Vol 1 Chapter 36

With each step through the trees, the sound of leaves being crushed underfoot came with a feeling identical to reality. And slightly behind that, the steady footsteps of another person.

"..."

Since leaving the previous town and setting out again, Kapros had thoroughly ignored Yu-wan following behind him. He had deliberately taken winding mountain paths and even tried to get ahead by taking advantage of the difference in login times, but somehow, when he came to his senses, the guy was always walking right behind him, as if he had attached a tracker to Kapros.

Eventually, the situation became so familiar that Kapros began to try to forget Yu-wan's presence altogether. However, if he continued to ignore him completely, it would only satisfy the guy's purpose, which didn't sit well with Kapros. So, since Yu-wan had started following him, Kapros hadn't used magic even once.

Moreover, when encountering monsters, he would drag out the fight as long as possible using only his swords, then at the right moment, drive them towards Yu-wan following behind. This was only possible because Yu-wan faithfully maintained a distance of about 10 meters, neither too close nor too far.

It was meant to convey the message "See if you can keep following me like this," but Yu-wan only seemed a bit perplexed at first, then quickly averted his gaze and quietly focused on dealing with the monsters. Kapros would leave first without hesitation, listening to the sounds. The fighting sounds from behind seemed to slightly diminish his irritation up to that point.

Since he already knew Yu-wan's skills from their previous battle, Kapros didn't think he would be in danger from such encounters, so it felt like a decent revenge.

'It would be better if he died and stopped following me.'

However, Yu-wan survived. Not long after, the sound of footsteps following again was, unlike before, trampling through the undergrowth relentlessly, as if in protest.

As this continued to repeat, Yu-wan eventually reached the point where he would draw his sword in advance and prepare without showing any surprise when monsters appeared. His skills improved day by day, to the extent that he barely needed to swing his sword a few times to deal with the rabbit-like vampire monsters that Kapros had just lured towards him.

Clicking his tongue softly, Kapros headed forward first, feeling a gaze boring into the back of his head. Without looking, he knew it was Yu-wan. The guy had started to get irritated by Kapros's constant monster herding, and would glare at him like this whenever he got the chance.

'But even I, who's doing the herding, am sick and tired of it now.'

Kapros was, after all, a mage.

It was natural that he wasn't as sturdy as someone with a weapon-wielding job, and it wasn't easy to give up his safety and casually herd monsters before passing them on. But more than all of that, the hardest part was knowing that he could turn all the monsters into charcoal with just one spell right now, yet having to hold back.

The situation was gradually degenerating into a battle of pride between Yu-wan and Kapros.

Kapros would drive monsters towards Yu-wan, and Yu-wan would continue to follow, enduring all those battles, but not a single word was exchanged between them. As if breaking away from this situation would mean immediate defeat, they repeated the same actions over and over, and like it or not, Kapros had no choice but to observe his opponent closely.

Yu-wan was a guy with truly remarkable perseverance.

His tenacity and strength were so admirable that Kapros thought they might have become good friends if only the first impression hadn't been so bad. By this point, Kapros had expected him to say something out of irritation or throw a punch, but Yu-wan patiently continued to deal with the monsters, and even seemed to be training to increase his processing speed little by little each day. Seeing this made Kapros suddenly feel anxious as he realized how many days it had been since he had trained himself.

As this continued, the initial irritation had subsided at some point, and Kapros even thought it might be better to just show the magic Yu-wan wanted and end this whole affair amicably. But he didn't do that. It had been a long time since he had indulged in such childish stubbornness, and encountered someone with such tireless perseverance, regardless of personality.

Kapros decided to enjoy this situation in his own way. Although there was still no conversation between them, judging by the decrease in Yu-wan's glares at the back of his head lately, Kapros thought Yu-wan might be in a similar state.

A serious acknowledgment of the other and a simultaneous desire for competition.

Now, more than the initial issue that had been the problem, curiosity about each other's continued endurance in this situation was growing.

As Kapros continued to advance with Yu-wan in tow, their destination, the large city of Torelit, was gradually coming into view. Thinking it had been a long, long journey, he exhaled deeply and looked at the last mountain before them.

'But does that guy intend to keep following me even after I enter Torelit?'

Given the pattern so far, that possibility was more than likely.

Thinking that both of them were disgustingly stubborn, Kapros looked at the mountain before him, which appeared unremarkable. Without much thought, he moved his feet, leaving the main road and heading into the deep forest to find monsters to drive towards Yu-wan as he had been doing. If he had known that this was where the most dangerous monsters gathered just before the great city of Torelit, he wouldn't have done so, but the thought of being close to his destination had made him let his guard down.

And the boomerang of carelessness returned to him mercilessly with its edge sharpened.

"Kraaaaaaah!"

'Damn it...!'

He shouldn't have unconsciously lowered his guard just because the path had been too easy so far...!

He should have thought that no matter how easy the path, everyone would hide at least one trap right before the destination.

When he started descending into a narrow valley, the huge monster that suddenly appeared from the mist was a Night Bear, a giant bear with two heads and claws as long and sharp as swords.

Unable to immediately discern the silhouette of the creature approaching through the mist and caught in its sight, Kapros was desperately trying to dodge backward, but he had already sustained long gashes all over. The monster's skin was so tough and strong that Kapros's swords couldn't even penetrate properly and bounced off.