Cheol Kin party made their plans before they finally separated from them and disappeared into the forest.
Tae turned to Susu "Let's go," who in return followed Tae without any questions.
"Ah! Wait for me" Said the B-rank female who followed then with the two excluded hunters tagging along.
Long had explained to him that all the recruits in this training would be heading into this dungeon for the first time. And that they were trained by the guild first before actually heading into the dungeon. They were unafraid just because they received some education; there is a big difference between hearing about it in the classroom and experiencing it in real life.
In fact, walking around as if they knew the dungeon, the slightest crack in their confidence would bring down their arrogance. It takes time to build something like that which could be broken down in an instant like glass.
Tae already knew the fate of Cheol's party, and that's why he didn't even bother with fool's like them.
"Hey!" the B-rank women said in order to get Tae's attention, Tae turned around and faced the women. "I am Yue Heejin," she said looking at the stale gaze that Tae had.
Cheol Kin was leading his party down he thought the party back there were fools to be following an E-ranker.
"Whoa?" he heard one of his party's members say when they approached a tree that had large bear claws on it
Of the beast type magic beats, the bears were just as dangerous as the real-world ones except they were even stronger. As that their E-ranker was leading that group into a large field of them.
'What does an E-ranker know' his expression turned into one of mocking.
'…Wait' he thought 'their team has D-ranks and a B-ranker. So, why did he considerer that e-ranker the leader. 'Well, whatever, they will be dead sooner or later. Cheol decided to focus and put the weaklings over them out of his mind. Afterall the dead are the dead, but the living should strive to keep on living.
"Did you see those markings over there?" Yue said pointing toward the tree logs with large claw marks waged into them "Those belong to Ice bears, your leading us into a den."
"I'm not leading you guys, and nobody said that you had to follow u,s" Tae said
"…" Yue was speechless as she had been shut-down like that. But her words made the rest shiver.
Tae clicked his tongue and looked at her condescendingly. Which made Yue double speechless and making her face red from embarrassment.
"What?!" she raised her voice.
"Since it's hard to find an unmarked tree here that means there are a lot
of ice bears, right?"
"Yes, so that's…"
"That's why we are heading into the forest."
Yue's eyes widen in surprise "Huh?"
"It means in this forest all we have to worry about is the ice bears."
"Ah!" Yue mouthed as she finally understood the meaning of Tae's actions 'Why didn't I think of that?' she wondered.
One of the scariest things about a dungeon was that you did not know what is around the corner, including enemies. And in this forest, he could find out everything he needed to know about his enemies before him. And now he knows that no matter how strong these ice bears where they were no doubt weaker than the snow elf's seeing as how many of them where wearing their pelts.
"Why is your face so red?" Tae asked Susu.
"I'm cold," she said slowly
Tae had forgotten that they where in a colder dungeon he looked at the other hunters who where also shivering, even the B-rank hunter was instinctively doing so while lost in thought.
Opening his inventory, Tae decided to pull [Warm fur Coats] for them.
You have a dimensional pocket" she gasped.
Dimensional Pocket was a strange ability given to a handful of hunters regardless of rank when they first awaken.
He handed the coats to all of them. Ad they quickly put the coats on and felt themselves getting warmer. Tae also followed suit when he saw that Susu had put hers on. She looked like she wanted to ask him questions. He patted he head again.
"I brought you here so I'm responsible for your protection," Tae said to her before he sighed and turned to the other hunters. "For the rest of you don not ask me questions. Do not ask anything of me. If you don't like this, you are free to leave. I won't stop you."
The other two hunters had only followed Yue until now, but now they were nodding vigorously. However, the next moment and ice bear appeared
"it's a bear!"
"Its and Ice bear!"
Having smelled humans, the white furred bear with two large icicles on its back. It wasn't happy that its land was being trespassed upon. It stood up towering them. Tae was the only calm one. Yue was about to lunch an attack when she felt her self being pulled back by her hood. she fell flat on her behind and looked at Tae who had his finger pointed at her.
"I'm only going to say this once. All magic beats going forward are mine.
Yue could not hide her confusion while the other hunters casted a dumbfounded expression.
Tae gazed at the bear as it swung an arm the size of a tree trunk with a lighting speed. Bu its attack hit nothing but air.
Slam the bear was immediately crushed from above its head. The ground below it was crushed and fell a inch inward. Tae was crouched on top of its head that had been completed flattened/
(You've leveled Up)
"Who… who the hell are you."
He Turned to the shaking voice of Yue and the other party hunters who were at loss for words.
"I am fairly sure I made myself clear." Tae scratched his temple "Since you don't Like….You can go to them" Tae pointed into the direction Cheol's party headed to.
"I just saw you kill an ice bear in one hit I am not leaving," Yue said once she snapped out of her shock. Her heart was beating fast, she had instinctively selected Tae over Cheol but now she realized how right her decision clearly was. So before Tae changed his mind she spoke. But held words in her mouth. She was going to say 'Please be our leader' but he said earlier not to ask anything of him so instead she apologized.
"I'm sorry."
After a brief moment, Tae nodded his head.
It had been three hours in the outside world.
Peony was sitting on her chair seemingly dozing off. Tae had giving her updates on the happenings inside the gate. He had even asked her if she could cook some ice bear meat.
Ding~
The system rang in her head
(Crafting Completed: [Ice Bear Cuisine] has finished)
Seeing that it was done, she sent it straight to Tae and dosed off again. She was the only one considerably calm.
"It has been over three hours" Long said looking at his watch.
"three days they have been inside" Baekho's voice was heavy, he was the only one here to experience the horror of a red gate. He glanced at Peony who's sleeping and wondered how she can be so calm in this situation. As an S-rank red gates are something that wasn't even easy to S-rankers.
"Inside a red gate you could end up in a desert with blazing temperatures, or vice versa a frozen tundra. It could also be a wild jungle with venomous insects" Baekho said slowly. "the biggest problem is that you won't know it's a red gate until you enter it leaving you unprepared, but, along with harsh environments you will still have to face magic beats. Now that three days have pasted the weakest would have perished by now."
Cheol Kin was an A-ranker but even he would not have been able to protect his whole party. You would need a whole S-ranker to do that in a red dungeon. So, as such in Baekho's mind D-rank and below are all dead.
However, only one was confident that was. Long glanced at Peony, usually, a married woman would be worried that her husband wasn't going to come back, but she wasn't worried at all meaning she has absolute confidence he was coming back.