Chapter 012 – Ahenna’s Forest (5)

At the campfire located at the entrance of the raid, two individuals were exchanging words . .

“You mean you only lived in the city your entire life?”

“Yeah . I’ve never even held an axe in my life before . I don’t know what’s going on anymore…”

Old man ‘Lumberjack’ and the ‘Wandering Merchant’ Aindell were having a conversation .

“I see I see . I hope you have a long life, sir . ”

“That would be nice… But that crazy guy from before…”

At that moment, ‘That Crazy Guy’ appeared, interrupting the peaceful atmosphere . Their reactions were polar opposites again . Wandering Merchant Aindell bowed, greeting him .

“Welcome, dear customer!”

And the old ‘Lumberjack’ was startled, pointing his fingers at Sungjin .

“Why! You! Why are you here?”

Sungjin, for the first time, approached the two . The ‘Lumberjack’ was being incredibly cautious, but he ignored the lumberjack and approached the Merchant instead .

“Hey, do you know anything about hidden bosses?”

Aindell tilted his head as if confused and replied,

“Hidden… Boss? I don’t know . Is there something like that here?”

He smiled innocently for a moment, and then his expression brightened up .

“Oh! I think I’ve heard of something like that before . A secret boss hiding somewhere in the raid zone . Finding it is really difficult… and it possesses incredible strength . Please be careful, Mr . Hunter, in case you ever run into something like that . ”

Sungjin couldn’t help but smile when he heard the reply . And drawing out his katana, he pointed the sword at the Merchant .

“So you have incredible strength?”

As if not understanding his words, the merchant tilted his head again .

“What is this about, dear customer?”

The ‘Lumberjack’ grasped the merchant’s shoulders and said to him,

“Don’t listen to him, son . He’s a crazed monster . You don’t need to listen to him . ”

Sungjin addressed the old man .

“Come to my side if you want to live . ‘The Crazed Monster’ is him, not me . ”

The ‘Lumberjack’ seemed to be on Aindell’s side . The old man stood even closer to Aindell as he replied back to Sungjin .

“Stop your lies . . . Didn’t you see what happened when that ‘Hooligan’ fellow tried to threaten him?”

‘You don’t get coins . Give me everything you’ve got, Bitch . ’

The Lumberjack was probably referring to that situation from earlier . The Operator definitely said at the time:

[Warning:]
[Attacking a non-hostile lifeform will cause penalties from the Raid Rewards . ]
Sungjin knew better than anyone about this rule . There was no way he was not aware of this .

“…That only applies while he is a non-hostile lifeform . ”

But the Lumberjack refused to listen .

“You bloodthirsty animal…”

He seemed to view Sungjin as a battle crazed maniac ever since witnessing him in Zealot (III) mode under the influence of ‘Yanhurat’ .

Sungjin shook his head in disappointment . Almost nobody believed in Sungjin since the reset . At the very least, the old man seemed naturally distrustful .

“Well… fine . Do what you like . But, if you don’t run away by the time I count to three, I can’t guarantee your safety . One”

Sungjin put his hand inside the pocket and began to count .

“Two”

He gripped the ‘Perfect Moonstone .

“Three”

At the same time when he said ‘Three’, he tossed the stone towards Aindell .

“Hmm? What is…”

Aindell looked down at the stone he caught on instinct . In his hands, the crystal displayed the words ‘Full Moon’

And the moment his eyes landed on the words, his blue eyes turned amber . Sungjin knew,

‘… This is it . ”

And to confirm his suspicion, the Operator announced in an urgent tone

[Warning!]
[The Hidden Boss ‘Werewolf Aindell’ has appeared . ]

“Graaaah!”

Aindell’s short stature grew rapidly, growing hair all over his body, his face extending into a snout . His fangs grew out and extended past his lips .

The time it took for ‘Wandering Merchant Aindell’ to transform into ‘Werewolf Aindell” was 3 seconds . The ‘Lumberjack’ had fallen over in surprise at his transformation . Sungjin yelled at him .

“Hey, run away!”

But,

“Uh…”

He didn’t even have the time to scream or shout . Aindell, upon transforming, immediately turned towards the Lumberjack .

“Gah!”

The Lumberjack, who until moments ago was sharing a pleasant conversation with the Merchant, had his neck ripped out by the Werewolf Aindell .

Drenched in human blood, the Werewolf let out a howl .

“Awooooo~~!”

Sungjin frowned and took out his Katana from the sheath .

‘I’m getting real tired of that sound now . ’

The Werewolf turned his gaze upon Sungjin . Sungjin clenched his teeth . Moments later, they clashed .

Sungjin swung his sword and leaned his head back as Aindell’s claws cut through the air above him .

Because Sungjin had tilted his head back to dodge, he could not visually confirm the result of the first clash . However, Sungjin did not feel any recoil from the strike .

‘He dodged it . ’

Instead of launching a follow-up strike, Sungjin watched for the wolfman’s next move . And just as he predicted, Aindell launched his attack towards Sungjin’s unguarded left . Sungjin quickly let go of his katana from his left hand to guard .

“Kakakaka”

Aindell’s claws and the chains of Free Ark collided, sending sparks flying . If he had not equipped the Free Ark, he would have lost his hand .

