16 – 4 – Making It Together – 2

It was the only light source that shone in the darkness.

Feeling an annoying headache wash over them just by looking at it, the three lesser demons communicated using their species’ common skill, Telepathy, and—

They raised their dark-attribute mana and charged simultaneously to ambush the enemy.

First, a huge lesser demon holding a shield and a cutlass took the lead, followed closely by a lesser demon holding a spear.

The tactic of the shield-bearer blocking the enemy while the spear-wielder stabbed them through the gap to kill them was truly perfect!

—Crack!

As long as the one holding the shield did not get blown away in a single blow, that was.

“Hup!”

Gi-jun, who had already noticed the enemy’s ambush, thrust out his shield imbued with both light mana and light spirit power, knocking out the leading lesser demon, and then repeatedly slammed it into the face of the second one, who had stopped mid-thrust with its spear in confusion.

“Kyahak—!”

An arrow flew in as a surprise attack from the lesser demon at the very back, but.

He exquisitely deflected it with the shield in his other hand, so the lesser demon (shield) that was just getting up was hit by the arrow instead and fell down again.

Perhaps because it was hit in a vital spot, it could not even scream, which was a little pitiful.

“Don’t just stand there dazed and attack!”

“Kik, kiiieek!”

A sorrowful creature, the lesser demon (spear), which had been retreating after being beaten mercilessly, got provoked and lost all sense of reason, charging once again by surrendering its body to instinct.

But since it was holding a long spear and closed the distance on its own, how could it swing its weapon properly?

Against the lesser demon (spear), which was horrified at being caught in the narrow corridor between its rolling comrade on the floor and Gi-jun’s body, Gi-jun’s rare-grade combat technique [Twin Turtle Fangs] roared to life.

In a brief moment of less than a few seconds, the two shields, filled with intense light, struck its body dozens of times, and it died with its head exploding without even being able to launch a proper attack.

“How long are you going to keep lying down?”

“Kiaaaaak!”

Seeing that no more arrows were flying, had the one in the back already given up on the fight and fled?

Gi-jun chuckled and slammed the sharp edge of his shield down onto the head of the lesser demon (shield).

As the shield, fully charged with light spirit power, plunged vertically, it looked like divine punishment.

The shadow of a monster fell over it.

“Kiiiiiiik!”

“Where do you think you’re going!”

Gi-jun threw his shield at the lesser demon (bow) that had lunged from behind after pretending to run away and hiding in the darkness.

—Crack!

The shield, whose destructive power and speed were doubled by imbuing it with intense light, was launched like a cannonball and shattered its face.

Confirming that the corpse of the lesser demon, whose life force had run out, collapsed with a thud, Gi-jun adjusted his posture while gracefully catching the returning shield.

With that, the battle ended.

—The level of the Flash Throw (R) skill has reached 19.

—You have defeated three consecutive enemies overwhelmingly stronger than you. A positive correction has been applied to the Rare-grade title, Limit Surpasser.

—The level of the Flash Throw (R) skill has reached 19.

—You have defeated three consecutive enemies overwhelmingly stronger than you. A positive correction has been applied to the Rare-grade title, Limit Surpasser.

“Even with this, it won’t go up.”

Gi-jun, who was standing still and staring at the three corpses of the lesser demons sprawled helplessly, soon clicked his tongue and muttered.

Although Flash Throw (R), which grew from Boomerang Throw (Uc) under the influence of light mana, had risen by one level, that wasn’t what was important right now.

[Gi-jun]

[Title — Conqueror of the Hidden Dungeon (Legendary) and 7 others]

[Degraded Light Human (Uc) Lv58]

[Strength (Uc) — 93]

[Dexterity (R) — 5]

[Endurance (R) — 6]

[Light Mana (Uc) — 99]

[Charm (Uc) — 99]

[Spiritual Power (R) — 99]

[Gi-jun]

[Title — Conqueror of the Hidden Dungeon (Legendary) and 7 others]

[Degraded Light Human (Uc) Lv58]

[Strength (Uc) — 93]

[Dexterity (R) — 5]

[Endurance (R) — 6]

[Light Mana (Uc) — 99]

[Charm (Uc) — 99]

[Spiritual Power (R) — 99]

[Skills/Spells]

[Uncommon]

[Butchery Lv53, Cooking Lv99]

[Rare]

[Twin Turtle Fangs Lv37, Flash Throw Lv19, All-Out Provocation Lv43, Light Spirit Arts Lv99]

[Unique]

[Rapid Regeneration Lv39, Steelization Lv34, Sleepless and Restless Lv31]

[Legendary]

[Unfailing Body Clock Lv—]

[Skills/Spells]

[Uncommon]

[Butchery Lv53, Cooking Lv99]

[Rare]

[Twin Turtle Fangs Lv37, Flash Throw Lv19, All-Out Provocation Lv43, Light Spirit Arts Lv99]

[Unique]

[Rapid Regeneration Lv39, Steelization Lv34, Sleepless and Restless Lv31]

[Legendary]

[Unfailing Body Clock Lv—]

After neatly butchering only the hearts of the three lesser demons, who yielded nothing of worth.

