From Jung Jin-Ho’s perspective, I was sure that this situation was completely ridiculous.

“W-What kind of…bullshit is this? Mr. Seok-Woo,” he said.

“I did it! This b-bastard! I stabbed him! Hyung-nim!” Yoo Seok-Woo yelled.

“You crazy bastard!”

The place became loud for a moment and Jung Jin-Ho immediately took his sword out. Of course, I didn’t think he was trying to attack us.

‘He’s trying to kill him.’

He may try to kill Yoo Seok-Woo in order to rectify the situation. I was sure he wanted to kill him so that he wouldn’t talk anymore, then he would handle the ramifications later. This was the only choice that Jung Jin-Ho had at the moment.

I was sure that he didn’t want to tussle with us in a place like this.

If Kim Hyun-Sung or Park Deok-Gu were the ones that got stabbed, Jung Jin-Ho may have a chance, but it was really unfortunate that it was me, Lee Ki-Young, the weakest of our party.

‘I can’t let them kill him.’

I instinctively looked at Kim Hyun-Sung and saw him moving fast. Kim Jae-Jun, one of Jung Jin-Ho’s lackeys, looked as if he wasn’t really good at figuring out the situation because when Jung Jin-Ho started dashing, he took that as a signal to fight and started running towards me while holding his sword.

“You little piece of shit! You killed him! You killed Ki-Chul!” he yelled.

It was true that I was the one who killed Lee Ki-Chul, but I didn’t expect him to leave Deok-Gu alone and charge towards me. I guess I officially became the most popular person of this party while we were doing the control quest.

I was someone who needed to be safely protected from the back, but I had instantly become the main tank and what was unexpected was that Park Deok-Gu had become slow at figuring out the situation. I thought he would at least block the second attack, but he didn’t block Kim Jae-Jun when he started charging towards me with his dagger.

‘Damn it.’

It felt like Jae-Jun was going for my head, so using my reflexes, I crouched down and his dagger landed on my back.

‘That hurts!’

“Ahhhhh!”

It hurts.

Park Deok-Gu realized what was happening after the second attack happened. Not only did he push Kim Jae-Jun back using his large shield, but he started blocking my front with a pale face.

Yoo Seok-Woo, who was behind, seemed a bit confused by the sudden situation and not only that, but his body was trembling while holding the sword he used to stab me. As expected, he wasn’t used to stabbing someone and right now, Jung Jin-Ho and Kim Hyun-Sung were more important than the lackeys.

“It’s a misunder…”

Before he could finish, their swords crossed.

‘That’s it.’

Boom! The moment I heard that sound, I saw Jung Jin-Ho flying all the way back.

The battle commenced.

The script had been completed and the two were placed on stage and the only thing left to do was rectifying this situation.

I wanted to ask Jung Ha-Yan to quickly heal me, but the problem was that I couldn’t say the words. This was my first time feeling this type of pain and besides my scream, I couldn’t say anything else. I thought her healing magic was going to be used on me, but instead, I heard Jung Ha-Yan’s scream

“Noooooooo!”

‘It hurts…’

“You bastards! Hyung-nim!” Park Deok-Gu yelled.

I wish she would heal me instead of screaming.

The situation was unfolding very quickly, so I couldn’t pay attention to what was going on. Monsters were charging towards us from the front and Jung Jin-Ho and Kim Hyun-Sung were fighting with their swords. Park Deok-Gu wasn’t sure whether he should be protecting my front or my back since Yoo Seok-Woo was behind me, but I could tell that he was trying his best to protect me.

“Hyung-nim! Hyung-nim!!”

“I’m not dead yet…” I said.

“Noonim! The ring! The ring! Please hurry up and recite! The ring!” Park Deok-Gu yelled.

“Wahhhhhhh! Oppa! Oppa! Oppa!” Jung Ha-Yan cried out.

“Calm down and use the ring! The ring!

“Oh!”

I expected Jung Ha-Yan to panic, but the situation was worse than I thought. After Park Deok-Gu grabbed Jung Ha-Yan’s hand tightly, she must've realized what kind of item she had.

“H-Healing! Healing!” she yelled.

A light poured on me and even though my body didn’t heal instantly, the strangely pleasing light was healing my wound. The pain was still there, but the blood spewing out from my wound had disappeared.

‘I almost died.’

If Jung Ha-Yan was a little bit late, I might have died.

“Oppa. Oppa. Oppa.” Jung Ha-Yan called out.

“H-Hyung-nim!” Park Deok-Gu called out.

