Copying Runes to Become the World's Strongest - Chapter 11

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 11
The next day.
Hyeonjun absorbed ten E-Rank Rune of Agility and then left the house.
He took public transit for over an hour before arriving near his destination.
“It’s a long way.”
The gate to the hunting ground was on the rooftop of a building.
Hyeonjun rode the elevator up to the roof.
[F-Rank Hunting Ground: Mountain Area – Darak Mountain]
The hunting ground we were meeting at today was a mountain field Hyeonjun had experienced once before.
But it wasn’t exactly the same field.
There was an added epithet tacked on the end: Darak Mountain.
Epithets like that usually get attached when a place has unusual terrain.
‘They said the mountain looks like terraced rice paddies.’
Because of its odd terrain, it wasn’t a very popular spot.
Access by public transit or by car was poor, too.
Unless you were a Hunter living nearby, there was no reason to come hunt here.
‘Checking Hunternet, it’s ranked near the bottom in usage.’
Why on earth had they chosen a place like this?
Asking to meet inside the hunting ground was strange, too.
‘If you’re hunting as a party, why would you need to meet inside?’
Going alone was dangerous, and hunting grounds were usually wide, so it was hard for people to find each other.
‘Meeting outside and going in together would be the easiest.’
Their message said they wanted to get in sync with the other party members beforehand.
Could that really be the truth?
‘At this point, it’s obvious.’
This Hunter Kindergartner A is a Rune Killer. There was no other explanation for the strange behavior he’d been showing.
‘Since there are other party members, he probably isn’t alone.’
At least two.
Two people was nothing. He was confident he could win that fight.
‘Still, I can’t throw the first punch the moment we meet.’
First, I need to find proof that they’re Rune Killers.
For example, a Soul Trace.
If the source of it can’t be proven precisely, they’ll be stuck in prison for the rest of their lives.
‘What matters is making them show their true colors.’
I absolutely can’t come off as strong.
Only then will they get aggressive and threatening.
Hyeonjun closed his eyes and muttered.
“I’m a worthless close-range dealer with 142 runes. I’m a worthless close-range dealer with 142 runes. I’m…”
Finishing his self-hypnosis, Hyeonjun snapped his eyes open.
With a confident stride, he passed the guard post and entered through the gate.
.
.
.
Unlike the grassland, the air was chilly.
The weather in the Mountain Area was like autumn.
Hyeonjun zipped up his worn jacket further and checked his surroundings.
Trees stood so densely packed that their end was impossible to see.
Conifers and broadleaf trees towered high enough to blot out the sky, all tangled together.
Four paths wound between them, climbing in gentle slopes.
“It’s not that high, is it?”
It wasn’t the kind of steep cliff or treacherous rocky peak that would leave you gasping for breath.
But it wasn’t a comfortable, flat stroll along a trail either.
“Let’s go.”
Carrying both tension and a flutter of excitement, he set off up the eastern slope among the upward paths branching in every direction.
They had told him to come this way.
Before long, the ground leveled out.
It was a fairly wide meadow with no trees.
No monsters were in sight, and at the far end there was another upward slope.
Hyeonjun crossed the flat ground and started up the slope.
Following the path upward, he came to another flat stretch.
Once again, there were no monsters.
It looked like the ones who had gone up before us had cleaned the place out.
“So that’s why it’s called Darak Mountain.”
A rather peculiar terrain.
Just when you think it’s an ordinary mountain trail, the trees vanish and a flat stretch opens up out of nowhere.
From the bottom, it had looked like nothing but trees.
“Better keep my guard up.”
The slope was gentle enough to walk without trouble, but with forest and open ground alternating in no predictable pattern, it was hard to judge distance.
A perfect place to be ambushed.
Not that I’d lose, even if I were.
Hey! Over here!
Just then.
A voice called out from somewhere above.
A bald man with dark skin was jogging down the gentle slope.
Hyeonjun recognized him at once as Kim Seokdae, the Hunter Kindergartner A.
