14
Jang Hye-na, who had acted somewhat cheeky and composed in front of Baek Woo-jin, realized something the moment she struck away the Elder Tree's first attack with her shield.
'I can't hold out for long!!'
One time at best. Yet that single time consumed a chunk of mana comparable to when she blocked dozens of Living Wood roots.
The only consolation was that the Elder Tree's magic resistance wasn't particularly high, so her skills took proper effect—that was her sole comfort.
"Ugh!!"
Jang Hye-na knew her own limits very well. That was why, in this situation where mana was draining in chunks, she didn't make the mistake of needlessly rolling around or swinging her hammer to try to conserve a little mana, and instead blocked every attack with her shield.
'Focus, focus, focus…….'
Mana dropped below half with just four attacks.
And as her mana decreased proportionally, Jang Hye-na's mental fortitude also began to waver. No matter how bright her nature was, it was hard to ignore the scent of death breathing right down her neck.
Clang──!!
"Urgh?!"
Jang Hye-na had raised her shield against the Elder Tree's branch—she couldn't even remember which number it was—but when the impact flowed straight through the shield without being burned away, her precariously maintained balance faltered.
Ascetic's Embers.
A skill that converts all physical attribute attacks into fire attributes and returns them to the opponent, as long as mana supports it.
And this was precisely the moment when the Elder Tree's attack power exceeded Jang Hye-na's dwindling mana.
Kehehehehe──!!
A sharp roar from the Elder Tree reached Jang Hye-na's ears just as she tried to straighten her posture. It was a roar that sounded like it was mocking her.
'One more time, no…… three more times are possible!!'
Having finished her judgment in that fleeting moment, Jang Hye-na threw aside the hammer she was holding and gripped the shield with both hands. Then she concentrated her remaining mana into both legs and waist.
Thwuck.
Her back foot, extended behind her, crossed the boundary and sank deep into the swamp.
As her left foot—which should have supported her center of gravity—sank into the swamp, Jang Hye-na's body naturally tilted.
"Ah."
As her body tilted backward and her vision slowly rotated along with it, she saw dozens of sharp Elder Tree branches stretching toward her.
'Is this how it ends?'
You never know what life brings, and if she was unlucky, she might indeed die in a dungeon someday…… it wasn't that she had never imagined such a thing. But in those few imaginings of death, there was never such a sense of futility.
'No!!'
Jang Hye-na, who hadn't closed her eyes against enemy attacks since receiving her shield as a gift, finally squeezed her eyes shut in the face of the approaching feast of death.
"……?"
However, even though quite some time had passed, not only was there no pain, but not even a small shock reached her. Feeling puzzled, Jang Hye-na slowly opened her tightly shut eyes.
"Gasp?!"
Upon opening her eyes, the Elder Tree's branches filled her vision, and Jang Hye-na let out a fragile scream without realizing it. But that was only for a moment.
"……?"
As if time itself had stopped, Jang Hye-na reached her finger slightly toward the Elder Tree's branches hovering in midair.
Crumble.
The branches that had been fine even after striking the shield couldn't withstand the force of a mere finger and crumbled away powerlessly.
"Haa……."
No further words were necessary.
The moment the branches crumbled, Jang Hye-na realized she had survived. As the tension that had been gripping her body released, she collapsed back into the swamp in the same posture she had been trying to stand up from.
The squelching sensation should have been quite unpleasant, but with her mind filled only with the thought of having survived, Jang Hye-na let out a sigh of relief and even laid herself down completely in the swamp.
'Should I do a mud pack when I get home.'
She absolutely hated things that were damp and cool, but perhaps because her body was heated up from the desperate and intense battle, the damp sensation of the swamp didn't feel too bad to her.
Unfortunately, however, Jang Hye-na couldn't catch her breath for very long.
"……?"
When a deeper shadow fell over her closed eyes, she opened them. And she met eyes with Baek Woo-jin, who was looking down at her, not knowing when he had approached.
"Thank you."
"Those are the words I should be saying."
Baek Woo-jin extended his hand, and Jang Hye-na grasped it and stood up.
"I know you're tired, but."
"Ah."
Following Baek Woo-jin's finger pointing somewhere, Jang Hye-na turned her head and slapped her forehead without realizing it.
Her damn younger brother and his friends were running desperately, trying to escape the Living Woods that had gone out of control when the Elder Tree died.
"You won't need to deal with all of them. Since the boss is dead, whether it's an investigation team or a rescue team, people will come."
"That's true, right?"
Jang Hye-na picked up the hammer she had thrown aside.
"At this level, I'd say this is quite a significant connection──"
-Aaaargh!!
"…Little shits."
At the growing screams of her brother's group, Jang Hye-na muttered a rather refreshing curse and, coaxing her exhausted body, left the area.