Gi-jun, who opened his status and skill windows, sighed as he looked at his stats and skills that were still stuck at 99, hit by the wall of the grade limit.

He had thrown the shield while imbuing it heavily with light mana, spiritual power, and even Lucy’s spirit power in hopes of dramatic growth, but it seemed that such half-hearted methods were not enough after all.

—Geez, Contractor, I’m telling you, you’ve already grown incredibly fast! I’ve seriously never seen anyone adapt to spirit arts this quickly, really.

“I’ve already said it multiple times. I also explained that mastering a Rare-grade skill in just a year and four months is nonsensical.”

“Thank you, Lucy, Demon King. But I don’t like this feeling of being at a standstill. Maybe it’s a Korean trait.”

Gi-jun could only smack his lips despite the comforting words of Lucy and the Demon King.

When he did not know about the existence of grade-ups, he had been excited when a single stat hit 99 as if he had reached the peak of that field, but now that he knew it was merely the qualification to move on to the next stage, he could not be satisfied at all!

—Are all of the Korean race as strong as our Contractor?

“I don’t know if Koreans are all strong, but the strongest party I fought against was definitely made up entirely of Koreans.”

The Demon King replied to Lucy, who was muttering in disbelief.

Gi-jun glared at the two of them, who were talking nonsense in harmony, and said.

“Hey, Korean isn’t a race.”

“Let’s count it as a race. They were too different from the others.”

A pure Korean party consisting of three men and two women.

The Demon King highly evaluated only Gi-jun in that party, but that was simply because her evaluation criteria were excessively strict, and in reality, she thought that they were the only ones who had acted like decent human beings among the raid teams that had rushed at her.

Especially the assassin; that guy was the owner of an amazing stealth technique that had almost fooled even her own eyes.

If he had succeeded in completely fooling her and launching a surprise attack, well, she would have evaluated him as the next best after Gi-jun.

“Then what are you going to do, Hero? Shall we go a bit further?”

As the Demon King, who was briefly recalling the final battle of the first round, asked while chewing on the beef jerky Gi-jun had made for her, he stared intently at the dark passageway where the ruins continued, clicked his tongue, and said.

“How much of the ruins is left… is probably impossible to know, right?”

“I know we haven’t even reached the halfway point. It’s really incredibly vast here. At this rate, it seems it wouldn’t be easy to find even in Leta.”

—Contractor, let’s go out. I want to say hello to the sunlight after a long time, okay?

Just as his heart was wavering, Lucy begged him while acting cute, and Gi-jun eventually nodded as well.

“Right, let’s go out and train. Then we’ll get an answer.”

“Good choice!”

—Hooray!

A year ago, when he finished his racial grade-up and entered the ruins, he had been determined not to come out until he broke through them, but how could things go as planned?

In fact, the ruins, which he had thought, ‘Isn’t this a dungeon that opens after clearing the final boss of an RPG?’, were, like a hidden dungeon, unimaginably vast, and as he went deeper, the traps that bit painfully increased, to the point of rapidly growing his defense and regeneration skills, which had risen to Unique grade.

Now, the time spent breaking through the frustratingly tangled mazes and searching for monsters was overwhelmingly greater than the time spent hunting them.

Since even that was achieved with the help of the Demon King and Lucy, one could easily guess the difficulty of this ruins.

‘I think that even if it’s not me, a magician with a natural talent for mana or a rogue who is incredibly good at finding traps could break through quickly. At least compared to our Hero who mindlessly breaks everything with his body.’

It was what the Demon King had suddenly blurted out on the day Gi-jun had almost had his spine crushed by a trap, marveling at the effect of Rapid Regeneration, which healed even irreparable wounds.

Hearing those words, Gi-jun was reminded of certain people, but they were in a place where they could not meet for the time being.

