Chapter 300 – Part 2 – Elite, Genius, Ace

Catching a boss?

That’s not as difficult as you might think.

‘If I target both eyes to cancel the invisibility, that’s all there is to it.’

But how could that be as easy as it sounds?

When it’s already difficult to hit a moving opponent’s head, how could you precisely strike eyes floating in mid-air?

‘It wouldn’t be easy. Under normal circumstances.’

Normally, it would be impossible to notice a boss’s presence in advance.

Only its eyes are visible, and the creature moves stealthily for ambushes.

One hundred percent of the time, you’d be ambushed.

‘But with my Stealth Detection, that’s useless against me.’

To Choi Seong-min, who could detect stealth, the boss was nothing more than a large Worwolf.

The boss’s signature ambush tactics wouldn’t work either.

Rather, it was Choi Seong-min who was luring the boss and aiming for an ambush.

‘Follow me a bit more until the party members are out of sight. That’s right. You’re doing well, my friend.’

Calling it by the name of an old summon, Choi Seong-min, who had been luring the boss, stopped walking at a point about 90 meters away from his party members.

‘At this distance, even if we fight, it shouldn’t be heard where the party members are, right?’

Moreover, since it wasn’t over 100 meters, he could maintain the Pack Instinct effect.

‘I need to kill it as quickly as possible before the party members notice.’

In this place without prying eyes, there was no need to hide his strength.

Glancing toward where the boss was, Choi Seong-min placed an assassin’s mark and gauged the distance.

The boss probably never dreamed that its location had been discovered.

‘Now!’

Choi Seong-min suddenly turned and threw his dagger in a surprise attack.

Thunk-!

Grooooowl!

The dagger struck precisely in the boss’s red eye.

With the mark and First Strike effects, he dealt 4x damage, so it must hurt quite a bit.

The dagger that had disappeared smoothly reappeared in Choi Seong-min’s right hand, emanating a red aura.

The successful ambush granted additional attack power for 10 seconds.

‘Sprint.’

Explosively closing the distance, Choi Seong-min thrust his dagger toward the remaining eyeball.

However.

Whoosh-

As if it wouldn’t be hit by such a simple attack, the boss dodged, causing him to miss, but.

‘Slash.’

The real attack was separate.

Slice-!

Grooooowl!

When he cut through the remaining eye as well, the transparent boss’s form was revealed.

A Red-eyed Worwolf that couldn’t use invisibility was just a large wolf.

No, it couldn’t even be called a wolf.

Having lost sight in both eyes, it was more like a large sandbag.

Now all he had to do was slash freely, but Choi Seong-min was staring with a surprised expression.

At the boss that had collapsed limply in an unconscious state.

‘The unconsciousness effect attached to the Slash skill triggered now of all times.’

Using Slash had a low probability of inflicting unconsciousness, and that effect seemed to have manifested.

But what surprised Choi Seong-min wasn’t simply that unconsciousness had been inflicted.

‘I could tell through Combat Sense. That the recent attack would inflict unconsciousness.’

The fact that he could predict unconsciousness in advance, following defense ignore, surprised Choi Seong-min.

‘This isn’t the time for this.’

Right now, killing the boss was the priority.

Since it was already unconscious, it was easy to target vital points.

Stab- Stab- Stab- Stab-!

The damage was weak to inflict fatal wounds, but injuries continued to accumulate.

Grrrrrr-

The boss woke up while he was stabbing, but a creature that had lost both eyes posed no threat whatsoever.

Eventually.

‘Now’s the time. Defense ignore timing!’

Having read in advance the timing when the Sharp Blade trait would activate, Choi Seong-min used his Slash skill.

Swoooosh-

He severed the Red-eyed Worwolf’s throat in one stroke.

[You have defeated the Red-eyed Worwolf!]

[You have obtained a D-rank Magic Stone.]

[You have obtained a Wolf Head Hood.]

[You have obtained Magic-infused Red Eyes.]

‘Wolf Head Hood?’

[Wolf Head Hood]

-Category: Helmet

-Grade: D

-Defense: 1,400

-Effect: Agility +25, Attack Speed and Movement Speed +10%

-Durability: 2,500/2,500

-Usage Restriction: D-rank or higher (Bound)

-Description: A hood with a distinctive wolf head decoration. If seen incorrectly, it could be mistaken for a wolf.

It was a D-grade item he couldn’t use right now, but the options were quite good.

‘High agility plus attack speed and movement speed boosts.’

It was such a beneficial item that there was no need to look for other D-grade helmets.

