I Became The Rankers’ Number One Pick [EN]: Chapter 197

197.

It had been a while since the young Elves disappeared, but finding them wasn’t difficult.

Not long after they started running, they heard Elves speaking in an unfamiliar language. There weren’t many of them.

Baek Eun-hee murmured in admiration.

“Wow, look over there. They’re really beautiful.”

The Hunters hid among the branches, taking a moment to observe the peaceful scene.

“It’s not my first time seeing Elves, but the Elves in this world are especially good-looking.”

The Elven village was near a stream.

Choi Eun-gyeol mumbled glumly, pointing at the Elves.

“How are we supposed to catch them? It feels wrong.”

“So, you’re discriminating based on appearance? You turn Trolls into roasted skewers the moment you see them.”

Choi Eun-gyeol shrugged at Baek Eun-hee’s teasing.

“Is that so bad? And the Trolls attacked first, but these guys…”

Choi Eun-gyeol stopped talking. It seemed his voice had reached the Elves’ ears, as the young Elves playing by the water all looked up at the tree where the Hunters were hiding.

“Oops.”

The Elves screamed and ran to their homes. They were called homes for lack of a better word, but they were closer to shacks made of branches and leaves, just enough to keep the rain out.

As soon as the young Elves disappeared into the shacks, adult Elves emerged.

The adults were also beautiful, but they had more solid, muscular bodies compared to the young ones.

They held bows as big as themselves. The Elves shouted at the trees and shot arrows.

Whoosh- Thwack!

Yoo Ji-an calmly caught the incoming arrow with a nonchalant expression. Similarly, Baek Eun-hee caught an arrow flying straight at her forehead with her bare hand and waved it in front of Choi Eun-gyeol’s face.

“Oh, does that mean they attacked first? What are you going to do? Are you going to let them off because they’re pretty?”

“Ugh, stop teasing me. If we have to catch them, we have to catch them.”

Choi Eun-gyeol, who seemed reluctant to catch the Elves, was the first to create fire in his hand. Then, Song Jin-ah grabbed Choi Eun-gyeol’s wrist and gently lowered it, looking at Yoo Ji-an as she spoke.

“You said we shouldn’t kill them, right?”

In the meantime, more Elves emerged. Seeing spears and swords appearing, Baek Eun-hee calmly said.

“Then let’s retreat for now. They’re too agitated.”

At the same time, the Hunters jumped away. Some Elves chased after them, but they couldn’t match the speed of S-Class Hunters.

Once they had shaken them off, they landed on the ground.

“You have a plan, right? You’re the one who said not to kill them, Yoo Ji-an.”

Baek Eun-hee crossed her arms and looked at Yoo Ji-an, and the other Hunters also looked at him.

“I do.”

“You do? What is it?”

Song Jin-ah also stared at Yoo Ji-an with a curious expression.

“Just tell them to leave.”

“…Do you think they’ll listen? If they would, the settlers wouldn’t have asked us for help.”

“Tell them we’ll kill them if they don’t leave. If they don’t want to die, they’ll go somewhere else.”

“Ah.”

Baek Eun-hee, Choi Eun-gyeol, and Song Jin-ah each had their own thoughts, and they moved away from Yoo Ji-an to talk among themselves.

“Still, let’s try to talk to them first. I’ll go. They probably don’t want to keep clashing with humans either.”

“I’ll go with you.”

Choi Eun-gyeol and Song Jin-ah had completely turned their backs on Yoo Ji-an. Yoo Ji-an didn’t try to interfere and stepped back, watching their conversation.

Baek Eun-hee glanced at Yoo Ji-an and nodded at their words.

“Okay, let’s try it first.”

“The Elves seemed to be pretty good at fighting earlier, so why were they pushed out?”

The Elves were all tall and had lean, muscular bodies. It seemed impossible for an ordinary human to win against an Elf in a one-on-one fight.

Baek Eun-hee answered Song Jin-ah’s question, drawing on her knowledge.

“There’s no competing with numbers. And Elves value harmony with nature… You saw it earlier. Humans will use any means necessary, but Elves would never set fire to the forest to drive out humans.”

“I guess.”

They headed back to where the Elves were gathered. The Elves were still sharply guarding their surroundings.

Yoo Ji-an and Baek Eun-hee hid in the back, while Song Jin-ah and Choi Eun-gyeol slowly stepped forward.

The Elves who spotted them aimed their weapons at them.

