The Seongcheon Guild was a guild where avengers gathered.
Originally, it had been no different from any ordinary guild, but after Baekyeon lost her parents, it changed into a gathering place for those seeking revenge.
That was why most of the guild executives were also people who had lost family to monsters and harbored vengeance in their hearts. And those executives no longer acknowledged Baekyeon, who had survived by owing her life to a monster—Nidhogg—as their guild master.
It was not as if Baekyeon had simply stepped down from the position with her eyes wide open.
Because she wanted to protect the guild her parents had created, she appealed to the gathered executives with the circumstances she had heard from me, as well as the vengeance she still carried.
But now that her appearance had changed to the point that she could be called half-human, half-dragon, they did not properly listen to her.
At most, since she had rescued Baekyeon, who was now the former guild master, they would not be hostile toward her. But they would keep an eye on her future actions, and Baekyeon was dismissed from the position of guild master.
And so, after being dismissed from the guild master’s seat in just a week, Baekyeon wandered with nowhere to go before coming to our house.
Baekyeon had suddenly shown up late in the morning and delivered this absurd news, so I asked her.
“How did you know where we live?”
“Ah. After my body became like this, I became able to tell where Lord Nidhogg is.”
Was it an effect of subordination?
I could tell where she was as well, but I hadn’t known she could also know my location.
“Now that you’ve stepped down as guild master, what do you plan to do from here on?”
“At first, I thought I might hunt monsters on my own, but… if it’s all right, I would like to form a party with Miss Shin Sua.”
“Me?”
Shin Sua was flustered at suddenly being singled out.
From her perspective, she had been planning to go around with me and monopolize all the hidden fortuitous opportunities, so Baekyeon joining in would actually be troublesome.
“I appreciate it, but I…”
“Ah. Anything obtained through hunting or exploration may all go to Miss Shin Sua.”
“I look forward to working with you.”
At first, she had been about to refuse, but at Baekyeon’s words, she changed her attitude and accepted the party without a moment’s hesitation.
I wondered if this was really all right, but I figured the two of them working together would let them climb higher even faster, so I let it be.
After the two of them officially formed a party, we were planning to start running Gates today, so I asked Baekyeon what she would do.
“If Miss Shin Sua, the party leader, is going, then I will follow as well. I spent the past week doing nothing but arguing at the guild, so I haven’t been able to hunt, and my body is aching…”
“Don’t you need to prepare your equipment separately?”
“Ah. Would you follow me for a moment?”
Following Baekyeon as she led the way out of the house, she pressed the door lock code of the house right next door and opened the door.
“I’ve moved in next door. I look forward to getting along from now on.”
Wasn’t her ability to act a little too excessive?
What had she planned to do if we hadn’t accepted her into the party?
When I asked her that, the answer came back immediately.
“I intended to follow you around until you accepted me.”
“What are you, a stalker…?”
“Of course, I was planning to follow you stealthily so I wouldn’t be caught.”
“You really are a stalker?!”
In my mind, Baekyeon’s danger level, which had never risen even back when she looked at me as a monster, went up by one stage.
Baekyeon went inside, quickly gathered her equipment, and came back out with a small smile.
“Let’s depart.”
Since we had already packed everything we needed as well, we came down from the apartment and were about to hail a taxi, but once again, Baekyeon took a car key out of her luggage and led us to her car.
I had no idea just how prepared she could be.
Quite some time after we loaded our things into her car and set off, we arrived at a Gate located in Pyeongtaek, on the edge of Gyeonggi-do.
The Gate’s rank was B, and the monsters that mainly appeared were minotaurs.
For Shin Sua, who had already been evaluated as A-rank, and Baekyeon, who had surpassed even S-rank with my power, it was far too easy a Gate to enter.
But of course, there was a reason we had come all the way here.
“It’s a suitable Gate for warming up while coordinating our teamwork.”
Since minotaurs pushed forward with nothing but physical strength, it wasn’t as if her words were wrong, but…
“Let’s go in for now.”
“Yes.”
The three of us moved to the front of the Gate, showed our awakened registration cards to the Association employee guarding the area around the Gate and restricting civilians from approaching, and entered inside.
The inside of the minotaur Gate looked similar to a vast cave stretching in every direction.
Stones called luminescent stones were embedded here and there, making the interior bright, so moving around wasn’t inconvenient.
“Mmooooooo!!”
The roar of a minotaur came from deep within the cave.
But there were no weaklings here who would be frightened by mere minotaurs.
We headed deeper into the cave.
And before long, we encountered three minotaurs.
Dark red bull heads and muscular bodies. Double-bladed axes in their hands.
