A Hunter on Borrowed Time Keeps Surviving - Chapter 24

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 24.
As Do Hyun reached the deepest section of the dungeon, beads of sweat gathered on his forehead.
With each breath, a heavy weight of mana seemed to seep into his lungs.
‘The pressure keeps mounting…’
Without realizing it, Do Hyun hunched his shoulders.
Thud.
Walking with his eyes on the ground, Do Hyun inadvertently bumped his nose against Siul’s back.
“I—I’m so sorry!”
Do Hyun hastily apologized and lifted his head.
Only then did the sight before him come into focus.
At the end of the Watchtower stairs, a massive iron door stood in place.
From the mana leaking out alone, it was easy to guess this was the boss chamber entrance.
The problem was the seven stone statues lined up as if blocking the way forward.
They were noticeably larger than the ordinary gargoyle statues he’d seen until now.
‘I have a feeling we’ve stumbled onto something incredible…’
Do Hyun swallowed hard.
Then Siul spoke up.
“Can you keep the promise we made?”
Do Hyun quickly clenched his fists and replied.
“Yes! I’ll definitely catch at least one of them!”
Siul shook her head.
“Not that.”
“Pardon?”
“The three things we promised each other.”
Do Hyun hesitated for a moment, but then nodded vigorously.
“Oh, that? Of course I will!”
The three promises between them.
Safety first.
Absolute obedience to orders.
And never speak of anything seen in the dungeon.
“Good.”
Only after hearing his answer did Siul open her inventory.
“Grab your weapon quickly. It’s coming now.”
The moment Siul’s words ended, the stone statues lined up before the iron door trembled in unison.
Cracks split across the stone surface as crimson eyes were revealed.
“Roooaaaar!!”
The roar of seven awakened gargoyles shook the interior of the Watchtower.
Siul’s gaze swept across their heads.
【Danger Level: 8】
‘One tier above the Danger Level 7 gargoyles we faced before.’
Siul’s lips pressed into a thin line.
‘Of all the timing, right when the potion effects have worn off…’
Both the Strength Enhancement Potion and Speed Amplification Potion had already expired.
To fight creatures of Danger Level 8 in such a state, immortality was essential.
That was why she’d made a point of confirming the promise again with Do Hyun.
‘I just need to avoid dying completely. Regenerating one body part at a time can be passed off as a healing trait.’
Seven gargoyles took flight from ahead.
“Fall back and provide support!”
Siul shouted this and stomped hard against the ground.
Whoosh!
The Tracer’s Blade cut through the air and rushed forward.
At the same moment, Siul gripped the A-rank Longsword and leaped into the fray.
Clang! Crack…!
Offense is the best defense.
With that resolve, Siul pressed forward relentlessly.
She shattered gargoyle wings, severed their legs, and drove their stone-hard bodies forcefully into the ground.
Behind her, Do Hyun threw spears in support as best he could.
Three fallen, then four—the numbers dwindled rapidly.
“Screeeech!”
Suddenly, one gargoyle burst through Siul’s blind spot in a surprise attack.
He tried to block with the longsword, but the gargoyle’s wings beat faster.
Siul’s left arm was severed cleanly below the shoulder.
“Gasp—!”
Do Hyun’s face drained of color, shock freezing his features.
He watched her arm tumble through the air and felt panic seize him entirely.
But that wasn’t the real shock.
A shimmer rippled through the air.
Flesh and bone surged back up from Siul’s shoulder.
Veins reconnected, muscle knitted together, and in a blink her left arm had reformed completely.
Do Hyun stared at the sight, dumbfounded.
‘Her arm—! How is that even—!’
While Do Hyun reeled from shock, Siul remained perfectly composed.
She simply swung her blade with the restored limb.
“Shriek!”
The gargoyle that had just severed her arm received the same treatment.
Its severed wing plummeted to the ground, and robbed of flight, the creature fell straight into a pressure mine and detonated.
“…?”
Through the smoke of the explosion, a shadow flitted past at incredible speed.
Siul swept her gaze across the chamber and recognized the shadow’s identity.
