Moon's Labyrinths

“Mr. Soochan! You should stop right there! That is unacceptable!”

In the end, Wonho raised his voice. It seemed Soochan didn’t want to fight anymore, so he grumbled as he backed off.

The incident was concluded for the time being.

‘It really was the right decision to leave behind my other Devices and Gems.’

Sungyoon had this thought as he watched Soochan move away from him. He was only wearing a Green rank armor, yet this man was acting like this. How would his party members have reacted if he had worn all his high-rank Gems? He could only imagine.

He recognized that Wonho’s resolve had deepened. The man had come to a decision, and it seemed he was going to dissolve the party.

‘He’ll probably bring it up after we finish today’s hunt.’

Sungyoon inwardly nodded. He didn't feel good operating in this uncomfortable atmosphere. He had made a promise, so he planned on sticking it out until the end. However, he wouldn’t object if the person behind this job disbanded the party. In fact, he would welcome such a decision with open arms.

However, it was as if they were cursed. Nothing went right until the end.

It occurred when they were about to wrap up for the day.

The party encountered a Giant Snake. Sungyoon had fought against it with the Ross siblings in the past. The monster was a really troublesome opponent.

Wonho took the lead. He raised his shield, making an attempt to distract the head of the Giant Snake. Sungyoon moved along behind him and stabbed the monster with his spear whenever he saw an opening.

Soochan was prepared to defend against the tail, which might fly towards them at any moment. Mina hid behind Soochan and continued to look for an opening to attack the Giant Snake.

It didn’t take too long for Hweeyae to prepare her flame magic. A large ball of flame appeared on her hand.

“Be careful!”

With a warning for the others, she threw the fireball that easily hit her target.

Puh-uhng!

The flame had been contained in the ball, but it ruthlessly spread into the surrounding, burning everything in its range.

-Keeeee-ahhhhhhhhl!

The Giant Snake let out a shrill scream. It extended its tail in a bid to put out the flames on its body. It caused the flame to splash into the surroundings, which became bright when the tail made the sparks fly into the air.

‘Now!’

Sungyoon’s eyes shone. The other party members came to the same conclusion as him. The Giant Snake was writhing its body, and it was solely focused on putting out the fire on its body. They planned on using this distraction to attack the monster. Everyone gripped their weapons harder.

However, Sungyoon didn’t blindly charge towards the monster.

“Please defend me.”

“Yes!”

He gave the request as he brushed past Wonho. Wonho didn’t hesitate in agreeing and ran forward as he stuck close to Sungyoon.

Kwah-jeek!

Since his weapon was low in rank, Sungyoon used the momentum of his body to attack with his spear. The spear blade flew in with enormous strength behind it. It destroyed the scales of the Giant Snake, leaving behind a deep wound on its body.

-Kyahhhk!

After stamping out the fire, the Giant Snake screamed once again. It writhed its body as it moved its enormous tail.

“Mr Sungyoon!”

Wonho, who had been stabbing with his sword, called out. Sungyoon immediately got behind Wonho, and put his body against Wonho’s back.

Hweek!

The tail flew towards them at incredibly high speeds.

Boom!

“Koo-ook!”

“Oohp!”

Wonho held the shield, and Sungyoon supported him. Both of them groaned. However, they were successful in blocking the tail.

“Ha-aht!”

Sungyoon once again stabbed.

Poo-ook!

-Keeeeeeeeeeek

The Giant Snake let out yet another scream and quickly retracted its tail. Its red eyes looked for Sungyoon. However, Sungyoon and Wonho had already retreated to a safe distance.

“Ha-aht!”

Someone shouted a battle cry. It was Mina’s voice. While the Giant Snake had been focused on Sungyoon and Wonho, she took advantage of the opportunity to unleash her attack.

However, she chose a place that would cause a more fatal wound.

Poo-ook!

Her spear pierced the angry flesh, which had been burnt by Hweeyae’s fireball.

-Kyahhhhhhhhhhhk!

