I Became The Rankers’ Number One Pick [EN]: Chapter 60

60.

“How did she get in here?”

Seo-ah blinked in surprise, but Yoo Ji-ahn said firmly,

“Drink this first.”

Yoo Ji-ahn casually took out a Maker’s potion bottle and tossed it to her. Before Seo-ah could ask anything, she gulped down the liquid inside.

“Now, pull yourself together and finish this.”

“Ah.”

The Maker’s potion was amazing as always. The pain that felt like it would kill her subsided a little, and strength returned to her hands.

Seo-ah firmly gripped the Bbyong Hammer and raised it high, pausing for a moment as if she was about to strike.

After a brief moment of consideration, Seo-ah changed the Bbyong Hammer’s setting to ‘Non-Lethal.’

She remembered that the wild boar had piglets. She had almost been killed by that wild boar just now, and it felt ridiculous to be doing this, but she couldn’t bring herself to kill it.

As someone who knew the pain of losing parents, Seo-ah couldn’t bring herself to kill the mother wild boar.

Seo-ah jumped up slightly. And this time, without hesitation, she slammed the wild boar’s head with all her might.

Bbyong!

It was a cute sound, but the wild boar’s head was slammed into the ground. A barrage of Bbyong Hammer strikes rained down on the wild boar as it tried to get up again. Eventually, the wild boar fainted.

“Hoo….”

Since she changed the mode to non-lethal, it would probably wake up after a while.

In a situation where she was on the brink of life and death just a moment ago, this absurd action was naturally done because she trusted Yoo Ji-ahn beside her.

“Is there any other way to clear the gate besides catching the boss?”

If catching the boss was the only way, then Seo-ah would have no choice.

Yoo Ji-ahn didn’t question Seo-ah’s actions and casually replied,

“You can either find and complete a secret quest, or destroy the magic stone that maintains the gate.”

“Oh, then….”

“Secret quests are related to the boss. The magic stone is also hidden in the boss’s lair.”

“Then I should find the magic stone. It’ll be difficult to get a secret quest right now.”

She spoke urgently, but Seo-ah thought Yoo Ji-ahn would object. She was preparing to persuade him, but Yoo Ji-ahn surprisingly agreed.

“Alright, let’s get you treated first before that.”

Yoo Ji-ahn took out several Maker’s potions from thin air. And after popping the caps with his mouth, he started pouring them on Seo-ah’s left shoulder.

‘I already finished one bottle a while ago.’

To Seo-ah, it all looked like money.

“Hic, th, ah, I.”

‘By the way, how did he know I hurt my shoulder when I didn’t even say anything?’ Seo-ah flinched, and Yoo Ji-ahn said in a low voice,

“Stay still.”

“…Yes.”

Yoo Ji-ahn poured two bottles of Maker’s potion and made Seo-ah drink one healing potion and one mana potion.

It wouldn’t completely heal her, but the pain subsided quite a bit. After the first aid was over, Seo-ah looked at Yoo Ji-ahn with curious eyes.

“But how did you get in here? A moment ago, there wasn’t enough time yet….”

“Let’s go.”

Yoo Ji-ahn cut off Seo-ah’s words and raised his right arm. Then, a large hawk appeared in the air and landed gently on the ground.

This was Yoo Ji-ahn’s companion monster, ‘Kian,’ that she had only heard about. Yoo Ji-ahn was the only hunter in Korea who had a companion monster [a monster that fights alongside a hunter].

Seo-ah’s mouth dropped open at the sight of the large hawk. Yoo Ji-ahn lightly wrapped his right arm around Seo-ah’s waist and climbed onto the hawk’s back.

“O-o-oh! Do you know where the boss’s lair is?”

“You’ll know when you see it.”

The hawk, Kian, fearlessly soared into the sky. Seo-ah staggered once but soon lowered her posture and regained her balance.

“Ah, but there’s someone who came in with me. His name is Gil Kyung-tae….”

“He was going out the way I came in.”

“Ah, he left?”

Then what was that scream?

As Seo-ah tilted her head, Kian flew even higher.

“Turn on the State Checker.”

Seo-ah almost lay flat on the hawk’s back and looked down.

“It’s already on, but I don’t see anything special.”

But as soon as she said that, a new mode unfolded before her eyes. She didn’t know the principle, but it seemed that the State Checker’s function changed depending on the viewing angle.

Contours like contour lines were spread out over the vast field. The edges were green, then yellow, and the center was red.

“What you’re seeing now represents the concentration of magic power in this land. You can only see it if you come up quite high.”

“Ah, then the red one, is that it?”

“Yes, that’s right. Now, let’s go down. Hold on tight.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the hawk began to descend almost in a straight line. Seo-ah’s body floated up at the same time, and Yoo Ji-ahn grabbed the back of her neck.

Barely dangling like that, she finally reached the ground. Seo-ah calmed her churning stomach and slid down from Kian’s back.

