"W-we're really sorry for attacking you!"
Yoon Ji bowed repeatedly, hands clasped together as his voice trembled.
"It's just that you appeared out of nowhere…"
Park Jisoo mirrored him, lowering her head apologetically.
Yet even as she bowed, her eyes flicked upward, her mind racing, 'To think there are still others this strong alive besides us…'
Her jaw tightened.
'Even the newbies we were hired to train died in that goblin ambush.'
She stole another glance at the girl standing before them.
'Up close… she's unmistakably a mage. Through and through.'
Her grip on her bow tightened slightly. 'But for someone of her caliber—why is she even here?'
...
Just moments earlier.
They had been running blindly, desperately, fleeing from the grotesque mountain of corpses they had stumbled upon, when a voice rang out from nowhere.
"And where do you think you're going?"
The sudden words made both of them stumble.
There had been no presence. No sound.
It was only because of that voice that they realized someone was standing right in front of them.
'A monster?! No—it's a human...!'
'But—'
They didn't think.
Yoon Ji lunged forward, spear flashing as he poured mana into the strike. At the same time, Park Jisoo leapt into the air, drawing and firing five arrows in rapid succession.
Was it desperation?
No.
Was it instinct?
Yes.
Years of survival had carved the truth into their bones.
They didn't just feel it.
They tasted it, now up close.
Killing intent.
They knew it well—veterans always did. They carried traces of it themselves after countless battles against monsters.
But this was different.
Too thick.
Too dense.
Not malicious like a hunter killer's but heavy, as though the being before them had killed without hesitation, without pause.
Given their situation—cornered, exhausted, hunted—it left only one conclusion.
'We must strike first, or else we will die!'
Both of them moved with the same thought echoing in their minds:
'Sorry—'
Because hesitation meant death.
And death was something they refused to accept.
CLANG—!
Yoon Ji's eyes widened.
'No way… that was my strongest attack—!'
His spear rebounded violently, the force numbing his arms as though it had struck an invisible wall.
The cloaked girl—barefoot, staff in hand—only tapped the ground lightly.
The earth responded.
A massive root erupted upward, slamming into Yoon Ji's torso and launching him through the air.
He choked, pain exploding through his body, and twisted his head just enough to scream, "R-RU—RUN, JISOO—!!!"
The arrows followed next—mana-coated, screaming through the air like enhanced bullets.
They struck.
But stopped.
Green, translucent barriers bloomed midair, intercepting them effortlessly.
The impact sent cracks spiderwebbing across the shields—just enough to make the girl's eyes widen in surprise.
"…Interesting," she murmured, a faint smile touching her lips.
With a casual wave of her staff, another layer of barrier enveloped the arrows completely, freezing them in place.
They were immobilized instantly.
The mage they had attacked was none other than Lee Joo-Hee.
Her brow twitched as irritation crept across her face.
"Blame yourselves for attacking me," she said flatly. "I was only about to warn you not to venture any deeper."
She exhaled softly, "[Haste]. [Sprint]."
In an instant, her figure vanished.
She reappeared in front of Park Jisoo before the ranger could even regain her balance.
Pain exploded through Jisoo's abdomen as the staff slammed into her stomach, forcing the air from her lungs in a strangled groan.
At the same time, Lee Joo-Hee flicked her finger.
Massive roots wrapped around Park Jisoo's throat.
Her body went rigid, eyes bulging as she clawed at nothing, consciousness slipping away as the world darkened.
...
The three of them sat beneath a field of blanket flowers, their petals faintly luminous, while clusters of glowing mushrooms served as the only source of light.
In the distance, goblin screams echoed endlessly.
Thorny vines—thick and blackened like iron—rampaged across the land as if alive, writhing and impaling anything that moved.
Beyond the wall of thorns, mountains of corpses piled endlessly.
Each time Yoon Ji or Park Jisoo glanced in that direction, the same thought surfaced unbidden:
'She's really a monster…'
And yet, despite the hundreds—no, thousands—of dead goblins, the stench of blood no longer reached them.
Instead, the air was filled with a fragrant, earthy spice, warm and oddly soothing.
'It must be the blanket flowers. I've read about them once,' Yoon Ji thought as he gently brushed his fingers against the petals.
On the other hand, Park Jisoo couldn't forget it.
The feeling of being strangled by the cloaked girl—how her vision had blurred, memories flashing one after another as though death itself had reached for her.
