Damned System

Chapter 102. Tomb Raider (2)

Thinking about what I had to do next made me sigh out of annoyance.

The regular field mobs were no longer a threat to me, making the task feasible.

‘Let’s wrap this up quickly.’

Having made my decision, I turned away from the entrance leading underground and shifted my position.

The first destination was the location of the messeo.

There, I captured the evolved species and collected the messeo.

Not just one, but all the messeo in the nearby corrupted area.

Then I began to run through the forest, where the snow had yet to melt.

The Messeo, left alone without evolved species, was the perfect bait to attract field mobs.

“Kiiaaa!”

“Kyah! Kyak!”

As I passed by, more than a dozen monsters followed behind me.

Since awakening to the Silver rank, my body had become even more refined and sturdy.

I could shake them off without using Mana Manipulation.

Therefore, some speed regulation was necessary when herding them.

I diligently ran through the forest to gather the monsters.

After a few minutes of running alone, I leaped onto a tree and reached out towards the crowding monsters.

Crackle-!

The attribute mana gathered at my fingertips began to disassemble, creating a flickering of heat.

Eventually, it blossomed into a bright crimson flame in my hand.

The enlarged flame, nearly the size of my chest, flew towards the monsters.

Afterwards, four more fireballs of the same size followed in quick succession.

As a result, a blazing fire erupted in the snow-covered mountains, devouring the monsters.

‘Basic fire elemental magic, fireball.’

The memory of the day I finally added that magic to my status window was vivid.

It was also the day I first succeeded in breaking down lightning attribute mana into the four major elements.

Breaking down elements meant being able to use higher attributes more efficiently.

‘The concentration of mana varies, after all.’

With the mana used to materialize lightning once, I could create three to four fireballs.

The ability to use more magic with less mana was the advantage of high-grade mana.

The more the screams of the burning monsters intensified, the more mana I absorbed.

Of course, not all the monsters died at once.

Therefore, I had to walk into the sea of fire and handle them directly.

A normal person would have been scorched.

However, my attribute mana was lightning, said to be hotter than the sun.

As I wrapped myself in attribute mana, blue sparks flickered.

The unruly movement seemed as if it wanted to consume the surrounding flames.

The heat felt in the midst of the sea of fire had significantly diminished.

It was possible because of the characteristics that attribute mana had.

‘Lower attribute mana cannot overwhelm higher attribute mana.’

The rank that attribute mana held was an absolute truth belonging to nature.

‘Just as normal flames cannot burn amidst lava and get consumed.’

The rank of mana was akin to an unchangeable hierarchy.

Thanks to this, I was unharmed even while stepping into the blazing inferno.

Using my spear to pierce or the wind attribute to create a cutting wind for several minutes, I could neatly finish off the remaining alive monsters.

‘Indeed, it’s convenient to use magic to deal with trash mobs.’

At this pace, it seemed I could finish in a couple of hours.

With light steps, I began the next round of gathering.

At times only regular field mobs would gather, and sometimes there would be evolved species lurking around.

However, there were no significantly dangerous moments.

Since learning to properly control mana, my combat power had risen dramatically.

How long had I been repeating this tedious process for about an hour?

“Hmm?”

On the map, which was filled with black dots, five red dots appeared.

This indicated players had come, and it was unwelcome news for me.

‘There’s no need to share the hunting field.’

I made a short decision, guiding three evolved species as I approached.

I planned to intimidate them enough to make them retreat.

But upon reaching the players’ location, my mind changed.

“Three o’clock, head towards three o’clock! Let’s break through there!”

“Oh.”

Standing on a branch, I focused my gaze on the players below.

* * *

“Push, push!”

“What are you doing?! You deal with it!”

“Do you think I’m just standing here?!”

As was often the case when dealing with half a dozen clustered monsters, anxious and urgent voices were heard repeatedly.

Yang Taeho, standing in the center of the commotion, felt incredulous.

‘They claimed they were confident!’