He looked exactly like the description he’d been given.
‘Less impressive than I expected.’
“You’re Hyeonjun Jjangjjangman, right?”
“Nice to meet you.”
As they exchanged greetings, Hyeonjun checked what the other man was wearing.
Brand-new leather armor.
The dagger hanging from his belt case looked like very good quality, too.
“I’m Kim Seokdae.”
“I’m Go Hyeonjun.”
“I won’t ask your age. Our party has agreed to use polite speech with one another.”
“That works for me.”
“This way. Everyone’s waiting.”
“You were so hard to spot, I thought you’d come to the wrong place.”
“Ha, sorry about that.”
Hyeonjun fell into step beside Kim Seokdae.
“Apart from you, Hyeonjun, the rest of us have been hunting together for a few days now.”
“Ah, I see. How many people are in the party?”
“Four. Sounds about right, doesn’t it?”
For a mountain area, it was a reasonable number.
Even on an F-Rank field like the grassland, the monsters here tended to be stronger individuals.
“Oh, there he is.”
“So this is Hyeonjun Jjangjjangman?”
Soon he met the party members who had been waiting ahead.
Hyeonjun dipped his head in a quick bow.
“Hello. I’m Go Hyeonjun.”
They went through a round of introductions.
Names, classes, the number of runes, and so on.
Everyone greeted him warmly.
‘Not two people after all. Three.’
These three had been hunting together for several days.
They were surely a single group.
One was an archer.
Another was a warrior carrying a buckler in one hand and a short sword in the other.
‘If it came to a fight, it’d be better to take out the woman with the bow first.’
Ranged attackers were always a headache.
“Since we’re not a rookie party with few runes, we’ll test our teamwork first, and if it feels right, we’ll take on some tougher ones. Any objections?”
No one raised a hand.
“Then let me assign positions. You’ll keep leading from the front, warrior. Hyeonjun, you’re a close-range dealer like me, so wait right behind me. Archer, pull one monster at a time from the ones bunched up at range.”
After the brief briefing, the party climbed the uphill path and arrived at a new flatland.
A wide meadow with several kinds of monsters.
“Let’s get started right away!”
The hunt began at once.
The monsters they met were exactly the same as those in yesterday’s mountain area.
Horned rabbits with sharp, long horns. Stone wild boars wrapped in hard rocky armor. Long-claw monkeys with razor talons, and so on.
The hunting method was simple.
Thwack!
First, the Archer pulls aggro from long range.
Thud!
The Warrior blocks the attack.
“Now!”
Then Kim Seokdae gives the signal.
Pinned by the shield, the monster was briefly Stunned.
It was the Close-Range Dealer’s moment to strike.
Hyeonjun moved deliberately slowly and held back on his attacks, playing the weakling as convincingly as he could.
The hunt went on, and no one noticed his act.
Hyeonjun kept watch for the moment they’d finally show their true colors, and in the meantime he picked up the habits of party hunting.
‘It’s not much different from what I saw on the videos.’
Real combat wasn’t all that different after all. The hunting style might vary depending on the members, but that was something they could sort out inside the hunting ground.
‘I was overthinking party hunting.’
Still, this wasn’t wasted time.
If he hadn’t experienced it firsthand here, he wouldn’t have realized this until much later.
It was a relief to learn it before entering the Dungeon.
“Monsters around here are easy. Shall we go after a bear instead?”
A break in the hunt, a moment to rest.
Kim Seokdae brought it up.
“A bear? There are bears here too?”
“There’s a Named Monster called the Green Mane Tyrant. With our skill level, I think we could take it. What do you think?”
“Hmm, I’m in favor.”
Hyeonjun was dumbfounded.
‘Look at these bastards.’
Knowing they were acquainted with one another, he could see right through their awkward performance.
He had a rough picture of what they were after.
‘They’re planning to throw me to the bear as bait, kill me, and then take the bear down too.’
Or maybe the bear was already dead.
