Chapter 10

The people who had entered the dungeon before Seong-ha were two children who looked to be around high-school age. Their cat-like faces bore a subtle resemblance to each other, making them look like siblings.

The two novice-looking Hunters were surrounded by dozens of bats the size of watermelons. Even in the darkness, the bats’ bright-red eyes gleamed ominously.

[They’re Vampire Bats. Judging by how many there are, they must have disturbed a bat nest.]

“Their teeth are poisonous, so it’ll be dangerous for those two to handle them.”

“L-Look! Up! Watch out above!”

“Eek!”

“Hey, you idiot! Is your head just for decoration?! Don’t run away! Attack above your head!”

“O-Okay!”

The girl, who was probably the older sister, shouted sharply and pointed overhead. The boy who had been running toward Seong-ha with a frightened expression stretched out his hand toward the place she had indicated.

Large droplets of water gathered from his fingertips before shooting out in a powerful stream.

One of the bats flying wildly around the ceiling was struck by the stream and plummeted to the ground with a shrill screech.

That kind of water stream… He’s probably a C-rank Hunter.

Seong-ha instinctively gauged the boy’s ability and tilted her head.

Vampire Bats were classified as C-rank monsters, but when they swarmed together like this, they were more dangerous than B-rank monsters.

The two of them were woefully understaffed to deal with the bats.

Bang! Bang!

The girl, who didn’t appear to possess any particularly special abilities, bit her lip and repeatedly fired the gun in her hand.

But there were simply too many of them. The bats, baring their razor-sharp claws, showed no signs of decreasing in number.

Even amid the chaos, Seong-ha calmly assessed the situation before opening her mouth.

“…Vampire Bats are usually located along the path leading to the boss. That means I have to pass through here.”

[That’s right. Unfortunately, you have to keep going in this direction. About 200 meters?]

“Then I have no choice but to intervene.”

She would have preferred not to get involved if she could help it.

Seong-ha clicked her tongue inwardly.

She pulled a dagger from her Inventory, activated her Appraisal skill, and spun it around in her hand.

[Iron Dagger (C-rank)]

Description: An ordinary dagger made of iron.

Owner: Ha Seong-ha

Durability: 98/100

If I need a weapon that’s useful in this situation…

After reaching a conclusion, Seong-ha swiftly rolled her sleeve up to her upper arm.

She couldn’t afford to injure her legs, which she might need to use to escape at any moment.

The most suitable place would be…

Here, I suppose.

Ha Seong-ha pressed the dagger she was carrying against her left forearm and closed her eyes.

Along with the searing pain, warm red blood flowed over the cold blade of the dagger.

The dagger soaked in blood began to shine brilliantly as it absorbed the hot energy flowing from her heart.

During the week she had spent hiding after selling her weapons to the Association, Seong-ha had studied her skills, Weapon Enhancement and Weapon Creation, in an effort to raise their levels.

In the process, she had discovered three things.

First, a weapon affected by her skill could not be reverted.

In other words, once a weapon had been altered through Weapon Enhancement or Weapon Creation, it could neither be transformed into something else nor returned to its original form.

Second, the rank of a weapon was proportional to the amount of blood used to create it.

The more blood she consumed, the higher the rank of the resulting weapon became.

Her skill level wasn’t high enough yet, so A-rank was currently her limit. But since it was an S-rank skill, she would eventually be able to create S-rank weapons as well.

And lastly…

“…Hoo.”

Seong-ha stared at the pure-white light in her hand and tightly gripped the transformed weapon.

She raised the weapon, which filled her entire hand, to eye level and pulled the taut bowstring back behind her.

Then she released it.

Fwoosh—!

Kwaaaang!

—Kieeeek!

“W-Whoa! W-What the hell?!”

“…That’s impossible.”

The siblings stood there with their mouths hanging open, frantically looking around at the corpses of Vampire Bats raining down from above.

Not only had the attack pierced the bats precisely through their torsos, but nearly twenty of them had been cleanly killed in a single attack.

