'Summons?'
The first thing that came to Cha Haein's mind when looking at the Shadow Soldiers was summoning magic. However, this number was far too great to be called a mere summoning. The Mage-class Hunters that had the special power to wield summoning magic could only summon one or two summons. Even being able to summon two things would grant you a special treatment, and she had never heard of a Hunter able to summon three things.
And now… Just what was this number?
'Is this even possible?'
A single man had called forth nearly a hundred summons. On top of that, the casting didn't even take any time. Dozens of summons were created in an instant.
'If I didn't see it with my own eyes, I would've never believed it.'
The female Hunter called one of Korea's Top 10 was at a loss for words at the sight of another Hunter's abilities.
'Wait, this is not the time for me to be awed.'
She moved her gaze over from the Shadow Soldiers to the raiding party. The other Hunters did not look good. Few of them appeared to have lost strength in their legs and were on the ground. Whoever Sung Jinwoo was, whatever his abilities were, for now, she had to work with him to defeat the high orcs.
Keep your thoughts brief and your actions fast.
Cha Haein gripped her weapon with two hands and took a step towards the high orcs.
Suddenly, she met Sung Jinwoo's eyes. His powerful eyes were sending a message to her:
I don't need you. Don't intervene and just watch.
Cha Haein was taken back.
'Why…?'
She accepted the fact that Sung Jinwoo wielded a multitude of summons. However, the boss was still alive. Looking at the number of the high orcs under it, the boss must be quite powerful. Meanwhile, since Jinwoo had summoned this many soldiers, maintaining them should've bottomed out his mana by now.
'What is he going to do alone?'
She was confused but eventually dropped her weapon. And not just because that weapon was the pickaxe borrowed from the mining team. She wanted to see what that man, Sung Jinwoo, would do against these high orcs. Her curiosity and anticipation on what he would do triumphed over her will to battle. For some reason, her heart raced when she looked at him.
-
'Phew, thank god.'
Jinwoo looked at Cha Haein's response and sighed in relief. The battle would only get more exciting from here; he could not afford an interruption at a time like this. In fact, in order to take on all the magic beasts alone, he had purposely let Son Gihoon be attacked by the boss until the last minute,
'He looked like a man who would try to help me if he had a shred of strength remaining.'
And that's why Jinwoo only moved when the sword fell from Son Gihoon's hand. He had to suppressed the urge to go over and remove the fucking sorcerer's head during that time.
All for this moment.
'As I thought, she's got a good head on her.'
It was a good thing that Cha Haein was good at taking the hint. She backed off without explicitly being told to do so. Jinwoo smiled and turned around.
"Shadows!"
Jinwoo's voice rang throughout the entire room. At his order, every single Shadow Soldier took a battle formation without missing a beat.
CLACK!
For a brief moment, a silence fell upon the large room. Jinwoo pointed to the high orc sorcerer.
The silence was broken with a single word.
"Go."
With that, the Shadow Soldiers numbering over a hundred charged towards the trembling high orcs.
STEP STEP STEP STEP-!
The movement of the soldiers shook the ground, the cave, and the eyes of everyone watching.
-
Woo Jincheol ran with all his might.
"pant, pant, pant."
Even for an ranker, covering all that distance with his maximum speed made him pant. As he collected his breath, he noticed a short-haired woman at the entrance of the boss room. He instantly recognized her.
'Cha Haein…'
Was there any other female Hunter with that much power?
'Why is she standing still?'
Woo Jincheol approached with confusion at the woman abstaining from battle. As he neared her, he also saw what was happening inside the boss room.
"H-how is this…?"
Soldiers clad in pitch-black armor were engaged in a one-sided battle against the powerful magic beasts known as high orcs. The screams of the high orcs were almost deafening. If it were only humanoid soldiers, perhaps Woo Jincheol wouldn't have been surprised as much. But just what were those stupidly large black bears with smoke seeping out of them? And the high orcs clad in pitch-black armor?
"It's been some time, Chief Woo Jincheol."
Cha Haein was the first to greet the HSD chief.
"Ah, yes. It has been a while. But what are those things? It doesn't seem like they're magic beasts…"
"It's that man's summons."
