Observer (3)

A little while later.

At Lee Ye-rin’s suggestion, Kang-hoo had come to a dungeon owned by the Cheong-an Mercenary Corps.

Lee Ye-rin had explained that it was an ultra-small dungeon, so he had half come as though taking a walk. That was how small the dungeon was.

Thinking about it, he had no memory of matching hands and feet with Lee Ye-rin inside a dungeon until now.

Although they had known each other for quite a long time, they had never actually had the chance to explore each other’s abilities up close.

In any case, for Kang-hoo, a dungeon was a place where he gained greatly just by killing the boss monster, so it was a tempting proposal.

So after grasping the internal information through a simple briefing, they entered.

However.

“You said this was an ultra-small dungeon, right?”

“Yes. As you can see, there’s a barrier outside a certain area like that. We’ve tested it several times, and the moment anything passes through the barrier, everything melts.”

On the horizon Lee Ye-rin pointed to, there was a gray-white barrier, just as she said. He could also feel a blazing energy.

As she said, barriers existing within dungeons were usually structured so that one would die if one tried to pass through them.

Entering by using teleportation? The mana distortion phenomenon inside the barrier was severe, so it was extremely dangerous.

Even if one was lucky enough to succeed in entering, it might be impossible to come out again in reverse.

Of course, that was only if one looked at it favorably. There was a high chance that if one teleported, one’s body would be torn apart and killed.

There was room to use his head.

To hunters, barriers inside dungeons were regarded as forbidden zones that absolutely must not be crossed.

But to Kang-hoo, who saw through all of the original work’s settings, it was not an impossible obstacle to overcome.

However, since it was not right in front of him at the moment, he intended to go up to the barrier and then make a new judgment.

Right then.

Kishit. Kiishishit.

An unpleasant sound of footsteps could be heard. He could hear the sound, but no shape was visible. A stealth-type monster had appeared.

“I’ll handle this.”

Lee Ye-rin immediately scattered Mist Trackers evenly in all directions.

It was the very skill she had used as a test on the day Kang-hoo first met Lee Ye-rin.

Once something touched Mist Tracker, its stealth state was revealed, and the more it moved, the clearer the overlaid color became.

So once exposed to Mist Tracker, stealth became meaningless. If the monster specialized in stealth, it meant losing its greatest weapon.

The next moment.

Shaaaaa.

A blue energy wrapped around Kang-hoo’s entire body. Then Lee Ye-rin added an explanation.

“It’s a buff I can apply to allies to prevent damage from the mist.”

“Team-kill prevention.”

“Hoho. To summarize it, yes.”

It seemed she was trying to use a skill one step advanced from the existing Mist Tracker skill.

It was also a skill Kang-hoo had already thought of earlier when he saw Lee Ye-rin’s new constellation, “King of Radiant Flames.”

Had it not said that one latent ability would immediately bloom into a skill?

The product of that was precisely the “Mist Tracker – Annihilation” skill. The blue energy prevented one from being exposed to its killing effect.

Once she had finished preparing to protect Kang-hoo and herself, Lee Ye-rin immediately placed her hand on the ground and continued to the next step.

It was the process of Annihilation.

Fsssss! Fssst!

The pale-green mist, accelerating rapidly as it stretched out, instantly wrapped around every monster nearby.

Only now did the creatures reveal their forms. They were monsters with the appearance of centipedes. Their official name was Brown Centipede.

The centipedes covered in mist still had no particular reaction.

They merely smelled the scent of humans and, driven by the instinct to obtain meat, diligently moved their countless legs.

Kang-hoo watched with his arms crossed.

It was a rare opportunity to directly observe Lee Ye-rin’s specialty up close. It was also a good spectacle.

At that moment.

“Hut!”

Along with a breath filled with sudden force, Lee Ye-rin caused a ripple in the pale-green energy wavering from both hands.

Then.

Kieeeet! Ueeet!

Kieeeeeet!

Fssssssss…….

At that instant, the pale-green mist whose nature had changed began melting the bodies of the Brown Centipedes all at once.

It was the descent of a calamity that devoured the lives of every monster regardless of size, distance, or closeness.

Not a single Brown Centipede that had entered Mist Tracker’s mist area survived; they all died instantly.

Even the thick outer shells they boasted were nothing but thin skins in front of the mist that melted everything.

“That’s good. I’m a little envious too.”

Kang-hoo showed a genuinely envious look. That was because what Kang-hoo always felt lacking in was wide-area skills.

Although Kang-hoo possessed an incomparable number of skills compared to others, when limited to wide-area skills, it was true that he had few options. That made him desire them even more.

Since he had also watched the lightning-type wide-area skill Lemon used in Japan with admiration earlier, it appealed to him even more.

Kang-hoo was supremely confident in battles against individuals, but he still thought that group battles had elements of concern.

Ksseut. Ksseut.

No sooner had the group of Brown Centipedes disappeared than the next monsters revealed themselves.

Kang-hoo held his dagger and finished preparing to rush forward, but Lee Ye-rin lightly grabbed the hem of Kang-hoo’s clothes.

“Are you telling me to just keep watching?”

Kang-hoo let out a hollow laugh.

They had come to this dungeon to observe each other’s skills and share their abilities.

Yet somehow, he was only watching Lee Ye-rin’s skill showcase, so he felt as though he had become a spectator.

“It’s also because I want to appeal my abilities to you, Kang-hoo. When you consider me as a strategic partner, capability isn’t everything, is it?”

“Ah.”

Only then did Kang-hoo realize what meaning Lee Ye-rin’s actions held.

Right now, Lee Ye-rin was “asking” Kang-hoo to properly look at her abilities.

She was appealing not from an equal position, but from a position half a step lower.

