20 chapter - D-Class Gate (6)

The total number of brainless monsters that charged in was nine.

“I actually needed two or three more to sell them as research samples. This works out.”

Originally, I’d planned to climb back down and haul up the corpses of the ones we killed earlier inside the cave.

Now, I didn’t have to.

Thanks to these dumbasses flying all the way to the Gate entrance on their own.

“Boss! Nailed that timing!”

“Whew. If it hadn’t been for you, this fight could’ve gotten real ugly.”

Seeing Seong Yohan’s face actually made me a little glad.

If not for his yelling, I might’ve wandered around for hours up there without realizing how close I was.

I asked him, “But seriously, how’d you even know I was nearby?”

“Ah, well…”

Yohan scratched his head awkwardly.

I’d sensed something was off—and sure enough, Im Jin-sol stepped in to explain.

“Pure luck, Boss!”

“…Huh?”

“I made a joke about yelling out loud in case it made you show up—and this giant idiot actually went and did it without thinking.”

So basically, he screamed his lungs out without any real certainty I was close—and drew in monsters in the process.

“In the end, it worked out. We figured out how to deal with these things too.”

“You mean calling them over by shouting?”

“Yeah. If the enemy’s dumb enough to give up its terrain advantage just from a little noise, that’s a hell of a strategy. We’ll get great funding thanks to this.”

Flying monsters are a serious pain when encountered on a cliffside.

Your movement’s restricted while climbing, after all.

But if a simple shout makes them flock to the nearest cave? That’s a massive win for us.

Im Jin-sol gave a half-smile and said, “I mean, yeah, you could call that a strategy, Boss, but…”

“What? Problem?”

“There’s no way to know how many might show up. And if you’re unlucky… the boss monster might come too.”

Yeah, it definitely wasn’t a normal strategy.

“Sure, maybe you could handle it even if they all come at once, but the average team…?”

Not a chance.

She’s got a point.

The tactic was basically like smearing blood around to lure a whole pack of gnolls and fighting them all at once.

If the party was average, they’d be completely screwed.

Especially if that boss I saw up top showed up—most D-Class parties would get wiped.

To be fair, though, our party’s strength was pretty high even by D-Class raid standards.

I had physical strength rivaling C-Class Hunters, and aside from Yuna, everyone else was extremely competent.

“You make it look easy, Boss, but I’m pretty sure these things are top-tier among D-Class monsters.”

Their beaks could smash through solid rock.

Their kicks were so fast and heavy they’d taken me by surprise.

Im Jin-sol was right—these monsters were no joke.

“Anyway, Oppa… where’s Hong Soo-ah?”

Lee Yuna asked, voice hesitant.

“I found a boss cave on the way up. Soo-ah got hit by the boss and fell off the cliff.”

“What?! Then is she…?”

Everyone’s face turned grim.

“She’s alive. Hurt her leg, but she’ll be okay.”

“Eh?”

“Wait, what?”

“???”

I gave them a mischievous smile and pulled a rope from the raid kit, looping it over my shoulder.

“If you want the full story, ask Soo-ah when she gets back.”

While they were still staring at me in confusion, I pointed to the monster corpses scattered across the cave floor.

“While I’m gone, could you dissect these and extract the mana stones? Leave the intact ones—we’ll sell those for research.”

With everyone watching, I drove a bolt into the cave floor, hooked up the rope, and leapt off the cliff.

**

I found the cave where Hong Soo-ah was almost immediately.

I’d marked the route on the way up for this exact reason.

The rope made the return trip easy.

“Yohan.”

“Yes, Party Leader.”

“Check Soo-ah’s leg.”

Seong Yohan inspected the injury and said,

“I can fix it, but I need a monster to transfer the wound to.”

I tried shouting off the cliff as a test, but nothing responded.

Looks like we’d wiped out every last monster in the area.

The only other way was to half-kill something and drag it here, but that was tricky on a cliffside.

No helping it.

There was a simpler method.

One that involved a little pain on my part.

“Can you use it on people?”

“Sorry?”

“Your skill—can you transfer to people too?”

“Well, yes, but…”

“Then transfer her wound to me.”

Yohan looked stunned, so I clarified.

“Yuna can heal me right after. Just put the injury on me.”

“Ah—understood.”

I’d be healed right away, so a little pain wouldn’t kill me.

It was a small price to pay for a teammate.

“Yuna, mind giving me a quick heal?”

“Y-yes, Oppa—?”

CRACK!

“AAAAAGGGGHHH!!”

Right as I reached out to take Yuna’s hand, a scream like someone was being torn in half echoed through the cave.

“…??”

We turned to look at Hong Soo-ah—she’d passed out cold.

Next to her stood Seong Yohan, wiping sweat from his forehead with a perfectly refreshed look on his face.

As we stared at him like he’d lost his mind, he smiled and explained.

“Oh, uh… if I use my skill on her while it’s like that, it would’ve fused together the way it was. I had to reset it first before transferring.”

I suddenly remembered back during the F-Class Gate test, when we were first checking out everyone’s abilities.

Yohan had worn the exact same expression while watching the monsters writhe in agony.

That vaguely excited look.

…Did I recruit a psychopath?

I was genuinely starting to worry.

Im Jin-sol gave him a suspicious glare.

“You sure it’s okay to just snap it back like that?”

“Oh, yes. It’ll more or less settle into place. Using the skill now.”

Yohan placed his hand on Soo-ah’s leg.

CRACK.

An awful sound came from his leg this time.

“Ughh.”

Watching him transfer the wound to himself, I was too stunned to speak.

…Why does he look happy about it?

Don’t tell me… he likes the pain?

At least one thing was certain now.

Seong Yohan’s definitely a freak.

