Nightmare Forest (2)

“……”

The moment she saw the Ash Mantis, what Ayane felt was helplessness.

A pitch-black appearance.

As if looking at living charcoal, the Ash Mantis was burning its own body.

She had sniped it several times with mana-shots, but.

Ayane’s attacks, which had strong fire affinity, didn’t work well on the Ash Mantis.

To begin with, since it had thick and hard outer plating, it endured with solid toughness even after being exposed to attacks.

On top of that, the fact that it moved around blazing alive was enough to threaten the surroundings.

“The Australian mantises I saw in the briefing were the kind that the word ‘cute’ fit. These hybridized ones are monsters.”

Park Dong-jae clicked his tongue as well.

Even Park Dong-jae, who didn’t get easily startled since hybrids came in such diverse forms, found these to be an exception.

BANG! BANG!

Ayane tried targeting the Ash Mantises with her Full-Load Single Strike skill, but it was even more useless than Full-Load Single Strike.

Right now, there was no part where she could help.

“Don’t tell me you’re going to handle the a—”

So, at the moment Ayane was about to speak to Kang-hoo.

Kang-hoo was already in the middle of plunging into the swarm of Ash Mantises.

If Ayane had one complaint about Kang-hoo, it was that he didn’t tell her the strategy and tactics of the clear in advance.

Of course, she knew that Kang-hoo had absolute fire resistance, so she didn’t panic, but Park Dong-jae, who had no idea, went slack-jawed in shock.

For that reason, every time they faced a situation, she kept repeating worry, expectation, and surprise about Kang-hoo.

Of course, it always ended in a happy ending, so it was good, but even as a companion, there were many parts of the future she couldn’t predict.

Then.

Kieeeet! Kiet!

The Ash Mantises that recognized the enemy each competitively burned their bodies as they threatened Kang-hoo.

Their flames, burning red beyond even reddish-orange, were dazzling just to look at.

She could see why hunters didn’t want to come to Area 7—Nightmare Forest.

Just looking at the Ash Mantises made her chest feel tight.

The same went for Sorrow Wind.

It was only because Kang-hoo had calculated defenses with a protective barrier skill the whole way that they’d made it; otherwise, they would have been taken out by the tree hybrids long ago.

“Haa.”

Ayane let out a sigh without realizing it and raised her gun again.

She had to do something, at least.

Even if Kang-hoo had fire resistance, it didn’t mean he could ignore the Ash Mantis’s physical attacks using its sharp legs.

The mana-shot damage didn’t properly go through, but it wasn’t that there was no impact at all.

If so, she had to fire whatever mana-shots she could diligently and help Kang-hoo, who had charged into the middle of those Ash Mantises.

But then—

“……Huh?”

Ayane’s finger, which had been about to compress mana and fire a mana round, stopped.

In the meantime, Kang-hoo was slaughtering the Ash Mantises one-sidedly.

It wasn’t an even fight, and it wasn’t a back-and-forth exchange that made your palms sweat.

Kang-hoo, who had pushed in as if to say flames could go to hell, silently took their heads.

More precisely, the back of the neck.

From Ayane’s position, where she had to look from the front, she couldn’t aim for it, but—

For Kang-hoo, who found going behind easier than fighting from the front, it was a good spot to target.

Judging by how he obsessively targeted only that part, it seemed that was the Ash Mantises’ fatal weakness. He seemed to have already known.

“Wow, hyung upgraded again when I wasn’t looking. At this point, wouldn’t a job name like magic assassin—like, magassassin—fit better than just assassin?”

Park Dong-jae shrugged and let out a hollow laugh.

Like the protagonist of a novel, it felt as if every good privilege had been piled onto Kang-hoo alone.

Park Dong-jae had noticed from the start.

That there was a reason Kang-hoo didn’t retreat even after seeing the Ash Mantises’ flames.

It was hard to believe that such an ability existed at all, but that his fire resistance must have hit the maximum.

Sure enough.

