A few days ago, the presence of something [stealthy] that had been chasing us.
I tried to detect it whenever I had the chance, but its ability was so ridiculously high that I just couldn’t manage it.
I don’t overestimate my abilities, but if I can’t sense it to this extent, then no hunter in our country likely can either.
Fortunately, it seems like it’s only focusing on gathering our information. That’s the extent of what I can read in this situation.
‘As long as it doesn’t ambush us or anything…’
Since we’re fighting in a public place, over a thousand hunters were watching my performance closely.
So even if it’s keeping a closer eye on me, it shouldn’t be a big problem.
However, one thing that bothers me is that the [Meteor] I want to use is a skill that was stolen from Jo Gi-man.
Of course, I have no intention of revealing that I can use that power, but the very fact that there is information out there about a hunter using [Meteor] is something I find quite unappealing.
There are a lot of search-type hunters with skills that I don’t know, so I need to be as careful as possible.
‘Tsk… Normally, I’d be cautious, but this isn’t really the time to hide.’
For some time now, it seems like it’s been focusing more on me than on Yeon-hee, but the original target would have to be Yeon-hee.
‘Now!’
Taking advantage of the moment when its gaze shifted away from me, I quickly activated my stealth and dove underground.
When I sent a prearranged signal to Yeon-hee, she waved her hands as if to release my summoning.
It would likely think I had been dismissed when it saw Yeon-hee’s gesture.
Having used this method a few times already, there was no obvious change in its focus.
‘Huh…’
Once I entered the dark underground, my distracting thoughts faded, and I felt much more at ease preparing my skill.
[Meteor]
As soon as I activated Meteor, a gargantuan amount of magical power surged out.
In that moment, I felt my spirit being transported far away, and a massive crack opened in the sky.
Gooooooo────
I couldn’t see with my eyes, but I could clearly feel the foreboding through my senses.
Soon, from the opened rift, dozens of giant meteors appeared and began to plummet at tremendous speed.
‘Uuuugh…’
Movement, resonance, summoning.
All of that happened in the blink of an eye, yet I had consumed an enormous amount of mental energy.
The strike point of my top-tier flame skill was slightly behind where a mass of monsters were gathered.
‘Grrrrrr…’
Hitting a target that’s quite a distance away from my position wasn’t as easy as I’d thought.
Once again, after expending an incredible amount of mental energy, I barely managed to adjust the coordinates of all the meteors and gazed at my burning ‘magical stones’ falling from the sky.
Cugugugugugu───!!
The brightening clock.
The rapidly rising ambient temperature.
The violently trembling air like water boiling.
All of it told me that something horrific was about to cover this place.
– Uhhh…?
– Uhh?! Oh crap! That, that thing!
– No way…! Could it be Meteor?!
– It’s a high-tier spell! How can there be a high-level fire sorcerer here?!
Soon, other hunters began to realize the presence of the meteors one by one, and soon, all living things in the area were gazing up at the sky with their mouths agape.
Of course, hunters known to be able to use [Meteor] are few, including Jo Gi-man, and those beings aren’t present here.
Naturally, no one would know that Jo Gi-man had his skill snatched away from him, hence excluding him from that list.
Cugugugugugu───
The dozens of meteors that broke through the clouds rushed toward the swarming Creeper Guards.
Kwaaaang───!!
Boom boom boom boom boom boom!!
The shaking of the earth and the deafening explosions continued for a while as the Creeper Guards were relentlessly devoured, forcing the hunters and monsters who had been fiercely fighting to involuntarily distance themselves, scrambling for safety from such planet-altering destructive power.
Monsters hit directly by the meteors vanished without a trace.
And even those who were not harmed or only suffered indirect damage began to panic and fall into utter chaos.
‘This… somehow seems way more powerful than last time… Is it that my proficiency increases the more I use it?’
– You have defeated a ‘Creeper Guard’!
– You have defeated a ‘Creeper Guard’!
– You have defeated a ‘Creeper Guard’!
