Grrrrk……!
The remaining three gargoyles growled as they looked at Daehyun.
Their expressions looked as though they would charge at him at any moment. Daehyun smiled bitterly and clenched his fist.
Grrrrk—!
Sure enough.
Right on cue, one gargoyle rushed at him.
At the swift but honest charge characteristic of a monster, Daehyun thrust out his fist as if he had expected it.
Grrk!
Had it predicted that?
The charging creature flapped its wings and quickly widened the distance.
CRUMBLE—.
Daehyun’s fist barely grazed the gargoyle’s arm.
The arm made of stone shattered, making the sound of collapsing rocks.
Grrrrk!
The two remaining gargoyles that had been watching charged toward Daehyun.
Having judged that a frontal attack had little chance of success, they had noticed a slight opening and launched their attack.
[Skill, Divine Shield (LV.2), activates.]
They were not fast, but it was too late to dodge.
Because of that, Daehyun quickly unfolded his shield.
CLANG—!
The shield formed from Divine Power collided with the gargoyle’s stone claws, sending sparks flying.
“Hup!”
Daehyun used that momentum and struck the creature’s head with his shield.
CRACK—!
Kiek!
The gargoyle, struck by a shield several times larger than itself, turned to ash and scattered through the air.
‘Not yet.’
Only one had finally fallen.
There were still many left.
Daehyun turned his head.
Kaaaak—!
Having realized that its comrade’s attack had been blocked,
one gargoyle rushed in, aiming for an opening in the shield.
“…….”
[Skill, Divine Fist (LV.2), activates.]
Daehyun immediately dismissed the shield, clenched that hand into a fist, and thrust it out.
BOOM—!
With a dull sound like striking rock, the gargoyle was slammed into the wall and collapsed.
SLASH—.
However, the gargoyle’s claws, still carrying their momentum, scraped past Daehyun’s pants pocket.
With a stinging pain, blood flowed down his leg.
Grrrrk!
Daehyun smiled coldly as he looked at the last remaining gargoyle.
It was the one whose body had only half remained after his fist had struck it at an angle earlier.
Grrrrk!
Whether it was afraid or acting on something like instinct, the gargoyle trembled before Daehyun, yet it did not stop crying out.
Looking closely, he saw that it had a horn the other four did not possess.
“……You are the boss.”
It was a creature that had been able to analyze its opponent, however faintly.
Certainly, its combat style had been different from that of an ordinary gargoyle.
Daehyun silently looked around.
‘This is a D-rank Gate.’
The only wound he had was a scratch on his leg. He had also consumed a fair amount of Divine Power, but not enough to collapse as he had during his first duel.
He could physically feel that he had grown stronger. Of course, he still had a long way to go.
“Not bad.”
Daehyun clenched his fist and thrust it toward the gargoyle.
CRACK—!
At the powerful and swift blow, the entire cave momentarily shook.
Ding—!
[The boss has been eliminated!]
[Quest conditions have been fulfilled.]
[The reward will be distributed.]
Ding! Ding—!
[+25 Stat Points have been distributed.]
[Please select your reward.]
[The currently selectable stats are Strength, Agility, and Divine Power.]
The quest reward was also distributed.
All that remained was to choose.
However…….
‘It will not be too late to choose later.’
This was an amount of stats equivalent to five days of daily quests. There was no need to choose it right now.
Moreover, unlike last time, when he had immediately needed anything he could get, he had now grown somewhat stronger.
It would not be too late to determine what he lacked and fill that gap with stats.
In other words, there was no reason not to be cautious.
“More importantly, there was still something left.”
The ultimate purpose of coming to the Gate.
He had to collect Magic Stones for the commission fee.
There were five Magic Stones around him right now.
Four were slightly larger than the monkeys’ Magic Stones, and the one from the boss was even larger than those.
‘Mid-level monsters and the boss.’
Four mid-level monsters and one boss.
Combining them with the Magic Stones from the monkeys he had eliminated so far and the ones he had seen on the way, the number was quite large.
‘It is not as though I can carry all of them by hand.’
More importantly, his pants pocket had been torn.
Then what should he do with them?
Daehyun hesitated briefly, as if thinking.
‘Come to think of it…….’
Just then, the face of the man who had run away earlier came to mind.
Since they had come to mine Magic Stones in the first place, they must have brought something suitable for that purpose.
“He should not have left yet.”
Judging from the speed at which he had fled, that man probably had not made it out of the Gate yet.
‘And it seems there is still a little time before the Gate closes.’
That much was enough.
“Let us go for now.”
Daehyun nodded and moved his feet.
Now, it was time to receive payment for saving him.
***
“Heehee! Kihihik……!”
Choi Iljang ran.
His legs, which had been trembling so hard he had thought he would not be able to move just moments ago, somehow felt incredibly light now.
“I lived! I-I survived!”
He did not know whether this was a sigh born from joy or a scream born from the grief of losing his younger brother.
“H-here it is!”
Eventually, after running for a long while, Choi Iljang stopped in one place.
After looking around briefly, he moved a stone that had been unnaturally placed in the corner of the cave.
“Thank goodness. It was still here…….”
What was revealed was a sack.
No matter how one looked at it, it was a sack whose shape and design could not be considered something naturally produced inside the Gate.
“Heehee…….”
Not only that, but the sack was swollen as if it were filled with contents, and Choi Iljang opened it with an unpleasant laugh.
“Good. Now…….”
Looking at the numerous Magic Stones filling the inside of the sack, Choi Iljang merely laughed.
‘That person will probably take a little longer fighting the gargoyles…… I need to leave this place quickly.’
