CHAPTER THREE!
────red gate (2).

❝TIME TO LEVEL UP!❞

A GROWL IS HEARD from behind [y/n] and jin-woo. their eyes narrow as they turn to look.

they are faced with a monstrous bear with white fur and glowing red eyes towering over the two players.

"ITS AN ICE BEAR!"

someone declares as the hunters bring out their weapons as the two players stayed in place while song-i hid behind [y/n].

"entering the forest was definitely the wrong descion!" the green eyed girl states about to attack until she was pulled back by the hood of her coat by jin-woo.

"what are you doing?!" she questions, angry. he turns to face his friend and gestures to the ice bear with his eyes.

the [h/c] haired hunter blinks but nods, realizing he wanted her to take care of monster.

'i guess he wants to see what i can do...' she notes as she glared at the bear.

jin-woo turns to face the long haired girl again. "i'll say this clearly. me and her will be hunting monsters ourselves." he explains as [y/n] calmly walks up to the monster.

"title change..." she mumbles as song-i calls out to her in worry.

[TITLE: THE ONE WHO OVERCAME ADVERSITY]
⇩
[TITLE: WOLF SLAYER]

the bear raises its right paw and brings it down to attack her, she jumps up high to avoid it and ready her fists.

'if i add the title's effect to my current level, just like jin-woo said!' she thinks pulling her fist back as her eyes glow blue.

'just with my bare hand...'

she lands a punch on top of the ice bear's head crushing into the ground with powerful thud as everyone's jaws dropped.

'ICE BEAR IN A SINGLE HIT?!' they all think as jin-woo remains calm. though a smirk graces his lips, throughly impressed.

[y/n] sits on the bear's back, cooly as she caresses her wrist and sees a notification.

[YOU LEVELED UP!]

she hums and smiles happily in satisfaction.

───── ⋆⋅ ☽ ⋅⋆ ─────

NOW NIGHT TIME, the small group set up camp and cooked the bear meat from the bear [y/n] defeated.

she grins as she watches the hunters enjoy the food and talk amongst themselves. she then hands song-i a well done cooked piece of meat for her to eat.

the young girl gratefully takes it and begins eating making her chuckle at her demeanor.

"aren't you hungry miss?" she asks with her mouth full of food.

[y/n] shakes her head. "i've had my fill, don't worry about me, kid."

she makes eye contact with jin-woo and they seemed to have a quick silent conversation with each other, they get up from the logs they were sitting on in unison.

"where are you two going?" the mage asking.

the [h/c] haired hunter smiles at her. "since we ate, we're gonna go exercise." she explains following her friend.

"exercising while inside a gate?" someone else asks as they walk away from the group.

"if we don't there will be a penalty." jin-woo says, confusing the group as they watch them leave.

"THEY SURE ARE STRANGE..."

───── ⋆⋅ ☽ ⋅⋆ ─────

"WHEW!" [Y/N] SIGHS, finishing her last pull up with jin-woo beside her as they hang upside down from a tree branch without their winter coats.

"nice seeing you here, mr. sung jin-woo." she jokes and he cracks a smile.

deciding to play along, he responds. "likewise ms. [y/n] [l/n], lovely weather we're having." earning a laugh from his friend.

"okay, i need to get down before the blood rushes to my head!" [y/n] states in-between in giggles causing jinwoo to laugh as well.

the two expertly jump down back to the snowy ground and pick their winter coats up, putting them back on.

"since we warmed up, let's go hunting!" the [h/c] haired hunter cheers throwing up her hands in the air.

the dark haired hunter could only chuckle at her warm personality. it surprised him how quickly he got used to her presence.

it's not like he minded, both them of being players and her easy-going personality, she was breath of fresh air for jin-woo.

HE WAS GLAD HE
COULD CALL HER HIS FRIEND.

───── ⋆⋅ ☽ ⋅⋆ ─────

A BIT FURTHER ahead, a black inky portal appeared. growing as ice bears stepped out of it.

the two players stood side by side with their hood up and hands in their pockets. they analyze the hoard of bears approaching them but there wasn't an ounce of fear in their bodies.

