BS 08

Chapter 8. The Value of ‘Me,’ the Hunter (2)

Jaehyuk calmly looked over the corpse of the monster he had cut down and the surrounding environment.

“Hmm, is this the ‘Predator’s Forest’?”

“‘Predator’s Forest’?”

Doyoon tilted his head at the unfamiliar name.

“What I just cut was still a cub. This is a forest inhabited by monsters called ‘Big Bear Punch,’ which look similar to bears. It’s better not to know what they look like in detail. It’ll probably ruin your appetite. Instead, just know that they like fire and travel in groups.”

Doyoon blankly listened to Jaehyuk’s explanation, then flinched as if he had been hit on the head with a hammer.

“If they travel in groups…”

“I won’t let them lay a finger on you, so don’t worry.”

As he confidently said that, Jaehyuk moved forward before taking one last glance at Doyoon.

Fortunately, although Doyoon seemed a little stiff, he didn’t appear to be trembling in fear or losing consciousness.

Perhaps it was more surprising that he was so calm.

Even though it was only a D-Rank Gate, has he actually entered Gates before?

Jaehyuk lightly loosened up his body, then drew one of the two swords hanging at his waist. It was the one with the relatively shorter hilt and longer scabbard.

“Phew.”

He exhaled slowly as he scanned the ‘Big Bear Punch’ surrounding them.

If they had fur, they would have looked almost exactly like bears and might have been somewhat tolerable to look at. But these creatures were covered in skin resembling basalt, riddled with holes like those of a toad.

In terms of hardness, their skin was inferior to diamond but about as hard as corundum. Their fingernails and toenails, however, were nearly as strong as diamonds.

The claws of Big Bear Punch do sell pretty well as monster parts.

They were tempting, but today’s goal wasn’t to kill monsters quickly and collect their parts.

He had come here so that Doyoon could realize his own strength.

He planned to fight appropriately while deliberately taking enough damage to keep Doyoon from being in any real danger.

That way, he would build Doyoon’s confidence.

Jaehyuk cut down monsters here and there while deliberately leaving openings.

He was giving the ‘Big Bear Punch’ plenty of opportunities to rush in and sink their claws into him at any moment.

But the ‘Big Bear Punch’ didn’t seem to notice the openings, so Jaehyuk swung his sword and pushed even deeper into the monster horde.

Just as he was effortlessly cutting down a ‘Big Bear Punch’ that leaped from the right, another ‘Big Bear Punch’ spotted Jaehyuk’s exposed back and raked it with its hard, sharp claws.

It was the moment Jaehyuk had been waiting for.

In Doyoon’s eyes, he saw Jaehyuk’s vitality drop as he staggered.

But there were so many monsters that Doyoon was afraid to approach.

He had an instinctive feeling that if he moved even a little, the monsters currently focused only on Jaehyuk would turn their attention toward him.

Anxiously following Jaehyuk’s movements, Doyoon eventually reached a point where his eyes could no longer keep up.

Jaehyuk was moving so quickly that by the time Doyoon’s gaze caught up, Jaehyuk’s body had already moved somewhere else.

After nearly five minutes, Jaehyuk finished clearing the surrounding area and approached Doyoon while catching his breath.

“Phew. It’s been a while since I ran around without taking a break. I’m out of breath.”

Jaehyuk chuckled when he saw Doyoon’s deeply worried expression.

Then he held out his injured arm first—the one that had been scratched by a monster.

“Here. Give it a try.”

“What?”

“They’ll respawn and come back soon. Am I supposed to fight like this again?”

Doyoon was puzzled.

He clearly remembered that when Jaehyuk was first injured in the back, his vitality had dropped sharply. After that, his vitality had only decreased slightly from the smaller wounds.

“……Wasn’t your back injured more seriously?”

“Ah, my wound is throbbing~”

Jaehyuk rested an arm over Doyoon’s shoulder and leaned against him.

Then he brought his injured arm right up to Doyoon’s nose.

Doyoon found the situation strange because it was exactly the same as when he had first met Jaehyuk.

He pushed Jaehyuk away from his shoulder and stood him in front of himself before using his healing ability.

The white strands that flowed out of Doyoon’s body split into several threads before scattering toward Jaehyuk’s arm, back, and hand, where they were absorbed.

After healing the wounds in an instant, Doyoon lightly knocked away Jaehyuk’s arm when he tried to put it over his shoulder again.

“You’re exaggerating.”

“Kehehe. That’s how you live a long time.”

At Jaehyuk’s muffled laugh, Doyoon stared at him blankly.

What does that mean?

“You did well to hold yourself back just now. If you’d moved, all the monsters would’ve swarmed you.”

When did he see that?

Jaehyuk checked that his wounds had healed properly and grinned.

“Oh~ It healed nicely. As expected, there’s no healer better than our Emperor when it comes to external injuries.”

Doyoon stared at Jaehyuk incredulously as he spread both arms toward him.

It was only the second time he had treated him.

Yet Jaehyuk acted as though they had known each other for a long time.

“GRAAAAAAH!”

