The A-rank hunters moved almost at the same time.
Some of them kicked off the ground and leaped high into the air, using their momentum to bring their swords down in heavy arcs. Others stayed low, hurling spears and blades straight into the thick bark of the tree monsters. Fire spells exploded against trunks, lighting up the forest with flashes of orange and blue.
The sound of metal striking wood echoed again and again, mixed with roars from the creatures and shouts from the hunters.
"Left side!"
"Don't let it surround us!"
"Cut the roots first!"
Branches snapped and tentacles recoiled as the monsters were pushed back inch by inch.
In the middle of all that chaos, Seung-hoo still hadn't moved.
Seo-yeon stood directly in front of him, her body angled protectively, her dagger held tight in her hand. Unlike the others, she hadn't attacked yet. Her eyes kept drifting back to Seung-hoo instead of the monsters, as if she were waiting for something invisible.
Byung-chul noticed.
His jaw tightened. "Seo-yeon!" he shouted. "Why are you standing there?! Get in the fight!"
Seo-yeon flinched slightly at the sound of his voice. She turned her head and looked back at Seung-hoo. For a brief second, her expression was uncertain—like she didn't know whether she was allowed to move without him saying something.
Seung-hoo blinked. "Why are you looking at me like that?" he asked quietly.
She hesitated… then he gave a small nod.
That was all it took.
Seo-yeon pushed off the ground and charged forward.
Her body blurred with speed, her dagger slicing through the air so fast it made a sharp whistle, as if the wind itself had been cut. She slipped between two massive roots and slashed upward, leaving a deep glowing wound in the monster's trunk.
Seung-hoo watched her for a second.
Then a familiar mechanical sound rang inside his head—clear, cold, and impossible for anyone else to hear.
______________________________________________________
|[ Ding! System Active ]|
|[ New Quest Available ]|
|[ Find the core of the forest ]|
|[ Quest ranking: Easy ]|
|[ Reward: An Extra 12 points in skill Max-level Growth ]|
|[ Time: 2 minutes ]|
|[ Penalty for failing: None ]|
______________________________________________________
Seung-hoo stared at the glowing window floating in front of him.
"…Two minutes?" he muttered under his breath. "That's short."
His eyes moved across the words again, slowly, as if trying to understand why something labeled "Easy" felt so sudden. Around him, the forest shook with explosions and impacts, but his attention stayed locked on the quest.
He let out a quiet breath. "Fine, for an extra 12 points I guess."
Then he stepped forward.
He walked straight toward the battlefield as if he were entering a crowded street instead of a war zone. Blades clashed against bark. Fireballs burst against wooden flesh. Tentacles slammed into the ground, narrowly missing hunters who rolled out of the way.
Byung-chul saw him moving and spun around. "What do you think you're doing?!" he shouted. "Get back!"
Seung-hoo frowned. "Why are you always yelling at me?" he shot back. "Did I do something to you?"
Byung-chul froze for half a second, clearly not expecting that question. His mouth opened, then closed again as he struggled to find an answer.
Seo-yeon noticed the exchange from the corner of her eye, but she didn't stop fighting. She ducked under a swinging branch and stabbed upward, her breathing sharp and focused.
Meanwhile, Seung-hoo took a step back and raised his hand.
A dagger formed in his grip, summoned in a flash of light. The weapon felt familiar—light, sharp, humming with energy. He knew what this one did. Speed. Too much speed for normal eyes to follow.
He bent his knees slightly.
And then he vanished.
To Byung-chul, it looked like Seung-hoo had simply disappeared into thin air.
"W-what the…?!" Byung-chul gasped, spinning around.
The next instant, tree monsters began to fall apart.
A trunk split cleanly down the middle. Roots were severed in a single flash. Tentacles dropped to the ground like dead snakes. Seung-hoo reappeared and disappeared again and again, moving faster than the A-rank hunters could track.
To them, it was like watching a blur carve through the forest.
"Did… did he just pass me?"
"I didn't even see him swing…"
"Was that one person?!"
The hunters stood stunned, weapons still raised, as chunks of bark collapsed around them. Even the monsters seemed confused, their mouths snapping at empty air while invisible slashes tore through their bodies.
Seo-yeon stopped for a moment and stared.
Her chest rose and fell as she watched Seung-hoo move through the battlefield like a ghost, his dagger flashing in and out of existence. There was no hesitation in his movements, no wasted motion—just calm, precise strikes.
