NSE-Chapter 052

Chapter 52

Seo Ye-rim looked at Kim Min-woo.

He was always a human who exceeded her imagination. She had expected some comfort, and instead he’d bluntly told her to take up a bow.

She was dumbfounded.

“You call that something to say right now?”

“You’ve never held a bow, have you?”

At his eyes, which looked entirely certain, she was at a loss for words.

She had been born in the Sword Sea Pavilion and Awakened holding a sword. Just as Kim Min-woo said, she had indeed never held a bow.

Because there had never been any need to.

“That doesn’t mean I’d have talent in that area.”

“Ms. Seo Ye-rim. Don’t you want to go higher right now? Then you have to try everything.”

Seo Ye-rim fell silent.

Of course those words weren’t without merit. If she kept trying, she might find talent in a new field just as Kim Min-woo said.

If she couldn’t find it, it didn’t matter.

She’d just train with the sword as she had done until now.

But what if, just by some chance, 1 in 10,000, she found a different talent?

‘What happens to my life then…….’

A life of training devoted to the sword.

That would be denied in its entirety.

That was why she didn’t want to attempt change. If she couldn’t find talent in another field, that was a problem in itself.

And if she did find it, that was also a problem.

“I know. That it’s burdensome. But Cedric’s words aren’t false. You can raise your Level and learn a few more Skills, but you won’t go beyond that.”

Kim Min-woo said calmly.

That was what people usually called a hollow S-rank.

High in Level but without substance.

‘Of course Seo Ye-rim isn’t quite at the hollow level, but…….’

To get her to hold a bow, it couldn’t be helped. He had to give some harsh words so she’d snap out of it.

“Take this chance to think carefully about what you really want. Whether it’s seeing the end through with the sword, or the Sword Immortal’s acknowledgment. Either way, I’d say neither goal can ever be obtained while holding a sword.”

Seo Ye-rim lowered her head.

If some random nobody had said such words, she would have rebutted them at once.

But Kim Min-woo was different.

He was a Swordsman from whom even Grandfather directly sought instruction.

With him saying it so certainly, she simply couldn’t rebut.

She stared at her sword. Was seeing the end through with the sword her goal?

‘……Maybe not.’

Receiving Grandfather’s acknowledgment.

That was her goal.

To be exact, the sword was a means to that end.

Because Grandfather used a sword too.

Because her Class was Swordsman.

Because she had trained with it all her life.

That’s why it was just a weapon she couldn’t let go of.

“Let’s leave the talk here. It’s about time we went to clear the Human-Faced Spider.”

He hadn’t expected her to take up a bow overnight just because he told her to now.

Just reminding her that there was another option besides the sword made this conversation meaningful.

‘That’s enough for now.’

Time to let it simmer was needed, too.

He looked at Seo Ye-rim.

“May we set out?”

“……Did you think my mental would break over just this much? Let’s go.”

Even so, true to a professional Awakened, she didn’t look like someone who had lost her composure inside a Gate.

He looked at Sky Mountain ahead.

A mountain thickly shrouded in fog.

Now it was time to set out for it.

* * *

Seo Ye-rim, sword drawn, looked at him.

“Do you have a plan or something?”

“I’ve roughly laid one out.”

“You seem to know a lot about the Human-Faced Spider? All I know is that its face looks like a person’s.”

A demonic creature with a face resembling a human’s.

Its trait was that it was an extremely cunning and intelligent hunter.

‘The average Level range is roughly 351 to 400.’

It was an A-rank monster that usually appeared as a mid-boss, and he had caught a few before.

Of course, answering like that would be rather strange.

“I read quite a lot of strategy guides. It was in there.”

“Strategy guides? You read books too?”

“……Yes. I read books too.”

A person can read a few books, can’t they?

Do you have to be suspicious over something like that?

Embarrassing someone who’s just bluffing.

“Then, let’s go in.”

“It’s evening right now?”

“The Human-Faced Spider is active at night. If we go in the morning, we can’t catch it. It hides and doesn’t come out.”

A Human-Faced Spider usually takes 1 large mountain as its base.

The webs spat from its tail spread in all directions and stick to every nook and cranny of the mountain. That’s how its hunting ground is completed.

‘Going in without a clue is a perfect way to come out a corpse.’

Thin, transparent webs.

Extremely hard to identify with the naked eye.

And that wasn’t all.

The stickiness was enough to sever the body that stuck to it, and on top of that, poisonous miasma flowed thickly between the webs.

Touch it and you’re done for.

Before climbing the poison-laden mountain.

The first thing he did was take Antidotes.

He and Seo Ye-rim each drank a bottle of Top-Grade Antidote.

With this, there should be no problem for 30 minutes even if they breathed the miasma in the air.

“The plan is simple. We make the Human-Faced Spider come to us.”

“How?”

“Like this.”