She gestured over to Jinwoo. Woo Jincheol removed his sunglasses and stared at Jinwoo in the middle of the fray. The man was slaughtering high orcs left and right with his two daggers.
'No matter how you look at him, isn't he a highest level Fighter-class Hunter?'
But he's also capable of using summoning magic?
As if answering his question, Jinwoo's lips moved and Woo Jincheol saw dozens of summons rising from the ground.
"My god!"
The HSD chief's mouth opened wide. Just how many summons could Jinwoo wield?
'This is Hunter Sung Jinwoo's ability…'
The man could not close his mouth. Did the association president already know about Hunter Sung Jinwoo's abilities? If that was the case, it would explain the association president's heightened interest in Hunter Sung Jinwoo.
Unable to look away from Jinwoo for some time, Cha Haein suddenly realized something and turned to Woo Jincheol,
"Wait, why is Chief Woo here…? Did our group already contact the HSD?"
Woo Jincheol suppressed his shock and awe and replied,
"No ma'am. We happened to be in the area when we noticed an abnormality with this Gate. So we came inside to evacuate the raiding party…"
While speaking, Woo Jincheol turned his head back to Jinwoo,
"...But it looks like there's no need."
Woo Jincheol saw Hunter Sung Jinwoo's skills for the first time. The skills that were clearing an rank Dungeon single-handedly. It looked like the man did not need any help.
"Yes. It seems like the best thing to do now is just wait."
Cha Haein also agreed. Jinwoo's fight did not even have room for an S-rank Hunter like her.
"Do you know that man?"
Cha Haein asked. She realized that Woo Jincheol was not curious or surprised by Jinwoo's identity, only by the man's power. On top that, she remembered that it was the Association that put a block on Jinwoo's information.
'Perhaps Woo Jincheol knows about that man.'
She was on the mark.
"A little bit."
"That man… just who is he?"
Woo Jincheol put his sunglasses on again and replied,
"I am not allowed to say."
-
The high orc sorcerer was furious. When he and the others first opened their eyes in this world, a single order repeated in their heads:
Hunt the humans!
But what was happening now? Because of a single human, the entire tribe was being hunted instead. This could not happen. No, this must not be allowed to happen. Looking at the massacre of his subordinates, the sorcerer's eyes turned red.
'You insect! I will crush you beneath my foot!'
If curses didn't work on him, he would just use blessings on himself.
"Song of Rage, Song of Strengthening, Song of Giants, Song of Dragons."
As his spells completed, the sorcerer's body grew over 30 feet. The high orc's strength, agility, vitality and confidence soared as power spread throughout and filled every inch of his body.
Soon, the giant high orc swung his arm and blew away the Shadow Soldiers and took a deep breath.
"SPEW-!'
A crimson fire spewed out with the sorcerer's breath, falling over the Shadow Army.
FLAAAARE!
The soldiers struck by the flames were destroyed in an instant into their wispy shadow forms. Even a glancing blow blew off large chunks of the soldiers' bodies, disabling their movement. The fire breath did not stop with one attack. The sorcerer took another deep breath and spewed out a second wave of flames. With it, a large number of Shadow Soldiers had been reduced to their shadow forms, forced to slowly regenerate.
The sorcerer roared with confidence,
"DOES THE GREAT KARGARGAN STILL LOOK FOOLISH TO YOU?!"
The reply came from above his head,
"Yep."
Looking up, the last thing the high orc sorcerer saw was Jinwoo's fist coming down at his head.
SMASH-!
CRACK!
The place where the sorcerer's head hit the ground cracked like a spider's web.
You have defeated the boss of the Dungeon. [1]
land
As Jinwoo landed on the ground, a message appeared that lifted his spirits.
ring~
You have leveled up!
"Alright!"
Jinwoo pumped his fist. One level from helping the other Hunters with 'Stealth'. One level from the minion high orcs here. And now one level from taking down the boss. He had gained three levels from clearing the rank Dungeon. It was beyond his expectations. He sent a deep gratitude to Team Leader Bae who had provided him with this opportunity.
'Good.'
