Chương 11: Chapter 11
I don't own solo leveling or Jujutsu Kaisen
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"Let's do this."
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Calm, cold winds blew through snow covered trees. The path in front of the group was littered with frosted bushes and leaves. The crunching of snow was the only thing heard for kilometers as the attack force treaded through the snowy forest.
"You certainly picked the worst time to wear a vest didn't you, Snow White?" Kil Song yi said teasingly making reference to Kim's white hair and the snowy path they were currently walking.
"I certainly did, but I prefer you call me Kim instead of Snow White," Kim replied back not entertaining a stupid nickname like Snow White. He wasn't really that cold, because he kept circulating the mana around his body to create a warm aura that staved off the cold. It was a technique he thought of, usually his new atomic level manipulation of mana to the fullest. The system called it...
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[Skills:
(Passive)
Elemental Blanket Lvl1 -
By internally circulating the mana in one's body a passive barrier around the user is created to protect them from harsh climates like extreme cold or heat.
- Consumes no MP - ]
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"This is strange though," Kim said after a few moments. "How so?" Song yi rose a brow wondering what Kim was going on about.
"Dungeons that are C-rank or lower don't normally have vegetation or an environment with an ecosystem like this one seems to have. They're usually caves or dark tunnels with luminous stones littered everywhere," Kim expressed his thoughts to the rest of the group. The information wasn't new to the group, but they all seemed to tense regardless as they all focused their eyes on Min Su's back.
"I understand what you are saying, but this is still a C-rank dungeon by the Association's readings. If you want to turn back be my guest," Min Su told everyone firmly. He noticed the stares he was getting behind his back and he dared any of them to test him on his stance. They were going to raid this dungeon and that was that.
...
The group treaded through the snowy woods with the sound of their feet crunching the snow and heavy breathing being their only company
Snap!
Kim's acute hearing picked up on the sound of a twig snapping in the distance. He would have passed of as nothing normally but the feeling of someone or something watching was not a feeling he could shake off.
Rotating his head to the left he narrowed the eyes behind his glasses to focus on the sound coming from that direction.
"Nothing has happened for a while. Is it even possible for a dungeon to have no monster?" Tae Jun, the assassin class hunter muttered playfully twirling his knife.
"Quiet." Kim shushed the assassin telling him to listen by gesturing to his ear.
"It's not common but magic beasts are natural predators like a lion or crocodile. Which means they like to wait for the perfect moment to catch their prey."
Which means...?
"Ambush!"
Min Su shouted once he realized what the white haired hunter meant. They were being hunted.
Once that was said a vicious, white wolf leaped out from bushes trying to snap Song yi's neck with its sharp canines.
The orange haired archer's reactions were snapy enough for him to roll out the way just in time to pull out his bow and draw an arrow from his quiver.
The others instantly went on guard waiting for any other sneak attack from the wolves knowing that one wasn't the end of it. It seemed that the wolves realized this as well and stepped out from the bushes in droves to completely surround the party, barring their sharp fangs ready to pounce.
"They have us surrounded!" Kim shouted reaching up to remove the sunglasses from his face. Tightening the grip he had on the straps of the bag he was carrying.
"Get ready everyone this is gonna get messy. Make sure you don't die!" Min Su ordered as he unsheathed his dual blades and getting into a fighting stance.
"Yeah, yeah! Don't state the obvious, Min Su!" Song yi said cockly doing a quick draw from his bow and launching four arrows at two wolves that were still concealed in the cover of the snowy bushes and shrubs.
'Impressive! With precision like that then it makes sense he's an archer," Kim thought.
Song yi's arrows were the start of all out pandemonium causing the wolves to eagerly engage in combat with the group.
Kim Bora moved backwards slightly to dodge a claw aimed at his throat with ease and kicked the wolf into a tree. He flipped over a wolf charging straight at him and landed a stomp on its spine that snapped it clean in half, killing it.
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[You have leveled up!]
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'Huh... It seems my title's effect — Lynx Predator — gives me lots of experience even against wolves,' Kim thought to himself as he surveyed the fights going on around him. He didn't expect to level up from killing just two C-rank monsters, crediting his quick level up to his titles experience boost against beast type monsters.
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[Title : Lynx Predator
A title given to a hunter effective in fighting against tigers.
20% increase in experience against beast-type monsters.]
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Min Su was cleaning slicing through the wolves with his blades, causing the snow around him to be dyed red with wolf blood. Kim wouldn't want to get into an altercation with Min Su as he noticed the absolutely bloodthirsty expression on his face. His efficiency with those two blades were unlike anything he had seen maybe that's why he commanded such respect from his peers, he was just a great warrior with skill few in his attack force could match. His swings were swift and focused on doing the most damage possible, never overextending himself or leaving an opening for the beasts to exploit. He was a hunter at the top of his game that's for sure.
