[Min-Jae's Perspective]
I stood outside, watching the gate's blue shimmer as it had already been over half an hour since the mining team entered. They were extracting mana crystals and harvesting the magic beast corpses—I'd seen in the anime how valuable those materials were for crafting equipment and selling on the market.
It was strange to think about the scale of it all. Ten hunters, plus more than ten miners—I didn't bother counting exactly—all mobilized for a single B-Rank gate.
Meanwhile, Sung Jin-Woo could handle this entire thing solo. His shadow soldiers would mine while he cleared the dungeon, or hell, he could just let the shadows do everything if he wanted.
I wondered when I'd actually get to meet him.
With time to kill, I pulled out my phone and searched for news about the Jeju Island raid. According to the articles, the Japanese Hunter team had already arrived in Korea. But the details were sparse—no information about how many hunters or their ranks. The anime hadn't covered those specifics either, at least not in the episodes I'd watched. I'd have to wait for an official announcement, or maybe meet them myself if I decided to join.
Another half hour crawled by. I had a few brief exchanges with squad members—small talk, mostly. If I was going to work with this team regularly, it made sense to build some rapport.
My thoughts drifted back to Sung Jin-Woo. Which guild would he join? I hoped it was the Hunters Guild. That would make things more interesting.
---
[Narrator Perspective]
Son Ki-Hoon approached Min-Jae, his expression businesslike but friendly. "Mining team's almost done. We'll head back in shortly." He paused, then added, "You mentioned earlier you wanted to observe how we handle the boss. Changed your mind?"
Min-Jae glanced at him. "Actually, yeah. I'll take it."
Son nodded without surprise. "Figured you might. Alright, it's all yours then."
A few minutes later, the mining team emerged from the gate, their carts loaded with mana crystals and beast parts. They looked tired but satisfied—a good haul, by the sounds of their conversation.
The raid squad filed back through the gate, their footsteps echoing through the now-familiar tunnel. The air still smelled of stone and dampness, though the werewolf corpses had been removed by the miners. They reached the massive stone doors of the boss chamber and pushed them open.
The room beyond was vast, circular, with a high vaulted ceiling. Bones littered the floor—remnants of previous prey. At the far end, the boss stirred.
It was massive. Easily four times the size of the werewolves Min-Jae had fought earlier, with muscles that rippled beneath matted black fur. Its eyes glowed a deeper crimson, intelligent and malevolent. When it rose to its full height, it nearly reached the ceiling.
One of the tanks moved forward instinctively, but Son raised a hand. "Stand down. Hunter Min-Jae's got this."
The team stepped back, forming a loose semicircle near the entrance. Min-Jae walked forward calmly, hands still in his hoodie pockets.
Internally, a spark of excitement flickered through him. 'Finally, something with a bit more presence. Not that it matters—I could end this instantly. But where's the fun in that?'
The Alpha Werewolf snarled, assessing this lone human who dared approach. Then it opened its massive jaws and unleashed a torrent of flame.
Fire roared across the chamber in a concentrated stream, the heat intense enough that the watching hunters instinctively raised their arms to shield their faces.
Min-Jae didn't move.
The flames reached him—and parted. Not around him, but stopped, as if hitting an invisible barrier. The fire continued past him on either side, scorching the ground and walls, but the space immediately around Min-Jae remained untouched. Not even his hair moved.
The werewolf cut off the flame, confusion flickering in its crimson eyes. It tried again, this time with more intensity, the fire bright enough to illuminate every corner of the chamber.
Same result. The flames simply couldn't reach him.
Min-Jae waved his hand through the lingering smoke. "This smoke is irritating."
The beast's confusion turned to rage. It spun, whipping its massive tail around with enough force to shatter stone. The tail came at Min-Jae like a battering ram—
And stopped. Millimeters from his side, completely frozen mid-swing.
'Infinity is really broken,' Min-Jae thought, watching the werewolf struggle to push its tail forward. 'Maybe that's why they sealed Gojo in the anime. Beating him would be astronomically difficult with this defense.'
The werewolf pulled back and attacked again—tail, claws, fire, even ramming with its head. Each attack met the same invisible wall, stopping cold before reaching its target.
Min-Jae stood there, unbothered, but his mind was working. 'Can't just defend forever. I should actually attack. But which one to use?'
The werewolf reared back for another charge, its frustration evident in its movements—
'Found it. Let's Use Telekinesis.'
Min-Jae raised his right hand slightly, and the werewolf froze mid-lunge. Not from Infinity this time, but from an invisible force that seized its entire body. The beast struggled, muscles straining, claws scraping uselessly at the air.
It was like watching an ant try to move a boulder.
With a casual flick of his wrist, Min-Jae sent the creature flying. It crashed into the far wall with a tremendous *thud*, hard enough to crack the stone but not quite hard enough to kill it. The werewolf slumped to the ground, dazed.
It took nearly thirty seconds for the beast to recover, shaking its massive head as it climbed back to its feet. When it charged again, the rage in its eyes had been replaced with something closer to desperation.
The attack reached Min-Jae and stopped against Infinity as expected.
"Ice Needles."
Thin crystalline constructs materialized in the air around the werewolf—dozens of them, hovering like frozen rain. They shot forward simultaneously, piercing into the ground around the beast's limbs and tail, then spreading into lattices of ice that bound it in place.
The werewolf struggled, but the ice held firm.
'I've had my fun,' Min-Jae thought.
He raised his left hand, palm open. "Blue."
A sphere of compressed space formed in his palm, glowing with that characteristic blue light. The gravitational pull activated instantly, and the werewolf—still bound by ice—was violently yanked forward, dragged across the chamber floor.
Before it could even process what was happening, Min-Jae's right hand came up.
"Red."
A crimson orb formed, significantly larger than the one he'd used in the tunnel. He adjusted the output mentally '20% would be more than enough.'
The repulsive force detonated.
*BOOM.*
The werewolf was blasted backward with devastating force, the ice bindings shattering instantly. Its body hit the far wall so hard that the entire chamber shook, dust and small rocks falling from the ceiling. The beast slid down the wall and collapsed, smoke rising from its fur.
It didn't get back up.
The chamber fell silent except for the soft patter of settling dust.
Min-Jae lowered his hands, turning to face the squad. Their expressions ranged from impressed to mildly surprised—it was, after all, what they'd expected from an S-Rank against a B-Rank boss, keeping aside the fact that, the S-Rank was here for his first raid.
'If fighting beasts is this fun,' Min-Jae thought as he walked back toward the group, 'I'll definitely join the Jeju Island raid. Just for the experience.'
A small smirk crossed his face.
'And maybe I'll overshadow Sung Jin-Woo a bit. In his own universe.'
"Boss is down," he announced simply.
Son Ki-Hoon nodded, already moving to confirm the kill and check for any loot drops. "Clean work. Let's wrap this up and head out."
The squad moved into the chamber, their conversations casual now that the danger had passed. Min-Jae's first raid was complete.