"I have a method to hunt the Cave Octopus."

"How?"

How do I explain that? It's something I can only do since I have the Owl's Eye, Combo, and reinforced toughness. I need to show all of my cards.

"I will show you with my actions. All of you just have to do what you did earlier."

"We understand."

"We will just trust Kang Hwi Ram-nim."

All of them had no choice but to follow my suggestion. They had no other alternative.

After resting for a bit, I got up from my seat.

"Then let's try again."

I had the rest of the party turn on their magic lights and enter the hall first. While they distracted the Cave Octopus, I also entered.

I went toward the back of the Cave Octopus like Gazni had done before.

Of course, I was able to move in a way that was worlds apart from how Gazni had moved. It was because i had the Owl's Eye.

Crackle-

The fires that the magicians created were rising up in multiple locations. All of them were working hard to draw the attention of the Cave Octopus .

I matched the timing to approach the Cave Octopus. But,

's.h.i.+t!'

The Cave Octopus had set up guards. Tens of Blood Dogs were stationed behind him.

Growl-

A Blood Dog spotted me and growled fiercely as it ran toward me.

Thanks to that, the Cave Octopus noticed me as well. It's legs were already squirming around me. The parasitic monsters were running toward me as well. Some of them ran across the Cave Octopus's tentacles, while others hopped up and down to land on my head, chest, and back.

They were really sticky monsters. I tried to fling them off with my hand, but it was pretty hard to do.

Since it was like this, how could Gazni survive? The darkness would have made it hard for him to move just by itself. There was no way he would have been able to keep his life with the parasitic monsters attacking him as well.

But I was different. Neither the darkness nor the parasitic monsters bothered me. I didn't even need to pick them off.

It was thanks to reinforced toughness. I won't receive any damage from such weak attacks.

I just have to watch out for one thing!

I need to make sure to maintain my sight and breathing.

So whenever I spotted one jumping toward my face, I moved my head to dodge or used my hand to remove it. I quickly approached the Cave Octopus while doing that.

Growl-

Rawr-

The Blood Dogs ran toward me to block my way.

I was thankful.

The parasitic monsters were not useful in creating combos. You need to land a decent amount of damage for it to become a critical hit, but they were too weak for that.

No matter how much I swung my cutla.s.s, I couldn't land a critical hit.
But the blood dogs were strong enough. And they weren't that fast in my point of view.

Long story short, they were the perfect stepping stones for combo.

Papapat-

A combo finally started. The more Blood Dogs ran toward me, the faster my level of combo went up.

The Cave Octopus moved its tentacles to catch me as well.

But I was already in the octopus's blind spot. When no Blood Dogs were nearby, I used the Cave Octopus's tentacles as stepping stones to get closer and closer to the Cave Octopus.

I used the moment the combo was stopped to take out a fire marble and to throw it under the Cave Octopus.

Crackle-

The heat wasn't that strong, but it was enough to annoy the Cave Octopus. The Cave Octopus, that was annoyed by the fire, squirmed much more vigorously.

But each time it did that, openings were created in between the Cave Octopus's tentacles.

I needed to be careful. Since the movements didn't really have any rhythm in them, if I get the timing wrong, I could end up being squashed by the Cave Octopus's body or tentacle.

Still, I was able to get rid of the Blood Dogs thanks to that. A couple of them fearlessly chased after me before getting killed by the Cave Octopus's tentacles.

I started another combo.

Papapat-

Since the giant Cave Octopus was next to me it was super easy to make a combo.

As I continued to build up my combo like that, I used the moment the tentacles moved to head toward the Cave Octopus's head.

I could finally see the Cave Octopus's eyes.

The Cave Octopus looked me as well. I feel like the cave octopus's eyes suddenly got larger.

It must have instinctively sensed danger. The Cave Octopus's biggest weakness is its eyes.

Squirm squirm-

The Cave Octopus moved quickly with the goal of protecting its eyes.

But I was faster. I quickly approached it and used a 30+ hit combo deep into its eye. But,

"Ugh!"

I felt a terrible pain on my back.

When I turned my head to look, one of the Cave Octopus's long tentacles was stabbed into my back.

The damage was reduced thanks to the Green Ogre's Leather Armor and reinforced toughness, but the tentacle's attack strength was still really high. The damage was so high that I almost lost consciousness for a moment.

I quickly swung my cutla.s.s to slice off the end of the tentacle.

But it was already too late. I felt like I was losing all strength in my legs. It was hard to just stay standing.

I started to run, thinking I needed to at least get away, but I fell to the ground after I took less than five steps.

"Growl……"

Thankfully, the Cave Octopus was falling down as well.

