The Lich Becomes a Hunter! Episode 2

Earth (1)

“Damn it, hold them back!! Don’t let them break through!!”

“Shit! My leg! My leeeeeg!!!”

A place filled with blood and screams.

Choe Jinhyeok closed his eyes, feeling blood welling up in thick surges from his throat.

‘Ha…… fuck, what the hell is happening…….’

Choe Jinhyeok was a porter. Not a porter employed by a guild, but the sort of porter closer to a day laborer on a construction site.

In other words, a porter who lived hand to mouth, earning just enough for the day in low-ranked, safe dungeons like F-rank or E-rank dungeons.

There was one reason Choe Jinhyeok, who had lived with safety as his motto, was now dying with his throat torn open.

It was because of a trap dungeon.

Trap dungeons were different from ordinary dungeons. Irregular dungeons. Unlike other dungeons, their rank could not be confirmed at the entrance.

Once it was a trap dungeon, even if the dungeon’s rank was confirmed as F-rank when they first entered, the monsters inside were not F-rank dungeon monsters.

A D-rank would be inflated to around C-rank level. That was how it worked.

Fortunately, what appeared were hellhounds, D-rank monsters rather than C-rank ones, but there was no way people who had entered to clear an F-rank dungeon could possibly handle D-rank monsters in the first place.

As a result, the Hunters died one after another, and in the end, even Choe Jinhyeok, the porter, had his throat bitten open by an E-rank monster, a hound, and was slowly dying.

‘Damn it…… Is this the end…….’

That was Choe Jinhyeok’s final thought as he closed his eyes.

And then, someone spoke to that very Choe Jinhyeok.

-I’ll be making good use of your body.

And with that, Choe Jinhyeok’s eyes, which had been closed, snapped open.

* * *

‘Hmm…… First of all, there really is only a rat’s tail worth of mana.’

Choe Jinhyeok…… no, Arman, who had taken over Choe Jinhyeok’s body, frowned at the tiny amount of mana he could feel within it.

It was less than what he had possessed back when he had been an apprentice mage.

“First, healing magic…… It’s been a while since I used it, so I’m not sure it will work properly.”

Flaaaash!

When he used healing magic, a cluster of bright light seeped into the wound on Arman’s…… no, now Choe Jinhyeok’s neck, and soon the wound disappeared.

He had lost enough blood for a person to die, but Choe Jinhyeok was perfectly fine.

After all, Choe Jinhyeok was a mage who was already dead, a lich—and the greatest among them, an archlich.

After using healing magic and checking the mana he had left, Choe Jinhyeok raised the corners of his mouth.

‘Still, I can use Bone Arrow at least.’

Fortunately, he had enough mana left to use attack magic, so Arman smiled and searched through the memories of the original owner of this body, who had now departed.

It was to grasp information about the bastards baring their fangs at him.

‘Hounds, E-rank monsters, mainly attack by biting with their innate jaw strength…… Nothing special.’

To Arman, who had stationed large and medium-sized monsters such as ogres and trolls as guardians of his laboratory, monsters like hounds were nothing.

However, what Arman was worried about was not something like hounds.

‘Is it certain this place isn’t the Armaldin Continent? This is my first time using dimensional transfer magic, so I have no way of knowing whether it worked properly…….’

But Arman was able to confirm that worry by looking at the outward appearance of the Hunters fighting hellhounds in the distance.

That was because their clothing was a style even Arman, who had lived on the Armaldin Continent for hundreds of years, had never seen before.

‘Mm…… It’s certain this isn’t the Armaldin Continent. Then…… I should clean up my surroundings first, I suppose?’

With that thought, Bone Arrows began to rise around Arman, who was now Choe Jinhyeok.

* * *

‘Damn it! Of all things, how did we end up caught in a trap dungeon!’

Jeong Cheolsik, the guild master of the Sparrow Guild, cursed inwardly as he swung his sword and struck away a hellhound charging at him.

Unlike the others, Jeong Cheolsik was a D-rank Hunter, but he had no way to kill a D-rank monster like a hellhound.