“I’m…okay,” I said.

My body felt a bit light, so I looked around again and saw Kim Hyun-Sung and Jung Jin-Ho quietly fighting. Anyone could tell that Kim Hyun-Sung was more experienced.

Of course, I wasn’t thinking about hearing their excuses.

In the end, the main villain abandoned both Yoo Seok-Woo and Kim Jae-Jun as he started running away from this place. Kim Hyun-Sung looked at us for a moment and quickly started talking while nodding.

“Mr. Deok-Gu! Miss Ha-Yan! Please take care of Mr. Ki-Young. I’ll take care of Jung Jin-Ho…”

“O-Okay, bro!” Park Deok-Gu answered.

He believed that we would be able to take care of things here. Since the two of them had high agility stats, it only took them a moment to disappear from my sight. Kim Jae-Jun must have realized that the situation had arrived at a point of no return because he looked like he was trying to escape, but he didn’t bother taking Yoo Seok-Woo with him.

If this situation continued, Park Deok-Gu would be the one that would be forced to block the monsters.

“You jerks!”

I saw Yoo Seok-Woo swinging his sword again and of course this time, no one got injured because Park Deok-Gu struck him with his shield.

Thud!

Yoo Seok-Woo’s body went flying in the air before colliding with a wall. At the same time, the monsters started charging into this place.

“Magic Shield!”

This was the second insurance that Kim Hyun-Sung prepared. It successfully blocked the monsters as it only took a moment for him to recite a spell.

Even though Kim Jae-Jun and Jung Jin-Ho were no longer in our sights, Kim Hyun-Sung should be able to catch both of them.

No.

“H-Hyung-nim, noonim is gone…” Park Deok-Gu said.

Jung Ha-Yan was going to capture Kim Jae-Jun.

“Don’t worry, Deok-Gu. We’ll follow them after we take care of the monsters that are in front of us first since I know where they’re headed,” I said.

“That’s a relief, but…”

I also didn’t see how Jung Ha-Yan disappeared, but she recited a spell during that time and followed Kim Jae-Jun. I wasn’t sure if she would be able to catch up to him since his agility stats were high, but seeing how she quickly disappeared without us knowing, I was certain that she was going to come back after taking care of her problem.

Maybe it was because we faced an unexpected situation, but Park Deok-Gu started crying. I thought that seeing me lying on the ground with blood spilling out from my wound must have shocked him until he was reduced to tears, so I talked while looking at him.

“Stop crying, you pig.”

“W-Who’s crying?” he asked.

The dagger might have stabbed me because he spaced out, but the outcome wasn’t that bad.

* * *

‘Damn it.’

Kim Jae-Jun didn’t know what was going on.

‘Yoo Seok-Woo, you idiot, you trash.’

He believed that they shouldn’t have let him join their party, no. Yoo Seok-Woo wasn’t the only idiot. He thought that he was an idiot too because when Jung Jin-Ho pulled out his sword, he thought that it was the signal to attack, so he made his move with his dagger.

He thought that he should have been more objective.

Lee Ki-Chul was his friend who traveled with him for a long time, and when that jerk Lee Ki-Young killed his friend, he couldn’t suppress his anger.

‘I knew we had to cancel our plan…’

It was because that bastard would apologize with empty words and show that smile of his.

He knew that he needed to control himself, but he couldn’t hold it in.

That expression, that expression of Lee Ki-Young was the problem. He looked as if he was mocking and openly provoking them. The problem was his eyes and smile that looked as if he was underestimating them.

Kim Jae-Jun was filled with anger and he just happened to find Lee Ki-Young who had been stabbed. The moment Kim Jae-Jun saw him watching the situation with a strange amused expression, he couldn’t hold back anymore.

That bastard Jung Jin-Ho was the problem.

From the beginning, Kim Jae-Jun thought there was no such thing as camaraderie with him, but he didn’t think that Jung Jin-Ho would abandon him just like that.

‘It doesn’t matter.’

What happened didn’t matter anymore since they only met because they needed each other. Since Jung Jin-Ho was using him, all he had to do was to use him too. It was simple.

‘First.’

He had to escape from this place since Jung Jin-Ho determined that there was no chance of them winning in the situation just now.

Since Kim Jae-Jun knew the paths, he wouldn’t have any trouble catching up to Jung Jin-Ho and even now, the traces of his escape were clearly visible. He thought about following Jung Jin-Ho so that both of them could take care of Kim Hyun-Sung at the same time. Once they were done, he could then take matters into his own hands.

