Two hours later, I moved to the agreed location with Kwon Arin. Today’s dungeon was level three. Though I had killed level three dungeon monsters before, it was my first time directly tackling one.

My heart raced with anticipation and tension.

“Looks like we’re the last to arrive,” Kwon Arin said, approaching the gathered people.

There were three others besides us.

“You’re here,” a man with sharp features greeted us. His keen expression made him look fierce.

“Sorry we’re late. Did you wait long?”

“No, we just got here ourselves.”

The man waved his hand at Kwon Arin, then turned to look at me. Feeling his piercing gaze, I lowered my eyes and held out the rice cake skewer I was carrying.

“Sorry… We were late because I bought this snack…”

“It’s fine. Snacks are important after all.”

“Y-yeah…”

Snacks didn’t seem that important.

I hesitated, looking around at the others. Then the woman behind him muttered softly, “A child’s snack is important.”

She was a woman with fierce features, glancing at me with sharp eyes. Scared, I pretended not to notice.

As I looked down at the ground and took a bite of the rice cake skewer, the man who first spoke to us said, “Well then, shall we do brief introductions while the child eats their snack?”

“Sure.”

“Let’s do that.”

The man who first spoke to us led the briefing. I could sense that he was today’s daily leader. Though the leader position was a sensitive topic, no one raised any issues.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Park Taegeon. I mainly use a sword, and I’ve experienced this dungeon about twice before.”

The leader’s name was Park Taegeon. He was an adventurer from the Fox Star Guild. Everyone’s faces brightened at his mention of dungeon experience.

After Park Taegeon finished his self-introduction, he passed the turn to the fierce-eyed woman.

“Lee Mina. Fox Star Guild wizard. I can use all level three magic.”

The wizard’s name was Lee Mina. Aside from her constant glances at me, she didn’t seem like a bad person.

When Lee Mina finished speaking, a large man called out jovially, “Hwang Cheolwoo! From an ordinary mid-sized guild! As you can see, I’m sturdy! I’m confident in tasks that require strength or endurance!”

Hwang Cheolwoo was a typical tank. His personality seemed quite good.

With that, the introductions of the three unknown people ended, and it was our turn.

“I’m Kwon Arin…” Kwon Arin’s self-introduction ended decently.

When my turn came right after, I bowed my head deeply. Introducing myself to multiple people was difficult.

“M-my name is Han Gyeoul. I shoot arrows…”

It was a plain introduction compared to the others. Even so, people smiled at me. The corners of Lee Mina’s mouth, who I thought was just fierce, twitched subtly.

“Now I’ll begin the briefing. As you know, today’s dungeon is the Ent Dungeon. Is there anyone with experience?” Park Taegeon asked.

Ent Dungeon. It was a dungeon I had been to for education with the Master. It was also a dungeon that suited me quite well. I cautiously raised my hand.

“I’ve been there once… I got training from my Master in the Ent Dungeon…”

“If you mean Master, then from Yeomyeong… Did you learn anything useful from the Master?”

“The monsters are hard to find because they’re similar to trees. But you can hear their heartbeats, so you can tell where they are.”

“H-hear…?”

Park Taegeon’s gaze turned to my ears. Then he showed an expression of understanding.

“Can we leave the search to you?”

It wasn’t me who answered Park Taegeon’s question, but Kwon Arin.

“Gyeoul’s search ability surpasses even the Master’s. There’s no need to worry.”

“I see. We’ll leave it to you then.”

After a brief briefing, we stood in front of the dungeon portal. Before entering the dungeon, Park Taegeon turned to us one last time.

“You know about the additional mission, right? This is why the dungeon schedule changed to today.”

“Yes. The search for a person.”

Searching for a person? This was the first I’d heard of it. Seeing my confused expression, Park Taegeon spoke up.

“Apparently some adventurer entered the dungeon while drunk. That’s why we had to gather at the dungeon urgently.”

“Who was it?” I asked.

“They were wearing a hood, so no one saw their face. We only know they were carrying a dagger. There’s a separate search party, but they asked us to look as well.”

If they had a dagger, they must be an adventurer. Was this why Kwon Arin wanted me to come to the dungeon? For my tracking ability? I was confident in tracking. I decided to look for the adventurer in danger once we entered.

—

—

The dungeon clearance was so smooth, it hardly felt like a level three dungeon. It was thanks to my ability to distinguish all the hidden Ents.

“There are two Ents over there,” I said, shooting arrows through the densely grown trees. I fired two arrows simultaneously. The Ents hit by the arrows shook their branches.

“Cheolwoo! Mark one of them!”

“Got it!”

