LGHTNOVELBOOK 82.
82.
Jian asked just in case. Given that Sehun had been doing all sorts of things behind his back, he wouldn’t be surprised if Sehun had gone on solo dungeon raids.
“…Yeah,” Sehun answered, looking sheepish. As expected. Jian stepped out of the translucent barrier first.
“Hyung!” Sehun called out to Jian, following him in confusion. He watched Jian cautiously, wondering if he was angry, but Jian silently opened his skill window to activate his attack skill.
He targeted the Sand Worm approaching at a terrifying speed, and its color changed from light green to red. In the meantime, two more joined on either side of the central Sand Worm.
Jian included them all in his attack skill target. When the distance to the Sand Worms was less than 50 meters, he used his skill.
Screeeech!
The three Sand Worms hit by the tickle skill rolled around in the desert sand. As an enormous amount of sand rushed towards Jian, Sehun extended his right arm forward.
As if time had stopped, the sand froze in mid-air. In that state, Sehun curled his fingers, completing a sand-colored hemispherical barrier.
Meanwhile, the desperately writhing Sand Worms stopped moving one by one. Sand was sucked into their wide-open circular mouths.
’10 seconds.’
That was how long it took for the three Sand Worms to die. A spark of light flashed in Sehun’s eyes. He had noticed since childhood that Jian’s hunter rank was S-class.
When facing A-rank hunters like Hyunwoo, he felt he could take them down if certain conditions were met. But when it came to Jian, it was foggy and unclear.
That’s why he prepared an S-rank artifact when planning the confinement, just in case, and his prediction was correct. Today, he got a clear sense of Jian’s abilities.
His stealth seemed clumsy, but his attack skill was quite good. Although classified as B-rank monsters, Sand Worms were often considered near A-rank due to their massive bodies and tough skin.
The speed at which he dealt with three of them simultaneously was too fast to be called an A-rank hunter.
‘Was I overdoing it from the start?’
Jian glanced at the unusually quiet Sehun and casually rubbed under his nose with his index finger. Feeling like he might sneeze, he put his head mask back on.
The cooldown time for the attack skill was 10 minutes. That was quite long during combat. In a critical situation, it would be enough time to lose one’s life dozens of times.
It was easy to survive 10 minutes by alternating between stealth and defense skills, but he had to rest until the next attack, so he had trained to take down monsters as quickly as possible during that time.
When raiding with others, he had adjusted his strength to match A-rank.
His S-rank status would be revealed soon anyway. Shin Yoonjae had mentioned it when he came, and he would need to use all his power to protect Sehun.
He just felt a bit embarrassed for using too much power against mere B-rank monsters.
Fortunately, the others were all scattered in different directions dealing with Sand Worms and didn’t seem to pay much attention to them.
“Do you want to handle the ones coming over there?” Jian suggested, looking at Sehun. The desert field, seemingly endless at a glance, was the habitat of Sand Worms.
Sand Worms were bursting up everywhere, causing sandstorms.
From stopping countless sand particles using telekinesis to forming a solid barrier, Sehun’s skill control already seemed flawless.
Sehun nodded and lightly waved his right hand. The hemisphere blocking their front crumbled into sand grains and fell to the ground.
Seeing Sehun use telekinesis as naturally as breathing, Jian asked out of curiosity,
“Ah, what’s your skill cooldown time?”
“There isn’t one.”
Jian’s lips parted slightly. In fact, it wasn’t rare for hunters to have skills without cooldown times. Rather, all A-rank and above usually had at least one.
Jian was the unusual case, with few skills, all with cooldown times, and no passive skills. You could say he was extremely unlucky. He even had to use his life force.
Watching Sehun, who unlike himself possessed true S-rank abilities, Jian secretly felt relieved. It wasn’t for nothing that Sehun was the main villain in the novel.
“Then use it as much as you want. The more familiar you are with using skills, the better.”
“Okay.”