“Whoa, whoa. We didn’t come to fight.”

Choi Eun-gyeol slowly waved his empty hands above his head. An arrow from one of the Elves landed at Choi Eun-gyeol’s feet with a soft thud.

But Choi Eun-gyeol didn’t flinch and slowly walked forward. Song Jin-ah was next to him.

The Elves seemed to realize that they had no intention of attacking. They murmured among themselves, and then a few Elves came forward.

Keeping some distance, they spoke loudly. The translator wasn’t perfectly accurate because it wasn’t human language, but Choi Eun-gyeol was roughly advising them to leave this place.

Then they refused, saying they had to live where there was water. They got angry, saying they had settled here first.

“Water…”

As Yoo Ji-an muttered and looked away for a moment, the Elves shouted excitedly. They all raised their weapons and aimed them at Choi Eun-gyeol and Song Jin-ah.

Yoo Ji-an glanced at them and muttered.

“Negotiations have broken down.”

“Didn’t expect anything anyway, did you?”

Baek Eun-hee shrugged and stood up from leaning against the tree.

“Ugh, wait a minute, hold on!”

“Get back!”

Choi Eun-gyeol tried to speak, still not giving up, but Song Jin-ah stopped him and retreated. Song Jin-ah rolled back, dodging a swinging sword with a low posture.

“Damn it.”

Choi Eun-gyeol also cursed lowly and lightly flew up to the tree to avoid it.

In fact, the Elves’ attacks weren’t a big threat to them. But it wasn’t easy to make the resisting guys retreat without hurting them as much as possible.

Even the Elves in the back came out and joined the attack.

“Well done, you stirred up a hornet’s nest.”

Baek Eun-hee smirked and came to the tree where Choi Eun-gyeol had climbed, and Choi Eun-gyeol shouted as if he was wronged.

“Hey, don’t just laugh, do something!”

At that time, Yoo Ji-an, who was looking at the map, strode to the center of the road.

The Elves’ arrows rained down, but most of them missed him or bounced off without piercing him thanks to his good armor.

As they watched to see what he was going to do, a blindingly bright yellow light flashed. And a loud sound followed.

Kwarumble- Bang!

Lightning struck continuously around Yoo Ji-an.

“Whoa, that scared me.”

Even Choi Eun-gyeol, who knew his abilities well, flinched at the intense lightning. But he seemed to have controlled it well, as he didn’t hit any people or Elves.

“Everyone, leave this place, if you don’t want to die.”

A low but powerful voice echoed through the forest path.

Fear appeared on the Elves’ faces. But they still didn’t move.

With each step Yoo Ji-an took, light flashed and huge trees fell with a thud.

A few Elves who thought they couldn’t win began to evacuate the young ones from the shacks.

And the Elves in front dropped their weapons and sat down.

Yoo Ji-an pointed his sword at the Elf at the very front.

“I’ll cut you down in 10 seconds. Leave this place.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than a strong lightning bolt struck the ground next to the Elf. The Elf, who had turned pale, retreated almost rolling back and began to lead the other Elves away.

Baek Eun-hee jumped over and stood next to him.

“They’re fast. I don’t know who the villain is.”

“Choi Eun-gyeol.”

When Yoo Ji-an called, Choi Eun-gyeol, who was on the tree, also jumped down.

“But if we do this, how are we different from those settlers?”

As soon as the story of Seo-ah came up, Choi Eun-gyeol’s disgruntled voice disappeared. Yoo Ji-an pointed to the mountain range on the opposite side.

“Go over there and create a waterway on the other side, so they can make a base there.”

“I’ll go with you.”

Yoo Ji-an agreed, and Choi Eun-gyeol first flew towards the top of the mountain using [Flying], his skill.

Song Jin-ah seemed to follow Choi Eun-gyeol, but she snatched a lagging young Elf and ran.

“Shall we go too?”

But the next moment, Baek Eun-hee and Yoo Ji-an froze without moving. Because Yoo Ji-an had made a fuss here, all kinds of monsters living in the mountain were hearing the noise and gathering.

“Very well done, Yoo Ji-an. It’s like a party is being held.”

Yoo Ji-an didn’t respond to Baek Eun-hee’s lightly sarcastic remark and raised Ruin Blade.

“Let’s deal with it quickly and go.”

Baek Eun-hee’s Splinter flew with a sharp momentum, signaling the start of the battle.