Episode 59. Dungeon Practice Training (3)

Grrr…

The ogre slowly moved its head as if observing me.

My heart started beating faster in response.

It’s the precursor to combat sense.

I’ve grown accustomed to the feeling of combat sense now.

Thump.

The ogre before me lives by entrusting itself to instinct.

Instinctive destruction and plunder; it eats what it grabs and breaks what moves.

This stupid monster, despite knowing nothing, possesses excessive, useless curiosity.

That’s why it always observes anything it sees for the first time.

It’s because it’s confident that it won’t be too late to counterattack once an attack comes.

That’s why now, while the ogre is still observing me, I need to land a hit.

Without letting the ogre notice, I slowly condensed mana within my body.

The moment mana moves externally, the ogre will charge.

So, I need to manifest magic circles instantaneously and inflict damage before the ogre perceives it.

That was my specialty, so I was confident.

Three seconds from now.

The ogre is still looking at me. Now, it was also glancing at Baek Ahyoung behind me.

‘Got it!’

Chaaaaaa!

The instantly completed magic circles unleashed magic.

Aiming for the ogre’s eyes with one hand, I fired a fireball.

Blades of wind flew towards the ogre’s belly, slashing its skin.

Bang! Bang! Pshooooo-

The fireball’s smoke enveloped the ogre, and after a moment, the ogre appeared, blocking its face with both arms.

“Hah, this guy’s completely insane.”

Surprisingly, the arms blocking its face were clean, without a single scratch.

Only the belly, slashed by dozens of blades, had a minor abrasion.

The ogre growled, spitting out its displeasure.

Kuoooh!

The ogre stomped its foot, expressing its rage.

It had now completely recognized me as an enemy.

Kuoooh!

The ogre, eyes reddened, charged at me and swung its fist.

Seeing it drooling, I really didn’t want to get close.

I glanced back slightly.

Baek Ahyoung was looking this way, shivering.

I rapidly circulated the mana in my mana circuits.

I used ‘Acceleration’ and dashed forward.

To prevent Baek Ahyoung from getting hurt, it was better to fight in front.

Boom! Crash!

Dodging the ogre’s fist, I moved to distance the battlefield from Baek Ahyoung.

Kuoooh!

Whoosh-!

The ogre’s fist, which passed right before my eyes, ruffled my hair.

If that hit properly, my ribs would definitely break.

I slowly lured the ogre further away from Baek Ahyoung while gathering mana again.

‘What should I do?’

Its skin is too tough, making it difficult to inflict damage with my magic.

I didn’t have time to prepare high-level magic, nor enough mana.

In that case, I needed high destructive power with low mana consumption.

Thump.

My heart accelerated rapidly.

While my body felt the ogre’s hot breath and dodged its attacks, my mind remained cool, contemplating a solution.

To generate high destructive power with low mana, I needed to attack at close range.

That way, the waste of power during projectile travel disappears.

Furthermore, I had to maximize efficiency by increasing the attack speed with ‘Acceleration’.

I had a direction.

There were two things I could do.

Either punch the ogre’s belly with my mana-enhanced fist.

Or create a new form of magic that could wound the ogre and embed it in its belly.

Fortunately, unlike the fireball which left no soot even after hitting the ogre, the wind blades caused minor scratches.

That was the breakthrough.

Kuoooh!

I dodged the ogre’s fist heading towards my head by lowering my head.

At the same time, I condensed mana in my hand.

I drew out mana in a spiral form, similar to when I created the Cotton Guard.

The spiral form, which pursues solid defense, could conversely become the hardest means of attack.

I imbued the solid mana with the will of sharpness.

The mana was sharpened, but this was no different from the wind blades.

I condensed the spirally twisted mana by rotating it into a spherical shape.

The sphere of the spiral, rotating at tremendous speed, would gnaw away at the ogre’s skin, albeit slowly.

Kwoong!

The ogre’s arm swung down next to me once again.

‘I’ll break through with the next attack.’

I deliberately maintained close proximity, inducing a large movement.

The stupid ogre fell for my ploy and slammed both hands onto the ground.

Thump!

‘Acceleration’

I thrust the spinning sphere of the spiral from my hand into the ogre’s side as it tried to lift the hand planted on the ground.

“Kuooh-!”

Kkadeudeudeukㅡ!

With a gruesome sound, the tough outer hide began to be shaved off bit by bit.

The moment the ogre’s side became covered in blood, revealing the inner skin, which was weaker than the outer hide.

