Chapter 68

SMH 68

Swordmaster Healer – Episode 68

TL: Boko

Editor: Ren

Chapter 23: Summoner Riduke (1)

There were armed Orcs before him and right beside them was a crumpled Dungeon Bureau worker.

‘Is it a Raid?’ he wondered.

It might’ve seemed obvious, but his phone wouldn’t work properly inside the dungeon. Sung Joon drew his sword; the situation didn’t matter.

What mattered was that there were monsters in front of him.

By the time the Orcs had felt a presence, Sung Joon had already passed by them, raining down several sword strikes upon them. Six Orcs spurted blood into the air and screamed in agony.

Sung Joon swept the blood off his sword with a single stroke and examined his surroundings.

“It’s a disaster…”

The city was in ruins and looked as if a battle had broken out. Sung Joon furrowed his eyebrows. He saw toppled buildings and blackish red smoke everywhere, surging to the sky.

‘Was their early response poor?’

If they responded poorly at the start of a Raid, there were times where cities would be in ruins like this.

It seemed like the Hunters called first couldn’t block the wave properly.

Sung Joon took out his phone and called Hyun Sung.

‘I knew it, he won’t pick up.’

He had expected it, but Hyun Sung hadn’t picked up his phone. The Raid had spread extensively, so even if they didn’t have direct control over it, the Bureau would probably be busily mobilizing.

“Rishubalt.”

Sung Joon summoned Rishubalt. His trusty spirit aide, who had been hovering beside him, bowed his head slightly before Sung Joon and opened his mouth.

“I am at your command,” he said.

“Find the warp gate and report it to me,” Sung Joon ordered.

Though their early poor response wouldn’t cause Seoul’s destruction, he couldn’t stand by and watch as the damage increased.

“I will carry out your order.”

Rishubalt began scouting and Sung Joon quickly checked the vicinity. It seemed as though the evacuation was finished since he couldn’t find anyone living in the immediate vicinity.

Instead, he saw several groups of monsters, like Orcs and Trolls.

‘It seems like the response was worse than normal…’

He didn’t know where the warp gate had opened, but he was certain that there was some sort of problem with their initial response.

A mixed group of fifteen consisting of Orcs and Trolls discovered Sung Joon, threw a spear at him, and ran towards him. Sung Joon evaded the thrown spear and threw his dagger.

His dagger lodged into the Troll’s stomach and the Troll screamed in agony. Sung Joon quickly closed the distance and swung his sword.

Sung Joon didn’t need to use his high-speed movement. Wherever he passed, the ground would be filled with monster corpses. He encountered and fought a couple more groups of monsters before Rishubalt appeared in front of him.

“Where’s the Warp Gate?” Sung Joon asked.

“I scouted the entire expanding battlefield, but I couldn’t find it.”

“What?”

Sung Joon couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The warp gate would definitely be within the battlefield during a Raid. Also, monsters in the dungeons wouldn’t come outside, meaning that the monsters that were walking on the ground had been summoned from the Raid.

‘No… wait a minute…’

However, Sung Joon soon shook his head. There was a dungeon where the monsters didn’t stay in their spots… The dungeon that he had attacked just a little while ago, the ‘Eroding Dungeon’.

‘Did the monsters spill out from the Eroding Dungeon?’

Sung Joon tried to make a deduction.

Hyun Sung had explained that the Eroding Dungeon was different from other dungeons, as it eroded its surroundings and expanded.

If that was the case, then it was certainly possible that the dungeon had become fully saturated and the monsters spilled out of the dungeon.

Sung Joon explained his supposition to Rishubalt. His loyal spirit aide nodded his head with a grave expression.

“I’ll go scout the location where the monsters are concentrated,” Rishubalt said.

“Check if there are paths that lead underground in the vicinity.”

“I will carry out your order.”

As soon as Sung Joon gave him permission, Rishubalt acted immediately. Sung Joon went back to the center and secured the position; whenever he saw a monster, he would kill it.

