An assassin. Junhyuk had already fought one before, and they were difficult to deal with. He had also been killed by the last one he fought. Last time, the assassin had used the shadows to move around, but this time it was teleportation.

Junhyuk didn’t like the fact that assassins had specialized powers. He closed in, leaving exactly two stepping stones left. The enemy could hide, so he had to decrease the number of directions the enemy could attack from.

Junhyuk stood on the stepping stone, looking at his enemy, and asked, “Kilraden?”

The enemy nodded heavily. He had gotten the champion’s name after Aktur was killed, and assassins were tight-lipped. They didn’t talk much.

After decreasing the number of ways the enemy could get to him, Junhyuk extended his arms.

“I don’t care if you don’t talk.”

As he unsheathed his swords, Kilraden pulled out a dagger. Junhyuk wanted to say that the champion was carrying a weapon fit for assassinations, but the enemy had already disappeared.

He grimaced and swung his sword at his back instinctively, but there was no one there. Then, he heard Gongon’s voice.

“Above you!”

Instead of trying to swing again, he jumped forward, toward the next stepping stone, and saw Kilraden drop where he had been.

Kilraden’s outfit was entirely white. The champion looked at him and disappeared again.

Teleportation.

Junhyuk clicked his tongue and dove toward the island. Just as he had expected, Kilraden appeared right where he had been standing. Kilraden looked at him, and he dove again. Junhyuk couldn’t relax. Even if he got to the island first, he had to consider his enemy’s teleportation power.

Kilraden started running toward him, and he inhaled deeply. Then, the champion disappeared again. Junhyuk raised his head to look up and spun around, slashing behind him. There was nothing there again.

His enemy had to have a lot of experience doing what he did, and Junhyuk felt a sting on the side of his neck. Teleporting away, he grabbed the spot.

He had just been hit by a critical hit and lost 40 percent of his health in the process. The only good thing at that point was that the living spirit regenerated his health quickly when he was not engaged in battle, so had had full health before they started fighting. However, he was still shocked at losing 40 percent of his health by a strike that penetrated his defenses.

Junhyuk retreated and saw a translucent Kilraden. The champion had pretended to teleport, but had hid instead.

Junhyuk had kept watch above and behind himself, and Kilraden had simply come through the front and stabbed his neck with the dagger.

Hide lasted for three seconds, but Kilraden had already used it. The champion had also teleported twice already.

Junhyuk walked toward his enemy and said, “I learned something just now.”

Junhyuk wanted to check on something. He wanted to know if the critical hit had been part of Kilraden’s power or if he had just simply been badly positioned, so he walked toward Kilraden, and Kilraden turned the dagger around and walked toward him.

“An assassin who wants a frontal, head-to-head fight!”

Junhyuk attacked Kilraden, but didn’t let his guard down. This wasn’t just a fight with swords, but a fight with powers. As he approached, he swung his sword, and Kilraden parried with the dagger. Junhyuk had expected the parry and continued to attack.

He thought he would’ve been at a skill level of his own, but there were many champions who could match his swordsmanship on the battlefield.

Kilraden parried his dual swords with a single dagger, and Junhyuk smiled coldly.

“I am not that easy!”

As his swords struck the dagger, he closed in and stabbed forward with the Frozen Rune Sword. However, Kilraden just kept smiling.

The timing was perfect. Even Junhyuk wouldn’t have been able to prevent the strike. But as the sword touched Kilraden, the champion’s body phased through it while he swung his dagger. Junhyuk tried to parry it quickly, but blood was already gushing out of his chest.

“Ugh!”

A critical hit. He lost another 40 percent of his health.

“That’s a shocking amount of damage!”

Junhyuk gritted his teeth, but Kilraden had already disappeared. Kilraden attacked by teleporting, and if his combos landed, he would deal damage incomparable to Nid. That type of damage would even be fatal to heroes, especially those who focused on attack. Kilraden’s attacks could kill them.

The assassin’s third power was even a counterattack. Once he became a hero, he would be quite a sight to behold.

Kilraden had disappeared through teleportation, and Junhyuk couldn’t tell where the next attack would come from. There was only one thing he could do now, so he raised the force field around himself.

Clang!

Kilraden had teleported and had come at him from the side, but the assassin bounced off.

“It’s my turn.”

Junhyuk turned around and used the Spatial Slash, which went through Kilraden’s neck.

“Argh!” Kilraden screamed, stepping back.

A red shockwave extended from his neck. With a 20 percent chance to happen, the extra attack activated, stacking the critical hits on Kilraden. All of the attacks had landed, inflicting heavy damage. The first attack took 55 percent of the champion’s health, and the extra attack took another 28 percent. The single Spatial Slash had dealt 83 percent damage in total, leaving Kilraden with 17 percent of his health.

Junhyuk retreated and repositioned, smiling at Kilraden.

“Got you.”

Kilraden frowned, and Junhyuk disappeared. He reappeared stabbing the back of Kilraden’s neck, piercing through it. The attack was fatal, and Kilraden opened his mouth wide, vomiting blood.

Junhyuk twisted the sword and pulled it out.

