WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ I Returned as a God ◈

Chapter 45: A Tale of Strangers (1)

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The sun was setting.

One-horned beasts had strong night vision, so once darkness fell, we were at a disadvantage no matter what.

We'd already thinned out the one-horned beast population considerably. At this rate, we could probably clear the dungeon by tomorrow morning.

"Got it!"

Eunyoung noona came back looking unbothered, having just stomped a one-horned beast's neck to snap it with her foot.

By the time we made it back to the base camp point we'd marked out, darkness had already settled in.

We seemed to have pulled out at a good time.

Noona and I climbed up into a tree.

The branch was thick and wide enough that lying down on it wasn't a problem.

If there'd been more people, we could've pitched tents and taken turns on watch, but with just the two of us, keeping watch alone would've burned through way too much stamina.

Every so often, a one-horned beast's cry echoed out of the darkness.

Noona settled onto a branch on the opposite tree, swinging her legs and looking around.

"Feels kind of like a dream."

"You know, actually, my parents didn't want me to become a Hunter. Did you know that? There are all kinds of people in the world, and some of them genuinely don't want to be Hunters."

The moment someone became Awakened and got chosen by a god, they had no choice but to become a Hunter, whether they liked it or not.

I understood exactly what noona meant. I'd been the same way.

"At first, I even wondered if the reason no god chose me was because of my parents. Can you believe that?"

Eunyoung noona pulled a calorie bar out of her bag and bit into it.

I had to admit it every time. Noona's ability to adapt was seriously impressive.

It had taken me a while to get used to sleeping outdoors like this.

"But you know what? I couldn't give up. It wasn't really about my parents. I just felt like this was something I had to do. Thanks."

I couldn't make out much in the dark, but in that last moment, noona was definitely smiling.

We got moving again as the morning sun started to rise.

This time, we changed up the pattern.

While a one-horned beast's aggro locked onto noona, I cut its throat clean.

The severed head dropped to the ground, and the body toppled sideways.

"That was a clean cut."

"Used a skill for it. Let's move."

We'd collected all the sealed orbs. Only one one-horned beast was left.

"By the way, who even taught you swordsmanship?"

I sheathed the sword after wiping off the blood and turned my head to the side.

"You're supposed to be Soter's first disciple, right? Unlike the other gods, Soter doesn't even have a flagship guild. But sometimes you talk to me like you're older, saying I've got good instincts or talent or whatever. Honestly, I can't even tell who's actually older here."

Noona's confusion made sense.

If anything, Park Siyu and Choi Suhyun were the strange ones, letting it slide without saying a word.

It wasn't that the two of them hadn't been suspicious enough to ask.

They just knew I wouldn't answer even if they did.

That much they had in common.

Made sense they'd get along as friends.

"Learned it a long time ago. There was someone who helped me out when I was going through a really rough time."

The full story was too complicated to explain.

While I was giving her a vague answer, something in what she'd said snagged my attention.

"Noona, where'd you even hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"That I'm the first disciple."

"Choi Suhyun told me. Oh, he messaged me a few days before we entered the dungeon."

Noona rummaged through her bag and pulled out her phone.

Pulling out a phone inside a dungeon put you out of network range so none of the functions worked, but you could still look at things already saved in the messenger, like message history.

Eunyoung noona showed me the chat, more or less.

So he'd gone and contacted noona behind my back without saying anything.

Typical. Never straight with anything.

Judging by how much text there was, they seemed to have talked about all kinds of stuff. Fine, whatever.

"Saving me as 'irredeemable little shit' seems a bit much."

"Oh please, isn't it true though?"

Noona shrugged like it didn't bother her one bit.

I was kind of curious what else was written in there.

I tried to sneak a peek, but noona shoved the phone away too fast, and I had to give up.

I used Mana Detection to track down the last remaining Bicorn.

Huh?

I sensed a presence inside the dungeon that shouldn't have been there.

Judging by the movement and the amount of mana, it definitely wasn't a one-horned beast.

That energy hadn't been there yesterday, that much was certain.

An intruder?

Whatever they were thinking, this was going to be a headache.

"Found it. That's the last one, right?"

Noona seemed to have spotted the final one-horned beast.

I nodded, and she took off running first.

She kicked the one-horned beast in the side, catching it off guard. The startled one-horned beast stumbled backward.

The tip of the one-horned beast's horn flashed.

"Wait, noona, watch out!"

The ground under noona's feet shook.

Tree roots surged up through the cracked earth and wrapped around her feet.

Caught off guard, noona froze for a moment, and the one-horned beast thrust its horn forward like it had been waiting for exactly that.

I used a skill and charged at the one-horned beast.

I knocked aside the horn heading for noona's body, then cut straight through the one-horned beast.

A gust of wind blew between noona and the one-horned beast.

Bleeding, the one-horned beast reared up on its hind legs. I drove my sword into its chest.

I yanked the blade back out and blood sprayed across my body.

The one-horned beast's body collapsed to the ground, and it stopped breathing for good.

Once the one-horned beast died, the roots binding noona's feet vanished.

She looked shaken, staggering before dropping down to sit.

"You okay?"

Noona grabbed my hand and pulled herself up.

"Sorry."

"These things happen."

Each one-horned beast used its own unique magic.