One could tell by the monster's scream that this attack was much more painful than Sungyoon’s attack. Mina’s spear ripped open a large wound on its side, and the Giant Snake rampaged harder.

“At least, we’ll be able to kill it easily.”

Wonho realized the hunt was going well. It had been a while since his face had brightened like this. Sungyoon agreed with his words. The party was doing well right now, and if things continued along the current path, they’d successfully finish their hunt in short order.

‘Well, it would be great to finish on a high note.’

This would be their last hunt according to the time of the day. Sungyoon thought everything would come to a successful conclusion.

However, he had been too ahead of himself.

“Kyahhhhhk!”

A ghastly scream rang out. Sungyoon and Wonho looked to the source, and their faces stiffened. The scream didn’t sound like someone surprised or taken aback. It was horrible.

‘Something went wrong!’

The same thought appeared in their head at the same time.

Mina was flying through the air with blood pouring out of her.

“Shit!”

Soochan cursed as he attacked the Giant Snake with his shield and hammer. He was trying to draw the attention of the monster.

“Mr. Wonho should help Mr. Soochan.”

After speaking those words, Sungyoon ran towards Mina. Wonho did as Sungyoon had instructed. He joined Soochan, and they started fighting a fierce battle with the Giant Snake.

Mina was far away from the battle, crumpled on the floor like a doll with its strings cut.

“W... what should we do?”

Hweeyae had reached Mina first, and she looked like she was about to cry. Sungyoon was cold as he pointed towards the Giant Snake.

“I’m going to use healing magic. Ms. Hweeyae should help them fight the Giant Snake.”

Hweeyae hadn’t known what to do, but when hearing Sungyoon, she quickly nodded and headed towards the battle.

Sungyoon checked Mina’s status. It seemed she had taken a direct attack from the Giant Snake’s tail.

Her leather armor had been horizontally ripped, and blood kept pouring out of her mouth.

Sungyoon guessed her abdomen had been hit, so he quickly put his hand on her stomach.

Hoo-ong!

Purple-colored energy flowed out from Sungyoon’s bracelet, and became absorbed into Mina's body. She had been gasping for breath, but soon, her breathing normalized.

‘Thankfully, it is still effective.’

After he finished healing her, Sungyoon stood up. The battle was still ongoing.

Mina was unconscious, and his other three party members were busy fighting the Giant Snake. This was why no one witnessed Sungyoon quick summoning his spear. Sungyoon immediately charged into battle with his spear in hand.

After a while...

Boom!

The Giant Snake’s enormous body fell to the ground. Sungyoon poked at its corpse with his spear. It didn’t move at all. When he confirmed that the monster was dead, everyone let out a sigh of relief.

“What about Ms. Mina?”

As expected of a leader, Wonho asked about Mina’s status. The answer could be heard from the back.

“I’m fine.”

Mina slowly walked towards the party.

“Are you ok?”

“Yes. I'm pretty sure I’m fine.”

She touched the region where she had been injured. She winced while speaking, but it was not due to pain. She had winced because she remembered how she had been injured.

“Did Mr. Sungyoon heal me? Thank you very much.”

Mina bowed towards Sungyoon. She had been barely conscious, yet she had realized he had healed her. On the other hand, Sungyoon was the only one in the party with a healing Gem, so it wasn’t surprising to see her piece everything together.

After she gave her thanks, her gaze turned toward Soochan. Her eyes turned fierce as she started glaring at him.

“What the hell were you thinking?”

“What nonsense is this woman trying to say?”

Soochan’s expression crumpled.

“Don’t act all innocent! You were tasked with defending me from the attack. You should have supported me! But when I was attacking the monster, you were far away from me!”

“That’s not my fault! It is your fault for charging without saying anything!”

“If your eyes were open, you would have seen what I was doing!”

“You have a mouth! You could have said, ‘I’m going!’ How can you not say something so simple!”

The two of them raised their voices and started to fight again. However, they were more on edge than ever before.

Mina had almost died.

“What had happened?”

