“Kanghyun. In all conscience, can you please get down now and at least swing your sword? Hm?”
Kang Yujun spoke as though pleading with him. Lee Kanghyun firmly shook his head.
“I’m a healer. How am I supposed to fight?”
“What healer? Stop lying already.”
“I’m healing right now. I’m taking care of you mentally. Emotional healing.”
“Stop talking bullshit! Ah, seriously!”
Just as Kang Yujun struck his own chest in frustration, the mud on the ground writhed and an enormous snake the size of an anaconda suddenly surged upward.
Its jaws opened wide as it went straight for Kang Yujun’s leg. Burdened by the weight on his back, Kang Yujun failed to react in time.
Lee Kanghyun’s brow furrowed slightly.
That’ll hurt if it bites him. I should at least repay him this much.
He lifted the Epic-grade longsword in his hand. The end of the sheath struck the rising snake squarely between the eyes.
Thud!
With a heavy impact, the giant snake reeled. Kang Yujun did not miss the opening. He launched a blade of water and severed the snake’s neck.
Its head dropped with a thump and disappeared into the mud.
“What was that just now? Was that you?”
Lee Kanghyun played dumb and buried his face against Kang Yujun’s back again.
“What? I didn’t do anything.”
Kang Yujun let out an incredulous laugh, but he stopped nagging him to get down.
He had simply given up.
Lee Kanghyun smiled victoriously and rested his chin on Kang Yujun’s shoulder, sincerely praying that he could travel the rest of the way just as comfortably.
Time passed, snake corpses piled into mountains, and purple blood flowed over them like rivers, yet Lee Kanghyun remained perfectly clean and dry.
“Hey, Lee Kanghyun. You’re seriously heavy. Lose some weight.”
“What kind of S-rank Hunter has stamina this shitty? You need to work out more.”
“Just wait until you get down. I’m going to run you into the ground.”
Kang Yujun ground out the words through clenched teeth.
But his threat sounded hollow.
Both he and Lee Kanghyun knew that Kang Yujun could not pry him off right now. Snakes were still pouring in without end, and Kang Yujun had to keep swinging his whip of water without pause.
Sensing something sharp, Kang Yujun turned his head to the left.
A cobra-shaped monster with an inflated hood was about to spit venom.
Kang Yujun quickly formed a shield of water and blocked it. White steam rose with a hiss.
He gathered mana into the hand gripping his sword and slammed it hard into the ground.
BOOOOM—!
The earth twisted.
A moment later, water erupted and swept across the entire area.
The snakes that had packed his field of vision were washed away by the torrent before they could even scream.
The area was cleared.
Only the boss remained.
“Haa…”
After catching his breath, Kang Yujun tapped the arms wrapped around his neck.
“You planning to stay like that?”
Nod, nod.
Lee Kanghyun buried his face in Kang Yujun’s shoulder as though telling him not to speak to him anymore.
“Fine. Got it.”
Kang Yujun spoke gently.
Then he abruptly grabbed Lee Kanghyun around the waist.
I’m just going to throw him off.
He had just made up his mind and begun using force to peel the human barnacle off his back when—
A heavy vibration came from deep within the cave.
The presence was on an entirely different level from the small fry.
Feeling it, Kang Yujun stopped moving and stared straight ahead.
Two enormous red eyes gleamed in the darkness.
The boss monster had appeared.
Lee Kanghyun slowly raised his head as well.
“Grrrrrr…”
A body roughly the size of a small building gradually emerged into view.
Vertically slit amber pupils stared at the two of them.
It was an enormous cobra, its entire body covered in pitch-black scales.
It looked more like a dragon than a snake.
When it lowered its body as though winding up for an attack, Kang Yujun layered walls of water over one another to form a shield.
At the same time, the boss swung its tail and slammed it down against the water barrier.
BOOOOM!
The shock wave drove Kang Yujun backward.
“Ghk!”
Even as he lost his balance and staggered, Kang Yujun hunched his body to protect Lee Kanghyun on his back.