Song yi did his best to keep his distance and fire arrows enhanced with magic. He was doing great, but it was clear he was uncomfortable with how close quarters he was with the wolves not really having enough space to display his true archery skills.
A few minutes later all the wolves were dead and only two members of the group required bandages from the stray claw attacks the wolves managed to land.
"Everyone take all the magic crystals! We're splitting them amongst all of us," Min Su ordered showing a happy smile at pulling out sharp luminous crystal from the monster corpse. His joy contrasting greatly with his very aloof demeanor.
The group began to dissect the wolf corpses in search for the magic crystals embedded deep within their bodies.
"Good job on spotting the ambush. I must admit I'm pretty impressed," Min Su complemted throwing a crystal at Kim that he caught easily. "If you keep pulling your weight like that then you might not a liability after all," he continued.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence..." Kim sighed pocketing the crystal. "How were you able to tell that there were wolves hunting us? You pay attention well," Song yi complimented collecting the arrows he fire all over the battlefield.
"Intuition, I guess," Kim shrugged his shoulders.
"Regardless of how he did it, he saved our asses from a potentially worse outcome," Min Su said referring to the only two injured members trying to patch themselves up from stray claw attacks the monsters landed.
"That's what happens when you're too casual Tae Jun," Min Su lightly criticted the young hunter who was holding onto his abdomen in pain.
"Yeah, yeah," He responded waving off his leader's criticism grumpily getting up from the ground.
...
White wolves were low C-rank monsters, that were strong and fast with razor sharp claws and canines capable of rendering any of their flesh and bones to nothing. They only got more deadly when they attacked in groups like this one. Even if his squad was made up of only C-ranks it was impressive that only two them were injured.
'I've never seen a pack as large as this one... They usually don't have numbers like this, unless they were migrating towards new territory. So that means there is another something out here that drove them out.' Min Su quickly deducted by analysing the number of wolves and using the experience he gained from multiple C-rank raids.
"Let's get out of here," he ordered concluding that they wouldn't find any answers by just standing around.
...
"Hey, boss! Check out this splittered tree! They get worse just ahead of us," Hwang Gyu Han, the C-rank tank and tracker of the attack force. The bald-headed man had an eye for the hidden despite being a frontline fighter. "There must have been a fight here. Judging by the chewed up wolf limbs and blood, a bloody battle. A territorial skirmish?" Gyu Han thought out loud.
"You're right, There's something definitely more dangerous than wolves in these woods. It might have been the reason we encountered such a large pack of wolves," the spiky haired leader said in response to Gyu Han's thoughts. It definitely put him on edge but if it was like this then it would definitely be a good opportunity.
Despite, the group's misgivings, they went on ahead and would eventually stumbled upon a brightly lit cave.
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"Wow~"
"It's pretty dark in there."
"Are you sure you want us to go in there? I mean really?"
A pitch black cave is what faced the party as soon as they were clear of the snowy woods. The some members couldn't help but be off put by the eerie darkness before them.
"Suho. Light it up," Min Su ordered not once taking his eyes off the cave entrance.
Park Suho nodded his head firmly. Using his affinity for fire magic he formed a fireball in his palm and threw it inside the cave.
As it traveled inside brightning up the dark cave for a few brief moments Min Su and his comrades were able to see multiple red eyes staring back at them. The red eyed beings hugged walls and ceiling of the cave before they vanished from sight along with Suho's fire.
'Bats... Not a big deal.'
Min Su smirked slightly his eyes shimmering a violet hue. Drawing his dual swords from their sheath and gripping them tightly to his side.
Taking a deep breath he let the mana in his belly swirl before filling his chest and finally expelling from his mouth as a magic infused shout.
Startled a cloud of bats swarmed and fled from the cave in waves flying past the group with their loud screeches paining the ears of everyone putting them on their hands and knees.
'Hehe... Maybe I didn't think that through that much!'
Lee Min Su grunted covering his face to prevent being scratched by the bat's swarming past them.
"Damn! What are these things doing?"
"Agh! My ears I can barely hear a thing?"
"Someone do something!"
Everyone was on their knees holding onto their ears trying to swat away the bats that blinded their perception.
"Suho! Use your fire flare!" Min Su ordered pulling out his blade attempting to bring down the nuisances.
"Right!" Suho replied clapping his hands together and then stretching his arms out to let loose a ring of magically conjured flames.
