Chapter 57: 57

Swordmaster Healer – Episode 57

TL: Boko

Editor: Ren

Chapter 19 – Eroding Dungeon (3)

The severed bloody head rolled onto the cold hard floor.

“Shit!” Sung Joon cursed.

He had already drawn his sword, yet he had become aware of the ambushing monsters’ presences much too late, perhaps due to their level.

“It’s an ambush!”

As soon as Chul Soo was killed, the Hunters belatedly drew their weapons while Sung Joon sharply examined the surrounding area.

“There are more laying in wait. However, I cannot sense the first monsters that ambushed us,” Rishubalt said.

It was the same for Sung Joon. He could definitely feel the presences of the monsters hiding on the ceiling and to their sides, but he couldn’t detect the monster that had killed Chul Soo. It had disappeared, like a ghost.

But its target was clear.

‘It had targeted the Mage that commands powerful spells, so it’ll target either me, the Healer, or the Supporter next.’

Sung Joon’s eyes darted around.

“There are more monsters laying in wait! They’re coming!” Sung Joon warned, and Dark Assassins came out of the darkness.

Eun Joo tried to reform their ranks, but the monsters up front started to advance upon them. She had no choice but to fight the enemies in front of her.

Since this was his second time fighting the Dark Assassins, Sung Joon was able to properly fight against them. (*He fought off the Dark Assassins for the first time when he went into the A-rank dungeon with the ‘Ace’ regular assault team, and Seol Ah.)

“Blessing!” Young Mi chanted, consuming her mana and buffing her party.

‘They’re coming.’

Sung Joon sensed a small killing intent directed at him and Young Mi. It was a highly restrained killing intent, so it wasn’t easy to detect.

“Ha!”

Sung Joon threw himself towards Young Mi. His sword gleamed with a blue aura. A pitch black spirit wearing a satgat* appeared before Young Mi and raised its short sword. (*A satgat is the korean name for an asian conical hat.)

‘A Shadowless Assassin!’

Sung Joon could immediately identify the monster right before his eyes. It was a high tier, S-ranked monster called the Shadowless Assassin.

The Shadowless Assassin was a monster that specialized in assassination and was famous for its stealth, which couldn’t be detected by even S-rank Hunters.

Eun Joo had honestly been unable to sense the Shadowless Assassin’s presence. Sung Joon had also barely detected the tiny killing intent.

“Get back!”

Thankfully, Sung Joon hadn’t been too late. Sung Joon stood in front of Young Mi and brandished his sword. He had spoken roughly*, but she didn’t seem to mind. (*He didn’t use honorifics this time. He almost always does, unless he’s angry.)

While Sung Joon blocked the Shadowless Assassin, Young Mi took a few steps back.

“H-Healer…!”

Young Mi thought that Sung Joon would die. She believed that Sung Joon was a typical noncombatant Healer, so she didn’t think that he’d be able to take on the high-tier S-rank monster.

However, things didn’t go as she had expected.

It was such a cutthroat, close fight that shards of mana flew everywhere.

‘He’s fast!’ she realized.

Sung Joon bit his lip so hard that it bled. While he was superior in swordsmanship, the Shadowless Assassin used a special type of movement so that its swordsmanship was faster.

He had received the effects of Young Mi’s Blessing, but it was difficult for him to keep up with the Shadowless Assassin’s sword. If he hadn’t predicted his opponent’s movements beforehand with his combat experience, Sung Joon would already be dead.

‘If only I could stack the buffs!’ Sung Joon lamented, but similar types of buffs wouldn’t stack.

“Ugh!”

In a flash, the Shadowless Assassin’s short sword grazed Sung Joon’s shoulder. It had been aimed for his head, but Sung Joon had rotated his body to avoid it, and it had ended up grazing his shoulder.

‘This can’t continue.’

It was difficult for even Sung Joon to react to the Shadowless Assassin’s quick swordsmanship. If it went on like this, he judged that he wouldn’t be able to avoid a serious injury, so he decided to gamble on a ‘feint’.

Sung Joon purposefully showed a blind spot, and after confirming that Sung Joon wouldn’t be able to counterattack, the Shadowless Assassin swung its sword.

“Argh!”

He received a serious injury. Sung Joon let out a short cry, and collapsed. The Shadowless Assassin confirmed that it had attained victory, and raised its sword to finish the job. However, everything was going as Sung Joon had planned.

His seemingly unmoving body that had fallen over moved, as he utilized his ‘Flash Cut’ from his low position. Sung Joon hadn’t inflicted a serious injury on the Shadowless Assassin, but he had damaged its lower body, so the Shadowless Assassin retreated.

“Heal!”

Sung Joon seized the opportunity and used his Heal to somewhat treat his injuries. Since his plan had involved himself willingly getting hurt, if he hadn’t been able to use ‘Heal’, it would have been impossible to enact.

As soon as he began healing himself, he threw his dagger at the Shadowless Assassin in order to confuse it.

“Slash!”

Simultaneously, he fired off an aura slash in order to further throw off the Shadowless Assassin, and used his high-speed movement to close the distance, whereas the Shadowless Assassin couldn’t utilize its special movement because its lower body had been damaged.

“…!”

Ultimately, Sung Joon severed the Shadowless Assassin’s left arm. Sung Joon quickly withdrew his sword and followed up with another attack. Its stance fell apart when its left arm was severed, so it wasn’t able to perfectly block Sung Joon’s continuous attacks. It couldn’t withstand the force behind his sword and it stepped back, but stumbled.

Sung Joon seized that opportunity.

“Ha!”

He quickly dashed forward and pierced through its chest. Smoke poured from the Shadowless Assassin’s body as it fell to the ground.

“The Healer defeated an S-rank monster?”

“It’d still be difficult, even if he was an A-rank Combat Hunter.”