“Do Hyun, one got through!”
She shouted the warning urgently.
One gargoyle was approaching Do Hyun covertly.
For just an instant, Do Hyun caught the gravity in Siul’s expression.
This time it wasn’t deliberate—the look in her eyes made that clear.
‘This is real—!’
Though his mind went blank, Do Hyun forced himself to grip the spear tightly with both hands and swing it.
“Haaaaah!!”
With the same determination Siul had shown, he poured everything into a single decisive blow.
Crack!
The spear point drove true into the gargoyle’s torso.
A dull, heavy recoil—like stone meeting steel.
The gargoyle’s body skid sideways, but it righted itself mid-air without falling.
‘That didn’t work?’
Do Hyun felt a surge of panic at the result defying his expectations.
Inexperience had betrayed him.
He still couldn’t gauge an enemy’s power level, and he’d already forgotten the crucial fact that he was facing a stone creature.
“Use a skill!”
Siul’s shout snapped his focus back.
Do Hyun’s mind cleared, and he remembered the skill he’d completely forgotten.
As an A-rank Awakener, five skills had been unlocked for him.
They couldn’t be used outside a dungeon, but here he could wield them freely—rare powers beyond measure.
The problem was.
‘I’ve never actually used one in combat—!’
He’d practiced in empty air, but in the heat of battle, panic had kept him from even attempting it.
Do Hyun frantically opened his Skill Tree and scanned it.
He needed time to decide which skill to deploy.
Time he didn’t have, with the gargoyle’s talons already streaking toward his face.
Clang!
The gargoyle’s talons bounced off empty air.
They’d been blocked by something invisible.
It was Zero in Invisibility form, her tail lashing out at precisely the right moment to deflect the attack.
In that same instant, Do Hyun closed his Skill Tree and drew in his mana.
【Skill ‘Flame Baptism’ activates.】
Fire erupted from Do Hyun’s palms like a waterfall.
Compressed flames sprayed in relentless succession, engulfing the gargoyle’s entire body.
“Screeeee!”
The creature’s stone body glowed red-hot, then crumbled into blackened ash.
“Huh!”
Do Hyun himself staggered back in surprise.
‘Did I just… do that?’
She had experience hunting before.
But this was the first time she’d brought down an opponent as formidable as a B+-rank Gargoyle.
“You kept your promise.”
Siul spoke from a short distance away, smiling.
Then she turned her attention to the last remaining Gargoyle in front of her.
“Above.”
The moment Siul offered the warning, the Tracer’s Blade plummeted vertically from the air, piercing through the Gargoyle’s skull.
* * *
When the battle ended, quiet returned to the deep reaches of the Watchtower.
Do Hyun stared blankly down at his own palms for a long moment.
Heat still lingered at his fingertips.
The sensation of flames pouring from his palms along with his mana was slow to fade.
‘A skill had this much power….’
The realization came later than he’d expected.
Do Hyun’s legs gave out, and he crumpled to the ground.
Meanwhile, Siul was surveying the surroundings.
Whether all traces of the Gargoyles had vanished completely, whether there were any additional signs of movement.
Only after confirming did she approach Do Hyun’s side.
“There don’t seem to be any threatening monsters nearby. It should be safe to set up a Barrier here.”
With that, Siul knelt and pressed her palms against the floor.
A vibration rang out, and a translucent curtain rose up at a fifty-meter radius.
It took the form of an enclosure wrapping around the space behind the boss chamber’s iron door.
“You can rest easy now.”
“Thank you. I’m alive thanks to you, Accompanying Hunter Siul….”
Siul stared at Do Hyun’s face, then let slip a quiet remark.
“You did well.”
“……?”
“The combat. That Gargoyle just now was stronger than an ordinary one, but you handled it calmly and skillfully.”
Do Hyun’s mouth curved upward in an awkward smile.
His expression was one of joy, yet disbelief.
Then, suddenly, Do Hyun’s gaze fixed on Siul’s left arm.
A shocking moment from the battle played vividly in his mind.
Blood spraying, the arm torn clean away—yet, impossibly, it grew back again.