Wonho asked Hweeyae the question as she had been closest to the two of them.

“When the Giant Snake had started its rampage, the two of them thought it would be a good idea to attack it. The problem arose when while stabbing with her spear, Ms. Mina moved away from Mr. Soochan’s defensive range. Mr. Soochan didn’t realize this.”

“I see. That is why Ms. Mina took a direct blow from the Giant Snake.”

Wonho stroked his chin as he deeply thought.

“Where do you think the blame lies, Ms. Hweeyae?”

“I believe both of them share some blame. Ms. Mina didn’t say anything before she charged, and Mr. Soochan saw her charge, yet he reacted really late.”

While Sungyoon and Wonho listened to Hweeyae’s explanation, Mina and Soochan were close to coming to blows.

Wonho quickly got in between them. There really was a chance that they might stab each other.

“Please! Please calm down!”

While leading this party, Wonho had lost count how many times he had to say, ‘Please calm down!’ Sungyoon felt a bit of sympathy towards the man.

“This guy almost got me killed!”

“It was your fault!”

Even with Wonho’s intervention, the two of them weren’t calming down.

“I can no longer party with that man! Please let this be known!”

“Hmmph. I feel the same way!”

In the end, the two of them completely ignored each other. A party was supposed to be a unit working together on the same, yet a massive schism had appeared between two of the members. It was like a glacier that cracked over countless years. This crevice couldn’t be fixed, and with time, the crack would just get bigger.

“Ha-ah. Let’s do that.”

Wonho let out a sigh as he spoke.

“I’ve got a good estimate on the rank of this labyrinth, and I’ve drawn a rough map. This is happening faster than I had planned, but I propose we end the party here.”

In the end, the party was dissolved.

No one spoke out against it, as everyone had expected it.

Wonho had to gather the Giant Snake’s moonstone, so he walked towards where the corpse had disappeared into the light.

“Huh?”

He found something, and everyone heard the sound. Wonho sounded troubled as everyone turned to look at the location where the Giant Snake had disappeared. Since they were Connectors, they had excellent eyesight, so they saw something glint next to the moonstone.

It was a Gem.

As Connectors, it was what they wanted over everything. However, Wonho’s face hardened when he saw the Gem.

‘Shit. Of all the Gems to drop...!’

They were already in a messy situation, so Wonho couldn’t help but inwardly cuss.

However, he couldn’t will away the Gem that had already appeared. Wonho picked up the moonstone and put it away in his backpack. Then, he slowly took up the Gem. Everyone’s gaze was probably fixed on the Gem. Wonho didn’t even have to look. He was sure of it.

First, Wonho inspected the Gem.

It was an Indigo rank square-shaped Gem. It was a support magic Gem.

Wonho had an empty slot in his Device, so he put the Gem in and tried activating it.

‘Fuck!’

When the identity of the Gem appeared in his head, he inwardly cursed.

“What kind of Gem is it?”

Mina asked the question. Wonho sounded almost unwilling to answer the question, and the tone of his answer almost resembled a sigh.

“It is a healing magic Gem.”

The light in everyone’s eyes changed. This was especially true of Soochan and Mina. It was as if their eyes sparked.

“What are you going to do with it?”

Soochan asked the question. Was it just his imagination? But his rough attitude had quieted down by a lot. It appeared as though he was worried he would have less claim to the Gem if he was rude.

The party members were like a pack of hyena drooling over a rotten piece of meat. When he saw this, Wonho was put in a bind.

‘What should I do with this?’

The distribution of Devices and Gems was the biggest problem that arose amongst a party. Moreover, this was a healing magic Gem.

‘Of all the...’

Soochan and Mina had expressed their desires for a healing magic Gem when the party had started out. Moreover, the desire for a healing magic Gem was at an all-time high for everyone in the party. They had just witnessed Sungyoon heal Mina’s critical wound. If he were being honest, Wonho also wanted this Gem as much as the others. He just wasn’t taking it for himself because he was the leader of this party.