At the loud roar of a bear, an enormous ‘Big Bear Punch’ charged toward Jaehyuk from behind.

To Doyoon, the sight looked like a huge mass of red liquid was about to engulf and erase Jaehyuk.

“Behind you! Watch your—!”

Whoosh! Slaaash!

In an instant, Jaehyuk lowered his stance and spun his body once, slicing the enormous ‘Big Bear Punch’ in half.

It was difficult to believe that such tremendous power had come from the same Jaehyuk who had been attacking with just enough strength to inflict shallow wounds moments ago, before returning because he was tired.

Doyoon looked down at his feet, which had instinctively staggered and retreated from the wind spreading in every direction as Jaehyuk moved.

Strong…

Of all the Hunters Doyoon had seen so far, Jaehyuk seemed to be the strongest.

The energy touching his skin was so chilling that it gave him goosebumps.

Was he really someone who handled such a savage aura?

The Jaehyuk Doyoon had encountered until now had only ever shown him a kind side that constantly praised him.

He could be a little selfish at times, but since it had never caused Doyoon any harm, he had never thought of it as something bad.

But today, for the first time, Doyoon felt as if he had caught a glimpse of Jaehyuk’s true self.

“Ah, I didn’t mean to. Hahahaha.”

Jaehyuk kicked the monster, which had been split in two, away from him.

Then he rubbed the ground with his foot, roughly wiping away the sticky green blood.

Doyoon might not be able to see it, but the area around the pure-white Doyoon, who was standing there with his eyes perfectly fine, seemed like something that needed to be kept neat.

Perhaps having decided to protect Doyoon, Jaehyuk now felt as though he had also taken on the responsibility of keeping the area around him clean.

“How was it? Now that you’ve used your healing ability? Don’t you feel like you’re a little more impressive?”

“Don’t all healers do this much?”

“Should I have brought another healer? This is troublesome.”

Jaehyuk walked over to Doyoon, who still didn’t understand his own abilities, and stopped in front of him.

“Do you still have strength left?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Then I’ll make you realize that you’re better than other healers.”

Jaehyuk said that confidently before once again beginning to fight the newly spawned horde of ‘Big Bear Punch.’

He came back injured in all sorts of ways.

At first, they were just minor cuts, but at one point, he approached Doyoon with pieces of flesh torn away so deeply that even the bones were visible and showed him the wound.

Doyoon couldn’t see the depth of the wounds, but by listening to how much Jaehyuk’s vitality decreased and hearing him describe the shape of the wounds, Doyoon gradually began matching the information he could perceive with an approximate image of the actual injuries.

“Urgh!”

At Jaehyuk’s low groan, Doyoon snapped back to reality.

Watching Jaehyuk’s vitality continue to decrease as time passed, Doyoon began to feel seriously concerned.

That meant Jaehyuk was fighting while continuously bleeding.

At this rate, something serious seemed likely to happen before Jaehyuk could finish clearing out the monsters.

Doyoon hesitated, then took about two steps forward and used his healing ability on Jaehyuk.

At that moment, three ‘Big Bear Punch’ that had been somewhat far away from Jaehyuk turned their heads toward Doyoon.

Doyoon felt the red body temperatures of the monsters turn directly toward him and instinctively took a step backward.

Memories of the past overlapped in his mind—the time when he had entered a Gate first and the monsters had charged toward him.

His legs began trembling violently.

He wanted to run away immediately, but Jaehyuk’s wounds still hadn’t been completely healed, so he couldn’t retreat.

The healing was taking longer than usual.

The depth of the wounds was certainly a factor, but the distance seemed to have an even greater effect.

Watching the long, stretched-out white threads, Doyoon dragged his trembling legs and moved closer to Jaehyuk.

He also strongly felt that he had a better chance of surviving if Jaehyuk recovered quickly and dealt with the monsters than if he simply ran away.

“Hahahaha, nice. Emperor.”

In a good mood, Jaehyuk spun his body 360 degrees, sweeping away the ‘Big Bear Punch’ around him before charging toward the ones that had been drawn toward Doyoon.

Jaehyuk moved in an instant and cut down the ‘Big Bear Punch’ on his left.

At the same time, the remaining ‘Big Bear Punch’ charged toward Doyoon.

A monster was rushing toward him from the exact opposite direction from Jaehyuk.

The moment all the white threads that had been attached to Doyoon’s fingertips disappeared, he collapsed to the ground and clutched his head.

His legs had no strength left to run.

And he had already experienced it once before, hadn’t he?

He knew that he was far too slow to outrun the monsters.

“Ugh!”

Whoosh!

A powerful gust of wind brushed past Doyoon.

Thinking that Jaehyuk had arrived, Doyoon raised his head.

But Jaehyuk was far away, cutting down another monster.

Then what was that wind just now?

Doyoon quietly turned around.

He was bewildered when he saw the monster that had been charging toward him lying on the ground.

Did he use an attack skill from that far away?

“Are you weak against fighting multiple enemies?”

Doyoon tilted his head.

Because the visual information available to him was limited, Doyoon had failed to realize that Jaehyuk was deliberately taking injuries while fighting.