Copying Runes to Become the World's Strongest - Chapter 16

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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 16
After the orientation ended, the teams set off toward the Closed Gate.
Nearby sites were reached on foot, while the ones a bit farther away had transport arranged by the guild.
“Catch you later!”
After making a plan to meet Baek Jejung later, Hyeonjun climbed into the van.
The team members were already seated inside.
“…….”
The cabin was silent.
Since everyone was meeting for the first time, an awkward atmosphere hung in the air.
Hyeonjun took a seat in a spot that was reasonably empty.
“Ugh, here we go.”
Baek Jehyeok climbed in right after Hyeonjun.
No one recognized him behind his cap and mask.
Baek Jehyeok settled into the seat beside Hyeonjun.
“Is everyone here?”
A Michuhol Guild staffer wearing a name badge got into the driver’s seat.
He checked the headcount and started the engine.
“Please fasten your seatbelts. The trip to the destination should take about forty minutes.”
Soon, the vehicle set off.
***
Forty minutes later.
The van arrived at its destination.
Hyeonjun stepped out of the vehicle.
A vast horizon stretched out in the distance.
The briny smell of the sea prickled at his nose.
The Gate sat at a quiet, deserted pier.
“Everyone, this way, please.”
Hyeonjun and the Hunters followed the staffer toward the Gate.
The Gate was ringed with yellow tape reading “Do Not Enter.”
There was no one stationed to control access.
‘Maybe it’s because the place is so remote.’
That might be part of it, but it was probably also because this was an F-Rank Gate with little money to be made.
Normally, even an E-Rank Gate would have someone posted to keep people out.
“Everyone, take one of these.”
The staffer pulled small pouches from a box sitting in front of the Gate and handed one to each Hunter.
“These are items that will help you inside the Dungeon.”
Hyeonjun opened his pouch to check what was inside.
A fire-starting kit, a flashlight, emergency rations, and so on.
It held a variety of items needed for a Dungeon Raid.
“Is that all?”
Hyeonjun asked the staffer.
The staffer shook his head and pulled something else out of the pouch to show them.
“It’s a Mana Compass.”
The Hunters tilted their heads in confusion.
“A Mana Compass?”
“What’s that?”
Hyeonjun explained it to them.
“It’s a tool that points to the strongest Mana within a certain range. Inside a Dungeon, it also serves as a landmark for finding the Boss. It’s an essential item for Raids.”
“Wow, there’s such a thing?”
“How cool~”
“Isn’t it broken?”
The compass spun round and round, unable to settle on a direction.
The staffer took it upon himself to explain.
“It’s because we’re outside the Dungeon. It’ll work fine once you’re inside.”
“Ah, I see.”
The staffer gave the Hunters a quick once-over, then gave the compass a shake.
“There’s only one compass. Who’s going to take it?”
A party naturally needs a leader.
No one said it aloud, but everyone knew that whoever took the compass would become the leader.
And everyone also knew that such a leader would carry the responsibility of guiding the party.
“⋯⋯.”
No matter how much experience you’ve piled up, you’re still an F-Rank Hunter.
Nobody was eager to step up and claim the lead.
Hyeonjun studied the Hunters one by one.
‘One of these people should be a Michuhol Guild member…’
I wish that person would take charge.
But no one stepped forward, no matter how long he waited.
If he knew who it was, he could have sounded them out, but there was no way to tell.
In the end, Hyeonjun slowly raised his hand.
“I’ll do it.”
He wasn’t fond of standing out, but for the sake of a safe raid, it seemed better for him to take the Role of leader himself.
“Any objections?”
The staffer’s question was met with silence.
Hyeonjun accepted the Mana Compass from the staffer.
“You can go in now.”
The staffer cut the tape blocking the Gate and stepped aside.
Instead of heading straight for the Gate, Hyeonjun gathered the Hunters around him.
“Before we go in, could everyone tell me your Traits? That’ll make it easier to plan our strategy. I’ll go first. I’m a Bird Hunter, and I use Magic Arrow.”
The Hunters exchanged glances, each waiting to see who would go next.
A man with a sturdy build spoke up first.
“My Trait is Shield Warrior. You can think of me as a Tank.”
“I shoot a bow.”
“I’m a Namumkkun. I deal extra damage against tree-type Monsters, or when I’m wielding an axe.”
“I can run fast.”
Hyeonjun turned to the last one, whose face was hidden behind a cap and a mask.
“What about you?”
“I’m a Buffer.”
One Tank, one Melee Dealer, one Ranged Dealer, and on top of that, a Buffer.
‘Not bad.’
The man with the Nalssaendoli Trait was a bit of an odd one, but overall, the composition wasn’t bad.
“Do you have any combat experience, Nalssaendoli?”
