As soon as they crossed the blue barrier of the safe zone, the sound of footsteps following behind could be heard. Sung Yohan had entered late. Sung Yohan stared intently at Igyeol walking ahead, but Igyeol ignored him and quickened his pace.
Igyeol habitually covered his nose with his hoodie sleeve as he walked. To reach Hesse’s Castle in the distance, they had to pass through about 500 meters of forest path. Igyeol looked around for things worth gathering as he walked. Whether Sung Yohan was following, chasing, or tagging along behind him, what mattered was not forgetting his own objective.
Trudge, trudge.
But that presence. That presence walking attached to his back—even when he tried to ignore it, he couldn’t. Sung Yohan was even walking in stride with Igyeol’s pace, as if matching his footsteps.
When Igyeol walked fast, Sung Yohan walked fast too, and when Igyeol hesitated, Sung Yohan stopped as well. Igyeol’s mood became extremely unpleasant as he turned around, trying to hide his twitching lips, but Sung Yohan just looked at him with a shameless face as if asking “what?”
“……”
“……”
‘Is this bastard messing with me?’
Even if they had the same entry point, wasn’t doing this bullshit right now basically asking for a fight? He glared with widened eyes, but Sung Yohan just stood there blankly, staring vacantly. Igyeol’s fists trembled and twitched, but in the end he held back and turned his body around again. Only then did Sung Yohan open his mouth first.
“Why did you enter the dungeon?”
Igyeol strode forward, ignoring Sung Yohan’s words.
“I can feel a terrible demonic energy here….”
Sung Yohan slightly wrinkled his nose as he looked around.
“Did you come in to meet your kin?”
Igyeol’s eyebrows twitched. Kin? He felt a bit choked up. That clean-looking bastard who called himself and was called the number one ranker had been treating him like some low-level demon crawling up from the Demon Realm since earlier. Anger boiled up inside him, but Igyeol bit his lip tightly and ignored it. That bastard thought whatever he wanted, so there was no need to engage with him.
Igyeol stopped walking and took out a worn hand hoe from the small backpack at his waist. It was the hoe that Grandmother Oksoon used to cherish. Now it was the hoe that Igyeol cherished. He crouched down and began tapping with the hoe under a blackish bush blooming by the roadside.
“……”
Sung Yohan looked down at that strange sight. The man who began digging what appeared to be grass with a slightly flushed face soon pulled out a clump in succession.
“…What are you doing? Why are you digging up that grass?”
Sung Yohan, unable to hold back, asked.
“Are you so lacking in food that you eat grass?”
Thwack— Thwack— Swoosh!
“Ah, are you using it to make elixirs?”
Thwack, thwack, thwack!
Igyeol completely ignored him as he diligently put what he’d dug up into a black bag, then walked again and stopped to dig whenever he saw grass with red leaves. Sung Yohan stroked his chin with a serious expression.
“…Are you really poor?”
“You bastard, would it be real?!”
Igyeol, unable to hold back any longer, exploded.
“Then why are you digging up that grass?”
“I’m digging because I need it, would I dig it out of boredom?”
“What is it then?”
“It’s there, medicinal herbs.”
“Medicinal herbs?”
Igyeol didn’t answer further and diligently pulled up the medicinal herbs until the bag was about half full, then stood up proudly. Sung Yohan’s brow furrowed even more. Igyeol began walking again, looking around diligently. Sung Yohan persistently followed Igyeol. Even accepting that there was only one path, Sung Yohan stared at Igyeol too obsessively.
That’s when it happened.
Kieek!
At the 2 o’clock position ahead, a beast with flashing red eyes appeared from behind the ruins of a collapsed castle wall. It was a deer-type monster with viciously protruding horns, a ‘Blood Elk’. Igyeol instinctively lowered his body.
‘I should avoid it.’
He didn’t want to use his strength and stand out unnecessarily. He might get picked on for no reason. Wasn’t Sung Yohan, who was making such a fuss just from saving one kid, stuck right next to him? Igyeol tried to move stealthily to the monster’s blind spot, quieting his footsteps.
But then.
Shwaaaa—!!
A chilling energy extended from the side. As Sung Yohan gracefully extended his hand, dazzling chains of light burst from the air and wrapped around the monster.
‘Chains of Judgment.’
It was Sung Yohan’s signature skill.
Kieeeek….
The Blood Elk died in one strike, sliced before it could even properly scream.
“……”
Igyeol blankly watched the scattering droplets of blood before slowly turning his head to look at Sung Yohan.
What the hell is a high-level doing in a low-level hunting ground?
