Rapid Growth (4)

In ordinary cases, a hunter exposed to the Instant Ignition skill would burn to death without even having time to do anything.

That was also why Takashi and the other comrades were shocked the moment they saw Jin Ryuha’s ignition attack.

It was true that a boss monster’s attack patterns were difficult to predict easily, but they had not expected it to be like this.

That was only natural, since attack options capable of producing effects close to instant death were rare.

Moreover, Instant Ignition manifested faster than they had expected, so responding to it had not been easy either.

But Kang-hoo used his Nonflammable skill and countered Jin Ryuha’s Instant Ignition skill far too easily.

That was not all.

After realizing that Jin Ryuha used Instant Ignition on the closest target, he stuck as close to Jin Ryuha as possible.

After that, Jin Ryuha’s most threatening attack skill became a meaningless attack pattern because of Kang-hoo.

There was another reason why the three were surprised.

As time passed, Jin Ryuha’s Instant Ignition attack no longer applied only to Kang-hoo, who was the closest.

It also applied to Lemon, who was the farthest away. In other words, it began targeting both the closest target and the farthest target.

Takashi had a high understanding of boss monster pattern play designed like a game.

But when Instant Ignition, which no one but Kang-hoo had any means of enduring, was applied to Lemon, he could not hide his shock.

He had been so flustered that, for a fleeting moment, he regretted looking down on the underground labyrinth too much.

That was because although he had raided many dungeons so far, there had been no boss monster that attacked this threateningly.

Even if they were threatening, he had been able to solve them within the abilities they possessed, but this time was different.

At that moment.

Something unexpected happened.

Right before Lemon took out a special potion with a fire-suppression effect to respond to the Instant Ignition skill.

Kang-hoo had cast a special skill on Lemon. It was a truly broken skill that no one knew about until they confirmed its contents.

Flame Transfer, the skill Kang-hoo had obtained before with the skill exchange ticket from “Explosive Bloom,” which he had gained after killing the monster Explosion of Scorching Heat.

By casting Flame Transfer on Lemon, Kang-hoo far too easily overcame yet another crisis.

And by adjusting the time during which the Flame Transfer skill applied, he allowed it to fulfill its function and then made his fire resistance return to him again.

Because Jin Ryuha’s Instant Ignition attack was not simultaneous, but was carried out by switching between close range and long range with a time difference.

By matching the timing when Jin Ryuha targeted someone.

If Kang-hoo himself, who was close, was designated as the target, he could endure with Nonflammable, and if Lemon, who was far away, was designated, he could endure with Flame Transfer.

Since Kang-hoo was personally removing the two trickiest patterns, Takashi could only be very satisfied.

Mokomichi, whose combat capacity had been completely taken up by the human wave tactics against the sand soldiers, felt deep awe at Kang-hoo’s perfect support.

Because when he had witnessed Jin Ryuha’s Instant Ignition attack, he had thought this raid had gone wrong in a truly serious way.

But since Kang-hoo had turned that into a mere happening, Mokomichi could only come to respect Kang-hoo’s ability anew.

Takashi, who had become the freest position thanks to Kang-hoo, was pouring fierce attacks onto Jin Ryuha.

He alternated between attacking the front and rear of Kang-hoo and Jin Ryuha, and in particular, he launched attacks focused on firepower.

His specialty.

After leaving a “Mark of Death,” he repeated hit-and-run attacks that further deepened the same wound.

Moreover, whenever Jin Ryuha became greatly enraged by the persistent guerrilla warfare and poured concentrated attacks toward Takashi.

Takashi used a special clone technique that cloned his clone again and let the attacks flow past him.

Takashi was a magic swordsman type who used swordsman as his main class and mage as his sub-class.

But on top of that, by also using assassin-type skills, he showed ability usage that exceeded two classes.

‘The world of top-tier hunters. Here, this kind of combination of abilities is not a variable but a constant. There’s nothing strange about it.’

Kang-hoo was not surprised by the way Takashi used abilities that lightly crossed class boundaries.

It was also something that had been mentioned often in the original story. To become a top-tier hunter, using multiple abilities was basic.

In other words.

Because top-tier hunters basically used abilities in various forms, Kang-hoo’s abilities stood out even more.

That was because Kang-hoo, an assassin, constantly produced not only mage-like traits, but also skills from various job groups.

It was not for nothing that Takashi had used the expression “all-rounder” for Kang-hoo. That was the reality.

Kang-hoo had that many strategic means, and they became clever moves that made him laugh off fatal patterns.

‘He has more potential than we think, and more than we would think even after thinking again and again.’

After experiencing this battle against Jin Ryuha, Takashi became certain.

Kang-hoo’s appearance, which he had felt was special from their first meeting. His own thoughts had indeed been right. He had absolutely not been wrong.

Some might want to say, “Did you come here just to watch instead of fight?” But that was actually the case.

Takashi had wanted to confirm Kang-hoo’s abilities inside and out through this opportunity. And to show them to his comrades as well.

Because although he had accumulated a lot of data about Kang-hoo so far, there was far too little data about real combat together with him.

Abilities shared through videos were very limited, and one could only see extremely fragmentary parts.

But if they fought together in real time inside a dungeon like this, he could see everything from one to ten.

His wish had been properly fulfilled.

Even in situations where Takashi had been tense, wondering if there really was no method for that one, Kang-hoo found an answer.

