In front of the Red Gate.
Milo’s expression remained gloomy. Rasa provided a short summary on what Kai request was, but his anxiety level hadn’t decreased by one bit.
“In the end, that’s all he want, isn’t it?”
“Yes, sir. You’re right.”
Rasa readily accepted that assaiment . It was true that he didn’t know anything about their new Vice Guild master , after all.
There was something different about Kai Del'a Saint.
And the fact that he couldn’t adequately describe that with words frustrated Rasa to no end.
Milo’s gaze shifted back to the Red Gate.
“In the end, the only person I can believe in is Kai….”
It was then.
“Sir, there won’t be any problems with Titan Kim , I assure you.”
One more person butted in among the group of Milo, Rasa, and Hyun Ki. The gazes of three men automatically shifted in that direction simultaneously.
It was Makai, Chief of the First Division of the TOP Guild.
He scanned the three people in front and spoke in a proud voice.
“I’ve been training Titan Kim quite strictly, so he could be ready for all contingencies.”
Originally, the initial training of new recruits was left to the Second Division, but the First Division would be in charge of the Awakened ranked A or higher.
Those promising individuals who were scheduled to enter the ranks of the main combat force soon got to enjoy a different starting point from everyone else.
Seeing Makai’s confidence, Milo’s expression softened slightly.
“How were Titan Kim's grades?”
“They are excellent, sir. Just his combat capabilities alone, he’d not fall behind anyone from the current members of the Guild’s main combat force.”
“Is that so?”
A smile managed to return to Milo’s lips.
Kim was a rank A. Even among high ranked Titans, he was a talent that must be held on to.
If, as the leader of this raid team, he commanded the rank B Titans well and managed to clear this Gate…!
There would be some losses among the rank C Titans, but from the TOP Guild’s perspective, the survival of high ranked Titans came first.
‘It’s a relief that Titan Kim ’s abilities are top-notch….’
The weakened sparks of hope regained some life again.
Makai managed to calm the boss man down and narrowed his eyes at Rasa, clearly in derision.
“From what I heard just now… A new Titan who might have gone through a Awakening process, was it? You were saying something about that….”
Makai snorted dismissively.
“My Titan Kim should prove to be more effective than someone like that, a Titan with no proven qualities.”
Rasa’s expression hardened. He was being looked down on here. However, he didn’t raise his voice and let anger take over him.
‘Let’s just wait and see who’s correct at the end of the day just if you know whom you talking was our rank S Titan, you would pee in your pants….’
The four men shifted their gazes at the same time over to the Red Gate that had trapped their titan.
Wuwuwu…
The crimson light oozing from the Gate seemed especially more ominous than ever before.
=======================================================
“I’m guessing you’re not a newly recruit rank E. Am I right?”
The female Titan asked me quite openly.
I opened my mouth in response.
“Well, then. Let me ask you something as well.”
“Of course.”
I shifted his gaze over to Kim and the Titans gathering around him. They were busy planning their next move before they got going.
“You guys, you’re supposed to be new recruits, yet how can you be this calm?”
“The first thing we’ve been taught is that ‘Anything can happen inside a dungeon’, you see.”
….Anything could happen inside a dungeon, she said.
I knew this fact better than anyone here, actually.
“Every one of us has been trained properly. Especially that Kim over there. He even received a special training regime, too. He’s scheduled to join up with the TOP’s main combat force.”
They didn’t fear dungeons, because they had received prior training.
I could only be flabbergasted by that revelation. And then, almost right away, he realised that all of these people were no different from Adam. But i didn't had to go trough all those before.
She said that they had been sufficiently trained or whatever, but just what kind of uses would that have here? They were simply showing off without realising how terrifying a dungeon could become.
‘Knowing something and experiencing it are two different things.’
More so, when your fragile belief of you knowing everything about dungeons develops just a tiny little crack – it’d all come crashing down like a dam with a hole getting swept away by the deluge of water.
Building up one’s confidence took a long time, but breaking it down only took a single moment. I could see the fate in store for Kim ’s team already.
They might look okay from the outside, but in the end, they were all helpless noobs.
“You still haven’t answered me, though.”
“Excuse me?”
After hearing that, my gaze shifted back to the strange woman.
“My question. You haven’t answered it yet.”
The question about whether i was a rank E or not.
She seemed to be a rather tenacious customer, this woman.
“Why should I tell you that?”
I replied in a blunt and a bit curt manner, but the female Titan, Susan, was now crying out in elation and clenched her fist. Inwardly, of course.
