HAASAADB 10

10

Episode 10

“Son of a bitch…”

A poison needle pierced the ground between Kang Chan-woo’s legs as he fell backward in surprise. It was a sight that would send a chill down any man’s spine.

‘How the hell did that bastard get past here?’

“You okay?”

Han Do-yoon asked, waving from the other side. Grinding his teeth, Kang Chan-woo pulled out his sword and stood up.

“Who are you worrying about here?”

With every step he took, traps activated in a chain reaction. Flames spewed from walls, rocks fell from the ceiling, and the ground cracked open with holes. Kang Chan-woo smashed through, dodged, and endured all of it as he advanced.

Han Do-yoon eyes glinted coldly as he watched the spectacle. Before an actor performs, they must analyze the script and understand the director’s intent. Every line, every movement has a reason. This trap room was the same.

“The traps don’t activate when stepping on the floor tiles with a specific pattern.”

「…Now that you mention it, you’re right. There are areas where the magical flow is restricted.」

Finally, Kang Chan-woo, panting heavily, arrived at the other side and shouted. His entire body was a mess of dust and soot.

“You think I can’t do what you did?”
“Good work. Thanks to you, I figured it out.”

Han Do-yoon turned his gaze and shouted to the colleagues who hadn’t crossed yet.

“You can cross now! Start from the far right edge and come diagonally, one tile at a time!”
“?”
To the hesitant colleagues, Han Do-yoon added.
“It’s fine. It’s the safe path.”

Kang Chan-woo, who had slumped to the floor swallowing dry saliva, looked up at Han Do-yoon. The traps really didn’t activate.

“Damn it. What the hell…”

Beside the cursing Kang Chan-woo, one of the colleagues who had safely navigated the trap section asked in admiration.
“How on earth did you know?”
Han Do-yoon gestured with his chin toward Kang Chan-woo, who was holding his shoulder and seething in the corner.
“Our leader showed us with his whole body. Where the dangerous spots were.”
“You mapped out all the trap locations in that situation?”
‘The bait shouldn’t be me, it should be you.’
Still, thanks to that, no one got hurt.
“But wasn’t Do-yoon the first to cross?”
Han Do-yoon added with a good-natural smile.
“I was lucky. I think the room activated right after I crossed.”
“Well, otherwise it wouldn’t make sense.”
“I’ve seen a trap room that just didn’t work at all before too.”

It was a much more realistic excuse than saying he stepped on the only safe points. He received even more enthusiastic praise than when he killed the golem.

“Do-yoon is the MVP of this subjugation.”
“Seriously, agreed.”

That was understandable. Because the section with the most casualties in C-Rank dungeons was the traps. In a way, Kang Chan-woo, who brute-forced his way through alone, was also impressive. Though he seemed to have hurt his shoulder…

He felt deeply satisfied.

‘If Ellis hadn’t been there, that would have been me.’
No. If it had ended like that, it would have been fortunate. I would have died 100%.

“What kind of veteran hunter hides skills like that?”
“The way you handled the trap dungeon isn’t something you learn in one or two tries, are you really D-Rank?”
“I must be. I just got re-tested today.”
“Re-tested?”
“Yes. Someone from the Association suddenly suggested I get re-tested.”

The notoriously lazy Association showing interest? As the topic suddenly shifted to the Association, even Kang Chan-woo, who had been silent, pricked up his ears.

“What was the name… Moon Do-hyun, I think?”
“That Moon Do-hyun who just became the youngest deputy team leader of the investigation department?”
He was that impressive?
“He even had me do a mock battle.”
“…!”

Kang Chan-woo let out a series of choked coughs as if he’d swallowed wrong. Impossible. Mock battles were a high-cost operation that consumed artifact uses each time. There’s no way a D-Rank would do that. He’d heard even the seniors in the same guild team as him hadn’t done mock battles. At least B-Rank. No, maybe even A-Rank.

Kang Chan-woo clicked his tongue and changed the subject.
“Enough chatter. Let’s go now.”
“…Yeah, sure.”

The team members followed reluctantly with dissatisfied faces.

“It’s a miracle you’re still in this team. I’d have run away with a leader like that.”
“That guy’s older brother is an S-Rank.”
“What?”
“You didn’t know?”

Glancing at Kang Chan-woo, he continued.
“He causes so many accidents. Even his brother has cut him off. But you know about this, right? The disaster at the Jeju Island subjugation.”
“…Jeju Island, you mean.”
“Only Kang Hyun-woo came back alive from that. Dozens of guild members died because of that, so now they need even a younger brother like him. He’s C-Rank, but his skills are solid. Given his brother is Kang Hyun-woo, he seems to have potential too…”

Kang Hyun-woo.
Kang Chan-woo.
Wow…!
I didn’t know that!
I was genuinely surprised. I thought he was just arrogant relying on his own strength, I didn’t know he had such connections.

“He’s been compared to his older brother since he was young, so his personality is messed up.”
“Hmm…”
“I heard the 【White Tiger】 Guild is preparing a re-subjugation to make up for their last failure…”

That, I can’t just ignore.

“Around when?”
“We don’t know that either.”