With a joyful expression, Jinwoo approached the corpse of the boss. With its buffs gone, the sorcerer had returned to its normal size. The Hunter noticed the magic core embedded in its collar but did not feel greedy about it.
'The experience points are good enough.'
This was Hunters Guild's Dungeon. If he needed an rank magic core, he should obtain it in a Dungeon that he had obtained the raiding rights for. What Jinwoo wanted now was something else. The familiar black smoke was rising from the boss's corpse.
gulp
Jinwoo gulped. He recalled the boss that he could not obtain from the Red Gate, Baruka.
'It's different than that time.'
At that time, the difference in power between him and the boss was too great. He even needed Iron and Ygritte's help to barely win against Baruka. But this time? Jinwoo had won with overwhelming ease. The one week he had spent in the Demon Castle was not wasted. The progress that he had made in that place had shown its results here.
Jinwoo gave the command to the pitch-black substance,
"Arise."
With it, an ominous wind blew past his cheeks. He instinctively realized,
'It worked!'
A bright smile bloomed on Jinwoo's face.
KUWAAAAAAH-!
With a piercing scream, a mage clad in pitch-black robes rose from the sorcerer's corpse.
'Oh?'
Jinwoo realized it was not an ordinary Shadow Mage and checked its information.
??? (Lv. 1)
Elite Knight Grade [2]
'Elite Knight?'
The grades of the Shadow Soldiers up until now were divided into three:
Normal Grade.
Elite Grade. [2]
Knight Grade.
And for the first time, a soldier with the "Elite Knight" grade had appeared. From basic logic, Jinwoo realized that putting the word "elite" in front of Knight-grades like Ygritte and Iron made this latest addition to his army stronger than either of them.
'The magic power I feel from him is greater than the two knights.'
It was a Shadow Soldier worthy of being born from an rank Dungeon's boss.
ring~
Please choose a name for the soldier.
Since the new soldier was above a knight grade, the System was expectedly asking for Jinwoo to name it.
'Name…'
The mage's face was covered by the hood right now, but when it came to high orcs, wasn't their defining trait their tusks?
'Let's go with Tusk.' [3]
Tusk (Lv. 1)
Elite Knight Grade
Without needing to speak out loud, Jinwoo's thoughts replaced the question marks in the mage's name with "Tusk". If the high orc sorcerer had learned this in life, it would've foamed at the mouth. But what could a dead thing do to complain?
With a satisfied expression, Jinwoo recalled all the Shadow Soldiers into his shadow. His current storage limit was 130. It was unfortunate, but he had to send the rest back to the void (無)[4].
'This is enough.'
As he walked down from the altar area with a smile, the people below all ran up to Jinwoo. It was the raiding party's Hunters, Cha Haein and men wearing black suits. Jinwoo recognized one of the men wearing suits.
'When did Chief Woo Jincheol arrive?'
Looking at the man's face, Jinwoo realized the chief had seen him fight with the Shadow Soldiers.
"Sung Jinwoo-ssi."
"Hunter Sung Jinwoo-nim."
"Porter-ssi…?"
The three groups called out to Jinwoo in unison then looked at each other.
Jinwoo no longer had any reasons to hide his power; he had fought with no regrets but…
'How do I get out of this situation?'
Jinwoo stared at the people surrounding him and scratched the back of his head.
Translator's Notes:
[1]: Patch note: All contractions of the System (such as "you've") will now be uncontracted (such as "you have"). Thank you /u/Fhaarkas for the suggestion.
[2]: More patch notes: I've previously translated the word for "Elite" here as "Veteran" (정예). This was the grade of the Shadow Mages when they first appeared. Per /u/Fhaarkas's advice, I'm changing it to "Elite" going forward.
[3]: "Tusk" (어금니): Ok, the literal translation of the word is "Molar", and I noticed that a lot of MTL readers have already called him as such. However, in context of the passage, the MC decided to name him after the defining physical characteristics of orcs, which is the protruding tusks coming out of their mouth. While the eastern language may call this an "Orc's Molar", the folks in the west would be much more familiar with an "Orc's Tusk". As such, I've decided to name our adorable little(?) mage, "Tusk".
[4]: "Void" (무; 無): lit. "The Emptiness"