The Support Ate it All

Chapter 141: 8th Week Mentoring and Strategy Battle (3)

The only movement-type skill I had at the moment was Thief’s Step.

I copied it from Dang Gyu-young, raised it to B-rank, and received a bonus from Seo Ye-in’s sneakers which brought it to B±rank.

However, Thief’s Step was not purely a skill for movement.

In addition to increasing movement speed, its performance was also distributed to smooth movements and concealing one’s presence while moving.

If movement accounted for 60, the rest was about 40. So it wasn’t particularly fast if only the speed was considered.

If Overheat was added, the story would be different, but since Inferno Fist couldn’t be used while the replay was running, I had to rely solely on Thief’s Step.

This was why Jo Byeok could catch up to me despite it being a B±rank, and the same was true for the ogre in front of me.

Its speed was slightly faster than mine.

So how did I avoid getting hit by an opponent faster than me?

I analyzed the opponent’s gaze, posture, and the movements of their muscles and joints.

I synthesized this information to infer where and how they intended to attack.

The ogre’s attacks were quite straightforward and it often moved exactly as I predicted.

If it seemed poised to strike to the left, it really struck to the left.

Just like now.

Thud!

As I shifted slightly to the side, the club struck the spot where I had just been.

The ogre stepped forward and swung its free hand, but I moved closer into its blind spot.

When it tried to push forward with its whole body, I escaped using Thief’s Step.

“Grrraaah!”

It let out a frustrated roar.

It had been missing every swing, so its frustration was understandable.

[Kim Ho: 100%]

[Crystal: 33%]

I could keep running around until the crystal was fully charged but,

“Ahjussi, a little help here would be appreciated.”

In a double dungeon, it would make things much easier for me if my partner helped to keep the ogre in check.

However, Kwak Ji-cheol was busy dealing with the goblins swarming him.

“Hey, Ahjussi.”

“Grrr…”

As Kwak Ji-cheol quickly cast spells, the goblins were hit by dirt bullets and collapsed.

Since he couldn’t pay attention to me, I shouted at him.

“Hey, you said you’d help keep it in check. When are you going to do it? Should I go out there and do it?”

“Just… wait a moment.”

“Are we even a good pair~? Aah, it’s so hard doing this alone~. My legs are going numb~. I’m going to get caught at this rate~.”

“Damn it… I get it!”

Maybe my nagging worked because Kwak Ji-cheol started chanting faster.

Thud!

Soon, he raised two thick earthen walls on either side of him, which advanced quickly like bulldozers and started pushing the goblins away.

After dealing with the immediate threat, Kwak Ji-cheol quickly came to support me.

Ratatattatatata,

Dirt bullets fired continuously and struck the ogre, but the latter didn’t even seem to feel them.

In a fit of frustration, Kwak Ji-cheol formed the dirt bullets into a large cannonball and fired it.

Boom!

“Gruaar?”

The ogre scratched the back of its head where it was hit, glanced back briefly, and then focused on chasing me again.

I said while dodging the swinging club,

“Attack magic won’t work. Try something else.”

The creature’s body was so tough that ordinary attacks barely affected it.

Even Song Cheon-hye and Hong Yeon-hwa would struggle with their barrage of spells, so it was no surprise that Kwak Ji-cheol’s attacks were even less effective.

As if he himself was aware of that fact, Kwak Ji-cheol asked while clearing the goblins,

“What should I do?”

“Use control-type spells.”

“Control-type… Got it.”

When Kwak Ji-cheol cast his spell, earthen walls suddenly rose up around the ogre.

“Gruuugh…”

The ogre looked around in annoyance.

With a wide swing of its club, the earthen walls crumbled.

Kwak Ji-cheol clicked his tongue quietly.

“Tch.”

“Again, next one.”

“Got it.”

As he chanted another spell, the ground beneath the ogre’s feet suddenly sank.

This time, it had a noticeable effect, causing the ogre to lose its balance and stagger.

“Gruuugh…”

“This one was pretty good.”

Indeed, the more cunning the interference, the better the score.

[Kim Ho: 100%]

[Crystal: 64%]

Kwak Ji-cheol intensified his devious tactics.

He raised walls, dug pits, and hardened dirt climbed up the ogre’s legs.

Each time, the ogre shook its legs vigorously to shake it off, but Kwak Ji-cheo felt that this was effective and persistently targeted its legs.

“Now it’s getting easier.”

Thanks to the constant restriction of the ogre’s movements, I now found it even easier to escape.

And finally,

[Kim Ho: 100%]

[Crystal: 100%]

Flash!

My crystal was filled with a deep red light.

The next moment, the light pillar connecting me to the sanctuary suddenly broke and a new light pillar shot out, connecting to Kwak Ji-cheol.

Then, his crystal began to fill with a blue light.

[Kwak Ji-cheol: 97%]

[Crystal: 1%]

“Grr?”

The ogre immediately snapped its head around.

Its gaze followed the direction indicated by the light pillar and locked onto Kwak Ji-cheol.

“Grrr…”

Then it directed its hostility towards him and charged with heavy steps.

It seemed to have completely forgotten about me, whom it had been desperately trying to catch just moments ago.

Our roles had reversed, with Kwak Ji-cheol now charging and me on the offensive.

