Chapter 38
Click.
The buckle of the bag snapped shut with a crisp sound.
Chae-ho looked over the equipment he had laid out on the table one more time, making sure he had packed everything.
Three bottles of highly concentrated antidote, prepared for venom-induced paralysis, were neatly placed in the outermost pocket.
Inside the bag were an emergency escape scroll that could immediately transport him outside in a crisis, along with special bandages for compressing wounds.
"This should be enough."
Chae-ho muttered briefly and slung the bag over his shoulder.
His destination this time, which he had received official entry permission for through the Hunter Association, was the C-rank dungeon known as the Gray Swamp.
Just as its name suggested, murky fog covered the area all year round, blocking visibility, while ambush-type monsters hid throughout the mud.
One careless mistake, even a slight scratch from a venomous fang, could leave a hunter paralyzed and turn them into fertilizer for the swamp.
Because of that, even the Association strongly recommended entering this great difficulty area with a party of at least three hunters.
But Chae-ho had obtained permission to enter alone without hesitation.
Over the past few days, he had ignored every noisy scouting offer sent by the major guilds.
He had no desire to carelessly form a party with others, draw unnecessary attention, or be bothered by troublesome recruitment offers.
More importantly, what he needed right now was not a place where he had to match his movements with others.
He needed a stage where he could focus entirely on his own senses.
After packing everything, Chae-ho immediately left his house and headed toward the restricted zone on the outskirts where the gate was located.
"Hunter Lee Chae-ho, are you really going in alone?"
The Hunter Association employee guarding the gate looked back and forth between the monitor and Chae-ho's face as he asked.
There was obvious doubt and confusion in his eyes.
"Yes. I applied for solo entry."
"Visibility inside the Gray Swamp is extremely poor, so support between the frontline and rear line is considered essential. No matter how good your recent results have been, entering alone is extremely dangerous."
The employee's concern was reasonable.
For an ordinary C-rank hunter, it was common to lose their sense of direction near the entrance of the swamp, get poisoned, and end up sending an emergency rescue signal.
But Chae-ho simply nodded with a calm expression.
"I know. Solo entry isn't prohibited by the regulations, is it?"
"Well, that's true, but..."
Unable to stop him any further, the employee pressed the approval button on the terminal with an uneasy expression.
Beep.
The access barrier opened, revealing the enormous gate shimmering with blue light in front of Chae-ho.
He lightly tilted his neck to loosen his stiff muscles, then stepped through the rippling curtain of light without hesitation.
Squelch.
The sole of his combat boot touched the ground with an unpleasant sound.
The moment his vision changed, the stench of decay rushed into his nose.
Thick gray fog covered the surroundings, making even the outline of a tree trunk ten meters ahead difficult to see.
Chae-ho drew his real combat sword from its sheath instead of the training sword he had been using.
A cold metallic sound cut through the damp air and echoed heavily around him.
Back when he had worked as a porter and simply followed behind other hunters, terrain like this would immediately send cold sweat down his back.
It was because of the fear that a monster could appear from anywhere at any moment.
But now, standing alone in the middle of the swamp, Chae-ho's breathing was as calm as a still lake.
Don't try to see with your eyes.
He narrowed his eyes, then stopped trying to force his vision through the fog.
Instead, he focused every nerve on the feeling of the mud beneath his feet and the movement of the damp wind brushing against his skin.
That brutal week of training had done more than simply make his body faster.
It had dramatically improved his ability to receive information from his surroundings and process it in his brain.
Bubble, bubble.
A faint sound of bubbles bursting came from the murky water to his front right.
Almost at the same moment, another strange sound overlapped with it, a soft scraping noise coming from the thick vines hanging above his head.
Above, and below.
The moment Chae-ho tightened his grip around the sword handle,
BOOM!
The muddy swamp to his right exploded upward, and an enormous jaw appeared.
It belonged to a Venom-Fang Swamp Crocodile, its rows of poisonous fangs gleaming.
At the same time that it leaped toward Chae-ho's lower body, a Shadow Snake, which had been hidden among the vines with dark camouflage, silently shot toward the back of his neck.
A perfectly coordinated surprise attack from above and below, arriving at slightly different timings.
For an ordinary hunter, it was the kind of split-second situation where panic would make them take at least one of the attacks.
Time Slow.
The moment Chae-ho activated his skill, the sharp sounds cutting through the air became muffled.
Drops of mud flying through the air slowed until they seemed almost frozen.
The angle of the Swamp Crocodile's opening jaws, along with the path of the Shadow Snake twisting its body and driving forward with its fangs, appeared before Chae-ho like a clear blueprint.
In the past, Chae-ho would have remained in this state for several seconds while calculating his escape route.
But now, things were different.
From just the direction of the ripples left by the Swamp Crocodile and the angle of the leaves trembling slightly as the snake moved, he had already calculated their final destinations.
Chae-ho did not keep the skill active.
Only 0.2 seconds.
The instant he confirmed their trajectories with his own eyes, he immediately deactivated the skill.
The world's normal speed violently crashed back into place.
Whoosh!
Chae-ho's body moved through the fog.
He did not retreat far or roll across the ground.
He merely adjusted the angle of his ankle slightly and moved his upper body half a step backward.
The Shadow Snake's venomous fangs sliced through empty air, barely passing beneath his chin.
In the past, his body would not have followed his thoughts quickly enough, and he would have been forced to sacrifice his shoulder.