He summoned a horde of Skeletons.

Armed Skeletons began to roam the mountain without hesitation.

Soon.

Clatter!

[Skeleton 356 is caught in the sticky web!]

[Deadly poison spreads!]

[Skeleton 543 is…….]

[Skeleton 654 is…….]

The Skeleton horde, feet stuck fast to the ground, staggered with their whole bodies.

It was no different from sending a signal to the Human-Faced Spider.

That a feast was laid out here, so come quickly.

However.

‘This isn’t enough.’

The Human-Faced Spider is very cunning.

It wouldn’t do the foolish thing of rushing straight in just because something was caught in its web.

‘It’ll come around.’

Whether climbing a huge tree.

Or burrowing a tunnel and popping out.

Whatever it did, it wouldn’t charge at the Skeletons directly.

‘Because it’ll suspect a trap.’

And what made it even trickier.

The Human-Faced Spider was born with camouflage as a basic trait.

If it approached hidden with its camouflage on, it was hard to find in most cases.

He kept scattering Skeletons in all directions.

Each of them held a trap in its hands. They climbed trees and set traps, buried them in the ground.

Every available space around was laid with traps.

“……Wouldn’t it be better to just set the mountain on fire than this?”

“If we burn it, it’ll go hide in a tunnel it dug in advance or a cave or something. Then it’ll take ages to catch.”

It was very tiresome when a Human-Faced Spider hid in its home base. Unlike here, where webs were set sparsely like on this mountain, its lair was entirely webs.

‘And it wouldn’t even catch fire.’

If you charged in thinking of an ordinary web that melts away in a fire, you’d be eaten instead.

A demonic creature isn’t called one for nothing.

Then.

―Coo.

Whitey’s voice rang out.

‘It’s coming.’

He had told it to cry out if something big seemed to be coming. Even if it could fool the eyes with camouflage, it couldn’t hide the sound of its huge body bumping into things here and there.

It was a smart fellow, so it must have gotten a feel for it and cried out.

The direction was west.

Seo Ye-rim seemed to have gotten a feel for it too, as strength was pouring into her sword hand.

Rustle.

Far away, a tree shook.

Something that seemed transparent was approaching, its body wobbling.

The Human-Faced Spider cautiously probed, looking from afar at the Skeletons tied up by the strands.

Soon the thing began to approach, bit by bit.

Click.

Boom!

The Scatter Matter traps burst in all directions. Since several had been set overlapping, a chain explosion was inevitable.

―Kerrk?

The thing’s body was covered in Scatter Matter.

‘Camouflage is blocked.’

He cast the Curse.

After a few misses, the Curse took hold of the thing’s body precisely.

[The ‘Human-Faced Spider’ is afflicted with the Curse of Aging!]

[The target’s Level is overwhelmingly high!]

[It resists the Curse!]

[Defense and Movement Speed decrease by 5%!]

“Kill it!”

Skeletons hiding on all sides lunged in.

―Kiik!

The Human-Faced Spider’s eyes glowed red. It spun its body once around. A tremendous weight crashed down on the Skeletons.

The Skeleton horde was smashed.

The Level gap alone was 300.

It was a structure where it was hard to deal damage with Skeletons in the first place.

That was why he hadn’t even pulled out Mages. Their magic wouldn’t work anyway. It was best to have them cling on and just hinder its movement.

He charged in together with Cedric.

“Ice!”

[‘Whitey’ shares its Attribute with its master!]

[You can use the Ice Attribute!]

[Ice Attribute resistance rises by 20%!]

The Human-Faced Spider’s outer shell was very hard. On top of that, it had resistance to fire. Conversely, it was weak to the Water Attribute. Ice was also part of the Water Attribute. He thrust the sword, chill coursing through it, deep into the thing’s torso.

[The effect of the Title ‘Bug Slaughterer’ is applied!]

[Damage increases by 10%!]

[The effect of the Title ‘Slaughterer of the Strong’ is applied!]

[Damage increases by 20%!]

[You hold an Attribute that counters it!]

[Damage increases by 40%!]

Bug Slaughterer and Slaughterer of the Strong.

The damage boosts didn’t end there.

When attacking with a countering Attribute, damage jumps up to 2 times the held Attribute ratio.

The 20% Attribute that Whitey had given.

Thanks to that, damage was inflated by 40%.

‘The damage increases are multiplicative.’

Damage inflated by nearly 1.8 times slammed hard into the outer shell.

Clang!

‘It doesn’t break through in 1 hit.’

Even if the damage was inflated, if the base damage was low to begin with, the increase couldn’t help but be small.

Still, it was fine.

There was a way to break through.

From the opposite side, Seo Ye-rim sent out her sword.

[Seo Ye-rim uses Spatial Slash(B)!]

Slash!

Her sword tore off part of the outer shell in 1 go.

