“Ugh.......”
Inside the Tyrant's cave.
A man opened his eyes.
“What.......”
The smell of blood stung his nose.
A burning pain at the back of his head.
Sensing something was wrong, the man tried to get up.
“Ugh!”
But his body wouldn't obey.
Only then did he realize that his hands and legs were tied with rope.
The rope was firmly tied to a heavy rock placed in the corner.
“Wh-What the hell is this?”
The man looked around.
It was a cave.
But not an ordinary cave.
Clothes scattered everywhere and bloodstains splattered near them.
Human bones visible here and there between them.
“Aaagh!”
The man was horrified.
It was a sight that made his skin crawl.
“Wh-Where is this?! Why am I in a place like this?”
The man calmly retraced his memories.
“I was definitely in the middle of party hunting.......”
Then he suddenly opened his eyes here.
Had he been jumped by a monster from behind?
“If that were the case, I wouldn't be tied up like this.”
The man thought of the three people he had been hunting with.
It must have been their doing.
“But why......?”
He didn't know.
He couldn't even guess a reason.
It wasn't as if his equipment was any good.
The only thing he did know was that this wouldn't end well.
An ominous feeling that he would die here overwhelmed him.
“Haa...... I shouldn't have become a Hunter.......”
If only he hadn't Awakened.
No, at least if he hadn't seen that man in the grassland back then.
If only his heart hadn't pounded at the sight of him back then.
He would still just be hunting in the grassland with his friends, chasing romance and laughing away.
“Son of a bitch...... why did he have to show up in front of me, of all people.......”
The man, Baek Je-jung, felt his eyes grow hot.
Tears as big as chicken droppings fell drop by drop.
“Dad, Mom.......”
His father, a Hunter, had been adamantly against him working as a Hunter.
Saying, what kind of Hunter could he be with an ability like that.
Feeling needlessly resentful, he'd said he didn't intend to take it seriously, but then he changed his mind, and in the end, this mess happened.
“I should've at least called before coming.......”
It was then.
-Okay, wait here! I'll go check it out!
Someone's voice came from beyond the cave entrance up ahead.
“A-A person?”
Baek Je-jung hurriedly shouted.
“Hey! Help me!”
Soon, a figure entered the cave. With the sunlight at its back, its face wasn't clearly visible.
His face brightening, Baek Je-jung raised his voice even more.
“Over here! I'm inside!”
Baek Je-jung, lying face down on the ground, barely managed to lift his head.
Along with a shadow, despair fell over his face, which had been filling with hope.
A familiar face.
It was Kim Seok-dae, the leader of the party he'd been hunting with.
“When did you wake up?”
“Wh-Why are you doing this to me?! What do you want?!”
THWACK!
Kim Seok-dae kicked Baek Je-jung, irritated.
“Won't you shut up? Another guest has arrived and you're making a racket. You going to take responsibility if the guest runs away?”
“Ugh.......”
“Tsk. Don't resent me too much. It's your fault for being careless.”
Kim Seok-dae took out a dagger.
Even as he trembled in pain, Baek Je-jung squeezed out his voice.
“Run! These bastards are criminals!!”
Judging by what Kim Seok-dae had said, there was someone else outside.
That person would surely end up in a situation similar to his.
He shouted, thinking he had to save at least one person.
“I know.”
“!”
Kim Seok-dae whipped around.
Before he knew it, Hyun-jun was standing behind him.
‘Wh-When did he get this far......’
He hadn't sensed his presence at all.
But that wasn't what mattered.
“You idiots! What are you doing out there?!”
The warrior and the archer came running in hurriedly.
For some reason, there was an arrow stuck in the warrior's shoulder.
“Th-That bastard is fucking fast!”
“What?”
Beside him, the archer shouted too.
“H-He dodged an arrow right in front of him!”
“What kind of bullshit is that?!”
An F-Grade dodging an arrow?
It was an absurd story.
“Wow, so this place was your workshop, huh?”
Kim Seok-dae stared at Hyun-jun.
He was casually looking around the cave. Then he smiled leisurely.
“How many people have you killed here?”