Since there was also no chance of a new party member who knew how to handle spiritual power joining their party, he would not be able to see those guys clearing this ruins…

No, but what was important right now were not his former comrades who would be running hard in the second round.

Rather, the problem was the stats and skills that were stuck in place, blocked by the wall of the grade limit at 99.

While he had been purely happy to see his stats soar whenever his level, which had reset upon becoming a Deteriorated Madman, rose again…

‘Charm—I don’t even know what causes this to grow anyway, so I’ll just leave it alone.’

Since he had been immensely surprised even when it grew from Common to Uncommon, he honestly had no regrets even if Charm never grew any further for the rest of his life.

But Light Mana (Uc), which had already reached 99 over a month ago, and Spiritual Power (R) and Light Spirit Arts (R), which had both reached 99 a week ago…

“Am I being too impatient?”

—I think the Contractor’s desire to improve is wonderful!

Lucy answered energetically to his muttered words as he walked out of the ruins and looked up at the unchanging sun.

—It’s just that you’re wandering because everything has been too fast until now.

“You grew Dexterity and Endurance to Rare grade without any problem. That’s why you’re acting like this, because it was easy. You’re taking grade-ups too lightly.”

“It wasn’t easy. I was wrung out by you like a rag for days.”

In addition, he had broken quite a few traps in the Demon King’s castle.

In any case, those two stats were stats that ‘could be raised with the body,’ and they were also stats Gi-jun had originally specialized in, and because the Demon King guided him according to her directions, it was relatively easy.

Perhaps if Strength reached 99 as well, the Demon King would somehow drag it up to Rare grade.

However, the rest were tricky because they had to be supported entirely by his own realizations.

“……Right, anyway, now that we’ve come outside, shall we rest today?”

—It’s a party!

“Yes, a party!”

Staring with narrowed eyes at the two women who were rejoicing and chanting the word ‘party,’ Gi-jun eventually chuckled.

“Okay, let’s party.”

“Good choice. Originally, when things don’t go well, you eat something delicious, and also…….”

The Demon King, who seemed to hesitate for a moment, cleared her throat, “Ahem,” and raised one hand to make a unique gesture.

Holding something and twisting her wrist, it looked exactly like tossing back a drink.

“If you relieve stress while having a drink, your mind will feel a bit more comfortable.”

“……Right.”

At those words, at that gesture, a certain person came to mind.

Barely suppressing his longing because he felt like tears would trickle out if he spoke,

Gi-jun smirked and teased the Demon King.

“You, who had never once talked about alcohol until now.”

“That’s because, until now, you didn’t have the qualification to make a toast with me.”

He chuckled again at the Demon King’s words.

Do not share drinks recklessly with others.

For this was also an ironclad rule of Earth’s heroes.

A world full of danger where one never knew when they would be stabbed in the back.

There was an implicit promise to only share drinks with someone who could be trusted.

Therefore, offering a drink to someone carried two contrasting meanings.

Unless one looked down on the other party considerably, they did not offer a drink.

Unless one trusted the other party considerably, they did not offer a drink.

“And now I have the qualification?”

“Specially, very specially and limitedly?”

To Gi-jun’s words which implied many meanings, the Demon King also replied with many implied meanings.

Just then, Lucy chimed in.

—What a joke, you were looking for an opportunity the entire time—!

“Spirit, if you make up things that don’t exist, the Hero will misunderstand, you know—?!”

—Kyaaaak! Contractor, save me! The demon is chasing me!

Even as the game of tag between the Demon King and Lucy began, Gi-jun was just smiling.

Looking for an opportunity… Had the Demon King been acknowledging him since long ago?

She was indeed a good person.

In order not to disappoint the expectations of such a Demon King, he would have to train hard.

……But just for today, it should be fine.

‘Right, Brother Su?’

* * *

Under the moonlit night, a handsome man with a stubby beard growing under his chin emptied his glass and let out a sigh.

“Since Jun isn’t here, the alcohol doesn’t taste good at all.”

As he let out a sigh and was about to pour alcohol into his empty glass again, someone snatched the bottle away.

Looking back in surprise, his party member, Ji-hye, whom he had reunited with after several weeks, was standing there.

“It’s not good to drink alone, Uncle Su.”

“Then should I drink with a young kid like you? The kids will gossip, gossip.”

Recalling how he always dragged Gi-jun along by force, saying that an uncle should drink with an uncle, Ji-hye smirked.

Although it was funny that he constantly had the word ‘uncle’ on his lips despite barely being past thirty,

“Then was Brother Gi-jun an uncle?”