Leaves drifted down slowly from above, and the cold air of the forest felt heavier, as if the Rift itself were reacting to him.
Seung-hoo landed lightly on the ground near one of the fallen trees, eyes scanning the area, as though he were searching for something deeper than the monsters themselves, while the others remained frozen in disbelief, still trying to understand what they had just witnessed.
Seung-hoo's eyes narrowed.
Among the writhing forest of moving trunks and snapping roots, one tree stood different from the rest. It towered over everything, its bark darker, its tentacles thicker, its mouth wider and lined with jagged teeth that glowed faintly with mana. While the others moved wildly, this one barely shifted, as if it were observing the battlefield instead of participating in it.
"…So that's it," Seung-hoo murmured.
He bent his knees and lowered his center of gravity, the wind brushing past his hood. The ground beneath his feet cracked slightly from the pressure of his stance.
Then he jumped.
Not forward—up.
His body shot into the air like a bullet, clearing the smaller trees in a single bound. Hunters below looked up in shock, some shielding their eyes.
"Did he just—?!" "He jumped that high without magic?!"
Electricity began to crackle around Seung-hoo's dagger, thin lines of blue lightning wrapping around the blade and climbing up his arm. The air vibrated with a sharp, humming sound, like thunder being squeezed into a single point.
"Lightning bolt!"
He brought the dagger down in a straight line.
A flash of light split the sky.
The towering tree monster didn't even have time to roar. A line of electricity tore through its trunk from top to bottom, and for a moment everything went silent. Then the massive body trembled and collapsed inward, breaking apart into pieces of dark bark and fading mana.
The forest seemed to freeze.
Tentacles that had been attacking moments ago went limp. The remaining tree monsters recoiled, their movements slowing as if something fundamental had been taken away from them.
Dust and glowing particles drifted through the air.
Seung-hoo landed lightly on one knee, his dagger still crackling with leftover energy. He straightened up slowly, exhaling.
Right then, the mechanical sound rang out again inside his head.
______________________________________________________
|[ Ding! System Activated
--Stats--
|[ Reward Is Now Active ]|
|[ Speed: 198 / 131 ]| Previous Stat: |[ 186 / 131 ]| |[ Strength: 190 / 131 ]| Previous Stat: |[ 178 / 131 ]| |[ Stamina: 222 / 162 ]| Previous Stat: |[ 200 / 162 ]|
--Skills--
|[ Electric sword technique: Max ]| Previous Stat: |[ Max ]|
|[ Eye of truth: Max ]| Previous Stat: |[ Max ]|
______________________________________________________
Around him, the battlefield was strangely quiet.
The A-rank hunters stood frozen, weapons still raised, eyes wide. Some were breathing hard, others hadn't even realized the monsters had stopped moving yet.
Seo-yeon slowly lowered her dagger. Her gaze shifted from the fallen giant tree back to Seung-hoo, and then back again, as if trying to confirm both were real.
"You…" Some A rank hunter whispered. "You took it down in one hit…"
Byung-chul stood stiff a few steps away, his face pale. The man who had been shouting earlier now couldn't find his voice at all. His lips parted slightly, but no words came out.
"That… that was the core?" one hunter asked quietly. "So the forest was being controlled by that thing…" "Then everything we were fighting before was just…"
Seung-hoo didn't answer them. His eyes were still fixed on the floating window only he could see. The faint glow reflected in his pupils.
"Reward is active…" he repeated softly.
He clenched his fist, feeling the strange balance in his body shift. He was still overwhelmingly strong, but the sensation was different now—less explosive, more… stable. Like something had been corrected.
The cold wind moved through the forest again, brushing past broken trunks and fallen roots. Leaves drifted down from above, settling on the scorched ground.
Seo-yeon walked toward him slowly, her steps careful, as if she didn't want to break whatever moment this was.
"Seung-hoo…" she said, her voice low. "Are you okay?"
He finally looked away from the window and toward her.
"…Yeah," he replied after a pause. "I think so."
Behind them, the other hunters began to murmur again, the shock slowly turning into nervous laughter and awe.
"That was an S-rank level strike…" "No, even S-rank wouldn't be that clean…" "Who is that guy, really?"
Byung-chul took a hesitant step forward, eyes still locked on Seung-hoo, his expression no longer angry but unsettled. His earlier confidence seemed to have cracked along with the forest.
Seung-hoo stood there amid the broken trees and fading mana, the system window still glowing faintly in front of him, while the Rift around them felt different now—quieter, as if it were holding its breath.