The cave was full of traces of death.
Even supposing some people had been killed by the Tyrant, the number was far too large.
It had to be the result of Rune Killing.
“......Pfahahahaha!”
Kim Seok-dae stared blankly at Hyun-jun, then burst out laughing.
“I thought you were a guy who knew nothing, but you knew everything?”
“I know a lot of things, you see. Especially in this field.”
“A guy like that came all the way in here? You don't know what situation you're in, do you?”
“I wonder if I look to you like a cow or pig that walked into a slaughterhouse on its own feet.”
“Kuhahahaha! This bastard's funny, huh? If you know that, why are you putting on such a front?”
Perhaps thanks to Kim Seok-dae's reaction.
A triumphant smile appeared on the warrior's face, which had been seriously stiff.
“You might be stronger than us, but you're no match for him.”
“Kukukuk.”
Kim Seok-dae laughed lowly.
He had absorbed over 300 Runes.
On top of that, he had maxed out all of Strength, Agility, and Stamina, the stats closely related to his Awakened Trait.
No matter how fast or how strong his opponent was, he was confident he could win against any Hunter within the same Grade.
“Block the back well. Just in case this guy tries to run.”
“Don't worry. I won't fall for it twice.”
The warrior raised his sword.
The archer, too, nocked an arrow on her string with a much lighter expression.
“......”
The cave was silent.
No one moved first.
In the silence before the storm that seemed about to burst at any moment, Baek Je-jung watched it all with an ashen face.
‘It's...... all over.......’
Three against one.
It was a fight with no chance of winning.
The outcome was obvious.
That man would be brutally murdered by the sharp dagger in Kim Seok-dae's hand.
And that would soon be his own future.
‘I even shouted at him not to come, so why......’
Had he not heard?
Should he have shouted louder?
Then he could have saved at least one person.
‘Or not. These guys probably wouldn't have let him go anyway.’
Just as the thoughts in his head grew more and more tangled.
Swish—!
A sharp whistling sound cut through the silence.
Kim Seok-dae closed in on Hyun-jun and thrust out his dagger.
Hyun-jun narrowly dodged the attack.
‘Much faster.’
An attack more agile than the warrior's punch.
He wasn't an opponent to take lightly.
‘But that doesn't make him a particularly hard opponent.’
In his current physical condition.
He was confident he could knock them down even if several more guys like these came at him.
“You're lucky. Dodging that.”
“Lucky?”
“Try dodging this time too.”
Kim Seok-dae closed the distance in an instant and swung his arm in a surprise attack.
Hyun-jun leaned his waist back slightly.
The menacing blade grazed past before his eyes.
The attacks continued without stopping.
Swish!
A swing, then a thrust.
A sharp attack digging in toward the side of his chest. It was an exquisite timing that couldn't be dodged.
‘No need to dodge it.’
Hyun-jun twisted his upper body and reached out his hand.
THWACK—!
His palm struck Kim Seok-dae's wrist, the one holding the dagger.
Even though it wasn't a blow with much force behind it, the impact was precise, so it delivered a considerable shock.
“Kugh!”
His attack blocked, Kim Seok-dae clutched his wrist and backed away.
Hyun-jun didn't miss that opening.
He took a big step to close the distance, then twisted his waist and threw a punch.
CRACK—!
A powerful blow exploded against Kim Seok-dae's flank.
Neither the warrior nor the archer could respond to the attacks that flowed like water.
“Kuh!”
Even though he was wearing armor, the damage came through blatantly.
With a death cry, Kim Seok-dae's upper body buckled, and he collapsed to the ground.
“Wh-What.......”
The warrior couldn't finish his words.
He didn't know exactly how many Runes Kim Seok-dae had, but it was clear he had far more than them.
At least over 300.
They had thought he had no rival among his peers.
‘That's how it should be.......’
To think he'd been knocked down so simply and cleanly.
It was a fight that couldn't be described as anything other than overwhelming.
‘Th-This can't be.’
The warrior gripped his sword even harder.
He was confused by a result completely outside his expectations, but he knew clearly what he had to do.
