The World After the Fall

'Witch of Massacre' in a unihorn hunting party?

People who knew would have laughed. She was powerful enough to handle trihorns alone. If she had joined the unihorn party, that meant there was only one answer.

'What a stupid task it is.'

Red Fox Clan.

A clan that was infamous for hunting Adapters.

Mino had received a request to hunt them down from a certain Adapter. The problem was that it wasn't given to her as an official request from the Dark Forest Clan.

The Dark Forest Clan forbade Assassins from accepting personal requests.

Therefore, she did not try to kill them by herself and lured the monsters instead. She could not reveal herself.

'Dammit… I was sure that bihorn was going to finish them.'

Unique skill: [Lure]

This was the skill that gave her the nickname of the 'Witch of Massacre.' This allowed her to bring monsters around her. Everything went as planned. Until that strange man happened to walk by and killed the bihorn.

'Just walking by? No way!'

Mino glanced at dead corpse of the bihorn that Kanghun and the other men had picked up. It was still fresh in her memory when the monster was killed. Mino saw it clearly right in front. There were a lot within the [Chaos] who could kill bihorns, but the problem was how it was killed.

'He just stabbed it to death.'

Killing a bihorn without using any skills. It didn't seem possible. It wasn't possible for Mino, or anyone else she knew. The leader of her clan, the Black Forest, might be able to do that, but such a powerful figure walking around didn't make sense either.

'Is he from a renowned family?'

There were some from renowned families from the [Great Lands] that would visit [Chaos] to train.

'No… they will not be ragged like him.'

The ones from renowned families moved in groups, wore peculiar clothing, and their walking style was easy to notice. He definitely wasn't one of them, but she couldn't make out who he was.

-Skill failed.

-Skill failed.

She had only been using the Assassin skill [Close Examination] on the man named Jaehwan. However, as if it were broken, her skill wasn't working correctly.

'Dammit, it's doing it again. I should learn some good skills now…'

She was now left with using her secret items and her guess to find out about the man. She managed to acquire two pieces of good information.

One was that man had no skills related to 'Walking.'

'He walks too plainly. If he's powerful enough to stab the bihorn to death, he must have learned some kind of walking skill…'

The walking skill was an important passive skill to have within the [Great Lands]. To ensure one's survival, one would need to quickly run away from stronger foes. Yet, that man didn't seem to have anything. In addition, there was something else that was weird.

The man's spiritual power rating was at the level of a [Non-Adapter].

Mino was shocked when she checked the rating. The Dark Forest Clan distributed accurate tools to check spiritual power for absolute accuracy as their targets might be concealing their power. Their machines allowed them to see through the spiritual powers of even the powerful ones. The machine showed the lowest rating possible for the man.

He had no skill, and he had no spiritual power.

But he killed a bihorn with one stab.

Mino was shocked.

"Let's rest here."

Kanghun took three of his clan members and chose a spot in the distance. A hawk made out of spiritual power was then sent out. It was a message-delivering skill. They were reporting the hunt.

Mino was sitting down on a cut-down tree next to Jaehwan.

Silent fell.

Mino then asked a question, breaking the silence.

"What are you?"

"…"

"I saw you kill the bihorn with one stab."

She spoke to let the man know that she knew about his secret, but he didn't answer. Mino then spoke again.

"There's almost no Adapter in [Chaos] who can kill a bihorn with a single stab. Who are you? Where did you come from?"

"…What is [Chaos?]"

'What is [Chaos]?'

"Are you kidding me?"

"No."

"How can you not know about [Chaos] then? Who are you?"

No answer.

"…Do you know what I'm asking?"

She then realized he seemed to be having a hard time understanding the language. She then realized he might've not understood her. She tried to ask him again, but she couldn't think of a better way to word it.

'Hmm… What should I do?'

It would've been easy if she showed her status window and used it as an example to show the name, clan, age, and such, but it was taboo to share personal information between Adapters. Showing one's skills and status was the same as showing one's weaknesses.

Besides, she was an Assassin from the Dark Forest Clan.

Then she decided to show a separate status window that didn't include important information. That was when she accidentally pressed on the wrong window.

"This is me-"

[Individual Details]

Name: Han, Mino

Height: 5 feet 6 inches

Weight: 103 lbs

Three dimensions: 36-24-34

Breast size: 65D

Etc: Spot near the bottom end of the left eye. There's also a small spot on the right breast. Also the hip…

"AHHHH!"

She quickly closed the window, which showed her physical attributes.

Jaehwan nodded.

