Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Chaeho kicked aside a broken spear shaft that was half-buried in the mud.

The deeper they went into the cave, the softer and muddier the ground beneath their feet became, almost like a swamp. A suffocating fishy stench mixed with thick, sticky mana filled the air.

"Everyone, stop. It's just ahead."

Woojin stopped walking and spoke in a low voice.

At the end of the dark tunnel, in the middle of a wide muddy clearing, a massive black shape was crouched down.

Every time it breathed, thick clouds of steam burst from its nostrils and scattered the mist around it.

The creature was so huge that it nearly reached the ceiling, and its entire body was covered in pitch-black iron armor.

It was the boss of this swamp-type cave.

A Lizardman Champion.

"Seriously, they covered that thing from head to toe. Is all of that really iron plating?"

Seoyoon muttered in disbelief as she adjusted her grip on her bowstring.

Its skeletal structure alone was completely different from that of an ordinary Lizardman.

The double-headed axe planted beside it looked even larger and thicker than the massive tower shield Woojin was carrying.

"I'll go in first and draw its attention. Seoyoon, keep pressuring it from the rear like usual. Chaeho, watch for an opening and support me when you can."

"Understood."

Woojin took a short, deep breath before kicking off the muddy ground.

Sensing the intruders, the Champion opened its bloodshot eyes and raised its massive body.

BOOOOM!

The deafening crash of metal against metal slammed against the cave walls.

"Urgh!"

A suppressed groan escaped Woojin as he raised his shield.

The Champion had only swung its axe casually with one hand, yet the sheer power behind the blow was terrifying.

Woojin's feet dug deep trenches into the mud as he was forcibly pushed backward.

"Woojin!"

From the rear, Seoyoon hurriedly pulled back her bowstring.

Ping! Piping!

The creature lowered its chin and hid its face behind the tall guard around its neck.

The three arrows Seoyoon fired aimed for the exposed areas around its chest and shoulders.

But the result was disappointing.

Clang! Clang-clang!

Sparks flew as the arrowheads bounced away helplessly.

They hadn't even left a scratch on the thick plate armor.

If anything, the arrows burying themselves uselessly in the ground only made their lack of power more obvious.

"This is ridiculous! Why is its armor so thick? My attacks aren't doing anything at all!"

"I'll make an opening somehow! Don't force yourself to come closer!"

Woojin shouted as he shoved his shield forward with all his strength.

But the Champion didn't budge.

Instead, it pressed the shaft of its axe down brutally against the upper part of the shield.

Creeeak.

The metal screamed.

Under the creature's absurd strength, Woojin's knees slowly began to bend.

A disgusting animal stench washed over him from beyond the shield.

He had been dragged completely into a battle of raw strength.

If this turns into a battle of endurance, we're at a disadvantage.

Chaeho didn't recklessly rush in.

Instead, he took a step back and carefully observed the situation.

If he wanted to, he could immediately slip into the creature's blind spot.

But with its entire body covered in such solid armor, a careless stab would do nothing more than irritate it and make it even more violent.

Chaeho's calm eyes rapidly scanned the Champion's entire body.

The distance between its feet.

The angle at which its waist rotated.

The muscles on its back that shifted whenever it raised its axe.

There seemed to be no opening in its movements.

The armor plates overlapped one another in layers, and whenever it exerted strength, the thick leather and metal plates covered even the gaps around its joints.

"Chaeho! Can you circle around behind it and at least aim for its ankle?"

Seoyoon shouted as she constantly changed positions.

"No. The range of its tail is too wide. I'd get swept away immediately."

Chaeho answered firmly while adjusting his grip on his sword.

There's no need to rush.

There will definitely be a moment when it opens up.

As long as the creature was alive and had to move its joints, there had to be seams in the armor.

Even if those seams were normally hidden beneath the plates, the shape of the armor would inevitably shift slightly when its muscles expanded to unleash maximum strength.

Chaeho steadied his breathing and lowered the tip of his sword.

Amid the noise of battle, he focused only on the creature's breathing and the sound of its muscles twisting.

Woojin's face had turned bright red.

His left arm, which supported the shield, was trembling violently as if it had reached its limit.

The Champion didn't miss that weakness.

Its eyes gleamed viciously.

It suddenly jumped one step backward and gripped the axe handle with both hands.

Crack. Crack.

The muscles across its entire body swelled grotesquely as it raised the axe high above its head.

The surrounding air seemed to grow heavy.

It was preparing a killing blow.

If Woojin took that attack head-on, even his sturdy tower shield would surely be split apart.

"Woojin, dodge—!"

Just as Seoyoon's desperate scream burst out—

Time Slow.

The moment the thought formed in Chaeho's mind, the entire world seemed to sink into thick mud.

The Champion's roar, which had been loud enough to tear through his eardrums, became deep and distorted, like an old tape being stretched.

The sparks and drops of mud that had been thrown into the air while the shield scraped against the ground seemed to freeze in place.

Chaeho held his breath and fixed his eyes on the Champion's upper body.

Within the extremely slowed world, he examined every part of its tensed muscles and every seam in its pitch-black armor.

The axe was raised overhead.

Its arm muscles had expanded to their limits, veins bulging beneath the skin.

The axe reached its highest point.

Then, in the exact 0.1-second instant when the direction of its muscles shifted to bring the weapon crashing downward—

The layered armor plates covering its armpit and neck were unable to withstand the swelling muscles and friction.

They opened slightly.

It was a weakness that would never have been visible under normal circumstances.

A gap barely wide enough for an adult man's fist appeared.

Found it.

The instant Chaeho burned that opening into his memory, he immediately released the skill.

