Chapter 8
"Raise your shields higher! Keep an eye on the flanks!"
A rough shout tore through the damp dungeon air.
Choi Minseok strained as he knocked aside an orc's club with his massive shield.
With the frontline holding firm, flames erupted from the mage standing behind them.
Boom!
With a thunderous blast, one of the orcs collapsed, foam spilling from its mouth.
Taking advantage of that opening, another orc slipped into the formation's blind spot on the right.
Its thick arm violently tore through the air.
That was when it happened.
"Kh!"
Along with a short grunt, an old iron sword slipped into the path of the attack.
Clang!
A metallic sound rang out as the orc's club slid off to the side.
Instead of recklessly meeting its strength head-on, the sword had simply altered the angle of the attack.
It was a clean parry.
The orc staggered after its attack missed, losing its balance.
One of the waiting frontliners immediately thrust his spear forward and finished it off.
The orc crashed heavily to the ground.
"Huu."
Chaeho lightly flicked his sword and stepped back to his original position.
His expression remained calm, and even his breathing hadn't changed.
Choi Minseok glanced at him and clicked his tongue inwardly.
This is insane. How is that guy D-rank?
Chaeho's movements were simple and efficient.
They were the result of refining his dodging routes hundreds upon hundreds of times inside E-rank dungeons.
The monsters in a C-rank dungeon were faster and stronger.
But to Chaeho's eyes, their attacks simply followed straightforward trajectories.
His position was frontline support.
All he had to do was cover the party's blind spots and deflect attacks that slipped through.
Chaeho remained faithful to that role.
He didn't step forward and try to take the monsters' heads himself.
He merely removed anything that could interfere so the frontliners could attack safely.
"Lee Chaeho, nice timing."
The shield-bearing frontliner gave him a thumbs-up.
"I got lucky. It just happened to come my way."
Chaeho replied dryly before scanning their surroundings again.
The deeper they went into the dungeon, the larger the orcs became.
During a break, while the party members sat on the ground catching their breath, the mage handed Chaeho a water bottle and spoke to him.
"Chaeho, you said you've only worked as a porter for a long time, right? From what I saw earlier, you looked like a complete veteran."
"I spent some time rolling around alone in E-rank caves. I guess watching from behind for so long just made me quick at reading situations."
Chaeho took a sip of lukewarm water and brushed the matter aside.
"That wasn't something you could do just by being quick at reading the situation. You were more reliable than some of our actual frontliners."
The mage added with a laugh.
Choi Minseok was also watching Chaeho from a short distance away.
When he'd first looked over Chaeho's résumé at the café, he'd been skeptical.
What could a D-rank Hunter who used to be a porter possibly do inside a C-rank dungeon?
But once they actually entered the dungeon, things had turned out completely differently.
Chaeho never wasted his stamina unnecessarily.
He only intervened when absolutely necessary, and whenever he did, he disrupted the monsters' balance.
There was a heavy sense of stability about him, as though he could see through both the party members' rhythm and the monsters' patterns at a glance.
Why was someone like that working as a porter all this time?
Choi Minseok tilted his head before standing up.
"All right, everyone, get up. We're almost there. Once we take care of the boss, we're done for today."
About ten minutes after they resumed moving in formation...
They reached an open area filled with enormous stone pillars.
Heavy breathing echoed from ahead.
Three C-rank Orc Warriors wearing red leather ornaments blocked their path.
Each one stood at least a head taller than an ordinary orc.
"Tankers, engage! Backline, prepare your spells!"
Choi Minseok shouted his orders and rushed forward.
The battle began.
The Orc Warriors swung their axes with brute force, making the shields ring as though they were about to cave in.
Chaeho stood on the right flank between the frontliners and the mage, reading the flow of battle.
Their physical strength wasn't something a D-rank like Chaeho could withstand head-on.
The shield warriors pushed and pulled, gradually forcing the monsters toward one side.
"Now! Finish casting!"
At Choi Minseok's shout, the mage in the rear raised his staff high.
Mana gathered around it, heating the surrounding air.
That was when it happened.
One of the Orc Warriors, which had been forced into the corner beside a stone pillar by the pressure of the frontliners, let out a bizarre roar.
"Chwiiiiik!"
Its eyes were bloodshot.
As though it had instinctively realized what was about to happen, it stomped down on the shield of the frontliner blocking its way and launched itself into the air.
Its explosive strength was tremendous.
Its target was the mage preparing his spell in the rear.
"H-Huh?"
The mage panicked and lowered his staff.
But because of the mana he had been gathering for the spell, his feet became tangled.
The Orc Warrior came crashing down through the air.
Its enormous two-handed axe rose above its head, aimed directly at the mage's skull.
"Block it!"
Choi Minseok desperately shouted and reached out.
But he was too far away.
It was a split-second situation that no one could react to.
0.7 seconds.
Chaeho's eyes turned cold.
The moment the skill activation window appeared before Chaeho's eyes, the world slowed to a sticky crawl.
The rough battle cries.
The explosive sounds tearing through the air.
The mage's distorted expression.
Everything moved as though a videotape were being played in extreme slow motion.
[Skill: Time Slow]
The familiar headache flashed through Chaeho's mind.
He endured the brief pain and looked upward.
The Orc Warrior was falling through the air.
Its bloodshot eyes.
Its arms pulled taut with muscle.