While tank Hwang Cheolwoo marked one Ent, the others hunted the remaining one. Despite being a party that just met, our teamwork was surprisingly good. We were able to quickly take care of the two Ents.

“You really find every single one without missing any,” Leader Park Taegeon said in admiration.

Beside him, Hwang Cheolwoo laughed happily as he stomped on the Ent. He wasn’t venting his anger, but looking for the mana stone inside.

“Amazing! I heard beginners can barely cover ten meters in a minute!”

The two men cheerfully chopped the Ent into firewood. I tried to approach the two searching for mana stones, but was blocked by the wizard, Lee Mina.

“You don’t have to do this.”

“W-what?” Did I do something wrong? I looked up at Lee Mina, clutching my bow tightly with both hands.

“I said you don’t have to search for mana stones.”

“Wouldn’t it be better if I helped…?”

“You probably can’t even break a branch with your strength, right? Just rest in the back.”

Was the Ent that hard? I took out an arrow and poked the Ent corpse with the tip. It was so hard, the arrow wouldn’t properly pierce it.

This won’t work.

Though I do get a lot of bow and arrow buffs.

I decided to rest in the back as Lee Mina said.

“I’m sorry. I should be helping too.”

They must be very angry that I’m resting while everyone else is working. Feeling guilty, I couldn’t even rest properly. Lee Mina pressed down on my shoulder, forcing me to sit.

“Don’t worry, you’re already doing the work of four people.”

“Mina is right. Thanks to you, our clearance time has been drastically reduced.”

These people I just met today are speaking to me like this. It seemed I had met some good people. I sat down awkwardly by a nearby tree, smiling.

At that moment, Kwon Arin, who had finished harvesting the Ent’s mana stone, approached me.

“Gyeoul, how’s the person tracking going?”

“Well, they’re moving over there, so it’s hard to close the distance.”

The target we were tracking was moving in the same direction as us. It almost felt like they were fleeing from us.

I wish they’d stay still, I thought. If they’re going to move, it would be nice if they moved towards us.

Just as I was thinking that, it happened. Suddenly, the other party changed direction and started running. They were running towards us at a considerably fast speed.

Huh…? It was a speed that only a mid-tier adventurer could manage. Someone of this skill level should be able to easily clear the Ent Dungeon alone, so why…?

Could it be…? After fleeing from us for a while, they suddenly run towards us as if steeling their resolve. I could sense intuitively why they were running towards us. It was thanks to the innate instincts of the beast-kin.

“E-everyone, be careful!” An adventurer stronger than us is running towards us with killing intent. We needed to prepare quickly.

—

—

Rex Grimson. He was a criminal. He had committed a crime in a distant foreign land. The charge was attempted child molestation.

Grimson belatedly realized that those who touch children in this country get beaten to death, and was hurriedly fleeing. The escape route Grimson chose was the dungeon. The Ent Dungeon, with its densely grown trees over a wide mountainous area, was perfect for hiding.

Even if a dungeon was cleared, it wouldn’t close until everyone who entered came out. By exploiting this peculiar nature of dungeons, he could hide for a long time.

How long should I hide this time?

As Grimson was thinking alone, the spider webs he had set up in the dungeon began to break one after another. Using spider webs from tamed spiders, they were designed to send a signal when broken. The direction of the breaking spider webs was pointing exactly towards Grimson.

What the hell?

Someone was chasing him. He thought it might be a coincidence, but when he changed direction, the pursuer also changed direction to follow.

A tracker is on my tail…! But this tracker seemed quite weak. They were moving slowly, probably killing Ents as they came.

It would be troublesome to kill the tracker…

Killing them would attract more trackers, but he couldn’t let those who knew his exact location live either. After a brief deliberation, Grimson decided to kill them. He was a man who prioritized his desires.

This way, is it.

Grimson changed direction and ran towards the trackers. After running at full speed for a few minutes, he could spot five people. Among them, one child caught Grimson’s attention. A beast-kin child with white ears and tail.

At the pure, angelic appearance, Grimson’s desires began to boil.

He wanted to strangle that neck. When they begged for their life…

Yes. I couldn’t finish what I was doing.

I’ll kill everyone except that child. Grimson drew the dagger at his waist.

“Ugh…” Gyeoul felt an instinctive fear seeing Grimson.

Or perhaps it was disgust. As Gyeoul’s emotions changed, her pheromones began to move. Those marked by the pheromones could sense that Gyeoul was in danger.

Please save me.

In the minds of those marked by the pheromones, an image of a sobbing Gyeoul appeared. It felt different from hallucinations or auditory illusions.

And among them was Guild Master Kang Jinho.

5/6 Enjoy the chappy!

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Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep