Chapter 115
Chapter 115
The location James had designated for the exchange was one of the D-rank dungeons on the outskirts of East City.
The dungeon was nearly useless, lacking productivity, and wasn’t properly maintained. Even the nearby CCTV cameras were nothing but ornamental, nothing more than trash.
Drug-addled homeless people wandered the streets, but those intoxicated on drugs couldn’t remember who came in and out of the dungeon.
It was the perfect place to make a secretive meeting.
And when James entered the dungeon and arrived at the designated location...
"You’ve arrived."
Leila Lopez stood there with a pale face.
Even when she saw James Chen break the promise and bring his subordinates, she didn’t even flinch.
James smiled, his lips curling up.
It was a sight to behold.
A woman who had acted arrogantly, always striving to be above others, had lost everything and now looked so miserable!
She was even wrapped with a makeshift bandage around her thigh, blood staining it as if she had been injured.
James couldn’t hide his laughter as he spoke.
"Where’s the promised hostage, Leila?"
"I never thought you would actually keep your promise from the start."
Leila said, quietly raising a pistol and aiming it at James.
Click!
At the same time, the hunters standing behind James all aimed their weapons.
James glanced at the hunters behind him.
"It doesn’t matter if you resist, Leila. It’s just a matter of time. Let’s not make this unnecessarily difficult for both of us. Where’s Jeong Da-on?"
"Money first. If you pay me, I’ll tell you where Jeong Da-on is."
"Hahaha, do you still think you have a choice?"
James was practically giddy with excitement, the exhilaration of chasing down his exhausted prey coursing through him.
As he looked at Leila, who was clearly rattled, he bit his lip.
"Are you really going to keep doing this, all the way to the end?"
"You know me well enough."
"Is this really how it ends, between us?"
"Maybe it was always meant to end like this, from the moment we met. Isn’t that romantic?"
Their beginning had been similar.
Both had received potential A-rank status, and both were versatile hunters—James, raised in a wealthy family with a belief that he should protect the weaker, and Leila, with a similar sense of duty, entering the Hunter Association.
When they first met, yes.
They probably shared some sense of camaraderie.
Perhaps it was a faint mutual affection.
But such fragile feelings had been burned away in the flames of jealousy, ignited by James himself before he even realized it.
In the face of inferiority, no emotion can retain its pure form.
Even a mild affection simply became kindling for his jealousy.
Leila bit her lip.
"...You really need to die, Chen."
"You’ve been gone for over ten years. Don’t push it."
"You’ll only know when you try."
Leila’s eyes glinted.
And then, at that moment...
Boom!
James felt the ground beneath his feet shift as if something was about to burst from the soil.
"You’ve really brought out something troublesome."
It seemed like she had buried a small magical mine beneath the ground, designed to trigger with magical energy.
It would’ve been quite effective for facing multiple opponents alone...
Whoosh!
James’s sleeve puffed up dramatically.
A blue light, like falling rain, seeped into the ground and nullified the fuse of the mine just before it could explode.
Leila’s face turned to one of shock.
"You, how did you...?"
"How did I prepare for it?"
A young, still youthful-looking Asian girl.
She had been in James’s mind for months.
"Jeong Da-on!"
James’s eyes gleamed.
"Of course, I knew you’d be hiding somewhere else."
"I thought the same thing, actually."
Jeong Da-on gave a subtle smile and raised her hand.
"Apparently, it’s more satisfying when you do it yourself."
Magical energy swirled around Jeong Da-on’s hand, and within moments, that energy took the form of arrows.
James’s eyes widened.
‘She’s already at this level of magical control?’
The magic itself wasn’t that impressive—a basic 2nd-circle Lightning Arrow.
However, it was the sheer amount of magic power she was wielding!
Behind Jeong Da-on, dozens, at least, of arrows began to form.
James stared at her with burning anger.
"This is so unfair...!"
Is this what it means to have natural talent?
James had quickly learned magic when he first awakened, but nothing like this!
Crack!
The shield James had summoned shattered under the barrage of arrows.
It was clear now—this was a difference in overwhelming talent.
"Hahaha!"
However, James broke into a manic laugh.
"Yes, yes! Now this is worth investing in!"
He didn’t know why this girl, who had kidnapped Leila, was helping her and attacking him, but it didn’t matter.
What mattered was that the mage who wielded incantation magic, something James had spent decades trying to master, was standing right in front of him!
"I’m actually glad. I’ll defeat you here!"
She was a flower with immense potential, yet still not fully bloomed.
No matter how great a mage she was, in close combat, she couldn’t compete if she was outnumbered.
"Everyone, charge!"
At James’s command, his subordinates, all experienced swordsmen trained to handle mages, moved forward.
No matter how powerful a mage was, every spell required casting time.
The spells that had already been cast could be blocked by his subordinates’ bodies.
There would be sacrifices, but that cost was nothing.
"You’ve gotten cocky because you have some talent, but it’s too bad. I’ve never missed my target."
"Target?"
"Yes, my goal is to thoroughly study you and rise to a higher level!"
He would dissect Jeong Da-on, figure out the secrets of her incantation magic, and finally gain Estella’s approval...
"...Why are you laughing?"
But then, at James’s words, Jeong Da-on’s eyes curved into a crescent shape.
It was a mischievous smile.
"Looks like your target is wrong. What a shame."
"What?"
"And there’s a huge barrier you still need to get through to reach Jeong Da-on."
James realized, almost instinctively, that something was wrong.
Something was off.
Years of surviving on intuition, James shouted for his subordinates to be on alert.
No, he was about to shout.
Bang!
At that moment, the ground trembled.
James spotted a man.
A man wielding a massive bastard sword like it was a feather, slicing through his subordinates.
It was like a white lightning strike.
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