After thirty minutes had passed, Rishubalt returned.

“My lord.”

“Did you check?”

“There’s a passageway that leads underground one hour away from here on foot; it’s guarded by a group of monsters.”

A distance of one hour away by foot. If there were no interferences, he was confident that he could arrive in five minutes.

“What are the types of monsters and their numbers?”

It was an important question. He had struggled in the Awakening Dungeon and his stamina and mana were depleted, so he really needed to know the type and the number of monsters.

Occasionally, amongst the young Hunters, there would be the type that was overconfident in their strength. However, Sung Joon wasn’t one of them. He was wise and if he needed it, he also planned to call for help.

“The force consists of Living Armors. There are about twenty of them,” Rishubalt reported.

Sung Joon was lost in thought.

Living Armors were tough for the normal Hunter to deal with, but Sung Joon was an aura-user and had superb combat skills; they were just a good supply of magic stones to him.

It wouldn’t be difficult for him to defeat twenty of them right now, but the problem was the root cause: the difficulty of the dungeon.

‘If the difficulty’s at B-rank, it’ll be difficult for my body to handle right now…’

The Living Armors guarding the entrance were B-rank monsters. Still, when he thought back to similar Raid situations in the past, there were many cases where the monsters guarding the warp gate were elites.

Using that as a basis, if he guessed at the difficulty of the dungeon, the possibility of it being a C-rank or a B-rank difficulty was high.

The worst case scenario would be B-rank and if it were a high-rank one, it would be difficult for him right now.

If he had one solution, it was to clean up the miscellaneous monsters in the vicinity of the source*, replenish his stamina and mana, and then after enter but… (*Source refers to the underground entrance that presumably leads to a dungeon. The author likely also uses source as shorthand for ‘source of Raid/monsters’.)

‘But I shouldn’t have to go through all that hard work, right…’

Sung Joon nodded his head. Rishubalt looked at Sung Joon and said, “I also saw Hunters mobilizing in order to attack it.”

“You know that my studio apartment is in the vicinity, right?” Sung Joon replied.

“I am aware.”

“It hasn’t been very long since I’ve moved, so I can’t just let it be destroyed, now can I…”

“Then, are you saying…?” Rishubalt asked.

Sung Joon smiled faintly. “I’m thinking of cleaning up the vicinity.”

He walked towards where he had parked his car.

Sung Joon had thought it would be fine since it was underground, but he was mistaken. The foreign car that he had bought in installments had been destroyed.

“I’ll have to change my plan.”

“My lord?”

Rishubalt’s voice seemed to be infused with concern about something.

“Rather than ‘cleaning’ them up, I’m going to annihilate all the monsters surrounding my studio apartment.”

Contrary to Rishubalt’s concerns, Sung Joon was wise so he didn’t decisively rush off to the source. That’s because he knew just how foolish such an action would be in this situation.

He had simply thought of a relatively less dangerous plan, which involved annihilating all the monsters in the vicinity of his studio apartment, and planned to carry it out.

‘I’ll gather the magic stones and buy a new car.’

Since it had become like this, he decided that he’d buy a special sedan that he could drive all the way to the battlefield of the Raid. It would be expensive, but since it was convenient to be able to travel to the battlefield, the rich Hunters often rode in them.

It wasn’t the real thing, but he had seen it on Hunter.com and its exterior appearance didn’t look much different from a normal sedan.

“Is your destination the studio apartment?” Rishubalt asked.

Sung Joon nodded his head and spoke.

“Yeah, I can’t lose my studio apartment too, since I don’t have spare time to just wait and trust in the Bureau.”

After he responded, he began to run at top speed. It was different from his high-speed movement, which instantaneously accelerated him to a high speed; just physically running at top speed wouldn’t consume his mana.

Sung Joon was dashing towards his studio apartment, but he heard the sound of gunfire not far away.