‘What’s this one?’

[Magic-infused Red Eyes]

-Category: Accessory

-Grade: D

-Effect: Blends with surroundings, slightly reducing the probability that someone will recognize you.

-Durability: 888/888

-Usage Restriction: D-rank or higher (Bound)

-Description: The eyeball of a magic-infused Red-eyed Worwolf. You can borrow its power just by carrying it. Don’t worry, it’s not a real eye.

‘Did Red-eyed Worwolves originally give items like this too?’

It was an item Choi Seong-min had never seen before, so he looked at it with curiosity.

‘Reducing people’s ability to recognize you… In other words, your presence disappears, right?’

It felt like becoming a loner, but for an assassin like him, it wasn’t a bad item.

‘A D-grade Magic Stone came out too? In this world, that’s worth about 20 million won, right?’

Even though the value of hunter equipment was falling, Magic Stone prices remained unchanged.

Magic Stones that could be used as alternative energy were better the more you had.

He had obtained many good items, but this wasn’t the end.

A rune appeared as the boss’s corpse disappeared.

[You have obtained a Wind Rune.]

[Attack speed and movement speed permanently increased by 5%.]

Runes weren’t just those that increased stats.

There were also runes like the Wind Rune that boosted specific abilities.

‘I knew that catching bosses gives special runes, but a rune that increases attack speed and movement speed…’

Wasn’t this exactly what he needed as an assassin?

‘A 5% increase in attack speed and movement speed is much better than a 1-point increase in Agility.’

But Choi Seong-min was wrong.

It wasn’t 5%.

[Rune Affinity trait activates.]

[Wind Rune effect enhanced to 10%.]

Attack speed and movement speed permanently increased by 10%.

‘Then when I wear the Wolf Head Hood later, my attack speed and movement speed will be…’

40%.

It was a significantly different figure compared to hunters without attack speed and movement speed effects.

‘Once I reach D-rank, I’ll become noticeably faster, right? Even now at 30%, it’s quite a high level.’

At the moment when he couldn’t help but be pleased with the noticeable growth.

Rustle-

Choi Seong-min’s head whipped around.

Because a sound suddenly came from the forest.

---

“Is this kid making poop? Why is he so late?”

Eom Jeong-sik, who had been waiting for Choi Seong-min, stood up as if he’d reached his limit.

“What are you doing, senior?”

“He hasn’t come back even after 10 minutes. I should go look for him.”

“He’s human, so he could be late.”

“Whether it’s constipation or whatever, the time I allowed was 10 minutes.”

Eom Jeong-sik stubbornly headed in the direction where Choi Seong-min had disappeared.

Do Eun-jeong and the supervisor had no choice but to follow behind him.

Eom Jeong-sik, who had been leading, suddenly stopped walking.

“What’s wrong?”

Do Eun-jeong, who looked puzzled, saw Choi Seong-min where she was looking.

Choi Seong-min facing Worwolves alone.

Thunk-

Just as he finished off the last Worwolf, Choi Seong-min looked up at his teammates’ arrival.

“Huff, huff. You came?”

Choi Seong-min greeted them with a tired expression, but Eom Jeong-sik barely listened.

More precisely, he didn’t have the leisure to pay attention.

‘One corpse, two, three… He faced three Worwolves alone?’

Judging by how they were just now turning to smoke and disappearing, they had died not long ago.

Eom Jeong-sik showed a surprised expression at skills more impressive than expected.

Whether he knew his feelings or not, Choi Seong-min approached and bowed his head.

“I’m sorry, senior. I tried to clean up quickly and return within the time limit, but the monsters interfered…”

“Ah, that, that can happen.”

Eom Jeong-sik, who had intended to scold him as soon as he saw him, was inwardly flustered by Choi Seong-min’s unexpected skills.

“But you didn’t face all three at the same time, right?”

“Of course not. They appeared one by one, so I just caught them in order.”

In reality, he had faced three simultaneously and killed them one by one with time delays, but.

“Ha, right. There’s no way you could do something even the team leader can’t do.”

Even so, Eom Jeong-sik couldn’t dismiss it.

Catching three in sequence wasn’t easy either.

“Come on, there’s not much left, so let’s hurry up and finish.”

With Eom Jeong-sik in the lead, hunting resumed.

After that, Choi Seong-min secretly smiled.

Fortunately, it seemed the fact that he had caught a boss hadn’t been discovered.

---

After conquering the dungeon, Eom Jeong-sik and Do Eun-jeong couldn’t look down on Choi Seong-min.

