Chapter 796: Stormy Island (1)

「S-Class Dungeon. Stormy Island.」

The dungeon, which a 4-person party consisting of one S-Class Hunter and three A+-Class Hunters entered, was a dungeon located in an island-like region plagued by rain and thunderstorms.

“Sungchul-ssi! It’s a pack of skeletons on the right!”

“Got it!”

As soon as I turned my gaze to the right upon hearing Sihee’s words, over a dozen skeletons approached. Although their appearance, wearing pirate hats and crawling out of a shipwreck, was a bit contrived, they were special individual monsters among skeletons, despite how they looked.

They looked weak on the outside, but each one was equivalent to an A-Class monster, making them monsters surprisingly well-regarded for their swordsmanship skills, despite their appearance.

If only one or two had been crawling out, I might have been able to have a somewhat serious sword sparring session for practice, but with monsters swarming in right now, there wouldn’t be time for that.

‘If I could channel my ki to manifest sword aura and coat my blade with just one elemental magic…’

Fire swords probably wouldn’t even maintain their form in this rain, so that’s out. And coating my blade with the wind magic I got from Cha Yuri would also be difficult to utilize in an environment with such strong gusts. Ice swords would probably freeze over from the raindrops before I could even swing them, and plant magic… honestly, coating my sword with that didn’t seem to have much purpose.

I thought about this and that, but I had actually decided which magic to use from the start. Because the best spell to use when dealing with these undead-type monsters was always the same.

I cast the ‘Purify’ spell on the blade of my Damascus steel greatsword, coating it with holy magic, and swung it directly towards the monsters.

-Kkaga-ga-ga-gak!

‘Guk, kkeureuk….’

-Kkaga-gak! Kkaga-ga-ga-gak!

‘Kkeureureuk…. Gek….’

The monster’s blade met mine, which was coated in sword aura, but there was no way a mere monster could defeat my weapon, enhanced with sword aura and made by Areum. Rather, the shipwreck skeleton, sliced clean through, shattered into dozens of bone fragments the moment it was cut by the greatsword imbued with the Purify spell, and was purified.

It was a great achievement to be able to properly wield sword aura thanks to Eunyoung Noona’s training. Perhaps advancing to the next stage wasn’t too far off either.

‘If I just train a little more, I think I’ll be able to handle sword ki.’

Judging by my current growth rate, it seemed like I could reach Eunyoung Noona’s level not too long from now. Eunyoung Noona herself said it took her about 3 years after she seriously started wielding a sword to be able to handle sword ki. Since I’ve basically lived with my greatsword for about 2 years, I’ll probably break through another wall as a swordsman soon too.

-Rumble, boom!

A flash of light appeared and disappeared before my eyes, immediately followed by a delayed thunderclap that struck my ears. It was unavoidable, given the hunting environment where wind, rain, thunder, and lightning coexisted, fitting the name Stormy Island. There was even a possibility that lightning struck very close by, but I didn’t need to worry about suddenly getting struck by lightning and falling over in the current situation anyway.

First, Do Yehee’s lightning rod, created with her earth magic, was guiding the lightning away from us, serving as the primary defense. Second, Lulusia’s multi-layered protective magic was preventing us from suddenly dying of electrocution.

“Sihee! They’re coming from the northwest sky!”

“Got it, Sungchul-ssi!”

Simultaneously with her reply, five arcane arrows shot from her bow towards the northwest sky, flying directly towards the pack of Storm Crows approaching us, one arrow per crow.

-Puwook! Puwook!

‘Pweeeeeeooooook…!’

The pack of Storm Crows descending from the sky, hit by the arrows, fell downwards with short shrieks.

Perhaps because each and every arrow was filled with arcane magic, they flew straight without wavering even in the stormy environment, and their power was more than sufficient to eliminate A-Class monsters with a single shot. Even with her energy depletion, when I first met her, she struggled against a B-Class monster like the Treralodon, so this moment truly made me feel the years I’ve known Sihee and her growth.

“Ugh, I really didn’t expect you’d want to come hunting in a place like this….”

Do Yehee muttered self-deprecatingly while clearing the path with her mud golems and dealing with the monsters ahead.

