It was just as we were about to engage in battle again.
All of a sudden, particles of light fell from above Yeon Haneul’s head and mine.
The particles, glittering blue, seeped softly into my skin.
A cool energy circulated through my body along the mana circuits inside me, and vitality returned to my limbs.
The speed at which mana filled my body from my heart also increased.
It was buff magic.
I turned around to find the person who had cast the buff.
Lisa Grace was gripping her staff, panting heavily.
“H-Haneul…! H-How could you go on ahead by yourself? Do you know how flustered I was when you suddenly ran off?”
“I’m really sorry I left you behind. I think I was so out of my mind that I failed to pay attention….”
“It’s not that I don’t understand how you feel, Haneul. I feel the same way about wanting to help Gyeonu. Still, please be careful next time.”
“Okay, I will.”
When Lisa spoke as though reproaching her, Yeon Haneul shrank back and apologized.
Judging by their conversation, they had apparently been traveling together.
‘Then Haneul must have spotted the signal flare, forgotten to look after Lisa, and come straight to me.’
Even without seeing it myself, I could clearly picture Yeon Haneul beside herself with worry over me.
A laugh slipped out before I knew it, and I glanced at her.
“Were you that worried about me?”
“Uuuh… Of course I was worried.”
As if she didn’t want to meet my eyes.
Yeon Haneul had turned her head sharply away.
She answered reluctantly.
That alone was enough to tell me how worried she had been about me.
Meanwhile, Lisa, having caught her breath to some extent, kept her guard up against Lee Gahyeon and spoke.
“By the way… what in the world is that thing that looks like an Arachne? Could it be….”
“It’s a demon.”
“Why would a demon be here….”
“What other reason would a demon have for being here? It came to spy on us.”
“I… suppose so.”
Lisa seemed to have guessed as much inwardly, and accepted the situation without complaint.
She struck the ground with her staff.
“Please leave healing and buffs to me. I’ll support you two.”
“We’re counting on you.”
Lisa deployed healing magic.
The healing magic activated through her staff cleanly treated the wounds I had sustained while fighting Lee Gahyeon.
I could feel the long cut on my cheek closing as well.
On top of that, she cast all kinds of buffs, enhancing Yeon Haneul’s abilities and mine.
“Well, what are you going to do now? I’m all healed too. My mana’s recovered quite a bit as well.”
“Do you think receiving some paltry buffs means you can stand against a demon? This body is different from the one you faced earlier.”
Lisa joining us as a supporter was an exceedingly pleasant surprise.
I spoke to Lee Gahyeon as though provoking her.
She snorted, her face saying that nothing had changed.
But the pleasant surprises did not end with Lisa.
“I have arrived, Do Gyeonu! I don’t know what it is, but you were fighting someone strong!”
“Yong Haerang?”
Two monsters were suddenly hurled out of the forest and onto the field.
After them, Yong Haerang walked out.
Dressed in a black martial uniform, he did not hide his delight at seeing me.
And from another direction.
“Oh, Gyeonu-Gyeonu! We meet again like this? I came because I sensed a strong presence, and it turns out it was a monster Gyeonu-Gyeonu was fighting. Hm? No, that’s not it. It’s not a monster… Aha! It’s a demon! I’m not sure what happened, but it looks like things were getting pretty interesting. Hmm… As expected, if I stay near Gyeonu-Gyeonu, fun things never stop happening.”
Nam Yuri of the Yeonseong Nam family also appeared.
Whatever she had been doing until now, her pure white dress was smeared all over with monster blood.
The sight of her beaming brightly in that state looked like nothing but madness, and it was chilling.
Finally, from yet another direction….
Rustle.
Just as the bushes seemed to sway, someone stepped onto the field.
It was a female examinee with striking hair that looked as though it might blaze like fire.
“…An Arachne? That shouldn’t be a monster that appears in this Gate…. And you are….”
Min Arin of the Mado Min family.
For some reason, she too had appeared here.
Soon, her yellow eyes took in Yeon Haneul and me, and widened.
She suddenly shouted.
“Ah, you’re…!”
“….”
Did she know about me?
Well, since she belonged to one of the Ten Great Families, she must have heard news about those of her age from other families.
Given Min Arin’s proud and perfectionistic personality, there was a high chance she had investigated information on the competitors of her generation.
‘Even so, the way she’s reacting to me is like she’s looking at an enemy….’
