Takashi Family (2)

“A beautiful farewell?”

“Yeah. My close friends are all getting busy, too. More than anything, I really have no interest at all in things like power struggles or battles for influence between guilds.”

“It seems the friend you were close to is especially sensitive and touchy about those power struggles.”

Although he spoke as though he did not know, Kang-hoo knew who Takashi was thinking of having a beautiful farewell with. It was Jang Si-hwan.

Even in the original work, around this time, there had not been many connections between Jang Si-hwan and Takashi.

Bringing him into The Thirteen Stars had been fine, but he had suffered because Takashi did not get along well with Chae Gwanhyeong.

So, beginning to indirectly care for Takashi through Yu Cheonghwa and Emilia had been the starting point of management.

Afterward, as Jang Si-hwan began going through many dungeons together with Takashi, they became inseparable, but……

That was something that would happen about two to three years from now. For now, there was still distance in their hearts.

So it was not strange at all for Takashi to think this way now. Rather, it was natural.

Especially since he was in a situation where he could feel that Chae Gwanhyeong hated him so much, his anxiety was even greater.

“I can’t say the name. Anyway, there’s another family I’m with. Other than Takashi Family.”

“That can happen.”

“But lately, they’ve been accepting new companions without discussion. They’ve even skipped the strict verification they used to do. There have been too many irrational decisions.”

“You must not like it.”

“Well, I don’t think it’s that friend’s fault. I was just someone who didn’t fit well with the family. So I’m thinking of quietly leaving.”

Takashi seemed to have made up his mind. Rather than being impulsive, his voice was calm, as though his emotional moment had ended.

Kang-hoo quietly added strength to Takashi’s resolve.

“For someone like you, who values the depth of the heart, it is only natural to be cautious even with close relationships.”

“……Right.”

“If there is something weighing on your mind, then I think making a wise farewell, so that things do not become uncomfortable as you said, is also a good method. There are many people who cannot even do that.”

“Yeah. Rather than resenting that friend, I want to tell him that I was the one who couldn’t fit in well……”

“I think that is a good idea. Of course, I hope you don’t think that it really is your fault.”

“I should. Whew! Did I prattle on about something too serious?”

“A person can’t always talk only nonsense. It’s not bad to become serious when it’s time to be serious.”

Kang-hoo showed a smile.

Kang-hoo’s smile was truly difficult to see, but in front of Takashi, slightly more natural emotions came out.

How to put it.

When facing untainted purity, perhaps that energy and feeling became a little contagious?

Takashi let out a deep sigh.

“Haa. Killing someone, eliminating them, deceiving them, acting hypocritical. I’m so tired of that kind of thing! I really hate it, seriously.”

“…….”

“Can’t we purely enjoy the joy of challenge and adventure that only hunters can experience?”

Takashi’s voice, which poured out emotions close to resentment, had suddenly become heated.

It seemed like an explosion of emotions that had piled up for a long time. They were probably feelings he had felt inside Justice.

Instead of a few meaningless words, Kang-hoo comforted him by patting his shoulder.

At times like this, there was no need to force himself to find a solution. Just empathy. He only needed to empathize with the other person’s heart.

A little time passed.

Then, perhaps because the emotions that had boiled up had calmed down, Takashi turned the direction of the question toward Kang-hoo this time.

“Kang-hoo. Do you also have an enemy or rival you absolutely want to surpass, like my other friend does? Something like a goal.”

Perhaps thinking that he had talked too much about himself, he completely changed the topic.

The “my other friend” Takashi mentioned meant Jang Si-hwan. Because he clearly understood the point of the question, Kang-hoo answered calmly.

“I do. But even if I burn and sacrifice myself for that goal, I don’t want to drag my comrades or the people around me into it. I will carve out my fate with my own strength. The same goes for trials.”

Takashi’s gaze could not leave Kang-hoo’s two eyes, which seemed filled with melancholy.

It felt as though he was facing a kind of noble “sense of duty” that Takashi himself did not possess at all.

He had no way of knowing what Kang-hoo, his friend, was thinking.

But at the very least, it did not seem like he would treat precious people like worn-out shoes and drive them into a fire pit.

He could feel the depth of his thoughts and heart. It felt like listening to a belief that had hardened over a long time.

Thanks to the serious conversation, the atmosphere had sunk sharply. It was not a very good picture with a labyrinth raid ahead.

Was that why?

“I happen to have picked up an interesting story! Have you heard about the Narun Dungeon said to be in Saudi Arabia?”

Takashi changed the topic again.

The story of Saudi Arabia’s Narun Dungeon. To Kang-hoo, it was a “rerun” he had already heard from Park Dong-jae.

But for his friend, who was excitedly beginning the story, he decided to listen while pretending not to know.

And since he might perhaps tell him something Park Dong-jae had not known, Kang-hoo placed a little expectation on it too.

Like that.

The 30 minutes quickly passed.

At last, the underground labyrinth raid began.

First basement floor.

In time with Kang-hoo’s group entering, the sun outside the labyrinth also shone inside through the gaps.

Compared to when there was no sunlight, it certainly felt as though visibility had widened by more than five times.

True to the name labyrinth, the paths were truly complicated.

The disorderly structures standing everywhere had no regularity, making one forget their sense of distance and location.

It was fortunate that he had continuously familiarized himself with the internal map before entering. Otherwise, he might have wandered from the start.

He had also thought of using the Prankster Betrayer Constellation, but for that, the remaining number of uses was limited. And since he could not monopolize all the gains either, the meaning of using it was halved.

“Timer start!”

As soon as they entered, Mokomichi immediately summoned one ghoul.

It was a servant with a duration of one minute, and the reason he summoned it was simple.

