Chapter 292 – Senior at Work Who Hates Me (4)

「Class A Dungeon, Shadow Catacomb」

The place he arrived beyond the company’s dungeon gate was an underground cave with an eerie atmosphere.

The atmosphere was thick with darkness and shadows, so it was not an attractive dungeon that you would want to enter often.

The dim passage leading into the dark cave was illuminated by a weak light that seemed to turn off at any moment, so it seemed like a difficult dungeon to adapt to for hunters who were not accustomed to the darkness itself.

When I raised my Hunter rating in the Guild, I went to the necromancer’s cemetery so many times that I was used to fighting in the dark.

Still, there was no light at all, so I was a little uneasy, so I secured my vision by using the low-level protection spell, ‘Dark Vision’.

This allowed vision in the dark without the use of direct light.

Even if other hunters witnessed it, it could have been much easier to gloss over than using divine spells or fire magic.

I had to adapt a little because my eyesight was different from usual, so I moved forward little by little, relying on suggestions.

The walls of the cave were made of sharp and pointed obsidian sections, making it difficult to move forward with the wall. Therefore, I just believe in the vision revealed by hints and move forward.

I couldn’t even find out where Cheon Ji-hee’s body was. As a result of borrowing the function of ‘finding nearby hunters’ to search, it was only possible to discover that it was farther back.

I don’t know how she, a bare-handed fighter who can’t even use a skill like her suggestion, was able to get inside so quickly, but for now, it was concluded that her primary purpose was to pursue her.

At least I had to prove that I wasn’t a coward who ran away in fear of the name of an A-class dungeon.

After walking about 50 meters from the entrance of the dungeon and entering the interior, a faint light began to form in front of my eyes little by little in the darkness.

‘… , …’

With a bleak sound like a thin cloth brushed by the wind, a monster slowly formed in front of my eyes.

The faint form of a legless human being floated in the air with a band of light surrounding it like a silhouette.

Class A monster, shadow specter.

As soon as I pulled out my greatsword to deal with the monster in front of me, the shadow specter rushed towards me as if flying.

At the same time as its movement, the faint border disappeared as well, but its shape was still faintly visible to me who was using suggestion.

Instinctively, he swung his greatsword at the dim figure, where only the vague presence of the shadow specter was felt.

Whiik. The sound of cutting through the air resounded inside the catacombs, but the ‘sensation’ of cutting something was certain to remain at the fingertips.

It didn’t take long to realize that it only cut through the monster’s atypical form.

‘… , …’

Again, the sound of cloth rubbing was heard, and the shadow specter formed anew.

As with most atypical monsters, it made sense to aim for its core in order to kill it. A monster with high mobility like that will not be able to maintain the rest of its form the moment its core is attacked.

A faint light that pulsates in a translucent state at the center of the shadow specter’s body.

It was camouflaged and hidden by the surrounding colors, but that part must have been its core.

The problem was that the monster itself, called the Shadow Specter, was so fast and freely transformed its shape that it was difficult to even capture, let alone cut down its core.

On the other hand, I’m in a situation where I have to buy time by avoiding the monster’s attack or cutting it all the way.

Even if you look at it like that, it was a class A monster in name. A level of monsters that can be equivalent to one average A-rank hunter even if only three of them are gathered.

It was forbidden to be vigilant until it was dealt with clearly, so he even prepared to use a divine spell in case of an emergency.

Although it was difficult to expect that the recovery-type divine spells would be highly effective with A-rank monsters.

Whiing. With a sound, the meaningless monster’s shape was cut again by the greatsword. As much as the monster’s shape was scattered, he bought time to think, but this time it was a blow that was far from victorious.

It would be nice if I could somehow stop him moving for once, or just turn his gaze elsewhere.

After drawing only meaningless sword strikes several times, by the time I was dealing with the ghost, I felt something faint floating in front of my eyes and floating.

It wasn’t a sense that a good way to deal with monsters came to mind. Rather, it was close to the opposite.

‘… , …’

‘… , … , …’

“Ha, really…”

It was a situation where they struggled not knowing how to deal with only one shadow specter, but the fact that it increased to two was hopeless.

Besides, if you’re struggling in your seat like this, it’s something that might increase in the future.

It’s not the time to waste time like this here, but I should hurry up and join Chun Ji-hee.