All the sounds of the frozen world exploded back into motion and crashed against his ears.

BOOM!

The ground beneath Chaeho's foot caved in, spraying mud in every direction.

He released all the strength stored in his lower body at once.

His body shot forward like an arrow released from a bowstring.

The Champion's massive axe was just about to smash into Woojin's shield.

"Tilt it just a little!"

At Chaeho's sharp shout, Woojin instinctively twisted his body and slightly tilted the angle of his shield.

A tiny blind spot appeared.

Chaeho slipped through it without hesitation.

The Champion's axe, carrying the full weight of its body, tore through the air as it came crashing down.

At that exact moment, when the seam in the armor opened for only an instant—

Chaeho's sword flashed upward from below.

Puuuk!

With a sharp sound of pierced flesh, the tip of his sword passed perfectly through the narrow gap.

Avoiding the thick plate armor entirely, the blade pierced through the softer flesh beneath it and drove deep into a vital point.

"KIEEEEEK!"

A horrible, ear-splitting scream erupted.

The critically wounded Champion staggered violently.

The axe it had been bringing down with all its strength lost its trajectory, scraped the edge of Woojin's shield, and buried itself deep in the mud.

"Now!"

Chaeho twisted his wrist, pulled out his sword, and threw himself backward.

Dark-red blood poured from the wound.

The boss lost its balance, leaving its chest completely exposed.

"HAAAAAAH!"

Woojin let out a battle cry.

He raised the shield that had been pressed down and smashed it upward into the Champion's jaw.

CRACK!

The sound of breaking bone echoed as the Champion's head snapped backward.

Seoyoon wasn't about to miss that opening.

Arrows flew one after another from her fingertips.

Three arrowheads buried themselves precisely in the face and forehead of the helmetless creature.

THUD!

Like a massive chunk of iron collapsing, the Champion's enormous body crashed face-first into the mud.

The ground shook violently once.

Then a heavy silence settled over the cave, broken only by the wet squelching of the mud.

"Haa... Haa...."

Woojin leaned against his dented shield, breathing heavily.

Seoyoon's hand trembled around her bow as she dropped down beside a rock.

It had been an intense boss battle, but none of the three had suffered any serious injuries.

Still, if their coordination had been off by even a single moment, the entire party could have been wiped out.

Chaeho lightly flicked the blood from his sword before approaching the fallen boss.

"Is anyone hurt?"

When Chaeho asked in his usual calm voice, Woojin wiped his face with both hands and let out a dry laugh.

"You saved my life, Chaeho. Seriously, near the end there, I thought that thing was going to smash straight through the shield. My arm is still numb."

Woojin shook his head as he ran a hand over the deeply dented upper part of his shield.

Then he looked at Chaeho.

"But... how did you do that? I was standing right in front of it, and even I couldn't see anywhere to stab."

"I got lucky."

Chaeho gave his usual indifferent answer as he pulled out a dagger.

"When something swings a weapon that large and heavy, gaps are naturally going to appear around the joints. Woojin did such a good job holding its attention that I happened to get a safe chance to go in from behind."

With practiced hands, Chaeho began cutting through the straps around the Champion's chest armor.

He stripped away the bloodstained leather and quickly collected the valuable parts.

There wasn't even a hint of hesitation in his movements.

Woojin watched Chaeho's calm and efficient actions before speaking with an awkward expression.

"To be completely honest..."

At Woojin's heavy tone, Chaeho stopped moving and looked up.

"When we first formed this party, a big part of me wanted to test your skills since you'd only just been promoted to C-rank."

"Seoyoon and I were planning to watch your back while seeing how far you could go. I thought I'd hold the defensive line firmly and see how much damage you could deal from behind me."

Woojin awkwardly scratched the back of his mud-covered head.

"But what test? I was the one who ended up receiving all the help."

"If you hadn't stabbed it at that exact moment, I'd probably be the one rolling around on the ground right now."

"I'm honestly embarrassed."

"Same here."

Seoyoon joined in, shaking her head.

"If Chaeho hadn't been there when we got ambushed earlier, the Lizardmen probably would've turned me into a hedgehog by now."

Then she stared at him curiously.

"Seriously, how do your eyes even work? I heard you used to be a porter. Did you get private lessons on reading the flow of battle while watching from the back or something?"

"Something like that."

A faintly joking tone entered Chaeho's voice.

"When you work as a porter, you have to keep track of who drops mana stones and where. I'm pretty good at noticing things."

Woojin and Seoyoon both burst into short laughter at his answer.

The heavy tension that had been pressing down on the cave finally eased.

Chaeho lowered his head again and dug a fist-sized black mana stone out of the Champion's chest.

Dense, cold mana was condensed inside it.

It was the mana stone of a C-rank boss.

There's no doubt about it.

Chaeho thought briefly as he placed the mana stone into his bag.

His judgment of the timing and his use of the skill had worked exactly as he expected.

Even against a boss with absurd defensive power, there was no need to recklessly increase his strength or gamble his life on a dangerous attack.

All he needed was the ability to calmly observe the situation—

and one precise strike that could pierce through the enemy's weakness.

"The reward should be pretty decent."

Chaeho stood up and adjusted the strap of his bag.

"Let's finish cleaning up and get out of here. The smell in this place is too awful to stay any longer."

Chaeho casually dusted off his hands as he spoke.

Woojin and Seoyoon looked at his dependable back and silently nodded.

The shallow little test they had planned to measure his ability had ended long ago.

There was nothing left to verify anymore.

What this man needed from them now wasn't evaluation—

it was absolute trust.

"Understood. Give me the bag. I'll carry the heavy stuff."

Woojin quickly adjusted the shield on his back and followed after Chaeho.