Continuous notifications flooded in announcing each defeat.
Even though I had just leveled up, an enormous amount of experience points poured in enough to level up again.
Wheoo──
As the meteor bombardment that lasted for some time came to an end, hunters and monsters began to carefully look around.
“What the heck…?”
“Whoa… What in the world is happening?”
Seeing the two groups of beings cautiously surveying their surroundings like meerkats, I couldn’t help but chuckle at this seemingly absurd sight for a battlefield.
The Creeper Guard group stared at the Escalon with blank faces.
However, the four Escalon weren’t in a situation to worry about their subordinates.
A temporary lull settled over the battlefield.
The one to break that surreal silence was none other than me.
Swoosh──!!
“Gwaaaah─!!”
With a single strike, I beheaded two Creeper Guards, and in tune with my swing, Joo-ah quickly set up dozens of Rock Barriers to shape the terrain in our favor.
– Whoa… Ooooh!! What’s this?! Is a divine being aiding us!?
– I don’t know what’s going on, but let’s just push forward! With these walls in place, we can eliminate them one by one!
– Let’s go! Everybody focus!
– We must capitalize on this opportunity to turn the tide!!
Finally regaining their spirits, the hunters reformed their ranks and surged forward once more.
On the contrary, the panicked Creeper Guards were pushed backward without resistance, and the faces of the four Escalon, who were struggling to command their subordinates as they fought against the top-tier hunters, twisted in disbelief.
– Hahaha! So there was a being who could use [Meteor] hidden away? Is that what the kids nowadays call ‘a hidden gem’?
While facing the 24th Escalon, Ma Gwang-jin displayed ample composure with a hearty laugh.
He showcased a whirlwind of flashes with a dagger shorter than 30 cm, unleashing deadly strikes and overwhelming the Escalon in a flurry.
‘Ma Gwang-jin is amazing… The 24th is supposed to be on a completely different level than the others, but he’s playing around with it like this.’
Having trained in swordsmanship for a long time, I viewed each of Ma Gwang-jin’s moves as pure art.
His swordsmanship and footwork, completely different from that of Il-wol, looked all the more fascinating.
The Escalon he faced had six arms, each wielding thick shield-like shells as a weapon.
A troublesome existence for melee fighters, but it didn’t seem to mean much for Ma Gwang-jin.
Crack!
I crushed the head of a Creeper Guard that charged at me and glanced over at Yoo Min-jeong, who was binding the 26th Escalon.
A dozen A-rank hunters were surrounding her, lending their magical powers to keep her protected, but I worried how long that could last with a sheer number of Creeper Guards.
Fortunately, the additional wave halted by my [Meteor] had allowed us some breathing room.
Mana: 774/1694
‘The mana recovery is quite fast. I might be able to use that technique again.’
Receiving buffs from my top-tier mana circuit and thanks to [Beginner Mana Circulation], I noticed my mana was already above 700 after using my ‘burden’ and [Meteor].
Fwoosh─!
I ascended to the surface and flung my bone dagger in all directions, embedding them into the heads of the Creeper Guards in perfect alignment as I sprang onto Castle’s head.
Inside Castle, Eun-young had already positioned herself and was singing various songs, while Yeon-hee was outside controlling summons, pulling her bowstring like a madwoman.
‘Okay… While I shot from close range in the morning, what about from this distance?’
[Flame Shot]
The ability I struggled with when I first used it felt much lighter now that the system acknowledged it as a skill.
I poured every last bit of my remaining mana into the small fire sphere sizzling in the air at the tip of my finger.
Instantly consuming 600 mana, I fixed my gaze on the 26th Escalon, who was grinning slyly as it severed Yoo Min-jeong’s bindings one by one.
– Grrr… We need backup! We need backup!
Yoo Min-jeong exclaimed as the giant beast reached out with its long tentacles toward her, desperately crying for help.
The 26th Escalon, whose body was flattened by the rapidly growing otherworldly plant that Yoo Min-jeong had cultivated, slowly began preparing to rise.