The moment the fight began, Kang-hoo didn’t even pay attention to the flames and only targeted the Ash Mantis’s weakness.

On the other hand—

The instant their self-ignition, which was both their specialty and a means to easily eliminate outsiders, didn’t work on Kang-hoo, from that point on, every mantis became an idiot. Once their kill strategy became a meaningless option, they couldn’t help but be powerless.

Kuek! Keuek! Keeeeek!

Here and there, the Ash Mantises died while spilling their bodily fluids with pitiful screams.

From the front, their outer shells looked like solid armor, but from behind, they were cut far too easily.

And since Kang-hoo activated Blood Flower immediately after slitting their throats, perfectly cutting off variables— there wasn’t a single Ash Mantis that survived within the whirlpool of annihilation. It was slaughter itself.

“An assassin class, the most vulnerable to elemental resistances, having absolute fire resistance…… This is so unfair.”

Park Dong-jae’s gaping mouth didn’t close for a long while.

Each hunter class had clear strengths and weaknesses.

A swordsman tanker type who went all-in on defense could never fight mobile warfare with agile movement.

A gunner like Ayane who went all-in on long-range sniping was powerless in a short-range exchange that went back and forth without pause.

If you were a typical assassin, you might be strong in a swift, covert killing blow, but your defensive ability was markedly low.

There couldn’t be an assassin with outstanding tanking, or an assassin who was fine even after taking elemental attacks.

There shouldn’t be—but Kang-hoo had it. What they’d just seen was him outright “ignoring” fire attacks.

That could never happen unless he had achieved 100% fire resistance.

Whether he wore items or did something—fire attacks were completely useless against him.

The most common element for magic-type hunters was fire.

If Kang-hoo truly had 100% fire resistance, then fire-type mages would all become idiots in front of him.

“Even if I can fall out with other guys, I never want to become enemies with Kang-hoo.”

“Same here, noona.”

At this moment, it felt like they were thoroughly Side Character 1 and Side Character 2.

Feeling comrades-in-misery, Ayane and Park Dong-jae looked at each other and laughed.

The Ash Mantises that had looked like an insurmountable mountain had, before they knew it, truly become “ash.”

Thirty minutes later.

With about 1 km remaining before the area where Sorrow Tree, the gatekeeper guarding Nightmare Forest and also an unofficial mid-boss hybrid, stayed—

‘Level 422. I funneled all the magic stones to Ayane and Dong-jae. And up to here, that’s three more Shells of Blackwood?’

Kang-hoo was checking their clear results so far.

First, his level shot up to 422. The path for leveling up, which had been stagnant for a while, had opened.

As agreed in advance, he funneled all the magic stones to the two companions, and instead collected all the Shells of Blackwood.

He thought it would be a profit even if he got just one, but he collected three.

Thinking of how, in the original work, Jang Si-hwan barely got one Shell of Blackwood after clearing all of Nightmare Forest— it was as if he’d already filled the quota.

Since Shell of Blackwood was consumed more slowly than Claws of Hatred, this would be fine for several months.

‘If I get a shell from Sorrow Tree, it’s pure luck, but…….’

Kang-hoo smacked his lips.

From Sorrow Tree, you could obtain something called “Sorrow Tree’s Shell,” an upper-compatible version of Shell of Blackwood.

If you quantified it, 10 Shells of Blackwood could be exchanged for 1 Sorrow Tree’s Shell.

That much, the drop rate was also low. To the point you could say the probability of not getting it was overwhelmingly higher than getting it.

Kang-hoo’s main purpose in coming to Nightmare Forest was to kill a hybrid that possessed a hidden skill and plunder that hidden skill from it.

Securing Shell of Blackwood and Sorrow Tree’s Shell was a secondary objective, and even if it wasn’t achieved, it wasn’t a goal he’d regret— but he’d already gathered Shell of Blackwood to overflowing, and he was at least letting himself hope for Sorrow Tree’s Shell too.

