Seong tapped his new metal-baton on the floor, waiting for the next opponent.
He peeked through his hair, the opponent he would face was walking up the stairs, twirling something around her hands.
She swung the metal rings around her arms, then she threw it in the air and caught it.
"You're really trying to climb up the ranks, aren't you?"
"Well, I'd never know my limit then."
"I guess that's true," She pushed back her short grey-silver hair, glaring at Seong with her dashing yellow eyes,"I'll test you then."
She pumped her fists together,"Gan Jae-Hwa!"
"Yun Chan-Woo." Seong mimicked the gesture,"Take care of me Jae-Hwa sunbae-nim." He smiled cheekily.
The signal blared, but not one of them moved. Seong smiled through half-lidded eyes,
'She knows my strategy.' His creepy smile contradicted with his actual look.
The reason Seong had the advantage despite his combat style, was because he analyzed his opponent's movements, using that to his advantage to find any weak points. But not every opponent was as brash as others, just like this one.
Seong looked at her weapons, then her figure and stance. She seemed to be a battle mage, judging by her fighting stance; her weapons were already infested with potent mana that swirled around her body.
"C'mon, don't be scared."
"Ha, I'm not. Sunbae-nim, aren't you supposed to test me?"
"I am, I'm letting the junior have the first hit."
Seong scoffed, drawing his feet and his hand with the baton back, then he swung forward with the momentum of the baton. Putting mana through the baton, he swung it, shattering the ground.
—SMASH!!!
Momentarily, Jae-Hwa struggled to get her footing, tripping over the smashed floor.
'What next?' The smoke covered her vision, she waited until it cleared out while looking for sound cues.
Then she felt an unnatural wind blowing above her, she twisted her body around while diving away from the approaching shadow.
—Crash!
'She's quick.' Seong crouched,' If I rush in too quickly, I'll be in a bad advantage.'
"Don't use such cowardly tricks, I said I'd let you have the first hit."
"Well, I need to make up for the distance in our power levels, sunbae-nim."
"Come here, really I'll let you have the first hit."
"Can I trust you?" Seong looked at her with a face of distrust.
She sighed,"Just trust this sunbae-nim, I'll let you test the waters first."
Seong hesitated,'Should I go for a feint, or let her ego build up?' Seong decided to do the latter, he rushed in to bash her shoulder, but she used her rings to block.
—Clang!
"Are you stupid?" She used her rings to disarm him,"Why would you rush in like that?" She looked down on him while pointing with her fist.
"You said you'd let me start first, sunbae-nim." Seong hid one of his hands, steadying his mana into it.
"Not everybody is gonna be nice like me."
As she began to swing her fists, Seong slid under her and kicked her leg, grasping Jae-Hwa's wrist and twisting her. Jae-Hwa yelped as she landed on her feet, wriggling her arms as she tried to pull back.
'Always landing on their feet like a cat.' Seong kicked himself up and used his knee to bash her elbow, Jae-Hwa counterattacked by kicking him on the side.
As her elbow bent inward and Seong grasped his healing injury, the rings rang a beautiful sound as it fell and rolled in circles.
—Wooooo…
They both reacted by grabbing a ring, both could only use one hand at the moment. They both circled each other, silently glaring as they observed every movement.
"You're a despicable junior." She snarled as she hung low.
"Ranks don't matter when you're on the field, what matters is who survives." Seong took his stance, he felt like this situation was going come with a beat down, but hey, that's where the fun starts.
"Yeah? Then I'll rip you into fucking shreds!" Jae-Hwa raised her arm and snapped her elbow back in place, though it was still injured, she could still move it to some extent.
She charged forward with each explosive step, making the rubble jump. Seong bared his teeth and ran behind him, trying to use the uneven floor to jump higher in the air. But she caught onto Seong's leg, pulling him down to her level.
Seong twisted his body and latched onto her face, bending her backwards and bringing her down.
—Slam!
She fell flat on her back with Seong covering her vision, she fidgeted with her ring and strings of mana shot out like a spiderweb.
—Tu!
Seong reacted by moving away quickly, but the spiderweb like mana kept shooting out like chains to bind his feet.
Like playing hot potato, he never stopped moving. Jae-Hwa was like a mad wolf, seeing red as they tried to obliterate their opponent. But sooner or later, this berserk state will have a toll on both their mind and body.
Seong peeked at Jae-Hwa, she stood still as she used her skill, and he also noticed that the webs slipped when trying to grab his ring, so could he try to bind her with her own skill?
Seong stopped moving slightly to turn in her direction, then he dashed towards her.
