The Female Lead Saves the World - Chapter 240

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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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Yeo Joo Saves the World
Part 2, Episode 61

“Survive… that’s it?”
The Quest window that materialized before my eyes like a warning was so absurd that Sa Ma Young let out a bitter laugh.
From the moment I was born until now, survival had never once been the issue.
Especially not now, after my re-awakening as an S-rank.
The system’s hastily scrawled warning only soured my mood further.
“I don’t see any immediate danger right now.”
Han Ji Sung surveyed the surroundings—nothing but corpses—and offered his assessment.
Unless the stench of blood and decay that assaulted the nostrils posed a mortal threat.
Save for the crows circling in the distance, nothing living moved across this battlefield.
“Don’t let your guard down, just in case….”
Kang Han, who had been issuing calm instructions, fell silent and fixed his gaze upon the corpse-strewn plains.
Everyone’s eyes followed his.
Tremor, tremor.
At first, the movement was so faint I thought I’d imagined it.
But the trembling that began in that distant place spread across the entire plains like a swift wave in an instant.
Crack!
And from where the earth began to shake, something burst forth, tearing through the sodden soil.
A partially decomposed corpse.
“Undead.”
Kang Han spoke, his voice tinged with disdain.
“They’re wielding weapons from when they were alive. A-rank or higher.”
Undead were common monsters, so information about them was well-known.
Most undead were little different from zombies.
They attacked with teeth and claws, devoid of reason.
However, among them were occasionally individuals who retained their physical abilities from life—those were classified as A-rank or higher.
But the appearance of A-rank or higher undead was rare.
Even when they did appear, they usually served as leaders of lesser undead.
Yet in this moment, every undead clawing its way from the earth gripped a polearm in its hands.
And their numbers were far from negligible.
Kang Han quickly counted the undead that had revealed themselves.
“At least sixty confirmed.”
“So they’re planning to overwhelm us with sheer numbers.”
Sa Ma Young ground his teeth.
Even for an S-rank hunter, facing dozens of A-rank monsters simultaneously was perilous.
“Yeo Joo.”
Han Ji Sung extended one hand toward Yeo Joo and immediately began casting an ice barrier spell.
“Ice Shield
(Ice shield)
.”
With a soft incantation, towering walls of ice rose around Yeo Joo and Han Ji Sung.
It was an Ice Shield rendered transparent like glass through his characteristic precision mana control, allowing clear visibility from within.
Yeo Joo’s expression turned frustrated at being suddenly trapped behind a safe but impenetrable barrier, yet she voiced no protest.
She understood this was the optimal choice for everyone’s sake.
Kang Han’s expression grew noticeably more at ease upon confirming the safe zone had formed around Yeo Joo.
Now only the battle remained.
“Ji Sung, focus your casting on time-buying attacks. And Sa Ma Young.”
At Kang Han’s call, Sa Ma Young—who had been watching the undead army rushing forward in swarms—turned his gaze.
“I’ll bind their feet, so you incinerate them.”
Undead were vulnerable to light and flame.
Perhaps Sa Ma Young’s arrival at the Moo Ak Mountain Double Dungeon wasn’t such terrible misfortune after all.
“Fine.”
Sa Ma Young laughed, coating the ghost sword
(鬼劍)
he gripped in brilliant crimson flames.
“No matter how many swarm us, we just burn them all to ash.”

* * *

Whiiiing—!
Flames danced along the sweeping arc of the blade.
“Grraaaah!”
“Aaaah!”
Audaciously, the undead monsters shrieked like humans as they collapsed.
But Sa Ma Young’s flames, infused with his will, refused to stop burning them.
The fire consumed itself relentlessly until the putrid flesh was completely incinerated and only bones remained, oxidizing into black ash.
Thus the last undead vanished with a crackling sound.
“Haa, haa….”
Sa Ma Young’s ragged breathing echoed across the battlefield—the sound of someone who’d wielded his blade with all his strength for over an hour.
Confirming no enemies remained, Sa Ma Young drove his sword into the ground and leaned against it.
Even as he breathed heavily enough to taste blood in his mouth, Sa Ma Young laughed.
I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d moved with such ferocity.
The excitement wouldn’t fade from a body grown accustomed to such tedious days—days so dull I’d yawn as if I’d accidentally chosen an easy difficulty in a game.
When I first faced the Gate to the Double Dungeon, that premonition piercing through my mind had proven true.
That near-certainty that something interesting awaited inside.
As Sa Ma Young gradually recovered his breath, he straightened his hunched form.
All the undead had burned away.
“We won?”
“Won? What are you talking about!”
Yeo Joo walked out from behind the ice barrier and struck Sa Ma Young’s back as she shouted.
“The Quest isn’t finished yet!”

