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Translator: Vine
Chapter Title: Tutorial Boss Battle (3)
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The woman who had rushed at Choi Aram first, only to collapse after her abdomen was pierced.
Kim Su-hyun.
A twitch.
Her eyebrows twitched.
'Where… am I right now…?'
"Ugh—"
At that moment, she let out a groan from the terrible pain in her stomach.
Hummmm—
"Don't touch the wound. You'll only make it worse."
A clear, gentle voice.
Kim Su-hyun shifted her gaze towards the owner of the voice.
There, a girl with an angelic appearance and long, straight hair flowing down.
"…Cheonhwa?"
"Yes, the healers are treating you."
She looked around. Familiar-faced healers were treating her.
"…Was it you who saved us? Thank you."
"Hmm, I'm not the one who deserves thanks."
Grrrrrrr—
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
From a short distance away came rough growls and the regular, sharp clang of metal.
Kim Su-hyun sharply turned her head.
'…Monsters!?'
Her eyes widened.
An unbelievable sight unfolded before her eyes.
A horde of monstrous creatures charging towards a single girl.
"…That one is definitely…"
Kim Su-hyun remembered that face.
The junior tank who had brazenly refused her offer to join her group during the practical gate training this morning.
She was firmly holding a single shield forward, as if intending to face the monster horde alone.
A first-year student, freshly enrolled, was facing that multitude of monsters alone, while the seniors, what were *they* doing?
Kim Su-hyun frowned deeply and looked around.
"Wow, that ability is seriously unbelievable."
"Right? A tank that can aggro that many enemies? It's unheard of."
"She's dodging all the attacks too."
However, the people around them were chattering in calm voices, as if they had no intention of joining the fight.
"What in the world are you all—!"
Just as she was about to lash out at them.
Bang—!
Splatter—
This time, the sound of something bursting.
And then, the consecutive sounds of something falling to the ground.
"That's, the War Dog…"
"Hah, I've only heard how strong she is. But even without a weapon, just punching, she's making those dog-heads explode."
"Damn, seeing that in real life, it's even more ridiculous, isn't it? …From now on, I shouldn't mess around in front of her."
A sharp-featured girl with red hair fluttering was punching the monsters.
And where her attacks landed, monster heads burst, scattering brain matter.
"…Insane."
Kim Su-hyun couldn't help but gape.
A difference in class.
Because she felt it.
She had thought they were both A-rank hunters, but this girl possessed a skill level entirely different from her own.
She felt her pride, which she had held as an A-rank hunter, shattering into pieces.
'Even if hunter ranks are determined by the number of cleared gates… such a difference…'
She, who had a certain pride in her own abilities, bit her lip tightly.
Alright, I can understand this much, even if I concede a hundred times over.
Cheonhwa and the War Dog.
These two were already famous even before entering the academy.
It's just that their abilities weren't exaggerated, but rather underestimated.
And the unexpected skill of that tank is also understandable, as it's not unheard of for students to come to the academy and display hidden talents.
However, there was one person.
One individual was mixed in there, and she couldn't understand why.
'…Lim Ga-eul?'
The one with green hair braided into a single plait, who always wore a foolish grin and could only giggle.
She was an idiot, utterly lacking in physical ability, magic, and skills, unable to even voice her own opinion properly.
"Ga-eul sunbae! Accelerate once more!"
"Okay…!"
But now, she was perfectly supporting those exceptional hunters, blended in among them.
As her skill imbued the bodies of the tank and the dealer,
the tank, against a multitude of enemies, dodged attacks at close range, almost without even raising her shield.
And the dealer's movements became even more agile, sweeping through the monsters as if grinding them in a blender.
Bang—! Bang—! Bang—! Bang—! Bang—!
The sounds of monsters exploding continued, one after another.
How much time had passed?
Soon after. All the monsters were cleared.
"…"
"…"
"…"
At the sight, everyone stood with their mouths agape, wearing dazed expressions.
Suddenly, Kim Su-hyun's face stiffened.
'…Come to think of it, that wretch—! The Demon!'
It wasn't just her thinking that, as the murmurs around them grew louder.
"That, that crazy bitch—!"
"Hey, damn it, isn't that really dangerous!?"
"If we stay like this, we're all going to die…?"
She turned her gaze forward.
Choi Aram had her head bowed low.
A tremor—
Another tremor—
Now, her appearance was clearly abnormal.
Muscles bulged and twitched all over her body, and her frame pulsed intermittently as if having a seizure.
'Signs of Demon transformation!'
She threw her head back towards the sky and screamed.
"…Kuaaaahhhhhhh—!"
A horrible shriek, not a human voice, echoed through the training ground.
In the midst of everyone's tension rising.
Shin Se-hee looked at Jin Yu-ha and tilted her head.