He thought that his anger wouldn’t subside unless he had personally ripped Lee Ki-Young to shreds.

But when he grabbed his bow and arrow and tried to move as fast as possible…

‘What the.’

The path looked different from what he had memorized. He was certain this wasn’t the path that he knew. After changing his job to an archer, this was the first time that he experienced something like this.

He wondered if there was a problem within the dungeon itself, but he was sure that it wasn’t the case.

Traces of Jung Jin-Ho and Kim Hyun-Sung were cut off on one side of the wall.

“What the…”

When he looked around, he felt an unknown wind blowing.

“Um…”

It was moments later when he felt one of his legs falling off.

“Ahhhhhhh!!”

‘What…what…is this!’

Kim Jae-Jun didn’t know what was going on. After the wind blew from somewhere, one of his legs fell off. There wasn’t a person alive who wouldn’t be scared when they didn’t even know who attacked them.

“Ahhhhhh!”

When the wind blew again, his wrist got cut off.

“What! What’s going oooooooon?!”

The presence of magic popped into his head.

When he looked around again, he saw a woman revealing herself within the shadow. He thought that this was his first time seeing this woman, but when he looked at her closely, he realized that he had seen her before.

‘Jung Ha-Yan?’

Her face was really red.

‘Her eyes…’

Her eyes were strange, her hair and her clothes were a mess. Kim Jae-Jun saw her wiping away her tears using her hand.

“I won’t a-apologize to you,” she said.

“What…”

“I'll never forgive you. You…dummy! I-I need to kill them all. I need to kill everyone that hurts my oppa,” she said.

“What kind of bullshit….ahhhhhh!”

“S-Shut up! Shut that mouth of yours! Y-You idiot! I’m sure he was in a lot of pain. My oppa…sob…I’m sure it hurt a lot. When he got punched earlier…I’m sure he was in pain.”

It didn’t take him long to realize what was going on. The woman that was in front of him wasn’t normal.

‘Damn it…damn it…’

He immediately realized that he had messed with the wrong person.

Jung Ha-Yan seemed like she was obsessed with that bastard Lee Ki-Young, but he never imagined that she was this crazy.

He heard her whispering a spell, and of course, his body sensed something ominous. He wanted to get out of this situation by crawling, but he couldn’t. This place was too big for him to escape by crawling.

He could feel the woman’s weak hand grabbing his hair and pulling his head up.

“I-It’s unfortunate that I have to end this quickly since I don't have time. My oppa…I need to pay back ten times over for the suffering he experienced…but I can’t do that. Sob…”

“Spare me…I…I only did what I was told,” Kim Jae-Jun said.

“I don’t believe in liars…Air Bomb,” Jung Ha-Yan said.

The spell that was in her right hand was magic that he had seen before. It was the spell that had crushed a lot of monsters. Back then, the spell was as big as a person’s head, but now, it was very small.

While he was trying to figure out what was going on, he heard the voice of the crazy woman again.

“Open your mouth.”

“Wh…what…”

“Say…ahh. Y-You need to feel the same pain. You need to feel how much pain my oppa experienced,” she said.

He unknowingly kept his mouth shut. It was difficult for him to imagine what that spell was going to do if it was placed in his mouth. However, the crazy woman forcefully lowered his chin and placed the small bomb in his mouth. He was going crazy due to the foreign object that was forcefully placed in his mouth.

Cold sweat continued to form on his body as he trembled in primal fear.

Before he could think about the things that could happen afterward, he heard an explosion that shook his brain.

Boom!

“Aaaaaaaaaack!”

The fragments of his teeth burst in his mouth, piercing through his tongue, neck, the roof of his mouth, and cheeks. It was difficult for him to understand what was going on. One thing he was sure of was that it felt like the pain was melting his brain.

“It hurts, right? You’re in pain too. So why…did you do that?” she asked.

‘Crazy bitch…crazy bitch…crazy bitch…’

“You’re spitting out blood, you dummy,” she commented.

“Spare…aaaaaack sa…”

Watching her tidy herself up was bizarre. She fixed her messy hair and wiped the blood that was on her face using her sleeve.

“I need to finish this quickly, so…this will be the last. Don’t do this next time,” she warned.

All he could think about was begging her not to do this anymore and to spare him.

He couldn’t speak properly because of the fear he felt and he was slowly losing consciousness. He tried to stop himself from fainting because he wanted to live, but then he heard a voice that was bound to be the last voice he was going to hear.

“Oh…he died.”