“Here it comes.”

Ho-cheol warned as a slimy, dirty aura, thick enough to make the hair on my arms stand on end, blanketed the area. In the distance, a black smoke was rolling in like a tidal wave.

“Adelia’s Tomb is Adelia’s Tomb, I see.”

Mijeong laughed, sensing the power radiating from the enemy hidden within the smoke. It was a tense, touch-and-go situation, as if a full-scale battle could erupt at any moment. Yet, not a single member of Team Noah showed any signs of tension, like swallowing hard or clenching their fists. It wasn’t that they were hiding it; they simply didn’t feel it.

They’re all out of their minds.

Hunters are generally like this. They get excited when they see a strong enemy, want to prove their own strength, and desire to crush their opponent by displaying superior power. They were no different from pure beasts.

And that went for me, too, having lived as a hunter in this world for eleven years now.

I confirmed the identity of the approaching foe and let out a whistle.

“Looks like it’s eaten quite a lot.”

Its body was the size of a mountain; this was no ordinary specter. They said it had devoured what appeared to be the elites of Scorpion in an instant, and it certainly had the aura to back that up.

The monster drew closer. Now, the distance between it and our party was less than a kilometer.

A distance where we could more than clearly see each other with the naked eye.

Guuuh-ooooh.

The giant specter of the swamp, which looked as if it were wearing the swamp itself and dripped filth as it moved, opened its mouth. Inside that mouth, hundreds of souls could be seen screaming. It was a horrifying sight, but at the same time, a strangely marvelous one.

What a tourist attraction.

It was a special sight you couldn’t see anywhere else in the world. I joked that it would be a huge hit if we turned it into a tourist business, and Ho-cheol laughed heartily in agreement.

But the time for idle chatter was brief.

The creature, which had opened its maw wide, let out a murky breath.

The hunters flinched at the flurry of blue windows. The System never popped up just because a monster used a skill. The fact that the System had appeared because it used a skill was surprising enough, but what was even more shocking was the last system window.

One of the five senses will be blocked.

After that message appeared, I realized that my hearing, which could pick up even the most distant sounds, had lost its function. I couldn’t hear the sound of the swamp boiling, nor the shouts of my party members.

Damn it. So this is how it is.

I thought I understood why so many hunters had died so helplessly against this thing. Just then, someone grabbed my arm tightly. The touch was precarious, like someone grabbing a support to keep from falling. I turned my head. Han Geon-joo was there.

Han Geon-joo, with no focus in his eyes.

Fuck.

A curse flowed out on its own. The person next to me flinched at my spoken word, then seemed to relax. From his expression, which showed he was now certain I was in front of him, I felt a strange sense of satisfaction before letting out a sigh.

I turned my head to check on Lee Han, Mijeong, and Ho-cheol. Mijeong had also lost her sight, it seemed, as her eyes were closed. Lee Han looked relatively fine. As I tilted my head, he brought a hand to his nose as if trying to smell something, so it seemed the sense he had lost was his sense of smell. And Ho-cheol.

That crazy bastard.

He had walked over to the muddy area, poked a finger into the swamp, and was tasting it. Then he was laughing boisterously. Anyone could see he was a man who had lost his mind, or rather, his sense of taste.

So the three of us on this side took the most critical losses.

Myself, Mijeong, and Geon-joo had suffered the most damage. The loss was especially great for Geon-joo and Mijeong, who had lost their sight. I looked at Geon-joo, who was gripping my arm tightly, and gave him some advice.

“Don’t try to see, just close your eyes. When one sense disappears, the others tend to develop, so you’ll be able to focus better with your eyes closed. Concentrate on the sounds and the vibrations.”

In truth, being able to sense the unique vibrations living beings emit and pinpoint their location was something that only became possible after a new sense, which could be called a sixth sense, opened up through long years of hunter life. It was difficult for anyone but the absolute top-tier hunters to feel it, but I believed in Han Geon-joo’s genius.

His ability was enough to make my own stomach twist with jealousy; when faced with a crisis of this magnitude, it was bound to manifest to some degree.

At my advice, given with all my heart and sincerity, Geon-joo said something. It was hard to read his lips, so I couldn’t understand what he was saying. I turned my head at the hair-raising aura. The giant specter was already right upon us.

The creature’s eyes drooped as it sobbed. I couldn’t hear the sound, but from its gesture of opening its mouth and its body heaving, I could tell it was crying.

Then, the creature pulled its body back and then stretched out, vomiting forth hundreds of souls.

The specters it vomited rose from the swamp. Hundreds of souls approached with creaking movements. They looked like small fry, but their sheer numbers were overwhelming.

Next, the giant specter began to retch, heaving out a black vomit.

A new specter rises from its vomit. This time, its aura was stronger than the others.

I checked the newly born specter and let out a hollow laugh.

The menacing items they held, the practical muscles on their bodies, and the scorpion tattoos on their faces.

They were the elite members of Scorpion that Geon-joo had spoken of, the ones eaten by the specter.

“I was planning to look for you anyway, so I should be thankful you’ve shown up like this.”

Muttering under my breath, I let go of Geon-joo. I felt him flinch, but in a tense battle, restraining each other’s arms was the most foolish thing we could do.

“Having your movement restricted is more dangerous. Move on your own.”

At my advice, his lips moved. It was hard to make out, but judging from his expression, it seemed to be a complaint directed at me.

I took a cloak with the best defensive capabilities from my inventory, wrapped it around him, and then slashed at a specter that had come close. Then I took out a new sword, tossed it into the air, caught it, and opened my mouth.

