EFME 72

The moment Sunyul thought he should step in.

[The ‘Duty of the Strong’ trait is activated.]

[All stats increase due to the effect of the ‘Duty of the Strong’ trait.]

The trait activated as if it had been waiting.

[Duty of the Strong] was a trait that activated only in limited situations.

Duty of the Strong (S): A virtue that the strong must possess. When protecting the weak, all stats increase.

Seeing this trait, Sunyul thought that he had something really cool about him.

Not all traits were like this, but some traits were said to be acquired by those who suited them. It was extremely rare for someone to acquire a trait that didn’t suit the possessor at all.

That was why Sunyul was extremely happy, as if he had been acknowledged by the system for the fact that he was someone who wouldn’t turn a blind eye even when seeing the weak.

Because protecting someone seemed cooler than anything else.

Yoonjae had told him to stay put, but Sunyul couldn’t. Of course, he knew why Yoonjae had said that. He must have said it because Sunyul, still unskilled in combat, could get hurt if he stepped in.

But Sunyyul was much sturdier than an ordinary person with no power at all. And though he couldn’t tell anyone, thanks to the [Savior] trait, there was no risk of him dying.

[The ‘Traveler of the Eternal Night’ laments that this probably isn’t what they gave you the trait for.]

Ignoring the constellation’s familiar bullshit, Sunyul looked at the system message and, without hesitation, naturally used his skills.

[Using the ‘Polar Night’ skill.]

[Using the ‘Sanctuary Proclamation’ skill.]

[The ‘Guardian of the Territory’ trait is activated.]

[The effect of the ‘Sanctuary Proclamation’ skill has been enhanced by the effect of the ‘Guardian of the Territory’ trait.]

[Polar Night] was a skill he received upon contracting with the constellation, a skill that brought night to a certain area and lowered the stats of enemies within it.

And [Sanctuary Proclamation] was a skill that spread a barrier centered on Sunyul’s location.

Both skills were suitable for defending against monsters.

After spreading the barrier with [Sanctuary Proclamation], Sunyul looked around.

[Using the ‘Studious Magescholar: Summon’ skill.]

Several small homunculi appeared and began to scurry around. The homunculi helped people who couldn’t evacuate because the entrance had collapsed. Sunyul laid a rescued person down safely and asked.

“Are you okay?”

“For now, I’m okay, but…”

He quickly evacuated the person who spoke of the monster in a terrified voice. Since it was difficult to evacuate them to another location immediately, he repeated the process of deactivating the [Sanctuary Proclamation] skill, letting the person in, and then using the skill again.

It was an enormous waste of mana, but Sunyul’s mana was so plentiful that it seemed to know no limits, so there was no problem at all.

Around the time the number of people who entered the skill’s range exceeded twenty. A voice he had never heard before unilaterally delivered information into Sunyul’s mind.

It seemed to be a skill of the type that relayed someone else’s words.

[What’s left are swarm-type monsters! There are many of them, and they’re quite intelligent! If you provoke them carelessly, you’ll be attacked in concert, so please be careful when dealing with them!]

Sunyul reflexively tilted his head back and looked at the sky. Then he saw a huge swarm of insects flying not far from him.

He was a little surprised by the voice that suddenly invaded his mind, but that wasn’t the problem right now. The problem was the swarm-type monsters, which were said to be quite numerous.

Rescuing people was important, but if he left the monsters alone, there was a risk that any scattered injured people would be attacked.

Sunyul’s mind raced.

For this type of monster, the most efficient method was to push through with overwhelming firepower.

They were the perfect monsters to push through with Go Yoonjae’s [Explosion] or fire-type skills, but this place was a residential area with densely packed buildings. He couldn’t use skills recklessly.

Without having to think deeply, countermeasures came to mind one by one. As if he were taking out and reading a book that he had put away a long time ago.

“Sunyul, Lim Sunyul!”

He heard Yoonjae’s voice.

Instead of answering, Sunyul took a deep breath. Usually, in situations like this, the best course of action would be to lure them in and catch them, but Sunyul had an easier and simpler method.

Sunyul’s eyes, which had risen high into the sky, quickly scanned the area.

[The ‘Hawk’s Eye’ trait is activated.]