Though some of the party members had left due to circumstances, they boasted they would be more than capable.

They claimed they were confident with their experience in a 2-star corrupted area, boasting with bravado.

The confident words of the player who introduced himself as Phoenix were all nonsense.

‘But this is too much, no?’

It’s inevitable that gaps would emerge when some members left the original party.

The important thing was for those remaining to fill those gaps.

However, since they couldn’t, the monsters began to infiltrate the inner circle.

An indication that monsters had breached the rear and were running amok between the player handling the backline and the tanker responsible for the frontline.

“Damn it!”

For a tanker wielding a shield with both hands, it was indeed a dangerous situation.

Hurriedly, Yang Taeho took out the hand axe strapped to his waist.

He swung it fiercely toward a monster approaching behind him.

“Kiiaaak!”

The monster, ambiguously resembling a monkey or a chimpanzee, retreated, spraying black blood with an axe embedded in its shoulder.

Had the dealers taken care of it properly at that moment, there would have been no need for further worry.

Unfortunately, they were too busy dealing with the monsters surrounding them.

In the end, Yang Taeho had to independently fend off the monsters charging from behind while pushing away those coming from the front with his shield.

‘A misplaced desire brought this…’

This month’s income was too low, so Yang Taeho felt greedy.

Phoenix’s offer to give two-tenths of the spoils was tempting enough.

Without a fixed party, Yang Taeho, who moved around like a mercenary, usually received around one-tenth.

When the number of members increased, that share often decreased even further.

Thus, he didn’t want to miss this opportunity to double his usual share.

‘I was too complacent.’

Though the number of members decreased, he thought it would be okay since the remaining members had experience.

Indeed, in the beginning, everything went smoothly.

Even when they encountered two evolved species simultaneously, they had managed to defend quite well.

Therefore, he let his guard down a bit.

But as dozens of ordinary monsters, smaller in size compared to the evolved species, began to gather, their coordination started to falter.

‘This could turn into a big disaster.’

Injuries were increasing, and the resulting stamina consumption was severe.

Add to that the mental fatigue accumulating from the unfamiliar hunting pace.

Yang Taeho felt his mouth becoming dry.

Was it because he sensed the danger to his life?

The face of his wife, who stubbornly avoided the hospital due to money issues, flashed across his mind.

With that, he couldn’t help but grit his teeth.

‘I can’t die meaninglessly here.’

It was time to do something to escape the crisis.

What was immediately needed was an understanding of the situation.

From Yang Taeho’s perspective, the current state of the party was not good.

Though he was holding on to his limits and deflecting monsters, the dealers’ hunting speed was not as fast as he thought.

Adding to that, the scent of blood and the chaotic cries were drawing more monsters.

The battle was being prolonged.

‘At this rate, things will turn disastrous.’

Swallowing hard at the slowly swelling sense of crisis deep in his chest, Yang Taeho quickly surveyed his surroundings.

The expressions of the other party members, including Phoenix, were not good either.

This meant Yang Taeho wasn’t the only one feeling this sense of threat.

Yang Taeho instinctively realized it was the time to somehow clear an escape route.

Thus, he used the remaining attribute mana.

‘Rock attribute.’

Gathering the last of his mana, he used the low-grade rock attribute he had purchased; it was the rock attribute.

It was the attribute that saved Yang Taeho’s life today.

“Three o’clock, move towards three o’clock! Unblock that path!”

Everyone quickly grasped Yang Taeho’s intention.

They abandoned the blocked path on their left for a moment and began to open a way by aggressively taking down the monsters to the right of the party, in the 3 o’clock direction.

However, as a consequence, Yang Taeho’s plan to clear an escape and flee was doomed to fail.

The battle had already dragged on for far too long.

“Kyiek!”

A monster as large as six times a regular field mob, an evolved species, appeared.

It was already a struggle with dozens of incoming monsters, and now there was an evolved species!

“Of all times!”

“No way!”