“I know how to handle a weapon to some degree, but I’m not much of a fighter.”
Even if he wasn’t a good fighter, it didn’t matter much.
Three Dealers.
Add the Buffer, and they could count it as four, more or less.
Even if Nalssaendoli joined the fight in a supporting role, it wouldn’t be a problem.
“Nalssaendoli, you’ll take the Inverted position. When we’re not in combat, keep scouting ahead. Even during a fight, stay alert to your surroundings, and join in when I give the signal.”
“Understood.”
“It’ll depend on the dungeon’s environment, but for now, we’ll advance with the Tank in front. Melee Dealers take the second line, and everyone else stays in the back.”
Hyeonjun laid out the strategy based on the indirect knowledge he had built up over time.
He also explained in advance how the strategy would shift depending on the dungeon’s environment.
Baek Jehyeok was dumbfounded as he listened.
‘Who is this guy?’
For an F-Rank Hunter, he was almost unnervingly well-versed in theory.
And not a single piece of information was wrong. Everything he said, from start to finish, was dead-on.
Even among high-ranking Hunters, there were few who had this level of theoretical knowledge and the ability to direct a battle.
He was a natural fit for leadership.
“All right, did everyone remember? Then let’s go in.”
The strategy session was over.
Hyeonjun stepped through the Gate.
***
As the first one into the Dungeon, Hyeonjun scanned his surroundings.
The first thing that caught his eye was the trees.
Trees, large and small, formed a little forest, and warm sunlight poured down through the gaps between them.
“A Mountain Area?”
Hyeonjun let out a sigh of relief.
A Dungeon could take on any kind of environment.
As a rule, the higher the Rank, the harsher the environment tends to be, but if luck runs against you, even an F-Rank Dungeon can throw up an extreme ecosystem like a glacier or a volcano.
Since he hadn’t drawn that worst-case scenario, he was relieved.
“Wow, nice weather.”
“It’s peaceful here.”
The party members who had followed him in.
Once everyone was inside, the Gate closed before long.
A complete severing from the outside world.
From here on, the only way out was to hunt the Boss.
“The Gate’s closed.”
“Phew…”
A party tense with nerves.
Only Hyeonjun had any dungeon experience, having made a few trips as a porter, so everyone’s faces had gone stiff.
“Don’t worry too much. A Mountain Area is easy to clear. We’ll be out in no time.”
Hyeonjun reassured the party members and gave his instructions.
“It’s not a hard environment, so we’ll go in our standard formation.”
The simplest setup: a Tank at the front, Melee Dealers in the middle, and Buffers and Ranged Dealers at the rear.
Hyeonjun took out his Compass.
Unlike the outside, where it had spun in circles, the Compass pointed steadily in one direction.
“We’ll head this way. Nalssaendoli, go ahead and scout the front for us.”
“Got it!”
Nalssaendoli dashed off swiftly toward the front.
Before long, his figure vanished among the trees.
The party began climbing the uphill path slowly.
It wasn’t long before Nalssaendoli came back.
“I checked as far as the hill up ahead. No enemies around, and no signs of any either.”
“Good, then we’re safe. Let’s keep moving.”
They pressed on along the uphill path for a while, and gradually the trees thinned out, revealing a gentler stretch of ground.
Beyond it rose a hill.
‘Maybe I can see something from up there?’
At the moment, he had no idea what lay around them.
The advantage of a mountain area was that from high ground, you could make out the terrain for miles around.
Making the most of such environmental factors was one of the key principles of dungeon raids.
‘Oh?’
Hyeonjun reached the summit of the hill.
A deep valley stretched out beneath his feet.
Trees grew here and there, but overall the place had a barren feel.
‘The slope isn’t that steep.’
It was a grade one could descend if one chose to.
The Compass was pointing in a straight line, so they had to go down into the valley and cross it.
‘Hm? What’s that?’
As he gazed quietly into the valley, Hyeonjun caught the movement of a line of silhouettes among the trees.
He went down a little lower and narrowed his eyes.
Soon he was able to make out what the figures inhabiting the valley were.
‘Goblins?’
Green creatures barely over a meter tall.
There didn’t seem to be that many of them.
Roughly twenty or so.
‘Hmm. This is a tricky one.’
Media often portrays them as the weakest of monsters, but that’s only half the story.
‘Overwhelming numbers. And on top of that, they can make use of tools.’
They are weak, and yet they are strong at the same time.
It’s only that their strength depends on conditions.
And right now, those goblins had met one of those two conditions.
‘Their gear is pretty decent.’
Clubs and blades were a given, and some of them even wore armor, though it looked shoddy.
These weren’t just goblins; they were a goblin combat unit.
‘To be precise, they’re probably a scouting party.’