“What exactly was that just now….”
The moment the words began to tumble out, he remembered the promise not to ask about anything.
“Oh, no! Never mind!”
Do Hyun clamped both hands over his own mouth.
Siul tilted her head in confusion, then gathered her gear and stood.
“I’m going to enter the boss chamber now.”
“Already? Why not rest a bit longer?”
“If I want to finish and harvest Mana Stones, I need to hurry.”
When Siul stated her purpose so openly, Do Hyun found it surprising.
Most Accompanying Hunters didn’t openly admit to harvesting Mana Stones.
Since this dungeon was primarily meant for training promising prospects, harvesting Mana Stones wasn’t mandatory.
Non-mandatory meant that if you extracted them secretly and left, you could keep the Mana Stones without paying any commission.
‘I only provided training to the prospect and left.’
Playing innocent worked just fine.
That’s why most Accompanying Hunters trained Do Hyun personally, then harvested Mana Stones on their own afterward.
“Nine to one.”
“……Yes?”
Siul suddenly held up one finger toward Do Hyun and spoke.
“I’ll keep the Mana Stones we harvest here secret. If you cooperate, I’ll give ten percent to you.”
Do Hyun’s eyes widened.
It was a proposal he’d never received before.
“Prospect dungeons have a commission five times higher than regular dungeons because of concerns about corrupting the dungeon’s purpose. In reality, the person harvesting ends up losing money.”
Siul added as she glanced around the chamber.
Mana Stones lay scattered everywhere, so abundant that you could just pick them up without even mining.
“Wouldn’t it feel wasteful to leave behind something this precious?”
“That’s true, but… you don’t have to tell me. You could just take them….”
“I said it already. This is collaboration.”
Siul crossed her arms and continued with an indifferent expression.
“Collaboration lives on trust. If you’re planning to reveal this, I’ll abandon the mining. But if you keep it quiet, I’ll give you ten percent in return.”
Do Hyun’s choice would determine Siul’s next move.
It stirred an emotion in him that felt strangely unfamiliar.
‘Me… deciding?’
Do Hyun had always simply followed whatever his mentors told him to do.
Raised in poverty, he’d grown accustomed to living without complaint—never questioning a benefactor or teacher.
Yet Siul was now asking for his opinion as an equal.
“You’re really going to give me that money?”
“Ah, scratch that. I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
Siul smacked her forehead with her palm and corrected herself.
“You’ve never mined Mana Stones before, right? I’ll teach you, and we’ll do it together. That makes it fifty-fifty.”
“What?!”
Mana Stones from an A-rank dungeon commanded astronomical prices.
If he took home fifty percent of the profits, Do Hyun would earn several years’ worth of the allowance his parents used to give him.
“R-really? That’s okay?!”
When Siul nodded, Do Hyun shot to his feet and said yes.
“Good. I’ll show you how to mine first, then head out. While I’m taking down the boss, start harvesting the Mana Stones inside the barrier.”
“Yes! I’ll do my best!”
Do Hyun opened his inventory with flushed excitement.
He squirmed as he pondered which equipment would be best for his first harvest.
Siul watched him with barely concealed delight.
‘I hope this helps him, even a little.’
In truth, when Siul signed the contract at the Daeho Guild’s rookie training department, she’d caught sight of Do Hyun’s personal information quite by accident.
A father plagued by chronic illness. A mother shouldering the household alone.
His difficult circumstances had left a deep mark on her memory.
If Do Hyun took home half the Mana Stones he mined today, his family’s hardship would ease, at least for a time.
‘Grow into an outstanding hunter. Become the pillar they need.’
To keep a limited-time hunter alive—
Author |
Klu Sumatsu
Publisher |
Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
Editor-in-Chief |
Editorial Department
Published by |
Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. – Dream Books
Address |
7th Floor, Gwangseong Building, 28 Bongeunsa-ro 114-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
UCI |
G720:N+A063-20260731071
Blog |
blog.naver.com/dreambookss
Twitter (X) |
@dreambookss
Submissions |
[email protected]
This book may not be reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. – Dream Books.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————