Being hit in the eye caused a moment of pain, but…

'Is it still alive?'

The woodslasher didn’t fall yet.

"Grrraaaaaaa!"

Kiiiiing!

The woodslasher charged with its chainsaw still spinning.

"It seems like one shot isn't enough."

Almond shrugged and pulled back his bowstring again. If one shot didn't kill it, then three or five shots would do the job.

Pabang!

He rapidly fired two arrows, but—

"?"

The creature closed its eye.

What good would that do against an arrow? For a monster like that, it actually worked.

Thunk!

Its eyelid deflected the arrow like leather.

The monster had closed its eye after being hit once. How was he supposed to kill it now?

— What the…?

— Can't even pierce the eyelid??

Fortunately, the creature was a cyclops troll. It only had one small eye in the middle of its head. Closing it meant it couldn't see anymore.

"Uuuaaaah!"

Kiiiiing!

The creature swung its chainsaw aimlessly.

"Luna. What's this? How do we—"

Chk!

However, it seemed the creature had good hearing.

It stopped abruptly and stared straight in Almond’s direction.

"Ah..."

Almond realized his mistake.

"Kiiiiiiiyaaaaaah!"

It charged at them.

Almond started running after Luna.

Tadadadak.

— Running away like a dog lol

— Manly trait: Hit and run lol

— He eventually ran away lol

Almond followed Luna, pressing her for more information.

"What happened, Luna? I hit its eye."

"There's one more. Another eye. If you hit that too, it will die!"

"Where?"

"Behind!"

"Behind? The eye is on the back?"

How could he hit the eye on the back?

"That's why I told you not to attack it!"

"... Uh."

Almond looked back.

The woodslasher was destroying the terrain as it ran. Its massive body was the size of a five story building. Its head was high up and another eye was on the back of its head.

He had no way of hitting the eye on the back from here. Curve shots were out of the question. A curved arrow wouldn't have much force going uphill.

Moreover, this Bow of Liberation was similar to Raina's bow, which hardly allowed for curve shots.

'Then…'

Almond had to look for another solution.

'Run away?'

Since the creature could only hear, escaping would be easy.

'What about the rune box?'

It would be a shame to run away from a monster that dropped a rune box.

Almond made a decision and his feet came to a halt.

Chiiiiik!

"What, why are you stopping? We need to run!"

Luna was shocked and turned around, but it was already too late.

"Uh...

Ahhh!

"

Almond was far from stopping and was now running toward the woodslasher.

Kiiiiing!

The giant chainsaw came at him.

"Kiyaaaaaaah!"

With a bizarre scream, it seemed as if they would be drenched in blood any moment. Luna closed her eyes tightly.

Kwaaang!

The chainsaw shredded the ground apart. However, there was no blood.

Chiiiiik!

The sound of someone sliding on the ground could be heard.

— Kyah

— He got away

— Oh damn

Almond managed to slip between the woodslasher's legs.

Kiriiik!

He pulled his bowstring as he dodged.

Paaang!

A blue trail shot toward the back of the woodslasher's head.

Then…

— Kyah, that's it lol

— Shooting the bow feels so satisfying

— Wow

Thunk!

The arrow pierced the woodslasher's eye.

"Grrraaaaaaaagh...!"

A strange scream rang out and the giant body began to fall.

"Uh... Uh...!"

A shadow loomed over Luna. She screamed, thinking the corpse would crush her.

Puff!

The body soon disappeared into black smoke. Monsters in the abyss turned into black dust without leaving any trace when they died.

"

Haah. Haah.

We barely made it," Luna sighed in relief and patted her chest.

— Is she really a repeater?

— Luna's taking the national exam for the fifth time but still gets nervous.

— Lol, Luna

Luna admired the rising smoke.

"To kill a woodslasher alone. Even though you had a bow," Luna murmured and looked at Almond standing beyond the swirling black dust.

"Maybe... this time it could work?"

***

After the woodslasher fell, inevitable rewards followed.

[Your level has increased!]

[Lv. 9]

Almond's level had now reached nine. He gained a tremendous amount of experience from killing the woodslasher alone without a party.

Experience wasn't the only reward.

"It's a rune box."

— Finally

— Gggg

— Unboxing

Two rune boxes appeared!

"Phew."

They would have more strategies available with the runes. Almond relaxed with a deep breath.

— Like an IT YouTuber, let's unbox

— Preheating the walnut spin lol

He rubbed his hands together like he was about to start unboxing and joked, "It might be a bit old-fashioned, but you can feel they've put effort into the packaging.”

𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

— Lol

— For real

— A bit?

He placed his hand on one of the boxes and asked, "Choosing a rune is the right move, right?"

— Yeah, yeah

— E

— Rune, obviously

— Weapon g

— 1111

Numbers flooded the chat with one for rune, two for weapon, and three for potion.

Given that Almond already received a bow, he wouldn't need another weapon and potions were completely unnecessary.

'It's one.'

[You have chosen a rune.]

He chose a rune without hesitation.

[Copy Rune - Lika]

Then, he selected another rune from the other box.

[Explosion Rune - Ahemors]

He received a copy rune and an explosion rune. As expected, their functions were not explained. They seemed useful judging from their names, especially the explosion rune. He was worried that it would cause a huge explosion. It felt like carrying around a small explosive in his hand. Currently, it was just a stone engraved with strange characters.

"You chose two runes?" Luna approached and asked.

"You're not getting anything," Almond cut her off sharply. It seemed he still didn't trust Luna.

— Lol

— Are they children?

— Aaand he's not giving anything to her

Luna reacted incredulously, "Who asked!?"