“Ah, that guy discharged from the military, so of course he’s an uncle.”

“Distinguishing it like that is also funny. Since we were first summoned here, we’ve rolled around on the battlefield together for 15 years, so by that logic, are we all aunts and uncles?”

“Still, kid, those looking at us might not think that way. Huh?”

The man who snatched the alcohol bottle from Ji-hye’s hand… Mok-su poured a drink and muttered as if spitting it out.

“Go drink with that young punk Shin instead.”

“Shin is still a minor, you know.”

“Look at this girl, did you eat your words? How could you forget what you just said like that.”

“Yum, yum.”

Smirking at Ji-hye’s clumsy aegyo, Mok-su, who had emptied his glass once more, waved his hand around as if that was enough and said.

“Has Ye-min… returned?”

“Not yet. The shock must have been huge. ……I also didn’t expect him to not be here. I thought he had joined up with you, Uncle.”

“Indeed……. I also thought he would be with you guys, that fellow.”

The man’s sigh deepened once more.

Shaking the bottle to gauge the remaining amount, he began to drink straight from the bottle.

“Ah, Uncle! I said you shouldn’t, seriously!”

Ji-hye, who was watching, was horrified and tried to stop him, but there was no way Ji-hye, a magician, could do anything about Mok-su, whose natural strength was immense.

“—Hic, let me just drink today. Since we won’t even be able to rest starting tomorrow, just today.”

Then his mind would feel a bit more comfortable.

Mok-su, who was about to say those words out of habit, ended up slurring his words and let out a deep sigh.

For no matter how much he thought about it, his mind was not going to feel comfortable just because he drank a bit of alcohol.

“Actually, maybe I wanted it to turn out this way.”

“Pardon?”

“Gi-jun, that guy. I was wondering if maybe he couldn’t do what he wanted because of us.”

“I’m only saying this to you since I feel like you wouldn’t get angry even if you heard this,” Mok-su added and continued.

“He was a talented guy. Everyone considers Ye-min the best, but I secretly thought Gi-jun was ahead. But such a talented guy made so many sacrifices. I won’t say it was entirely because of us, but… he was already holding a shield from the moment we met.”

“He did. I was thinking it might have been a problem with Brother Gi-jun’s personality.”

“A cold-headed analysis comes first, as expected.”

“What?! Ah, no!”

At the admiration Mok-su blurted out unintentionally, Ji-hye was startled and shook her head wildly.

“It’s not that I disliked Brother Gi-jun or took his sacrifices for granted!”

“It’s okay, it’s okay. I know you didn’t feel that way. It’s just that since you’re a rational kid, I thought you’d accept it even if I said something like this.”

“Then that makes me sound like I’m cold-blooded… That’s really not it, I have feelings too, you know…?”

“I know, I know. ……It was a slip of the tongue. I’m sorry.”

Indeed, one made mistakes when they got drunk.

Mok-su sighed and wiped his face.

The shock of failing to reunite with Gi-jun must have been significant.

Seeing how he carelessly blurted out words that could hurt a young kid.

“So Uncle……”

Fortunately, Ji-hye let it go without questioning him any further.

“Are you saying that Uncle thinks Brother Gi-jun has finally started moving as he pleases?”

“There is a possibility. It wouldn’t be strange to start over from the beginning with a fresh mind. ……I’m saying I rather hope that’s the case.”

“He’ll be fine. As Uncle said, he’s talented. There’s no way he would get beaten by strange guys.”

“Yeah, that’s right. He must be doing well.”

Nodding his head vigorously as if wanting to believe Ji-hye’s words, Mok-su let out a sigh laden with alcohol and put down the empty bottle.

“You soothe Ye-min. If it’s not Gi-jun or… us, there’s no one to catch the Demon King anyway. We don’t have the luxury to be escaping reality.”

“Leave it to me. Coaxing that girl is my specialty.”

“Yeah, I trust you.”

“Yes!”

Mok-su cleaned up the spot where he had been drinking and stood up first.

Ji-hye sat quietly in the spot he had left, and then let out a deep sigh as if his anxiety had infected her.

“Seriously, what are we going to do about this atmosphere, Brother Gi-jun……”

But now was not the time to be thinking about someone who was not here right now.

She needed words to somehow hold back Ye-min, who was running wild, unable to accept the fact that Gi-jun was gone, and bring her back on track.

Regardless of whether it was a lie or a hasty assumption.

She had to make Ye-min move forward.

Because the Hero had to kill the Demon King.