Dragon’s Yeouiju (2)
“Huh, huh, huh…”
In downtown Jongno was the Crow’s Nest, a D+ class gate surrounded by barricades to prevent the public from entering. Do Woojin, who arrived last, was gasping for breath. Shin Eunah was looking over him calmly.
“It is good to hurry at the words emergency dispatch, but keep in mind you need to be able to fight as soon as you arrive on site.”
“Okay…”
“If you’re not confident in your own speed, it would be good to arrange a special means of transportation in case of an emergency call or seek cooperation from another superhuman.”
“…” He nodded silently, and Kang Shin-hyuk nodded along with him, thinking there was a third method.
‘Although that’s a special means of transportation.’ Things like magic bikes and cars were on the market, and they had superhuman-only vehicles that could speed up according to one’s magical power. The prices started in the billions, of course.
‘But I don’t have magical power.’ He did have spiritual power to strengthen himself, but it wasn’t useful for a magic vehicle. Then, he considered, there would be no choice but to make something. He decided he would have to put that off until his metallurgy reached at least A rank.
“Look, it’s Shinyoung students.”
“Are the students going in there?”
“Hey, it’s the Empress. The Empress!”
Kang Shin-hyuk raised his head to the sounds coming around him. Jongno had many people and was considered the number one political city in Korea, so it had taken especially careful measures around the gate. To enter Crow’s Nest meant you were a recognized superhuman.
“They send their students to this gate?”
“Aren’t their students special?”
“Hey, that boy is so handsome.”
“Not that one…”
It was a stable gate that didn’t have the risk of reversing flow – a phenomenon in which monsters would come out of the gate due to a failure to handle it –, but it had great meaning because it was Jongno’s gate.
“After a five-minute break, we will enter.”
“Alright.” Perhaps that was why Shinyoung assigned Group 7 to this gate. Kang Shin-hyuk shrugged as he could feel people watching them, with some even taking pictures. He struck Baek In-ha on the side, who was posing.
“Don’t do something that blatantly visible.”
“Kuhh, you got stronger…”
Five-minutes passed, and Do Woojin was able to recover back to a fighting condition at that time. The group held each other’s hands to pass through the gate; Shin Eunah stood at the front of the barricade holding Shin-hyuk’s hand. She used her superhuman registration card to open the barricade, which slid open for them to pass.
“Don’t let go of each other’s hands until we’re all completely inside the gate.”
“Okay!” Kang Shin-hyuk felt a faint trembling in Shin Eunah’s hand. ‘What? She’s a certified S+ rank, she can’t be nervous to enter a D+ gate…’ That said, he wondered if there was a hidden situation behind the exercise. While he considered it, she stepped through the vortex of pale gray floating above the ground.
-Entered the D+ level gate Crow’s Nest.
The message of Gaia System, not the Hero Universe, struck his retina. The world went round and round, and the next moment he had already arrived in another world. It was his first time entering a dungeon.
‘It’s similar to the dimension quest.’ He thought blankly as he looked up to the sky. Surprisingly, the sky above them was taller and bluer than the one outside the gate.
“It looks high, but it’s not really. Depending on the grade of the gate, the area inside will vary.”
“I see…”
“Teacher, can we let go now?” Karen spoke up, and Shin Eunah looked surprised for a moment. She recovered quickly, nodding, and then let go of Shin-hyuk’s hand.
“Yes, you can.” Freed from Karen and Shin Eunah, Shin-hyuk busied himself, preparing for battle. The armaments he had brought, with permission from the school, were nine steel javelins. They were: the D+ splitting steel javelin, the C- hawk’s steel javelin, one made of Alite, and finally a D+ steel sword. He took one of the javelins out and hung a second one around his waist. He prepared a bucket to carry the rest and put it over his shoulder. He had a bit of luggage, but he wasn’t uncomfortable carrying it all.
“Did you really make all of that?”
“If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have received permission.”
“Awesome…” Karen was armed with a bow and a long spear, where Do Woojin held a greatsword and a towering shield. No doubt it was for when he grew in size, although Shin-hyuk couldn’t judge someone for overburdening themselves. Baek In-ha was the least armed, wearing only combat boots with a small metal blade protruding from the end. Aside from that, he was dressed casually.
“I will follow from behind. From now on, everything will be subject to evaluation, so keep that in mind.” As soon as she finished speaking, she fell in behind the party. It wasn’t a joke; she was completely out of sight behind them. They looked as if they were possessed by a ghost, but soon regained their senses and went into formation.
“Alright then, go ahead. Did you memorize all the maps?”
“Yeah. This will probably be the D pattern.” Dungeons were deactivated each time they were cleared and then reactivated after a certain set amount of time called resetting. The internal structure of the dungeon would also slightly change, along with the distribution of monsters. Of course, there were limitations to this, so instead of a completely new dungeon, instead there were several similar patterns.
“Then let’s go.”
“Let’s do it!” At Shin-hyuk’s words, Karen shouted vigorously. Baek raised his arms to follow her, and Do Woojin held his weapons tighter. Shin-hyuk responded with a rough smile. However, their efforts to inspire their own spirits would soon wither in vain. Because the dungeon was too easy.
-Kuah!
“Monster!” It was a Gray Crow, the main monster in the Crow’s Nest. It was as big as a human with a clever intelligence not prone to provocation. They didn’t have long-range combat capabilities, however, and were easy to deal with.