But it was not time to relax. The real danger here is not the monster but the people.

Especially in a situation like this when I don't have the strength to protect myself.

I quickly turned my head to locate the Hansen posse. I also took out a healing potion from my bag and drank it at the same time. Drinking it was not enough, so I poured it onto my back.

A portion of the healing potion that flowed down my back reached the injury. Thanks to that, I felt like the injury was healing pretty quickly. But I still could not put any strength in my legs. I wanted to stand up, but I could not do it.

'Hurry. Please.'

I was waiting for my injuries to heal while praying.

But then I heard a voice.

It was Hansen's voice. He was quickly heading toward me.

"Kang Hwi Ram-nim! Where are you?"

I felt like my heart was sinking. I worked so hard to avoid a situation like this. That was why I was working so hard to avoid any severe injury.

's.h.i.+t. I need more time.'

But Hansen did not give me any time. In fact, it looked like he was hurrying even more to get to me.

I clenched my twin blades thinking that I needed to prepare just in case.

But the continued message was somewhat unexpected.

"He's over there. Let's hurry up and rescue him."

"We can't get close because of the parasitic monsters."

"Fire Magician! Please create a path. We must save Kang Hwi Ram-nim."

Hansen was urging the rest of them to try to save me. The rest of them were trying their best as well.

Some Fire Walls were created to make a path toward me. Hansen, as well as a couple other people, used that path to run toward me.

Hansen's expression was full of concern. I couldn't see any signs of trying to hurt me.He really was running toward me as fast as possible because he sincerely wanted to save me.

'Did I misunderstand their intention?'

But not all of them were moving with the same intentions that Hansen had. A couple of them were only moving because of their greed.

The majority of the prisoners were like that. They pretended to follow us until now to stay alive, but they showed their true colors once the final boss monster, the Cave Octopus, melted away.

"It's the priest!"

"I found her first. She's mine."

"No, she's mine. Don't touch her!"

'Priest?'

When i turned my head, in the middle of where the Cave Octopus melted away was the priest of the Athena Temple. She must have been trapped in the Cave Octopus's stomach.

The priest was still unconscious.

The party members all ran forward to try to save the priest.

"No! It is not over yet!"

I shouted as loudly as I could.

Some of them stopped moving at my shout. But the majority of them ignored it and ran toward the priest.

Hansen shouted as urgently as I did.

"Do not touch the priest-nim. Hurry up and save the priest-nim! Kill anyone who touches the priest-nim!"

The first command was probably to the prisoners while the latter command was to his posse.

But the command to the posse was a bit odd.

'Kill anyone who touches the priest-nim?'

Does that mean their goal has to do with the priest?

The members who had stopped for a bit started to run toward the priest again as soon as Hansen gave his order.

I can't let them all die like this. I don't know what their goal is, but I am at least certain they have no thoughts about harming me.

"It is not over yet. Watch out! That is just bait."

"Bait?"

Hansen's shoulders flinched at my words. He then urgently changed his command.

"Stop! Stop immediately!"

The members stopped their movement again. They seem to follow all of Hansen's orders.

"Move back. Move outside the range of the Cave Octopus's remains!"

"Move back. Even further!"

Hansen ordered as if he was delivering my message, and each time, the members followed accordingly.

I'm sure they are one team.

And not just any team. If they have been trained to listen so well to commands, there is a good chance they are an elite team.

It just made me even more curious.

'Are they perhaps a special forces team that the temple quietly hired?'

That was a pretty unlikely hypothesis. If they were going to do that, they would have hired special forces for all 100 members instead of using prisoners.

Then just what is their true ident.i.ty?

"We need to get out of here first. Hurry!"

Hansen and a couple other people supported me.

The parasitic monsters jumped toward us in ma.s.ses, but n.o.body really cared and continued to run.

That image was pretty memorable. They were putting aside their own safety to save me.

Of course, they probably drank some continuous healing potion in advance.

But I still felt a bit sorry. I had been doubting these people.

After they laid me down in a safe location, they started to take the parasitic monsters off of each other.

"Ow, it stings!"

"Disgusting monsters!"

""Please take this one off too."

While they did that, I took a look toward where the Cave Octopus had melted.

Things were progressing as I expected.

"Aaaaaah!"

"Ugh! What is this?"

"Save me!"

The members who ran forward to take the priest for themselves were all screaming in pain. The remains of the Cave Octopus's wreckage were encroaching on those party members.

"Stupid idiots. The Cave Octopus hasn't been defeated yet."

Once you stab the Cave Octopus's eye, it's body melts away. But that does not kill the Cave Octopus. It actually just divides itself into thousands of mini-Cave Octopi to get rid of its weakness.

