I stuffed my backpack full before leaving today. Since we might be staying in the Gate for two days, I brought a change of clothes, emergency food, and a small blanket.

  I felt awkward in the car heading to the Gongju Gate.

  The misunderstanding about us being a couple yesterday still bothered me.

  Si-hyun acted like nothing happened. Though we had dinner together, seeing him so casual made me strangely irritated.

  I had no idea what this feeling was.

  The trip to the Gongju Gate took an hour and a half, and I couldn’t bring myself to talk to Si-hyun the whole time.

  “Nervous?”

  “No, it’s just…”

  It just felt weird.

  “Should we check our gear first?”

  Si-hyun pulled out his backpack and organized his things, fire-starting tools and a blanket. I watched curiously as he laid out his supplies.

  Then something unexpected happened, Si-hyun started going through my bag.

  We probably didn’t need two separate packs. He must have planned to consolidate everything into one.

  The problem was… he pulled out my underwear.

  “You idiot!”

  I smacked the back of his head hard, snatched the underwear back, and shoved it into the bag.

  “Huh? Wha.. ?”

  I kicked Si-hyun, who stood there frozen.

  “You told me to be careful yesterday, what about you?!”

  Of course, with his build, he didn’t even budge.

  “Sorry!”

  And of all things, it was a black lace panty.

  Damn… My face burned. Was he thinking it was weird for someone who used to be a guy to wear something so sexy?

  It was all Mom who picked out this underwear!

  “I’m really sorry!!”

  I hastily stuffed the underwear between my pants and T-shirt to hide it, wrapped it in a bag, and handed it to him.

  “Here. Just take this and the blanket.”

  “Yeah, okay.”

  “How should we split the food?”

  I brought high-calorie chocolate and candy. Si-hyun had packed bread.

  “Let’s bring it all.”

  Everything went into his hiking pack. Only then did I notice how incredibly sturdy this Monster hide bag was, no wonder Si-hyun wanted to fit everything inside.

  “Um…”

  “What? Let’s go if you’re ready.”

  I really wished he wouldn’t bring it up. Of all things, he had to see the black lace panty.

  “Hey…”

  “Shut up!”

  “Sorry.”

  We entered the Gate in silence. After completing the same procedures as last time, we jumped through. The staff here were unfriendly, and there were few Hunters.

  Inside, we found ourselves in a cave-like otherworld.

  The space was quite spacious, even Si-hyun, at 190cm, could stand without trouble.

  A maze of tunnel passages stretched in all directions. Though we had locators, they were hardly any use in this labyrinth.

  About ten minutes in, we encountered the local Ant monsters, a swarm of a dozen or so, each the size of a medium dog.

  “I’ll take the front. You handle the rest.”

  “Okay.”

  As I raised my Spear, Si-hyun dropped his pack and charged forward.

  Ants that crashed into him flew back like toys. I sliced through the necks and thoraxes of the remaining ones.

  The Ant carapace was surprisingly fragile, whether due to the Spear’s sharpness or their weak defense, the fight ended quickly.

  With a rumble and the ground shaking, I saw Si-hyun had already taken out more than seven.

  I easily finished off the rest, they were too dazed from crashing into Si-hyun.

  “That was easy.”

  They moved slowly and had weak defenses. Their fluids wouldn't spill unless you deliberately pierced their abdomens.

  "The Magic Stone is in the head, right?"

  "Yeah, I'll handle it."

  Si-hyun was trying to baby me again.

  "No! Let's finish this quickly and find the next batch of Monsters."

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  He glanced at my expression, but I ignored him.

  I pried open the ant's skull with my spear tip and retrieved the small Magic Stone.

  We continued hunting in the cavern, encountering numerous ants.

  At first they were Worker ants, but later we came across larger Soldier ants with massive heads. Of course, they still ended up with crushed skulls under Si-hyun's monstrous strength.

  Compared to the Wild Ox fight, we encountered Monsters more frequently here, but there were far fewer competitors.