Although the original plan to become friends while hunting together had already come to a halt, at least I had to wash away the stigma of being a coward who ran away because I was afraid of the A-rank dungeon.

However, contrary to my wish, the two shadow specters who blocked my path did not seem to give way.

In order to catch up, I had to kill these two as quickly as possible and move forward.

‘… , …’

‘… , … , …’

Two shadow wraiths drawing their own paths, charging at me and disappearing in shape over and over again.

After reading the movements of the two guys at once, I was now used to the order in which they would attack me.

Since you bent your body forward to slash one guy, you’re aiming for my back and rushing in, and since you swung your sword with your right side, you’re aiming for the blind spot on the left, with the same feeling.

Anticipating that, as soon as he twisted his body according to his intuition and swung his sword, as expected, the shape of the shadow specter that rushed from behind was torn in the air.

Still, it seemed that cooperation between the monsters was impossible, seeing as the two did not attack at once.

Well, what they’re aiming for is my body itself, so it wouldn’t make sense for the two monsters to work together to kill me.

A monster that has already lost its ego and has only obsession with life, so it attacks to take over the body of the living, but it has no memory of when it was alive, so once it takes over the body, it is unable to control it and causes the body to die.

That was a common feature of ghost-type monsters in this world. There will be occasional exceptions though.

… Wait, this.

In order to take over my body, I made up my mind and rushed at it whenever I saw an opening, and the fact that the two monsters rarely cooperated.

If you use these two things, can’t you somehow block their movements once?

After running away from them once to try out a flashing idea that popped into my head, I kept a certain distance from each of the two shadow specters.

“Whoa, whoa…”

After deliberately exhaling exhaustedly and inducing their reaction, I stretched my foot forward and took a short, quick step.

Tadak.

“Ugh?!”

My body leaned forward as I tripped over the obsidian fragments embedded in the dungeon floor.

‘… , … !’

‘… , … , … !’

As soon as they saw me about to fall, two monsters rushed at my head at the same time as if the opportunity had arrived.

Disappointing their expectations, I put my sword on the floor and quickly rose from my seat.

The reason why I pretended to be tired and pretended to fall was to induce the current situation.

Two shadow specters collided head-on into the place where my head should have fallen.

”… !!”

As the bodies of the two collided in the air, the faint sound of the wind rang in their ears, and each shocked shadow specter stopped moving for a moment with their cores glowing.

It was a brief moment of brilliance, but that moment was enough.

Not enough to extract the cores of two Shadow Wraiths with my sword.

Grasp! Along with the sound, this time I felt the sense of hitting the core properly, not the feeling of cutting through the air, from the tip of the sword.

The other one was also annihilated by swinging the sword again and pulling out the core before it came to its senses.

“Ha ha, ha, ha…”

After a fairly long fierce battle, I could barely breathe.

It was expected to some extent, but it was difficult to deal with because it was definitely an A-class monster.

I’ve only knocked down two of them, but I feel like I’m already feeling a little tired. Of course, this happened because I struggled in vain because I couldn’t find a way to deal with it early.

The memories I shared with my older sister Eun-young in Dalian helped me a lot. To be precise, the memory of the training greatsword material used at that time.

Training weapons made of white slime body fluids and ghost-type monster cores cannot cut other creatures, but training weapons using the same ghost-type monster cores have a repulsive force and are used in sparring battles between hunters.

I couldn’t control their movements with my sword or magic, but I expected that if I made the same monsters collide, they would definitely shock each other.

And this time, it was the moment when that expectation was rightly hit.

“Really… You are a great senior in many ways.”

As I checked the location of senior Cheon Ji-hee, who was ahead of me, admiration naturally came out of her mouth.

The fact that I had already entered as much as I did meant that I could deal with monsters at the level of these shadow specters in an instant and move on.

As a melee hunter like her, her respect for her naturally bloomed.

Besides, since he couldn’t use suggestion like I did, it would mean that he actually moved through this darkness solely by relying on his pure physical power.

If you choose a place like this as your training ground, you won’t be able to improve your skills. It wasn’t for nothing that he had maintained his A-class hunter skills for a long time, as Hye-eun said.

He picked up the two cores of the shadow specter that had fallen on the floor and hurriedly followed her.

This time, not simply to prove that I am her coward, but with the thought in her heart that I really want to build a proper relationship with her.