They were still in the midst of combat, yet the Hunters near Sung Joon had definitely seen him topple the S-rank monster, the Shadowless Assassin.

“Absorb.”

Sung Joon didn’t forget to absorb the mana. It might’ve been because it was an S-rank monster, but it had replenished a ton of his mana and stamina.

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“Your synchronization rate is at 21%,” Rishubalt reported.

His synchronization rate had increased by 1%.

“We need a heal over here, please!”

“Healer!”

As soon as he had finished his intense, bloody battle with the Shadowless Assassin, he heard several voices everywhere asking for his healing.

Sung Joon raised his left hand and chanted, “Heal!”

Due to the ‘Empire’s Battle Priest Vestments’, the effects of his ‘Heal’ had been amplified, so he was able to quickly treat the injured Hunters’ wounds.

The treated Hunters joined the fray once more. Sung Joon also joined in, killing any Dark Assassins that aimed for him or the Supporter Hunter, Young Mi.

‘Choi Eun Joo is doing well.’

Sung Joon had looked ahead by chance as he healed the injured and saw Eun Joo. Eun Joo was fighting twenty A-rank monsters by herself and wasn’t being pushed back one bit. Not a single one of them passed by her.

The monsters were unable to group up with the ambushing force because of her efforts, effectively reducing her party’s casualties.

Eun Joo swung her greatsword, splitting the last remaining Gale Knight, and putting an end to the battle.

“What are our casualties?” Eun Joo asked.

The Hunter beside Sung Joon, who was checking up on an injured Hunter, opened his mouth.

“Chul Soo and Min Seok are dead. There were four injured, but Mr. Kang Sung Joon fully treated two of them. The remaining two were seriously injured, so they barely survived, but it seems like they’ll be somewhat healed within an hour. Also, the two investigators were killed,” the Hunter reported.

Eun Joo ruminated. It really had hurt them to lose their Mage Hunter. Her face stiffened and she spoke.

“I understand. Since we have injured who need healing, let’s rest here for a bit.”

“How long should we rest?”

“Around one hour.”

“I understand. We’re resting for an hour!”

When the Hunters heard the announcement, they huddled around a lamp, and rested to relieve their fatigue from the battle.

“I’ll take first watch,” Sung Joon said, walking over to his position.

Sung Joon had already poured his mana into the injured and they would heal naturally, so he didn’t have any reason to sit by them.

As the Hunters had seen Sung Joon’s swordsmanship just a little while ago, they trusted Sung Joon with the first watch.

However, Eun Joo didn’t seem comfortable with Sung Joon taking first watch, so she walked towards him. She opened a canned coffee, passed it to him, and said, “Aren’t you tired? Here, please at least drink something cold.”

Sung Joon smiled, received the canned coffee, and took a sip. He didn’t feel tired, due to his Mana Absorption, but it felt like the caffeine helped keep him awake.

“It’s quite refreshing,” he said.

“Thank you.”

Sung Joon, who had been keeping a close eye on his surroundings, turned his attention to Eun Joo.

“Since you warned me about the ambush, we were able to minimize the casualties,” she said earnestly.

If Sung Joon hadn’t warned her, they would have incurred more damage from the Shadowless Assassin and the Dark Assassin’s ambush. But since Sung Joon had warned them in advance, the party had been alert, resulting in only a few casualties.

“If you want to thank me, just buy me a good meal.”

The Bureau was concerned that Hunters would ask for monetary compensation using their work as a pretext, so the Bureau strictly regulated this.

“Just a meal? If you want to go through an A-rank dungeon, just give me a call. We can go together if our schedules match.”

Occasionally, a regular assault team would attack a dungeon together with someone unaffiliated with their team. That was the highest favor she could give him as the leader of a regular assault team.

“Is that alright with you?” Sung Joon asked.

Eun Joo smiled with her eyes and spoke.

“The others won’t oppose my decision.”

Until the short one hour break was over, Eun Joo kept Sung Joon company.

“Let’s continue on,” she then ordered.

The injured Hunters’ healing had finished, so the party continued on. They had encountered a group of at least thirty monsters twice, but they were able to eliminate them without much difficulty.

The ‘Eroding’ Dungeon was vast. Even though they had walked for quite a long time, they hadn’t found the Boss Room yet.

Her party members didn’t complain because Eun Joo encouraged them well.

“We’ll continue after we eat,” Eun Joo said, alerting the Hunters that it was mealtime.

Dungeons got a lot larger starting from the C-rank, so Hunters would often eat inside the dungeon. Thus, Hunters would often carry food in their bags that would make it easy to make a simple meal.  

“Mr. Kang Sung Joon,” Hyun Sung said, carefully walking towards him.

“What’s the matter?”

“Is it true that the monster that attacked you during the ambush was the ‘Shadowless Assassin’?”

Just a little while ago, Hyun Sung had been recording data, so he hadn’t been able to ask, but he wanted to confirm it now. Sung Joon nodded his head.

“I see. Thank you.”

He busily jotted something down in his notebook. The accompanying two investigators had died, so he had much to do.

“Is the situation really serious?” Sung Joon asked.

Hyun Sung faintly smiled and replied, “No, it’s alright so far.”

It didn’t seem like he was lying at all. Sung Joon nodded his head.

If his party was in danger, Sung Joon planned to transcend his limits in order to deal with the threat. This was of course because he wasn’t alone.

“Please wait one second,” Eun Joo said.

The team leader, Eun Joo, suddenly stopped walking.

“Doesn’t it seem like something’s there?”

She ran to Sung Joon and asked for his opinion. Sung Joon grasped the hilt of his sword and accompanied her forward.

The drones flew forward, illuminating the darkness, and they could faintly see something there. There were bodies piled atop one another, resembling a small mountain…

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