“Geon-joo, do you think souls count as inhuman beings?”

Of course, I couldn’t hear an answer. I was now standing with my back to him. Still, as if I had heard a reply, I grinned and kicked off the ground, rushing towards the specters.

“Well, I guess we’ll find out when we fight.”

I moved swiftly and clashed with the specters.

Moving like a flash of lightning, my sword’s first target was the specter at the forefront. I plunged my dagger into its neck and, seeing the dozens of specters reaching out to grab me, I stomped my foot. Thump! A soundless impact, and the cold of the frost zone instantly pushed the specters ten steps back.

The struggles of the specter I held grew more intense. I twisted my wrist and pulled out the deeply embedded dagger. The specter, the color of the swamp, collapsed helplessly.

Specters are souls.

Without a skill related to holy power, it was impossible to permanently defeat them. A physical death was only a temporary one, and the specter would soon rise again, but I paid it no mind and dusted off my hands.

“If you can be grabbed by human hands, you’re a zombie, not a soul, right?”

As I sneered at the pushed-back specters, they charged all at once, as if angered. Half of the specters were attacking, while the other half were chanting something. The latter seemed to be trying to show me a hallucination, but it was useless.

They were just small fry in large numbers. Their hallucinatory skills wouldn’t be as good as the Siren’s Earring.

I ignored the specters running their mouths and weaved through the aggressive ones, brandishing the Dawn of Spring.¹ Its name suggested it was effective against inhuman beings, and indeed, using the Dawn of Spring felt more satisfying than dispatching them with a dagger.

With me taking the lead, the rest of the party began to join the battle.

Mijeong opened her fan, and a ferocious aura rose from behind the woman, moving in the direction the fan pointed. The aura suppressed the specters. If you looked closely at the aura, you could see it was in the shape of a human hand. It was the god Mijeong served for her skills.

Called the shaman of the hunter world, she had amassed a great fortune by telling all sorts of fortunes. As the one who stood at the pinnacle of merchants created a wind with her fan, a black wind raged and swept the specters away. Once a path was cleared, Lee Han moved along the opened way.

Seeing him draw his Half-Baked Conviction,² I spoke to Geon-joo, who was fighting near me.

“The aura in a diagonal line to your left is Lee Han. Feel it properly, pretty boy.”

That is the path you must walk.

As I added quietly, Geon-joo, with his eyes still closed, turned his head towards where Lee Han was. Just in time, Lee Han struck his own shadow with his sword.

The shimmering shadow writhed as if it were alive and coated Lee Han’s sword. In that state, he struck an enemy.

The specter was split in half in a single blow, and a shadow rose from the severed surface. The shadow, calm like Lee Han’s personality, slowly began to devour the specter. It was Lee Han’s main skill, Shadow Manipulation.

Besides that, Lee Han could also hide in his own shadow or attack another’s shadow to inflict direct damage. Since Geon-joo’s ability was Shadow Domination, which seemed to be a step above Lee Han’s Shadow Manipulation, he would be able to grow faster by observing Lee Han’s combat.

I watched Geon-joo, who had forgotten the battle and was engrossed in exploring Lee Han’s aura, and dealt with a monster that was charging at him. I was performing the duties of a bodyguard, a role I had never asked for.

You’d better be grateful, I grumbled internally. Just then, someone passed by me at high speed.

A figure kicked off the ground, soared into the air, and fearlessly jumped into the middle of the specters’ formation. I instantly recognized who it was from the wild-horse-like movements and watched Ho-cheol rampage in the heart of the specters’ main force.

“So reckless.”

It was Ho-cheol’s style of combat, something he could do because he was as brave as he was reckless, and because he had the skills to back it up. Even though I couldn’t hear it, I felt that he was laughing heartily and moved my sword again.

The number of specters decreased rapidly. After dealing with the hundreds of small fry that kept reviving and dying, we were finally able to face the dozens of Scorpion specters.

“To think I’d live to fight these guys again. The world is full of fun, isn’t it?”

I laughed menacingly, conversing with an opponent that couldn’t talk back, and clashed swords with one of the Scorpion guild members. It was then.

An strange energy was detected from under my feet.

Whether the boiling of the swamp had intensified or not, the ice zone vibrated, and at the same time, I felt the aura of the Scorpion specter I was clashing swords with rapidly rise.

The tide has turned.

Realizing someone had intervened in this overwhelmingly one-sided battle, I looked at the green specter that had vomited out the others. Sure enough, the creature was chewing on my frost zone with its mouth and vomiting out new specters. As soon as those specters rose, they committed suicide and transformed into black energy, which then flowed into the Scorpion specters as if by command.

Specter enhancement.

As I was dumbfounded by the sight I had never seen or heard of before, the frost zone that I and my party were standing on finally began to crack. Once a large crack formed, it was only a moment before the ice was swallowed by the boiling swamp.

KRA-D-D-DEUK!

The ice floor shattered into dozens of pieces at once and disappeared into the swamp. As the hunters, who had lost their footing, frantically used their flight skills, I thought of the one person who didn’t have a flight skill.

“Han Geon-joo!”

I whipped my head around and spotted the man, precariously balancing on a shard of ice that had not yet collapsed. Cracks were slowly forming in the footing he stood on.

I can still make it.

The moment I realized that, I kicked off the empty air and flew towards him. Whether he heard me or felt my vibration, Han Geon-joo reached his hand towards the sky. I grabbed his white hand and pulled with all my might.

The man took my hand and soared into the air.

CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!

Right after, the footing he had been on shattered and disappeared into the swamp.