This was enough to ward off the bats as they flew away in separate directions. This allowed the group to breath a sigh of relief as they came to their senses.
"Don't ever do that again!" Song yi raged at Min Su rubbing his ears after they were assaulted from the high frequency sounds from the bats.
"Too casual my ass! You almost got me deaf, bastard!" Tae Jun complained loudly. He stumbled to his feet and gave Min Su a harsh glare for his careless actions.
"Sorry guys!"
He apologized with a sheepish look on his face before turning serious and facing the now lit up cave in front of him.
"Nice~"
"I think we just hit the jackpot guys!"
"I've never seen this many mana crystals before!"
Entering the, now, vacant cave filled to the brim with blue luminous crystals of various shapes and sizes. They littered the ceiling and walls as the glowed brightly with mana.
"If they are this big then it'll fetch for a big price probably around 10 million won!" Gyu Han smiled seeing that even just one crystal easily dwarfted his height. They would need heavier equipment if they even hoped to take it for themselves.
"What do you think, boss? This is a good chance," Song yi questioned poking him on the side with his elbow.
"..." Min Su was silent not even entertaining Song yi with a response. 'Monster crystals are worth more than mana crystals, but with this much it'll definitely outweigh the value of monster crystals. But we still haven't encountered the boss yet,' he thought his eyes scanning trying to grasp the area with his sixth sense.
Ignoring Song yi for the moment, he narrowed his eyes trying to think of a possible reason as to why the boss hadn't show up yet. It could be possible that it just wasn't here yet, but he highly doubted that.
"Boss?" Song yi questioned noticing the shift in his leader's demeanor. The only time he was ever like this is when-
"Song yi, did you bring the mining tools?" Min Su asked him simply but loud enough for everyone to hear.
Song yi paused for a moment before he cleared his throat chuckling a bit.
"Oh, geez. Captain, why would you ask that so suddenly? I left most of them in the truck."
"Well that's unfortunate. Looks like we'll have to make our way back and get them," Min Su sighed shrugging his shoulders in a what can you do sort of fashion.
"Let's head out guys except for you Kim," he ordered causing Kim to narrow his eyes in suspicion.
"Why am I staying?" Kim asked a edge to his tone.
"Simple. We need someone to chase away the bats in case they come running back again. We may have chased them off this time but with no here as deterant they just come nesting here and we don't want that," the spiky haired leader explained sounding very convincing, even to Kim, but something about leaving your teammates behind didn't sit right with him at all.
"... "
Kim just stayed silent with a blank expression on his face.
"What of the boss?" he asked simply.
"We haven't seen it yet so it must be somewhere else and even if it was here it must be asleep considering that the Captain's shout didn't awaken it at all," Gyu Han explained waving off any concern about running into the boss.
"If you're so confident in that theory then why don't you stay here?" Kim asked mockingly seeing the tank's expression shift to a glare.
"Don't get smart with me," he grounded out angrily.
"Lay off, Gyu Han. We're all comrades here. Kim before you met up with us I did a little research on you and found out that this would be your first official C-rank raid. So take from us, the experts, you'll be fine," Song yi said very diplomatically putting a hand on the tanker's shoulder to calm him.
"We will be back before you know it alright, so don't worry!" Song yi said patting a reassuring hand on Kim's shoulder.
After that was said and done Min Su and his groupies would walk out the cave leaving Kim Bora in solitude.
'Damn.'
He smirked knowing that he couldn't do anything to prevent the outcome of the entrance falling down and being sealed off due to a blast of fire, most likely from Park Suho.
...
"This is the most opportune time to mine these mana crystals without any monsters around!" Song yi argued eager to cash in on the 'gold' mine they stumbled upon as they walked out the cave.
"You're right about that but what if we were attacked by monsters or even worse the boss? It would have been almost impossible to escape without casualties on our side. This way it can only be one person as collateral," Min Su explained to the archer. He didn't like it either but sometimes a sacrificial lamb was needed for the benefit of everyone else, it's just unfortunate it had to be Kim Bora.
"Just like you I was hoping to incorporate Kim into the dynamics of our attack force, he has serious potential, but that won't be the case," Min Su continued.
Gyu Han deicided to cut in on the conversation.
"What if the boss really is somewhere else?"
"Not likely, but that's why we trapped Kim Bora in there. If we come back to find that he's dead then we will know and if not then then it must be somewhere else," Min Su answered as they made their way outside the gate to be greeted by the evening sky.
Song yi just laughed a little bit before stretching his arms out while yawning.
"That's cold blooded, sir, but I guess I'm no different since I would really do anything for money. Even if it meant killing someone like Kim."
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