Chapter 25 (2/2)

Was it the system’s instinct?

The monsters that were still in front of Su-hyeun were still trying to chase the other members who were running towards the back door — the monsters did not immediately head for Su-hyeun, as if they were slightly intimidated by him.

Stomp—

Su-hyeun closed the back door with his hand. As the large door closed loudly, Su-hyeun turned around.

“If you want to go past me…”

[You have used the skill Leap.]

[Excluding the target, all other surrounding enemies have perceived you as their enemy.]

At that moment, the monsters’ eyes that were looking at Su-hyeun had turned red.

“Kill me first, you little cowards.”

The legs that were running like crazy suddenly stopped.

Soon, Lee Ju-ho had caught up with Kim Ba-reun. He was already lagging behind the party and suddenly stopped in his tracks.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

“I just don’t think that this is nice of us.”

“What?”

At that moment, Kim Ba-reun could not understand Lee Ju-ho’s words, but it did not actually take him too long to understand.

“Go ahead first.”

Lee Ju-ho then turned around. Fully aware of what Lee Ju-ho was thinking, Kim Ba-reun blocked him in his way.

“Hey, are you crazy? How are you going to help him?”

“Well, you can’t be so sure. Su-hyeun might survive if I go to his aid.”

Why had this thought come in so late?

At the time, the sudden thought of facing death had instilled fear in him. Thus he made the decision to escape there and then. He did not know that he would regret his decision now. He could have run even faster, but the reason why he could not was also because of his conscience.

“He might have survived it, too. No, definitely…” Lee Ju-ho might have made up his mind as he walked past Kim Ba-reun, who was standing in front of him.

“Hey, if we just make our escape and live well and proper…”

Lee Ju-ho tapped on Kim Ba-reun’s shoulder and spoke.

“How am I going to live with this shame in the future?”

Lee Ju-ho turned around and ran in the opposite direction, running faster than before.

The whole way back, he kept thinking about whether it was right to have made his escape or if he should have returned.

He was unable to make a swift decision as he was faced with death. His legs ran slower.

At that moment, if he could not make a decision, it felt as if he would regret it his whole life.

There were times when he could only make decisions based on his emotions rather than being objective, and that was the exact moment for Lee Ju-ho now. It made him feel better after he made up his decision to return.

Eventually, Lee Ju-ho ran without rest in the direction towards where the monsters pouring out.

That strange feeling had been around for quite some time.

No matter how far they ran, they never met the monsters that were chasing them. Regardless if Su-hyeun could have stopped the monsters, he would not have been able to stop all of them.

They definitely thought that way.

<>

Could it be that the horde of monsters that poured out was weaker than expected?

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As the door opened slightly, he could see through the slight opening that the horde of monsters was into the hundreds.

He was blocking that massive number of monsters by himself? Regardless of how outstanding Su-hyeun was, it was too tough to handle alone.

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He gripped hard onto his sword.

He had made the right decision to return.

He started running even faster. He squeezed more magic and used it on the skill Swift.

Not long after, the door which he had run away from became visible.

But…

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Trudge, trudge—

His feet became slower. As he went closer towards the door, he felt high levels of magic. The level was of a much higher magic rating than what he had now.

Moreover…

<>

Even though he was quite a distance from the door, he could still clearly feel the heat, and it was hard to say that it was from a monster. On top of that, the door was closed.

“It couldn’t be?”

Lee Ju-ho hastily ran towards the door and stopped in front of it. He could feel the heat right there.

It was tough to even grab the door’s handle without injecting magic in his hands. Lee Ju-ho hurriedly pushed the door inwards.

Creak—

The heavy door opened, and the interior was revealed.

Lee Ju-ho’s eyes narrowed at the sight which unfolded before him.

“This… what’s this…”

The monsters’ corpses were quickly piling up and hot flames were hovering above them. The dungeon was filled with its heat.

The blood running along the floor dried up, and the monsters’ corpses had turned black from the burning flame.

It seemed like there were hundreds of monsters. It was as much as Lee Ju-ho had expected — no, even more than he had expected.

<>

The answer to the question was pre-determined since there was only one person left in this room.

Lee Ju-ho turned around and spotted Su-hyeun, who was left all alone.

“Didn’t I tell you to run away?” Su-hyeun’s voice came from behind.

<>

Maybe he was nervous?

Lee Ju-ho turned around in surprise and distanced himself. Su-hyeun looked at Lee Ju-ho with blood all over his body.

“Why did you return?”

As soon as they made eye contact, Lee Ju-ho felt that the temperature in the room had risen multiple folds from before.

It was the level of magic concentration and magic factor.

This wasn’t the Su-hyeun he knew. His gaze, his atmosphere, his everything was different.

Gulp—

By some chance, he was it.

“You…” Lee Ju-ho was confident as he looked at the Su-hyeun, who stood in front of him.

“…are Kim Su-hyeun?”