Acquired the Scam Rune in the Academy

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The next day after spending a special Christmas Eve.

Early in the morning, I went to the dungeon with my equipment.

<The Nest Covered by Clouds>

It was a dungeon that I had experience conquering before with Moon Ga-eun and Seong Na-yeon.

After the conquest, I only got a share of the dungeon ownership rights and completely handed over the operations to the <Royal> Clan.

Thanks to that, it was a dungeon I had forgotten about for a while, except for the steady income coming in.

Standing at the entrance of that dungeon, I foolishly asked.

“Are we really going to spend it here?”

The place she had made an appointment early in the morning was here.

<The Nest Covered by Clouds>.

She even directly requested the clan and had them empty out the inside of the dungeon so no other Holders could come today.

Moon Ga-eun nodded brightly.

“Yup! I’m definitely going to ride your contracted monster today.”

The reason was one.

She wanted to ride ‘Bon’, my contractor, and personally fly through the sky.

I asked her with a flabbergasted expression.

“But can’t you do that anytime? Does it have to be on Christmas?”

At my words, Moon Ga-eun glanced at me with slightly wet eyes.

“Tch- You’re going to be super busy again when vacation starts anyway. When we won’t have time.”

“….”

I had nothing to say because she hit the nail on the head.

Especially since I had to reinforce the new runes I got this vacation, and I also had dungeon conquests scheduled with Yoo Eun-seol, I might be even busier than last vacation.

‘But if we make an appointment in advance, we’ll have plenty of time…’

But I didn’t say that out loud.

Because I kind of knew what was on Moon Ga-eun’s mind.

Moon Ga-eun probably planned it this way hoping that I wouldn’t care about things like that and just freely enjoy my vacation.

Come to think of it…

The kid who didn’t seem like she would was actually the most considerate.

“And there’s no good place to go from morning to lunch anyway. So it’s better to just rent out the whole dungeon and play around.”

“…That makes sense too.”

She had a point.

Of course, hunting is included in the ‘play’ category, which is an issue, but…

Well, Moon Ga-eun looks super excited so it doesn’t matter.

She came up close and pushed my back.

“Anyway, let’s go quickly! We’re short on time, short on time.”

“Ow, that tickles.”

Joking around like this, we soon entered the inside of The Nest Covered by Clouds.

Holder Seong Na-yeon wasn’t here to pull us up like last time, but fortunately I now had the [Elemental Master] and [Florian Spell] runes.

A magic rune containing the wind attribute and a high-level spell rune.

The combination of these two runes made [Levitation] a piece of cake.

***

Ippotranslation

***

Kyaooo-!!

The vast land and expansive skies.

The rough, charging wind as if a storm was blowing.

And in between, the giant monster flying fearlessly across.

The skies of <The Nest Covered by Clouds>, filled with aerial monsters, turned into Bon’s domain in less than 10 minutes.

Bon, summoned at once with [Summon]’s [Hand of Contract], was happy with the dungeon that fit his form and flew across the sky.

It was like he had found its home.

“Woo-hoo…!!”

And the excited one wasn’t just Bon.

Moon Ga-eun was enjoying the aerial dash to the fullest, hugging me tightly from behind my back.

-Master. This woman is weird.

‘She’s a good kid.’

-I don’t know. She’s just weird.

Actually, Moon Ga-eun riding Bon and flying through the sky.

This was practically impossible originally.

No matter how strong the contracted monster, to withstand such rough and crude flying, the [Horseback Riding] rune was absolutely necessary.

I didn’t have that rune either, but instead of [Horseback Riding], I covered it with the common rune [Strengthen Contract] which supported cooperation with the contractor in various ways.

But Moon Ga-eun, without [Horseback Riding] or [Strengthen Contract], could only feel unsafe in the sky.

However….

“But I have the Horseback Riding rune?”

“…You do?”

“Yup! I’ve had it as a common rune ever since I awakened as a Holder. And my level is super high. I must’ve been a mounted archer in my past life, ahaha.”

I see.

There was a reason she adamantly wanted to ride Bon like a toy.

‘Then she might have talent for taming contracts…’

Moon Ga-eun said it jokingly, but I looked at it more seriously.

From my recent research on [Order of Harmony] and ‘contract-related runes’ with Professor Kang Dong-wook, Holders with the [Horseback Riding] rune often have talent in [Taming Contracts] as well.

While the [Horseback Riding] rune assists abilities related to ‘mounts’, unrecorded mounts in the system are usually meaningless in a Holder’s battles.

That’s why holders with the [Horseback Riding] rune often end up acquiring the [Taming Contract] rune later on.

Moon Ga-eun, who was enjoying the aerial dash on Bon’s back, could also become a case like this, I thought.

“Yee-haw!!”