It was likely a unit dispatched by a nearby goblin colony to determine in advance whether there were any dangers in the surrounding area, in preparation for expanding its territory.
‘There’s a chance the goblin colony is not very far from here either.’
If he weren’t careful, he might end up burning down the whole house just to catch a single bedbug.
Hyeonjun revised his plan.
‘We go around.’
The mountainous terrain that encircled the valley.
It was a steeper cliff than the one they were standing on, and since it sat on higher ground, going around would take quite a while.
Still, for safety’s sake, there was no choice but to skirt the valley by way of that route.
“Let’s go around this way instead of through the valley.”
Hyeonjun said so and explained his reasoning.
Even after he told them the group was a combat unit, the Hunters’ reaction was lukewarm.
“If it takes too long, we’ll fail the exam…”
“There aren’t many of them. Can’t we just fight?”
“Safety matters, but we have to accept some risk.”
Hyeonjun clicked his tongue inwardly.
‘Figures. There’s no help for it.’
They had all come to join the Michuhol Guild, after all.
No one else would be here to take the safe route and clear the Dungeon, one of the conditions for E-Rank promotion, the way he intended to.
From their point of view, choosing the faster clear, even at a bit more risk, was only natural.
“Shall we take a vote?”
Hyeonjun still refused to give up hope and proposed a vote.
The result was four to two.
The majority wanted to push straight through.
“Tch. Fine, then we’ll go with fighting.”
Hyeonjun was disappointed, but on the other hand, he thought this might actually be for the best.
‘Even if we go around, the terrain is treacherous, so something could go wrong along the way.’
Besides, if they lost time at the very start, the entire raid could struggle over food supplies.
Pushing straight ahead, even with some danger, wasn’t necessarily a bad choice.
“For now, let’s head down and take a closer look at the enemy.”
Once they had decided to fight, they had to be as careful as possible.
Hyeonjun and the Hunters descended along the gentle slope for a long while, all the way down to the valley floor.
They hid themselves in the brush some distance from the goblins’ camp and kept their eyes on them.
‘So there is a horn player after all.’
A Horn Whistle, used to call for help from a nearby colony.
That whistle hung from the waist of the goblin holding the bow.
Taking that whistle first, and cutting off the enemy’s means of calling for backup, was the first thing to do.
‘Usually there’s one for about twenty of them, but since this is a scouting unit, there’s probably another one carrying a whistle.’
There had to be another goblin with a Horn Whistle. But for now, none was visible.
Hyeonjun informed the party of this and spoke to Nalssaendoli.
“When I give the signal, draw their aggro.”
“What? Aren’t they going to blow the whistle?”
“There’s only one of them. A whistle is basically a call for backup. Would they blow it when they have the upper hand?”
First, Hyeonjun would kill the archer goblin and take the whistle from its waist.
Then, once he gave the signal, Nalssaendoli would charge in and drag out every goblin inside the tent.
And if a whistle-carrying specimen appeared, Hyeonjun would go after it.
That was the content of this operation.
“Once we’ve taken all the whistles, I’ll signal again. That’s when we advance in the standard formation.”
The Hunters exchanged words with one another as they prepared for the operation.
Once the preparations were more or less finished, Hyeonjun spoke up.
“Give me a buff, please.”
“Sure~”
At Hyeonjun’s request, Baek Jehyeok pulled a ukulele from inside his jacket and plucked the strings.
A short melody rang out softly, bestowing a buff on Hyeonjun and the other Hunters.
“Nice. I don’t think anyone’s going to catch us.”
“Don’t let your guard down too much.”
The party hid themselves in the brush.
Hyeonjun crouched low and moved toward the back of the goblins’ camp.
‘Let’s see. He went this way a moment ago.’
Conveniently, the archer goblin with the whistle had moved from the main camp to a secluded spot.
Hyeonjun quietly trailed after it.
‘Found you.’
Before long, he spotted the back of the archer goblin’s head near some shrubbery.
-Kerr-rrrk!
The archer goblin was squatting, straining hard.
‘Oh, great. It’s taking a dump.’
Unfortunately, there was no room in his schedule to wait out the monster’s bathroom break.
Hyeonjun held his breath and crept up right behind it.
The moment a dark mass poked its head out from between the creature’s buttocks—
Shk!
He didn’t hesitate. He drove the dagger forward and pierced its throat.
The archer Goblin died without so much as a groan.
“Phew. One acquired.”
Hyeonjun pried the Horn Whistle from the creature’s belt.
He picked up a stone of decent size from the ground and tossed it toward the direction where the party was waiting.
Clack.
It was the signal that he had retrieved the Horn Whistle.
“I’m going.”
Nalssaendoli, receiving the signal, tossed out a single remark and bolted from the brush toward the camp.

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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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