SLAM!!

Kheuck!

Blood spilled on the ground; Jeong Min-Woos large frame tilted unsteadily to the side, before falling down hard with a loud thud. And from the seemingly empty space, Hyun Sahng-Mins figure slowly revealed itself like a ghost. There was a steel bar clutched in both of his hands.

What the?! (Kahng Seok)

The utterly stunned Kahng Seok tried to stand up from the chair, but he couldnt. Shin Sahng-Ah was desperately clinging on to Kahng Seoks waist with both of her hands tightly interlocked, as if the ghost of Nongae had come to possess her. Also, she was pushing down on him with all of her body weight, as well. (TL note at the end)

Sung-Jin-ah!! (Shin Sahng-Ah)

She shouted out while lowering her head in a hurry.

Uh? Oh! Right! (Yi Sung-Jin)

And so, Kahng Seok had no choice but to watch on helplessly as a chair descended upon his unguarded face. Accompanied by a dull impact noise, his head snapped to the left.

G, geuwaaaahhh.

Kahng Seok then slowly fell to the floor, his face dazed and frozen as a whimper leaked out of his mouth.

.Who the hell do you think you are to utter out my sisters name? (Yi Sung-Jin)

Yi Sung-Jin angrily spat out while carrying a chair.

Now left alone, Lee Hyung-Sik dazedly stared at Hyun Sahng-Min as the latter man spat on the floor in disgust.

Hey, man. Why dont you take a nap. (Hyun Sahng-Min)

One swing of the steel bar later, Lee Hyung-Siks upper torso spun as if he was performing a traditional dance, then he crumpled to the ground.

Seol could only stand there and stare at the three of them, still frozen in the middle of trying to throw a spell ball. And as he continued to blink in stupefied state, he ended up witnessing something quite extraordinary.

Kahng Seok, even as his eyes were swimming from the impact to his head, was pulling out his other paper talisman, almost unnoticed; at that moment, Shin Sahng-Ah, baring her teeth like an angry lioness, pounced on that hand holding the talisman.

Euh-waaaaack!! (Kahng Seok)

Her teeth tore into his flesh; Kahng Seok threw his head wildly while screaming in pain. She didnt stop there, though she then proceeded to climb up on top of his writhing body and lifted her hands up high.

In all my life, I. I! (Shin Sahng-Ah)

Slap!

Her wide open palm powerfully slapped Kahng Seoks face.

Ive never, ever seen.! (Shin Sahng-Ah)

SLAP!!

.A damn perv like you whos so fixated on a girls naked body before, you damn son of a b*tch!! (Shin Sahng-Ah)

Slam!

Her third hit was an elbow drop roughly aimed at Kahng Seoks philtrum. Blood exploded out from his nose.

Kahng Seok was laid out on the floor like a dead frog, and when her elbow hit, he began convulsing like a person having a seizure. However, that must have not been enough to cool her anger Shin Sahng-Ah stood up while breathing like an angry bull, and then, lifted her foot up as high as she could.

.No, she wouldnt. (Hyun Sahng-Min)

Seeing this, Hyun Sahng-Min flinched and stopped his actions of making sure that Lee Hyung-Sik and Jeong Min-Woo would not get up again with the help from the steel bar meeting their faces. And, he squeezed his eyes shut when her heel accurately slammed down on Kahng Seoks family jewels.

@%#%^%!!!!!!! (Kahng Seok)

Maybe he had some energy left over, because Kahng Seoks scream was loud enough to tear open his own vocal cords.

Only then, Seol could feel the restriction spell being deactivated. Since the owner of the spell lost consciousness, it was only natural that it would be cancelled.

Seol was able to regain his focus when he heard the wet, sticky footsteps coming from his rear.

It was the monster, Gaeg-gwi. It wouldve been strange if the creature didnt show up after so much noisy chaos unfolded here already. Although Seol was confident of killing the monster, hed rather make sure that an unlucky accident wouldnt happen.

Seol hurriedly carried Yun Seo-Rah into the safe zone, and then pulled the still-enthusiastic Shin Sahng-Ah inside as well.

Miss Shin Sahng-Ah!! Miss Shin! Please, stop! (Seol)

Let me go! Let me go, right now! Do you have any idea how much this b*stard!! I, I.!! (Shin Sahng-Ah)

Its the monster! The Gaeg-gwi has shown up! (Seol)

.Eh? .?!?! Mommy!! (Shin Sahng-Ah)

When Shin Sahng-Ah confirmed the monsters terrifying outer appearance approaching them, her attitude did a 180 real fast and she jumped into Seols arms. Somehow successfully calming her down, Seol carried her back into the safe zone and only then could the four of them breathe long, long sighs of relief.

It felt like they had to go through a torrential storm all thanks to a certain someone.

Whew. First time ever hitting another person like that. (Hyun Sahng-Min)

Hyun Sahng-Mins hand, as it pulled out a cigarette, was unsteady. He offered what he extracted out from the packet first to Seol.

Seol was about to pull out his own, but quietly accepted that, instead.