Encouraged by Jian, Sehun stretched both arms forward. As his smooth brow furrowed, Sand Worms hidden beneath the blazing desert were dragged out into the air one by one.
One, two, ten, twenty, thirty…
Jian gave up counting as an incredible number of Sand Worms filled the blue sky.
Screeeech!
The Sand Worms screamed in apparent agony under the scorching sun. With nearly a hundred making noise at once, it hurt the ears like a sonic attack.
Those dealing with Sand Worms elsewhere were left speechless at the incredible sight.
Sehun gazed at the Sand Worms with calm eyes, then suddenly clenched his fist tightly.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
Sounds like water balloons bursting echoed from all directions. Viscous bodily fluids rained down on the desert.
Realizing the vast difference between himself, an S-rank in name only, and a true S-rank, Jian stared at the clumped Sand Worm corpses with his mouth agape.
As they turned to ash and disappeared one by one, numerous magic stones and items were left behind. The sunlight reflecting off the magic stones transformed the sand dunes into mountains of jewels.
“That’s truly overwhelming. Incredible.”
Jihwan, who had approached unnoticed, clapped his hands. Jian shrugged as if he was the one being praised.
He felt proud, like when Sehun brought home a report card showing he was first in his class. His lips twitched with a smile he couldn’t hide.
“Sehun, I’m really going to hide behind you if things get dangerous.”
Despite Jihwan’s casual voice, Sehun only looked at Jian. His eyes sparkled as he met Jian’s face with a bright smile.
* * *
Screech! Thud!
The last monster fell to the ground with a heavy sound. Its nearly 3-meter steel armor crumbled into ash and disappeared.
“Phew…”
Jian exhaled deeply, brushing back his sweat-soaked hair. The dungeon field, shaped like a giant circular arena, was left with marks as if a giant had punched it.
“Ah, I’m dying.”
Led by Jihwan, who sat down on the ground with a groan, they all started to relax their tense bodies one by one.
“Have some water, hyung.”
“Thanks.”
Sehun also took out a water bottle and handed it to Jian. Jian looked around as he gulped down the water.
They had already cleared four floors while frantically moving from one level to the next. It felt like at least a day had passed.
However, in the original story, time flowed slightly differently inside and outside the tower. So it was likely that less than a day had passed outside.
As time went on, they also encountered other advance parties that had entered after them.
Team 1’s role was to be the vanguard, so after finishing the exploration of each floor, they left the cleanup to those who followed.
Team 1 had cleanly dealt with all the Sand Worms that appeared on the first floor. This was possible because Sehun had killed nearly a hundred at once.
“You must be very tired? Let’s go over there and rest a bit too.”
“Okay.”
No matter how good their stamina was as high-ranking hunters, fighting all day was certainly pushing it.
Knowing this, Yongho let the team members rest. He even went to a corner of the arena, pulled his cloak hood down, and took some time alone to let everyone rest comfortably.
Jian and Sehun found a quiet spot and sat down on a stair-like area.
“Are you hungry?”
“Not really. Maybe I’ll eat a chocolate bar.”
Unlike the others who had relaxed, Jian couldn’t easily let his guard down about the upcoming 5th floor dungeon.
He had distributed flash artifacts to Team 1, but it was too early to feel at ease with just that.
They had to enter the dungeon first no matter what. That way, those following could get a sense of the appearing monsters by watching them use the artifacts.
As Jian chewed on the chocolate bar Sehun had given him, pondering how to persuade Yongho and the other team members, he felt a heavy weight on his thigh.
Looking down, he immediately met a pair of round eyes.
“Can I lie down?”
It was just like Sehun to ask belatedly after already resting his head on Jian’s thigh. Jian silently stroked Sehun’s messy hair.
As Jian had hoped, Sehun had only been using his telekinesis skill since entering the tower. Not only was the skill powerful, but his excellent skill control made it appear as if he was using various skills.