But at that instant, the weight disappeared.
Before Kang Yujun could even turn his head—
Tap.
Lee Kanghyun landed lightly on the ground and stepped in front of Kang Yujun as though shielding him.
His habitually slouched back was perfectly straight.
His unfocused, dull eyes were still the same.
This is so fucking annoying.
Ah, what a pain… I want to go home.
Just as the boss monster was about to spew venom, Lee Kanghyun adjusted his grip on the longsword.
The blade was still inside its sheath.
Then Lee Kanghyun vanished.
He closed the distance so fast that the eye could not follow him, diving straight into the monster’s reach.
Kang Yujun could have dealt with a boss like this easily.
Lee Kanghyun knew that too.
There was no real need for him to step in.
But with Kang Yujun’s fighting style, he would slice that boss monster open with his sword, and then all kinds of bodily fluids would spray out like a fountain—
Lee Kanghyun stopped thinking about it.
He felt like he was going to vomit.
Better if I deal with it cleanly myself.
In an instant, Lee Kanghyun shot above the head of the apartment-sized boss and brought the sheath straight down onto its skull.
BOOOOM!
A tremendous crash shook the entire cave.
The boss monster’s massive head was driven into the ground, splitting the earth apart.
Its hard scales and skull shattered together.
A thick cloud of dust billowed in every direction.
Kang Yujun stared blankly at the sight.
It was hard to believe this was the same lazy Lee Kanghyun who had been hanging off his back moments ago, whining and doing nothing but backseat driving.
As the dust slowly settled, Lee Kanghyun came into view.
He had landed lightly on the monster’s head and was crouching there, the sheath resting loosely across his shoulder.
His face was still plastered with pure annoyance.
The boss monster’s head remained buried in the ground, its eyes rolled back as its body convulsed.
Apparently it had suffered something like a concussion.
Lee Kanghyun struck it one more time.
Thud.
Its body shuddered violently, then went still.
“Ah, dust.”
Lee Kanghyun frowned and waved one hand in front of his nose.
That utterly casual voice snapped Kang Yujun back to his senses.
“You… what the hell was that just now?”
“What.”
“You said you were a healer. What kind of healer jumps that high like it’s nothing and smashes a boss monster’s skull with a sheath?”
“Who cares whether I’m a healer or not? It’s none of your business.”
Lee Kanghyun genuinely did not seem to care.
He climbed down from the boss monster’s head.
From a height of at least five meters, he jumped without hesitation and landed lightly.
The moment he reached the ground, Lee Kanghyun seemed to melt.
He staggered over to Kang Yujun and buried his head against his shoulder.
Startled, Kang Yujun firmly supported him and looked him over.
“Hey, what’s wrong? Are you hurt?”
“Yeah…”
Lee Kanghyun answered weakly and leaned even more heavily against him.
Kang Yujun urgently asked,
“Where? Where does it hurt?”
“I want to go home…”
“…Hah.”
For a moment, Kang Yujun was too dumbfounded to respond.
Then an incredulous laugh escaped him.
When Lee Kanghyun said he was hurt, Kang Yujun’s heart had dropped because he thought something was genuinely wrong.
And all he meant was that he wanted to go home.
Kang Yujun looked down at the back of Lee Kanghyun’s head as he sagged against his shoulder.
It was hard to believe this was the same man who had just smashed apart the skull of a building-sized boss monster with nothing but a sheath.
Lee Kanghyun truly was impossible to understand.
Maybe he isn’t even human. Maybe he’s an alien…
The ridiculous thought even crossed Kang Yujun’s mind.
“Lee Kanghyun. What the hell are you, seriously? And what was that strength?”
“Dunno. I’m just sturdy. I’m a healer, so I guess healing makes your body stronger too.”
It was utter nonsense.
There had never been a single report anywhere in Hunter academia suggesting that healing increased physical strength.
But demanding a logical explanation from Lee Kanghyun right now would obviously get Kang Yujun nothing but more lazy bullshit.
Kang Yujun let out a deep sigh and patted Lee Kanghyun on the back.