At the appearance of a new enemy, the remaining bats flapped their wings and let out shrill cries sharp enough to make one’s head throb.

The girl quickly turned toward the sound of approaching footsteps.

There stood a woman with her sleeves rolled up to her shoulders, red blood dripping from her left arm.

A woman holding a gigantic bow darker than blood itself and staring straight at them.

“Who are you? Who are you to help us?”

Ha Seong-ha didn’t answer the girl’s question.

She merely glanced at the siblings before aiming her bow at the bats clinging to the ceiling and drawing the string once again.

There was no arrow nocked on the bow.

Perhaps realizing that she intended to attack them, the bats simultaneously dove toward Seong-ha.

“No! Watch out!!”

The siblings instinctively screamed and tried to rush toward Seong-ha.

But Seong-ha merely watched the monsters with an expression so calm that she appeared indifferent, then released the bowstring she had drawn.

“…Shooting a bow isn’t as easy as I thought.”

[You’re doing pretty well for someone saying that.]

The moment Ha Seong-ha released the string, the air compressed within the bow transformed into an arrow and tore through the air.

The invisible arrow instantly split into dozens of strands, each piercing the bodies of the bats charging toward her.

Fwoosh—!

Kwa-deu-deu-deuk!

—Kieek!

The bats died before they could even scream, their corpses once again raining down from above.

“Han-sol, is that… Is that really possible…?”

“I don’t know either. Crazy, what the hell is that…? That’s completely overpowered.”

The stunned siblings stared blankly at Seong-ha.

Having resolved the entire situation with just two shots, Seong-ha lowered her throbbing left arm.

Then she planted the bow in her right hand against the ground, turned around, and looked at the siblings.

She had discovered the third ability of her skill.

Her Weapon Creation skill could manifest both the form and abilities of any weapon she wanted.

There were no limits to a skill that could continue to grow.

[I thought you’d handle things by putting on a fireworks show since the cave is dark.]

“You want me to fire bullets in here? If I’d done that, the cave ceiling would’ve collapsed on me and I’d have been crushed to death.”

[But it would’ve looked more spectacular.]

That bastard is talking nonsense because it’s not his problem.

Seong-ha snorted at a remark that wasn’t even worth answering.

She stood the bow, which was as large as her own body, upright on the ground and examined the dark-red bow that gave off a subtle golden sheen.

[Tempest (A-rank)]

Attribute: Air

Skills: Storm (A-rank), Frostwind (B-rank)

Creator: Ha Seong-ha

Durability: 99/100

Apparently, more blood had gotten onto the dagger than she had expected when she cut her left forearm.

Fortunately, she had managed to create an A-rank weapon.

Moreover, because it used compressed air, it didn’t require arrows. And since it was lighter than she had expected, she liked it.

Seong-ha ran her fingertips over the delicate engraved patterns on Tempest, its elegance reminiscent of a weapon quenched in ruby.

Just as her fingertips caught on some unfamiliar language whose meaning she couldn’t understand, the two siblings timidly approached her.

“Um… Thank you for helping us.”

“But what should we do? We’re pretty poor, so we don’t really have enough to pay you for saving our lives.”

“Han-sol…!”

“Moon Chan-sol, be quiet. We need to make sure we settle this properly.”

Only then did Seong-ha get a closer look at the two siblings.

At twenty-five, she wasn’t particularly old herself, but the two children looked young enough to be under twenty.

Still, their attire was unusual for people who had only entered a dungeon once or twice.

The vests both of them wore were the kind generally worn by lower-ranked Hunters, and they were already worn out.

The pockets attached to their vests and pants bulged as though they were stuffed full of something.

The girl began rummaging through the bag hanging from her shoulder.

“We really don’t have anything to give you, but if you’re willing to accept some of the materials we obtained while exploring this dungeon…”

“No, it’s fine. I don’t need them.”

“Pardon?”

“I said it’s fine. Put them away.”