Just as Han Do-yoon gradually increased his pace to move beside Kang Chan-woo, a colleague urgently added.
“Do-yoon! He’s sensitive about that incident right now, it’s better not to bring it up…”
“…Understood.”

While briefly pondering how to broach the subject, Kang Chan-woo spoke first.

“Hey, fall back. The boss room is probably soon. No… wait, maybe it doesn’t matter.”

Still as unpleasant as ever, but he seemed slightly deflated.

At that moment—Han Do-yoon forcefully smacked the back of Kang Chan-woo’s head.

Thwack!

Kang Chan-woo’s head snapped to a 90-degree angle. Everyone who saw the scene couldn’t hide their shock. But what was more surprising came next.

An arrow flew over Kang Chan-woo’s head.
If he hadn’t ducked…

“I saved you once?”

Kang Chan-woo looked up at Han Do-yoon with a pale face.
“If you’re grateful, just answer one question for me later.”

He didn’t get an answer.

“…Ambush!”

The colleagues moved in unison. The warrior stepped forward, and the archer and healer took their positions.
“Let’s take that thing out first.”

「The boss is changing the terrain.」

It was Elris who had warned of the ambush in advance. The moment her words ended, the floor twisted, and the terrain, which had been a narrow passage, began to change. Walls collapsed, the ceiling rose, and the structure rearranged itself. In the midst of it stood a single marionette.

「The marionette boss, Karak.」

Creak…

Golems embedded in the walls and floor slowly revealed themselves. Five in total. And most importantly, there was no slime-like substance, so pulling off a trick like earlier seemed difficult. As Karak flicked its fingers, the golems fiercely charged toward them.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The golems ran and threw punches. Quickly, the warrior stepped forward and raised his shield.

Boom—!

He was pushed back a good ten meters.
“Cough!”

His legs trembled from just one hit.

“Don’t try to block the attacks, dodge!”

「Coming from the left.」

Han Do-yoon narrowly dodged the following fist. Why are the golems so fast? No.

‘I was F-Rank, wasn’t I?’

I’m the slow one. If Ellis hadn’t warned me in advance, I’d have been paste.

“Fire won’t work, right?”
「No.」
“Other attributes either?”
「That’s correct.」

If attribute magic doesn’t work, should I pull out another artifact? Did I have anything to deal with golems? Don’t panic, analyze slowly. Controlling emotions calms the mind. That was what Han Do-yoon did best.

“Marionette means it’s controlling the golems, right?”
「Yes.」

He saw Karak wiggle its fingers. At the same moment, Kang Chan-woo was hit by a golem’s fist and rolled dozens of times.

“Ugh!”

The golem’s fist came crashing down on Kang Chan-woo, who was coughing up blood in pain.

Boom—!

A shield blocked it.
“Hahahaha!”

With a shout, he pushed the golem back. The colleague gritted his teeth, holding on with willpower. Kang Chan-woo quickly got up and raised his sword. He planned to use sword aura to cut off the golem’s entire arm while the warrior blocked. But then—his previously injured shoulder throbbed. The golem’s gaze turned back to Kang Chan-woo…

“Ah.”

The moment Kang Chan-woo let out a short groan, Han Do-yoon, who had closed in, swung his sword.

“Move!”

Boom—!

Han Do-yoon Strength stat was 20. An insufficient stat to cut off a golem’s arm in one hit. However—the remaining duration from the 【Eirazeon’s Fire Attribute Orb】 he used earlier was still active.

Whoosh!

Flames engulfed the golem’s body explosively. Clearly, it shouldn’t work… The golem’s body collapsed forward limply.

“Dodge!”

Kang Chan-woo grabbed the warrior who was blocking the golem’s fist from below and rolled to the side.

Thud…

‘Just as I expected.’

「…Could it be? I didn’t imagine you could sever the threads connecting the boss and the golems with fire.」

Karak’s looked at its own fingers. The fingers connected by threads were also burning up.

‘In other words…’

His mouth watered. ‘It’s the same situation as before.’ I’ll get some nice EXP.

‘Gather the remaining duration of the fire orbs into one strike.’

He swung his sword. Flames surged like a tidal wave, swallowing the four golems charging toward them.

Same time. Busan Branch Office, Hunter Association.

“Deputy Team Leader!”
Moon Do-hyun was rationalizing the horrific experience from lunch as a hallucination caused by stress.

“Deputy Team Leader!”
“…Did you call me?”

Startled by the touch on his shoulder, Moon Do-hyun answered.
“How many times do you think I called you?”
“Sorry. My head hurts a bit. What is it?”
“About Han Do-yoon,, the one you re-tested at lunch.”
“…What about Do-yoon,?”
“The mock battle results are out.”
“What did it say?”
“It says ‘Impossible to Measure.’”
“What do you mean?”

The artifact that conducts mock battles quantifies the wavelength of magical a hunter emits when fighting monsters.

“It means they are either too weak to measure…”
Moon Do-hyun recalled the eeriness he felt earlier from his words.

“…Or the opposite.”

The mock battle can measure up to S-Rank. Higher than that?

Then a voice came from behind.
“Interesting story. Let me see that data.”

It was the Busan Branch Director.