Chapter 10

“I-I can fight! Among everyone here, my defense is on the higher side, and I have resistance gear, so…!”

“Just go.”

“…”

Biting his lip hard, Kwon Shin-joo’s eyes flashed with defiance. Both brothers seemed equally stubborn. But right now was hardly the time to leisurely note their similarities.

Nam Shin-hoo stared at the monster. The part above ground looked like an ordinary tree, but its roots were impossibly thin and long. If handled carelessly, it would shift its core along the roots.

I really need to incinerate it all the way to the root tips in one go…

“I-I’m a full-fledged Hunter too! I’m the squad leader, so I can’t run away first! I might not be an S-Rank like my brother, but I can still help.”

Shin-joo placed a hand on his chest and shouted.

“O-or I can defend up front while you attack from behind! Believe it or not, my shield rank is high, so I can hold out.”

“Sigh…”

Hearing Shin-joo shout from behind gave Shin-hoo a headache. Can’t you just run away quietly? Shin-joo dying here would be especially problematic.

On top of that, Shin-joo’s words carried a particularly grating tone. Who’s protecting whom? Knowing full well I’m stronger, why do they all act like this? When they’re weak… when they know they could die…

“I don’t need it.”

Keeping his weapon pointed at the monster, Shin-hoo shifted his gaze.

“Once a scout team finishes scouting, they quietly leave the rest to the support team and pull back. If it’s not a fight meant for you, you need to know when to step away. Charging in when you know you’ll lose is just plain foolish.”

No one praised someone for throwing themselves into a fight beyond their limits. It only wasted precious lives. And Shin-hoo knew far too many people who had died like that.

“You and Kwon Hae-joo look the exact same to me. Even if your amazing brother were here instead of you, I would have told him he’s just in the way. Close-range physical types have a terrible matchup against things hiding underground.”

“…”

As Shin-joo froze with an odd expression, a guild member beside them shouted:

“I-it’s moving! Over this way!”

It was a guild member evacuating by air, shouting after noticing the shift on the ground.

“Hurry!”

“A-all right. Everyone, fall back! Contact the members scattered in each direction, regroup, and link up.”

Shin-joo yelled. This time, it sounded like a proper order.

Leaving Shin-joo to act like a squad leader, Shin-hoo took his stance. The writhing stems of the monster surfaced from the ground.

‘Here it comes.’

Shin-hoo moved, slicing through the vines. With a sharp slash cutting through the air, several sprouting roots were severed. Yet the vines newly rising from the ground far outnumbered the ones falling limp. It would be endless at this rate.

He had to hold out until everyone evacuated, then incinerate everything from the roots to the core in one breath. To do that, he needed to find the core’s location first…

‘There it is.’

Just as Shin-hoo spotted the core at what appeared to be the central root and was about to charge—an unexpected move happened on the other side.

“…!”

Behind Shin-hoo, a dark brown root shot up from the earth, ignoring him entirely. Twisting its flexible strands, it lunged straight toward the airborne Epic Guild member. True to a monster’s instincts, it targeted the weakest prey. Sharp thorns lined the long, slender root.

“Ugh… Too late…!”

Seeing the root right in front of him, the guild member squeezed his eyes shut. He couldn’t turn in midair, nor could he defend himself. I’m dead. The moment that thought crossed his mind, a flash of light burst before his eyes.

It happened in an instant. A spear fired from the ground burned the root to ashes in a split second. The stiff, dark brown root fell limply and slowly scattered into sand.

“I-I’m alive?”

Opening his tightly shut eyes, the guild member looked down. Shin-hoo was standing there, the weapon in his hand glowing brightly. With a blunt tip and magic stones embedded throughout, the rugged weapon had a strange shape, like a mix between a spear and a staff.

Shin-hoo ran a finger over the weapon he hadn’t held in so long. His unique weapon vibrated against his palm as if it possessed a will of its own.

“Targeting someone else right in front of me… For a mere monster, you’re pretty rude.”

As if responding to his words, the spear vibrated softly.

Shin-hoo had wanted to resolve this without bringing this weapon out if possible. Since this was another guild’s hunting ground, he had intended to handle things quietly—his unique weapon was notoriously flashy.

However, this cowardly plant seemed to have no intention of letting him do that.

