Chapter 23

Jun-sang aimed for the largest monster first. Even though it was only about half a head taller than the others, such a monster needed to be eliminated first to break the enemy’s morale. The monster, who had been sitting with its back turned, eagerly tearing at meat beside him, suddenly saw its comrade’s head explode and red blood gush out. It tried to get up in a hurry, but before it could, Jun-sang’s right hand snatched the scruff of its neck.

-Kyaaaah! Suddenly lifted into the air, the monster shrieked in terror, but Jun-sang rotated his entire body like a giant windmill, lifted it with all his might, and then slammed it down with that rotational force. Perhaps it wasn’t just its size, as the monster didn’t die instantly from that ridiculous blow and squirmed alive, but then Jun-sang’s fist, striking down as if smashing stacked bricks, crushed its head, and its breathing stopped.

While Jun-sang brought down the largest monster, the Crimson Wolf leaped high into the air, sat on the monster holding the bottle with its large body, and then bit the struggling monster’s neck.

Now, only one monster remained. However, it was so stunned that it was wetting itself, as its comrades around it had instantly been turned into bloody pulp and fallen without having a chance to do anything. And as Jun-sang, who had defeated the largest monster, stood up and looked at it, the monster trembled and dropped the crude wooden bowl it was holding.

Jun-sang felt a bitter taste in his mouth at the sight of the monster, completely terrified and unable to move its hands or feet. But he silently approached, grabbed its collar, lifted it, and then delivered a single blow to its face, instantly taking its life.

“Phew…” Jun-sang closed his eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, and then collected his spoils. This time, he obtained a pouch containing several gold pieces, a crude hand axe, and three daggers. After putting them into the spoils box, Jun-sang once again searched the monsters’ heads. Then, he found a seed in the head of the largest one.

Item Information

• Name: Anti-Poison Seed
• Level Restriction: None
• Type: Seed
• Grade: Common
• Effect: Poison Resistance +5%
• Description: This seed increases resistance to poison.
• Can be equipped to items or cards with Seed slots to enhance their abilities.
• A special ability ‘Separate’ is required to detach an equipped seed.
• [Click here to equip this seed to an item or card.]

“…” Jun-sang pondered where to equip the newly acquired seed. Blood-Soaked (R), his highest-grade card, already had all its slots filled, so he needed to equip the seed to another card. After a moment of thought, Jun-sang equipped the seed to the recently acquired ‘Spirit of the Mighty Bear’ card.

Having finished equipping the seed, Jun-sang was about to leave the spot when he saw the wolf drooling over the unknown raw meat the monsters had left out for roasting.

“…” “…” As he watched silently, the wolf met its master’s gaze, as if pleading. At that sight, Jun-sang somehow found himself thinking of Inia, whom he had met in the forest a while ago.

“Hmph.” Jun-sang chuckled to himself, recalling Inia’s efforts to act cute. He sat by the bonfire the monsters had built and handed the raw meat to the wolf.

“Here, eat.” With permission granted, the wolf wagged its tail and eagerly began to eat the raw meat Jun-sang offered. Seeing the wolf diligently eat, Jun-sang somehow felt hungry too. Only then did he remember that he hadn’t even eaten properly because the quest had activated right after he finished his training. Jun-sang first got up, moved the bloody monster corpses aside, then skewered the meat and began roasting it over the bonfire. He considered taking out the emergency rations stored in his inventory, but thinking they were supplies for truly urgent situations, he decided to be content with the roasted meat.

“Hmm…” As he watched the meat sizzling over the bonfire… Jun-sang realized he was preparing a meal at leisure for the first time since this damned quest had activated. In his original world, where a quest could activate at any moment, it wasn’t easy to cook and eat peacefully. Considering that… being called into a quest might actually be better in this regard, as he didn’t need to worry about such things. Of course, that was assuming he wasn’t attacked while doing such things.

“…” Jun-sang took out a box of groceries from his inventory, pulled out salt and pepper, and seasoned the roasted meat. After putting the grocery box back into his inventory, Jun-sang tasted the glistening roasted meat. It had a slightly gamey smell, but the taste was incomparable to the rat meat he had eaten during the tutorial. After a satisfying meal, he felt somewhat sleepy, but Jun-sang slapped his cheek and got up.

The current number of remaining monsters was 45. There was still a long way to go. As Jun-sang stood up, the Crimson Wolf, which had been dozing by the bonfire, instantly opened its eyes wide and quickly rose to follow Jun-sang. During the tutorial, it had been afraid of fire and couldn’t even come close… but now it was acting completely like a pet dog. Jun-sang chuckled again at the Crimson Wolf’s strangely nonchalant appearance.

“Phew…” After a light deep breath, Jun-sang covered the bonfire with sand, stomped on the embers to extinguish them, and then continued deeper into the cave. After passing the open area and walking a bit further, the Crimson Wolf raised its head and looked forward. Jun-sang, wondering what it was, focused his attention and suddenly heard faint murmuring. Jun-sang quickly unsummoned the Will-o’-the-Wisp and checked what was approaching.