“It seems like it’s on the way…? It seems like they’re fighting them properly.”

The sound of gunfire didn’t end. He even heard an explosion.

“If you run at full speed, you can get there in two minutes. I can also find a detour.”

“I’ll be waiting longer then. I should help them.”

He ran as fast as he could and in the end, arrived at the location of the battle and scanned the battlefield to get a grasp of the situation.

Twenty-one soldiers were behind an armored vehicle, using it as a cover and shooting their guns at the monsters. Though the monsters only numbered in the dozens, modern weapons couldn’t handle mana, so their weapons did nothing more than hold them back a little.

‘There seems to be some injured.’

There were three soldiers that were injured.

Despite the barrage from the armored vehicle’s machine gun, the Orcs slowly advanced forward. The dozen civilians, who were being protected by the soldiers, may have had a feeling that they were going to die, as they closed their eyes tightly.

Sung Joon looked at the soldiers and yelled, “I’ll help, so stop shooting!”

He was an exceptional Hunter who could dodge gunfire, but if there was loud gunfire from behind him, it would be difficult for him to concentrate.

“I-it’s a hunter!”

“We’re going to survive now!”

“But he’s alone!”

Someone seemed to be looking down on him, but Sung Joon didn’t worry about it. Words weren’t necessary. His actions would be his rebuttal.

“Cease your fire!”

The commanding officer raised his hand and yelled and the soldiers ceased their fire. At the same time, Sung Joon threw himself towards the Orcs.

“H-he disappeared?”

The soldiers and the civilians couldn’t believe their eyes. Sung Joon had disappeared.

“H-he’s over there!”

Someone pointed with their index finger. They all turned their gazes there to see Sung Joon standing with a bloodied blade.

The Orcs spurted blood and collapsed. He had passed by them in a single instant and swung his sword, striking several times. Thirty Orcs had been brutally stabbed.

He hadn’t even needed to use his aura.

“The monsters are all dead!”

“He’s amazing!”

“He must be an A-rank Hunter!”

Everyone was in awe.

“Heal.”

Sung Joon healed the injured soldiers one by one. The soldiers who saw that were even more surprised. That’s because they’d never heard of a Combat Hunter using Heal before.

“Where is the assembly area?” Sung Joon asked.

The officer took out a map and spread it. It wasn’t a map used by the army, but a normal map. The officer pointed to a location that was close to his studio apartment.

“They’re building a police-line right now. Our mission is to safely escort the civilians to the rear.”

“I’ll help you.”

“T-Thank you very much!”

Due to the international treaty, Hunters couldn’t be a part of the army. The world adhered to the treaty, excluding North Korea. Therefore, the army would need to go through the inconvenient process of going to the Bureau first if the army wanted a Hunter’s assistance.

Thus, when Sung Joon offered his assistance first, the officer was incredibly happy.

“Could you please tell me your name, Hunter? I’ll be sure to tell headquarters and get you a reward.”

Sung Joon replied, “My name is Kang Sung Joon.”

Sung Joon guided them all the way to the assembly area and at the moment he was about to leave, he saw a familiar face and stopped.

Kim Hyun Sung and the Tactical Armed Forces* were moving busily. (*Just a reminder. These guys are basically the Bureau’s soldiers. They’re not Hunters. It’s a made up term by the author.)

“Team Leader Kim?”

When Hyun Sung heard Sung Joon’s voice, he turned his attention to him.

“Ah, Mr. Kang Sung Joon!”

Hyun Sung’s voice was filled with joy. He approached Sung Joon and grabbed his hand.

He couldn’t help but be happy. Hyun Sung had tried contacting him, but he couldn’t reach Sung Joon because he had been inside a dungeon.

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“We need your help!”

Hyun Sung’s voice was filled with urgency.

“Could you please explain the situation for me? A simple explanation is fine as well.”

“This a first after the ‘Eroding Dungeon’. A new type of dungeon has emerged.”