“Ryaaaaah!”
He swung his sword with all his might toward the back of Hyun-jun, who was facing forward.
The moment he thought it had hit.
Swish!
His opponent's upper body dropped sharply downward.
The attack he had thrown with desperate resolve sliced through empty air in vain.
“Uh...... ugh!”
Before he could even grasp what had happened, a strong impact hit his jaw.
THUD.
Struck by an uppercut square on the jaw, the warrior floated up into the air and then fell to the ground.
His eyes rolled back, and he passed out.
“Who swings a sword from there? You'd have had a better chance if you'd just thrust straight in.”
Hyun-jun had already kept even the area behind him within his range of awareness.
It just hadn't been visible to his eyes; thanks to his heightened senses, he had no blind spots.
‘I only absorbed 10 more Runes of Agility, but it feels completely different from yesterday.’
This was the power of E-Grade Runes.
On the other hand, it also crossed his mind that these guys might be weaker than monsters.
“H-Huff.”
Hyun-jun turned his head at the sound of rough breathing.
His eyes met those of the archer holding the bow.
She was still aiming at Hyun-jun, but the bowstring had gone completely slack.
“Hi-Hieek!”
The archer hurriedly released the hand that had been drawing the string.
The arrow drew a steep arc and dropped right in front of her with a plop.
“Kyaaaaaah!”
The archer turned and ran away.
Hyun-jun was dumbfounded.
“If you were going to get that scared, why do bad things? It was obvious it'd end up like this.”
Shaking his head, Hyun-jun picked up the warrior's buckler that had fallen on the ground.
Then, with a light snap of his wrist, he threw the buckler as if throwing a frisbee.
THWACK—!
Slicing through the air, the buckler flew fiercely like a boomerang and hit the archer in the back of the head.
“Kuheok!”
The archer pitched forward and rolled roughly on the ground.
She seemed to have passed out like that, because she lay sprawled in a rather pathetic state and didn't move an inch.
“F-Fuck.......”
Hyun-jun turned around.
Kim Seok-dae, who seemed to have recovered from the pain to some extent, staggered to his feet.
“Why are you getting up? You're just going to fall again, so stay down.”
“It's not over yet, you son of a bitch.......”
Kim Seok-dae spun his dagger and gripped it in a reverse grip.
At that battle stance, Hyun-jun burst out laughing.
“You still haven't come to your senses?”
“Shut up!”
Kim Seok-dae rushed in.
His speed was much slower than before.
Hyun-jun easily dodged his attacks, as if playing with a young child.
He could have ended it at any time, but he didn't bother.
It wasn't only that he meant to mock and toy with him.
Kim Seok-dae's movements as he swung and thrust the dagger.
While dodging the attacks, Hyun-jun carefully observed those movements and committed them to memory.
‘So you can attack like this too.’
Kim Seok-dae had probably used daggers more than he had.
A fight like this was teaching material that wasn't easy to come by.
‘There seem to be some inefficient movements mixed in.’
For some reason, that was how it felt.
Was it because he'd watched so many combat videos of other Hunters?
Naturally, ways of improving those inefficiencies haphazardly filled his head.
‘Make the movements smaller, adjust the stride, don't put too much strength into the feet.’
Whoosh!
Swish!
‘Thrusting like that will wreck his wrist in no time. It'd be better to time it and relax the force. What matters isn't how hard you thrust, but where exactly you aim......’
His thoughts kept going without stopping.
To the point that even Hyun-jun himself was bewildered.
‘Did I know this much?’
Just as he got the feeling that something was strange.
Kim Seok-dae's attacks stopped.
“Huff, huff.......”
Kim Seok-dae breathed roughly.
It seemed he had run out of stamina after pressing so hard.
“Done already?”
Hyun-jun clicked his tongue with a disappointed face.
“Y-You, how many Runes do you have...... how come I can't land a single hit.......”
Hyun-jun smiled.
“I'm E-Grade, though?”
“......What?”
That was Kim Seok-dae's last word.
Hyun-jun's fist struck his face.
With a heavy impact sound, he too ended up in the same state as the other two.