Regardless of whether Han-sol was flustered, Seong-ha took a hemostatic agent and bandages from the bag she had casually thrown on the ground after taking Tempest out of her Inventory.

She sprayed the hemostatic agent over the wound on her left forearm herself as she continued speaking.

“Actually, there’s something else I want to ask. Judging from this place, it seems to be an unregistered dungeon that even the Association doesn’t know about yet. But it looks like the two of you have been coming here quite often, haven’t you?”

“…Hic.”

“…So when we get out of here, are you going to report us to the Association?”

After roughly tying the bandage, Seong-ha raised her head.

Han-sol’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.

It was obvious to Seong-ha that the two children were frantically thinking things through.

Their trembling eyes and the unconscious fidgeting of their fingers from anxiety.

They were gestures she was extremely familiar with.

Why had children like these come this far without a guardian?

She didn’t need to think very hard to figure out the answer.

Seong-ha briefly remembered her own past, then shook the thought away with a bitter smile.

“No. I have no intention of doing that.”

“Ah…!”

“Not yet.”

“Ah…”

“But I have a favor to ask.”

“…What favor?”

Unlike Chan-sol, who openly displayed his emotions with innocent honesty, Seong-ha could feel Han-sol carefully studying her expression.

Despite being siblings, the two were remarkably different.

Seong-ha slung her bag over her right shoulder and picked up Tempest.

Then she stared into the depths of the seemingly endless cave and spoke.

“I’m going to kill this dungeon’s boss now, so just cheer me on.”

[You’re planning to take them with you? Wouldn’t that be inconvenient?]

[They might actually become a burden when you fight the boss.]

“We can’t just leave them here. And I can’t exactly kill them. Besides, if I send them out like this, they could leave the dungeon before me and tell everyone where I am. That would be even more troublesome.”

[That’s true.]

Tap, tap.

Seong-ha walked toward the depths of the cave, speaking quietly enough that the siblings following behind couldn’t hear.

Quasar’s concern made perfect sense.

Ha Seong-ha still didn’t know the siblings’ exact abilities.

Everything she knew about their skills was what she had just seen when they fought the bats.

Taking them along to face the dungeon’s boss without even knowing the dungeon’s exact rank…

That was excessive.

Seong-ha had answered Quasar’s question, but there was a fundamental reason she hadn’t revealed.

She simply hadn’t known them for very long, and she didn’t want to expose her deepest thoughts to someone she intended to take revenge on someday.

After all, I don’t want to reveal everything about myself to the person I’ll eventually take revenge on.

[Hmm.]

[But I think there’s another reason.]

[I’m the kind dimension administrator, so I’ll let it slide.]

“Shut up.”

Of course, he probably already figured it out.

He’s annoyingly perceptive.

Seong-ha glared at the notification window that only she could see and deliberately quickened her pace.

Despite the sudden increase in speed, Han-sol followed without a word before speaking.

“Excuse me.”

“Yes?”

“Are you perhaps Hunter Ha Seong-ha?”

Seong-ha had been secretly relieved that Han-sol hadn’t recognized her face, so she silently swallowed a sigh at the girl’s question.

Of course.

There can’t possibly be a Hunter in Korea who doesn’t know me.

“You know me?”

“I know you very well. The S-rank Hunter without any abilities. And recently, you’ve been all over the news. You reawakened as a High-Rank Weapon Creator.”

“How do you feel after seeing me in person?”

Seong-ha continued walking forward without turning around.

After Quasar unsealed her skills, this was the first time she had directly heard someone else’s evaluation of herself.

Seong-ha had already been the subject of countless conversations, but for some reason, she felt strangely nervous.

Her palms began to sweat.

“You’re freaking awesome.”

“…”

“Seriously! You were really cool! And thank you so much for saving us.”

Seong-ha had been holding her breath as she listened carefully for Han-sol’s next words.

The girl’s answer came out without the slightest hesitation.

And Seong-ha was left speechless.