CHAPTER FOUR !
─── statues.

JUST THEN, THE STATUE'S ENORMOUS eyes glowed red. Was it a hunter's "hunch"? No, this was the basic survival instinct of a living creature.

Something was coming. Something they wouldn't be able to handle!

Jinwoo, grabbed Hyeon's shoulder and whipped around to the hunters behind him and screamed with all his might.

"DUCK!"

Almost simultaneously, a red beam shot forth from the giant's eyes. Jinwoo grabbed Hyeon and flung them both to the ground, Hyeon panicked but grabbed the wrist of Joohee.

ZAAAP!

The beam struck right where Jinwoo had been standing.

One-tenth of a second. Maybe even one-hundredth of a second. He'd been that close to death.

Unfortunately, not all the hunters were as lucky as Jinwoo. "AHHH!"

"AGH!"

The beam vaporized whomever it touched. Their remains were all that was left behind as the beam passed. The screams were not from the dead but rather from those who had witnessed their deaths.

"Wh-what was that?"

"F—!"

"Why's this happening to us......?"

The hunters were horrified. Out of sixteen people, only eleven had survived. They had never experienced an attack this terrifying before in their lives.

'I only made it because he said to duck. If Sung hadn't shouted......'

The other hunters gazed at Jinwoo and licked their dry lips. He'd saved their lives. They got chills thinking of what would've happened if he hadn't been here with them.

"......"

Jinwoo examined the statue as he lay on the ground. Its eyes were still red, but it had ceased its attack.

'Is it......over?' He looked down.

Poor, frightened Joohee was quivering beside Hyeon who was trying to calm her down. This was why she participated in easy raids with the Hunter's Association instead of joining a large guild despite being a very talented B-rank healer. Her breathing was getting heavier and heavier.

"Joohee calm down please." Hyeon said.

He couldn't leave her like that. Jinwoo decided he had to do something and started to stand, but someone grabbed his shoulder and forcefully pushed him down.

"Do not stand up." Song had made his way over to them at some point. Taken aback, Jinwoo followed Song's orders without question.

Song called out to the other hunters as well. "Everyone, don't move! Stay exactly where you are!"

Song looked around to make sure and then turned back to Jinwoo. "Those who moved were killed. Those who ducked, like you said, survived."

"I see..."

Song raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you warn us because you knew what would happen?"

"No, I just felt something dangerous was coming......" Song's eyes twinkled.

'His senses are very sharp. He's an E rank, eh? If only his abilities were slightly better......' While Song was feeling sorry for Jinwoo, the younger hunter was checking on Song's condition. His eyes widened in alarm.

"S-sir...... Your arm!"

"I'm fine. It's tolerable."

"But......" Jinwoo gulped.

"Let me get my first aid kit Mr. Song!" Hyeon volunteered but Song just pushed Jinwoo and Hyeon down with his right arm, but his left was now missing.

"......" Song must've been in extreme pain, but he said nothing as he looked down at Joohee's prone figure, then tore a long strip from his shirt and wrapped it around his wound.

"Could you tie the ends together, Kim? It's a little hard to do this with one hand."

Hyeon nodded.

They finished up the basic first aid. Instead of a scream of pain or a wounded groan, Song breathed out a long sigh. That one sound exhibited all his years of experience.

"Whew..."

With his emergency treatment done, Song surveyed the area with keen eyes. The situation wasn't any less grave despite the giant statue's attack seemingly stalled.

Some time passed as they kept still. "Hic...... Sob......"

"Wh-why is this happening to us......?" Some hunters began to cry.

"We can't just stay like this forever!"

They were all slowly growing impatient. Jinwoo agreed with them.

'We can't stay like this forever.' Jinwoo's thought and looked over at Hyeon who was still rubbing his hand on the back of Joohee.

But what could they do?

If Song was right, they would get attacked as soon as they moved. Even if they were lucky and managed to reach the door, there were stone statues on either side acting as guards.

