WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Oblivious
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◈ Surviving as a B-Rank Hunter ◈
Chapter 40
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The sun was still scorching.
Sunlight and heat plunged from the bleached-looking sky like unavoidable arrows, as though they meant to bake the whole world.
The desert sand, brimming with that heat, was just as hot.
Even though the wind scattered sand from the tops of the dunes, the heat did not fade. Instead, even the blowing wind had been consumed by the sunlight, becoming a hot gust laden with stinging sand and heat.
Urgent footprints stamped across that blazing sand.
“That bastard’s fucking fast!”
It was Jo Gyeongtaek's near-scream. Dohyeon, running at the front, glanced back to check their pursuer.
Uhhuhhuk!
A miserable wail rang out, as though it had lost someone it loved.
The source of that cry was a huge face twisted into a mournful expression.
Its brows, drooping eyes, and downturned mouth looked as though the word sorrow itself had been made into a face.
But the body attached to that face was not human. It was a shark, a bizarre shark with a hard carapace that burrowed through the sand as it ran.
The wailing monster shark plunged its head into the sand. Soon, only its dorsal fin protruded above the surface, slicing through the sand like water as it rushed toward them.
It was fast. Even a real shark swimming through the ocean did not seem like it could reach that speed. For something as large as a bus, it moved absurdly quickly.
That speed, Jo Gyeongtaek and Kim Jihwa's movements, the sandy ground, and their surroundings all entered Dohyeon's sight. His mind raced.
Dohyeon shouted.
“It’ll catch us! Scatter in different directions!”
Jo Gyeongtaek was a former soldier, and Kim Jihwa was an A-rank hunter. They had already left Dohyeon in charge of leading the way.
So as soon as he gave the order, they did not hesitate. They immediately split off and ran in opposite directions.
The two ran in separate directions. Dohyeon immediately continued running in the direction he had been heading.
The three of them scattered in three directions.
Perhaps the split-second move worked. The Sand Shark's dorsal fin, which had been racing toward them at a terrifying speed, seemed to slow for a moment.
But it soon realized who among the three was the slowest.
“Fuck! Why me?! Is it really chasing me because it heard my voice?!”
Ever since being bound to Vargband, Dohyeon occasionally became far faster and stronger than usual. Even without that, he was naturally much faster than Jo Gyeongtaek, who was already middle-aged.
Kim Jihwa was also an A-rank hunter clad in artifact armor. In fact, judging only by their initial burst of speed, Kim Jihwa had been overwhelmingly faster.
Naturally, the Sand Shark's target had to be Jo Gyeongtaek, who had fallen furthest behind. It could not have been because of his voice.
Probably.
The moment the Sand Shark turned to chase Jo Gyeongtaek, Dohyeon and Kim Jihwa, who had been running far apart from each other, kicked off the sand and reversed direction.
There was nothing but sand in every direction. No other cover was in sight.
If they left Jo Gyeongtaek to be chased like this, he would be eaten by that crying-faced Sand Shark.
There were three hunters in the team that had entered the dungeon.
And those three were practically bound by fate.
They never abandoned a teammate. If there was a monster pursuing them, they hunted it.
They might sometimes divide up the role of bait, but they did not truly abandon someone as bait. If they died, they would rather die together.
That was what a hunter team was. That was the principle of dungeon exploration for a hunter team.
Of course, if someone claimed that on the Dungeon Forum these days, they would only get mocked for saying something out of a shonen manga.
Still, that was how Dohyeon had been taught.
Dohyeon and Kim Jihwa, who had changed direction, met paths. They ran shoulder to shoulder, chasing the Sand Shark, or more precisely, Jo Gyeongtaek.
Even though their feet sank deeply into the sand, Dohyeon and Kim Jihwa moved with astonishing stability and speed. They looked like athletes running a hundred-meter sprint on level ground.
Kim Jihwa even spoke while running.
[What are you going to do? Climb onto its back or something?]
Dohyeon raised his crossbow first. The next moment, he dropped to one knee and aimed it.
At that instant, the Sand Shark swimming beneath the sand burst upward, spraying a cloud of sand.
It was trying to pounce on Jo Gyeongtaek.
Dohyeon's crossbow bolt shot into its exposed back.
Contrary to its hard-looking carapace, the Sand Shark's back was easily pierced. The bolt buried itself so deeply that it vanished from sight.
