The Support Ate it All

I looked closely into Seo Ye-in’s face.

I even held her head and gave it a gentle shake.

“Could it be broken?”

“It’s not.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.”

“Good.”

At the very least, following the Lucky Charm Radar had never cost us anything before, so I might as well trust it again.

We started heading west.

RUSTLE.

Now and then, I felt leaves and thin twigs crunch beneath our feet as I sank briefly into thought.

Going to B isn’t the worst choice.

There were far more downsides, but there were some advantages too.

The biggest one was—

We won’t run into other kids.

Given Sagong Uk’s and Cha Hyeonju’s personalities, the moment they learned I had entered, they were guaranteed to come after me and keep me in check.

Their lackeys had been ejected after being rendered unable to fight for now, but it was only a matter of time before they reentered and rejoined their parties.

Still, they won’t be able to just barge into a B-rank zone.

It had only been two days since midterms started.

This was still the early stage, so there should be very few competitors who had reached B-rank.

It would be possible if they funneled crystals into one person, but then the rest of the party wouldn’t be strong enough to keep up.

For all sorts of reasons, a proper B-zone push probably wouldn’t begin until a few more days had passed.

In other words, we could move here without being checked by other competitors.

The problem is that there are a lot more dangerous things instead.

As if agreeing with that thought, the notification I’d seen earlier appeared again at the edge of my vision.

[You are entering a Fixed Zone.]

The exact rank wasn’t displayed, but according to the map, this should be the B zone.

Sure enough, the atmosphere seemed to change distinctly.

Even the air hanging over the area felt heavier.

I lowered my voice and said to Seo Ye-in,

“From here on, we move very quietly and very carefully.”

“Careful-careful.”

Right now, we were the weakest of the weak.

Even when we fought Kang Huichan, who was D-rank, we hadn’t been able to take him down directly. At best, we trapped him in an ice bubble and sent him far away.

The things living in this neighborhood were two stages higher than that.

We wouldn’t even be a match.

So we began moving while thoroughly checking our surroundings, and even the ground beneath our feet.

Something might be installed there, or we might step on something that made noise.

Objective number one is finding an altar.

So we could use our crystals and rank up to E.

We would still be the weakest either way, but wouldn’t a three-stage gap be even a little better than a four-stage gap?

I remembered its approximate location, so we didn’t get lost.

The problem was whether we could get there safely.

After advancing a little farther, we stopped at the same time, and Seo Ye-in also tilted her head.

“......?”

“There’s something there, right?”

“Yeah.”

A powerful sense of wrongness came from between the densely grown trees.

Seo Ye-in stared at that place for a while, then summoned her [Mirror Image].

She pointed straight ahead with her finger and said,

“Scout.”

“Scout.”

Fast-Luckless strode forward energetically, without the slightest caution.

And before she had gone very far—

SLASH—!

She was cleanly cut in half and scattered.

As if she had been struck by the single sword stroke of an expert swordsman.

Soon after, movement wriggled between the trees, and a mantis the size of an adult man revealed itself.

It seemed to have been hiding with protective coloration and a stealth skill layered on top.

Then it had attacked Fast-Luckless with its two scythe-like forelegs.

“.......”

The giant mantis looked around to confirm its prey, but Fast-Luckless had already been reverse-summoned.

Only then did it seem to realize it had come up empty. It returned to its original position and smoothly turned transparent.

Seo Ye-in and I exchanged a glance.

“We should go around, right?”

“Let’s detour.”

But soon, there was no need.

A rustling sound came from somewhere and gradually grew closer, until another monster revealed itself.

It was an armadillo.

Befitting a B-rank zone, it was huge, and an armor-like shell covered its entire back.

It also seemed to sense the same wrongness we had, because it stopped in place and swept its gaze around the area.

The next moment, the giant mantis sprang out and swung its forelegs, but the armadillo’s response was swift.

When it curled its body into a ball—

SKRRAAAPE!

The forelegs that had seemed capable of slicing through anything only scraped across its shell.

Then the armadillo bounced in place several times, rising higher and higher.

CRUNCH!

It crushed the mantis flat in a single blow.

Then, after tearing into the flattened remains and filling its stomach, it leisurely left the area.

Coincidentally, in the same direction we needed to go—the direction where the altar was located.

Seo Ye-in asked,

“Follow?”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

From our perspective, this was the perfect opportunity.

We were in a situation where anything could pop out from anywhere, and the armadillo was taking the lead and opening the path for us.

If we followed behind it, we should be able to avoid a good number of dangers.

Another important reason was that one card had fallen near the flattened mantis.

[Plunder(B)]

▷Randomly steals 1–3 of the target’s B-rank or lower cards.

Since this was a B-rank fixed zone, the level of dropped items was high too.

If we just followed that thing, we could farm without lifting a finger.

It might change direction or come back midway, though.

That was something to think about when it happened.

Before long, the armadillo encountered a two-legged rhinoceros beetle and briefly faced off against it.

Once again, it curled itself into a ball, bounced up and down, and flew in an arc.

CRUNCH!

Then it flattened its opponent again and won.

Maybe because it had already filled its stomach with flat mantis, it only took a few bites before leaving the area.

What dropped this time was not a card, but—

[Empty Crystal(C+)]

This was also high-rank.

We needed to maintain stealth for now, so charging it would have to wait until after we left this place.