Those statues were the problem. The guard's movements from before had been so fast that none of them could even see its movement. Would they be able to escape the room before those things attacked? It seemed like an impossible feat.

That meant it was just a matter of time before they were all killed.

'Wait...... A matter of time?' Something about that last thought gnawed at Jinwoo. Something that should've been impossible had occurred.

Something nobody else had noticed.

'We...... We missed something.'

The answer had to be here somewhere. Just as the thought occurred to Jinwoo...

"Don't move!"

Song yelled across the room to Joo, but Joo had run out of patience.

"We don't know when that bastard will start attacking, but you want to just wait?!"

Joo was a brawler-class hunter. Brawlers fought with hand-to-hand combat, so their physical abilities were much higher than even regular hunters'. Joo's abilities were actually so outstanding that he was lined up to sign a contract with a well-known guild.

"This can't be the end." Joo kept his low stance as he started focusing his energy into his legs. His goal was the exit. The muscles in his legs swelled and tightened.

"Oh no......," Song muttered under his breath. Joo launched himself toward the doors.

Da-da-da-dash!

Jinwoo turned his attention to the statue. As expected, its eyes were following Joo. A second later, the killer beams fired.

ZAAAP! The rays hit Joo squarely on his back.

"Aieeee!" One of the female hunters in the party screamed hysterically. This was followed by a yellow liquid slowly pulling out from where she sat, as if she'd had an accident.

The male hunters were no less petrified. "Oh my God......"

Wherever the beam had connected, Joo had vanished. All that was left of him were his detached feet.

A squeamish male hunter started puking. "Blaaargh!"

Jinwoo was also stunned. He was right; the statues could easily kill all the hunters here if they wanted to. It'd be as easy for them as squashing a bug.

'So then......why aren't they?' The statues could kill them, but they wouldn't.

Magic beasts attacked hunters as soon as they spotted them, but this was a completely different pattern of behavior. These guys moved only when a certain condition was met. The guards attacked when someone got close to the door, and the giant statue fired its lasers when someone moved.

They were like triggers in a video game.

'Are there......rules to this room?'

In that instant, one of the puzzle pieces fell into place in his head. He remembered the contents of the slate that Song had read aloud.

'The commandments of the Cartenon Temple.' The patterns revealed the rules, and the rules were the commandments.

The key to survival here lay within those.

"......Thou shall worship God." That was the first commandment.

"Hmm? Did you say something?" Song looked at Jinwoo.

Jinwoo gestured at him to keep quiet instead of answering. He needed more time to think.

'If I'm right......' Jinwoo slowly started to get up. Song quickly moved to grab him, but Jinwoo shook his head resolutely.

"Jinwoo.." Hyeon said Jinwoo looked at him with assurance that everything will be fine and they'll be fine. Hyeon nodded his head.

'......That's not the look of someone who's given up.' Song nodded in understanding.

Jinwoo kept his eyes fixed on the statue as he carefully stood. The giant's eyes immediately locked on Jinwoo.

ZAAAP! The beams shot out like he'd expected.

Had he dropped any slower, Jinwoo's entire face would've melted off instead of just a few strands of hair. He lay flat on his back, gulping in air.

"Huff, huff, huff, huff."

That had been way too close. He'd expected to die as soon as he'd locked eyes with the statue. He had managed to barely escape the attack, but his legs were shaking.

'Still......'

It'd been worth the risk.

'The statue doesn't attack just any moving object.'

As long as they stayed low to the ground, the statue would pay them no heed even if they shifted their positions. However, it would start raining down lasers without mercy once they tried to stand.

'It only shoots if we raise our bodies above a certain height.' Jinwoo had risked his life to test this theory. And he'd received validation.

He'd solved the first commandment! He yelled at the rest of the hunters. "Everyone!" They turned their attention to him. Jinwoo looked around and told them.

"Face the giant statue and bow to it!"