"the numbers are roughly the same?" [y/n] asks her tone a bit serious and jin-woo hums, confirming it.

soon, their eyes glow dangerously as they call out their command.

"REVEAL YOURSELVES."

"COME OUT."

a mix of black and white magic appears behind them as their soldiers begin to form. a cold breeze flows through the air, nipping at their faces but it doesn't bother them.

"you guys know it's your first mission right?" jin-woo states to his shadows as igris forms on his right.

"same with you guys. please do get along with the shadows, alright?" [y/n] says in a playful tone as icarus forms on her left.

the two players glance at each other with small smirks, their eyes glowing with eagerness and they look back to the ice bears growling in a threatening manner. their army towers over them as they utter a single word.

"GO."

───── ⋆⋅ ☽ ⋅⋆ ─────

THE TWO PLAYERS watch as their summons work together taking down the ice bears.

one magician from each of player sends out a powerful fire spell towards the bears and the fire spreads throughout the area.

"damn, their strength exceed my expectations!" [y/n] praises with a pleased smile.

"their regeneration is almost comparable to immortality..." jin-woo trials as the two look to the side.

the female player sweatdrops a bit. "it does consume a lot of mana though..." she mumbles watching their mama meters go down at a rapid rate.

soon a ear shatter growl is heard. a gigantic bear that towers over the others shows off it's sharp teeth and wore a large scars on its chest forming an 'x'

[y/n] whistles, impressed at the monster's size. "here comes the big boy!" she adds in comical manner making jin-woo chuckle, a bit surprised that she can joke at time like this.

the leader bear attacks their soldiers wiping them out an instant and that's when both of their mana meters reached zero.

[SUN KNIGHTS CAN NO LONGER REGENERATE DUE TO LACK OF MANA.]

[SHADOW SOLDIERS CAN NO LONGER REGENERATE DUE TO LACK OF MANA.]

the female player makes a face while the other keeps a calm façade but it was obvious that the two had a plan.

"IGRIS!"

"ICARUS!"

the two call, as their most powerful soliders appear at their sides them and drawing their swords. without a second to waste, the two charge into battle.

"oh shit?!" [y/n] exclaims with wide eyes, watching as the two knights work together flawlessly.

jin-woo continues to stay silent but he's just as shocked as she was, not expecting for their soldiers to be that strong.

using their swords to their advantage they took down the monstrous beast. icarus made the final move and cuts the bear's head off, his movement was so powerful that the head flung in the air and he caught the bear head in his hand gracefully.

'it's luck that i managed to defeat icarus back then and that's only because he didn't use his sword. if he did, i would have stood no chance.' the [h/c] haired hunter thinks, staring at her solider.

'at my current level, i think
we're at equal footing?'

the two knights approached to their respective master as icarus plops the bear's head in front of her. blood staining the pristine white snow as the two knights bow on their knees.

[y/n] furrows her eyebrows. 'no, i think he's still above me...' she solemnly concludes, looking at her level screen with a sigh.

jin-woo notices this and reads his friend easily. he pats her head making her meet his eyes.

"you reached this level on your own, without anyone's help or my help. don't think so lowly of yourself. besides we're the same level now." he encourages as he shows his current level to her.

[NAME: SUNG JIN-WOO]
[LEVEL: 52]

[NAME: Y/N L/N]
[LEVEL: 52]

she softly smiles at him nodding, trying not let herself get discouraged. "thanks jin-woo, it means a lot." she replies and he gives her a small grin.

the two walk past their knights patting their shoulders, praising them for their hard work as they approach over to the dead bears

the [h/c] haired player eyes the boss bear and the dark haired player notices this and he chuckles. "you can have it, since it was your solider that did the final blow." he mentions making her look at him.

"really?"

"yes, really."

he likes the way her eyes light up and cheers. she runs over to the big bear with a giddy smile.