For now, we keep following.

Thanks to the armadillo, we were getting high-grade items without using our hands.

BOUNCE, BOUNCE, BOUNCE, CRUNCH!

This time, what it flattened was a person-sized golem made of gathered trees and rocks.

Everything had been fine up to that point, but soon after, a powerful rumbling shook the area as if an earthquake had struck.

RUMBLE......

Then something I had thought was a small mound rose to its feet.

It was also a golem, but it was easily three times bigger.

It was even larger than the ogres we had often faced.

Seo Ye-in looked up at it and tilted her head.

“......Mommy golem?”

“Close enough.”

The golem seemed fairly angry, whether because its child—or perhaps its kin—had been attacked.

Judging by the way it slowly assumed a combat stance.

Even so, the armadillo did not lose its fighting spirit. It curled itself into a ball again and bounced up and down.

Then it threw its entire body into a charge.

BOOOOM—!

But while a few cracks appeared on the golem’s body, it did not seem to have taken much damage.

Soon, it lifted one hand above its shoulder.

CRUNCH—!

Then slammed it down with unbelievable speed for its size.

In the end, the armadillo was flattened just like all the enemies it had hunted so far.

THUD, THUD.

The mommy golem returned to its original spot and curled back up.

It looked like we had no choice but to go around this place.

“Before that, we grab those.”

“Items.”

The baby(?) golem and the armadillo had each dropped one.

They were probably high-rank too, so it would be a waste to give them up.

But if we went to retrieve them ourselves, we would end up the same way.

Of course, we had an immortal existence on our side.

“Clone, depart.”

“Item retrieval.”

At Seo Ye-in’s command, mirror-image Seo Ye-in trudged toward the items.

The mommy golem seemed to sense a presence and rose to its feet again.

RUMBLE......

In response, mirror-image Seo Ye-in sped up even more, and as soon as she got the two items in hand, she threw them toward us.

Then she disappeared with a pop.

A perfectly timed reverse-summon.

BOOOOM—!

A fist of stone and wood slammed down on the innocent ground.

Then the mommy golem returned to its original spot and curled up again as if nothing had happened.

It was the type that didn’t bother chasing as long as we didn’t approach within a certain radius.

So we did exactly as we had thought and took a wide detour.

For reference, the dropped items were—

[Empty Crystal(C+)]

[Protection]

▷When targeted by an attack card, nullifies its effect.

▷Destroyed after activating once.

It was a card that would prevent you from being sent flying by an opponent’s [Ejection], or from having your items stolen by the [Plunder] we had just obtained.

Of course, it was far rarer than attack-type cards.

Well, if everything got blocked, it wouldn’t be fun.

Soon, just like when we first entered the B zone, we carefully checked our surroundings and advanced one step at a time.

Since we had already moved a fair distance, it didn’t take long to reach our destination.

It was a structure made of stone, thickly covered in moss.

At the front was something like a plate, where an object could be placed.

The altar.

I immediately placed the F- and E-rank crystals I had traded from Ahn Hyeongi on it.

FLASH—!

A powerful light burst out for an instant.

The crystals turned into particles of light, scattered, and were absorbed into us.

[Rank]

▷Kim Ho: F→E

▷Seo Ye-in: F→E

With that, our first objective was complete.

Seo Ye-in asked another question.

“What now?”

“If nothing else comes up, we grab just the hidden piece and get out.”

It would be nice if another one like that armadillo showed up.

Just as I was soothing that lingering regret—

“Grrrr......”

A low growl came from somewhere, and we both turned our heads at the same time.

There was an old tree a short distance away.

On one of its branches, a pair of eyes shone fiercely.

Judging by the silhouette, it was a leopard.

“We got spotted.”

“We did.”

Using the altar seemed to have drawn attention.

Soon, I felt the beast crouch on the tree branch.

I spoke immediately.

“Smoothly.”

“Smoothly.”

SSSSSSS......

Together, we cast [Ghost Without Shadow] and left the spot.

Since it had no rank assigned to it in the first place, it was one of the few relatively effective responses in this situation.

After we retreated some distance and looked back at the place where we had just been—

BOOOOM—!

Sure enough, a giant leopard had landed there.

Despite the fairly wide distance, it had leaped over in one bound.

“Grrrrrr......”

It seemed to realize it had missed us, but it did not appear to have any intention of giving up its prey.

It sniffed the air, pricked up its ears, and slowly crept toward the place where we were hiding.

Its body was low, as if it would pounce at any moment.

Now what?

At a glance, it looked even stronger than the mantis or armadillo, so fighting it was not a good choice.

But [Ghost Without Shadow] was on cooldown, and ★Blink★ couldn’t be used because of our rank.

Using something heavy like Time Leap(S) or [Manifestation(F)] would be way too wasteful.

Does the clone have to work hard again?

Something like drawing its attention while we put distance between us.

Seo Ye-in seemed to be thinking something similar, because she exchanged a look with her mirror image and gave a small nod.

And right as we were about to act—

THUD, THUUD.

Heavy footsteps approached from somewhere.

There was also the sound of trees cracking and breaking.

The giant leopard stopped tracking us for a moment and turned.

“Grrrr......!”

As it let out that wary growl, “it” finally lumbered into view.

My gaze naturally turned toward Seo Ye-in.

“Your friend’s here.”

“?”

Its true identity was an enormous sloth.