Jae-Hwa used her floating ring to shoot, but it missed Seong's trajectory by a hair, Seong caught the web with the ring and shot it back towards her.
She widened her eyes as she quickly dodged, seeing this only made her grind her teeth more.
She grabbed the ring and threw it into the air for it to stop and glow like a halo, it soon made an uncomfortable ringing sound.
—Woooo,woooo,woooo…
It sounded like it was generating something, only then did Seong realize, he had to act quickly.
Her ring glowed completely white as it shot out webs after webs of mana, spiraling downwards like a beautiful crochet.
Seong narrowed his purple eyes until he found the start of the string, capturing it around his ring as she chased him around blindly.
He then ran towards Jae-Hwa, grabbing her ring and using the spider string like chains to bind her, over and over and over again, Seong continued to wind her into a yarn ball until no more was left.
He let go of the ring attached to her and held the stolen ring to his chest, he saw how Jae-Hwa continuously generated and maximized the potential power of her web with the ring.
Seong channeled his mana, his nose started bleeding. The ring started whirring, he supplied mana behind each line of energy, it started radiating a magnificent white.
As Seong saw this, he ran around the struggling Jae-Hwa, leaving streaks of light.
Using his mana as the solution, the ring as the bubble wand, and simulating making bubble rings and then conjoining them, it made giant rings of mana.
And when that bubble pops, soap would explode on your face, however, these bubbles were made of mana. An entirely reactive and explosive ring of mana.
Jae-Hwa could sense the danger in the circulating mana, it was like a ticking time bomb, she didn't have much time.
She struggled with the last bursts of her strength, slowly ripping the binds off of the floor. The rings began to close in, colliding into another because of no support holding them.
She heard the rumbling of mana surging around her, her eyes shook as she looked around, finally setting her eyes on something and running towards it.
That something…Was Han Seong. She blindly ran towards him, Seong flinched as he backed away, and when Jae-Hwa was one step away…
—BOOOMM!!!!!
The explosion of white light directly hit her in the face, the audience shut their eyes as the battleground was just like looking at the blaring sun.
And when that light disappeared, there stood Seong with Jae-Hwa holding her fist in front of him, both dazed from the dazzling light.
Then… Seong fell backwards while spurting blood. Everyone in the audience didn't move due to confusion, but then they saw Jae-Hwa slowly falling backwards.
—Slam!
There were no more opponents standing, the signal roared,"Draaaaw!"
The medical team rushed in to gather Seong and Jae-Hwa, rushing them to the medical room.
***
Seong heard the beeping of his monitor, but he didn't open his eyes, he was really exhausted. The fight, if only Jae-Hwa didn't use her quick thinking, he wouldn't have suffered a mere mana punch directly in his face.
He had to admit,'She's strong.'
He couldn't beat her easily, that means that she was his limit. But this also proves that Seong was as strong as a C-rank, so it worked out in the end.
The beeping continued until he fell asleep.
***
"Congratulations on getting promoted."
"Thank you." Seong held the card with a smile, causing his nose to burst blood. He already had a tissue there since it wouldn't stop bleeding, but it started running down the tissue.
"Oh no, you should rest once you go back. Don't push yourself too hard."
"Yes, thank you." Seong laughed as he waved goodbye to the employee.
As he was busy looking at his Hunter card, he accidentally bumped into someone.
"Ah! My bad-"
"Ah no, it's alright."
'Hm? This voice is?.." Seong clutched his bag,'Lee Woo-Jin!' Seong instinctively stepped back.
'It's that obsessive bastard on the bridge?!' Seong's eyes shook,'How could he change this much?!'
Seong stared dazed as Lee Woo-Jin bloomed a beautiful smile on his face,'Bastard, don't smile.' Seong internally frowned.
Lee Woo-Jin turned away and walked to the employee who talked with Seong,"How's everything?"
"I have nothing."
Lee Woo-Jin frowned,
'Ah, there's that face I'm more comfortable with.' Seong peeked as he eased himself closer to hear the conversation.
Lee Woo-Jin sighed putting his head in his hand,"I swear I'll gut that bastard when I have the chance."
"I'll cover for you if it gets to that point."
'What?..' Seong's spine shivered,'…You're an employee of an association that saves lives…'
"I need some more people on my side, maybe someone who could go undercover…"
"Well, we recently had appointed new Hunters, would you like to see their profiles?"
Lee Woo-Jin hesitated,"…Sure."
The employee slyly took a binder off of a desk, giving it to Lee Woo-Jin. He slowly turned each page, reading it intently.