There are also over ten thousand parasitic monsters in the area as well.

'Running in without a plan is just committing suicide.'

That is what I wanted to say.

But it was already too late. Tens of clearing squad members ran toward the priest, and none of them survived.

Annihilation.

The remaining members were the ten who stopped moving at my shout, as well as the five next to me.

As expected, Hansen, and the rest of the twelve volunteers were all included. Hanka was still here as well.

And two prisoners were still here as well, which I did not expect.

Hansen was tapping his foot.
It was because of the priest. He seemed to be annoyed that she was right in front of us, but we could not save her.

The rest of Hansen's posse was the same way.

"We need to quickly save the priest-nim."

"Is there no method?"

"Fire Magician, create a path!"

I guess their goal really was to save the priest.

Then are they really the temple's special forces? That makes no sense at all.

"The Cave Octopus is pretty resistant to fire. The average fire magic will not kill it. Also……"

I briefly shared the Cave Octopus's characteristics. The short version is, 'You are too weak to kill it.'

"Then what should we do?"

Isn't it obvious? I need to hunt it.

"I have a method."

"How?"

"No matter what it is, we need to hurry. The Cave Octopus is starting to form its body again."

Hansen's posse urged me with worried expression.

I was seeing it as well. The Cave Octopi, that annihilated the squad members, were slowly moving and gathering together.

But rus.h.i.+ng will not solve anything. I needed to heal my body first. I need to be able to move properly to do anything.

Thankfully, the feeling in my leg was quickly coming back. Now I could start moving again.

I picked up my twin blades and stood up.

"Please put a mana s.h.i.+eld on me."

"Will you be okay?"

"I need to do as much as I can. Fire Magicians, please cast fire magic on the Cave Octopi. That will help slow its merging speed a bit."

"We understand."

I felt the mana s.h.i.+eld surrounding my body as I ran toward the Cave Octopus.

Huff. Huff. Huff.

My breathing was pretty rough.

I had moved a lot, and quite vigorously too. No matter how weak they were, there were over 10,000 of them.

I still had some parasitic monsters and the Cave Octopi left.

But there weren't too many of them left now. There is nothing more dangerous than thousands of them attacking in a group, but these sporadic monsters everywhere won't cause any type of danger.

Hansen and his posse helped kill the rest.

Thanks to that, the Cave Octopus and the parasitic monster corpses disappeared quickly.

Once that happened, Hansen, who had been consistently wondering if it was now okay to approach the priest, finally ran toward the priest. Hanak, as well as a couple other members, surrounded him to protect him.

"Priest-nim! Please wake up."

His voice was full of concern

I pushed my slightly tired body forward and headed to the center of the hall.

I could finally see the priest's appearance. Since she was unconscious, of course she looked like a mess.

"Priest-nim!"

Hansen grabbed the priest's arm again and started to shake it.

But the way he looked was surprising.

His gaze and voice was very pa.s.sionate. Almost like he was begging her to open her eyes.

On the other hand, his actions were very careful. It looked like he was worried that anything he did might end up hurting the priest.

That is not something a stranger would do. The two of them must have some special relations.h.i.+p.

From the looks of it, it felt like a princess and her servent. That was how cautious yet gentle each and every one of Hansen's actions were.

But the priest was not moving. She was still completely unconscious.

But she was not dead. Her chest and stomach were moving in a routine manner to show that she was breathing.

While that was going on, I heard a voice in my head.

The rest of the Cave Octopus's corpse must have finally disappeared.

'Light Breaker, eh? I guess I did get one.'

But there was something that interested me more than Light Breaker.

'Piece of an old map? What is that?'

No matter what it is, I'm sure it is not a normal item. I should be able to get a pretty good reward if I find all of the pieces and complete the map.

But that is a problem for later.

A bright portal was created next to the priest. Since the final boss monster was completely defeated, the exit to the Demon Cave was created.

"Let's head out first."

Once I said that, Hansen finally noticed the exit portal.

"Sounds good. Let's all quickly leave. Hanka-nim, please carry the priest-nim on your back."

"Okay."

The tones were very formal, but no matter what anybody says, it looked like Hanka was following his boss's order.

The priest was placed on Hanka's back. Hansen was very careful as he put her on Hanka's back. Almost too careful.

Seeing that made me question the priest's ident.i.ty as well. Maybe she was not just a priest, but also a woman with a very big secret.

But that was not something I could figure out right now.

Would I be able to get answers to all of my questions if I head out through that exit portal?

While I was thinking to myself, Hanka threw himself into the portal first. The rest of the squad and I got in a line as we headed toward the portal.

Last chapter for the week. See you all in a few days.

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