She wanted Kang-hoo to feel interested in her abilities and continue maintaining the same kind of relationship as now.

Yes, there was an aspect where it could be judged as a somewhat humble stance. Lee Ye-rin was lowering her head.

“There are no abilities of yours I’m curious about, Kang-hoo. They’ve already all been proven through results. But to you, I’m an unknown.”

“I can’t deny that.”

“That’s why I’m showing you. Later, there may really come a time when we have to work in sync together.”

As Lee Ye-rin slightly blushed and changed her hand movements again, her movements were unusual.

The name of the monster that appeared in front was Venomous Scorpion.

They were creatures faster than the previous Brown Centipedes and had enough power to instantly kill a hunter with a single attack.

Kang-hoo’s body flinched as his hand unconsciously touched his dagger. It was because of his instinct to fight.

However, since Lee Ye-rin had asked for time for her complete showcase, he needed to respect that.

‘Judging by the preliminary movements, it seems to be the Horizon of Death skill. This also bloomed quickly. In the original work, it was a skill she awakened almost right before the ending.’

The accelerated growth from the earlier chain reaction had probably brought forward Lee Ye-rin’s skill awakening.

It was the butterfly effect.

The virtuous cycle created by her suffering less than in the original work and gaining more benefits had influenced it.

Paaat!

Before Lee Ye-rin’s skill was even cast, Kang-hoo immediately leapt up onto a tree and positioned himself.

Because he knew what kind of skill Horizon of Death was, he had moved naturally, but Lee Ye-rin’s reaction was different.

“Did you climb up there because you knew what skill it was? I was just about to tell you to stay on top of a tree anyway.”

“Well, I just went where my instincts led me.”

“Hoho. It’s a skill I’ve never once shown publicly, so I was startled, wondering if you already knew it, Kang-hoo.”

Thinking that there was no way Kang-hoo could have known what kind of skill Horizon of Death was, Lee Ye-rin laughed.

Kang-hoo also no longer showed any sign of it. There was no reason to deliberately reveal it.

Soon, Lee Ye-rin’s eyes turned green, and smoke that closely resembled that color stretched along the ground.

It was darker in color than the earlier “Mist Tracker – Annihilation,” and the area it enveloped was more than three times wider.

In an instant, Horizon of Death stretched in all directions and wrapped around an area the size of a soccer field.

The Venomous Scorpions, like the Brown Centipedes earlier, were covered in the mist without much reaction.

Right then.

Thud!

A single ripple spreading out from Lee Ye-rin’s two hands reached the nearest Venomous Scorpion.

Pop! Pooop!

Like stabbing an inflated balloon with a sharp needle, the Venomous Scorpions burst apart.

They burst so cleanly that there was not even time to hear a death scream, a swift instant death.

Of course, among them, the ones with somewhat tougher bodies had not completely stopped breathing and were still wriggling.

For those creatures, Kang-hoo moved into the area where the skill manifestation had already ended and finished them with Great Decapitation.

Since each use of Great Decapitation was a powerful single strike, it was actually excessive as a finishing blow.

“Being unemployed isn’t so bad.”

Kang-hoo spoke while cutting off the breath of the Venomous Scorpions that had barely clung to life, at a ratio of about one out of twenty.

Whenever he went to a dungeon, he had always rushed ahead and taken the position of facing monsters first.

But now that he was only in charge of finishing blows in a situation where almost everything had already been cleaned up, it was too comfortable and easy.

Of course, comfortable and easy was not what Kang-hoo wanted.

To Kang-hoo, a dungeon was always a place where he faced death and a stepping stone that constantly stimulated growth.

So.

“But from now on, I should warm up a little. I don’t really like free riding!”

Kang-hoo rolled up both sleeves, gripped his dagger tightly, and began running.

Lee Ye-rin’s showcase was enough by now. Now it was his turn to appeal to her in reverse.

Appealing to her would, furthermore, become an appeal to the other alliances connected to her.

It was Kang-hoo’s own showcase, with thorough calculations laid underneath.

Whether it was Lee Ye-rin or Kang-hoo, what they thought was the same. They wanted to prove their value to each other.

Now the turn had passed to Kang-hoo.

Lee Ye-rin, who had conversely become the spectator, watched Kang-hoo’s movements in a daze for a long while.

At some point, she did not even realize that her own mouth had fallen open.

‘His repertoire is far too diverse. Obvious cases or combinations don’t come out. He uses customized ones every time.’

What surprised Lee Ye-rin the most was the existence of “Mumyeong,” who was assisting in combat beside Kang-hoo.

First, she was surprised by the fact that Kang-hoo, an assassin, controlled a servant, but she quickly accepted that.

However, the servant Kang-hoo controlled was not a crude undead servant that only carried out simple commands.

It was another partner that could judge and think for itself, while also matching its breathing with Kang-hoo.

Yes. It was a creature that would not be strange even if she attached the expression “comrade” to it.

Moreover, its combat ability was also high. In terms of level, it felt as though it could easily exceed 200.

At this rate, the expressions clone or servant did not suit it either. Rather, calling it a small Shin Kang-hoo would be more fitting.

Because of that.

“If Kang-hoo had received a request not from me, but from Gwak Hyeong-su or Gwak Hyeong-seok…….”

A chilling thought occurred to her.

What if the assassination request to Kang-hoo had come from that side, rather than this side?

By now, the one wandering the road to the afterlife would have been Lee Ye-rin herself. It was a terrifying picture just to imagine.

It had been so before, but today in particular, Lee Ye-rin found herself looking even higher up at Kang-hoo.

Just by watching how he handled a single servant, Lee Ye-rin could not place Kang-hoo and herself at the same eye level.

Without realizing it, she ended up giving him one move. Kang-hoo definitely possessed that kind of awe-inspiring presence.