Meanwhile.

During the rest time, the two companions were each taking time to service themselves.

Ayane was cooling her overheated muzzle with a cooling device, and Park Dong-jae was meditating.

Seeing his expression slightly dark, it looked like he had focused only on refreshing buffs and hadn’t taken care of his own body.

But depending on the situation, it was a buffer’s duty to “burn himself out,” too.

Putting out output beyond the limit was something even Kang-hoo did often, eating Mad Solarkium like it was a meal.

So Park Dong-jae’s strain wasn’t particularly surprising. He, too, ultimately had to bear that pain.

“Mumyeong, you’ve grown quite a bit too.”

“……”

It wasn’t only Kang-hoo’s party that had grown through this hybrid subjugation.

Mumyeong had also grown considerably.

Mumyeong’s current level was 44. In hunter terms, it was around level 22, since you usually took it as about half.

But since Mumyeong didn’t fight bare-handed and they were boosting his specs by equipping him with items— if you considered the correction values from items, you could say he had combat power on the level of a level 60 hunter.

Because from the start, Kang-hoo had been raising him with a health-oriented build so Kang-hoo could go all-in on tanking.

At this point, unless he faced a very high-level monster, it was possible for him to endure appropriately and stall for time.

In the meantime, Ayane would remove targets stuck to Mumyeong with sniping.

That was also something they could rely on.

‘It’ll take more time if I want to raise him into a tanker that doesn’t need my hands at all, but raising a minion is a battle of patience. I should take the long view.’

In his heart, he wanted to use him not as support but as the party’s central tank, but there was still a long way to go.

Of course, if he just planned the raising strategy well like now, he would shorten the time by several multiples compared to raising him thoughtlessly.

As far as Mumyeong went, he decided not to get impatient. If he invested time steadily, it would definitely pay off.

“Phew.”

Taking a deep breath, he looked toward somewhere ahead, where Sorrow Tree would be.

He had set up one sure-kill tactic to clear a bastard that became unconditionally disadvantageous if it turned into a long fight—

but the success probability wasn’t easily calculable. Since the opponent’s level was what it was, it was hard to be optimistic.

‘Should I have become a game developer instead of a writer? Even thinking back, I shoved in nothing but f*cking patterns.’

Kang-hoo gave a bitter smile as he thought about Sorrow Tree’s really messed-up attack and defense patterns, even by his own judgment.

When he designed it as a hybrid monster to torment the original protagonist, Jang Si-hwan, he couldn’t have been more excited.

But thinking about facing it as an enemy, everything about it was filthy.

Sorrow Tree was troublesome enough that he almost resented his past self who had been excited while designing it.

Once a week.

The meeting of “Eyes,” held at midnight as Friday began, proceeded again today without fail.

A screen classified into seven slots. Displayed on that screen were eyes of different colors.

Normally, before the main meeting began, it was a continuous silence where not a single word was exchanged.

But today, even before the meeting started, a lot of free talk had already gone back and forth.

That was because an incident that would become a topic for them had occurred.

Coincidentally, the party involved was about to speak first as soon as the main meeting began.

A blue eye’s screen lit up. He opened the mouth he had kept tightly shut.

“I personally slaughtered all of Sperma’s followers. It was nothing special. I even have body-cam footage, so if any of you want to see it, I’ll show it anytime.”

The blue eye, as if trying to suppress emotion as much as possible yet unable to hide excitement.

The transmitted screen was filled with the figures of Sinwol’s South America branch operatives as seen from his point of view.

With just the brush of fingertips, their bodies were shredded like scraps of paper, and blood droplets scattered in all directions.

The overwhelming difference in power was fully contained in the footage. To the point you could call it despairing.

Then—

“I wonder if it’s right to go around getting tired and staining yourself with blood. Was the world chaotic enough that we had to step in?”

A being who, for the past few years, had only ever been a listener in regular meetings, opened their mouth after a truly long time.

It was the Yellow Eye.