She touched her neck subconsciously.
'Both of us are C-rank combat hunters…'
Her jaw tightened. 'And yet we were completely overpowered. No—We never stood a chance in the first place.'
After a while, Lee Joo-Hee finally opened her eyes.
"There's no need to apologize," she said calmly. "I was at fault as well for surprising you both."
When she removed her hood, her appearance was revealed fully to Yoon Ji for the first time.
Hair the color of a burning sunset.
Eyes as blue as the morning sky.
Skin pale as limestone.
Perhaps it was the glow of the mushrooms or the gentle sway of the flowers, but the sight before them felt majestic—almost unreal.
Yoon Ji froze, heat rushing to his face as he stared, momentarily entranced.
Despite her torn, dirt-stained clothes, Lee Joo-Hee exuded a warmth—an unmistakable scent of nature itself—that left both hunters momentarily speechless.
Then they met her eyes.
The killing intent was unmistakable.
Both of them swallowed.
"I'll be leaving now," Lee Joo-Hee said, turning away. "You two can stay here for the time being. The Ironwood Thornvine I planted should keep the goblins away."
Still flustered, Yoon Ji hesitated before speaking.
"B-but… what about these blanket flowers? Shouldn't we pull them out? I'm pretty sure they're what's luring the goblins here…"
Her gaze snapped to him.
"No," she said flatly. "Don't touch them. I planted them for that very purpose."
Internally, she clicked her tongue.
'Try it—and I won't hesitate to feed you to the goblins.'
Yoon Ji stood up slowly, confusion written across his face, "O-on purpose? Why? Wouldn't it be safer to remove them?"
Park Jisoo had remained silent, but her mind was racing.
'Why do this at all? We don't even know when—or if—the dungeon gate will return.'
'Wouldn't it be better to conserve mana and energy to survive longer?'
Lee Joo-Hee let out a quiet sigh and turned her back to them.
"Then let me ask you this," she said. "If we don't kill them, then what?"
"...If a dungeon break occurs and these goblins spill into our world… can you live with yourselves knowing hundreds could die because of it?"
She glanced back at them briefly.
'Now stay put,' she thought coldly. 'I still have a few thousand left to kill.'
_________________
[Freedom of Goblin Macabre]
Total Goblins Killed: (6,981/10,000)
Time Remaining: 4 hours, 49 minutes, 51 seconds
_________________
That simple response made them think of Lee Joo-Hee in a new light.
She wasn't just a Hunter by Rank.
She was a Hunter by Duty.
In her quiet resolve, they didn't see a woman burdened by fear, but a woman whose spine was forged from the need to protect those who couldn't protect themselves.
At that moment, Lee Joo-Hee became a role model to the two of them, her name carved into their memories.
And it wasn't just them.
During those 7 hours, Joo-Hee had saved many hunters—healing their wounds, providing supplies, even growing fruits for them to eat.
She had constructed 5 fortresses using seeds from [Blanket Flowers], [Ironwood Thornvine], [Venomthorn Bush], [Gloomshade Flower], and [Viper Vine].
This was an idea born from the limited time she had.
A goblin-gathering fortress—a structure intended to kill goblins on its own.
And this was precisely why she had chosen her new stat to solve the greatest problem behind this idea:
Mana Consumption.
Maintaining and creating each fortress drained an enormous amount of mana.
Her only solution was to finally use the [Golden Ticket 2].
Her Magic Power had already reached its limit, and the fastest way to break through without undertaking a full quest was through the [Basic Stat Evolution Quest Exception].
_________________
— Magic Power [142/200]
_________________
She had planned to save it for later, but even if she chose [Mana Recovery], it would still be inefficient.
After all, she didn't yet have a perfect grasp of precise control over mana.
That was when the new stat truly shone.
_________________
— Mana Control [100/100]
_________________
A control-type stat that allowed her to manipulate mana at will. By investing most of her stat points, reaching 100 had been effortless.
And with a stat at its peak, everything changed.
Excess mana consumption vanished.
Every active skill now used less mana than intended, yet produced stronger effects.
Even [Fragmented Tongue of Babel], once unbearably torturous, now consumed less than 500 mana per use.
Instead of her entire neck and mouth seizing in paralysis and drought, only her tongue turned dry.
A massive improvement.
With that, only two tickets remained in her possession:
[Basic Stat Fusion Exception] and [Basic Skill Evolution Quest Exception]