Chapter 39

Chapter 39

“I-I'm sorry about earlier.”

Her next words were an apology.

I widened my eyes and stupidly asked,

“What...?”

“Our unni's personality is a little... difficult, right?”

The woman smiled awkwardly.

My brother and I both fell silent.

If someone apologized first, what else could we say?

She continued in a gentle voice.

“She wasn't always like that. After the world changed and she went through all kinds of things, she became a little wary of other people. She isn't a bad person...”

A little wary?

That seemed like an understatement.

“I-I'll apologize on behalf of our unni. Please don't take it personally.”

“O-Of course. We don't care about something like that at all.”

What a liar.

I glanced at my brother while he laughed awkwardly and shook my head.

The man seriously had no consistency.

“I'm glad! Ah, my name is Yoo Aeri. I'm the mage of our team. It's nice to meet you.”

“I'm Kim Jia. Like I said earlier, I'm the party leader.”

“Ah, yes! May I call you Jia-ssi?”

“Yes, that's fine.”

Jia-ssi...

I knew I would eventually hear people address me politely like that once I started working in society.

Still, having an honorific attached to my name felt unfamiliar.

Embarrassed, I scratched the back of my neck.

“Why are you taking so long? Seriously, you're all so slow.”

“Come on. They just got promoted. They're probably still overwhelmed. A generous noona like you should understand.”

His voice was so loud that it echoed throughout the cave.

My brother clicked his tongue.

“They're only D-rank too. Why are they acting so special?”

“Exactly. Just let them ask us for help once. Tch.”

Lee Junhyuk narrowed his eyes and agreed with my brother.

Now that I thought about it, those two had definitely been suffering from some kind of hatred toward people exactly like themselves.

Otherwise, they wouldn't suddenly agree this well.

“Yoo Aeri! What are you doing over there? Hurry up!”

“Ah, yes! Then I'll be going.”

Yoo Aeri bowed politely and ran back toward her teammates.

From what I could tell, she and the party leader seemed like sisters.

It was surprising how different their personalities were.

Actually, maybe that's not surprising.

My brother and I had completely different personalities too.

Thank goodness for that.

While I stared at them blankly, Han Siwoo approached.

“We should go too.”

“Yeah. Oppa, Junhyuk. Stop complaining and follow us.”

“Yeees.”

“What did I even do?”

I ignored their grumbling and moved closer so I could watch the other party fight.

CLACK!

A mantis-like monster violently struck its front legs together.

As expected from a D-rank dungeon, even the monsters felt different from the ones we normally fought.

Of course, the boss monster we had recently faced had been even stronger.

“Kang Woohyuk!”

“Yes, yes.”

The sleepy-looking man named Kang Woohyuk answered lazily.

Then he suddenly shot forward.

The mantis repeatedly stabbed its massive forelegs into the ground, trying to pierce his body.

But despite his sleepy appearance, Kang Woohyuk moved quickly and reached the monster in an instant.

“There's only one cure for bugs. A good beating.”

BANG!

His fist smashed into the mantis's abdomen.

“Kikikikik...!”

The mantis struggled and tried to swing its front leg.

The woman leaped high into the air and sliced off the monster's leg with her scythe.

SLASH.

THUD!

“Screeeeech!”

The mantis screamed as transparent fluid poured from its wound.

Without hesitating, the woman swung her scythe again and struck its head.

Their overall fighting style wasn't that different from ours.

But their raw strength and coordination were much more stable.

“...They do fight pretty well.”

Lee Junhyuk muttered reluctantly.

Han Siwoo answered,

“Of course. They've probably been raiding D-rank dungeons longer than we have. We should watch and learn.”

“Well... that's true.”

“They're definitely annoying, but we probably should learn something from how they fight.”

At first, my teammates had only complained.

But even they couldn't deny the other party's skill.

The other party occasionally looked tired as they defeated monsters, but overall, they progressed fairly smoothly until they reached the mid-boss room.

“Haa. How many items have we collected so far?”

The woman drank a Red Elixir and asked.

A cheerful-looking man answered.

“Let's see. Three Red Elixirs, two Blue Elixirs, and two D-rank Mana Stones.”

“We've only reached around the halfway point. That's not bad.”

The woman nodded, then suddenly turned toward us.

“More importantly, you guys. From here on, the difficulty increases. If you keep standing around like idiots, some random attack might kill you.”

“What? Idiots?”

“Yeah, Oppa. You have the stupidest expression here. You look like you'll die first.”

At the woman's words, Lee Junhyuk and I both snorted with laughter.

My brother's face turned bright red.

He opened and closed his mouth several times before finally letting out a bitter laugh.

