Chapter 261 – First Day at Work (5)

The azure shield, which had barely started stepping up from the entrance, moved into the crystal spider cave again.

Shortly after entering the dungeon in earnest, the explorer foretold the encounter with the first monster.

“It’s coming from the right side of the front.”

Han Min-ah, who looked around her with her gray cat ears pricked up, heralded her first battle in the crystal spider cave.

At the same time, the other members, including myself, began preparing for battle.

“What kind and number?”

“From the sound of footsteps, it is a red crystal spider or an amethyst spider. There seems to be no leader, and the number is five to six.”

“Display No. 1! Shield forward! Fight with a great sword left and right! Magic is small-scale wide-area magic!”

As soon as each of them heard Hye-eun’s loud voice, a group of red crystal spiders appeared from the right prong.

In the back, Cha Yu-ri began to memorize small-scale wide-area magic to deal with A-class monsters.

As a formal A-class party member, it was my first time hunting for a party, and with a bit of tension I fixed my mithril greatsword.

“Aaaaa!!”

Kang Hye-eun, who focused the attention of her six monsters at once with her loud shout, immediately lowered her great shield in front of her.

Immediately, a translucent shield wall formed around her great shield.

As a female warrior of the Guardian Shield, she becomes a huge shield and draws the attention of all monsters to herself.

Just before a group of monsters stepped in front of the shield, Hye-eun’s next order continued.

“Fight, put in!”

“Check!”

The translucent shield wall on the right instantly became transparent, creating a space for one person to pass through, and Chun Ji-hee, who escaped through the gap, confronted the monster beyond the shield.

Baek!

‘Keeeee’

As soon as she confronted her, one of the six enemy crystal spiders fell out with a scream in one punch of her fist. A blow so heavy that it deserves to be called the ‘giant’s blow’.

It didn’t seem like it was an instant death as it was a class A monster, but the shock I received from the distance it flew wouldn’t be too weak.

Wow!

‘Kehehehe…’

Soon after, the other spider hit by the second attack of the martial artist was crushed to the ground and passed away, and the attention of the remaining spiders naturally shifted to other enemies, not the shield.

“Greatsword, deploy!”

“I checked!”

This time, the crack in my shield opened slightly, leaving a gap large enough for me to pass through, and upon entering, I used a slash to aim at the head of the nearest spider.

Kang!

“Keugh?!”

As if it wasn’t called the crystal spider for nothing, the guy was harder than I thought. Even though it was an attack using a Mithril Greatsword, it was deflected once.

“Aim for the joints, not the head!”

After confirming Minah’s voice in the battle scene, he swung his great sword again and this time cut off the right leg joint of the red crystal spider.

‘Kkeuk, kkeek!!’

The guy who lost his balance on one side fell to the floor and struggled.

Fu-wook!

‘Ewh…’

After piercing the belly of a defenseless monster to the point of death, he cut off another spider from behind that Chun Ji-hee had put to death.

The group of six spiders was quickly reduced to three thanks to her attack and me.

‘Cut!’

‘Keeek!’

As soon as half of them were reduced in an instant, the remaining group of monsters felt a sense of crisis and changed into a retreat posture.

Just when I wondered if the battle would end like this, I heard a voice again from Mina’s side of the party’s rearguard.

“Down the shield!”

“Check!”

At Mina’s words, Hyeeun’s shield, which split the cave in half, disappeared, and Hyeeun, who was standing with her great shield, also slammed her body to the left.

I, who was right next to her, held her up so that she wouldn’t fall to the floor, and soon the sound of the wind mage’s chants came from behind her.

“Arcane Wind Arrow!”

A wind arrow made of red magic flew in a straight line through the other party members towards the group of monsters that were fleeing.

The three arrows slightly turned at the tip pierced the bodies of the three fleeing monsters from behind.

”’… !!”’

The bodies of the monsters who couldn’t even scream properly fell to the floor.

As much as he had bought enough time, one effect was the power of a Class A wizard.

“The battle is over. I’ll just take a break and collect materials, and then I’ll do it again.”

“Check.”

“Huh.”

“Okay~.”

An effortless party hunt that proceeds as if the process were natural from start to finish.

It was an ideal hunting match that made my heart beat faster as a man in many ways.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

After the hunt was over, a capture was made to check that no one was injured.

The Azure Shield went straight into the final and most important process of monster hunting.

“Seong Tae-kyung, follow me. I’ll tell you how to dismantle crystal spider-type monsters.”

“Huh.”

Except for the magician Cha Yu-ri, the rest of the party members attached themselves to the body of the crystal spider and started disassembling and separating materials.

Han Min-ah, who is good at dismantling with a sword, immediately told her how to cut and separate the body of the crystal spider.

“Crystal spiders think that their entire outer shell is money. It’s not all about simply taking care of the core. Of course, the core is the most valuable, but…”

After dismantling all six corpses of red crystal spiders while listening to Han Min-ah’s theory of collecting, what about the head skeleton, how about the outer skin of the legs, and what parts are more expensive than dismantling the back?

