The two Arachnes lay grotesquely split and sprawled across the ground.
Seo Ye-rin stared down at the corpses, a hint of confusion flickering across her face.
Wasn’t she supposed to be a C-rank awakened with no dungeon experience?
Objectively speaking, Seo Ye-rin was a seasoned A-rank Hunter.
Her assessments carried a certain level of credibility, and because of that, she always took care with her words and actions.
It was a rule she constantly reminded herself of—and one that resurfaced now out of habit.
That girl did that?
Seo Ye-rin barely managed to reel in the dumbfounded expression on her face, letting out a dry, disbelieving laugh.
There was no way that was someone with no experience.
Her awareness, reactions, and responses—everything had been unnervingly swift and precise.
It was reflexive—something built from ingrained training.
It wouldn’t be unreasonable to say she moved like someone used to combat.
She had dispatched two Arachnes instantly, without hesitation.
“First, let’s finish clearing this place.”
Shaking off her stray thoughts, Seo Ye-rin began gathering her magic.
“Ignis, Secuur, Explosio—”
She incanted each word in sequence: fire, chaining, explosion.
With a powerful, flame-infused spell sweeping the area multiple times, not even Arachnes with hardened exoskeletons could survive.
“Detexo.”
As the final word left her lips, completing the incantation, Seo Ye-rin felt her magic surge outward in a wide circle around her.
Her mana erupted into a blazing inferno.
The roar of the explosion and the heatwave from the flames engulfed the area in all directions.
Black smoke billowed upward in thick columns as the fire scorched the Arachnes to ash.
When the magic died down, Seo Ye-rin let out a breath and scanned the battlefield—now littered with corpses and piles of soot.
Are there any survivors?
Judging by the number of burned bodies, it seemed she wouldn’t need to worry about the Arachnes anymore.
Just as she was about to call out to Choa, who she had sent toward the gate—
“Um, is it… over now…?”
Choa timidly spoke up, having somehow circled back and approached without her noticing.
Her eyes darted around quickly as she scanned the surroundings.
Was it vigilance, or was she just shy and uncomfortable in unfamiliar situations?
Seo Ye-rin frowned subtly, unable to get a clear read on Choa.
“Did you know the situation here had been resolved?”
“Ah, yes…! I sensed the monster presences fading through energy perception…!”
Energy perception?
Did she have some kind of detection-type trait?
The sudden mention of something unexpected piqued Seo Ye-rin’s curiosity.
But for now, the specifics didn’t matter.
“Your technique was impressive.”
“R-Really?!”
“Yes. To be honest, when those two Arachnes appeared in front of you, I thought I’d have to intervene myself.”
That wasn’t a personal opinion—it was an objective judgment based on the situation.
Arachnes are no ordinary monsters.
Their venom is so lethal that getting poisoned is as good as dying.
Their silk is as strong as steel, and they have the size of a bear, not to mention the rock-hard exoskeleton that covers their bodies.
Most C-rank Hunters struggle significantly against Arachnes.
The combination of lethal venom and surprise silk attacks makes it extremely difficult to fight them head-on.
Even seasoned Hunters are advised to keep their distance, snipe from afar, or hunt Arachnes in party formations.
“Did you receive any specialized training?”
Seo Ye-rin asked, now certain that Choa had learned from somewhere.
There’s no way that level of skill could come from just diligently attending an academy.
Sure, someone with talent might graduate with power like hers.
But the way she had cut down those Arachnes just now wasn’t from training.
It was instinctual—actions born from real combat experience.
Only someone with innate talent and repeated hands-on experience could fight like that.
With that thought, Seo Ye-rin asked her the question.
“Yes…! I trained really hard for a month…!”
“A month…?!”
Seo Ye-rin’s eyes widened in shock, her head turning almost automatically.
Her gaze landed on the two Arachnes Choa had cut down—still lying cleanly split on the ground.
That?
From just one month of training?
No matter how many times she looked, the movement was clearly that of a seasoned swordswoman.
From the moment the enemy appeared, Choa didn’t panic.
She instantly moved her body, closed the distance with practiced ease, and cut the Arachnes down cleanly in a single motion.
The entire process was unnaturally swift and precise.
But that wasn’t all.
Her actions didn’t just qualify as “good reactions.”
The swordsmanship she used to slice through the Arachnes showed an incredibly high level of completion.
It was Academy-standard swordsmanship.
But far sharper and faster than what was typically taught.
Seo Ye-rin, who had once trained at the Academy herself, recognized this immediately.
And with that recognition came curiosity.
“Did you personally modify the standard Academy sword style?”
“Ah—no, my master adjusted it to fit my body…! And then—”
As soon as the topic turned to Cheon Hwi, Choa’s initial shyness melted away.
Her words came pouring out.
She told Seo Ye-rin how she met him, what she had been through, and how she ended up entering this dungeon.
Choa recited all that had happened over the past month with ease.
But for Seo Ye-rin, listening to it was like getting hit in the head.
Sure, about half of it was just nonstop praise for Cheon Hwi.
But even ignoring that, the rest of the story was so ridiculous, it was hard to believe.
“Wait—what?”
He watched a few of her videos and designed a personalized sword style just like that?
He built a custom magic core and increased her mana capacity?
She gained the experience of a seasoned Hunter in just one month?
She completed all that training—in only one month?
Is that even physically possible?!
Each sentence sounded like it was using common sense as a jump rope, and Seo Ye-rin’s mouth slowly fell open.
“He’s truly amazing. I think he’s close with the Association President too!”