“Hah. Seriously...!”

“So stop standing there like an idiot. If everyone's rested enough, let's go.”

“That bastard...!”

“Calm down. This is why she keeps calling you stupid.”

I patted my brother's shoulder.

He slapped my hand away and glared at me.

“Who are you calling stupid?!”

“What a temper.”

Leaving my brother behind, I pushed Han Siwoo and Lee Junhyuk forward.

After taking a few steps, I stopped and looked back.

Then I deliberately widened my eyes.

“Oh? Oppa, if you keep standing there like that, you'll die first.”

“...I'm going to kill you before I die and go to heaven.”

This was surprisingly fun.

The mid-boss was a snake-like monster.

Its skin seemed to be made of steel, so weapons had difficulty penetrating it.

They struggled for a while.

Still, they eventually overcame the problem by taking advantage of their individual strengths and defeated the mid-boss.

“From here onward, the monsters will become even stronger. Be careful. One small mistake can lead straight to death.”

The woman was definitely annoying.

But she trusted and cared about her teammates.

“Aeri, fall back! Kang Woohyuk, stay beside me! Hanjun, circle behind it!”

And unlike me...

She had leadership.

I cared about my teammates too.

But that was all.

I trusted their abilities to a degree, but not enough to put my own life entirely in their hands.

Still, that was the best way for me.

If I didn't trust them too much, I had no reason to gamble.

I also wouldn't ask them to do anything reckless.

That was my policy.

Even so...

Watching the other party do their absolute best to clear the dungeon left me with a strange feeling.

People learned by watching others, didn't they?

As I watched them, I asked myself a question I might never have needed to ask.

If I didn't know what happened in the novel...

Would I have tried my best like them?

Would I have trusted my teammates and worked hard to grow together with them?

Maybe I would have.

Maybe I wouldn't.

There was no way to know the answer.

“Haa. Finally, the boss room.”

Sweat covered the foreheads of the other party members as they reached the boss room entrance.

They looked tired.

But at the same time, they also looked refreshed.

For some reason, I envied them a little.

Their party leader must have been thirsty.

She pulled a bottle of water from her Inventory and drank deeply.

Then our eyes met.

“Something you're curious about? Why have you been staring at us this entire time?”

Oops.

She noticed.

I felt slightly guilty, like I had been spying on her.

But in situations like this, the person who played innocent won.

I casually answered and looked away.

“Not really.”

“Hm. I get it. You must've been shocked because we're so strong. Well, I don't know if you guys will ever come to another D-rank dungeon, but you'd better watch carefully.”

“How can one person be consistently this annoying?”

I ignored my brother's muttering and thought for a moment.

I did think highly of their teamwork.

But teamwork didn't directly translate into combat power.

Of course, I wasn't saying they were weak.

Still...

I didn't think my teammates were inferior to them.

Even if only I remembered it, we had almost cleared a D-rank dungeon.

Within two hours.

If the boss hadn't been C-rank, we probably would have cleared it safely.

I was a healer.

My actual ability was probably above C-rank.

My abilities clearly made my teammates stronger.

But skills were only skills.

They couldn't completely change a person's basic ability.

In simple terms, my skills could probably raise someone by roughly one rank.

Anything beyond that would be difficult.

If my teammates were truly only F-rank in actual ability, what we had accomplished would have been impossible.

Considering their last rank evaluations had been half a year ago, there was no guarantee those rankings still reflected their true strength.

Come to think of it, the Center had offered us another evaluation when they apologized.

Unfortunately for my teammates, though...

They would never get another evaluation before I retired from being a Hunter.

No more unnecessary danger.

While I was thinking about that, we reached the boss room.

“We rested earlier, so there's no need for another break, right?”

The woman spoke to her teammates and opened the boss room door.

Creeeeak.

The door slowly opened.

And what was waiting for us on the other side was...

“A rabbit?”

A single white rabbit.

And an enormous grassy field.

When the rabbit noticed us, its nose twitched.

Its whiskers moved cutely.

“Wow... It's so cute.”

Yoo Aeri's cheeks turned red.

The woman narrowed her eyes.

“Something's wrong. This is the boss room. Why is there a rabbit here?”

“Right. I don't feel any mana coming from it, so it doesn't seem to be the boss... Maybe it's bait?”

The woman apparently thought that theory was possible because she nodded.

“Then go check.”

“What? Me?”

“Should I do it instead? Check whether the boss is nearby or if there are traps. That's your specialty.”

“Haa. You always make me do everything...”

Kang Woohyuk complained but carefully approached the rabbit.

We watched from behind with growing anxiety, wondering whether something would happen.