As soon as the minotaurs saw us, they raised their axes high and charged.
Thud, thud!
“Mmooooo!!”
“What should we do?”
“This works out well. I haven’t properly used my strength since my body became like this… I’ll handle them this time.”
Baekyeon drew her spear and stepped forward.
Seeing that she had brought a spear almost identical to the one that had broken when she attacked me last time, it seemed she had either remade it or had many similar spears.
Baekyeon lowered her stance with the spear in hand.
The spear tip pointed at the minotaur charging from the front, and mana explosively surged from her body.
Baekyeon kicked off the ground and closed the distance to the minotaur’s nose in an instant.
Her speed was clearly different from what I had seen in the previous Gate.
Back then, she had already been stronger than usual while being eroded by miasma, but now she was beyond even that.
Bang!!
Baekyeon’s spear blew off the minotaur’s head in a single strike, as if a balloon had burst, and without stopping, it went on to pierce the heads of the remaining two as well.
“Phew…”
After blowing away the heads of three minotaurs in a single leap, Baekyeon lightly shook off her spear.
“Wow. I couldn’t even see it properly.”
“I was trying to stop at merely putting holes through them, but my physical abilities have risen overall, so I ended up bursting their heads. It seems I’ll need some time to adapt to my increased physical abilities.”
Even though she had slaughtered three minotaurs in an instant, Baekyeon seemed dissatisfied that she had failed to control her strength.
“Well, you’ll gradually adapt as you kill some monsters.”
After taking only the mana stones from the dead minotaurs’ corpses, we headed deeper into the cave again.
The farther we went into the cave, the more minotaurs appeared.
Whenever we encountered minotaurs moving in groups of as few as two and as many as seven, Shin Sua and Baekyeon took turns dealing with them.
Since minotaurs were no match for either of them, they dealt with them in an instant, and it did not take long to reach the deepest part of the cave.
What waited at the deepest part of the cave was a gigantic minotaur that could be called the boss mob of this Gate.
Compared to the other minotaurs, it was about two heads taller, and it held two crimson axes in both hands.
“Mmoooooooo!!!”
“This time, let’s try coordinating. I’ll stand at the front.”
“Understood. If you create an opening, I will finish it off.”
Wearing her Valkyrie standard-issue armor, Shin Sua stepped forward and stood facing the minotaur chief.
Perhaps displeased that Shin Sua was standing calmly even after seeing it, the minotaur chief raised both axes high and brought them down in an X-shape. Shin Sua held her sword horizontally and blocked the descending axes.
Clang!
“Mmoo?”
“I’m confident in strength too, you know!”
The minotaur chief was flustered when its axe strike, which it had swung down with confidence, was blocked so easily.
Shin Sua swung her sword, knocked away both axes, and slashed at the minotaur chief’s two knees.
“Mmooooo!!”
As the minotaur chief screamed from the pain of its knees being cut, Baekyeon, who had somehow approached from behind, appeared and aimed the tip of her spear at its heart.
Thud!
The spear sank deep without resistance and pierced the minotaur chief’s heart, and Baekyeon twisted the spear before pulling it out.
Shaaak!
“Grrrk!”
With its heart and lungs destroyed and bloody foam spilling from its mouth, the minotaur chief could no longer endure and collapsed forward.
“The coordination was good, but the monster was too weak, so there was no room to match our movements any further.”
“Next time, we’ll have to look for a higher-ranked Gate.”
“Since this is a party with an A-rank and an S-rank, we should have no problem up to an A-rank Gate.”
“Yes. Then next time, I’ll find an A-rank Gate.”
The two of them, having swept away most of the monsters inside the Gate at high speed, were getting along harmoniously.
But the real thing started now.
Because the reason Shin Sua and I had chosen this Gate was that something that could be called a fortuitous opportunity was hidden here.
Moreover, that fortuitous opportunity existed right here, inside the boss room at the very end of the cave.
I sighed at the sight of Shin Sua glancing around, her face saying that while it was good we had made it this far, she had no idea how to discover it naturally without arousing any suspicion.
It was then.
“Hm?”
“Wh-what is it?”
“Wait. From over there, there’s a strange energy…”
Perhaps having sensed something, Baekyeon approached one wall of the boss room and felt along it with her palm.
She did not stop there, but thumped on the wall a few times before clenching her fist and striking it hard.
Kwaaaang!
The wall shattered as if exploding, scattering fragments and dust.
And when the dust settled.
There was not a wall there, but a dark passage.
[You have discovered Arachne’s Hideout.]
The moment the passage was discovered, a message appeared before my eyes.
Baekyeon had discovered the fortuitous opportunity on her own.