“That thing strapped to your waist. Did you pick it up from a scrapyard?”
The man leading the way glanced back and spoke casually. His gaze was fixed on the old sword secured against Yoo Woo-min’s waist.
“I understand being short on money, but this is a dungeon where people live or die. You should’ve at least bought a decent secondhand weapon. We might only be serving as porters and eliminating surviving monsters, but what are you supposed to do with a weapon in that condition?”
Another Hunter carrying a lantern beside him joined in with a smirk.
“He’s right. Look at all that red rust. Would that thing even penetrate a goblin’s hide? The blade will probably snap before it touches the monster.”
The low-ranking Hunter party consisted of five members, all of whom had met for the first time at the brokerage agency that morning.
One after another, they looked Woo-min’s equipment up and down. It was only natural for them to feel uneasy about a companion entering a life-or-death dungeon with such a terrible weapon.
Their comments weren’t particularly malicious. They were closer to casual criticism directed at someone they considered beneath them.
Woo-min didn’t lose his temper or bother making excuses.
“You’re right. I should replace it as soon as I save enough money.”
When he calmly nodded in agreement, the other Hunters could no longer continue criticizing him. They merely clicked their tongues and turned away.
Only the party’s heavy footsteps echoed across the dirt floor as they continued deeper into the dark cave.
They had entered an F-rank goblin den that an official raid team had already swept through. Scorch marks left by powerful mana and deep sword scars covered the walls.
Woo-min’s party had been tasked with eliminating any remaining monsters and recovering scattered mana stones and usable materials—a typical subcontracting assignment.
The deeper they traveled, the stronger the damp stench of mold and blood became. The Hunter in front raised his mana-stone lantern. Its flickering light illuminated the rough rock walls and cast long shadows across them.
“Watch your footing. Stay alert in case something is hiding behind the rocks—”
Before he could finish speaking—
“Screeeech!”
An earsplitting shriek erupted from behind a massive pile of rocks.
Three goblins that had been lying flat in the darkness sprang up simultaneously.
They had somehow survived the official raid team’s merciless extermination. Enraged by the smell of their slaughtered kin, the goblins charged while wildly swinging crude clubs.
“Shit! Raise your shields!”
Startled by the unexpected ambush, the Hunter at the front dropped his lantern and stumbled backward.
The formation became entangled in the narrow passage, throwing the party into immediate confusion.
One Hunter frantically drew his sword and swung through empty air. The goblin swiftly ducked beneath the blade, then brought its club down toward the man’s thigh.
At that instant—
Whoosh.
Woo-min drew his sword with a low, heavy sound that sliced through the air.
Without rushing, he moved through a gap in the tangled formation. The Unnamed Sword extended smoothly from his wrist and struck the goblin’s club with perfect precision.
Clang!
A dull metallic impact rang out.
A numbing vibration traveled through his hand, but the weapon didn’t give way.
This was the sword he had fed three lowest-grade mana stones in his studio apartment the previous night. It had grown by only six percent, yet its once-terrible balance had stabilized significantly. Its blade now moved firmly according to Woo-min’s intentions.
Using the recoil, Woo-min lightly twisted his wrist.
The goblin’s club was knocked aside. With its path cleared, his blade traced a smooth arc toward the creature’s throat.
Slice.
The sickening sensation of tough hide and muscle being severed in a single stroke traveled through his fingertips.
Dark-red blood sprayed through the air. The goblin’s neck twisted at an unnatural angle as it collapsed to the ground.
It was a swift, clean strike without a single wasted movement.
After Woo-min cut down one of the goblins, the startled party members finally recovered their senses.
“Move!”
The Hunters waiting behind him charged with spears and axes, brutally crushing the remaining two goblins.
Before long, three corpses lay sprawled across the ground.
The panting Hunters retrieved the fallen lantern and looked at Woo-min.
“What the hell? Your sword might be rotten, but your skills aren’t half bad.”
“Sorry for looking down on you earlier. Thanks to you, nobody got hurt.”