There was a large tree with exposed roots. The area under the roots was empty, like a cave.

“Oh, th, there!”

Three piglets were wandering in front of the cave. And there was also a large snake coming down the tree trunk, aiming for the piglets.

At the same time, a system window popped up.

[Secret Mission: Kill the ‘Black Anaconda’ targeting the piglets. Time limit: 1 minute.]

“Secret Mission?”

He said that even solving this mission would clear the gate.

Seo-ah glanced back at Yoo Ji-ahn.

Yoo Ji-ahn leaned against Kian’s body as if he wouldn’t interfere, and only nodded slightly.

Seo-ah also answered with her eyes and turned her gaze back to the snake. First, she brought up the snake’s status window with the State Checker.

[Black Anaconda]

[Overall Grade: E (D Locked)]

[Once it catches something, it coils around it and suffocates it, then swallows it in one bite. It can swallow things twice its size. If it eats diligently and grows, it will evolve to grade D.]

[Item: Black Anaconda Scale]

If it was still grade E, it wasn’t a difficult opponent.

The snake was only a short distance from the piglets, so there was no time to waste.

Seo-ah ran and hit the snake’s head with the Bbyong Hammer. Her left shoulder hadn’t recovered yet, so she had to fight with her right hand only.

Kyaak-

The snake, hit once, shook its head and opened its mouth wide towards Seo-ah. Seo-ah immediately changed the Bbyong Hammer to ‘Lethal’ in a flash.

And dodging the approaching mouth, she struck the snake’s back several times. The snake wriggled each time it was hit and this time, it swung its tail.

Seo-ah calmly rolled her body on the ground to avoid it. If she got hit even once by that huge snake, she felt like she would go to the afterlife.

After a while of back-and-forth, the Bbyong Hammer finally slammed into the snake’s head.

Kyaaaaak!

With a thud, the giant snake collapsed.

[Secret mission successful! Reward item has been saved to your inventory.]

In fact, the [Black Anaconda] was not a very strong monster compared to its size. Thanks to that, Seo-ah, an E-grade hunter armed with special A-grade items, was able to catch it with difficulty.

Seo-ah looked at the fallen anaconda with a complex gaze, panting. In fact, she had been feeling a contradiction in her attitude since a while ago.

She felt pity for the piglets being left without their mother and spared the boss wild boar. But as soon as the secret mission appeared, she killed the snake without hesitation.

It wasn’t that she felt guilty every time she killed a monster, but she couldn’t help but be aware of the opposite events that happened in the same gate [a portal to another dimension or area].

While the piglets were playing peacefully, Yoo Ji-ahn strode to Seo-ah’s side.

“It’s natural to kill one to save one. If you worry about everything, you won’t be able to endure the hunter’s job.”

As if he knew what she was thinking, Yoo Ji-ahn offered comfort, not comfort, in a low voice.

Seo-ah nodded slightly.

“…Yes. I know, but.”

“Now let’s go back. With this, the gate will disappear safely.”

“Disap…pear?”

“Yes. The gate disappears when it’s cleared.”

Seo-ah’s pupils shook slightly.

She thought of the people who had disappeared in the Parasitic Desert. Then the boss wild boar she had spared, and these piglets, would they disappear with the gate? Forever?

Yoo Ji-ahn looked at the wavering Seo-ah with concern and slowly opened his mouth.

“What I can tell you is… don’t give your heart too much to the beings inside the gate.”

“Then why didn’t you stop me when I spared the boss earlier?”

“This is your gate, so I just respected your judgment. Then let me ask. Why didn’t you kill him earlier?”

“…Just.”

Seo-ah stopped answering and squatted down, looking at the dead snake. And then she muttered in a voice that could barely be heard.

“I saw the piglets before that. If the mother dies, the piglets will be left alone….”

She hadn’t thought deeply about it. She just momentarily recalled the sorrow of losing her parents and living alone.

There was clearly a benefit to be gained from killing the boss, but she wasn’t very greedy for it.

But the fact that all of that would disappear made her feel a little sad. Seo-ah’s shoulders drooped.

Yoo Ji-ahn was looking down at her quietly. He unknowingly reached out his hand towards the crown of Seo-ah’s head, but withdrew his hand just before it touched.

“Let’s go.”

Instead, a blunt tone flowed out.

Seo-ah shook it off and got up, pulling herself together.

“Yes, we should go.”

Yoo Ji-ahn reached out into the air. A vortex swirled in his hand, gradually increasing in size. Once a gate was cleared, they could leave whenever and wherever they wanted.

Yoo Ji-ahn let Seo-ah enter the vortex first, then followed her in.

Meanwhile, the boss wild boar, having regained consciousness, was sniffing from afar, coming to take care of its piglets.

And when the vortex that swallowed the two people completely disappeared, everything disappeared into darkness in an instant.

It was as if someone had forcibly flipped a switch.