Susan had met many people in her life and she immediately knew what my’s response meant.
And that would be my unbridled confidence.
‘Yes, I didn’t see it wrong!’
There was another thing that gave her even more assurance; while she was being trained back in the TOP Guild, she had often witnessed the movements of many high-ranked Hunters.
However, my hand just now….
She had never seen anyone move as quickly as my hand catching that arrow.
‘I mean, all I could do was to barely confirm what just happened, even with my eyesight!’
She used to be a top-tier athlete before becoming a melee-type Titan through her Awakening, so she was pretty confident of her dynamic vision.
Susan’s eyes began sparkling.
‘This guy, he’s at least rank A. I think i had saw him somewhere before’
Or, even higher than that….
In order to ascertain a more definite answer, susan asked me again.
“Don’t be like that now. Can’t you tell me, please?”
“Don’t feel like it.”
That was the end of their conversation. I turned my head away.
I definitely didn’t feel like being in the receiving end of endless stream of questions, and also, Kim was walking closer to us as well.
My’s eyes and Kim’s met.
“We will….”
Kim’s voice was harsh, low. Didn’t matter what he was trying to convey here, he sounded threatening and menacing.
“….Be using the road.”
He didn’t saunter over here just to declare which path they would be using, though. No, Kim ’s eyes were asking what my group would do. Along with the hidden threat of ‘Don’t you dare follow us’.
‘……..’
I scanned our surroundings once more, before reverting my gaze back to Kim.
“And we will be going through the forest.”
“…I’ll wish you luck.”
‘Well, you guys will be the ones needing that luck later on, though…’
I didn’t mouth my inner thoughts, however.
“Sure thing. You too.”
With that, my group headed towards the forest.
==================================================
After ensuring that the group had completely disappeared into the forest, Kim began guffawing out uncontrollably.
“What a bunch of idiots.”
“Excuse me?”
“Look over there.”
Kim uncrossed his arms and pointed towards some trees.
Not just one or two, either – everywhere he pointed at, trees bore the scars that suspiciously looked like claw marks of potentially gigantic creatures.
“That…. isn’t that?!”
“It’s a bear.”
“An snow Bear?!”
A bear-type monster, infamous among all the beast-type monsters as the most ferocious! Those claw marks were them marking their territory.
The Titans in Kim ’s group saw those and clicked their tongues.
“Tsk, tsk….”
“It’d been better if they stayed put here and waited till the end….”
“Looks like innocent people will die because of a rank E taking the lead.”
“I mean, would that rank E have received any prior training like us?”
Kim stared at the forest and chuckled derisively.
‘That’s to be expected from a measly rank E.’
……Wait.
Suddenly, Kim’s smile disappeared.
‘Most of that group is rank Cs, and there is a rank B among them too, so how come…..?’
How come he thought Kai was that group’s leader? Indeed, he hadn’t felt that anything was amiss, right up until he realised this weird incongruency by himself.
Still, Kim shook his head.
‘….Well, it doesn’t matter.’
They were all going to die soon, anyway. Worrying about themselves took precedence over what would happen to the weaklings who wouldn’t last for long, to begin with.
There was nothing he could do about the dead, but well, shouldn’t the ones that were supposed to live, live on?
Kim turned towards the road and spoke up.
“Let’s depart.”
====================================================
I took the lead and walked up ahead.
But before long, Susan stood in front of me.
“What is it?”
“Have you lost your mind?”
I crossed his arms and displayed how unhappy he was to hear that. Meaning, she’d have to be careful with her follow-up.
Perhaps she understood mys warning, Sarah’s voice had softened somewhat.
“I’m sorry. But I need to say this.”
Sarah’s finger pointed towards one of the surrounding trees.
“Can you see that?”
There was a huge claw mark on the tree’s bark.
“Over there, too! And there!”
Almost every single tree had their barks greatly damaged and it was hard to find one that was still intact.
“This entire place is full of the bear’s territorial markings, you know?! This entire forest is the bear type monster’s habitat!”
Dogs or apes were weaker than tigers or lions. Such logic also applied to monsters as well. The tiger or lion type monsters were much more difficult to fight against when compared to dog or ape type monsters.
So, what about a bear-type, then?
A bear, a polar bear no less, was seen as one of the strongest carnivorous land animals out there. And right now, Jin-Woo’s group had entered a forest where monsters based on such animals were residing.
Of course, Sarah would get angry.
“We need to go back right now! Before the monsters show up!”