The magic itself wasn't particularly powerful and wasn't much of a threat, but you couldn't know which one would use which spell until you'd already faced it.

This had just been a case of not expecting the root-binding spell.

Simple inexperience, nothing more. Even after I tried to reassure her, noona's expression stayed a little gloomy.

It really had been dangerous, no way around that.

If this made her a bit more cautious going forward, I wasn't complaining.

"Let's go find the boss."

"Yeah."

Her answer came back sounding a little calmer.

The stone tablet on the hill had five holes carved into it.

"Wouldn't it be better if you did it?"

"You do it, noona. Your merit points are kind of low anyway."

Assuming everyone started from C-Rank, noona's cumulative merit points were noticeably lower than other Hunters'.

It would end up coming back to me either way, so giving it up cost me nothing.

Eunyoung noona slotted the sealed orbs into the holes on the stone tablet one by one.

The moment she pushed in the last orb, dark red storm clouds gathered overhead.

Something about this felt off.

The clouds split apart, and through the gap came the boss, a Bicorn, along with a handful of one-horned beasts.

"Hangyeol-ah, that..."

The Bicorn's horns were red.

I couldn't tell if this was good luck or bad luck.

The Bicorn landed and clawed at the ground with a massive front hoof. One kick tore up the dirt like it had been dug with a shovel.

The Bicorn let out a shrieking cry. The one-horned beasts guarding it charged forward.

Right before activating <Blessing of Wings>, noona crouched and picked up a stone off the ground.

Then she leaped high, dodging the one-horned beast's attack. Small wings had sprouted from her heels.

The one-horned beasts froze, caught off guard by noona suddenly taking flight.

One of the one-horned beasts cast a lightning spell.

Noona dodged the falling lightning, then swung a kick at the one-horned beast that had stunned itself from the recoil of its own spell.

The moment her foot touched the ground, tree roots surged up from below.

Noona swung her leg wide and kicked away the rising roots.

"Not falling for the same trick twice!"

Guess I didn't need to worry.

Noona threw the stone at a one-horned beast that had its sights on me.

Same trick I used all the time to pull aggro when I got bored.

Watching all this, the Bicorn charged at me.

I activated my Protection skill and blocked the Bicorn's charge.

Regular one-horned beasts each carried one unique spell.

The two-horned Bicorn could use two.

Because it had two horns, using one unique spell didn't leave it vulnerable to stun.

On top of that, the red-horned variant had a noticeably shorter cooldown on its unique magic.

If it was just casting spells, dodging would be enough.

The Bicorn's obvious weak point was its two horns. Cut off the horns, and it was basically just another one-horned beast.

I dodged the Bicorn's attack and raised my sword toward the horns.

That's when the Bicorn's movement changed. I only just barely dodged its counterattack.

"This bastard."

The Bicorn's body flashed like it had wrapped itself in red lightning.

Its unique magic looked like a body enhancement type.

An already annoying opponent, now buffing itself on top of everything else. Even more of a headache.

I didn't have room to pull off Meteor Strike.

The Bicorn charged in like it wasn't going to give me a single opening.

I tried several times to cut off the horns, but it didn't work.

The horns seemed to have hardened too, along with the rest of its body enhancement.

Eunyoung noona landed a side kick that knocked the Bicorn back.

"Wrapped that up fast, huh?"

"Took some effort, but I'm fine."

Once the body enhancement wore off, the Bicorn slammed a front hoof into the ground.

Black hands rose up from beneath it.

The long black hands stretched out and lunged at the two of us.

"Get back."

Noona stepped back, and I swung my sword in a wide arc.

Light flashed, and the hands were sliced clean away.

As the collapsing black hands revealed the Bicorn behind them, noona charged forward.

Having two horns didn't change where its vitals were.

Noona's fist slammed into the Bicorn's heart.

The Bicorn flinched, then used its body enhancement to strike back at Eunyoung noona.

Noona ducked fast, and I leaped over her, using a skill on the Bicorn's horns.

Like drawing a straight line, the Bicorn's red horns fell away cleanly.

I stepped off the Bicorn's body, using the recoil to push myself back.

The horn-less Bicorn faltered, and noona, who'd been crouched and waiting, swung a kick straight at its throat.

The Bicorn got knocked back from the impact.

Noona closed in again, wrapping around the Bicorn's neck and stomping down with her foot.

Together, we walked up to the fallen Bicorn and looked down at it.

Without a shred of mercy, noona's foot came down on the Bicorn's throat.

Once the Bicorn died, the red storm clouds around the hill cleared away.

Sunlight broke over the hill. The stone tablet that had summoned the Bicorn warped and shifted into an exit gate.

While noona was busy trying to rip off the Bicorn's other horn, I moved quietly.

"Who are you? Actually, forget that, who hired you?"

The man hiding under a cloak spun around, startled.

"H, how did you..."

He must have thought he was undetected, because he backed away in a hurry, on guard.

"I'm a nice guy, so you get three seconds."

"Three."

I closed in on the man as he tried to flee and struck his chest with the flat of my blade.

He crumpled forward in front of me, unconscious.

"Where'd one and two go..."

"You an idiot or something?"

Who in their right mind would just stand around waiting for that?

Footnotes:

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