A large crack formed on the ogre’s belly.

If the outer hide was breached even slightly, it was over.

My mana dug deep inside, rotating and slicing the inner skin.

The ogre’s blood and fragments scattered across the dungeon floor.

“It’s over.”

Thump!

The ogre died with a massive hole ripped through its gut.

──『 Spiral 』──

▶ Unique Skill

▶ Twists mana into a triple spiral form, hardening it, and compresses it into a rotating spherical shape.

Requires extremely high mana control ability. Its destructive power is greater when embedded at close range rather than thrown.

───────

“Spiral?”

Only close-combat skills that I didn’t want were being created.

Fuck. This isn’t what I intended, really.

“Hoyeon-ah! You, you! What were you thinking fighting that ogre!”

Baek Ahyoung approached me with a worried expression and questioned me.

“I couldn’t abandon you, Ahyoung-ssi. I’d rather die together.”

“…You!”

Although she seemed angry on the outside, Baek Ahyoung didn’t seem displeased.

It would be good to increase her affection further here, but my current condition is terrible.

My head is spinning; I might suffer mana exhaustion.

I need to replenish the mana in my body quickly.

“I’ll meditate for a bit. Please stand guard.”

“Uh, yeah. I’ll tell you right away if anyone comes.”

Using Baek Ahyoung as a human alarm, I started replenishing my mana through meditation.

Since mana was so scarce, I had used almost all of it in the recent fight.

Still, my meditation efficiency is high, so it should be over soon.

“Hoo…”

Closing my eyes, I slowly began to absorb the surrounding mana.

*

“Student Council President, just a moment. I understand everything, but please calm down first!”

“Move aside. I need to see this person right now.”

“Hey! Oof!”

Moon Surin pushed past the secretary guarding the Chairman’s office and entered.

“Surin-ah, what brings you here?”

A white-haired man lounging on the sofa in the seat of honor came into view.

He smiled, looking pleased to see Moon Surin.

“Is this the time to be leisurely drinking coffee? Students are trapped in the dungeon!”

However, Moon Surin poured out her complaints, seemingly uninterested in the man’s gaze.

People were trapped right now due to the dungeon rampage; this was no time to be relaxed.

“…Surin-ah. You’re not saying this because you don’t know I’ve just finished assembling the rescue team, arranging supply support, and assigning mages, are you? And I wasn’t even drinking coffee.”

“I know all that. But do we have time to rest? Students are trapped!”

“I did the best I could. You know that, don’t you?”

“No. You should go out there yourself.”

“…Surin-ah!”

Mentioning his physical condition was taboo.

But Moon Surin wasn’t in a position to consider such things.

Lee Hoyeon. The moment she heard he was trapped in the dungeon, her chest went numb.

Only then did she admit she had feelings for Lee Hoyeon.

And the instant she realized her feelings, she abandoned all her work today and rushed to the Chairman’s office.

Seeing Moon Surin’s eyes, which had gone completely wild, the Chairman thought he needed to calm her down first.

“All the experts have been called, and numerous active hunters are scheduled to be deployed for the search. Don’t worry and wait.”

“No. If you won’t go, Chairman, I will go myself.”

“Why on earth are you acting like this? Is there a boy you like among the first-year students?”

“Th-that’s not it! B-but, aren’t all the students members of our Victoria Academy!”

“….”

The Chairman’s face began to stiffen rapidly.

He turned his head away from people, making fleeting eye contact before looking away again.

He had often seen his granddaughter react this way.

It was a reaction she made when she wanted to change the subject.

“An-anyway! I’ll go in myself, so just know that! And I’m going on strike until this incident is resolved.”

“S-Surin-ah! The Academy won’t run without you!”

“That’s none of my business. What’s important right now is the dungeon rampage. We need to maximize the search scale and recruit additional hunters.”

“Isn’t that all the Academy’s budget!”

“The money I’ve earned is far greater than that.”

Moon Surin glared at the Chairman, spoke coldly, and left the office.

The Chairman felt frustrated. Just who is that man to make my granddaughter act like this?

Based on his long life experience, guys like that don’t die easily.

He thought he should at least see the face of this audacious fellow once he escaped the dungeon.

*

“I feel a bit better now. Thank you.”

“Mhm, no problem. Thanks to you, I’m doing fine too.”

We explored the dungeon in a harmonious atmosphere.

After catching the ogre, my confidence had risen quite a bit.