“Tsk, tsk.”
I clicked my tongue.
‘What’s this?’
Sarah thought that i would show one of the three responses – get angry, get stunned, or accept what she told me.
Unfortunately for her, my expectation was wide off the mark.
She was the one advising me against the irrational and hasty decision here, yet it was i looking at her as if she was the idiot.
‘Why… why is he looking at me like that?!’
Saraghs face reddened up from anger.
“W-what is it?”
Her voice rose up again.
I spat out a long sigh and opened his mouth.
“It’s difficult to find a tree without the territorial markings, which means that there are more than one or two Ice Bears here, yes?”
“T-tthat is why we much go ba…..”
“That is precisely why we’re moving through the forest.”
“Eh?”
Sarah eyes went round in confusion.
‘She still doesn’t get it even with that massive hint?’
I had little choice but to tell it straight to her.
“When we’re moving through the forest, we only have to worry about Ice Bears.”
“….Ah!”
Only then did her understood my’s intention.
The meaning behind lots of Ice Bears was simple – that there were no other monsters strong enough to hunt Ice Bears in this forest.
To be more precise, the group didn’t have to worry about fighting monsters stronger than Ice Bears here.
‘Why haven’t I thought about that….?’
She became ashamed about shouting at me just now.
Her head dropped low, even the skin of her neck reddening up from embarrassment.
I continued to click his tongue.
The whole reason why a dungeon was a scary place was that no one knew what might pop out when you were inside. Well, you wouldn’t be able to come up with a plan if you didn’t know what kind of enemies were waiting for you there.
However, didn’t the enemies of this place graciously reveal themselves already?
‘…Bear-type monsters, is it?’
I didn’t know how strong these Ice Bears were, but i was sure of them being weaker than those two White hunters archers. They were wearing clothing that looked to be made out of bear felt.
That was why had chosen the forest route.
He was thinking of traversing the forest and increasing his level, and at the same time, keep an eye out on Kim Cheol’s group and the movements of the White Phantoms while waiting for his chance to act.
That was the safest way available.
‘…..??’
Abruptly, i became rather puzzled by what i saw.
“….Why is your face still so red?”
Sarah’s face was far too red to be normal. She couldn’t raise her head and managed to squeeze out a voice that was smaller than a buzzing mosquito.
“It… it’s because… too cold….”
“Fuu….”
I spat out a long groan and summoned Erlin storeage He quickly browsed through the items and spotted thick fur coats and shoes designed for Winter.
Tti-ring.
[Item: Warm fur coat]
Rarity: None
Type: Miscellaneous
Warms up the wearer’s body.
[Item: Warm boots]
Rarity: None
Type: Miscellaneous
Once worn, provides warmth to wearer’s feet.
‘Fur coat and the shoes cost 10 Gold each….’
[Remaining item: 431,930]
‘Still, thank God those item still in Erlin storage …..’
I chose ‘pick’ for all of them.
Since i couldn’t just give to some and ignore others, i bought the articles of clothing for all five people.
Poof.
Five coats and five pairs of boots suddenly popped up in front of his eyes. And of course, the eyes of all four people, excluding me, all grew super-wide.
“Heok?!”
“W-what the heck?! Was that separate space magic?!”
Sarah was taken aback, too, and she hurriedly raised her head to look at me .
Not caring whether they were shocked or not, i spoke to them disinterestedly.
“Put them on.”
I finished speaking and reached down to grab the closest fur coat, but then, Adam suddenly grasped my sleeve.
‘…..?’
When our gazes met, Adam asked me while looking rather scared and confused.
, just what’s going on with you? You managed to catch that arrow, and now, you used some strange magic to take these clothes out, too.”
Frowns formed on the forehead of me . It didn’t take a genius to figure out that, at this rate, i’d be swarmed by the endless streams of questions and get irritated to no end.
‘Right, let’s use this chance to clearly draw the line.’
I raised my voice and spoke in a firm voice.
“Adam, I brought you here with me, so I will take full responsibility and protect you. However…”
My voice became colder next.
“….Don’t ask me about anything.”
I then swept my gaze against Sarah as well as other Titans tagging along.
“The same goes for the rest of you. Do not ask me anything, and do not demand anything from me.”
I didn’t stop there, though.
“If you don’t like it, then you can just leave now. I won’t stop you.”
The two male Hunters originally didn’t choose to follow me , but only tagged along because of the rank B Sarah. They alternated their gazes between the fur coats and me, before hurriedly shaking their heads.