Chapter 45
It took Chaeho less than a second to turn around.
The red magic stone that had been his goal only moments earlier continued glowing quietly on the altar.
All he had to do was place that small stone in his pocket.
Then the miserable title of low-rank hunter would finally disappear.
His days of following behind other hunters as a porter and earning scraps would be over.
So would the days of risking his life inside cheap low-level dungeons that could collapse at any moment.
But Chaeho turned his back on it without hesitation.
There was a chance people needed rescuing.
He first slid his sword back into its sheath.
Then his legs exploded against the ground.
He sprinted at full speed toward the detour he had carefully cleared earlier.
The moment he entered the dark, damp tunnel, the explosive sounds striking his ears became even louder.
BEEEEEEP!
The emergency rescue beacon issued by the Association screamed through the passage.
That sound didn't simply mean danger.
Candidates were supposed to press that button only as a last resort.
Only when death was directly in front of them and escape through their own strength was impossible.
Those stupid bastards.
Chaeho's eyes became cold.
They were the same people who had been obsessed with impressing the guild recruiters since the waiting room.
They had been desperate to produce the kind of records the scouts wanted.
Chaeho had already expected trouble when they blindly rushed into a shortcut filled with monsters.
But the situation appeared far worse than he had imagined.
Going to rescue them might cost him his B-rank promotion.
It could even place his own life in immediate danger.
His plan to buy his parents a home they could actually own rather than rent would probably be delayed as well.
Still...
Chaeho wasn't rotten enough to protect himself while knowingly allowing someone else's family to fall into living hell.
That was another rule he had developed through years of entering dungeons.
Cold.
Simple.
Unbreakable.
His breathing remained steady as he sprinted through the dirt falling from the ceiling.
He had no intention of pretending to be a hero.
He would first examine the situation.
If it was truly beyond his ability, he would retreat without hesitation.
Throwing away your life recklessly wasn't courage.
It was stupidity.
The moment he turned the final corner, a thick smell of blood struck him.
Chaeho immediately silenced his footsteps.
Lowering his body, he pressed himself against a pile of collapsed rocks and quietly looked ahead.
The large cavern connected to the shortcut had been completely destroyed.
The artificial ground had been blasted apart as if struck by artillery.
Red emergency flares were scattered across the floor, releasing thick smoke.
Inside that smoke were two promotion candidates.
They were two of the three hunters who had rushed into the shortcut together.
The third was nowhere to be seen.
Perhaps he had already escaped.
"AAAAARGH! My leg! My leg!"
One candidate was already incapable of fighting.
His right lower leg was bent at an unnatural angle as he desperately crawled across the ground.
Bone had pierced through his flesh.
Dark red blood poured continuously from the wound.
Another candidate sat beside him.
He had even thrown away his weapon.
His entire body trembled uncontrollably.
He couldn't help his injured companion.
He couldn't run.
He simply stared ahead with unfocused eyes.
At the end of their gaze stood a monster so huge that its head nearly touched the ceiling.
Its entire body was covered in stiff black hair.
Huge muscles moved beneath thick skin like boulders packed together beneath the surface.
In its hands was a thick steel pillar that looked more suitable for a construction site than a battlefield.
A Black-Mane Ogre.
Normally, the monster was classified around lower B-rank.
But the mana coming from this particular creature was far beyond the normal range.
Grrrrrrrr.
Every time the ogre breathed out, foul-smelling mist escaped between its yellow teeth.
There was no time to wonder how a creature inside the Association's carefully controlled promotion dungeon had become like this.
Chaeho remained hidden in the shadows and controlled his breathing.
He suppressed the instinct to rush out immediately.
His mind worked coldly.
The striking range of the ogre's steel pillar was around four meters.
Its right shoulder moved slightly slower, probably because it had already taken an impact there.
The injured candidate was seven meters away.
The escape tunnel was at roughly the ogre's eleven o'clock position.
Chaeho's eyes rapidly moved.
The structure of the cavern.
The enemy's condition.
The injured person's location.