"I see. I know about you now."

Mino screamed as she flushed red due to embarrassment.

"You knew what I was asking all along?!"

"I didn't say I didn't understand you."

"Then did you ignore me?!"

"No."

"Then tell me! Let make it fair!"

"…about my three measurements?"

"NOT THAT! ABOUT YOU!"

She screamed and Jaehwan grinned. There was a reason why Jaehwan didn't answer her directly.

As she asked who he was, he could not think of what he should describe himself as. When he was on Earth, he was the child of someone and a friend of someone. He attended college and also joined a club. He also tried to take up a job and worried about his country.

But after he came to the tower, all of that was gone.

He then made new friends and memories.

Yoonhwan, Seoyul, and Jay…

But after the tutorial was over, all of that disappeared. The only one with that terrible 30-year memory was Jaehwan because he was allowed to keep his memory for the reward of clearing the tower. His friends who he worked to climb up the tower might be alive somewhere on Earth, but they would no longer be his friends. None of them would remember Jaehwan anymore.

Everything had left him.

His past, future and his acquaintances.

But he was here. Then who was he?

"…I don't remember."

That was the only answer he could give. And an honest one at that.

Mino was unconvinced.

"You think I'm a fool?"

"…?"

"Do you think if you say you lost your memory with a grim face, I will just nod and agree?"

"I didn't say I lost my memory."

"YOU JUST DID!" Mino shouted.

'Does he think he's a [Powerful one from the Depth] or something?'

There were people who did lose their memories in [Chaos], but it was rare to find someone who had lost it all like this man. There was only one group of people who experienced memory loss like that. They were the powerful ones who came back from [Depth], above [Chaos]. Their individual status windows were destroyed so they didn't show anything.

But the man didn't seem like he had come back from the [Depth].

That was when the sword Jaehwan was holding began vibrating as if it was crying. She knew it wasn't a normal sword, but a sword that cried? What was more surprising was what happened next.

"Okay, I got it. Stop crying."

Jaehwan then began taking something out from his bag. Then the sword opened its blade up like a mouth and began munching the item that Jaehwan gave it. Mino's eyes shook.

'Spirit Weapon!'

The weapon that grew by eating other items. Spirit Weapons only existed within the [Great Lands]. If that item was a Spirit Weapon, it made sense why the man was so strong.

Killing a bihorn with a single stab.

It was possible with the powerful damage that a Spirit Weapon could inflict. So, it was not the man's power that allowed it to happen. It was the sword's power.

Mino then glanced at Kanghun and the Red Fox. Luckily, they didn't seem to realize what was going on here. Mino then scolded Jaehwan in her thoughts.

'You're so vulnerable.'

Whoever he was, showing a Spirit Weapon out in the open like this showed how foolish he was. The weapon was probably very powerful, but relying on the weapon's power had its limit. Even if he was not killed here, he would soon be killed by his naivety.

Either way, it didn't matter. She just needed to complete her mission.

'The problem is, I'm about to fail my mission.'

The Red Fox was now coming back to them. It seemed like sending the report had gone well as they were all seemed to be glad.

That was when Mino thought of an idea. It was a bright idea to show some of her anger for taking a peek of her three dimensions and achieve her goal at the same time. Mino then held on Jaehwan, who was dusting his butt off as he got up.

"OH, WAIT!"

"…?"

"Now that I think about it…!"

Jaehwan felt something soft touching his arms. He flinched and tried to pull his arm away, but Mino did not let it go.

"You're Jaehwan! Jaehwan right?"

Jaehwan looked at Mino speaking to him in a sweet voice.

'Is she mad?'

He wondered if this woman was the same woman who showed off her three dimension sizes just now.

"Don't you remember me? I'm Mino! Mino Han! You know, the one you hunted with before… didn't we promise to hunt together again?"

Hunting?

He searched his memory just in case, but he had no such memory. It only had been a month since he came to this place after he got out of the tower.

"I'm sorry but…"

Before Jaehwan could finish speaking, Mino's elbow poked his side. Mino winked at him and Jaehwan spoke again.

"I don't know you."

Kanghun and other party members looked at him weirdly. One of them even laughed and Mino bit her bottom lip.

'Dammit… you.'

It seemed they were thinking Mino was trying to ask Jaehwan out and failed. She had expected this.

"Oh, so you don't remember me?"

"Right."

"Yeah… I thought so too."

"…?"

Jaehwan raised his eyebrows, but Mino smiled brightly and spoke.

"You lost your memory, right?"