The trajectory of the axe blade.
The calculations finished inside Chaeho's head in an instant.
The monster's target was the top of the mage's head.
Its entire body weight was behind the blow.
If Chaeho, a D-rank Hunter, tried to block that attack head-on with his sword, not only would the sword break, but the bones in both his arms would be crushed as well.
There was no need to clash with it using strength.
All he had to do was knock the attack off its trajectory.
Within the slowed world, Chaeho took one step forward.
Compared to the speed of his thoughts, even his own legs felt frustratingly slow.
His body hadn't become faster.
Only his perception and judgment had.
Because he had already predicted where the monster would land, reaching the path of the attack aimed at the nearby mage required only a single step.
Chaeho narrowly slipped past the trajectory of the descending axe and lowered his body.
Then, just before the orc's foot touched the ground, he thrust his sword toward the spot carrying most of its weight.
The back of the Orc Warrior's thick knee.
A place its armor didn't cover.
Shhk!
The old iron sword pierced through tough skin and sank deep into the muscle.
At the same moment, Chaeho deactivated the skill.
"Aaaaaagh!"
The mage screamed and covered his head with both arms.
But the terrible pain he expected never came.
BOOM!
A heavy piece of metal smashed into the ground with a deafening crash, sending dust into the air.
The Orc Warrior's two-handed axe had missed the mage's shoulder by roughly a handspan and buried itself deeply in the ground.
The monster's enormous body collapsed awkwardly to the side, one knee completely buckled.
It was because of Chaeho's sword buried behind its knee.
"Grrrrrk!"
The monster clawed at the ground and tried to stand again.
"Finish it!"
Only then did Choi Minseok recover from his shock.
He charged forward and smashed the edge of his shield upward into the orc's jaw.
Crack!
The sound of breaking bones rang out.
As the orc fell backward, a nearby spearman hurried forward and drove his weapon into it.
It didn't take long before the monster's ragged breathing stopped completely.
The remaining shield warrior and spearman were still holding back the other two orcs near the stone pillar.
Choi Minseok immediately joined them and forced the monsters backward.
The mage, having recovered his stance, followed with a blast of flames that finished off both remaining enemies.
The battle was over.
Inside the clearing surrounded by stone pillars, only the sound of heavy breathing echoed through the dungeon.
The first person to break the silence was the mage sitting on the ground.
"Haa... Haa..."
His face was drenched in cold sweat as he raised his head and looked toward Chaeho.
At some point, Chaeho had already pulled his sword free.
He was casually wiping the orc's blood from the blade with a piece of cloth.
His usual indifferent expression hadn't changed at all.
Choi Minseok stared blankly between Chaeho and the dead orc.
When the monster had leaped into the air, no one in the party had been able to do anything.
Not only had they been too far away, but the monster had also moved too quickly.
So when had Chaeho, who'd been waiting on the flank, managed to get into that position?
"Lee Chaeho."
There was a faint tremble in Choi Minseok's voice.
"Yes?"
"Just now... how did you do that?"
Everyone's eyes turned toward him.
Every member of the party stared at Chaeho in disbelief.
He hadn't defeated the monster in a direct contest of strength.
But in that split second, he had entered the path of the attack, targeted a weak point, and destroyed the monster's balance.
That level of judgment wasn't something expected from the reflexes of a D-rank Hunter.
Even a veteran who had repeatedly stood on the boundary between life and death on countless battlefields would have struggled to pull off such a move.
Standing in the middle of all those intense gazes, Chaeho slid his cleaned sword back into its sheath and lightly shrugged.
"I got lucky."
"Lucky?"
"When it landed, its foot slipped slightly on the dirt. Its balance broke, so I saw an opening and stabbed."
Chaeho calmly gave them an excuse.
Choi Minseok narrowed his eyes.
The orc's movements had certainly been rough.
Because of its sudden leap, its landing position might have been unstable.
But in that tiny fraction of a second, Chaeho had noticed the orc's foot slipping, avoided its axe, and stabbed the back of its knee?
It was difficult to dismiss that as mere luck.
There hadn't been a single unnecessary movement in anything Chaeho had done.
That porter experience on his résumé... That's one hundred percent a cover.
Choi Minseok became convinced.
He didn't know why Chaeho was hiding his history, but the man standing in front of him was definitely not someone who belonged in the rear carrying luggage and doing odd jobs.
The other party members seemed to be thinking the same thing.
Even the mage who had been joking with Chaeho earlier was now silent, staring at him with a hint of awe in his eyes.
"You saved my life. Seriously... I thought I was dead."
The mage unsteadily rose to his feet and bowed his head.
"I'm glad you weren't hurt."
Chaeho answered briefly before looking away.
He had used his skill to save a party member, but it seemed he'd attracted unnecessary attention in return.
That left a slightly bitter taste in his mouth.
Still, it was better than simply standing by and watching someone get torn apart right in front of him.
"Everyone, check your equipment. We're really right in front of the boss room now."
Choi Minseok raised his voice, bringing the atmosphere back under control.
Chaeho silently started walking again.
The gazes of the temporary party members remained fixed on the back of his head.
But those gazes were now completely different from the suspicion they'd shown when they first met him that day.
A skilled Hunter possessing combat instincts far beyond those of an ordinary D-rank.
That brief exchange had firmly carved a new identity for Lee Chaeho into all of their minds.