…Right now, she’s so excited so talk like that probably won’t get through.

I slightly turned Bon’s direction to the right and asked Moon Ga-eun.

“Want to go hunting?”

“Hunting?”

“Yeah. It looks like four Manticores have been following us. Shoot your bow once from Bon’s back.”

“Okay! I’d love to! I definitely want to try it!”

Seeing Moon Ga-eun happily agree like a kid, I nodded satisfactorily.

Lately, Moon Ga-eun had seemed down so I was glad I could make her smile like this.

I put a little more strength into the ‘magic connection’ with Bon.

‘Let’s go, Bon.’

-…Troublesome.

‘Just bear with it for now. I’ll give you top-grade magic stones when we get home.’

-Fine. Keep your promise, Master.

…And he has to get a verbal promise for this too.

Whether monster or human, everyone loves expensive things.

Motivated, Bon started moving his body enthusiastically.

Kyaooo-!!

Kuhhuh-!!

There are four monsters flying in the sky.

One is Bon, and the remaining three are A-grade monsters, Manticores.

If I used my own combat runes like [Greatest Racehorse under Heaven], I could easily hunt them now, but now was the time to support Moon Ga-eun’s hunt.

While still on Bon’s back…

I cast all the status conditions I could use.

‘Declaration of Domination.’

First, [Oppression]’s [Declaration of Domination].

It’s a derived skill that depends on the target’s mental stat so I don’t favor it much, but fortunately, Manticores concentrate all their ability points on physical enhancement so their mental stat is quite low.

If it succeeds, it’s a charming skill that can inflict a whopping 3 seconds of fear.

Kuh-?!

Bullseye.

Two of the three were inflicted with fear.

At the same time, Moon Ga-eun’s bowstring pulled taut.

A total of three.

As if using the [Continuous Strike] skill, three arrows flew out continuously one after another.

It was now [Deadly Archery], a derived skill of [Starlight Assassination] I also possessed.

Shweee-

Thwack-! Thwack-!

Three arrows pierced into the shoulder area of a Manticore.

Without even having time to check that, I continously used status conditions.

This time, the [Curse of Demon] rune.

Contained inside was the spell, ‘Slowing’.

Kuh-!!

Kuh?

The Manticore that had charged out of [Declaration of Domination]’s range suddenly stopped.

Perhaps because my divinity stat had already exceeded 50.

The spell was extremely powerful even when casting it.

This wasn’t slowdown, it was practically immobilization.

Kyaoo-!!

Now Bon moved its body.

I wanted Moon Ga-eun to handle all the damage dealing this fight, but Bon was a martial contracted monster who loved fighting after all.

It wasn’t the type to quietly watch the prey right in front of its eyes.

Kuh-!!

Kyaoo-!!

Bon’s solid, destructive teeth and fangs tore into the Manticore’s torso.

Due to my [Curse of Demon], the Manticore was practically immobilized and could only helplessly allow the fierce mauling.

The suffering Manticore writhing in pain.

Bon who absolutely wouldn’t let it go.

“Oh….”

Watching the intense battle in the sky, Moon Ga-eun, who claimed to have the [Horseback Riding] rune, staggered.

I immediately grabbed her waist which had almost fallen off.

“You okay?”

“Uh, uh… yeah.”

Seeing the very flustered Moon Ga-eun, I unknowingly laughed.

“That’s why I told you to be careful. You can’t just recklessly move however you want just because you have the Horseback Riding rune.”

“Tch- This is inevitable…!! How am I supposed to react when moving this violently?”

“Hahaha.”

Still holding onto her body, I held onto Bon even more tightly.

I signaled it to move in a swirling direction.

And I whispered to her.

“Hold on tight, Ga-eun.”

“Kyaa-!!”

Kyaooo-!!

Kuhhuh-!!

Ignoring the manticore it was mauling, Bon soared even higher into the sky.

Following after it.

The last remaining manticore flew up.

With Bon above and the manticore chasing below, it was like a chase, both flying up towards the top.

And on top of Bon, we could look down at the Manticore as if looking down from a high-rise building.

And in that warped structure…

I grabbed the bowstring.

Not my bowstring, but Moon Ga-eun’s.

“What, what are you doing?”

“Finishing the hunt.”

Instead of Moon Ga-eun whose battle preparation was disturbed,

I personally shot the bow.

With [Master of Martial Arts] at level 10, and the [Starlight Assassination] rune I recently acquired at level 10 as well, there was no problem shooting a bow for attack.

Pulling the bowstring while hugging her like in a backhug, I pulled the string with her.

The nearly perfect [Deadly Archery] rained down towards the Manticore.

“Oh….”

“Huh…?”

But in the process, a slightly awkward situation occurred…

Well, it couldn’t be helped in the hurried battle, right?

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