“H-He’s close with the President as well…?”
Just who was this man?
That question began to grow louder and louder in Seo Ye-rin’s mind.
“L-Let’s keep going. We still have the rest of the dungeon to clear.”
Getting hit in the head by a monster might’ve been less disorienting than this.
Brushing off that wild thought, Seo Ye-rin quickened her pace.
As expected, she fights strangely well.
While wandering the dungeon in search of the boss monster, Seo Ye-rin found the thought creeping into her head.
Did she do nothing but train and eat for a whole month?
She’s growing in real time.
Watching Choa fight monsters, Seo Ye-rin made that judgment.
At first, Choa still showed signs of nervousness when encountering monsters.
A clear sign of her lack of dungeon experience.
But now?
No hesitation.
She was cutting through monsters like a seasoned hunter.
March forward, monster appears, slash—done.
With this pattern, she carved through the dungeon with ease, and before they knew it, Seo Ye-rin and Choa had arrived at the boss room.
“Th-That must be the boss monster…!”
“I figured as much when I saw those Arachnes earlier. Looks like it’s a Bloody Arachne after all.”
Choa swallowed hard, while Seo Ye-rin narrowed her eyes.
“I-It’s huge…!”
Choa stammered in shock at the sheer size of the monster before them.
“On average, Bloody Arachnes are about three to four times larger than standard Arachnes,”
Seo Ye-rin explained coolly, still glaring at the boss.
“Their larger size means their physical abilities far exceed those of normal variants. Their venom and silk are also significantly more dangerous.”
That’s why Bloody Arachnes are typically defeated from a distance.
Multiple high-powered Hunters attack at range before the creature has any chance to retaliate.
Maximum damage, minimum risk.
Seo Ye-rin, her mana now gently stirring, was about to mention that this strategy was commonly abbreviated as DPS check.
But right then.
“Um… would it be okay if I tried fighting it myself…?”
Choa spoke hesitantly, asking for permission.
Seo Ye-rin froze.
Did she hear that correctly?
Try—what, fight the Bloody Arachne?
Alone?
“No,” Seo Ye-rin replied firmly, her tone hard and unyielding.
She’d seen this before, while training rookies at the Association.
Talented beginner Hunters would sometimes get overconfident after a few victories.
Then do something reckless and end up causing serious accidents.
This Hunter was clearly gifted.
So Seo Ye-rin figured she must’ve fallen into the same trap as others like her.
With that, she calmly laid out the reasoning behind her refusal.
“There’s as much of a gap between a normal Arachne and a Bloody Arachne as there is between a child and an adult. Just because you can easily defeat one doesn’t mean you can take on the other.”
She wasn’t denying Choa’s abilities.
Based on everything she’d seen so far, Choa was fully capable of contributing in a C-rank dungeon.
Maybe it was natural talent, maybe effort—but she was growing fast, and had clear potential for more.
Still, that didn’t mean she had already surpassed the limits of a C-rank.
“Recklessness, or arrogance. Hunters must always be wary of baseless confidence. The roles of hunter and hunted can flip in an instant, And no matter how proud we are of the title ‘Hunter,’ Humans are, more often than not, closer to prey.”
Skill, mana, strength, experience, and the right tools.
Only when all those elements come together can a human begin to stand against a monster.
But monsters are different.
Even the lowest E-rank ones can kill an unawakened civilian with ease.
If that’s the standard from the bottom, then the higher ranks speak for themselves.
And awakened beings are no exception.
One moment of carelessness—just one lapse in vigilance—and it’s all over.
That’s what makes monsters monsters.
“Which is why—”
“I think I can win.”
Choa cut Seo Ye-rin off and stood up straight.
Then, confidently, she began walking toward the Bloody Arachne.
Eyes wide open, gaze locked onto the towering monster before her.
From the very beginning, this had been a challenge she wanted to overcome herself.
Even with the Red Gate mutation, that didn’t change.
And because that hadn’t changed—
She couldn’t back down, not even to an A-rank Hunter standing by her side.
Sure, relying on Seo Ye-rin would make this easier.
But she didn’t want to walk away with an easy, forgettable ending.
She wanted to see it through to the very end—herself.
With her resolve steeled, Choa continued with a determined expression:
“I just… know I can.”
This wasn’t bravado.
It wasn’t arrogance.
It felt like standing before a giant.
There was a distinct shift in presence that Seo Ye-rin couldn’t ignore.
The moment she sensed it, Choa felt it too.
With the mastery of her Blood Heaven Blood Refinement Method sharpening her senses.
And her innate awakened trait—Super Instinct—screaming inside her.
She knew.
“With the way I am now, I can kill it.”
Of course, this wasn’t going to be easy.
Even a single hit could mean death.
She’d have to go all in, using every technique at her disposal.
Thankfully, she had learned a special martial art from Cheon Hwi just for dangerous moments like this.
It hadn’t been taught with something like a Red Gate specifically in mind.
But now that things had come to this—there was no reason to hesitate.
“Chohwigyeong,” she whispered, her voice calm, but her resolve solid as steel.
She’d already calculated the physical toll it would take on her body.
And she was ready.
“Double it.”
A soft, crimson glow began to radiate from Choa’s body.
Followed by a surge of mana so intense, it practically exploded outward.
Her presence expanded—doubling, exactly as she said.
For a split second, Seo Ye-rin was stunned.
What she felt now was power just shy of B-rank.
And then.
Choa’s form vanished, splitting through the air like a blade cleaving space.