremendous.
Its target was the mage preparing a spell in the rear.
"Huh, huh?"
The mage lowered his staff in panic.
But because mana was still gathering for the spell, his feet became tangled.
The orc warrior cut through the air as it descended.
The moment its massive double-handed axe rose toward the mage's head.
"Block it!"
Choi Min-seok shouted urgently and reached out.
But the distance was too great.
A moment when no one could react.
'0.7 seconds.'
Chae-ho's eyes turned cold.
***
At the same time the skill activation window appeared on Chae-ho's retina, the world became sticky and slow.
The crude battle cries, explosive sounds cutting through the air, and the mage's distorted expression all changed as if a videotape had been played back in slow motion.
Skill: Time Deceleration.
The familiar headache passed through his mind.
Chae-ho endured the brief pain and raised his gaze.
The descending orc warrior.
Its bloodshot eyes.
The tense muscles in its arms.
The trajectory of the axe blade.
The calculation was completed instantly inside Chae-ho's mind.
The creature's target was the mage's crown.
A strike carrying its entire body weight.
If a Grade D Hunter like Chae-ho tried to block this attack head-on with his sword, not only would the sword break, but both of his arms would surely be shattered.
There was no need to clash with its strength.
He only needed to leave the trajectory.
Inside the slowed world, Chae-ho took a step forward.
Compared to his thoughts, even his own movement felt frustratingly slow.
What had become faster was not his body.
It was his judgment.
Because he had already read where the creature would land, reaching the trajectory that covered the mage beside him only required one step.
Chae-ho slipped past the path of the descending axe and lowered his body.
Then, right before the orc's foot touched the ground, he thrust his sword toward the point carrying the most weight.
The back of the orc's thick thigh.
The knee joint where its armor did not reach.
Squelch!
The old iron sword pierced through tough leather and sank deep into the muscle.
At the same time, Chae-ho deactivated the skill.
***
"Aaaah!"
The mage screamed and covered his head with both arms.
But the horrible pain he expected never came.
CRASH!
With a deafening sound of heavy metal striking the ground, dust rose into the air.
The orc warrior's double-handed axe had missed the mage's shoulder by a handspan and embedded itself deeply into the floor.
The orc's enormous body collapsed sideways with one knee completely bent.
Because of Chae-ho's sword buried in its knee joint.
"Graaaah!"
The creature scratched at the ground and tried to stand again.
"Take it down!"
Only then regaining his senses, Choi Min-seok rushed forward and struck the orc's jaw with the edge of his shield.
Crack.
With the sound of breaking bones, the orc fell backward.
One of the nearby spearmen hurried forward and drove his weapon into it.
It did not take long for its rough breathing to stop completely.
The remaining shield warrior and spearmen held the other two orcs near the stone pillars.
Choi Min-seok immediately joined them, pushing the creatures back.
The mage, having recovered his stance, followed with flames that finished off the remaining two.
The battle ended in the stone pillar clearing.
Only heavy breathing echoed through the dungeon.
The first to break the silence was the mage sitting on the floor.
"Haa... haa..."
His face covered in cold sweat, he raised his head and looked at Chae-ho.
Chae-ho was calmly wiping the blood-covered blade of his sword with a cloth, as if nothing had happened.
Choi Min-seok looked back and forth between Chae-ho and the dead orc with dazed eyes.
When the creature had leaped through the air, none of the party members had been able to react.
The distance was too far.
The monster had been too fast.
But when had Chae-ho, who had been waiting on the side, moved into that position?
"Lee Chae-ho."
Choi Min-seok's voice trembled slightly.
"Yes."
"Just now... how did you do that?"
Everyone's attention focused on him.
Every party member stared at Chae-ho as if they could not believe what they had seen.
He had not won through a direct clash of strength.
But the judgment to break through the attack trajectory at that exact instant, strike the weakness, and destroy the monster's balance.
That was not the reflexes of a Grade D Hunter.
Even a veteran who had crossed life and death countless times on battlefields would struggle to perform such a movement.
Amid the sharp gazes surrounding him, Chae-ho lightly shrugged and placed his cleaned sword back into its sheath.
"I was lucky."
"Lucky?"
"The creature slipped slightly on the dirt when it landed. Its balance collapsed, so I saw an opening and stabbed."
Chae-ho calmly offered an excuse.
Choi Min-seok narrowed his eyes.
The orc's movement had certainly been rough.
Because of the sudden leap, its landing point might have been unstable.
But to notice its foot slipping in that brief instant, avoid the axe blade, and stab its knee?
Calling that mere luck was difficult when Chae-ho's movements had not contained a single unnecessary action.
'The porter experience on his resume. That's definitely a disguise.'
Choi Min-seok became certain internally.
He did not know what circumstances had made him hide his history, but the man in front of him was absolutely not someone who belonged carrying luggage and handling chores.
The party members' expressions were no different from Choi Min-seok's.
Even the mage who had been joking earlier stared at Chae-ho with admiration mixed in his eyes.
"Thanks to you, I'm alive. Seriously... I thought I was going to die."
The mage staggered to his feet and bowed his head.
"I'm glad you're not hurt."
Chae-ho answered briefly and turned his gaze away.
He had used his skill to save a party member, but it seemed he had attracted unnecessary attention in exchange.
That bothered him slightly.
Still, it was better than watching someone get torn apart and die right in front of him.
"Everyone, get ready. We're really right in front of the boss room now."
Choi Min-seok shouted while calming the atmosphere.
Chae-ho silently continued walking.
The gazes of the temporary party members fixed on his back were completely different from the suspicion they had shown when they first met.
A skilled fighter with combat sense far beyond an ordinary Grade D Hunter.
That was the new identity of Lee Chae-ho that had been firmly engraved in their minds through the brief exchange just now.