“Break through faster!”

All the party members turned pale.

Even if they swung their weapons with all their might, surpassing the evolved species’ charging speed was impossible.

The evolved species, which had approached right in front, raised all six of its arms simultaneously.

A long shadow was cast over the party members.

It appeared like the shadow of death, and despair was etched on the faces of the party members.

At that moment, Yang Taeho, who was clearing the path, intervened between the evolved species and the party members, raising his shield.

He intended to block that swipe.

If his party members were knocked away like bowling pins now, it would truly magic the end.

It was the time to protect the formation from collapsing.

That was a tanker’s inherent duty within a party.

Yang Taeho gritted his teeth and put his shield forward.

Anticipating exhaustion from mana depletion, he squeezed the last of his attribute mana.

Thick rock began to sprout around Yang Taeho’s shield.

It took on an organic form, as if it were growing with a life of its own.

In addition, he reinforced with regular mana to enhance interference.

Completing all preparations, he tensed every muscle in his body.

Thud-!

“Grit!”

The evolved species’ swipe struck Yang Taeho.

The monster’s strength was so overwhelming that cracks appeared in the rocks extending from the shield.

It didn’t stop there as Yang Taeho’s body was pushed back.

However, he didn’t collapse.

Though drawn back, leaving a long mark on the dirt ground, he managed to hold fast.

Instead, strength deserted his body.

Having used every last bit of mana, he fell into a state of exhaustion.

Even so, Yang Taeho squeezed every ounce of strength from his body and shouted.

“What are you just standing there for?! Keep moving!”

Though he successfully blocked the initial impact, he aimed those words at the inactive party members.

“Sever that neck immediately!”

Yelling loudly, he looked back only to freeze.

“Screeech!”

Behind him, where there should have been allies, there were only monsters.

While Yang Taeho stepped to the rear, other party members should have been engaging the monsters.

However, instead of protecting his exposed rear, they fled.

Consequently, the monsters filled the vacancy.

Amidst the swarming monsters, the distant figures of retreating party members could be seen.

Watching in a trance, Yang Taeho’s face blushed red in an instant.

“You damn scoundrels!!”

His desperate cry resonated loudly in the noisy forest.

“The party leader has expelled you.”

Simultaneously, a system message appeared and a monster pounced on Yang Taeho from behind.

Instinctively groping for his waist, he realized he didn’t have the hand axe he used as a secondary weapon.

He had used it to deal with a monster that intruded into the party’s formation and hadn’t retrieved it.

Behind him, a small monster drooled profusely.

In front, an evolved species once again raised its arm, ready to crush him.

Yang Taeho turned pale, finding himself in a desperate situation.

Once more, the face of his wife, who avoided hospitals due to financial difficulties, flashed in his mind.

Yet, there was nothing he could do now.

His mana was depleted, and his secondary weapon was used up.

His only remaining option was to face death.

Just then, the hand of the evolved species began descending.

Yang Taeho watched, dazed, at the overwhelmingly surreal sight.

The shadow of his unborn daughter, who was lost before he ever held her, seemed to flicker at his feet.

It seemed she had come to fetch the father who couldn’t protect her.

With that thought, Yang Taeho unconsciously raised his shield over his head.

There was no particular purpose behind the action.

Whatever he did, the future where he was crushed by the evolved species’ hand couldn’t change.

He had no strength to defy the impending death.

Yang Taeho closed his eyes tightly, holding the shield high.

“… Huh?”

Yet no end came, no matter how long he waited.

Neither was he bitten by the monster charging from behind, nor was he crushed under the evolved species’ hand.

Holding his shield over his head and rigid, Yang Taeho tentatively opened his eyes.

The first thing he saw was a monster with its neck half-slashed, collapsed at his feet.

“Gack, hrrk!”

Moreover, desperate panting echoed in a manner as if it would falter any moment.

Lowering the shield to see the situation, the body of the evolved species before him teetered over and fell sideways.

Damned System