Uhhuhhuk!
Was it crying out in pain?
The creature made a bizarre sound and toppled sideways.
“Aah!”
Jo Gyeongtaek threw himself aside to avoid it, then began tumbling down the slope of the dune.
At least he had avoided being eaten immediately.
Unlike Dohyeon, who had stopped to fire his crossbow, Kim Jihwa did not stop running. She kept charging forward.
If anything, she seemed to be getting faster.
Her sprint continued until she leaped onto the Sand Shark, which was writhing in pain on the sand after taking one arrow to the back, an injury that was little more than a needle prick for something its size.
It seemed that her question about climbing onto its back had come from the fact that she had intended to do exactly that.
Kim Jihwa kicked off the sand without any foothold and soared upward. Her body spun upright through the air like a gymnast performing a flip.
Then she plunged straight down onto the Sand Shark.
Clang!
A blue blade sprang from the back of her right hand.
Uhhuhhuk!
The Sand Shark's cry grew louder.
Its side split open with a rip, spilling what it held inside like a scream. Blood and guts. Despite its grotesque appearance, what lay beneath its skin was far too realistic.
Perhaps Kim Jihwa's blade, which tore through flesh, hurt more than the needle-like arrow lodged in its back.
The Sand Shark frantically twisted its body, trying to throw Kim Jihwa off.
Kim Jihwa did not let go.
Clang!
She drew a short blade from the back of her left hand as well, drove both hands into the Sand Shark's flesh, and endured the violent shaking.
As the Sand Shark, as large as a bus, writhed about, sand flew in every direction and a thick cloud of dust rose.
Dohyeon swiftly loaded another bolt and was about to fire at the Sand Shark, but lowered his aim when the dust cloud obscured his view.
Firing carelessly would only waste ammunition. He needed to find a spot that would inflict greater damage on that crying face.
Besides, he did not want to hit Kim Jihwa, even if she probably would not be hurt.
So Dohyeon got up, crossbow in hand, and began running again.
Huhhuhhuk!
While the Sand Shark wailed and thrashed, Dohyeon climbed to the top of the dune where Jo Gyeongtaek had slid down earlier.
Looking below, he saw Jo Gyeongtaek struggling to his feet.
He was holding a crossbow too. With gritted teeth, he aimed it upward at the Sand Shark.
Whoosh.
The bolt shot from his crossbow pierced the nose of the wailing face.
As though the pain had jolted it awake, the Sand Shark gasped and rolled back its open eyes.
Its writhing body stopped dead.
At that very moment, Dohyeon's crossbow aimed at the exposed eyeball.
A bolt flew from the string and disappeared into its eye with a thunk.
“...Aaaaah!”
It was not faking it.
Even a needle-sized object would hurt if it sank deep into an eye.
The creature forgot even its crying expression and screamed in agony.
Then it slammed its head into the sand and began burrowing downward.
Dohyeon, who had been loading another bolt, saw it and shouted.
“It’s going under the sand! Let go and get out!”
He was speaking to Kim Jihwa.
She did not listen. More precisely, he could not tell whether she had heard him or not.
When someone was clinging to the side of a giant shark thrashing like mad, it was difficult to hear anyone else's voice.
Then the Valkyrie's whisper reached him.
[The hand she drove in has caught on a bone.]
Her hand?
If the Valkyrie was right, Kim Jihwa would be unable to let go of the shark and get dragged beneath the sand.
He did not know how capable her armor was, but she could not survive forever in the sand without being able to breathe.
Having thought that far, Dohyeon tossed aside his crossbow and kicked off the sand.
He swiftly threw off his backpack as well.
Then his right hand gripped the sword hilt over his shoulder, while his left reached down to grasp the scabbard at his waist.
He pulled both in opposite directions, and a black blade emerged beneath the blazing sun.
Dohyeon's eyes turned yellow.
Then, as he ran, he leaped.
His body seemed to fly through the air before landing atop the Sand Shark's back as it burrowed beneath the sand.
[...!]
Kim Jihwa, swaying atop the thrashing shark, spotted Dohyeon.
His yellow eyes flashed as he held the sword in a reverse grip and drove it into the Sand Shark's back.
He felt its back tense in shock.
Dohyeon grinned, grasped the hilt with both hands, and began running forward.
Toward the shark's head.
The black blade ripped open the Sand Shark's back as he ran.