To begin with, there wasn’t just one hellhound, and Jeong Cheolsik was a tanker without a finishing blow capable of ending a hellhound.

That was why Jeong Cheolsik was afraid as he watched his stamina dwindle bit by bit and the shadow of death draw ever closer.

There weren’t many guild members left alive, and even among those still remaining, most were, like Jeong Cheolsik, on the verge of death.

‘Fuck…… Am I going to die like this…….’

Yelp!!

Just then, at the sound of a hound whimpering in the distance, Jeong Cheolsik’s head snapped around.

It was because he was surprised that, in such a hopeless situation, there was still someone left who could take down a hound.

And when Jeong Cheolsik turned his head, he forgot even to block the hellhound charging at him and stared blankly at the man slaughtering the hounds.

‘What…… what the hell is that?’

At the end of his gaze, Choe Jinhyeok was massacring the hounds.

* * *

Yelp!! Y-yelp!! Yip!

‘Hmm…… This is easy.’

At first, he had been somewhat worried that his low mana and the large number of enemies might cause him to run out of mana, or that there might be hounds that endured his attacks and reached his main body, but making such worries seem foolish, the hounds died one by one with each Bone Arrow.

As he walked while dealing with the hounds as though demonstrating what one shot, one kill meant, Choe Jinhyeok caught sight of Jeong Cheolsik, who was engaged in a hard-fought bloody struggle(?) with the hellhounds.

‘Hooh? Is that a new one? Let’s see…….’

At the appearance of a new monster, Choe Jinhyeok once again began digging through the knowledge buried beyond memory.

Of course, he did not forget to fire Bone Arrows.

Soon, Choe Jinhyeok was able to recall information about hellhounds.

‘Hellhounds can attack by spewing fire from their mouths…… and their hide is tough, so physical attacks don’t work well? Well, that has nothing to do with me. I use magic, after all.’

Having roughly gathered the information, Choe Jinhyeok created a bundle of Bone Arrows in midair and approached Jeong Cheolsik, who was fighting a blood-splattering battle against the hellhounds.

* * *

Yelp!!

‘What…… what the hell is that guy?’

Jeong Cheolsik forgot even the pain from the wounds inflicted by the hellhound’s claws and stared blankly at the man slaughtering the hellhounds.

He clearly did not seem to be one of his guild members. Each time the arrows made of bone floating in the air flew out, the hellhounds and the hounds around them collapsed, and those Bone Arrows extended their demonic reach even toward the hellhounds.

Of course, they did not die in one shot like the hounds, but at least within three shots, they were all killed.

At the sight of the hellhounds gradually dwindling in number, the extinguished spark of life within Jeong Cheolsik began to blaze up.

And in order not to let that spark of life go out, Jeong Cheolsik rose from his place, picked up his shield and sword, and stood again.

“I…… I’ll help too!”

“They’re mine.”

“P…… pardon?”

“I said they’re mine. The mana stones.”

For a moment, Jeong Cheolsik felt as though he had been struck on the back of the head with a hammer.

His own life was hanging by a thread, yet the man was demanding the mana stones as if this situation posed no threat at all.

But Jeong Cheolsik could not shake his head in this situation. Because Choe Jinhyeok’s Bone Arrows were aimed at him as he spoke.

Gulp.

“I-if you just save me, of course I should give them to you!! Take them all, take everything!!”

“I appreciate that. But sit down. Just sit.”

“Pardon? I…… I can help you too…….”

“Resting is helping. Just sit there.”

Despite Choe Jinhyeok’s objection, Jeong Cheolsik tried stubbornly to step forward and help, but at the killing intent he felt in Choe Jinhyeok’s eyes, he nodded with a soulless expression and plopped down onto the floor.

And after that, Jeong Cheolsik sat on the floor and blankly watched the massacre Choe Jinhyeok carried out.

Seeing Choe Jinhyeok fighting amid a pack of five hellhounds, not only without fear but even with a smile on his lips, Jeong Cheolsik felt both a chill and the relief that he had survived at the same time.