A high Level and a weapon to match.

With a powerful Skill added on top, she was certainly strong.

Poisoned blood spurted in all directions.

The Human-Faced Spider’s gaze turned to her at once. The mouth, resembling a human face, gaped wide.

Whoosh!

An enormous amount of miasma poured toward Seo Ye-rim.

[Seo Ye-rim uses Moon Step(A)!]

She dodged backward.

[Seo Ye-rim uses Sword Energy Barrage(A)!]

He saw her attacking the Human-Faced Spider, hurling bundles of deep-blue sword energy.

‘She dodges well.’

And draws aggro well, too.

Thanks to that, he could work comfortably. He kept striking the same spot.

[You struck the same spot! Damage increases by 11%…….]

[You struck the same spot! Damage increases by 22%…….]

[The same…….]

The same.

It meant attacking exactly the same spot without a hair’s breadth of error.

This level of play could be done even while picking his nose.

Especially in the current situation, with aggro focused over there.

The damage began to jump up crazily thanks to the multiplication.

The outer shell, gradually freezing bright blue, finally burst into pieces.

A huge hole opened.

[You obtain the Title ‘One Who Digs at Only One Spot’!]

The Human-Faced Spider, which had been screaming, turned its gaze to him. He threw all the Skeletons in front of the gaping thing, then leapt back at once.

“Cedric!”

[Cedric uses Mini Breath!]

Cedric, who had somehow approached with his mouth wide open, slammed a Breath into the opened outer shell.

It might have fire resistance, but that was only the outer shell.

Nothing could withstand having its internal organs and blood scorched by a Breath.

Sizzle!

The poison-laced blood cooked under the Breath, and an enormous cloud of vapor rose.

―……!

The Human-Faced Spider leapt in pain from the flesh inside cooking.

But it couldn’t shake off Cedric, who was slamming the Breath into its body. He had grabbed the already broken shell tightly and buried his face right inside.

He’d soon be unsummoned thanks to the fierce poison, but.

‘It’s a gain.’

He would revive once anyway.

And for free.

[Cedric is unsummoned…….]

[The effect of the Death Lord is activated!]

Limp for just a moment.

Cedric came back to life again, fresh with full Mana. The fellow slammed in a second Breath.

―Kieeeeek!

The Human-Faced Spider screamed from the pain of taking 2 direct Breath hits.

It also began staggering on all its legs, as a bonus. Soon its tail was raised.

Webs shot out in every direction. He retreated with Seo Ye-rim.

The Skeletons with slow reactions were all unsummoned.

Soon the Human-Faced Spider turned around and began to run like mad.

“Chase it!”

He ran with Seo Ye-rim.

He tried to block its path by summoning Skeletons ahead, but they were useless against the Human-Faced Spider’s breakthrough power.

Cedric fired Breaths, and Seo Ye-rim scattered sword energy.

It could be seen taking them tough, running ahead senselessly.

The chase went on.

Before long, a cave appeared far ahead.

Webs plastered thickly over the entrance seemed to mark the thing’s lair.

‘It seems to have about 10% left…….’

It would hide in the cave in the end.

He sensed it.

That they couldn’t catch it like this.

It was time to throw a gamble.

He rummaged through the Inventory.

Soon.

“Catch!”

He threw a quiver and a bow.

One of the items the Skeletons had crafted, a Magic item with Level Restriction 51. He had originally planned to use it just for pulling mobs, but he had to use it for this in a pinch.

She caught it in a daze, and tilted her head, looking at him.

“What are you doing, shoot!”

“No, it’s my first time holding a bow!”

“Just shoot! Quickly! If it gets in there, it’s too late!”

About to say something, she took hold of the bow. Seo Ye-rim awkwardly took a stance just as she had seen in the media.

She nocked the arrow to the string and drew.

The string pulled taut.

She drew a breath to concentrate and narrowed her eyes.

That moment.

Time slowed to a crawl.

Her stance, her breathing, her weapon, the distribution of her strength, everything was a mess.

Even so, a strange certainty came over her.

That if she shot now, it would hit without fail.

A terrifying amount of Mana gathered over her arrow.

The Human-Faced Spider could be seen heading for the cave.

[Brilliant talent blossoms!]

[Showtime!]

[Overwhelming talent generates a Skill!]

[The Skill Precision Snipe(A) is created!]

[You obtain the Title ‘One Who Tasted Trance’!]

[You obtain the Title ‘One Who Met Their Partner Late’!]

Whoosh!

The arrow, brimming with Mana, flew.

Tearing the air, the arrow pierced the Human-Faced Spider’s head in 1 go.

[Level increases.]

[You obtain the Title ‘Divinely Inspired Sniper’!]

The Human-Faced Spider spat out a Skill Book and collapsed limply.

“…….”

Seo Ye-rim.

She stared blankly at the bow.