Chapter 550: Tutorial Will Begin (4)

“Status Window.”

[Name: Kim Hyunsung]

[Title: None. You are going to have to work a bit harder than that.]

[Age: 22]

[Temperament: Timid Dreamer]

[Job: Common-Grade Warrior]

[Abilities]

[Strength: 11]

[Agility: 25]

[Health: 13]

[Intellect: 10]

[Durability: 19]

[Luck: 15]

[Magic: 03]

[Inventory]

[A cheap steel sword nobody would use even for free - Common-Grade]

[A cheap dagger nobody would use even for free - Common-Grade]

“I have changed my job. It was really true.”

After hanging my dagger to my waist and leaning my shoulder against a sword, I finally felt like my fatigue had been swept away. Of course, I was still physically tired. I felt like I was standing on the tip of a blade. I was annoyed by all the sweat and lethargy I felt.

I glanced at my surroundings. I did manage to finish off one monster, but there might be other monsters near me. After making sure that there was no other abnormality, my lips curved to a smile.

‘How many do I have to fight to change my job again?’

I didn’t know for sure because I had so little information. However, it probably wouldn’t be too much for me to handle to hunt some down. Hadn’t I been doing that all along?

Since it was a path that many, including Hyung and his companion, had passed, I could handle it.

Even the monsters around the vicinity were just the ones that had fallen away from the herd. It was natural that I could safely move along that path.

Of course, it still wasn’t easy to fight those monsters head-on. Even though I learned that they weren’t as strong as I thought, it didn’t mean that fear had disappeared from my heart.

I had battled many times by that point, but it was still scary to confront monsters while wielding my sword. It was hard to handle them when their fangs and claws were sharp and when their numbers gradually increased.

If I got attacked first, I was immediately out. I grabbed onto my throbbing left arm, but the wound there didn’t disappear.

‘If it weren’t for the dagger, I would’ve been done for.’

I had lost my grip on my sword when a monster suddenly attacked me. I only survived because of my secondary weapon. The status window said that it was a worthless weapon, but it was a treasure for me, who had nothing.

I didn’t know how many weapons Hyung and his companions had taken, but since I couldn’t go back to the starting point, it was a treasure that I traded food for.

I thought my food had been stolen back then, but the more I fought, the more I felt like I got a good deal. They were considerate of me, after all.

‘It couldn’t be helped that I am hungry…’

Who could eat until they were full in such a place? I could endure hunger, but I wouldn’t survive without a weapon or if I didn’t prepare for the future. According to what Hyung said, if there was something after the dungeon we were in, I had to increase my level as much as I could. That was the only way I could survive.

I wiped my sword from the monster’s blood for about 20 minutes.

I thought I had to move again. I lifted my body, but I didn’t know for sure where I had to go. It was around that part that I could no longer find an arrow on the wall.

It seemed that something had happened.

I wasn’t sure, but there were signs of battle.

I didn’t know if they fought with a monster or a conflict occurred between them, but they must’ve become unable to give me directions. There was also a chance that they just forgot.

‘Should I try looking around my surroundings again?’

It would probably be more helpful to simply hunt. I continued moving.

“Kieeeeeeeeh…”

I heard a monster’s cry. Sweat burst out of my forehead, and my breathing became rough.

Even though I already knew how to fight, it was hard to move right at that moment. I was resentful of how my body had become so stiff, but to survive, I needed to swing my sword around.

That was what Hyung told me as well. I could only survive if I raised my weapon and fought back.

I couldn’t be certain if there were more of them, but I could hear noise from only one. Muffing my footsteps, I walked towards the source slowly and saw one crawling on the floor.

I gulped my saliva back in and slowly raised my sword.

I didn’t know if I should run or wait for them to come my way. If I had a choice, I wanted to kill the monster safely. It was too much to fight the monster head-on. After clinging onto the wall, I waited for the monster to come to me. I held onto my breath and waited for it to pass me so that I could pierce its head with my sword from its blindspot.

I knew that I could imagine the method a hundred times, but it was different in real-life. Still, I couldn’t help but replay many simulations inside my mind.

I suddenly felt a dull shock on my waist.

“Ahh!”

“Kieeeeeeeeeh!”

With a scream, I rolled on the ground.

“Damn it!”

It wasn’t the one I was waiting for. Another one had appeared. I fixed my position after rolling once while the one that had been waiting for me charged as it drooled.

‘I was lucky.’

It didn’t aim for my neck first and just started with a whole-body bump. It could probably only do that, seeing the way it struggled to walk. Another monster rushing in from behind wasn’t normal either.

‘I need to think. Think.’