**
Only after confirming that Jang Hye-na had chased after her brother's group and moved some distance away from his sight did Baek Woo-jin turn around and etch his creation into his eyes once more.
The sword thrown with all his strength had flown in a perfectly straight line, piercing right through the Elder Tree's brow before disappearing.
It was also the moment the countless branches flying in to pierce Jang Hye-na came to a halt.
'That wasn't just empty words.'
The side that truly needed to express gratitude was indeed himself. More accurately, rather than gratitude, an apology might be slightly more appropriate.
Until the moment he threw the sword, Baek Woo-jin hadn't considered Jang Hye-na's safety at all. If a sure opportunity to throw the sword presented itself, it meant she wasn't a connection worth considering whether she got seriously injured or died. In the end, Jang Hye-na was just another person he had met for the first time today.
In reality, if he had been just a little later, even if he had taken down the Elder Tree, Jang Hye-na would have died with her body pierced by the branches the Elder Tree had sent flying.
"Well, if the person involved doesn't mind."
Since the person directly involved had moved on, there was no reason to stubbornly hold onto that unpleasant feeling, so Baek Woo-jin lightly shook off his discomfort and began climbing up the Elder Tree's body.
'It's E-rank and not even an outbreak, so even at the fastest, it'll take another 30 minutes.'
Perhaps because he had scraped his mana down to the bottom, his strength wouldn't properly engage against the strange elasticity, and Baek Woo-jin had quite a hard time climbing the Elder Tree's body.
In the end, he was able to climb to the top by driving his dagger into the body of the creature that had become an ordinary tree upon death.
"It's here……!!"
Without even a moment to catch his breath, Baek Woo-jin ran toward a palm-sized leaf growing conspicuously on what would correspond to the crown of the Elder Tree.
The information that had flowed in when he defeated the Living Wood also included details about its superior variant, the Elder Tree, and the reason he had painstakingly climbed its body was precisely to confirm the presence of this leaf.
"Should I consider this beginner's luck too?"
Even if a dungeon boss is defeated, if its core isn't destroyed, it will regenerate over time. And the reason hunters don't destroy cores is because the byproducts from monsters and bosses are their primary source of income.
In particular, boss byproducts, even from the lowest-ranked dungeon, had such enormous rarity that the starting unit of their price was on a completely different level from normal monster byproducts.
That was naturally high because boss byproducts didn't simply drop unconditionally just by killing the boss.
"It's better for me to eat it than to sell it."
He couldn't know who or where recorded the information, but according to the knowledge that had flowed into his mind, eating the leaf growing from the Elder Tree's crown would slightly expand one's senses.
Since no specific part was singled out, it was thought to have a positive effect on all senses in general.
'Let's eat it.'
In truth, there was no option other than eating it.
Setting aside the idea of sneaking it out, to hide a palm-sized leaf, he would ultimately have to fold it or put it somewhere. According to the knowledge in his mind, the leaf, which looked to have a very deep color and appeared thick, had abysmal durability contrary to its appearance.
In other words, even if he secretly took it out, it would never be in a condition to sell at full price.
For that reason, Baek Woo-jin used his dagger to cut out the stem where the leaf was growing, along with the bark, in one piece, and promptly stuffed the leaf dangling conspicuously from the bark into his mouth.
"Urgh…."
There was no description of the taste, but it was so astringent that it made him think it must have been intentionally omitted.
Every time he chewed, juice flowed out, and each time that juice touched the densely packed taste buds on his tongue, his brain and stomach apparently judged that this was absolutely not something that should be eaten, making him repeatedly dry heave.
'This is worth how much…….'
He didn't know the exact price, but he was certain it was a type of spiritual elixir he could never afford with his current financial situation, so Baek Woo-jin forcefully suppressed even his body's fierce resistance with willpower and finally managed to chew and swallow the entire palm-sized leaf.
'It's a taste I'd have to think twice about trying again, though.'
The only relief was that, for something so nastily astringent, there was no particular odor when he opened his mouth.
'Come to think of it, should I call this luck or not.'
He had come all the way down to Busan to avoid drawing the Association's attention. And yet to get caught up in such an incident on his very first day.
Looking at the results alone, he had lost nothing and gained plenty, so it could be called good luck, but…….
"A re-evaluation is definitely in order."
Scratching his head, Baek Woo-jin accepted this too as fate and stood up. And the leaf had also fully absorbed into his body.
Beeeep──
The landscape he beheld stretched and contracted as if he were drunk, repeatedly expanding and shrinking, then his eyes spun and a small ringing sounded in his ears.
When a human's sight and hearing are suddenly paralyzed, their sense of direction is also paralyzed. That is how they are structured. And hunters, who were awakeners, were also human.
"Luck my ass."
The paralyzed senses quickly returned, but by then he was already falling toward the ground rather than the Elder Tree's crown.