Swordmaster Healer - Episode 81
TL: Boko
Editor: Ren
Chapter 27: Dragon's Nest (2)
"It'll be the Boss soon," Ki Hoon said.
Ha Yeon looked at him and said, "How much further do we have to go?"
"If there aren't any fights, it should take around two hours."
When they heard Ki Hoon's response, the party members realized that it wouldn't be long before their dungeon assault was finished, so they felt relieved. After all, they had been in the dungeon for longer than thirty hours.
'It is exhausting.'
Sung Joon nodded his head.
As the difficulty of the dungeon increased, so too would its scale; therefore, the time spent inside the dungeon would become longer. In extreme cases, one could get dungeon depression, thus reducing their combat ability; so they had to rest often, and keep their wits about them.
'If a battle doesn't occur, it'll take two hours but… the chance of that is low.'
Contrary to the other party members, who focused on the two hours remaining, Sung Joon approached it cool-headedly. How far would they cling to the premise of 'as long as no fights occur'?
'When I think about it using common sense, there's no way that there won't be any battles ahead of the Boss.'
Even if there weren't any minions inside of the Boss Room, there were always monsters that acted as guards nearby the Boss Room.
It should be the same this time too. But the party members simply wanted to get out of the dungeon, so they intentionally forgot about it.
'Monsters…!'
Sung Joon sensed the monsters' presences and raised his head. He felt a group of monsters flying towards them in the sky ahead of them.
"Wyverns!" Ki Hoon warned.
"Hide!" Ha Yeon yelled, and everyone hid.
The group of Wyverns wasn't sizable and they were nothing more than scouts. The moment they were found, they would shriek and call their companions to gather.
It was possible because in an S-rank dungeon, monsters' movements were unrestrained*. (*Normally, monsters sit in a certain spot. In S-rank dungeons apparently, monsters can move more freely.)
They had almost been caught by the rushing reinforcement monsters three times already, so they were on extremely high alert.
The group of Wyverns passed by and the party once again walked busily towards where they assumed the Boss was.
"My lord, the surrounding area is filled with monsters. It's impossible to take a detour."
Rishubalt returned from his scouting and reported. Sung Joon wordlessly nodded his head and then approached Ha Yeon and Ki Hoon.
"I don't know exactly how many there are, but there are monsters in front of us," Sung Joon said.
"There seems to be quite a lot of them. It seems like it'll be difficult to take a detour," Ki Hoon said after checking the front with his Searching Magic.
"It seems like we have no choice but to fight," Ha Yeon said, and bit her lip lightly.
Ha Yeon checked her party's status. Since they had spent more than thirty hours inside the dungeon, everyone was exhausted.
And now that she thought about it, it wasn't long before it would be mealtime, and the sky was beginning to get dark.
"We'll eat and rest a bit here," Ha Yeon said.
They all sat on the cold floor, taking out the dried food that they had brought with them, and ate and rested.
While Sung Joon rested, he remained on high alert.
It was a high possibility that Dragonkin would hide through stealth magic and ambush them like they did in the beginning. However, contrary to his concerns, there weren't any ambushes during their rest time, and the group of monsters that guarded the Boss area also didn't move.
'It's still definitely a lot different from the Eroding Dungeon.'
Though the monsters that guarded the dungeon were a lot less restricted than monsters in rank dungeons or less, compared to the Eroding Dungeon, they were still limited.
"We'll soon face off against a group of monsters. Team Leader, how shall we go about this?" Ki Hoon said.
Just as he said, there was a group of monsters on standby at the bottom of the steep hill. He could sense their mana as well as their presences.
They were the group of monsters that Sung Joon had talked about a little while ago; it would be impossible to take a detour around them. If they just broke through this group of monsters, they'd be able to reach the Boss's location.
Ha Yeon once again called and gathered Sung Joon, Eun Joo, and Ki Hoon.
"It would be difficult to ambush them, right?"
Ha Yeon started their discussion. If their ambush was successful, they would be able to do significant damage to the enemy; but Sung Joon shook his head.
"It'll probably be difficult. Seeing as how the monsters' mana seem tense, they're aware of the party's existence."
"Whoa, Mr. Kang Sung Joon… You can even tell that?"
"I just happened to figure it out," Sung Joon said, responding to Eun Joo's admiration with a faint smile.
"In this case, an ambush wouldn't be effective," he explained, and everyone nodded their heads.
If they bunglingly attempted an ambush and were counterattacked, they'd definitely sustain several casualties.
"As expected, it seems like a frontal attack would be best," Ha Yeon said.
When their meeting was concluded, Ha Yeon informed the party of the plan.
"How many monsters are there?"