Hey, man. What are we going to do about those three outside the classroom? (Hyun Sahng-Min)

? Should we bring them inside, then? (Seol)

You do that, and we are through. (Hyun Sahng-Min)

Hyun Sahng-Min bitterly spat out his opinion.

Not too long after, the two men looked at the corridor through the classroom window. The Gaeg-gwi had come closer before anybody had noticed, and was in the middle of slowly devouring Jeong Min-Woo.

Crunch, crunch.

Seeing the monster chew and swallow the man from his head first, Seol could only feel the sense of astonished disgust.

Only allowed on Creativenovels.com

What happened just now? (Seol)

Mm? Oh, that. Yeah, well. Me and the boy over here exchanged some eye signals, you know what I mean? I was the one who signaled Miss Shin over here, though. (Hyun Sahng-Min)

Did that really happen? Seol felt rather dazed after hearing that, since he genuinely had not noticed it. Hyun Sahng-Min chuckled, sounding rather pleased with himself.

What? You thought we really betrayed you just now? (Hyun Sahng-Min)

How did you signal to each other? (Seol)

Like this. I just had to show this off a bit, and. (Hyun Sahng-Min)

Hyun Sahng-Min began fiddling around with a half-torn piece of paper but, it happened right then.

K, khhhh-euhhh!! (Kahng Seok)

Suddenly, the sliding door was flung open and Kahng Seoks face entered the classroom. His arm was clawing the floor, desperately trying to reel himself inside.

The two men couldnt hide their surprise. To think, he was able to regain his consciousness so quickly after being pummeled like that. His endurance was indeed higher than average, according to his Status Window, so that might have been enough to explain his resilience.

Where the hell do you think youre trying to enter?! (Shin Sahng-Ah)

As soon as she saw him, Shin Sahng-Ah ran hard and kicked Kahng Seoks head like a ball.

K, keok!! P, please! H, help me! (Kahng Seok)

Help you?! You cheeky b*stard! Have you forgotten all the c**p you did already?! (Shin Sahng-Ah)

P, please! (Kahng Seok)

Get lost! Get lost!!! (Shin Sahng-Ah)

She stomped down on his hand that was desperately clinging onto the floor. In the end, he couldnt continue holding on, and his body was sucked out of the doorway like a receding tidal wave.

Meanwhile, the Gaeg-gwi had finished devouring the two lackeys, and when it saw the bloodied Kahng Seok, it reached out and grabbed him as if he was a delicious dessert.

Hey! You, you devour that a*shole slowly, okay?! You eat him piece by piece, got that?! (Shin Sahng-Ah)

The Gaeg-gwi blinked its large eye several times while hearing that. Then, it proceeded to chew on Kahng Seok from his feet onwards. Hyun Sahng-Min began shuddering after witnessing all this.

I, uh, I didnt know she was this insane. (Hyun Sahng-Min)

Seol almost ended up agreeing out aloud with him there.

And well, there we go, that thing finishing everything up. I hadnt gotten my share of satisfaction yet, though. (Hyun Sahng-Min)

Isnt it enough just watching them die like that? (Seol)

Yeah, actually, youre right. I guess this is a fine end, too. But still, f*ck this, man. How are we supposed to deal with that thing now? (Hyun Sahng-Min)

Hyun Sahng-Min sighed and covered his face.

They might have taken care of Kahng Seok and his lackeys, but a new problem rose up to replace them: the monster Gaeg-gwi. If that thing decided to camp out in front of the safe zones door, then they had no answers to that, at all. And it was obvious that they couldnt just stay in the safe zone for thousands, ten thousand years, either.

In that case, we better kill it, then. (Seol)

Eh?

Seols voice was refreshingly confident.

Kahng Seoks screams that grew louder and louder eventually stopped at a certain point. When Seol opened the window and took a look, he could see a dead body that was missing the entire lower section below the chest.

Seol then lightly tapped on the window sills. The Gaeg-gwi spun its head around like a bolt of lightning, faced him, and opened wide its jaw while emitting a chilling, shrill cry.

Seol found the sight of the chewed-up human flesh stuck in between the monsters teeth rather disgusting and unappealing, so he quickly chucked in a spell ball down its basketball-hoop sized throat.

The desired result occurred right away; the Gaeg-gwi began showing an unusual reaction after swallowing the spell ball. It began falling down on the ground while all of its limbs began convulsing uncontrollably. Its large eye shook so hard, the hidden whites could be seen; out of his wide open mouth, the monster belched out a thick, dark fog.

I guess one ball wasnt enough. (Seol)

What did you throw in there? (Hyun Sahng-Min)

Its a spell ball called Poison Fog. (Seol)

Seol answered rather briefly and pulled a couple more spell balls out from his pocket, before asking Hyun Sahng-Min a question.

Right. What was that thing earlier? (Seol)

What thing? (Hyun Sahng-Min)

You suddenly appearing out of thin air like that. (Seol)

While speaking, Seol carefully took aim and threw another spell ball. The red-coloured spell ball drew a small arc in the air and landed perfectly inside the Gaeg-gwi mouth once more.

Oh, that? I also got a paper talisman through my Random Box, you see. For concealment. (Hyun Sahng-Min)

Concealment, is it? (Seol)

Hyun Sahng-Min nodded his head while paying very close attention to the suffering Gaeg-gwi.