Min Arin’s reaction was puzzling, but Yeon Haneul and I were in the middle of facing off against Lee Gahyeon.
I decided not to pay it any unnecessary attention.
In any case.
‘We’re lucky.’
Not only Yeon Haneul and Lisa, but even Yong Haerang, Nam Yuri, and Min Arin had gathered.
If Lee Gahyeon’s clone, transformed into a demon, were classified as a monster, it would be around Rank 3.
It was not as though I couldn’t defeat her alone, but even so, having reinforcements was reassuring.
So I infused mana into my voice and spoke to the people gathered there.
“Some of you may have already noticed, but our opponent is a demon from the Demon Society. You’ve probably heard of the Six Demons, and of the Puppet Ghost Lady, Lee Gahyeon. That demon is her clone.”
“…!”
“So make sure none of you let your guard down.”
The looks in their eyes changed.
As disciples of renowned masters, an imperial princess, and scions of prestigious families, there was no way they would not know of the Puppet Ghost Lady.
That was why they did not show fear; rather, they displayed the sense of duty that demons were the enemies of Hunters.
“It’s not just any demon, but the Puppet Ghost Lady…. You really are….”
“Everyone… please be careful.”
“Oh-ho, so it’s the Puppet Ghost Lady, is it?”
“One of the Demon Society’s Six Demons? This is going to be fun!”
“I can’t even collect my admission tickets properly, and now I have to fight a demon from the Demon Society…. Why is my fate like this?”
It was a chance to prove their worth to the world and build their reputation.
There was no way they would refuse such an opportunity.
Defeat Lee Gahyeon.
Our objective was the same.
* * *
One could say Go Eunbi’s role had ended the moment she told Yeon Haneul Do Gyeonu’s location.
Even so, she did not try to leave the forest like the friends she had sent ahead, and remained where she was.
‘Gyeonu and Haneul are fighting. I can’t run away by myself.’
She had only known them for a few days, but they were friends she liked very much.
Do Gyeonu had his random moments, yet was unexpectedly considerate, and unlike his outward attitude, he was subtly thoughtful and took good care of people.
He seemed like the sort of person who was kind and generous to those inside his fence.
Unlike herself, who was scatterbrained, Yeon Haneul had a clear-headed personality.
Perhaps she had a fear of people, because she was awkward in dealing with them and had been shy at first. But the way she gradually opened her heart made Eunbi feel a sense of reward and accomplishment, as though she had been acknowledged by her.
Most of all, she was cute and pretty.
Go Eunbi did not want to leave them behind and go off alone.
‘I want to stay close with Gyeonu and Haneul at the Academy too.’
If she left like this, then to them she would simply be one of the people they had taken the exam with.
After entering the Academy, there would obviously be no particular point of contact between them, and their relationship would grow awkward.
She did not want to let it turn out that way.
‘I’ll find something I can do.’
Friendships had to be equal.
If one side only received unilaterally, a friendship could not be established.
If there was something received, there had to be something given, and the reverse was the same.
They had to help and be helped by each other.
Wanting to be of help to the two of them, Go Eunbi approached the field while suppressing her presence as much as possible.
“….”
She could not tell what exactly had happened.
Do Gyeonu and Yeon Haneul were fighting not an examinee, but a being with a human upper body and a spider’s lower body.
Go Eunbi, not thinking that the opponent was a demon, judged it to be a monster.
Meanwhile, the two of them were not the only ones battling that monster.
‘Lisa’s there too.’
Lisa Grace, the princess of an otherworldly empire, with whom she had eaten ramyeon at the Hotel of Dreams.
Yong Haerang of the Uihyeop Yong family.
Min Arin of the Mado Min family.
Nam Yuri of the Yeonseong Nam family.
They were all familiar faces.
They were so famous among the examinees that it would have been strange not to know them.
‘That’s good.’
With them joining in, the two of them would be able to breathe much easier.
While Go Eunbi felt relieved inside, she did not let herself relax completely.
Observing the situation from within the bushes, she climbed a nearby tree.
‘I want to join that fight too, but with my skills I’d only get in the way. So I have to help with what I can do.’
It seemed the opponent had not noticed her, perhaps because it was fighting against multiple people.
If so, there was only one thing she could do.
Hold her breath, watch the battle, and at a crucial moment, shoot an arrow at it to catch it off guard.
Creak.
An arrow made of mana would not do.
There was a possibility she would be discovered.