'…You're smiling right now…?'
* * *
'Ugh, I feel like I'm gonna die…'
I forced down the sudden surge of nausea.
To somehow cram in damage, I scraped together every last bit of magic for various skills and swung my sword.
After even using my final blow, the draw attack, my head is truly spinning.
Honestly, I deserve some praise.
Because I faced a guy that was originally meant to be tackled by a party, all by myself.
"…Kuaaaahhhhhhh—!"
Choi Aram suddenly bowed her head low, then convulsively threw her head back and let out a shriek.
It was a clear sign of abnormality, but
I, on the contrary, curled the corners of my lips and inwardly cheered.
'…It worked!'
Since the game and reality were different, whether this would work or not was frankly a gamble, but fortunately, this part proceeded as per the original scenario.
'Well, if it didn't work, I could just bring the party members and do a real raid.'
But if I had, some of the seniors in this enclosed space would have taken significant damage from her area-of-effect attacks.
Choi Aram, the original tutorial boss, had more varied patterns than one might expect.
Lasers spewing from her fingers.
Physical attacks, ramming directly with her enhanced body.
And even area-of-effect attacks, spreading demonic energy like a carpet.
'But since she's a tutorial boss, she gets staggered quickly.'
Therefore, if I went all-out with extreme damage from the start to put her in a staggered state,
it was possible to bypass all other patterns, only seeing her first pattern, the laser.
What I just did was something anyone, even a 'Vel-noob' who knows nothing of the world but has enjoyed 'Velvet Story' a few times, would naturally do.
Tutorial boss skip!
Well, no matter how much she caused trouble in an unexpected place.
Even so, she's just a tutorial boss. It would be a bit much to struggle here.
Is it not a dangerous situation right now, you ask?
Not a chance.
Heh heh—
Choi Aram, clutching her face, chuckled lowly, her shoulders shaking.
"Kwahahahaha! Kwahahahahahahah—!"
Choi Aram let out a maniacal laugh, spreading both hands wide as if fully expressing her sense of liberation.
On her transformed forehead, two sharp horns had sprouted.
And the pink pupils and white sclera of her eyes had swapped places, giving her an unmistakably deranged and dangerous aura.
Haaaaah—
Choi Aram let out a languid sigh.
"Jin Yu-ha! It's dangerous!"
At that moment, the party members, having finished dealing with the monsters, gathered around me.
Lee Yu-ri stood in front of me with her shield raised,
Kang Do-hee took a stance ready to spring out from beside me.
And Lim Ga-eul, right behind me, tightly clutched a magic stone, preparing a skill.
"…We need to attack now while she's unstable. Jin Yu-ha, give the order quickly!"
Kang Do-hee said in a stiff voice, her face hardened.
'Hmm, I'm really grateful they assembled, but…'
I scratched my cheek.
'It's already over, though.'
"Hmm, let's just leave her be."
I said in a calm voice.
"…What!?"
They looked at me with dumbfounded expressions, as if asking what on earth I meant.
"Just watch carefully."
I pointed a finger at the girl, who was undergoing demonization in real-time.
"That's the end for a human trying to become a demon."
'No matter how much of a crappy game it is, a tutorial boss doesn't have a second phase.'
This one merely served as a warning that future bosses would have phases, and to show the fate of a human who becomes a demon.
Pinky, who had been intoxicated by her own power and cackling like a chuunibyou for quite a while.
Suddenly, her face stiffened. Then she covered her mouth with her hands.
Ugh.
It seemed she tried to stop it somehow, but.
"Cough—!"
Dark red blood spurted out through the gaps in her fingers with a cough.
She looked down at her hands with trembling eyes.
"…W-what is this…?"
Gueegh—
She braced herself on the floor and vomited a torrent of blood.
The spilled blood formed a pool beneath her.
'Ugh, seeing it in real life, it's disgustingly grotesque.'
I frowned, looking at the grotesque sight.
In the game, scenes like this were cutely depicted with SD characters, you know.
"T-this can't be… This can't be happening…"
Then, her horns went *thud*. *Thud*.
Both fell to the floor.
"N-no…"
Choi Aram's eyes quaked.
And her body, slowly shriveling.
Her strength draining away was visible to the naked eye.
Rustle—
Her pink hair fell out from her head.
Her pink hair, cleanly peeled away.
'Should I call her 'Shiny' now?'
She touched her body all over, as if unable to believe it.
"Nooooooo—!!"
Splat—
And so, anticlimactically, the tutorial boss,
Choi Aram collapsed right there, her face buried in a pool of blood.
"Um, everyone…"
I looked back at my party members, wearing an awkward expression.
"Good work?"
Everyone stood with their mouths agape, wearing vacant expressions.
"…"
"…"
"…"