Holy B-Class Life

#076

Time limit: 11 hours 05 minutes 44 seconds

The status window appeared again, as if giving a warning. Although the time spent on seeing Yoon Pa-ran wasn’t insignificant, the main reason for the shortage of time was due to the Tsar.

At the airport, he had talked nonsense about holding a banquet, and when Dan Joo-hyuk headed straight for the Gate, he started making other excuses. He began to insist on adjusting the time to the next morning for the safety of the attack team.

For normal attack teams, it was standard to depart in the morning local time according to human biorhythms. However, in a situation like this where multinational hunters were gathered, it was a meaningless gesture.

Anyway, it was a proposal that was strangely difficult to object to. The Korean side also concluded that they should respect the Tsar’s diplomatic face since it wasn’t nonsense like a banquet.

A day disappeared like that, but there was something that irritated Dan Joo-hyuk’s nerves even more.

“…”

It was the terrible skills of the Russian hunters.

The stupid cloaks not only obstructed one’s own view but also the view of those fighting alongside. Some seemed unfamiliar with the cloaks, showing clumsy behavior.

He couldn’t understand why they insisted on such attire even inside the Gate.

Despite their outward military discipline, Russian hunters had the stigma of being mana stone scavengers. It was a mocking term implying that they spent more time collecting mana stones scattered across the vast tundra than facing monsters in Gates.

Given the vast land from the Arctic to Siberia, it was common for monsters to stop functioning before even reaching cities. As a result, a significant amount of mana stones fell to the ground. It wasn’t for nothing that Russia was the main exporter of mana stones in Europe.

Today, Dan Joo-hyuk fully understood why they had earned that stigma. Just looking at the skills of Sergei, who was supposed to be Russia’s top hunter, gave an idea of the overall level.

“Sigh… Then what happens to our allowance?”

“Why are you asking about the allowance?”

“It was added as danger pay, but ahem, if it’s this manageable, won’t they try to cut it?”

“Who knows. The Korean government will fight that battle for us, I guess?”

This was already the last safe zone. There was only the boss left ahead or perhaps one more charge.

Having reached some conclusion that they wouldn’t lose their lives, the hunters gathered around Dan Joo-hyuk started to chatter.

Hunters who wouldn’t dare come near him in Korea now gathered around Dan Joo-hyuk abroad, enduring his aura with difficulty.

“Ahem. Everyone, stop with the useless talk.”

“Y-yeah. It’s almost time to depart, let’s all focus.”

Some veteran A-rank hunters, watching Dan Joo-hyuk’s mood, tried to control the chatter.

Regardless, Dan Joo-hyuk, leaning against a collapsed wall, cast his gaze in the direction where the boss would be. His eyes narrowed as he noticed something unsettling.

If one were to view this indoor terrain from above, it would probably form a giant maze. There were frequent forks in the path, but due to the vast space, not many would have realized it accurately.

And Sergei, one of those who realized this, felt compelled to check the end of every fork in the path. He did this even though it wasn’t necessary if one could read the presence of monsters and the faint flow of air.

Even if it was for exploration purposes, it was a stupid thing to do. The agreement was that all resources inside the Gate would belong to Russia.

If anything valuable were to be discovered, it would be best to keep it as secret as possible, but to act like this with so many watching eyes…

Such strange movements from the Russian side continued. Sergei, who had been resting on the opposite side, approached Dan Joo-hyuk directly.

“Hunter Dan Joo-hyuk. It’s me.”

The interpreter hunter nervously relayed the message in Korean from the side.

The Korean hunters who had been chattering around suddenly fell silent. Dan Joo-hyuk, who only turned his gaze to look at them, made a chin gesture as if telling them to speak.

“I’d like us to camp out for a day to recover our strength. Let’s make thorough preparations before facing the boss.”

Sergei proposed with an unusually gentle tone. It was contrary to the past few days when his expression was always unpleasant due to Dan Joo-hyuk’s attitude.

However, the content was so unusual that everyone looked to Dan Joo-hyuk.

They had already rested for more than three hours.

Whatever message they had received from the Tsar, they were blatantly trying to tie down Dan Joo-hyuk.

At first, there were quite clever excuses. Someone was injured, there was an unknown monster ahead, and so on. But as time passed, the atmosphere became strange enough for everyone else to notice.