They had seen and felt his skills firsthand.

But the other team members were different.

“Today, Choi Seong-min and I will enter as the same team.”

Rather than always proceeding with the same team, it was better to coordinate with various team members.

Therefore, Bang Tae-man, who had been teamed with Choi Seong-min, asked Eom Jeong-sik before entering the dungeon.

“Jeong-sik. How are the newbie’s skills? Can he catch at least one Worwolf alone?”

“What do you mean one?”

“What? Don’t tell me he can’t even catch one?”

“He seemed to handle even three easily.”

“What?”

At those joke-like words, Bang Tae-man frowned first.

“What are you talking about? Stop joking around.”

“I’m serious.”

“I don’t even have confidence facing three simultaneously, so what nonsense are you spouting?”

“Not simultaneously, but he seemed to catch them in sequence.”

“Not one, but three?”

“If you can’t believe it, why don’t you enter the dungeon with him later and check for yourself?”

Bang Tae-man, who had dismissed it as nonsense, entered the dungeon with Choi Seong-min with a still disbelieving expression.

And he felt it.

‘This kid is real.’

That geniuses really do exist in this world.

Sim Seong-jin was the same.

After seeing Choi Seong-min’s skills, anyone had to acknowledge that he was superior to themselves.

“As expected! He has skills worthy of being called elite at the training camp!”

At first, he was called elite.

However, as he gradually showed his hidden skills and displayed steep growth, the modifier changed.

Genius.

If he had initially shown skills around 5,000 combat power, now he was showing skills above 8,000.

Even Bang Tae-man with 7,000 combat power acknowledged it.

That Choi Seong-min’s combat power was probably higher than his own.

About two weeks after showing skills that even the team leader acknowledged.

Choi Seong-min became the team’s undisputed ace.

No one dismissed or looked down on Choi Seong-min as a newbie.

The modifiers attached to his name were elite, genius, ace.

Then another two weeks passed.

The long-awaited combat power update day approached.

“Just 10 more minutes until combat power is updated.”

Even at a time close to midnight, the team members had gathered in the office without going home.

Since hunting had also ended late, they decided to check combat power before going home.

“I’m curious. How much will the team leader’s combat power be?”

Combat power updates were like report card announcements.

Even if you knew your own combat power, you could only know others’ combat power for certain during updates.

“I told you. My combat power is only 8,000.”

“Come on, don’t lie. You only raised it by a mere thousand in a month? When we’ve been going through dungeons every day?”

“Who is this bastard trying to fool? If I’m really 8,000, what are you going to do, you bastard…”

“I’m honestly around 9,000.”

“How great, you bastard Sim Seong-jin.”

“Since I’m higher than the team leader, should I be team leader from now on?”

“What, you bastard?”

Even though he knew it was a joke, Bang Tae-man couldn’t help but feel bitter.

Only raising combat power by a thousand in a month meant he lacked talent.

Of course, it might also be due to his poor trait.

“I wonder how much our Eun-jeong will get?”

“Hehe, check it out in a bit. I’ve improved quite a lot.”

What the team members were most curious about was Do Eun-jeong’s combat power.

Like Choi Seong-min, she had shown noticeable growth and had raised expectations with her confident statements.

Surprisingly, the team members weren’t curious about Choi Seong-min’s combat power.

“Seong-min is already D-rank, so it’s obvious.”

They knew that ten days ago he had exceeded 10,000 combat power and was wearing D-rank equipment.

“His combat power might be around 13,000?”

“It’ll be more than that. Looking at how he hunts better than Sim Seong-jin with 9,000 combat power.”

Based on his performance so far, they could predict he had easily exceeded 10,000, so expectations were actually lower.

“Starting the countdown.”

“3… 2…”

“1…”

Finally, when midnight came, everyone opened the ranking window to check their combat power.

“Wow, everyone look at Eun-jeong. Her combat power is 7,521!”

“Whoa, really? She raised it by 3,500 in a month?”

“That’s crazy, crazy.”

“The team leader really is 8,000. Senior Sim is 9,000 too.”

“See, would I lie to you guys?”

Everyone was chattering about others’ updated combat power, but only one person.

Only Choi Seong-min had an uninterested expression.

Do Eun-jeong, who had been watching his unusual behavior, smiled and searched.

“Let’s see what our junior Seong-min’s combat power is…”

Do Eun-jeong couldn’t continue her words.

Because she had seen 20,000, a combat power that exceeded expectations.