“Sure. Must be nice being sturdy. Freakishly sturdy, even. We killed the boss, so go collect the byproducts.”
“You go get them…”
“I just killed several hundred snakes. I’m exhausted. So you go extract the mana stone.”
At those words, Lee Kanghyun straightened up and arched one eyebrow.
This bastard?
There was no way fighting that little could have exhausted him.
Who the fuck are you trying to scam?
“I killed the boss.”
“It was over in seconds. I fought for ages.”
A tense battle of wills followed.
Neither of them looked willing to yield an inch.
Under Lee Kanghyun’s glare, the corner of Kang Yujun’s mouth twitched ever so slightly.
The truth was, he was tired—but nowhere near tired enough to be unable to move.
Nor did he particularly mind cutting open the boss and extracting its mana stone.
Right now, he simply wanted to mess with Lee Kanghyun a little more.
And Lee Kanghyun fell perfectly for Kang Yujun’s provocation.
He was seriously considering whether to punch him.
He wants me to touch that disgusting thing and cut it open…?
Lee Kanghyun shook his head in revulsion.
“Ah, no. I have a weak stomach. You want to watch me puke while I cut that thing open?”
Lee Kanghyun pointed at the boss monster’s corpse and scowled.
Admittedly, the boss with its smashed-open head was a truly gruesome sight.
Kang Yujun deliberately put on a stern expression.
“How the hell are you a Hunter if you have such a weak stomach? And from what I saw earlier, you had no problem beating the shit out of it. Stop acting delicate and go extract the mana stone.”
“You can manipulate water and pull it out. I have to cut it open with my own hands.”
“Hmm.”
Kang Yujun had no rebuttal to that.
His eyes narrowed.
But simply agreeing now would be no fun.
He folded his arms and smiled mischievously.
“I’m not doing it.”
“What?”
“You do it. You killed it. Don’t you know the Hunter rule? Whoever kills the monster gets the mana stone.”
“There’s no rule like that!”
“There is. I just made it up.”
The crease between Lee Kanghyun’s brows deepened.
He seriously considered two options.
1. Beat Kang Yujun until he does what I say.
2. Give up on the mana stone and go home.
Option one meant he would have to move just to beat Kang Yujun up.
Too much trouble.
Option two was appealing, but if he left the mana stone behind, he would have gone through all this suffering without earning a single won.
That pissed him off.
“Hey.”
Lee Kanghyun called quietly.
“What.”
“You made me a promise earlier.”
“What? What promise?”
“You said if my hand started shaking, you’d feed me for the rest of my life.”
“Why the hell are you bringing that up now?”
“My hand’s shaking right now.”
Lee Kanghyun raised the hand that was not holding the sword.
Then, very deliberately and very dramatically, he made it tremble.
The same hand had not so much as twitched while he was smashing in the boss monster’s skull.
“Ohhh, my hand. Must’ve shocked the muscles. I can’t move a single finger. Ah, this is serious. How am I supposed to extract the mana stone?”
His acting sounded like he was reading straight from a textbook.
The corners of Kang Yujun’s mouth twitched.
“Hey, you… where the hell did you sell your conscience?”
Finally, Kang Yujun burst out laughing.
“Ha… Fine. You win. You win.”
He shook his head and stretched a hand toward the boss monster’s corpse.
“But you’re buying dinner. Korean beef.”
“You’re grilling it.”
“I seriously want to hit you. Just once.”
Look who’s talking. So do I, Lee Kanghyun grumbled inwardly.
Blue mana bloomed from Kang Yujun’s fingertips.
A razor-sharp stream of water shot forward and neatly split open the boss monster’s chest.
Without spilling a single drop of blood, the cleanly extracted mana stone floated upward and flew into Kang Yujun’s hand.
“Here you are, young master.”
He casually tossed the mana stone over.
Lee Kanghyun reflexively reached out and caught it.
His hand looked perfectly fine.
There was no trace whatsoever of the trembling he had been making such a fuss about moments earlier.