I heard that ogres are monsters that even active hunters find difficult to defeat alone.

I defeated such a monster all by myself, so it’s something to brag about, right? Huh?

“Still, monsters stronger than an ogre probably won’t appear. At first, even the ogre was ridiculously out of place…”

It didn’t make sense for an ogre to appear in a dungeon where creatures like kobolds usually showed up.

It seemed the demon collective ‘Pandemic’ must have used something, but it was frustrating because I didn’t recall it appearing in the original work.

“That must be it, right? A blessing in disguise…”

Thump. Thump.

“Ah, shit.”

I swore in front of Baek Ahyoung without realizing it.

Fortunately, Baek Ahyoung didn’t seem to hear me.

Thump. Thump.

Baek Ahyoung was too preoccupied listening to the ominous footsteps to notice my muttering.

Moreover, these footsteps weren’t from just one creature.

Thump. Thump-thump. Thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump.

Two. Two ogres were approaching.

Thump.

My combat sense flared up again. But it’s okay.

Having defeated one before, I honestly wasn’t scared.

The method to defeat a stupid ogre doesn’t change, even with two of them.

Dodge their simple attacks with ‘Acceleration’, then stick ‘Spiral’ into their bellies, and it’s over.

Of course, there were minor details different from the explanation, but that was the general outline.

Kuoooh-!

The ogre’s roar grew closer.

This time, I wanted to take one down from the start.

Baek Ahyoung’s stamina was nearing a dangerous level, so I needed to finish quickly and find a place to rest.

‘Spiral’

I generated the spiral sphere in my hand.

‘Acceleration.’

Then, I accelerated the mana around my body.

Gathering mana at my fingertips, I waited until the distance closed.

Kururu-!

Just before the ogre and I came into each other’s line of sight, my ‘Eye Opening’-enhanced vision locked onto the ogre one step ahead.

Kwagwagang!

I leaped towards the ogre, gaining propulsion enough to shatter the floor beneath my feet.

Kr?

The ogre only recognized me then, but it wasn’t an advanced enough lifeform to block my ‘Acceleration’-boosted attack.

Keh, Kueeeek-!

“Die. You bastard.”

One ogre’s belly was pierced, and it collapsed, spitting blood.

Ku, Kuek?!

The remaining one, seeing its companion next to it turn into mush, recognized me and swung its club.

Thump.

My combat sense was telling me.

It’s time to adapt to these simple attacks now.

I lightly dodged the club and prepared Spiral.

Now, I just needed to embed this into its belly or face.

“Kuoooh!”

The ogre swung its club, then, unable to contain its frustration, swung its fist.

Dodging the ogre’s fist flying through accelerated space, just before ramming Spiral into its face, I thought:

‘This is the last chance.’

Right now, the ogre is swinging its fist at me. My speed is much faster.

At this speed, I could finish the ogre’s life by smashing its head with Spiral before getting hit by the fist.

But that wasn’t my goal.

I didn’t enter here just to catch monsters. My target is Baek Ahyoung.

If not now, there wouldn’t be another chance.

Unlike before, the dungeon’s mana concentration had stabilized significantly.

At this mana density, there couldn’t possibly be monsters stronger than two ogres.

The ogre itself was already ridiculously strong; there’s no way anything stronger would appear.

I had already effortlessly killed one ogre in front of Baek Ahyoung.

But the guy who easily killed one ogre gets mortally wounded by other monsters?

That would be too awkward a storyline.

Ultimately, now is the last chance.

Given the situation with two ogres.

If Baek Ahyoung is here, I won’t die anyway.

‘I can handle it. No, I have to.’

In the end, to win over Baek Ahyoung, a situation like this was necessary.

Watching the ogre’s fist slowly approaching, I slightly reduced the speed of the hand holding my Spiral.

I focused intently so that even if I got hit by the ogre, the Spiral would already be in a position to kill the ogre.

Kwajik-! Pshwoook-!

First, I was hit by the ogre’s fist, and immediately after, the ogre’s head was torn to shreds.

The ogre’s blood sprayed through the air, and fragments splattered onto my body.

“Kuhp…! Gkkeok….”

Then, blood started pouring from my mouth too.

It hurts. It hurts like hell, like I’m gonna die. Fuck.

Forget ribs, it feels like my insides are torn apart.

“H-Hoyeon-ah…! No!”

Still, seeing Baek Ahyoung running towards me, the plan was a success.