  After five hours of Exploration, the weight of Magic Stones we collected was double yesterday's haul.

  "This gate is like a goldmine. Why isn't anyone here?"

  The rewards were indeed substantial.

  "I heard it's easy to get lost?"

  "Really?"

  "Yeah. Unless you're prepared to spend several days inside, plus the Ant swarms around here, it's a drawback that anyone below C-Class needs to form parties."

  Parties... In the Gwangju gate, quite a few Hunters operated alone. Those with overwhelming power like Si-hyun might be exceptions, but for half-baked Hunters like me, getting surrounded by more than ten ants would make escape difficult.

  "I heard if you go deeper, groups of over twenty appear."

  Twenty? That's a dangerous number for D-Class Hunters.

  During his Ability test, Si-hyun demonstrated power close to B-Class. How strong was he really?

  "Si-hyun, how strong are you exactly?"

  "Huh? Why ask suddenly?"

  "Because your combat performance is ridiculously strong! You could probably fight Mom."

  "Your mother? That would be quite difficult."

  It sounded like he could hold his own for a while. Though I couldn't say for sure.

  I'd never seen Mom fight seriously, nor witnessed Si-hyun's limits.

  "So what's your approximate level?"

  "Well... maybe mid-tier B-Class?"

  That's insanely strong. Now I'm certain I'm the one holding him back.

  "That's incredibly powerful."

  "I didn't expect it to turn out like this initially."

  Didn't expect it initially?

  "I suddenly grew stronger during training."

  Did his awakened ability start functioning properly?

  Or did he receive enhancements like from equipped Artifacts?

  Since Si-hyun's Ability is Body Strengthening, that must be it.

  If I had even half of Si-hyun's strength, I wouldn't be such a burden. I really am causing trouble for him, aren't I?

  If I asked directly, he'd definitely say it's fine and try to comfort me.

  "Wouldn't it be better to ditch me and hunt alone?"

  My careless words made Si-hyun visibly panic.

  "Si-yeon? Are you still angry about the underwear incident? I'm really sorry."

  No, I was just stating facts... I thought he would have forgotten about that by now!

  Trying to hide my embarrassment, I deliberately used an annoyed tone.

  "It's not that! I was just stating facts!"

  "I apologize. I'll be more careful in the future."

  "I said it's really not about that!"

  "Sorry, I'll watch my step more carefully."

  Why won't he believe me? I'm genuinely not angry...

  "Ugh, think whatever you want. Should we go deeper?"

  "Let's go."

  We originally planned to stay in the gate for about a day, so we kept advancing through the cavern.

  Along the way, we encountered other Hunters we hadn't seen before. One male Hunter gave me such a creepy look when he checked me out.

  "Ugh, so disgusting..."

  The guy’s eyes practically gleamed as he scanned me from head to toe.

  What a creep.

  Maybe because other Hunters had already cleared the area, we didn’t run into any more ants as we wandered through the cave. With no Monsters left to hunt, we decided to rest in a room at the far end of the Ant Nest.

  We used the dead ants we’d already cleared to block the entrance.

  After setting up our makeshift camp, we ate canned coffee and bread we’d brought along.

  “Almost feels like we’re camping.”

  “If you ignore the Monster corpses.”

  I laughed at Si-hyun’s blunt remark. He wasn’t wrong, the entrance was piled high with dead ants.

  After a while, I needed to use the bathroom.

  “I’m going to relieve myself.”

  “Be careful. Don’t go too far.”

  “Got it.”

  “Call me if anything happens.”

  “Yeah.”

  Honestly, using the bathroom was the biggest hassle after entering the Gate. It was easier for men, but handling things with a female body was inconvenient.

  I counted myself lucky to find a spot that offered some cover, otherwise, it’d be way too easy to get spotted.

  I stepped over the pile of ant corpses blocking the entrance and headed to another cave similar to our rest area, the place where we’d hunted Monsters earlier.