"I thought you'd say something like let's distribute them since we're party members."

Almond scratched his head and turned away. He didn't even want to show her the rune inscriptions.

He turned around and flipped on the mic channel.

"I've obtained the runes."

Almond waved the runes in the air.

— Cute lol

— Translate ggg

— Are you teasing? lol

— Don't tease the repeat student. Why would you do that? Don't tease. Why would you do that?!

— That’s too much lol

"Now, I'll try to translate these when I have time."

Almond decided to put off translating the runes. He was uncertain how much time it would take to decipher them.

"First, we should look for the entrance."

He began walking along the illuminated path on the ground without using the runes.

Chk.

Luna stopped him.

"Wait. Aren't you going to use a rune?"

"Not now."

"If you use it on the weapon, it will be immediately strengthened."

"Oh. Strengthening..."

Almond seemed to have momentarily forgotten about the strengthening feature of runes.

'Strengthening my weapon would definitely be beneficial.'

Luna urged him, "Soon, we'll be meeting and fighting other participants. Shouldn't you strengthen your weapon in advance?"

Strengthening his weapon would undoubtedly be beneficial, but it was impossible. Wouldn't the rune disappear once he used it? Then, he wouldn't be able to decipher it. Where would he jot down this inscription?

'Where to jot it down…?'

Having neither pen nor paper was a given. Even if he did jot it down, whether he could accurately copy it was doubtful. It would be better to spend that time deciphering it.

'Time?'

Yes, time was the issue. He recalled the rule that suddenly appeared earlier.

[The exact number of people who can enter is 20.]

If more than twenty people went, it would be impossible to proceed to the next floor. It wasn't explicitly stated, but moving on was first-come, first-served.

Moreover, many complicated variables would arise since the entrance could be reclaimed. Arriving late could lead to significant losses. They had no time for a scholarly debate about rune inscriptions here.

Almond steadied his resolve.

"Let's just go."

"What? Why? Just strengthen your weapon from before!"

'That damn strengthening... I can't do it.'

He had to delay the strengthening because he needed to decipher the inscription first. It was absurd, but that was the situation.

He couldn't discuss the inscription with Luna yet. It would be better to share this once he could fully trust her.

Almond decided to say this instead, "Anyway, this weapon is enough for those guys even without any strengthening."

He tapped the bow and tried to end the conversation, but Luna persisted.

"... And it's not enough with a rune?"

She was needlessly smart for an NPC.

Almond pondered before responding, "I'll use it when a better weapon comes along."

He was thinking long-term.

"People who think big like you don't last long here."

She was pressuring him with her amount of experience now, but Almond wasn't without a comeback. Having heard all sorts of sayings from superiors during his work days, he had plenty to retort with.

"Aha."

Thump.

As if he had an epiphany, Almond struck his palm with his fist.

"You know so much because you've been here a long time, right?"

— The embodiment of deflection lol

— Lolololol

— Repeat student, dieee!

— The veteran of the repeater school lol

— Oh lol, that’s too much

Luna flared up and puffed in anger, "You! What kind of rude remark is that!?"

Seeing this reaction, it seemed she really had been here for a long time.

“Hmm.”

His trust in her slightly increased.

"Tell me, Luna."

Seizing the opportunity, Almond asked something he was curious about.

"What?"

"Why have you decided to tell me this? That you're the only one aware of this repetition. Is it okay to tell me?"

This could be related to the identity of the body Almond had entered. Luna did not answer for a while.

Then she replied without making eye contact while they walked side by side, "You've always been the variable."

‘Variable?’

"You were always different. In every cycle, you were always different from the last. Your name changed. Your personality changed. Your abilities differed."

This seemed to be referring to the change in players.

— Dddddd

— Is she talking about the player??

— Omg

— Are we being recognized??

— Meta awareness brrrr

Although it was vague, Luna was clearly referring to players entering this body.

Of course, there was an explanation in Ran's story mode of the player's intervention through possessing Lett.

'It's different from Lett's case.'

This was different from Lett's case. Ran's story mode started when the player entered the game.

The current story mode already had a storyline in progress and the player became a part of it.

Thanks to this, Luna recognized the players in real time. She remembered the users who came before Almond to beat the story mode.

This sounded familiar.

'Is this what they meant about JeonJaPa’s data?'

Luna remembering the players meant she knew about JeonJaPa. That is, the users' data accumulated here.

'Then, the enemy is really Swift or Luna.'

Luna had memories of the users and said Swift couldn't be trusted. One of them had to be Almond's enemy. Considering the community's theories about facing JeonJaPa, that seemed to be the case.

A question remained.

'Why is Luna still here?'

If it were Raina's story mode, she would have escaped long ago.

Why was Luna still here? If she was the enemy, why hadn’t she been killed? Even if it were Swift, the question remained the same.

This abyss was full of unknowns.

Almond's gaze drifted to the runes shining in his hand.

'Could the answer be in here?'

Tap. Tap.

Luna poked Almond in the side.

"Over there."

She pointed somewhere.

"The person with the entrance. We found them."

All the scattered lights converged in one place. In the middle of that place was the figure of a person.

'That guy is...'

The ninja they fought before. He had the entrance.

'That's not all, is it?'

The ninja had already fully recovered as if he had drunk a potion. That alone made him a troublesome opponent to face.

'And there are guards.'

Other forces also guarded him. Two groups in total. Those who were originally on the ninja's team and…

'Swift?'

Swift and his party members were also included.

***

[Beginner Tip: There's a saying in Taran that the abyss leaves no leftovers. If you've entered the abyss, it's best to remain until the last team!]