Go Eunbi took an arrow from the quiver on her back and set it to the bowstring.
She looked down at the field.
“Guys! Watch your heads! If your head gets cut off by mistake, don’t blame me!”
Nam Yuri threw a giant scythe.
The scythe flew while spinning round and round, circling the area around the creature once and severing the spiderwebs spread across the night sky.
In the meantime, she charged toward it without even holding a weapon.
Her right hand, held horizontally to the ground, became covered in red scales.
A massive hand, at odds with her small body, took shape on Nam Yuri’s right side.
A hand that could have belonged to a lizard or a dragon.
Its black, hook-curved claws turned red as though they had been dipped in heat.
Flames rose from the tips of the claws.
Nam Yuri slashed with all her strength.
The creature retreated to avoid the attack.
Right then.
From both sides of the creature as it backed away, Yeon Haneul and Yong Haerang rushed in.
Almost simultaneously.
Yeon Haneul used the wind as propulsion and swung her sledgehammer.
Yong Haerang drove a fist compressed with mana into the creature.
“Kyaaaaaak!”
The attacks landed cleanly.
From one side came the sound of something snapping with a crunch, and from the other, an explosion erupted.
The creature screamed from the impact, seemingly enraged.
“You little—!”
Its hand stirred through the air.
Spiderwebs formed, spreading out around the creature and enclosing the area.
At that moment, Min Arin raised flames.
Fwoosh!
The flames floating in the air caught onto the surrounding webs and spread.
The spiderwebs were engulfed in fire in an instant, revealing their shape.
The flames blazing in the form of spiderwebs soon melted away into the night sky along with the threads.
Lion’s Wild Dance
Do Gyeonu did not miss that opening and was already rushing toward the creature.
He ran across its body, swinging his sword.
Nam Yuri followed after him, and once again Yeon Haneul and Yong Haerang attacked from the left and right.
Lisa was bestowing buffs on them under Min Arin’s protection, and Min Arin was chanting magic, preparing a long-range attack.
Even though this was their first time coordinating with one another, their teamwork flowed smoothly.
And as they drove the creature into a corner.
“….”
Go Eunbi struggled to suppress her tension and waited for an opportunity to strike its blind spot.
She had only one chance.
The moment the creature noticed her presence, she would no longer be able to catch it off guard, and the thing she could do to help would vanish completely.
Failure was not allowed.
She aimed at the creature and drew the bowstring as far as she could.
‘If I can disrupt its concentration, even for a very brief moment….’
Do Gyeonu would slip through that opening.
Go Eunbi believed that without a doubt, and stared into the creature’s eye.
The creature, unable to keep its gaze fixed in one place because of the attacks coming from all around it, was focused on him.
From the looks of it, it was preoccupied with blocking his attack.
‘Now!’
Go Eunbi aimed for that very moment.
She released the bowstring.
The arrow flew, cleaving through the night sky.
It felt as though she had gained some kind of realization, but her nerves were focused on the arrow that had left the bowstring, leaving her no time to dwell on it.
However, the sensation from when she shot the arrow seemed to melt vividly into her body.
[You have obtained a skill.]
[Marksman’s Eye Lv 1]
[Marksman’s Eye Lv 1]
◆ Skill Classification
—Passive
◆ Detailed Effect
—Accuracy increases by 5%.
* * *
Lee Gahyeon, transformed into a demon, could hang silver threads in midair.
That made her troublesome to deal with, but she couldn’t inflict any serious damage.
Because Nam Yuri would throw her scythe and cut them down, or Min Arin would burn them away.
‘With this, the silver threads are no longer a threat, and we can fight without worrying.’
If Lee Gahyeon’s silver threads were sealed, then she was no longer a threat.
As she was only a clone and not the main body, there was no way she had any other power.
To keep up our momentum, we poured attacks on her without pause.
When I faced her head-on, Yeon Haneul and Yong Haerang attacked from both sides, dividing her attention.
Nam Yuri would switch in to face her whenever I stepped back to catch my breath, Min Arin fired magic from long range, and Lisa managed our condition.
“You little… Do you really think you’ll get away unharmed if you keep this up?”
For Lee Gahyeon, forced to fight without even a moment’s rest, it must have been a disaster.
She, who had seemed relaxed only at the beginning, began to show signs of exhaustion as we attacked her relentlessly.
In the end, she even resorted to threats.
“My soul is connected to my main body. If I die like this, my memories will be transmitted to the main body. Then she’ll know everything—who killed me and how.”