Darak Mountain was already a hunting ground with few people around.
In the Tyrant’s Cave, a flawless crime could be committed without anyone finding out.
‘Then again, if I think about it the other way, it means I can do whatever I want to these guys.’
“What about you, Hyeonjun?”
“Sounds good. Let’s go.”
Hyeonjun followed Kim Seokdae.
As they moved, he didn’t miss a single change around him.
The Archer’s footsteps had quickened in an odd way.
The Warrior, who had been standing where he could just barely be seen from the corner of his eye, slipped toward the back and vanished completely from view.
‘So it’s starting.’
Hyeonjun braced himself so he could react at any moment.
“Tough going, huh?”
The Archer said it as casually as anything.
Hyeonjun hid his tension and only smiled.
‘He doesn’t seem to have any idea that I’ve caught on.’
The mountain trek continued, tension humming beneath every step.
Before long, they arrived at their destination.
“That right there is the Tyrant’s Cave, the den of the Green Mane Tyrant.”
A flat stretch of grass, and at its far end, the mouth of a cave.
At first glance it looked ordinary, but Hyeonjun’s eyes caught things others could not easily see.
‘The blood has dried on the ground.’
Dark stains lingered here and there among the blades of grass.
They could have been left from a fight with the tyrant, but there was something artificial about them, as if someone had wiped away part of them.
“Wait here! I’ll go check it out first!”
Kim Seokdae approached the mouth of the cave.
That was when it happened.
-#@$!
A sound rang out from deep inside the cave.
Kim Seokdae hesitated for an instant, then strode briskly into the cave.
Hyeonjun watched his retreating back, his brow furrowing.
‘A human voice?’
Certain.
Inside the cave wasn’t a tyrant. It was a person.
That’s why he’s marching in so confidently.
‘Crazy bastards. Two runs in one day, and it’s not even a part-time job?’
Just as Hyeonjun was about to follow Kim Seokdae in—
“Where do you think you’re going?”
The warrior planted himself in front of him.
Behind him, a bowstring creaked taut.
Hyeonjun curled the corner of his mouth upward.
‘So they’re finally showing their true colors.’
The smirk seemed to grate on the warrior, and his voice turned vicious.
“You’re smiling? Do you even understand what’s happening right now?”
“Then what is happening? Why don’t you explain it yourself.”
“This son of a bitch…”
The warrior swung his fist.
It carried some real force, but to Hyeonjun it seemed agonizingly slow.
He followed the motion, turning his head just slightly to let the punch slip past.
Whoosh!
With his momentum thrown off by the miss, the warrior lurched awkwardly forward.
An opening, laid bare.
He was about to counter immediately, but his sharp hearing caught the sound of a bowstring tightening.
‘Damn it. I lost track of the one behind me.’
Hyeonjun whipped his head around.
In the same instant, the arrow left the string.
Thwip!
An arrow streaking straight for the bridge of his nose.
Hyeonjun twisted his head on instinct.
The razor-sharp arrow grazed past his cheek.
A thin red line bloomed across his cheek.
“Wh-what?”
The archer stammered in confusion.
He dodged an arrow fired at point-blank range?
Even with his own two eyes watching, he couldn’t believe it.
“Gah!”
The arrow that had flown off buried itself in the warrior’s shoulder blade, an unlucky stroke of fate for him.
The warrior clutched his shoulder and rolled across the ground, while the archer stood frozen, unable to decide what to do.
‘How did he dodge that?’
Hyeonjun was just as stunned.
His reflexes and quickness were startling even to himself.
Was an E-Rank really capable of this? A question mark surfaced on its own.
‘That’s not what matters right now.’
Hyeonjun cast a brief glance at the archer and the warrior, then headed for the cave.
He wanted to deal with them right away, but the survivor inside the cave came first.
“Grab him.”
“W-what?”
“Get that bastard!”
The warrior belatedly shouted, but Hyeonjun had already vanished from sight.

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