-Klik kiki… -Kilirik! Cautiously observing, he saw two monsters approaching, pickaxes on their backs, chattering among themselves. Jun-sang unsummoned even the Crimson Wolf, hid behind a rock, and waited for them to pass. And finally, as they brushed past him, he grabbed the scruff of their necks, one in each hand, and slammed them to the ground.

-Kyaaah! Without even realizing what had happened, their heads smashed against the rock floor, and both monsters died.

“Hmm…” Were the ones he’d just beaten warriors, and these guys miners? These monsters weren’t just using the mine as a dungeon; it seemed they were actually mining ore here. Jun-sang first collected the two crudely shaped pickaxes, then searched their belongings again, but found no gold pieces or shimmering stones, nor any seeds.

Once he finished collecting the spoils, Jun-sang re-summoned the Crimson Wolf and Will-o’-the-Wisp and continued forward. Soon after, he easily found monsters diligently mining ore. In a fairly wide space dimly lit by scattered bonfires, about ten monsters were mining ore, and two were guarding near the inner entrance, armed with daggers and shields.

“…” Jun-sang pondered for a moment, then unsummoned the Will-o’-the-Wisp and Crimson Wolf. There were quite a few of them to face at once, and it would be problematic if other monsters rushed out after hearing the noise.

“Phew…” Jun-sang took a light deep breath to calm himself, then cautiously moved through the shadows, approaching a monster preoccupied with shoveling, from behind. Jun-sang quietly approached, gripped the monster’s neck from behind, and twisted its head as if unscrewing a jar lid.

Snap! Then, with a small crunch of neck bones, the monster went limp. Jun-sang eliminated them one by one in this manner, but… he made a mistake with the fifth one. While killing the pickaxe-wielding monster, he failed to get a proper grip on its neck, and a scream escaped.

-Klik? Perhaps hearing the sound, one of the two guarding monsters began to approach.

“Tsk…” Jun-sang clicked his tongue, carefully lowered the dead monster’s body to the side, and waited for the approaching monster, armed with a dagger and shield. The monster approached and discovered one of its fallen comrades on the ground. But just as it was about to scream, Jun-sang leaped out like lightning, grabbed the scruff of its neck, and slammed it to the ground.

Thud! Jun-sang tossed aside the monster, which lay limp with a broken neck from a single blow, and then charged like the wind towards the monster standing at the inner entrance. The monster briefly looked surprised at Jun-sang, who had suddenly appeared from the darkness and killed its comrade, but then it quickly adopted a fighting stance, holding its shield forward. However, that was its mistake. In this situation, what it should have done was scream to alert others of the intrusion, not take a fighting stance.

As the monster thrust its shield forward defensively, Jun-sang immediately opened his mouth.

“Open Shoulder Charge.” Then, Two-Hit Combo was unequipped from the slot, and Shoulder Charge was equipped. Simultaneously with the card equipping, Jun-sang activated Shoulder Charge. Then, Jun-sang’s already rapidly charging body explosively accelerated, flying towards the monster.

-Ki… Only then did it open its mouth, realizing something was wrong, but at that moment, Jun-sang’s shoulder broke through the shield and pushed in. The monster was crushed between Jun-sang’s shoulder and the wall, unable to even scream, and died from asphyxiation.

After dispatching the guard, Jun-sang spoke again. “Open Crimson Wolf, Open Will-o’-the-Wisp.” Then, his two summoned creatures appeared sequentially around him. As the summoned creatures appeared, Jun-sang said to them, “You block this way, Will-o’-the-Wisp, you block that entrance.”

As the command was given, the Will-o’-the-Wisp quickly flew towards the entrance Jun-sang had entered through, and only then did the monster miners, realizing the change, one by one raise their heads and look around. The monster miners were confused for a moment about what had happened, then panicked when they saw their fallen comrades scattered around them.

-Klik! -Kilirik! With the entrance sealed, Jun-sang moved quickly and charged towards them. A quick glance told him there were about 7 left. As he rushed forward, the monster at the very front tried to counter him by swinging its pickaxe. However, the pickaxe was excessively large for the monster’s small body, making it quite inadequate as a weapon. Before it could even swing the pickaxe forward, which had been pulled back, it was kicked by Jun-sang’s military boot and sent flying backward.

As their comrade flew through the air like a piece of paper and slammed into the wall, some of them quickly turned to flee, while others froze like statues. Among them, about two brave ones, carrying shovels and pickaxes, desperately charged at Jun-sang.

Jun-sang lightly twisted his body to avoid the shovel handle flying at him, then snatched it and swung it at the monster’s head.

Thwack! As the crude shovel blade burrowed into its head, the monster simply collapsed. The one that had been about to swing its pickaxe, seeing its comrade inexplicably die by its own weapon, dropped its pickaxe and began to flee without looking back. But in terms of pure speed, no one in this place could catch Jun-sang. Jun-sang immediately activated Shoulder Charge again, which had finished its cooldown, and the monster, taking that powerful blow to its back, flew through the air as before, hit its head on a rock, and collapsed.

With the monsters that had shown some will to fight meeting such a gruesome end, the remaining monsters now tried to flee without exception. However, the entrance was already sealed by the Crimson Wolf and the Will-o’-the-Wisp, and eventually, with their escape route cut off, the monsters one by one died at Jun-sang’s hands.

Author’s Note Remaining monsters: 29.