The Hunter who had criticized him first cleared his throat with an embarrassed expression.
Woo-min responded with a slight bow before flicking the blood from his sword.
The weapon had been dismissed as worthless scrap, but even Woo-min was privately impressed by how it had felt during the fight.
In the past, colliding with that club would have thrown the sword off balance, or its damaged blade would have failed to withstand the impact. The sword in his hand now accepted his strength completely without resisting his movements.
The party leader inspected the goblin corpses. He cut open their stomachs and extracted the blood-covered mana stones.
“This one’s in terrible condition. Here, Mr. Woo-min. Since you stopped that first attack, we’ll count this scrap mana stone as your share. Your contribution was obvious. Nobody has a problem with that, right?”
The other Hunters shook their heads.
What the party leader offered him was a cloudy gray, lowest-grade mana stone.
Woo-min accepted it gratefully and pretended to put it inside his pocket.
While the other party members loaded the corpses into sacks and collected the monster bones scattered nearby, Woo-min quietly slipped away from the formation. He turned toward a dark corner where no one could see him.
Keeping one hand inside his pocket, he pressed the mana stone against the surface of the Unnamed Sword.
Hummm.
A faint vibration tickled his fingertips.
Without his companions noticing, the solid mana-stone fragment transformed into soft light and was rapidly drawn into the sword.
***
[Current Growth: 8%]
***
The number on the translucent information window quietly changed.
Woo-min’s eyes curved slightly in satisfaction. He quickly composed his expression and returned to his role as a porter, gathering the fallen materials and placing them inside an empty sack.
The extermination and collection work continued smoothly after that.
As they traveled deeper into the den, groups of three or four surviving goblins occasionally emerged. After overcoming the initial ambush, however, the party members maintained a stable formation and cut down their enemies without difficulty.
Woo-min made no effort to force his way to the front.
He covered the blind spots the other Hunters overlooked and took care of the luggage, extending his sword only at decisive moments to intercept threats.
Because of his contributions during the battles, Woo-min received several miscellaneous defective mana stones as part of his share.
The other Hunters handed them over without much thought because the worthless stones wouldn’t earn them anything at a shop.
To Woo-min, however, they were more valuable than any other reward.
Whenever he entered a blind spot, he discreetly fed the mana stones to the sword.
Twelve percent.
Fifteen percent.
Eighteen percent.
Each time a mana stone dissolved into the weapon, the number on the information window rose, and the sensation of the sword in his hand noticeably changed.
***
[Current Growth: 18%]
***
Woo-min silently examined the blade.
Much of the hideous reddish rust that had covered it in thick patches had visibly flaked away. Its severely chipped, blunt edge had become considerably smoother and was now sharp enough to reflect a faint metallic gleam even inside the dark cave.
Its appearance was unmistakably different from when he had left home that morning.
“Everyone, stop. This is the final section.”
The party leader raised his fist and came to a halt.
They had reached the deepest part of the cave, where the passage opened into a fairly spacious clearing.
A massive crater had been carved into the floor, apparently left behind by one of the official raid team’s skills. Blackened monster remains were scattered everywhere.
“There’s a mountain of garbage to clear. At least there don’t seem to be any survivors—”
Just as the party leader sighed in relief and began lowering his lantern—
Thud. Thud.
Heavy footsteps echoed from the deepest darkness within the cave.
A massive silhouette emerged, crushing the bone fragments covering the ground beneath its feet.
When the lantern illuminated it, they saw a creature that stood noticeably larger than an ordinary goblin.
“Shit! That’s a Goblin Warrior! Why is something like that still alive?”
Its size and the oppressive aura it exuded made it far more dangerous than an ordinary surviving monster.
It had probably hidden in a blind spot during the initial raid—or crawled out from somewhere deeper inside the den only after the official party had left.
“Grrrrrr!”
The Goblin Warrior released a harsh, metallic growl and raised the rusted iron axe in its hands.
Its grotesquely swollen forearms tore through the air.
