Holy B-Class Life

#009

“What for?”

Yoon Pa-ran didn’t doubt Dan Joo-hyuk’s skills. He firmly believed that his personality was also terrible. So he had no intention of engaging in meaningless arguments in this situation.

Partly due to their sudden arrival, this was the first time he had encountered terrain so confusing in its direction. If he had been alone, he probably would have wandered around a bit more.

While vaguely ignoring the other’s provocation, Yoon Pa-ran carefully checked the shield on his chest. He had hoped to be paired with an A-grade or higher if there was a coordinate error, but a major mistake had occurred.

He had been matched with someone of a higher grade than he wanted, but it didn’t seem like this person would actively help Yoon Pa-ran. So he had to make sure his safety measures were secure until he could join up with other hunters.

Focused on preparing to move forward calmly, Yoon Pa-ran didn’t notice Dan Joo-hyuk’s gaze fixed on his face.

“…”

Dan Joo-hyuk had expected Yoon Pa-ran to argue that he should obviously check the other side too. After all, that’s how their conversations had always gone until now.

However, seeing Yoon Pa-ran immediately trust his abilities made him feel strange.

It was also a bit irritating that after responding like that, Yoon Pa-ran didn’t even glance at him and instead fixated on his shield item.

“How long are you going to stand there blankly? If you’re planning to move only when monsters are right in front of you, tell me in advance.”

Dan Joo-hyuk unconsciously spoke to Yoon Pa-ran, who had his head bowed low, meticulously adjusting even his shoes. His gaze naturally fell on the exposed white nape of Yoon Pa-ran’s neck.

When he deliberately spoke provocatively, Yoon Pa-ran straightened up.

An irritated gaze finally met Dan Joo-hyuk’s eyes directly.

“Shut up.”

The thought suddenly struck him that Yoon Pa-ran’s excessively lush eyelashes made his expression seem delicate.

“What are you doing? Let’s go, you said.”

“…”

After that, the two moved on in silence.

The corridor was wide enough for ten people to stand abreast. Naturally, the distance between the two remained quite far. Yoon Pa-ran was very pleased with this distance and silence.

“Hmm.”

However, the peace didn’t last long.

He couldn’t ignore Dan Joo-hyuk, who had been walking silently, making a sound as if puzzled.

“What.”

“The presence of monsters keeps getting further away.”

Monsters rush towards people but don’t run away.

Even with grade differences, monsters maintained this aggressive nature. This was also cited as evidence that monsters were already dead. They lacked even the survival instinct that living beings should have.

Seeing Dan Joo-hyuk speak as if puzzled, it seemed that not all anomalous gates showed this pattern. A glimpse of interest flashed across his face, but Yoon Pa-ran didn’t bother to look for long. He just inwardly swallowed a sigh.

They walked a bit further. It was ominous that they hadn’t encountered any monsters, which was unusual for an A-grade gate.

Before they knew it, two statues marking the beginning of the safe zone came into view.

“It’s the safe zone. I can sense presences inside.”

“…”

They were still quite far from the statues.

With Yoon Pa-ran’s eyesight, he could barely make out the shapes of the statues. But Dan Joo-hyuk seemed to be able to read the presence even inside.

If he says they’re there, they must be. The presences Dan Joo-hyuk detected were probably the hunters who had arrived earlier.

The two approached the safe zone with slightly relaxed tension. Yoon Pa-ran estimated that it had been about two hours since they entered the gate, though he couldn’t be sure of the exact time.

But as they got closer, he felt increasingly uneasy.

“…”

His gaze naturally turned to the two statues marking the beginning of the safe zone. As usual, the statues were broken in many places, to the point where their original form was unrecognizable.

However, today his attention kept being drawn there for some reason. Yoon Pa-ran’s gaze persistently examined the statues, trying to find the reason for this sensation.

Why does it feel so ominous?

“What’s wrong?”

Dan Joo-hyuk asked from beside him. Only then did Yoon Pa-ran realize that he had stopped walking and was staring at the statues.

After some consideration, Yoon Pa-ran shared what he felt.

“These statues… they’re too broken.”

“The safe zone statues are never in perfect condition anyway, right?”

Dan Joo-hyuk’s words had a point. It was normal for the statues in front of the safe zone to be damaged.

These statues were crumbled to a degree that seemed a bit excessive. No matter how much he looked, that was the only difference he could find.

“…It feels strange.”

But why did it bother him so much?

“The feeling? Ah.”

Dan Joo-hyuk, who had been reacting as if it was hard to understand, suddenly turned his head to look inside the safe zone.

“I smell blood.”

Then he spoke in a dry voice.

As soon as he heard those words, Yoon Pa-ran drew his sword. Although he couldn’t smell anything, he immediately became alert.

Perhaps because it was an indoor terrain, the safe zone before their eyes was clearly partitioned, like a shelter.

