After changing equipment, their hunting speed increased dramatically.

“Ahahaha! Die! All of you, die!”

Meiling laughed with delight as she unleashed her magic skills one after another.

Thanks to her equipment leveling up, the cooldowns of her skills had shortened even further.

Her Flame Cluster now had a cooldown of about three seconds, while Mana Bomb was down to five—roughly half of their original times.

On top of that, her weapon had been upgraded from a Level 12 staff to a Level 27 staff, boosting her damage by nearly fivefold. Monsters melted away before her like snow under the sun.

Next time we come here, it’d be better to put another attack spell in Meiling’s skill slots instead of defensive ones.

For now, she attacked with Flame Cluster and Magic Bomb, while keeping survival skills like Mana Shield and Phantom Form ready just in case.

But now that Seo Yui was in their squad as a tank, replacing the low-level defensive Mana Shield with either an offensive or support spell seemed like a smarter choice.

I’ll look into it next time we stop by the Hunter Market.

I shifted my attention elsewhere.

“Waaaahhh!!”

Seo Yui activated Taunt Shout, drawing in all the nearby monsters.

As a dozen small monsters rushed in to attack, she raised her foot.

Red energy gathered around her metal greaves.

“Haaah!”

When she stomped the ground, a loud boom echoed as the area shook, knocking every monster around her to the ground.

It was the skill Ground Stomp.

Ground Stomp forced monsters within a small radius into a stunned state.

However, as an attack skill, its damage multiplier was pitifully low—almost negligible.

Just then, from behind the small monsters, a hulking Iron Golem swung its massive metal arms in wide arcs.

It was preparing a Smash attack.

Seo Yui immediately charged straight at the giant monster.

Her shield, raised high, gathered red energy once again.

Kwaaang!!

With a heavy crash, the towering monster—easily 1.8 times Seo Yui’s height—was knocked flat on its back.

The skill she had just used was Shield Charge.

Like Ground Stomp, it stunned enemies, but its damage increased in proportion to the shield’s defensive power.

Both skills could interrupt monsters’ relentless attacks or cancel their spellcasting, boosting the tank’s survival rate and, ultimately, the squad’s overall stability.

The stunned small monsters soon recovered and began attacking Seo Yui again.

But she blocked every single strike with her shield.

This was the effect of her Blue Mask state: a guaranteed 100% block rate.

While Seo Yui absorbed the attacks, black thorn-like effects appeared, piercing the monsters’ bodies.

This came from the thorn enchantment added to the new heavy armor I had crafted for her.

In Latesai, thorn effects weren’t physical but curse-type damage.

That meant they dealt significant damage even to the Bag Toter Mine monsters, who resisted physical attacks.

Seo Yui’s holding up fine. Now, how’s Lumina doing?

I turned my gaze further back.

Lumina darted swiftly between ranged-type monsters, her crimson-glowing daggers slashing through them.

Every time her daggers struck, small explosions flared up, red flames blooming across the monsters’ bodies.

It was the effect of fire-attribute attacks landing true.

The Bag Toter Mine monsters resisted physical and frost attacks and were immune to lightning and bleeding.

However, as Meiling’s magic had already shown, fire was an effective weakness to exploit.

That was why I had forged fire-elemental daggers for Lumina.

With her damage multiplied nearly tenfold thanks to the new equipment, and now empowered with the correct attribute, she could slay the mine monsters—including the Stoneclouds—without even relying on stealth.

Switching skills and weapons according to the dungeon—that’s the right way to play Ratesai.*

Of course, this was only possible because Seo Yui served as a reliable tank.

With Lumina’s low Energy Aptitude, there was no way she could survive long against dozens of monsters—especially those whose attack power spiked the deeper they went.

But with Seo Yui holding off the melee mobs, Lumina had the freedom to take down the ranged ones in the back.

The formation was clear now: Seo Yui in the vanguard, Lumina in the middle line, Meiling in the rear.

And me, supporting all three.

Finally, this was starting to look like a real squad.

Right now, thanks to the three of them handling their roles so well, there’s hardly anything left for me to do.