  Squatting in a corner and undoing my protective suit to pee, I couldn’t help but think again how much harder it was for women to hold it in compared to men.

  When I got back to camp, it was Si-hyun’s turn to go. I wrapped myself in a blanket and leaned against the wall to rest. When he returned, he suggested we take turns napping to recover our strength.

  We agreed to sleep in shifts of two to three hours, with me taking the first watch.

  My body, heavy and lazy after eating, grew drowsy under the blanket.

  I slept deeply for three hours without dreaming, until Si-hyun shook me awake.

  Once he confirmed I was alert, the exhausted Si-hyun immediately grabbed the blanket. “My turn to sleep. Wake me if anything happens.”

  “Okay.”

  Watching him wrap up and close his eyes, I stretched and moved around to loosen up.

  The first ten minutes were boring, I just spaced out. Then I tried playing on my phone, only to remember the big problem: you could use it inside the Gate, but there was no internet connection.

  No chance of reading novels either.

  “Ugh.. so bored.”

  In the end, I picked up my Spear and started practicing to kill time.

  Training to make up for my lack of skill, real combat had taught me that, just as Mom said, it was hard to perfectly apply the Spear techniques I’d learned. But it wasn’t completely useless either.

  To make the most of breaks in battle, I had to get familiar with my Weapon’s characteristics.

  But even this kind of training could only fill about two hours.

  Honestly, I got so into it that I burned through too much energy, and my arms and legs started shaking.

  I checked the time, still thirty minutes to go.

  The rest of the time became recovery time.

  Sitting next to the sleeping Si-hyun with nothing to do, I ended up just staring at him.

  That guy’s face was always so annoyingly perfect.

  Back when I was male, I wouldn’t say I was ugly, maybe slightly above average, but he was on a whole different level.

  He had one of those faces that made people blurt out, “Wow, he’s handsome.”

  Not only was his face outstanding, but he was also tall with great proportions. He’d been scouted on the street by modeling agencies and had business cards shoved into his hands by talent scouts.

  I used to envy a friend like that… but now I had looks that could rival his.

  Sure, there was the small issue of having turned into a woman, but standing side by side, I really didn’t fall short.

  Killing time by staring at a sculpted handsome face that never got old, thirty minutes flew by in a blink.

  Though honestly, staring at a man's face for half an hour felt strangely unsettling.

  "Hey, wake up."

  I poked Si-hyun's cheek lightly with my finger.

  When there was no reaction, I started pressing harder.

  "Hey!"

  When even that didn't wake him, I pinched his nose shut, only for him to open his mouth and breathe through it.

  Was he always this heavy a sleeper?

  I kicked Si-hyun in the stomach where he lay.

  "Get up, damn it!"

  With a solid thud from the kick, Si-hyun finally began to stir.

  "Wake up!"

  It seemed my shouting finally got through. He rubbed his eyes and sat up.

  Today I finally understood the saying, "Even waking up is like a photoshoot when you're this good-looking."

  It was annoyingly charming.

  Once awake, Si-hyun quickly regained his focus, and we resumed our exploration of the ant cave.

  The magic stones we'd collected weighed about 300 grams.

  More than 24 hours had passed since we entered the Gate, and aside from that first male Hunter, we hadn't run into anyone else.

  Somehow, the frequency of our encounters with that Hunter felt unnaturally high, and the way he scanned me with his eyes each time was deeply uncomfortable.

  Just as my irritation was growing, Si-hyun suggested we rest again.

  "Isn't it a bit early...?"

  "Don't push yourself. We've gathered plenty of magic stones anyway."

  "Alright then."

  This time we decided to take turns sleeping for two hours each.

  I would sleep first again, then Si-hyun.

  After watching the sleeping Si-hyun for about an hour, I suddenly needed to use the restroom.

  I hesitated over whether to wake him, but thought, What's the worst that could happen? and went alone.

  That decision was a mistake.

  As I finished up and was pulling up my pants, I suddenly sensed someone else's presence.

  -

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