[Your vision improves due to the effect of the ‘Hawk’s Eye’ trait. When searching for something with your eyes, you can find it faster and more accurately.]

Behind Sunyul, numerous small masses of light came into being.

Sunyul’s attack skill, [Sharpshooter’s Mana Bullets], didn’t have high attack power compared to other S-rank skills, nor was it particularly flashy. For that reason, it was evaluated as being a bit bland for an S-rank skill.

But Sunyul was fully satisfied with this skill. Its attack power was low, but it had the advantage of having no limit to the number of mana bullets that could be created with a single use of the skill.

In theory, as long as he had enough mana, he could create as many as he wanted, even hundreds or thousands of mana bullets.

True to the name ‘Sharpshooter’s Mana Bullets,’ the numerous mana bullets were unfailingly accurate. As long as Sunyul accurately recognized the target, the mana bullets were guaranteed to hit.

Therefore, even with hundreds of swarm-type monsters rampaging through the residential area, they were no match for Sunyul.

Hundreds of mana bullets flew in at the same time and exploded inside the monsters.

Boom!

The sound of each individual explosion was small, but when hundreds of them rang out at the same time, it was loud. Amid the illusion that the ground was vibrating, small explosions rang out…

And just like that, in less than ten seconds, all the monsters met their death at once.

“What, how…”

Seeing the monster corpses raining down like rain everywhere, Yoonjae was horrified.

Originally, the limit for Sunyul’s [Sharpshooter’s Mana Bullets] was creating a few dozen mana bullets at once. Even that was only possible because Sunyul was S-rank.

But now, even after creating several times that number of mana bullets, Sunyul just looked serene. Furthermore, the explosions were also incomparably more powerful than before.

Sunyul, who had descended to the ground, looked at Yoonjae with puzzled eyes.

“Why?”

“…No, it’s nothing.”

Yoonjae shook his head, his face pale. Sunyul looked around. The fact that Yoonjae, who had been guarding the gate, was here meant…

“What happened to the gate?”

“An esper came and is blocking it. Now we have to deal with the traps.”

Yoonjae, who had given up on excluding Sunyul from the dangers around the dungeon, confessed honestly. It would be a stupid thing to remove Sunyul, who had been the most active here.

Sunyul surveyed his surroundings with cautious eyes. It wasn’t just monsters that appeared around a dungeon after it occurred. Sometimes, traps that existed inside the dungeon would also appear.

Things about monsters and traps sporadically surfaced in Sunyul’s mind and then disappeared.

Sunyul left the homunculi to continue the rescue and headed in that direction with Yoonjae.

He could see something foreign on the ground. A vine as thick as a person’s waist was growing continuously, so fast it was visible at a glance.

Then, the vine, which seemed to have grown several tens of meters, began to spread out in all directions. Fortunately, it had only just begun to branch out.

“I think your fire can burn this, Yoonjae. I’ll block it, so…”

Seeing Sunyul speak, it felt just like the old days. Thinking that, Yoonjae nodded his head.

“Okay.”

[Using the ‘Sanctuary Proclamation’ skill.]

Sunyul spread the barrier in reverse. To prevent what was inside from leaking out.

Just like that, Yoonjae burned the vine. A brilliant explosion erupted, and the vine burned away, unable to spread further.

Everything visible on the surface was burned by Yoonjae’s fire, but there might be a symbol or something engraved somewhere that served as the trap’s core. First, find and check the center of the vine, then continue finding the injured and also make sure to eliminate any remaining monsters…

“…”

As he was thinking about the series of follow-up measures, in that moment, Sunyul became conscious of it.

‘Right now, how do I know all of this?’

The fact that he was remembering too many things. As soon as he became conscious of it, a severe headache came as if it had been waiting.

This can’t be happening.

Sunyul clutched his head. He didn’t want to think. He really… didn’t want to think. About anything.

[The ‘Traveler of the Eternal Night’ says that this is an unavoidable flow of events.]

“Sunyul?”

“Ah, ugh…”

“Lim Sunyul!”

At Yoonjae’s call, Sunyul barely managed to lift his head.

“…I-I’m fine.”

“What do you mean, fine? Go inside. Rest.”

Sunyul nodded his head with difficulty. It seemed it would be better to stop here.