"Yun Chan-Woo? That…"
'Ah shit, I better leave.' Seong speed-walked out of the doors quickly.
Lee Woo-Jin turned his head, spotting the white-haired man hastily leave, he then glanced back at the binder.
— • C-rank (primarily was D-rank)
• Name: Yun Chan-Woo
• Specialty: Close-combat
• His physical attributes actively outrank his mana capabilities, however, there should be no underestimation due to his quick-wittiness and sharp eyes. Can quickly gain the advantage when faced with an incompatible opponent.
Lee Woo-Jin stared intently at Yun Chan-Woo's profile,"Let me see this one."
"No one else? That guy is pretty weak with mana, he's always bleeding when using it."
"He probably doesn't know how to use it."
"Are you going to teach him?"
Lee Woo-Jin looked at them as if the answer should be obvious, he nodded.
After all, he was the best at mana control, having the highest scores in mana throughout the association.
***
Seong quickly went into an alley and recollected his breath,'I need to go into a dungeon.' He lacked experience, he still needed to get used to this sort of stuff. He snorted blood out of his nose, holding the bloody tissue.
He took out his phone, searching for subjugation teams for a dungeon, many applications popped up.
Seong sorted by time and ranks,"This seems like my type."
***
Seong got out of the taxi, seeing someone wave at him excitedly.
"You're Yun Chan-Woo, right!?" Her pink eyes glimmered, she held out her hand.
"You're right." Seong shook her hand while peeking above her brown hair, this party contained six members, three women and men.
"I saw your match, are you alright?"
"They nursed me back to health, I should be fine."
The members nodded but with worry painted on their faces,"I see. Then is it alright if we start now?"
Seong nodded, he looked at the crew: three mages, two swordsmen, and one other guy. He observed the one guy intently, wondering what he was.
But he soon shook his head when the leader started talking,
"Yun Chan-Woo, I'll fill you in on the information. Actually, we're competing with other people, about four teams have already started setting up camp by the time I told them someone applied to my team."
"Competition?"
"Yes, and with the recent unusual portals disguising themselves as lower grades, we want to be extra careful, so we brought extra numbers."
'That seems like foreshadowing…' Seong bunched up his eyebrows.
"It's ok, we have enough materials to last us four weeks, I'm sorry for not going into detail on the application."
Seong just nodded to show his understanding, rather, he thought about the book again. He remembered there being dungeon subjugations like these, and it was common for murders to happen.
Seong clenched his fist, considering his position in the novel, he might need to get used to murdering a few. But hey, it's for his safety.
***
Seong came back to camp with a bear beast corpse, dropping it down with a thud. He's been hunting like this for three days now, and he hasn't seen any of the other teams yet.
The dungeon world was completely immersive, there was a cycle just like in the real world. A lush green forest ahead of them with wildlife blooming about, and it's been raining a lot during his time here.
Before he went in, he made sure to call his bodyguards. He didn't want them to think he was missing, but he told them to keep working on the investigations. By now, the people they've taken in have already gone home, so he didn't need to worry.
Seong sighed, seeing his breath while being drenched.
"Chan-Woo, don't you want to rest?" The swordsman waved at him.
Seong walked over and observed him: Pan Ju-Won, he wielded a great sword and was decked out in advanced body armor.
"Where's An Man-Seok?"
"Mm, in the tent. He doesn't like rain."
Seong thanked him and went in the tent, finding Man-Seok curled up like a bear asleep. Seong lightly tapped Man-Seok's forehead,
"Wake up."
Man-Seok grumbled, Seong took his hand away and recalled everyone's roles.
The leader— as well as a mage—was Rim Hye-Su who he saw first when he came; a swordswoman named Sa Min; Geum Ji who specializes in alchemy; and Jeong Daeshim who is another mage.
Seong found out quickly what the purpose for Man-Seok was, he was a supporter who helped buff up his teammates.
Upon entering the dungeon, creatures were completely unavoidable and strong, but it soon thinned out once coming closer to the center.
The book Seong remembered, it explained in detail of Lee Woo-Jin's traumatic experience when he entered the dungeon.
Everyone died before his eyes due to the monsters, he was weak in physical terms, but he prided himself in his mana components.
But he was drained from his continuous mana castings, eventually, there were people that caught him and tortured him to bits.
He was already mentally shaken from Han Seong, so it didn't take long until Lee Woo-Jin naturally broke.
Seong shivered,' I need to get him off my ass.' He left the tent,'Should I find the other teams?'