The characteristic of the first basement floor of the labyrinth was that an “Instant-Kill Wind” blew regularly once every minute.

This wind, which Takashi had arbitrarily named Instant-Kill Wind, was literally a wind that “killed” the moment one was exposed to it.

Of course, since there was regularity in its timing, if one was aware of it, there would not be a situation where one would be struck with eyes wide open.

However, having to find a way to avoid the Instant-Kill Wind every time was a hardship.

That was because all three of Takashi, Mokomichi, and Lemon did not have skills in the form of defensive walls.

They had skills that protected their individual bodies, but those could not withstand the Instant-Kill Wind.

So in the existing raid without Kang-hoo, they had hidden behind large rocks unaffected by the Instant-Kill Wind.

Since their movement was greatly interrupted once every minute, their travel could only be slow.

“Let’s keep moving for now. I do have a way to prepare for the Instant-Kill Wind, but you probably won’t be able to gain certainty immediately, so let’s observe it once.”

Kang-hoo strode forward and took the lead.

He was thinking of using the Protective Barrier he had used against the Blasting Wind in the Western Australia hybrid zone before.

The characteristic of wind-type debuffs or instant-death skills was that they were very weak against magically formed walls.

A powerful wind that melted human bodies when it touched them scattered powerlessly right after colliding with a magic wall.

Of course, the problem was that not just anyone could use such a magic wall. Just as Takashi Family did not have that kind of skill composition right now.

As they continued moving, one minute quickly passed, and Takashi, Lemon, and Mokomichi hid behind a rock.

Meanwhile, Kang-hoo took position on an open field with no obstacles and immediately unfolded the Protective Barrier.

He laid it down as an installed type.

In any case, the wind was not flying in while drawing curves, and he only needed to block the wind from the front.

“This looks fun.”

Behind the rock, Takashi’s two eyes sparkled. It was an emotional expression. A signal that he was full of anticipation.

Lemon and Mokomichi were thinking the same thing, so they peeked their heads out and watched.

They did not know exactly about Kang-hoo’s Protective Barrier.

That was because in the videos where Kang-hoo’s activities were known, skills related to defense had almost never appeared.

Grrrrrk.

Soon, the ghoul collapsed.

Skwaang!

And immediately, an explosive roar was heard.

It was the start of the Instant-Kill Wind.

Since sound arrived faster than wind, recognizing the start of the Instant-Kill Wind was not difficult.

He immediately spread the barrier.

It was wide enough that Kang-hoo simply looked like part of the wall.

‘Even if the durability of the Protective Barrier can’t hold out and breaks, I have the 0.1-second invincibility barrier, so it’s fine.’

Since there was also a second-best option in case the best picture collapsed, he was not worried at all.

However, it seemed the watching Takashi and his companions were not the same.

If something went wrong, he could be exposed to the Instant-Kill Wind and immediately become a skeleton, so they looked repeatedly tense.

At last.

Shiiiiii!

Toooong!

The Instant-Kill Wind that had been flying fiercely collided with the Protective Barrier with all its might, and immediately shattered into pieces and scattered.

One of Mokomichi’s ghouls, which had been roughly thrown forward for experimentation, became a handful of ash on the spot.

But Kang-hoo, who had set up the Protective Barrier and stood proudly behind it, did not lose even a single hair. He remained exactly as he had first appeared.

“Lemon. Moko. What did I tell you? I said assassin was just his business card, right? This guy is just an all-rounder.”

In Takashi’s triumphant expression as he stepped forward, even more confidence could be felt than from Kang-hoo himself.

Lemon and Mokomichi had also been thinking what people who met Kang-hoo for the first time usually thought.

They believed that Kang-hoo was indeed an outstanding assassin, but they had not believed he was versatile in terms of skills until they saw it directly.

That was understandable, since a hunter’s occupational group—in other words, class—did not exist for nothing to begin with.

A mage was classified as a mage because they used magic, and a swordsman was classified as a swordsman because they used a sword.

What if a mage used a sword skillfully, or conversely, a swordsman used magic freely?

From that point on, one would use words like magic swordsman or sword mage. In modern slang, they were “hybrids.”

In the hunter world, such hybrids were not common. That was why they were not ordinary and were irrational.

But Kang-hoo’s current appearance was exactly that.

Even the fact that he had said during the earlier briefing that he had a way to avoid blindness was now full of question marks.

They believed him because he said he had a way to avoid it, but they could not even guess what form it would take.

Kang-hoo, who turned back, appealed with his eyes that there was no problem with his body condition or the barrier he had unfolded.

There was no need to add lengthy words. The situation that had unfolded showed the basis and reality of his confidence.

“Good. Let’s respond to the Instant-Kill Wind with this. Kang-hoo, you kept hiding this because you wanted to show me this, didn’t you?”

“What?”

“You didn’t tell me even when I asked. When you said you had a way to avoid the Instant-Kill Wind.”

“No matter how much I explain it a hundred times, it won’t be as good as seeing it once. There’s no need to make my mouth hurt explaining.”

“As expected of Shin Kang-hoo! Now, the two of you have seen an assassin using a mage’s barrier skill. The next occupational group I will present is…….”

Just as the very excited Takashi was about to tease Lemon and Mokomichi, who had doubted(?) Kang-hoo even a little.

“Hm?”

Kang-hoo checked another movement route that entered his vision and tilted his head slightly.

Takashi had definitely said that the only route of movement was to go all the way around along the path visible in front of them.

‘If we go through this shortcut, no matter how I think about it, it seems like we can shorten it by an hour.’

Kang-hoo could see a shortcut that had not been visible to the three people earlier.

It was the only movement method possible only for Kang-hoo, one that Takashi and his companions could not have thought of even if they were beaten to death.