[You’ve killed Kilraden and earned 3,000G.]

Tired, Junhyuk looked back. He could have been killed at any moment. Gongon walked over to him and said, “He didn’t have a lot of health, but his damage was absurd. Are you OK?”

He laughed hard and said, “No, I am not OK.”

Junhyuk had lost 80 percent of his health from two hits. During the upcoming team battle, there was a chance he could get killed at any time by the two new additions.

Shaking his head, Junhyuk murmured, “It wasn’t easy.”

“It didn’t look like it was.”

“Did you think about helping me out?” he asked Gongon.

“You were dealing with a loser and you didn’t need any help.”

“You are so cool.”

Junhyuk walked over to Hatma, who, restrained by the tree, smiled at him.

“It was fun watching you fight.”

“It wasn’t that fun.”

At the reply, Hatma laughed and continued, “I want to listen to a song.”

“What?!”

The sorcerer was always shocking, but now he wanted to listen to a song, which was absurd. Junhyuk stared at him, and Hatma smiled and continued, “Follow that road, and you will meet Sairan. You’ll find Sairan’s tribe there. There are seven princesses, and one of them is Sairan. Bring me the conch around her neck. It must contain her voice.”

“Your taste is very unique.”

Hatma laughed hard.

“When you listen to it, you’ll know.”

“I’ll bring it to you.”

Junhyuk didn’t say anything else and turned around. He was in better shape than last time. Gongon was there and so were the lizardmen.

He walked over, and Gongon jumped on his back, getting a piggyback ride from him.

“Is it quest time again?”

“Correct. Let’s go.”

Without saying anything else, he looked at Gongon and the lizardmen with him and ran toward the quest.

—

Sairan, one of seven princesses.

He saw the situation ahead and laughed.

“I wasn’t expecting this.”

Sairan wasn’t by herself. She was surrounded by ten nagas. Junhyuk saw her sitting on a large rock by herself among them.

“What do we do now?”

“Let the lizardmen handle the nagas. They must be on the same level, no?”

Junhyuk shook his head. Each naga was three meters long. Even novices wouldn’t be able to deal with them. There were only ten of them, but they had to be very strong.

Junhyuk looked at Gongon and said, “I’ll kill the nagas.”

He was the fastest one at killing mobs, and the hatchling looked at him and nodded.

“Then, throw me.”

“Sure.”

He launched Gongon with some strength, and the dragon flew ahead. Then, Junhyuk looked at the nagas and gave out the order to the lizardmen, “Attack!”

The lizardmen rushed forward, and so did he. When the nagas saw him, they headed toward him. In reality, the nagas swung their tridents, and the lizardmen died suddenly, so Junhyuk stepped to the front. A trident was coming in his direction, so he swung his sword, and the naga lost its head. Once it died, the shockwave swept through the other nagas around it.

Junhyuk didn’t stop, running ahead. He saw a path between two enemies and ran for it while swinging his swords. Red and white shockwaves expanded in rings that swept through his enemies.

There had been ten nagas, but their skills were below B-ranked monsters. After taking care of them, he ran toward Sairan.

“Things were a lot more difficult last time.”

Junhyuk looked for Gongon, but the dragon was far away from the battle.

“Gongon!”

The hatchling said through gritted teeth, “Shit! What is this shit?”

Junhyuk ran after Gongon, and Sairan stayed on her rock, staring at them both, but did not mount any attacks of her own.

Junhyuk looked at her. She was a beautiful woman, but she had no pupils, and her eyes were entirely blue. She merely stared at them both.

Junhyuk lifted Gongon and asked, “What happened?”

“I got hit by my own firebreath.”

“Your attack was reflected back?”

Gongon got up and glared at the princess.

“Right. She’s not the only thing there.”

Hearing Gongon, Junhyuk decided not to use the Spatial Slash. If he did, it might get reflected back at him, dealing fatal damage.

“I want to know what type of force field she has. Shall we?”

“OK.”

They couldn’t see a force field at that point, so they had to clash against her. Junhyuk ran toward her first, trying to slash her, but a dome-shaped force field appeared around her.

Clang!

He watched as his health disappeared and grimaced. Gongon ran forward and used his headbutt, but he was also thrown back.

Junhyuk looked at the dragon and said, “There must be a way.”

Her force field was invisible, and there was neither a time limit nor a cooldown to it. It also reflected damage, which made it very powerful.

Gongon got up suddenly.

“OK. There must be a limit to the damage it can take.”

They had to surpass that limit to be able to deal damage to the princess. When things concerned magic, Gongon was on an entirely different level from Junhyuk. So, trusting the dragon, Junhyuk decided to attack.

Gongon had already used his firebreath and headbutt, and Junhyuk had used a regular attack. However, the force field had yet to disappear. It hadn’t gone over its damage limit yet.

Gongon transformed and said, “I’ll destroy it.”

Junhyuk saw Gongon’s determination. The dragon’s defense was high, but his attack was even higher. Gongon was going all out to destroy the force field, so Junhyuk also raised his sword.

“Right. Let’s do it.”

He still had the Spatial Slash.