“Let’s smash them!!”
The 26th Escalon emitted a vicious intent to capture and kill.
“Ugh… I hope I don’t see that in my nightmares, you tentacle monster!”
The gaze of the 26th Escalon on Yoo Min-jeong was so horrendous that even the hunters around her began to frown in discomfort.
A moment later, the creature, lost in its delusions of tearing Yoo Min-jeong apart with its tentacles, suddenly sensed something and turned its head towards my position.
‘Eat this─!’
Bang──!!
Flames, released from my hand, traced a beautiful arc as they headed toward the Escalon’s head.
“Curwaaaah!!”
As it understood what was happening, the Escalon began thrashing wildly, shaking hundreds of its tentacles.
– Why is it suddenly going berserk?!
Barely maintaining its bindings, Yoo Min-jeong caught a glimpse of the red flash heading for the Escalon’s head.
Bam──!!
Struck by the red light, the 26th Escalon’s head was flung back violently.
“What, what the heck?!”
Yoo Min-jeong was momentarily taken aback when she saw one side of the Escalon’s head burst open but soon smiled triumphantly.
She must have felt the immense reduction in the Escalon’s strength resisting her bindings.
Moreover, the number of Creeper Guards that were pressing in on her had significantly decreased due to the influence of Meteor.
“Attack, attack!!”
An S-rank hunter wouldn’t miss such a golden opportunity.
With her shout, all the hunters around her launched a concentrated assault on the Escalon.
‘Ooooh? Their coordination is impressive. Is it because they’re all in the same guild?’
After being directly hit by my [Flame Shot], the 26th Escalon was severely weakened.
It was surprising that a member of Escalon, which once engulfed an entire nation, could be brought down without even being able to launch a proper counterattack, reduced to a withered plant.
– You played a significant role in defeating the ’26th Escalon’!
– Experience points have increased dramatically!
– You’ve acquired the highest-grade Mana Stone!
Ultimately, the 26th Escalon was the first among the four gathered to be slain.
– Huh… Haha… I just wanted to buy some time. But I really caught it? But who the heck was behind such an attack…?
Yoo Min-jeong frantically scanned her surroundings looking for the culprit who had left a fatal wound on the fallen Escalon, but she couldn’t figure out who was responsible.
A monster that targets enemies with extremely condensed flames without even recognizing its own presence.
– Must have been the one who used [Meteor]?
The hunter assisting Yoo Min-jeong nodded as she considered this possibility.
– That seems likely. I have no idea who it is, but one thing is for sure… there’s a long-distance fire sorcerer who can coordinate with me. So long as that sword doesn’t aim at me, I don’t care who it is.
Yoo Min-jeong smiled with satisfaction while looking into the air for a moment, then took out a mana potion and chugged it down.
– Alright. Which one will be next? The rewards are quite nice!
‘So the rewards were decent, huh? All I got for assisting was a Mana Stone. What did she get to please an S-rank hunter so much?’
Of course, Yoo Min-jeong didn’t bother answering my question as she was too busy searching for her next target.
Her gaze turned toward Ma Gwang-jin.
– Hahaha! You think this is all I’ve got?!
– What the heck?!
– Whoa… Let’s not go near that one.
It seemed like Ma Gwang-jin could single-handedly take down the 24th Escalon without anyone else’s help.
The 32nd Escalon was struggling against Maeng Seong-yong and his A-rank hunters, and there was just one left—the 31st.
– Next is that one! Fire Sorcerer! The target now is the 31st!!
Yoo Min-jeong shouted towards the mysterious figure, revealing the next target.
‘I got it.’
That was something I was completely on board with.
Even though I thought my magic [Flame Shot] was still incomplete when the 29th Escalon defended against it, I realized it wasn’t because my spell lacked power; it was simply because the creature reacted quickly and defended against it.
With Yoo Min-jeong’s powerful bindings, we should be able to create synergy beyond my expectations.