***
Seong waited until everyone was asleep, changing into another set of clothes and venturing off into the thicket of the trees. He had a compass on him just in case he got lost, but also to pin-point the other teams.
Seong stepped on the shadows casted from the trees, being seen occasionally with the moonlight that bounced off his luminescent hair.
Seong heard a growl come from ahead of him, he slowed his fast pace to steadily watch from afar.
He took off his earring, reverting to his original look. The growls and snarls bellowed, the sounds of gnashing only peaked Seong's curiosity.
Then he heard some metal,
—Clang! Shik!
"Ahhh! Damn it, how did it get stronger?! The others weren't like this earlier!"
"Is it perhaps stronger when it's at night?"
"No way! We fought them the last two days at this time, and they were easy to take care of!"
Seong climbed up a tree to watch, a swordsman and a mage hunting a wolf beast, struggling with its overwhelming strength and health.
It seemed like they were gonna give up, but they persisted because there was only one. Then, the mage turned his head over to Seong's direction.
"Huh?"
"What do you mean huh?! Help me!"
"Sorry…"
The mage casted a spell, forming magic circles that revolved around the beast, fire shot out from each circle.
The swordsman panted," What were you doing?"
"Do you think there's more coming?"
"No? Don't these creatures hunt alone?"
The fire stopped, the beast staggered until it flopped. The smell of incineration laid upon the carcass, it's singed skin looked as if it were magma.
The mage nervously looked towards Seong's direction again,"…Do you not see that?"
"I swear, if you're doing this to scare—" The swordsman squinted as he looked through the dark; a cloud slowly moved away and the ground shimmered from the exposure.
Silver eyes glimmered from within the darkness, the piercing eyes struck fear in their very cores. The swordsman slowly lowered his body, getting ready to fight while trying to stable his quivering hand.
"Hyung-nim, move away!" The mage grabbed the swordsman's wrist, pulling him.
"What're you doing?! I saw it, I saw it!"
"Can't you be more aware of your surroundings?! Look right beside you!" The mage quickly hushed him.
The beast's skin flared, the red embers shook as the beast breathed, the beast twitched its paw and pounded the ground.
—Smash!
The swordsman's legs shook,"H-how?.." Then he quickly glanced back at the silver eyes, it stared back curved as if it were smiling.
The swordsman face drained,
'We'll die!' The both of them ran off, looping through the trees.
Seong's narrowed eyes returned to normal, he was wondering how they saw him. But he needed to find the other camps, so he decided to follow them, but…
—Growl…
The beast stood up while staggering,
'It doesn't have much vitality left.' The size of this wolf was huger than the others that Seong saw, it was probably the king in the pack.
Seong slowly brought his dagger out, brandishing it as the wolf's blood streaked eyes laid on him,'Might as well take care of it.'
***
Seong followed the breaths of the two that ran off, for some reason his senses were extremely heightened. He could hear and smell them from afar,
"Never do this again, never again!" The mage panted, trying to keep up with the swordsman.
Seong looked at the crystal left behind from the wolf, it was a bluish-green tint, there was a type of energy flourishing within it.
'What do I use it for?'
Seong thought nothing of it and continued to chase them. Eventually, they brought him to their camp which was near the woods, it blended well. But it was stupid too because it was near a forest infested with monsters.
"Where did you guys go?"
"Don't blame me, this dumbass wanted to show off!"
"Shhh, lower your voice."
The mage quickly shut up and the swordsman looked guilty, the man looked around and then sighed,"I've gotten the other's camp coordinates, but I haven't gotten Hye-Su-nim's camp."
"What're we going to do?"
"The monsters have obviously been getting stronger, we need allies if we want to get out of here alive."
"Who are you thinking of?" The swordsman looked behind him.
"Judging by their characters, I think Hye-Su-nim's team would be the best." The man narrowed his eyes,"What's wrong?"
The swordsman bit his lip and the mage spoke up,"While we were attacking one of the monsters in the forest, we saw some eyes waiting in the trees."
"Are you saying it followed you?"
"No-" The swordsman glanced back,"I don't know…" He shook his head, trying to get rid of the petrifying effect.
"Then you're on guard duty, tell everyone to be careful."
Both of them nodded exhaustedly, the man clicked his tongue while turning away. Seong crept in the distance, encircling the camp.
Seong spotted him going to his tent. He hid behind a bush directly behind the tent, listening to the man talk,
"If I can find them by tomorrow, we can get rid of these…" Seong heard the scratching of pencil on paper.
If the coordinates are on that paper, then he just needs to steal it, but these people were too wary that he'd get noticed.
Seong looked behind him,'Should I start a commotion?'