With an HP potion hanging from my sling, I simply watched as the monster numbers dwindled.

In less than a minute, everything was reduced to ashes and vanished.

“Yein! These daggers cut through so easily! Those tough monsters feel like balloons now!” Lumina shouted, her face glowing with excitement.

“The Skill Gems you gave me fit my role perfectly. You planned all this out, didn’t you?” Seo Yui asked.

I nodded.

“Stop talking and let’s move to the next area already! In this condition, I feel like we could beat anything!”

Meiling laughed brightly, her cheeks flushed red. She truly enjoyed the thrill of slaying monsters.

“Alright. Let’s go,” I said, nodding firmly.

“Let’s finish the headmaster’s assignment today.”

Sunlight poured warmly through the windows of a high-rise office on a fine spring day.

“Mmmm…”

Inside, a middle-aged woman with moss-colored hair sat at her desk, groaning with a troubled look on her face.

“Mmmmmm…”

Arms folded, her head drooped lower and lower, a frown visible behind her large round glasses.

Then came a knock on the door.

“Come in.”

At her words, the door opened and a man carrying documents stepped inside.

“Branch Chief Ju Yeongsong, I’ve brought the list of new recruits from last week.”

He placed the papers on her desk.

“I’ll be going now.”

“Wait.”

He stopped mid-turn and faced her again.

“What is it, Chief?”

“Could you check if there are any Hunter Academy staff members among the believers? Look through the list carefully.”

“The Hunter Academy…?”

“Yes. There’s something I need to confirm.”

“Understood.”

The man crossed his hands over his chest, bowed, and left the room.

Once the door shut, Ju Yeongsong tapped her fingers lightly on the desk.

That silver-haired boy I saw back then… I could barely sense it, but he definitely carried that person’s scent.

It had been when she was personally out proselytizing on the streets.

But that shouldn’t be possible. That person would never bestow blessings on anyone outside our order. I told myself it was just my imagination, but… I still can’t get him out of my mind.

If that was the case, she had no choice but to meet him again and be sure.

That silver hair is proof he’s a Hunter. And the girl with green hair beside him too. They must have been students from one of the Hunter Academies near Yongsan—Crystal, Martial God, or Gwangcheon. It may take time to find them again, but I won’t be able to rest until I confirm it with my own eyes.

She flipped through the list left on her desk.

If that boy truly has received His blessing…

Then she must bring him into the cult at all costs.

For such a gift would mark him as something more than an ordinary Hunter—a chosen one, prepared for the end to come.

Ju Yeongsong pressed her lips tightly together, her resolve firm.

“Waaaahhh!!”

Seo Yui’s battle cry echoed through the boss chamber.

Every monster near the massive Stonecloud turned and charged straight at her.

But the boss itself ignored her, its body swelling larger and larger.

It was gathering petrification gas.

The Stonecloud boss’s petrification gas always came at the start of battle. Once released, it filled the entire chamber, lingering for a full minute.

In that time, a hunter could easily be petrified ten times over, so the only option was to keep chugging potions while fighting.

This was the sort of difficulty-balancing mechanic Latesai often threw at players.

Allowing that pattern to trigger, despite knowing it, would be sheer stupidity.

Boom!

A red fang-like effect erupted from the boss’s body as an explosion shook the room.

Lumina, approaching in stealth, had unleashed her skill Beast Bite.

When using Beast Bite, the skill dealt 150% of physical attack power, with an additional 20% multiplier on a critical hit.

Combined with Lumina’s stealth, which guaranteed a critical strike, it was the perfect skill to use.

And right now, she was wearing the brand-new equipment I had forged for her.

Each piece carried added effects that boosted critical damage multipliers.

Skills, abilities, and gear—when stacked together, Lumina’s critical strike from that blow reached nearly 760% damage.

That single strike was enough to cancel the Stonecloud boss’s petrification gas pattern.

The giant Stonecloud’s body shrank as its HP plummeted in an instant, forcing the pattern to skip.

In retaliation, boulders floated up around it and hurled straight toward Lumina.

The aggro had shifted.