I chased after the ogre and extended Root ahead of me.

[Twister]

[Wind Force]

Whoosh—

A whirlwind gathered and constricted one of its legs, causing the ogre to stagger significantly.

Despite this, it did not stop charging towards Kwak Ji-cheol.

Feeling the pressure from the ogre’s momentum, Kwak Ji-cheol’s expression grew urgent.

“Damn it.”

Now he has to dodge well…

The best the support partner could do was create openings in the ogre’s attacks and buy time.

Dodging and running away were up to him.

I used Wind Force again to push the ogre, but it ignored the effort and swung its club.

Thud!

“Ugh.”

Kwak Ji-cheol barely managed to dodge to the side.

But the attack was just beginning.

He dodged the ogre’s thick arm that followed, rolling his entire body across the ground.

Boom!

Compressed air exploded in the ogre’s face.

It rubbed its face in annoyance.

“Damn it…!”

Kwak Ji-cheol frantically retreated before extending his staff forward.

Green light flowed from the emerald,

Rumble!

Multiple layers of earthen walls rose between him and the ogre.

When I saw that, I couldn’t help but sigh.

“Oh my.”

Such a poor move.

A wrong decision soon led to fatal results.

Before Kwak Ji-cheol could cast the wall strengthening spell,

“Grooo!”

The ogre charged with its entire body.

The layers of earthen walls collapsed instantly, leaving Kwak Ji-cheol fully exposed in front of the beast.

And when a palm the size of a cauldron swung at him,

Thud!

He was sent flying. He crashed into a wall, bounced off it, and rolled on the floor until he lay sprawled out.

Right after that, a club the size of a human body split the air and came crashing down.

Crack!

“Aaah.”

I couldn’t help but frown.

That must’ve hurt.

When the ogre tried to swing the club a second time, Kwak Ji-cheol had already vanished.

The safety mechanism of the ground floor dungeon had been activated and it expelled him outside.

The next moment, everything turned gray and froze as Dang Gyu-young revealed herself from stealth.

She looked down at the Kwak Ji-cheol-shaped crater in the ground and slowly shook her head.

“Haaah, he still has a long way to go.”

Even though it was his first attempt, he couldn’t withstand even a few moves against the ogre.

To think he needed to train his skills to endure until the crystal was 100% charged.

His skills are lacking, and his compatibility isn’t great either.

While some might have used techniques like climbing over the wall or the “hunting cattle across the mountain” technique to attack over the wall,

The ogre’s style was to smash through the wall head-on.

Even after its rank dropped by one level due to the [Weakened] rule, it was still ridiculously strong.

So with Kwak Ji-cheol’s current defensive ability, it was impossible to block it and other means needed to be found.

After finding a solution, he’d need time to adapt to it as well.

The path ahead was clearly fraught with hardships.

Of course, that’s his problem.

Whether Kwak Ji-cheol struggled or not, my goal remained unchanged.

I would still push to achieve the side quest reward early.

“Senior-nim.”

“Mhmm?”

“This week, I’m going to score right away.”

“Already on the first day?”

“I don’t see any reason to delay.”

“Well, it’s fine if you go ahead.”

Dang Gyu-young always made an exception for me because she had a good grasp of my real abilities.

My skills had already surpassed the level where I needed mentoring, and she knew I’d grow well on my own if left alone.

Just now, even on the first attempt, I managed to charge the crystal while maintaining 100% health against the ogre.

“But if you score alone, what about Kwak Ji-cheol? He’ll be left behind.”

However, Dang Gyu-young was a mentor after all and she couldn’t let the team members act separately.

If she paired us for a week, we had to act together, whether we liked it or not.

I answered casually.

“I’ll score first, and then I’ll keep pace with the rest.”

Generally, once the practical evaluation was over, there was no need to continue practicing but my case was an exception.

I aimed to score only to achieve the side quest.

After that, I would have to engage in mentoring events to rank up, so I planned to continue practicing with Kwak Ji-cheol regardless of my score.

Dang Gyu-young pondered for a moment, then nodded her head as if she was convinced by my explanation.

“Alright, then. But who are you going with? The handsome guy? The pretty girl with gray hair?”

“The girl with gray hair.”

The handsome guy, Go Hyeon-woo, had his own team so I naturally excluded him.

On the other hand, the pretty girl with gray hair Seo Ye-in was receiving one-on-one mentoring from Ahn Jeong-mi.

So she didn’t have a fixed partner.

From Seo Ye-in’s perspective, she would have to do a random pairing for the double practical evaluation anyway, so it wouldn’t be a problem if I stepped in.

So I sent a message to Seo Ye-in.

[Kim Ho: (peeking cat emoji)]

[Kim Ho: (tapping cat emoji)]

[Kim Ho: What are you doing?]

[Seo Ye-in: (collapsed cat emoji)]

[Seo Ye-in: Sleepy]

[Kim Ho: Mentoring?]

[Seo Ye-in: Yeah]

[Seo Ye-in: (collapsed cat emoji)]

[Seo Ye-in: (rolling cat emoji)]

[Kim Ho: Pair up?]

[Seo Ye-in: ??]

[Kim Ho: Pair up?]

[Seo Ye-in: (startled cat emoji)]

[Seo Ye-in: Okay]