* * *

I smacked Sa Ma Young’s back hard enough to make a sharp sound, then pressed one of Chung Soo’s vitality-boosting elixirs into his hand.
I did the same for Kang Han and Ji Sung.
Then, grabbing Ji Sung’s hand—whose darkness vulnerability had already pushed his corruption to 70%—I activated my Darkness Purification skill and spoke.
“If we haven’t gotten a quest success message yet, we can’t afford to relax thinking we’ve already won!”
That kind of thinking—’We’ve got this!’—was exactly what I was afraid of.
Didn’t they understand that every word like that was a flag waiting to be triggered?
If this were supposed to end with just a few dozen undead throwing themselves at us, I wouldn’t have been so tense in the first place.
I wasn’t in a position to lecture them while I’d been comfortably trapped in an ice prison, but they all needed to stay sharper.
Since Sa Ma Young had been thrashing about continuously, one potion wouldn’t be nearly enough—I pressed another one into his hand and glared at him.
“Drink it. Now!”
Sa Ma Young drained both elixirs immediately at my urging.
There was a reason I’d chosen this method instead of using my own skill to restore their health.
It was because of the effect that prevented stamina from depleting for twenty minutes.
And my judgment proved correct.
The moment the three men downed the elixirs, an even larger number of undead began crawling up from the ground.
“It’s a wave pattern.”
Kang Han spoke as he wrapped brilliant yellow lightning around the area ahead of him.
Just as one wave passes and the next one crashes in, masses of monsters arriving in multiple surges is called a ‘wave.’
You might think it’s better than them coming continuously since there’s at least time to catch your breath between waves, but wave-pattern attacks had a fatal weakness.
“How many waves are there supposed to be?”
As Ji Sung said, there was no way to know when the battle would end—like waves that just kept coming.
“Yeo Joo, fall back again.”
“…Understood.”
I hated this part of being a healer.
Without the strength to protect myself, I felt like dead weight to everyone else.
Of course, for the combat specialists who couldn’t continue without a healer like me, they were simply keeping me safe—that was all.
Ji Sung’s ice barrier rose around me again, and the battle to sweep away the second wave began.
Crackle—!
Whoosh—!
With more monsters pouring in, our strategy shifted accordingly.
Kang Han and Sa Ma Young, who had been methodically combining their attacks on the front lines, now began moving along separate routes.
With me and Ji Sung in the center, the two of them split to either side and didn’t wait for the undead legion to approach.
They kicked off the ground at high speed and deliberately drew their battle line far from the center.
Crash! Boom!
A heavy sound that couldn’t possibly come from a sword wielded by a human echoed across the battlefield.
Not a single undead broke through the front line the two of them had established.
The power of S-rank hunters with that much combat experience was truly formidable.
As if surveying the entire battlefield from above, their controlled rhythm of attack and retreat had the undead legion being pushed back.
Crack, boom!
Moreover, Kang Han was using his lightning skill differently than before.
I’d moved beyond simply firing electricity directly at the monsters and now triggered explosions as well.
The effect was tremendous.
By deliberately colliding currents against each other to create bursts at utterly unpredictable timings, I’d developed a method specialized for engaging multiple enemies simultaneously.
Boom! Kaboom!
“Ugh.”
“Grrr….”
The undead monsters shattered by the electrical explosions oxidized and vanished instantly.
But Kang Han possessed more than just new techniques.
After triggering massive explosions, he wielded his spear against the remaining undead.
Crash! Slash!
While Sa Ma Young and Kang Han reduced the undead numbers through their distinct combat styles, it happened.
Han Ji Sung, who stood before me as my shield, pressed both hands against the ground.
Soil stained with crimson blood soiled his pale hands, yet Han Ji Sung kept his gaze fixed forward.
And in the direction his eyes reached, an ice field spread outward.
“Ice Field.”
The ice, mixed with red blood and tinged an ethereal hue, bore no sharp spikes like usual.
Instead, it spread widely across the ground and crawled up the ankles of the undead standing upon it, binding them fast.
The monsters, instantly frozen in place on the ground, stood no chance against Kang Han and Sa Ma Young.
The second, third, and fourth waves passed, and immediately the fifth wave surged forward.
With each wave growing in number, the advancing undead legion’s assault pushed our front line steadily closer to us.
Even for S-rank hunters, there were limits to stamina.
And then, the accident occurred.

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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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