Chapter 75: I am at the lowest

It took them around half an hour of venturing through the dungeon and fighting their way through each wave before they finally cleared it.

Kai had never participated in the battles. He had seen no reason to. Instead, he simply stood back and watched, observing how they coordinated with one another, gritted their teeth through the pain, and brought down every beast that ambushed them.

A few things had become clear to him during those thirty minutes.

First, the monsters were scattered throughout this strange space known as a dungeon. They remained trapped inside, waiting for the barrier to be taken down so they could escape and begin hunting among the humans outside.

Second, there seemed to be a certain degree of coordination between the beasts. Whenever one of them was injured or cornered, another would often rush toward the hunter responsible and attack them, giving its wounded comrade time to recover.

It almost seemed as though the creatures possessed an instinctive desire to protect their own kind.

Or perhaps Kai was simply reading too much into it. There were not enough humans in the dungeon for him to rule out coincidence, after all.

Third, the team members were careful not to simply kill a beast and leave its corpse rotting on the dungeon floor. After every wave, they gathered the carcasses and moved them to the side. The bodies could later be exchanged for money or other valuable resources.

Kai had never visited one of the barter stores himself, so he had no idea how exactly the process worked.

Perhaps he would find out soon.

And then there was the fourth thing he had noticed, something he found almost ridiculous.

They were slow.

Kai was not trying to boast, but the attacks that had frightened the hunters enough to make them call for backup barely registered as threats to him. Even when the beasts charged at full speed, their movements seemed painfully sluggish from his perspective.

Their strength was nothing remarkable either. Even a hunter’s strongest punches were incapable of inflicting serious damage on the creatures, and Kai was referring to the strongest member of the group, the captain.

[Host, the general leveling system is based primarily on the amount of mana a hunter possesses and the range of skills available to them.]

Kai hummed thoughtfully.

’So an S-rank isn’t necessarily strong enough to punch a hole through a pillar?’

[Their potential increases according to their awakened level, but their actual strength depends heavily on how much effort the hunter has put into reaching their limits.]

Kai nodded in understanding.

That created a clear distinction between people who belonged to the same rank. Two hunters could possess the same rank while having a considerable difference in their actual stats and combat abilities.

’What should I do to avoid that?’

He did not want to keep strengthening his vessel while leaving the fuel nearly empty. That was why he had not even considered using another pill anytime soon.

[The host only needs to continue leveling and gaining experience points through daily hunting. The more balanced the host’s stats become, the better performance the host will experience with every increase in rank.]

Kai nodded.

He simply needed to be patient and continue working hard.

"Are you hungry? Want to eat something?"

Someone suddenly approached him from the side.

The team had taken a short break. Some of the hunters were tending to their wounds while the others ate light snacks to restore some of their energy.

They had taken medical supplies from Kai since he was carrying the bag and the way they tended to their wounds, they seemed quite used to this.

It was understandable. Kai himself was quite good in covering wounds since, despite his regeneration, there were some wounds he had to take care of instantly before he bled out too much.

"No, I’m good." Kai shook his head, and focused back on the man who offered him food.

Ignoring the System’s warning from earlier, the young man had struck Kai as a mysterious, capable, and remarkably polite person.

More importantly, he was the only one who treated Kai like another participant rather than a laborer they had hired for the expedition. Well, Rem was not that bad either.

"Well, you must be getting quite bored of all this, aren’t you?" Kei asked as he sat down beside Kai.

"Not at all. I haven’t experienced many dungeons, so watching a full-fledged team of hunters work together and figure things out on the fly is actually quite inspiring."

Kei hummed softly and glanced at him. "You don’t have much experience? The way you’ve remained tense this entire time, along with your presence... it suggests otherwise."

Kai’s brow furrowed slightly. "What do you mean by my presence?"

Kei seemed to grow a little flustered.

"Ah, don’t mind me. I tend to speak my mind without considering how my words might sound."

Kai shook his head. "I don’t mind. I was just wondering why you’re pretending to be an E-rank when you’re clearly much stronger than the others."

The others had suffered wounds throughout the dungeon, yet Kei was just like Kai, completely unharmed. There was not even a crease in his clothes, as though he had spent the past half hour taking a leisurely stroll through the dungeon.

Yet Kai had watched the man personally slay more than seven wolves.

Calling what Kei had done a battle would have been an exaggeration.

It had been a one-sided slaughter.

Kei lowered his head before speaking.

"Well, you could say I’m someone blessed with a natural talent for swordsmanship and exceptionally good eyesight. Whenever I hold a sword, I feel like I’m becoming someone else. It makes me do things that can give the impression I’m pretending to be a low-ranked hunter."

He paused, then turned toward Kai.

"But truthfully..."

A faint smile appeared on his face.

"I’m currently ranked F."

"..."

Kai stared at him.

The more Kei revealed, the deeper the mystery surrounding the young man seemed to become.