He looked at Sung Yohan with coldly settled eyes, but he tilted his head.
“Were you going to catch it?”
It was an innocently naive question.
“You were killing your presence earlier, so I thought you were going to ambush it and struck first.”
“Hah….”
Igyeol let out a deep sigh in disbelief. Then he turned around and trudged forward. Sung Yohan looked at Igyeol with a face full of question marks before belatedly starting to follow him. Unable to bear it anymore, Igyeol whipped around and snapped.
“Why are you following me?”
Sung Yohan answered nonchalantly.
“I’m not following you. Our destination just happens to be the same.”
“Our destination is the same?”
“Aren’t you going to catch the boss? Your objective is the demon, isn’t it?”
“What? I’m a gathering hunter. I have absolutely zero intention of catching some boss or terrifying demon!”
“…You’re saying something ridiculous.”
“What’s ridiculous about it?!”
“A person who withstood my Holy Power says they have no intention of catching demons? Ah, perhaps it’s the tragedy of fratricide… something like that?”
Sung Yohan smirked.
“‘I can’t kill my brother with my own hands,’ that kind of melodrama?”
“This bastard….”
A vein stood out on Igyeol’s forehead.
“You keep going on about kin, but don’t spout nonsense at a perfectly normal human. I’m a very ordinary and good citizen of the Republic of Korea.”
“Hmm… even a passing fluttering platypus mole would laugh at that.”
“……?”
Igyeol’s expression twisted. He narrowed his brow as if trying to interpret what words he’d just heard.
“…Why specifically a fluttering platypus mole?”
“It’s a secret.”
“Tell me, you brat! I’m curious!”
“It’s a secret.”
“This bastard, really!!”
His fists trembled. He wanted to smack him hard on the head. Why is he so infuriating? Igyeol glared sharply at Sung Yohan then whipped his head away.
‘I’m the blockhead platypus mole for talking to him. Damn it.’
Igyeol took out the hoe again, thinking he’d just do his gathering. Then Sung Yohan suddenly brought up the main topic.
“Kang Yeongwon, that child.”
Igyeol flinched.
“He must have entered this place.”
Igyeol moved his hand that had stopped and re-gripped the hoe.
“Why are you telling me that? I’m not interested.”
“You must be interested. You must have been looking for him. I saw you carefully observing your surroundings.”
“How funny. I was just looking for medicinal herbs.”
“Why are you looking for medicinal herbs?”
“Well, I—”
Kururung!!
That’s when it happened. A roar that shook the earth cut off his words.
The ground trembled. In the dizzying vibration, Igyeol frowned and looked around.
The castle gate of Hesse’s Castle, not far away, was opening. And from inside, people who had entered earlier poured out like a swarm of ants. They were people who had entered as gathering hunters.
“Damn it, they said it was C-rank!!”
“Crazy, why is the boss door opening! Which bastard was it!”
“Which bastard is attacking it on their own!!”
“The raiders aren’t even here, why is the rank going up!!”
Along with people’s screams, the sky began to turn black. The blue sky instantly darkened like night.
Beep-beep, beep-beep—! Beeep!!
The watches on Igyeol’s wrist and Sung Yohan’s wrist simultaneously spat out warning sounds as if having a seizure.
Igyeol glanced at Sung Yohan, who was staring blankly, then took out a bucket hat from his backpack and tossed it to him. It would be troublesome if people recognized him as Sung Yohan. There might be confusion if someone recognized him like Kwon Ahjussi…. Sung Yohan glanced at Igyeol, then obediently caught the hat and put it on.
Igyeol quickly grabbed one of the people passing by and asked.
“Why, Ahjussi? What’s going on?”
“Someone opened the boss room door! They say the boss came out!”
“What? What do you—”
“It’s a C-rank dungeon but a demon burst out too, so the rank!”
He shouted with a face filled with terror.
“The exit opened so the entrance disappeared! We have to evacuate to the safe zone for now!!”
He shook off Igyeol’s hand and ran. Igyeol checked his watch with a hardened face.
[Warning! Dungeon rank readjustment]
[Measured magic power threshold exceeded]
[Hesse’s Castle
C-rank → B-rank readjustment
Contamination level sharply rising]
Beep-beep— Beep-beep— Beep-beep!
The watch’s warning sound rang rapidly like a heartbeat.
Igyeol unconsciously looked at Sung Yohan. Under the hat, Sung Yohan’s pitch-black eyes were directed at Igyeol. The two people’s eyes tangled in the air. A strange tension stretched taut. The situation was heading toward the worst.