They shared the materials in their respective monster material pockets and moved into the cave again.

The battle that followed went relatively smoothly.

When I found the citrine spider’s nest, I and Cheon Ji-hee distracted and bought time, and Kang Hye-eun used Shield Break to weaken her exoskeleton on the leader spider who fell alone.

And right away, the wind cutter of the windshield accurately entered through the broken crack, and he died as it was. The rest of the Citrine Spiders finished with the same fighting method as before.

In the nest of the amethyst spider, Cha Yu-ri quickly cast wide-area magic as soon as it started, and wiped out almost all of the little amethyst spiders that were weak compared to other individuals despite their strong fertility.

Afterwards, Kang Hye-eun, me, and Cheon Ji-hee seniors intensively attacked the remaining leader spider to finish it off.

It was a very familiar and natural move, as if it had already been done several times. As if it wasn’t a class A party that had been together for a long time.

It seemed that the small argument that had occurred in the morning was for nothing. As soon as I entered the battle, I saw everyone fighting so seriously.

Well, long before I woke up as a hunter, I would have been in a party, but it makes no sense to say that the atmosphere becomes strange just because one man entered.

Rather, the fact that I thought that I had become something was itself excessive self-consciousness. In a way, I’m even more fortunate because that’s the case.

After breaking two nests of crystal spiders, I was taking a break again when I suddenly heard a voice calling me from Minah’s side.

“Certainly, the difference between before and after a combatant enters is different. The battle is much easier with just one Seong Tae-gyeong in.”

“Huh? I don’t think I’ve done much. It just feels like Hye-eun just followed her words and assisted the other party members.”

“What the party needed right now was the role you play, Seong Tae-kyung. Didn’t Jihee and you divert attention together when you were dealing with the Citrine Spider?”

“Why is that? Of course, as a vanguard, isn’t that the role I should play?”

“Originally, that was my role.”

“… Mina, did you do that?”

Mina Han’s words came out of her mouth completely unexpectedly, so I tilted my head and asked what she had said.

“To get to the head of the citrine spider, the rest of the crew have to divert their attention, but Ji-hee unnie alone can’t take her aggro completely. Yuri unnie has to deal with the monsters approaching from behind her, so of course she can’t. Then what should I do?”

“I heard it’s hard to deal with A-class monsters directly? Even if I can’t, I have to deal with three or four at once.”

“So you have to be prepared to die. It’s surprisingly easy if you run away with enough distance that you can’t get enough aggro. … If you accidentally adjust the distance incorrectly, it becomes a little difficult at that time, but I haven’t had any major problems yet.”

“…”

“Anyway, it’s much easier now that Seong Tae-kyung is doing that role! Thanks to that, I can use my surplus energy to fight the monsters approaching from behind with Yuri! Ah, it’s comfortable, it’s comfortable~”

In the air that almost became heavy for a moment, Han Min-ah tried to calm her down with a bright voice, and this time Cha Yu-ri looked at me and continued her compliments.

“… Me too, Seongcheol… Thanks to Taekyung, you joined our party, the burden has eased.”

“Why, Mr. Yuri? I don’t think I had any particular memory of assisting Yuri in today’s battle…”

“The battle in the amethyst spider nest that just happened is a bit of a burden to me because I have to use magic continuously. When I first blow away the little spiders, I have to use large-scale magic before starting, but even when dealing with the remaining amethyst spider boss, without me, the firepower is insufficient.”

“By the way, you didn’t participate in the boss battle just now, did you?”

“Seongcheol… Taekyung, because you acted as a combatant instead of me. In the meantime, I just need to recover my mana.”

I thought it was a party that always flowed smoothly because the sky blue shield was a party that had been going on for quite a long time.

“Were you running the party in such a close-knit state? Even if it wasn’t me, it would have been nice if they had saved another party member.”

“It is difficult to find new personnel for B-class or higher hunters. Most hunters raise their ranks with their party, but most of them retire when they reach B rank, so they often retire with their colleagues. Even if there are people who remain without retiring, most of them have weakened awakening ability, so their skills are gradually declining. If that happens, the power to put in an A-rank party is a bit insufficient…”

“… Certainly, it can’t be helped if that’s the reason.”

Hye-eun, the party leader, also welcomed my presence, explaining the difficulty of replenishment.

“I’m really glad Taekyung is here. The distribution of manpower can be made easier, and the burden on each person is much reduced. … Ji-hee thinks so too, doesn’t it?”

“…”

Cheon Ji-hee, who rested her nails against the wall, responded reluctantly to Hye-eun’s words.

“… That’s right.”

It was a short answer, but that alone made me feel like I was recognized by all the party members.

It was the moment when all the efforts he had made to enter this azure shield were rewarded.