“Kuh!” Shin-hyuk found it, and the moment he let out a cry, he threw his javelin with all his might. It gave the Crow no chance to escape as it flew faster than a bullet with his B rank strength, accurately piercing the Crow’s head to kill it. There was no message, which made Shin-hyuk think the Hero Universe didn’t count monsters below a certain level.
“Oh.”
“I guess it’s natural you can kill a D class monster in one hit.”
“But how do you retrieve that?”
“That’s the only downside. I can recover them after the battle.” He agreed it would be nice if they had an automatic recovery function, but it turned out that option belonged to a sword, not a javelin.
“Then I will retrieve it. I can go before the formation collapses and then get back.”
“Stop…whoa.”
“I’m back, was I fast?” Before he could even say thank you, Baek had returned with a javelin and a gray crow in hand. From him, it didn’t matter if it was a kilometer or not. He could travel back and forth within a second.
“Much faster than before.”
“Well, here you go.” As Baek returned Shin-hyuk’s javelin with a smile, Shin-hyuk realized it was still impossible for him to catch up with this guy.
“What about the monster corpse? It’s worth money.”
“Usually, we’d have a porter. But it can’t be helped…”
“It’s my job as supervisor.” Shin Eunah suddenly appeared in the air, grabbing the Gray Crow. It was immediately sucked into the air, which she explained as a rare inventory artifact, but Shin-hyuk knew the identity of the inventory.
“All corpses will be dealt with after training. If there is a skill stone, it will be distributed to the most suitable person.”
“Do skill stones actually show up?”
“Sometimes.” With a word, their motivation grew immensely. A skill stone was the fastest way for a superhuman to grow through the gate, although the probability was clearly slim. She clearly knew how to raise morale like a professional. They had no hesitation now, especially now that Shin-hyuk had someone to recover his javelins. He led the group, throwing one whenever he saw a Gray Crow. He didn’t even need to rely on his special javelins; the normal ones were doing fine.
“Hey, we don’t have anything to do.”
“I believe there is a section where the number of monsters is diversified. We’d usually come across more sooner, but Shin-hyuk is killing the Gray Crows before they can react.”
“We’ll have to kill the mobs before the boss, anyway, so let’s pull the crowds little by little from now on and fight.”
“Okay, then Karen will start first.”
“Okay.” Under the strict command of Hell Instructor Shin Eunah, Karen’s bow skills had increased remarkably over the past few days. Perhaps her ability to strengthen her nervous system had positively affected her learning ability as well, though she was still bad at studying.
-Kyaaaah!
-Kyaaaah!
“They’re calling for their friends like that.”
“Good. Do Woojin, get ready.”
“Already am.” The Gray Crow that was hit by Karen’s arrow began to scream loudly, soon met with a quick reply. Shortly thereafter, dozens of gray crows began to appear in the sky.
“So many?”
“Shin-hyuk has only been killing them one by one, so now they’re showing up in force?”
“Do Woojin, start provoking!” Kang Shin-hyuk decided to start it off with his steel javelin, which luckily triggered it’s split option from the start to tear into three Gray Crows instantly. The party’s eyes, seeing the power of his artifact for the first time, went wide open.
“Did Shin-hyuk really make that?!”
“Shoot them!” Shin-hyuk significantly reduced the Gray Crow’s numbers by throwing successive javelins, backed by Karen, firing off mana-filled arrows to thin them out at a slightly slower pace.
“I’m going to clash head-on. Should I participate in the ranged attack?”
“Do Woojin will bring them down with provocation, I need you to recover javelins.”
“Sheesh.” Shortly after Baek recovered my javelin, the Gray Crows began to launch their attack. Their method of hunting was to use their beak, sharper than a blade, to sweep down. Do Woojin stepped forward with a tense expression, raising his shield to shout.
“Provocation!”
“Is it a skill that works by shouting like that?”
“Oh, it works.” The Gray Crow was not a monster prone to provocation. However, whether the taunt he learned was of a high rarity or his skill aptitude was high, a large number of them stumbled in the air and started to move toward him. Of course, it was only about half, but that felt about right.
“It’s being covered by Do Woojin and Baek In-ha.”
“Shin-hyuk, please support me. I’ll switch to spear now.”
“Alright.” Again, Kang Shin-hyuk’s javelin announced the start of the battle. The Falcon’s Steel Javelin, which had the hit and pierce options, stabbed through three Crows and stuck to a fourth one. It continued to fly as the one it stuck to collapsed. But now, Karen wasn’t holding back anymore either.
Only
“Ha!” The Gray Crow approaching the ground was struck by a spear and killed. It wasn’t an easy thing to kill a D class monster with a single blow, and she was doing it with just a regular spear.
“Be diligent!”
“Ha!” Meanwhile, Do Woojin and Baek also fought very neatly. Baek was light on his feet, jumping up, killing crow after crow with his feet before landing on Do Woojin’s shield.
“What, you’re done already?”
“It’s not that bad of a gate.” It was probably because Baek said that, in the next moment, a bright light burst out of the stomach of a Gray Crow while Shin-hyuk was collecting his javelin from it.
“What?!” Shin Eunah, who had been watching from a distance, approached at a startling speed and began to cast protection magic. Unfortunately, Shin-hyuk was too close to the epicenter of the light to be protected by magic.
-Entered the B+ Class Irregular Gate Tomb of the Mantis. Be careful; this place has greater difficulty than your own ability.
He was swept away by the light.
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