From around its dorsal fin to near the crown of its face, its spine was split wide open.
Reaching its head, Dohyeon pulled out the sword, adjusted his grip, and raised it high.
Then he looked down at the crown of the crying face and spoke.
“Stop whining.”
Then, shunk.
The black blade pierced the crown of the crying face and sank in.
The Sand Shark's body, which had been writhing in pain, went stiff as though struck by lightning and trembled.
After that faint trembling, it went limp.
The crying face, which had been trying to burrow beneath the sand, stopped half-buried in it.
One last tear rolled down from its eye.
“...”
Dohyeon stood on its head and caught his breath.
The bright yellow glow in his eyes gradually faded.
After staring at the dead Human-Faced Sand Shark for a moment, Dohyeon turned around.
Leaving the wound on the shark's back, which was still spurting blood, beside him, he approached Kim Jihwa.
[...Dog eyes?]
Kim Jihwa looked up at Dohyeon.
Dohyeon's face reflected in the gleaming faceplate of her smooth helmet. Dohyeon looked back at the distorted reflection as though searching for something.
Then he soon chuckled, shook his head, and brought his sword to where Kim Jihwa's hand was caught.
After cutting away enough flesh, she was able to pull her hand free.
After freeing herself, she climbed onto the Sand Shark's corpse like Dohyeon and rubbed her wrist.
[...Hmm. Thanks. I almost got dragged into the sand.]
“You jumped on first and distracted it, which let me climb on too. We worked together, so there’s nothing to thank me for.”
[...]
Her expression was hidden, but Dohyeon somehow felt like Kim Jihwa was making a displeased face.
He sniffed and thought, I should not tell her I can smell that.
It was not as if she smelled bad, and he felt like Kim Jihwa would raise her voice if he said he could smell her.
In any case, telling someone they smelled was not likely to get a good reaction.
Kim Jihwa was about to say something, but suddenly turned her head.
Dohyeon naturally followed her gaze and soon saw the same thing.
The faces that had scattered across the desert while fleeing the Human-Faced Sand Shark were slowly, slowly approaching them.
[...Looks like they want this corpse. Shall we get down first?]
Dohyeon nodded in agreement and jumped down from the Sand Shark's back with Kim Jihwa.
As they quickly put distance between themselves and the corpse, they saw the sand faces gradually covering it.
The blood and bodily fluids that had spilled onto the sand had long since been absorbed beneath the surface.
The faces made of sand approached like waves and began to sweep over the Sand Shark's corpse.
It took only moments for the sand faces to completely bury it.
Dohyeon and Kim Jihwa were both staring at the sand faces in surprise when they heard a voice.
“Over here! Dohyeon! Tin Can! Look over here!”
It was Jo Gyeongtaek.
Dohyeon turned and saw him waving both hands high in the air from below the dune.
After confirming that Dohyeon and Kim Jihwa had turned toward him, Jo Gyeongtaek shouted again.
“There’s something here! One thing’s for sure, it’s not a natural rock!”
Dohyeon glanced at the sand faces and the Sand Shark corpse beginning to disappear beneath them.
Then he collected the backpack and crossbow he had thrown aside and leaped down toward the foot of the dune where Jo Gyeongtaek had slid.
Thanks to the gentle slope, Dohyeon slid smoothly down to Jo Gyeongtaek like he was riding a playground slide.
Kim Jihwa came down beside him.
“You’re all right, aren’t you?”
Jo Gyeongtaek said that to Dohyeon as he reached the bottom of the dune.
Dohyeon chuckled.
“I was just surprised myself that I didn’t injure so much as a finger.”
“Oh... Your experience wasn’t for nothing, then. Right?”
Dohyeon turned to check the top of the dune.
He did not know where so many of them had come from, but the Sand Shark corpse was now surrounded by a dense mass of sand faces.
Fortunately, though numerous, the sand faces seemed to want only the shark. They showed no interest in Dohyeon's team.
After confirming that, Dohyeon looked back at Jo Gyeongtaek.
“Enough nonsense. What did you find?”
Jo Gyeongtaek grinned at Dohyeon's question.
Then he stepped aside.
“A clue.”
As he moved, it was immediately clear what he wanted to show them.
It had been buried beneath the sand, but the wind and the Sand Shark's thrashing had slowly exposed it.
It was a wall covered in strange hieroglyphs.
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