The Time-Limited Leader Makes the Raid a Success - Chapter 493



Only Noblemtl

Episode 493

#493. This is enough to make you greedy.

Kang Moo-hyeok underestimated the current power of Naga with his feet, but Hyun Jeong-geon, who was in the front line, thought differently.

‘These guys have tough and solid bodies. It feels like I’m dealing with a turtle series rather than a Naga. Most of their characteristics are similar to a Naga, but the fact that they have legs makes their attack angles and ranges different from the existing Naga. In other words, these guys are more dangerous.’

Modern guilds placed great importance on collecting monster data.

It was the job of a competent analyst to turn this data into meaningful numbers. That’s why large guilds would hire skilled analysts or put in the effort to train them.

Kang Mu-hyeok also worked as an analyst before becoming the strategy team leader, so he had a keen eye for estimating the approximate power of monsters.

But in the end, gathering information about the monster was the job of the on-site hunter. No matter how detailed the explanation was on-site, no one could know the monster as well as the hunter who directly faced it.

Ultimately, this was the reason why analysts were so concerned about interviewing people who had participated in the hunt.

‘What’s important in times like this is sharing information.’

Hyun Jeong-geon quickly relayed the information he had gained from the battle with the evolved Naga. It was Kang Moo-hyeok’s job to analyze and find solutions. Hyun Jeong-geon simply focused on the battle in front of him.

It was not simply a matter of division of roles, but also because there were so many monsters to deal with at once.

‘My role ends here.’

Hyun Jeong-geon’s special skill ‘Dark Synchronization’ is so powerful that it exerts its maximum power in the dark.

As it was strong, the skill duration was also short.

“But if you’ve made it this far, you’ll figure out the rest, right?”

Hyun Jeong-geon’s monologue was a message to the rear. It seemed like he was expecting the data he had obtained from the front to change into some kind of order.

Usually, responding immediately to monsters encountered for the first time during battle is a flexibility that can only be found in party leader-level hunters who have been through a lot.

Of course, only a very small number of them came up with effective strategies.

However, it would not have been easy for an ordinary person, who was not a hunter and had to check the data with the help of other hunters because he could not deal with it directly, to immediately come up with a countermeasure.

Nevertheless, Hyun Jeong-geon expected Kang Mu-hyeok to perform well.

It was thanks to the things we experienced while working together that trust was built.

And the response that came out the next moment was a card that Hyun Jeong-geon had not expected.

“It’s my turn. You guard the captain.”

“Mr. Cho?”

Mr. Joe took the lead.

Hyun Jeong-geon doubted his own eyes as he moved to Kang Mu-hyeok’s side in her place.

‘His positions are dealer, assassination, and espionage. Of those, he is most specialized in espionage. When he reaches a high rank, he can show his power against even the most powerful monsters, but he puts a hunter with lower killing power and defense power than me in the lead. What is Captain Kang thinking?’

Hyun Jeong-geon glanced at Kang Mu-hyeok, who was running diligently along with his group.

The movement speed was slow because the path was blocked by monsters in the narrow cave passage, but it was still fast enough for an average person to run at full speed.

Kang Mu-hyeok was panting as if he was about to suffocate, but he was still bravely following along.

‘If it comes down to it, I’ll have to carry you and run.’

Hyun Jung-geun sighed, saying that he was finally in a position to take over the role of Mr. Cho.

‘It’s not a problem to carry. In the end, what role Mr. Cho takes on is what satisfies my curiosity. The fact that Mr. Cho took on the role here means that the captain’s intentions are reflected.’

Before his thoughts could even finish, Mr. Joe took action.

She stabbed her dagger into the gills of the two attacking Nagas and took something out of her bosom.

There were a total of eight round beads sandwiched between the five fingers of both hands.

“This is expensive. It’s given to you guys only.”

Mr. Joe threw the marbles in all directions as if he was throwing a dagger. The marbles hit the walls, stalactites, and ceiling and shattered. Gray smoke spread from the broken marbles.

“This is… … .”

Hyun Jeong-geon immediately noticed what Mr. Cho was trying to do.

Kang Mu-hyeok handed him something while he was out of breath.

“Gasp, gasp! Ma, it’s paralyzing poison. This is the antidote… huuuk huuuk! If only Hyun Jung-geon Hunter takes it… it’ll work. huuuk!”

“If you’re that out of breath, you don’t have to explain.”

Hyun Jeong-geon, who saw that Kang Mu-hyeok was gradually being pushed back, immediately picked him up and hugged him as soon as he took the antidote.

“But will this work for me?”

“It would probably work. They breathe through their gills underwater and through their skin on land.”

The monster’s skin breathing was a way to take in large amounts of oxygen into the body and increase energy efficiency. This was the reason why monsters that breathed through their skin had good athletic ability.

“They can’t handle the smoke-type poison in the water. Even the existing Nagas only become more resistant to poison when they become adults. These guys seem to be newborns, so they should be effective. In particular, Mr. Joe’s poison is unusually poisonous.”

As Kang Mu-hyeok said, the effect was immediate.

The Nagas, who had been charging forward without fear of death, began to fall to the ground in shock.

There was no dramatic scene where he suddenly died or anything like that, but just being incapacitated was enough.

‘It would have been better if it had been Team Leader Pyo Beom-hee’s poison.’

It seemed that with the unique item ‘Poison’ on loan from the Federation, the skill ‘Black Mist’, it would be possible to eradicate all the evolved Nagas that were not yet immune to poison.

Kang Moo-hyuk felt regretful, but he did not forget his original purpose.