Lumina sprinted away, dodging the barrage, deliberately moving in the opposite direction from where Meiling and I stood.

At that moment, Seo Yui, still engaged with the smaller monsters, stomped the ground.

Ground Stomp!

All the nearby monsters froze in place, stunned. Taking advantage of the opening, Seo Yui launched a Shield Charge straight at the Stonecloud boss.

“Now’s the time!”

“You don’t need to tell me!”

Meiling shouted back as she hurled a Mana Bomb.

The stunned small monsters were caught in the blast, wiped out instantly.

Meiling immediately began conjuring a fireball while the Stonecloud turned its focus to Seo Yui, who had just rammed it with her shield.

Her spell complete, Meiling unleashed a fully charged Flame Cluster.

Eight blazing orbs struck the Stonecloud’s misty-gray body, detonating in a chain of fiery explosions.

The boss began generating more rocks, turning its massive frame toward Meiling, when Seo Yui let out another deafening Taunt Shout.

“Waaaahhh!!”

The Stonecloud redirected its boulders at Seo Yui.

But each one was stopped dead by her shield, strengthened by the Blue Mask’s 100% guard rate.

Meiling, meanwhile, stood still, staff raised. She was waiting for Flame Cluster’s cooldown to reset.

Mana Bomb had already refreshed, but using it risked Seo Yui being caught in the blast.

Thunk! Thud!

One after another, the massive rocks slammed against Seo Yui’s shield.

Her face twisted, lips pressed tight—an expression of sheer pain and endurance.

So it’s piercing damage.

Normally, if an attack didn’t exceed the shield’s defense and her HP, no damage would reach the user.

But Latesai included the special property of piercing damage.

This bypassed shield defense and armor resistance, dealing fixed damage directly to the body.

High-level monsters almost always carried such attributes, making them all the more dangerous.

I swung my sling, launching an HP potion toward Seo Yui.

The vial arced through the air, burst above her head, and the crimson liquid splashed down over her pink hair.

Almost immediately, her pained expression eased.

“Got it!” Meiling cried, raising her staff again.

Flames gathered above her pointed hat.

The battle scene repeated itself—

The Stonecloud, freshly hit, turned to Meiling once more. With a rumble, it soared upward into the center of the boss chamber.

Its body trembled, and boulders began materializing in the air all around.

This was its ultimate attack pattern: Rain of Stones.

The entire chamber was its range.

With its high piercing damage, frail characters like mages or supporters would be obliterated instantly.

In our squad, only Seo Yui could possibly survive it.

But Rain of Stones wasn’t something aggro could solve.

Unlike targeted rock throws, this was a wide-area bombardment.

And Seo Yui couldn’t cancel it with Ground Stomp or Shield Charge.

From that height, her skills simply wouldn’t reach.

Then Meiling fired a Mana Bomb into the air.

The mass of mana exploded upon colliding with the cluster of stones, blowing a hole clear through.

Through that gap, the Stonecloud’s body became visible.

Meiling wasted no time—she fired a Flame Cluster straight into the opening.

The fireball struck true, detonating against the Stonecloud.

But even so, it remained suspended in the air, still drawing in more stones.

Its body was gradually obscured by the thickening rock.

“Nam Yein! I did exactly what you said, but the casting didn’t cancel!”

“Mm. Looks like we were just a hair short.”

“Then what do we do now? You said only Seo Yui could withstand it!”

“If we’re short, then we just fill the gap.”

I spun my sling and launched another item just before the Stonecloud was completely covered.

A red orb soared high, vanishing behind the wall of stones.

BOOOOOM!!!

A deafening blast shook the chamber.

It was a Level 25 Flame Orb, erupting into a massive explosion.

The casting was canceled.

The countless boulders dissolved into sand and rained harmlessly down as the Stonecloud plummeted back to the ground.

And then—

Boom!

A flash of green hair appeared behind it.

Lumina struck again from stealth, her second critical ambush.

With that, the Stonecloud boss finally disintegrated into particles, vanishing completely.

In its place, glowing materials and demonic relics clattered to the ground.

We had cleared the third floor of the Bag Toter Mine.

(End of Chapter)

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