"There are a lot of them. There seems to be around a hundred," Eun Joo replied, and the party members began to mutter. If they were guarding the path to the Boss, they would be comprised of at least B-rank to rank monsters.
There would probably be some S-rank monsters mixed in as well. There was a really high chance that they would incur casualties.
"There seems to be way too many of them for there to be only a hundred of them…" someone said.
He had spoken to himself, but since his voice was loud, everyone was able to hear him. The other party members nodded their heads in agreement.
"We should be able to break through without any casualties if we just do what we've been doing," Ha Yeon said, comforting the shaken party members.
Once they calmed down, Ha Yeon explained their plan in detail.
Ki Hoon casting his offensive spells would act as a signal to start the hunt.
"Everyone, get ready," Eun Joo said.
When Ki Hoon started casting his offensive spells, the group of monsters would also move. Then, their battle would begin in earnest.
"I'll begin the casting."
As soon as Ki Hoon started casting his spells, the group of monsters moved. Sung Joon approached Ha Yeon's side. There was a high possibility that when the fight began, a part of the monsters would aim for the Hunters at the rear, who were weak at close combat.
"They've come!"
"Bless!"
The group of monsters pushed through the forest and revealed themselves. As Ha Yeon had said, there were more than a hundred of them. There were Lizardmen Armored Soldiers, as well as Shamans mixed in, but close to half of the group was comprised of Dragonkin.
They could even see three S-rank Dragonkin Magic Knights.
The Dragonkin Magic Knights spoke eloquently in the other world language, so that they could relay their orders to their Dragonkin subordinates; subsequently, they closed the distance to the party at once.
"We're breaking through in one go!" The Dragonkin Magic Knight, who appeared to be the leader, yelled in the other world language. It seemed like their plan was to pierce through the party's frontline and strike at the rear.
"AH!"
"Ugh!"
The Dragonkin Magic Knights felled two rank Hunters in a single blow and approached the rear. Sung Joon raised his sword and simultaneously stretched his hand towards the injured party members.
"Heal."
Because the Dragonkin Magic Knights had focused on breaking through the frontlines rather than killing them, they weren't severely wounded. They saw their wounds quickly heal and dashed to the rear in order to help.
However, Sung Joon raised his hand and stopped them.
"Please protect the front. It'll be dangerous if two people are missing."
"But the rear…"
"I'll take care of them."
"You will, Mr. Kang Sung Joon…? Then we'll leave it to you!"
They had assaulted the S-rank dungeon together, so they had clearly seen Sung Joon's outstanding combat abilities. Therefore, they trusted him and left it to him.
"We've broken through! Now we've won!" the leader said elatedly.
However, they didn't know that there was a 'Healer' in the rear with more outstanding combat abilities than the entire frontline combined.
As his synchronization rate increased, he'd completely mastered the other world language, so Sung Joon could understand what they were saying.
He laughed confidently at their conceit. Seeing that, the Leader's face crinkled and he opened his mouth.
"It seems like you've gone crazy after seeing your death approaching."
When he heard that, Rishubalt brought his hand to the hilt of his sword, but there was nothing he could do.
Sung Joon raised his sword with a calm expression and took a stance.
"Shut up and fight."
"Our language?"
But the Dragonkin Magic Knight was only briefly taken aback by Sung Joon's eloquent other world language. His eyes gleamed and he rushed at Sung Joon.
Simultaneously, he formed ten fireballs and shot them at Sung Joon. The other two Dragonkin Magic Knights aimed for Ha Yeon and Ki Hoon.
"Die!" the Leader sharply cried, and rushed Sung Joon.
The ten fireballs attacked Sung Joon from all sides. However, he focused on the Leader without being flustered. The fireballs were so weak that they seemed close to an illusion, but the Leader's sword was capable of severely wounding Sung Joon.
"Ugh!"
"The fireballs…?"
The fireballs struck Sung Joon's body, but Sung Joon endured, trusting in the vestments' protection. The fireballs were comprised of weak mana, so his injuries weren't severe.
Sung Joon parried the rushing Leader's sword and opened his mouth.
"Illusionary Sword," he announced.
"W-what is…!"
The six illusionary swords simultaneously rushed the Dragonkin Magic Knight Leader; the Leader was really taken aback. He had narrowly guarded against five of the illusionary swords, but last one cut deeply into his neck.
"AH!"
The Leader weakly fell and when Sung Joon was about to move towards the other Dragonkin Magic Knights…
Grr.
His sword, Roel, let out a low cry. This was the first time it had happened, but he didn't have the energy to worry about it due to the pressing situation.
Sung Joon immediately attacked the other Dragonkin Magic Knight. After Sung Joon and Ha Yeon defeated him, he leveled his blade at the Dragonkin Magic Knight which was currently fighting Ki Hoon.