‘No choice, then. I’ll just have to end it quickly.’

A system message popped up before his eyes.

As if signaling that the output was fully charged, the gem embedded in the spearhead flared with light.

“Alright. Let’s finish this in one shot, Luving.”

Shin-hoo’s spear, Luin Buada, emitted a brilliant glow.

Shin-hoo shouted toward the Hunters who hadn’t evacuated yet:

“Everyone, hold onto the tree trunks nearby!”

A massive pillar of light crashed down from the sky straight into the ground.

“If Hunter Kwon Hae-joo and Hunter Nam Shin-hoo were to fight, who would win?”

An aging host on a low-budget TV show spoke. It was a frequent debate topic on late-night broadcasts. Some passionately argued that the close-quarters specialist, Kwon Hae-joo, would have the upper hand. Others claimed that Nam Shin-hoo would win, given his outstanding record of achievements.

“The key here lies in their combat styles,” the host read off the script mechanically.

“Then, of course, Hunter Kwon Hae-joo has the advantage.”

As if waiting for this, a speaker from the panel supporting Hae-joo stood up.

“As everyone knows, Hunter Kwon Hae-joo can fight regardless of the opponent’s type. He can wield every kind of weapon—ranged, melee, and even support gear. In other words, he faces no penalties against anyone. Plus, Hunter Kwon Hae-joo is far ahead in pure physical strength.”

“The same can be said for Hunter Nam Shin-hoo.”

A counterargument came from the camp supporting Shin-hoo.

“Hunter Nam Shin-hoo commands attributes. No matter what attribute the opponent has, he can tailor his attacks accordingly. That is thanks to his skills and his unique weapon, Luin Buada, which can project all elements. What is more, Hunter Nam Shin-hoo can convert external energy and make it his own.”

The supporter’s eyes gleamed with fanatical trust.

“Do you know how incredible that is?”

His face beamed with absolute confidence.

“It means that as long as Earth’s energy is infinite, Hunter Nam Shin-hoo’s power is infinite as well.”

A thunderous roar erupted from the strike hitting the ground, carving away the dense forest. Centered on a small tree, raw power spread along the root network. Lightning-like energy, which broke down cells and tore through nerves, burned straight through the monster.

—Kieeeek!

An ear-splitting shriek burst out as the earth convulsed. The roots buried deep below writhed and thrashed in agony. An unstable vibration spread outward through the forest, centered around the tree. The entire mountain pitched violently, shaking like an earthquake.

A tremor so intense it turned the horizon upside down followed, and the grotesque roots burned pitch-black. Turning a dull gray, the tree slowly scattered into the air.

Once the blinding flash faded, a narrow, deep sinkhole was left where Shin-hoo had attacked—the only trace of where the monster had been.

The creature that had burrowed through half the mountain and spread its roots wide had died in an instant. It was a terrifying display of power—no, calling it a fight was almost ridiculous given how one-sided the strike had been.

“Is it… dead? Just like that?”

“What did I just see?”

Hunters pushing past fallen tree trunks stared with their mouths open.

“Wasn’t that a boss-class monster just now? Plant-types are supposed to be way more troublesome, but taking it down in one hit…”

“I couldn’t even follow what happened.”

The watching guild members were completely dumbfounded by the instant kill.

Landing a strong hit was one thing. For an S-Rank Hunter, slicing away a mountain wasn’t particularly difficult. But targeting a monster deeply rooted in the earth—especially a plant-type that shifted its core through its roots to flee—and burning it away completely without leaving a single root fiber behind required a level of control and destructive output that was almost unimaginable.

Yet, the surrounding trees remained completely untouched. He had burned only the precise area where the monster’s roots had taken hold in a single blow.

“That’s insane.”

“Damn… How is this even balanced? No, seriously, that’s amazing. Wow…”

Meanwhile, having finished the attack, Shin-hoo casually put away his spear. The weapon’s output dimmed to a faint glow before vanishing. Shin-hoo wiped his ash-covered shoes against the ground.

‘The output was stronger than I thought.’

He had only planned to destroy the core to keep things low-key, but he ended up burning the entire monster away.

Shin-hoo looked down into the pitch-black sinkhole, so deep that the bottom was invisible. The traces of roots branching in every direction had been long and relentless.