“Here it is!”

Finally, Kang Mu-hyeok’s party was able to arrive at the place shown by the leader.

A space like a maze, with stalactites and stalagmites sprouting out randomly.

They looked out over a large open space that seemed the size of several soccer fields combined.

It was a huge place that could not have occurred naturally, but it was not strange at all because the special terrain called Medusa’s Head itself was created as an aftermath of the great war.

“Is Lady Ayla here?!”

Raven, who entered together last, asked urgently.

Kang Moo-hyuk nodded and pointed to one side of the room.

“It must be over there. I guess we’ll have to go there to find out the exact location.”

“If you know the general location, Raven can find the rest. Raven, get started.”

Raven stepped forward as Alex instructed.

‘Are you going to use your skills? Come to think of it, this is the first time I’ve seen a Druid. I heard it’s a utility position. The transformation earlier was great, but what about the other parts?’

Kang Moo-hyuk carefully observed the Hunter series he was seeing for the first time.

But contrary to expectations, Raven didn’t use any special skills. He just sniffed, listened, and took deep breaths.

Raven, who had been acting strangely for a while, suddenly frowned. Alex asked in a serious voice.

“what’s the matter?”

“I don’t smell the spirit. I don’t feel the original (@elf, original) energy of the elf at all.”

Alex covered his mouth with one hand. He looked embarrassed. He asked Kang Mu-hyeok cautiously.

“Is this really the right place?”

“This is where the guide showed us. I’m not sure about the abilities of this artifact yet, but given the examples it showed us before, it’s hard to believe it’s fake. Is there a problem?”

Alex hesitated for a moment, then opened his mouth.

“A Druid’s senses are quite keen even without using any special skills. In particular, if they are trained for a long time under special conditions, they become specialized for those conditions.”

“What are those conditions?”

“I’m an elf. If you live with elves for a long time after awakening, you become sensitive to their body odor, spirit scent, and the elf-specific energy called natural power.”

Kang Moo-hyuk didn’t understand what Alex was saying.

To a hunter, the words condition and training became justifications that could only be carried out if there was a purpose.

When he mentioned this part, Raven stepped forward and said,

“I am a hunter who was selected to find elves who fell into this world since I was young. Even now, if I get information about elves, I am assigned to rescue them together with Lady Ayla. So, if it is within a certain range, I can definitely find elves.”

“But you’re saying you don’t feel that way now?”

“Yes. Not at all. It may be a very blasphemous guess, but even if an elf loses his life, the spirit power remaining in his body will remain for a long time. To feel nothing like this, you have to have been dead for at least a year.”

Based on Raven’s information, Kang Moo-hyuk initially suspected that there was a special barrier that could hide the elves’ traces.

But there was nothing strange about the scene the leader showed.

“When I saw Ayla as the leader, her face was too calm for someone in a dangerous place. She just looked like she was meditating in the middle of the forest. Other than that, she didn’t seem to have anything special going on.”

As soon as Kang Mu-hyeok finished speaking, Raven was startled.

“Meditation?!”

“Yes. Do you have any idea?”

“No way… No. That can’t be true.”

Raven shook her head from side to side, trying to deny the assumptions that were popping up in her head.

While Raven was shocked and unable to speak, Alex also relayed the situation to Kang Moo-hyuk with a puzzled look on his face.

“It seems like Lady Ayla is trying to be ‘lowly’.”

Kang Moo-hyuk asked back as if confirming the words the translation item had given him.

“Noble or common? Are you talking about death?”

“Death is similar to the concept of nobility, but it is different. In Elvish, it is called ‘Uhla’.”

“What kind of condition is that Uhula talking about?”

“It has many special meanings, but if I were to define it simply, it would be something like ‘returning to nature.’ It means to become completely assimilated into nature and gradually become a part of nature, like a tree, a stone, or a flower. It is usually a ritual performed by elven elders who have reached the end of their lives to return to the embrace of the World Tree.”

Kang Moo-hyuk paid attention to Ayla’s situation.

The fate of the hunters who went with her was unknown, but the fact that the leader did not show them separately means that they were likely annihilated.

Plus, there are powerful unknowns lurking around, and you never know when they will come to save you.

‘I don’t know the exact circumstances, but I’m sure she didn’t have many options.’

Judging from Raven’s reaction to following Ayla, it seemed like it would be hard to turn back once you’ve gone from nobility to lowliness. Even though the meaning of the word is slightly different, it would ultimately mean the same thing as resurrecting a dead person.

‘But the leader led me here… … .’

Could it be because there is still hope?

“I don’t think the leader showed me Lady Ayla to carry the elf’s corpse.”

Kang Moo-hyuk spoke to the absent-minded Raven, and thanks to that, life returned to Raven’s eyes.

“That, that means… … .”

“There must be some way. Let’s go. Even if I don’t know the exact location, I know the general direction, so finding it shouldn’t be hard.”

Kang Moo-hyuk spoke with confidence about something he couldn’t be sure of.

In the end, the conclusion is that the leader has no choice but to rely on the miracle of the artifact.

It was a choice that was completely against his usual belief that ‘even if the gate is a coincidence, hunting is not a coincidence’, but since everything he was experiencing right now was beyond the realm of understanding, he had no choice but to believe and follow.

‘I have to rely on items to win.’

Of course, it was a great item. It was like playing the game with a guidebook.

At this point, even Kang Mu-hyuk couldn’t help but admit it.

‘So this is why hunters are always so greedy? I guess it’s understandable to be greedy.’

A commoner holding a unique item nodded his head.