"AWAKEN!" [y/n] shouts happily and throwing her hands up in the air.

instantly, white figure forms on top of the dead body, it's eyes, claws and scars were a rich royal blue color. it roars once it's fully formed.

[YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY EXTRACTED THE LIGHT.]

the female player awes as she stares up at the bear towering over her, clapping excitedly. she goes to hug the bear by its paw and looks up at him meeting his eyes.

"i'm gonna name you scar!" she declares, the animal reminding her a character from an old children's movie she watched as a kid.

the male player sweats a bit watching the scene in front of him as he makes the normal ice bears his shadows.

"i think she's the only person in the world to be that excited over having a bear that size as a pet..." jin-woo mumbles watching [y/n] jumps excitedly around her new summon.

───── ⋆⋅ ☽ ⋅⋆ ─────

"I'LL COUNT TO three! if you don't reveal the culprit by then, i'll consider all of you as accomplices."

kim-chul threatens the small group of hunters who were once peaceful waiting for their two leader to return.

as per instructions by them, the group didn't reveal who gave them all the supplies that they had to survive.

"ONE."

"TWO."

the hunter narrows his eyes at park hee-jin, who was holding song-i protectively.

he slowly draws his sword, he assumed that it was her that who gave the group all the supplies.

"THREE!"

kim-chul shouts reading to attack the group until he was stopped.

"FOUR."

he was suddenly hit on the back of his head but it was so powerful that it knocked him right into a tree, surprising the group.

he was hit by none of them than sung jin-woo with [y/n] [l/n] at his side, the two had harden glares on their faces.

"JIN-WOO OPPA! [Y/N] UNNIE!" song-i shouts to them in shock.

the two pay no mind to her call as they had a more serious matter to deal with.

[y/n] puts a hand on her hip as eyes stay on the pathetic a-rank hunter laying on the snowy ground.

"who was it that actually left their comrades to die?" she mocks, her [e/c] eyes narrowing.

"not to mention you came back with dead weight." jin-woo adds.

the small group bundled together with shocked faces. "what dead weight...?" one of them mumbles.

the two players turn around facing an empty area staring it down. "how about you guys undo your stealth? hiding is pointless with your powerful energy." [y/n] points out with a raised eyebrow.

suddenly figures began to appear about a few feet away from them scaring the group to the core.

jin-woo eyes them with a small smirk. "what chilling energy." he jokes making his friend scoff at his pun.

a small army of ice elves approached them but the one that stood out the most was the one that sat on top of a horse.

'THAT'S THE BOSS.'

the two think as the boss looks at the two players with interest. "there really was two of them. two useful people among the trashes." he spoke in mighty tone.

[y/n] and jinwoo raised en eyebrow at his words. "the hell? did you just call us trashes?" she asked crossing her arms.

this surprises the boss ice elf. "you know our language?" he asks. now it was their turn to be shocked, they glance at each other with wide eyes.

'is it because of our skill? no, that can't be possible. it specifically stated that it only works with the human language not monsters. so how are we having a conversation?' [y/n] thinks frantically with a furrowed eyebrows.

'is this also an effect from the system?' jin-woo ponders as another ice elf approaches them.

"to be able to converse... how splendid. there's someone i want to introduce." the boss gesturing to the elf standing next him.

"your already acquaintances." he mentions as the ice elf that attacked song-i from before smirks widely at the female player. "he's the one who notified us that's there's someone strong among the humans."

"this guy wanted to face off with you so—"

before even finishing his sentence, the solider ice elf was already dead. his head was cut clean off and his body dropped to the floor, his blood splattering in the air.

"anything else to say?" [y/n] questions, flicking her dragger to rid of the blood on the blade. she turns to look at the boss ice elf as her [e/c] eyes glinting blue.

the boss looks at her silently when wide sinister smile forms on his face.

"YOU'RE AN AMUSING GIRL."

CHAPTER THREE! END!
────red gate (2).