Do Yehee’s appearance, wearing a drenched dress in the storm, was strangely lewd. The black underwear line showing beneath the tight-fitting dress… I couldn’t help but let my eyes drift towards it, even though I knew this wasn’t the time to be looking.

“Seriously, if it weren’t for me, how on earth were you planning to proceed on Stormy Island? It’s absolutely not an environment that can be breached with one front-liner and two back-liners!”

“If you, Do Yehee, weren’t here, of course, we wouldn’t have come to Stormy Island. Because you’re here, we can enter this S-Class dungeon and proceed.”

“……Ah.”

“Thanks to you. Because of you, I can even attempt to clear dungeons like this. Women like you are quite useful in many ways these days.”

“…If I’d known we’d come somewhere like this, I should have just turned back. This is truly the worst….”

Yet, Do Yehee diligently carved a path with her mud golems, proving that no one was quite like her when it came to the difference between words and actions. If it weren’t for Do Yehee, as I told her, we wouldn’t have planned an expedition to Stormy Island. We probably would have just gone hunting in an A+-Class dungeon as originally planned and then returned.

But with Do Yehee being so helpful in pathfinding, it was natural for the Foundation to want to tackle the notorious Stormy Island after all this time. In the first place, the only days I could go to work at the Foundation were when Sihee or Lulusia were also working there. Going into a dungeon that can only be accessed through the Foundation at times like these wasn’t a bad idea at all. More importantly, training that wears down the body and mind to their limits, once completed, always brings a satisfaction that multiplies manifold.

“Sungchul-ssi! Something’s coming from the left! From the left!!”

“Sihee~! Please intercept them mid-air~!”

“Lulusia! Reapply the waterproofing spell on the mud golems! They’re going to collapse right in front if this keeps up!”

…Whether the others feel the same way, I’m not sure.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

After advancing for about an hour, pushing through rain, lightning, forests, and monsters. Together with the three people showing signs of exhaustion both physically and facially, we entered a cave in the middle of the island to take a short break from the wind and rain.

-Ttuk, ttuk.

“Haa, I’m completely soaked…. If I’d known we’d come somewhere like this, I should have worn less precious clothes….”

As soon as we entered the cave, Do Yehee blocked the entrance with earth magic and started complaining. Drops of water collected on her clothes fell ‘ttuk, ttuk’ onto the floor, splashing. Seeing her pathetic state, I couldn’t bring myself to say anything and just accepted it. Not only was her entire body clad in a drenched dress clinging to her skin, but her appearance, having moved mud golems at the very front and been covered in crumbling dirt piles from the storm several times, couldn’t be described as good, even generously.

“Isn’t it natural to get this dirty when you enter a dungeon?”

“I don’t intend to argue with you even in a situation like this, Sihee-yah.”

“You know as well as I do that there’s no one more foolish than someone who expects to avoid getting dirty while living as a hunter, right? Perhaps because you wield magic that deals with dirt every day, you don’t really feel it?”

“Don’t lump me in with you, who rolls around in mud puddles every expedition due to lack of basic ability. Isn’t maintaining one’s elegance even while living as a hunter a basic qualification for a young lady of the Dokyung Group?”

“Look at you in that state, yet you can still spout nonsense about qualifications for a Dokyung Group lady.”

“Take off the twigs stuck in your hair before you speak. If you’ve bought a new hairpin and want to show it off, I’ll even teach you how to tie your hair up.”

“Ah, ahh~! Sihee~! Yay~! W-we shouldn’t fight~!”

Although it hadn’t even been half a day since this trio got together, it was more than enough time to figure out how these three usually got along. In this party, Lulusia seemed to be playing a role similar to Han Min-ah of the Sky Blue Shield, I suppose. Of course, she’s a bit less perceptive than Min-ah, but she was certainly fulfilling her role as the mood maker.

“Hmph!”

“…Seriously.”

Even while bickering like that, the two seemed to know that the moment Lulusia intervened was the signal to end the argument, and they appropriately stopped. Still, compared to the old days when they’d shove each other’s heads into the mud or slap each other back and forth without listening, I guess they’ve mellowed out a bit.