At this point, there was nothing more to look at and observe. The verification had ended long ago.

Lemon and Mokomichi, who had joined today as members of the Family, would now become passionate supporters of Kang-hoo just like him. Takashi could be certain of that.

‘I don’t know what ability he has, but he kept seeing through Jin Ryuha’s stealth too. That means he has a sustained stealth-detection ability, not a one-time one.’

Ironically, what an assassin found most troublesome was the stealth used by the opponent.

Because they were specialized in hiding their own appearance, they had far more trouble finding others.

But that did not apply to Kang-hoo. Moreover, his ability to control illusions and clones had developed far beyond what Takashi had previously grasped.

Dark Energy usage?

He used it so freely that Takashi wondered if Kang-hoo had some auxiliary battery he could use endlessly.

It did not seem like he took time to recover separately, yet Dark Energy skills were fired without pause.

Right then.

“I will kill you!”

Jin Ryuha, whose damage had accumulated from Kang-hoo and Takashi’s persistent attacks, shouted as if consumed by malice.

It looked like a special pattern.

A pattern that boss monsters usually began when their health had dropped heavily.

Normally at times like this, they usually performed an area-of-effect instant-kill move or some kind of action that displayed explosive power.

Especially since Jin Ryuha had already shown a terrifying one-shot skill like Instant Ignition.

Because of that, Takashi, Lemon, and Mokomichi were all extremely tense.

When a boss monster entered a special pattern without prior information, the response was important.

Usually, the first response in a situation like this was evasion. One could not know and avoid something that had not been grasped.

Right then.

Puuk! Puk! Puk!

Rather than moving away from Jin Ryuha, Kang-hoo instead stuck even closer and stabbed his daggers into him like mad.

Then.

Tak!

He immediately snapped his fingers.

At that moment, everyone could see it.

Explosions erupted across Jin Ryuha’s entire body after he was struck by a skill whose name they did not know—Full-Bloom Blood Flower.

‘Jin Ryuha scattered his own blood just now while entering the special pattern. That’s what he aimed for. Because Kang-hoo has an ability that can cause explosions using blood as a medium. But this kind of picture is possible too……?’

Takashi could not hide his surprise.

He did not know the name, but he did know that Kang-hoo had a skill that caused wounds to explode and kill.

He had even vaguely predicted that it might be an explosion using blood as a medium.

But he had not known that Kang-hoo could fire it as a fatal blow against a boss monster like Jin Ryuha, who used his own blood in a special pattern.

If this was the case, boss monsters who used their own blood as material became extremely easy prey before Kang-hoo.

From Kang-hoo’s perspective, they would look like enemies drenched in oil. All he had to do was light a match and throw it, did he not?

“It ends like this? Ha.”

Even Takashi, who rarely spoke to himself out loud, could only let out a hollow laugh at Jin Ryuha’s end, which had finished anticlimactically.

There was no need to doubt whether he was truly dead either. Because Takashi’s level had just risen by a whole 1.

Once one entered the 700-level range.

Even if one rose not by level 1 in a dungeon, but only by level 0.1, it was evaluated as a truly large increase.

But since he had jumped one whole step at once, he could not help being surprised once by Jin Ryuha’s death and once again by the tremendous experience.

At the same time.

A common buff reward was given to everyone who had raided the labyrinth. This was truly the finishing touch.

At the same time.

“The ending was the best.”

Looking at Jin Ryuha’s corpse, which had died while scattering blood in every direction, Kang-hoo wore a proud expression.

It had been a situation where Jin Ryuha launched an area-of-effect attack using blood, threatening by anyone’s standards.

Kang-hoo felt newly grateful and thankful for his own ability, which could turn that situation around into a perfect opportunity.

The “opportunity” that Jin Ryuha had thought of! Could he have known that it would become the catalyst that hastened his own death? Absolutely not.

His level had surged to 490.

Since he had been 475 before entering the fifth floor of the labyrinth, that meant he had raised a total of 15 levels from the fifth-floor raid alone.

Moreover, the United Mind and Body buff given as a common reward to all raiders had definitely scratched an itch.

Of course, Takashi and all of his Family probably had quite high-level mental immunity abilities, but…….

There was a big difference between a value of 100% and a value short of 100%. Because the risk of being pierced existed.

‘Even before checking the other rewards, I feel like United Mind and Body has already paid for the meal.’

Kang-hoo was already satisfied.

Being able to remain completely unaffected and unshaken by someone’s mental attack was a very big strength.

Even Jang Si-hwan had numerous black magic skills that could cause extreme confusion in the opponent’s mind.

And specific hunters called named hunters around the world basically possessed mental control skills.

That meant being controlled in one’s thoughts and actions by someone else became that fatal of a weakness.

But now that he had obtained a buff that allowed him to maintain a completely flawless defensive state against such attacks, he could only be satisfied.

It was a truly useful option, especially for Kang-hoo, who enjoyed battles of calculation and wanted to gain the upper hand there.

If the enemy disturbed his mind, then far from a battle of calculations, he would not be able to avoid inferiority in the overall battle.

At that moment.

Tududuk. Tuduk. Tuk.

With a time difference, mana stones poured down onto the place where the dead Jin Ryuha had been standing.

There were quite a lot of them.

“They’re orange mana stones.”

Expensive ones were pouring down. The first-clear privilege of the first raid! Even the rewards were a bumper harvest.