I tried to formulate a plan in my head. After leaving one twisted, I tried to finish the one with the injured leg. In the time the monster in front of me would take to fix its position, I could finish off the other one.

The monster wouldn’t be able to regain its balance in time, so I could finish it off by stabbing my sword into it. In those few seconds, all kinds of thoughts rushed into my head, and I tried to carry them out accordingly.

When one of the monsters jumped, I turned my body around and avoided it.

“Kieeeeeeeeh!”

I stabbed my sword through the monster that was running towards me.

Push.

The blade pierced exactly into its head. I whispered ‘Yes!’ in my mind and turned my head to see a monster running towards me.

‘I have to hit him down with a sword.’

I tried to take my sword out of the beast’s head.

“Uh?!”

The sword felt like it was stuck.

“Uh… uh!”

I put more strength into my pulls, but the result was the same. The monster continued to run towards me. In that moment of surprise, the monster aimed for my left leg, and I felt great pain swiftly afterward.

“Ahhhhhh!”

While screaming, I tried to shove my dagger into the monster’s head, but because it kept moving its neck around, it wasn’t easy.

I tried stabbing the dagger onto its shoulders, but that didn’t stop its assault either.

My actions seemed to only infuriate it more. It shook its head harder as my leg hurt as if it would fall off. Tears poured out of my eyes, and all kinds of thoughts rushed into my head, but I extended my hand out again.

In the end, I wielded my dagger and thrust it exactly into its head, causing the monster to finally fall silent.

“Huff… huff… huff…”

‘I almost died.’

Every fight was dangerous, but I had almost died this time. If I had stayed shocked, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything and died.

I felt like all the confidence that I gained recently just crumbled a bit. My breathing continued to grow rougher.

“Urgh… Urggggggh…”

I slowly opened the mouth of the monster that I had killed with my own hands, causing unknown substances to pour out. My legs, which I thought had been ripped off, actually looked okay.

Perhaps it was because I had stabbed a dagger into its shoulders, or maybe its teeth had been damaged from chewing on humans for too long.

After tying my leg up, I forced myself to move again. Someone might come to that area after hearing my scream.

It was dangerous whether a monster or a person came. I had to be as careful as I possibly could.

‘Let’s think logically. Be cold.’

𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

I tried to convince myself by saying the same words inside my head, but my body continued to shake. It was impossible not to be scared. I was able to get through everything just by luck. Unexpected things could always happen, and not everything played out as I had expected.

‘I almost died. Seriously… I could’ve really died this time.’

Fear crawled up the length of my spine. When I recalled the chaotic situation, my body began to tremble again.

‘My… sword. My sword…’

I approached the monster that had injured its legs and couldn’t maintain balance. After I hit its head, I was finally able to pull out my sword.

Where did it come from?

‘And how did it injure its legs?’

Monsters didn’t attack each other. A human probably hurt it. The monster wasn’t also the type to run away or back off, so the person must have ended their hunt, or the monster might have lost the human.

‘Where did it come from?’

The path I had walked on was almost all clean. It wouldn’t be strange for someone to be at the place that the monster had come out of. The wound on its legs indicated that a sword or a spear had injured it. Perhaps…

“It could be Hyung and his companion.”

The beast must’ve fallen behind the herd.

“There were signs that a battle had taken place.”

When I thought that they must’ve fought the monsters who had been separated from the rest of their kind, things made sense.

‘The arrows also stopped here, too.’

Other monsters must’ve followed Hyung and his companions while that one fell behind because of its injured leg.

‘I have to help.’

I had to repay them. After I tied my leg with a cloth, I was able to walk a bit while limping. It was hard to run, but it wasn’t like I couldn’t move. I had thought Hyung and his companions would definitely need a helping hand if monsters were chasing them.

Hyung would probably be wary of me since he wouldn’t be able to recognize me right away, but if I explained that I was Kim Hyunsung, he would feel reassured. I squinched up my face in pain, but when I thought about how I could meet hyung again, a smile spread on my face.

I might’ve had a chance to save hyung.

I didn’t know the exact way to trail someone, but I followed the dents on the walls and the traces of footprints on the ground. Then, in a wider space, I was able to see corpses of monsters as if another battle had taken place.

I wasn’t sure, but it seemed like not many hours had passed since they died, and they still had some heat left in them. It was hard to walk, but I began to move faster.

Before I knew it, I was running until I was out of breath.

I wanted to say thank you.

I wanted to thank him for the dagger and the steel sword and say that I managed to get out of hiding due to him.

I didn’t even know his name, nor had I seen the companion he was with. I also wanted to apologize for saying that he was a bad person.

“Hyung… Hyung!”

However, due to the sight I saw…

I couldn’t help but cover my mouth with my hands, blocking my voice from coming out.