‘…deliberate and planned attack…’

Sungjin leaped back in surprise . In the previous strike, Aindell had aimed to strike Sungjin’s arms to disarm him rather than go for the kill . There was no question about it . Sungjin decided to try to communicate .

“…What are you?”

And in a rough and deep voice, he replied .

“You already figured me out! What an interesting Human!”

Sungjin regripped his Katana as he spoke .

“I just thought it was strange, strange that the Operator would willingly throw in a random weirdo to help out in a raid . ”

The Wolf gestured to the old man he killed and replied .

“That man was too old; his meat tasted no good . Let’s see how you taste!”

The two combatants resumed the battle . They dodged, attacked, dodged, swung… They exchanged blows at a breakneck speed . Aindell was even faster than Ahenna .

Despite Sungjin’s unmatched investment into Dexterity, Aindell did not lose out on speed . The two exchanged a few more blows, and mutually took a step back . The fight suddenly came to a pause .

Aindell and Sungjin both understood that the other was a formidable foe . Aindell looked nervous . Sungjin gazed into his own reflection on the Katana .

‘This was designed to be difficult to clear alone . ’

Similar to “Mad Orc Ruark”, this was not a contest of strength and endurance, but of speed . The problem was compounded by the fact that the speed on both sides was roughly the same .

Sungjin considered using the ‘Yanhurat’ inside his pocket; 3 times the speed for 30 seconds .

‘…If I use this… It’ll take 30 seconds to kill…no, 10 seconds is enough… But… I promised myself I wouldn’t use it unless absolutely necessary…’

For a moment, Sungjin wavered, but he made a firm decision and withdrew his hands . Sungjin decided against using it . If he wasn’t strong enough to overcome a chapter as early as chapter 2 without relying on ‘cheat mode’, then his future looked grim .

“Kao!”

Aindell charged once more towards Sungjin . Sungjin lowered his stance and backed off, dodging and blocking all of Aindell’s attacks . Meanwhile, he calculated his next move .

‘If we reach that area…’

Sungjin leaped back further and further to lure Aindell in . Being unable to land a hit, Aindell gave chase as he entered into a frenzy .

And suddenly, Sungjin stood his ground . He was standing next to the campfire . He kicked the logs up towards Aindell .

Fire attack . Aindell paused for the first time to stop the log . The moment he made contact, the fire spread to his fur .

For a thousandth of a second, Aindell stiffened up when the fire spread to his fur . And that brief moment of hesitation was all Sungjin needed . He cut the werewolf’s unguarded abdomen from side to side .

“Kaaaa!”

Aindell let out a strange scream . It was difficult to make out whether it was a scream of a wolf or a human . But Sungjin’s Katana was devoid of any mercy .

Sungjin swung and slashed Aindell’s legs . His thin legs were severed without giving resistance . Sungjin had been eyeing them for a while .

Without being able to hold himself up, Aindell collapsed to the ground . He still tried to put up a fight by thrashing about from the ground, but Sungjin stomped on his stomach and simply cut off both of his arms .

“Kaaack!”

Aindell let out another cry of pain and began to pant . Even in his last moments, he glared at Sungjin with eyes filled with malice .

“How cruel…”

Sungjin held his Katana upside down and addressed him .

“Yeah, that’s the problem with you talkative ones . ”

And he thrust the Katana deep in his chest .

“Krrraahggg…”

He let out one last cry of pain and perished . Sungjin looked down at him and said his parting words .

“You said it yourself . ‘Wild Beasts are afraid of fire . ’ What kind of idiot teaches his enemies his greatest weakness?”

The Operator soon gave out an announcement .

[Hidden boss ‘Werewolf Aindell’ Cleared . ]
[Congratulations! You have managed to complete all objectives in this Chapter!]
[Disregarding the remaining time and ending the raid immediately . ]

Upon hearing the announcements, he finally wiped off the sweat from his brows .

“Sigh…”

Maintaining 100% completion for a raid, even for Chapter 2, was no easy task . Ahenna and Aindell both were extremely difficult opponents to defeat .

‘Will I be able to go until the end like this…?’

Once he thought of it, he understood the difference between this life and his previous life . The difference was his luck with teammates . The reason why he was struggling so much despite the massive advantage granted by the ‘Restart’ and his unbelievable stats was due to his luck with teammates .

Previously, he was able to make it to the end because he consistently met reliable and rational teammates . But for some reason he had absolutely the worst luck with his teammates this time .

Of all the teammates he met so far in two chapters, Officer Baltren was the only one who was somewhat decent .

Sungjin paused for a moment to look up at the night sky . The half moon was still there . Sungjin briefly thought of Baltren .

‘…I wonder how he’s doing . ’

Baltren’s words echoed in his mind .

‘We will meet again, Master Hunter K . ’

Meet again… The chances of meeting someone again from the previous raid was astronomically small . Baltren was reasonably strong and had good leadership qualities . But if he gets matched up with poor teammates, he’ll just get killed .

‘…’

And for a moment, Sungjin felt depressed . But, the Operator’s voice interrupted his thoughts and brought him good news .

[Calculating Rewards . ]