I can stay invisible for a long time, but it gets cancelled if I attack someone just once. (Hyun Sahng-Min)

Didnt you say you only received 500 Survival Points? (Seol)

What the?! Hey, man, let that one go, will ya? In any case, I helped out, didnt I? And, I need to hold a hidden trump c. (Hyun Sahng-Min)

Boom!!

Hyun Sahng-Min couldnt finish his sentence thanks to the sudden explosion. Hyun Sahng-Min mouthed What the hell was that? and quickly took a look outside the window only to yank the sunglasses off his face.

Kkkkiiiieeeecccckkk!!

That terrifying monster Gaeg-gwi was rolling on the ground, evidently in a lot of pain. And whenever there were the sounds of explosion coming from its innards, its entire body took on a reddish hue and began swelling up.

You, you even had things like this?! (Hyun Sahng-Min)

Well, I was going to use it just now, but you guys made a move first, so. Oh, its running away. (Seol)

The Gaeg-gwi was doing whatever it could to scramble away, but Seol simply chucked another spell ball, which accurately landed on the fleeing monsters back. An explosion of light occurred next, and dozens of spider web-like things shot out, tightly bounding the Gaeg-gwi to the spot.

.. (Hyun Sahng-Min)

It was about here that Hyun Sahng-Min decided to shut up and simply watch the proceedings unfold. All the enthusiasm he felt had been drained out of his system by now, and not only that, he was too worn out to feel shocked anymore.

This should finish it off. (Seol)

The last spell ball landing on the monster transformed into clear liquid and rained down on the monster that couldnt go anywhere.

What happened?! (Shin Sahng-Ah)

Shin Sahng-Ah asked after belatedly approaching them.

I killed it. (Seol)

Seok spoke while pointing at the corridor.

As it turned out, the most powerful spell ball of the four was the Hydrochloric Acid one. It even melted that scary monster into nothingness in the blink of an eye.

Within the corridor, a mass of rotting flesh that was once the Gaeg-gwi could be found lying on the floor.

Oh, wow. Really. (Shin Sahng-Ah)

Seol explained himself further as the others showed disbelieving reactions.

The Guide was right. By drawing a couple of spell balls, we couldve got to have fun with this mission. And well, I got lucky with the right combination of spells. (Seol)

Spell balls? Combination? (Shin Sahng-Ah)

Yes. I spread the Poison Fog inside its body, which served to strengthen the explosions caused by the spell Ignite. I tied down the escaping Gaeg-gwi with the spell Spider Web, and then showered it with Hydrochloric Acid. (Seol)

Oh, my. (Shin Sahng-Ah)

Shin Sahng-Ahs mouth opened wide, and she quickly brought up her hand to cover it.

.Isnt that a bit. too cruel. (Shin Sahng-Ah)

Seol and Hyun Sahng-Min could only stare at her totally dumbfounded even Yi Sung-Jin too, as he sat there with his back against the wall.

*

Dawn was mercifully uneventful.

Inside the safe zone where only eight people now remained, two men were busy chatting to each other in a relaxed manner.

After that chaos had died down, Shin Sahng-Ah regained her bearings and quickly treated Yun Seo-Rahs injuries. Thankfully, her life was spared, but Shin Sahng-Ah had no confidence about the arm saying there was nothing she could do anymore. Besides, the treatment itself had been delayed, which didnt help.

The four of them discussed, and they decided to stay put until midday. They were thinking of waiting for Yun Seo-Rah to regain her consciousness, but also, the main issue was with them all being just too damn fatigued to carry on any further.

While looking on at the trio of Yi Sung-Jin, Yun Seo-Rah, and Shin Sahng-Ah softly snoring away, Seol quietly asked a question.

I dont see that middle-aged man. (Seol)

Mm? Who? (Hyun Sahng-Min)

You know, that guy with glasses. (Seol)

Oh, the guy who gave up on his fami. Cough. Why? You wanna go out and look for him, too? (Hyun Sahng-Min)

Seol didnt reply, and simply chugged down a bottle of energy drink.

A short period of awkward silence flowed between them, before Hyun Sahng-Min tapped a cigarette loose from the packet.

Hey, man. Can I ask you about something? (Hyun Sahng-Min)

Mm? (Seol)

Back then, when you were staring down at Kahng Seok. You were going to use those spell balls, werent you? (Hyun Sahng-Min)

For the first time in a long while, a thin smile formed on Seols formerly composed, serene face.

You were planning to use one, but didnt, right? (Hyun Sahng-Min)

When Hyun Sahng-Min asked again to make sure, Seol simply nodded his head.

Why did you do that? Well, the result was good, so theres that, but still. (Hyun Sahng-Min)

You said it before. Human beings would only reveal their true colours when pushed to a corner. I just wanted to confirm with my own eyes. (Seol)

This time, Hyun Sahng-Min became speechless.

Another bout of silence descended upon them. But, a short while later.

F*ck, man. So, did we pass or what? (Hyun Sahng-Min)

The two men laughed out at the same time.

< 17. A Dangerous Treasure Hunt (5) > Fin.