Five gargoyles, no less.
Even after one was eliminated, there were still four. Since that person had been strong enough to do that much, he probably would not die at least, but the fight should take a fairly long time.
“Hup……!”
Thinking that, Choi Iljang lifted the sack onto his back.
“Sure enough, you were still here.”
THWACK—!
With a dull sound, his vision spun.
***
CRASH CLATTER—.
As soon as Daehyun arrived at the workshop, he poured everything inside the sack onto the workbench without a word.
“…….”
The old man silently looked back and forth between the items that had come out of the sack and Daehyun’s face.
Naturally, everything inside had been Magic Stones.
And they were Magic Stones from a D-rank Gate, with decent color and size.
“You said the commission fee for an artifact would be expensive, so I prepared it.”
Daehyun’s face, as he said that, was filled with pride and composure.
“Is it insufficient?”
On top of that, his tone carried the confidence of someone saying, “If it is insufficient, I will bring more.”
“Huh.”
The old man looked at the Magic Stones.
He did not enter Gates himself, but he had still been crafting artifacts for ten years. He had seen Magic Stones until he was sick of them, and he had also used them in artifact crafting before.
‘……They are real. Every single one is real.’
His eyes proved it.
Their color. Their size. Even the faint mana he could feel from them. These were real Magic Stones. Not low-grade ones from an E-rank Gate either, but ones from a Gate of D-rank or higher.
“I will not ask where you got these.”
As the old man said that, his eyes turned toward Daehyun’s slightly torn pants pocket.
“However, if these bring me any disadvantage or troublesome matter, then I can consider that your responsibility, correct?”
Daehyun looked into the old man’s eyes and nodded.
He was a person who understood quickly.
That was why Daehyun liked him.
“That will not happen, but if it does, do as you like.”
It had been an illegal Gate anyway, and the man who had mined the Magic Stones had never seen his face.
There was no clue that would let anyone catch his tail.
More importantly, for his tail to be caught, that man would have to make it out before the Gate closed.
‘He must have handled it somehow.’
Daehyun had not hit him hard enough to leave him unconscious for a long time. More importantly, saving him once was enough. Daehyun was not such a magnanimous person that he would show him consideration twice.
“Good.”
As if he had been waiting for that, the old man smiled faintly, gathered the Magic Stones into the sack, and slung it over his back.
“If the weapon is to be completed, it will be done by next month at the latest, so come then.”
He looked straight into Daehyun’s eyes.
“I will make you the finest, strongest gauntlets for you.”
It was a moment in which the sincere gaze of a craftsman stood out.
***
Meanwhile, inside the D-rank Gate.
“Captain, something is strange here.”
A man wearing glasses.
Baek Sangmin spoke as he lightly looked around the inside of the Gate.
“It is too quiet.”
Because they had been in a hurry, he had not been able to fully gear himself, but he was still armed to a level appropriate for someone called a Superhuman.
“A rescue request came in, so it should be certain.”
Not only that, but behind him stood a well-groomed man in a suit.
On his chest were the words “An Gihyeon.”
“Some Magic Stones are visible on the ground, but there are no monsters. It is as if someone swept the Gate clean…….”
The ones who had arrived at the Gate were Baek Sangmin and An Gihyeon of “Ext Guild.”
And a little over ten guild members.
‘Something troublesome came up during the interview.’
A few minutes earlier, they had come as support after receiving an emergency signal requesting help.
An Gihyeon picked up a Magic Stone that had fallen on the ground.
‘They mined the Magic Stones attached to the walls, but left the ones that came from monsters.’
It was not just one or two. From what he had seen here alone, there were more than dozens.
He could not understand what someone had been thinking to act this way.
“Survivor! There is someone inside!”
Just then, one of his guild members shouted urgently, and An Gihyeon threw away the Magic Stone and walked deeper inside.
“Captain.”
Baek Sangmin, who had gone ahead of him first, was checking the condition of the unconscious man.
“He is alive.”
The man was collapsed on the ground, but there was not even a small wound on his body.
Sensing something strange, Baek Sangmin searched the man’s body and immediately took something from his pocket, holding it out in front of An Gihyeon.
“It seems he is the one who requested support.”
It was a radio.
A special radio that could instantly request support from nearby guilds with the press of a single button.
“For someone like that, he seems far too comfortable. His physical condition looks fine as well.”
An Gihyeon let out a hollow laugh and lightly kicked the man.
THWACK! BOOM—!
Even if it was light, it was still the strength of an A-rank Superhuman.
The man’s body was quickly sent flying and slammed into the wall.
“Restrain this bastard and take him to the guild. A few of you, follow me.”
“Yes, sir!”
At his command, the guild members quickly began restraining the man, and An Gihyeon, with his nerves sharpened, headed deeper into the Gate with the guild members.
‘Something is strange.’
How long had they walked like that?
Their steps gradually quickened, and when they finally reached the end of the sealed cave,
An Gihyeon stopped walking and looked around.
‘The boss was definitely around here.’
There were traces of battle.
And not just any battle, but traces of an extremely fierce one. Intense traces that an ordinary C-rank could not have created, ones that would require at least a B-rank Superhuman.
“C-Captain!”
As An Gihyeon silently stared at those traces with sharp eyes, unsettled by the strangeness, one of his men immediately approached and held something out to him.
“What is it?”
“I found this nearby. It is hard to think it came from the Gate…….”
“This is…….”
Paper. No, a note.
Mixed with dust, its original color was difficult to recognize, but it was clearly something made by humans.
‘Why is something like this here……?’
Since he was curious what it was, An Gihyeon accepted it and opened it.