Next to the collapsed statues was a half-ruined wall. Thanks to this, the view that should have been completely blocked was slightly open. They were close enough to glimpse the scene inside through the gaps in the wall.

Beyond the statues, columns were lined up as if in some kind of temple. The columns were quite dilapidated, but each one looked very large and heavy.

They hadn’t seen any monsters on their way here. There were no corners for monsters to hide in front of them all the way to the safe zone.

The smell of blood in this ambiguous position. The ominous beating of his heart was gradually intensifying.

Heavy footsteps were heard from the front.

“Ah…”

What emerged from behind the massive columns inside the safe zone was none other than monsters.

“…Interesting.”

Dan Joo-hyuk, who spoke in a low voice, slowly drew his sword.

The first to appear was a bipedal monster with arms so long they dragged on the ground. Rotten blood dripped from its mouth. As it plodded forward, the sound of its long arms dragging through the blood on the floor echoed chillingly in the silence.

Grooooowl!

The monster let out a loud roar before taking more than a few steps. As if that was some kind of signal, ominous sounds began to be heard from behind other columns as well.

Before long, more than ten monsters came rushing towards the two of them.

“Just deal with the ones that get past me.”

Dan Joo-hyuk, who spoke calmly, shot forward first.

It was quite an unexpected order. Yoon Pa-ran had thought he would put him on the front line again to make him suffer like yesterday.

Anyway, without refusing, he followed a little distance behind. A troubled expression remained on Yoon Pa-ran’s face throughout. Monsters inside the safe zone.

One of the absolute rules inside the gate had just been broken.

There was no longer any safe place inside this gate.

Crunch! Crunch!

Dan Joo-hyuk skillfully dove between the monsters and used a provocation skill. Even amidst the sporadic onslaught of monsters, he dealt with them leisurely while drawing their attention.

Yoon Pa-ran’s palms were sweating from tension. He spasmodically tried to sense presences behind them. Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be any monsters in the direction they had come from.

He felt like he had been watching Dan Joo-hyuk’s battle for a very long time, but in reality, only enough time to blink a few times had passed.

At that moment, one monster was flung far away after being hit by Dan Joo-hyuk’s long sword swing.

Not missing this opportunity, Yoon Pa-ran immediately shot a stream of water at the fallen monster.

[Stream of Destruction B]

Attacks a distant enemy with a powerful stream of water.

The water stream accurately struck the wound Dan Joo-hyuk had inflicted. The monster’s attention immediately shifted from Dan Joo-hyuk to Yoon Pa-ran.

Having changed its target, the monster leaped towards Yoon Pa-ran without hesitation.

Like the first monster that had appeared, this one was also bipedal. However, it was about twice Yoon Pa-ran’s height, and its decaying body was swollen to the extreme.

Despite its wobbling gait, the monster approached quickly.

Its tree trunk-like arm was about to strike Yoon Pa-ran hard.

“Ugh!”

It was a monster from an A-grade gate. Even though he was thoroughly prepared, the monster’s strength was beyond expectation.

Whether this was due to the influence of the gate about to go berserk or the anomaly of the disappeared safe zone was uncertain.

“Urk!”

As soon as they exchanged the first blow, Yoon Pa-ran realized. Now was not the time to hold back.

Making a quick decision, Yoon Pa-ran immediately imbued his sword with a bit of sacred energy and swung.

[Sacred Energy S]

Imbues with the power to destroy evil.

*Can ■■■■■ ■■■■■ ability of ■■■■■ ■■■■■.

Then, once again, something unexpected happened.

Crack!

“…Hmm.”

Unlike before, the skill’s effect was overwhelmingly good.

Blood gushed like a waterfall from the monster’s arm, which had been split in one breath.

Yoon Pa-ran didn’t miss the opportunity and dove inside the giant monster’s guard. He deeply stabbed his sword into the chest wound that Dan Joo-hyuk had inflicted.

Gurgle, gurgle…

As he pulled his sword with force, the monster’s body was cut as easily as if slicing through radish.

He had been imbuing his sword with sacred energy since earlier. However, it was very strange that it cut through so easily in one go.

The reflection was brief. Yoon Pa-ran hurriedly moved his sword to prevent the monster from fully standing up. With monsters that were already dead, you had to fight them to know where their exact weak points were.

“Phew…”

Fortunately, the confrontation ended soon. In the meantime, Dan Joo-hyuk had taken down all the monsters that had rushed at him.

It was when Yoon Pa-ran was checking if the fallen ones were still moving, with a slightly nauseated expression. Without even looking back, Dan Joo-hyuk strode into the safe zone.

Yoon Pa-ran quickly caught his breath and followed. He was very perplexed by the power of the [Sacred Energy] skill being different from usual.

However, soon even that thought vanished as his mind went blank.

“…”

More than dozens of hunters had been turned into corpses inside the safe zone.