“…”
“Do you still think you won’t regret it, even if you become the target of the Demon Society? It will certainly be a harsh fate for you… It’s not too late even now. Let me go. Then I’ll forget what you did today.”
Spreading her silver threads to lash Nam Yuri away, Lee Gahyeon wrapped herself in them like a cocoon and warned us.
I answered, dumbfounded.
“Your soul is connected to your main body, so you probably can share memories. But that only applies when you leave the Gate in one piece, doesn’t it?”
“…”
Lee Gahyeon was trying to deceive us.
The world inside the Gate and the world outside were cut off from each other.
Whether from inside to outside or outside to inside, it was impossible to interfere with the other world.
That was also why communication equipment connecting the inside and outside did not work.
Souls were no different.
As long as she was inside the Gate, the clone Lee Gahyeon and the main body Lee Gahyeon could not share anything through their souls.
That was why I was trying to kill the clone at this opportunity.
‘Because even if I kill Lee Gahyeon’s clone here, the main body won’t recognize me.’
To me, it was nothing less than the perfect chance.
On the other hand, when her lie was exposed, Lee Gahyeon’s face twisted and she ground her teeth.
“So you even knew that…”
“So give up already. There’s no way for you to survive.”
“Kgh!”
I gave her no more time to speak.
I cut the cocoon in two from side to side.
Lee Gahyeon, who had been trying to recover her strength inside, glared at me.
“Why do you think there’s no way for me to survive? In the end, all I have to do is get out of here. Even if I can’t kill you, do you really think I can’t break through a single encirclement?”
“Then try breaking through.”
Lee Gahyeon was clearly driven into a corner.
If she died like this, her soul would not go to her main body, but would pass to me instead.
It seemed she was determined to prevent that from happening by any means necessary.
I could feel resolve in her eyes.
Immediately after, she charged at me.
“Move, now!”
Silver threads surged before my eyes.
Several strands of thread tried to slice me apart.
Unleashing my swordsmanship, I cut through the threads and advanced toward her.
She struggled desperately to shake me off somehow.
Crackle!
But I had no intention of granting Lee Gahyeon’s wish.
Even knowing that if I got any closer, the silver threads spread around us would come rushing in, I did not retreat.
The moment I gave up my position, she would immediately leave the field and disappear.
If that happened, all our efforts until now would come to nothing.
I had to cut off her breath here and now.
Even as my instinct to evade screamed at me that stepping aside would be safer, I refused it and blocked her path.
Cutting and severing the silver threads, I moved my body to burrow into her guard.
As if Yeon Haneul, Yong Haerang, Nam Yuri, and Min Arin had read my thoughts, each of them created openings for me to slip through.
From the rear, Lisa cast healing magic, closing the wounds that formed as the silver threads grazed me.
In that way, I narrowed the remaining distance and was closing in on her.
It was then.
‘…Huh?’
Behind Lee Gahyeon, something was flying through the night sky.
It looked like an arrow.
The surrounding noise was loud, and since there was no mana in it, I was late to notice.
‘Did Eunbi shoot it?’
The question lasted only a moment.
Whoever had joined in, I could confirm that later.
What mattered was that the arrow, flying in from outside her perception, had caught Lee Gahyeon off guard.
“…What!?”
Lee Gahyeon, having dodged my sword, belatedly noticed the arrow flying toward her.
The arrow was heading for the area around her eye.
Startled by the unexpected attack, she twisted her waist to the side.
I did not miss that instant when her gaze was stolen.
I released the azure lightning gathered in the Deep Blue Sword.
A thick, blue current wrapped fiercely around the Deep Blue Sword.
Just like that, I unleashed the azure lightning.
────!!
The azure lightning discharged before my eyes, rapidly expanding the air.
The sound of air bursting like an explosion rang out without end.
A blue pillar that seemed ready to pierce the night sky shot upward, brightly illuminating the heavens.
My vision flashed blue and dazzling.
“Kyaaaaaaaaaak!”
Amid the sound like a lightning strike, Lee Gahyeon’s scream rang out.
That scream gradually quieted, and in the end, it was swallowed by the roar of the azure lightning.
[Your body has surpassed its limits.]
[Agility has increased by 1.]
[Magic Power has increased by 1.]
[The skill’s level has risen.]
[Instinct Control Lv 5 → 6]
I Became the Childhood Friend of the Mid-Boss