Of course, others interpreted Russia’s actions somewhat naively. The most plausible guess was that the Tsar had entered into performance inflation, as if even Dan Joo-hyuk would take time to solve such an impressive Gate.

However, strangely, he had a bad feeling about this.

Even if this feeling was given by the quest’s time limit.

“Alright.”

“Ah! Thank you, then…”

Dan Joo-hyuk slowly got up. His great sword, which had been carelessly stuck to one side, too.

Since entering the Gate, Dan Joo-hyuk had never sheathed his sword. Because this damn feeling had been bad all along.

“I’m going ahead. I don’t have time.”

He blurted out to the interpreter without listening to the other’s intentions.

After turning his head, he also warned the Korean hunters.

“Form a defensive formation, and follow them well.”

“Y-yes?”

Right after those words, he stomped the ground hard.

In an instant, he passed the statue at the exit of the safe zone.

“Dan Joo-hyuk!”

Sergei chased after him urgently, but he couldn’t beat him in speed. The faces of the Russian hunters all contorting passed faintly through his field of vision.

Their faces weren’t just filled with anger at being ignored. There was a sense of dismay, as if something had gone wrong.

“…”

Having read this even in that brief moment, Dan Joo-hyuk put more strength into his legs and stomped the ground.

There were a few monsters left on the way to the boss. While smoothly evading them, Dan Joo-hyuk found his way.

It was surprising how Dan Joo-hyuk had only found the right paths despite consuming so much time until now. He inevitably encountered monsters, but he could avoid them without even brushing against them by kicking off the walls.

The monsters here basically looked like hermit crabs, but their specific appearances varied. However, even in such cases, they all had thick shells on their backs.

Because of this, they had a weakness of not being able to lift their heads to the sky. So when moving along the walls from outside their perception range like this, they just floundered about, unable to easily find Dan Joo-hyuk.

Of course, this wasn’t an avoidance method just anyone could do. As it was estimated to be a metal attribute Gate, the monsters’ pincer attacks were incredibly fierce. Their thick, metal-hard shells were also difficult to break through.

By the way, the nature of this Gate is certainly strange.

Everyone expected it to be metal attribute, but couldn’t confirm it. The monsters’ unique trickery was strongly detected, obscuring the elemental characteristics of the Gate.

Dan Joo-hyuk ran alone like that for about two hours.

“…”

Suddenly, the scent of the Gate that brushed his nose changed. It was a very subtle change, but Dan Joo-hyuk’s face hardened seriously.

This was the scent of death emanating from monsters.

The problem wasn’t just that. This scent was similar to what he had detected from that strange stone he discovered with Yoon Pa-ran.

Could it be a sign of an anomaly Gate?

His tension reached its peak after entering the Gate. It reminded him of the A-rank anomaly Gate in Korea where most of the attack team had been annihilated.

It was unknown whether the boss monster in the A-rank anomaly Gate had swallowed a suspicious stone. However, after seeing the change in the boss monster that came into contact with the stone fragment in the low-rank Gate he entered with Yoon Pa-ran, the possibility was sufficient.

If the boss monster of this SS-rank Gate had a thick shell, it would be even more troublesome. Even with Yoon Pa-ran’s power maximized, it couldn’t be guaranteed that the attack would be effective.

A cold sensation swept over his entire body. Dan Joo-hyuk, with a grave expression, continued running silently for now.

At that moment, a suspicious presence was suddenly detected from a fork in the path ahead.

“…”

It was a path he hadn’t intended to take. There was a chance it could be a monster separated from its group, but something felt off. With time running short, it would be wise to ignore it, but strangely, his instincts were warning him even more.

After some deliberation, Dan Joo-hyuk changed his course. Towards the very path he originally hadn’t intended to take.

“Gasp…!”

Unexpectedly, there was a human there.

And it seemed to be quite a high-ranking hunter at that.

“W-what?”

The attire was that of an ordinary foreign hunter.

However, what reflexively came out of his mouth was clearly Russian.

As soon as he uttered those words, the man turned around and fled after confirming Dan Joo-hyuk’s face. In that brief moment, Dan Joo-hyuk made his judgment.

“D-damn it! Why is he here already…!”

Especially when suspicious circumstances flowed from the man’s mouth, Dan Joo-hyuk unhesitatingly reached out.

For now, he needed to catch that guy.