Its target was the Hunter standing at the front—the same man who had criticized Woo-min near the entrance.
“Gah!”
The Hunter desperately tried to raise his shield, but his foot caught on the pile of corpses beneath him. He lost his balance and fell backward.
The merciless iron axe descended in a straight line toward his head.
There was no time to evade.
If the blow landed, it would smash through his shield and arm before splitting his skull open.
At that moment, Woo-min launched himself forward from the middle of the formation.
His gaze was cold and composed.
He wasn’t acting out of some forced sense of heroism, nor was he trying to show off his abilities.
It was a thoroughly practical calculation.
If one of their party members died here, the remainder of the battle would become far more difficult and dangerous.
Woo-min didn’t recklessly attempt to stop the incoming axe with brute force.
Lowering his stance, he angled the Unnamed Sword and skillfully intercepted the side of the axe’s trajectory.
Claaaang!
A piercing metallic shriek tore through the cave as blue-white sparks erupted.
The tremendous impact traveled through Woo-min’s wrist and slammed into his shoulder. The recoil was powerful enough to rattle his bones.
However, the sword had become significantly more durable after reaching eighteen percent growth. It redirected the deadly force without bending even slightly.
The deflected axe slammed into the ground beside the fallen Hunter’s shoulder.
Boom!
Rock fragments exploded in every direction as dust billowed upward.
With the attack carrying his entire body weight striking the ground instead of its target, the Goblin Warrior pitched forward and lost its balance.
Woo-min didn’t miss that momentary opening.
He smoothly drew back the blade that had rebounded from the collision, then moved to the side of the staggering Goblin Warrior.
The sword flashed toward the tendon behind its knee, where its thick leather armor offered no protection.
Slice!
“Graaaagh!”
The tendon was partially severed, and black blood poured from the wound.
Having lost the support of one leg, the massive creature dropped to its knees and crashed against the ground.
“Now!”
“Kill it!”
Woo-min had created the opening they needed.
The terrified party members who had been retreating surged forward with furious shouts.
A spear pierced the Goblin Warrior’s side, while another Hunter’s longsword came crashing down against the back of its neck.
Under the merciless barrage of attacks from every direction, the Goblin Warrior struggled several times before finally collapsing with a horrific death cry.
“Haa… Haa…”
The cave filled with the Hunters’ ragged breathing.
The Hunter sitting on the ground wiped the cold sweat from his pale face and looked up at Woo-min.
“Thank you for saving me. I seriously thought my skull was about to be split open.”
“I’m glad you weren’t hurt.”
Woo-min answered calmly and stepped back.
He lightly massaged his aching wrist while staring at the sword hanging at his side.
He reviewed the battle with a cold, objective mind.
Woo-min had by no means become strong enough to defeat a Goblin Warrior on his own. His physical abilities and swordsmanship remained unchanged from the day before. They were still at the level of an ordinary F-rank Hunter.
If he had tried to block the axe head-on, his arm would have broken and their defensive line would have collapsed.
But the physical performance of his weapon had changed.
The sword now possessed enough durability to withstand the axe’s weight and a sufficiently stable blade to redirect its trajectory.
As the sword’s performance improved, Woo-min gained far more options in battle. He could deflect an enemy’s attack and create an opportunity to counterattack.
That small difference had become the decisive variable separating life from death.
Woo-min flicked the congealed blood from his blade and slowly steadied his breathing.
He didn’t need to push himself beyond his limits.
He only needed to accurately control the situation within the boundaries of what he could accomplish.
A combat rhythm that allowed him to face monsters far more safely than before was gradually taking shape.
“All right, everyone. If you’ve caught your breath, let’s clean this place up and go home. It stinks too much to stay here any longer.”
At the party leader’s urging, the Hunters grumbled and picked up their sacks again.
Woo-min also turned away as if nothing had happened and began collecting the fragments scattered across the floor.
His fingers brushed the small mana-stone fragments stored inside his pocket with quiet satisfaction.
There was still more of his share left to collect today.