Did I mess up recruiting this guy? Should I kick him out?

I genuinely couldn’t tell if this party was well-assembled… or a complete disaster.

Before I could finish processing that thought, Im Jin-sol walked up beside us.

“Yohan.”

“Yes, Jin-sol-nim?”

With a rare dead-serious expression, she stomped on his leg.

Directly on the part where the wound had transferred.

“Ah?!”

But Yohan didn’t even flinch.

Instead—

“Pffft! Look at this freak enjoying it! You some kinda masochist?”

“Th-that’s not it, noona!!”

“Then explain this reaction, genius!”

“Urgh!”

“Unnie! Stop it!”

“Why? Look at this guy’s face—he’s loving it.”

The three of them had clearly gotten a lot closer.

It seemed like while Hong Soo-ah and I were gone, the three had bonded quite a bit.

Im Jin-sol burst into uncontrollable laughter at Seong Yohan’s flustered reaction.

Trying to explain himself, Yohan stammered out, “I-It’s my Trait! It’s a Trait that grows stronger the more pain I feel! So when I’m hurt, there’s this… kinda rush, a feeling of getting stronger, and it—uh—sort of feels… g-good…”

“That’s literally textbook pervert behavior!”

Im Jin-sol poked at his leg wound with her finger.

“P-Please stop!”

“Nope. I’m gonna keep going. Go on, level up! You can grow this easily and you’re turning it down?!”

“S-Seriously, stop—!”

Oddly enough, I was relieved.

Thank God. He’s not the kind of psycho who enjoys other people’s pain.

It made sense—his Trait caused that reaction. It wasn’t something he could help.

Even the way he reset Soo-ah’s leg wasn’t to cause pain. It was actually part of the healing process.

“Yohan, transfer the wound.”

“Yes, Party Leader. Look into my eyes, if you pleeease!”

Even as he prepared to do the transfer, Im Jin-sol kept poking at his injury.

“Pfft, hahaha!”

“…Cut it out.”

“Yes, Boss!”

Finally, Jin-sol stepped back, and Seong Yohan began the wound transfer.

Crack.

“Urgh.”

The moment the muscle and ligament tore, it was already healing.

Yuna’s power kicked in immediately.

The wound was transferred and healed almost simultaneously. The pain only lasted a second.

...Impressive.

Yuna’s power to heal even serious injuries in a flash was amazing on its own—but Yohan’s ability had incredible potential too.

Used right, he could be unstoppable.

Just in terms of raw stats, Yohan wasn’t anywhere near my level.

I could take him out in seconds in a straight fight.

But his Trait? That gave him the power to neutralize someone like me instantly.

Same would go for someone way stronger than me, even a high-tier monster.

The moment you locked eyes with him, you were out.

“Ugh…”

Yohan, who’d been smiling through intense pain earlier, now looked uncomfortable.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m out of mana.”

“Already?”

“Yes. The more mana the target has, the more it costs to use the skill.”

That was a downside—but not a dealbreaker. As Yohan’s own mana pool increased with growth, that limitation would lessen over time.

“You did good.”

Hong Soo-ah was fast asleep, her expression peaceful.

I gathered the remaining party members.

“We’re moving into the full assault phase now. Jin-sol.”

“Yes, Boss.”

“When Soo-ah wakes up, the two of you will move together and clean up the rest of the monsters.”

“...Sorry, what?”

“Head to the nearby caves. Lure them out and hunt them the same way we did earlier.”

“Just me and Soo-ah?”

“Yeah. You two will be enough.”

Honestly, even if there were more than ten, Hong Soo-ah could probably take them alone.

With the fog boosting her ice abilities, she could probably seal off an entire cave entrance in solid ice.

Seong Yohan asked with concern, “So… the three of us are heading out?”

Given that he was acrophobic and had no mana left, and Yuna wasn’t a fighter, there was no point in bringing them.

“You two are staying here.”

“What about you, Oppa?”

“I’m going to take out the boss.”

**

Finding the boss was easy.

Hong Soo-ah froze its lower body.

It wouldn’t have been able to fly far like that.

There was only one place a wounded beast like that would go to rest.

Bingo.

Sure enough, it was inside the cave we spotted during the scouting phase.

Screech?

The hulking, muscular bird—easily bigger than me—fluttered its wings as soon as it spotted me, its body tensing.

Each time it flapped its wings, fog billowed out and filled the cliff.

So that’s where the fog came from…

I’d originally planned to name it “Steelbeak Bird,” but this changed things.

Fog-Steelbeak Bird? Nah, too long. How about just Fogbeak?

It screeched, its voice echoing in warning.

SKREEEEE—! SKREE—EEEEK!

It beat its wings violently—but not for long.

Shlunk!

I dashed forward in a flash and cleaved straight through its neck.

For all the grief it caused us, the boss monster’s death was surprisingly anticlimactic.

Guess I’ll have to haul this thing out.

It was a newly discovered boss monster.

No way I was giving it up for research.

I planned to sell it at auction.

Look at that beak. Damn, that’s solid.

Strong enough to pierce stone. Premium material. It’d fetch a high price, no doubt.

I’ll need to break the ice.

Just as I was about to shatter the ice encasing it so I could haul the corpse, something in the nest caught my eye.

A single egg—about the size of a human head.

“…Oh?”

To me, it looked like a giant wad of cash.

That’s gonna go for a fortune at auction.

Just as I moved to grab it—

SKREE—SKREE—SKREE—!

A chorus of screeches rang out at the cave entrance.

Monsters had appeared.

Looked like that boss monster’s cry had been a distress call.

There were at least ten, just from a glance.

Even dead, this bastard’s still helping me out.

Didn’t even have to shout this time.

Truly, a monster that gave and gave.