"Gale Sword."
It was faster than if he had used his high-speed movement. He had instantly closed the distance, creating sword winds, and struck the Dragonkin Magic Knight's back.
"AH!"
The Dragonkin Magic Knight became bloodied and fell.
Although Ki Hoon was a Mage Hunter, he had outstanding close combat skills, so when Ki Hoon had clashed with him, the Dragonkin Magic Knight had not only sustained a few wounds, but also wasn't able to reserve his energy. Thus, Sung Joon was able to ambush him.
As soon as he finished off the Dragonkin Magic Knights, the party was able to take care of the rest of the monsters without difficulty. People kept getting injured, so instead of resting, Sung Joon continued to cast his Heal..
"Heal!"
Someone else had fallen and Sung Joon utilized his Heal. The mana consumption was large, but he was able to endure because he absorbed the Dragonkin Magic Knights' mana.
The party eliminated the group of monsters that had been guarding the Boss and finally reached the enormous cave entrance.
"The Boss is inside," Ki Hoon said, and Sung Joon nodded his head. He could feel a powerful mana inside.
"They'll probably be laying in wait. Let's set it on fire so that it comes out," Sung Joon suggested.
"That's a good idea," Ha Yeon said, nodding her head.
She looked at Ki Hoon and said, "Mr. Lee Ki Hoon, please use your fire magic."
Ki Hoon wordlessly swung his staff, pouring flames inside the cave.
Shriek!
The sharp cry was accompanied by something coming out of the cave.
"AH!"
One of the forefront party members must have been cut by something sharp, as he spurted blood and collapsed. Sung Joon stretched his left hand towards him.
"Heal!"
Though the wound quickly started to heal, it would be impossible for him to immediately participate in the battle due to the severity of the wound.
"Bless!"
"Fire Spear!"
Ha Yeon buffed everyone and Ki Hoon shot fire spears at the Boss.
Shriek!
However, the Boss formed a defensive magic circle and blocked the fire spear. It turned elegantly through the air and roughly landed on the ground.
"A Hatchling…"
A Hatchling was a dragon's child, and was a large high tier S-rank monster.
It could utilize high-rank magic and could summon Spartoi as well. Though it couldn't use Dragon Fear, it was a tough opponent that could use Bless.
"I'll attack the left side!"
Eun Joo swung her greatsword, which was enveloped in a radiant aura. It easily tore through the defensive magic circle and the party took advantage of that gap.
However, the Hatchling had been saving its Bless.
Fire!
"Protect!"
Ki Hoon hurriedly spread his defensive magic and Ha Yeon cast her fire resistance buff, but they couldn't avoid casualties.
"Heal!"
Soo Young urgently cast her Heal.
"AH!"
While she briefly turned her attention to the injured, the Hatchling rushed Eun Joo with immense speed and hacked at her with its talons.
Then it opened its large mouth and tried to rip her throat out.
"Spartoi!"
The party members had tried to approach, but the Spartoi were quickly summoned and blocked them. The Spartoi were rank monsters.
"Mr. Kang Sung Joon! Please take care of Eun Joo!"
"Gale Sword."
Sung Joon recited the activation words. He was able to quickly break through the Spartoi and lodge his sword into the Hatchling's neck; he was able to do this much faster with his Gale Sword than if he had utilized his high-speed movement.
Shriek!
The Hatchling let Eun Joo go, but directed its fury at Sung Joon.
"Ugh!"
It had cast a Wind Cutter instantaneously, without the use of activation words. The wind blades passed through and cut deeply into his left side.
If he hadn't instinctually turned his body, his upper and lower body would've been separated.
"Get back, Ms. Choi Eun Joo!"
"I'll fight too."
"You'll get in the way right now. Come back after you've been healed."
Eun Joo's injury was severe. She gave up and retreated. Then the fierce battle between Sung Joon and the Hatchling began.
Their injuries continued to mount, but Sung Joon was the first to collapse, and the Hatchling prepared its finishing blow.
"Mr. Sung Joon!"
Eun Joo had come back after receiving a Heal and hurriedly attempted to intervene, but even if she used her high-speed movement, they were still far from her.
"My lord!" Rishubalt yelled, and Sung Joon attempted to mount a defense in the face of sure death. The Hatchling cast a powerful magic and simultaneously aimed for Sung Joon's head with its talons.
'I can't block it…!'
Even if he blocked its talons, he would get hit by the high-rank magic. Being a child of a Dragon (which is called an existence of magic itself), meant that the speed of casting and firing the spell was as fast as a machine gun.
And the moment when everything turned to despair…
Sung Joon's sword, Roel, awoke.
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